Being A Truthful Person Series

Being A Truthful Person

Matthew 5:33-37

OKAY MGCC – let’s do this, WEEK 21, in our verse by verse study of the Gospel of Matthew.

THIS MORNING

WE - are going to unpack Matthew 5:33-37…

NOW - as I began my week I thought we would dive into Matthew 5:33-48 (16 verses) and finish chapter 5…

So my first sermon title was…

“Be Truthful, Don’t Retaliate, Love Your Enemies”

HOWEVER - I quickly discovered that this was a little ambitious, so my second title was…

“Be Truthful and Don’t Retaliate”

AND THEN – after more study I come to the conclusion that this should be the title of today’s conversation,

“Being A Truthful Person”

UNDERSTAND MGCC – as we unpack Matthew 5:33-37…

We are going to see one more contrasts between the righteousness of Pharisees and Teachers of the Law… and the surpassing righteousness of those who live in His Kingdom.

QUESTION…Do you believe…

• THAT IF - God’s people were truthful,

• THAT IF - those who claim to follow after Jesus, poured out ‘honesty’ and ‘truth’ wherever they are,

whoever they are with

. THAT – the world we live in would become a better place

. THAT – truth and honesty matter?

OKAY – here’s our text for this morning…

Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made.’ But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one. - Matthew 5:33-37

Prayer

QUESTION…

Do you think that there is a problem with dishonesty and an aversion to the truth in our culture today?

YEAH – lying seems to be Americans favorite pastime.

LIKE – it’s getting harder and harder to find truth anywhere.

In 1991 James Patterson wrote a book called, ‘The Day America Told The Truth,’ here is the opening sentence of that book…

“Americans lie. They lie more than we ever imagined, when we began this study. But they told us the truth about how much they lie.”

The book goes on and it says…

“Just about everyone lies. 91% of us lie regularly. The majority of us find it hard to go through a week without lying.”

Gina Scott writes in the introduction to her book, ‘The Truth About Lying,’ (2010)

In recent year we have been facing a crisis of conscience over the ethical state of our nation. We have been going through a national soul-searching and judging, assessing ourselves in the light of traditional core values of honesty and ethics, and reviewing and purging many fundamental institutions in revulsion to a decade of greed and excess.

Why? Because we have seen more and more indications that acts of lying, deception, and other unethical deeds for short-term gain and personal advantage may have deeper, more serious consequences in undermining the bonds of trust that create relationships and community and give strength to the nation as a whole.

YEAH – I think Gina is spot on…

Lying undermines the bonds of trust that create relationships and community and give strength to the nation as a whole.

According to a 2002 University of Massachusetts study, 60 percent of adults cannot have a 10-minute conversation without lying at least once (the average was three lies).

QUESTION… why do we lie? We lie to…

• Protect ourselves, Avoid punishment

• Gain an advantage

• Get people onto our side

• Escape blame

• Get out of something we don’t want to do

• Make ourselves look better

• Protect other’s feelings

The deist Voltaire said, “I am very fond of the truth, but I am not fond of martyrdom.”

UNDERSTAND MGCC - This is Voltaire’s way of saying that I would really like to live in a world where we tell the truth all the time, but I have come to realize that if I tell the truth all of the time, then one day someone will kill me.

OKAY…

I would like to ask a few questions that require an honest answer.

The first question is…

How many of you have told a lie in the last five years?

I am not talking about the white lies when your wife asks you if her jeans make her butt look big. I am talking about honest to goodness lies.

How many in the last year have told a lie?

How many in the last month?