Word Breakers & Will Benders
Matthew 5:33-37 33 "Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.' 34 But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God's throne; 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. 36 And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. 37 Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.
Intro: In this chapter we’ve been talking about matters of the heart. As Jesus taught, He would state the common accepted religious guideline of the day, but then He would get to the heart of the matter and give the true picture. A few weeks ago we looked at what He had to say about murder, showing that unresolved anger and having contempt for others were really at the heart of the issue. Jesus spoke about adultery or marital unfaithfulness and divorce and showed the heart of the matter to be selfishness and failing to value every other human created in God’s image.
-In today’s passage Jesus again takes a commonly accepted belief about promises and shows that the way His people think about the truth and honesty of their words needs to change. In biblical times people swore by a variety of things other than God to show that their word was true. That way, if they were to break their promise based on one of these other things, then at least they would not be dishonoring God’s name, and of course their word would be less binding. Eventually, rabbis were called on to decide which oaths were binding, and some sort of complicated system developed. If a person swore toward Jerusalem, he was bound to his word, but not if he swore by Jerusalem. A person was bound to his word if he swore by gold on the altar, but not if he swore by the altar itself. Kind of crazy, huh? Sounds like kids making promises with their fingers crossed.
-Jesus got to the heart of the matter and called for integrity and truthfulness. But just as important as being truthful was the issue of manipulation. Why did people swear in the first place? To bypass someone’s understanding of the situation, getting them to do what you want, bending their will to yours. Everything that a person can swear by in heaven and earth belongs to God, and God calls for simple honesty. Swearing by other things was often driven by someone’s evil intent to get their way. It doesn’t only happen in politics. That leads us to the heart of what I want to share today.
Prop: How we talk and interface our will with the will of others says something about our Father in heaven.
Interrogative: How do our words, promises, and intents reflect on people’s view of God?
TS: Let’s look at a few thoughts Jesus gave us about keeping our word and speaking simple truth.
I. Empty Promises Diminish Faith
-It’s not likely that many of you have ever sworn by heaven, or by the earth. And I’d be really surprised if anyone here has ever sworn by Jerusalem or by your own head. So is that it? Do we get to take a pass and declare that Jesus’ words here are irrelevant to us today? Not so fast.
-Why? Because it’s a heart thing! It’s not about whether we have ever made those particular oaths. Those were just examples Jesus was giving that fit his time. What about the same kinds of things in our day?
-What is an oath? Basically an oath is a way of reinforcing your words – giving them more weight than what they might have on their own. We might say something and follow it with “I swear.” Why do we say things like “I swear to God,” or “I promise with all my heart.” It may be a confession of our dishonesty. We might say things like because we know that our simple word is not likely to be trusted. So we try to induce people to believe us by dragging God into it. We want people to think “Wow, he’s really serious this time! Maybe I should listen to him!” It’s a trust problem. Even if you are a trustworthy person, people have a hard time trusting people, because they have been burned and lied to before.
-We may do this so often we don’t even see what the problem is. But here’s the problem. The only reason oaths seem necessary is because we live in a world where words are often used to deceive and coax and manipulate and threaten. Words are used to help the speaker appear to be trustworthy, truthful, credible, knowledgeable, authoritative, and legitimate, whether he is or not. In such a world, we often do not know if a person is “serious” or not; “for real” or not. People can be deceitful. We all present a certain face to the world, but may be someone quite different than the person we project. And so we take our place in a world that often lacks authenticity at best and is manipulative and deceitful at worst, and words are the frontline tools we use. But instead of dealing honestly with the root problem (the devaluing of words due to the deceit and duplicity of the human heart), we keep piling on more words, trying to sound more and more “honest,” and “authentic” and “genuine” and “sincere.”
-Take a look at advertising to see how words build up to the point where they mean nothing. Have you bought new furniture recently? Does it bother you that the furniture store had its once-in-a-lifetime overstock sale last week and you missed it? They said last week they had the lowest prices – EVER. What a bummer if you missed that one, because according to the nice man on television, it will NEVER happen again. Wow, that’s harsh. Millions of people are going to have to pay more for their furniture now.
-How do you respond to these slick ads? Some swallow them and get down there before they miss the sale, but a lot of people (and maybe you’re one of them) just say, “Whatever.” We know we’re being lied to. Words are devalued. They are used to get us to buy something. We roll our eyes and live our lives.
-How about the stores that absolutely, positively will not be undersold? Hey, that sounds awesome! That is, unless you do find a lower price somewhere else. Prices from big-box stores don’t count, unless you get it in writing and not even then. Bring all estimates into the store with the salesman who quoted it to you and a notarized copy of the original estimate within 30 days – walk-ins welcome, appointments required, yada, yada, yada.
-Whatever. Too many words. No meaning! Words that are meant to communicate are used to disguise, creating confusion instead of clarity!
-How about the car shops where absolutely everybody will get financing? Ever tried that before with bad credit? Whatever.
-How about that TV ad for the latest episode of your favorite show? “You will not believe your eyes. Tune in for a special once-in-a-lifetime presentation. You’ll never see anything like this again.” So you tune in and the big moment comes. And it’s a life and death struggle – this time with both life and death hanging tenuously in the balance. Someone might die. Or someone might live. We don’t really know, but the two hang in the balance on this once-in-a-lifetime television event. When it finally happens, it will be the moment of a lifetime, as you find out whether life or death prevails in this struggle where it will definitely be either one or the other or both. Your friends will talk about it at school or work for minutes tomorrow. Then the moment comes and it’s over. Maybe it was a good time, but probably not a once in a lifetime television event. Whatever!
-And forget about the political ads and election season. Whatever.
-Here’s one for you. How about when Christians say something like this: “Since I met Jesus everything in life is just great. I don’t have any worries or concerns and I just have joy every moment of the day.” Whatever! Or they hear us talk about how God loves us and then we treat them disrespectfully. Whatever.
-In every arena of life – from commerce to personal relationships to media to religion, on and on it goes. Overspeak! Words are inflated, overblown, used to sell us things, convince us of things the speaker already knows aren’t true, or aren’t technically true.
-And we know that most words we hear are empty, and designed to be that way. In a world like this, we are conditioned to respond with “Whatever!” It seems our only recourse is to resort to the cynicism and skepticism that the word “whatever” communicates. But can we go through life with these attitudes and have kingdom hearts? Are we to have hearts of exaggeration and manipulation or skepticism and cynicism? Of course not! This is why Jesus stands opposed to inflating our words, why he insists that a yes is yes and a no is no and we leave it at that.
-Empty promises breed unbelief. People lose faith in us and in God when we fail to keep our word. If someone cannot trust us to keep our promises, they may never get close enough to the One we say we serve to believe His promises. They reason, “If that’s how Christians are, then it must be how Christ is.” Let’s learn from our Master and be men and women of our word. As a result people will see the authenticity of God’s word in us, and we will have much more credibility as we share our faith.
-Some of you may struggle in this area of making promises you don’t keep while some of you don’t seem to have any problem at all. Well, let’s look a little closer to be sure we haven’t missed the personal application of the words of Jesus.
II. Truthful People are treasured by God
-Suppose you were in debt and you promised the business that you would pay off a portion of your debt each month. How are you doing with that? Are you making your payments on time?
-Maybe you borrowed a book from someone, with the understanding that you would have it back by a certain date. Where is that book right now? How good are you at borrowing things and getting them back to the rightful owner in a timely manner? When we borrow something there is an assumption made that we will return it before we forget who it belongs to.
-Maybe you’ve failed in a certain area and you got mad at yourself, and say, “God, I promise I will never commit that sin ever again!” How are you doing with that promise?
-The Bible is clear from front to back that truthful people are treasured by God. Psalm 15:1 says “Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill? He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from his heart!” In other words, the person who will spend eternity in the house of the Lord is the one who lives the truth and speaks the truth. Truthful people are treasured by God.
-Jesus says in Matthew 12:36, “I tell you that men will have to give an account on the Day of Judgment for every careless word they have uttered. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words, you will be condemned.”
-One of the best and most truthful things we can do is come to God humbly and say, “Lord, I need your help with the truth! Help me learn the truth, believe the truth, speak the truth, and live the truth!”
III. Anything beyond the Truth is not from God!
-Who is it who likes to control and manipulate people? It is our enemy, the devil and his demonic companions. What is demon possession? It is a demon taking over the will of a vulnerable person, wreaking havoc in their life and all around them. How did the serpent tempt Eve? With the seduction of words. Evil manipulation.
-People often try the same tactics to sell things, to seduce people, and to gain more power and influence (sex, money, and power). Once again, when a person uses such tactics, they fail to recognize the value of other humans who were made in God’s image.
-Part of being made in God’s image includes the fact that we have a will and are able to make choices based on our heart, intellect and our emotions. We have the ability to reason things out and then choose what we think is best.
-Let me read a quote from Dallas Willard’s book, The Divine Conspiracy, that shows the value of the human will. “Kingdom rightness respects the soul need of human beings to make their judgments and decisions solely from what they have concluded is best. It is a vital, a biological need. We do not thrive, nor does our character develop well, when this need is not respected, and thus thwarts the purpose of God in our creation.”
-Think about this: God has all power, yet gives human beings the freedom to make their own choices without manipulating them. The devil does not have all power. Therefore, he schemes, seduces, and manipulates people into doing what is wrong and harmful to themselves and others. He holds temporary power over people – power which can be broken by the power of God. Once that power is broken, it can remain broken if we as God’s free creatures willingly surrender ourselves to God’s rule in our lives. God is still the authority who will judge all evil, but when we surrender our will to Him, (not from manipulation, song and dance, or a spin on how much nicer our lives will be), He breathes new life into us and makes us new people with Kingdom of Heaven hearts!
-Sometimes Christians and Churches are guilty of a bait and switch approach to sharing the gospel. We try to lure people in with one thing, then smack them on the head with the gospel. Manipulation is not from God. Therefore, we should not try to trick people into becoming Christians. The truth will set them free! And the truth is that God loves them with an everlasting love and wants them to know Him and be with Him forever! That is why He sent His only Divine Son, Jesus, into this world, so people could hear the truth about Him, put their trust in Him, and have life that lasts forever!
Conclusion: One of the gifts God has given us is verbal communication. We can use it for harm or for good. We can use it to manipulate people to get our own way, or we can use it to speak truth and life so people can choose God for themselves. Let’s ask Him to help us use it the way He intended. If you have trouble keeping your word, ask Him to help you not make promises you cannot keep. Also ask Him to help you follow through. And NO MORE MANIPULATION!!! Parents, yes, you will need to override the will of your kids while they are young, but teach them truth! Help them learn to use their will wisely, based on truth. If you use only manipulation now, it will haunt them later. You are helping develop their inner voice right now. So don’t try to be a will bender by being a word bender. Be a knee bender! Surrender yourself to God and speak the truth in love!
[Portions of sermon adapted from Marc Axelrod and David Flowers on sermoncentral.com; some ideas also adapted from The Divine Conspiracy, Dallas Willard.]
