JUST PLUCK IT!!!
Matt 5:29-30
Introduction: “A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself; the simple pass on and are punished” (Proverbs 27:12). I’ve been thinking a lot about the message of verses’ like this in Scripture. A person who is wise, a person who is prudent hides himself from evil, but the fool, or the unlearned, not recognizing the danger continues to live life as normal and the end result is punishment. A little child is told by his mother not to touch the stove because it is hot. If the he disobeys his mother and touches the hot stove he quickly learns that there was wisdom in his mother’s words. The little child who touches the hot stove realizes it is a bad thing to do and more than likely he will never purposely touch the hot stove again. He will go out of way to avoid the stove so not to experience the pain again. If, however, he did not learn his lesson and continued to disobey his mother’s instructions and touch the hot stove, we would at the very least agree that there was something wrong with his thought process.
You see we don’t like hurting ourselves. Every year at this time we see people making New Year Resolutions in their lives to improve themselves. Usually it revolves around some type of area in their lives that is thought to be hurting them, or prohibiting them from being a better person. Some wish to lose weight to better improve their health, some wish to be kinder, show less anger, or achieve a certain financial goal during the year. More times than not the resolution is broken with in a few weeks of making it never to be thought of again until the next year. The reason I believe these resolutions seem to broken so effortlessly is because the steps to get to the actual goal is often ignored.
I think about that in my own life when it comes to certain areas of my life that displeases God. All of us have areas of our lives where we fall short of what God expects of us. In the believers life it should be his or her goal to eradicate the sin area out of their lives. Not that we can achieve a sinless perfection, but there are specific areas in our lives that we look at and determine that God would have us to get out of our lives. Often time the believer will become discourage and disoriented at their inability to honor God in these specific areas and this discouragement will lead to great areas of failure. There is an old saying that most of us have heard: “Sow a thought, reap an action: Sow an action reap a habit; Sow a habit, reap a character; Sow a Character reap a destiny.” I believe this to be true. This morning I want to talk to you about a concept in Scripture that God is focusing my personal attention on. It revolves around a word that is very descriptive, and in the life of the believer who begins to heed its message, there is a vibrant daily walk with God awaiting them. If heeded, no longer will the believer have to become discouraged by their sin habits, but by heeding God’s Words, and God’s prescribed prescription for dealing with these sins, there is freedom awaiting from the chains of sin.
Outline
I. Identify The Source: Matt 5:29-30
II. Captivate Your Thoughts: Philippians 4:8
III. Pursue An Effective Life: I Corinthians 9:2
I. Identify The Source: Matt 5:29-30
Pluck—to take out; we are to strike at the root of unholy inclinations, riding ourselves of whatever would stimulate them.
- In the Jewish culture the right hand and right eye represented the best a person could offer.
• This is how we are to deal with sin. We are to understand that sin is a violation of God’s Holiness. God will not tolerate sin. In the life of the unbeliever, sin ultimately leads to spiritual death. In the life of a believer, our relationship with God will be hindered if we do not deal with the sin issue. Effectiveness for God’s Kingdom is what we are talking about. One day we will be judged even as believers for the works that we have done here on earth. “ Therefore, we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” (2 Cor 5:9-10.) I do not believe that the Bible teaches that we will be judged as believers because of our sins, because that judgment took place on the cross, Christ paid our sins. However, I do believe our effectiveness for Christ will be judged, and we must take very seriously the things in our lives that cause us to stumble before God. We are to give it our best as the statement of Jesus indicates in order to get out of our lives the things that cause us to fail.
• Spiritual surgery is more important than physical surgery. Jesus is using hyperbole here, plucking out an eye, or casting off a limb will not do anything to your heart. What he is teaching here is that we need to recognize the things that cause us to fail, and address the root of the sin.
II. Captivating Our Thoughts: Philippians 4:8
I believe this verse is one that we as Christians should bind around our hearts so that we build our paradigm of life around it. Paul in concluding his message to the church at Philipi encouraged the believers to change the things the thought about. In this verse he gives us 8 areas that should be our guidepost to show us whether or not we are honoring God with our thoughts. As the old computer adage goes, “Garbage in, Garbage out.” If we believer in the living God yet continuously dumps trash into our minds, then why are we surprised if we make no impact in the lives of our unsaved friends and relatives?
1. True—the idea of giving true testimony, “things forming to reality.” The same idea is found in Titus 1:13 when Paul was giving instructions to the elders in Crete and reported that his testimony was true. They were to heed his instructions because what he was saying was worthy to be heard.
2. Honest—the idea of honorable, venerable, grave. In Acts 6:3 when the first deacons were being chosen they were to be men of “honest report.” They were to be serious people; they were honest in their dealings with others. To revere, to worship, think on the things that are worthy of praise and adoration.
3. Just—right conduct, doing the right things, denotes the idea of righteousness. Whatever is in perfect harmony with God’s eternal, unchanging standards, things that are consistent with God’s law.
4. Pure—pure from defilement, not contaminated, comes from the same root word as holy.
5. Lovely—Believers are to focus their thoughts on what the Bible says is pleasing, attractive, and amiable before God.
6. Good report—good language, uttering sounds of good omen.
7. Virtue—moral goodness, enjoined to an essential quality in the exercise of faith.
8. Praise—commendation, laud, reserved for those who are a part of God’s possession.
“That you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.” Philippians 1:10-11
III. Pursing Effectiveness: I Corinthians 9:27
Paul disciplined his body so that he would not become disqualified. There are certain things that we can do in our lives that will cause us to be disqualified from certain ministry opportunities. As a pastor, if I were to go out and live a life of fornication then I would be disqualified from being a pastor. I would not lose my salvation, but by disobeying God, I could disqualify myself from certain effectiveness. How can a believer who has a sin issue that is ignored and not plucked out effectively witness to his friends and neighbor’s who knows the believers faults. Again we are not talking about sinless perfection, not until we die will we be given glorified bodies free from the effects of sin.
- Bring the body under subjection is a descriptive term that literally means to “hit oneself under the eye.” The idea is that Paul would figuratively give himself black eyes in order to keep his flesh desires under subjection, or under control. Paul was concerned about his testimony, he sought to protect it. When one loses their testimony they can never gain it back. Not that God cannot forgive, nor restore, but once one has done certain acts in their lives, their testimony will forever be changed.
- If we are to be an effective witness for Christ we must understand that we are to control our sinful desires, and seek to root out the main causes of sin in our lives.
Conclusion:
God would have you and me to be effective for his kingdom. As believers we are children of his kingdom and with rights come responsibility. God expects us to examine our lives to see and find the areas that cause us to stumble and then pluck those areas out. It is not enough for us to know that sin exist but we are to root the sin out. This can only be done by conforming our thought process to God’s standard which Philippians 4:8 so clearly defines for us. We are to understand that if we do not take this area in our lives seriously we run the risk of being disqualified in service to God. One day we as believers we will stand before the Judgment seat of Christ not to give an account our sins for they have been paid for, but rather to give account for our effectiveness for God’s kingdom in this life. We must seek to honor and glorify him with our lives and in doing so allow him to use us.
Application:
1. Identify the areas in your life that cause you to stumble. I love the word “pluck” because it is something that is descriptive enough for me to remember. As I prepared for this message today I examined my own life to find what areas had I not subjected to God. After prayerfully considering I determined there were two major areas in my life that God wished for me to pluck out. I then wrote down the 2 areas on a piece of paper and resolved that these would be the two major areas that I would work on this year to conform to God’s standard. I would encourage doing the same. This should be something that you spend time on as you prayerfully consider what God would have to pluck out of your lives this year.
2. Captivate your thoughts to God’s standard. It is not enough to just identify the area of your life that causes you to stumble, but is vital that you plan a course of action to see that the sin is rooted out. On this same list I developed some steps that I would follow in order to see these habits become God conformed. Of course we must always remind ourselves of Philippians 4:8 as we focus our attention on changing our thought processes.
3. Purse an effective witness in your life. For the believer who allows sin to be rooted in their lives will bring about a life of disappointment and discouragement. Paul tells us that we are sealed by the Holy Spirit thereby encouraging us in position with Christ, only true believer will not lose their salvation. We also learn that we are indwelt with the Holy Spirit; he is working in our lives to make us more like Christ. If we do not deal with the sin issue than the believer will lose their effectiveness. However, if a person does not care about dealing with the sin issue, then the natural question that must be asked is, Are you really saved?
