We Don't Talk About That Series

WELCOME & INTRODUCTION

RICK ALLEN: DEF LEPPARD

Rick Allen became the drummer for the UK Rock band Def Leppard at the young age of 15 in 1978. Def Leppard had produced 3 albums by 1983, but tragedy would strike the next year. In 1984, Rick Allen was in a car crash that threw him from his vehicle. His left arm was stuck and twisted in the seatbelt and severed it from his body.

Doctors were able to reattach his arm, but it got infected and they ended up having to amputate it. As a drummer, his arms were his livelihood. Rick thought his drumming career—which had begun to be very successful—was over. He felt deflated, but his family was supportive as well as millions of fans worldwide who had sent him letters of support from all over the planet. Rick decided he would continue.

While his career was taking off before his crash, this may have saved it.

Rick worked with some drum engineers to create an electric drum kit that would allow him to use his feet to press different pedals to replace the parts he played with his left arm.

In 1987, Def Leppard produced their biggest album of their careers, Hysteria, and Rick played all his parts with the adopted drum kit. Rick Allen is ranked on many lists as one of the greatest drummers of all time. In 2019, Def Leppard was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Today’s lesson from the Sermon on the Mount tells us that if our hand causes us to sin, we should cut it off. Not quite what happened with Rick Allen, but in a similar way, losing his arm was a blessing. When we sin, we might need some spiritual surgery to put us on the right track.

We don’t often speak about the kinds of sin that Jesus addresses in this passage this morning. We get scared that the subject is too mature for our kids to hear or it may be that this subject is just tough to deal with. So we have generally not been willing to talk about it.

But the reality is we need to not just talk about the passages that are more easily digestible. We need to be able to go into the controversial things as well. Even when they are tough. We cannot say, “We don’t talk about that” because the truth is that our kids and others DO talk about that. And they probably aren’t getting the complete truth about it and they need to be prepared to deal with the things in life that are thrown at them as much as we do.

If we are unwilling to discuss lust, adultery, divorce, sexuality and other controversial or embarrassing topics in the church, then where will we look for the answers of the day that we need? In the past, the church has been unwilling to speak about such things, ignore them and hope they go away and the truth is it makes us look like we DON’T HAVE answers. Sometimes we do address the tough topics but use simplistic little explanations that don’t make sense and don’t give GOOD answers. Our kids go other places to ask people willing to have these conversations and they address it without Jesus.

I do want to let all our parents know that I am not going to be graphic or say things in a “too mature” way that our kids will hear things that maybe they aren’t ready for. I am using good judgment and vocabulary to speak about this so that their ears won’t be hearing things in a difficult to handle way. With that, let’s read our passage together.

MATTHEW 5:27-30

27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.

This is the second of the six antitheses passages that Jesus preaches. We spoke about this last week. There are six antitheses that Jesus addresses where he takes the Old Testament Law and adds an addendum to it where it goes from just being a quick rule to follow into addressing the core of the rule and why it was written.

He begins each antithesis with the phrase, “You have heard that it was said.” This is to bring the hearer that day on the hillside back to what they may already know. They “had heard” that it was said. But now, Jesus completes the thought and spirit behind that law with his own addition.