You're standing there, thinking about climbing, and you look up and see one of your friends.
He calls to you, "Come up! The view up here is amazing!"
So you start climbing. It's hard. You get tired and frustrated and all the while, you keep hearing your friend calling. So you continue.
Finally, when you get to the top, you can see that your friend was right. The view is amazing!! You're so glad you did it. You're so glad you persevered and fought through the struggle. It was worth it.
On Sunday, Pastor Lance likened that analogy to what Jesus is calling us to do in Matthew 5. Jesus is calling us up to a higher view of righteousness.
In Matthew 5:31-37, he uses the examples of (1) marriage and divorce, and (2) making and keeping commitments to illustrate this point.
Looking ahead to Matthew 19, we will go more in-depth on marriage and divorce as part of our expository study through the Book of Matthew. On a basic level, it is important that we understand that (1) divorce is bad and not something to be sought-after or celebrated, and (2) that divorce is not an unpardonable sin. We could explain this more (and we will), but maybe what we need to understand is not more explanation but more conviction. If we truly believe and trust in God's Word, we need not trust in our emotions or let them guide us when God's Word is clear.
Diving into verses 33-37, Jesus contradicts the Pharisees' idea that a person only needed to keep their word if they made a "vow to the Lord". Jesus tells us to stop making vows altogether if we don't plan to keep them.
He tells us to let our YES mean YES and our NO mean NO.
Followers of Jesus are called UP to be people of our word. We are to be a people who make commitments and keep them.
The current season we're in has allowed us an opportunity to step back and evaluate what our lives look like and what we want them to look like. Pastor Shu challenged us to think about:
- What are the commitments that we need to make that are most important and most beneficial?
- What are some things that you might need to eliminate or reduce in your life in order to keep the commitments that are most important and most beneficial?
...sometimes we need to say no to things, so we can keep the commitments that are the most important and beneficial.
We are called UP to a higher righteousness than the world around us. We are called to lean into Jesus and be people of the truth; people who make commitments and keep them.
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