Day 24: Watch, Deal, and Keep

Tonight, I went to the 6pm service at Solid Rock for the first time in a while.  I used to love the 6, mostly because I usually always had to work on Sundays.  I enjoyed the somewhat younger crowd, and the ability to maybe even nap after work and before heading to church.  Needless to say, it was refreshing to be back in that element.

Phil taught tonight, and I always feel this sense of being a child when he is up there teaching.  He is such a dad, something that I missed out on in my early years of life.  It always inspires me to see men doing what God has put on their heart, and that is especially true of those called to shepherd the flock.
Continuing on the message of Salt and Light that we are focusing on in our series on the Sermon on the Mount, Phil tackled three heavy issues in one sermon:  adultery, divorce, and oaths/vows.  It was difficult to fit all of those into one message, but he managed to link them all together by their importance in the teaching that Jesus was giving.

Jesus started his discussion on each of these topics by stating what was discussed in the Torah.  He introduced these discussions by using the phrase “You have heard that it was said...” (NKJV).  In this way, Christ was citing what the Torah said, but the important idea is what He followed with.  With each of these topics, Jesus gave the authoritative interpretation of what God's word meant in the Torah.  With the example of adultery, he said:  “You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not commit adultery.'  But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”  Matthew 5:  27-28

Jesus was going to the root of the problem.  He was letting these people know that adultery is not something that comes all of a sudden, but comes from the harboring of lusts towards another person, or object.  Christ was clarifying what so many people missed.

Even today, we think that if we are not physically acting on sin that we are not struggling with it.  We think that even though we are not cheating on our husbands or wives, but having an emotional affair, that we are not committing adultery.  But we are, we SO are.  And we are sinning not only against God, but against ourselves.

From this discussion, Phil also touched on the idea of sexual immorality that springs from the desire and addiction of lust.  He noted how it's so amazing how often people settle for sex instead of desiring real intimacy.

How shallow and broken are we?  How used?  How empty?
How shallow and broken am I?
How used?
How empty?
I'm disgusted even thinking about it...

I thought back to certain situations where I used people, and most recently, when I've let individuals use me.  I thought I was being valued and appreciated, when in reality I was just being used to comfort something that was missing in that person.  I was being used to fill a confused void.

Now that hurt.

But where people fail, God wins.
And the victory is so obvious, and so good.

Phil left us with three pieces of advice that I would love to share here because they are completely useful and relevant...as usual:

1.  Watch over your heart
Like Proverb 4:23 says, it's imperative to guard your heart because from it comes the well-spring of life.  So often we think that issues such as lust, or adultery, or lying, come out of nowhere, but they really stem from an unsettled heart.

2.  Deal drastically with sin
In Phil's words:  hate it, crush it, kill it.  Jesus uses quite the bit of hyperbole in this part of the sermon on the mount, noting that if your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off.  You can see the hyperbole in it because even if we did cut off one hand the other could still sin, and after a few sins, we would be capable of nothing.  Phil also encouraged us to look at our lives and to see what (if anything) is drawing our heart away from God, and to remove it from our lives.

3.  Keep your word
Instead of swearing to God about this or that, or trying to convince people that we are good for what we say, how about we just follow through every time?  Tell the truth, and you won't have to worry about convincing people that you are trustworthy and honest.   Be faithful to God like he is faithful to us.

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Phil summed up the sermon with a piece of scripture from Romans.  I felt like God anointed Phil completely, and through it He taught me that everything I learned in this sermon is possible if I seek to “put on” Christ daily, instead of trying to gratify my desires.

“But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.”  Romans 13:14

Praise God for allowing us to put Jesus on and forget about the flesh.



In Christ,





Lilia