June 26, 2024 -- Matthew 5:37 -- When you say "yes" do you really mean it?

Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.
Matthew 5:37 ESV

One of the privileges of prison ministry is meeting with men who are very direct. Yesterday, I was teaching on confessing our sins to God. Many of us offer perfunctory confessions. We might hastily mutter “Forgive all my sins”. One man remarked, “I have gone through drug and alcohol recovery a dozen times”. He went on, “I’ve done all these steps”.

Another man piped up, before I could say anything. He said, “Then you’re not being honest to God or yourself.” I was struck by the directness of the statement, and the deep truth of it. I, along with the seven other men in the group, had to face the reality of how many times we have, in our own lives. said “I will do this” and failed miserably. No one else might know what’d we’d pledged, but God, Who before a word is even on the tongue, knows it completely, He sees and knows this private failure. It is not private. It is a violation of the holiness of God and a violation of our vows to follow Him completely and blamelessly.

Jesus, here in Matthew 5, is commanding His people to be strikingly unique among the peoples of the earth. Worldly people promise this and do something else. People are required to swear oaths in the courts to which standard they will be held publicly accountable, because in daily life they fail to keep their simple “yes” and “no” promises. Jesus followers must be open to the fact that they are powerless in the grip of their sins and helpless before the strongholds of the enemy. They are unique in the world because those, forgiven by the accomplished work of Jesus, change the way they act, the way they speak, and they offer their sacred yes. 

Let me give a few examples of our Christian negligence. In my local church, there are two church services each Sunday. Believers, upon joining the church, promise to attend both. They don’t. There might be 20% attendance in the evening compared with the morning. Those who do not attend continually make a lie of their "yes". Believers acknowledge before God He is the source of every blessing in their lives. Such believers promise they will give a tithe to God. They don’t. Church budgets bear this out. Examine yourself, where are you saying "yes" and living "no"? Confess your sins to God. Confess your powerlessness. Our Father is faithful and just and will forgive your sin and for the sake of Christ, cleanse you from all unrighteousness.

Father in heaven, I confess before the throne of grace, where Jesus, Your Son, my Savior, rules in splendor, that I am powerless over the issues, the sins, controlling my life. Spirit of God, by the Light of Scripture search out my heart, shine the Truth of Jesus into every part so that I will continually confess all that is sinful in me, so that the grace of Jesus Christ will be applied to every dark corner. Triune God, lead me in all truth, so that in my inner life, in  all my dealings with this world, and even before the hosts of hell—now conquered by Jesus and therefore toothless—I will walk with integrity, letting my “yes” be “yes” before You. Amen.

https://youtu.be/4SIf3AgC1I4?si=JEABJ4GwjSfzM825 “I Sing the Mighty Power of God”

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