Pants on Fire
I usually like to say “I hope you enjoyed the sermon on Sunday,” but this seems like an odd sermon to enjoy. Sure, we tried to throw in some lighter moments like Byron Malone’s “Pants on Fire” story and my own “burning down the woods” story. Of course, my rendition of the Revelation 21:8 song is sure to rank up there with the finest musical performances that First Hattiesburg has ever seen. For the most part, though, this isn’t a “feel good” sort of subject.
I wasn’t exactly excited about preaching on lying, because we tend to think of that as a lesson for kids…not adults. I normally enjoy the process of studying the Scripture, coming up with an idea, making it creative and giving people something that will challenge them. I’ll be honest (pun intended) and tell you that this was not an enjoyable week preparing to preach. We all agree that lying is wrong, but we all do it anyway. So you do you convince people to stop lying and trust God’s plan for integrity in our words when we already agree that it’s wrong?
Don’t be like the Pharisees
I love going to the Sermon on the Mount to see what Jesus has to teach us about the basic areas of life. When you understand the context of Jesus’ message, it makes so much more sense. If you look in Matthew 5:20, you get the thesis statement for the entire Sermon: don’t be like the Pharisees who valued the appearance of righteousness over actual righteousness. That’s why Jesus tells his listeners to avoid swearing by heaven, earth, the Temple, Jerusalem, or their heads. In Jesus’ time, it was appropriate to make a promise to do something by swearing on God’s name…as long as you actually did what you promised. God had made provisions for this in the Law. By swearing on anything but God’s name, the Pharisees felt that they did not have to keep their word.
Let your yes be yes, and your no, no
Basically, they set up a convenient system to get around God’s plan. They were trying to work God’s system to their advantage. But, now they were staring God in the face in the person of Jesus Christ…and he was putting a stop to their practices. As usual, Jesus raises the bar: Let your yes be yes, and your no, no. Have the integrity to say what you mean, and mean what you say.
In other words, a person’s word is only as good as the person who behind them.
Clean Hands and a Pure Heart
I guess this week was so tough to preach because I struggled so much with lying earlier in my life, and because the story I told at the end of the sermon was pretty embarrassing to tell. I went back and forth on whether I was going to share that with you, but at the end of the day, I felt like I needed to in order to show you that this is something that we all struggle with. I also wanted to share it with you, because I wanted to show you how the Lord impressed on me to handle it. I’ll never forget that line that my professor included in his email back to me:
“Jay, never underestimate what it means to have clean hands and a pure heart before the Lord”.
People of Integrity
I thought long and hard about the challenge I issued at the end of my sermon. I understand that by asking people to go and repent to God and to others about lies that they were currently living, it takes on the risk of some painful short term consequences. I wondered all afternoon on Sunday if a husband was sitting down and confessing things to his wife, or if this morning, someone is owning up to lies they’ve been living at work. I hope so. And I hope that they have the courage to become persons of integrity.
It’s worth repeating. Never underestimate what it means to have clean hands and a pure heart before the Lord. As we continue through the Burn Notice series, let’s admit the problems that our tongues cause and commit to letting the character of Christ continue to change us.
