From Temptation to Freedom | Matthew 5:27-30

You're listening to the Bible guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Good evening, whoa, we talked the whole day through, good evening, good evening. Do you that's amazing, Chris. Well, I did it because oh Mags today is a person who said they listen. In the evening, in the evening, oh, okay at night, yeah at night. Yeah. And we already made several comments about the fact that some people, actually the majority. A lot of listener listen beyond the morning. Yeah, beyond the morning. Yeah. Yeah, So I said, good evening. Good how about that? So fantastic? That just made my whole day. It made the whole day worth it. Well, I gotta be honest, I'm struggling with my voice today. So the fact that I even attempted singing. Was it was miraculous. Miraculous. Thank you so much, Chris. The the difficulties you choose for us well on our behalf. Jeff I just for our own delight sacrifice. Yes, yes, you risk it all for us. I do thank you, thank you, Yeah, I appreciate that. But hey, listen, let's move on because we have a segment, and today's segment is called bags and mail Bags is Today's mail Bags is from Alison Kane. Hi Alison, Yes, sir. Allison says, Hi Jeffer Chris Actually, yeah that's right, So Hi. Hi Alison, Hi Alison. Love the podcast. Thanks for all you share every night. Oh that's awesome. Fits in parentheses. That's when I listen. Yes, this is why. Yes, I've got a fun question for you both. If you could instantly master one spill no practice requires what would it be? And why? Oh that's a good question. Looking forward to hearing your answers on the show. Okay, And by the way, I love this because a lot of times when people write in mail bags, uh, you know, or writing a question. Rather, what they would do is they would like say, hey, I get a Bible question or what about this? Or what about that? But I love the fact that she's asking a curious question. Yeah about us? Yes, she just wants to know more about us. Where's our priorities? Yes, master any skill. Hey, I'm going to challenge everybody right now, uh huh, because it's hard to come across people, it's hard to come across mailbag stuff. And to create this segment. But if everybody did it. Once, yes, everybody sending a question, yes, so please do. Us a favor and email us at info at thebibleguys dot com. Any Bible question, any practical question, yes, any curious question. Yes, we're happy. Can you imagine if we have what fifteen unique thousand people who listen a. Month, it'd be awesome. Fifteen thousand people. So if everybody took the time to email us one question, that means that Desiree and crew would receive fifteen thousand questions today. That's all we need. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, for a little while. That'll be the segment. Hey, I think it'd be fun to go back and do another whole series of stump to pastors. That was really fun to do. Yeah, it was. Yeah. So yeah, that's assuming that we have good things to say. We have to have fifteen thousand questions coming. Yeah. Okay. So, Jeff, if you could master one skill with new practice required, what would it be. There's a lot of things I like to do, yes, Like I love cooking, I love grilling, but I wouldn't want to master it all at once because part of it is learning it, right, I like to learn, so I don't think that would be it. I don't know, this is really hard. I think the skill I would want to learn if I just master it, just like I walk out from this room today and bang, I'm just an expert. Thing would be languages. Languages, Yeah, because I'm terrible at learning new language and I'm always in another country. In just a couple weeks, I'll be in Senegal. Right after that, I'll be in Sri Lanka. They asked me to stop off in Malta on the way back, and then I'm gonna be I can't remember back. I think Egypt. So you're like, I just want to know Maltnes. I just yeah, I just wish when I'm in Sri Lanka, I wish I could speak uh, you know, was it uh? Uh? They have they know, they have two languages that the main languages they speak in in uh in India or I mean in Sri Lanka. In you know, Egypt is going to be Arabic. I wish I could speak Arabic and I cannot put Arabic together at all. I just I struggle. I have basic things hellos and goodbyes and thank yous and my friend and you know stuff like that. But man, it's just so hard and I wish I could do that, And then when you make mistakes, it's terrible. I told you the story about Bill and I when we were out in the way, out in the bush and we're driving. We were trying to say, like, nice greetings. How do adults say nice things to children? Greetings? And uh it's habari is how is a nice greeting from an adult to a child. And so we're driving through the bush and every time we'd dive, and then all of a sudden there be five kids on the side road and we yell out the window, hatari, hatari. Hatari means danger. So these white guys are blasting through the bush, you know, ten hours from Nairobi, four well drive truck. These kids haven't seen a truck in three days. And then we're yelling danger, danger as we're just blasting past them. And finally our driver was like, I don't think that means what you think it means, right, you know, you know Tobias And he said, I think you mean to say hibari, not hatari. You I think I would. Yeah, So that's mine. What about you? Uh, there's no question for me? I oh, it is not what you're what you just said, Although that is a tremendous skill to master, that would be amazing. It reminds me of that movie phenomenon with John Travolta when when when they're going to visit a Portuguese family and he accept a Portuguese how to learn Portuguese by the time he gets there in ten minutes? Yeah, I would love that. That would be the best. He goes, you just learned the whole Portuguese language in ten minutes, and he goes and he looks at me and he goes, not all of it away. Yeah. Anyway, mine would be playing the piano. Really. Oh yeah, you want to learn how to play the piano? No, I do not, but I wish I immediately knew. You wish you immediately knew. Not want to practice playing the piano. I will never do it ever, But to be able to walk up to a piano and to masterfully sit down and then just play something that delights everybody, I would absolutely adore that gift. I want to be able to delight people because because there are so many people, there are so many times where other people delight me, you know, like in a mall, or something, or or they'll just walk up and they'll be like, hey, let's all sing this around a family gather and they just start playing. People gather around guitars and they gather on pianos. You're right, You're right. I would I would love to do that. Yeah, that's a neat little gift. Yeah, and one way I've always wanted to. And so that's the main reason why we paid for piano lessons for Sarah, who's now thirty something. But she she gave it up and she did learn it, and then later on she said, that's one of my biggest regrets I regret not sticking with. Well, my wife Bonnie is one of the best piano players I've ever known. She's Yeah, she's phenomenal like that, But it takes a tremendous amount of work. You know, when your mind starts slipping, that might be a good thing for you to start doing. They say it helps rebuild new pathways in your brain for thinking. Yeah, I can't think of any jokes that would be appropriate to make. As we move into the intro. For this, well, I will say this, it's amazing how Alison is able to see into our lives enough to ask those insights. Okay, yes, and Jesus also talks about. Seeing, yeah, what we see matters and looking yes, yep. How it's very intentional as well. Okay. In Matthew five. Yeah, so we are in this uh series that we're doing on the Beatitudes, and the premise of this whole topic that we're we're dealing with is that Jesus mentions all these things that God blesses, and then through the whole rest of the Sermon on the Mount, he references things that have to do with a faulty view of the thing God bless us, right, where religion messes us up from actual, real blessing from God. That's that's basically it. So yesterday we introduced the idea that he says, blessed are those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God. And what we were talking about there is that that word is catharos in Greek, and it means focused. It means undivided, the word right, pure, the word the word pure, and so it's not only clean, although that's part of it. So there's a cleanliness to it, but there's also an undivided loyalty, your focus towards God. And so with that idea, then he unpacks a few things that wind up being the opposite of pure, and one of them here in Matthew chapter five, verse twenty seventy, says, you've heard the commandment that says you must not commit adultery. But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. So if your eye, even your good eye, causes you to lust, gouge it out and throw it away, it's better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your hand, even your stronger hand, causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away, it's better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. Wow. Yeah, Wow, Well it's one of the strong I'm glad you didn't think, good morning, this is a hard one. We're talking about this in the afternoon. Then, yeah, it's one of the it's one of the harsher teachings that Jesus you know, lays out there, because you know, I think one of the harshest things that Jesus has ever said, is if you're not willing to abandon your father and your mother, yeah and follow me, you cannot be worthy to be called my disciple. And and really what that is is it doesn't literally mean abandoning your father and your mother. It is it is Jesus saying, unless you're going to choose Me over family, right. And so it's the idea that you know that choosing God is is obviously the thing that trumps everything in your life, and and and and obviously he was also dispelling a sort of open a can of worms by saying that, because he was sort of dispelling excuses. Yes, because they were saying like, hey, I don't want to follow your Jesus because they had to go bury my father and bury my mother, right and and tend to my my family affairs. And he's saying, like, you're really just using that as an excuse, right, So that's what he was doing. But anyway, the whole point is this is another harsh teaching. So the question is, Jeff, does he really mean take your eye out physically? No? Yeah, no, not at all. I think he's using shocking language on purpose. It's a tool. So if you can remember this entire but we tend to read like today we just read a couple verses out. He's preaching an entire message. So he starts off saying, listen, God blesses people with a pure heart. That's one of the things he says. Then he talks about being salt and light, and let your light so shine so, and he talks about your deeds. Your deeds matter, So let your light shine before men that they can see your good deeds and glorify your father and heavemn. So the reason why we would live good lives is it to get to heaven. It's because God says, I'll bless you and people will glorify me. Right. It brings glory to God. It brings blessing to us. We just talked about this and on Sunday. This is exactly how he starts Romes chapter five. And then he goes, but here's your problem, and then he in verses seventeen through twenty. He says, your problem is you think, by keeping all the religious rules, that's how you make God happy. Well, let me tell you can't. And so he unpacks it then about murder. Right, if you're angry at somebody. It's the same as killing somebody. Then and now he talks about lust. You think, if you just keep the letter of the law and don't commit adultery, you're fine. And he said, I'm telling you, it all starts in the heart. So murder starts in the heart. It doesn't start in the action of Oh I got a knife in my hand. Oh I just plunged it into your chest. It's the hatred in me that drives me to murder you, right, God says Jesus is saying, listen, it's not about the religious keeping of every rule. It's about the heart, is what I'm after. And so he gets to this adultery thing, and he goes, you think, just by keeping the rule about not actually committing acts with somebody else, that you're okay. And I'm telling you it all begins in the heart. It's always ever been about the heart. So then he's trying to shock them out of this behavior of thinking, because you know guys that go, oh, well, you know, I can't help what walks in front of me. I can't help what I'm interested in. And so he's talking really about the intent there, and temptation is not a failure. Right, Noticing beauty is not failure. It's when I decide I'm going to keep rehearsing, I'm going to recall that thought, I'm going to take that second look. Right, He's saying, hey, what's in your heart? Is really that lustful thing in your heart is the issue. And then he says you need to learn remember when he said pure and heart, pure in heart is undivided. You need to be willing to make any radical decision in order to keep yourself from crossing that line. That's what he's talking about. I think there. I don't think he's saying, go get a spoon and pop your eyeball out. Right. He's trying to shock you into realizing how significant of a deal this is, because people would go, well, boys are going to be boys, ha ha, and just kind of pass on that one a little bit, and he's going, no, I'm telling you it's that serious. We did a series here in February of twenty twenty one called Questions for God. And in that series, do you remember we did a like a limbo limbo sticks. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. Limbo sticks higher and above and and the and the whole point of doing that was to talk about the bar, and we taught this exact passage and the idea was I remember, and it was really based off something Francis Chance said, uh, in one of his sermons. He's a very famous author and speaker and pastor. But anyway, Francis Chance said, I just love the way he put it. He said, people think that the Ten Commandments are the highest bar. Yeah, right, right, he goes. But believe it or not, he goes, He goes, the Ten Commandments are a really low bar. He goes. You know, think about it. He goes. God's like, try not to kill anybody today. Yeah, he's a good job. Try to stick with your own wife, not somebody else's wife, you know. And he goes, he goes, He goes. We think it's, oh, yeah, we obeyed the ten Commandments and if we just achieved this really high bar, we can get to heaven. He goes. What Jesus is doing is he's saying, no, it's actually really low. He goes. He goes, So he goes. Somehow he set the lowest lowest bar of human behavior, the lowest common denominator of human behavior. He goes, and somehow we've managed to slither under it, yes, because I can't keep it and and uh and so really that's part of what Jesus is doing here, because remember Jesus is saying these examples right after he talks about the righteousness of the Pharisees. And the Pharisees were prideful, and they thought like, oh, they were they were righteous because they were keeping these big ten commandments, uh, you know, by not committing adultery and not murdering somebody. And what Jesus is saying is like, no, if you if you keep those commandments up here, he goes, you're not righteous. I'm here to tell you that just because you have not, you know, committed adultery, you feel righteous. And I'm telling you that you're just as guilty of breaking the law if you lust after a woman with your own heart. He says, so you violated the law, you know, by by doing those things. And what he's part of what he's doing is he's dispelling the righteousness of the Pharisees. But he's also making the point that you know, you can't you're not even close to the Pharisees, and and and and they violated the law you know themselves, and then, of course he said that famous comment you have to surpass. The righteousness into Pharisees. Right, And so I've got a really funny story about this, so, uh, listen to this. I was in I was in Bible College. I'll never forget this. The day I die. I was in Bible College and I was just getting ready to graduate. It was my junior year of out of college. And I was home for like 'll know, summer or something like this, and I was getting interviewed by my home pastor because our church was planting a church. Okay, so Youngstown Baptist Church was starting a church called uh, oh, it doesn't matter. I think it was called Heritage. What was it called. It doesn't matter, I'll think of it later. I think it might have been Heritage. Isn't that funny? But anyway, it was. It was a church that we were playing thing in Hermitage. Oh that's what it is. It was Hermitage, Pennsylvania. It wasn't It wasn't Cohertage. But anyway, we were planning a church there and he was trying to decide whether or not I was going to be the person that they were going to hire to be their youth pastor for the summer, and it was only for a summer because there's a lot of good candidates in our churches. So I was on that interview, imagine that, Okay, on that interview, And as we were walking into Burger Kinge because you know, they they spared no expense. Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, whining and dining you trying to get you to move to back to Youngstown. So yeah, Pastor Jamie and Master John, do. You want a whopper or a whopper Junior? They're taking me to Burgerton. And as I was walking into Burkene, I keep in mind, I was a single guy, I was young, I'd only been honestly a Christian for a couple of years. There's this girl that walked by me and she was wearing the skimpiest outfit known to mankind. And uh and I and I literally, I I asked you. As we were all walking into double doors, I turned my head and I followed her. It was a it was a direct violation of looking after somebody. Right right, right right. And I watched her walk out to the car and and I and I lingered like like like a full twenty seconds. Yeah, that would be the failure then yes, yes, yeah, massive failure. Right. I turn around. I look and both Jamie and John, who I thought were ahead of me going into Burger King, are both standing there holding the door open for. Me, watching me. Oh no, yeah, watch this girl busted busted? Yeah right, I mean like massive failure. Y yeah, as they're considering hiring, right you understand. Yes, yeah, how okay you failed that one fail so they did. They downgraded. You didn't get to get the extra value meal, right, you didn't even get large fries. You had to go yeah. Yeah, so. This, this is this interview could have potentially. Been over before it started. Yeah, it would have been so. Anyway, I look like this and I turn around, they look at me and Jamie pastor. Jamie looks at me and says, hey, Chris, if your I offend, you pluck it out very yeah yeah, and then immediately you ready for us. I thought of the biggest lie that I could think of in that moment, and I go, I go what I go? No, no, no, no, I go I know that girl and I can't believe she's wearing. That yeah yeah yeah yeah oh no. So then you had to confess to Jamie later. No, I never Yeah, so Jamie, yeah right, you need to call him. And so I literally I literally believe that I was still clever enough. Yeah, and I'm not bragging. This is a confession, radical confession. But I even played the part in my acting role. I go, what no, no, no, no, you miss ourderstand I know that girl. Well, that's what happens with stuff, right, when we give into temptation, then we start lying about our temptations. Yeah, because it's it's it's you know, that's what David talks about, right, yeah, how one lie produces another live right and and uh and so yeah, I I literally covered myself up and it was so believable. My my performance was so believable. They go, oh, I go, who was that? And then I just made up a name. Oh no, I go, that was like Stacy Brewer. Oh no, And I'm like, I can't believe it. She's that's terrible. That's terrible, it's terrible. Well, so Jesus is saying, you know, he did say, you know, pluck out your eye. So Jesus is not advocating self harm. Yeah right, So we need to be super clear in that he's not advocating self harm he's trying to use the shock language to say if if you're just thinking in practical language, he's saying, remove whatever fuels the temptation. That's that's what he's saying. Decide that you're going to take decisive action, not halfway action, Take decisive action. I have a friend that he came to me and he had started with in celebrate recovery for sex integrity, and he wound up getting rid of his smartphone and going back to a flip phone. And that was his answer. That was his equivalent of cutting out his eye or cutting off his head part of it, right, yeah, yeah, yeah, that that was for him. Well, he said that was his that was his outlet. Right. It wasn't like he was on the computer at home or whatever. It was just so he got rid of his smartphone so that he didn't have that. And that's the idea is Jesus is saying, make a radical decision to not go forward, because if you if your eyes, you determine, you know, what you choose to linger on is the thing that starts to get your attention. And this is what the idea of being pure and heart is is having a singular focus, not being distracted by the things, and the devil loves to throw up things and get us to take that second and third look and then start thinking about it, imagining it, fantasizing about it, and it winds up ruining our lives. And so he's saying, here, be willing to make a radical decision to remove what the tempt takes. I knew another I knew a lady who quit her job over the fact that she was tempted by like significantly, she had found herself flirting with a guy at work and decided, you know, they never actually got into anything, they did do anything, but she couldn't stop it. She said, I just had this attraction. I couldn't. She just knew if she stayed there it wasn't going to lead to anything going. It was going to ruin her life. Yeah. Yeah, it was going to ruin her life. And she was convinced of it, and so she quit her job, went And it turned out later on it wanted to being a great career move for her. She didn't see it in the moment. She felt like it was a sacrifice in the moment, but it wanted to being a great career move for her in the future. And that is another one of those right you remove it. There's nothing more important than your singular focus on God in God's ways, and God says, blessed her, I will give you my favor. So when he'd made that choice to get rid of his smartphone and go to a flip phone, his buddies make fun of him. But man, his marriage is stronger. He's starting to find freedom. The truth will set you free. He's getting help in that area, he's winning. God will bless you when you choose a pure path. And it's the same thing for her. God blessed her and her career went through the roof. She took two or three big leaps over the next couple of years in her career that I think the other company probably she wouldn't have had that opportunity. Now she felt like she was making a sacrifice. But God blesses the peer and heart. And it probably was a sacrifice at the time. Right, Yeah, yeah, go with that income as always a secondeah. But God's never gonna owe you anything. So when you step up and make a significant sacrifice, God's gonna step and go good job. I'm I'm gonna give you a reward and that's what happened there. So no, he's not advocating self harm. He is advocating a willingness. He's using shock language to get you to make a willingness to do whatever it takes to end that temptation or end that lingering, to end that path that you're going down because you're on the verge of ruining your life. That's great. Well, hey, that is definitely our time, so hopefully we'll see tomorrow on the Bible, guys,