Welcome to another podcast of Struggling Well. We're glad you're with us and I think Jimmy's going to speak a fair amount this morning because he recently had the opportunity to fill the pulpit at the church we attend. and it was, it was fun to hear him again. somebody referred to him in a text about his speaking as his old pastor. And I would like to emphasize that the old pastor. Sorry babe, but you are getting a little long in the tooth. But, I wanted Jimmy this morning to share what he shared. and if you've heard it before then Maybe God wants you to hear it again. I don't know. But Jimmy, just tell our listening audience what God gave you to speak.
Yeah. Well, let me just start by saying this. I'm often asked after by people who know us and people who know me, what do I miss anything from pastoring and after 42 years at Church at Charlotte? my answer to that is I don't miss running a church organization. I really don't. I don't miss maybe the week in and week out demands that get placed on you, but what I do miss is the occasional opportunity to speak to share from God's word. And I do miss the people. I miss the staff that I had. And that's one of
you have staff now.
I know you
and Tim, you have two of us.
Tim, but Tim was on my staff when I was at church at Charlotte. And that's what I miss is those weekly Monday mornings going around to the offices of everybody. and talking about important things like fantasy football leagues and other things that we did.
I can go from room to room here in our house and you can visit me and ask me how my day was.
Yeah. And I should also add that I do we do have the staff of our daughter Grayen who works in the ministry. So I don't want to leave that out. But anyway, when I have the opportunities to preach, what's fun for me is many times I'm asked to jump into a series that church is going through. So it doesn't allow me the opport People probably think, "Oh, you go pull out one of your old favorite sermons." Well, I haven't had the chance to do that, nor do I necessarily want to do that. So, the series that our church is in this summer is the sermon on the mount. And the verses that I covered were in chapter 5 speaking about the taking of oaths and how Jesus says, "You're not to do that. Let your yes be yes and your no be no." And what amazes me about the sermon on the mount is that it comes right after Jesus says that he's here on earth and with him is the coming of the kingdom. And that's kind of a mysterious thing because he when he says repent the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He does mean that it is the beginning. So the kingdom is this kind of strange paradox of now but not yet. And so have we experienced the fullness of the kingdom yet? No, we haven't. that will come when Jesus comes back a second time. But what he does in the sermon on the mount starting with the biatitudes and then moving into the actual sermon itself is he connects outward behavior with the heart. And that was something that radicalized his followers because the Pharisees and the keepers of life in Israel at the time that he is speaking had their series of what you had to do to attain righteousness. And it was based upon external following of the law. So over 600 laws and then they added to those laws and created more laws. and if you were going to be righteous, you had to obey and observe all those laws. But like I said, it was an external behavior driven setup. and so when Jesus comes along and he says, I didn't come to abolish the law, but to fulfill the law, what he then does is he turns that to the connection between the heart and behavior. And that was radically different. That was radically new.
Can I say something here? you know, we can be really judgmental about the Pharisees. but what they were doing was what we all do, and that is you give me a system, a way that I can follow the rules. and this is with within the church. You give me a way to you tell me how to be married. You tell me what to do with my kids. You give me a system of behavior and I can follow that. But be careful if you get to my heart. Most people don't want you to get to their heart.
Yeah. And so it's yeah, the Pharisees are not th those Pharisees of Jesus, they are obviously long dead and gone. But the spirit of that continues still today. It was true in the church that I grew up in. we disconnected the heart and we just were focused on behavior. And if you just did the things that they said you should do and didn't do the things they said you shouldn't do then nobody proved or probed further than that. And that's what Jesus does in the sermon on the mount. He does it throughout his ministry. Later on in Matthew in the 15th chapter, he talks about the debate that was raging because the disciples weren't following the purification rights before you would eat. And then that meant that whatever you put into you defiled you. And Jesus says, "No, what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart." And this is what defiles a person. It's not a matter of what you eat and how that hand is handled. It's what comes out of the heart. And so, what was amazing to me and still is amazing to me is that connection that my Christian life, really proceeds from the inside and works its way out. our dear friend and mentor Larry Crab, who's now, in eternity with Jesus, wrote a book called Inside Out. And, and I still believe that's true. It's who I am on the inside that influences what comes out of me. And if I start outside with my behavior, I'll never choose to look inwardly to my heart.
Can you talk a little bit more about the vows and the oaths?
Yeah. so Jesus said, listen, you the taking of oaths, while it would appear to be something that would ensure honesty, actually had the effect of providing loopholes and ways to get deceit. So, like if I said to you, I swear to you, Suzi, I'm going to do this. versus just saying, "Yeah, I'm going to do it.", somehow that meant there was greater weight if I swore to you that I would do something. and Jesus said, "No, you don't need to do that. You need to be people of character and whatever you say is good enough. You don't have to swear on anything." And so again, it's that looking to the connection of the heart to behavior. And Jesus says you've got to you've got to be willing to let your character of who you are represent who I am in your life. And therefore, if I say yes, Suzi, I'm going to take the trash out. I don't have to add to it anything other than I said I'll do it.
It when you use the phrase I swear, I mean, we all do that. We've done it. Our kids have done it. And it is almost a delay like I swear I'm going to take out the trash or I'm going to fix that door or whatever. It's like asking saying I'm going to do it, but I'm going to do it when I want to do it. So, this is my delay because I'm swearing to you. And God is really clear in or Jesus is when he's speaking when he says, you know, everything that you're swearing by is mine.
Yeah. Yeah. And so, so again, you if I peel it back and go, I look at it the lens of my life through the fact that God sees everything and he knows my heart. then I shouldn't need I shouldn't have to add to my willingness to do something or saying that I won't do something an added kind of emphasis if you will.
I think it's interesting how I don't know if it's a cultural thing for the South or what. I don't know but we have this tendency to not speak in full truth and not and if we say we're going to do something oftenimes it's just couched in a lot of other words that help us kind of cover up the real truth or the real motive of our heart in some way. And Jesus is so clear in this passage when he says again in NLT, let your yes be yes, I will or your no, no, I won't. Anything beyond that is from the evil one. That's interesting.
Yeah. And so again, it's we understand that even though we live in a physical world that we can see and view. It's the unseen world that has great influence and the battle of good and evil is not just what we see in everyday life. It's what's in the cosmic battle between God and Satan. And so, Satan can use anything more than just my yes or my no and the truthfulness and the integrity by which God calls me to act, he can use it and twist it to his advantage.
Yeah.
And so, It really comes down to I believe the willingness to be truthful, the willingness to be honest before God. And then that spills into my relationships with others. And I let my character as God is developing it to be the standard by which I give an answer to somebody either yes or no.
Jimmy, thank you for that. I was it was fun hearing you in the pulpit. It always is. And then it always reminds me how thankful I am that you are not in the pulpit cuz I don't have to be the pastor's wife anymore.
And you also are thankful that I'm the old pastor.
Oh, the old OD capital OD. thank you so much for listening to us. there are so many of you that have contacted us to let us know that when you hear the podcast, you hand it to you send it to other friends and that means the world to us. We don't really I mean it's interesting to see how many people listen, but we don't do it for that reason. we God called us to this and we're in our at our kitchen table studio A. Tim is our faithful producer who prays for us every time we speak on this podcast and we are just honored to be able to come into your world for a few minutes. So, thank you. Have a great week and we'll talk to you soon.