Oaths - Matthew 5:33-37

If you look at the hands of David, it's fascinating, they are oversized for the statue. If you actually pull the statue down and we're able to get on a little crane and go up, we would look at David's hands, you can look this up online, they are oversized. But Michelangelo knew that from the vantage point of the ground, when you're looking up at the statue, they, I don't know how, I mean, these guys are just from another world when they come up with this stuff, but he knew that the hands needed to be oversized. So when you view them from below, they are proportional. Here's my point. God is showing us in Genesis 6, you ready for this? That there comes a time when creation has to stop and you have to rest. God creates in six days and what he's showing us is you can be as creative as you want, but you have to put a period on the work and you have to rest. Welcome to the Forgotten Jesus Podcast. I'm your host, Adam French, here with Robbie Gallaty and Candy Gallaty. We are fresh back from the snow apocalypse here in Nashville, Tennessee. Still going on. Yeah, if you're listening, pray right now, probably still people will be without power by the time this goes out in Nashville. Yeah, it's crazy. I have to confess something to the group. We have, you know this, but we have a huge listener audience on the Pando app, which is unbelievable. So the Pando app is, tell them about the Pando app. Yeah, the Pando app, it's a, across the prisons in the United States, they have tablets and so it's a software that is embedded in every 649 prisons across the United States and so inmates are able to access this podcast, your sermons, a few other things that we do. Your podcast, they have resources, your books, my books. Yeah, it's on there and we're also just now uploading our seminary level classes, so they'll be able to take seminary, get certificates and everything we post now has our address because we've made a commitment that we're going to respond to anybody who contacts us because you know this, a guy sent a, you tell him a story about the guy, was it, he said he had 13 churches or 30 churches? Yeah, I can't remember how many, Vivian, he said he contacted like 30 churches, 25 or 30 churches. He wrote to us and said, I don't expect you to respond because I've contacted 25, 30 churches, but I need, he basically said, I need a Bible, I want to learn, I want to grow, nobody cares and that has kind of set the tone that we have a policy, you've set up every single letter that comes in, we respond to every single one of them and here's another thing if you're listening, people say, because I read two this morning and they said, I know you're not going to read this, but I wish Robbie would as I'm reading it and I'm like, no, I am reading it right

now and so just so you know, I can't read every single word of every letter because some are long and I try, but I have a team that helps me highlight and say, hey, this is important and so I do try to read all of them, but if you're listening on the Pando app, do us a favor, subscribe, I think we have like 30,000 people, how many subscribed? Yeah, we're close to, yeah, we're at 30 now subscribers, which means anytime we post anything new, you'll have a little, it'll be like a red dot that shows that it's updated, you basically become like a church member, if you subscribe, you'll get all the new content that we put out and that's important for them and then reach out to us, we want you to know that we love you and we value you, the reason why we do that is because we want you to know you're not forgotten, you know, we know what it's like, we go every day or just about every day, there's someone, maybe a few days out of the week, there's someone though that's in a prison or a jail that's ministering, so we understand what it's like, almost every day of the week, there's somebody there live, it's amazing, yeah, so were you gonna say, Kenny, anything? I was gonna say, maybe my, maybe your team needs to highlight when I send you something, okay, well, she's better, yeah, she's better, you'll read the stuff I send, she sent me a text this morning for the record and I just got busy, babe, I'm sorry and so I came in today for the podcast, we're recording around lunchtime and she said, did you, I was going on about reading the letters and she said, you read my letter, sorry, I will read that, that is earmarked for later today, I didn't want, I want to have time, babe, that I can enjoy that letter, but one thing, one thing he did do though, is he set it up, you know, for you to come and talk at the Sumner County Jail and share your testimony, I did say that, so and so we will try to get that on the Pendo app too, where people can hear your testimony, yeah, that'd be awesome, here's a letter today, got, I mean, this one got me really, he said, I know you're not going to read this, but I hope you do and he said, I've been in jail, he said, I'm 34 years old, I've been in jail for 19 years, wow, what is the math on that? I mean, that's almost, he's been, no, he's 36 years old, been in jail 19, well, he could have went to juvie, baby, yeah, he said, I went in really young, he said, I went in jail really young, yeah, I was trying to do math, he went in jail really young and here's what he said, He said, I, in order to survive, I joined a gang, and I thought it brought me joy and happiness. He said, three years ago, I thought this was the right thing to do, but I became a Muslim.

And he said, it gave me temporary happiness, temporary joy, I was all excited. He said, until Satan, I realized, disguised himself as an angel of light and convinced me to be a Muslim. And he said, but it was not until I heard about you, you ready for this? My mom told me about Charlie Kirk passing. He said, I typed into the Pando app, Charlie Kirk, and your sermon came up, How to Fight Evil, which is where I addressed the killing of Charlie Kirk and how do we respond. And he said, I wanna thank you because you saved me from the pit of hell. I'm a Christian, this is literally what he said, it blew me away, Robert. You saved, no, he said, what the hell, the Lord used you, he did it right. The Lord used you to share the gospel, and now I'm saved, and I wanna thank you for that. And I was like, wow, if it's worth it for just one person. You just never know, wow. Yeah, gangs are the devil's discipleship. And so when you can take somebody who's been indoctrinated into that out and then disciple them for the Lord, talk about a warrior, that guy's gonna be a warrior. They already know trust. Because he's been there. Yeah, yeah, they know indoctrination. Okay, into today's text, and we're gonna try to speed this up and try to get through these.

I'm ready to get to chapter six because there are a lot of nuggets to unwind. Yeah, chapter five's like the longest chapter ever. It is, well, it's got a lot here. It's good, though. It is good, though. Okay, let's read, Candy, can you? Y'all know it really is because I memorized it, so I know. It's like it goes on and on. Okay, we're gonna go to Matthew 5.33. Candy, you hadn't done this in a while. Oh, a hot minute. Let's see if you can do it, 5.33. Again, you've heard that it was said. Again, you have heard that it was said, you must not break your oath to the Lord, but you must keep your oath to the Lord. But I tell you, do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, which is God's throne, or by earth, which is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, which is the city of the great king. Do not swear by your own head because you cannot make one single hair white or black. Instead, let your yes mean yes, and your no mean no. Anything more than that is from the evil one. Wow. At the same time, baby, same time. She's still got it, she's still got it.

When you memorize the whole passage of scripture, you know how hard that is. Oh, it is hard, it is hard, especially when you gotta insert. Especially when y'all go over it. It's like, I need to start pre-going over it before I get here. Oh no, just off the cuff. We like it better when you start. Eventually, I won't be able to do it, eventually. We're not trying to catch you off guard or anything. Okay, Jesus is confronting the culture and he's trying to eliminate lying or swearing in order to build yourself up. So the word oath is interesting. It's a statement, an oath is a statement that's supposed to be inherently true before God. So you're saying, hey, I'm taking an oat, oath, oat, not oatmeal, but oat. Basically what it means is to make a solemn declaration or a statement with an appeal to God to basically confirm that what I'm saying is true. And what Jesus is saying is, you don't need to do any of that. It's like the person that says, listen, I'm gonna tell you the truth right now. And then you're like, wait a minute. Have you not told me the truth before? I'm gonna be honest with you. It's like, you don't have to say that.

Basically makes me think, were you not honest before? Okay, now, the pop quiz is, where do we find this phraseology or this kind of language? I'll let the audience participate in here. Let me just give you the code words or the key words. And in fact, I was teaching my discipleship group this today. There's a game we need to play. And I don't know why I haven't taught this to this podcast, but you need to lock in, because this will help you. There's a game you need to play. I say it's a game, but here's the game you play with scripture. Here's the way you look at scripture through the lens of a Jewish Hebraic person of the time. The game is, where did I first hear this before? That's the game we play, okay? Where did I first hear this before? And if you're at our church Long Hollow, or you're journeying with us to the Old Testament, you're gonna actually do it in reverse. Where did we hear this in the future? But when you're in the New Testament, you say, where did I hear this before? Or in the Bible. But the second question is, where have I seen this before? So where did I hear this before, and where have I seen this before? I'm gonna give you just an example to show you how this works, okay? Kind of like the rule of first use?

Yeah, but in reverse. Okay. Okay, let me give you an example. When a Hebraic person reads, Jesus entering in, Matthew 21, on the back of a donkey, remember this, on a colt. Yes. When he, as the King of Israel, Messiah, enters into Jerusalem, the game we're gonna play is, where have we heard this before? Meaning, did God talk about it? Or where have we seen this before? God give us a picture of it. And the answer is what? I'll start with you, Candy. Have we, where have we heard, is there anything in the Old Testament where we heard that the Messiah, the King, would come on a donkey? Anybody take a wild guess at that? Well, yes. Okay, where is it? Now that I'm not sure. Okay, good answer. Adam? Is it Psalms? No, that's a good guess, though. Isaiah. I think one of our guys. Isaiah, one of our guys in our group,

Chris said that, and that's a great guess, because you can't go wrong with Isaiah. 60-something chapters, you're gonna get it one day, right? Jeremiah. Jeremiah's good, no, Zechariah. Okay, Joseph's the second longest person. I was gonna go Micah next, I was going Micah. Zechariah 9-9, it says your King will come, you know this, and it quotes it, riding on the donkey. It says that in there. So the game is, where have we heard this before? But the second question is, where have we seen this before? I like games, okay. Okay, here's the question. Give us another one. Where have we seen this before? Vivian, I'm gonna let you see if you know. Do we have a place in the Old Testament? Don't look on your computer. Do we have a place in the Old Testament where we see a king riding on the back of a donkey? Mm, mm. Close, close. Saul. Nope, not Saul. Close, close though, you're getting all around it. What'd you say? Solomon, watch this. Okay, go with me, Candy, to 1 Kings chapter one.

Right out the gate, Adam. You're gonna love this. Chapter one, verse 38. Okay, 1 Kings. Chapter one? Yep, chapter one, verse 38. Now, let me just, okay, let me back up before you read this. When Jesus comes into town on the back of a donkey, okay, it's hard for us to imagine this, because we don't, again, we talk about this. Rabbi Foreman says, he's the guy who teaches on Aleph Beta, if you're interested. Great Old Testament, Vivian knows about this. Great Old Testament app, I listen to it a lot. But he says, we suffer from, Marty Solomon as well, but we suffer from the lullaby effect, okay? The lullaby effect, for context, is we sang lullabies to our children when they were little that we did not really understand what the words were, and they were not only bad, they were sometimes downright dirty. I mean, like, what were we thinking? London Bridge is falling down, falling down, to an infant, really, a bridge falling down on someone? Humpty Dumpty fell off the wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. The guy broke in half. What are you talking about broke, you see what I'm saying? Red Rover, Red Rover, I mean, one of those is like

for a plague from Ring Around the Rosie. It's like a plague of death. I mean, these lullabies, we sing, and we don't understand the words we're saying. Well, the same thing goes for scripture. We read these stories, and they're so ingrained in our mind and our heart, we don't see the oddities of the text. So you gotta remember, a king coming into town on a donkey. Let me frame it for you. It would be like Long Hollow voting in view of a call that the next pastor of Long Hollow is Robbie and Candy Gallaty. Robbie Gallaty's coming in, and I'm not riding in an F-150 truck or a Ram truck. I'm actually in 66270 riding in a small clown car into Legacy Park. And they would look at me and say, what in the world is this monkey doing in a Volkswagen? He's a clown. He's a clown. He's in a clown car. They'd be saying, what is this, dude? That's what a king, because they imagine a horse, a white stallion. Trumpets blowing. Trumpets blowing and swords swinging. But remember, Jesus is saying, you guys missed the whole point. Now watch this.

Where is Jesus taking a page from? He's taking it from 1 Kings, and he's doing it for a purpose. Candy, do you have this or Adam? Yeah. 1 Kings chapter one, verse 38. Listen to this. Okay, then the priest Zadok and the prophet Nathan Ben-Ananias, son of Jehoiada, and the Cherithites and the Pelethites went down, had Solomon ride on King David's mule. Say it again. Had Solomon. Ride on King David's mule and took him to Gihon. The priest. The priest Zadok took the horn of oil from the tabernacle and anointed Solomon. Then they blew the ram's horn and all the people proclaimed, long live King Solomon. Okay, so basically you have Jesus. And when you read the New Testament, I've said this in the past, but you only have two options. Jeez, did you read the verse 40? And all the people went up after him, playing flutes and rejoicing with such a great joy that the earth split open from the sound. Okay. The earth split open. Okay, I don't have an answer for that.

From the sound of such rejoicing and great joy. They're like, this our guy. Guy's like, not only are you clapping, but I'm clapping. It was so loud, you know, it starts shaking. The earth split open and clapped back. Right, amazing. Okay, here's the point, okay. So what we have here is this is the king of Israel that they're waiting for, that God's gonna anoint, who's going to construct their temple. So this is a big deal. Now remember, it says they, so first of all, we have King Solomon. He's a king, or not yet a king, but he's coming into town, riding on a what? On a mule or a donkey. Same word there, okay. Which is very odd. But then you have him coming in to be anointed by Samuel from the tabernacle. So basically, he's riding this donkey up into the city to be anointed from the tabernacle oil to anoint him. The word anointed, you ready for this, is Mashiach in Hebrew, which is the word for Messiah. Same word. Now we see another connection to Jesus. And then you have the people rejoicing and saying, long live the king. Well, in Jesus' day, they're not saying long live the king, they're saying, Hosanna, save us, show the Messiah.

Okay, so here's the thing. We see this connection here to show that the same way they anointed King Solomon to be the king over them at the time, this is the long awaited king that we've been waiting for. This is not some random dude, this is not some lesser than guy on a donkey, not a horse. No, he's the man. And they missed it, but he's the man. So that's the game we play. Where have I seen this before? Where have I heard this before? Okay, so let's go back to Jesus in the, and you can look at this all through the scripture. And if I had time, I could show you many more, but that's just one. Okay, when we go to the oath, and Jesus says, do not swear either by heaven, the throne of God, or his footstool. So I mean, by the throne of God on earth or his footstool, where have we heard that before, that language before? Earth and footstool, throne, heaven, almost word for word. Go back to some of your early choices, earlier choices. Earlier what? Choices. Oh, something about until I humble your enemies to make them the footstool. Isn't there something about that? That's another one, I think that's in Psalms, that's another one.

Okay, something we've taken of that. This one is Isaiah, or Isaiah as we say in English, but Isaiah 66 one. Look it up, Candace, 66 one, Isaiah 66 one. I believe Jesus had this in mind. Now listen to the words. Jesus's words in Matthew six or five are, don't take an oath by heaven, the throne of God, earth or his footstool, or Jerusalem. Watch what he says here, you're gonna love this. This is what the Lord says, heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool. Where could you possibly build a house for me and where would my resting place be? Jerusalem, okay. Jesus has this in mind. What he does is he puts all these things together to basically talk about God and the place of God and the power of God. And so what he's saying is, you're playing a deadly game by calling upon the Lord, by summoning the name of God to endorse what you're saying. You don't have to swear, you don't have to make an oath at all. In fact, he says, don't even swear by your own head. Now here's the question, what in the world does he mean there? Don't swear by one's head. Is that having to do with how they put the stuff there? Oh yeah, the little, the phylacteries, not the phylacteries, the, yeah, like the little prayer box where they wrap,

yeah, what's it called? The phylacteries, yeah, it is the phylacteries, yeah, yeah. I'm thinking of Teflon, no, the phylacteries, yeah. Close, I think, could be. But I think what he's saying is, when you say I swear by my own head, you're basically saying you could take my own life. Like cut my head off, I think that's what he's saying. So what he's saying is believers should never have to swear by what they say, they should just tell the truth. Don't use the Bible, don't swear in the Bible. This was so, such a big deal for the Quakers. I don't know if you've heard of those Quakers. The Quakers were started by a guy named George Fox. You've probably heard of George Fox, he was the founder of the Quakers. George Fox, he was actually sentenced to prison for refusing at one time to take an oath on the Bible. So they were basically saying, hey, you gotta swear in a court of law. Did you see this or did you not? And he said, I'm not putting my hand on that Bible. Now this is crazy, because we do this all the time today, but here's what he said. I'm not putting my hand on the Bible. They said, if you don't put your hand on the Bible, you're going to jail. And he said, I don't need to put my hand on the Bible, I tell the truth. Here's what he said.

You have given me a book here to kiss and to swear on. And this book, which you have given me to kiss, says, kiss the son. And the son says in the book, swear not at all. I say, as the book says, and yet you imprison me, how chance you do not imprison the book for saying so. So what he's saying is, don't get mad at me, get mad at the book. The book says don't swear. It says don't do it, yeah. Yeah, so he basically took it literally. Here's what I think Jesus is saying. We need to live in a world where when we say it, we mean it. You know, that's the biggest turnoff for non-Christians is not the words of Christ, it's the ways of God. of his followers, right? That's what Mahatma Gandhi said when he was, when Gandhi, he was a man of peace, and they asked him, hey, what do you think of, what do you think of Jesus Christ? He says, I love your Christ, I just can't stand your Christians. I love the teachings of Jesus, I just can't get past your Christians, the people who profess something, but they live in a way where it shows they don't possess the thing they came out for as well. And so, as a disciple of Jesus Christ, we're called to be different, we need to tell the truth, we need to be honest, we need to not be habitual liars.

Now, we all get pressured at times, you know, to swear, I'm telling you the truth, and I think it's bigger than that. I think what Jesus is saying is, when you live in such a way where you're always having to say, no, I'm serious, I'm telling the truth, you have to believe me, people tend to not believe you, right, I remember listening to George MacDonald, he was talking about how hard it is to tell the truth, and he said, I always try, I think I do, to be truthful. All the same, I tell a great many petty lies. This is George MacDonald, pastor, preacher years ago, and he said, all the time, I tell a great many petty lies. For example, things that mean one thing to myself, though another to other people. But I do not think lightly of them. Where I am more often wrong is in tacitly pretending I hear things which I do not, especially jokes and good stories, the point of which I always miss, but seeing everyone laugh, I laugh, too, as if I understand, I do this a lot, by the way, too, by the way, and I gotta confess, but I laugh like I know what you just said for the sake of not looking like a fool. My respect for the world's opinion, God showed me, is my greatest stumbling block that I fear. Wow. See, I think that's what he's getting to the heart of it. He's saying, the reason we tell little lies,

the reason we act like we're, because we want people to like us. We want people to accept us. That's what the Lord showed me during the time on the porch and even still, I mean, even now, it's like, man, how much, I mean, I was thinking about this the other day, Robbie, how often are you consumed with what people think about you? And I wouldn't say this publicly, and obviously, by God's grace, I've gotten way better than years, but it's like we build our whole lives worried about a bunch of people who don't know us and don't care about us online, and we let them lead the trajectory of our own lives. Now, I know if you're listening, I know you don't do this, but I've heard of people who do do this, and that's really living a life that's a lie, right? Does that make sense? Yeah, I was thinking that he's teaching us to value our words, because in Proverbs, it says, "'He that hath knowledge spareth his words.'" Also talks about don't get into quarrelsome conversations. Wow. So he's saying, if you think about that, if I know that my words have value because they give life or death,

even in James says, we shouldn't be blessings and cursings coming from our mouth. Same mouth, yeah. So all these things that we're talking about, we know our mouth can be a tool or a torch. That's a good one. So if we know these things, Say that again, that your words can be- Your words can be a tool to build the kingdom of God, or they can be a torch to set it on fire. It's one of those, right? So if we understand our words have this significant value, that means we need to be careful about what we're saying, and Jesus also was saying, listen, at the end of the day, God's word has more influence and more impact than your word. Okay, you're getting to where we're going, yes. So if you know God's word, your words should be lining up with his word, right? And so that's, I think for me, if I get in this situation, it is true, it's pride. If my words, if I'm exaggerating something, that means I'm wanting to elevate myself, or if I'm inserting myself in a conversation that I probably should just be listening to, who's it about? It's pride and ego, it's pride and ego,

instead of just being comfortable with the silence. I remember a guy that I met, he said, man, I can't, he said, when I go to the shower, I have to turn the music on. And this is before I got in, we started, we read the same book, and then we went on that journey with silence, and you've taught our whole church this. I remember thinking, that's probably not good. He's like, yeah, I cannot be, it cannot be silent ever. And I thought, if you can't sit with yourself, I mean, you gotta have some time. Yeah, think about that, if you can't be quiet. Well, Blaise Pascal, that's the line I always use. He said, all of humanity's problems stem from man or woman's inability to sit quietly in a room alone with their thoughts. What he's saying is, that's the problem. We're always go, go, go, and information, and media, and social media, and we gotta be going. And so to sit with your own thoughts, one of the main things is you have to wrestle with the fact of your own mortality. You're not gonna live forever. You're not bulletproof. You're not durable, and you won't last forever, and your body's fading away eventually. So, you know, what's interesting about, you were saying something I was thinking about. What were you saying earlier?

Do you wanna say something before I say this, what you were saying? No, I don't have anything really to say. I just was thinking about the verse that says that we have to be slow to speak, which is in James, I believe, you know? And I know, personally, that's something I struggle with, you know, like, cause normally, like, I think, I mean, this is probably totally off subject, but like, I think sometimes people, like, even in ministry, or when you do, like, a podcast or whatever, and people come to you for, like, answers and stuff like that, and, or expect that you know or have the answers, you get used to, like, speaking all the time or giving all the answers. But then it's like, wait a second, I don't have to do that, or I don't have to insert my knowledge or truth or whatever it is, you know? And being more slow to speak and being able to listen or even sit with your thoughts and stuff and not always inserting them everywhere. Yeah, this is what I was thinking of. I was listening to an interview recently with Simon Cowell, Kyle from American Idol, you know him, Simon Cowell. American Idol, shout out, one of my favorite shows. I can't watch it without crying. Really? I already cried twice. Wow.

I haven't watched it yet, but I've heard of it. We haven't watched it yet. I don't know what it is, when they tell the story and they start singing, I just, Josie's like, wow, I cry like a baby. Okay, I was thinking about this, though. I don't know if it's the music or what. No, here's what I'm saying. I don't cry a lot, but that show gets me, dude. No, I've thought about this, I thought about this. I was watching, I was watching something, Samurai American, he's got a talent, and I got goose, they had like the best compilations I watched a while back, and every one of them had me either chills or emotional, and here's what I thought. It shows you the power of music, and it's telling a story, and you know what I'm saying? Have you ever thought about this? Why is it music or words can pull out emotion? It's crazy how that works, but anyway, Simon Cowell was on the Diary of a CEO podcast. I listen to him sometimes, really good guy. He interviews a lot of people, but he said when he was a kid, his mom taught, he said, my mom and dad taught me the greatest insight ever in the world, and he said, I've taken this with me. He said, my dad told me, mom or dad said, on every person's head that you meet

is a sign that says, show me that I matter on every person's head. They don't have it, but that's supernatural. What they're saying, every person you meet is saying on their head, show me that I matter, because they want to be appreciated. They want to be valued. They want to be understood. Every person, we all do. Not show me how you matter, which is what we tend to do. I remember hearing years ago, I think it was the CEO of Yahoo said, you'll do more in the next two weeks showing a sincere interest in other people than you will over the next two years trying to get people interested in you. Say it again. That's good. Yeah, I've never forgotten this quote, and I haven't even thought about it until just now, but you'll do more in the next two weeks showing like, hey, tell me about your life. What are your values? And I'm not saying I've arrived at this because I need to grow, but showing a sincere interest in the other person than trying to get them over the next two years to like you. Wow, and did you think, I think, I was thinking about the logo that we have for Recovery Refuge

when God gave it to me on a quiet time. The whole point of that was, it's got a cross and it's got two hearts, and basically the whole idea is that if you don't take your heart and face the heart of God, you can't be transformed, and then you need someone else who's willing to, who's looking at the heart of God, which is the cross, who's gonna look at your heart and say, I see this, I see that. And I think the only way, I was just thinking that like, the only way to really be slow to speak, quick to listen, to be careful with our words is to first spend time with the Lord, take our hearts, face the heart of God, and get that centeredness. Like the sages talk about the soul, the heart. You get centered in yourself, you get secure in yourself, and you get the fulfillment, you taste and sing that the Lord is good. You're not seeking the world, because I know this about myself. The days that I sit and I spend the time with the Lord that I need, my spiritual condition is totally different than the days that I don't,

and my need to be affirmed by the world are polar opposites. So like if we're spending that time with the Lord, it's easier to sit and go, I'm just here. You got me thinking about something. We're studying Genesis right now with our church, but one of the things about creation people miss is that God is teaching us a principle to show us how we need to determine when enough is enough. Here's what I mean. God is always a God of restraint. So God is teaching us, there comes a time when enough is enough, or you have to exercise restraint when you say, okay, it's done, I'm finished. Watch this. So when the rabbis would study the Torah, especially with God, they didn't, they're very different than us. When we study the Bible, we're trying to say, what did God say? Which is fine. Jesus, what did Jesus say? Sermon on the Mount. The rabbis, the Jewish culture, asked a very different question. And they ask the question, what does our God do? That's what they ask.

And right out the gate, so they're basically trying to determine the quality and characteristic of God through how he acts and responds. So I'll show you right out the gate, what do we see? We're looking at the Bible for the first time. What do we see in Genesis 1 and 2 of our God? He's a God who's what? Creative. Creative. God has a creative spirit. Man, and if you want to know how. He's the most creative. Yes. You want to know how creative God is? Watch this. Just look at the world he creates. And every day, we get reminded of that if we take the time to appreciate it. Well, and that's the, yes. If you think about it. Why don't we appreciate it, though? Well, we don't take the time to slow down. Yeah, or we're so consumed with AI and chat GPT and generative images. We're trying to create our own stuff. Yeah, that's true. We're trying to create our own stuff. Which he gives us the creative ability. I mean, that's a gift. But to just be able to, every single day of our life,

we could literally go outside and appreciate a different aspect of creation from morning to night. And it's like, it is absolutely mind-blowing. Like, you don't even have the words to describe it. It's like they don't exist to understand the magnificence of our creator. Do you know what I'm saying? It's on a completely different level. It's hard to grasp and understand and communicate. But golly, we could appreciate it. When we go outside and just be able to look. And I mean, it's anything from the stars. I love the stars, but it's anything from hearing the wind or watching it, you know? Or even as awful as this snow and ice storm has been, the fact that we lived in Narnia for two weeks with crystal trees. Do you see what I'm saying? Our boys love it. I watched all three. We still have so many. We watched all three. It's like, are you kidding me right now? Like, what God's creation does in different forms. I mean, it's like, who are we? It speaks to, because you think about it like, so every morning creation comes alive. If you get out before, I did this when we were at the mountain, when we went to camp.

I was sitting up on this hill or whatever, and I'm watching. And I'm sitting there for a couple of seconds. And I mean, it was just like silence, right? Next thing you know, as the sun starts coming up, it's just, it was like a war zone. Bees are flying. I'm sweating. Birds are chirping. There's birds everywhere. I'm like, what happened? It was quiet. It's so loud. It's creation. Yeah. That's probably not good. Everything comes alive. And then when the sun goes down, what happens? Everything goes down. Slows down. It's a picture. Yes, that's right. Okay, you're teeing up with my side. See, here's, I'm gonna finish with this. I know we're out of time, but here's the thing I would say. The beautiful thing, one of the things we've lost, Candy mentioned it, is we don't have awe and wonder anymore.

We're not impressed by God anymore. We got AI. We've got Gemini. We've got nano-bananas to make images. We can do your images online. Which, by the way, if you've seen Adam's image online, I thought it was really interesting, Candy pointing this out. Jeremy and I are in the front row. I couldn't believe it. Jeremy and I are sitting in the front row. Go back and look at the two pictures. Are you serious? You guys are in the front row, or me and Jeremy? Literally, almost looks like we were. I was wondering, when you said we're in the front row, I was like, what is she talking about? I thought you were speaking. I thought you were speaking. I didn't want to say anything. It was Candy, buddy. Well, I was like, Robby, I said. Go look at the two guys. I said, I think this is you and Jeremy sitting in these chairs in Adam's picture. It looks like us.

Well, you know what's funny? Remember when I created that big pun picture of you, and I did AI stuff with y'all, too, on my phone. That's what it is. That must be what it is. I've done AI stuff and sent it to y'all. Okay, well, that's funny. Wow. Okay, but here's the point. That's crazy. You can make any picture you want. You can make any video. You made one the other day of us. The problem is, we're not impressed with God much. You're not impressed with the sunset anymore. When was the last time you were in awe of a sunset? When was the last time you even looked at a sunset? When was the last time you sat under the stars and just took in? That's what God gave the Jewish people when they went in the Promised Land. Before the Promised Land, the 40 years of wandering, the rabbis say the greatest gift God gave to the nation was two things. He gave them a rule book, and he gave them a day planner. I love this.

A day planner and a rule book. He gave them a, and rules are not bad. They're a direction to follow, but the day planner was, God says, I'm gonna organize your calendar for you because you're not really good at it. Seven times a year, you're gonna festival. You're gonna go to festivals. And six days a week, you're gonna work, and seventh day, you're gonna take off. Now, here's my point with all this. So God is a God who creates. The rabbis would say our God creates. He's also a God who cares. He's also a God, he cared for Abraham and took care, he cared for Adam, and he gave him the birds and the trees and the fruit. So God's, so what they did is they watched God and they replicated that lifestyle. Here's the thing. When Candy and I, I'll give you an example. Candy and I, for our 20th anniversary, you remember we went to Italy, our favorite place on the planet. My favorite place, hers, is Florence. So if we have one country we love, Italy,

one place we love is Florence. And I love it. Love it all, it's art and coffee and everything else you can imagine, you know, quaint city. But here's the thing, we go every time, we've been a couple times to, I think it's the Uffizi or the Academia, I can't remember, I think it's the Academia. We go see the sculpture of David. Oh yeah, golly. The greatest, the greatest, in my opinion, the greatest architectural or creative piece ever made. And here's what's amazing about David, the statue of David. It's so overwhelming. I think it's something like 15 feet tall, it's enormous, and it's on a pedestal already. So it's already up like six feet and then it goes up another. And here's the beautiful thing about David, people don't realize. Michelangelo, what made him separate and apart, head and shoulders above the rest, Donatello's close, but Donatello's not as good as Michelangelo in my opinion. What made him amazing is the people in it, and I read some things about his life, they said he could go to a block of stone, Carrara marble, and he could see this un-chiseled, un-carved block of stone, and he could look into it

and see David. He could look into it and see Abraham. He could look, whoever, Moses. He could see it before anybody else could see it. Now here's the thing. Think about how marble sculptures are made. What do you do? Do you add to, or like you draw a picture, you're adding to the paper, or do you take away? What do you think? How do you make a marble? How did he make David? Did he add to the? You're chiseling away. Watch this. Yeah, you're cutting it out. He chisels away. So what he's doing is he says, I'm just taking out everything from that stone that isn't David, the image of David, to make it perfect. Goodness. Now here's what's cool. The Bible says God is the master stonemason, who is, and listen, it's a long process. If you ever built a stone, it's a long, it's just. We're in mid-chisel right now. Mid-chisel, yes. Yes, that's it. Think about you.

We got a lot of chiseling to go. I'm like, it doesn't always feel good. Well, and think about if you're listening, and you're like, man, why is life so tough? Why is it so painful? Some of the best pieces in the world came from pain of chiseling and cutting away, but I would say to you, hang in there. Why? Because what God's doing is taking all the draws, all the negativity, all the things that don't look like the image of his son Christ, and he's chipping away this side of eternity. Now watch this. Here's the beautiful thing about David, and this is the punchline. Watch this. David, I mean, Michelangelo. Michelangelo, as an artist, creator, had the ability to know when to say enough was enough. Don't miss this. He knew when to say no more taking off of the statue. So not only is the creator, does the creator know when to start, he also knows when to stop. What do I mean? If you look at the hands of David, it's fascinating. They are oversized for the statue. If you actually pull the statue down, and we're able to get on a little crane and go up,

we would look at David's hands. You can look this up online. They are oversized, but Michelangelo knew that from the vantage point of the ground, when you're looking up at the statue, they, I don't know how, I mean, these guys are just from another world when they come up with this stuff, but he knew that the hands needed to be oversized, so when you view them from below, they are proportional. Here's my point. Wow. God is showing us in Genesis 6, you ready for this, that there comes a time when creation has to stop, and you have to rest. God creates in six days, and what he's showing us is you can be as creative as you want, but you have to put a period on the work, and you have to rest. That's good. I don't have to rest, because I'm God, but you have to rest. So the question is, why did God rest? Not for his benefit, always for our benefit, and so one of the things we see is, this is what this passage is about, by the way. I have a little more, but we'll cut to today's. The question I'm gonna ask is, do we ever not take an oath? Well, that's not true, because the Bible has places where you take the oath.

Leviticus 19, you shall not swear by my name falsely, but what he's saying is you could swear, just not by my name. When you shall make a vow to Jehovah your God, you shall not be slack to pay it off. Deuteronomy 23, that's making an oath, so what is he saying? Numbers 30, verse two, when a man makes a vow to Jehovah, swears an oath, he shall not break his word. Jesus, what are you saying? What Jesus is saying is this, whenever you make an oath, what you're saying is, it's a reminder that you're under the sovereign hand of God, and who are you to say, James says it this way, who are you to say, we're gonna do this and that and go to this town or that town? You don't even know what tomorrow brings. In fact, you don't even know if you're gonna be here tomorrow, for your life is but a what? But a vapor. So here's what we do. We live by this line. I'll do it, Lord willing. Yeah. I love that. Lord willing, I'll be there tomorrow. And I know that's kind of cheeky and funny, but basically what you're saying, you don't need a. Say, trust me, I'm telling the truth.

No, you're saying God has the final word. You're saying God has the final word. There's a proverb on that, right? Yes. We throw the dice, but the Lord determines how they fall. Yeah. We plan our steps, but the Lord determines them, or whatever, like, we can plan our ways, but the Lord determines our steps. So, I mean, we can plan all we want, but Lord willing, it'll take place. Yes. And it's a heart posture. Yeah. And it should, when we talk about this, how we think affects what we feel, and then that's how we connect to the world. So, if we know our heart is saying, hey, God has the final word, that changes the way we think. It should change a lot of things in our life and how we operate, and that's, you remember, who's he talking to here? The disciples, yeah. Yeah, he had disciples, and he's trying to say, listen, I don't want your heart to be like theirs. Right, in comparison to the Pharisees, right? Yeah, and it's basically a sovereignty passage. What he's saying is this. Don't make an oath and swear,

because when you let people down, it looks bad on you. But let me remind you guys, there is a person who keeps every oath. There is one who never gets angry. Yes, sir. There's one who never lusts. This is what this whole section's about. There's one who is always faithful and pure. There's one who tells the truth every single time. When you mess up and fail, just remember, there's one who's perfect, and that's me. And it's so encouraging for us, because we don't have to feel like we have to be perfect and keep all the things we say and be perfect. No, because we know one who is, and I think that's a great encouragement to us today. Powerful. Jesus is Lord. I love it. Yes, sir. Here we go. Like and subscribe, baby. Thank you so much for tuning in. Listen, subscribe, like, comment, share this with a friend. Talked about a lot of things today that I just think is easy to relate to. So please get this out. If you're enjoying any of this content, share it with a friend, and thank you for joining us.