Feeding Sheep S1E4 “Sermon on the Mount: Head vs Heart Part 2”

We are continuing steady in Season 1 titled “Back to the Basics.” Episode 4 will be the continuation of The Sermon on the Mount, ending our discussion on relationships with people, entitled “Head vs. Heart Part 2.”

Jesus lays His foundation for preaching/teaching by quoting two of the Ten Commandments. He addresses murders and adultery; both sins against our fellow man, and were understood as outward expressions/deeds/actions.

Jesus is going to destroy the religious mindset that tries to build well behaved people, and shows us that it is not the outward manifestations of these actions that are the problem. Murder never comes out of nowhere. Before adultery is ever born in a bedroom, it is conceived in the heart.

Jesus came to fulfill the heart of God, which is for us to be transformed from the inside out! To love one another from pure hearts and sincere faith. To never allow ourselves to strip our fellow man of their worth. You will never meet a person God doesn’t love, and you will never meet a person that is here by accident. God’s yes and amen had to be over their conception for them to even exist.

We also discuss an interesting take on if your right hand/right eye offends you cut it off/pluck it out. Can’t wait for you to hear it. Whatever keeps you stumbling, do whatever it takes, take whatever measures necessary to make sure it doesn’t keep you stumbling forever. Your eternity is way more valuable than temporary pleasure.

In Part 2 of Head vs. Heart we tackle more ways to live at peace and unity in all of our relationships!! 

We begin with the HOT TOPIC of divorce and what that means in context to what Jesus is releasing to the people as opposed to what one might think just skimming by. There’s no need to avoid His word, not when we can understand it.

We talk about not jumping into petty arguments, an eye for an eye, and being a people of integrity. Let our yes be yes and our no be no. Keep it simple. There’s less room for error that way! 

The point of all of this is to be perfect—mature, reaching the end-goal—because our Father is perfect/complete/entire/lacking nothing, and we should be—and want to be a reflection of who He is!

We will start tackling Chapter 6 next week! I hope you’ll tune in!

I hope you enjoy this episode and will continue to follow along with us as we endeavor to walk this path together, and sit at the table of the Lord and feast together!

Please feel free to reach out with any questions or comments that you may have. We will do our best to answer in a timely manner either in writing or on another future episode! But we do want to hear from you and be able to interact with you. 

May God bless you! Can’t wait to see where we grow from here. It’s an honor to be able to speak into your lives, and I don’t take it for granted!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Good morning. Welcome to Feeding Sheep Podcast. This is season one of Back to the Basics, episode four, which is going to be part two of last week: Our Heart versus Our Head, and Jesus' description of our personal relationships and how we handle different ones in our life and taking it from a head knowledge to a heart knowledge. And so we are going to be jumping in today in Matthew chapter 5 and verse 31. And if I can be honest, I was very like, I was very nervous. You don't hear a lot of people preaching on this because it could be a very controversial topic if you don't look into it and see what's happening. So a lot of people will avoid it, but we are just gonna, we're just gonna start right off in the deep end today. So I hope that you uh are buckled up and you are ready to go because we are going to finish out um personal relationships and how the Lord has taught us in his first sermon how that we are to live in relationship to um to our spouses, to uh our friends, to our family, to our neighbors and those that are around us. So Matthew chapter 5, verse 31, let's dive in. Verse 31 says, It was said, Whoever sends his wife away, let him give her a certificate of divorce. But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of unchastee, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. Yeah. Um so uh I'm gonna address the elephant in the room. Uh divorce is a whole thing. Um the Lord in the very beginning, he um he created Eve for Adam, and his intentions in creating that union uh was number one, so that man would not dwell alone, because it is not good for men to be alone. Uh, they need fellowship, they need companionship, um, not just males in general, but people, mankind. Uh, we were created for relationship, relationship with one another, and relationship with God. And when he created that initial covenant between Adam and Eve, it was to be a direct reflection of how he loves us and his covenant to us. Marriage is meant to be a reflection. And so divorce was never a part of his intentions because it is not his will to divorce himself from us, but he covenants himself to be with us, um, to walk with us even on the good days and the bad days and all the other days in between. Um, he's not leaving because he gets tired. He's not leaving because um we're not living up to his expectations. He is his love uh makes him stay. And ultimately, the only thing that's gonna separate us from him uh and his love is is our own choice, uh, the fact that we will not let him um and we turn him away. And so Moses in the law uh was giving them, that's why it's it that's where it's coming from. It was said, whoever sends his wife away, let him give her a certificate of divorce. This is uh part of the law that came through Moses because the people um were wanting to break up, they were wanting to get divorced, they were wanting to leave their marriages, and in order to do so, um, they had to have a way out. And so um Moses was giving them uh the right to have a bill of divorcement in the Old Testament for um for adultery committed in the marriage, um, for breaking that, for breaking that covenant of the one flesh union, um where you two uh who were once separated, you will come together and you will be one flesh, meaning that you will consummate your marriage, you will do all the married people things, just in case we have some little ears. Um and anything, any of those kinds of relations outside of the covenant of marriage, they are sinful in nature, whether it is fornication, um, which is um relations with a human, intimate relations with a human outside of the confines of marriage, or adultery, which is um when you are in a marriage covenant and you step outside of the marriage and you have intimate relations with someone else. So Moses was saying, you can get a bill of divorcement if these things take place. And Jesus says, But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife except for the reason of unchastity makes her commit adultery. Um and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. And so what Jesus is saying is not that divorce is not okay. He would rather you stay in your covenant, he would rather you be reconciled. But if there is adultery, if there is biblical cause for divorce, then you are, then this does not apply to you. And you may say, well, it says right here, but you have to understand the context of the culture and what was going on at the time. And um, just as anything that happens, um, we see it in our lives as parents, uh, our parents towards us, the longer, uh, let's just say the longer you're a parent, you have strict rules for the first child, the middle child, it's kind of like, eh. And then by the time the third child comes, you're just kind of like, whatever, just do whatever you want. It's kind of the way that the law begins to um unravel as the years begin to pass down. And so where Moses was saying you can have a bill of divorcement because of the hardness of your heart, you can have a bill of divorcement if your spouse is unfaithful in the area of intimacy because it is breaking that one flesh covenant because they have brought other flesh uh inside and intermingled that, and that's not okay. So you can get divorced. But as the years passed on, men begin to say, Well, my wife didn't cook dinner right. I want a divorce, or I'm out of love with her, I want a divorce, or she um she sneezed wrong at the dinner table and I want a divorce. Like it became, it became ridiculous things, frivolous things that were not um were not unresolvable. Um, they were definitely things that you could work through, but people just didn't want to do it. And so basically they were going into marriages kind of like our culture does today. If I don't like it, then I'll get out of it because I can always get a divorce. And that is never a way to enter into a marriage covenant. If you're entering into a covenant already looking for the exit door, it is a pretty good sign that you probably don't need to be in that type of covenant anyway. You're not mature enough to handle it. Don't shoot the messenger. And so Jesus was saying, we've got to deal with all of these frivolous things that are going on in our heart. If I'm wanting to put away somebody because they sneezed wrong or they didn't do their hair the way I wanted them to, or um, she gained weight, or he he gained weight, or whatever, he's saying, when you divorce people for frivolous reasons like that, he said, that should technically still be your wife. You're just being ridiculous at this point. And he's saying, so when you divorce a woman, you're making her, whoever marries that divorced woman, you're making her commit adultery because she should still belong to you, because that never should have taken place. If there wasn't unfaithfulness, if there wasn't gross negligence and breaking the covenant, then then technically she should still be yours. You should still be hers. Like this should not even be a thing. But because of your immaturity, because of your unwillingness to change, because of your unwillingness to have conversations, to meet each other in the middle, to have give and take, uh, because of your unwillingness to love your spouse like Christ loves the church, uh, for your unwillingness to submit to your spouse and submit yourselves to one another, you have brought on this whole new can of worms. Okay. And so I believe that the same, the same statute still stands today, um, that God ultimately is always for reconciliation. If reconciliation is a thing and it can happen, praise God, let it be. Um if you are in a dangerous situation, if if there has been a breaking of the one flesh covenant um through adultery and through things that have been brought from the outside of the marriage inside of the marriage. Um, okay, but if you're just if you're just in and out of these things and you're changing spouses, like you're changing your undergarments um, you know, and you're finicky and you're flighty, and it's this one day, and it's and it's because I have, well, you know that that's my pet peeve, and you did, okay, okay now. You know, um, God's not turning us away because we gained a few pounds. God's not turning us away because we fell short. He is walking with us and he is helping us grow and he is helping us mature. He is helping us not to make those same decisions again. And so our marriages should reflect that in today's society right now. And if you're not ready for covenant, you're not ready for all of the privileges that come along with covenant. So keep yourself holy unto the Lord. And when you find your spouse, then you can participate in all of the married activities, okay, because they are holy inside the confines in the covenant of marriage. That's what it was created for. But outside of that, it is a no-go. Woo! All right, we made it. We're gonna continue to move on. In verse 33, it says, Again, you have heard that the ancients were told, you shall not make false vows, but you shall fulfill your vows or your oaths to the Lord. Keep your promises. Um, Old Testament scripture said it is better to never make a vow to God than to make a vow to God and to break it. Um, and verse 34 says, But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is the footstool of his feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king, nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. But let your statement be yes, yes, or no, no. Anything beyond that is of evil. And so this is also talking about this is this is about maintaining my integrity because I am watchful over the words that come out of my mouth. First of all, I am not supposed to make a promise that I do not intend to keep. I am not supposed to swear by the heavens or by the earth or by my own head or by anything else, because none of that stuff technically belongs to me. I didn't create any of it, I can't change any of it, so I don't need to swear by it. So when we say things, if and and furthermore, if you have to swear to to get people to believe you, your word is not really worth much in the first place. If you have to say, and I hate to say this, but it is something that people say, if you have to say, I swear to God, this is how it is. Why do you even have to say that? Why, why do you have to go to such dramatic lengths for people to believe you? That's the question that you need to be asking yourself. Not why aren't people believing me, but why am I having to go to such great lengths to try to get people to believe me so that I have to swear by this or on my mama or whatever we say these days, whatever the kids are saying, whatever the new phrase is, if we have to do things like that, we have to we need to ask ourselves, why, why can't I just say what I need to say and people take it? Probably because I don't live up to my word. And that's a hard pill to swallow, but that's not an everybody else problem. That's a you problem. And it needs to get under control. Can the church say amen? But let your statement be yes, yes, or no, no. Anything beyond this is evil. Okay, if if somebody says, Hey, can you come cut my grass today? Yes, I can, or no, I can't. Yeah, I'll get around to it whenever. Um, I just got to go do a couple of things first. You don't know what's gonna happen when you do those couple of things. So either you've got time or you don't. Because some people, if you tell them yes, they're not gonna be super duper gracious because they're gonna take that your yes means yes, because your yes is supposed to mean yes. Sometimes, and I'm not saying that you're a bad person because I have found myself, I want to help everybody. I want to do everything, I want to be all of the places, and I want to be all things to all people. But the more that I go down this road, I realize I am not all of things to all people, and I I don't have the capacity to be all things to all people. And so I want to do a lot of things, but I can't say yes to everything because eventually it's gonna make me look like a liar. It's gonna make me look like I'm not a promise keeper. It's gonna make me look like I don't value or treasure relationships with other people because my good intentions and my mouth will get me into places that I don't want to be. So anything outside of yes or no, there is a lot that can happen in all of that. And so Jesus is saying, don't give me the fluff, don't give everybody else the fluff. We don't need the spiel, we don't need you to work us over, just yes. It's either yes or it's no. And I don't know about you, but I I'm getting older. I'm getting I'm getting older, fam. And the older that I get, the less tolerance I have for elongated responses. I don't have time. Just yes or no. Is it this way or is it that way? I can handle it as long as you're giving me the truth. Uh I have I had a boss um and loved him, love him still dearly. Um that I worked for for a very long time, and he said, you know, the truth will go a long way. And it will. It will. If you just give people the truth, even if it's no, and they want you to say yes, even if it's no, they can handle it. They can handle no a lot better than they can, yes, and yes being a lie. So Jesus is saying, if you want to if preserve relationships with people around you, if you want to build and maintain, build and maintain your integrity, yes and no. Keep it simple. It doesn't have to be all, you know, the things. Um, even today, I got asked, um, you know, somebody said, hey, this is happening tomorrow morning at nine o'clock. I would love for you to um be a part of it if you can. And I said, I will do my very best. I can't say yes, I'm gonna be there because at this point in my life, I do not know what my days are gonna look like. They can change at the drop of the hat. I want to be there. I would I don't want to miss this at all because I know it's gonna be incredible and I'm gonna do my very best. But if I'm not there, you'll know it's because something came up. Okay. And so it's important that because at the end of the day, all we have with people is our word. All we have with people is our integrity. They will know us by the fruit of our lips, by the actions that back up what we say. And so Jesus is saying it's gonna be so much more simple if you will just keep it simple. And some of us, we we come from a hustle environment. You come from a place where you have to smooth talk or you have to do this, or you're, you know, you're you're a salesman by nature, or what and none of those are bad things. None of those are bad things. Those are all gifts, but they're they're gifts to to further the kingdom. They're not gifts to smooth over bad character. Um I knew this was gonna get, oh, boy howdy. Here we are, feeding sheep is Friday. Oh, praise Jesus. Um, so use what's been given to you for good and for furthering the kingdom, not for driving wedges between you and others because you're trying to take your gift that God meant for you to bless people with, and you're trying to take your gift and cover up your shortcomings. Let's just deal with the shortcomings. Let's just own it, let's see it for what it is, and let's change it and let's be different. Praise be the Lord. Verse 38, you've heard that it was said, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, do not resist an evil person. For whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him too. Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you. Okay, this one gets people all the time. Because we want to be those people. You got my eye, I'm gonna get your eye. You took my tooth, I'm gonna get your tooth. Tit for tat, you did this, I'm gonna do this. This is the way it works. Now we're even. And the Lord says we don't we don't belong in petty things like that. Okay. Um, you know, the the kids are in the backseat of the car, you're taking them to school. Susie, touch me. Well, Johnny, touch me back. Back and forth, back and forth. Petty, petty things. We can see it in our children, but we can't see it in us. We get in arguments with our spouses. Well, she's not gonna get the last word, I'm gonna get the last word, he's not gonna get the last word, I'm gonna get the last word. God's like, we don't even belong in conversations like this. Because if that's the way that we feel, even when we're right, we're wrong. If you're if our drive is to get the last word, even if you're right, you're wrong because that's pride. Pride says, I'm gonna put the period on the end of the sentence, I'm gonna get the last say. You did this, I'm gonna do that. And I know I'm hitting my table, and so that's gonna cause a lot of bumps and weird noises for you guys on the podcast and in your car. And I'm super sorry about that. But I'm real animated and I can't help it. It's just who I am. So just bear with me. Um, so he's saying we don't, we don't, we don't belong in arguments like that. And then here's the kicker, right? So if somebody comes and slaps you on your cheek, don't slap them back, turn the other cheek. And people take this and they're like, oh, so I'm just supposed to let people just, I'm just supposed to be a doormat. I'm just supposed to let people just knock me around all the time. Nay, nay, my friend, that is not what this means. Um, if you look back into the culture and I have it, have it pulled up right here where I have looked, um, turning the other cheek is not about being a doormat, but it is about in in back in these days when people would slap you on the cheek. Okay, a lot of people don't be slapping anymore. A lot of we live in a world of keyboard warriors and um everybody's brave until they're in your face. Um, but back then they stood on that business. And so uh they would what what would happen is is that when somebody would come to you and they would feel like that they had the authority over you, they would backhand you. Okay? They would backhand you across your cheek. So they would come from this side, boom, and they and they'd get you. And so what Jesus is saying, he's saying, don't slap them back. He said, turn your other cheek, because you can't backhand the same cheek twice. They think they're coming in dominance, you turn the other cheek, and when they rear back, it's not gonna, it's not gonna hit right. And what you're doing is you're shifting the power dynamic and you're never having to say a word. You are causing them who think that they have the upper hand, who think that they are right, to turn around and have to look at themselves and be introspective of what's really going on with them. Like if I think I can hit you one time and you turn your cheek and I think I can I can't I can't hit you again because it's not it's not gonna hit the same way. Something's wrong with me. And so when we reverse the power dynamics, um, it it it makes and forces the aggressor to treat us as their equal. I what we don't understand is that this this turning the other cheek does not make us a doormat, it actually elevates us and it brings the aggressor down and it brings us because see, we were never beneath to start with. That's the problem is that when aggressors come, they we stoop down and we we feel like we're on the bottom. I never lost my position just because you came to slap me. But when I turn the other cheeks, it knocks you off of your high horse and it gets us back on a level playing field. That's good. Somebody needs to hear that. It's active resistance. It's not passivity. And I'm getting this. This is directly from Google. Okay. I'm reading, you can get the same information that I've got. It's not a call to be a doormat, but rather a deliberate, peaceful, and courageous confrontation of evil. It denies the oppressor the satisfaction of a fight, often forcing them to confront their own immorality. Okay? It signifies that one's worth is not determined by the attacker, but by their inherent value, which is exactly what I said. Don't believe just because someone comes to you puffed up, just because they're treating you like you're less than, you're not less than. You're walking on level ground. You were walking on level ground before they fronted you up. You don't get beneath. My Bible says I'm the head and not the tail. I'm above only and I'm not beneath. So my level never changes. But someone has put themselves in a place or a position over me. And whenever I refuse to attack, when I refuse to engage, it makes them have to understand that we're equal. You're the one that needs to come down. I don't have to come up. I'm already up.

unknown 23:17

Woo!

SPEAKER_00 23:18

Hallelujah, somebody. I'm already up. You need to come down, brother. Hallelujah. And it breaks the cycle of violence, refusing to return evil for evil. I'm not going to betray who I am just because you're acting like a moron in this moment. Come on, somebody. Okay. Um, just because you have lost your head and you don't know what's going on, it doesn't make me less. This ain't a me problem, okay? It never was a me problem. This is a you problem. Take it to the Lord in prayer. And that's what that's what this type of action causes people to do. Because Jesus doesn't come to condemn whenever you see him engage, even with the Pharisees, he's he's doing it in such a way that they have they have no choice but to confront what they're doing wrong. We do see him in the temple. He goes wild and out and he does flip tables and all of the things. But a majority of the time, because what they're what they were doing in the temple was costing people their communication. Um, they were putting money and selling above people being able to get to a place of prayer and communicate with God. He's not going to stand for that. Okay, but they were coming against him, but he never retaliated back. He would ask a question. He would turn the other cheek and he would take the power away from his aggressors, and he would force the introspection to be placed back on them. I'm not Baal. How can Baal cast out Baal? A house divided against itself cannot stand. So if I'm Baal, how would I cast out a demon? I'd have to tear down my own castle. This isn't a me problem, you guys. This is a you problem. Hallelujah. So moving on. Because we've got five minutes left, and I am doing my due diligence to really try to stay in the timeline that I told you guys that I would because your time is valuable to me, but I really want to get this out and get it finished. Okay, so verse 43. You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. If you're gonna talk about your enemy, talk about them to Jesus. That's what he's saying. Don't rag them out to everybody around you. He's saying, just talk to me about it. Pray for them. Pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven. I'm gonna pray because that's what my father does. Because I refuse to look like this world, because I refuse to look like the people around me, not because I'm better than them, but because I am born again. I am not, I am in this world, but I am not of this world. And I am not bound to the systems of this world or the cultural systems or the ideologic systems. I come from a different kingdom. I have a different father. There is a different blood that is running through my veins. I operate from a different spirit. Hallelujah. And I want to maintain, amen, the image of my father. I want to be his image in the earth. For he causes his son to rise on the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same. If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than anybody else or than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same. Therefore, if you are to be perfect, therefore you are to be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. He's saying here, if you can only love people than love you, congratulations. Nothing, you're not any different than the world. The world loves the people who love them. If they can do it, I mean, what are you really doing? It's when you can love those who persecute you, when you can pray for those who despitefully use you, whenever you can turn the other cheek, whenever those tongues are wagging about you. Come on, somebody, when you're being persecuted, you can maintain the image of Christ instead of crawling down to or or trying to puff yourself up above what you need to be puffed about, um, taking vengeance into your own hands. He said, Don't be like them. Even they can do that. If they can do that, what are you what are you proving? What is your salvation showing if if you're only loving like they love? How are you my sons? By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, the love that you have one for another. I love the good ones and I love the stinkers. I love the ones that treat me right and I love the ones who treat me wrong. I don't always do it the very best. But man, the Lord, he will chastise me because he chastises those he loves because he's a good father. He will correct us, he will guide us in the way, he will show us, amen, that our war is not against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities. It's not about what I see in front of my face, it's what's working behind the scenes. It's everything that's going on in the spirit realm. I'm wasting my time fighting with you because it's not you anyway. Okay, and that's what the enemy wants. He wants us coming after each other. He wants us to get twisted up in his game. And so we must refuse the bait of Satan. We must refuse offense, and we must say, no matter what, um, I said this to the children in one of the feeding lambs, um, one of the feeding lambs episodes, God loves me. Love is a choice. I choose to love you, not because you're good, not because you're bad, but simply because God has created you on purpose for purpose, and I choose to love you. I choose to treat you like he would. Therefore, you are to be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. And this word perfect is the Greek word teleos, and it means to be mature, complete, and um it means to um reach the end goal, to mature from going through the necessary stages to reach the end goal. He's not saying that you are perfect and never make any mistakes, but he is saying that you are growing from who you were into who you are supposed to be because your heavenly father is already complete. He said, So I don't need you to be damaged, I don't need you to be blaming old wounds for why you're acting the way you do. I need you to do the mature thing, I need you to heal those, heal those things. I need you to be responsible for your triggers. I need you to take ownership of what's going on because that's what mature people do, because that's what God does. And I'm not looking here and saying, I'm the most mature, I have I have space to grow, okay? I have a long way to go yet still, but I am on the way. And when I get it wrong, the Lord gets me, okay? I He He ain't He don't let it rest until it's right. And I thank God for that. I thank God that He calms my mind and He brings it down to where it should be. And so this is going to wind up chapter five. We are going to move into chapter six of the Sermon on the Mount. I'm just a little inchy oonch over. And uh so I love you. I pray that you'll tune in next week for feeding sheep. Remember, Fridays are for feeding sheep. And if you've got any little lambs, we will have a feeding sheep podcast or a feeding lambs podcast for them as well. Let them listen, get the memory verse, get the lesson. Uh, they're some of my favorite ones to do. I love you. Uh, God loves you, He's got a plan for your life, and I can't wait to see you fulfill it. Hold on to the basics because the basics are the building blocks, they are the necessary steps that are taken. This this Sermon on the Mount, it is foundational. It is the first thing that Jesus ever said to anybody in a public platform. It matters. First, the firsts are important. In the scripture where something is mentioned first, that is that is the standard for which you measure everything that comes after it. This first sermon, everything else in the kingdom hinges from this place. If we can get this right, everything else that we build from here on out will be correct. So it's important, important, important. Again, I love you. I will see you next time. Um, yeah. God bless you. Have a great Friday. Have a great weekend. Love well. Love like Jesus. Don't love like you. Don't love like me. Love like Jesus. And uh we're gonna get there, friends. We're gonna, we're gonna get there. Let's do our due diligence to show forth the glory and the praises of our Father. Let's be sons and daughters of the Most High and let people see it and know that there's a difference because we have been born again.