4 Questions to Ask to Ensure You Won’t Violate Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount
Decision magazine this month announced the great news that nine leading members of President Donald Trump’s cabinet, including Vice President Mike Pence, are participating in a weekly Bible study and prayer time.
What is the focus of their study?
Together they are going through Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, which is recorded in Matthew 5-7. Our church in Nashville, Celebration Church, is on the same track and being challenged greatly!
Smack dab in the middle of this, the greatest sermon ever given by the greatest Teacher who ever lived, is this passage that is ever so relevant for us today.
“You have heard that it was said by the ancients, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart. And if your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away. For it is profitable that one of your members should perish, and not that your whole body be thrown into hell” (Matt.5:27-29).
How relevant this is for us today, especially as we approach Father’s Day this Sunday. Oswald Chambers reminds us in his classic My Utmost for His Highest, “An unguarded strength is a double weakness.”
As men (and women too!), it behooves us to be freshly reminded and fortified to stand against the avalanche of immorality attempting to seduce us today. As Bible teacher Derek Prince once said soberly, “I’m aware that over 60 years of ministry can come crashing down in minutes through a moral failure.”
Recently the Gallop Poll on Americas Values and Beliefs underscored how adultery is currently viewed in our nation. Amid all our decline and compromise, thank God that infidelity is still disapproved by over 90 percent of our populous!
When Vice President Mike Pence revealed that he never spends time alone with any woman apart from his wife, he was ridiculed by Hollywood and the media. Is he paranoid or is it still important to follow what’s been called this “Billy Graham Guideline?”
• What are signs of a developing inappropriate, opposite-sex relationship?
• How do we distinguish between normal sexual attraction and unrighteous sexual lust?
• When does normal looking cross the thin line into unrighteous lusting?
• What is an effective strategy to banish adultery and unrighteous opposite-sex relationships in our life?
A Father’s Day Gift
To help us all stand strong in this critical area, my regular “Here’s the Deal” commentary offers this practical resource to help us all remain victorious and honor our heavenly Father.
