Just Pluck It!

JUST PLUCK IT!!!

Matt 5:29-30

Introduction: “A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself; the simple pass on and are punished” (Proverbs 27:12). I’ve been thinking a lot about the message of verses’ like this in Scripture. A person who is wise, a person who is prudent hides himself from evil, but the fool, or the unlearned, not recognizing the danger continues to live life as normal and the end result is punishment. A little child is told by his mother not to touch the stove because it is hot. If the he disobeys his mother and touches the hot stove he quickly learns that there was wisdom in his mother’s words. The little child who touches the hot stove realizes it is a bad thing to do and more than likely he will never purposely touch the hot stove again. He will go out of way to avoid the stove so not to experience the pain again. If, however, he did not learn his lesson and continued to disobey his mother’s instructions and touch the hot stove, we would at the very least agree that there was something wrong with his thought process.

You see we don’t like hurting ourselves. Every year at this time we see people making New Year Resolutions in their lives to improve themselves. Usually it revolves around some type of area in their lives that is thought to be hurting them, or prohibiting them from being a better person. Some wish to lose weight to better improve their health, some wish to be kinder, show less anger, or achieve a certain financial goal during the year. More times than not the resolution is broken with in a few weeks of making it never to be thought of again until the next year. The reason I believe these resolutions seem to broken so effortlessly is because the steps to get to the actual goal is often ignored.

I think about that in my own life when it comes to certain areas of my life that displeases God. All of us have areas of our lives where we fall short of what God expects of us. In the believers life it should be his or her goal to eradicate the sin area out of their lives. Not that we can achieve a sinless perfection, but there are specific areas in our lives that we look at and determine that God would have us to get out of our lives. Often time the believer will become discourage and disoriented at their inability to honor God in these specific areas and this discouragement will lead to great areas of failure. There is an old saying that most of us have heard: “Sow a thought, reap an action: Sow an action reap a habit; Sow a habit, reap a character; Sow a Character reap a destiny.” I believe this to be true. This morning I want to talk to you about a concept in Scripture that God is focusing my personal attention on. It revolves around a word that is very descriptive, and in the life of the believer who begins to heed its message, there is a vibrant daily walk with God awaiting them. If heeded, no longer will the believer have to become discouraged by their sin habits, but by heeding God’s Words, and God’s prescribed prescription for dealing with these sins, there is freedom awaiting from the chains of sin.

Outline

I. Identify The Source: Matt 5:29-30

II. Captivate Your Thoughts: Philippians 4:8

III. Pursue An Effective Life: I Corinthians 9:2

I. Identify The Source: Matt 5:29-30

Pluck—to take out; we are to strike at the root of unholy inclinations, riding ourselves of whatever would stimulate them.

- In the Jewish culture the right hand and right eye represented the best a person could offer.

• This is how we are to deal with sin. We are to understand that sin is a violation of God’s Holiness. God will not tolerate sin. In the life of the unbeliever, sin ultimately leads to spiritual death. In the life of a believer, our relationship with God will be hindered if we do not deal with the sin issue. Effectiveness for God’s Kingdom is what we are talking about. One day we will be judged even as believers for the works that we have done here on earth. “ Therefore, we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” (2 Cor 5:9-10.) I do not believe that the Bible teaches that we will be judged as believers because of our sins, because that judgment took place on the cross, Christ paid our sins. However, I do believe our effectiveness for Christ will be judged, and we must take very seriously the things in our lives that cause us to stumble before God. We are to give it our best as the statement of Jesus indicates in order to get out of our lives the things that cause us to fail.