April 1, 2021
Last night we continued our time through the Sermon on the Mount in a series entitled: True Disciples.
Jesus started addressing the Law by starting with the topic of Anger, and last night we carried on looking at Matthew 5:27-32 in which Jesus addresses the topics of Adultery, Lust, and Divorce. Obviously these are heavy topics, but the scriptures deal with them, and they are important for us to wrestle with.
We started by talking about how God created marriage. Marriage is a God-made thing, and we must start with that understanding! The purpose of marriage is ultimately for God’s glory, as it is a picture to the world of God’s covenant marriage to His people. Jesus addresses Adultery, Lust and Divorce because these are things to break the mirror that God intends marriage to be. Just like with Anger, Jesus gets at the heart of the issue of adultery, saying that we can commit adultery in our hearts by looking at someone for our own pleasure, or with a desire that’s only appropriate in marriage. We talked about how Jesus views sin seriously, and thus we should take serious action against it (hence he says, “if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off”). On the issue of divorce, we discussed that God’s never takes pleasure in divorce. He never finds it good. It, too, breaks the image that God intended marriage to be. In the case that there is divorce, we know that God forgives, and has mercy (see the woman at the well in John 4). But mercy is never a good excuse to enter into willful sin.
The point of it all for us is that we are to be salt and light in the way that our marital relationships, and relationships in general are viewed by outsiders. Rightly viewed, marriage, and dating for that matter, is to look at the image of Christ and his church, God’s unconditional, lasting love, that would lay down even His own life for her benefit, that we would strive to do likewise with our earthly spouses.
There was more that we talked about, but this email would be too long if I kept going. I HIGHLY encourage you to ask your students about last night. Don’t shy away from the topics of relationships, lust, and marriage with them. 🙂 I would encourage you to use last night’s lesson as a jumping off point if you haven’t ever had those conversations before.
No Youth next week due to Spring Break! Looking forward to seeing everyone the week following, though! 😀
Categories: Youth Night Updates, Youth Sermon on the Mount