Don't Let Your Promises Become Traps | Cornerstone Church | Brent Hatchett

chapter number five. As Matt said, we're kicking off a brand new series. It's a series entitled Plot Twist. Now, forewarning, typically when I get the opportunity to come and and and teach, y'all know me kind of as the jovial guy, who loves to crack jokes, but this particular message,

it might come off a little heavy today. But here's what I also know during this message, the Lord is with us. So we're gonna be in Matthew chapter five. We're gonna look in just a moment at, verses 30, three through 37.

But the reason why this particular sermon series is entitled plot twist is because in Matthew chapter five, it's the beginning of the greatest sermon that has ever been preached in human history. It's called the Sermon on the Mount. And within Matthew chapter five,

Jesus essentially takes the time to teach the disciples and the crowd that's gathered around about what it means to live life as a believer. He's gonna hit up several different topics. He's gonna talk about us being the light of the world and the salt of the earth. He's gonna talk about marriage. He's gonna talk about

anger. He's going to talk about adultery. But in the verses we're about to read right now, he's going to focus on what it looks like to be a person of character and integrity. He's gonna focus on what it looks like to be a man or a woman that keeps your word.

I'm gonna read the verses and then I'll give you the big idea after that and then we'll jump into the meat of the message. Matthew five verse number 33, here's what it says. You have also heard that our ancestors were told, you must not break your vows. You must carry out the vows you make to the Lord. But I say,

do not make any vows. Do not say by heaven because heaven is God's throne and do not say by the earth because the earth is his footstool and do not say by Jerusalem for Jerusalem is the city of the great king. Do not even say by my head for you can't turn one hair white or black. Just say a simple yes, I will or no,

I won't. Anything beyond this is from the evil one. Just for a few moments, wanna teach from this thought. Don't allow your promises to become traps. Don't allow your promises to become

traps.

One of the things that Israel understood was they understood God's will. But here was the problem, they didn't necessarily have a clear understanding of God's heart. Let me explain. Within Matthew chapter five, here's what Jesus says, hey, you have heard the commandment that says, do not commit adultery. But I say,

anyone who even looks at a woman with lust in his heart is already guilty of committing adultery. Here's the right reason why Jesus goes through this explanation because many of the people stop at just the physical act of adultery. That's without question God's will.

But here's God's heart. I want to stop you before you get to the physical act. This is why James says, let no man say that when he is tempted that God is tempting him. He is actually enticed by his own evil desires and from those evil desires it leads into an action that action leads to sin and that sin leads to what?

Death. So here's what Jesus is trying to say. I need you to understand that when you fall into sin, it doesn't begin at just any physical act of what you do or any word that you just simply say, it actually begins in the heart. And this is why as the people of God, we have to live a life with clean hands and a pure heart.

So with that being said, now he goes on and he talks to them in verses 33 through 37 essentially about keeping your word. Here's what's happening, he says, hey, you have been taught that when you make a vow, you should absolutely keep your vow. But you know what was happening? People were breaking their vow.

Let me nerd out just for a second and give you a quick little history lesson. In traditional rabbinic teaching,

there's this book that was written in a d 200, called the Mishnah. It's known as the oral Torah. The reason why it was written in a d 200 because traditional rabbinic teaching would tell you that Moses received this oral Torah

when he was at Mount Sinai. Now let me be clear as believers in Jesus, this is not something we subscribe to. But here was the issue with this oral Torah or this Mishnah.

The role of the Mishnah, the purpose of the Mishnah was essentially for people to be able to look at the written Torah but then understand how to live out the written Torah based what was written in the oral or what was said in the oral Torah. So to give you an example, many Hebrews of course they practice the Sabbath.

What the Mishnah does is is it tells you how to actually live out the Sabbath.

What does the Shabbat dinner look like? How do you guard the Sabbath? What can you do on the Sabbath? What can you not do on the Sabbath? Well, within this Mishnah, you know what it told you? It gave you rules or outs for when you could break your vows.

So Jesus goes on to say, listen, you've taken what I've said and what's written in the law and you've taken it completely out of context. Here's what I need you to do now,

I would encourage you don't even make a vow and one of the reasons why I don't want you making any vows is because y'all keep putting my name on it. This is why Jesus goes on to say this, he says, do not say by heaven because heaven is God's throne and do not say by the earth because the earth is his footstool and do not say by Jerusalem for Jerusalem is the city of the great king. Do not even say by my hand for you can't turn one hair white or black. Here's what he's trying to say, anything you promise on, you're promising in my name no matter how it looks.

Have you ever met an individual that says, hey, man, I promise you fam, I'm gonna pay you back on my mama. Right? Here's what Jesus is saying, you can promise on your mama all you want. You gotta realize I'm the one who knew your mama since the beginning of time, before the beginning of time.

I created her. So when you bring her in the picture, you're still bringing my name in the picture. He said, here's what I need you to do. Don't even bother making the vow and the reason why I don't want you to make the vow because I don't think you understand how seriously I take vows. Then he goes on to say this,

he keeps it simple verse number 37, just say a simple yes I will or no I won't. Anything beyond this is from the evil one. Here's what I wanna do next.

I've got essentially four points to this message. Chances are you're not gonna remember all four but we're gonna give it a stab and I'm gonna have your neighbor text you on Monday morning. Hey, you remember them four points from yesterday?

But here's what I'm gonna do. These four points, an easier way to remember it is I'm gonna give you three nevers and one because. So everybody say three nevers and one because.

Here's how I'm gonna show it to you. I'm gonna show it to you using two narratives. The first narrative we're gonna look at is a narrative found in Judges chapter number 11. So turn with me to Judges chapter 11.

And in case you're brand new to Jesus, this is this story that I'm about to read, two of these narratives actually, both of them, famine is better than Netflix. It will keep you entertained. Judges chapter 11, I'm going to read verses 29 through 39, I believe, but I'm going to give you

the backstory to it in just a moment. In Judges chapter 11, obviously Israel throughout its history, they have these different judges and the one we're about to study now is a judge by the name of Jephthah. And when we look at the text, we're gonna see that Jephthah is about to make one of the most irrational vows to the Lord

that makes zero sense. And once we look at this vow that he makes, we're gonna ask and answer the question, what in the world made him make this vow? So Judges chapter 11 beginning at verse number 29, here's what it says. At that time, the spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah

and he went throughout the land of Gilead and Manasseh, including Mizpah and Gilead and from there he led an army against the Ammonites. And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord. He said, if you give me victory over the Ammonites, I will give to the Lord whatever comes out of my house to meet me when I return in trial.

I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering. Is it just me?

Or does this seem like the craziest bow any human being should make to the Lord? As I was reading the text, I asked myself, really asked the Lord, why in the world would Jeff to make this kind of vow? Because here's the reality.

This is the first never. Never make a promise when you don't know the cost. Never make a promise when you don't know the cost. Jeffta has no idea how much this promise is gonna cost him. Jeffta has no idea what's going to walk out of his house first.

But here's the reason why I believe JEFTA makes this irrational promise. It's because JEFTA is making promises from a place of insecurity.

As for Brett, how do you know this man is making promises from a place of insecurity? I am not a therapist, I am not a psychologist, but I also know how to read in between the lines. If you go back to Judges chapter 11 beginning at the first verse, you'll discover Jephthah's history, which is a really interesting history.

Jephthah is the son of a man by the name of Gilead. But Jephthah's mother is a prostitute. Jephthah has other half brothers and his half brothers can't stand him. They do everything in their power to make his life miserable. The text says that they ensured that he would never receive any portion from their father's inheritance.

In addition to that, they run Jeff to out of the country. He grows up as an orphan, a young man who has no idea who he truly is. A known man who lives life never being the firm, never being encouraged, but always treated as less than. But here's what's amazing about Jephthah, God gave him a gift. The Bible says Jephthah is an amazing

warrior. So, when Israel finds themselves getting ready to go to battle against the Ammonites, you know who they call back? Jephthah. And they say, hey, we want you to come and be the commander of our army. Reluctantly, Jeff to says yes. Now, can't necessarily prove this, but I don't think you can necessarily disprove it,

which is I believe that when Jefta has this moment, the little boy in him has this little heart that says, I'm finally being accepted. I'm finally being seen. I'm finally being validated. And now the one thing he wants more than anything in the world is to prove to everybody

how they were wrong when they mistreated him. And here's the way I can prove it, if I win this battle. So he stands on the battlefield and he says, Lord, if you give me victory over the Ammonites, whatever comes out of my house first, I'll sacrifice it as a burnt offering.

Here's the saddest part about this, Jephthah didn't have to do what I like to call an if then exchange with the Lord. There are some people in this room who you've prayed some if then prayers in your life.

Lord, if you just let this hangover pass over, I promise you, I'll never get drunk again. Right? See, everybody laughing, they had that moment, that if then.

But here's here's what Jephthah missed. All he had to do was make his request before the Lord. This is the prayer that Jephthah should have made. Lord, would you give me battle or would you give me victory over the Ammonites? Amen. And here's why, there's something really key in verse 29 that I don't want you to skip over.

Verse 29 says once again, at that time, the spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah. Brent Hatchett translation, Jephthah, the Lord is with you. Could it be that there are some of us in this room who are over promising certain things and consistently under delivering because we haven't addressed our own insecurities.

Here's what I want to remind you that you don't have to work for man nor God's approval. The moment you gave Jesus your life, what did he impart into you? What did he give you? The holy what? Which lets me know what? That God is with you. So because God is with me, why in the world am I operating from a place of insecurity?

Why in the world am I having these if then exchanges with God when clearly scripture teaches I no longer call you servant but I call you friend. So because I'm one of God's friends, guess what I can simply do, just make my request known before him. And here's what I've learned, if he doesn't answer my request,

I'm good with that because his plan is always better than my plan. So this is my encouragement to every single person in this room. If you wrestle with any level of insecurity, I want you to kill it because it is one of the greatest tools the enemy has used against God's people. There is nothing that you need to be

insecure about because one thing insecurity does is it makes people make promises and under deliver. Let's keep reading the text. Verse number 32. So Jephthah led his army against the Ammonites and the lord gave him victory. He crushed the Ammonites devastating about 20 towns from from

Aurora to an area near Minas and as far as way as Abel Keremim. I wish somebody could teach me Hebrew because these names be hard sometimes, fam. In this way, Israel defeated the Ammonites. Verse number 34. This is the good part. Now what before I read it,

what did Jeff to promise that the first thing that comes out of his house, he's gonna do what? Sacrificing. Let's see what comes out of his house. When Jeff to return home to Mizpah, his daughter came out to meet him, playing on a tambourine and dancing for joy. She was his one and only child. He had no other sons or daughters.

When he saw her, he tore his clothes in anguish and he cries out, oh my daughter, you have completely destroyed me. That's false. You did that yourself when you made a promise. You've brought disaster on me. That's false because you made a vow that you shouldn't have made. For I have made a vow to the Lord, that is true,

and I cannot take it back. That's absolutely true. Here's the second never. Never make a promise at someone else's expense.

Never make a promise at someone else's expense. Have you ever thought about how sometimes the promises you make and you're not able to keep end up hurting somebody else?

This is bigger than you. Again, Jeff had no idea how much this promise was gonna cost him and here's what he figured out, this promise was not just gonna cost him, it was gonna cost him his one and only daughter.

Here's what the text goes on to say.

Verse number 36, and she said, father, if you have made a vow to the lord, you must do to me what you have vowed for the lord has given you a great victory over your enemies, the Ammonites. But first, let me do this one thing.

Let me go up and roam in the hills and weep with my friends for two months because I will die a virgin. Verse 38, you may go, Jephthah said and he sent her away for two months. She and her friends went into the hills and wept because she would never have children.

When she returned home, her father kept the vow he made and she died a virgin. Now, some of you again who are brand new to Jesus, this may be a bit of a heavy story and you're like, did this man follow through on his promise because that's crazy and it is. There's two schools of camps on this one theologically.

One school of camp says that Jephthah didn't physically sacrifice his daughter as a burnt offering, but instead the sacrifice was that she could never be married, which is why the text or they look at the text and say she died a virgin.

The other school of camp says no, that Jephthah absolutely carried out his promise and had to sacrifice his daughter. Here's what I would tell you. Whether the first camp is right or the second camp is right, the result of making a promise from insecurity still hurts.

And how many of us are making promises at someone else's expense? And here's the truth, some of you are making promises at your own expense. By show of hands, how many of you have ever heard the expression, you doing too much?

I don't know who you are but for whoever you are, can I tell you real quick, you're doing too much?

Why are you trying to to please people here and please people here and do this over here and do that over there and you got you got 10 things going on? And here's the real reason why you're doing it is because you want to feel seen, you want to feel validated and you find your value and your ability to do.

What if God doesn't value you based on your ability to do, but based on your ability to be?

What do I mean by that? I didn't talk about this yesterday, but I'll talk about it really quickly and then I'll move on to the last narrative. One of my favorite chapters in scripture and I might have preached this here before, but one of my favorite chapters in scripture is Joshua chapter number one.

And the reason why I love Joshua chapter one verses one through nine is because the text says, God talks to Joshua and says Joshua, my servant Moses is dead. In the first five verses, here's what happens. He tells Joshua everything that Joshua was going to do with him and the Lord.

Makes it real clear, we're going to do this, we're going to this, we're to lead Israel into the promised land. Then God says, Brent Hatcher translation, Joshua, before we can do any of those things, here's who I need you to be. I need you to be strong and courageous. He says it to him not one time, not two times,

but three times. And I promised I was only teach two narratives, I'm not gonna go into exactly why he tells him to be strong and courageous. But here's the point that I want you to take away. This week, I want you to re ask yourself the question and ask it with the Lord, Lord, who are you asking me to be?

Because in this previous season, I've taken too much time always trying to do. Do this for them, do this for them, do this for them. It's driving me crazy and I'm making promises and I'm dropping balls. Who are you asking me to be? And I want you to start pursuing that.

I've given you two other nevers and one narrative. I'm gonna give you one last narrative. Turn with me to Acts chapter five and then we get to my favorite part of the message,

which is our time alone with the Lord. Acts chapter number five, I'm going to read verses one through 10 really quickly. Let me give you the backdrop. The book of acts really explains the beginning of the church and y'all the church is exploding.

It is growing by leaps and bounds. The bible says that the lord is adding to the church daily. And here's what's really cool that's happening in the book of Acts with the early church, is they're building really, really, really strong community.

And a lot of people within the early church adopt this model that says, because I have, you have, which is very different from adopting the model because you have, I have. What's the difference? The I have, you have model simply says this, a person looks at their resources and says with a heart of generosity because I have

whoever needs, I'm willing to give it to them. Right? They're practicing generosity.

But when you take on the mentality and you say because you have, I have, that's when a person looks at someone else's resources and they just assume because you have, oh my god. Me casa as you, you casa as me casa. They flipped the whole thing. Here's the problem. That's not generosity, that's entitlement.

And that entitlement leads to laziness and slothfulness. That's not what's happening in the church,

in the early church. In the early church, it's an I have, you have, I want to be generous. If I have it, you got it. Let's alright. So that's what's taking place in the church. So this married couple, Ananias and Zaphira, they see that and they want to known

for some folks who are just uber uber uber uber generous. Right? And they make a promise and they failed to keep their promise

and this promise cost them their life. Let's look at the text. I'm gonna read it straight through. But there was a certain man named Ananias who was who with his wife Sapphira sold some property. He brought part of the prop sorry. He brought part of the money to the apostles claiming it was the full amount.

I promise you, this is all I got, fam. I'm bringing it all. With his wife's consent, he kept the rest. Then Peter said, Ananias, why have you let Satan fill your heart? You lied to the holy spirit

and you kept some of the money for yourself. The property was yours to sell or not sell as you wish. And after selling it, the money was also yours to give away. How could you do a thing like this? You weren't lying to us but to God. And as soon as Ananias heard these words, he fell to the floor and, y'all say it, God. Dang.

Everyone who heard about it was terrified. Then some young men got up, wrapped him in a sheet and took him out and buried him. About three hours later, his wife came in not knowing what had happened. Peter asked her, was this the price you and your husband received for your land? Yes, she replied, that was the price.

Uh-oh was right, my man. And Peter said, how could the two of you even think of conspiring to test the spirit of the Lord like this? The young man who buried your husband are just outside the door and they will carry you out. And instantly, she fell on the floor and When

the young man came in and saw that she was dead, they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. Great fear gripped the entire church and everyone else who heard what had happened.

Ananias, Sapphira, why would you bother telling a lie like that? Leads me to point number three and we'll land the plane. Never make a promise for applause. Never make a promise for applause. Here's the real deal.

They weren't giving the proceeds away just because they wanted to be generous, they were giving the proceeds away because they wanted to be seen.

And do you know why most people want to be seen? Because it goes back to what we talked about earlier. They haven't dealt with their insecurity. And let me tell you real quickly, I'm an individual, you're looking at a man who has had to wrestle through insecurity.

And here's the real question because I don't want to tell you what your problem is but not give you a way to solve it. How does an individual break free from insecurity? You confess it. You talk about it. Now, I'll tell this story here.

I won't tell it at my church, but I'll tell the story here. It's great and I feel a peace about sharing it.

A friend of mine, he's my brother, love him to death. We work at the same church and there was this past Easter, he was given this great opportunity to preach on Easter Sunday.

And I'm sitting in a meeting and I'm hearing about him getting this great opportunity to preach on Easter Sunday because in most churches, here's the reality. You know who preaches on Easter Sunday? Senior pastor.

So, my brother in Christ is not the senior pastor, he's given this great opportunity to preach on Easter Sunday. And, y'all, I I felt a way.

My insecurity. I was mad and I wrestled with it for about twenty four hours. I even had a friend of mine the next morning, he gives me a call because I found out about it in a meeting

and he says, hey man, I'm just calling to check up on you, you're real quiet in the meeting. I said, oh no, I'm good, but I'm lying through my teeth. So a few hours later, holy spirit convicts me. I call him back and I say, hey, man. When you called me earlier, was lying.

Here's the real reason why I was quiet in that meeting. It's because I I felt a way about hearing about our brother in Christ getting the opportunity to preach on Easter Sunday. And then I said, but and I and again, this is not me making the hair up, but here's what the holy spirit told me friend.

That I've gotta kill this thing called insecurity and I can't sit around and hide it. And then, you know what I did? We had seven Easter services. My friend got to preach one of those services. I text him before the weekend started. I said, hey, whichever service you're preaching at, let me know. I want to be there.

And you know where I was during the service where he was preaching at? At that particular service. Just to show the enemy that bro, you don't have this stronghold of insecurity over my life. Here's the reality.

My desire moving forward in life, this is one of the things my mentor encouraged me to do. He says, bring your great preacher, your great leader, all those things.

But I don't want you to be one of the best preachers. I don't want you to necessarily be one of the best leaders of your generation. Let's do that. But here's what I really wanna ask that the Lord would do in your life. That you would be one of the most pleasing preaching pastors

in the generation before you, in the generation behind you, and in your generation. Because there's a lot of great preachers and a lot of great leaders but here's what I've learned y'all, they're not all pleasing to the lord. I know preachers right now who can preach the paint off of the walls

but if you peek behind the curtain in their private life, it is a hotmess.com.

Lord, I wanna be a man that lives with clean hands and up your heart. So here's my challenge to you. What does it look like for you to become an individual that is simply pleasing to the lord?

We had these three nevers, but I told you there's a because. Never make a promise when you don't know the cost. Never make a promise at someone else's expense. Never make a promise for applause. But here's the because. Because God takes your word seriously. Be careful what you promise.

Because God takes your word seriously. Be careful what you promise. Here's how we're gonna close. All this weekend, this was my prayer to the Lord. Lord, if this message is trash, I don't care. But here's the one thing I do care about. Would your presence fill that room?

Here's what I wanna do. I wanna lead us in a moment of repentance. Repentance captures the heart of God. So right where you are, you can either stand, you can bow. If you feel the need to come to the altar, you can do so. I'm a take a knee.

But as a church,

I want you to take about thirty to sixty seconds. I'm not gonna say anything. If you need to lift your hands, whatever it is, I want you to have a conversation with the Lord and whatever chain needs to be broke. If it's insecurity, if it's entitlement, if it's anger,

whatever it is that you are wrestling with right now, I want you to simply right where you are, whether you need to stand or you need to bow, I want you to ask the lord to free you in the name of Jesus and I want you to repent of the way that you have carried it out.

Lord, your word says that if my people who are called by my name would humble themselves, would pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven. But forgive their sin and heal the land.

God, a church this morning, we don't come for a man. We don't come for a personality, but we came for you And we come with a heart of repentance. God, would you forgive us for every way that we have made a promise to you, for every way where we have made a vow to you, and we broke that vow.

For your word says that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. And I take a moment as a guest pastor in this house, and I pray for every man and I pray for every woman who was wrestling with insecurity,

who was wrestling with doubt, who was wrestling with fear. And holy spirit, I pray, would you remind them that you are the God that is with them, that you are the God that is for them, that you are the God who has a plan for them, that you are the God who has a purpose for them. And God, I pray moving forward that they would start seeing themselves

the way that you see them, that they would see you as a friend of God, that they would see that they are loved by you, that they would see that they are cared for by you, that they would see that from the very beginning of time that your hand has been upon

their life. And God, I pray that no weapon formed against them, no weapon formed formed against their family, no weapon formed against their spouse, their children

would be able to prosper. God, would you anoint them now from the crown of their head to the soles of their feet, And would you allow us to be men and women of character and integrity who love our neighbor and love the Lord our God with all of our heart, with all of our mind, with all of our souls.

God, this morning we our hands and we say that we surrender, we surrender, we surrender. No longer will we lie and no longer will we believe the lies of the enemy, but we stand on truth. We stand on the truth of Lord

of Lords. You are the Alpha and the Omega. You are the beginning and the end. You are the first and the last. You are the one who was, the one who is, the one who will always be. You sit on your throne and we cry holy. We cry holy. We cry holy. Lord, oh God.

Lord, oh God, we cry holy unto your name. We give you all of the glory. We give you all of the honor. We give you all of the praise,

and we worship you. We adore you because there's nobody like you, oh God. And if you believe that God is good, if you believe that God is great, if you believe that God is for you. I dare you to stand on your feet. I dare you to lift up your voice. And I dare you to begin to give God a shout of praise. Give him a shout of praise. Give shout of

him praise. Give him a shout praise. Give him a shout of praise. Give him a shout of praise. You're worthy God. You're worthy God.

Now Lord, I've done what you've asked me to do. As we get ready to leave this place, but never your presence. Would you allow us to leave this place completely and totally set free? Because your word says that he who the son has set free is free indeed. And where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

God, we thank you for your word. Be with us, lead us and guide us. And we'll be careful to give you all the glory, honor and praise. And it's in Jesus name we pray and give thanks. And everyone said, amen.

Thank you so much. Cornerstone, if you need prayer, come down from we got an entire prayer team waiting to pray for you. Other than that, love you. Have a great week.