http://www.biblestudytools.com/esv/matthew/passage/?q=matthew+5:33-37 (Matthew 5:33-37) Life is filled with many promises both made and received. As receivers, we desire people around us to keep their promises and to be truthful with us. I really appreciate the person whose word is their bond. As citizens, for instance, we want our government leaders and politicians to be trustworthy and to keep their promises. As customers, we want the products we purchase to work just as promised. As married couples, we want our spouse to be faithful to their promise and truthful, even in the little things of life. If a volunteer said yes to performing a duty for us in our church, we like to know they will be reliable and do the job. Unfortunately, though, we live in a world where many times that does not happen. Promises are easily made and easily broken on a regular basis. Truthfulness gets set aside, and people get hurt. Jesus addresses this subject in today’s text from His Sermon on the Mount. Just by way of review, it’s important for us to remember that the Sermon on the Mount is addressed to kingdom-of-heaven citizens. It is given to those who have received the righteousness of God into their lives, received new birth, and then, filled with the Holy Spirit, live a new life as members of His kingdom with a sincere desire to show grateful love to God and to do life His way. Jesus has been teaching about the deeper righteousness of the kingdom-of-heaven citizen, and what it looks like in life situations. He talks of such subjects as murder, adultery, divorce and relates them to matters of the heart. Six times in chapter 5, Jesus says, “You have heard it said . . .” about a particular commandment. Then He would say, “but I say to you . . .” and He would challenge the religious establishment’s shallow interpretation of the commands of God. Today we see Jesus doing this again. He addresses the subject of giving your word – making oaths and vows. He states, “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.” A couple things jump out at us in this teaching of Jesus. First of all, Jesus seems to be challenging the shady practices of religious authorities like the scribes and Pharisees. They had devised a system around making oaths, which actually ended up promoting lying and gave people permission to not keep their promises. Jesus tells them they were playing word games here, because the religious experts were tinkering with the formula. Making an oath in the Old Testament was important to God, but they were changing the formula of these oaths. They were changing some of the wording in order to not use the name of the Lord in it, saying they did not want to profane the name of the Lord. Instead they would make promises and swear by heaven, or earth, or Jerusalem, or by their very life – their head. Then they would reason that, since these oaths weren’t made in the name of God, they weren’t necessarily binding or important to keep. It reminds me of keeping our fingers crossed behind our back when we make a promise to someone. They were being totally dishonest, and Jesus points this out. He says these kinds of word games are ridiculous and harmful, and far from our heavenly Father’s will. The next point Jesus makes is the bottom line. He says, Here is how the-kingdom-of-God people – my followers — are to operate. Let your yes be yes and your no be no. Anything more than this comes from evil. God wants His people to be honest with their words and promises. They should never, ever have