Judging Others // Sermon on the Mount

Welcome to the Lookout Weekly Podcast.

Church of the Lookout is in Boulder, Colorado, and our vision is Jesus, abiding in his presence, growing in his family, and living on his mission to transform the world with awe-inspiring love.

Visit us online at thelookout.church.

Good morning, everybody.

Got some reprieve from the heat the last uh couple days.

Got some rain that we've needed.

Um, so good to share this morning with you.

I'm excited for our barbecue picnic after church.

Again, we're gonna have all kinds of food.

We'd love for you to hang out.

I'd love to beat you in Cornhole.

And so if you'd extend me that privilege, I would love to demolish you one bag at a time.

It's my gift to you.

Um hey guys, uh, we're gonna jump into the word, the scriptures this morning.

Are you guys ready?

Okay.

If you have your Bibles, open up to Matthew chapter seven.

We're in Matthew chapter seven now.

And uh yes, we are continuing our journey through the Sermon on the Mount.

We have officially started chapter seven as of today.

And uh and I just want to encourage you guys as we've been on this journey for it's been a lot of weeks now that we've been hitting on different passages, and we're gonna be coming into the end in just a few weeks.

Um I I would love to hear from you all um the moments, the passages, the movements of this particular sermon, Matthew 5, 6, and 7, that have been most impactful for you.

And and maybe we can, if you have something, we can talk about it in the in the picnic after church, or you can always email me luke at the lookout.church.

I'd love to hear that from you and share those stories just to kind of share where God is at work around this community.

I know a lot of you guys have come to me um, you know, uh after church several weeks in a row and just kind of talked about where God was really speaking to you.

And I believe it really is.

This has been an amazing time just to align with the heartbeat of God, the heartbeat of Jesus, the way of the kingdom of God.

We sing about it in our songs and we get to live it with our lives.

We get to live in the kingdom of God.

And that's what's so important for us is that when we come here and we gather here on Sunday mornings, we're aligning our lives with the scriptures, we're aligning our lives with biblical foundations and an alternative way of life.

It's a countercultural vision of what eternal life looks like.

And that's what we're doing, okay?

It's not just small ways that we can optimize our life for self-improvement.

This is about living into the enduring eternal kingdom of God that will never end.

And this is what Jesus has invited us into.

It's not a small thing, right?

So we're gonna jump in today, and this is a whopper of a message, alright?

It's a really good thing we have an ice cream truck showing up in 30 minutes.

I'm just gonna say it right now because nobody gets to leave this message unscathed, alright?

We all get equal opportunity here to respond to Jesus.

So, Matthew chapter 7, would you guys read with me?

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

Starting in verse 1.

Judge not that you be not judged.

For with the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged, and with the with the measure you use it, it will be a measure to you.

Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?

Or how can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye when there is a log in your own eye?

You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

Amen.

Judge not lest you be judged.

It's one of those lines that whether you're a Christian or not, it's it's pro it's maybe one of the most memorable sayings and teachings of Jesus that everyone kind of brings out at opportune moments.

Those with virtually no knowledge of the Bible can quote this one at a moment's notice, right?

And uh, but it but it's fascinating because when it comes to the teachings of Jesus, this one rises to the surface, and yet in recent studies over the last decade or two, there's a study done between uh 16 and 29-year-olds of the United States, one and nearly 90 said uh that judgmentalism is the word that mostly described their experience of Christians.

87%, I think it's 87% that Christians are too judgmental.

And it's a fascinating thing when you think about the fact that one of the cornerstones of Jesus' teaching was judge not lest you be judged.

And yet, how is it that we got to this moment where even the perception of Christians from the outside in oftentimes is one of judgmentalism or hypocrisy or self-righteousness, right?

And it's an interesting question.

How do we get there?

How did how how how are we there?

How did we get there?

Are Christians really that judgmental, or is there also something else going on here?

So certainly many of us, I know, especially in a room like this, depending on how you grew up and the religious tradition or non-religious tradition you grew up, you had a certain experience of the church.

And I know many of your stories, and and some of you would say that your experience of the church was one of being the subject of judgment.

And it's a feeling that none of us like.

All of us know what that feels like to be judged by another person, to be misunderstood, to be looked at uh in a way that felt less than or diminished or unvalued.

Some of you, that has been your experience in the church, and maybe even this church, and to you, I want to say, I am I'm sorry.

I am sorry.

I don't, I can't speak specifically to what you went through, but I know it's not the heart of Jesus that anybody feels pushed out of his plan or his will or his purpose or participation in the community of God.

And so if that's your story, I just want to acknowledge that.

And I'm sorry if you have been the recipient of judgment from other Christians, and specifically those who are self-righteous or maybe even hypocritical.

Um of us know what it means, what it feels like to be looked down upon, because we didn't do and say everything perfectly, because we asked questions that nobody was asking, because we had doubts that nobody was actually talking about, but we decided to verbalize them, right?

And so that that is an experience that so many of us have in the church, or that that has become part of this perception of what why is the church or religious institutions considered judgmental.

Now, just kind of set that there for a second.

My opinion is that there is another shift as well.

There's been a cultural shift that has led to a view of judgmentalism, and and we live in an accountability-free zone where few are willing to subject themselves to any kind of outside critique or crit or correction, right?

And so uh Q, you know, the the phrase, stop judging me, that we hear all the time, or like my kids and their friends like to say, quit being so judgy.

All right.

And uh that's kind of the new thing that I hear all the time.

Quit your being judgy, stop being so judgy.

And it's like when this is quoted our day, basically we think it means um uh you know, don't ever tell me or suggest that what I'm doing is ill-informed or incomplete, and if you do so, then you're imposing yourself upon me and you are being judgmental.

All right.

So what's happened is this is kind of, we've come to a place in our culture where any kind of receiving any kind of critique, any kind of correction, any kind of uh redirection is considered now an act of somebody else imposing their will upon us, and we will have none of that because I am accountable to no one but myself.

And so tolerance used to mean I respect you even though I disagree with you, but that's no longer sufficient.

And unless you are willing to agree with a person's position, you are stamped with a label of bigot or a hater or judgmental.

And this is part of what we're dealing with as well.

Not only has the church not always got the record of judgmentalism right, and we have been judgmental, we're also living in a time where without when self is is propped up to the highest degree, I'm accountable to nobody else.

So any kind of correction or suggestion that anything I'm thinking or doing is offline, you're being judgy, right?

Are you guys with me?

So we're dealing with kind of these two things.

And so when we suggest or we critique or we have conversations, especially a year like this, when we have conversations, say, can we talk about this?

Can we talk about what's happening in our country?

Can we talk about what's happening in culture?

Oftentimes people will bring out the thing of you're just being judgmental, you're doing what everybody else is doing.

And so the the difficult part for us as Christians is this for those of us who are followers of Jesus, I've seen a pendulum swing because we want to correct the course of judgmentalism.

What often happens as we swing to this other side, where we never want to share anything that could potentially be offensive, that could potentially be taken the wrong way, that would anything that would lend itself to being perceived as judgmental, and so there's a pendulum saying that we can often also swing over to the side of complete and utter silence, which I don't believe is God's heart.

We're gonna get into the passage here in a second.

I believe that God has called us to use our voice and to live our lives in such a way that we model humility, but we also model conviction, that we we we're we're called to invite the world into God's design and God's order, and specifically in the household of God to call each other up into a deeper love and a deeper allegiance to Him and a deeper love for others.

And sometimes that's going to offend somebody, sometimes that's going to cut, sometimes it might hurt.

But in the household of God, we are called to love each other to such a degree that we call each other into alignment with his plan, his purposes, and his perfect identity for our lives.

So we have to ask the question when Jesus says something like, judge not lest you be judged, is he saying that we are not to make any ethical judgments about right or wrong?

No.

In fact, that's what's kind of funny about this passage because before and after this, he makes a lot of very stern rebukes with his audience.

He confronted the powers and authorities in the injustice about 37 times.

And oftentimes in the scriptures and the gospels, he would use this phrase to the Pharisees and to those who were in power.

He'd say, Woe to you, which basically means basically is like you know a modern way of saying, like, be careful.

Uh you better check yourself.

Because you say one thing, and yet inside you are whitewashed tombs.

It doesn't get much more judgmental than that.

Inside, you are you are a brood of vipers.

So Jesus would say words like this.

He would even say to his disciples, he would correct his disciples.

Right?

Now, if if there's ever ever a spot where you're like, Well, time out, Jesus, like, cool your jets.

I feel like you're being a little judgy right now.

Can we not go straight to Satan, you know?

And but but Jesus, he didn't mince his words.

It's like, no, you're acting like Satan.

Satan has filled your heart.

So Jesus was very clear with his guys, he would cut through, and yet somehow, the way that Jesus interacted with people, there was always an invitation, an occlusion to be a part, to realign with what God was doing.

It was never a pushing out, it was always a calling in.

Paul had some very harsh words to say too about judgmental Christians, and we'll read some of those here in a bit.

But he also warned in the way of Jesus: do not be the kind of person who is judging other people, because the level to which you condemn, you will also be condemned.

And he would he would say that, and then in the same letter, write to the church, correcting them for severe sin.

You gotta stop sleeping with your mother-in-law, right?

Stuff like that.

That's the kind of stuff that was happening in these letters that he was writing.

And and he would write to the churches and he would have very clear-cut rebukes, right?

And so, all that to say, when when it comes to judge, judging, do not judge lest you be judged, what Jesus is not saying is don't make jud, don't have uh good judgments between right and wrong.

He's not saying don't have uh clear-headedness and discernment about what's happening in your life and the lives of the household of God and your culture.

He's saying something else.

So this Greek word for judge is this word krino, and it means it appears about 114 times in the New Testament.

It means a lot of different things, okay?

So you have to kind of take it contextually.

Sometimes this word krino for judge, hang with me.

Sometimes it means simply to reach a decision or to form an opinion.

Other times it means to be involved in a court proceeding.

Sometimes it means to express usually negative opinion about someone or something, or to criticize, and then sometimes it this word krino uh it's referring to a judgment or a condemnation by God, like the final judgment.

All right.

So there's a lot of different contexts, and so we have to ask in the Sermon on the Mount, when he's saying, judge not lest you be judged, who is he talking to, and what is he specifically speaking about?

We know in this passage and in the large body of the Sermon on the Mount that he's speaking to uh a lot of the religious leaders, specifically the Pharisees, and even in this passage that we read, he called them hypocrites because why?

Because they had a way of creating hierarchy, hierarchies of who is in and who is out of God's plan.

Okay?

You guys hanging?

Jesus was not outlawing all discernment and moral judgments, he was condemning those who placed themselves on a pedestal as the models of morality while their hearts were full of evil attitudes.

There's nothing wrong about stating the truth about right and wrong, but that's only as long as our standard is God and not just us.

And so, what we have to understand is in the Sermon on the Mount, much of the Sermon on the Mount was about what we could call restorative justice.

It was calling people into righteousness with God and right living with each other.

Righteousness is just another fancy word of just saying right relationship with God, right relationship with each other.

This vertical righteousness of coming into alignment with God, and then there's a way of relating to others.

And so much of the Sermon on the Mount was about bringing outcasts back into dignified relationship, exposing any systems of thought or ways of living that were keeping people pushed out.

And so Jesus over and over and over again would confront attitudes and motivations and postures that kept people on the margins of what God was doing, on the edges of his plan, and he would expose them and say that these things must go because God's plan is for all of us to come into his kingdom.

And so that's what he was doing.

And so when he said, do not judge, he was saying this.

He was saying, watch out for the way of living, a way of viewing and seeing the world in such a way that holds people at a distance, keeping them beneath you in some kind of moral ladder that you decide upon.

Okay?

Now ice cream is sounding really good right now.

When we condemn others, and so this this word crino, in this particular passage, what Jesus is saying, do not do this.

He's not saying don't evaluate right and wrong.

What he's saying is do not condemn those as if you are the final judge of them.

Do not hold them to a standard to which you haven't held yourself to the same standard.

And remember that you have a judge, that you have a judge, and they have a judge, that we all have a judge who is righteous, that we will stand before at one point in time.

We see this in John chapter 8 when Jesus is addressing the women caught in the act of adultery.

John 8 · chapter mention

When he goes and he raises her up, the one who is exposed, there was a group of men who were about to throw stones at this woman because she was caught in the act of adultery.

And so Jesus raises her up and he speaks to her.

And after he disarms those who were out against her, what does he say to her?

He says, He says, Listen, uh just like they do not condemn you, I neither do I condemn you, condemn you, right?

And so basically say, they don't, they're not here to judge you anymore.

No one's left here to judge you, and I'm not here to judge you.

I'm not here to condemn you.

It's part A, but then he also says, and go and sin no more.

Right?

So he's saying, I'm not judging, I'm not condemning you, but let this be a mark in the let this be a moment also.

You don't have to live this life.

Go and sin no more.

And so in the same breath, he was able to pull her into the present work of God in her life, and also help her distinguish between right and wrong so she could live a life of freedom.

This is so important, guys.

This is so this is so important that we understand that the grace and truth of Jesus, the way he operates both of them together.

And so, according to Jesus, the reason he says, judge not lest you be judged, is this part two.

He says, For with the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged.

And with the measure you use, it'll be measured to you.

So he gets into kind of a metrics metaphor now, a measurement metaphor.

And the measure we use to judge others is the same that it will come back on us.

It'll be used by others against us, the measure to which we measure, but also in the life to come.

And see, the measuring stick we use is important.

And so we have to be careful with how quickly we write off and position ourselves higher than other people in our life.

And we have all kinds of measuring sticks.

Most of us don't even know that they're there.

They're so subconscious that we don't know that they're there.

I mean, I I've got this figured out, but you guys, this message is for you, all right?

I was really excited to preach this message to you all because you have to figure this out.

See, that's part of the problem.

Like we never think that we are at the center of the problem.

This is the this is the water we're swimming in, guys.

You guys see this?

We always think we're exempt.

And so when you see others, how do you view the people in your life that you see?

How do you view when you're at the grocery store and you see parents berating their kids in public or talking harshly?

What is you what do you start to think about them?

What do you start to think about when you walk into the house of a hoarder?

What do you start to gather and collect about that person?

What about somebody who is overweight or underweight, somebody who can't keep a job?

What is it that you start to think about?

We start to collect these categories to place people in to know what to do with them and what their problem is.

Somebody in debt or somebody actually who isn't wealthy, somebody who lives in a trailer park and somebody who lives in a mansion.

We have all kinds of judgments, good and bad, about a lot of people.

We have judgments about people who always seem to be put together.

We have judgments about judgmental people, which is the funniest thing.

You ever hear somebody talk about judgmental people and they seem to be very angry?

And they don't even say it.

Somehow we think that's okay.

But our language is often the giveaway, right?

In an election season, this is even it's just more blaringly evident.

If you've made any comment, just tell me this is you actually don't raise your hand.

But in the last few months, if you've posted or said anything about those elitist woke liberals.

Or you're caught talking to your friend about those those undereducated MAGA right wingers.

See, when you say those things, you feel completely justified because you know what you mean.

Like you are you y you have a collection of thoughts about Why that's okay to say about an entire group of people, probably half of the nation.

But language like that actually insulates us and protects us and actually justifies the judgments of our hearts.

It's not that the critique isn't deserved or necessary at times to talk about ways of thinking and why it's right or wrong.

No, that's the evaluation period.

That's the good kind of judgment.

We are called to walk in wisdom and discernment and a good kind of judgment.

But what happens is we take entire categories of people and we place a wedge between us and them.

I am not like them, and somehow my position is morally superior to their position.

Now, this is particularly important in politics because I, it's my opinion that in in the West, specifically in the United States, politics are the new religion of our day.

So all the passion that used to be given to the worship of God is now just being channeled into the left and the right ring pop right wing politics.

So, and and so with that said, I think the new Pharisees, it's not in the church, I think it's actually in the political realm.

The new Pharisees of our day are the ones deciding what is morally acceptable and right or wrong on a policy level, and then everybody else is judged accordingly as outside of the way that we should go.

Okay?

This is what's happening.

And we have to name it, we have to expose it.

Bishop T.

D.

Jakes, though, said this.

He said, It's easy to judge people based on what they do when you never understand how they felt until you felt and experienced what someone else has.

Try your best not to have a judgmental spirit.

And according to Jesus, when you when we judge, we use a measury stick, the same thing will be used against us.

And so ultimately, God is our ultimate judge.

We will stand before God and give an account with the way we see and perceive others.

Now, I want to read a passage from Romans chapter 2, and then we're gonna read from Romans 14.

Romans 2 · chapter mention

This is not in the screen, but here's what Paul says to the Romans he says, Therefore, you have no excuse, O man.

Every one of you who judges, for in the passing of judgment on another you condemn yourself because you, the judge, practice the very same things.

We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things.

Do you suppose, O man, you who judge those who practice such thing things and yet do them yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God?

Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead to repentance?

So everything Paul is talking about is in light of, not just now, it's in light of eternity.

Guys, we have to just go with me for a moment.

Our entire life will be summed up before the judgment seat of God.

And you say, Well, I'm saved, right?

I'm saved, he saved me.

Yeah, that's that's true.

When we call upon the name of Jesus, he saves us, but there is something in the scriptures about still standing before him, even under the blood of Jesus, and there's still a great reckoning that happens in our life.

And according to Paul, according to Jesus, there's something about the way that which we view and perceive the way we've treated and valued and propped up or held back the people in our lives.

All of those things still have to be exposed to the white hot love of God, the holiness of God.

And it all is going to be shown at the end of the day.

And so there has to be something sobering to us that the words that we use, the attitudes of our heart, cannot be flippant, that cannot be coerced by your political party, it cannot be hijacked by the cultural norms of the day.

We have to remember that our job as believers is to extend to one another the same forgiveness and mercy extended to us by our Father in heaven.

That is our job, that is our participation in the life of the kingdom, is to reflect what God has done for us unto others.

Romans 14, verse 10, Paul continues this thought, and he says, Why do you pass judgment on your brother?

Romans 14:10

Or you, why do you despise your brother?

For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.

For it is written, As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue confess to God.

So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.

So when we sing songs about the holiness of God and all crying holy and shouting his name, you gotta know that's you too.

And there's things, do you realize there that God knows us more than we know ourselves?

I am more sinful than I know, and I am more loved than I know.

And you are too.

We are all more sinful and broken than we actually know.

And we are more redeemed and saved and loved than we could ever know.

Because God knows all, he knows the thoughts and intentions of our hearts.

So when it comes to the way that we interact with others, there is a holiness to this call.

There is a next level sacredness to the way that we perceive, that we talk about and interact with each other in our culture.

And I believe if we are to heed the words of Jesus, it's the same thing.

Like, listen, you need to be very cautious of the judgments of your heart.

Because you will have to respond to those same judgments, both here on earth and in heaven.

So, what are we supposed to do about that, though?

Here's where Jesus gets into this next part.

He says, Why do you see a speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?

Or how do you say to your brother, let him take the speck out of your eye when there is a log in your own eye?

You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, then you're able to see clearly the speck out of your brother's eye.

So this is Jesus' kind of you know, most explicit stand-up bit right here.

It's like he meant this to be funny.

He's like, Can we just laugh at ourselves for a second?

We we make a big deal about everybody else while there's this giant oak tree just sticking right out of our eye.

So as if we could see anybody clearly, we have these massive beams just like clouding our vision.

He's like, This is ridiculous what we're doing.

You think that you can judge somebody else and you haven't given an account for your own self yet.

And so he's he's saying, we, you know, we we we want, we, there's this desire to live our lives in such a way that we see others' problem first without examining our own.

This is what he's exposing.

And so he likens it to a speck of sawdust, which is the most annoying thing ever, right?

And he a speck of dust in a brother's eye, and he said, What how do you think that you're going to go get that speck out of somebody else's eye if you haven't done the work yourself?

Funny enough, the people most eager to tell others what to do are the ones who are generally least self-aware.

Okay.

John Stott said it like this.

He said, Quote, we have a fatal tendency to exaggerate the faults of others and to minimize the gravity of our own.

Do you guys know what I'm saying?

You know you're the problem when everybody else is the problem.

That's another way of saying it.

You know what I'm talking about.

There's people in your life that say everybody else, everybody else is always the problem.

It's always somebody else.

That's how you know there is a giant tree sticking out of your eye.

The only thing that you're willing to critique is everybody but yourself, because you're right about everything.

You've figured out everything, right?

It's always them.

It's always they.

It's always a third party that nobody can quite name or know.

But what Jesus is saying is, he says, uh, he doesn't say don't remove the speck out of a brother's eye.

He says, before you do that, do the hard work of acknowledging what's in your own eye.

Do you guys see that?

There is a place of helping each other.

There is a place of help, helping each other see something in our lives.

This is actually very important, especially in the church.

We don't have the same call with those outside of the household of faith, and we don't have time to get into that, but Paul would say, like, listen, the outsiders don't hold them to the same standard.

But those of you who following Jesus, you have a responsibility to each other to get into each other's lives, right?

But he's saying, before you start that journey of trying to dissect and get into somebody, are you doing that work yourself?

Are you doing that work from the inside out?

So here's a good question that all of us have to wrestle with is am I aware of my own sins, blind spots, weaknesses, and vulnerabilities?

Are you aware of your own sins, blind spots, weaknesses, and vulnerabilities?

And the way that you would know that you're aware of them is that you've named them, you've confessed, you've confessed them and repented of them, and you continue to do so.

A lot of us feel like, oh, like, oh yeah, I know, I know my blind spots, I know.

But have you talked about them with anybody?

Have you verbalized them?

Usually that's that's why in the scriptures there is so much power in a confessional community, the kind of community that can say, This is what's going on in my life.

I just need to confess it.

I need to confess what I'm thinking about, I need to confess my sins or my behaviors.

It's not that we do that so we can enter into condemnation, it's that we do that so we can be freed from the power of that thing and enter into the forgiven, redeemed life.

When we confess something, we bring it to the light, and that's how we enter into the forgiveness, the forgiveness of God is by doing that first for ourselves.

I have to do this with my marriage all the time.

I always think I'm right.

Okay?

I always think I'm right.

And so this happened like a couple weeks ago.

I I was I was upset at my wife for something.

I felt like she treated me unfair fairly, and so I kind of had this thing where I just kind of cloister up and I get you know quiet and I don't talk about it, and then finally it comes out because I'm more of an introvert with that kind of stuff.

She's not, she'll talk about it right away.

Um, I have to have time to think about, but I was just kind of ruminating, you know, it was cooking inside, and finally I went to go talk about it, and then you know, I presented my case to her, and then you know, she's like, okay, you know, she said, I'm sorry.

She's like, Well, here's here's what you did, and and this is how it made me feel.

I'm like, Well, we're not talking about that.

We're not talking about how you feel.

I'm talking, I'm here to talk about how I feel.

I'm the one who started this conversation, all right?

You need to be empathize with me.

And I and I had this whole case built up.

I'm like, why do I need to apologize for anything?

It's very very adolescent of me, okay?

So I'm just throwing all my cards out there.

You guys wouldn't, you would not be proud to have been there.

Um I but I I realized in this moment that, like, oh my gosh, like I am so steeped in just one way of thinking.

I did not see how this affected her in this particular way.

And all of us go through these conversations, especially in a year like this, where we're dealing with people we don't understand, we're confronted with people we work with, we live with, that do not share the same worldview as us, okay?

So just here's a few questions, just kind of really more practically like how do we enter into a lifestyle where we can be who we are and say what we think and yet not enter into judgmentalism?

I think that's what we're going for.

You guys with me?

So, you know, a few reflective questions.

Number one, with the people in your life that are triggering you, you should ask the question, what am I believing about this person?

What am I believing about this person?

And it may even be just worth taking, you know, next time you get into a triggering conversation, 15 minutes, and just settle down and just say, why is interacting with this person so hard for me?

Um what is it that, you know, when they say certain things, what is being triggered inside of me that I can give an account for?

And I think just spend some time in reflection, what is going on?

What am I believing about this person?

Second question, why might they view the world in a different way than I do?

This is so critical.

Why may they view the world in a different way than I do?

This isn't about justifying any behavior or action, it's just about understanding how we get to certain conclusions.

Do you understand what I'm saying?

Do you guys realize that in this room, all of us were born in a specific time and place and era that all have different values and societal norms and cultural norms?

We all have very specific things.

All of us have a family of origin where certain things were normal, certain ways of relating things, certain political leanings, certain certain things.

We all have things that are normal.

Again, not to justify the things, but we have to own where we've come from, where we grew up, and those inherent things that are inside of us that shaped our worldview that's different than the other people around you.

Your ethnicity, your nationality, your poverty, your wealth, it all gets baked into a way of seeing the world.

And if we're not aware of how those things, how like for me growing up in the 90s in Fort Wayne, Indiana, if I don't think that shaped anything about my worldview, it's crazy.

That's why I like going to New York City a couple times a year.

I like going into the inner city like Manhattan and having conversations with believers there.

They believe wildly different things than I do.

And they have great reasons.

I mean, when I actually ask them, how do you why do you believe that?

And they I they walk me through their life experience, like, oh, I I don't land.

That's hard for me to you know to go there myself, but I I can see why you why you landed there.

So when we ask questions and we acknowledge our own upbringing, what happens is it starts to create compassion and empathy, which leads to another question.

So, what am I believing about this person?

What why might they view the world differently than I do?

And then what do I appreciate about them?

I believe it's just a good way of life, of believing that everybody you meet is your master in some way.

Everybody you meet has something to teach you.

God has given them something that you can learn from every single person you meet.

Even the dumbest, well, I shouldn't say that.

I'm just saying so judgy.

It's annoying to even say that, right?

That everybody has something to teach me, but it's true.

It's true.

And it changes everything if we live like that.

Now, that doesn't mean you have to cater to every particular person or belief.

That's not what I'm saying.

What I'm saying is it's a posture, guys, posture of heart.

And so when we meet other people, before we get into confronting people with their sin or their wrongdoing, we we have to get used to asking what we call compassionate, curious questions, growing in curiosity and compassion.

When you're with somebody asking them, you know, hey, I'd love to hear how you landed there.

I'd love to hear what, you know, why you why you think that way.

I'd love to hear why you think that's going to help our country.

Or, you know, if if if you know, once we've done the work, we can go to them and say, hey, listen, when you say things like this, this is how I feel.

This is what, this is what's going on inside of me.

That's this is why this is hard for me, right?

Can you see how the posture is different than just attack?

You're wrong, I'm right, this is reality, get with the program, right?

It's a different way of life when we ask compassionate, curious, curious questions.

Why do we do that?

Because we're reciprocating what God has done for us, and the truth is God is more kind than we are.

He's far more kind.

We feel so justified in our postures and the things that we do.

In a parallel passage, and we're coming into land here in a second, in this parallel passage, Luke chapter 6, Jesus says this.

Luke 6 · chapter mention

He says, But love your enemies and do good and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High.

For he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.

For he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.

Is that frustrating to you?

Come on, some of you, if that's frustrating to you, then that let that be your invitation.

If the Father in heaven is kind to the ungrateful and the evil, then what does that mean I should be?

And he continues, he says, Be merciful even as your father is merciful.

Judge not and you will not be judged.

Condemn not and you will not be condemned.

Forgive and you will be forgiven.

And I think what Jesus is doing here is it's not transactional, like you forgive, God forgives you.

You do this, God does this.

It's no, no, no.

The proof of a forgiven life is our ability for forgiveness to flow out.

It's a circular thing.

If you're not able to forgive, that's more of an indication that you are not aware of how forgiven you are.

If you're not able to extend mercy to somebody in your life, it means, man, you are very disconnected from the depth of your sin and the costs of that sin and the penalty of that sin and the mercy that you've had to receive through the shed blood of the Son of God.

When we withhold those things, it means we haven't entered into those things.

And so all of it is an invitation.

Let forgiveness flow, and as you do, you enter into this life of God that flows and it flows and it flows and it never stops.

This is what God has done for us.

So by forgiving others, by withholding judgment from others, we somehow participate in the life of God, and what that does is it makes us into humble, repentant, grateful people.

And we still get to walk with conviction and principles and values.

We still get to use our voice where we need to use our voice.

We still get to confront injustice where we need to confront injustice.

We still get to be strong people, not just being walked over.

But you see, we don't have to pick or choose between the two.

We can be principled people of the kingdom and still value the world that we live in, every per person, with with a with a priceless view that they are created in the image and the worth of God.

So let's let that be an invitation this morning.

I just want to lead us through some prayer this morning.

And uh I think this is dead center of how we can align with Jesus in this particular season, specifically the next 90 days, where I this is the water we're swimming in.

It's one of judgment, one of writing people off, distancing ourselves, creating wedges.

And Jesus has another way for us.

And he's inviting us into his way.

First, I just want to speak to you.

Let's just close our eyes across the room, and maybe I just want to speak to anybody who's ever been the recipient of judgment, and you feel like you've always been kept on the outside and ostracized.

I just want to speak to your heart this morning that God sees you.

He loves you.

You are not outside of his plan.

His invitation is to come and follow him.

Align your life with his.

And I'm not saying I know what Jesus wants to say to you today, but I just want to invite you, wherever you're sitting, to ask the question of Jesus.

Is there anything you want to show me about what is inside my own heart this morning that I need to surrender and let go of?

In your own words, you can ask that question to Jesus.

Show me what is sitting, God.

Just take a moment for that.

For some of us, that might mean a next step is confession, repentance.

It might mean actually going to somebody asking for forgiveness for an attitude or a judgment.

And my prayer this morning, our prayer, is that as we do that, as we release ourselves, as we let God examine us, remove the log from our own eye, so that we can see again.

My prayer is that the life flow of the kingdom of God just continues to re-enter our hearts, surge through us, that we can stand here rejoicing, that we are forgiven, that we are free, that God has done something so great for us in his Son Jesus.

Our sins have been paid for.

And so, because of that, he sees us as the righteousness of God.

Can we stand together this morning?

We're going to sing this song again about the holiness of God.

But God is holy forever.

And I believe this is what this message, this is what this thing is all about, is entering into the picture of God and his righteousness, his goodness and his holiness.

And he's leading us to become more like him.

We get to celebrate that we all stand before him.

And he knows who we are from the inside out.

Let's sing this together.

Yeah, just hearing while we were singing that just a reminder life and death is in the power of the tongue.

And together we must choose life.

We choose life this morning.

Who wants to choose life today?

Come on.

We choose life.

And so, God, as we sing of your holiness, we thank you that your way is the way of life and life abundant and life forevermore, Lord God.

So we replace death with life in the name of Jesus.

Let your life permeate us from the inside out to reflect your beauty and your glory and your majesty in every corner of this earth, God.

We love you, Jesus.

We give you our lives, and it's in Jesus' name.

We pray together.

Everybody said, Amen.

Come on.