Matthew | Judging Rightly in the Kingdom

Well, if you have your Bible, would you open it to Matthew

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

Chapter 7? You can grab your Bible, grab

your worship guide, kids and adults.

There's one for each of you where you can take notes through

the sermon. So I encourage you to do that.

And then I hope you've come with hearts prepared to work in the

words Lord this morning. All right, that's what we're

going to do. Let's get to work.

We are nearing the end of Jesus's Sermon on the Mount.

Now, we have said that this is a Kingdom manifesto, if you will.

And in the Sermon on the Mount, we are being told the Lord

really is. He's pressing beyond an outward

appearance of righteousness and he's exposing the hearts of

Kingdom citizens, right? And so again and again

throughout this, Jesus has shown that true righteousness is not

merely about what others see in you, but it's what's cultivated

before God in in the heart, right?

So in these verses that we're going to look at, we're going to

look at 7 one through 6 today. And in these verses, Jesus is

turning towards something that impacts every one of us.

All right? And that is, he's going to

discuss, he's going to teach on how we view, how we evaluate,

and how we respond to others. OK, now there's a lot there.

That's what those are very vague ways to describe it.

We'll get more into it. But I do want you to know this

few of Jesus's commands are more quoted and more misunderstood

than this one. Judge not all right?

So we have to ask, what does Jesus really mean?

Is all judgement wrong? Are we to ignore sin in someone?

Or is Jesus calling us to something deeper right,

something more searching, something more humbling, right,

something more holy or set apart from the world?

So we want to give our careful attention to the words of our

Lord and King this morning. And so if you're able, would you

please stand in honor of the reading of God's Word, Matthew

7, one through 6. When I'm finished reading, I'll

just say this is the word of the Lord and you can respond, Thanks

be to God. All right, so Jesus is speaking

here, Matthew 7, verse 1. Judge not that you be not

Matthew 7:1

judged, for with the judgment you pronounce you will be

judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.

Why do you see the speck 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 was a

log in your own eye? You hypocrites, 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.

Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls

before pigs, lest they trample them under foot and turn to

attack you. This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we we do give

thanks for your word. We are grateful that you as

Creator, perfectly holy, just, loving, righteous, you have

sought to teach us through the written Word.

And so, Lord, we thank you for the Scriptures that we have

opened today, the gift that they are to us as Christians to help

us live a life that honors you, a life that's worthy of the

gospel we've received. We thank you, Lord, that they

are sufficient for all of life, all of godliness, that they are

sufficient to draw sinners to yourself and to save them by

your marvelous grace. And so, Father, we ask now that

you would open our hearts and our minds, open our ears and our

eyes, to see and to understand, to hear, to believe your word.

Lord, would you do this by the power of your Spirit at work

among us. It's in the name of Christ, I

pray. Amen.

Amen. You may be seated.

So maybe you're like me. I have found myself in many

conversations through the years where someone will say something

like this. I just don't think anyone has

the right to judge others. Even Jesus said judge not.

It just kind of stops there. And that's meant to be an end to

the conversation, right? Well, you and I live in a world

where one of the highest values is this.

Do not judge others. It's one of the highest values.

That was a bird that flew into the window.

Everybody's OK. Just want you to know if you're

sitting over there, you're going to make it all right.

So the bird may not, but you will.

All right. Hey, we're going to we, we will

read soon. Not a Sparrow falls to the

ground apart from the word of the Lord.

It's Providence. I don't know what else to tell

you. All right, so we have, we have

to ask the question like if that's the value system, this

judge, not we, we have to ask the question, then why do we

make so many judgments, right? Because why?

We'll say, don't judge. There's this problem right at

work. We constantly make judgments

about things right we We judge motives of others.

We judge actions. We'll judge parenting decisions,

parenting tactics. We'll judge political views of

one another. We'll judge how people spend

their money. We'll judge how they talk, the

things they say, the things they talk about.

We'll judge how they live their lives, and at the same time, we

will be greatly offended if anyone judges us in the same

way. Right?

Maybe I'm alone in this. All right.

OK, so which is it? Are we supposed to judge or not?

That's the question and that's exactly the tension that Jesus

is addressing in this passage this morning.

Like if we misunderstand him here though, I want you to be

aware of this. If we misunderstand this

passage, then we will fall likely into into two ditches,

right? Either we will become harsh and

self-righteous, condemning others at every opportunity, or

we will become passive, undiscerning, and tolerant of

sin and error in people's lives. We'll just allow it to happen.

But again, Jesus is calling us to something deeper.

All right, And it would be better to say it this way.

Jesus is calling us to something that's shaped by grace and

truth, which is what John declared.

The apostle John declared of Christ when he came that he is

full of grace and truth. So here's the main point of the

passage. If you're taking notes, you can

fill in the blanks there and you worship God.

Because we have received grace from God, we must deal humbly

with our own sin, help others lovingly with theirs, and handle

holy things with wise discernment.

Because we have received the grace of God, or because we have

received grace from God, we must deal humbly with our own sin,

help others lovingly with theirs, and handle holy things

with wise discernments. Jesus is going to unfold that

for us in three clear movements. The first we'll see is that we

must examine ourselves humbly before judging others.

Secondly, we must correct others graciously after confronting our

own sin. And thirdly, we'll see we must

discern wisely when handling holy things.

So here's what's before us if we are to live as citizens of

Christ's Kingdom. And I trust that that's why

you're here today, all right, as believers, to learn how to live

as a better citizen of the Kingdom of Christ, right?

Then we must learn to judge rightly, all right?

We're not as hypocrites, not as harsh critics, but as those who

have been transformed by the grace of God.

Amen. And so let's begin with the

first command here. Number one, examine yourself

humbly before judging others. This is covering verses 1 and 2.

And so as we as we come to verse one, Jesus gives one of the most

well known commands in all of Scripture.

Judge not that you be not judged.

Now again, this is one of the most misunderstand understood

commands of the Bible. Jesus is not forbidding all

judgment. He is not telling us to abandon

discernment. He's not telling you to ignore

sin. In fact, later in Matthew's

Gospel, he warns us to beware of false prophets and to test them,

which requires discernment. Later.

Later in Matthew's Gospel, he commands us to confront a

brother who sins, right? So what then is Christ

forbidding in Matthew 7? Well, he's forbidding a spirit

of self-righteous, hypocritical condemnation of others, right?

Yet this, this sort of posture of the heart that places us

above others as their judge while ignoring our own sins,

That's what he's forbidding here.

So I don't want you to miss the reason he gives.

Judge, not that you be not judged.

It's the reason, judge, not that you be not judged.

Now this is often called a divine passive, a divine

passive. Now what that means is there is

an implied judge here. Judge not that you be not judged

by who? The implied judge here is God

Himself, right? In other words, Jesus is saying

that if you take your seed as judge over others in a proud,

condemning style, then you are inviting God's judgment upon

yourself. Verse 2 makes it even clearer.

Jesus says, For with the judgment that you pronounce, you

will be judged and with the measure that you use, it will be

measured to you. So in other words, the standard

you apply to others reveals your hearts, right?

It reveals what you think about yourself and it will also become

the standard by which God will deal with you right now.

This is exactly what we see echoed in the in Romans 2 verse

one, and Paul writes there he says when you judge another, you

condemn yourself because you, the judge practice the very same

things, right? So listen, the issue is not

whether we make judgments, it's how we make those judgments and

it's from what kind of heart are we making those judgments.

You see, Jesus is exposing a critical fault finding spirit, a

spirit that is quick to condemn others, a spirit that's slow to

extend mercy to someone, a spirit that's blind to its own

need for God's grace. Consider how easily we do this

right? We see what we see someone

else's sin, and we'll magnify it, all right?

We'll, we'll, we'll make sure that we amplify that thing to

the NTH degree, all right? We'll put it under a microscope,

we'll dissect it. We'll put it under a magnifying

glass so that's easier to see. And that's what Jesus is

exposing here, right? We'll analyze the sin.

We'll shake our heads at the sin.

We'll talk about the sin either, you know, we might say it,

anyone might use it as a as like a veiled prayer request.

But really it's just gossip. Have you heard that?

So and so did such and such. We should really pray for them.

But really the motivation behind that was just to tell the story,

right? But when it comes to our own

sin, let's keep that private. But let's minimize that.

But let's excuse it, right? I wouldn't have done that if I

hadn't. Blah, blah, blah.

All right? You don't know the way I was

raised. You don't.

You don't know the kind of dad I had.

You don't know. You know the anger I deal with.

You don't know my life experience.

And right, all these things contribute to the kind of person

I am. Well, excuse it.

We justify it even, right? Well, if they hadn't done such

and such, then I wouldn't have responded the way I did.

But that was on them, right? They got what they deserved.

Justified. Here's the problem, brothers and

sisters, we are often very skilled at being prosecuting

attorneys for others and being really great defense attorneys

for ourselves. And Jesus says that kind of

judgment has no place in my Kingdom, no place in my Kingdom.

So then we have to ask, well, what should we do?

How does this, how does this land on us?

What's it calling us to do? Well, first, it calls you to

humility, right? Yet before you evaluate someone

else's life, you should examine your own hearts and examine it

with honesty. Bring things into the light,

Don't keep them in the dark. Examine it with humility.

Understand that your whole life is lived before the face, before

the eyes of God, right? Secondly, it calls us to merce.

On one hand we have humility, on another we have mercy.

If you have received grace from God through Christ, you are a

believer in Jesus Christ. He's raised you to walk in

newness of life, Then you cannot live with a harsh, condemning

spirits toward others. All right.

The forgiven do not become merciless.

They don't become merciless. Thirdly, it calls us to fear

God, to Revere Him, to understand that He is the

perfect judge. It's not just about Jesus.

What Jesus saying here is not just about how we treat others.

It is also about how God will deal with you, right?

We, you are not the final judge. You might put yourself in the

place of judge of someone's life, but you are not the final

judge. Again, your whole life has lived

before the face of God. You will stand before God one

day. So we should fear God as we

think about judgement. So we must put away the posture

of superiority. We put away the instinct to

condemn others. We have to put away the

eagerness to point out the faults of someone else.

And instead, this text invites us to take the low place, to

take the place of those who know their own sin, to take the place

of those who cling to God's grace.

Hide ourselves under the shadow of His wings.

Amen. But that does raise an important

question. I think that if we're not the

judge in a hypocritical, self-righteous way, does that

mean that we never address sin in others?

Do do we just ignore someone else's sin?

Do do we pretend that it's not there?

Well, Jesus answers those questions for us directly in the

next verses, right? So point #2 correct others

graciously after confronting your own sin.

Correct others graciously after confronting your own sin.

Here we're looking at verses 3 through 5 S.

Jesus presses the issue further here, using one of the most

vivid and unforgettable images in all of Scripture.

If you've got a visual mind at all, you should chuckle as you

read this right. Why do you see the speck in your

brother's eye but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?

Now, the word for spec here refers to something small.

It's like a splinter or a tiny piece of debris.

But the law, the word log here refers to a large beam.

Literally a log, right? Something massive, something

impossible to miss. Maybe at the very least, you

could think of a 2 by 4 protruding out of someone's eye,

right? Jesus is exposing the absurdity

of hypocrisy. Why are you, with a 2 by 4

protruding out of your eye, so concerned about the speck of

dust in your neighbor's eye, your brother's eye, right?

It means it's meant to be a piercing kind of humor, right?

It's so absurd, the image is so absurd that it makes you

chuckle. But at the same time, it's

piercing the truth behind it because it reveals something

true about ourselves, right? We noticed quickly where others

fall short. But when it comes to our own

sin, as we said a moment ago, we're often blind, or at least

we don't want to see it for what it truly is.

We'll minimize it, we'll hide it.

And so Jesus continues in verse four, he says, or how can you

say to your brother this log in your eye?

Hey, let me take that speck out of your eye.

Do you hear the assumption in that the man is offering help,

but but he's in no position to give any help, is he?

And and Jesus then names it plainly in verse 5, You

hypocrites. That's strong language, but it's

necessary language. It is hypocritical.

It's exactly what it is. The the issue is not that the

man is wanting to address sin. The issue is that he is doing so

hypocritically without dealing honestly with his own faults.

All right, and then Jesus gives the proper order.

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.

All right, notice carefully here.

Notice the wording. Jesus does not say ignore the

speck. He says deal with your sin

first, then you will be able to help your brother.

So this is not a call. This is not a call to avoid

correction. It's a call to purify

correction. Correction is not removed in the

New Testament. Correction is redeemed in the

New Testament. The correction in the Kingdom of

God is meant to be humble, not proud.

It's meant to be after the goal of restoration, to be

restorative in its nature, not condemning.

And it's meant to be clear sighted.

I've dealt with the log in my own eye, and so that I'm not

reacting as a hypocrite or acting as a hypocrite here.

You see, it's only when we have honestly and seriously

confronted our own sin before God that we are able to see

clearly enough to help someone else.

All right? Think of it this way.

If you had something in your eye, all right, something

painful, something that needed to be removed, right, you, you

wouldn't want a person with blurred vision and shaking hands

trying to fix that, would you? Right, you?

You would want someone who can see clearly.

It's not someone who's careful their hands are steady, right?

Someone who understands what they're doing.

Well, Jesus is saying when it comes to dealing with sin, you

must first address your own blindness, your own lack of

clear sight, your own shaky hands before attempting to help

someone see better. So how does this shape us then?

Well first it calls the serious. I'm going to use the word

serious. Serious self confrontation.

Not surface level confession, not vague acknowledgement.

I'm really struggling this week. Could you just pray for me?

No, but a real honest confrontation with our sin

before God. Right?

But before you speak into someone else's life, you must

ask yourself, have I examined my own heart and have I examined my

own heart? Am I aware of my own need for

God's grace? Secondly, this passage, this

portion of the passage calls us to offer what we might call

gracious correction. You have to notice the word

Jesus uses brother, if you can help your brother.

But the goal is not to win an argument, but the goal is not to

prove a point. The goal is always to win a

brother. Amen.

That's the point of correction, gracious correction.

That means our correction should be marked by gentleness.

It should be marked by patience and love and a desire for

restoration. Our correction should be filled

with the Spirit. Amen.

And 3rd, it calls us the clarity of vision.

Only those who are honest about their own sin can help others

rightly. You see, pride blinds, but grace

clarifies. When you know how much you've

been forgiven. You will not come at others

harshly. You will come with humility and

with care for their soul. So the text is not saying ignore

sin and others. No, it's saying don't ignore the

sin and others. But neither can you rush in

carelessly. Amen.

But even that, I think, raises another question, like we're to

examine ourselves humbly and correct others graciously.

Does that mean that we treat everyone the same in every

situation without distinction? The Bible take a stab at that.

Jesus answers that for us in verse 6.

Point #3 Discern wisely when handling holy things to serve

wisely when handling holy things.

Now in verse 6, Jesus had something that at first glance

might feel surprising. It might even make you a little

uncomfortable because it's a bit jarring.

Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls

before pigs lest they trample them under foot in turn to

attack you. Now this is not a verse about

how to handle your dog at home or your pigs, all right.

But why does Jesus say that here?

Why? Why offer this after what he's

just walked through? I think it partly because he

knows his words in verses one through 5 could be easily

misunderstood. They could be easily

mistranslated to mean judge not ever.

If we hear judge not, we might think, well, I should never make

distinctions, I should never notice things.

I should treat everyone the same.

I should just keep offering truth no matter how it's

received. And Jesus here in verse 6 is

saying no, no, listen, you have to understand, grace does not

mean gullibility. Grace is not being you become

gullible. Grace does not mean you become a

doormat. Love.

Love does not mean that you should lack discernment right

here. Jesus is using strong imagery to

describe a certain kind of people, dogs and pigs.

Now if you're offended by that, just remember he called us

hypocrites just a few verses ago, right?

These were not household pets in the day of Christ.

They were unclean animals. They're often used as images of

those who are hostile dogs, aggressive like dogs,

unresponsive to the sacred or trampling upon it like a pig

would, right? And so here he's Speaking of

what is holy. Here he's Speaking of pearls.

He's talking about things that are precious, right?

Things that are valuable, things that are set apart.

And so the warning is this, do not take what is sacred, what is

precious, and continually place it before those who will only

despise it and trample on it and respond with hostility.

Again, I don't want you to misunderstand what Christ is

saying. He's, he's not giving you

permission, brother or sister, to write someone off too

quickly. You don't have that permission.

He's not encouraging you to have a harsh or cynical spirit toward

others. You understand that we are

called by God to boldly proclaim the gospel and to broadly

proclaim the gospel. But but he's teaching us here

that there are times, there are times where the gospel is so

offensive to someone that they display a settled, hardened

rejection of truth, a contempt for that message which is holy.

And in those moments Christ is saying wisdom is required.

There are times to speak up, and then there are times to close

your mouth. There are times to press in, and

there are times to back off and entrust someone to the Lord in

prayer, even Jesus himself at times.

We'll see it as we go through the gospel.

Even Christ Himself at times withheld further words, or He

withdrew when faced with hardened opposition, instructed

His apostles to do the same. So this verse does not

contradict the call to humility and grace at all.

It completes the call to humility and grace.

Right. Kingdom citizens must be humble

and gracious, yes and Amen. And they must also be

discerning. Think of giving something to

someone that is deeply valuable to you.

It's something precious. If it's a family heirloom, it's

something that means a lot to you.

And you give it to someone and they have no regard for it.

They don't care about it. They don't recognize it's worth.

They don't treat it with, you know, with care.

They they misuse it. They even mock it.

Now over time you realize this is not helping and it's also

dishonouring what is valuable right?

That that's the picture that Jesus is painting here.

The the issue is not the pearls value.

The gospel has the value at all times.

The the issue is the response of the one receiving it.

So again, how does this shape us?

How does this inform how we live day-to-day?

Well, first it calls us to value that which is holy.

I want you to understand the gospel is not common.

It's it's not worthless. The truth of the gospel is not

disposable. We must have it.

It's highly valuable. It's the story of God giving his

most prized possession, his own Son, for the sake of sinners.

You know, Paul writes that we were bought with a precious

price, the life and the blood of Jesus Christ himself.

So we must never treat God's truths lightly.

We must never treat the truths of the gospel lightly.

As believers, we must be careful not to place them in context

where they are persistently scorned and trampled upon as

unbelievers. Many of you in here today are an

unbeliever, that there's a warning here for you.

And the warning is this. You want to be careful not to

scorn or trample on gospel truths.

Instead, you should beg God to help you believe them with all

your heart and all your soul to trust them emphatically.

Secondly, this passage calls us to exercise discernment toward

people. I want you to understand this.

Not all rejection is the same. It's just not.

You have to be discerning, right?

Some people might reject initially because they're

struggling. They're questioning, they're

struggling with the truth. They're they're questioning

their validity, the wrestling with what you're telling them.

They're also having to wrestle with their own sinfulness and

wrestle with a perfect holy just God.

And, and recognizing that they're falling short.

You understand that, right? And so they may be hardened at

1st and maybe even be hostile at first, but you're called by God

to patiently walk with them. Others may harden themselves

against the truth, right? They mock it, they attack it,

they'll blasphemy it in crisis, saying here that wisdom

recognizes the difference in those responses.

Thirdly, this passage calls us to trust God with the results

You and I cannot manufacture the results of someone's heart.

We're not God, we don't have that power, right that I love

this old saying from the Puritans.

The same sun that melts the ice hardens the clay.

And it was a description of how they would talk about what the

gospel message does. The same gospel message will

soften the heart, it'll melt it and it will also harden the

heart, right? The gospel message softens sums,

it hardens others. Your job is not to worry

yourself about the results. Your job is to be faithful to

God in your proclamation of the gospel and to trust God with

their heart and soul. Amen.

There are times when continuing to press the same truth into a

hardened heart does not lead to repentance, it'll lead to

greater resistance. And in those moments, you

entrust that person to the Lord in prayer, knowing that only he

can soften the heart. You beg him for wisdom on how to

proceed. So as Kingdom citizens, you are

not called to be harsh toward others.

You're not called to be naive either about sin.

You're called by God to be wise. You're called by God to examine

yourself humbly, You're called by God to correct others with

grace, and you're called by God to discern others wisely when

handling that which is holy, God's word.

And when all those things come together right, they reveal a

heart that has truly been shaped by the grace of God.

And that brings us to this question that we all must

answer. We all must answer this.

Am I living this way? Am I living this way?

Am I examining myself humbly before I will judge others?

Or am I really quick to see others faults while remaining

blind to my own? Am I correcting others

graciously after confronting my own sin?

Or am I speaking up from pride rather than from love for

others? Am I discerning wisely when

handling what is holy? Or have I been careless with the

truth and naive and how I employ it?

You see, this passage exposes us brothers and sisters, by nature,

by human nature, we do not live this way.

It requires a supernatural experience with the grace of

Christ. We we are quick to judge.

We're harsh with others and we're slow to examine ourselves.

We're gentle with ourselves. So that means that you and I as

Christians need more than instruction.

We need the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So look to Christ today. Where you have judged wrongly,

he has judged rightly. Where you have been harsh, He

has been merciful. At the cross, Christ bore the

judgment that you and I deserved.

While we were still sinners, Christ died for us so that we

might receive mercy instead of condemnation.

And when the grace of the Lord takes hold of your life, it

begins to transform you. Brothers and sisters, it humbles

you. You.

You see your own sin more clearly.

You're not walking around with a log in your eye.

You're noticing the specks now. It, it, it humbles you.

It it softens you. It makes you willing to

sacrifice time, to sacrifice just your own desires, your own

whatever, to be able to help others in their time of need.

It softens you towards their needs and it teaches you to deal

honestly with your own sin before you confront the sin of

others so that you might lovingly deal with theirs.

So the call today for believers and unbelievers is the same as

it is every week. Come to Christ, find help from

the Lord in your time of need. But listen, if you are an

unbeliever again, if you don't know Christ as your Lord and

Savior, I, I implore you, turn from your sin.

Trust Christ as your Lord today. And if you do know Christ, you

are a believer, then I urge you as well live as one who has

received grace from on high. Examine yourself with humility,

Be honest in your evaluation of yourself.

Correct others with grace, with gentleness, with a desire to see

them redeemed, to see them reconciled to God, and discern

wisely those holy things that God has called you to handle,

those gospel truths as you cast them abroad, as you boldly

proclaim them. Recognize when you're dealing

with pigs and dogs, and when you're dealing with someone

who's sincere and wanting to understand.

In doing so, you will reflect the heart of your King.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you

for your grace and your mercy. We thank you for your great help

and our time of need. Father, we thank you that you

have given us this instruction on how to rightly judge sin and

the world in which we live. And to God, it is my prayer that

you would help us to be the kind of people who are humble, who

understand our own sinfulness, who understand our own struggles

with temptation, our bouts with fallen nature.

God, would you help us to be wretched over our sin?

Would you help us to be mournful over our sin?

Would you help us to find mercy and grace at the cross of

Christ? As we re remember our

transgressions, as we think on those?

May our souls be comforted by the truth that Christ bore every

one of our iniquities on Himself, that He bore our

transgressions, that He has made us new, that He's healed us by

His own stripes, that He's given to us His own righteousness and

taken our unrighteousness on Himself.

And help us to be comforted in that, that we might go out

boldly proclaiming the gospel, rightly judging sin, and seeking

to truly help others out of the miry pits, to see them brought

into the marvelous light of your salvation.

So God, I guess my prayer is that you would help us to not

burn with anger so much so over sin that we will not.

We refuse to proclaim the gospel.

We refuse to call people to repent.

But God give us soft hearts toward others.

Help us to be willing to help a brother in need.

Father, I pray for unbelievers today.

I pray, Lord, that You would help them now to judge rightly

the state of their own soul, that you would help them to see

that before you. They are stripped naked, they

are bare in their own sin. They are covered in the darkness

of iniquity, and they're in need of a Savior.

They're in need of the marvellous light of salvation.

They're in need of a new heart, and may they beg you today to

save them. May they call out to you, as

Romans 10 teaches, that everyone who calls upon the name of the

Lord will be saved. May that be true of them this

day. I'm going to give you a moment

now in your seat to seek the Lord in prayer, to bring your

sin before Him, to confess before Him today, to judge

rightly your own hearts, to be honest in your evaluation of

yourself, and to plead with Him to provide all that you need

today. Heavenly Father, we thank you

that we can boldly approach your throne of grace and our time of

need, and we can find mercy and grace in every situation.

That we have a sympathetic high priest in heaven who was tempted

and tried as we are, yet without sin.

And so he knows the need of our souls.

He knows the need of our lives. We thank You, Father, that You

do not leave us in our need, but that by Your mercy and grace You

meet every one of them. You tend to our hearts and to

our souls as a gentle shepherd does His sheep.

You call us away from sinfulness.

You call us away from temptation.

You protect our lives, You guide us in the way that we should go.

You make known to us the path of life, and at Your right hand are

pleasures forevermore. We thank you, Father, that you

are a good God. You're faithful to every

generation and steadfast in Your love.

And we know that now as we have sought you in prayer and our

time of need and the Father help us to live a life that would

honor your great name. And especially in this area of

how we rightly judge. Maybe do that in a way that

would bring honor to you. And maybe do that in a way that

would cast a light on sin. We cast a light on darkness.

And having cast a light, people would see it for what it really

is, that they would be drawn to Christ our Lord, that would be

saved. Father, forever, we love you.

It's in the name of Christ we pray.

Amen.