Questions Jesus Asked Part 4 | The Plank In Our Eye with Chris Schlotterbeck

Welcome to Hub City Vineyard.

To get connected or to give online go to connect.hcv.church or give.hcv.church.

If at any point during this message you feel called to make a change in your life, text

change me to 970-00.

Thank you and enjoy the message.

Good morning everyone.

So if you weren't awake, you're awake now.

Welcome to HCV.

If you're joining us from home, thank you for welcoming us into your space.

I just want to start real quick before I jump into our talk.

In your bulletins, if we could kind of shake them and look at them, there's a little flyer

that we put in every bulletin.

Mine's a little bit bigger than yours, yours is a postcard size.

So if you don't know, we are hosting, actually establishing our first annual tie-dye run

for freedom on October 12th of this very year.

This run is a 5K, 10K, your choice, or you can have your whole family do a mile family

fun run or walk.

And all of the money, okay, all of the money is being given to Compassion International

to end child slavery and exploitation.

Okay, so every penny, every penny from the runners to sponsors to whatever it may be,

we're giving it all away.

Compassion will be joining us for that entire weekend.

So we're going to have a Compassion weekend.

We're going to have a sponsoree from the Dominican Republic that's actually going to come here

and share his story about how Compassion changed his life and his journey and how he saw God

in the midst of it.

Here's what I want you to do.

Our goal as a community of faith is to have 200 runners participate in the first annual

5K, 10K run for freedom.

Do you think we can do that?

I agree, I think we can do that too.

Here's where you come in.

Your postcard, I want you to take that postcard and I want you to put it into someone's hands

that likes to run, that likes to exercise, that likes to take care of themselves and

invite them to run it with you.

Now some of you think, well Chris, I'm not going to run it.

Well that's okay, you can volunteer and be on the course and hand a bottle of water and

high five them and say, yeah, I'm doing it with you.

See, so you can participate and you can be a part in inviting someone to be a part of

this run.

Now, for all my business owners, if you own a business or you know someone that owns a

business, we have created, please flip it up there, a sponsorship level where businesses

can sponsor the run.

Okay, 250, 500, 750, 1,000, 1,500 and again, all this money goes where?

Where does it go?

To Compassion International, exactly.

All the money is being given away, HCV is keeping none, we just want to bring awareness

to the reality that slavery still exists in 2024 throughout the world.

And a lot of those slaves, unfortunately, are children that are being taken advantage

of, they're being forced into pornography, they're being forced into making the food

and the clothes that we wear and eat and it shouldn't.

Okay, and it's our desire to raise this awareness so that we can make a difference in the world.

Can we do that?

All right, so you can go to the Welcome Hub after this.

You can sign up to run today, you can grab a corporate sponsor letter and take it to

someone you know.

If anybody is in with the gyms, there isn't any reason our gyms aren't sponsoring this

run, right?

So if you know someone at, what's the one over here?

One Life or Four Star or Crunch or Planet Fitness.

Well, actually, we already have Planet Fitness they can care about.

I had a manager there this morning and I handed it to him.

But if you know anybody in the other three and would like to get them involved, that'd

be a great way to kind of get the word out.

We need your help.

So we want this to be a success.

Again, our goal is 200 runners.

We have hired a professional racing multi-sports that's going to be doing the start, the finish,

the timing, everything.

There's going to be awards given out.

Oh, did I mention that you're going to be getting a tie-dye run for freedom shirt if

you register.

Okay, so let's do that.

Let's get the word out.

Let's make a difference.

So since I got that out of the way, let's jump into our morning talk.

But before we jump into it, I believe in morning exercises.

Okay, when you agree a little morning exercise is a good thing to do, right?

Right?

Everyone agree?

Yeah, okay.

All right.

Some people don't, but I do.

And I'm leading this talk.

So guess what?

We're doing it.

Okay.

All right.

So I need this section right here.

Middle section is stand up.

Thank you.

All right.

Middle section over here on my right to stand up.

Okay, are you ready?

Change seats.

Go.

Let's go.

You can do it.

At least move there.

Yeah.

Yeah, high five someone you don't know while you're going by.

Good job.

I believe you all know what's coming, right?

You're next.

Wow.

Much quicker than our first gathering.

Very nice guys.

All right.

Thank you.

This section.

Stand up.

This section.

Stand up.

Find a new seat.

Go.

Go.

Go.

Go.

Go.

Oh.

Oh.

Oh.

Oh.

Oh.

Oh.

Oh.

Back row, go!

You thought I forgot you, I didn't.

Change back row, flip over.

If you're watching from home, change your seat unless you're driving.

Then don't try to change your seat.

All right, don't drive.

Okay back row, I don't think you moved.

Okay, there you go.

Back row.

All right, so I noticed, I noticed over the last two Sundays how so many of us sit in

the same seats every week.

And I thought, I thought a different perspective and a different change of view would help,

right?

Yeah, good.

Some of you are like, no way, that's great.

If this is your first time joining us here at HTV, welcome.

We're excited that you chose to be a part of our family this morning.

Please understand we are a very non-traditional church, all right?

So as many of you know, we're in a series called Questions Jesus Asked.

And for the last several weeks we've been addressing a question that Jesus posed to

his disciples, to the crowds that were gathered all around him, and to the Pharisees.

Rudy kicked it off by looking at the question, who do you say I am?

Right?

And we challenged us to really identify with Jesus and understand that he was the Son of

God.

And we too, I discussed the question, what do you want me to do for you?

And we challenged ourselves to really step out in faith and to experience healing, emotional

healing, physical healing, whatever we needed, trusting that God would provide.

Last week Steven had an excellent talk, built around the question, do you understand this?

He empowered us with five modern day parables to use while discussing Jesus with others.

Now listen, if you or any of your friends missed any of those talks, go to our YouTube

channel, subscribe and listen.

Now I don't know about you, but these questions, as I've been a part over the last several

weeks, have been very challenging.

Because Jesus' questions go right to the heart.

They make us personally reflect on where we are in our relationship with him.

Now with the upcoming political season that is now in full swing, all the changes with

the start of the upcoming school year to go along with the divisiveness, negativity and

struggles that we experience in everyday life, I thought it would be a good idea to address

a question that focuses on how we view others.

So this morning we will be discussing on what is probably the number one most quoted Bible

verse by people who are not in a relationship with Jesus, and one of the more popularly

quoted verses by those of us in the church.

It comes from Matthew chapter seven verse one, and these are Jesus' words.

Do not judge others and you will not be judged.

Now typically when we hear those words, it's not the way I said it.

Nobody says it that way.

Anytime I've ever heard those words being spoken, it's with a little attitude.

Don't judge me.

You don't know me.

Don't judge me or you're going to be judged.

Some people, some of you old timers, you throw in the little King James version, judge not,

lest you be judged.

You throw it out there.

People that don't even believe in the Bible, but they sure do believe in that verse, and

they say it with attitude.

They're caught.

They're guilty, and they're going to point it back onto others.

These people essentially are saying, you have no right to tell me how to live.

I'll do what I want with my life.

I don't care what you do, but you're a sinner too.

Stay out of my business.

It doesn't matter what I do as long as it makes me happy, as long as I don't hurt anyone.

Judge not, lest you be judged.

And I would argue that this very statement is one of the most prevalent values in our

culture today.

Tolerate everything.

It doesn't matter the behavior.

It doesn't matter the belief system.

You have no right to say if something is right or wrong.

Do not judge or you will be judged.

By show of hands, does it feel good to be judged?

It doesn't, and none of you raised your hands, but all of you have been judged.

We all know what it feels like to be wrongly judged.

Not me, of course, oddly enough.

I've never been judged.

It's never happened to me before.

I've never been accused of serving beer on a Sunday morning.

That's the only reason HDV is growing.

Never, never been accused of serving a keg of beer on a Sunday morning.

It's never been said about your pastor.

How is he a pastor?

He has sleeves and is covered in tattoos.

It's never been said.

Never been said.

Just last week, I was told that I am leading this community of faith incorrectly and that

I need to change and listen to God.

I was like, okay.

I've had other pastors say, you know that Schlatterback, he does everything wrong in

terms of pastoring and leading a church when it comes to the books that I read, yet he's

still growing.

Yeah, we do something, right?

It's called following the Holy Spirit.

And I share that with all of them.

See, many of you just now judged me when I asked you to change seats.

Some of you sat there and said, I'm not doing it.

I saw it on your faces.

I saw it.

And I'm glad you're laughing about it now, but I judged you right back.

It just shows you how hard-headed you are.

Now you see, I have a method to my madness.

I just wanted all of you to look at me with evil eyes and just think, I can't believe.

Don't you know my name is on those seats?

See, it's horrible to feel judged.

And it's no secret that this theme just alone is probably the number one reason it drives

people away from church.

You hear it all the time.

Those Christians are hypocrites.

They're judgmental.

They don't support me.

They think everything I do is wrong.

Well Jesus did say, do not judge or you too will be judged.

So is that exactly what he meant when he was saying it?

In other words, if that's true, then we have to acknowledge that no teacher has a right

to judge an essay that I write.

Who are you to say that it's an A or a B?

You have no right to judge my paper.

If we take these words at face value, then no one on a jury has a right to judge or hold

someone accountable for a crime.

Who are you to say I'm innocent or guilty?

That police officer has no right to tell me that I'm driving too fast.

I like to drive 100 miles an hour.

Who are you to tell me that I need to follow the stated speed limit?

You can't tell me that.

You have no right.

I can drive the way I want.

Is that what Jesus was saying here?

No, of course not.

I think we would all probably agree that at some point of level, we have to make a sound

judgment.

For example, I'm going to ask you a few questions and I want you to think about it in your own

mind and determine your response.

Do you have the right to judge someone else's haircut?

I mean, did you see what she did to her hair?

I mean, what was that girl thinking?

What was she thinking?

Really?

Do you have the right to judge what people do with their hair?

If you're sitting beside someone that has a little... Don't look at them.

Don't look at their hair.

Just look at me.

Pretend like you don't know what you're talking about.

No, obviously the answer is no, but what if your kid decides that he wants to get a word

shaved into the side of his head with negative connotations?

Do you have a right to speak into his or her life?

I would hope so.

What if some random guy at work that you do not have a relationship with or friendship

with that happens to be married, but he's really flirty?

You don't know him or the situation that he's living in, but you listen and gossip about

him.

Do you have the right to speak into his life?

Saying, hey bro, you're married.

What if you know a person that happens to be your best friend, he or she attends church

weekly, is in a relationship with Jesus, he or she is married, but they're really flirty

and it looks bad?

Do you have a right to speak into his or her life?

Let's try this.

Our culture says that anybody can have sex with anyone, right?

True or false?

Does our culture say that?

Mind your own business, right?

That's what our culture says.

You can't judge someone's sexual life.

But what if someone wants to have sex with a 12 year old?

Do you have the right to speak into that or judge that?

You're darn right you do.

We are fighting against it every single day and we have a whole team of people that are

standing against it.

So now we realize how complicated, yet incredibly important this statement, this question that

we're pondering really is.

And Jesus does say, do not judge or you too will be judged.

And then he asked in verse three, the question that we'll be talking about this morning.

Why worry about a speck in your friend's eye when you have a log in your...

So do we ever have the right to call someone out and say that's wrong behavior?

Do we simply have to keep our mouth shut and worry about ourselves?

And again, it's complicated, but I believe we really need to dig into the Bible and accurately

interpret it so that we understand the scripture and what Jesus is trying to say to us this

morning.

And we do that by looking at scripture in three different ways.

Number one, you have to understand the context and some of you are thinking, okay Chris,

what does that mean?

We don't want to take the verse, the question out of context.

We want to know who wrote this, when they wrote it, who they were writing it to, why

they wrote it, what comes before the verse, what comes after the verse.

You don't want to pull just that verse, do not judge me, out of context.

We want to understand it.

The second thing we do is we interpret scripture with other scriptures.

The best way to interpret the Bible is with the Bible.

In other words, we're not going to just interpret it with our feelings or our experiences or

our thoughts.

The best way to interpret the Bible is with the Bible.

That's how you build your theology.

You can't base it on one verse, taking it out of context.

What you do is you look through the entirety of the Bible, seeing what God says about this

very topic.

So we're going to look at the totality of what God says through the Bible so we can

build our theology on judgment.

And finally, number three, we're not going to just be students of the Bible, I mean we're

just going to read it and study it.

We're actually going to be doers of what we read.

We're going to apply it, we're going to make it practical to our life and it's going to

come out in us so that we are better people.

So how do we study scripture, how do we read to understand scripture?

First, you learn the context.

Number two, you interpret the Bible with the Bible.

And number three, you apply it to your life and make yourself a better person.

So let's try to do it with this text.

The book of Matthew was written by Matthew, the apostle.

He was the author, of course, of the first gospel.

Matthew, we learned lastly from Stephen, he was a tax collector before accepting Jesus

as savior and following him into a role as an apostle.

The context, if you will, means what comes before Matthew chapter seven.

Does anybody know?

Thank you, Matthew chapter six.

Yes, it's really not that complicated.

Matthew chapter six comes before Matthew chapter eight comes after.

It's really easy.

Okay, so remember, we're talking about judgment or judging.

We don't want to get this wrong, but in Matthew chapter six, one of the big themes that Jesus

is hammering home is hypocrisy.

Jesus was challenging the Pharisees about their hypocrisy.

In verse two, five and 16 of chapter six, he addresses it and challenges them to change.

Then when we get to Matthew chapter seven, Jesus says, do not judge.

But then later on in the very same chapter, he says, watch out, be on your guard, be aware

of false prophets.

The only way you're going to be aware of false prophets is to make a what?

A judgment.

So suddenly you're like, wait a minute, Jesus, you just said, don't judge.

And then you're telling me, I need to judge.

I'm allowed to judge to determine if someone's a false prophet.

Now in the very same chapter, Jesus says this.

He says, do not judge.

But then he implies that we make a judgment.

So what is he really trying to say?

He's trying to address the hypocrisy.

He's trying to challenge us to get out of our heads, stop looking at people in negative

means so that we become a reflection of the kingdom of God here on earth.

And all of that leads us to our first talk.

See humanity, all of us, we walk around with a limp.

We walk with a limp.

Matthew seven, one through three, do not judge others and you will not be judged for you

will be treated as you treat others.

The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you'll be judged.

And why worry about a speck in your friend's eye when you have a log in your own.

See we also must remember in terms of context, these words are a part of Jesus's sermon on

the mount.

And in the sermon on the mount, Jesus is describing what it looks like for his people to become

a new creation.

If you go back to the garden of Eden, we are created in the image of God.

We are living in perfect fellowship with him and with the creation.

Then in Genesis three, everything changed and everything broke.

It was left our relationship with God fractured.

It left our relationship with other people fractured.

So here you have Jesus, he's up on a hill.

He's teaching his disciples.

He's teaching the crowds.

He's challenging the religious leaders of what it looks like to live and to be a living

example of him in God's kingdom.

And he's calling out those people, especially the Pharisees who judge others and friends,

guess what?

Until we realize we're all in phariseeical recovery, then many of us won't change.

All of us can be Pharisees that don't live up to what is God's best.

We judge others.

And it goes all the way back to our sin nature.

In the sermon on the mount, Jesus is addressing lots of issues, marriage, sexuality, how we

give, the motives of our hearts.

And we must remember the questions that Jesus asked always go to the heart level.

They reveal our motives so that we can experience freedom and change from our sinful nature

because friends, we walk around with a limp.

And Jesus addresses our relationship with others through these words in Matthew seven

twelve, just a little bit further down from his judgment statement, do to others whatever

you would like them to do to you.

This is the essence of all that is taught in the law in the prophets.

We all know these words, treat people the same way you want to be treated.

That is how we deal with the question that Jesus is asking us today.

Why worry about the speck in your brother's eye when you have a log in your own?

See there is a universal human tendency because of the sin in our world to stand over someone

in judgment and condemnation.

We want to be better than someone else.

And Jesus says no, don't live that way.

Rather lovingly restore people, embrace people and accept people that are struggling.

See the Pharisees of Jesus day, what would they do?

They always pointed fingers.

They always stood in judgment and condemnation.

And we see that being passed down through the church.

So many people don't go to church, will not even consider Jesus because of the people

that go to churches.

Because the people in churches have a tendency to want to fix others so that they look just

like us.

I want to fix you so that you fit in, you look just like me and then I don't feel uncomfortable.

We do this every single day.

Now I knew I was sharing today about judgment.

So yesterday morning I woke up early and I said Holy Spirit reveal to me throughout today

my attitude and my outlook when it comes to judgment.

Pray that prayer one time.

So for those of you who don't know, my day yesterday started at 3.30am.

I had to get up at 3.30am so I had my wife Jessica and my daughter Lily to the airport

by 5am so I had to get on the road at 4.00am and about 4.20am was the first time I judged.

So I'm driving down the interstate and there are still so many people that haven't got

the memo that you drive slow in the right lane.

If you are going to drive 55 or 60 miles an hour please get in the right hand side of

the lane because I personally like to drive 70 to 75 miles an hour.

And if you don't get over then chances are you are going to be judged which I was doing.

Trying to figure out who was doing it and why they were doing it and looking at them

as I passed them by and many of you are thinking you are a horrible pastor and you do it too.

So then quickly thereafter I performed a wedding and it was beautiful and then I decided to

take my son to the city park.

He wanted to go and play so I was like let's go.

We will feed the ducks, we will walk around the pond and then we got to the playground

and there also happened to be a revival happening in the band shell at the same time I was

trying to have fun with my child.

Now this revival happened to be a fire and brimstone revival so it was a turn or burn

revival and the whole time I am sitting there trying to play with my son I am looking at

the band shell thinking that is not going to work.

That doesn't work that way.

You are making people run and then they began to sing and I said please don't sing.

That is horrible and that is really loud and that is really annoying.

So number two judgment was I was judging another church.

So yes it happens and then I decided to go to dinner and while I was at dinner I went

to Mission Barbecue and all of you know I go to Mission Barbecue quite a bit and of

course the new guy that was taking my order didn't know me and he offered me a giant cup

to which I said of course I don't want a giant cup.

I never get a giant cup.

Who are you to offer me a giant cup?

Right?

Roger we are just alike aren't we?

Yes thank you.

All right cool.

The point.

We all judge.

We all make assumptions.

We all sin.

We make mistakes and guess what?

When we sin and we make a mistake what do we want?

Mercy.

We want forgiveness.

But when others sin we are quick to what?

We're quick to point it out.

We're quick to gossip.

We're quick to make assumptions and Jesus says no you got to look inside.

Church stop.

Stop with the condemnation.

Stop with the judgment towards others because if you don't there's a boomerang effect to

your attitude.

Galatians 6, 7.

Don't be misled.

You cannot mock the justice of God.

You will always harvest what you plant.

If we live with a judgmental and critical spirit towards our spouse guess what?

Welcome to a marriage full of conflict.

Welcome to a marriage full of conflict.

If we are raising our children with judgment and a critical spirit guess what?

They're going to live that same way when they get older.

If we are in a church that is full of people living in judgment and critical spirits judging

other Christians in churches chances are we're going to feel the same way.

And Jesus says it's time to change.

Now what I want to do is I kind of gave you a context.

Where we go?

Everyone seeing what I'm doing here?

I kind of gave you a context of what was happening in Matthew chapter 7.

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

Now I want to try to number two interpret the Bible with the Bible.

I want to look at other verses to talk about this very important issue of judging.

Are you ready?

Number two.

Never judge superficially.

Right?

Let's be honest.

Almost all of us do it and we do it often.

You're watching a TV show and you're thinking what are you wearing?

Right?

You come to church.

You're looking at the worship team.

You're like man bro you need a haircut or whatever it may be.

Right?

Chris those jeans are way too tight.

Right?

Come on.

But listen here's what Jesus said in John 7 24.

Stop judging by mere appearances.

Oh I'm sorry.

Can we all read this together?

Stop judging by mere appearances.

But instead judge correctly.

You see that?

So Jesus is telling us it's a time to judge.

And when you judge though judge accurately.

Judge correctly.

But please don't judge by appearances.

Right?

Stop judging by appearances.

Oh he's so full of himself.

Why does she have purple hair again?

What is that outfit they're wearing?

Right?

It doesn't matter.

Just because they're different than you doesn't mean we give them the right.

Gives us the right to judge them.

Right?

They're allowed to be different and express themselves in different ways.

It has nothing, nothing to do with a relationship with God.

And we have to be very very careful not to judge from a distance.

So many people.

Right?

They judge the rich.

They judge those that are wealthy and with money.

Oh if they would only give back.

Oh if they would.

We don't know who they give to.

Right?

We don't know what organizations they support.

What nonprofits they support.

But those that are without or those that are middle class were so quick to judge the celebrities

and the politicians and those things that we see, people we see on TV yet when in reality

the news that we get is all one sided, one or the other.

We don't know the truth.

There is no truth.

So the point is we can't judge from a distance.

Right?

We also can't assume we know what a person's going through.

Right?

So if someone is rude to us or disrespectful to us or mean to us doesn't mean that they

should be judged.

There is no reason for it because what if that same person that was mean to us or rude

to us or disrespectful to us just so happened to have their mom dying that day in the hospital.

Right?

We can't assume that we know everything about a person that just is rude to us.

We can't judge that.

Right?

In the church world I hear people say it all the time, well we don't like that pastor.

We don't like that church.

Listen, you don't know him.

Right?

We don't know who they are.

We don't know their hearts.

And as a community of faith, listen, we need to be a church.

Right?

That is supporting people who are for God.

It doesn't matter who they are or what they're doing.

Right?

If they're seeing people saved and they're teaching the good news and they're sharing

about Jesus and salvation and lives are being changed, we need to support that.

We can't judge that because they're for God and anybody that's for God, we should be for

and we should be praying for and we should be encouraging them.

Friends, don't judge from a distance.

Don't judge from appearances.

Give people the benefit of the doubt.

We're going to believe the best in others.

We're not going to judge by mere appearances as Jesus said.

Do we hear that, friends?

Let's learn to judge correctly, which leads us to our next thought.

Never judge hypocritically.

Jesus goes right at the Pharisees, calls them out, Matthew 7, 5, hypocrite exclamation point.

In other words, he looks at them, stares them in the eye and says, hypocrite.

And he challenges them.

Get rid of the log in your own eye, then you will see well enough to deal with the speck

in your friend's eye.

Paul, writing to the Roman believers, challenges them to change in Romans 2 verses 1 and 4,

Romans 2:1

he writes these words.

You may think you can condemn such people, but you're just as bad and you have no excuse.

When you say they're wicked and should be punished, you are condemning yourself for

you who judge others do these very same things.

Then in verse 4, don't you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant and patient God is with you?

Does this mean nothing to you?

Can't you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from sin?

What is it that we are to do?

What do we have in common?

How do we live this out?

We tend to accuse others, but we excuse ourselves.

We'll point our fingers at other people, make judgments of why people are leaving church

early, but we have no understanding as to why they just got up and left.

We have no idea.

I'm sure there was an important reason, but it's not for us to assume.

We don't know the whole story.

But if we get judged, then we're quick to stand up to other people.

You don't know the whole story.

You don't know what I was going through.

I was having a bad day.

This didn't happen.

We have all these excuses and reasons why we were mean or negative, right?

But we'll quickly point our fingers at others.

Here's what I've discovered.

The place where you issue your hardest judgment often reveals your deepest weakness.

The things that you struggle with the most are the things that you release judgment on

others in.

Can I say that again?

The place where you issue your harshest judgment often reveals your deepest weakness.

And it's so, so true, right?

Whenever I find myself quick to judge, it's often an indication if I really, truly and

honestly look in the mirror, that it's a reflection of what I'm struggling with inside.

It's the sin in my own heart.

When we judge others, we are simply condemning ourselves.

That's what Jesus is trying to get us to see, which leads us to our next thought, number

four.

Never hold those in the world to Jesus' standards.

We never hold those who are outside of the family of God to our family standards, right?

We can't.

This is what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 5.12.

It isn't my responsibility to judge outsiders.

In other words, if they're not Jesus followers, who am I to tell them they should be living

any different?

It's none of my business.

That's what Paul is saying.

Then he goes on the right, but it certainly is your responsibility to judge those inside

the church who are sinning.

In other words, if they are believers, if they're in a relationship with God, iron sharpens

iron.

For people to change, they need to be in a relationship with others and be challenged

to change.

And we need to encourage one another to move forward in good works.

We need to get 1% better every single day.

We need to work on our anger.

We need to work on our forgiveness.

We need to show love to others.

That's how we help those that are a part of our community of faith.

I mean, isn't it so true?

Think about it.

In my house, there are standards about what we watch on TV.

There are certain things we can watch.

There are certain things we don't watch.

In my house, there are standards to what comes out of our mouth, right?

We don't want to swear, we keep positive, we do our best to stay positive.

But listen, I can't judge your kids for the standards that are in your house because the

standards in my house are mine.

True or false?

So I can't judge you for how you're raising your kids because your standards are different

than mine.

Same goes for people that aren't in a relationship with Jesus.

I can't hold Jesus' standards to those that aren't in the church because they're living

their own life.

And friends, unfortunately, it's probably the number one reason why so many people within

our culture walk away from God.

Walk away from searching and learning about Jesus because they think they're going to

be judged as soon as they walk in the door.

Right?

They walk through the door.

You shouldn't act like that.

You should change.

Right?

Why are you doing that?

That's why at HCV, listen, we really believe that many of you, and we've seen it every

single week, you may not be following Jesus.

That's okay.

You're welcome here because we believe that God is going to change you.

You may not be following Jesus now, but we believe that God, through Jesus and the Holy

Spirit, is going to move in your life, convict you, and challenge you to come into that relationship.

And that's how it works.

Right?

You can belong here before God even changes you.

And that's the way Jesus did it.

Right?

He went to people all the time who were doing crazy stuff.

Right?

Crazy stuff.

Did he judge them?

Did he condemn them?

Did he point fingers at them?

No, he put his finger in the ground, drew a line, and said, anyone that hasn't sinned,

throw the first stone.

Did he or did he not say that?

And they all walked away.

They all walked away.

See, it was Jesus who changed them, not other people.

Right?

And that's the key.

I'm not called to change people outside the family of God.

You know what I'm called to do?

I'm called to love them and induce them to a God who changes them.

That's what I'm called to do.

And if I'm judging others outside of the church, they don't want anything to do with me.

They're going to say, you hypocrite, just like every other church.

I'm not welcome there.

But we need to change that outlook and embrace people right where they are.

Because the same God that changes me is the same God that's changing you is the same God

that changes people outside of this church.

We have to let Him do the stuff, which leads us to number five, our final thought.

Always help followers of Jesus who have fallen.

See, there's this just horrible part of church where the church beats up the church.

You know, someone's down, someone made a bad choice, and there's gossip and judgment, and

they just beat people up, and it's just not God's best.

Right?

It's not God's best.

And how do I know that?

We're all vulnerable to temptation.

None of us get it right all the time.

At some point, you're going to need to be lovingly corrected back into your relationship

with Jesus.

All of us do.

Right?

That's why we have growth groups.

That's why we're in relationship with others.

In the family of God, when someone strays, it's our responsibility to come after them,

to love them, and to bring them back into righteousness.

True or false?

That's what we're called to do.

But so many churches.

We just let people leave.

And we all need to be willing to help others.

We all need to be open to a correction from others.

That's what living in community is all about.

Paul writes this in Galatians 6.

Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly

should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path.

And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself.

That's called pride.

Bear each other's burdens and in the same way obey the law of Christ.

If you think you are too important to help someone, you are fooling yourself.

You are not that important.

See, if someone that we love is living contrary to the Bible, it's called sin.

I said it!

It's called sin.

And those who are living by the Spirit should go to that person and gossip about them, right?

Oh, I'm sorry.

We should go to that person and kick them out of the church.

Oh, we should go to that person and hit them with a log.

No.

What did Jesus just say we were supposed to do?

Lovingly bring them back into relationship.

We restore the person that made a mistake.

With the same grace that you want to be shown when you mess up.

With the same love that you want to receive from God.

It's all about grace and restoration and love.

We do it with love, we do it with compassion, we do it with grace.

And we see that's how Jesus came in John 1, 14.

The Word became flesh, made His dwelling among us.

We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son who came from the Father full

of grace and truth.

And notice grace comes first.

Okay, that's the Greek charos.

And it means that we love those that are struggling.

We love those that have made a mistake, that have fallen.

Because I tell you what, if you hit them with the truth, it's harder to digest.

When Jesus came, He came first with grace and then truth.

Do I believe in truth?

Absolutely.

The truth does what?

It sets us free.

But you go first with grace, then you teach the truth.

But too often in the church world, what's the church do?

Truth!

They hammer people with the truth and they focus on the truth and they leave the grace

behind and it makes people want to run.

And then there's the opposite.

So many people just want grace.

Oh, just do whatever you want.

God is full of grace.

He loves you.

And there's no truth.

You've got to find the middle ground.

That's what Jesus did.

Right?

He loved that woman that was caught in adultery, drew a line in the sand, forgave her, the

Pharisees left.

And what did He say to the woman?

Go and sin no more.

Don't keep sinning.

Don't keep sinning.

No, it's grace and truth.

It's both and.

And that's how we're called to love one another.

Right?

Now the cool thing about this story and about this question, Jesus would have used this

log as an object lesson.

Right?

He would have grabbed it and put it up to His head and said, hey, you know, how are

you focused on the speck in your brother's eye when you have a log in your own eye?

And basically He was trying to show them that the struggles in our hearts produce pain in

others.

Because think about it, if you're judgmental of your spouse, right?

And she's not doing enough or He's not doing enough and you're living with this log in

your eye and you go up and you try to have a relationship with them, what's going to

happen?

Here, stand up.

Come here.

Stand up.

I'm not going to hurt you.

I promise.

Right?

But if this was Jess and I'm trying to correct her, look, and I'm leading with a log, that

would hurt, wouldn't it?

Darn right it would.

But that's what we do to people.

When we lead with judgment, right, we are cracking people in the head with this log

and it's painful.

And it pushes people away.

It makes our marriages not thrive.

It makes our relationship with our kids not good.

It makes our relationship with the church painful because we're living in this judgment.

And Jesus says, pull it out.

So what are we going to do?

We're going to pull it out.

Can we do that?

Five simple steps to pulling out the plank.

Number one, hey, just search your heart.

Notice what Jesus says.

How can you, how can you think of saying to your friend, let me help you get rid of the

speck in your eye when you can't see past the log in your own eye, hypocrite.

Hypocrite get rid of the log in your own eye.

And my point is, what does that mean?

Daily examine what the Holy Spirit is revealing to you about how you're living your life.

Examine, right, as you're reading the Bible, is my life lining up with what I'm reading?

Right, am I addicted?

Am I struggling?

Is there pornography?

Is there temptation to be with someone outside of my marriage?

Is there, am I rude?

Am I angry?

Am I, as you're reading the Bible, the Holy Spirit is going to convict you as you're in

prayer, he's speaking to you because when we're in a relationship with Jesus, what does,

what does God promise?

We are filled with his spirit.

I mean, the Bible tells us that when we begin a relationship with Jesus, we're filled with

the spirit.

That's the same spirit that rose Jesus from the grave.

That's the living spirit of God inside of us.

And when we're reading the Bible and we're praying, he's revealing where we're struggling,

it's up to us to respond.

It's up to us to go to him for forgiveness.

It's up to us to lay down our life and say, God, forgive me and change me.

Right, and it's not just about you and God.

That's where accountability comes in.

We need others to help us in this journey called life change.

Right, we need others.

We need friends.

We need people to hold us accountable.

And so many people in today's culture, they're afraid of accountability.

For example, in two weeks, we're going to have Jersey Sunday and growth group kickoff.

Right, it's an exciting time here at Hub City.

We closed down that parking lot out there.

It might be a little bit harder this year because we don't have any parking.

So if we close parking, where are we going to park people?

But we'll figure that out.

Okay, we'll have you all drive your four wheel drive and we'll park in the woods.

Okay, we'll figure it out.

So anyway, we're going to close down a parking lot and we're going to have a tailgate and

all of our growth groups are going to serve you hot dogs and chili and meatballs and cheese

sticks and just all of the appetizer foods.

I'm making you guys hungry, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I'm going to say, hey, when you leave here, walk down the parking lot, get some

food, meet some people and get in a group.

And you know what half of you are going to do?

You're going to leave.

You're going to leave.

You're going to be like, I don't want cheese stick.

I don't want a meatball.

I'm good.

I don't need that food.

Guess what?

I know you don't need the food.

I'm not telling you to go there to get the food.

I'm telling you to go there because you need to grow and change.

And we grow and change when we're around others and held accountable.

And we are afraid of that.

And church, we need to change that.

So when you come in two weeks, wear your purple because we're a purple church and it may have

a number eight on it.

Oh, that's right.

That's right.

That's right.

I forgot.

Some of you guys like to quilt.

So wear your quilt quilting blanket and, and show your support for the quilters.

Right.

Or you could wear your purple number eight.

I'm just kidding.

You can wear whatever you want.

It makes no difference to me.

Okay.

The point is when you wear your Jersey, be prepared to meet people and get in a group.

Right.

Because that's where accountability happens.

Number two, focus on the good in others.

You know what judgment does?

Judgment focuses on the negative in a person.

We dehumanize, we label, we accuse, we judge.

What if we just simply begin to focus on the positives in other people?

Right.

Yesterday I did a, I did a wedding here in the, in the chapel.

It was beautiful.

It was a small wedding.

And guess what, guess what verse I read.

First Corinthians 13.

I read first Corinthians 13 because you always hear that at a wedding, but here's the reality.

That letter wasn't written about a marriage or a wedding.

That letter was written to a church that was tearing each other apart and judging each

other.

And this is what it says.

Hey, hey church, love is patient and kind.

Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude.

It does not demand its own way.

It's not irritable.

It keeps no record of being wrong.

It does not rejoice about injustice, but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.

Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful and endures through every circumstance.

And if we lived that way, we would experience an overwhelming amount of people, lives being

changed and being saved and being baptized.

If we, if we just live that way, if we love that way, if that's the type of people we

were.

If we don't operate out of love, it says we're a clanging symbol.

And I don't know about you, but a clanging symbol makes a lot of noise and it doesn't

sound good.

And God is saying, Hey, it's time for you to change.

There are people in your sphere of influence and living in our world that we struggle to

find good in.

But Jesus says, no, you have to work at it and find good.

From now on, I've determined and I've learned.

Okay.

So if I'm following someone that's driving slow in the left hand side of the lane, guess

what I'm going to start doing to, I'm just going to start praying for them.

I'm going to start praying for them and I'm going to pray hard, right?

Because I don't want to judge them because I know when I pass them on the right, the

shadow of my car is going to hit their car.

And just like Peter, their life is going to be radically changed.

I'm just kidding about that.

That's not biblical.

I'm just making that up.

But I am going to pray for them because I don't want to live in judgment of them anymore.

And for those of you on social media, when you're about to make that post, choose not

to.

If it's not, if it's not lifting people up, if it's not being positive, just delete it.

Just delete it.

Don't share a TikTok that's full of negativity and judgment and condemnation of women, right?

Just share positive Jesus stuff so that we can impact others, which leads us to our next

step.

Move toward others with openness, right?

The log in our eye, you know what this does?

It quickly labels people.

This log labels people.

We label their mistakes.

We label what they're doing.

We label why they're doing it.

Here's the reality.

We don't know half of what people are going through.

Our natural human tendency is to assume we have all the facts, but I love this quote

from the Reverend John Watson, be kind because everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.

Isn't that a great quote?

Be kind because everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.

And if we simply begin to air in grace, then we're going to get rid of this.

This is going to come out of our eyes if we, if we just are, or James, I love James 1

19.

Be quick to listen, be slow to speak and be slow to get angry.

You know, James didn't write, be quick to judge, be quick to criticize, be quick to

condemn.

He didn't write that.

He says, no, he says, listen, listen, don't speak until you, you need to, and don't get

angry.

Right?

And God is simply challenging us to change, right?

Be a people.

That's a reflection of Jesus to the world.

Right?

So Jesus means open and listens for what people are struggling with.

So we then have the opportunity to communicate it, which is our next step.

We shouldn't be quick to speak because we have to request permission to share.

Right?

Matthew 7 6, don't waste what is holy on people who are unholy.

Don't throw your pearls to pigs.

They will trample the pearls, then turn and attack you.

I did a little studying on that scripture.

Scholars referenced that a pearl is not digestible to a pig.

But yet it's our natural human tendency that we have all the answers.

Right?

We have all the answers and we know how to fix people's problems.

And here's the reality.

We have to be careful because we don't know all the answers.

And quite often when we speak out and we try to encourage people, right, they receive it

with judgment because we don't have permission.

We have to have permission to speak into people's lives.

Right?

Especially when we're addressing sin and struggles.

Ask the people.

If you're in a relationship with someone and you don't know, ask them before you give feedback.

Right?

Ask them.

Invite.

Can I share my point of view?

Can I give input?

And when you do it, do it with what?

Grace and love.

Which leads us to our final step.

Church, stand with others.

Stand with others.

Our natural human tendency is to have an arrogance toward others and an ignorance towards ourselves.

Right?

We have an arrogance towards others.

We know everything they're going through.

We say, oh no, I'm good.

And we see this in Luke 18, 9 when Jesus throws out this parable.

Two men went to the temple to pray.

One was a Pharisee, the other was a tax collector.

Notice the Pharisee standing by himself, prayed this prayer.

I thank you God, I'm not like other people.

Cheaters, sinners, adulterers, I certainly not like this.

You can only see him looking at this tax collector.

Just judging him up and down.

I fast twice a week.

I give you a tenth of my income.

But this tax collector, he's standing in the distance, stared not even to lift his eyes

to heaven and prayed.

He beat his chest in sorrow saying, God be merciful on me for I am a sinner.

I tell you this sinner, this sinner, that tax collector, not the Pharisee, returned

home justified before God.

For those who exalt themselves to be humbled and those who humble themselves to be exalted.

When we judge, right, our log is the lie that Jesus and I are good.

Oh, oh, God and I were good.

Why we're judging others?

No, you're not good.

When we judge others, we're living in sin, church.

We're living in sin and God is saying, stop.

Just be a person that's humble and loving because when Jesus came, when Jesus came into

this world, John 1, 14, he came full of what?

Grace and truth.

Churches should be safe places for the wounded, the hurting, the addicted, and those struggling

in life.

We should welcome them in and be a community of faith that challenges people to experience

God through the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Be empowered and be changed through God moving in your life.

All right, can we stand together?

Don't worry, I'm not going to ask you to move.

Okay.

So I just want to end.

Listen.

I just want to end by praying a simple prayer because I don't know about you, but this message

is for all of us, including myself.

You know that.

I mean, I shared with you what I did yesterday and my outlook and my struggle and my judgment.

We all do it.

And until we come to that realization, we're not going to change.

Right?

Until we come to the realization that we judge every single day, we're not going to change.

And in a divisive culture, the church is called to rise above it and be a what?

A light on the hill.

And I tell you, as we enter the fall, it's only going to get uglier.

There's going to be divisiveness.

There's going to be finger pointing.

There's going to be name calling.

It's going to be ugly.

And my challenge to you is, rise above it.

Don't succumb to it.

Be a light for others to go to.

Because when you're a light and you're not living in judgment, people want what you have.

Amen.

There's no impossible.

I believe that you are working now.

Pour it out.

Oh, pour it out.