Who Judges and Who Doesn't

Quick question.

Do any of you enjoy television shows that are about judging someone else's talent?

You know what I'm talking about?

Like there's a million shows like that.

It could be like a singing show, it could be Shark Tank, where it's like business talent, business acumen, or like a cooking show.

My wife loves the British Baking Show.

It's the most polite judgment show ever.

Like every week they kick someone off, but like they do it by hugging them, and you think they've won, but they've lost.

It's very strange.

Does anyone ever ever get into a show like that where you're watching people get judged?

I don't know what it is about those shows.

I I love them.

I love judging people.

I just I do.

It's something that I think we all get pulled into very easily.

And what's funny is every show that I've ever watched like that, I know nothing about what the people do.

Like, not like if I watch a cooking show and and I see someone, you know, undercook the pork, I'll be like, I cannot believe he undercooked the pork.

Like that you cannot do that.

I can't make a grilled cheese sandwich without messing it up.

Like, I struggle with cereal.

I'm a horrible cook, but yet when I watch these shows, I just slip into this mindset and I'm like, oh, you cannot undercook the pork.

Like that's the that's like rule number one about cooking pork.

Cook it, you know?

Singing competitions, I have I have no ability to sing whatsoever.

But but yet, like, someone will sing and I'm like, uh, I don't know, they're a little pitchy, you know?

You pick up the lingo.

Shark Tank's probably the worst one for me because I'm not some like business executive and investor, but people will come forward with products and I'm like, there's just no way there's a market for that.

You know, it's way too niche.

I find myself starting to say these things, and I don't know anything about it, yet I am very easily sucked into the mindset of judgment.

Anyone else like that, willing to admit that you you can slip into a judgmental mindset very, very easily.

We're gonna look at a teaching of Jesus this morning that addresses that very thing.

We've been studying the teachings of Jesus for months now.

We decided as a church it's really important for us.

If we're gonna be Jesus followers, I know not all of us have made that decision, but those of you who would say, Yes, I'm a Jesus follower, we have to know not only what Jesus did, we gotta know what he said.

And it's interesting because if you look at the ministry of Jesus in his life, people were often attracted to Jesus by what he did.

But then sometimes he'd say something and they're like, eh, I don't know.

Sometimes Jesus says hard things.

But if we're gonna follow him, we've got to know what he said.

We've got to understand his teaching.

So we've just been diving into teaching after teaching.

And today we get to Matthew chapter 7, verses 1 through 6, where Jesus says, Do not judge others, and you will not be judged.

Matthew 7:1–6

For you'll be treated as you treat others.

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

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

How can you think of saying to your friend, let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye when you can't see past the log in your own eye?

Hypocrite.

First get rid of the log in your own eye, and then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friends.

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.

Alright, we're gonna we're gonna dive into this and examine what Jesus thinks about judgment.

There's a few things I want us to think about first, like sort of a few asides.

Number one, this is really important.

The emphasis is so obviously supposed to be on ourselves.

It's funny, when I when I started preparing for this week, I had this one person in mind, I'm like, this person is a very judgmental person.

And I was I was thinking to myself, man, this person really needs to hear the message this week.

You know, I really hope they're there.

And uh they don't go to church here, never mind.

Um, no, it's teasing.

But like I had this one person in my mind, and I was like, oh, this person should really listen to what Jesus says here.

And then I'm like, Justin, like, you've clearly missed what Jesus is saying.

Because he says, literally, stop worrying about other people, focus on yourself.

I heard a pastor say once that long before we use scripture as a set of binoculars to examine someone else's life, we should use it as a mirror to examine our own.

And so today, as we're talking about all this stuff, do not fall into the trap of thinking about judgmental people that you know who ought to learn these lessons.

This is about this is about us.

All of us have a tendency to judge more than we might like to admit.

Every single one of us has at least someone or maybe a whole group of people that you judge.

In fact, I'll I'll often talk to people and they might say, no, I'm not a judgmental person, but then maybe it's a political group, right?

Or some other whole group of people that they disagree with.

And if you say something like, oh, they're all idiots, you know?

Oh well, maybe we all struggle with judgment more than we'd like to admit.

The focus is supposed to be on us.

All right, number two, this is just a quick aside.

Number two, the whole issue of judgment, it's pretty nuanced in the Bible.

I want to be honest about that.

It's very important to us as we teach that that we don't give you the cliffs notes when it comes to scripture.

You guys are smart.

All of us are intelligent, all of us have the capacity to really know what God says.

None of us can fully understand God because he's God, but if we're gonna follow God, we have to have as mature an understanding of him as possible.

And judgment's one of these issues where people tend to take one of two very oversimplified ideas and neither of them really hit the mark.

One idea is that God is hyper-judgmental, that he's like a schizophrenic maniac who just can't wait to judge whole groups of people.

That is not the story of the Bible.

You can take certain stories in the Bible and pull them out of context and paint God with this broad stroke that makes him seem like that, but if you read the Bible cover to cover, you will be blown away by the patience of God.

I promise, if any of us had the power that God has for a single day, we would find whole groups of people that we would justify not existing.

And yet God is so patient that with all the power that he has at his disposal, he allows us to continue living out the lives that we live, going through the things that we go through.

God is incredibly patient.

Now, on the flip side, there's an oversimplification of his love sometimes.

And this has become much more common in recent years, the last 20 years or so, especially in the American church, where, well, you'll hear people say, God's not judgmental at all.

No, no, God is love, he loves every single person, and so God wouldn't judge anyone, and that's not true either.

God is nuanced.

Like He's complicated, we're complicated.

Why should we expect God to be more simplistic than we are?

God has has nuance.

And if we're gonna study something like judgment, we have to understand, yeah, there's nuance there.

So let's just accept that on the front end and engage with it and think and be okay with having to wrestle with it a little bit.

The word Israel, the namesake of God's people in scripture, it means to wrestle with God.

We've got to be okay with just wrestling with God and dealing with this stuff.

Number three, and this is really big.

It's important that Jesus put that last statement in the teaching that we looked at just a second ago.

It's good that that's in there.

And at first it seems like it contradicts the rest that he said, right?

He said, Don't judge anyone, worry about yourself.

And then he says, Don't give what is holy to unholy people, don't give pearls to pigs.

It almost seems like Jesus forgot about what he just said.

Don't judge people unless they're unholy pigs, right?

It's almost like, whoa, Jesus, this I'm not, I was tracking with you, and then you compared certain people to pigs, what gives?

Here's the thing: when Jesus says, don't give pearls to pigs, he's saying, don't trust everyone with what is most valuable to you.

There is a difference between judging someone's heart, giving someone a wholesale judgment where you basically label them, put a stamp on them that says, You are this.

That is different than having wise judgment regarding a person's behavior.

We are not to judge the heart, but we are supposed to practice sound judgment.

Jesus so clearly wants us to be careful and wise about who we share, what we share with, who we include into our lives.

He's not saying, look, don't judge anyone, so just let people run roughshod over your life and don't have any boundaries, and if they hurt you, so be it.

You don't judge them.

No, he's saying, look, have wise boundaries, be smart, practice good judgment, but but there's a strong warning when it comes to actually like stepping forward and judging a person's heart.

Okay, so let's just let's just break this down a little bit.

Number one, we have to understand first and foremost, to get judgment in scripture, you have to understand that judgment is God's business.

Judgment, it's the business of God.

It's something that God does.

God is a judge.

Jesus will judge, he will judge the world.

In fact, the story that scripture paints, the story that Jesus teaches, is that everything is actually moving toward a final judgment.

For example, Matthew chapter 25, Jesus says, When the Son of Man comes in his glory, talking about another coming of Jesus, and the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, all the nations will be gathered into his presence, and he will separate the people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

Matthew 25 · chapter mention

He will place the sheep at his right hand and the goats at his left.

Then the king will say to those on his right, Come, you who are blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world.

For I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty, you gave me a drink.

I was a stranger and you invited me into your home.

I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you cared for me.

I was in prison and you visited me.

Then these righteous ones will reply, Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink, or a stranger and show you hospitality, or naked and give you clothing?

When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?

And the king will say, I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these, my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me.

Then the king will turn to those on the left and say, Away with you, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons.

For I was hungry and you didn't feed me, I was thirsty, you didn't give me a drink.

I was a stranger, you did not invite me into your home, I was naked and you didn't give me clothing, I was sick and in prison, and you didn't visit me.

Then they will reply, Lord, when do we ever see you hungry or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and not help you?

And he will answer, I tell you the truth.

When you refuse to help the least of these, my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.

And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go into eternal life.

So Jesus is very comfortable with the idea of judgment.

And we just have to be honest when you read that.

It's saying that there will be a judgment.

And that judgment is not going to work out for everyone.

And that should motivate us, that should stir our spirits.

Romans 14, 12 says, yes, each of us will give a personal account to God.

God is a judge.

The thing about God is he has perfect judgment.

That's a good thing.

There's no one you would rather have judge you than Jesus.

Look at the story of his life, at the way he treated people, the way he loved people, how patient he was, how merciful he was.

There were those that Jesus got very angry with.

Almost always it was someone who was incredibly self-righteous.

But people who struggled and people who had hurt, Jesus had compassion.

You don't want anyone other than Jesus judging you, trust me.

But understand that judgment is a reality, that God is a judge.

Now the thing about it is, if we don't know Jesus according to the story of Scripture, according to the gospel, if we don't know Jesus, then when we stand in front of God for judgment, we stand on our own two feet and we stand in front of him based on the merit of our own life.

And if you can think about that idea of standing in front of God and justifying your deserving of his love, deserving of his reward based on the way you lived your life, then you are a more confident person than I am.

I just know myself too well.

That's a terrifying thought.

But when we give our lives to Jesus, something changes.

Scripture says that not only does Jesus take the punishment of our sin away from us, but he actually gives us his righteousness, his goodness.

And so when your faith is in Jesus, when you stand in front of God on judgment day, you're not standing based on your own life, your own merit.

You're standing, and it's like you're holding Jesus' resume.

It's a big lie in a lot of ways.

But it's like you get to go up to God and He's like, Let me see the resume.

I don't know how it all works, but you know, there it is.

And it's like Jesus' resume, and he's like, You're awesome.

That's the beauty of the gospel, the message of Jesus, that he's the one who accomplishes what we could never accomplish.

That's why it says in Romans chapter 3, verse 25, talking about the death of Jesus on the cross, this was to demonstrate God's righteousness.

Romans 3:25

Because in the forbearance of God, he passed over the sins previously committed, for the demonstration, I say, of his righteousness at the present time, so that he would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

That's a powerful phrase.

He is both just and the justifier.

It is good that we have a God who judges.

Our God will not tolerate evil in his world.

Our God one day will root out every single bit of evil in this world.

That's why Scripture says, do not take vengeance, for vengeance is mine, says the Lord.

It's a good thing that we have a God who is so good that he will not tolerate evil.

The problem though is there's evil in us.

But it says that he will be both the just and the justifier to those who put their faith in Jesus.

Meaning that when you put your faith in him, not only would God look at you and judge you, but but he would actually justify you.

Think about it this way: it's like if you're on trial and the judge gives you your sentence and says life in prison.

And then immediately stands up and puts his hands in front of him and allows the bailiff to handcuff him and go to jail.

Like he justifies, he takes the punishment for you.

So put your faith in Jesus.

If you haven't done that yet, put your faith in Jesus.

Let Jesus' life be what earns your way into God's favor.

God is a judge, it's his business.

He takes it seriously and he's good.

And that should be something that that should be something that matters to us.

But because judgment is God's business, that that means that it's not ours.

And that's the second thing we have to understand about judgment.

Judgment is it's not our business, it's not our job.

There's this amazing story in Luke chapter 9.

Luke 9 · chapter mention

These two brothers who were disciples of Jesus, their names were James and John, and Jesus actually gave them a nickname, the Sons of Thunder.

They had fiery tempers.

And so one day, it says, as the time drew near for Jesus to ascend to heaven, he resolutely set out for Jerusalem.

He sent messengers ahead to a Samaritan village to prepare for his arrival, but the people of the village did not welcome Jesus because he was on his way to Jerusalem.

The Samaritans and the people in Jerusalem, they had a bit of a rivalry.

And so when they find out Jesus isn't staying there, he's going to the people in Jerusalem, they're like, nah, he can just skip town.

Jesus, that says, when James and John saw this, they said to Jesus, Lord, should we call down fire from heaven to burn them up?

But Jesus turned and rebuked them.

So they went on to another village.

Now, first off, let's marvel at the faith of James and John.

Like to them, that's totally an option.

They're like, Jesus, these people just disrespected you.

You say the word, fire from heaven, we'll burn them up.

And you can laugh, but read the story of Elijah.

Multiple times, multiple times in the story of Elijah, fire comes down and swallows up like his enemies.

It's terrifying.

Like, it's so easy to read stories like that in the Bible and read them in a way that's like cute and childish.

Like, no, no, no.

Terrifying.

There's just one story of Elijah where multiple like brigades of soldiers are going to arrest him, and the first brigade gets completely consumed by fire.

And so the king sends another, and same thing happens, and so the king sends another, and that captain gets there, and he's like, please don't.

Just please, like, don't let us get killed.

I promise I'm here to help you.

Like, like, it's intense stuff.

And so, James and John, they're like, that can happen.

We have faith.

Jesus is the Messiah.

We've heard him talk about judgment.

That seems like an option.

But Jesus looks at them and says, No, no.

And he tells a story that illustrates why he would say that to them.

Matthew chapter 13.

Matthew 13 · chapter mention

Here's another story Jesus told.

The kingdom of heaven is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field.

But that night as the worker slept, his enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat, and then slipped away.

When the crop began to grow and produce grain, the weeds also grew.

The farmer's workers went to him and said, Sir, the field where you planted, that good seed is full of weeds.

Where did they come from?

An enemy has done this, the farmer exclaimed.

Should we pull out the weeds?

They asked.

Should we call down fire from heaven?

No, he replied, You'll uproot the wheat if you do.

Let both grow together until the harvest, and then I will tell the harvesters to sort out the weeds, tie them into bundles, and burn them, and to put the wheat in the barn.

Later in that same chapter, verse 36, it says, Then leaving the crowds outside, Jesus went into the house.

His disciples said, Please explain to us the story of the weeds in the field.

So Jesus replied, The Son of Man is the farmer who plants the good seed, the field is the world, and the good seed represents the people of the kingdom.

The weeds are the people who belong to the evil one.

The enemy who planted the weeds among the wheat is the devil, the harvest is the end of the world, and the harvesters are the angels.

Just as the weeds are sorted out and burned into the fire, so will it be at the end of the world.

The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will remove from his kingdom everything that causes sin in all who do evil.

And the angels will throw them into the fiery furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their father's kingdom.

Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.

Now notice in Jesus' explanation that the workers, that's like us, the followers of Jesus, are not given the authority to judge.

They're not given the authority to determine what is wheat and what is weeds.

Jesus is saying, the reason you can't do that, you know, James John, the reason I will not let you call fire down from heaven is because you'd get it wrong.

You'd burn the wrong people.

You just, you would.

You don't know who is who's what.

You just you can't.

You don't have, you don't see it like that.

So Jesus never gives us the authority to judge a person's heart.

Because we would we would just get it wrong.

And we get it wrong for a bunch of different reasons.

Like, like this is why we can't judge.

Because number one, we don't see right.

Like we're blinded by our sin.

So we can't we can't judge other people because we are blinded by our own issues.

Go back to Matthew chapter 7.

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

Jesus said, Why worry about a speck in your friend's eye?

This is verse 3, when you have a log in your own.

How can you think of saying to your friend, let me help you get rid of that speck when you can't see past the log in your own eye?

Hypocrite.

First 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.

Our own sin, our own issues, they blind us.

And so we just don't see things the right way.

In fact, sometimes our issues and our sin distort our vision such that we see our issues in other people.

That's called projection.

People do that all the time.

There's actually a story about this early in the Bible, one of the very first stories, Cain and Abel, they're brothers, and Cain kills his brother Abel.

I know I just spoiled that story for you, but it's very old.

And so the statute of limitations is up on spoilers for that.

Cain kills Abel.

And as far as we know, at that point in time, he's the only murderer.

He's the only person we've encountered who's committed that crime.

And God gives him a punishment.

And God says, I'm gonna have to banish you from this area.

And Cain says, Please don't do that.

Everyone will murder me.

And it's so interesting that the only murderer is worried that everyone is going to murder him.

And that's because we have this tendency to project our issues onto other people.

We do that.

We see the world through our own lens.

And our lens is corrupted by our issues.

That's why, by the way, people who are very judgmental are often very offended when people judge them.

People who are very judgmental will often feel like they're always being judged.

Because we we project.

We don't see straight, so we can't we can't judge because we just we wouldn't get it right.

We don't have the authority to judge, not only because we don't see straight, but because we also never know the whole story.

We never know the whole story.

Have you ever made a decision before you had all the information?

And then you instantly regretted it.

I've done that so many times.

I once fired someone who had already quit their job.

That's a true story.

I had to pay severance after they had quit.

What happened was I hadn't checked my email and I had this meeting, and the person knew it was gonna happen.

And I said, Hey, look, I'm sorry, I think you know why we're meeting.

They're like, Yeah, I'm like, we're gonna have to let you go, you know, here's why.

And and they didn't say anything.

It was the weirdest thing.

A whole meeting goes by, they didn't say a word.

They just kind of nodded their head because they were smart enough to understand they were getting severance.

And uh, and then I go back and I open up my email, and I'd had an email the previous evening that said, I am resigning.

And uh, I'm like, Whoa, no, like I did that make sense how frustrating that would be as an employer.

To any other employers in the room, can you just like give me some some like I feel like everyone's yeah, that would be hard to realize you just fired someone who had already quit their job.

Stupid, right?

It's just a stupid thing to do.

I'm the only person I know of that's ever done that.

The only one.

Here's one that happened more recently that maybe it this will connect a little bit more.

Um, I don't know if you guys know this, but I have a son who plays basketball and he's really good.

And uh and so I love going to his games and watching him, and I tell him all the time I will never get on you for missing a shot.

I'll never get on you for making a mistake.

I I wouldn't care if he missed.

Every shot he took, if he had a wide open layup to win a game and he just missed it, I wouldn't get mad about that.

Sometimes you miss.

But I've told him the only two things I will ever get on you about is effort and attitude.

If you have a bad attitude, you're gonna hear about it from me.

And if you're not giving full effort, if you're just if you're lazy, you're gonna hear about that.

Because you you work too hard, you're too talented to get out there and not give your full effort.

So about six months ago, we had this game, and uh, and he just he was slow, like wasn't hustling at all, wasn't wasn't moving fast, wasn't running, like just looked like he didn't even want to be out there, and I was very frustrated.

And so in the car, I kind of let him have it.

I'm like, dude, you have to, you have to hustle.

Your team depends on you.

You can't go out there and give that kind of effort.

I don't want to, I don't never want to see you give that little effort again.

And he's like, Yes, sir.

And so we get home, and uh he's like, I don't feel super good.

And Megan takes his temperature, he has 103 degree temperature.

And so I've like, I've just been, you know, reaming him for why, why were you so?

And part of me was like, I don't care if it's 104 degrees, you hustle, you know?

Like, but so clearly in my heart, I'm like, oh my goodness.

That's why he was so, he was, he was sick.

Like, I'm surprised he didn't pass out.

And yet I didn't know that information, and so I'm interpreting everything as if he's just disinterested.

That's what happens when we judge people.

We don't know everything, we don't see everything.

God does.

1 Samuel 16, 7 says that the Lord doesn't see things the way we see them.

People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.

God sees the heart, so he's the only one who's allowed to judge.

We should never judge because A, we're blinded by sin, B, we don't ever have the whole story, we don't ever have all the information.

And finally, like, we don't know where things are going.

Matt, who leads our worship team, is maybe the most talented person I've ever known.

He's he's frustratingly talented.

I don't know if you've ever known someone who can just do a lot of things really well.

So, like, he sings well, he plays guitar, he writes music, he played drums this morning, like, because that's just another thing he can do.

For years, though, he worked here as our main graphic designer.

Matt would do all of our visual art.

He's an amazing artist, a great painter, like all those kinds of things.

And and I'm not an artist, but but art is cool.

And so sometimes I would just have a few minutes and I kind of wander into Matt's office and be like, hey, what you working on?

And it's super frustrating if you're an artist and someone's looking over your shoulder while you're making something.

And occasionally I would start to critique it and give him suggestions, even though he wasn't finished.

And he he was really gracious and he's like, Thank you, but I could I could tell he's really saying, go away and never do this again.

Um, and it makes sense, right?

Because if you're if you're in the middle of something, like if you're in the middle of something and it's not finished yet, if someone were to come in and judge it at that moment, you would be frustrated.

We see this happen with people in scripture.

In fact, it's interesting because in the Bible there are two characters named Saul.

One is is King Saul, the first king of Israel in the Old Testament, the other is a Saul in the New Testament who ends up changing his name to Paul and writes most of the New Testament as we know it.

So you have two Sauls.

Now, King Saul in the Old Testament, if you read the beginning of his story, you'll think he's he's a hero.

He's a champion because he starts strong.

And if a few chapters in you were to judge Saul, you would give him your thumbs up, your stamp of approval, he's awesome.

But the more Saul's story continues, he becomes the villain.

He rebels against God, he ignores what God wants.

And Saul ends up experiencing tremendous consequences as a result.

Saul's not a hero at all.

Now, the Saul who becomes Paul, if you read the first few chapters of his story, he's a villain.

He persecutes the church.

He's responsible for the deaths of many of the early leaders in the church.

But then he has an encounter with Jesus and everything changes, and he becomes one of the most radical, sold-out followers of Jesus that's ever lived.

In fact, there's probably never been one person not named Jesus who's been as directly responsible for as many people knowing the Lord as Paul.

But if you would have judged him early in his story, you would have said, villain.

See, we we never know where things are going.

When we judge someone else, we are judging an incomplete person.

God is not done with that person yet.

He's not finished.

And that's why we have to be so careful not to judge, because God's still working.

And we have to leave room for that.

We have to have grace for that.

We are called as followers of Jesus to abstain, to abstain from judging, from making those calls because we've never been given that authority.

We don't see everything clearly, we don't know what's going to happen, we don't have all the information, but we still have a propensity to judge.

It's a temptation we constantly face.

Like, guys, what I'm trying to say is we're all kind of like James and John.

We are easily, easily baited into judging other people.

But we've got to resist.

For years the church in America was known for its judgment.

That has to change.

I believe it is changing.

That we should be known for our love, that we should also be known for the way we live our lives.

In fact, if you wouldn't mind, I want to read one more scripture.

Romans 14, 10 through 12.

Why do you condemn another believer?

Why do you look down on another believer?

Remember, we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.

For scriptures say, as surely as I live, says the Lord, every knee will bend to me, and every tongue will declare allegiance to God.

Yes, each of us will give a personal account to God.

So let's stop condemning each other.

Decide instead to live in such a way that you will not cause another believer to stumble and fall.

There it is.

So if we're not to judge, what are we to do?

We're just supposed to live right.

We're supposed to love people, we're supposed to live in such a way that it doesn't make it harder for them to follow God.

It just doesn't make it harder.

It doesn't make it harder for them to lose their tempers.

Think about that in your marriage, by the way.

Those of you who are married, what would it be like if you lived in such a way that you just didn't make it harder for your spouse?

Like, I'm I'm terrible at that sometimes.

Sometimes I just do things that drive my wife crazy.

And I would say vice versa, but no, not now.

This is not the time.

But like, how often, how often do I wake up and view it as my responsibility as a follower of Jesus to make other people's lives better?

That's what he says.

Don't condemn.

Instead, live in such a way that you'll not cause another believer to stumble and fall.

Live in such a way that just inspires people, that encourages people.

You know, in a second, we have two people getting baptized.

That's awesome.

So we always celebrate that.

Stick around for that, by the way.

Very important that we're all here to celebrate that.

And here's what's gonna happen.

In fact, worship team, you guys can come out.

I'll wrap up.

What's gonna happen is two people are gonna get baptized, then we're all gonna stand up, we're gonna do the hands-in-the-pile thing that we do every single week.

You guys know what I'm talking about?

If you're new, you're like, what's that?

Just wait for it.

Um, so we stand up, we we circle up, we go, oh, one, two, three, Jesus, right?

We yell.

That's a very important part of our morning.

Because we're about to leave this place.

We're about to leave this place.

And part of the reason that the church in America was known for judgment for so long is because on Sunday mornings in church, people would talk all about how to how to be a good follower of Jesus and how to love people and how to serve people.

All the same stuff got talked about.

Like the Bible hasn't changed in 2,000 years.

They were reading the same stuff we're reading, but then they would leave and it wouldn't be their mission to take what they learned and take it to every single person they interacted with.

Look at the world that we live in.

Is our world full of love?

Is our world full of understanding?

Because when I look at the world, it seems like people are just taking sides and becoming more and more passionate that the people that they're against are evil and horrible and wrong.

We live in a world full of judgment.

What would it be like for the church to do its job?

Not to join in the judging, not to not to jump in the political debates and whatever else is going on and say this is good, this is bad, you're right, you're wrong.

What if instead we just live the life that we've been called to live?

If we loved each other, if we loved people, if we served people, if we did everything in our power to encourage and inspire?

What if we viewed it as our mission never to add to someone's list of failures, but just to continually remind them who they are in God's eyes?

It's actually really simple.

And so in a few minutes, when we yell Jesus, that means we're gonna leave and we're gonna go be Jesus.

We're not gonna be perfect at it because we're not Jesus, but the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives inside of us.

So we have the power to walk out of this place and to be like Jesus, to be like Jesus with our children, to be like Jesus at school, to be like Jesus at work, to be like Jesus every single place that we go.

And if we do that, if we refrain from judging, if we refrain from labeling people, and we see every every single person the way Jesus sees people, a potential child of God, that is it.

A potential child of God.

If we see every person that way and we treat them accordingly, that's the way we change the world.

And we can do that.

I'm telling you, church, we can do that.

You can do that.

That's the power that you have at your disposal.

You just have to choose to use it.

So do not judge, don't be tempted into doing that, don't take the bait.

Serve.

Love and live in such a way that you inspire other people to follow you, to follow suit, just to follow you as you follow Jesus.

It's probably one of the most powerful things that the apostle Paul ever said.

And I would love to be able to say it confidently, like he did.

Follow me as I follow the Lord.

That's the way we're supposed to live.

Just follow me as I follow Jesus.

To do that, we have to follow Jesus passionately and bring other people with us.

The question is, are we up for it?

I believe we are.

Let's pray.

Jesus, thank you so much for this morning.

Thank you for the chance to worship you.

Thank you for the chance to explore what you've said.

And God, I pray that, number one, if there's anyone here that's yet to give their life to you, that they would do that, Lord, that they would understand that through you we have an opportunity to live without fear of judgment.

Because you you give us your approval the moment that we step into your family.

Lord, thank you for these two people that are going all in with you right now.

We pray that as a church we would support them.

We pray as a church that we would surround them with love, that we would be here for them to help them continue growing.

It's in your name we pray.

Amen.