This week, we're going to be talking
about judging
and judgmental and everything
you need to know about judging.
And to be frank,
that's the reputation
we have as Christians.
We are A) hypocritical, and
B) we judge people.
And why is it that we
like to judge so much?
Why is it,
where does it come from?
But to understand
biblical
judgement,
we have to understand Jesus.
And I think the best way to do that
is look at John's description of Jesus
when he came into the world.
This is from John, chapter 1.
It says,
If you want to judge like Jesus judges,
and the Bible calls us to judge,
you can't have just grace
and you can't have just truth.
Truth without grace
is being judgmental.
Grace without truth
is pandering.
And neither is good.
Let me give you an example.
You have a friend who's wrapped up
in alcohol.
You have a friend who's having an affair.
You have a friend who's
addicted to pornography.
You have a friend who's finding
their value in their stuff.
Now you can pander to them
and say, "Hey, that's OK.
I understand that.
I've been there myself."
But that doesn't help them.
You can also be judgmental and say,
"You're being an idiot
and you're ruining your life."
That's true
but there's no grace behind it.
What does it look like
when you put these two things together?
What does it mean to judge like Jesus?
It says,
"I love you as a friend.
I care more about you
than you could imagine and
this is hard for me
to talk to you this way.
I know you're struggling with something
and I've,
I've been there,
I've had my own struggles
but I want you
to have the life that
God intended for you.
I want you
to have a life where it is
full like Jesus says,
and that doesn't include
a life of pornography
or addiction to alcohol or
finding your value in stuff.
I want you to find
a fullness in Jesus
that is forgiveness
and pushing these other things
behind you."
What does it look like to judge like Jesus?
Just two simple things:
telling people truth
but it's only truth
that comes through grace.
And what I've found is
the more gracious,
the more loving you are to people,
the more willing
they are to hear
God's word.
Let's pray.
Dear Lord, help us
push off this label
of being judgmental.
Instead be people known as
people who love
individuals, who love souls
so much that we're willing to tell
them the things they need to hear.
We ask this in your name.
Amen.
Alright, we're going to do
a survey of the most
misquoted passages in the Bible.
Number 1:
God helps those who help themselves.
Well, that's not actually in the Bible.
Not even way in the back.
Number 2:
This would probably be Number 1.
Money is the root of all evil.
That's not true.
In the Bible, it says
the love of money.
That is the most
misinterpreted passage of all time.
But Number 2, very close behind it,
is judge not.
And they have to say it
kind of like in this Renaissance
kind of Batman voice,
"Lest
ye be judged."
So whenever you say anything to anybody,
they're like, "You can't judge me."
Then they tell you the story
which follows right behind it
about a plank in the eye
and you can't do this.
But this is where it says in normal English,
Matthew chapter 7,
So let me tell you
a little bit of a story.
My grandfather,
who's now in heaven,
was part of a church south of Chicago.
He personally felt this,
not the church itself,
that a Christian man should not have a beard.
I don't know the exact reasons
behind it but here's the problem:
my dad grows a beard
in like 8 seconds.
And if you've ever played
with a Play-Doh set,
where they put the Play-Doh in it
and you push down the barber chin.
That's like how fast
his beard would grow.
He has a 4 o'clock shadow.
This takes work.
This is like a fortnight shadow.
But he would just grow this beard so fast,
it went all the way down as a family.
And my grandfather said,
"You have to shave that beard.
'Cause no Christian man,
I guess or woman,
has a beard."
My dad said, "No."
Why did my dad say "No?"
He said "No,"
because God's word did not say
a Christian man cannot have a beard.
What was happening is
my grandfather was doing
just what the religious leaders
were doing at that time.
They were using their own measure
to determine
if this person was OK.
Now we all do that,
because we all have our own idea
of what a Christian looks like
and a believer looks like.
How do they vote?
What kind of store should they go to?
What kind of clothes do they wear?
What color is their skin?
How do they talk? How do they talk?
Do they have tattoos?
Do they have piercings?
What color is their hair?
We have all these things that determine
is this person OK with God?
But that's not the measure God uses.
God says we should judge people
with grace
and truth.
And the more that we love people,
the more they're willing
to listen to God's word.
And the thing that we used to judge
is not our own measure,
our own ideas,
but instead
only what God says in his word.
So let's pray for that same boldness.
Dear Lord, as we
talk to a world,
as we have conversations
with the world,
help us
love people enough
that we tell them the very things
they need to hear.
And help us be the person
that they look to and say
"You are a true friend.
Thank you for telling me
these things so I can grow
closer and closer
not to your own measure of quality
but to what God desires
in my life."
Amen.
I was just thinking about this the other day
and I came to this conclusion:
Christians kind of suck.
And I say that because,
can you think of any other group
that is more
hypocritical or judgmental
than anybody else you know?
But here's the problem:
I'm one of them, too.
I say one thing
and I do another thing.
I go to Walmart
and the judgments fly.
I make assessments about
people in my head all the time.
I judge how you parent.
I judge how this person
drinks too much.
And then I judge this person
because they don't drink at all.
All these judgments,
and we're not even the first people
that love to be judgmental.
So in a very famous story,
Jesus is talking
with the teachers of the law.
And they bring this woman, And they bring this woman,
who's caught in adultery.
And this is what it says,
And if you know how the story goes,
Jesus puts a line in the sand
and says, "Whoever
has not sinned,
go ahead
throw the first stone."
And they all, one by one,
walk away.
So why is it that people
hate Christians but they love Jesus?
Like, what is his secret?
Is it that he's like the
Jimmy Fallon of religious figures?
Like Jimmy Fallon never says
anything mean against his guests.
They just kind of have fun
and hang out
and I want Jimmy to be my friend.
Is that how Jesus works?
I don't think so.
At the end of this account,
Jesus says to the woman,
"Go.
Leave your life of sin."
That's judging.
How would your friend feel
who's overweight and you said,
"Stop overeating.
Leave your life of sin."
I think they'd say,
"You're being kind of judgy here."
So what is Jesus' secret?
Jesus' secret is this:
Every time he talks to someone,
he does it for their own good.
If I judge you
and I give you the truth without grace,
that's for me.
I'll say that one more time:
if I judge you
and give you the truth without grace,
that's for me.
That's so I feel better about myself,
so I feel like a better Christian,
so I look better.
But if I love you,
and I tell you the truth,
if I give the truth with grace,
that's not for me,
that's for you.
Here's what I figured out:
there is no one who loves you
more than Jesus.
There's no one who speaks the truth
more poignantly
to us than Jesus.
And I've also figured this out:
I might suck
at being a Christian.
But it helps me realize
just how awesome Jesus is
at being my savior.
Let's pray.
Dear Jesus, there is so many reasons
that you should shun us.
We are so judgmental
and we bring our own ideas
into everyone else's life.
You have seen
and you tell us what is true.
You've told us that we have fallen You've told us that we have fallen
short of your glory
but at the same time,
you have accepted us.
And when you
say your words,
you say them with grace,
not for your own good
so you look better.
You say them for us
so that we can transform,
so we can live a life with the holy spirit
that is meant to follow you.
We ask this in your name.
Amen.
I want to ask you a question:
Do you even like yourself?
The Bible tells us that
we should love our neighbor as ourselves.
And there's a whole lot of days
it's not that difficult because
there's a whole lot of days
I'm not a real big fan of Jared.
Love and hate, I think,
are two sides of the same coin.
And I can't think of anyone
who's more critical
of me
than myself.
But at the same time,
I can't think of anyone who loves me
more
than I love myself.
So, how is it that these
outside influences
and this judgment that
other people have
have such a weight on us?
I think it works like this:
I think of our emotions like piano strings.
And it's no big deal
if they're plucking
some string way over here.
But what happens when someone
from the outside
plucks a string you've been plucking
in your head for a long time?
Maybe a body image issue
and then someone make a comment.
Boom.
Or you're wondering about
you're overspending and
you're ruining your budget and
then, pluck.
They hit the same thing.
You're late and you know it.
Pluck.
All these things,
you drink too much.
Whatever it is,
if they start plucking the same strings
you pluck about yourself,
you go into this spiral
of self-loathing.
I think there's only one thing
that's worse than these physical things.
It's when you remember past
things that you've done.
You remember situations
that you have wrecked.
And again, these replay again
and again and you start
telling yourself the story.
You get lower and lower and lower.
There's only one thing
that I think can snap you out of it,
and that's Jesus.
Jesus is utterly truthful with us.
He says very clearly
that the things we have done
have offended him.
He says very clearly
that our actions push him
farther and farther away.
It's not our neighbor's fault.
It's not our friend's fault.
It is our fault
that we have ruined our relationship
with him.
But at the same time,
as he says to a hurting Nicodemus
in John, chapter 3,
Faith at its root
is simply this:
You believe
that what God says about you
is true.
It is true we have offended him.
But it is absolutely true
that you are forgiven
in Christ.
That means even when you bring up
these past sins,
you can't say, "I'm not going to forgive myself
and live this life of penance."
You've got to trust God enough
to know that you truly are forgiven.
Here's what I know:
You might not always love yourself
every day,
but I do know
every single day,
Jesus adores you.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father,
we're judgmental of other people but
we're probably most critical
of ourselves.
Help us get over this arrogance
of thinking that what we say
is more important than
what you say.
Help us have the faith
to trust what you say about us is true.
Yes, we have made mistakes
and we have sinned
and we've broken a relationship
but only through faith in you,
you tell us the truth
that we are your own children.
Amen.
This past week,
all three of my kids had a test.
My daughter had to take her driver's test.
My middle daughter had to take
a chair test for band.
And my youngest son
had to write a persuasive speech
for his fifth-grade class.
No one likes to take tests.
And there is no test
that is bigger.
And no one likes to be judged
when people eye you
at the supermarket or they
try to look at you
in how you do your work
or what you do
or what you say
or where you go
or what you wear.
None of us like that.
But there's no bigger test
that we're going to face
than the end of the world as
we stand before Jesus.
And this is what it says
in the book of Matthew,
Kind of a scary moment
to think that you're going to stand
before all the nations
and every single thing you've ever done
is going to be laid bare
before Jesus.
And we have one of two choices:
1) we can stand and say,
"I'm going to sit on my own works, God,
and take a look at my resume
and judge me from there.
And tell me
if it is enough
for me to enter your heaven."
I don't think I like that when
I think about how
loveless I've been at times,
how judgmental I've been at times,
how often I've pushed aside
God's word,
when I just think about
how many holes
are in my resume for heaven.
Or you get Option 2.
Option 2 just says,
"I'm with Jesus."
Now I said we never like
to take tests.
But my fifth-grader
got ready for his speech.
It was entitled,
"Why a Fifth-Grader Should
Not Learn About Shakespeare."
And he had a great line that said,
"Would you take your 10-year-old son or daughter
to a movie
that involves
racism, sexism
and suicide?"
He got an A.
He was so excited
that when I went past him
in the morning at 5:15
to go to the gym,
he was already dressed for school
and had his backpack packed.
He was ready to show what he had done.
So that's my question:
Are we going to go to heaven
because we're going to show our
because we're going to show our very best
very best
to God?
No.
Instead, we say "I'm with Jesus."
I'm with him
and the very one who judges us
is the very one who defends us
with his perfect actions.
Through faith in Christ,
we don't have to worry.
And with anticipation,
we can look to the ultimate judgment
as we enter
God's heavenly gates.
Let's pray.
Dear Heavenly Father,
we've done some
good things in this world
and we've done some
bad things in this world.
Even our best, though,
does not measure up
to your standards.
Only Jesus can do that.
So help us look with anticipation
to the last day,
to the ultimate judgment.
Not because our world
is going to be laid before us
and laid bare, but instead
we can just hold on to
what Jesus has done
and through faith in him,
we have
heaven as our home.
We ask this in your name.
Amen.