Introduction:
Dealing with People: Don't Be That Guy (Matthew 7:1–6)
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DO NOT Be a CRITIC. (Matt 7:1–2)
Romans 14:4 – Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
Romans 2:1 – Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things.
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DO NOT Be a HYPOCRITE. (Matt 7:3–5)
2 Corinthians 13:5 – Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!
Galatians 6:1 – Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.
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DO NOT Be a DOG FEEDER. (Matt 7:6)
2 Peter 2:22 – What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:41-00:44
Open up those Bibles to Matthew chapter seven.
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So let's just bow our heads for a second.
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And I'm gonna ask that you would pray for me as we get to God's word, that I would preach it as I should.
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And I will pray for you to have a heart open to receive what it is the Lord wants to teach us today.
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Father in heaven, give us, give us wisdom to apply your Word.
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Does us no good if we just hear some facts, and it never transforms our lives.
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So Father, I pray that you, by the power of your Spirit, would let the wisdom of your Your word just permeate our hearts and minds.
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You grant repentance.
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We would leave here different people than we were when we came in, God.
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We ask in Jesus' name.
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All of God's people said, "Amen." Matthew chapter 7.
01:53-02:31
I got to tell you, I have really been personally blessed through studying the Sermon on the out. But I can't think of any of these sermons I've been more excited for than this one. Because today we are going to be talking about the most quoted verse in the Bible. Look at Matthew chapter 7 verse 1. Here it is. "Judge not that you "You be not judged." The most quoted verse in the Bible.
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If you've been a Christian for more than five minutes, somebody has said that to you.
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"Don't judge me, you know, the Bible says "you're not supposed to judge." Right?
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Maybe, maybe you've said that to someone.
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Someone makes a comment to you, "Ah, no, no, no, you're judging me.
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"You're not supposed to judge me." When do people say that?
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People say that when you tell them something they are doing is wrong.
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True or false?
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True.
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It's like, hey, you should not have spoken to her that way.
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You were very rude in the way that you spoke to her.
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You're judging me.
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You know, the Bible says not to judge and you're judging me.
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I can't go to that church anymore because they judge me.
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Is that what Jesus is talking about?
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Or my favorite, I've had this conversation, Pastor Taylor, we've had this conversation a billion times with people where people are living together as husband and wife, but they are not husband and wife.
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And we say, you know, the Bible says that, you know, this isn't an acceptable way to live.
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That you should get married.
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You should do God's thing God's way.
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You know what the response usually is?
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Oh, you're judging me.
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You're judging me.
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That church is so judgmental.
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You can't judge.
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The Bible says that you shouldn't judge, so you're violating the Bible when you tell me that I shouldn't be doing that.
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What they're saying, when somebody says that, what they're saying is, you should never call me out on sin.
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Because when you point out that I am sinning, you're judging me.
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That's what people are saying.
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Don't ever tell me that I'm doing something unbiblical or you are judging me, and then you're doing something unbiblical and I'm judging you for judging me.
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Is that what Jesus is talking about here?
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Is it?
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I gotta tell you, that's what most people think he means.
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But that's not it at all.
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Listen, we are commanded biblically to confront sin.
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Did you know that?
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Look at 1 Corinthians 5.
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You have the guy that was committing sexual immorality.
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Paul says, "Throw him out.
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"By the seat of his pants and by the scruff of his neck, "throw him through a stained glass window." You can't have a guy like that who calls himself a Christian, living in unrepentant sin in the church.
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You can't have it, show him the door.
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Right, how do you do that without exercising some form of judging, right?
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Or Titus chapter three says, "Warm the divisive person." Romans chapter 16 says, "To avoid the divisive person." How do we do those things unless we're making some kind of a judgment?
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The Bible says, "Test the spirits." The Bible says, "Beware of false prophets," et cetera, et cetera.
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How do we do these things that the Bible tells us to do if there's not some kind of judging, right?
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Right?
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And then you get to chapter seven and verse one, and Jesus says, "Judge not that you be not judged." You're like, "So what are we not judging?" Well, biblically, we are commanded to judge action.
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Commanded to judge action.
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What are we not judging?
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Write this down.
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What you're not judging, first of all, somebody's heart.
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That's what Jesus is condemning.
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You're gonna see it very clearly.
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You're forbidden to judge somebody's heart.
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That's not talking about their action, talking about the person.
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You're a bad person.
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You know what your problem is?
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You're jealous.
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Now I'm judging your heart.
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I'm making an assessment of things that I couldn't possibly see.
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I can't see what is actually in your heart.
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That's judging, not calling out action, okay?
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So we're forbidden to judge someone's heart also in the same vein, right this time, we're forbidden to judge someone's motive.
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We're forbidden to judge somebody's motive.
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Say, look, I know why you did that.
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That was rotten what you did, but listen, I know why you did that.
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No, you don't.
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That's judging.
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You know, when you're like, look, you know what your problem is?
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All you care about is money.
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That's all you care about is money.
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We're judging their heart.
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See, the judging that Jesus forbids is not about conduct, it's about the inner person.
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What Jesus is condemning here is self-righteous, hypocritical condemnation on others.
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Maybe to help us understand, to illustrate it, Jesus was really going after the Pharisees in a lot of this content in the Sermon on the Mount.
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When you study the Pharisees, They were so proud of their religion.
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And the Pharisees were notorious for condemning everyone else.
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All right, Luke chapter 18, Jesus tells the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector.
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And in that parable, how does the Pharisee pray?
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Oh God, I thank you, I'm not like that guy.
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Constantly looking down, I'm better, I'm more righteous.
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Yeah, I'm not scum like that guy.
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Like that's, that's the Pharisees condemning everyone else because they were so religious.
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And if the Sermon on the Mount has taught us anything, there's some Pharisee in all of us.
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So are you a judgmental, condemning person?
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I know we would all like to say, no, no, no, no.
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I'm not judgmental, I'm not judgmental, but let me ask you a few questions.
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Are you judgmental in the sense that Jesus is condemning here?
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Here's a couple of questions that you need to, you can only answer this for yourself, right?
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Let me ask you these questions.
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First of all, do you enjoy fault finding?
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Oh, we wouldn't say that in Bible study, your small group, but some of us secretly deep down love to point out and discuss what you think is wrong with people.
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You're not likely to sit down and say, "Here's what's great about this guy.
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"Here's what I love about this guy." You're more likely to say, "You know what his problem is?
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"And do you know what her problem is?
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"And do you know?
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"Do you like doing that?
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"If you do, "you're judging in the way that Jesus forbids." Oh, here's another one.
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Am I a judgmental person?
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Do you have a strong opinion about something that isn't your business?
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That's another clue.
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Do you have a strong opinion about something that is not your business?
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That you're like, can you believe, can you believe, can you believe she put her kids in public school?
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Can you believe she put her kids in public school?
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Can you believe that?
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Just sending them right to the devil.
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Hey, that's not your business.
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Your kids are your business, okay?
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If you have strong convictions, yes, Do that with your kids, but you can't go around judging the convictions that other people have about their kids, okay?
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Not your business.
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But if you kind of think it is, then you're kind of judging, just saying, right?
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Also, am I a judgmental person?
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You're like, can this sermon be over?
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Next.
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Am I a judgmental person?
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How about this one?
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Do you like to express your opinion without having all the facts.
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If you do, then you're a judgmental person.
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For example, you know somebody in the church, they've been having some money troubles, and you see them pulling up to church and they're driving a Lexus, and you're like, I thought he was having money trouble, and he's driving a Lexus?
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He's lying.
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He's not having money trouble.
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Hang on, hang on.
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You don't have all the facts there.
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How do you know that that car wasn't given to him by somebody?
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That happens, you know.
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How do you know that somebody didn't sell him that Lexus for a nickel?
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You have no idea.
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But already your mind is going to, how irresponsibly he spent, you have no idea.
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You're judging.
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Am I a judgmental person?
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How about this one?
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Do you tend to never give the benefit of the doubt?
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In other words, do you tend to always assume the worst about people?
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If so, then you are a judgmental person.
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Here's what I mean.
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Let's pretend like you're leaving church today and I'm standing back in guest reception and there's a couple from our church that's talking to me.
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And as you're walking past, you hear the couple say, "Yes, Pastor Jeff, we need to come in for counseling." And that's all you hear.
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and you walk out and you're like, I knew they were having marriage problems.
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I heard them saying to Pastor Jeff, they need counseling.
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I knew they were having, I knew it.
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I knew they were having marriage problems.
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I knew he was back on the sauce.
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I knew it.
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I knew it.
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No, you don't.
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Do you realize people come to me for counseling for all kinds of things.
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Sometimes people come to me for counseling to say, I wanna reach my neighbor with the gospel.
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Can you help me figure that out?
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Some people are like, "Hey, I'm having a hard time "with my kid, can you help me figure out "some parenting disciple things?" People come to me for all kinds of things.
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You have no idea, but you're not gonna assume it's for something good, you're gonna assume it's for something bad.
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You're a judgmental person.
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Well, as we've been going through the Sermon on the Mount, Especially the Beatitudes, our Lord has told us what kind of person to be.
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Here, in this section we're looking at, Jesus is telling us what kind of person not to be.
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All right?
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So on your outline, dealing with people, don't be that guy.
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Don't be that guy.
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And if you're like, "Well, Pastor Jeff, "that's not very politically correct.
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"What about don't be that gal?" Okay, then I would say don't be that guy either, all right?
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Whatever, don't be that human, is that okay?
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I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
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This Cracker Barrel logo catastrophe, I haven't slept.
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I toss and turn, sweating.
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What happened to the man in the barrel?
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Don't be that guy.
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All right, what guy?
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Number one, write this down, do not be a critic.
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Verse one, there it is again.
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Let's see what our Lord was actually saying.
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Judge not that you be not judged.
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Okay, judge, here's a better word that we use, 'cause that word judge, We use it in so many different ways.
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Here's a word that we use that really is how Jesus was using the word judge in this context.
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It's the word criticize.
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Criticize, you're a critic.
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You're just criticizing everything.
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You're the expert on everything.
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We're gonna criticize everything.
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Criticize other people's lives.
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He's obviously not a believer because he doesn't match my convictions.
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We criticize ministries.
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You know that church?
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That church doesn't share the gospel.
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All that church cares about is drawing a crowd.
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That's all that church cares about is filling seats.
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Now we're judging, we're criticizing.
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What's our Lord say about that?
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Judge not that you be not judged.
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Do you think you're God?
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Because you're acting like you think you're God.
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Romans 14, four says, "Who are you to pass judgment "on the servant of another?
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"It is before his own master that he stands or falls." Judge not, why?
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Jesus says that you be not judged.
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And oh, by the way, by the way, you will be judged.
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You're like, wait, wait, hang on a second.
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I thought if you were a Christian, then you wouldn't face God's judgment.
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Well, listen, if you have received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, all your sin has been taken away, your guilt has been taken away, you are no longer condemned.
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That's true.
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But you realize the Bible talks about different kinds of judgment, right?
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And there is a judgment for the people of God.
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That can be a whole nother sermon, but let me just say this.
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you will be judged.
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You won't lose your salvation, but you're gonna lose something if you're a critical, judgmental person.
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Jesus goes on to explain in verse two, for with the judgment that you pronounce, you will be judged.
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And with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
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Jesus here is just simply saying, look, if you're this critic, you're going around, you're the expert, you're criticizing everybody, you're judging everybody.
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Jesus says you're going to get what you give.
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You're setting the standard for your own judgment.
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Some people say, well, this is about human relationships.
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That's what Jesus is talking about.
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Now what Jesus is saying is people judge you by the way that you judge them.
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And listen, while there is truth in that statement that people typically judge you how you judge them, that's not what Jesus is focusing on here.
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That's not his point.
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Because what people think about me is not my primary concern.
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Should it matter?
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Yes, it should matter.
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But my primary concern is what God thinks.
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And God evaluates you based on your knowledge and on what you do with that knowledge.
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The apostle Paul was talking about this whole concept.
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I like how under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he words this in Romans 2, 1, where he says, "Therefore you have no excuse, oh man, "every one of you who judges.
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"For in passing judgment on another, you condemn yourself, "because you, the judge, practice the very same things." See, that's what Jesus is saying.
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That's what Paul is echoing.
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It's this, listen, if you know enough to judge somebody on something, then you prove that you know enough to be judged on it yourself.
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You've set your own standard.
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Do you criticize and judge people harshly?
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You're going to be judged harshly.
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All right?
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So you better pump the brakes when you're tempted to criticize someone because it's coming back to you.
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So look, don't be a critic.
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Don't be a critic.
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Number two, write this down.
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Don't be a hypocrite.
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Don't be a hypocrite.
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Jesus says, "Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye.
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Or how can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye when there is a log in your own eye?
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This is really a funny picture because when Jesus here says speck, literally the word could be translated twig.
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That's kind of a funny illustration that Jesus is using.
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It's like here you have this guy walking around and he's got a twig sticking out his eye.
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And you walk up to him and sticking out of your eye is this.
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And you're like, look, don't wanna be rude but you got something in your eye.
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I'm sorry, what?
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Yeah, you shouldn't be walking around with wood in your eye.
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What?
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Well, some people say, some people say that the speck, we'll go with that word, that's the word in our Bibles here.
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Some people say, well, speck refers to a minor sin and like the plank or the log refers to a major sin.
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I'm not really convinced of that.
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You know why?
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You know why I'm not convinced of that?
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that the speck is a minor sin.
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Have you ever had something in your eye?
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Has it ever happened to you?
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Yeah, it happens to everybody, yeah.
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There is nothing worse than having something in your eye that you cannot get out.
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So I would suggest to you that it's not a minor thing if you have a twig in your eye.
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If you're still not convinced, just come on up here, we'll jam this in there right now, And you tell me how minor of a thing it is.
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Maybe your brother or sister does have a legit problem.
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They do have a speck in their eye.
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Maybe they really do.
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This speck could be, they know they need to be serving the Lord in his church and they're just not doing it.
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Maybe it's gossip.
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Maybe their home is out of order, whatever.
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Maybe they do have a problem.
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And your problem is that you have a log in your eye.
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You have sin of your own that you haven't dealt with.
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And when you have sin of your own you haven't dealt with, you're of no help getting, bless you, You are no help getting this taken care of.
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You know, sin is really deceptive that way, isn't it?
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Sin is really deceptive that way, that we walk around and we look at people and we're like, everybody has a problem but me.
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Everybody's life is so messed up but mine.
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We're self-deceived.
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It's a problem.
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We're so focused on other people's sin that we are completely ignoring our own.
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It's a problem.
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of a famous pastor was condemned, was judged by other pastors.
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I'm not gonna mention names.
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I'm sure some of you know exactly what I'm talking about.
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But this famous pastor was asked by this older lady.
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She said, "My grandson is gay and is having a wedding.
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"And should I go to the wedding?" And this pastor answered the question from the perspective of a grandfather who loves his grandkids.
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And he was blasted for his response.
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Much of other famous pastors, real quick to publicly refute, publicly judge, shame on him, shame on him, in his liberal stance, shame on him, shame on him for not holding the standard, shame on him, and then it was revealed long after that one of this man's harshest critics, another pastor, was having a long time affair.
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This is exactly what Jesus is talking about.
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"You got a problem with your twig?
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"I got a log in my eye, but I'm oblivious to this "because I'm so fixated on you fixing your thing." You discredited yourself, pal.
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That's what you've done.
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You think you're the expert on morality and you're having an affair.
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How are you in a position to help anyone?
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And look, before you amen that, listen, we, yes, we can be just as self-deceived and just as hypocritical.
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We do it all the time, right?
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parents in your home.
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Your kid says a non-sermony word, right?
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Of the four letter variety.
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Hey, hey, we don't talk like that.
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And then they hear you talking like that five minutes later.
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Or you say, hey, speak respectfully to your mother, but they don't hear you speaking respectfully to their mother.
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You say, "Look, you need to have your quiet time "with the Lord." Are you?
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Do you see how self-deceived and hypocritical we are?
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Look, I've been in ministry a long time and I see it in the church all the time.
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People are so quick to criticize church leaders for not doing something that they themselves are unwilling to do.
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So you're like, "Okay, Jeff, so what do I do?
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When I see somebody with a twig in their eye, you're saying I should just ignore it, right?
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I should ignore the specks, right?
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If I see somebody that's genuinely struggling with something, I should never get engaged in a sin struggle." That's not what our Lord is saying at all.
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Look at verse 5.
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Look at verse five very carefully here. Jesus says, "You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye." So yeah, you do have to help people that have specks in your eye, but there's two things that you have to do in order to do that. So write this down. First of all, you need to evaluate yourself first. Do you see that? Evaluate yourself first. Look, if you're walking around with a log in your eye, believe it or not, the A log in your eye isn't your biggest problem.
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You know what your biggest problem is?
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Not noticing that you have a log in your eye.
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That's the problem.
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You're oblivious to your massive problem.
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You're blind to it because obviously, obviously if you recognized that this was going on, You'd be doing something about that.
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2 Corinthians 13, five says, "Examine yourselves to see whether you're in the faith." And church, we are so interested on how other people are doing in their faith.
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And yes, there's a time and a place for that.
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And our Lord's making that clear that who is the first person that we should be examining.
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Point to that person.
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Who should you examine?
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This guy.
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This is the guy that I need to examine before I look at anybody else.
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And you would say, "Well, I hear what you're saying.
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"I hear what you're saying, Pastor Jeff, "but they're in sin, and that sin dishonors God, "and someone has to set them straight." To that, our Lord is saying, "Look, if righteousness is truly what you're interested in, then the first person that you're gonna go after is the person in the mirror.
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If righteousness is really what's driving what you're doing, then you're gonna prioritize going after righteousness in your own life before you're concerned about going after righteousness in somebody else's life." So until you get your own thing figured out, bearing fruit in keeping with repentance, you're not gonna be able to help anybody.
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So evaluate yourself first.
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All right?
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Also in verse five, write this down, remove specks gently.
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Remove specks gently, gently.
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Now I realize I'm kind of old fashioned this way.
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And you might not share this opinion, but here we go.
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If you're going to take something out of my eye, I have two requirements for you.
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You have to be able to see, and you have to be gentle.
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Right?
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Galatians 6.1 says, "Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness." Right?
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In a spirit of gentleness.
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Keep watch on yourself lest you too be tempted.
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Yes, we should be helping each other out, but it must be done in a spirit of gentleness.
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And you'll be gentle when you approach with sympathy, not criticism.
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And you'll approach with sympathy when you're keenly aware of the struggles that you have had.
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When you're keenly aware of the fact that you are not perfect.
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You're keenly aware of the fact that you and I and every single other person that we have ever met, we are all a work in progress.
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You know, you can criticize someone foolishly caught up in sin, but when it happens to you, and it will, you're gonna learn sympathy real quick.
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Gentle, sympathetic help.
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It's like, "Look, let me help you.
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Look, man, I've been there.
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I've been there.
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It's not a great place to be.
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Let me help you." I'll talk about talking about ministering the Word.
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This point you might say, "Okay, makes sense, right?
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Deal with my own thing.
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Be gentle." But is there ever a time that I shouldn't minister the Word?
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Is there ever a time that I sort of refrain from trying to do the work of the ministry to someone?
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Yeah, shockingly there is.
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Number three, write this down.
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Do not be a dog feeder.
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Do not be a dog feeder.
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Look at verse six.
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Jesus says, "Do not give dogs what is holy.
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And do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you." You know, when Jesus talks about dogs, I'm a dog person.
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And where my mind immediately goes, you know, you got your dog, your dog wears a little pink bow and rides around in your purse and stuff, and take your dog to the groomer, and my dog only eats keto.
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That's not the kind of dog that they would have had in mind.
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And I've shared with you before, one time on a mission trip in Thailand, a wild dog came after me, like running at me, snarling, drooling, and I'm like, this is it.
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Tell my family I loved them.
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And some little Thai kid zinged a rock, hit the dog, "Meow!" He ran off and that kid got a lifetime supply of candy.
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That is a true story.
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That's the kind of dog that Jesus and his culture here would have been more accustomed to.
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We're talking about savage garbage eaters.
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And Jesus says here, with these savage garbage eaters, he goes, "Do not give dogs what is holy." Do you see that picture?
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It would be like being at the temple and they offer the sacrifice unto the Lord and you just walk up and you take meat from the altar and give it to one of these savage garbage eaters.
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Would you do that?
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Would you do that?
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No.
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Like, no, no.
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You're like bringing your dog up to receive communion here.
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Like, no, no, no.
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Can't you see how wrong that is?
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Jesus says, "Don't give dogs what is holy." Then he says, "Do not throw your pearls before pigs." What a picture our Lord paints here.
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Because again, pigs also savage.
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But you see the picture, It's like somebody's coming up pretending to feed the pigs, but instead of giving them food, they throw down billions of dollars worth of pearls.
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And the pig sees these pellets looking thing going down and the pig's like, "Oh, time to eat." And then the pig's like, "That ain't food." Now they're hungry and mad.
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And they turn and attack you.
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What a picture.
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So when Jesus talks about giving what is holy, giving pearls, what do you think it is that we have, that we can give, that would be considered priceless and holy?
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What do you think that is?
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It can only be one thing, right?
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The word of God.
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And here our Lord is showing us that just as pigs don't appreciate pearls, some people are not going to appreciate the things of God.
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Some people are not going to appreciate the Word of God.
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Jesus tells us, don't be hypocritical, But Jesus never says, "Don't be discerning." Some people, with respect to the truth, are dogs and hogs, and they should not be given what is holy.
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And you're like, "Wow." So you're saying that there is a time "I shouldn't minister the word to someone." No, that's what Jesus is saying, right?
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And you're like, "Well, how do I know?
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"How do I know when to share the gospel with someone, "share the word of God with someone, "and when to obey what our Lord is saying to do here?
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"How do I know when I should shut up?
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"How do I know dogs and hogs?" And the answer is discernment.
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It's discernment.
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But here's a couple of clues that we get from the Word of God.
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How can you spot dogs and hogs?
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Number one, are they mocking the Word of God?
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Are they mocking the Word of God?
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If you're trying to minister the Word to somebody and they are mocking it and mocking you, they're proving to be a dog and a hog.
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Listen, I did prison ministry for many, many years.
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And I loved, there would be men that would come and Bibles ready and so eager to learn.
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I loved that.
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But you know, we had guys that came just because there was nothing else going on and they were bored and they came just to mock.
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And would say horrible things about me, which who cares, I'm nothing.
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but horrible things about the Word of God, that's a problem.
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Hogs and dogs.
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You know, as a much younger pastor, I thought, well, I'll just, I'll persuade them.
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I'm just gonna keep laying out the Word.
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I'll keep giving them the Word.
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I'll keep giving them the Word.
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And they would just keep mocking and mocking and mocking and mocking.
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It's pearls and pigs.
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Some people are not going to see the value of the Word of God, the value of the Gospel, no matter how genuinely you try to give it, they're going to end up attacking you.
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And Jesus here is saying, "Do not give the truth to people who would have such a disdain for the Word of God." And a disdain for you, because you're trying to give it.
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Jesus says, "Don't, don't be a dog feeder." There's a clue.
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Here's another clue.
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Number two, are they more committed to sin than to seeking the Lord?
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Because sometimes it's hard to tell.
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Sometimes dogs and hogs are hard to spot because sometimes it's hard to tell if somebody's really getting it.
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But there's another clue biblically, and that's when you, if you share the gospel, share the word of God with someone, and they keep going right back into their mess.
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Persistently committed to sin.
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Peter talks about this.
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Peter talks about committed sinner.
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2 Peter 2 is all about this.
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When you get to the end of the chapter, look at this verse.
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Peter says, "What the true proverb says "has happened to them.
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"The dog returns to its own vomit, "and the sow, after washing herself, "returns to wallow in the mire." Do you see that?
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What's Peter talking about?
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Dogs and hogs.
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And what are dogs and hogs like according to Peter?
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They just keep going back to the mess.
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They just keep going back to it.
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I don't have hogs at home, but I have dogs.
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And my wife, Erin, and I have this conversation way too often, but Erin will say, "The dogs don't like the new food that I got them." I'm like, "They're garbage eaters." And Aaron's like, "Yeah, the dogs won't eat "this new food that we got them." And I'm like, "They eat each other's vomit "and they drink out of the toilet, "but lamb and rice, ooh, that's gross." What?
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But that's what Peter's telling us.
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That's a sign of dogs and hogs.
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As ministering to someone, sharing the word, sharing the gospel, and they're like, I see what God is calling me to turn from, and I see how gracious God is, and I'm acknowledging before you that God's ways are right.
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But I'm just going back to my filth.
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I'd rather have that.
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I'd rather eat out of the dumpster than at the table of the Lord.
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Dogs and hogs.
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Jesus Christ is the master, obviously, of everything, but this specifically.
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Just write this down.
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Look at Luke chapter 23.
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Just write that down and note the difference between Jesus' interaction with Pilate, who was listening to Jesus, and Jesus' interaction with Herod, who the Bible says was mocking Jesus, and Jesus did not say a word to Herod.
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And you would think, "Jesus has audience with the king?
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What an opportunity!
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Give it to him!
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Jesus said nothing to him!" Why?
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Dogs and hogs did not answer him a word.
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So there's a difference in how you handle someone who will listen to you versus how you're going to handle somebody who will mock the Word of God, somebody who is more committed to sin and seeking repentance. If our worship team would make their way back up. Yes, the Bible says, "Judge not that you be not judged." That is absolutely true. Judging people is God's job. So let's stay in our lane. Our lane is discernment. That has to start by looking at ourselves before we look at anyone else.
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And watching out for three things.
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Logs, dogs, and hogs.
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Right?
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Let's pray.
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Father in heaven, this passage in your word has been so hijacked and misquoted and misused and misapplied, and I just pray, Father, that your Spirit would just illuminate our hearts to what you're actually saying here.
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And I think, Father, sometimes we in the church can be so against the wrong interpretation that we've neglected the right one, even applying what Jesus actually did say.
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Father, I pray that we would be a people who are discerning, not afraid to call out action, but always avoiding judging people's hearts.
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Father, give us much wisdom.
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Give us the ability to recognize someone who would trample down what is holy and attack us.
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Father, thank you for the example that you've given us in your Word, demonstrated so clearly by your Son.
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Father, search our hearts.
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Search our motives, Father, and let us serve you, let us love you, and let us serve others with pure motives.
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We pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Matthew 7:1-6
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
How is Matt 7:1 misused? Why do people misuse it in that way? How do you respond to someone who says “Don’t judge me!”?
State Matt 7:2-3 in your own words. What is the judgment believers will face? How does this teaching tie into that?
Why is it that we are so good at seeing others’ specks but not our own logs (Matt 7:3)?
How do you know when you are dealing with dogs and hogs (v6)? How do you respond to them?
Breakout
Pray for one another.