Taylor Brown

September 21, 2025

Heart Ready For Judgment

Beware of Who You Trust

Taylor Brown

September 21, 2025

Heart Ready For Judgment

Introduction:

Signs That You are Self-Deceived (Matthew 7:21-23)

You profess the truth without being CHANGED BY THE TRUTH. (Matt 7:21)

Romans 10:9 – Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
You point to your works rather than CHRIST’S WORK. (Matt 7:22)

Isaiah 64:6 – All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
You presume that you know Jesus but JESUS DOES NOT KNOW YOU. (Matt 7:23)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

00:45-01:16
Please turn your Bibles to Matthew chapter 7 Matthew chapter 7 Have you ever met a person who thought they had a certain skill that they actually didn't possess Have you ever been that person You were convinced that you had this talent you had this ability but then someone came along to burst your bubble or you put yourself out there and you embarrassed yourself big time.
01:17-01:21
I can think of no better example than this than American Idol.
01:22-01:25
Who's watched American Idol at some point in their lives?
01:26-01:30
I don't know about you, but I've never watched an entire season of American Idol.
01:31-01:34
I always turn it off after the first round.
01:34-01:36
Because what happens after the first round?
01:37-01:40
All the terrible singers are sent home.
01:41-01:51
Maybe this tells you something about me, but I love to watch those horrible auditions of those people who think they can sing, but they can't carry a tune in a bucket.
01:52-01:59
They confidently stand before Paula Abdul, Randy Jackson, and Simon Cowell to claim that they are phenomenal singers.
02:01-02:03
And then they belt out the most wretched noises imaginable.
02:05-02:10
Today, I will sing Whitney Houston's I Will Always Love You.
02:11-02:21
♪ And I will always love you ♪ Thank you.
02:23-02:27
You'll never know if that's my real singing voice or my fake singing voice.
02:29-02:36
After giving it their all, these individuals are absolutely shocked at the judges' reactions.
02:38-02:41
They weep as Paula Abdul lets them down gently.
02:41-03:04
Their jaws are on the floor as Randy Jackson gives his patented, "It's a no from me, dog." And they fight back against Simon Cowell when he says something horrible like, "That was absolutely dreadful." And as you watch it at home, you can't help but think to yourself, how do they not recognize that they sound horrible?
03:05-03:10
How do they not realize that they are terrible singers?
03:12-03:13
Do you know the answer to those questions?
03:15-03:18
The answer is self-deception.
03:20-03:21
Self-deception.
03:23-03:26
They are clueless to who they actually are.
03:27-03:29
They are lying to themselves.
03:30-03:33
Their view of themselves has no basis in reality.
03:34-03:37
They lack self-awareness.
03:38-03:47
And it's so easy for you and I to sit in our couches and pass judgment on these individuals as their delusions go before our eyes.
03:48-03:50
But never forget an important truth.
03:51-03:53
You too can be self-deceived.
03:54-03:58
You too can lack self-awareness.
04:00-04:05
You may not truly understand who you are, and whose you are.
04:06-04:12
Your self-deception may be far worse than believing that you're a world-class vocalist.
04:12-04:16
Your self-deception may have eternal consequences.
04:18-04:23
What if you think you're a Christian, but you're actually not?
04:25-04:32
What if you confidently believe that you're a child of God, but you're actually a son or daughter of the devil?
04:33-04:42
What if you believe that you are heading to heaven while you're on the path to hell?
04:43-04:49
We're in the final section of the Sermon on the Mount, the heart ready for judgment.
04:50-04:57
It's been made abundantly clear that Jesus is not gonna pull any punches as he rounds out his most famous sermon.
04:58-05:04
Two weeks ago, Pastor Jeff unpacked the really tough truth The gate to everlasting life is what?
05:06-05:09
Narrow, and few people go that way because it is hard.
05:10-05:19
While the gate to never-ending punishment is wide, it is massive, and most people go that way because it is so easy.
05:21-05:25
And last week we learned that there are so many false teachers pointing to the wide gate.
05:26-05:30
And it's obvious who they are because of the fruit that they produce.
05:32-05:41
Maybe you heard those messages and even agreed with those messages, but you didn't internalize what was said.
05:42-05:51
You didn't truly evaluate your heart to see if you're on the narrow path or the wide path, to see if you are falling for false teaching.
05:53-05:57
Well, this morning, Jesus is going to tighten the net even more.
05:58-06:06
The walls are gonna be closing in on you so that there's no more wiggle room to escape what the Lord has to say about judgment.
06:08-06:15
Matthew chapter seven, verses 21 through 23 contain the most chilling words in the entire Bible.
06:16-06:18
And for me, there isn't a close second.
06:20-06:27
Jesus says that many are self-deceived in this life and they will be shocked that they won't end up in heaven someday.
06:30-06:38
I want to encourage you, please do not tune out and think, well, there's no way Jesus is talking about me, so I can just kind of daydream and plan out the rest of my week.
06:39-06:44
No, tune in and ask yourself, what if Jesus is talking about me?
06:45-06:47
What if I am self-deceived?
06:47-06:54
What if I am lacking self-awareness of who I am and whose I am?
06:56-07:00
So before we continue, let's go to the Lord and ask for his help.
07:01-07:02
I ask that you pray for me.
07:03-07:09
I'll be faithful in proclaiming God's word and I will pray for you that you are faithful to receive it.
07:14-07:24
Father, we come to you and we ask that your spirit will bring clarity, that he would bring illumination, that he would bring conviction and challenge.
07:24-07:37
Lord, in the past 13 years of preaching, I don't know if I've ever felt more inadequate to proclaim a text than this one, but I thank you in advance that you will preach a much better sermon in people's hearts than I ever could with my mouth.
07:37-07:39
Show up in a great and mighty way, Lord.
07:39-07:42
Come to seek and save the lost.
07:45-07:49
And for the rest of us, Lord, help us to be blown away by your awesome love.
07:50-07:53
And we ask all these things in Jesus' name, amen.
07:55-07:58
Signs that you are self-deceived.
07:59-08:04
Sign one, you profess the truth without being changed by the truth.
08:05-08:10
You profess the truth without being changed by the truth.
08:11-08:13
Let's read chapter seven, verse 21.
08:14-08:15
This is the Lord Jesus speaking.
08:17-08:28
Not everyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord," will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
08:30-08:36
In this verse, Jesus talks about the here and now as well as the there and then.
08:37-08:46
According to Jesus, what you say about who you are here and now may be proven to be wrong there and then at the final judgment.
08:47-08:59
What you profess to believe with your mouth here and now may be proven to not be a genuine reality in your heart there and then as you stand before Jesus.
09:01-09:12
You can be confident here and now that heaven is in your future, but then be banned from heaven when that future finally arrives.
09:13-09:19
You can call Jesus Lord, Lord, which means that you claim him as God.
09:19-09:23
You can even claim Jesus as your God.
09:24-09:31
You can say all the right things about Jesus, but still not be able to enter the kingdom of heaven.
09:33-09:34
Isn't that terrifying?
09:36-09:39
You may be thinking to yourself, Taylor, how is that possible?
09:40-09:44
I thought it's all just about believing and confessing, that's it.
09:46-09:54
Well, the combination of belief and confession is absolutely essential, and you cannot be saved without it.
09:55-09:57
Paul backs this up in Romans 10, 9.
09:57-10:11
"If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord "and believe in your heart that God raised him "from the dead, you will be saved." What a glorious truth that you should cherish, memorize, and hold onto.
10:13-10:17
But unfortunately, so many people misuse and abuse that verse.
10:18-10:22
Well, as long as you pray the prayer, as long as you say the right words, you're good to go.
10:23-10:25
God has stamped your one-way ticket to heaven.
10:25-10:30
Doesn't really matter what you do or how you live from now on.
10:30-10:31
Once saved, always saved.
10:33-10:37
But people who say that miss a key word in this verse.
10:38-10:38
Heart.
10:39-10:41
Believe in your heart.
10:41-10:46
This belief in Christ must take root at the deepest level of who you are.
10:47-10:52
This belief in Christ must take over every single aspect of your life.
10:54-10:58
True belief isn't a mere acknowledgement of the facts.
10:59-11:04
It is an act of faith that transforms you from the inside out.
11:06-11:12
Some who say, "Lord, Lord," will enter the kingdom of heaven because they were transformed by their belief.
11:13-11:19
Many others who say, "Lord, Lord," will not enter the kingdom of heaven because they were never transformed by their belief.
11:21-11:26
It is possible to profess the truth without being changed by the truth.
11:27-11:36
And if you have not been changed by the truth of the gospel, then let me tell you, you have not truly believed in the truth of the gospel.
11:38-11:42
So how can you tell if you have been changed by the truth or not?
11:43-12:05
It's a very simple test according to Jesus He says you don't just say Lord Lord You do the will of your father who is in heaven you say and you do Last week pastor Jeff said that false teachers are revealed by their words and their actions.
12:06-12:09
The same is true for followers of Christ.
12:10-12:19
Genuine faith is proven by believing and confessing the right things, but that can't be the only standard according to our Lord.
12:19-12:24
Genuine faith is also proven by doing the right things.
12:26-12:30
Doing the will of your Father in heaven means that you obey his word.
12:31-12:37
You have an internal desire to do what God says and then you act on that desire.
12:38-12:40
You act on what you say you believe.
12:41-12:52
You say that you should passionately pursue after the Lord in his word and in prayer, so you do passionately pursue after the Lord in his word and in prayer.
12:53-13:01
You say that you should daily repent and turn from your sin, so you do daily repent and turn from your sin.
13:02-13:09
You say that you should share your faith more and make disciples, so you do share your faith more and make disciples.
13:11-13:16
What you say carries no weight if it doesn't line up with what you do.
13:19-13:22
I wanna make something crystal clear to avoid being misunderstood.
13:24-13:26
You are not saved by what you do.
13:27-13:34
You are not saved by what you do, but what you do reveals if you are saved or not.
13:36-13:39
What you do reveals if you are saved or not.
13:41-13:45
You know, almost 20 years ago, I took the written test to get my learner's permit.
13:46-13:49
I studied that PA driver's manual inside and out.
13:49-13:54
I knew all the right answers about driving, and I could regurgitate them on a test.
13:55-14:01
But let me ask you, did passing that 18 question permit test make me a driver?
14:03-14:03
No.
14:05-14:07
For a number of years, I went to seminary.
14:08-14:18
I went to a number of classes, read a countless number of books, listened to so many lectures, and I learned about what a pastor should be, what a pastor should do.
14:19-14:22
And in 2020, I was given my Master of Divinity.
14:24-14:30
Let me ask you, did receiving that piece of paper in the mail make me a pastor?
14:31-14:32
Not one bit.
14:33-14:41
You can get 100% on your permit test and still not be able to enter a car and drive it with any level of competency.
14:42-14:48
You can get the best theological training in the world and still not be able to enter into a church and be its pastor.
14:50-14:56
You can ace a Bible pop quiz and still not enter the kingdom of heaven.
14:58-15:08
Do not be deceived and think that you're safe and sound just because you grew up in a Christian family and went to church when you were younger.
15:09-15:15
Do not be deceived and think that you're safe and sound just because you fill a seat on Sunday mornings.
15:17-15:24
It is not enough just to have the correct facts stored in your brain, the correct facts must change who you are.
15:27-15:29
Signs that you are self-deceived.
15:30-15:35
Sign number two, you point to your works rather than Christ's work.
15:37-15:42
You point to your works rather than Christ's work.
15:44-15:45
Let's read verse 22.
15:47-16:00
On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name?
16:02-16:05
Once again, Jesus is taking us into the future.
16:05-16:12
He fast forwards the movie of life to show us what the final judgment will look like.
16:14-16:18
As we've already seen, some who say Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven.
16:21-16:24
But many others who say Lord, Lord will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
16:25-16:28
And that second group is the focus of this verse.
16:30-16:38
In verse 21, Lord, Lord was a profession of belief, but in verse 22, it is used as a desperate plea.
16:39-16:41
This is a Hail Mary pass.
16:41-16:46
It is a one last effort to avoid judgment.
16:48-16:52
This is an attempt to convince Jesus that a mistake has been made.
16:53-16:57
Lord Jesus, I know you have a lot of people to see and judge today.
16:57-17:02
And it makes sense that a few people are gonna fall through the cracks and a few mistakes are gonna be made.
17:02-17:04
Let me remind you of who I am.
17:04-17:07
Let me remind you of all the things I've done for you.
17:08-17:09
Here's my resume.
17:12-17:14
It's a really impressive resume, isn't it?
17:15-17:22
Casting out demons, prophesying, doing many mighty works and miracles.
17:23-17:41
You may look at this list and think, "How could someone with this resume not enter the kingdom of heaven? How could someone like this not be saved?" Well, there are three possible explanations that lead to the same sad result.
17:42-17:46
Option number one, these mighty works are done by the power of the evil one.
17:48-17:52
These mighty works are done by the power of the evil one.
17:53-18:10
Pastor Jeff talked about this in depth last week, but Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Christian TV stations are filled with corrupt and dishonest pastors who claim to proclaim the word of God and do many mighty miracles in the name of Christ.
18:11-18:23
They look really great with their three-piece suits, their expensive sneakers, their luxurious jets and fancy cars, but they are nothing but frauds and workers of Satan.
18:24-18:27
They are not in ministry for you.
18:28-18:30
They are not in ministry for Jesus.
18:30-18:32
They are in ministry for themselves.
18:33-18:37
They are after power, money, and public adoration.
18:39-18:42
At the very least, they operate in their own power.
18:43-18:46
Or at the very worst, they operate by the power of Satan himself.
18:49-18:52
And you may be thinking, Taylor, you seem to be a bit too tough on these guys.
18:53-18:56
Well, Pastor Jeff, I'm simply applying your message from last week.
18:56-19:01
I'm evaluating the fruits that these false teachers produce.
19:03-19:06
Could it be that you don't like what I'm saying because you are being fooled?
19:07-19:09
Because you are being led astray?
19:10-19:14
Could it be that you're mistaking their bad fruit for good fruit?
19:16-19:19
Option number two, these people are making false claims.
19:21-19:23
These people are making false claims.
19:25-19:29
Have you ever interviewed someone who padded out their resume?
19:31-19:42
with accomplishments they didn't actually accomplish, with awards they didn't actually win, what leads a person to lie about things that are so easily fact-checked in 2025?
19:44-19:47
Once again, the answer is self-deception.
19:48-19:50
There's no way I'll get caught.
19:50-19:52
I can get away with it.
19:53-19:57
They try to puff out their chest and make themselves look better than they actually are.
19:57-20:00
They polish their imaginary trophies.
20:02-20:05
Is it a good idea to lie to your potential employer?
20:08-20:10
Let me ask that again, so you can wake up a bit.
20:10-20:13
Is it a good idea to lie to your potential employer?
20:15-20:18
Is it a good idea to lie to Jesus Christ?
20:22-20:33
Maybe you don't worry about where you'll end up in eternity because you have a high opinion of your ability to sweet talk your way into things or sweet talk your way out of things.
20:34-20:37
I've spoken to a lot of guys in the past that, yeah, I'm not worried about the afterlife.
20:38-20:43
God and I will have a conversation at the pearly gates and he'll see why I should be in there.
20:43-20:44
I'll be just fine.
20:45-20:47
That is a horrible plan.
20:48-20:50
That plan is foolishness.
20:51-20:53
You cannot smooth talk Jesus.
20:54-20:56
He knows everything and he sees everything.
20:57-21:00
He knows what you've done and he knows what you haven't done.
21:01-21:05
He sees right through your flimsy resume of fake accomplishments.
21:07-21:16
Third option, God allows phony believers to accomplish amazing things for his kingdom and glory.
21:18-21:23
God allows phony believers to accomplish amazing things for his glory and kingdom.
21:25-21:31
I mean, just think about the storyline of Scripture and how this plays out in the Old Testament and the New Testament.
21:32-21:40
God put his own words in the mouth of a dirty donkey and then in the mouth of a wicked false prophet.
21:42-21:50
The high priest Caiaphas, who hated and opposed Jesus, unintentionally prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation.
21:51-21:59
In Philippians, the apostle Paul rejoices in the truth that men with horrible motivations can truly proclaim the good news of Jesus.
22:01-22:06
Let's step away from biblical illustrations for a second and hit a bit closer to home.
22:08-22:18
You can take the preaching class at Harvest and deliver a killer sermon while you are engaging in a secret affair that you have no plans to confess or end.
22:20-22:26
You can teach kids back at Harvest Academy while you mistreat your own children at home.
22:27-22:35
You can go on mission trips overseas and help a ton of people over there while you defraud and deceive your clients over here.
22:37-22:45
You can be the number one most dependable volunteer at Harvest while being the most loyal customer at your local liquor store.
22:47-22:53
God can use whoever he wants, whenever he wants, to accomplish whatever he wants.
22:55-23:01
God can use those who are walking in holiness, and he can use those who are not walking in holiness.
23:02-23:08
God can use those who truly belong to him, as well as those who don't truly belong to him.
23:10-23:20
Listen, you can keep yourself busy with religious activities while you destroy yourself behind closed doors and travel down the highway to hell.
23:23-23:31
Serving your church, serving your community are good and godly activities, but those good and godly activities cannot save you.
23:32-23:35
Only Jesus Christ can save you.
23:36-23:41
Rip up your religious resume because I promise you it is not as good as you think it is.
23:42-23:48
Even your best efforts are stained by sin, pride, and mixed motivations.
23:50-24:02
Isaiah gives us a reality check about this when he says, "All of our righteous acts "are like filthy rags." What are filthy rags good for?
24:04-24:04
What's the answer?
24:05-24:06
Nothing.
24:07-24:09
Filthy rags should be thrown away.
24:12-24:17
I assume that some of you will be going to a restaurant after church today with family and friends.
24:18-24:23
Imagine trying to pay the bill with garbage that you found in the dumpster outside the restaurant.
24:26-24:28
Would your server and the manager be very pleased with you?
24:30-24:30
Why?
24:31-24:34
Because you're offering them worthless garbage.
24:36-24:44
Trying to hand God your religious resumes that you can be saved is like handing him trash and expecting that he'll be impressed.
24:46-24:48
At this point, you may be kind of confused.
24:48-24:57
Taylor, you spent a long time talking about the importance of doing the right things, but now you're kind of acting like doing the right things isn't that important.
24:59-25:14
Well again, I want to emphasize that good works must flow out of your salvation, but good works cannot contribute to your salvation tiny bit. Salvation is a hundred percent the work of God and zero percent you.
25:16-25:29
Some of you are operating as if you're responsible for half. 25%, 5%, 2%, even 1% is too much. It's all of Jesus Christ.
25:32-25:38
Listen, your resume stinks, while Christ's resume soars.
25:39-25:44
Your resume is imperfect, while Christ's resume is perfect.
25:44-25:50
You are a loser on your own, while Christ is a winner.
25:51-26:01
But the good news is, you can share in his victory by letting go of what you have to offer, by grabbing a hold of what he has to offer.
26:03-26:06
Jesus Christ lived the perfect life you could never live.
26:07-26:10
He succeeded in every single way that you have failed.
26:11-26:14
He then died the death that you deserve to die.
26:15-26:19
He rose again to give you the new life that you could never work your way towards.
26:20-26:26
Do not be deceived and rely on your own goodness and track record.
26:26-26:31
Do not rest your eternal destiny on yourself.
26:32-26:36
Rest in Christ's work, not your own.
26:36-26:44
Place your trust in Christ alone because he alone can give you what you need both now and forever.
26:47-26:50
Signs that you are self-deceived, final sign.
26:51-26:53
And this is the hardest one of them all.
26:54-26:58
You presume that you know Jesus, but Jesus does not know you.
27:01-27:06
You presume that you know Jesus, but Jesus does not know you.
27:08-27:13
So after the religious resume has been read, Jesus gives the most devastating response.
27:15-27:20
And then I will declare to them, I never knew you.
27:23-27:25
Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.
27:28-27:35
Can you imagine anything more terrifying than hearing that from the most important person in existence?
27:36-27:39
Get away from me, I want nothing to do with you.
27:41-27:45
You are nothing but an unrepentant lawbreaker and evildoer.
27:47-27:49
Does that response shock you?
27:51-27:55
You may be thinking, but how could Jesus say something so harsh?
27:56-27:59
Isn't he the definition of love and forgiveness?
28:01-28:03
But what's the reason he gives in the text?
28:04-28:09
You are acting like you know me, but I don't know you.
28:11-28:14
You know, as a preacher, I enjoy listening to a lot of preachers.
28:15-28:16
I'm somewhat of a pastoral nerd.
28:16-28:19
I follow a lot of pastors on social media.
28:19-28:22
I have a list of my favorites that I've listened to, some for decades.
28:24-28:32
And I learn about their personal lives, I learn about their ministries and their messages and their books, and it can really feel like I know them.
28:34-28:35
But do I actually know them?
28:36-28:41
I know a lot about them, but I don't know them.
28:42-28:50
There is no relationship, there is no back and forth, there is no give or take, it's just a one-sided admiration from afar.
28:52-28:57
Imagine I drive across the country to the house of my favorite online preacher.
28:58-29:02
I show up on his doorstep at 10 o'clock at night and I knock on his door, keep ringing the doorbell.
29:03-29:07
Eventually, this poor preacher shuffles the door in his bathrobe and his slippers, the toothbrush in hand.
29:08-29:13
As soon as he opens the door, I launch into, hey, Mance Taylor, I got a lot of problems right now.
29:13-29:14
I really need your advice.
29:14-29:16
Can I come in and chat?
29:18-29:19
How do you think he's gonna respond?
29:20-29:24
Dude, you're acting like you know me, but I don't know you at all.
29:25-29:26
You are a total stranger.
29:28-29:30
My wife and kids are at home and they're sleeping.
29:30-29:32
I'm not just gonna invite you in.
29:32-29:34
You need to leave right now.
29:36-29:38
Is that an appropriate response?
29:39-29:41
Yes, that's how he should respond.
29:41-29:44
I should be turned away from him in that moment.
29:47-29:48
Let's change up the scenario a bit.
29:49-29:52
At 10 o'clock tonight, I show up on Pastor Jeff's doorstep.
29:54-29:59
Knock on the door, ring the doorbell, he opens it, and I give him the same exact spiel.
30:00-30:02
Will there be a different outcome?
30:03-30:04
Will there be a different response?
30:06-30:06
Why?
30:08-30:11
Because I don't just listen to Pastor Jeff from afar.
30:11-30:13
I don't watch him on a screen.
30:14-30:18
We've been close friends for 13 years, and he is my pastor.
30:19-30:23
I know Pastor Jeff and Jeff knows me.
30:25-30:27
I don't just know a lot about him.
30:29-30:31
Do you know a lot about Jesus?
30:33-30:35
Or do you know Jesus?
30:37-30:39
Does Jesus consider you a stranger?
30:41-30:49
Or does he know you as his close friend, his faithful follower, his blood-bought brother or sister.
30:53-30:57
Does he really actually know you?
31:00-31:07
Maybe you're thinking to yourself, well, how can I know if I know Jesus and he knows me?
31:08-31:09
What's the test of that?
31:11-31:16
Well, years ago, I heard a pastor say something in a sermon that I never forgot since.
31:17-31:22
He said, "You can tell a lot about a person by how they respond to a simple question.
31:24-31:26
Why do you love Jesus?
31:29-31:49
Why do you love Jesus?" He said, "You'd be shocked by how many people have no idea how to answer that question because their intellectual knowledge of Jesus has not created affection for Jesus.
31:51-31:55
Friends, why do you love Jesus?
31:57-32:01
If you can't think of anything, that's a huge problem, and you shouldn't ignore it.
32:03-32:10
Imagine pulling me aside for service and saying, "Taylor, what do you love about your wife?" And I respond, "Uh, well,
32:12-32:12
(congregation laughing)
32:15-32:16
What does that tell you?
32:17-32:20
I don't have a personal and in-depth knowledge of my wife.
32:21-32:24
I don't love her like I presume to.
32:24-32:26
I should say, hey, do you have a couple of days?
32:26-32:29
'Cause my list is very, very long.
32:30-32:34
There's not just one thing about my wife that I love, there's a countless number of them.
32:34-32:39
My wife has my heart, so my list of why I love her is very long.
32:41-32:48
But how much longer should your list be and my list be when it comes to Jesus Christ and why we love Him?
32:50-32:54
Life is too short to plumb the depths of His awesomeness.
32:55-32:57
Why do you love Jesus?
32:58-33:02
I love Jesus because He died for me when I wanted nothing to do with Him.
33:03-33:07
I love Jesus because He loves me no matter what I do.
33:08-33:15
I love Jesus because he is not ashamed to call me his brother, despite all the ways that I fail him.
33:16-33:23
I love Jesus because he cares about everything that I go through, and he sympathizes with all of my weaknesses.
33:24-33:29
I love Jesus because right now, he is interceding for me in heaven before the Father.
33:30-33:36
I love Jesus because all the promises of Scripture find their yes and amen in him.
33:37-33:43
I love Jesus because He is always with me, and He will never forsake me, even to the very end.
33:45-33:48
I could keep going and going and going.
33:50-33:50
Could you?
33:53-33:58
How can you say that you love Jesus if you don't even know why you love Him?
34:01-34:08
How can you expect that you'll worship Jesus for all of eternity if you can't think of a single reason to worship him right now.
34:10-34:12
Do not be deceived.
34:13-34:17
Heaven is not a place for fans and admirers of Jesus.
34:18-34:22
Heaven is a place for those who love Christ with a full heart.
34:25-34:33
If you don't know Jesus before your life comes to an end, Jesus will deny knowing you in the next.
34:36-34:44
For years, I used to laugh at the nickname that the apostle John gave himself in his own gospels.
34:45-34:47
Does anyone know what his nickname he gave himself was?
34:47-34:49
The disciple whom Jesus, what?
34:50-34:51
Really, John?
34:52-34:55
Asking me the nickname you gave yourself, the one whom Jesus loved?
34:56-34:59
And for years, I thought John was saying, yeah, you know what?
35:00-35:01
I was Jesus' favorite.
35:02-35:05
Peter may be the most popular, but what can I say?
35:05-35:06
Jesus loves me more.
35:08-35:13
Recently I've come to the realization that's not at all what John had in mind.
35:15-35:27
John is claiming his identity by saying, "I am the one whom Jesus loved." He was saying the love of Jesus was the most important thing about him.
35:27-35:29
Doesn't even matter what my name is.
35:29-35:32
What matters is that Jesus loves me.
35:32-35:39
The love of Jesus was the foundation of who he was and the motivation for all that he did.
35:41-35:43
How do you identify yourself?
35:46-35:52
Do you primarily identify yourself as someone who has all the right answers and says all the right things?
35:54-36:00
Do you identify yourself as a good person who has an impressive religious resume of good works?
36:01-36:06
Do you identify yourself as someone who knows a lot about Jesus?
36:07-36:12
All of those identities are deceptive and destructive.
36:13-36:18
All of those identities will lead you to everlasting destruction.
36:19-36:22
If those are your identities, you are self-deceived.
36:23-36:25
You lack self-awareness.
36:26-36:32
I beg you to reject those identities and grab a hold of the love of Jesus Christ.
36:32-36:35
Embrace who he is and what he wants to give you.
36:35-36:39
Give your life to him and Christ will become your life.
36:40-36:44
Give your identity to him and Christ will become your identity.
36:45-36:53
You can be known as the one whom Jesus loves by bowing the knee to him in unending submission.
36:55-37:01
Make the love of Jesus Christ the foundation of who you are and the motivation for all that you do.
37:04-37:10
It's so easy to lose sight of these spiritual realities in a physical world, isn't it?
37:12-37:19
And as infinite grace, God has chosen to give us a physical picture of His love in the Lord's Supper.
37:19-37:28
As we come to this meal together, we are graphically reminded of how Christ has shown his love for us.
37:29-37:31
He took our place on the cross.
37:31-37:33
He died for us.
37:33-37:38
He took upon himself the wrath that you and I deserve.
37:39-37:42
Our worship leaders and communion servers can now make their way forward.
37:45-37:52
You don't need to be a member of Harvest Bible Chapel to take part in communion, but you do need to be a member of the family of God.
37:54-38:00
Communion is only for those who know Christ and are known by Christ.
38:02-38:11
If you want to know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, we're gonna have two individuals back in guest reception, Pastor Jeff and Lexi Cole.
38:11-38:13
They would love to talk and pray with you.
38:15-38:16
And please just look at me for a minute.
38:17-38:20
Please do not pass up this opportunity.
38:21-38:24
The Bible says that today is the day of salvation.
38:25-38:27
Tomorrow's not a great day for salvation.
38:28-38:30
Next week's not a great time for salvation.
38:31-38:34
When it's more convenient is not a great time for salvation.
38:34-38:37
Today is a great day for salvation.
38:38-38:44
Jesus is commanding you to know him today, to love him today, to trust in him today.
38:46-38:48
So please, push aside your pride.
38:49-38:51
Push aside any embarrassment you may feel.
38:53-38:55
And go talk to Pastor Jeff and Lexi in the back.
38:55-39:01
They would love to pray for you and point you to Jesus and what next steps with him looks like.

Small Group Discussion
Read Matthew 7:21-23

What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
How can you evaluate if you are self-deceived and lack self-awareness of who you are and whose you are?
How has the truth of the gospel changed you? In what areas do you need to be further changed?
What is the difference between knowing a lot about Jesus and knowing Jesus?
Why do you love Jesus?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

Jeff Miller

September 14, 2025

Heart Ready For Judgment

Beware of Who You Hear

Jeff Miller

September 14, 2025

Heart Ready For Judgment

Introduction:

Watch! (Matthew 7:15-20)

Watch Out: FALSE PROPHETS! (Matt 7:15)
Watch For: FRUIT! (Matt 7:16-20)
1. What They DO.
  
  John 7:18 – The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood.
2. What They SAY.
  
  1 Thessalonians 5:20-21 – Do not despise prophesies but test everything: hold fast to what is good.

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

00:49-01:09
Before we continue in our series on the Sermon on the Mount, I want to say a few things in light of the events of last week with the death of Charlie Kirk, the murder of Charlie Kirk.
01:12-01:13
Absolutely horrible.
01:20-01:27
But at the same time that it's horrible, it's not really shocking, is it?
01:28-01:31
It's not really shocking that something like that would happen.
01:33-01:40
And I would say if you are shocked that something like that could happen in our country, then you haven't been paying attention.
01:45-01:55
It's not shocking because this is exactly the kind of climate that the Lord told us we would be living in.
01:57-02:00
Look at 2 Timothy 3.
02:00-02:03
Turn in your Bibles there for a second please.
02:03-02:05
2 Timothy 3.
02:07-02:12
Paul says, "But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.
02:14-02:59
For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.
03:03-03:05
Does that sound familiar at all?
03:08-03:09
This is where we are.
03:11-03:15
Charlie Kirk was a man who was murdered because of what he said.
03:17-03:19
Because there were people that didn't like what he said.
03:19-03:20
Does that sound familiar?
03:24-03:34
The whole reason we're here is to worship God incarnate who came and said things that that people didn't want to hear.
03:37-03:39
And they murdered Him for it.
03:47-03:53
Yet God accomplished His purposes through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
03:55-04:06
There's a young man who spoke boldly of the Lord, who was publicly executed.
04:06-04:07
His name was Stephen.
04:10-04:14
God used that to advance His Gospel purposes.
04:15-04:18
There's a young man who spoke boldly for the Lord who was publicly executed.
04:19-04:20
His name was Charlie.
04:21-04:27
And already we're seeing God is using that to advance His Gospel.
04:32-04:38
I feel terrible for Charlie's family and friends, but Charlie himself, he's having a good day.
04:40-04:47
He is experiencing the fulfillment of the hope in Jesus Christ that he believed in.
04:50-04:51
having a good day.
04:56-05:08
You know as we head down this last stretch of the Sermon on the Mount, last week we talked about the command that Jesus gave us to enter the narrow gate.
05:10-05:18
He said, "The way is hard." And here is another reason that the way is hard.
05:21-05:25
Jesus said that we have to be willing to die.
05:30-05:33
That's the call to discipleship.
05:33-05:36
For anyone who would follow Jesus, Charlie got that.
05:43-05:46
If He were here right now, what do you think He would tell us to do?
05:49-05:54
He would tell us to go after the Lord, to seek Jesus Christ, to get in His Word.
05:56-05:57
And that's what we're going to do.
05:59-06:00
So I'd like you to bow your heads please.
06:00-06:01
I want you to please pray for me.
06:05-06:14
To be faithful to communicate God's Word as I should, and I will pray for you to have a heart open to receive what it is the Lord wants to teach us today.
06:19-06:23
Father in Heaven, we live in the days that You advertised.
06:25-06:27
You told us exactly what this would be like.
06:31-06:32
Father we...
06:39-06:41
We were just singing about how worthy you are.
06:43-07:00
Father may we all, like this faithful saint this past week, Father may we all demonstrate Lord, how worthy we consider You by our willingness to lay down our lives.
07:02-07:08
It's not going to get any better until our Lord returns.
07:11-07:12
Come, Lord Jesus.
07:15-07:17
Open up our hearts and minds to Your Word today, Father.
07:19-07:21
We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
07:24-07:27
Open up your Bibles to Matthew 7.
07:29-07:32
We'll be picking up in verse 15.
07:41-07:45
Last Halloween, I was at work.
07:48-07:56
Erin sent me a video at the house of a mysterious knocking.
07:59-08:02
She's going through the house recording this.
08:02-08:03
There was this knocking.
08:03-08:04
She went to the doors.
08:04-08:05
She went outside.
08:06-08:10
Nobody, but just this constant mysterious knocking.
08:12-08:15
Creepy at any time, especially on Halloween, right?
08:19-08:21
Well, we found out who was knocking.
08:24-08:25
We have a woodpecker problem.
08:28-08:29
Oh yeah, funny for you.
08:33-08:34
We got a woodpecker problem.
08:38-08:44
So we got on the internets to figure out what we need to do to deter the woodpecker.
08:46-08:52
And one of the things that they recommended was getting a plastic owl.
08:52-08:56
They say that owls are just like natural woodpecker predators, right?
08:57-09:06
So you're going to put an owl where the woodpeckers want to come, and that scares the woodpeckers away.
09:06-09:15
dragged the ladder out, and I climbed up the side of the house, and I lashed the owl to the radon vent with thick twine.
09:22-10:27
And you know that woodpecker came back. So I went outside, like, "What did I do wrong here and you know I think I see the problem that owl doesn't look ready to attack does he looks like what we got here is a hostage situation that I think the woodpeckers saw this and was like oh this house is awesome they just take my predators and lash them to the house. You know what I learned from this? I'm not very good at deceiving. I can't even deceive a bird. But you know there are, Unfortunately, there are a lot of people out there today who are great at deceiving.
10:31-10:33
Last week we talked about entering the narrow gate.
10:33-10:34
Jesus said the way is hard.
10:35-10:37
He said the narrow gate is hard to find.
10:37-10:38
It's hard to walk.
10:38-10:42
And here's another reason the narrow gate is so hard to enter.
10:42-10:43
Look at verse 15.
10:44-10:54
Jesus says, "Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly Only a ravenous wolves.
10:57-11:01
It's hard to enter the narrow gate because there are false prophets that are good at deceiving.
11:02-11:13
It's hard to enter the narrow gate because you have people that are standing saying that they represent God and they don't, and they're ushering people into the wide gate.
11:17-11:38
You're like, "Well, who would fall for that?" Well, according to verse 13, Jesus said, "Many, many." If you look at the flow of Jesus' sermon here from last week to this week, here's what our Lord is saying.
11:39-11:50
Jesus is saying, "Strive to enter the narrow gate "and beware of those who would mislead you away from it." So I want you to jot some things down on your outline.
11:50-11:53
Here's what, it's really about one word today.
11:54-11:55
It's watch.
11:56-11:56
Watch.
11:59-12:01
Watch, number one, right this time, watch out.
12:02-12:03
False prophets.
12:07-12:15
Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
12:21-12:24
See, God has this plan to save sinners.
12:25-12:29
And the plan to save sinner, it has two tracks.
12:29-12:34
On one track is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
12:37-12:39
took away our sin, provided eternal life.
12:39-12:41
That's one track.
12:41-12:51
The other track that this train of salvation runs on is the gospel message being spoken through the people of God.
12:59-13:03
Satan has his counterfeits.
13:04-13:25
Just as God sends his people out to usher people into the narrow gate, Satan has his counterfeits leading people into the wide gate. And Jesus tells us in verse 15 about these false prophets that they're not always obvious but they are always dangerous.
13:25-13:30
You see that? They're not always obvious but they are always dangerous.
13:31-13:32
Let's break that down.
13:32-13:34
They're not always obvious, first of all.
13:35-13:38
Notice Jesus says that they're in sheep's clothing.
13:41-13:43
What is sheep's clothing?
13:44-13:46
That's just another way of saying wool.
13:47-13:53
Our Lord wasn't talking about going to the Spirit of Halloween store and buying a lamb costume.
13:54-13:55
He's not talking about that.
13:57-13:59
He's talking about a wool coat.
14:00-14:02
Because in those days, that's what a shepherd wore.
14:02-14:04
They wore a wool coat.
14:05-14:08
So Jesus is saying false prophets are dressed as a shepherd.
14:09-14:13
In other words, they look like a legitimate pastor.
14:14-14:23
Oh, they sound so good and people just love them, but they're not always obvious, but they are always dangerous.
14:27-14:29
That's why look at the first word of verse 15, beware.
14:31-14:35
Jesus didn't say take note or notice, beware.
14:36-14:37
Look out for these people.
14:41-14:46
Always dangerous, Jesus says, yeah, they might look like shepherds, but inwardly they're wolves.
14:48-14:49
Number one, enemy of sheep.
14:51-14:52
Inwardly evil.
14:57-14:59
What does a wolf do with sheep?
15:02-15:03
Does a wolf show up to feed the sheep?
15:04-15:05
Does the wolf show up to care for the sheep?
15:06-15:06
No.
15:07-15:10
Wolves, when they show up, they're there to take.
15:10-15:12
A wolf is there to get what the wolf wants.
15:12-15:15
A wolf is there to destroy the sheep.
15:15-15:18
And Jesus said that is what false prophets are like.
15:21-15:23
Jesus said you have to beware.
15:23-15:24
It's all through the Bible.
15:24-15:25
All through the Bible.
15:25-15:31
Read Old Testament, Deuteronomy 13, Isaiah 30, Jeremiah 14.
15:31-15:35
We talked about this recently through the New Testament, Matthew 24.
15:36-15:42
Almost every New Testament epistle warns against false prophets.
15:46-15:52
And here once again, Jesus is calling us, church, to discernment.
15:55-16:06
And you've heard me say this before, that is my biggest concern for the church at large, but that is my biggest concern for this church, is lack of discernment.
16:08-16:10
Like, well, what's discernment?
16:10-16:15
is the ability to detect what's from God and what's not from God.
16:19-16:21
My concern is for this church.
16:24-16:42
My concern is for people here who genuinely love the Lord, genuinely love His Word, being let astray, because more than ever we have countless opportunities to listen to junk teaching.
16:48-17:19
Internet, podcasts, YouTube, Jesus tells us to beware, and church, never, never has it been a bigger problem because wolves have a bigger platform than ever in history. You have to discern who you follow, who you listen to, who you read.
17:19-17:20
You have to discern.
17:23-17:26
I'm shocked at the lack of discernment that we have in the church today.
17:29-17:34
People just gobble up anything as long as it has a sticker on it that says Christian.
17:38-17:41
It's not all from God, it's not.
17:43-17:45
That's why Jesus tells us to beware.
17:46-17:47
It's not all from God.
17:47-17:48
Like what?
17:49-17:50
Does it really matter?
17:51-17:54
Does it really matter? I mean, come on.
17:55-17:58
Aren't we just nitpicking here a little bit Pastor Jeff? Does it really matter?
18:02-18:26
Well, let me ask you this, imagine imagine that you you woke up tomorrow morning and you had the most severe stomach cramps. I mean it just felt like Razors in your intestines and you're just like doubled over in pain can't function calling off work I gotta get to a doctor Which doctor are you going to?
18:28-18:32
Do you want the trendy doctor who has the most patients?
18:33-18:36
Who will lie to you to make you happy?
18:37-18:50
But is really using you and misleading you Or, do you want the doctor who cares about you and will tell you the truth?
18:55-19:06
You're like, "Well, it's a no-brainer, isn't it?" Why is it a no-brainer there, but when it comes to Bible teaching, we want the trendy lying guy?
19:10-19:12
The wide gate leads to destruction.
19:12-19:13
Does this stuff matter?
19:13-19:17
Yeah, it matters, because your eternity is on the line.
19:19-19:26
And you better be sure that you haven't been ushered into the wide gate by some false prophets.
19:26-19:29
They're not always obvious, but they are always dangerous.
19:30-19:33
They're dangerous to Christians, they're dangerous to the church, they're dangerous to our families.
19:35-19:40
If Jesus, if God himself is telling us we need to beware of these people, then we better be paying attention.
19:44-19:45
Watch out for the false prophets.
19:46-19:47
You're like, all right, well, how do I know?
19:49-19:53
Like if these people are out there and they're so, they're not obvious, but they're dangerous.
19:54-19:55
How do I know?
19:56-19:58
How do I recognize them?
19:59-20:02
Well, number two in your outline, watch for.
20:04-20:05
Fruit.
20:09-20:11
Look at verses 16 through 20.
20:13-20:14
Jesus tells us to beware.
20:16-20:17
Look at verse 16.
20:17-20:19
He says, "You will recognize them by their fruits.
20:20-20:25
Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?
20:26-20:32
So every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruits.
20:34-20:39
A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.
20:39-20:45
Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
20:46-20:51
Thus, you will recognize them by their fruits.
20:54-20:58
I got to tell you, this is one of the most comforting passages in the Bible.
21:00-21:04
Jesus says you will recognize them.
21:04-21:05
You will!
21:08-21:13
Jesus didn't say there's false prophets out there that will lead you to hell, good luck.
21:15-21:32
You'll recognize them if you discern, if you if you care to discern if you take the Lord's warning To beware, if you take that seriously, you'll recognize them.
21:34-21:35
And recognize them how?
21:38-21:40
Jesus said you'll recognize them by their fruits.
21:43-21:49
You're like, fruits, you mean like a tree?
21:50-21:52
Yeah, like a tree.
21:56-22:01
you recognize a tree by what it produces, right?
22:04-22:10
In the same way, Jesus is telling us you recognize false prophets by what they produce.
22:13-22:17
That really has to explain Jesus' analogy here too much, do I?
22:20-22:25
Jesus illustrates it by saying, look, good trees make good fruit.
22:25-22:28
Bad trees make bad fruit.
22:31-22:33
Like that's how you know.
22:33-22:35
You're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on, hang on, hang on.
22:36-22:44
Back in verse one of chapter seven, I thought you said we're not supposed to judge someone's heart.
22:44-22:44
That's right.
22:46-22:47
You can't judge someone's heart.
22:48-22:50
That's why Jesus says to judge the fruit.
22:53-22:58
Jesus here is telling us, You have to judge by looking at what they produce.
23:01-23:07
You're like, "Well, what is that?" Very simply, church, it's two things.
23:07-23:08
There are two things.
23:09-23:21
Any preacher you listen to, whether it's here or down the street or on the YouTubes or the Facebooks or whatever, wherever you're listening to preachers, you have to look at two things.
23:24-24:17
A, watch what they do. Watch what they do. A person's inward nature always expresses itself eventually. I had a good friend that used to say, "Truth and time go hand in hand." You're not sure what's in somebody's heart? It'll come out. It always comes out eventually. What's in the heart is always revealed in actions. You will recognize them by their fruit. Right? There's good fruit to look for. This pastor, this preacher, you're listening to, you're following, there's good fruit to look for?
24:17-24:25
What about things like humility and selflessness, repentance and obedience, generosity and hospitality?
24:26-24:33
What about the fruit of the Spirit, Galatians 5, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control?
24:37-24:41
Do they seem to have a motive to want to glorify God?
24:42-24:45
Are they a person that wants holiness and righteousness?
24:45-24:48
Do they seem like they want to magnify Jesus?
24:50-24:57
You know, there's a lot of fruit that we could talk about, but it really, I guess since we're in this current sermon series, let's boil it down to this.
24:57-24:58
Let's make it this easy.
25:00-25:03
This preacher that you're evaluating, is he a beatitude guy?
25:08-25:19
a true Christian and a true prophet, someone speaking for God, as someone who exemplifies the Beatitudes.
25:21-25:22
That's what our Lord is saying.
25:22-25:27
You want good fruit, you're not going to find it from a false prophet, because nothing good comes from them.
25:29-25:31
You don't get grapes from thorns.
25:35-25:37
You don't get figs from thistles, do you?
25:40-25:48
Jesus made a very powerful statement of evaluation in John 7, 18.
25:50-25:50
Look at this.
25:51-25:58
Jesus said, "The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory.
26:00-26:11
But the one who seeks the glory of Him who sent Him is true, and in Him there is no falsehood." The second part of that verse, Jesus is speaking obviously of Himself.
26:13-26:23
That's Jesus' standard for His own identity, but here in the first part of that verse, Jesus is giving us a clue on how to identify a false prophet.
26:23-26:23
Look at this.
26:24-26:31
as the one who speaks on his own authority, as the one who seeks his own glory.
26:36-26:39
See, that's the bad fruit that you need to be looking for.
26:41-26:44
That preacher that is constantly looking for more attention.
26:45-26:50
It's about his branding, his image, him being the face of it.
26:50-26:53
Your spotlight on me, please.
26:55-27:02
Ain't I great?" It's all about his pride, his ego, his power, self-centered.
27:03-27:04
Watch out for that guy.
27:05-27:07
Watch out for the guy that's seeking his own glory.
27:10-27:15
Self-centered and self-indulgent.
27:18-27:50
people will put on a pure and holy front. Write this down. Eventually false prophets are found to be full of greed and/or lust. It always comes out eventually. You're like, "Well, Pastor Jeff, it's sort of hard to evaluate this fruit because this kind of stuff often You're right.
27:52-28:03
This is the kind of fruit that's not always so readily seen, but there is a more obvious fruit that we need to evaluate, and that's letter B. Listen to what they say.
28:05-28:06
Listen to what they say.
28:11-28:25
And oh, what they say matters, by the way, because Jesus says, "Beware of false prophets." Prophets, prophets, it's about someone giving a message, right?
28:29-28:38
A couple years ago, back when we were chicken farmers, we were chicken farmers, I heard a couple people laugh.
28:39-28:41
At least that's what I like to refer to myself as.
28:42-28:47
went to the Rural King and we got ourselves six leghorns.
28:49-28:54
And when you buy them at the Rural King, they're sexed, which means you're getting all females, right?
28:55-28:56
'Cause we wanted them eggs.
28:57-29:02
Well, our leghorns grew up, you know, they're so cute when they're little.
29:03-29:06
And then when they get to that adolescent age, they get really ugly.
29:08-29:15
And then they turn into beautiful creatures, like humans, right?
29:15-29:16
I know you're thinking it.
29:17-29:17
(laughs)
29:17-29:20
I know you, I knew you were thinking it.
29:21-29:32
All right, but so we had these six chickens and one day Aaron goes, "Hey, you need to come out "and you need to come out and look at something.
29:32-29:40
"I need your opinion." And I went outside and our one leghorn, Again, just coming out of adolescence, but our one leg horn was like,
29:43-29:43
(imitates horn)
29:46-29:46
I'm like, hmm.
29:50-29:50
Little Gene.
29:52-29:58
Little J-E-A-N is actually little G-E-N-E.
30:04-30:07
And you know, in Little Gene, we didn't know what he was until he opened his mouth.
30:12-30:13
And that's true about false prophets.
30:15-30:17
You might not know what they are until they open their mouth.
30:20-30:22
Listen to the message.
30:24-30:25
What am I listening for?
30:26-30:29
This is discernment 101, we've talked about this stuff.
30:29-30:31
Discernment 101, what are we listening for?
30:32-30:36
False prophets always have a twisted view of Jesus, always.
30:37-30:41
His person, His work, who Jesus is, what He did, what it means.
30:42-30:44
False prophets always have this twisted view.
30:47-30:53
According to the Bible, the incarnation is Jesus Christ, fully God, fully man.
30:54-30:58
God became a man to die as a man for men.
31:00-31:02
That's who Jesus is, that's what He did.
31:02-31:05
He rose from the dead to give us eternal life.
31:05-31:07
That's who Jesus is, that's what he did.
31:07-31:12
And if you don't get that doctrine right, nothing else really matters, right?
31:15-31:30
And it's easy to take the shots at the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mormons and the Christian scientists and those ones are obviously off about who Jesus is and what he did.
31:30-31:32
I mean, that's so obvious.
31:32-31:34
They're not really my concern.
31:34-31:38
I'm more concerned about the ones who present themselves as being biblical.
31:41-31:42
Listen to the message.
31:45-31:51
Are they accurately representing God's Word?
31:56-31:57
You've got to have discernment, people.
31:58-32:22
prophets will teach some man-centered nonsense, and they like to sprinkle in some random out-of-context verses and non-discerning people say, "Well, he mentioned the Bible, so that has to be from God." They twist Scripture to attract an audience.
32:23-32:26
Do you ever wonder how they fill those massive auditoriums?
32:28-32:30
Like, how do they do that?
32:31-32:37
Like, if they're false prophets, how are there so many people packed in to hear them?
32:41-32:43
It's because they tell people what they want to hear.
32:44-32:44
That's why.
32:47-32:48
They tell people what they want to hear.
32:53-32:59
Their messages, they're going to talk about things like, look, God is love.
33:00-33:03
That's really the only thing you need to know is God is love.
33:06-33:07
Is that true?
33:08-33:09
Is God love?
33:09-33:10
Yes, absolutely.
33:11-33:15
But you see, the problem is that's the only aspect of God that they talk about.
33:16-33:26
You know, the Bible at the same time talks about other attributes of God that are also just as true and just as important as the fact that God is love.
33:28-33:29
God is love.
33:30-33:31
That's all you're going to hear.
33:33-33:50
And if you just believe, if you have enough faith deep down in your heart of hearts, deep down in your hearts, way deep down in your heart, if you really believe, you're going to be physically healed and you're going to be wealthy.
33:54-34:05
They say things like, "You know what, you have the power to control your destiny." They say things like, "It's never God's will that you lack.
34:05-34:09
It is never God's will that you suffer.
34:09-34:14
And then we sprinkle in a couple verses to make it sound like I'm saying what the Bible says.
34:17-34:33
And then the world comes along and they're like, "Oh, that's the kind of religion that I want." Puts the spotlight off of Jesus and onto me.
34:35-34:47
the problem. Self-centered teaching attracts self-centered people. You know, we tend to measure success with numbers, and then we somehow equate numbers with authenticity.
34:54-34:55
Listen, huge red flag.
34:57-35:05
When the focus of preaching is all about our benefits, not God's glory.
35:11-35:16
I mean that kind of preaching might be attractive to people, but not to God.
35:17-35:19
So preaching, it leads to the wide path.
35:21-35:22
Listen to what they say.
35:24-35:29
And listen, not just listen to what they say, listen to what they never say.
35:34-35:35
Listen to what they never say.
35:36-35:37
Yeah, we're going to go with that.
35:39-35:41
Are they teaching the whole counsel of God's word?
35:45-35:47
Or do they cherry-pick topics?
35:51-35:53
It's a huge clue for false prophets.
35:53-36:01
They're never going to talk about sin, or repentance, or denying yourself, or judgment, or hell.
36:01-36:02
They're never going to talk about that.
36:05-36:07
It's all so easy.
36:07-36:08
It's nothing offensive.
36:09-36:10
It's nothing that convicts.
36:10-36:14
There's nothing that could possibly bring godly sorrow into your life.
36:14-36:15
We're not going to talk about that.
36:16-36:18
We don't want anyone to feel bad.
36:18-36:19
We just want you all to feel comfortable.
36:25-36:26
All the way to hell.
36:31-36:39
The false prophet, listen, talks about the Bible, but not out of the Bible.
36:41-36:50
And if you learn to discern the difference between those two things, you're going to be able to spot a false prophet instantly.
36:54-36:56
They talk about the Bible, not out of the Bible.
36:58-37:31
not preaching a narrow gate. And if they're not preaching a narrow gate, which gate are they leading you into again? 1 Thessalonians 5, Paul says, "Do not despise prophecies, but test everything. Hold fast to what is good." Any teaching that includes here, any must be tested with the Word of God.
37:31-37:37
You see, in God's infinite wisdom, that's why He gave us a book, right?
37:38-37:46
Because anybody can walk around and say, oh, this is what God says, I have a message from the Lord, let me tell you what the Almighty is saying.
37:46-37:48
Anybody can do that.
37:48-38:00
But God gave us His Word in written form so that we could read it and we can understand it and we can compare what we hear with it sure what's from God and what's not.
38:05-38:07
And here our Lord tells us, "Beware.
38:09-38:24
Beware of false prophets, because not everything called Christian is from God." Satan is not going to make it obvious for us.
38:25-38:33
Deception is his MO, and he's going to make sure that his false prophets wear sheep's clothing.
38:35-38:39
They're going to be dressed just like a shepherd.
38:43-38:45
I'd like to ask the worship team to come back up.
38:50-38:52
And church, I want you to stand.
38:55-38:56
I want you to stand.
38:56-38:58
We're going to get into, we're going to close by getting into prayer groups.
39:00-39:01
So in just a moment, I want you to stand up.
39:01-39:02
Go ahead, stand up.
39:04-39:04
Don't be shy.
39:09-39:10
Here's what I want you to do.
39:12-39:13
I want you to grab a few people near you.
39:13-39:16
Get in little groups of about six or eight or so.
39:16-40:11
We're not gonna go through and count. All right, and if you want to stand and pray by yourself, that's your business But I want to encourage you to just grab a few people nearby get in little groups And here's here's what I want us to do today. I want us to heed the warning of Jesus We need to pray We need to pray for our church For our families for our little ones we are bombarded more than ever with false teaching So what I want you to do in your little prayer groups, I want you to pray just two things All right. Number one. I want you to pray that we would know and love the Word of God All right, and number two that we would learn to recognize false prophets by their fruit Those are the two things that we're praying about now.

Small Group Discussion
Read Matthew 7:15-20

What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Why did Jesus say BEWARE of false prophets? What exactly is the danger?
What are examples of good fruit you should look for in a “prophet” (preacher, pastor)?
What are examples of bad fruit?
What are some topics many false prophets talk about? What are some topics they often avoid?
False prophets talk about the Bible but not out of the Bible. What is the difference?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

Jeff Miller

September 7, 2025

Heart Ready For Judgment

Beware of Which Gate You Enter

Jeff Miller

September 7, 2025

Heart Ready For Judgment

Introduction:

John 3:36 - whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

Ephesians 2:3 – were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

Enter By the Narrow Gate (Matthew 7:13-14)

It's Hard to FIND. (Matt 7:14)

John 14:6 – Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Luke 14:33 – So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
It's Hard to WALK. (Matt 7:14)
It's Hard to DISMISS. (Matt 7:14)

Matthew 11:12 – From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

00:45-00:47
I'd like you to just bow your heads for a moment.
00:47-00:53
I'm going to ask that you would please pray for me to be faithful to communicate God's Word accurately as I should.
00:54-01:01
And I will pray for you to be ready to receive whatever it is the Lord wants to teach you today.
01:01-01:02
All right?
01:02-01:03
Let's pray.
01:06-01:18
Father in heaven, you are greatly glorified as transformed people by the power of your Our Holy Spirit, our obedient to what you've revealed in your Word.
01:20-01:29
That's all I'm asking for today, Father, for your glory to be on display as we respond to what you've told us in your Word.
01:32-01:37
Manifest your grace and your goodness here today, Father, we ask in Jesus' name.
01:42-01:48
If you haven't already opened up your Bibles to Matthew 7, we're just going to be looking at two verses today.
01:52-01:56
For some of you, these could be the most two important verses you ever hear.
01:58-02:05
When I was a kid growing up in Shakura, we attended the little Methodist church.
02:05-02:06
And when you're...
02:06-02:24
I don't know if it's still the case in the Methodist church, but at that time, when you're 12, you go through confirmation classes and you go to the Methodist church and then they teach you about doctrine and John Wesley and the books of the Bible.
02:25-02:36
But one part of this confirmation class, it took place over several days, but one part was the pastor would take you into the auditorium, just you and him.
02:37-02:42
And I'm assuming that his conversation with the others went as it did with me.
02:43-02:57
I remember the pastor took me to the auditorium and he said, "Jeff, you don't wanna go to hell, do you?" And I'm like, "You mean today?
02:59-03:21
Because mom's expecting me home for dinner." But he's like, "You don't wanna go to hell, do you?" And I was just like, "No." He goes, "Well, then you wanna accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, right?" And I'm like, "Okay, great." And he sent me back with the other kids.
03:22-03:37
And then every time this pastor saw me after that, he would say, "I remember the day you gave your life to Jesus." "Oh, Jeff, I remember the day you gave your life to Jesus." And I was like, yeah, that was awesome.
03:42-03:44
Is that what it means to follow Jesus?
03:51-03:58
You see, since February, we've been going through the sermon on the mouth, the greatest sermon ever preached.
04:01-04:08
And over the next four weeks, we're looking at how Jesus closes the greatest sermon ever preached.
04:11-04:16
All of the content leads to this.
04:17-04:22
Over the past several months, we've looked at the heart of the disciple and the beatitudes.
04:22-04:25
This is what a Jesus follower looks like.
04:26-04:27
We talked about the heart of the law.
04:28-04:36
Jesus didn't come to get rid of the Old Testament, He said, "I came to fulfill it." We talked about the heart of religion.
04:37-04:41
Look, it's not about doing things for show to get a pat on the back from people.
04:43-04:45
We talked about the heart towards the world.
04:47-04:53
How should we interact in this world with money and stuff and people?
04:56-05:02
And now we get to the close of Jesus' sermon, and here He's saying, "Now what are you going to do about it?
05:04-05:16
Now that you know what I call you to, is your heart ready for judgment?" Look at verses 13 and 14.
05:17-05:23
Jesus says, "Enter by the narrow gate.
05:25-05:32
For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction and those who enter by it are many.
05:36-05:46
For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life and those who find it are few." You.
05:49-05:51
Everybody's heading to eternity.
05:52-05:54
I don't need to sell anyone on that, do I?
05:57-05:59
Everyone's heading for eternity.
06:00-06:02
And Jesus said there are two gates.
06:03-06:06
There's exactly two options.
06:06-06:10
And here Jesus is calling for an urgent choice.
06:10-06:13
He commands, that's the first sentence in verse 13.
06:14-06:14
It is a command.
06:15-06:42
enter by the narrow gates. It's a choice, literally, between heaven and hell. Jesus says, "Make your choice." Who would choose hell? I mean, really? Who would choose hell?
06:43-06:53
I mean, yeah, I've shared the gospel with a lot of people over the years and I've met the guy, probably you have too, that's like, "Well, I'm going to hell "and I know I'm going to hell and I don't really care "'cause all my buddies will be there."
06:53-06:54
(laughs)
06:54-07:01
I'm like, "You are clueless." You meet that joker.
07:05-07:09
But who would really, honestly, seriously choose hell?
07:14-07:16
Why wouldn't you choose heaven?
07:18-07:18
I mean, really?
07:23-07:25
But you see, my friends, that's the thing.
07:26-07:27
That's why this message is so urgent.
07:28-07:30
Because no one thinks they are choosing hell.
07:35-08:10
Everyone, everyone thinks that they are going to end up in heaven. Somehow, someway, I'm going to end up in heaven. Everyone thinks that. But not everyone is, according to Jesus. In fact, it's even worse than we think it is. Because as we saw in the video, we have this mindset that most of us are good and are going to heaven and there's a few really bad people that are going to hell.
08:10-08:12
Jesus didn't say that.
08:12-08:14
Notice Jesus said the exact opposite.
08:14-08:19
He said many are going to hell to destruction.
08:19-08:21
And he said few.
08:24-08:24
We're going to have.
08:26-08:26
Few find life.
08:31-08:32
So do you know?
08:34-08:36
What you have to do.
08:37-08:40
to go to hell. Do you know?
08:48-08:48
Nothing.
08:53-08:59
You don't have to do a thing. And that's where you'll end up.
09:01-09:15
John 3.36 says, "Whoever does not "Obey the Son, shall not see life." Look at this, "But the wrath of God remains on him." How do you get the wrath of God?
09:16-09:17
It's already on you.
09:18-09:20
Paul says the same thing in Ephesians 2, 3.
09:20-09:27
He says, "We were by nature children of wrath, "like the rest of mankind." That was our default mode.
09:29-09:42
And I want you to notice in these two verses, Jesus didn't say, "Choose which gate." He didn't say that.
09:44-09:47
Because you already did choose a gate.
09:50-09:58
Notice there's no language here that says, "Well, tell me how do I go through the wide gate?" You already did.
10:03-10:08
Notice with the narrow gate, look at the very last phrase in verse 14.
10:08-10:15
Jesus said, "Those who find it are few." The narrow gate is something that has to be found.
10:15-10:19
The wide gate, Jesus never said you had to find the wide gate.
10:23-10:32
It's wide, it's easy, and you're already on it, heading to destruction.
10:35-10:43
So what we have here in these verses is a command, verse 13, it's a command to enter the narrow gate.
10:43-10:44
Do you see that?
10:44-10:45
Look at verse 13 again.
10:46-10:48
Enter by the narrow gate.
10:48-10:49
It's a command.
10:50-10:55
It's a call to action, meaning it doesn't happen by accident.
10:58-11:09
It's worth noting that Jesus, and we're gonna see this in these upcoming messages as well, there are people that are going to be shocked that they're going to hell.
11:11-11:14
But you know, the Bible never says that there are people that are shocked that they end up in heaven.
11:17-11:18
That guy doesn't exist.
11:19-11:23
That guy doesn't exist where Jesus says, "Come on into glory." Like, wow, I didn't know I was coming here.
11:24-11:24
Wow.
11:26-11:28
That guy doesn't exist.
11:33-11:34
The gospel is a command.
11:35-11:37
Listen, it's a command.
11:39-11:41
It's not just an invitation.
11:43-11:45
It's not just a suggestion.
11:46-11:49
You really ought to think about maybe turning to Jesus.
11:49-11:50
No, it is a command.
11:52-12:18
Look at the words that are used to describe coming to Christ. They're all commands. Words like repent. You're commanded to repent. Believe. Receive. Here the command is enter. This is the big takeaway from the Sermon on the Mount according to Jesus. Because of everything that He said.
12:19-12:28
Going back to the Beatitudes, leading to this point, Jesus commands us to choose narrow.
12:32-12:38
It's not enough to listen to sermons about the narrow gate.
12:39-12:46
It's not enough to study the narrow gate, and it's not enough to even kind of like the narrow gate.
12:48-12:51
Jesus said you have to make the choice to enter the narrow gate.
12:54-12:55
Have you made that choice?
12:57-13:02
I want you to jot some things down on your outline.
13:02-13:05
This is the command, enter by the narrow gate.
13:05-13:07
What does our Lord say about it?
13:07-13:08
First of all, number one, write this down.
13:09-13:10
It's hard to find.
13:12-13:13
It's hard to find.
13:15-13:22
Again, in verse 14, Jesus says, "For the gate is narrow and the way is hard "that leads to life.
13:22-13:31
"And those who find it are few." It's hard to find.
13:33-13:34
It's narrow.
13:35-13:38
Like, well, what exactly do you mean it's narrow?
13:38-13:44
Well, one thing that it means that it's being narrow is that it's the only way to be saved.
13:47-13:48
Jesus made that claim.
13:48-13:51
The Bible makes that claim over and over and over.
13:51-14:00
John 14, six, Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth and the life.
14:00-14:10
No one comes to the Father except through me." The gate is narrow because it's the only way to be saved.
14:12-14:16
Not every road leads to heaven.
14:19-14:22
You know, that doesn't even work in the physical world, does it?
14:23-14:29
I mean, if you came to me after service and you're like, "Pastor Jeff, I really want to go to Cleveland.
14:29-14:33
How do I get there?" Like, first of all, I'm not sure you really do want to go there.
14:37-14:39
But if you have to, listen, you know how to get to Cleveland?
14:40-14:42
pick a road, it doesn't matter.
14:43-14:46
Get in your car and just pick a road.
14:46-14:55
And listen, as long as you believe in your heart of hearts that that road will take you to Cleveland, then you will get to Cleveland.
14:56-14:56
Would that work?
14:58-15:02
You'd be like, "Yeah, I think I'll ask Pastor Taylor." Right?
15:03-15:05
I mean, that's foolishness.
15:06-15:09
So why do we think that any road is gonna get us to heaven?
15:09-15:17
Not every road will take you there because your problem is sin before a holy God.
15:17-15:28
And the only way that that sin can be forgiven is through Jesus Christ, because He's the only one who paid the penalty to take away your sin.
15:30-15:32
It's narrow because it's the only way to be saved.
15:32-15:38
It's narrow also because you're called to leave some things behind.
15:41-15:48
You get a picture of this narrow gate, almost like a turnstile, like walking into Kennywood.
15:51-15:55
If you're going through that turnstile, you've got to leave some stuff behind.
15:57-15:58
Like leave what behind?
16:00-16:09
your sin, your self-centeredness, your rights, your pride.
16:13-16:19
You gotta leave your old self behind because listen, you're both not gonna fit through the turnstile.
16:20-16:21
You both won't fit through the narrow gate.
16:22-16:28
Jesus said it costs to enter this gate, right?
16:29-16:36
"We don't have time today, but just write down Matthew chapter 10, Luke chapter 14." Jesus said, "There's a cost entering the gate.
16:36-16:41
You gotta leave stuff behind." Like, well, what's the cost?
16:41-16:58
Jesus said, "You have to love him more than you love your own family." Jesus said, "You have to deny yourself." Jesus said you have to consider yourself a slave to Him.
16:59-17:05
Oh, and you have to consider yourself a slave to everyone else.
17:08-17:12
Jesus said things like you have to take up your cross.
17:12-17:16
You have to be willing to lay down your life for Him.
17:18-17:28
Listen, if you're unwilling to do any of that, then you're not gonna get through the gate at all.
17:32-17:35
To sum it up, Luke 14, 33, look what Jesus says.
17:39-17:44
Not the most seeker-sensitive way to address a crowd.
17:45-17:58
Jesus said, "So therefore, any one of you "who does not renounce all that he has "cannot be my disciple." You willing to do that?
18:01-18:05
You're like, "Hmm, I don't know." Okay, then you're not going through the narrow gate.
18:10-18:13
Back when I was in college, I had several jobs.
18:15-18:16
Here's where two of them overlapped.
18:16-18:24
I was pastoring a little country church And I was also a magazine vendor for two Walmarts and two K-marts.
18:25-18:27
Is K-mart still a thing?
18:28-18:29
It was back then.
18:30-18:37
But I would go in third shift to these stores, and I would stock the magazines.
18:38-18:45
And at the one K-mart, I got to be friends with some of the employees there.
18:45-18:48
and there were a couple cashiers that I invited to church.
18:50-18:52
And I'll never forget this.
18:52-18:54
The one cashier, her name was Gina.
18:55-19:01
And she came to church for probably three or four weeks and then stopped.
19:02-19:11
Well, the next time I saw her at Kmart, I said, "Hey, I haven't seen you in church." I'll never forget what she said.
19:12-19:32
She said, "I can't go to church and live the kind of life that I want to live." It's sad.
19:35-19:35
She got it.
19:39-19:41
She got the fact that the gate is narrow.
19:43-19:52
She got the fact that she can't come into the kingdom of heaven while carrying all her sin in with her.
19:57-19:59
I don't wanna talk about Gina though, I wanna talk about you.
20:05-20:07
What have you left behind to follow Jesus?
20:13-20:22
Would you say that there's been a tremendous cost to you in deciding to follow Jesus?
20:26-20:45
And if your answer is, "Well, you know, I haven't really given up that much to follow Jesus, really now that I think about it, I really haven't given up very much." Well then you haven't found the narrow gate.
20:49-20:50
It's hard to find.
20:53-20:59
Secondly, write this down, not only is it hard to find, it's hard to walk.
21:02-21:03
It's hard to walk.
21:06-21:12
For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life.
21:12-21:15
The way is hard that leads to life.
21:16-21:23
You see what Jesus is saying, if you find it and even when it's truly found, it's hard to enter.
21:23-21:28
And when you enter it, it's hard to walk.
21:30-21:34
Right now somebody's like, "Hard?" Well, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
21:34-21:34
Hang on a second.
21:35-21:35
Hang on, hang on.
21:39-21:44
I thought coming to Jesus was just believe, right?
21:44-21:45
Just believe in Jesus.
21:46-21:49
Like, what are you talking about?
21:50-21:50
Hard.
21:52-21:54
It's just believe, right?
21:57-22:01
Well, I would ask you, what do you mean by believe?
22:04-22:07
Do you know how Jesus described what it means to believe?
22:10-22:11
The Sermon on the Mount.
22:14-22:18
This is how Jesus described what it means to believe.
22:18-22:20
He described it with the Beatitudes.
22:21-22:30
When you're broken over your sin and you're meek and you desire righteousness and purity more than anything, you're a peacemaker.
22:30-22:34
And then, and then if you're really living it, people hate you.
22:36-22:37
That's what it means to believe.
22:38-22:40
Jesus said believing is being salt and light.
22:40-22:42
That means you're different than the world.
22:43-22:46
You stand out because of what you believe.
22:47-22:48
Is that what you mean by believe?
22:48-22:53
Jesus said believing is turning from anger, turning from lust.
22:53-22:56
Jesus said believing is a person who always keeps their word.
23:00-23:02
Jesus said believing is never retaliating.
23:04-23:06
Jesus said believing is when you love your enemies.
23:08-23:14
Jesus said believing is when you choose to give and to pray and to fast privately.
23:16-23:17
So only God knows.
23:18-23:22
Jesus says believing is giving to God so that you lay up treasure in heaven.
23:22-23:42
Jesus said, "Believing is never worrying, not being anxious for anything." Jesus said, "Believing is not being critical of others, but doing to others what you wish they would do to you." Now you tell me what's easy about any of that.
23:46-23:47
It's hard to walk.
23:49-24:11
If you've been with us in any part of this journey the sermon on the mouth. Has there been any of these sections that you've pointed at and went, "Oh, that's easy. I got that nailed down." Or have you been more like me every Every week taken to the woodshed, tore up.
24:18-24:20
Difficult is the standard.
24:24-25:10
We're told on the front end, when you live different than the world, you're going to have people after you, and you're going to suffer. It's hard to walk. That's why a lot of people bail, by the way. They weren't expecting it to be hard. They were believing a gospel that Jesus never taught, because believing the gospel, despite the lame way we want to package it in American churches. Believing the gospel is more than just acknowledging facts. And it's even way more than just agreeing with the facts.
25:11-25:30
Believing the gospel is having a faith in Jesus Christ that makes your decisions for you. Your life should be marked by this. Constantly saying, "You know what? I do this because of what Jesus said. This is why I do that." Your Your life should be marked by things you say, "You know what?
25:30-25:33
I never do this because God said I should never do that.
25:33-25:39
My faith makes my decisions for me." That's what it means to believe.
25:45-25:50
Churches dishonor the gospel and do a disservice to people when we make it easy to follow Jesus.
25:52-25:53
Shame on us.
25:59-26:06
We make it so easy for the people that walk in the door and say, "Look, I just wanna attend, okay?
26:06-26:10
"I just wanna come in on Sunday, in late, out early.
26:10-26:11
"I just wanna attend.
26:11-26:12
"I don't wanna get involved.
26:13-26:15
"I don't wanna help out with the kids' ministry.
26:15-26:17
"I don't wanna be on the worship team.
26:17-26:19
"I don't wanna give to the church.
26:19-26:24
"I don't wanna do any of that." just make it easy.
26:30-26:32
Where did Jesus say the easy way leads?
26:39-26:40
I want to talk about you again.
26:44-26:46
You find it easy to follow Jesus?
26:51-26:54
"Maybe at 9 a.m. on Sunday." I wanna ask you about your Monday through Saturday.
26:59-27:01
Is it easy for you to follow Jesus?
27:06-27:11
And if your answer is, "You know what?
27:13-27:22
"I don't know what he's talking about, "but I haven't really found it to be "that hard being a Christian." and you haven't found the narrow gate.
27:24-27:25
Because Jesus said it's hard.
27:28-27:29
Enter by the narrow gate.
27:31-27:32
It's hard to find.
27:34-27:34
It's hard to walk.
27:35-27:38
Number three, it's hard to dismiss.
27:42-27:43
It's hard to dismiss.
27:47-27:53
The gate is narrow and the way is hard leads to life.
27:56-28:01
Like man, this, sounds like being a Christian is hard.
28:01-28:03
Yeah, it is.
28:07-28:10
So why would I, why would I enter the narrow gate at all then?
28:16-28:17
Because of where it leads.
28:20-28:27
And whoever doesn't think about where the path they are on is taking them is a fool.
28:33-28:38
Throughout this section, throughout these verses, we looked at today, Jesus said there's only two.
28:39-28:40
There's two gates.
28:41-28:41
There's two ways.
28:41-28:42
There's two crowds.
28:45-28:46
And there's two destinations.
28:48-28:49
You're going to one of them.
28:50-28:54
It's destruction and it's life.
28:57-28:58
What's destruction?
28:58-28:59
We've talked about that.
28:59-29:00
That's hell.
29:03-29:05
Yes, destruction here and now in this life.
29:06-29:19
I've yet to meet the guy that has really benefited from their sin, but instead has experienced destruction in this life.
29:20-29:21
Ultimately, it's destruction in hell.
29:22-29:24
Why is hell referred to as destruction?
29:24-29:28
Because it's eternally being destroyed, but never actually being destroyed.
29:30-29:33
It's burning without being consumed.
29:33-29:34
That's what hell is.
29:38-29:39
And that's where the easy way leads.
29:44-29:58
So if following Jesus sounds too hard for you, you have the option of having it a little easier in this life for 15 minutes and spending eternity suffering.
30:01-30:03
Not my opinion, Jesus' words.
30:09-30:11
The other destination is life.
30:12-30:16
Life, eternal, glorious life in heaven.
30:16-30:21
Yes, of course, but also life here and now.
30:22-30:30
Eternal life for the Christian isn't something that you get someday, it's something you experience now and you take with you into eternity.
30:34-30:38
This hard way is the way that Jesus took.
30:40-30:53
And if we choose to follow in his footsteps, we will not only get heaven, but we will experience life as it was meant to be lived here and now.
30:56-31:00
And that's hard to dismiss just because it's difficult.
31:05-31:55
So over and over in the gospels, Jesus challenged potential followers to count the cost. You have to count the cost of entering the narrow gate because there is a cost. But you also have to count the cost of not entering the narrow gate. You could leave here today and say I choose to stay on the wide gateway. What have you gained? What have you gained by staying on the wide gateway?
31:59-32:32
An easier life here for however long that lasts. But what have you lost? You've So right now you need to ask yourself, "What way am I on?" Listen, you can't answer that based on something that happened in the past.
32:35-32:35
Here's what I mean.
32:35-32:41
For some people, it's like, "Are you a follower of Jesus?" Well, I got baptized 30 years ago.
32:44-32:45
That's not the test.
32:48-32:52
The test is, how are we living right now?
32:55-32:57
Are you seeking Jesus now?
32:57-32:59
Are you turning from sin now?
32:59-33:01
Are you denying yourself now?
33:04-33:11
Your life right now proves what way you are on.
33:14-33:16
I'd like to invite the worship team to come back up.
33:18-33:19
We're going to have some folks join us up here.
33:19-33:21
I'd like to invite them up too.
33:21-33:28
We're going to have some people up here to pray, some elders, some members from our prayer team like you folks to make your way up here as well.
33:29-33:37
in just a moment, the worship team is going to sing a song over you.
33:43-33:45
But before we do that, I want us to consider one more verse.
33:48-33:56
It's Matthew 11, verse 12, a staggering statement, another staggering statement from our Lord.
33:56-34:04
Jesus said, "From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence." Look at this last phrase.
34:04-34:27
He says, "And the violence, take it by force." Listen, because the gate is narrow and because the way is hard, Salvation is something that you have to go after violently.
34:32-34:38
It's not, well, just put a check mark on this card and you're saved.
34:39-34:42
Just bow your head and raise your hand and you're saved.
34:42-34:46
Just repeat this prayer after me and you're saved.
34:46-34:47
That's not it.
34:49-34:53
It's something that you have to go after violently.
34:54-34:55
Like why violently?
34:55-34:58
Because the gospel calls you to forsake yourself.
34:58-35:00
You have to go after that violently.
35:02-35:04
Jesus calls you to give up your sin.
35:07-35:09
It's not for weaklings.
35:13-35:14
I'm gonna give you a chance.
35:17-35:20
I'm gonna give you a chance to prove that you're not a weakling.
35:23-35:25
I'm gonna give you a chance today to do something violent.
35:27-35:29
I'd like you to bow your heads, please.
35:30-35:38
Because what we're going to do is have a good old-fashioned, much-needed altar call.
35:40-35:41
Bow your heads.
35:41-35:47
Who here today needs to enter the narrow gate?
35:49-35:58
Maybe there's somebody that walked in here today that said, "I know I'm not following Jesus "and I've been meaning to get around to it.
35:58-36:18
"Today's the day that you're gonna go after this violently." Or maybe there's somebody here that's like, "Well, I don't really know if I follow Jesus." Then that means you don't because you can't have a relationship with the God of the universe and not know it Because it's something you have to go after violently.
36:21-36:36
Or maybe there's somebody here that says, you know, I made a decision once upon a time, but whether I'm backslidden or whether I was deceived or confused, I'm not really sure where I stand right now because I'm so stuck in sin.
36:39-36:41
Then you need to go after this violently.
36:44-36:54
As an act of faith, as the worship team sings over you, we wanna invite you to come up and pray.
36:56-37:13
If there is still someone here, someone else here, that wants to do business with God, I just wanna strongly encourage you not to leave until you do.
37:15-37:26
You shrink back now, it's going to be way easier to shrink back the next time that you feel called to follow Jesus.
37:29-37:37
Father in heaven, we're not here to put on a show for anybody but you.
37:39-37:40
We want to be sincere.
37:42-37:51
We don't want to settle for some watered down, sugar coated version of the gospel that so many in our culture have made it.
37:55-38:05
Father, let us go after you violently with the urgency that your Son has called us to.
38:09-38:11
We do need to count the cost.
38:12-38:19
I'm asking Father that you would give us the faith that we need.
38:23-38:30
All glory and honor and praise and power be unto your name, we pray in Jesus' name.
38:31-38:32
Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Matthew 7:13-14

What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
How would (specifically) you answer this question: How do I know which gate I entered?
We are saved by grace. But are things like repentance, counting the cost, and entering the kingdom violently considered “works”? Why or why not?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

Jeff Miller

September 2, 2025

Heart Towards the World

In A Good Place

Jeff Miller

September 2, 2025

Heart Towards the World

Introduction:

When my Father and I are in a good place… (Matthew 7:7–12)

I ASK, knowing my Father’s GENEROSITY. (Matt 7:7–8)

James 4:2c – […] You do not have, because you do not ask.

James 4:2c–3 – […] You do not have, because you do not ask. [3] You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
I TRUST, knowing my Father’s CARE. (Matt 7:9–11)
I LOVE, knowing my Father’s LOVE. (Matt 7:12)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

00:41-01:02
Well, good morning. My name is Justin Cady. If we haven't met yet, I serve as one of the elders here at Harvest. And as we prepare to get into God's Word, I'm going to ask that you would pray for me to clearly and accurately communicate, and I will pray for you to have hearts to receive.
01:02-01:40
So let's pray. In Jesus' name, Amen. If you have your Bibles, you can open them to Matthew chapter 7. And we're continuing our journey this year through the Sermon on the Mount, but before we get there, I want to ask you, can you remember a situation ever where you needed to call your dad for help. I'm blessed that, by God's grace, I've always been able to go to my dad when I'm in a jam and in God's providence, he blessed my dad with a son who often got into jams.
01:42-02:28
So I thought back, way back, to the first jam that I can remember. I was around five years old, I was playing Nintendo, and I made it to the end of a Super Mario Brothers castle, but I couldn't defeat the boss. So I thought, I'll just ask my dad. But he was at work, so I paused the game, and I closed the cabinet over the TV. In the 90s, we all put our TVs behind doors, right? And I thought, well, I was just going to leave it on all day, and then when he got home, he could help me. But my mom found it. She didn't agree with my leave the TV on all day plan, but I know, given the chance, I have complete confidence he would have delivered.
02:29-02:35
Another jam, later in life when I was a teenager with a driver's license.
02:36-02:50
One year, we were just getting back from family vacation, that very evening, and some of my friends were getting together for a back-to-school pool party, and my parents tried to tell me, "Hey, look, it's getting late.
02:51-02:52
You're only going to be there for a little bit.
02:53-02:59
Are you sure it's a good idea to go out there?" But, of course, I had to go.
03:00-03:10
Now, not only am I old enough that I was playing the original Nintendo, I'm also old enough to have been operating a motor vehicle before the age of Google Maps.
03:12-03:15
So as I was heading out to this party, I got lost.
03:16-03:24
And while doing a three-point turn on some random street out in Murrysville, I slid my car over the curb.
03:25-03:40
So I had to call my dad, who that day had packed us all up and drove us all home from the beach, and explained that my car is now hanging halfway over the curb, stuck into somebody's downslope driveway.
03:41-03:42
Dad, what do I do?
03:44-03:46
Has anyone ever had to make a call like that?
03:47-03:50
Or dads, have you ever received a call like that?
03:52-03:56
Add another decade or so, and I had to call my dad about a different car problem.
03:57-04:15
Michelle and I were buying our first car as a married couple and I, knowing absolutely nothing about cars, I was totally panicked that we were going to buy a Lemon or we're going to way overpay or who knows what I'm going to get fleeced into.
04:16-04:19
So in my panic, I called my dad.
04:20-04:25
And I said, Dad, could you come with me to negotiate on the car?
04:26-04:29
And he could have rightfully said, you're on your own, son.
04:30-04:31
But he came to help.
04:32-04:33
And don't worry.
04:33-04:35
That was a very long time ago.
04:35-04:38
And since then, I've purchased my vehicles all by myself.
04:41-04:51
But I share those few examples to point out the reason that I always sought my dad's help and the reason that he always gave it to me.
04:53-04:54
Our relationship.
04:56-04:58
The reason is our relationship.
04:59-05:02
He is my father and I am his son.
05:03-05:06
And my dad and I have always been in a good place.
05:07-05:10
And I realize how blessed I am to be able to say that.
05:12-05:18
And because of that relationship, I could always and did always ask my dad for whatever help I needed.
05:19-05:21
I called to ask him for help yesterday.
05:22-05:30
But for the moment, I want us to shift our view from earthly fathers to our relationship with our heavenly father.
05:32-05:40
The Bible tells us that believers can address God as father because through Jesus, we become children of God, amen?
05:42-05:48
But if we didn't talk to our heavenly father for years, would our relationship be the same?
05:50-05:52
And I'm not talking about a salvation issue.
05:52-05:54
Once you are his child, that's that.
05:55-06:11
I'm just saying, if you never spend time together, or you never ask him for help, or you never trust anything he said, or you never listen to anything he tells you to do, what would that say about your relationship?
06:12-06:15
You wouldn't say it's great, right?
06:16-06:21
In that regard, how is your relationship with your heavenly father?
06:22-06:24
Would you say that you're in a good place?
06:26-06:33
Now, careful listeners this month might be wondering, our series the past few weeks has been about our heart towards the world.
06:34-06:40
So in the last couple weeks, we've talked about money, worry, judging others.
06:41-06:49
What does my relationship with my father or asking of my father, what does that have to do with my heart towards the world?
06:51-07:11
Well, it might seem like Jesus is taking a sudden turn at the start of this passage, but we're going to see how your relationship with your heavenly father, it absolutely affects, excuse me, your relationship and how you also ask him and approach him when you're in a jam, it absolutely affects your relationships with other people.
07:12-07:25
So on your outline today, when my father and I are in a good place, number one, I ask, knowing my father's generosity.
07:28-07:33
So in Pastor Jeff's sermon last week, if you were here, you know we saw a lot.
07:34-07:45
We saw twigs and logs, we saw hogs and dogs, but primarily we saw Jesus telling us, do not do these things.
07:46-07:50
This week, we're going to see him telling us, do these things.
07:51-07:55
And the week before last, we studied Jesus speaking of the Father's provision.
07:56-08:11
If you remember him talking, Jesus talking about feeding the birds and clothing the flowers, We'll see some parallels to that today, but while that section of Jesus' teaching focused on worry, this passage starts out with a different focus.
08:12-08:13
It's an invitation.
08:15-08:24
So, Matthew 7, starting in verse 7, Jesus says, "Ask, and it will be given to you.
08:24-08:26
"Seek, and you will find.
08:27-08:29
"Knock, and it will be opened to you.
08:30-09:12
"For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened." Let's stop there. We see in verse 7, Jesus is inviting his followers to ask, and we'll see in the following verses he's talking about asking the Father. So, ask, seek, knock, all of these are referring to asking the Father in prayer, asking continually, according to the original language, and the repetition here emphasizes we're not talking about half-hearted, by the way prayers, we're talking about passionate, all of me prayer.
09:13-09:18
But you might be thinking, why does Jesus even tell us to ask?
09:18-09:24
Because doesn't God already know what we need even before we ask him?
09:25-09:27
And yes, he absolutely knows.
09:27-09:29
Matthew 6, 8 tells us that.
09:31-09:35
But our heavenly Father desires relationship.
09:36-09:42
And here, Jesus invites us into the same relationship he has with the Father.
09:43-09:47
Throughout Jesus' ministry, we see him asking of the Father, don't we?
09:48-09:51
And again, through Jesus, we become children of God.
09:53-09:59
And while inviting his followers to ask their Father, Jesus gives encouragement that those who ask, what?
09:59-10:53
receive. Verse 8, "For everyone who asks receives. The one who seeks finds. The one who knocks, it will be opened." But what does Jesus mean by that exactly? Because that might sound like Jesus is handing us a blank check, right? Ask for anything and it shows up like a supernatural prime day. And listen, sometimes it is like that, amen? Sometimes God shows up and immediately answers prayer just how we asked, and we stand there with our jaws on the floor like, "What just happened?" I've seen that. As a church, we have seen that. But have you ever asked God for something and not received it, or at least not yet.
10:55-11:25
Yeah, that happens too. But if Jesus said everyone who asks receives, why does that happen? Now, we could spend a lot of time digging into that. Honestly, it's something we cannot fully understand this side of heaven, but scripture does give us some reasons that we do know. So why don't I get what I asked for? Number one, I don't ask. I don't ask.
11:26-12:14
James 4, starting in verse 2, the end of verse 2, tells us, "You do not have because you do not ask." Now, it could be because you get so busy with other stuff, you don't spend time in prayer, seeking the Lord, wholeheartedly bringing your request before Him? Or, this is a big one, sometimes we don't ask because of pride. "I got this, God. I'll let you know if I need you." Now, we probably don't say those words, but our actions do. We try to do whatever it is on our own without prayer. We try to fix it ourselves, whatever it is, without seeking Him.
12:15-12:32
I mean, why does Jesus even have to tell us to ask? Pride. Because in our pride, we forget our need for God. And not just physical or material needs, we forget our spiritual needs.
12:32-12:49
a struggle with a particular sin, or an area where we need to grow, like in patience or in wisdom, in joy? What about asking the Lord to equip us for all of Jesus' instructions in this sermon?
12:49-12:52
And I don't mean today's sermon, I mean the whole Sermon on the Mount.
12:53-13:10
Do we ask our Father to help us be better disciples? Now, to clarify, physical and material needs are important 100 percent. Ask for them. Don't mishear me on that. It's a both/and.
13:11-13:37
But for all of the above, we don't ask. Another reason that we don't ask, we're afraid of the because we're afraid of being disappointed. So what are you afraid to ask God for right now? A health issue you've been dealing with for a long time?
13:38-15:30
A lost family member that keeps making destructive decisions no matter how many times you try to help? A goal or a desire or something in your life that always seems like it's just out of reach. Think about it for a second. What are you afraid to ask God for right now? Now, we're going to get more into disappointment in a moment, but how would Jesus respond to you not asking out of fear? Based on this passage, he would say, "Ask whatever it is. Bring it to your father." Why don't I get what I asked for? Number one, I don't ask. Number two, I ask wrongly. James continues, "You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions. Okay, so first you don't ask, but when you do ask, do you ask wrongly? Now, in this context, wrongly means selfishly or sinfully. Like, "Father, I'm asking for a Ferrari. I am seeking a Ferrari. I am knocking on the door of the Ferrari dealership. Now, God is certainly capable of that, but why? Is there any purpose beyond my passions? I hope you see what I mean. There's nothing wrong with owning that whip. It's about the heart. Is my request just for my glory?
15:32-15:42
Instead of asking things so we can impress people or keep up with people, we should pray for God to get the glory in all things.
15:44-15:51
God, will you bring healing to this person so that your name may be glorified because you're doing the healing?
15:52-16:00
God, will you provide a new church building so that your name may be glorified because you're doing the providing?
16:01-16:13
God, will you free my brother and sister, brother or sister, from addiction so that your name may be glorified because only in you can they experience true freedom?
16:15-16:17
Now I'm not trying to prescribe exact words.
16:18-16:23
I'm just saying our hearts should desire His glory instead of our own.
16:25-16:27
Why don't I get what I asked for?
16:28-16:29
Those are just two reasons.
16:31-16:40
The point is we interpret Jesus' words here knowing He's not fully explaining all the details of God's provision in this passage.
16:41-16:46
We understand from the rest of the New Testament that God is not a vending machine.
16:48-16:57
If this was the only teaching in the whole Bible on prayer, then we might think he was, but Jesus is talking about one aspect of prayer.
16:58-17:03
He's telling us we should have hearts that go to our father and ask.
17:04-17:11
He is inviting us to ask, knowing that there's no limit to our father's generosity.
17:12-17:21
Our father wants to give to his children, But the answer we receive is not always the one that we expected.
17:23-17:24
Why don't I get what I asked for?
17:26-17:32
The hard truth is sometimes what we ask for is not what he wants for us.
17:34-18:09
And our call is to maintain total confidence in our father regardless of the answer because, point number two on your outline today, When my father and I are in a good place, I trust knowing my father's care. So let's continue looking at Jesus' words. We're gonna pick it up in verse 9. It says, "Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?
18:10-19:01
or if he asks for a fish, we'll give him a serpent. If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him?" So Jesus paints a picture to help us understand more deeply, and there are some details we don't want to miss, like in verse 9, "If his son asks him for bread, we'll give him a stone." If you're hungry, what good is a stone? It's worthless. It does nothing. Or if you're, verse 10, "If he asks for a fish, we'll give him a serpent." If you're hungry, what good is a serpent? It's worse than worthless.
19:02-22:31
It's harmful, right? Jesus is saying, and I'm paraphrasing, "Even you evil humans know these responses would be insane. So how will your Father in heaven, who is truly good in a way we never can be, how will he respond when we ask him?" And that's the point. We can trust our Father because of who he is. He is a father who cares for his children. Back in college, my friend Jesse and I would play pick-up hockey at the school ice rink. And hockey being a sport with a ton of equipment, they had lockers at the rink that you could rent so you didn't have to lug all of your stuff back and forth. So one day I was sitting in class and I got a text message from Jesse with these exact words, "Give me your hockey locker combination. Don't question me." Now in that moment I had a choice because college-age males sometimes build friendship through destructive pranks. But I chose to trust and I sent back the combo. And he did not prank me that time. As I later found out, as a birthday present, he grabbed my skates, took them to get sharpened, retape my stick, stuff like that. It was very nice. But the point is, I responded to that text without knowing why he needed to get in the locker or what he was going to do. I I trusted him. Do we trust God like that? Do we trust our Father not because he tells us exactly what's going to happen, but because of who he is? Because our relationship is in a good place? Or let me ask in a different way. What do you expect from God. At times, especially around hard times, I think we expect stones and serpents. Again, we might not say it like that. We say things like, "Of course it would happen this way! That's how it always works out for me!" And relationships with people. We don't trust God to give good gifts because we've been hurt by human relationships. Human fathers are not perfect fathers. Human friends are not perfect friends. Trust gets broken. You might say, "Justin, you don't get my situation. My life has been full of disappointment. Things have not turned out how I expected at all. And you're right. I have not walked in your shoes. I don't know your situation and I cannot speak to your disappointment. But I know my father.
22:33-22:59
And he tells us to ask and to expect good things from him because he cares for us as a father cares for his children. So will hard times come? Oh yeah. Jesus tells us that elsewhere, and you won't always understand why. But here he tells you to trust your heavenly Father.
23:00-24:02
Trust him regardless of what you expect and regardless of what you ask for, because Sometimes we ask for the wrong things and that's okay. What do I mean? We ask God for that house, or that job, or that anything. And we can and should freely ask for all of that because, praise God, He does not always give us what we ask for. If my kids ask me to have dessert for all three meals, I'm not going to give them what they asked for. And I do that because I care for them, right? In the same way, we can't see sometimes what that house or that job or that whatever it is will ultimately do to us, but he can. So we trust him to give good gifts, and we don't have to worry even about getting our request exactly right.
24:03-24:12
So continually ask and totally trust. I know, just continually ask and totally trust.
24:12-24:56
It is incredibly difficult for us to do that. But do you trust him? Is your relationship with him in a good place. Because now we're going to see how that relationship affects our relationships on earth too. When my father and I are in a good place. Point number three, I love knowing my father's love. So we've been talking again about our heart towards the father, but what about our heart towards the world. Let's read our last verse for today. Matthew chapter 7 verse 12.
24:58-26:24
It says, "So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the law and the prophets." Now we know this as what rule? That's right, this is commonly labeled the golden rule, just like grandma taught in Sunday school. This is how Jesus wants us to love, humbling ourselves and doing what we would wish to others. Now, verse 12 opens with a "so," and I believe this is another instance of Jesus' logical progression that we've seen in the Sermon on the mount. He is connecting this verse to the verses that we just read. But how does ask, seek, knock connect to do unto others? Again, our relationship with our Father influences our relationships with people. Jot down 1 John 4 19. It says, "We love because he first loved us." understanding the Father's love for us is what motivates us to love. Now, Jesus is also here pointing back to the entire Sermon on the Mount, as in, so based on all of that, love others this way.
26:25-27:11
I mean, think back throughout the year, back in the Beatitudes, remember when we had all the congratulations balloons up here, to anger, adultery, retaliation, and on and on. So much of our study this year was about our relationships with others, and that all lands here. Verse 12 again, "So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the law and the prophets." This verse summarizes Jesus' teaching on discipleship from the Sermon on the Mount, but as if that wasn't enough, Jesus says this statement is the law and the prophets.
27:12-28:11
Now, many might notice that the greatest commandment, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind," is not here, because again, Jesus is speaking of human-to-human interaction. But even limiting it to the scope of human relationships, think about how much is in the Old Testament law, how much is in the books of the prophets that were sent to Israel. Jesus is saying all of that is right here. How? Jesus is talking about the heart of the law rather than the letter of the law. The golden rule is the law and the prophets, for one, because Jesus says it is. That's enough, right? But if we want to totally lawyer it out, Jesus is saying this is the heart behind everything else in the law. It's the foundation.
28:12-28:21
This is the ethics of Christianity compressed to a single statement. So the question to us is then, And how do we do that?
28:23-28:27
And I know what we're all thinking, "I already do that.
28:27-28:33
I always treat others the way that I want to be treated." Let's think about that for a minute.
28:35-28:42
When you're at work, do you always treat everyone with the attitude that you would like directed back at you?
28:45-28:45
What about marriage?
28:46-28:52
there's a disagreement, do you handle yourself the way that you would want when you're wrong?
28:53-29:08
And you will be wrong. What about with family or a friend who just pushes your buttons every time you're together? Would your response be what you wanted if the roles were flipped?
29:11-29:26
In church, I saved this one for last. When you are driving a car, do you consistently treat others with the same patience, understanding, and benefit of the doubt that you want to receive as a driver?
29:28-29:37
You're like, "What is this guy's deal with cars?" With just a little self-examination, we can see how far off we often are.
29:39-29:50
And the standard is actually even higher than we might realize, because especially with the people that frustrate us, we set the bar at not hurting them.
29:51-30:04
But look at what Jesus said, "Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them." That is a higher bar than just not hurting.
30:05-30:13
Jesus says, "Do take action, "actively put their needs ahead of yours." That is hard.
30:15-30:27
It's also hard to come up with examples for something that affects basically everything we do, but we want to merge into traffic when we're behind schedule, right?
30:28-30:31
So let others in when you see them trying to merge.
30:32-30:34
I promise that's the last driving example.
30:36-30:41
Or what would you want when you're in a stressful season?
30:42-30:48
A card in the mail, meeting for coffee, bringing a meal or a tub of ice cream.
30:50-30:56
When you know that someone is going through a stressful season of their own, take whatever it is to them.
30:58-31:06
Or we want others to listen to us when we have something to say or just get off our chest, don't we?
31:07-31:13
So listen to others instead of just waiting for your chance to say something.
31:15-31:18
It's so difficult to live out things like that.
31:20-31:22
So how can we love like Jesus commands?
31:26-31:35
A few years ago, we had some people over for dinner, just low-key, hanging out, and we were cleaning up afterwards, and I was doing the dishes.
31:36-31:56
And one guest asked me, "Why do you do the dishes?" I said, "I don't know, I just do the dishes to help out." And he asked, "Did your dad do the dishes?" And I thought back and answered, "Yeah, my dad did the dishes quite a bit growing up.
31:57-32:14
He still does." And this guest said, "You do the dishes because your dad did the dishes." And that whole conversation was 20 seconds, but it's stuck with me ever since, because he's right.
32:16-32:26
There are so many things in my life that I do as a father, as a husband, as a man, because that's what my dad did.
32:29-32:31
So how can we love like Jesus commands?
32:33-32:34
Because that's what our dad did.
32:36-32:41
He loves us, and he proved that by sending his son.
32:43-32:49
Jesus paid the penalty for our sin and gave us the right to become children of God.
32:50-32:55
Through his death and resurrection, we can have a relationship with our Father.
32:57-33:04
God's love for us is not in question, yet so often our love for others is.
33:07-33:12
But when we truly know the love of our Father, how can we do anything else?
33:14-33:20
Or in the language of this verse, in our hearts, we wish nothing more than to be loved.
33:21-33:24
So we must do that unto others.
33:27-33:33
So as we prepare to close for today, how is your relationship with God the Father?
33:35-33:40
Maybe you're thinking, what if he and I are not in a good place?
33:41-33:44
What if I don't have a relationship with God at all?
33:46-33:52
If that's you, remember, God desires relationship, and Jesus made that possible.
33:53-34:02
The Bible says if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
34:04-34:08
So repent, turn from your sin, and start a relationship with him today.
34:09-34:17
And if you already have a relationship, but it's not in a good place, open the lines of communication to get it there.
34:19-34:22
Now, of course, we cannot do any of this on our own.
34:23-34:28
So we ask, seek, knock for help.
34:30-34:31
Actually, let's go in reverse.
34:32-34:35
We know we have to love and we can't do it by ourselves.
34:36-34:38
So do you trust in the care of your heavenly Father?
34:40-34:42
Then he invites you to ask him.
34:44-34:45
Let's pray together.
34:49-34:59
Our heavenly Father, we come before you and follow Jesus' command to ask.
35:00-35:03
We ask you for help, Lord God.
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We know that all of the things that we talked about today, that we read from your word, we can't do on our own power.
35:12-35:13
We need you, God.
35:14-35:16
We need you for the very breath we breathe.
35:18-35:34
So I pray, God, that you would give us a renewed focus on deepening our relationship with you, Lord God, and I pray that as we are filled with your love, we would pour that out to others.
35:36-35:47
God, in all the things that we ask, in all the things that we do in our lives as individuals and that we do as a church, Lord God, may you be glorified.
35:48-35:53
We thank you and praise you in the name of Jesus, amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Matthew 7:7-12

What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
What are you personally afraid to ask the Father right now?
Share a time when you were disappointed in the moment, but now look back and praise God for not giving you what you wanted.
What is your biggest challenge in treating others as you want to be treated?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

Jeff Miller

August 24, 2025

Heart Towards the World

Don't Be a Hypocrite

Jeff Miller

August 24, 2025

Heart Towards the World

Introduction:

Dealing with People: Don't Be That Guy (Matthew 7:1–6)

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.
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.
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!

00:41-00:44
Open up those Bibles to Matthew chapter seven.
00:46-00:49
So let's just bow our heads for a second.
00:49-00:57
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.
00:59-01:04
And I will pray for you to have a heart open to receive what it is the Lord wants to teach us today.
01:11-01:20
Father in heaven, give us, give us wisdom to apply your Word.
01:22-01:28
Does us no good if we just hear some facts, and it never transforms our lives.
01:28-01:35
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.
01:37-01:37
You grant repentance.
01:38-01:41
We would leave here different people than we were when we came in, God.
01:43-01:45
We ask in Jesus' name.
01:46-01:51
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.
02:32-02:37
If you've been a Christian for more than five minutes, somebody has said that to you.
02:38-02:42
"Don't judge me, you know, the Bible says "you're not supposed to judge." Right?
02:43-02:45
Maybe, maybe you've said that to someone.
02:47-02:50
Someone makes a comment to you, "Ah, no, no, no, you're judging me.
02:50-02:58
"You're not supposed to judge me." When do people say that?
03:01-03:05
People say that when you tell them something they are doing is wrong.
03:06-03:07
True or false?
03:09-03:09
True.
03:11-03:15
It's like, hey, you should not have spoken to her that way.
03:15-03:18
You were very rude in the way that you spoke to her.
03:18-03:19
You're judging me.
03:20-03:22
You know, the Bible says not to judge and you're judging me.
03:22-03:24
I can't go to that church anymore because they judge me.
03:26-03:28
Is that what Jesus is talking about?
03:29-03:40
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.
03:41-03:47
And we say, you know, the Bible says that, you know, this isn't an acceptable way to live.
03:49-03:49
That you should get married.
03:50-03:52
You should do God's thing God's way.
03:54-03:55
You know what the response usually is?
03:56-03:57
Oh, you're judging me.
03:58-03:59
You're judging me.
03:59-04:01
That church is so judgmental.
04:02-04:03
You can't judge.
04:03-04:11
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.
04:15-04:21
What they're saying, when somebody says that, what they're saying is, you should never call me out on sin.
04:24-04:28
Because when you point out that I am sinning, you're judging me.
04:29-04:30
That's what people are saying.
04:32-04:40
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.
04:42-04:44
Is that what Jesus is talking about here?
04:46-04:47
Is it?
04:48-04:50
I gotta tell you, that's what most people think he means.
04:52-04:54
But that's not it at all.
04:55-04:59
Listen, we are commanded biblically to confront sin.
04:59-05:00
Did you know that?
05:02-05:04
Look at 1 Corinthians 5.
05:04-05:06
You have the guy that was committing sexual immorality.
05:07-05:08
Paul says, "Throw him out.
05:09-05:18
"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.
05:18-05:21
You can't have it, show him the door.
05:24-05:29
Right, how do you do that without exercising some form of judging, right?
05:29-05:41
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?
05:41-05:46
The Bible says, "Test the spirits." The Bible says, "Beware of false prophets," et cetera, et cetera.
05:46-05:53
How do we do these things that the Bible tells us to do if there's not some kind of judging, right?
05:55-05:56
Right?
05:59-06:16
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.
06:17-06:18
Commanded to judge action.
06:19-06:20
What are we not judging?
06:23-06:23
Write this down.
06:23-06:25
What you're not judging, first of all, somebody's heart.
06:27-06:28
That's what Jesus is condemning.
06:28-06:29
You're gonna see it very clearly.
06:30-06:33
You're forbidden to judge somebody's heart.
06:36-06:39
That's not talking about their action, talking about the person.
06:39-06:41
You're a bad person.
06:41-06:42
You know what your problem is?
06:43-06:44
You're jealous.
06:44-06:45
Now I'm judging your heart.
06:45-06:48
I'm making an assessment of things that I couldn't possibly see.
06:49-06:51
I can't see what is actually in your heart.
06:51-06:55
That's judging, not calling out action, okay?
06:55-07:02
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.
07:03-07:05
We're forbidden to judge somebody's motive.
07:06-07:08
Say, look, I know why you did that.
07:10-07:14
That was rotten what you did, but listen, I know why you did that.
07:15-07:15
No, you don't.
07:16-07:17
That's judging.
07:18-07:20
You know, when you're like, look, you know what your problem is?
07:20-07:21
All you care about is money.
07:22-07:23
That's all you care about is money.
07:24-07:24
We're judging their heart.
07:29-07:35
See, the judging that Jesus forbids is not about conduct, it's about the inner person.
07:35-07:47
What Jesus is condemning here is self-righteous, hypocritical condemnation on others.
07:50-08:01
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.
08:01-08:06
When you study the Pharisees, They were so proud of their religion.
08:07-08:10
And the Pharisees were notorious for condemning everyone else.
08:12-08:17
All right, Luke chapter 18, Jesus tells the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector.
08:18-08:21
And in that parable, how does the Pharisee pray?
08:21-08:24
Oh God, I thank you, I'm not like that guy.
08:24-08:29
Constantly looking down, I'm better, I'm more righteous.
08:29-08:32
Yeah, I'm not scum like that guy.
08:32-08:40
Like that's, that's the Pharisees condemning everyone else because they were so religious.
08:41-08:51
And if the Sermon on the Mount has taught us anything, there's some Pharisee in all of us.
08:58-09:03
So are you a judgmental, condemning person?
09:09-09:12
I know we would all like to say, no, no, no, no.
09:12-09:16
I'm not judgmental, I'm not judgmental, but let me ask you a few questions.
09:16-09:20
Are you judgmental in the sense that Jesus is condemning here?
09:20-09:25
Here's a couple of questions that you need to, you can only answer this for yourself, right?
09:26-09:27
Let me ask you these questions.
09:27-09:31
First of all, do you enjoy fault finding?
09:33-09:47
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.
09:49-09:53
You're not likely to sit down and say, "Here's what's great about this guy.
09:53-09:57
"Here's what I love about this guy." You're more likely to say, "You know what his problem is?
09:57-09:59
"And do you know what her problem is?
09:59-09:59
"And do you know?
10:01-10:02
"Do you like doing that?
10:03-10:13
"If you do, "you're judging in the way that Jesus forbids." Oh, here's another one.
10:14-10:15
Am I a judgmental person?
10:15-10:18
Do you have a strong opinion about something that isn't your business?
10:20-10:21
That's another clue.
10:21-10:24
Do you have a strong opinion about something that is not your business?
10:26-10:31
That you're like, can you believe, can you believe, can you believe she put her kids in public school?
10:33-10:35
Can you believe she put her kids in public school?
10:36-10:37
Can you believe that?
10:37-10:39
Just sending them right to the devil.
10:45-10:46
Hey, that's not your business.
10:48-10:50
Your kids are your business, okay?
10:51-10:59
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?
11:00-11:01
Not your business.
11:02-11:08
But if you kind of think it is, then you're kind of judging, just saying, right?
11:09-11:12
Also, am I a judgmental person?
11:12-11:14
You're like, can this sermon be over?
11:14-11:14
Next.
11:16-11:18
Am I a judgmental person?
11:19-11:19
How about this one?
11:20-11:23
Do you like to express your opinion without having all the facts.
11:25-11:27
If you do, then you're a judgmental person.
11:29-11:44
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?
11:44-11:45
He's lying.
11:46-11:47
He's not having money trouble.
11:48-11:49
Hang on, hang on.
11:51-11:53
You don't have all the facts there.
11:53-11:57
How do you know that that car wasn't given to him by somebody?
11:59-12:00
That happens, you know.
12:01-12:05
How do you know that somebody didn't sell him that Lexus for a nickel?
12:05-12:07
You have no idea.
12:07-12:12
But already your mind is going to, how irresponsibly he spent, you have no idea.
12:13-12:13
You're judging.
12:17-12:18
Am I a judgmental person?
12:19-12:19
How about this one?
12:20-12:22
Do you tend to never give the benefit of the doubt?
12:25-12:28
In other words, do you tend to always assume the worst about people?
12:28-12:30
If so, then you are a judgmental person.
12:32-12:32
Here's what I mean.
12:32-12:40
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.
12:40-12:47
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.
12:48-12:51
and you walk out and you're like, I knew they were having marriage problems.
12:51-12:53
I heard them saying to Pastor Jeff, they need counseling.
12:54-12:56
I knew they were having, I knew it.
12:57-12:58
I knew they were having marriage problems.
12:58-13:00
I knew he was back on the sauce.
13:00-13:01
I knew it.
13:02-13:03
I knew it.
13:06-13:07
No, you don't.
13:08-13:10
Do you realize people come to me for counseling for all kinds of things.
13:11-13:15
Sometimes people come to me for counseling to say, I wanna reach my neighbor with the gospel.
13:15-13:16
Can you help me figure that out?
13:17-13:26
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.
13:27-13:33
You have no idea, but you're not gonna assume it's for something good, you're gonna assume it's for something bad.
13:34-13:35
You're a judgmental person.
13:39-13:50
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.
13:51-13:57
Here, in this section we're looking at, Jesus is telling us what kind of person not to be.
13:59-13:59
All right?
14:00-14:04
So on your outline, dealing with people, don't be that guy.
14:06-14:06
Don't be that guy.
14:08-14:11
And if you're like, "Well, Pastor Jeff, "that's not very politically correct.
14:11-14:17
"What about don't be that gal?" Okay, then I would say don't be that guy either, all right?
14:19-14:22
Whatever, don't be that human, is that okay?
14:25-14:26
I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
14:29-14:34
This Cracker Barrel logo catastrophe, I haven't slept.
14:36-14:40
I toss and turn, sweating.
14:42-14:44
What happened to the man in the barrel?
14:50-14:51
Don't be that guy.
14:53-14:55
All right, what guy?
14:55-14:58
Number one, write this down, do not be a critic.
14:59-15:01
Verse one, there it is again.
15:01-15:02
Let's see what our Lord was actually saying.
15:02-15:06
Judge not that you be not judged.
15:07-15:12
Okay, judge, here's a better word that we use, 'cause that word judge, We use it in so many different ways.
15:13-15:18
Here's a word that we use that really is how Jesus was using the word judge in this context.
15:18-15:19
It's the word criticize.
15:20-15:21
Criticize, you're a critic.
15:21-15:23
You're just criticizing everything.
15:23-15:25
You're the expert on everything.
15:25-15:26
We're gonna criticize everything.
15:28-15:29
Criticize other people's lives.
15:30-15:35
He's obviously not a believer because he doesn't match my convictions.
15:35-15:37
We criticize ministries.
15:38-15:39
You know that church?
15:39-15:41
That church doesn't share the gospel.
15:41-15:44
All that church cares about is drawing a crowd.
15:44-15:45
That's all that church cares about is filling seats.
15:46-15:50
Now we're judging, we're criticizing.
15:53-15:54
What's our Lord say about that?
15:55-15:57
Judge not that you be not judged.
15:59-16:01
Do you think you're God?
16:03-16:05
Because you're acting like you think you're God.
16:07-16:12
Romans 14, four says, "Who are you to pass judgment "on the servant of another?
16:14-16:20
"It is before his own master that he stands or falls." Judge not, why?
16:21-16:22
Jesus says that you be not judged.
16:22-16:25
And oh, by the way, by the way, you will be judged.
16:29-16:30
You're like, wait, wait, hang on a second.
16:31-16:36
I thought if you were a Christian, then you wouldn't face God's judgment.
16:38-16:49
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.
16:50-16:50
That's true.
16:51-16:56
But you realize the Bible talks about different kinds of judgment, right?
16:56-17:00
And there is a judgment for the people of God.
17:01-17:04
That can be a whole nother sermon, but let me just say this.
17:05-17:06
you will be judged.
17:06-17:13
You won't lose your salvation, but you're gonna lose something if you're a critical, judgmental person.
17:16-17:23
Jesus goes on to explain in verse two, for with the judgment that you pronounce, you will be judged.
17:24-17:27
And with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
17:30-17:38
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.
17:38-17:41
Jesus says you're going to get what you give.
17:44-17:47
You're setting the standard for your own judgment.
17:52-17:55
Some people say, well, this is about human relationships.
17:55-17:57
That's what Jesus is talking about.
17:57-18:03
Now what Jesus is saying is people judge you by the way that you judge them.
18:03-18:12
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.
18:13-18:14
That's not his point.
18:15-18:19
Because what people think about me is not my primary concern.
18:19-18:20
Should it matter?
18:20-18:21
Yes, it should matter.
18:24-18:26
But my primary concern is what God thinks.
18:28-18:33
And God evaluates you based on your knowledge and on what you do with that knowledge.
18:37-18:39
The apostle Paul was talking about this whole concept.
18:39-18:50
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.
18:51-19:01
"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.
19:01-19:03
That's what Paul is echoing.
19:03-19:12
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.
19:12-19:13
You've set your own standard.
19:17-19:19
Do you criticize and judge people harshly?
19:20-19:22
You're going to be judged harshly.
19:24-19:25
All right?
19:26-19:33
So you better pump the brakes when you're tempted to criticize someone because it's coming back to you.
19:35-19:37
So look, don't be a critic.
19:38-19:39
Don't be a critic.
19:40-19:42
Number two, write this down.
19:42-19:42
Don't be a hypocrite.
19:44-19:45
Don't be a hypocrite.
19:48-19:57
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.
19:59-20:06
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?
20:08-20:18
This is really a funny picture because when Jesus here says speck, literally the word could be translated twig.
20:20-20:24
That's kind of a funny illustration that Jesus is using.
20:24-20:29
It's like here you have this guy walking around and he's got a twig sticking out his eye.
20:30-20:35
And you walk up to him and sticking out of your eye is this.
20:36-20:41
And you're like, look, don't wanna be rude but you got something in your eye.
20:46-20:47
I'm sorry, what?
20:47-20:50
Yeah, you shouldn't be walking around with wood in your eye.
20:53-20:54
What?
20:59-21:09
Well, some people say, some people say that the speck, we'll go with that word, that's the word in our Bibles here.
21:09-21:17
Some people say, well, speck refers to a minor sin and like the plank or the log refers to a major sin.
21:18-21:19
I'm not really convinced of that.
21:20-21:20
You know why?
21:21-21:22
You know why I'm not convinced of that?
21:23-21:25
that the speck is a minor sin.
21:28-21:30
Have you ever had something in your eye?
21:31-21:32
Has it ever happened to you?
21:33-21:34
Yeah, it happens to everybody, yeah.
21:37-21:41
There is nothing worse than having something in your eye that you cannot get out.
21:41-21:46
So I would suggest to you that it's not a minor thing if you have a twig in your eye.
21:48-21:55
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.
22:01-22:08
Maybe your brother or sister does have a legit problem.
22:08-22:10
They do have a speck in their eye.
22:10-22:11
Maybe they really do.
22:11-22:17
This speck could be, they know they need to be serving the Lord in his church and they're just not doing it.
22:17-22:18
Maybe it's gossip.
22:19-22:21
Maybe their home is out of order, whatever.
22:21-22:24
Maybe they do have a problem.
22:28-22:34
And your problem is that you have a log in your eye.
22:38-22:42
You have sin of your own that you haven't dealt with.
22:44-22:52
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.
22:57-23:01
You know, sin is really deceptive that way, isn't it?
23:05-23:14
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.
23:16-23:18
Everybody's life is so messed up but mine.
23:21-23:23
We're self-deceived.
23:24-23:25
It's a problem.
23:26-23:33
We're so focused on other people's sin that we are completely ignoring our own.
23:37-23:38
It's a problem.
23:42-23:48
of a famous pastor was condemned, was judged by other pastors.
23:50-23:52
I'm not gonna mention names.
23:52-23:54
I'm sure some of you know exactly what I'm talking about.
23:54-24:01
But this famous pastor was asked by this older lady.
24:01-24:05
She said, "My grandson is gay and is having a wedding.
24:05-24:13
"And should I go to the wedding?" And this pastor answered the question from the perspective of a grandfather who loves his grandkids.
24:17-24:19
And he was blasted for his response.
24:22-24:47
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.
24:49-24:52
This is exactly what Jesus is talking about.
24:53-24:55
"You got a problem with your twig?
24:55-25:08
"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.
25:09-25:09
That's what you've done.
25:11-25:17
You think you're the expert on morality and you're having an affair.
25:19-25:21
How are you in a position to help anyone?
25:22-25:34
And look, before you amen that, listen, we, yes, we can be just as self-deceived and just as hypocritical.
25:37-25:38
We do it all the time, right?
25:39-25:40
parents in your home.
25:42-25:46
Your kid says a non-sermony word, right?
25:46-25:48
Of the four letter variety.
25:48-25:50
Hey, hey, we don't talk like that.
25:50-25:53
And then they hear you talking like that five minutes later.
25:57-26:04
Or you say, hey, speak respectfully to your mother, but they don't hear you speaking respectfully to their mother.
26:07-26:14
You say, "Look, you need to have your quiet time "with the Lord." Are you?
26:16-26:19
Do you see how self-deceived and hypocritical we are?
26:21-26:26
Look, I've been in ministry a long time and I see it in the church all the time.
26:26-26:35
People are so quick to criticize church leaders for not doing something that they themselves are unwilling to do.
26:41-26:44
So you're like, "Okay, Jeff, so what do I do?
26:45-26:49
When I see somebody with a twig in their eye, you're saying I should just ignore it, right?
26:50-26:52
I should ignore the specks, right?
26:52-27:01
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.
27:01-27:02
Look at verse 5.
27:02-27:57
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.
28:00-28:01
You know what your biggest problem is?
28:04-28:06
Not noticing that you have a log in your eye.
28:07-28:08
That's the problem.
28:09-28:13
You're oblivious to your massive problem.
28:16-28:27
You're blind to it because obviously, obviously if you recognized that this was going on, You'd be doing something about that.
28:33-28:45
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.
28:45-28:46
And yes, there's a time and a place for that.
28:46-28:50
And our Lord's making that clear that who is the first person that we should be examining.
28:50-28:51
Point to that person.
28:52-28:52
Who should you examine?
28:54-28:54
This guy.
28:55-28:58
This is the guy that I need to examine before I look at anybody else.
29:03-29:05
And you would say, "Well, I hear what you're saying.
29:05-29:31
"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.
29:33-30:01
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.
30:02-30:04
So evaluate yourself first.
30:05-30:06
All right?
30:07-30:14
Also in verse five, write this down, remove specks gently.
30:16-30:19
Remove specks gently, gently.
30:24-30:27
Now I realize I'm kind of old fashioned this way.
30:30-30:33
And you might not share this opinion, but here we go.
30:35-30:40
If you're going to take something out of my eye, I have two requirements for you.
30:41-30:44
You have to be able to see, and you have to be gentle.
30:46-30:47
Right?
30:48-31:06
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?
31:06-31:07
In a spirit of gentleness.
31:08-31:10
Keep watch on yourself lest you too be tempted.
31:13-31:18
Yes, we should be helping each other out, but it must be done in a spirit of gentleness.
31:21-31:26
And you'll be gentle when you approach with sympathy, not criticism.
31:27-31:32
And you'll approach with sympathy when you're keenly aware of the struggles that you have had.
31:33-31:35
When you're keenly aware of the fact that you are not perfect.
31:36-31:44
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.
31:49-32:01
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.
32:05-32:08
Gentle, sympathetic help.
32:09-32:11
It's like, "Look, let me help you.
32:12-32:13
Look, man, I've been there.
32:14-32:14
I've been there.
32:14-32:15
It's not a great place to be.
32:15-32:24
Let me help you." I'll talk about talking about ministering the Word.
32:25-32:29
This point you might say, "Okay, makes sense, right?
32:29-32:30
Deal with my own thing.
32:32-32:37
Be gentle." But is there ever a time that I shouldn't minister the Word?
32:37-32:45
Is there ever a time that I sort of refrain from trying to do the work of the ministry to someone?
32:45-32:48
Yeah, shockingly there is.
32:49-32:51
Number three, write this down.
32:52-32:53
Do not be a dog feeder.
32:58-32:59
Do not be a dog feeder.
33:04-33:05
Look at verse six.
33:07-33:09
Jesus says, "Do not give dogs what is holy.
33:10-33:27
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.
33:28-33:42
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.
33:45-33:49
That's not the kind of dog that they would have had in mind.
33:49-34:01
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.
34:01-34:02
Tell my family I loved them.
34:03-34:09
And some little Thai kid zinged a rock, hit the dog, "Meow!" He ran off and that kid got a lifetime supply of candy.
34:11-34:12
That is a true story.
34:16-34:23
That's the kind of dog that Jesus and his culture here would have been more accustomed to.
34:23-34:27
We're talking about savage garbage eaters.
34:30-34:36
And Jesus says here, with these savage garbage eaters, he goes, "Do not give dogs what is holy." Do you see that picture?
34:36-34:49
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.
34:49-34:49
Would you do that?
34:50-34:51
Would you do that?
34:52-34:52
No.
34:54-34:55
Like, no, no.
34:58-35:01
You're like bringing your dog up to receive communion here.
35:01-35:04
Like, no, no, no.
35:04-35:07
Can't you see how wrong that is?
35:09-35:19
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.
35:22-35:24
Because again, pigs also savage.
35:25-35:36
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.
35:38-35:48
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.
35:50-35:51
And they turn and attack you.
35:53-35:54
What a picture.
35:56-36:11
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?
36:11-36:13
What do you think that is?
36:13-36:18
It can only be one thing, right?
36:18-36:21
The word of God.
36:25-36:39
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.
36:39-36:43
Some people are not going to appreciate the Word of God.
36:49-37:13
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.
37:17-37:29
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?
37:30-37:32
And you're like, "Well, how do I know?
37:32-37:42
"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?
37:42-37:44
"How do I know when I should shut up?
37:47-37:57
"How do I know dogs and hogs?" And the answer is discernment.
38:00-38:01
It's discernment.
38:06-38:09
But here's a couple of clues that we get from the Word of God.
38:11-38:15
How can you spot dogs and hogs?
38:17-38:21
Number one, are they mocking the Word of God?
38:24-38:26
Are they mocking the Word of God?
38:28-38:40
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.
38:44-38:47
Listen, I did prison ministry for many, many years.
38:49-38:56
And I loved, there would be men that would come and Bibles ready and so eager to learn.
38:57-38:58
I loved that.
38:59-39:06
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.
39:08-39:12
And would say horrible things about me, which who cares, I'm nothing.
39:12-39:15
but horrible things about the Word of God, that's a problem.
39:18-39:19
Hogs and dogs.
39:21-39:27
You know, as a much younger pastor, I thought, well, I'll just, I'll persuade them.
39:28-39:29
I'm just gonna keep laying out the Word.
39:29-39:30
I'll keep giving them the Word.
39:30-39:31
I'll keep giving them the Word.
39:32-39:35
And they would just keep mocking and mocking and mocking and mocking.
39:38-39:39
It's pearls and pigs.
39:42-39:53
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.
39:53-40:06
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.
40:08-40:15
Jesus says, "Don't, don't be a dog feeder." There's a clue.
40:17-40:18
Here's another clue.
40:18-40:25
Number two, are they more committed to sin than to seeking the Lord?
40:27-40:28
Because sometimes it's hard to tell.
40:28-40:35
Sometimes dogs and hogs are hard to spot because sometimes it's hard to tell if somebody's really getting it.
40:38-40:51
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.
40:54-40:57
Persistently committed to sin.
41:02-41:03
Peter talks about this.
41:04-41:06
Peter talks about committed sinner.
41:06-41:08
2 Peter 2 is all about this.
41:08-41:10
When you get to the end of the chapter, look at this verse.
41:11-41:15
Peter says, "What the true proverb says "has happened to them.
41:15-41:23
"The dog returns to its own vomit, "and the sow, after washing herself, "returns to wallow in the mire." Do you see that?
41:24-41:25
What's Peter talking about?
41:26-41:27
Dogs and hogs.
41:28-41:32
And what are dogs and hogs like according to Peter?
41:33-41:35
They just keep going back to the mess.
41:37-41:41
They just keep going back to it.
41:45-41:47
I don't have hogs at home, but I have dogs.
41:50-42:30
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?
42:35-42:36
But that's what Peter's telling us.
42:36-42:38
That's a sign of dogs and hogs.
42:39-42:52
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.
42:57-43:00
But I'm just going back to my filth.
43:04-43:05
I'd rather have that.
43:10-43:14
I'd rather eat out of the dumpster than at the table of the Lord.
43:17-43:18
Dogs and hogs.
43:22-43:29
Jesus Christ is the master, obviously, of everything, but this specifically.
43:30-43:32
Just write this down.
43:32-43:33
Look at Luke chapter 23.
43:33-43:50
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.
43:52-43:56
And you would think, "Jesus has audience with the king?
43:57-43:58
What an opportunity!
43:58-43:59
Give it to him!
43:59-44:02
Jesus said nothing to him!" Why?
44:04-44:10
Dogs and hogs did not answer him a word.
44:13-45:17
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.
45:20-45:22
And watching out for three things.
45:25-45:26
Logs, dogs, and hogs.
45:27-45:27
Right?
45:28-45:28
Let's pray.
45:30-45:50
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.
45:56-46:06
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.
46:06-46:19
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.
46:20-46:21
Father, give us much wisdom.
46:23-46:30
Give us the ability to recognize someone who would trample down what is holy and attack us.
46:35-46:40
Father, thank you for the example that you've given us in your Word, demonstrated so clearly by your Son.
46:44-46:46
Father, search our hearts.
46:49-46:56
Search our motives, Father, and let us serve you, let us love you, and let us serve others with pure motives.
46:57-46:59
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.

Beware of Who You Trust

Introduction:

Signs That You are Self-Deceived (Matthew 7:21-23)

Beware of Who You Hear

Introduction:

Watch! (Matthew 7:15-20)

Beware of Which Gate You Enter

Introduction:

Enter By the Narrow Gate (Matthew 7:13-14)

In A Good Place

Introduction:

When my Father and I are in a good place… (Matthew 7:7–12)

Don't Be a Hypocrite

Introduction:

Dealing with People: Don't Be That Guy (Matthew 7:1–6)

Upcoming Small Group Questions CLICK HERE

How much of the Bible have we covered since 2011?

Introduction:

Signs That You are Self-Deceived (Matthew 7:21-23)

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

Introduction:

Watch! (Matthew 7:15-20)

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

Introduction:

Enter By the Narrow Gate (Matthew 7:13-14)

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

Introduction:

When my Father and I are in a good place… (Matthew 7:7–12)

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

Introduction:

Dealing with People: Don't Be That Guy (Matthew 7:1–6)

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT