Can You Relate? Part 1

I'm glad to see them in the house of God this evening. You may be seated. I've gotten some hand sanitizer, so it's coming in the back, and I'll somehow, you guys do it, but you know, I get it on my hands, then I'm just kind of doing this, you know, cuz, and I come in, people are, everybody's why even MA. Yeah, okay, just drying out my hand sanitizer is good.

Few things to keep in mind: you know, we're not passing the offering plate, so you can continue to give online or through the app, or we have to give boxes at the back doors on your way out. Appreciate you guys helping continue to support the church and those manners. A couple of events coming up, both of them on the same day. On Saturday July the 11th, 8:00 a.m., there's a men's breakfast here over in the fellowship hall, $10 for the breakfast. Scott Smith, I believe, is gonna be our speaker. Right, Scott? Scott's gonna bring the male. Excited about that. And then that evening at 5 p.m., for the centerpoint 50-plus group, having a game night. For more details, you can see the Facebook group, or talk to James or Delana. Little man, wasn't God good to us on Sunday? So wonderful. I love when he just comes in and takes over. That's the best. That's just absolutely the best.

I've been working on, I'm going to kick off a new series tonight. I'm tiling this, "Can You Relate," and I'm hoping it, and it makes sense as we, we move forward. We're gonna go to Matthew chapter 7, and this will be the chapter we'll be in for the next few weeks, as it would go through this series. And for you they have studied the Word of God for a while, you know Matthew 5, 6 & 7 is what tests. What's Matthew 5, 6 & 7? Sermon on the Mount. Yes, the greatest sermon ever preached. We all have our favorite preachers, but it's hard to be Jesus. So I'm just gonna go ahead and warn you better, you know, you should just agree with me that this, the greatest sermon ever preached, was in Matthew 5, 6 & 7, because it was. And Jesus was speaking to us, and, and seventies kind of starting to bring it down to an end. The message, sometimes when preachers, they talk about things like that, is saying, "I'm coming in for my landing." So Jesus was starting to come in for his landing on his message in chapter 7. So, but he starts out the landing by saying this: chapter 7, verse number one: "judge not, that you be not judge." Probably outside of, "for God so loved the world," this is probably the most quoted verse ever in the Bible. Because, I mean, he can be Christian, non-christian, people never been to church before, people never opened the Bible, somehow they know Matthew 7:1: "judge not, that you be not judged." First number two: "fourth while judgment you judge, you will be judged. And with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you."

So here's, we're gonna kind of launch out tonight, and I hope I can kill a little groundwork that we can build on, because our goal is to ultimately get to what is referred to as the golden rule. That'll be kind of our crescendo and ending on this series. So tonight, this is gonna be mother's message, where I make no guarantees about the content or the quality, but I do promise that when you leave the room, if somebody asked you at work tomorrow or at school what the message is about, you'll know what this message was about. So it's based off that very brief little passage right there. And it starts out by simply saying, Jesus's words, he says, "judge not." Now just to make sure that you guys all have it, can you just say that with me? What is the message about? "Judge not." Now that's pretty good, but I want us to do it again, but maybe this time you can help me out. Now maybe you don't have a problem, you know, being judgmental, but, but maybe the person beside you does. Don't point, okay? But, but help me out. We're gonna go one more time, alright, on this. But this time I want you to get your finger involved, right? You can have a little, all right, can you just do that with me, because it brings a little more power to it? So does this help? I don't have a little funky to everybody. It's your finger up, to get this finger, okay? I'm gonna be specific, this, it's finger out, alright, and just kind of give a little wag, all right? You know, what's the sermon about? "Judge not." There we go. All right, that feel better about, thank you. Guys are with me. I almost probably just pray dismiss right now. We got it. Well, we need, we need to talk about it. Let me talk about it.

You know, it's funny, at least to me, that the judge, being judgemental, it's kind of sneaky. It kind of slides in on, you know, kind of a side door, you know, always aware that maybe you're being judgmental. And, and I, hopefully I can unpack this and make it have a little bit more sense. But so here's another question: how many exceptions that Jesus give in this command? None. Good answer. There was no, you know, did, did he give a list, or qualification of people who were exempt? You know, it couldn't be their personality that drives you, that drives you crazy. Or maybe it's the third, their faults which run deep. Are there, they're weird beliefs about things, or the food they may eat, or, or the, their preference or political affiliation, or their, there are other issues or problems or politics? It's all the stuff. Did he give any of that, that, that, that was listed as a possible disqualification for you not to judge? Did you read that anywhere? No, that was not one of them. No, he gave no exceptions. He made no loopholes. He didn't say, you know, "if you're trying not to make a habit of judging, don't judge somebody else unless they really have it coming, and then of course you can go ahead and judge them." Know that, that wasn't there. You don't pick up on that. You know, in his kingdom, there's a zero-tolerance policy about a judgmental spirit.

In fact, Jesus actually got in trouble for his refusal to be judgmental towards people, when the religious elite of the day felt like he should be. We see it there in Luke chapter 15, verse number two. They read this way: "in the Pharisees and the scribes grumble, saying, this man receives sinners and it's with them." They were upset. They felt like, "you should have known who you're associating with, and that knowledge should have disqualified them. But there you are. You're talking to him. Not only you're talking to him, but you're eating with them." We can sense here that Jesus was expecting not to do those things. In fact, Jesus uniformly extended a very non-judgmental acceptance to, to a lot that people felt like he should — the ethnic rejects, to the religious heretics, to the pagans, to the Samaritans, to the sexually scandalous, to the corrupt, to the traitors, tax collectors, to the unclean, to the untouched lepers — all of those he would have a relationship with. He maintained his ability to be approachable. The only people that Jesus ever condemned, interestingly enough, were the religious leaders who condemn to other people in name of God. Those he condemned, the religious leaders who pass judgment.

He says in Luke chapter 11:39, he says, "then the Lord said in him, now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you're full of greed and wickedness." Go down to verse 42: "but woe unto you Pharisees, for you tithe mint and ruin every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. This you ought to have done without neglecting the others. Woe unto you Pharisees, for you love the best seat in the synagogues and the greetings in the marketplaces. Woe to you, for you or like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without knowing it." One of these lawyers Antrim said, "teacher, in saying these things you insult us." Yet he made no apologies. He did not back up from the remarks he made. To me, there's a sense that he intended for it to hurt, for they ought to have known better, and yet they still acted the way they did.

Jesus was so incredibly non-judgmental with sinners of every kind, except for them. His opposition to condemnation, we are told about in Romans chapter 8, verse 1. Paul, writing to the Church of Rome, says, "there is therefore now no condemnation to those are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to flesh, but according to the spirit." So how much condemnation? No. 0. Not a bit. Now this is wildly, in my opinion, misunderstood in the day and age in which we live in, because Jesus purpose in coming was to overthrow this, this spirit of condemnation, to save sinners, you and me, and to doing so in such a way to show those who should know better how you should behave yourself, even if what the other one is doing is wrong.

They had caused such a distance in their practice of the law that they had made it an impossibility to have the relationship with the one who gave the law. The man is so harsh, so unrealistic. They added to and enforced it so harshly that they took away all humanity out of the equation, and boiled it down to simple black and white: either you do it or your way. There was no grace, of zero grace, zero leniency. Jesus came. He showed up and said, "I've come to the sick. I've come to the hurt. I've come to the broken. I've come to the ones who have been rejected. I come to let them know that you can't have a relationship with God. The de kingdom of God is at hand, and that it's for all." Oh, he practice, and he refused to engage in judging. Instead, he offered this welcome acceptance, that a great and ultimate personal cost.

His teaching, as he's landing the message, is judged not. Therefore the church must at least try their best to be a place where judgment doesn't rain. Christiane's, those who claim to follow after Jesus, to live their life according to his plan and purpose, must be the least judgmental people on the face of the planet, based on the teachings of Jesus Christ. And if Christians are known for anything, we should be known for the fact that our love a balance. After all, I believe it was Jesus Christ himself who said, "they shall know you are my disciples by the way you love, by the way you love." Now I know some of you're getting ready to get the rock out of your purse, because you feel like I'm going down the wrong path. This hanging, I'll put it back in the purse. Give me a minute.

You mean, how do people feel about the church now? Here's the deal, okay. For a lot of us, I have to put myself in this category. For a lot of us, I've been in the church. I've been, been, I was born in the church. A few days after I was born, I was brought to the church. I was, I was here growing up. I was not an option. The house I lived in, that you came to, their church was going, he went to church. If you're sick, we'll go to church and pray for you. If you're throwing up, well you throw up, you feel better, it's go to chirps. Like, there was not an excuse. You wouldn't even go to church. So I say that, because I know there are several in the room that, that was, that was a way you were raised to. Now what happens is, sometimes we, we are a little bit skewed in our view of the church, because we've just been around the church. Now we know, we will admit, that the church is not perfect. You know why the church is imperfect? Because human beings are in the church, and we're flawed, broken humanity. And if the church is messed up, it's because of us. You know, we do, we do our best we can, and there's been stuff that goes on, all that. But here where I'm good with this point is, there are those, though, they haven't always been around the church, or they've had a limited exposure experience to the church, or what time they were in the church, it was not a good experience at all. It was hurt. It was a pain. It was a something that was there. This caused this, this, this huge mental, physical, emotional block that was there for them to get past. And in often times, when the, the term church gets brought up, it's casting a very negative light.

Now here we are, not only where we in church, we were in a, a narrowing down of the church. We're in an apostolic church. Not only we're in app stock Church, we're in a one God Jesus name Apostolic Church. And not on that, narrow down further, we're in a one God Jesus name Apostolic Church in the south, okay? Now that make us any better, anything else, but things of you differently. I'm not here to defend any of that. I'm just merely making a qualifying statement of where we are. So sometimes we can be just a little bit set inside of a bubble, and what we think is, "well everybody ought to want to go to church," when the larger opinion in the country in which we live in is it the case. Oftentimes, people who have had very negative experiences in the church, they view people, they view Christians, as some of the most judgmental people that have ever put on shoes.

Now for you and I, we take a little bit back on that, because like, "we'll hang on, that, that's not the church I go to." But they don't always break it down into a very narrow scope of a apostolic one God Jesus name in the South Church. They, they, they put Christians in a lump. All Christians, they put us together. So sometimes we have something that we have to overcome when we're talking about it. But statistically, non church people view churched people as very judgmental. Now here's the deal: there's a lot of truth to that. I'm not here to say that that's false, because there's a lot of truth that goes to that. Because there's a lot of people who said on church pews. There's a lot of people who said on Apostolic Church peace. There's a lot of people who said on Apple stop at one God Jesus name church pews in the South who are judgmental. Now again, yeah, I know you're really itching to get that rock out. Give me a minute. Let me, let me show you what I feel like God is laid on my heart about this.

People should feel safe when they come in the house of God. They should feel like, "if I tell you my struggle, you shouldn't hold it against me." Now how many people are thankful you came down to an altar, and you were able to pour out and confess before a holy God, and he remitted and washed away those sins? I'm, he's thankful for that. I'm thankful. Maybe y'all didn't have stuff going on in your life, but I had a lot of mess in my life, and I'm thankful he took care of that stuff for me, alright? And I'm thankful also that I was a part of a church to help love me, that, that was patient with me. I'm throu thankful that I had a pastor in my life who was patient with me. Now there was times I got called in his office. There's several occasions I got called into his office, and I, and I earned my way in each one, those times. And he had some real straightforward conversations to me. It wasn't about judgment. It was about consequences of actions and decisions I made. But I was thankful that he loved me. And I'm saying for the de church loves me. But it was done in the right way. But it's not always done in the right way. So it's easy, it's easy for us to get in our little bubble and think, "they know that you, they shouldn't lump us together as judgmental." But sometimes we have a lot to overcome to reach somebody. Remember the title, this, this series is "Can You Relate." Have you ever been having a conversation with somebody around the water cooler, or at work, or whatever, and then all of a sudden the judgment comes up? Have you ever just been talking about somebody and, and then seven, you know, "you really shouldn't do that." "Are you judging me?" "No, I wasn't judging you. I was just trying to tell you probably you shouldn't do that." "Well, you Christians, y'all just think you're better than everybody else." That's way cousin, before you know I'm into spirals out of control, and then, then if you're not prepared for this, this can almost throw you backwards, like, "I don't even know if I should be a witness, because it seems like any time I try to be a witness, somebody brings this stuff up, and I seems so ineffective what I do, and I feel defeated about it all." If you've ever been there, I'm, I'm reaching for you, cuz he said, "judge not."

See, church should be a place where people can come in and, and more than their therapists, and more than their, their 12-step program, and, and, and more than their buddy at the bar, they should be able to come to the church and feel like, "nobody's gonna judge me." I mean, you think about it. You're meeting a stranger. You know, you're on a plane, you're on the bus, and whatever, you know, you look at I'm there, and you're, and you're making these snap decisions. I mean, they, they're drinking too much there. They got, you know, look like they fell in a tackle box and pulled your head out, and a lot of tattoos. And, and you're, you're there, and you say, "well hey, how you doing? Yeah, I'm a Christian." Do you think they're gonna respond, "oh thank goodness, I'm so glad I'm by Christian, right," and they all thought, "I could have been by anybody else, they to judge me, but I know you won't judge me"? What are the odds that's the conversation? Probably slim, right?

So let's be honest, okay. Let's be honest. There's, there's, there's a good reason why sometimes there's apprehension and people being comfortable talking to Christians. We're not doing so good when it comes to being non-judgmental. I've heard that. I'm even heard Christians say, "well, it's not about, you know, that as much as is, is those individuals, they're, they're just, they just don't want to hear the truth about where they are in life." Really? Really? What kool-aid are you drinking? It's funny to me when I look at how Jesus reacted to those around him. His approaches was radically different. He seemed to approach with love and compassion. He seemed to have a way about him that, that seemingly disarmed those people when they were there. It's like the walls came down. They didn't put him up. Instead, they came down. Something about him, something about what he exuded, something about his presence, something about the way he talked, his speech, how he reacted, that caused people to feel very comfortable in his presence. Do we do that? Do we do that? Are non Christian people comfortable being around you? Do they feel they're in the presence of someone who's not judging them?

So here's a reality. Here's the truth: not everybody was raised the way you were raised. And we got to be careful, because again, those of us, those of us whitewashed, bible-thumping, apostolic, one god, jesus name folks, we oftentimes have to check ourselves, or we will look at what others are doing: "what you're needing? Why are you doing that? How would you make that decision? You ought, you ought to know better." Really? Do you know anything about them? Do you know anything about their life? Do you, do, has anybody even care that they're doing what they're doing? Have they ever had one person tell them, "you shouldn't live that way"? Have you ever had one person ever even show them love? So be very careful about how you think about such, somebody ought to do, based off the circumstances in which you were raised. Because ladies and gentlemen, the world we live in today is so broken, and it's so fallen, and it's such a moral decline, that statistically you're the abbe Nam, they have normal one. You are not. Then wife and I have this conversation all the times, and we're crazy. I used to think everybody else was crazy, but there's so many of them out there, evidently I'm crazy. Yeah, it's kind of funny. We do that. Because this, the world, but, but our goal, our mission, is to reach the world. It's to go and teach, is to go out there and reaches, to baptize them, to explain this whole process. But if we can't even approach them, if we can't have a conversation, what is the world think about you? What is your co-workers think about you? What is your neighbors think about you? What is their opinion of you? Do you represent Jesus in such a way that they would feel comfortable letting the wall down and talking to you? Here's the message. It's really simple. What's this message about? All right, get the finger out again. We failed that one. What's the message about? "Judge not." "Judge not." We must abandon the deeply-rooted practice of blaming and condemning other people, even ourselves. We're living in the last days, and there's so much to be learned by Jesus, how he approached, how he lived. His message that he had, this Sermon on the Mount, is so impactful in our day and age, in our human history. It's all about people being messed up, and the opportunity to realign our patterns and bring, come back into a right relationship with God. And you and I view this and understand the simplicity of it all, but the world doesn't.

As we start this out, I want to start, we have to learn, the condemnation is not to be about what we are. But we must be very careful, because sometimes unknowingly, the way we look, talk and act rains down condemnation on those around us. We have to be really clear he was about judge not. So let me, let me say a little bit about what this text does not mean. First, it does not mean that we have to give up making moral dissents or being wise, okay? If you go into your dentist, and the dentist, you know, you're in there, and it comes in, looks in my mouth, and Dennis is like, "well, you know what, pretty good. You need to be flossing more. You know, he got a little spot back here, it's probably gonna turn into a cavity." And you know, all right, look, he's not judge, and he's laying facts out right now. If he comes in and he's like, "you know, I've seen better-looking teeth on a comb. These things are like covered in butter. It's just disgusting. I put my hand in your mouth. You, you, you've got you just, I don't have any man even talks to you." Alright, maybe you need a new nest, or maybe you really need to brush your teeth on something. How does this make sense? Like, there's a difference. There's a difference when, when someone is telling you the truth, and when someone is, is, is beating you down, okay?

So that Jesus, when saying, getting beat up about this here, but sometimes you got to be true, you know, in our families and in our workplaces, in our relationships, in a home life that we have, we have to discern right from wrong. We do. We have to train ourselves to hold people responsible for their actions, to discuss their failures, and then sometimes you even assign penalties when it's appropriate, all while not attacking their self-worth, okay? Learn how to do it in the right way. You cannot attacked and forget that they are a human being and deserve dignity. In fact, and later on in Matthew chapter 7, he says that we should know them by the fruit they bear, okay? So the very same chapter that starts off with judge not, we get about 20-something verses later, and he says, "you should know them, individuals, by the fruit they bear." Well, what's that about? I mean, it almost feels like you're judging when you're talking about the fruit. He's under a judgment. He's talking about being aware and discerning. It's obvious you have something going good in your life because of the fruit your brain. It's obviously something's wrong in life by the fruit that you're bearing. This isn't me trying to tell you you're an idiot. This is me trying to tell you that something's not quite right, because of the fruit you're bearing. And there's a difference how you handle it. That goes back to learning to speak the truth in love, because that's what the Word of God says.

Jesus is not saying that in being not non-judgmental, you have to be naive or gullible or like a little child. It's not what he's saying. No, judge not does not mean you have to put up with being mistreated. People have crazy views of life. I got a friend of mine that I say, Fran Isley. We went to high school together, and he, he, he's a funny guy. It isn't always a post, the most appropriate stuff on Facebook. He posted something today, says, "hey, if you really want to know if your dog, your wife loves you more, lock them both in the closet when you leave for work. When you get back home, that even opened up, and which one of them is happy to see you, that's the one loves you the most." I don't know if that's a test used to try. I'm gonna say, yeah, I'm not gonna do that. I would appreciate it if you wouldn't do that either, so that we don't have to meet later, or I don't have to preach funeral. So that's not the idea, okay? That was not gonna work.

The judging Jesus forbids means having a spirit of condemnation and rejection. It means indulging this desire I have to want to feel superior to everybody else. Cuz it's there. It's there. Turn your neighbor, say, "it's there." It's there. You got it. I got it. It's in there. When someone's miss deeds gets punished, there's something in you that twinges a little bit, and you're like, "I could've told you." Yeah, sometimes there's something in you, there's like, "I only got you. I have been living obedient to the Word of God. You ranked sinner, bound for hell, have not. God gotcha." Now you may never admit it, but you know, you know there's been a moment, you probably had at least one, when it felt good judging people and their setbacks, judging people like that. You know, you just, you have to be careful, cuz we do it. We all judge. You know, it happens before you even realize what you're doing, you're judging people.

How many of you have been in line at Starbucks when somebody in front of you, they spoke another language when they ordered? They said something like, "I want an iced Rossetto, ten shot venti with Bravo, five pumps of vanilla, seven punts of caramel, for splint is on top, with one extra one so it's crunchy on top of my whipped cream." And you're like, "what? I just one black coffee, non-soy, nonfat, non-fun, non taste." And they pay 15 dollars for that. And you better, you know, you know, don't pretend you don't. Are you been there, when they biggie sized everything, and you're looking at him going, "you look like a biggie, says you like a biggest has been. You've been big assassin for a while." Do you know, none of us, none of us like that humility. Sometimes we, we like to remove the humanity side of the relationship.

See, condemnation will the others of soul, and its intended to do that. We've been trained now in the kingdom of this earth to pass judgment as a way of trying to control other people and what it is they desire to do. You ever had somebody on the road beside you, and you just look at him, you know you're being judged? They're condemning you, right? You just look at me like, and they're just going, "yeah, do you know?" Or maybe you're the one doing the glaring.

So if judging is something the Bible generally, and Jesus particularly, forbids, if it's damaging other people and it corrodes our spirit, why would anybody do it? Why would, why would anybody judge? I think the basic reason we judge is simply this, and I hope you'll give me a second to explain it. Alright, y'all ready? This is profound. Everybody, you with me? Everybody with me? Alright. You know why we do it? Cuz it's fun. Because it makes me feel good for a minute. Because in that moment, I feel better about myself. Because my judgement on them lets me know, at least I'm not that bad. We're judgmental towards people were jealous of, because we're afraid they might actually be having more fun than we are having, and we don't like that.

To me, one of the most unforgettable portraits of judgment in the Bible is the parable of the prodigal son. In this story, the prodigal son, we know how it goes. He basically wishes his dad was dead, because he wants his inheritance before his dad passes away. His dad grants it to him. He goes off. He lives his crazy life. He runs out of money. He's slopping the pigs. He's too hungry, he wants to eat the pig slop. Then he comes to himself. He has a moment where he's like, "you know what, I'm gonna go back. I'll just, my dad will just let me be a servant in the house. It's better than eating slop. I'll go back and be a servant." He comes back. His dad meets him, comes along the way. He hugs and kissing, put his robe on his back, a ring on his finger, and he throws a party, all right? It's a great story. I hadn't got to the judgment part yet. The judgment part comes when big brother finds out what's happened. Yeah, this one happens. His father's Joy's him, but the older brother is upset.

He says this in Luke 15, verse 29: "so he answered and said to his father, lo, these many years I've been serving you. I've never transgressed your commandment at any time, and, and yet you never gave me a young goat that I may make married my friends. But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you kill the fatted calf for him." It means a brilliant portrait of judging. First of all, notice he says, "when this son," he didn't say, "when my brother comes back," right? You see the, the power here. Love always identified with, judgment always puts distance between, always, "your son." He comes home. Also, early in the story, Jesus never said anything about harlots. You ever noticed that? There's not one word about Jesus in his part about the harlots. But all of a sudden big brother says, "you know what, he's been out there with a bunch of harlots." Where's this coming from? I don't have to explain harlot, right? Y'all got that, okay? Well, we got little ones in here, so make sure that everybody's getting the point. I'm afraid he's, big brother, felt like he was missing out. I think you see by his words that he thought, "he's out there having all these illicit relationships, doing everything he wants to do with whoever he wants to do it. While he was doing all that, he's having all this fun. He's living it up. In my mind, that's fun. In my mind, that's living the high life. In my mind, that's doing the great and the grand. He's out there doing all those things, and I'm living too good to do any of that. I'm here obeying. I'm here being obedient. I'm here obeying the rules. And your son comes home, and you throw him a party." To me, you can feel the judgment coming out of this, because he's missing out on what he thought his younger brother was doing, when there's no record that that's what the younger brother was doing. Sometimes self-righteous Christians, and I can understand, because I have that gear available, phone to use it, well, just pretend we're above earthly pleasures and fleshly desires, that were so pure to all those things. And the reality is, at least for a season, ladies and gentlemen, sin is fun. That's why people do it. Greg Rochelle, he pastors life church, author, his quote is simply this: "if sin isn't fun, you're not doing it right." No, that's not the Bible. That's not the Word of God. That's one man's quote. But there's truth there. Sin starts out fun. That's why people do it. A lot of times religious people get self-righteous and judgmental, because deep down inside they're afraid they're missing out on the good stuff. They're missing out on the fun. And when somebody else is doing it, we're like, "I can't believe." Truth of the matter is, but for the grace of God, you would be doing that. We judge because it makes us feel superior.

Jesus invites us away from the kingdom of Earth into the reality of the kingdom that he said was coming, one that was away from judging and condemning and blaming and feeling superior. So I feel like it's important, as we start out this series on "Can You Relate," that we have to ask God to help us: "help me, God, help me be in OSS of acceptance in a desert of condemnation." If you start where you live, how are you doing? It's a rhetorical question. I'm not asking free to raise your hands. But how are you doing when it comes to being judgmental, with your friends, with your family, with your co-workers, with your church friends, with leadership in the church? How are you? How are you doing? Because here's the deal: when our spirit is wrong, it's easy to find the fault. And we'll talk more about this next week. It's easy to find the fault in everybody else, and never stop for a minute and really reflect. Cuz I'll be the biggest part of this problem. If I'm always looking for why somebody is not doing everything they should be doing, they're not living up to the life they should be doing, it will make me a very bitter person, and I will get consumed in my own self-righteousness, my superiority, and from my purse seat I look down and condemn all. No, not verbally condemn them, but through my actions, through my talk, how I relate, all those things speak for me.

Here's the truth: you can't stop sinning by trying to stop sinning. You can't. And you can't stop being judgmental by trying hard to stop being judgmental. It's gonna take God helping you. It's gonna take asking God to replace that judgmental spirit that is living inside of you with a, with a reality based, genuine acceptance, that, "God, I too am a sinner saved by grace." Not simply just mouthing those words, because those words don't cost you anything to say. But living a life every day, there knows, "but for the grace of God, for the grace of God."

There's very powerful dynamic at work, and Jesus is teaching us this, is I'm getting ready to bring this. I got just about ten minutes. That's just about enough to finish. This very powerful dynamic, Matthew 7, verse 1: "judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged. And with what measure you use, it will be measured back to you." To me, when I see this here, he's given us this general law, an understanding of the human condition, the law reciprocity. Do you tend to get what you give? Life often works out that way for us. If you give love, you tend to get love. If you get anger, then you tend to get anger. If you get distance, you tend to get distance. If you give sarcasm, you tend to get sarcasm. If you give joy, you get joy. If you tend to give it, you'll get back what you give. So what are you giving? What are you giving? "The thing I asked you, both of those are on my desk. Would you go get them?" What are you willing to give, and how are you willing to give it? Do you ever think about this in your day-in, day-out relationships with individuals, with people, with your family, with your friends, with your coworkers, that there's a correlation? I think most people understand it to a degree. But have you ever thought about your presentation of Jesus Christ? How are you displaying it? How are you showing it? How are you living it? Is it done in such a way, because you've heard me say this before, this is not noon, this is not my statement, and who said it originally, but it wasn't me, but I like it, and here's the statement, simply this: "you get the other one, thank you." The statement is simply this: "you may be the only Jesus they ever see." So I ask you again: how do you represent him? Jesus says, "with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you."

So I have this year's. Anybody know what this is? Anybody confused about this? If you are, we're gonna judge you, and you need to see pastor Michael. He'll take you for a special lesson. This is a bucket, all right? Harder question, harder, because you can't hardly see it: does anybody know what this is? Yeah, not only is it a thimble, it's a pink thimble. Don't judge me. Thimble. So let me ask you: you decided every day what measure you're gonna use, how much encouragement you're gonna use, how much love you're gonna demonstrate. Do you give a bucket full of encouragement? Are you to give a thimble full of encouragement? When it comes to love everyday, do you give a bucket full of love? Are you to give a thimble full of love? Because Jesus said, "with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you." There's a correlation here. So even when you don't like the bucket for the person that's there, understand the bucket is what the gauge is, or the thimble. What do you choose? How do you choose? Because they're tied together. Judge others as you want others to judge you. We're going to get to the golden rule. We'll wrap the series up with that. But for now, how do you like being judged? Maybe, maybe I'll put it better this way: how much mercy do you want? You want a bucket full of mercy, or a thimbleful? Now I'm gonna go ahead and tell you about me: I need the bucket, cuz I know me. I know my life. I know what I deal with day in and day out. Therefore, understanding what Jesus was saying, this passage, in order for me to get my bucket of mercy, I gotta be willing to give a bucket of mercy. When there are those individuals who have really pushed my buttons and tried my patience, I got to go back and remember, I want the bucket of mercy. If I want the book of the mercy, I gotta give the bucket of mercy.

Now I don't think, are you talking about, told you early, I'm not saying be a doormat. I'm not saying be abused. None of those things right there. No, no, not at all. But am i everyday relationships, my interactions with human beings, God always has a way of bringing special people to us, doesn't he? He just gift wraps them in the most unique ways. They stop by, and they're just precious people. And when those precious people show up, oftentimes I have to go and think to myself, "lord, I need that bucket. I don't want to give my bucket, but I need the bucket. So help me learn how to love the way you love." Because what I don't want to be met back with is, when I need a bucket and I get a symbol. We all have problems. We all have stories behind our life. You know, I got stories. We got to take everything, then can I, can be judgmental. You know, I have, you know, things have been passed down, lead for my family jeans. You know, I have deficiencies and hidden pains. You know, remember I was raised in Wilson County. That ought to give me a little grace right there. My dog died when I was like 44. We all have stuff that happens to us, and all of it plays into who we are. Let us be mindful of those things, because, "with what measure you use, it will be measured back to you."

Tom Watson, CEO of IBM back in the 50s and 60s, he hired a young executive, brought him in, exactly was, this hotshot was going in. He was doing good for a while, until he made a 10 million dollar mistake. And those days, 10 million dollars was a lot of money. A lot of money to me now, I was talking about it, but especially for a company, ten million dollars in 50s and 60s, it was a lot of money. He came back into Watson's office, the young executive did, with a letter of resignation, to which Tom Watson received a letter, began to look at it, in the young executive said, "I assume you're gonna fire me" — which Watson replied, "fire you? It just cost me ten million dollars to teach you something. I can't afford to fire you." Grace. Grace.

After Peter denied Jesus three times, failed him at his moments of greatest need, when Jesus was on the shore that morning cooking breakfast, Peter went back, the only thing you know to do. Jesus called him back out of that boat, and looked at him and said, "Peter, do you love me?" "Lord, you know I love you." "Feed machine." That beautiful moment, that special, intimate moment right there. Let me ask you something: how much do the words "judge not" mean to Peter? How much, how much do they mean to you, that day, that night, that evening, wherever it was, when he fell down and you cried out for mercy, and mercy met you? How much do those words "judge not" mean to you? Sometimes you need to be mindful and remember the moment when mercy met you, it's your greatest need. When someone is pushing all the buttons you got, and your temptation is to get the thimble out, hard to just write him off all together, maybe you need to go back here and remember the night mercy washed over you. "For what judgment you judge, you will be judged, and with the measure use, that we measured back to you." If you find yourself wondering, because Christians do that, then how do I stand up without being self-righteous? You ask God to help you. You ask him to help you. Ask him to help you not be one who gives out condemnation. You ask him to help you each and every day.

My last verse, as you all stand, Romans 8:1: "there is therefore now no condemnation that those are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit." We don't receive condemnation from other people if you don't longer learn to let it in. It's a choice you make, for in him there's no condemnation. Now we still have to receive feedback, you know. If your boss says to you, "you work on this project was not satisfactory, and you didn't work," you can't say, "you may condemn my work, but the Bible says there's no, no condemnation in Jesus, therefore you cannot condemn me in this." You're probably gonna get fired, cuz that's not what that verse is about. We still need feedback. We need critique. We need criticism with humility. But that's not condemnation.

We're gonna go deeper next week. We're gonna look at maybe what is the most powerful prayer human being can pray. But as we end this tonight, as we ask, how can we set aside all the judgment? How can we learn to offer love as individuals? How, how can we, we learn to, to create an atmosphere where people can come into this church, and they feel so much love and so much acceptance, that every wall they built up simply falls to the ground, so that the love of God can reach them? So we have a good church. We do. I'm so thankful for each and every one of you doing your part. But we can still go further. We can get to the point, at the moment they pull in the parking lot, they just know, "this is home. This is home." Then when they walk in those doors, everybody's smiling. Everybody's got their hand out. Everybody's welcome here. Why? Because we're not judging you on how you look. We're not judging you on any kind of criteria than the fact that you are a child of God. And here's a place where lives are put back together, and people can discover what it is that God has for them. If we get here, we begin to experience a new level of joy, peace, less worry, more encouraging. We become blessed, but we also become a blessing.

Will you pray with me? God, I love you, and I thank you for your word, and the truth that is in your scriptures, for what you've shown us tonight, God, that we are not to be people who judge. We're the people who learn how to love. Let us know that with every measure that we give it, we're going to receive it back to. So let us be people who are patient and kind and long-suffering, who are willing to give buckets and not fin balls. Keep its, Lord Jesus, close to you, so we can always see the open door you have for us. Let us strengthen the relationships we have. Let us tell everyone we know about you and the impact you've made in our life. And Jesus name we pray, and amen. God bless you. You're dismissed in Jesus name.