Get The Log Out

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. Who's ever heard this? Are you judging me? Stop judging me. Or, I love this one, advertisement for an athletic club, judgment-free zone. So, what we're going to wrestle with today is the issue in our world of tension and difficulties and wrestling with various polarities. Is a Christian supposed to judge? Or not? Or under certain circumstances? Or never at all? Is being judgmental the same thing as being judged? Get the log out. In a culture of polarization and tension, we're called to make judgments and avoid being judgmental. But how do you know the difference? How can you tell if you are making a judgment that is both valuable and helpful, secure and safe, and being judgmental? What's the difference? When does one begin and the other end? I think that we have a hard time getting the log out, which is Jesus' metaphor for struggling with our own issues. How many of us are struggling with our own issues and see those other issues in others? Or in order to make sure that others don't find us or see us for who we are, strike first and say, this is what you're doing wrong. I think I found the reason why so many of us have the log in our eyes. It's because day in, day out, we are being instructed to log in. I expected more of a response than that. That's as good as it gets around here. That's such a dad joke. I am a dad. Worse yet, a grandpa. It's a grandpa joke. If you're a grandpa, I expect you to respond better. You guys are excused from appreciating that at all. Log in. But as common as logging in is to logging in, I would offer to you that logging in is to our behavior and view of others. And this is one of these issues that's true about original sin is that I can't not see you through my eyes, my own perceptions. And that gets filtered by my own history, my own experiences, my own faults, my own failures, my own issues, my own concerns, my own relationships, my own mood. So when I see you, I see you through me and maybe I see something in you that I wish I hadn't seen in me. It's all very complex and complicated. Log in. Stop judging me. Judgment-free zone. Who are you to judge me? You can't judge me. Are these people right? When we have said that, are we correct? Are we to push back on people who are making judgments and judging us for whatever reason in whatever circumstance? Are they right? Well, what does the Bible say? We're going to find that out, but first we're going to pray. Because this whole conversation about judgments, judgment, being judgmental, is full of nuances and is multifaceted in Scripture. The Bible has a multiplicity of ways to address the nature of judgment and we're going to try to just skim across the surface of those today to gain some understanding of that and how the power of Christ is made active through it all. That's our challenge. And as I put this message together, I went, can I get that done in an hour and a half? I don't know. John said I could have some extra time today. There will be an intermission and goodies. Let's go to God in prayer. Father, thank you for the chance to bring our song to you. Thank you for the chance to bring ourselves to you. Thank you for the chance to bring our faults and failures before you. Give us insight by means of your Holy Spirit that we might understand, that we might grow, that we might practice being people who judge without being judgmental. And give us discernment to how that works in Jesus' name. Amen. So let's go to the Scripture. Do not judge. These are the words of Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount, so pretty early in his ministry. Judge not that you not be judged. For with the same judgment you pronounced, you will be judged. And with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. That's what always bothered me. Why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye but fail to notice the beam, Lord, beam in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye, but there is still a beam in your own eye? You hypocrite. Huh. First, take the beam out of your own eye. Then he will say clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. Now early on, remember, Jesus is introducing himself in ministry. Sermon on the Mount is an opportunity to kind of address the masses. So he's addressing a fundamental issue and that is how I get in the way of seeing you. Now that influences my behavior, my acceptance, my own acceptance of what God offers for me. So yet, the very next verses in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus asks us to make judgments. He says, don't judge, but then lays before us an opportunity to make a judgment. Do not give dogs what is holy. Do not throw your pearls before a swine. If you do, they may trample them under their feet and then turn and tear you to pieces. Ow! Strong, harsh language. Now, I've been told, don't judge, but make sure when you spot dogs ...