Feeding Sheep S1E9 “Sermon on the Mount: Judging, what is it?”

We are continuing steady in Season 1 titled “Back to the Basics.” Episode 9, Judging, what is it?, will teach us that there is a fine line between judging and discerning.

The whole world takes these verses from Matthew 7 and crucifies Christians whenever they hold people accountable for their actions. When Jesus says don’t judge, He doesn’t mean turn a blind eye, or act like things aren’t happening. We are going to see when things don’t line up. 

But just as with everything in the Sermon on the Mount so far, it’s ALL about the posture of the heart. If what we see or discern causes us to tear down and act like Pharisees, then our heart is wrong. If what we see and discern drives us to pray for our brothers and sisters and cover them with grace, then we are not going against the teachings of Jesus.

One particular revelation that I received in prepping for this message is about the log and specks in the eyes. I don’t want to spoil it, so you’ll have to listen to get the good stuff, but it’s a game changer for sure!! Very convicting, but in the best of ways. 

I hope you enjoy this episode and will continue to follow along with us as we endeavor to walk this path together, and sit at the table of the Lord and feast together!

Please feel free to reach out with any questions or comments that you may have. We will do our best to answer in a timely manner either in writing or on another future episode! But we do want to hear from you and be able to interact with you. 

May God bless you! Can’t wait to see where we grow from here. It’s an honor to be able to speak into your lives, and I don’t take it for granted!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Good morning. Welcome to Feeding Sheep Podcast. It's so great to be back with you today. We are going to be starting our season, not season, our episode eight of season one. And today we are going to be talking about the J-word, judging. And we have made it to Matthew chapter seven. We are on the downhill slide for our Sermon on the Mount series of season one, back to the basics. And we're going to be talking about judging others and judging and what that means and why Jesus talks about it. And so we are going to be in Matthew chapter 7 today, verses 1 through 6, and uh let's go ahead and let's dive in, okay? So verse 1 says, Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged, and by your standard of measure it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, Let me take the speck out of your eye, and behold, the log is in your own eye? 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. Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet and turn and tear you to pieces. Okay. So how do I not judge and still judge at the same time? Great question. Why did Jesus talk about this? Um and the the thing I want to point out is going all the way back to Matthew chapter 5, in the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter 5, chapter 6, and now we're in chapter 7. Um, the whole Sermon on the Mount series has been Jesus addressing the heart posture of the people, calling them not just to obey the laws and the written rules and what was given by God on Mount Sinai to Moses, the Ten Commandments and such. Um, not about just obeying rules and modifying behavior, but actually getting to the root source of the problem. How do we and where do we love God from? From our heart or from modified actions that hide hypocrisy underneath. Everybody can be good for a little bit. Um, but if the goodness is not flowing from a pure place, it will eventually the good that we pretend to do or the good that we muster up within ourselves will fade away, and what's really inside of us is going to be exposed. So it's how are we loving God? How are we loving people? And so he addresses judging here and judging our brothers. Um and I want to say that it's not it's not that we're judging the world, it's judging one another, judging the people in the family of God, judging those who are walking this walk with us, uh, people who are supposed to be on our team. Um and this is not don't judge because you you should turn a blind eye to everything and you shouldn't see what you see and you shouldn't hear what you hear. Um but it's where is where where is your heart at and where is this judgment coming from? Is it harsh judgment? Is it condemning judgment? Is it self-righteousness wrapped as discernment? Um is it us believing that we can do the job of the Holy Spirit instead of praying for those around us, seeing what the issue is and it causing us to pray? Sometimes we see what the issue is and it causes us to react or attack. But if it does not, if what we see does not lead us to pray, then there is something going on in our heart because it should be our heart to lift up our brothers and sisters. It should be our heart to restore them, um, to correct in love, uh, not out of condemnation, not out of trying to tear them down. It says, so do not judge so that you will not be judged. For in the way that you judge, the way that you judge, you will be judged, and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. If you are unmus unmerciful, you will not receive mercy. If you are harsh and um ridiculous, you are going to receive harshness. And it's not just by people that are around you, um, but you will cause the Lord to take up the cause of someone else because newsflash, God does not just love me and God does not just love you, He loves everyone. He's not just on my team or your team, he is on everyone's team. And whether we believe it or not, God's judgment and his justice, it is righteous and it is holy, and he is going to take care of those that belong to him. So, however you judge, the way that you judge, the heart that you are judging from, that is what's going to be returned back to you. So, if if you are wanting people to not tear you to shreds because you've had a bad day, then you probably should not jump to conclusions and shred somebody else to pieces because they've had a bad day. It's not it's not bad to extend grace and have a pause first, take it to the Lord in prayer and then re-evaluate. Um in verse 3 it says, Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but you do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye, and behold, the log is in your own eye. Okay, um, 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. I want us to notice something here that as I was preparing for this podcast today, the Lord just really began to show me. He said, We're looking into each other's eye. The specks and the logs are in the eye. And um, the eye is the window to the soul, it's the lamp of the body. So it's not just that I'm I'm seeking my brother or my sister to discern what's on the outside, but I'm going, I'm peering, I'm trying to peer into their soul, and I'm saying, let me take the speck out, which means that I am not just being a brother or a sister who is concerned. I am now trying to usurp the authority of the Holy Spirit to deal with the soul and the hearts and the lives of my brothers and sisters, and that is what is dangerous. That is the territory that we do not need to trample on. You are not the Holy Spirit. I am not the Holy Spirit. Um, some of us are teachers, some of us are preachers, uh, some of us are just brothers and sisters who are born again and who are listening to the Holy Spirit. And yes, we are called to confront things. Yes, we are called to speak out against sin. Yes, we are called to hold each other to accountability, but as far as reaching in and us being the cleaner, us being the fixer, um, we start stepping into a category that we are not qualified to do. I am called to be obedient. I am called to deliver the word. The job of the results is on those who hear the word and the Holy Spirit who does the work. Okay, so if I think, if I am bold and brazen enough to think that I can pull the speck out of your eye or I can fix you, I have stepped into, um, I have stepped into the Holy Spirit's territory, and I need to humble myself because there is some kind of major pride issue that's going on in my life, and I need to realize and recognize who I am and who I am not, and get back under submission to the Holy Spirit instead of trying to be Holy Spirit. Amen. So that was the first thing that I noticed. And then, and then it was like I could see in my in my in my mind's eye, I could see like two people just staring each other down. And I don't know if you've ever been all up in love and junk, or if you've um stared into the eyes of of your best friend, you know, have a staring contest, see who blinks first, you know, all of the things doesn't always have to be lovey dovey. It can just, you know, be something crazy and ridiculous, like a staring contest, whatever. But if you look into a person's eyes long enough, their eye will become a mirror and you will see yourself in their eyes. And so as I um as the Lord began to show me that this morning, he said, he said, we see a speck in our brother's eye while we have a log in our own eye. May I submit to you today that the thing that you cannot, the little thing that you cannot stand about someone else is merely a reflection of what is going on in massive proportions in your own life. Sometimes we see the very things that God is trying to deal with in us, and instead of allowing him to put his finger on something for us to come into alignment, for us to walk in repentance, we go on a witch hunt and we go looking for it, and we see it everywhere else but in ourselves. But when we look that closely into our brothers and our sisters' eyes, we will see a reflection. And that's why he's saying, he said, first you need to go get the log out of your eye, and then you'll be able to see clearly the speck that is in your brother's eye, your brother's eye. And may I submit that nine times out of ten, if you get the log out of your eye and you go back and you look at your brother, that speck won't be there anymore because the speck in their eye was just a reflection of the log in your own. Whoo, somebody. Hallelujah. And I say this with all humility, and I say this as someone who has been corrected by the Lord. Yes, even me. I am corrected by the Lord. Why? Because there are things about other people that be getting on my whole nerves. And I'm not, I'm not super confrontational. I I I will I will choke stuff back and I will push it down and shove it down because I want to be, you know, a peacekeeper. And um the Lord's really been dealing with me lately about um I wouldn't feel so bad all the time if I wouldn't try to keep the peace, and I would just try to make the peace like he's asked us to do. And making peace sometimes means having those difficult conversations and just go ahead and get it over with. Because when you love someone, when you're on the same team with someone, you have to be on the same page. If you can't be on the same page, you can't work together, you can't go in the same direction. There will always be friction. And there are things that I've taken to the Lord and I'm like, well, this person does so and so, and this person's doing so and so. And a lot of times I'm frustrated because I'm tired, because I'm exhausted. Um, and when you're tired and you're exhausted, you start examining people and being scrutinizing and harsh when normally when you're at your best and you're rested, um, you would have grace and you would see it a little bit more clearly. Okay, so I would tell you to get some rest, to get along with the Lord, to take a little, a little respite, if you will, a little Sabbath, and um ask the Lord to clear your vision. And another thing is that the things that annoy you about other people are simply because you haven't communicated. And um, you know, I I've taken several things to the Lord and I've said, Lord, but this and this and this, and he said, but you didn't address it. You didn't address it when it happened. You know, it's just like um when a child does something and you know, that a small child does something, if you don't address it immediately, you can't come back in five days and be like, hey, little Georgie, do you remember when you did this on Sunday a week ago? Little Georgie is gonna be like, Mom, dad, I've moved past that. I'm over that. I don't even know what you're talking about anymore. But if I would have addressed it then, little Georgie would have known. And little Georgie could have, you know, made adjustments and all of the things. And so the Lord said, you know, he said this to me, and I'm just I'm letting you in on my personal walk with the Lord because what other testimony do I have than my own? Um, you know, he would tell me, he would say, you might be a little bit more patient with them if you would stop holding back, if you would stop trying to just make everything be okay, and you would just say what needs to be said in the moment. You it wouldn't fester on the inside of you, you wouldn't get so aggravated. So the things, I'm saying that to say that the things that were getting on my nerves about other people were merely just specks of a reflection of something that was lacking in my life that I needed to fix. And so, of course, you know, I cried and I wept and I prayed before the Lord, and you know, I had my little, you know, sometimes we just have a little tantrum and we're like, God, why do I always have to be the one that fixes everything? Why do I always blah, blah, blah, blah, blah? You know, I'm sure you said it too. Um, but at the end of the day, it's not just you that's having to fix things. It's not just you that's having to make adjustments. The enemy wants it to feel that way so that you can believe that you are justified in your finger pointing or justified in your self-righteousness or justified in your holier than thou. Um, but it's not you. Everybody's working. Just because they're not doing what you're doing doesn't mean that they're not working for the kingdom. Your assignment is not their assignment. Even if their assignment and your assignment go and coincide together and they weave in with one another, they're still not called to do what you're called to do. You're not called to do what they're called to do, they're never gonna understand your assignment to the fullest and the weight of it. You on the turn are not also going to understand their assignment and the weight that they carry. You may think, well, that's just baby weights, and I'm carrying these heavy weights. It doesn't matter. Everybody's carrying weight, and that's what we need to understand. Everybody is moving as best they can to the capacity that they have within them at this moment to get closer to Christ, closer to the goal, closer to his kingdom come, his will be done in earth as it is in heaven. And so we just need, amen, to get our own selves cleaned up so that we can stop punishing everyone else around us. That's what judgment does. Judgment is punishment. Whenever they say guilty or not guilty, it comes with a sentence. When the judgment is passed, you are guilty of this. There is a punishment that is coupled with that judgment. So judgment is punishment, discernment is prayer and mercy. Whenever I look and I say, My brother's confession isn't matching what their actions are doing, I need to pray. Holy Spirit, deal with the hearts and lives. That is me judging, but in love, because I'm not tearing down, I'm building up. I'm not tearing them down to other people, I'm not tearing them down to them. I am taking it to the Lord in prayer. And should the Lord say, Hey, you need to have a conversation, my first thing is going to be, Lord, prepare their heart, prepare my lips. May I speak as the oracles of God. May my sea uh may my speech be seasoned and sprinkled with love, with salt, um through the power of the Holy Spirit, and may it yield results. May the words fall on good ground, may it be received, you know, mold the heart, shape the heart of that one that you're sending me to, oh Lord. And then sometimes your only involvement will be just to pray and see God move because God will send others who they will hear into their life to have these hard conversations. We're all trying to heal. We're all trying to distance ourselves from the sin that we were entangled in before we were born again. We're all, you know, trying to be on the same page. Are there enemies out there? Absolutely. Does the enemy sneak in and try to attack? Absolutely. Um, but the main way that he does that is to get us to walk in pride and self-righteousness, get us to try to subvert or usurp the authority of the Holy Spirit, the job of the Holy Spirit, to think that we ourselves are capable of doing what only the Holy Spirit can do. And so he says this He said, Do not give what is holy to dogs and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet and turn and tear you to pieces. And so he's saying, whenever you're doing all of this judging, don't forget that these vessels that you're talking about, these vessels that you're scrutinizing, these vessels that you are being harsh with, they're mine. I've consecrated them. They're holy unto me. And you don't take what is holy and throw it to the dogs. You don't take my vessels and and feed them to the swine. You don't take my precious treasure and put it where it doesn't belong. Because those same dogs and those same swine that you're throwing my vessel in front of are going to turn on you and they're going to tear you to pieces. If you dog out somebody, if you if you throw them in the muck and the mire of the hog pen, guess what? That same muck and mire, those same dogs are going to rend and tear you, are going to make you muddy, messy, and and expose you all over the place. He's saying, so be careful with my holy vessels. Be careful with my sons and daughters, your brothers and sisters. If you think you see something in them, make sure it's not just a tiny reflection of the massive thing that you've got going on in your own life. So he's not saying that you can't judge or that you must be blind and that you can't see. He's saying examine your heart. Make sure that you are staying in your own lane. If my if what I see and my judgment is causing me or calling me to frustration, calling me to want to attack or tear down or bully or reject in any way, then I am not in the right spirit. I am not in the right frame of heart, if you will. But if what I see, if I'm discerning something and it's pushing me to love, to pray, to cover, not cover in a way that I'm taking some kind of gross sin and I'm pretending like it's not happening. Um, if people are being abused, um, you know, we see a lot of times in and here lately that there are some major crimes against humanity, if you will, that are going on and being covered up by leaders in the church, by people because they have been taught to cover. That's that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying cover them in prayer. I am saying if there's something crazy going on, you need to report it to the proper place and it needs to be taken care of because nobody deserves to be harmed in that way. But if you're saying, well, my brother has an issue with pride, okay, take that to the Lord in prayer. If it's pushing you to cover him, to give him grace, as the Holy Spirit is moving on that pride, praise be. When I say cover, that's what I mean. Give them a grace, a covering of grace to allow the Holy Spirit to come into their heart and begin to move and work and take that heart of stone, turn it into a heart of flesh, get that pride out. Because chances are that you either suffered with pride at one point and you've been delivered and you've been healed, so you understand how hard it is for it to break off of your life. Or if you're not careful and you're not showing love and you're not going into prayer, you will face a battle the same way with the same thing. Um, because one way or another, the Lord is going to give you compassion on those that you are around. And either you're just going to operate out of compassion, or compassion is going to be earned through hardship. And you're going to go through things that probably you wouldn't have had to go through if you would have just chose to love and to pray in the first place. Um, so do not judge so that you won't be judged, for in the way that you judge, it's the way that you judge, you will be judged, and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? You have bigger fish to fry. Or how can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye, and behold the log is in your own eye. You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. Do not give what is holy to dogs, do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet and turn and tear you to pieces. Do not give your brothers and sisters over to be bitten and devoured, to be stomped on, to be muddied and bloodied up. Give them to the Lord in the prayer closet. Give them to the Lord with love. Extend grace to them. Be obedient if the Lord tells you to speak into their lives, be obedient and do that. But you being obedient and speaking is not you. Taking a speck. It's not you cleaning them. It's you pouring the water of the word over them and allowing Holy Spirit to have room to come in and wash them with the water of the word, to clean them up, to hammer their heart if it's necessary. You are not Holy Spirit. I am not Holy Spirit. He lives in us, but we are not Him. And so we must be the sons and daughters of the Most High God, submitted and in alignment with Holy Spirit, with the correct heart posture, so that we will love and carry our brothers and sisters well. A house divided against itself cannot stand. A team that is divided constantly within itself will never be able to reach the goal. This is the plan of the enemy to have us hate and bite and devour one another so that we cannot get to the finish line, that it will hinder kingdom purpose and it will delay God's plan that could be already in action because she's controlling. Well, you might be seeing her controlling issues or other people's controlling issues because you deal with control issues yourself. Heal yourself. Reflect on what's going on with you. Get before the Lord and say, Lord, I don't want my brothers and sisters' eyes to have to be my mirror. Let me hold up the mirror of your word. Show me in the reflection of who you are, where I am and where I'm not. And Lord, may I come closer to you every day. I hope that you enjoyed this message. I know that the J word is a hot topic. Judging is a hot topic in the kingdom. So I hope that this brought a little basic enlightenment to where you are. I pray that you see it a little bit differently. And because you see this word in an enlightened state, I pray that you see your brothers and sisters differently, love them and carry them differently. I can't wait to see you next week for our podcast as we dive more into prayer and loving one another. I'll see you next week for episode nine. God bless you. Have a wonderful day and a great weekend. I love you. Bye.