WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:08.240 Good morning and happy Halloween and happy Reformation Day and uh Happy Braves win. 00:00:08.400 --> 00:00:10.960 A lot of you have a Braves hangover. 00:00:11.119 --> 00:00:14.880 It's one of those good as a good hangover, not a bad hangover. 00:00:15.199 --> 00:00:16.559 Won't talk about the other ones. 00:00:16.640 --> 00:00:18.320 Um you can come in this week. 00:00:18.559 --> 00:00:19.600 You need to talk to me. 00:00:19.760 --> 00:00:22.000 You can come in this week and we can talk about that too. 00:00:22.239 --> 00:00:23.679 That's very possible. 00:00:23.920 --> 00:00:25.280 Uh so good to see you. 00:00:25.440 --> 00:00:26.079 Good to have you here. 00:00:26.160 --> 00:00:27.359 Ted Lasso's here. 00:00:27.440 --> 00:00:33.600 That's great to see that he's here in the house of the Lord to confess his sins this morning. 00:00:33.840 --> 00:00:37.039 Um, it is good that the gospel equips us. 00:00:37.119 --> 00:00:46.880 We are so secure in the gospel that we can laugh at ourselves and our Enneagram sevens in the room dressed up for us, our Enneagram fives, like myself. 00:00:47.039 --> 00:00:48.320 We thought about it all week. 00:00:48.640 --> 00:00:49.119 All week. 00:00:49.280 --> 00:00:51.200 We thought about whether we would dress up or not. 00:00:51.359 --> 00:00:54.000 We researched it, and then we just couldn't do it. 00:00:54.399 --> 00:00:55.840 We just couldn't do it. 00:00:56.079 --> 00:00:59.039 Um so the gospel equips us, we'll laugh at ourselves. 00:00:59.119 --> 00:01:03.920 And then also the gospel equips us to do what we're gonna do this morning, and that's to take a really hard look at ourselves. 00:01:04.079 --> 00:01:07.760 That's part of being Christian as well. 00:01:08.000 --> 00:01:12.879 So we're moving from Matthew 6, which was about surrendering our desire. 00:01:13.120 --> 00:01:22.000 Sam Rapp did such a good job last week of laying this out for us, our desire for money materials, which is really about control and what we're gonna trust in in this world. 00:01:22.239 --> 00:01:27.359 And then in Matthew 7, Jesus takes us into how we view other people. 00:01:28.640 --> 00:01:30.159 So Matthew 7. 00:01:30.640 --> 00:01:33.280 Uh, we'll read our way through it, work our way through it. 00:01:33.439 --> 00:01:34.319 Verses 1 and 2. 00:01:34.480 --> 00:01:37.840 Judge not that you be not judged. 00:01:38.480 --> 00:01:42.000 For with the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged. 00:01:42.239 --> 00:01:46.079 And with the measure you use it, it will be measured to you. 00:01:46.560 --> 00:01:53.599 So, right away, Jesus has, by saying this, he's admitting that uh there's gonna be friction. 00:01:54.079 --> 00:01:55.280 You're gonna have disagreements. 00:01:55.599 --> 00:02:01.040 Somebody's gonna say something or do something, or you will, uh, very possible. 00:02:01.439 --> 00:02:04.879 And we're gonna want to be in judgment over each other. 00:02:05.040 --> 00:02:06.480 We're gonna want to do that. 00:02:06.719 --> 00:02:14.159 See, the closer we get to each other, the much more likely uh you're gonna get a really, really great hug when you need it. 00:02:14.319 --> 00:02:21.599 And then also the closer we get to each other, the more likely we're gonna feel those tensions and you're gonna be offended, right? 00:02:22.080 --> 00:02:24.639 I'm no more loved and offended than I am in my own house, right? 00:02:24.719 --> 00:02:26.000 I mean, it's the same thing with you. 00:02:26.159 --> 00:02:36.000 It's like you're you're so well loved in your own home and family, and you're so offended by these people in your family that offend all your goodness and how great you are. 00:02:36.400 --> 00:02:37.439 That's how it works. 00:02:37.520 --> 00:02:41.439 And this passage says for us not to judge, not to be in judgment over each other. 00:02:41.520 --> 00:02:49.599 So this word judge, the word judge in the Bible can speak of, it can speak of legal proceedings, it can speak of decision making. 00:02:50.080 --> 00:02:59.919 But here in Matthew 7, judge speaks to the harsh practice of lowering another person as to raise yourself. 00:03:00.719 --> 00:03:07.599 So John Stott, pastor theologian, he wrote this about this chapter and this word. 00:03:08.319 --> 00:03:18.000 This is a fault finder who is negative and destructive toward other people and enjoys actively seeking out their failings. 00:03:19.280 --> 00:03:21.439 So this doesn't mean that you suspend your mind. 00:03:21.520 --> 00:03:26.879 It's not saying, oh, you gotta suspend your mind or your intellect or your discernment or your wisdom or your moral guide. 00:03:26.960 --> 00:03:28.080 That's not what it's saying at all. 00:03:28.240 --> 00:03:31.199 It means you're not on a mission to lower other people. 00:03:32.879 --> 00:03:34.159 So it's like this. 00:03:34.479 --> 00:03:38.800 I snuck into the preschool room this morning and I stole these. 00:03:38.879 --> 00:03:41.599 So some little kid doesn't have Legos this morning. 00:03:41.919 --> 00:03:42.879 But you do. 00:03:43.039 --> 00:03:44.080 And so it's like this. 00:03:44.159 --> 00:03:47.520 And say, let's just say this is you and this is somebody else, okay? 00:03:47.840 --> 00:03:49.280 You and Cindy Joe. 00:03:49.680 --> 00:04:02.879 And so Cindy Joe over here, uh, we love to judge Cindy Joe, like what she wears and what she says, and we just nitpick her, like the news, the news she watches, how much she watches, that's the thing I like to judge. 00:04:03.039 --> 00:04:05.199 Not so much what news you watch, but how much. 00:04:05.360 --> 00:04:08.240 That's where I really kick in on my judgment. 00:04:08.400 --> 00:04:13.199 Or social media, you just see like what she posts or how she posts or how often she posts. 00:04:13.280 --> 00:04:19.600 I mean, there's a playground of judgment for us, or maybe real sin, like the affair she had, right? 00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:23.680 Or that she's divisive, or she's a gossip. 00:04:24.160 --> 00:04:28.639 These are all real possibilities for our judgment. 00:04:28.959 --> 00:04:37.839 It's a playground, and so we get to lower her and we measure her, okay, all right, and then you go, oh, okay, look at me. 00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:39.839 All right, right, right. 00:04:40.480 --> 00:04:47.759 But here's the thing what Jesus is saying, it's impossible to judge her without getting out the tape measure. 00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:55.759 And now you automatically are always also measuring and judging yourself. 00:04:56.000 --> 00:05:08.560 So Jesus is saying when we live in judgment on others, we will automatically, automatically live destructive and negative toward ourselves. 00:05:08.800 --> 00:05:12.399 You can't do it to Cindy Joe and not do it to yourself. 00:05:12.480 --> 00:05:21.360 The judgment you put on her or him or them has automatically come back on you because you've become a person of judgment. 00:05:22.079 --> 00:05:30.560 Verse three, why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, when it's his sister's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 00:05:30.879 --> 00:05:36.160 Or how can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye when there's a log in your own eye? 00:05:36.399 --> 00:05:37.759 You hypocrite. 00:05:38.399 --> 00:05:44.800 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. 00:05:45.920 --> 00:05:51.439 Point number one is this you cannot see yourself if you are busy pointing out issues in others. 00:05:52.560 --> 00:05:53.680 You can't see yourself. 00:05:53.759 --> 00:05:59.839 There's this parable story in Luke 18, and Jesus is teaching a group of people, a group of people who thought a lot about themselves. 00:05:59.920 --> 00:06:01.519 They're really proud of themselves. 00:06:02.160 --> 00:06:03.680 Thought they were better than other people. 00:06:03.839 --> 00:06:05.120 And so he tells this story. 00:06:05.439 --> 00:06:10.240 Two men go to the temple to pray, one's a religious guy, one's this lowly tax collector guy. 00:06:10.399 --> 00:06:12.480 Nobody would have thought much about this guy. 00:06:12.959 --> 00:06:15.279 And here's a story in Luke 18, verse 11. 00:06:15.360 --> 00:06:16.160 You've probably heard it before. 00:06:16.319 --> 00:06:19.439 The Pharisee standing by himself prayed thus. 00:06:20.079 --> 00:06:28.240 God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 00:06:28.480 --> 00:06:32.800 Now, isn't it interesting that he actually lists things that are wrong? 00:06:32.959 --> 00:06:35.519 So this isn't a suspension of a moral ethic. 00:06:35.759 --> 00:06:40.319 It's about the practice of destructively and negatively lowering other people. 00:06:40.800 --> 00:06:42.800 He keeps going, I fast twice a week. 00:06:42.959 --> 00:06:44.800 I give tithes of all that I get. 00:06:44.879 --> 00:06:51.759 But the tax collector standing far off would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, God be merciful to me, a sinner. 00:06:51.920 --> 00:06:53.439 I tell you, this man. 00:06:54.639 --> 00:07:02.959 So that lowly guy, not the religious guy, that man, he went down to his house justified rather than the other. 00:07:03.199 --> 00:07:09.040 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. 00:07:10.079 --> 00:07:11.839 So the Pharisee makes this mistake. 00:07:12.079 --> 00:07:13.199 So easy. 00:07:13.759 --> 00:07:22.879 To boost his own goodness and to lessen any possibility that this other person that he thinks he has figured out, he has them boxed in. 00:07:23.120 --> 00:07:23.439 Right? 00:07:23.600 --> 00:07:25.680 He is God over this other guy. 00:07:26.240 --> 00:07:31.360 He has the ability somehow to judge this guy's motives and know everything about his life. 00:07:31.759 --> 00:07:37.519 He boosts himself and he lowers him, takes out the tape measure, off he goes. 00:07:38.480 --> 00:07:40.959 So he gets to feel more self-righteous. 00:07:41.839 --> 00:07:46.720 Without any real honesty about his failings or his motives. 00:07:47.040 --> 00:07:54.399 And when we do this, Jesus says in Matthew 7, verse 5, we are hypocrites. 00:07:54.639 --> 00:08:02.879 So if you remember, we ran into this word a couple of weeks ago, and the word hypocrite gives us the image of an actor or one who wears a mask, fitting for today, right? 00:08:02.959 --> 00:08:05.360 We're gonna see a lot of masks today on Halloween. 00:08:06.079 --> 00:08:09.759 Now, I could wear a George Clooney mask. 00:08:10.079 --> 00:08:10.720 I could. 00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:14.319 I will never look like George Clooney. 00:08:15.040 --> 00:08:17.920 I mean, actually, this week I was shaving. 00:08:18.240 --> 00:08:22.160 I shave on Wednesdays and Saturday nights, just so you know my rhythm. 00:08:22.639 --> 00:08:24.079 So it was Wednesday. 00:08:24.319 --> 00:08:25.759 It was a shaving day. 00:08:26.079 --> 00:08:29.360 I'm coming down my cheek, up close to the mirror. 00:08:29.600 --> 00:08:32.000 I see something up near my eye. 00:08:32.240 --> 00:08:34.080 I go to wipe it away. 00:08:35.120 --> 00:08:36.960 It was a new wrinkle. 00:08:39.279 --> 00:08:40.960 I've never done that before. 00:08:41.200 --> 00:08:43.200 Tried to wipe away my own face. 00:08:44.559 --> 00:08:48.879 I came out of the bathroom and said, Chrissy, I just tried to wipe away my own face. 00:08:48.960 --> 00:08:51.360 That's where I'm at in my life. 00:08:51.519 --> 00:08:57.120 And it wasn't like a good, like George Clooney wrinkle, where like every wrinkle he gets, he gets better looking. 00:08:57.759 --> 00:09:03.919 It's just a wrinkle, just like a middle-aged, average-looking man wrinkle. 00:09:04.000 --> 00:09:04.960 It's all it was. 00:09:05.519 --> 00:09:06.559 And that there's reality. 00:09:06.639 --> 00:09:07.279 Like that's it. 00:09:07.360 --> 00:09:12.320 Like I could put a George Clooney mask on, but it wouldn't be reality. 00:09:12.480 --> 00:09:13.919 It wouldn't be honest. 00:09:14.240 --> 00:09:16.080 It would be uncomfortable and it would be a lie. 00:09:16.159 --> 00:09:17.600 It would be it'd be an act, right? 00:09:17.679 --> 00:09:18.399 That's what a mask is. 00:09:18.559 --> 00:09:19.600 That's what Jesus is saying. 00:09:19.759 --> 00:09:22.080 When we judge other people, we're putting on the mask. 00:09:22.159 --> 00:09:24.000 We're not seeing ourselves. 00:09:25.600 --> 00:09:28.720 Priest and author, Henri Nowen, he says this. 00:09:29.039 --> 00:09:32.879 The desert fathers said that judging others is a heavy burden. 00:09:33.840 --> 00:09:45.360 While being judged by others is a light, like a light one, once we can let go of our need to judge others, we will experience an immense inner freedom. 00:09:45.679 --> 00:09:50.399 Once we are free from judging, we will be also free for mercy. 00:09:50.960 --> 00:09:52.639 Let's remember Jesus' words. 00:09:52.799 --> 00:09:55.519 Do not judge, and you will not be judged. 00:09:55.840 --> 00:09:58.960 Point number two is this awareness and confession. 00:09:59.360 --> 00:10:05.919 Awareness and confession of your own sin leads to increased generosity toward others. 00:10:06.240 --> 00:10:18.799 So this is that beautiful second side of life where you can confess your imperfections and your sin to God because of Jesus' forgiveness for you, and you are righteous totally and completely in him. 00:10:19.039 --> 00:10:25.120 So you're so free in that gospel that you are free to be more and more self-aware, and you can confess more and more. 00:10:26.399 --> 00:10:33.279 You're coming into greater acceptance that you're created beautiful in God's image, and you are a sinner, and you are redeemed. 00:10:33.519 --> 00:10:35.600 And that's not self-contempt, none of that. 00:10:35.759 --> 00:10:48.080 No, it's a freedom of a humility to live in that confession, to see any of the logs and the specks in your eye, and then enables you in love and generosity to even have a conversation with somebody else without judgment. 00:10:48.399 --> 00:10:56.960 Verse 5 says this you hypocrites 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. 00:10:57.600 --> 00:11:00.320 So there we could say brother or sister's eye. 00:11:00.639 --> 00:11:08.799 So the text takes us, if we look at the text, it takes us from judge and hypocrite, judge and hypocrite to brother or sister. 00:11:08.960 --> 00:11:11.919 Judge and hypocrite to brother or sister. 00:11:13.360 --> 00:11:14.799 My sister's name is Sherry. 00:11:14.879 --> 00:11:19.679 Here's a picture of my sister and I at the beach, I think last year's spring break. 00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:21.360 She's three years older than me. 00:11:21.440 --> 00:11:24.879 She lives in Virginia with her husband, two daughters. 00:11:25.200 --> 00:11:27.279 We do not agree on everything. 00:11:27.519 --> 00:11:28.639 That's okay. 00:11:28.960 --> 00:11:30.960 She is smarter than me. 00:11:31.759 --> 00:11:32.399 It's okay. 00:11:32.559 --> 00:11:33.440 I got the height. 00:11:33.519 --> 00:11:34.159 She got the brains. 00:11:34.240 --> 00:11:35.759 It's very clear in the picture, right? 00:11:35.840 --> 00:11:37.519 Like that's what's going on. 00:11:38.879 --> 00:11:50.240 And like a good sister, if I'm a moron, or I'm out of turn in my family, or I'm out of turn toward her family, she will call me. 00:11:50.559 --> 00:11:52.159 And she will tell me. 00:11:52.720 --> 00:11:54.000 But she will do that in love. 00:11:54.080 --> 00:11:55.519 She will not do that in judgment. 00:11:55.679 --> 00:12:03.440 And if I needed anything, I could show up at her house in the middle of the night with my family, and the door is open. 00:12:03.919 --> 00:12:04.399 Right? 00:12:04.559 --> 00:12:05.039 Why? 00:12:05.200 --> 00:12:05.759 Why? 00:12:06.159 --> 00:12:09.600 Because the base of the relationship is not perfect agreement. 00:12:09.840 --> 00:12:12.639 The base of the relationship is not some comparison. 00:12:12.879 --> 00:12:17.360 It's not perfectly matching lifestyles or never getting on each other's nerves. 00:12:17.440 --> 00:12:17.840 No, no. 00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:21.039 The base of the relationship is she's my sister. 00:12:21.200 --> 00:12:22.559 I'm her brother. 00:12:22.960 --> 00:12:24.480 We're brother and sister. 00:12:25.200 --> 00:12:28.399 See, brothers and sisters in Christ, we care for each other. 00:12:28.559 --> 00:12:33.600 That infiltrates everything else about how we relate. 00:12:36.399 --> 00:12:38.399 It changes how we view each other. 00:12:39.519 --> 00:12:42.720 And see, our growth in grace, this passage is laying it out for us. 00:12:42.799 --> 00:12:47.519 Our growth in grace is from judge and hypocrite to brother and sister. 00:12:49.679 --> 00:12:50.480 Here's the good news. 00:12:50.639 --> 00:12:51.759 Point number three. 00:12:52.320 --> 00:13:01.120 Because of Christ's righteousness for us, we no longer have to defend ourselves with self-righteousness. 00:13:01.360 --> 00:13:02.559 Isn't that freeing? 00:13:04.000 --> 00:13:07.279 So today's not only Halloween, it's Reformation Day. 00:13:07.679 --> 00:13:12.080 Some of you would just like to do away with Halloween, understand, and just focus on the Reformation Day. 00:13:12.159 --> 00:13:14.559 So here's your part of today for you. 00:13:14.799 --> 00:13:19.279 October 31st, 1517, in Wittenberg, Germany. 00:13:19.600 --> 00:13:23.440 Probably the greatest transformation in Western society. 00:13:24.320 --> 00:13:26.720 Martin Luther, here's a picture of Martin Luther. 00:13:26.879 --> 00:13:34.480 He nailed his 95 thesis about God and the Bible and salvation and how we have relationship with God and forgiveness. 00:13:34.559 --> 00:13:37.440 He nails it to the doors of a church. 00:13:37.679 --> 00:13:40.399 And it begins the Protestant Reformation. 00:13:40.559 --> 00:13:41.600 Here are the doors of the church. 00:13:41.679 --> 00:13:46.080 The original doors burned down, but this is the church building where he nailed them. 00:13:47.039 --> 00:13:51.919 And that begins this huge debate through the church, and it begins the Protestant Reformation, right? 00:13:52.000 --> 00:13:57.519 And so that big siege Christian church, Catholic and Protestant, this is where the division begins. 00:13:57.919 --> 00:14:02.399 Protestant being those who protested the Catholic Church. 00:14:02.559 --> 00:14:08.639 Because at the time, at the time, they're selling forgiveness. 00:14:08.879 --> 00:14:10.240 This crazy thought. 00:14:10.480 --> 00:14:13.279 So convenient to the people in power, right? 00:14:13.440 --> 00:14:18.080 Like, so give enough money to the church and then you're right with God. 00:14:18.240 --> 00:14:20.240 Give enough money and you are forgiven. 00:14:20.399 --> 00:14:23.679 Give enough money and you're in eternally you are saved. 00:14:23.840 --> 00:14:24.960 How convenient. 00:14:25.200 --> 00:14:29.039 How convenient in a society where the Bible is not available to everybody. 00:14:29.200 --> 00:14:38.399 And then in the mid-1400s, the printing press becomes available, Bibles become available to people, and Martin Luther starts to study his Bible. 00:14:38.559 --> 00:14:47.279 And what he discovers is that relationship with God is by grace alone, through faith alone, by Christ's work alone. 00:14:47.759 --> 00:14:56.000 And this whole thing about giving money and buying forgiveness to be right with God, that's crazy messed up. 00:14:57.679 --> 00:14:59.600 And so the Protestant church begins. 00:14:59.759 --> 00:15:00.559 That's what we're talking about. 00:15:00.639 --> 00:15:02.080 We talk about Reformation Day. 00:15:02.159 --> 00:15:03.759 There's been a reformation. 00:15:04.240 --> 00:15:06.080 And so today we look back on that day. 00:15:06.159 --> 00:15:08.159 That's a celebration for us. 00:15:08.960 --> 00:15:17.200 Because people were being crushed by that type of performancism and merit-based faith. 00:15:17.519 --> 00:15:20.639 And so we celebrate the freedom we have in Christ's work. 00:15:21.200 --> 00:15:22.879 Our judgment is over. 00:15:23.279 --> 00:15:28.559 Our defense mechanisms, they can rest because Jesus really is enough. 00:15:29.039 --> 00:15:43.600 My mentor's mentor, Professor Jack Miller, he said this the gospel frees me to believe the log in my eye is always a bigger issue than the speck in anybody else's eye. 00:15:44.559 --> 00:15:48.480 It's not the gospel forces you, it frees you. 00:15:49.360 --> 00:15:50.559 You're that free. 00:15:50.799 --> 00:15:55.279 You're that free to be able to look at yourself honestly and begin with yourself. 00:15:55.919 --> 00:15:57.759 Matthew 7, 6. 00:15:59.679 --> 00:16:02.240 It's an odd verse to end this section on. 00:16:02.639 --> 00:16:05.039 Do not give dogs what is holy. 00:16:05.440 --> 00:16:11.519 Do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you. 00:16:11.759 --> 00:16:13.519 What an odd verse to end with. 00:16:13.759 --> 00:16:16.639 I mean, a pearl would have been an immense treasure. 00:16:16.799 --> 00:16:22.080 I mean, it would have been so costly to have something like a pearl. 00:16:22.559 --> 00:16:25.039 And a dog and a pig would have been a nasty animal. 00:16:25.120 --> 00:16:28.720 It would have been a destructive animal to give something to a dog. 00:16:29.279 --> 00:16:34.320 It's not like my dog, like, you know, like, you know, groomed and, you know, like he won't step in a muddy puddle. 00:16:34.399 --> 00:16:35.279 Like that, it's not like that. 00:16:35.360 --> 00:16:36.240 I mean, my dog won't. 00:16:36.320 --> 00:16:39.519 He won't, he doesn't like to step in, like, he doesn't like to go for walks if it's too wet out. 00:16:39.600 --> 00:16:41.360 You know, this is like a nasty animal. 00:16:41.440 --> 00:16:45.440 Like you give anything to the to a dog or a pig, they're gonna destroy it. 00:16:45.679 --> 00:16:56.639 So this is talking about not wasting energy, giving the truths of God to people who only defiantly and continually destroy them. 00:16:57.279 --> 00:17:03.600 Now that really sounds oppositional, sort of like in tone and spirit to what we just read and talked about. 00:17:03.840 --> 00:17:05.680 So, a couple thoughts. 00:17:06.000 --> 00:17:08.960 I don't have it all figured out, by the way, but a couple thoughts. 00:17:09.119 --> 00:17:14.880 First, this practice is exceptional in nature, not normative. 00:17:15.119 --> 00:17:19.680 So this is this is an exceptional type of principle or practice. 00:17:19.920 --> 00:17:33.359 Second, is this teaching calls us into discerning through God's Spirit, discerning somebody else's character and actions and habitual actions toward us, but without contemptuous judgment. 00:17:33.519 --> 00:17:35.279 That's why this is all connected. 00:17:35.519 --> 00:17:37.680 So what it means is there's some point. 00:17:37.920 --> 00:17:38.559 I don't know. 00:17:38.720 --> 00:17:40.319 I don't know when the point is. 00:17:41.039 --> 00:17:46.480 That would be something that you have to sort out with the Lord, I guess, because I it's not like it's laid out for us. 00:17:46.559 --> 00:17:54.799 Like here's the three criteria by which you can now pull back from this person who's being habitually, defiantly destructive toward you and what means something to you. 00:17:54.960 --> 00:18:13.599 But there's some point, not when you don't love someone, not when you look down on them, because we already just talked about that in the preceding verses, but a point when you are released from defiant and damaging outflow from a destructive person onto which matters most to you. 00:18:14.960 --> 00:18:16.559 You can sort that out. 00:18:16.960 --> 00:18:21.039 Now back to the pearls and our beloved Braves. 00:18:22.000 --> 00:18:23.440 Because pearls. 00:18:24.079 --> 00:18:28.880 I mean, I've seen eight-year-olds, eighty-year-olds wearing pearls. 00:18:29.039 --> 00:18:32.880 We went to the battery this week and eight, there's pearls everywhere. 00:18:33.759 --> 00:18:38.640 I've been a baseball fan for about six games. 00:18:44.319 --> 00:18:45.839 Like most of you. 00:18:48.880 --> 00:18:54.799 So I have a lot to say and offer on the conversation of baseball. 00:18:55.680 --> 00:18:58.559 So, Jock Peterson, here's what I've picked up on. 00:18:58.720 --> 00:19:00.720 This is what I'm picking up on during a baseball game. 00:19:00.799 --> 00:19:02.799 Jock Peterson wears pearls. 00:19:02.960 --> 00:19:06.559 He just started wearing them, I think, at the beginning of the postseason or something. 00:19:06.880 --> 00:19:08.480 I read a couple articles online. 00:19:09.200 --> 00:19:14.400 Nobody's quite sure, according to the articles, uh, the real meaning of him wearing them. 00:19:14.720 --> 00:19:15.920 Nobody's quite sure. 00:19:16.160 --> 00:19:19.200 But the stands are full of pearls. 00:19:19.920 --> 00:19:22.240 I read an interview online in Sports Illustrated. 00:19:22.319 --> 00:19:27.839 He said his pearls, they interviewed his jeweler, and his pearls are worth about$4,000. 00:19:29.119 --> 00:19:33.359 So the other guys are wearing gold chains worth a lot more, but still$4,000 around his neck. 00:19:33.680 --> 00:19:34.000 That's a lot. 00:19:34.319 --> 00:19:35.039 It's not a lot to him. 00:19:35.279 --> 00:19:36.480 He makes about$7 million a year. 00:19:36.559 --> 00:19:37.599 I picked up on that also. 00:19:37.759 --> 00:19:40.799 That's the kind of baseball information I'm interested in. 00:19:41.200 --> 00:19:42.559 So here's the question. 00:19:42.880 --> 00:19:50.640 Would he ever, would he ever, in right mind, in right mind, because he does make$7 million a year. 00:19:50.720 --> 00:19:54.880 So he could do this, but still, they're still worth$4,000. 00:19:55.200 --> 00:20:03.759 So in right mind, would he ever, in right mind, just just throw them in the dumpster on the way to his car? 00:20:04.319 --> 00:20:05.839 Would he ever do that? 00:20:06.319 --> 00:20:08.960 Would that ever make sense to do something like that? 00:20:09.200 --> 00:20:10.880 Like it's a Snickers wrapper, right? 00:20:10.960 --> 00:20:12.640 Like would you would you ever do that? 00:20:13.920 --> 00:20:18.960 Would you ever just throw away that which your heart longs for the most? 00:20:19.279 --> 00:20:21.839 Would you ever just not matter to you? 00:20:22.000 --> 00:20:22.960 Ignore it. 00:20:24.559 --> 00:20:28.559 When we think about an immense treasure, we can think about it in that context. 00:20:28.960 --> 00:20:33.359 There's a short two-verse parable in Matthew 13. 00:20:34.319 --> 00:20:36.240 Matthew 13, 45 and 46. 00:20:36.400 --> 00:20:50.000 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it. 00:20:50.240 --> 00:20:52.480 So here's what Jesus is saying. 00:20:53.519 --> 00:21:05.680 We have a kingdom given to us, meaning a relationship with God that we can have by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ's work alone. 00:21:06.000 --> 00:21:08.799 It's beyond anything that this world can offer us. 00:21:09.200 --> 00:21:11.519 It's the true treasure of our hearts. 00:21:11.759 --> 00:21:16.000 It's the way of forgiveness and the way of righteousness, the way of wholeness and salvation. 00:21:16.319 --> 00:21:28.000 And it is such a healing and all-encompassing treasure that it saves us, it makes us right with God, it heals us and it reorients our hearts. 00:21:28.799 --> 00:21:33.119 And our growth in grace, this is how it all ties together. 00:21:33.359 --> 00:21:38.079 Our growth in grace extends even to how we view other people. 00:21:38.319 --> 00:21:39.759 Let's pray together. 00:21:42.240 --> 00:21:48.240 God, thank you for your grace and mercy to us that we are made right with you, not by our work, but by your work. 00:21:48.480 --> 00:21:50.720 May we trust and surrender more. 00:21:51.920 --> 00:22:02.720 May we know the freedom of your gospel, that Jesus is so sufficient and we are so secure that we can become more aware of the log in our own eye. 00:22:03.519 --> 00:22:07.519 Before we ever go and begin to look for specs in other people. 00:22:08.000 --> 00:22:12.240 May we be a people of trust in Jesus and love of others. 00:22:12.400 --> 00:22:14.319 In Jesus' name we pray. 00:22:14.640 --> 00:22:15.279 Amen.