SPEAKER_00: This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit GrandParkway.org.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we come together today to acknowledge your greatness, to bow down anything in us, anything in our head or in our heart that competes with your greatness.
SPEAKER_01: We have a tendency to raise ourselves up uh higher than you.
SPEAKER_01: We would never just be that honest and say it, but in our in our attention and in our affection, sometimes we get a little sideways and we start exalting what we think above what you clearly have already said.
SPEAKER_01: And what we feel becomes dominant.
SPEAKER_01: And when we're led by our feelings, Lord, we're in a bad place.
SPEAKER_01: That's why the Bible says, trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.
SPEAKER_01: In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.
SPEAKER_01: He'll make your paths straight.
SPEAKER_01: So if there's any crooked paths in us today, straighten them out, we pray.
SPEAKER_01: We'll use your word to do what it can only it can do.
SPEAKER_01: It never goes out and comes back void, but it accomplishes the purpose for which you send it.
SPEAKER_01: So accomplish your purposes in our lives this morning with your word and by your spirit.
SPEAKER_01: We pray this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Before you sit down, look at me.
SPEAKER_01: If there's room on your row, I want you just to scoot in.
SPEAKER_01: We have some uh backslidden baptists will show up here in about five minutes.
SPEAKER_01: All right?
SPEAKER_01: And once you're scooted in, you can have a seat.
SPEAKER_01: And while you're having a seat, let me introduce myself.
SPEAKER_01: My name is Neil, and I am your pastor.
SPEAKER_01: If you're if you're our guest, I walked in this morning, somebody said, Who's that?
SPEAKER_01: Uh if you're our guest today, uh I don't preach of the month of July.
SPEAKER_01: Uh because here's why.
SPEAKER_01: We have uh uh a staff of gifted men and women.
SPEAKER_01: And so this past month you heard from our connections and teaching pastor, Rick Callahan.
SPEAKER_01: You'll continue to hear from Rick in the future.
SPEAKER_01: Uh I love his gifts and the way uh he teaches and preaches, so he will always be a continual part of the preaching rotation.
SPEAKER_01: Uh we're in a series entitled The Jesus Way uh from the Sermon on the Mount, which is found in Matthew chapter 5, 6, and 7.
SPEAKER_01: And uh Rick got us through chapters 5 and 6.
SPEAKER_01: In the month of August, I'll be preaching through Matthew chapter 7.
SPEAKER_01: We'll just take a little section at a time, and each Sunday we'll talk about a different uh what it means to kind of uh because the Sermon on the Mount is the words and the ways of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: It's Jesus saying, Hey, you've heard of old, but verily, verily I say unto you, it's kind of like Jesus is kind of reframing for people, hey, this is what life in the kingdom looks like, and this is the way Christians think, and this is how they live.
SPEAKER_01: And so this morning I want to talk to you about the Jesus way, and and and the topic for today, the talk today, the sermon is intentionality in our relationships.
SPEAKER_01: Intentionality in our relationships, because uh if you've got more than three friends, uh you realize this, that there's your friends do things that not only it's not a matter of do I agree or disagree with that, but that's right or that's wrong.
SPEAKER_01: And so a lot of times when our friends get caught up, the Bible calls it sin.
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm comfortable using that language.
SPEAKER_01: I've got friends, like right now, I have a friend of mine uh that that that is separated from his wife, and he just can't make up his mind if he wants to go back to his wife or or get with this other woman.
SPEAKER_01: And so I drove to his town because I love him.
SPEAKER_01: I did his wedding 18 years ago.
SPEAKER_01: You can't just marry him, you gotta walk him through the hard part.
SPEAKER_01: So I drove to the town he lives in to have dinner with him.
SPEAKER_01: And and and I realized that intentionality in relationships is a rare thing because we're having dinner, and and and I said, Hey, I'll buy dinner.
SPEAKER_01: And he goes, You don't have to do that.
SPEAKER_01: No, I'm gonna buy dinner because I may say I gotta say some things to you you don't want to hear.
SPEAKER_01: And and I want to have dessert, so I'm gonna pay.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and so I it wasn't that, but the our waitress is what made me realize the world's not used to intentionality in relationships because I was drinking coffee, imagine that, and and she would come over and she'd be like, uh-oh, uh, because the one point in the conversation I said to him, Hey, listen, we're gonna find out because you don't have the right to determine what parts of Christianity you agree or disagree with.
SPEAKER_01: So here's what's gonna happen: you're gonna either be disciplined by God, because God says in Hebrews, the book of Hebrews, very clearly, every son I receive, I discipline.
SPEAKER_01: And he goes on to say, if I don't discipline you, you're not my child.
SPEAKER_01: I said, So you're gonna you're gonna be disciplined by God if you don't repent, or if you're not disciplined, it just means you're not really a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: And about that time she walked up, she goes, Oh, never mind.
SPEAKER_01: I said, No, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: Pour me some coffee.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna be here a while.
SPEAKER_01: I love this man.
SPEAKER_01: And she's like, Okay, yeah, whatever.
SPEAKER_01: Sure, sure, sure.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, No.
SPEAKER_01: And he looked at her and said, Yeah, he loves me.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, I love him.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't raise my voice, I didn't call him names, I didn't tell him you're gonna go to hell.
SPEAKER_01: I just said, This is sin.
SPEAKER_01: This is sin.
SPEAKER_01: This is what intentionality in relationships looks like, and it's a lost art.
SPEAKER_01: We we what we do is if we got to talk to somebody, we talk to three other people that are mutual friends and ask their opinion and what do they think about this person's behavior?
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says, be intentional.
SPEAKER_01: Now that's what the Bible wants to talk to us about this morning.
SPEAKER_01: From Matthew chapter 7, I'll read the first six verses.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says this judge not that you be not judged.
SPEAKER_01: For with the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
SPEAKER_01: There's not a drunk on a bar stool in Texas that doesn't know this verse of the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: It is tattooed on their chest somewhere.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't the Bible say, judge not lest you also be judged?
SPEAKER_01: But it doesn't stop there.
SPEAKER_01: He goes on and says, This, why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?
SPEAKER_01: 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?
SPEAKER_01: You hypocrite.
SPEAKER_01: First take the log out of your own eye, and then you'll see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.
SPEAKER_01: Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.
SPEAKER_01: Now the Bible says four things to us about being intentional in our relationships.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, the first thing the Bible teaches us this morning is this is that not being judgmental will not get you to heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Not being judgmental will not get you to heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Now, here uh you say, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Uh people read verse one and two, and they take these verses and we consume them upon our lust, and we convince ourselves that if I'm blindly tolerant and I'm accepting of everything around me, that I won't have to experience judgment.
SPEAKER_01: Yesterday I was going to the hospital to see a friend of mine, and the car at the red light in front of me had two big bumper stickers on the back of it.
SPEAKER_01: One of them said tolerance and had all the religious symbols spelled out, and the other one said coexist.
SPEAKER_01: And I just thought, this is the culture that Jesus sends us into and says, I want you to be tolerant, I want you to be intentional in your relationships.
SPEAKER_01: That doesn't mean you're not patient, you're not loving, you're not compassionate.
SPEAKER_01: But when the Bible says, judge not, that you be not judged, he is not saying, hey, do really what he's called us to is not condemnation, but care.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_01: It's not condemnation.
SPEAKER_01: We're not passing final judgment on somebody.
SPEAKER_01: I I said to my friend, I said, Do you you know I love you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm here because I love you.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Yeah, I know that.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what my deal is, I just don't feel it.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just dead spiritually.
SPEAKER_01: I said, I understand that, but I would be remiss if I didn't love you enough to tell you the truth.
SPEAKER_01: He goes, Oh, I I want you to tell me the truth.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: And hey, if you decide to go home to your wife tonight, or you just could continue to live in sin.
SPEAKER_01: And he kind of, and I said, That's what it is.
SPEAKER_01: What you're doing is not okay.
SPEAKER_01: And then the poor waitress, she she was across the restaurant and she couldn't stop staring at our table.
SPEAKER_01: And finally, I just felt you can feel people staring at you.
SPEAKER_01: You know that, right?
SPEAKER_01: And I just looked over and said, You getting this?
SPEAKER_01: And she's like, Oh, I'm not eavesdropping.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: This is like a wreck on the highway.
SPEAKER_01: We got some onlooker slowdown going on over here.
SPEAKER_01: But again, the world is crying out for us to be intentional towards each other.
SPEAKER_01: You said, What do I mean when I say not being judgmental will not get you in the habit of?
SPEAKER_01: I've had so many conversations I can't count, where people said, Well, you know, the Bible says judge not, so you won't be judged, so I'm not gonna be a judgmental person, and that way I'm not gonna be judged.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, You really think that's gonna work for you?
SPEAKER_01: Well, you know what the Bible says?
SPEAKER_01: Yep, that's part of the conversation, but you're like watching a movie and pulling one line out of the movie and trying to build a whole belief system around that.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus goes on, matter of fact, and says, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: It's not about passing condemnation, final say on somebody.
SPEAKER_01: It's about loving somebody enough to deal with your own junk so you can get the speck out of their eye.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I don't know what you mean.
SPEAKER_01: And so again, this conversation about judgment.
SPEAKER_01: This I've had this conversation so many times with so many different people.
SPEAKER_01: But basically, it goes something like this.
SPEAKER_01: So people quote this, which is their self-defined karma by which I'm gonna escape judgment because I'm an accepting, tolerant person.
SPEAKER_01: And I always ask this question right here.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, what okay, if you think by not being judgmental, how are you going to get out of judgment?
SPEAKER_01: And they're like, I don't know, then I say to them, I like to say crazy random stuff that seems like it has no bearing whatsoever on the conversation.
SPEAKER_01: So a lot of times I'll just say, so explain to me, if by not being judgmental, you're not going to be judged, then explain to me the resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: And they without fail go, what's that got to do with anything?
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's a great question.
SPEAKER_01: But the Bible, see, Paul is in Acts chapter 17.
SPEAKER_01: Paul is talking, he's walking around the city of Athens, and he he's out touring the city, and he saw these idols, and they had different, you know, this is to this God and this God and this God.
SPEAKER_01: And he saw one idol, and there was a statue, and it had a it had a plaque on it and said, To an unknown God.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, hey, we're superstitious.
SPEAKER_01: If there's another God out there, this is for you, buddy.
SPEAKER_01: This bud's for you.
SPEAKER_01: And so Paul says to these people, these very smart men, he says, Hey, uh, I want you to know what you worship is unknown.
SPEAKER_01: I want to make known to you.
SPEAKER_01: I want to describe to you what the real God is really like.
SPEAKER_01: And he starts talking there.
SPEAKER_01: In Acts chapter 17, he gets down to verse 29 and he says, This, because he just said, Hey, as some of your own poets have said, we are God's offspring.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 29, being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being, God, is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and the imagination of man.
SPEAKER_01: Stop right there.
SPEAKER_01: You should ask yourself today, where did you get your beliefs about God?
SPEAKER_01: Is it formed by the art and the imagination of man?
SPEAKER_01: If this is as far as it goes, well, my God's a God of love.
SPEAKER_01: Your God is formed by the art and the imagination of man.
SPEAKER_01: Really truth in your imagination.
SPEAKER_01: This is what I need God to be.
SPEAKER_01: I need God to be really forgiving and really patient and really just loving.
SPEAKER_01: And so my God's a God of love.
SPEAKER_01: You're obligated to say that.
SPEAKER_01: Your lifestyle obligates you.
SPEAKER_01: You can't say anything else.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says, hey, you shouldn't think that God, you think wrongly about God.
SPEAKER_01: He's not formed by the art and imagination of man.
SPEAKER_01: The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent because he's fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man, Jesus, whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: Now you're smart people.
SPEAKER_01: Hear the last part of that last sentence again.
SPEAKER_01: He says, because he's fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: So when I ask people, hey, why there, if there's no judgment, how do you explain the resurrection?
SPEAKER_01: Because what Paul says to these people, what the Bible clearly teaches all throughout, is the standard by which we're gonna be judged is this resurrected, perfect Jesus who lived a sinless life, died on the cross for our sins, was buried, and rose again, and God raised him from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he's talking about when he says the end of this.
SPEAKER_01: End of this.
SPEAKER_01: He's not talking about the resurrection, he's talking about the certainty of judgment.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Hey, he's gonna judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he appointed, and of this fact, he's given assurance to all.
SPEAKER_01: What did he do?
SPEAKER_01: He rose him from he raised Jesus from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm in a conversation with a man, and he's like, Well, you know, I'm I judge not less you all, you know, I'm not judgmental.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says, judge not, you won't be judged.
SPEAKER_01: I said, You're not getting out of judgment.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody's gonna incur judgment.
SPEAKER_01: Well, what about you?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm gonna be judged too, but I'm gonna be judged according to a different standard because I place my faith in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And so I don't my sins of past, present, and future have been forgiven.
SPEAKER_01: Sin no longer has power over me.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't mean I'm perfect or better than you.
SPEAKER_01: It's just that I have a relationship with Christ and you don't.
SPEAKER_01: I believe in God.
SPEAKER_01: Believing in God and having a relationship with God are two different things.
SPEAKER_01: Can we agree on that?
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: They're two different things.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says that the demons in hell believe and tremble, so believing in God will not get you to heaven.
SPEAKER_01: You can believe that there's a higher power every day of your life and not have a relationship with God.
SPEAKER_01: You're tripping, man.
SPEAKER_01: My kids say the same thing.
SPEAKER_01: Like they told me on vacation I should get more into social media, and I said, I'm on my space.
SPEAKER_01: What's the big deal?
SPEAKER_01: I'm into all that stuff.
SPEAKER_01: My space and chat snap and all that.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, really, Dad?
SPEAKER_01: Really?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm just wait- where where is everybody?
SPEAKER_01: And I'm on AOL, too.
SPEAKER_01: Come on.
SPEAKER_01: What?
SPEAKER_01: Dad, you're just like an old man.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's because I am old.
SPEAKER_01: That's uh that's exactly it.
SPEAKER_01: But back to this conversation with the guy, and I could tell he was, and by the way, being intentional is not being hateful.
SPEAKER_01: Being intentional is engaging people with where they are, and just kind of just follow the flow of their logic to its logical conclusion.
SPEAKER_01: So he's like, you know, uh judge not, you won't get judged.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, hey, here's the deal.
SPEAKER_01: We're all gonna experience judgment.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, the standard, I said, what what tell me about the God you think is gonna judge you.
SPEAKER_01: Well, my God's a God of love.
SPEAKER_01: I said, well, the standard by which we're all gonna be judged is a perfect resurrected Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And so no one's gonna get a uh a raw deal.
SPEAKER_01: Well, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: We're all gonna be the standard by which we're all gonna be judged is a perfect Jesus who lived a sinless life.
SPEAKER_01: And so when you think about judgment, don't think about me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not the standard.
SPEAKER_01: That's why I'm not comparing you to me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying I'm better than you.
SPEAKER_01: Heck no, not at all.
SPEAKER_01: The only difference in us is I have a relationship with Christ, you believe in God.
SPEAKER_01: Well, yeah, I believe believing won't get you there, my man.
SPEAKER_01: And so when we all of a sudden, see, we look around, we compare ourselves to everybody else.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just as good as that person, church is full of hypocrites, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: But when you stand next to the perfect resurrected Jesus, which the Bible says we're all gonna do, God's given evidence, He's given proof of this by raising Jesus from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: See, here's what I'm trying to get this guy to understand, and what I want you to understand, is that God intends the reality of judgment to drive us to the mercy of God.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_01: God intends, so if you're here today and you're not a Christian, you're just exploring Christianity, you're thinking about this, or you're just, hey, my friends invited me, shut up, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Uh don't walk out today and kind of go, I went to church and boogeyman Jesus got up and tried to scare me.
SPEAKER_01: No, not at all.
SPEAKER_01: It's this, it's just that that reality.
SPEAKER_01: I I don't apologize for the fact that's true.
SPEAKER_01: So I said to the guy, I try to leave him on a positive note because he's like, I gotta tell, he was kind of losing interest.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Hey, uh, can I just tell you one last thing?
SPEAKER_01: He's yeah, one last thing.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Okay, here's the deal: the judgment of God is intended to drive you to the mercy of God.
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible says this about God's mercy.
SPEAKER_01: He's rich in it.
SPEAKER_01: I said, You know what rich is?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I know what rich is.
SPEAKER_01: It means you got a lot of money.
SPEAKER_01: When the Bible says God's rich in mercy, it means he's got a lot of mercy.
SPEAKER_01: God has more mercy than you and I have sinned.
SPEAKER_01: That's all that means.
SPEAKER_01: All right, that's straight up.
SPEAKER_01: I get that.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Can we shake on that?
SPEAKER_01: Total strangers will shake my hand and agree on stuff like that.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because deep inside we all want someone to love us enough to tell us the truth.
SPEAKER_01: But we live in a culture that believes that by not being judgmental, they're not going to be judged.
SPEAKER_01: And I just want to love you and the truth enough to say not being judgmental will not get you into heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Second thing the text tells us is that always start with yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: After we get and we understand in its proper context, judge not that you be not judged.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 3, Jesus says, Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye?
SPEAKER_01: But do not notice the log that is in your own eye?
SPEAKER_01: 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?
SPEAKER_01: You hypocrite.
SPEAKER_01: First take the log out of your own eye, and then you'll see clearly take the speck out of your brother's eye.
SPEAKER_01: When I say always start with yourself, that's what Jesus, that's what the Bible teaches.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, one of the greatest examples of starting with yourself is the apostle Paul.
SPEAKER_01: One of the greatest men in the Bible, wrote 13 books of the New Testament.
SPEAKER_01: Incredible man of God, and he always started with himself.
SPEAKER_01: He always said, He said, I'm the chief of sinners.
SPEAKER_01: There's nobody that sinned more than I am.
SPEAKER_01: He he's describing the resurrection, and he says, Hey, he he rose from the dead, and he appeared to these the disciples and then the apostles, and then he appeared to 500 people, and last of all, he appeared to me as to one untimely born.
SPEAKER_01: He's always putting himself down there at the bottom of the food chain.
SPEAKER_01: He starts with himself.
SPEAKER_01: Probably the best example since it's the Olympics.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you know this or not, but the Olympics are going on.
SPEAKER_01: Things like fencing.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, that's a sport.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, great.
SPEAKER_01: Uh but we have to watch the Olympics at my house because my wife sees like a human intro story about one of the swimmers.
SPEAKER_01: And then, oh, I want to watch when does she swim?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, she's swimming.
SPEAKER_01: She's a mama on a mission, she's swimming on Tuesday night.
SPEAKER_01: We got a DVR that.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, Do you do you ever been to a swim meet in your life?
SPEAKER_01: No, I need closure.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm all out of D VR space at my house because we have to record the Olympics, which comes on four channels at the same time, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: Just so you can see that women's field hockey.
SPEAKER_01: Yesterday, ping pong was on.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why do I tell you that?
SPEAKER_01: Because when Paul writes in 1 Corinthians chapter 9, he has in mind this forerunner to the Olympic Games called the Isthmus Games.
SPEAKER_01: It was an athletic competition.
SPEAKER_01: And this is what Paul says.
SPEAKER_01: This is what I mean by starting with yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Hear this from the Bible, 1 Corinthians chapter 9, verse 24.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Do you not know that in a race all the runners run?
SPEAKER_01: But only one receives the prize.
SPEAKER_01: So run that you may obtain it.
SPEAKER_01: Every athlete exercises self-control in all things.
SPEAKER_01: They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.
SPEAKER_01: So I do not run aimlessly.
SPEAKER_01: I do not box as one beating the air.
SPEAKER_01: No one dove in the pool last night and it's kind of just kind of treaded water with spitting water.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Men shave their body like hairless cats up there in speedoes.
SPEAKER_01: And Paul basically says, hey, men shave the hair, all the hair off of their body like hairless cats.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because they do it to get this imperative, this perishable wreath, this little gold, silver, or bronze medal.
SPEAKER_01: He says, hey, we do it to receive this imperishable reality.
SPEAKER_01: So I do not run aimlessly.
SPEAKER_01: I do not box as one beating the air, but I discipline my body and keep it under control.
SPEAKER_01: What part of your body feels out of control today?
SPEAKER_01: The literal translation, Paul says, I beat my body and I make it my slave.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, I'm not going to be ruled by my appetites.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to be led by my understanding.
SPEAKER_01: Are you ruled by your appetites today, or are you led by your understanding?
SPEAKER_01: He says, I do not run aimlessly.
SPEAKER_01: I do not box as one just beating the air.
SPEAKER_01: I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others, I myself should be disqualified.
SPEAKER_01: Paul starts with himself.
SPEAKER_01: You always start with yourself, otherwise you're a hypocrite.
SPEAKER_01: And when you go to be intentionally redemptive towards somebody, the first thing they're going to do is say, Well, what about you?
SPEAKER_01: They need to not say that they shouldn't be able to tell you anything about yourself that you're not aware of and haven't dealt with or are currently dealing with.
SPEAKER_01: And so what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: If we don't start with ourselves and we won't be able to stand our own hypocrisy when it comes time to be intentional towards those around us.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_01: If we don't start with ourselves, we won't be able to stand our own hypocrisy.
SPEAKER_01: The voice in our head will go, Well, who are you to say anything?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, come on, who are we kidding?
SPEAKER_01: Are you serious?
SPEAKER_01: You're just a hypocrite.
SPEAKER_01: Just keep your mouth shut.
SPEAKER_01: Which my concern is that in America, Christians are so bogged down with their own junk that we can't be redemptively intentional towards each other.
SPEAKER_01: We can't have conversations where we just kind of say, Hey, I I see something in you that's not good.
SPEAKER_01: Can we talk about that?
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus says, hey, start with yourself.
SPEAKER_01: And so to help us start with a self, I brought you some uh self-diagnostic questions.
SPEAKER_01: Uh five of these are from a man named Paul Goines that I use to kind of uh start with myself.
SPEAKER_01: And five of these I wrote myself.
SPEAKER_01: And so uh you don't have to try to write all these down, I'll email them to you, but let me just read them off to you briefly.
SPEAKER_01: He says, number one, am I solid in the faith?
SPEAKER_01: Now uh just circle in your attention in your mind's attention that word the faith.
SPEAKER_01: It's not my faith.
SPEAKER_01: You do not own Christianity.
SPEAKER_01: Christianity, look at me, beloved, it is historical before it's personal.
SPEAKER_01: Because we got a lot of people now that say, I'm a Christian, but I don't like what the Bible says about morality, so I'm just gonna shun all of that.
SPEAKER_01: You don't get to do that.
SPEAKER_01: Am I solid in the faith?
SPEAKER_01: Christianity was here long before I got here, and it'll be here long after I'm gone.
SPEAKER_01: And so either I submit to the teachings of Christ and the ways of Jesus, or I just renounce that and say, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to do that.
SPEAKER_01: I want to live according to my appetites.
SPEAKER_01: So that's what we mean when we say, Am I solid in the faith?
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, is my lifestyle in obedience to Jesus Christ?
SPEAKER_01: Third question, am I committed to following God's word?
SPEAKER_01: Are there parts of the Bible that you just kind of read and avoid?
SPEAKER_01: Fourthly, do I talk openly of spiritual truths?
SPEAKER_01: Fifth, am I prayerfully optimistic about the people around me?
SPEAKER_01: That one slays me every time I ask myself that question.
SPEAKER_01: Because let me just be honest.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes I look around and I just think, does anybody care about the truth anymore?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I just God, does this even matter?
SPEAKER_01: Hello.
SPEAKER_01: Number six, am I joyful?
SPEAKER_01: Number seven, does sin still bother me?
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says this in Ephesians chapter 4, about verse 17.
SPEAKER_01: Having lost all sensitivity, they've given themselves over to sensuality with a continual lust for more.
SPEAKER_01: Beloved, when you and I lose sensitivity, there's no limit to what we will do.
SPEAKER_01: And with a continual appetite to do more of it.
SPEAKER_01: Number eight, am I growing spiritually?
SPEAKER_01: Number nine, do I find comfort in the gospel?
SPEAKER_01: Number ten, slayed me Thursday night.
SPEAKER_01: Number ten is is my faith sharing me?
SPEAKER_01: We always talk about sharing our faith.
SPEAKER_01: I just think your faith should share you.
SPEAKER_01: You you you should find yourself compelled to do things that you wouldn't normally naturally do.
SPEAKER_01: Thursday night we we got back from vacation.
SPEAKER_01: Vacation drove in from the airport about 7 15, and because I'm an old man, I was excited because the sun wasn't up.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, excuse me, the sun wasn't down.
SPEAKER_01: And I got back, I was gonna be able to mow my yard because I was just thinking, we left on Saturday, got back Thursday.
SPEAKER_01: I bit my grass, and it was.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you could bail hay off that bad boy.
SPEAKER_01: I fan excited about one of my neighbors coming over and mowing my grass.
SPEAKER_01: Didn't happen.
SPEAKER_01: So I have fresh hate for all those people.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and so I came in, dropped the suitcases, changed clothes immediately.
SPEAKER_01: My wife's like, I know where he's going.
SPEAKER_01: He's going to mow because he's a man.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, I gotta subdue creation, I gotta rule over creation and subdue it.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm out there mowing.
SPEAKER_01: And I looked over and the thought dawned on me.
SPEAKER_01: Right next to me, my neighbors, I'm gone for five days, they're gone for two weeks.
SPEAKER_01: Their grass is as tall as mine.
SPEAKER_01: I thought in two weeks you could hide a small child in that thing.
SPEAKER_01: And here's how depraved I am.
SPEAKER_01: I took pleasure in that thought.
SPEAKER_01: I thought, they're gonna get a letter.
SPEAKER_01: You live in one of those neighborhoods too, huh?
SPEAKER_01: You know the neighborhood Nazis drive around at night.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, you left your trash can out.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, why didn't you wheel it up to my garage?
SPEAKER_01: You were here.
SPEAKER_01: Take the time to write me a letter.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, help a brother out.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna go get you a come on.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm mowing my edge, I'm blowing them all off.
SPEAKER_01: I've sprayed, I'm I'm old school, my Archie Bunker.
SPEAKER_01: I spray my lawnmower off so it's all clean.
SPEAKER_01: They'll get grass in my garage.
SPEAKER_01: I'm pushing my clean mower in my garage, and my faith got me.
SPEAKER_01: My faith said, something in me said, hey, their yard's not gonna look like that when they get back.
SPEAKER_01: What you talking about, Willis?
SPEAKER_01: And all of a sudden my lawnmower just took a hard ride and went over there and mowed their yard.
SPEAKER_01: And hey, hey, hey, this is how, this is how not good I am sometime.
SPEAKER_01: I thought this to myself, they don't deserve this.
SPEAKER_01: These are the people that when I'm outside and they're outside, they look at me like, hey, and I'm like, hey, what's up?
SPEAKER_01: Y'all want to come over?
SPEAKER_01: No, we're good.
SPEAKER_01: Yay.
SPEAKER_01: Their kids are scared of me.
SPEAKER_01: That cat's brother-in-law came over for a barbecue one time, and I was out in my side yard, and have two little girls, and they said, Hey, they go to another church here in town, go church, everything.
SPEAKER_01: And they said, Hey, the guy said to his kids, hey, this is Pastor Neil.
SPEAKER_01: He's a pastor like our pastor, but he's kind of a different pastor.
SPEAKER_01: And I said right out loud, Oh, of all the emotions, passive aggression's my favorite.
SPEAKER_01: And he just smiled and walked in.
SPEAKER_01: It's these people that do not deserve to have their yard mowed.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm mow it, edge it, blow it off, put my lawnmower in.
SPEAKER_01: It's dark now.
SPEAKER_01: Walk in the house, my wife doesn't have a trophy or anything.
SPEAKER_01: She hadn't even brought it up.
SPEAKER_01: And they'll get back.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, it's gotta be mowed again before they get back.
SPEAKER_01: I'm walking in, the Lord's like, hey, we're gonna do this again.
SPEAKER_01: And they won't even say a word.
SPEAKER_01: They're just like, hey, different kind of pastor.
SPEAKER_01: You should pray for me because every once in a while their dog gets out and they have a cat, and I have a BB gun.
SPEAKER_01: And these weird thoughts go through my head.
SPEAKER_01: It's not gonna kill either one of them.
SPEAKER_01: You pita freaks, stay away from me.
SPEAKER_01: But I do think, how about I just ping that dog real quick here, Lord?
SPEAKER_01: But hey, sometimes your faith ought to be sharing you.
SPEAKER_01: Always, hey, start with yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Third thing I want to say is specs matter.
SPEAKER_01: Specs matter.
SPEAKER_01: Now, my specs has a K in it, yours doesn't.
SPEAKER_01: So when I say specs, let's be clear what we're talking about.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all like hiding your key fob right now.
SPEAKER_01: I got the keychain on there.
SPEAKER_01: Now, you're a specs member?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, please, I'll pay cash.
SPEAKER_01: I got a discount.
SPEAKER_01: We call you're on line one.
SPEAKER_01: Uh specs matter.
SPEAKER_01: What do I mean?
unknown: Shh.
SPEAKER_01: You're in church.
SPEAKER_01: Stop laughing.
SPEAKER_01: This is what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_01: What do I mean, specs matters?
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 5.
SPEAKER_01: He says, You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you'll see clearly take the speck out of your brother's eye.
SPEAKER_01: See, if you're here today and you're like, well, I'm not going to be judgmental that way, I'm not going to experience judgment.
SPEAKER_01: I would just say to you, you're missing the whole point of the text.
SPEAKER_01: The injunction here isn't don't judge, but instead see clearly.
SPEAKER_01: See clearly.
SPEAKER_01: Start with yourself and get the log out of your own eye.
SPEAKER_01: Then Jesus says, you're not off the hook to in your responsibility to be redemptively intentional towards people that you're in a relationship with.
SPEAKER_01: And they're not always going to like it, they're not always going to agree with you.
SPEAKER_01: But when they repent, you're the person they're going to come to.
SPEAKER_01: You're the person they're going to come to and say, Oh my gosh, thank you for just consistently and constantly loving me and telling me the truth.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, our waitress the other night, she she just kept coming to the table and I was like, Can I help you?
SPEAKER_01: And she goes, I just want to see if you guys need anything.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, No, I'm going to drop a big fat tip on you.
SPEAKER_01: Because we've been here a long time.
SPEAKER_01: She goes, Yeah, it's okay.
SPEAKER_01: It's okay.
SPEAKER_01: And the sad thing was, is it I think she craves somebody to be intentional with her.
SPEAKER_01: And I said that to my friend.
SPEAKER_01: I said, You get that?
SPEAKER_01: She's just longing for somebody.
SPEAKER_01: And so I called some friends of mine that live in that city and said, Hey, go down this place and eat here and ask for this lady to be your waitress.
SPEAKER_01: Because I said to her, I said, hey, I want to pray for you tonight.
SPEAKER_01: I'll pray back through my day.
SPEAKER_01: I'll pray for you so to be thinking about it, be meaningful.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01: I said, relax.
SPEAKER_01: And don't say anything lame like, oh, for good health.
SPEAKER_01: Do you have good health?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Then don't bore God with something you already have.
SPEAKER_01: You don't need that.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: She comes back, slides a note onto our table.
SPEAKER_01: If you go to my office right now, there's a picture behind my desk.
SPEAKER_01: That note is tucked in there.
SPEAKER_01: And every day I pray for what she asks for.
SPEAKER_01: Just a woman drowned in self-hatred.
SPEAKER_01: She's lived in seven cities.
SPEAKER_01: She's been a waitress since she was 14.
SPEAKER_01: She's 38.
SPEAKER_01: You think when she was in the second grade and the teacher said, Get at your big chief tablet and write a paragraph at what you want to be when you grow up?
SPEAKER_01: She said, I want a waitress all around the country.
SPEAKER_01: And I just thought, how many people have failed this lady?
SPEAKER_01: Because they didn't see the speck in her eye and do something about it.
SPEAKER_01: See, specks matter.
SPEAKER_01: The tendency is to tell yourself it's just a speck.
SPEAKER_01: I'm here to say to you, it's cancer.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just a speck.
SPEAKER_01: That's it's worse than cancer.
SPEAKER_01: Sin kills every time.
SPEAKER_01: And you you're redemptively intentional towards people because you're helping them today, because tomorrow you might need them to help you.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus says, hey, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly.
SPEAKER_01: Do you want to love people?
SPEAKER_01: Do you call yourself a loving person?
SPEAKER_01: Then deal with the log in your own eye, and then that allows you to see clearly why?
SPEAKER_01: To take the speck out of your brother's eye.
SPEAKER_01: Because specks matter.
SPEAKER_01: Last thing I want to say to you this morning is just verse 6.
SPEAKER_01: We don't talk about this enough in church, but Jesus says, Oh, by the way, do not give dogs what is holy.
SPEAKER_01: Do not throw your pearls before pigs lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the last thing the text tells us today.
SPEAKER_01: There's a time to be intentional with silence.
SPEAKER_01: There's a time just to when people are just hostile to the gospel and you just say, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: I don't think that this is going to be received, and you just don't say anything.
SPEAKER_01: Like I don't want you to think that every time I eat out, I have this big spiritual dialogue with a waitress or a waiter or whatever.
SPEAKER_01: I was at BJ's brew house up here having lunch with a friend a while back.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and the lady said, What are you guys doing today?
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Yeah, we're just at the religion factory making more religion.
SPEAKER_01: She goes, I think everybody's got all that they want.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, So we're not open to it at all.
SPEAKER_01: Nope.
SPEAKER_01: And she walked away, my friend said, What are you gonna do?
SPEAKER_01: And I said, I'm not gonna put pearls before swine.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, Is that in the Bible?
SPEAKER_01: No, I just made that up.
SPEAKER_01: And he goes, No, seriously.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I said, Yeah, she probably had a bad experience.
SPEAKER_01: And she's just not open, so I'm not gonna, you know, because it it misrepresents God and it makes the gospel, it diminishes the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: The gospel is the it's the pearl of great price.
SPEAKER_01: The kingdom is the treasure hidden in the field, not this lady.
SPEAKER_01: And so all I said to her when she brought a check, I said, Hey, I get the feeling you had a bad experience with religion.
SPEAKER_01: You could say that.
SPEAKER_01: I just want to say I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, that's all you got?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I got more, but I don't think you're open to it.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not at all.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Hi five.
SPEAKER_01: And my friend, she gave me a high five and walked off.
SPEAKER_01: And my friend said, What are you gonna do?
SPEAKER_01: I said, I'm not gonna tip her because she's not a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: You got any tracks on you?
SPEAKER_01: We'll leave her a track.
SPEAKER_01: He reached in his pocket, he goes, I don't have any on me.
SPEAKER_01: I said, I'm kidding.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, matter of fact, I'm just gonna leave a bigger tip.
SPEAKER_01: And not just not trying to bribe people into the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: I just think she had a bad experience.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry that happened.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you you gotta be intentional with silence.
SPEAKER_01: You just gotta, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, you're not passing judgment on people, you're not saying, oh, you don't deserve this.
SPEAKER_01: Some people don't want to hear it.
SPEAKER_01: And a lot of times I get told where to go and how to get there.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: So you're not open to this?
SPEAKER_01: Not at all.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Let me ask you one last question.
SPEAKER_01: Which is harder for you?
SPEAKER_01: Speaking up or being silent?
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: Just take a moment.
SPEAKER_01: If you're our guest, just relax.
SPEAKER_01: We like to teach the Bible and then give ourselves some time to think about what did the Bible say?
SPEAKER_01: What did the Bible just say to me that had my name on it?
SPEAKER_01: And so my friend Clyde's gonna come, he's gonna play, maybe sing something over us.
SPEAKER_01: This is the time for you just to meditate.
SPEAKER_01: And then now, in the Christian tradition, when we say meditate, we don't empty our mind and just whatever comes into it we call God.
SPEAKER_01: No, we fixate on something.
SPEAKER_01: We take a thought and we just kind of put it in the forefront of our mind and say, God, I'm gonna just think about this for the next two minutes.
SPEAKER_01: So, of all the things said this morning, what do you just want to lay your hands on and stare at for a few minutes?
SPEAKER_01: Now's the time to do that.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says, whatever is lovely, whatever is good report, whatever's truthful, think on these things.
SPEAKER_01: What was lovely to you this morning?
SPEAKER_01: What was it when you heard it, your spirit went, yes?
SPEAKER_01: Think about that for just a minute.
SPEAKER_01: Father, we take great comfort in knowing that our souls are in your hands.
SPEAKER_01: But also we take great responsibility today from the scriptures that tell us that sometimes our souls are in the hands of other people, not our destiny, but we need people to exercise soul care on us.
SPEAKER_01: We need people to love us enough to say, hey, you you got a speck in your eye.
SPEAKER_01: Can I help you get that out?
SPEAKER_01: But our tendency, God, is just to blink and just to kind of say, it's no big deal.
SPEAKER_01: It's just a speck.
SPEAKER_01: So, Holy Spirit, I pray that uh you would remind us today who we need to be redemptively intentional towards, not judgmental in the way the world understands judgment.
SPEAKER_01: We understand today that we're gonna stand in judgment next to a perfect resurrected Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And none of us measures up.
SPEAKER_01: Only those of us in this room who put our faith in Jesus are gonna make it on that day.
SPEAKER_01: So I pray for anybody here that's never begun a faith relationship with Jesus that today they would consider that.
SPEAKER_01: They would think about that.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, thank you that the Bible makes us think.
SPEAKER_01: And then it makes us act.
SPEAKER_01: So as we prepare to leave, we purpose to think before we act, so that our acting is redemptive and consequential.
SPEAKER_01: Make of us those kinds of people, lest the salt lose its saltiness and just be trampled underfoot.
SPEAKER_01: We ask all this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Understanding that asking is one thing, but we also have to do our part.
SPEAKER_01: And we understand and we look forward to doing our part.
SPEAKER_01: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a guest today, let me say thanks for being a part of our service.
SPEAKER_01: Uh when you came in, you were given a little worship sheet.
SPEAKER_01: There's a portion on the back of that.
SPEAKER_01: If you've had a chance to fill that ass out, ask for some information, just kind of fold that and tear it off and drop it on these wooden boxes by the doors.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, that's where we receive our offering as well.
SPEAKER_01: If today's the day you worship through giving, that's where you would do that as well, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Uh stand to your feet while you're standing.
SPEAKER_01: I want to speak of blessing over you.
SPEAKER_01: Let me remind you that myself and some of our pastors will be available down front.
SPEAKER_01: If you have any questions about anything you've heard, uh, we would love uh to answer, help you process that, answer any questions.
SPEAKER_01: No questions off limits here, okay?
SPEAKER_01: We practice full disclosure.
SPEAKER_01: If you're visiting today, you're looking for a church, this is a great place, okay?
SPEAKER_01: The pastor's kind of iffy.
SPEAKER_01: The people are great.
SPEAKER_01: All right?
SPEAKER_01: So just know that you're welcome here.
SPEAKER_01: Hold your hands out and speak a blessing over you.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says that God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes God loves you so much he gives you people that care enough to speak up.
SPEAKER_01: They're always gonna be there.
SPEAKER_01: You need to look at those people today and say, Don't give up on me.
SPEAKER_01: Those are the people that love you, that are gonna be there when you're 15 and when you're 50.
SPEAKER_01: Don't lose sight of those people.
SPEAKER_01: They're gifts from God.
SPEAKER_01: Depart now and enjoy God and all the gifts He's given you.
SPEAKER_01: In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Bless you to miss.