[0:00] The message is going to be called Plank Eye. For those who lived in the 90s Christian music, you might know, Sean's got a thumbs up back there.! He probably toured with him.
[0:13] Plank Eye. I'll read the verse in a second. Plank Eye is basically a severe sickness, or a serious condition that can cause severe sickness to the body.
[0:30] Not Pink Eye, Plank Eye. Basically, I think this is kind of a sequel to the message I gave on evil suspicions. We have four points, and I'm just going to jump right in.
[0:45] The first point is that we need to judge ourselves first. We need to judge ourselves first. Last year, as we prayed to the Lord and asked Him what are the words that God would have to speak to us for last year, one of those words was order.
[1:01] And I was thinking about that this weekend, and particularly this morning. And I was thinking of what the Lord has done in the last year in bringing different people into a more orderly place, bringing homes into order, and I was encouraged by that.
[1:19] One of the things, though, that came to mind as I was thinking about that was it can be easy to get about 90% there and say, wow, we made some serious progress here, right?
[1:34] Like, we brought an order to our home. We've put things that were out of order into order. But often it's that last 10% that's the most difficult. It's that last 10% that maybe we don't want to deal with.
[1:46] It's that last 10% that I don't want to talk about. But I want to tell you, be encouraged by the order that was brought this last year, but I think there's more that needs to happen.
[1:58] And maybe it's that last 10%. The 10% that you're just like, well, I mean, come on. I've brought a lot of things in order. This is way better than it was. Well, what about that last 10%?
[2:10] What about the hard things? What about the things you've been putting off? The things that you know you're supposed to put into order, but you haven't. The things that have not had a sense of urgency on them. I am bringing this up to you, I think by the Spirit of God, to say, bring the whole thing into order.
[2:26] Execute that last 10%. Be urgent about it. Don't keep putting it off. Don't say, oh, last year we focused on that. We're not focused on this, that this year. Don't say last year we focused on order.
[2:38] I got about 90% there. Get off my back. No, let's, let's go all the way. Let's, let's, let's bring that plane in for a landing and the work that the Lord began. Let's mix that word with faith and say, God wants to bring it into completion.
[2:52] Can you believe for that? Can you believe for that in your families? Can you believe for that in your own individual life? Or maybe there's some things out of order. God wants to bring things into order. And when things are in order, things work better.
[3:05] When things are in order, divine glory goes to God. Like the glory, the glory goes to God, right? This is the way it's supposed to be. And so what I want to say is get your house in order first.
[3:19] Uh, Colossians two, five, Paul, the apostle is saying, though I'm absent in body, yet I'm with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ.
[3:31] Okay. Okay. The apostle was rejoicing to see good order because that was one of the roles of an apostle is to bring order where there was disorder to bring order into these new churches and establish them on firm foundations.
[3:44] This brings us to the text that the, uh, the title of my message came from, and that's Luke chapter six, verses 37 to 42.
[3:57] Jesus here says, judge not, and you will not be judged. Condemn not, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.
[4:08] Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.
[4:20] Now, uh, side note for any prosperity preachers in here. He's not talking about money right here. Okay. That's not the context of this chapter. He's not saying, Hey, give the money and it'll just start flowing to you, baby.
[4:34] All right. Like word, baby's not in there. So you won't see that, but that's not, this is not about finances. This is about judgment. This is about condemnation, forgiveness.
[4:47] When you give forgiveness, when you give mercy, when you give judgment, whatever you're giving, that's what you're going to receive back. That's what he's saying here. Saying good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap.
[5:01] With the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. This should be put the fear of the Lord in us, right? I got to be careful what measure I'm using for other people. Cause that's the measure that's going to come back on me.
[5:12] I need to ask the question, is this the measure I would want on me? Would I want it coming at me this heavy? Would I want it coming at me this merciless? Would I want it coming at me this unforgiving?
[5:25] I want forgiveness. I want mercy. I don't want condemnation. Therefore, what I would like to receive, how I would like to be loved, that's how we should be giving it to other people.
[5:37] Giving mercy. Giving forgiveness. Okay? For the measure you use will be measured back to you. Verse 39. He also told them a parable.
[5:48] Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher. And he asks an important question to go with this.
[6:01] Can a blind man lead a blind man? He says, why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log or other versions, the plank that is in your own eye?
[6:15] Okay, why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but you do not notice the log that is in your own eye? That's a good question. Verse 42. How can you say to your brother, Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye, when you yourself do not see the log or the plank that is in your own eye?
[6:33] You hypocrite. First, take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother's eye. So this is about seeing.
[6:45] Okay? This is about righteous judgment. Okay? A lot of people say, like to quote the first verse in the section, 37, and say, don't judge. See, that's the problem with these Christians.
[6:57] They just don't listen to Jesus. Jesus said, don't judge. He did say, don't judge. But Christians don't read verses out of context. Christians read verses in context.
[7:08] And the same Jesus in the same paragraph who said, judge not, then said, hey, this is how you're to judge. This isn't a verse about not judging. It's a verse about not judging incorrectly.
[7:21] It's about making sure that you judge righteously, appropriately. Okay? This is a verse. This is a section on how to judge rightly. But when you just pluck one verse out of here and say, don't judge, that's where it gets goofy.
[7:37] Jesus was never saying that. You can't read this whole thing and say, oh, that's what this is about. This section is about seeing. He said, can a blind man lead a blind man? No.
[7:48] Well, what makes the person blind? Well, there's something obstructing their eyes, like a plank, like a log, like something sticking out of their eyes so that they can't see clearly.
[7:59] No, a blind man can't lead a blind man. And so he says, he's wanting us to be able to see clearly. Okay? So we don't want to take this and say, oh, we're not supposed to look at each other.
[8:11] We're not supposed to find specks. No, we are supposed to find specks. You just can't see specks when there's a log sticking out of your eye. Right? 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?
[8:26] How can you say to your brother, brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye, when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite. We don't want to be hypocrites. We have to first, there's an order to this.
[8:39] There's an order to this. If we want to be people who inspect people's specks, we can't be a plank-eyed speck inspector. Right?
[8:50] You can't be a plank-eyed speck inspector. You have to first take the plank out of your own eye. Otherwise, you're a hypocrite. He says, you hypocrite first. There's an order to this.
[9:02] He's not condemning taking specks out of people's eye. I mean, have you ever had a little speck in your eye and it's driving you crazy? It hurts. It's bothering you. Your eye's watering.
[9:13] It's getting red. Might even get infected. I had an eye infection so bad once that it turned into an eye ulcer. You probably didn't know that that was a thing. It is a thing. I didn't know it was a thing. But if I would have let it go the weekend, he said I would have lost vision in my eye.
[9:25] Okay? It's a big deal, these specks. So we're not saying don't get specks out of people's eyes. That's a good thing. He's wanting us to get the specks out of people's eyes.
[9:36] But to do that, you have to be able to see the speck in people's eyes. He's trying to give us the right way to do it. And there's an order. First, get the plank out of your own eye.
[9:47] If you want to be a speck inspector, make sure you're not a plank-eyed speck inspector. Okay? Get that out of your eye. Are we doing this in the right order? Are we doing this in the right order?
[9:59] Then, it's good that we want to make sure that everyone's eyes are clear. But start with us. Start with us. Start with me. God, is there a plank in my eye?
[10:11] Am I, am I, am I, do I have an overconfidence in my seeing? If you have a plank in your eye, yes. And you think you can be a speck inspector, you are overconfident.
[10:23] That's not good. That's not good. You're a hypocrite, right? But if you take it out first, then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother's eye.
[10:34] That's truth. Then you will. And that's the way the church should be. If it should be a bunch of clear-eyed people doing speck inspections. Right? Clear-eyed people who can see.
[10:45] They can see clearly. But there's nothing more annoying than a guy with a big log sticking out of his eye saying, hey, let me take the speck out of your eye. It's like, bro, what are you talking about?
[10:56] You're not going to be able to take the speck out of my eye. You basically, you can't even function because you have this huge plank sticking out of your own eye. Okay? Don't be a plank-eyed speck inspector.
[11:07] This is important. Do we have the right order here? Do we have the right order here? Are we functioning in the right order? Are we saying even just like we're taking the Lord's table?
[11:18] Are we as concerned? I think Seth even prayed it this morning and then Amber prayed this actual verse. I don't know if you noticed that this morning we were praying. But Seth said, help me to be more consumed with my own sin than the sins of others.
[11:32] Help me to have the same passion for my own sin that I do for other people's sins. That's taking the plank out of your eye. That's the right order. That's saying, hey, let's start here.
[11:43] Let's go to the Lord's table and say, deal with me first, God. That's not me hearing sermons and saying, yeah, thank God so-and-so's here.
[11:54] It's a good thing they're here. They need to hear this. God knows I don't, but they do. You know, like it's us saying, no, God, I'm the sinner. I'm the one who needs help. I'm the one who needs to see.
[12:05] I'm the one who needs to be cleansed. I'm the one who needs to be delivered. I'm the one who needs to be freed. I'm the one who needs to be pure. Lord, help me. Start here. Draw a circle on yourself.
[12:17] Say, Lord, send revival here, right here. Start with me. Change my heart. Give me perspective. And then you are useful to the master. Now you're in a place where you can see, because there's two reasons why that's important.
[12:31] One you see, like literally, and then the other you see compassionately. Once the plank is out of your eye, you see literally, meaning there's no obstruction. But then you also see compassionately.
[12:43] Because you were once a log, a plank eye person too. You're like, I had a severe case of plank eye as well. Like, I understand. I'm not going to criticize your speck.
[12:54] I used to have a log. Your speck's nothing compared to the log I used to have. This is why Paul says, I was the chief of sinners. You might say, well, that's some cute hyperbole.
[13:05] You know, Paul's just, you know, being hyperbolic. He's just kind of, you know, trying to make a point. No, Paul believed that. And it marked his ministry. It gave his ministry power because it gave his ministry compassion.
[13:19] And compassion is the marker of Christ. Christ was filled with compassion. Christ had a gut level compassion that caused him to weep over Jerusalem when he looked at them.
[13:32] He said, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, I wanted to, I long to gather you like a hen gathers a chicks. Right? That's the kind of compassion that drives real, sincere, genuine, Christian charity and love.
[13:48] And that's what we need. But it's got to start with us. It's got to start with my house. Is my house in order? Is my life in order? Is, is my individual life? As heads of homes, men, is your home in order?
[14:01] Are you leading in such a way to say, hey, I'm bringing my home in order. Women who are married to those men, are you helping in this? Single people, you got to bring your, your own house in order.
[14:12] Okay? And just say, all right, this is, I want to bring this in order. I want to be the person who's conscious of myself, not in some morbidly introspective way, but in a, in a holy somber way to say, hey, I'm sober minded.
[14:25] I want to be someone who sees clearly. We need people who see clearly. And it's got to start with us first, judging ourselves first. Galatians 6, one to five says, brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him.
[14:42] How? In a spirit of gentleness. Keep watching yourself, lest you too be tempted. I always used to think of that verse to think, okay, if I'm correcting someone, I got to make sure that the sin I'm correcting them, that I don't fall in the same sin.
[14:58] I don't necessarily think that's what he's saying there. I think what he's saying is, realize that as you're correcting and trying to resource someone else who's fallen into temptation, you could just be just as susceptible.
[15:09] Maybe not in the same area, but somewhere else. We're all weak. We're all prone to wander. We're all people who, apart from Christ, have no hope. And so, we need to keep watching ourselves, lest we too be tempted to think, oh, I'm not above that.
[15:25] Verse two says, bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. Okay? We are supposed to take up people's burdens. You know, I love when people say, well, I don't want to be a burden.
[15:37] So, you don't want to be the thing that the Bible tells me to bear. How's that supposed to work? Why are you so self-conscious about being a burden when the Bible says that that's what Christians do?
[15:48] We bear one another's burdens. Well, that's their deal. They need to figure that out. No, it's not. Do you hear me on that? It's not. You judge yourself first, and then you go and bear other people's burdens.
[16:01] You carry them, and you say, hey, this person has some sin in their life. I'm going to take that burden upon myself. I'm going to be in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in them.
[16:12] I'm going to take this to prayer. I'm going to take this to persevering prayer. I'm not going to take this to a judgment that I would never want to receive. I'm going to take it to the throne room, get out of the courtroom, get into the throne room, and cry out to the true judge and appeal to the judge with the blood of Christ for my brother and sister.
[16:30] Say, God, have mercy on them. Deliver them. And I'm going to press in to see that happen. That is how it works. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
[16:41] For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor.
[16:52] For each will have to bear his own load. Again, going back to divine order. Test yourself. Start with your own load. How are you doing on your own load? If you want to go carry someone else's, first carry your own.
[17:04] Just wait a second. You're going to go carry someone else's burden? You're not even carrying your burden. You're not even carrying weight in your own home, in your own household. You've got to test yourself. Test your own work and say, hey, are you carrying your own load first?
[17:18] Don't think you're something when you're nothing. Matthew Henry says self-conceit is self-deceit. Okay? If anyone thinks he's something when he's nothing, he deceives himself. He deceives himself.
[17:29] We have this arrogant, condescending pride that thinks I know better. We're not testing ourself and realizing I got to start at home. What ends up happening is self-conceit becomes self-deceit.
[17:41] First Corinthians 11 was read today by Seth when we took the Lord's table. Verse 27 says, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in any unworthy manner will be guilty of sin against the body and blood of the Lord.
[17:59] Let a person examine himself. Again, same kind of concept. Start with yourself. Start with our household. Let a person examine himself. In this way, let him eat the bread and drink from the cup. But whoever eats and drinks without recognizing the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.
[18:14] This is why many are sick and ill among you and many have fallen asleep. If we were properly judging ourselves, we would not be judged. Do you see the order there again?
[18:25] It's the same thing. There's a theme here. Judge ourselves first, then judge other people. If we're coming to the Lord's table realizing we're not recognizing the body, we're thinking our part of the body is superior.
[18:38] Our part of the body is better. Our part of the body is independent. I don't need that part of the body. If that part of the body is weak, that's their deal. No. If that part of the body is weak, we're all weak.
[18:50] If that part of the body is broken, we're all broken. If that part of the body is sick, the whole body's sick. If that part of the body is handicapped, then we're all handicapped. And so, when we take the Lord's table, we say, I want to make sure I recognize the body, like Seth was saying.
[19:07] Am I relating rightly to these brothers and sisters? Am I saying, I need this part? And if that part is weak, if that part is broken, yes, it's their responsibility to put their house in order.
[19:19] But I want to be a person that puts judges myself first so that I can also then relate rightly to other people and carry their burdens. And carry their burdens. So that we're not pointing fingers at each other.
[19:31] We're not, our fingers aren't used to point. Our fingers are used to pull up and lift up and build up. But we've got to start first with us. And we have to judge ourselves so that we will not be judged.
[19:43] But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned with the world. Again, God's judgment is ultimately mercy. He's saying, I'm disciplining you so that you won't be judged with the world.
[19:56] I'm disciplining you so that you can be brought into the truth and brought into right relationship. We have to judge ourselves first. Okay, that's the, I think that's just a really important point.
[20:07] I'm asking us to consider. I'm asking us to go back and think, okay, I was focused on order. What about the last 10%? Is there something left undone that I have to make right?
[20:18] That I have to make right. If there's something in my house that I know is off. That I know could be my finances. It could be my parenting. It could be my sexual purity.
[20:29] It could be my commitment, keeping my word. It could be my honesty. It could be walking in the light rather than walking in darkness. I don't know. You know what it is.
[20:40] But where is that last 10%? We got to judge ourselves. And when we walk in an order there, an obedience there, that's going to make us a people that are going to be able to carry other people's burdens and see other people's facts.
[20:52] But we got to start there. Amen? Okay. Number two, we need to recognize that we see in part, know in part, and we are a part. Okay. We see in part, we know in part, and we are a part.
[21:06] 1 Corinthians 13, 9 and 12 says, We know in part, and we prophesy in part, for we now see in a mere dim way. Okay. It's always important for us that when we're in body life and we are seeing, again, we're going back to judgment is seeing.
[21:22] It's looking, it's seeing, and it's seeing rightly. You might say, okay, hey, no plank eye here. Right? I'm a qualified spec inspector, right?
[21:33] The plank is out of the eye. I'm good to go. Right? Well, it doesn't stop there. That doesn't just give you carte blanche to just start chopping off heads then. Right?
[21:44] At that point in time, you have to realize, I still only see in part. Well, wait a second. I thought when I get, I thought when I get the plank out of my eye, then I can see clearly.
[21:55] You can, but clearly in part. Right? I mean, you know the concept of peripheral vision, right? You might be able to see clearly forward, but I don't see clearly to the side.
[22:07] And I don't see at all to my, you know, I don't have eyes in the back of my head. I can see clearly forward. I can see partially to the side. I can't see at all behind me. Just because you can see something clearly doesn't mean you're not seeing, doesn't mean you're seeing everything.
[22:22] He said, we know in part, we prophesy in part, we see in a mirror dimly. Okay? Okay. So even once you get your eye cleared and there's no more plank in your eye, you have to know, I'm still only seeing a part.
[22:35] Someone else is seeing a part I don't see. Someone else is a part of the body that I'm not. I need those other parts of the body and I can't be conceded and puffed up in pride to say, hey, I got this figured out.
[22:49] Which means we also have to be careful when we make blanket statements about the whole church. You might say, well, I can do that. Christ church is really small. That's easy. Typically not accurate though.
[23:01] Okay. When we make blanking statements about the whole church is this or the whole church is that. Remember, we see in part. We see in part. We prophesy in part.
[23:14] We know in part. And we are a part. Right? Ephesians 4, 16 says, from him, the whole body joined and held together where every supporting ligament grows and builds itself up in love.
[23:26] When? How? As each part does its work. We're only a part. If you get, if we as individuals get so hyped up and puffed up about our part and say, my part's so important and we neglect to see the importance of the other parts and think that our part is the end all be all, we're missing.
[23:49] We're missing out. That is, that is not a right seeing. We have to realize, okay, I only see in part, but I only am a part as well. There's another part of the body that sees differently than me, that has a different perspective as me.
[24:03] And their perspective is just as important as my perspective. And my perspective is incomplete. Do you believe that? Do you believe that? Just ask the question right now.
[24:14] I'm not asking for a show of hands or anything like that, but I'm asking you to introspectively take a look and say, when it comes to my seeing, the way I see Christ's church, that I see all the other people in this church, am I seeing in a way where I realize this is just part?
[24:31] Am I seeing in a way of just saying, this is incomplete? Am I seeing in a way of saying, I'm just one part of the body. There's so many other parts. My part's an important part. My part is needed for the church to be built up, but it is just that it's only a part.
[24:46] And for the church to be built up, each part must do its work. And so I need to do my part, but I can't think that my part is the end all be all. I need to be a champion of the other parts.
[24:58] Are you a champion of the other parts? Do you value the other parts? Are you bearing the burdens of the other parts to see them be healthy in the same way that you're passionate about yourself, judging yourself and you being healthy?
[25:10] If we all judged ourself and got healthy, we could be a part of the body that builds itself up in love together where we're carrying the burdens of other people and we're all seeing clearly together.
[25:22] Are we doing that? Are we doing that? Super important. We have to be careful that we don't get arrogant about what we're seeing because we're seeing in part.
[25:34] Seeing in part. That's just a humbling thing that's always there. It's there for all of us. It's not just some people. It's not like, hey, some of you need to hear this. No, all of us need to hear this.
[25:45] It's not like there's some people who are all the parts and then one person who's a part of the part. No, we're all parts. We all see in part. And so we all need to have humility in our seeing.
[25:56] Say, I only see in part. Thirdly, okay, we're seeing clearly. We're seeing in part. We're realizing that we're humble. Now, when we're seeing and we approach people with our knowledge of their specs, right?
[26:12] And we tell them, hey, there's a spec here that I really think you need to get out of your eye. We need to be gracious and merciful. We need to be gracious and merciful. James 2.13 says, judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy.
[26:26] Mercy triumphs over judgment. Or in other words, as Kevin Prosh once saying it, the mercy you don't give is the mercy you don't get. Okay? So we have to be merciful in our judgment.
[26:37] Does that mean you don't judge? No. You still have to judge. You still have to render a proper judgment on the spec that you see. It's just you have to do it with mercy.
[26:48] Mercy mixed with judgment. Okay? John 1.14 and 17. John 1.14 and 17. These verses both speak of this really important description of Jesus.
[27:03] Okay? It brings about two important things in the same phrase when referring to Jesus in John 1.14 and 17. It says that Jesus was a man full of what?
[27:15] Just grace? No. Just truth? No. What was Jesus full of? Grace and truth. Okay? And oftentimes in churches you end up, you got the grace people and you got the truth people.
[27:28] And the grace and the truth people don't really like each other very much. Because the grace people think that the truth people are too hard and the truth people think that the grace people are too easy. But Jesus somehow, someway was a man full of grace and truth.
[27:43] And guess what? So should his followers be. So should his followers be. Let me ask you the question. If someone were to talk about you, would they say, so-and-so is a man or a woman of grace and truth?
[27:57] Or would they say, so-and-so is a person of grace. So-and-so is a person of truth. Or would they say, no, this person is a person of grace and truth. That's what you want. Because that's what Jesus is.
[28:09] Jesus is a man full of grace and truth. Are you full of both? And don't be these people who are saying, yeah, that's right, that's good. But I secretly think that grace is better.
[28:20] Or I secretly think that truth is better. It's like, yeah, we're full of grace and truth. Grace and truth. But truth is better. You know, but grace is better. It's like, no, they're both important.
[28:33] You must have both. Are you a man or a woman of grace and truth? Ask the question. And if you're not, then we need to repent. You have to just say, something's off in my seeing.
[28:47] What I'm seeing, if I only have grace, it's not going to go well. Like, if you're a doctor and you're looking at the eye and you're just thinking, well, you know, they have this really bad infection.
[28:58] They'll probably lose their eye. But I don't want to be hard on them. I'm just going to be gracious toward them, you know? Like, they're having a hard time. I'd be like, please don't do that. Can you please care about truth? Like, I don't want you to just be gracious.
[29:10] I want to keep my eye. And if you had someone who just cared about truth and was, you know, banging up your eye and like poking you in the eye and hurting you, you'd just be like, okay, can you be a little bit more gracious in how you're fixing my eye here?
[29:22] Right? You need both. Grace and truth. And Jesus was this perfect blend of this. Perfect blend. Perfect blend. And I won't even say balance of this. Because I don't think Jesus was balanced.
[29:34] He had the, he was more, I like to say, he had the balance of appropriate emphasis. Right? He always knew when to emphasize what he emphasized. And it was always perfect. Right?
[29:45] But it's not like he was walking around saying, I got to make sure I am balanced. No. He was God. And God is perfectly emphasizing all the attributes of his character at the same time. Never suspending one for the other.
[29:58] And we should, and we need to come and cast our burdens on him. And the Bible says, and learn from him. We have to learn from the one who is full of grace and truth. Some of us need to learn a little bit more about grace.
[30:11] Some of us need to learn a little bit more about truth. Okay? Some of us got to learn about both. Right? But ask yourself the question, where am I at in this? And how do people, as I'm functioning in body life and I'm trying to kind of lubricate the gears of my relationships so that they're not rusty and locked up.
[30:34] What is the oil that I'm missing? Is it grace or is it truth? Maybe it's both. But some of us maybe are a little low on the grace oil or a little low on the truth oil and our gears are getting locked up.
[30:47] We're getting locked up in our relationships. And God wants to lubricate those gears so that things flow the way they're supposed to. And it just hums along. Okay? Colossians 3, 12 to 15.
[30:59] Such a beautiful picture of how this is supposed to look. It says, Colossians 3, 12 to 15. It says, Put on them as God's chosen ones, fully and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another.
[31:23] And if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other. As the Lord has forgiven you, so also you must forgive. That's a mouthful right there, right? I mean, that's quite a bit.
[31:35] He's saying, put on these things, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility. But what does it come from? It comes from being God's chosen one, holy and beloved. When you know that God has chosen you and that you are holy and beloved, it helps you to be compassionate, kind, humble, meek, and patient.
[31:53] And to bear with one another. And are we bearing with one another? Are we annoyed with one another? Are we bearing with one another with a sense of forgiveness?
[32:04] If one has a complaint against another, forgive each other as the Lord has forgiven you. How has the Lord forgiven you? Well, if you don't know, then you're not going to be a very good representative of God's forgiving love to others. If you're not living in the awareness of God's forgiving love towards you.
[32:18] Where is your awareness on this topic recently? And I ask the question because we can be one who forget. In fact, it says in another portion of scripture that we end up not adding things to our faith when we have forgotten that we've been cleansed from our past sins.
[32:37] And it says we become nearsighted and blind. Right? Again, this goes back to our seeing. We don't want to be nearsighted and blind. We want to see correctly. Well, that means that we have to not forget that we've been cleansed from our past sins.
[32:51] So what he's saying right here is, you've got to forgive as the Lord has forgiven you. Do some of us need a reminder of how God has forgiven us? Are we a little crotchety when it comes to other people's sins?
[33:03] And have we forgotten how much Christ has forgiven us? Are we like the guy who was forgiven the huge debt and then he demands the $5 from the guy once he gets out of jail and choking him and say, pay all you owe?
[33:16] You know, we don't want to be those people. That guy forgot how much he had been forgiven. We can become those people too. And we become crotchety. We become cranky. We become people that people walk around with like walking on eggshells.
[33:29] Forgive each other as the Lord has forgiven you. So you also must forgive. And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body.
[33:44] And be thankful. That last part's really important. You might, that sometimes I think maybe people think that's kind of a throwaway thing. You know, you're, you're reading all this list and you're thinking, yeah, I got to be loving and forgiving.
[33:55] But what ends up happening, if you're all these things, but you're anxious about other people's sins, you're afraid of them screwing up our church. And you're afraid of them screwing up their own lives.
[34:06] And you're afraid of them screwing up your life. And there's this subtle anxiety that things aren't right in Denmark. You're not letting the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. And you're making an environment where people don't feel free to be who they are.
[34:20] And you're making an environment that doesn't trust in the grace of God, but trust in our own self-righteousness. It's not a good culture. It's not a good look. We have to let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts.
[34:32] And this is a tough one because let's go back to the theme of what we're talking about here. When you see something that's not right in someone, what happens after you see it?
[34:43] Do you experience peace or do you experience anxiety? When you see something that's not right, someone, are you able to see with peace or do you see with fear?
[34:54] That's an important thing. We can get so hyped up on the fact that we see. Seeing is not that big of a deal. A lot of people see. It's how you see that determines the culture of our church.
[35:07] If we have a bunch of people seeing rightly, but we're seeing with fear and anxiety, we create an atmosphere that is looking to man's strength and ability to hold things up, not to God.
[35:19] We're creating an atmosphere where people walk around on eggshells, wondering if they're doing something wrong. And it's that the whole thing rests on our shoulders rather than people who can walk at ease because the peace of Christ is ruling in their hearts.
[35:35] And even though they're seeing things, even though we're walking around and we're seeing clearly, there's no plank in our eye. We've judged our house first and we begin to see specks in people's eyes. That speck in the other person's eyes doesn't freak us out.
[35:48] Why would I be freaked out if Jesus is ruling on the throne? If Jesus is ruling on the throne and Jesus is ruling over Christ's church, then guess what's ruling in my heart?
[36:00] Peace. And when you see things and the fruit of your seeing is not peace, your seeing might not be all that spiritual. It might be fleshly.
[36:11] Do you hear me? That's just simply Galatians 5 and the fruit of the spirit. If the result of your seeing is fear, you've got to realize you might be seeing, but you're seeing in the flesh, not by the spirit.
[36:24] Not all seeing is seeing. Seeing in the spirit has the fruit of peace ruling in your heart. That's an important aspect. Okay. It's easy to just kind of say, oh, that's just a throwaway at the end of that.
[36:37] I mean, he was pretty comprehensive there. And then he just says, and let the peace of Christ rule in your heart. It's like, no, no, no. Hold on. Hold on. That's a really important aspect of this whole thing. He just did here that in your inmate being compassionate and being meek and forgiving one another, you're doing all that.
[36:55] But if you have this edge about you where you are in fear or anxiety and you can't, you can't function, you can't rest. Maybe you can't even sleep.
[37:07] But with the knowledge of the speck in someone that they don't see or they're not taking care of rightly in your opinion, that's bad fruit. It's bad fruit.
[37:19] And it's a seeing, but it's not seeing by the spirit. It's a seeing in the flesh. The fruit of the spirit is peace. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body.
[37:31] You notice that he ties it to body life as well. Okay. This isn't just an individual peace. The peace of the body is dependent on you seeing in a way that trust in the Lord.
[37:43] The peace of the body is dependent upon you seeing in such a way that you can see things that are unsettling. You can see things. And I'm telling you what, the clearer you get in your seeing, whether it's through prophetic gifting or just through judging yourself and walking in divine order, you're going to start seeing things more.
[38:02] Either way, either of those two are going to cause you to see things more. If you don't know how to deal with your seeing, your seeing is a detriment, not a plus. We have to learn to steward the seeing and to bathe it in the peace that comes from trusting in God.
[38:20] You have to trust in him. And, you know, I think that's one thing of just being an elder for all these years. You see a lot of stuff and you hear some horrible stories and you see some really bad sins.
[38:36] And it's not just one person. And then when your church grows, it just means you're seeing more sins and more problems and more big problems. And if your seeing isn't matched with the peace of Christ, you are not fit to be an elder.
[38:52] You're not fit to be a leader who carries that seeing with the peace of Christ ruling in your heart. Because it'll crush you. And many a prophetic person has been crushed because they don't know how to access peace through prayer and the rest that comes from God.
[39:10] Okay. First Peter four, verse eight, um, says above all, keep loving one another earnestly since love covers over a multitude of sins.
[39:21] I've always loved that first. I just feel like it's just such a practical, uh, especially cause I'm a parent. Um, I've screwed up with my kids a lot. I've made a lot of mistakes with my kids.
[39:32] Right. And they remember them for a little while. And then they forget. You know why they forget? The same reason I forgot about a lot of my dad's sins and my mom's they did because my parents love me.
[39:44] And it covers over a multitude of sins. I remember one father's day. And those were one of the most encouraging things I said to my dad. He was asking me what I thought of our upbringing. I said, dad, I loved our upbringing. And my dad could only think of all the ways that he screwed up in our upbringing.
[39:58] I'm just thinking, yeah, I don't remember that stuff. I don't remember that stuff. And then I, what I do remember is you loved us. Did you make mistakes? Yeah. And we can laugh at some. We were laughing about it last time I was with them.
[40:10] We were laughing about, uh, one time my dad flew off the handle, but I'm like, at the end of the day, dad, I knew that you love me. And that covers over a multitude of sins. And, um, that's how body life should be too.
[40:22] That's how body life should be too. It's that, you know, is there sins? Yes. Do we screw up? Yes. Have we done some stupid things? Yes. Christ's church will, but love covers over a multitude of sins.
[40:38] Are we loving? Are we loving? If you're seeing and not loving, what does first Corinthians 13 say? Say you gain nothing.
[40:49] You gain nothing. You can see perfectly, but if you have not love, what good is the seeing? The seeing has to be filled with love. Love covers over a multitude of sins. Okay.
[41:00] Lastly, number four, don't bite and devour one another. Galatians 5, 13 to 15 says, you were called the freedom brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love, serve one another.
[41:15] But the whole law is fulfilled in one word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. No, but if you divide and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. Okay.
[41:26] This is what I'm talking about where we don't want to create an atmosphere where we're walking on eggshells. You want to serve one another in love. So it says through love, serve one another. Okay.
[41:37] And we got to be careful. We don't bite and devour one another. Where we're crushing people's spirit. Proverbs 18, 14 says a man's spirit will endure sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear.
[41:48] A crushed spirit who can bear. There's a way we can talk to people. There's a way we can love one another. There's a way we can bring truth and be a speck inspector, which we have to be.
[41:59] We have to judge each other. To have a healthy church, we need people who speak the truth. Who say, hey, you've got a speck in your eye. I think I can see to take it out. All right.
[42:10] But we don't want to crush people's spirit. There's a way to do it. There's a way. And we have to say, God, I don't just want to do your will. I want to know your ways. It says in Hebrews chapter three that God was upset with Israel, not because they didn't do his will, but because they didn't know his ways.
[42:27] It's one thing to know. This is God's will. This is God's will. This is God's will. Yes. Thank you. But do you know the way to bring about God's will? Do you know the way to take the speck out of someone's eye?
[42:39] Do you know how to do that? Do you know how to do it without crushing their spirit? You know, that you pull out the speck, but you poked out the eye. Mission accomplished. I poked out the eye.
[42:50] I got the speck out. Like you poked out their eye, man. They don't get it. They lost their eye. I mean, that's the kind of thing. Like I did it. I told them. I told them what they need to work on.
[43:01] But you crushed their spirit. Okay. We have to, we have to be able to champion one another while judging one another. We have to be able to do it in a way that's brotherly or sisterly or fatherly or motherly.
[43:14] Okay. And a lot of times when we do, when this isn't there and there's a, there's, there's a subtle biting of one another. I think that's almost always symptomatic of not being on mission enough. Because when you're on mission as a church, nobody's thinking about that stuff.
[43:31] And even just hearing the reports of those who went on, on Friday, you know, that it's such excitement, faith, positivity, champion of one another, affirming of how, how things went, you know, just on that little excursion to be on mission to a few people.
[43:48] Nothing crazy. Didn't take a lot of planning. Planning. It just took some people getting out and getting on mission to some people. And I bet you, I bet you guys weren't thinking about all the things that were wrong with Christchurch at that time.
[43:59] No, you're thinking, man, we're on the front lines. You know, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're getting in there and doing what we're supposed to do. We're in the arena. We're preaching the gospel. We're getting in there and doing what a church should do.
[44:12] We're on mission. We're doing what Jesus does. We're seeking and saving those who are lost. We're, we're, we're being a sent people. This is what we're supposed to do. And then you don't get hung up on all those things that we would bite and devour in each other.
[44:25] It's typically symptomatic of not being on mission. This is why as encouraged as I am on all the different missional things that are happening. I still want to say our missional communities need to get on mission together.
[44:37] All the people in the missional community doing it together. We need to make it happen. It's got to happen. General mission is great. I love it. I love it. It's great joining together and doing that.
[44:49] I love it. Each missional community needs to be leading with mission so that it brings, it's like a chiropractic adjustment that brings proper alignment to the whole thing. When people are seeking and saving the lost and looking to that as a missional community, not just a couple people, not just the guys, not just the girls, but the whole missional community is together seeking out lost people and preaching the gospel.
[45:14] It removes the tendency to start biting and devouring one another. Okay. In conclusion, I read a verse that goes with one of our other words that we had for this year.
[45:27] Romans 12, 10 out, do one another and showing honor out, do one another and showing honor. I think of seeing, and I think of seeing correctly and doing some spec inspections.
[45:38] This should be kind of the, uh, the, the overarching mentality. I don't want to just honor people. I want to outdo other people in honoring. Again, it's the only place in the Bible that talks that advocates being competitive with people.
[45:52] Okay. You want to be competitive? Show more honor than the other person. Be more honoring than they were honoring to you. Okay. When we have that kind of mentality and that kind of thinking that creates a culture that anybody wants to be a part of.
[46:07] I want to read a few quotes from Charles Spurgeon from lectures to my students. Um, that I've read, uh, in the past, uh, when I did the evil suspicions message message, because I think it's really good in closing.
[46:21] And he says, many, a friend has been transformed into an enemy by being suspected. He says, it would be better to be deceived a hundred times than to live a life of suspicion. He says, suspicion is a moral evil and injures the character of the man who harbors it.
[46:37] And he says, learn to disbelieve those who have no faith in their brethren, suspect those who would lead you to suspect others. Definition of suspicion is that the act or an instance of suspecting something wrong without proof or on slight evidence.
[46:53] In other words, the synonym for suspicion is mistrust. And I think that the Lord wants us to trust each other more. That doesn't mean you have to ignore the speck in their eyes.
[47:05] It's that we're just trusting that God is working in people's lives. That he who began a good work is faithful to complete it. We don't wait for people to arrive before we trust them.
[47:16] Right? Otherwise, no one would get married. Right? You think 20 something people are really trustworthy people to get to make a lifelong covenant for the rest of their lives.
[47:27] It's like, really? Clearly, there's reasons to doubt that. Right? But we do it all the time. Right? Young people get married all the time and make a covenant for life.
[47:38] How do they do that? They trust one another. In their weakness. In their brokenness. And then after they're married, they think, oh my gosh. There's a lot of things to mistrust here.
[47:49] You know? But I made a covenant. I said I was going to work with these people. And I'm not saying we're in a covenant with each other and we're married to each other. I'm not saying that. But I think for a church to be healthy, we have to trust weak, broken people.
[48:01] And I'm not advocating being blind to the specks in their eyes. You heard me what I just taught. Take specks out of people's eyes. But we're going to have to trust people in their weakness and their brokenness.
[48:13] That God is working in them. That God is building this church. And I'll tell you, trust breeds trustworthiness. Skepticism breeds anxiety and insecurity.
[48:25] When you trust people, it emboldens them and helps them be who they are. This is why parenting, you have parenting where you're constantly suspicious of your kids and you're constantly correcting every little thing and you're never affirming them.
[48:37] You're not raising secure kids. You have to bring affirmation and trust at some point in time in their life or they're going to be very unhealthy kids. Okay, it's the same way with the church.
[48:49] And this is why 1 Corinthians 13 7 says, Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Are we doing that?
[49:00] Are we believing all things? Are we bearing all things? Are we hoping all things? Are we bearing all things?