Hope Church LV Sermons
Out Of Context :: Do Not Judge
Have you ever been taken out of context? You ever had somebody take something that you've said, something that you've written, and just take it completely out of context and use it in a way that you did not intend at all? Is there anything more frustrating than to say something and then have somebody else take your statement and use it out of its context to communicate something that you never intended? I think we can all identify with that, right? I mean, we have all had things taken out of context. How many of you have had that happen to you, maybe at work, at school, happens at home sometimes, right? We see it happen a lot, it happens to everyone of us. I've had some things even recently in my own life where I've seen some of that happen. We see it on television, we see it in the news media, specifically in the political arena. I don't know how politicians do it sometimes, to be honest. They'll get up and speak for an hour and a half, and the news media, it doesn't matter which one you watch, it doesn't matter if you're left, right, or middle, right? It doesn't matter where you fall, we'll take an hour and a half speech and we'll pull two sentences out of an hour and a half speech, and that'll be the soundbite, and we'll make that say whatever we want it to say, and for a month, society will rally around three words in an hour and a half speech, and we'll just take it all out of context and drive a nail straight through the coffin. There is nothing more frustrating than that, and unfortunately, this doesn't just happen to us personally, it doesn't just happen in the world of politics and news media. This happens even with the very words of Jesus Christ. This weekend, as we continue our study through the Sermon on the Mount, if you're visiting with us for about the last 16 months, 15 months, we've been studying straight through the Sermon on the Mount, this morning we begin Matthew 7. If you have your Bible, you can go and turn to Matthew 7. We begin a new series this morning, simply entitled, "Out of Context, Ways We Misquote Jesus." Because where we come in the Sermon on the Mount today in chapter 7, the first 12 verses of chapter 7, introduced to us three statements by Jesus that I believe may be the most frequently used out of context versus in all the Bible. And when I say they're used out of context, I'm not just talking about by Christians, they're used out of context by even non-Christians. The three phrases that I'm about are, we're going to be looking at over the next three weekends, we'll look at one this weekend and then two over the next two weekends. These three phrases often, you'll hear Christians use them and abuse them, but they're so popular, you'll even hear non-Christians take these words of Jesus and use them to communicate what they want them to communicate. What I'm about to read to you in Matthew chapter 7 verse 1, one writer said is the most often misunderstood and misquoted passage in all of the Bible. Matthew chapter 7, beginning in verse 1, listen what it says, "Do not judge so that you will not be judged." Have you ever heard anybody quote that? Well, you know what Jesus said, don't judge. For in the way you judge, you will be judged and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye? But do not notice the log, it's a word that means beam or rafter, it referred to that beam or rafter upon which every other thing in the roof was supported. It's a big beam or how can you say to your brother, let me take that little speck out of your eye and behold the log is in your own eye, you hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. Do not give what is holy to dogs and do not throw your pearls before swine or they will trample them under their feet and turn and tear you into pieces. How is this principle often taken out of context? That's the first question I want to ask this morning, I want to ask three, here's the first one. How is this principle often taken out of context? Well, we know how it's taken out of context, right? We hear people all the time say the Bible says you're not supposed to judge anybody. The Bible says Jesus said you should never judge and in our society we use this logic to promote an attitude of tolerance. We live in the society that says you should tolerate everything. If we ever say anything about anybody, if we ever point out anything is being wrong, if we ever speak critically about anything at all, if we ever question, if we ever examine, if we ever evaluate, immediately somebody rises up and says, well, remember what Jesus said, don't judge, not supposed to judge anybody, it's what Jesus said, right? John MacArthur writes about this, listen what he said, look at it on the screen, it should be noted that this passage has erroneously been used to suggest that believers should never evaluate or criticize anyone for anything. Our day hates absolutes, especially theological and moral absolutes and such simplistic interpretation provides a convenient escape from confrontation. Members of modern society including many professing Christians tend to resist dogmatism and strong convictions about right and wrong. Many people prefer to speak of an all inclusive love, compromise, ecumenism and unity to the modern religious person, those are the only doctrines worth defending and they are the doctrines to which every conflicting doctrine must be sacrificed. Jesus said, don't judge, let me give you two reasons why I have a problem with interpreting that phrase to simply mean we should never judge anyone or anything. Number one, I have a problem with this practically, it doesn't make sense practically for it to mean never judge at all because the reality is you and I use judgment every day of our lives. As a matter of fact, one third of our government is devoted to judgment. We have the executive branch of government, we have the legislative branch of government and we have the what, judicial branch of government. What does the judicial branch of government do? They judge. Every day of our lives we use judgment. We use judgment every day when we make decisions. I make my financial decisions about how and when and where I'm going to invest my money. You know what I do? I make judgments. I look at those things, I compare, I examine, I evaluate and then I make a judgment financially. If Jesus meant never judge, then I couldn't judge about those decisions. I make judgments when I have repairs that need to be made in my home. You know what I do? I call a few companies and I get a what? An estimate, right? I get an estimate, I get them to come in and give me a quote about how they're going to do the work. I interview those companies to determine about how they're going to do the work. Do they have integrity? Are they going to be honest? Are they going to do what they said they're going to do, right? What am I doing? Does I do that? I'm judging them. Am I in violation of what Jesus says here when I use good common sense and discernment and make evaluations and question things? Listen, we make judgments in our own families. I have four children, two of them are daughters. One of them is now senior in high school, a couple of years ago, boys started coming around my house. Let me tell you my role in that scenario. I'm the judge. That's my God-given responsibility, right? I'm to be the judge. When that first young man decided he was going to ask my daughter out to an event, he called to ask permission and let me just say, "Dad, if he doesn't call and ask your permission to invite your daughter out, he doesn't pass judgment." That's not old school, that's just right. When he called and asked permission, I said, "My wife and I would love to sit down and talk to you." I invited him over to my house. He sat on the couch in between my wife and I for 45 minutes. We ran him through an examination while my daughter was sitting in another room and let me tell you what she was doing. She was awaiting daddy's judgment. I picked up a good friend, Paul Farrell, sitting right here on the front. When I was going through all this for the first time, Paul said, "Man, here's what I say to him, man, it makes good sense." Paul said, "I have predetermined a few reasons in my life that I'm willing to spend the rest of my life in prison and you are choosing to spend time with one of them." Amen? In that moment, I am the judge. To say that Jesus here is saying, "We should never judge anyone or anything." It just doesn't make sense practically, right? I mean, we use judgment, but even more importantly than that, it doesn't make sense biblically. You see, when you and I are going to interpret Scripture, there are some guidelines, some basic steps that we must follow in interpreting Scripture. Now, what I'm about to give you are two basic steps in interpreting Scripture and applying it to your life. You don't hear anything else I say today, "Listen, these two things are worth coming for. You need to write them down." I'm just telling you up front, you need to write these two down because they will help you in taking the Bible and applying it to your life. Here's basic step number one, always interpret Scripture in its immediate context. You cannot take a verse of Scripture and drop it over here all by itself and make it say whatever you want it to say. Every verse of Scripture is found in a paragraph of Scripture. Every paragraph is found in a chapter. Every chapter is found in a section, and every section is found in a book, and every book is in the totality of the Bible. We must understand it in its context. That's why at Hope we are committed to studying through sections or chapters or books of the Bible at a time. Why? Because we understand if I'm going to rightly interpret chapter 7 verse 1, I need to know something about chapter 6, I need to know something about chapter 8, I need to know where I've come from, I need to know where I'm going, I need to know who the audience is, Jesus is speaking to, I need to know the cultural and historical setting that Jesus spoke day in, all of these factors are important. Well, what is the immediate context here? Tell us. Well the immediate context tells us that Jesus was not meaning we should never judge. Let me prove it to you. In the same paragraph where Jesus said, "Do not judge," in verse 5, He said, "First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly," He doesn't say, "Hey, don't deal with the speck in your brother's eye," He didn't say, "Hey, we just love everybody and step back and let everybody do what they want to do." No, He said, "First deal with yourself, and then deal with the speck in your brother's eye." Now how can I do that without judgment? The paragraph that this verse is found in shows us where to judge. Now go to the next paragraph, the surrounding chapter, verse 6, Jesus says, "Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine." You know what you have to do to live that out? You've got to decide who's the dogs and who's the swine. You know what you have to do to live that out? You've got to use judgment. The paragraph, Jesus literally meant, never judge anybody on anything, then He turned around and gave us the exact opposite, counsel 4 verses later. Then later on in the same chapter in verses 15 and 16, He says, "Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves." Then He says, "You will know them by their fruit." What is that? It's judgment. He says, "Hey, you need to examine those that are claiming to be sent from God. You need to look at the fruit of their lives, and if the fruit of their lives is not consistent with the message of their mouth, you need to judge them as false prophets, and you need to stay clear of them." Now there's no way verse 1 means, never judge anybody, because three times in the same chapter, Jesus teaches us how to use right judgment. Now, if that's not enough, this chapter is found in the section called, "The Sermon on the Mount," we've been studying it for 15 months. What's the context of the Sermon on the Mount? The whole Sermon on the Mount is a judgment against the self-righteousness of the Pharisees. Five times Jesus calls the Pharisees, hypocrites. Well, that's judgmental. For three chapters, Jesus is evaluating authentic faith versus self-righteousness and dead religion and teaching us how to evaluate and discern and judge between the two. There's no way that this context says Jesus means, "Well, you should never judge anybody about anything." Listen what John MacArthur went on to say, "I love this quote." He said, "The entire thrust of the Sermon on the Mount is to show the complete distinction between true religion and false religion, between spiritual truth and spiritual hypocrisy. No more controversial or judgmental sermon has ever been preached. And it's in that sermon that everybody wants to say, "Jesus said, 'You never judge anybody.'" If this great is sermon, by our Lord teaches anything, it teaches that as followers are to be discerning and perceptive in what they believe in and what they do, that they must make every effort to judge between truth and falsehood, between the internal and the external, between reality and sham, between true righteousness and false righteousness, in short between God's ways and all other ways. Always interpret Scripture in its immediate context. Here's the second one. Always interpret Scripture in light of the whole counsel of Scripture. You see, once I have dealt with the verse in its immediate context, let me tell you how I examined to make sure my immediate interpretation is correct. I need to hold it up now and measure it to the rest of what the Bible says. And if it contradicts the rest of what the Bible says, let me tell you what I need to do. I need to run back to the immediate context and start all over with my interpretation again, because the Bible does not contradict itself. Let me show you what the rest of the Bible says about this subject. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 15 on the screen. 1 Corinthians 2, 15, Paul writes, "But He who is what," said out loud, "spiritual." It's a reference to godliness. He who is godly, he who's spiritual. What does it say? "Apprases all things." The word "appraise" here comes from the same root word we get the word "judge" from in Matthew chapter 7. As a matter of fact, in the ESV and the King James, several different translations, they even translate this, "whoever is spiritual, judges all things." Now how can Jesus say, "Never judge anybody," and Paul say, "If you're going to be godly, you've got to judge everything." That's not just Paul. Let me show you what Jesus said. John chapter 7 verse 24, look at it on the screen, "Do not judge according to appearance." But what does it say? But judge was right to his judgment. Do you think Jesus just forgot what He said in Matthew chapter 7? One minute he says, "Don't judge," and I says, "Judge would write your judgment." How do you reconcile those? Well obviously our interpretation that Jesus said, "Never judge anybody," is not correct. It fails the test of the immediate context and then it also fails the test of the rest of Scripture. Then the question, here's the second question, what did Jesus really say? What did Jesus say? Well the word "judge" here is a word that means to separate, to choose, to determine, to condemn, to criticize, to discern, to judge. It can mean a lot of different things depending on the context. Now before you get too judgmental about the Greek language, our English language is no better. We have a lot of words just like that. Matter of fact, if you look up the word "run," are you in an English dictionary? Did you know there are over a hundred definitions for the word "run"? Go home, look it up this afternoon. Some of you are looking it up right now in your phone, you're looking it up already. Guy came up to me last night, I said, "Man, I punched that in on my phone, a hundred and forty definitions for the word "run." A lot of definitions, I'm going to run a mile. I'm going to run to the store. I'm going to run some water in the bathtub. I'm going to run a program on my computer. All these are words. How do we know? How do we know which run they're talking about? Context. Jesus says, "Do not judge so that you will not be judged." What is the context of this passage of Scripture? All of chapter 6, all of the Sermon on the Mount, has been Jesus contrasting authentic faith with dead religion, living out of the inside, the life of Christ, versus conformity to some standards on the outside. The whole context. Remember the series we did called the real thing? Is it genuine? Is it authentic? Or am I just wearing a mask? In that context, Jesus here is not forbidding using good judgment. He is forbidding the practice of having a judgmental spirit that only looks at the outside. The Holmen New Testament commentary said it this way. It's one thing to exercise judgment. It's quite another to have a judgmental attitude. Jesus here is speaking about that attitude that had permeated the Pharisees that looked down their noses at everybody else with a spirit of condemnation. A spirit of condemning for dotting eyes and crossing tees while they missed on the inside the very essence of what following Jesus was all about. Jesus even adds here, "If you live with a self-righteous judgmental condemning spirit, don't be shocked if people extend you the same grace and mercy." That's what he said, "Hey, don't judge. You're going to be judged." He said, "If you measure out your judgment that way, if you're always the, "Hey, I just see it black and white. That's just the way I am." When you need a little grace, let me tell you how it's going to come back on you. Those that you had stood in front of and said, "Hey, I'm the black and white guy, they're going to remember that." That's what Jesus is talking about here. He says, "It's the spirit with which we exercise our judgment." We're not to be condemning. We're not to have a judgmental spirit. How do I know if my attitude is right? Let me give you three statements. We could have given about 12 or 14 of these. I won't try to give you three. I don't know if my attitude is right. Here's the first one. Right judgment is always redemptive, never condemning. It's always redemptive, it's never condemning. If I am speaking critically into the life of someone else, my goal should always be to lift them up, never to tear them down. Hey, listen, he goes on in these verses to talk about that speck in the eye. He doesn't say, "Point it out." He says, "Remove it." Well, we're good at pointing it out. That's the Pharisee. Pointing it out. Look at that speck in his eye. Look what he or she's doing wrong. Look where they're missing it. Jesus says, "Don't have that kind of attitude." Jesus, the real discerning follower of Christ is always about building up. That's why Paul said in Romans, "We are to pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another." That word building up refers to spiritual advancement. I'm to be helping people move forward. We are not to be fault finders. We are to be agents of transforming grace. Let me give you the second statement. Right judgment is always focused on the future, not the past. It's always focused on the future, not the past. If I'm speaking critically into someone's life, the focus is not beating them up over what they did in the past. It's rather securing a better future for them. That's why Peter wrote and he said, "Above all else, keep fervent in your love for one another because love covers a multitude of sins." Listen, if you're just about bringing up the past, we've got a condemning judgmental self-righteous attitude that's not the way Jesus wants us to be. Now, the whole reason about getting involved in what happened in the past is so you can help them in the future. It's not about the past. Paul said, "Forgetting what lies behind, reaching forward to what lies ahead," I press on. I'll give you a third statement. That judgment always looks at my own heart before dealing with others. It's getting personal now, isn't it? He said, "To deal with the log first." You see, when I see something in others that triggers a critical spirit in my own life, I should always first ask God once he—what he wants to show me about me, because here's the reality, okay? If I see something in somebody else's life, that same thing is either in my life or it used to be, and by the grace of God, it's not anymore, and I'm no better than them. But for the grace of God, that be me. Matthew Henry said it this way, I love this quote, "Our own sins ought to appear greater to us than the sins of others." Hey, if somebody else's sin is bothering you more than your own unrighteousness before God, listen, we need to get back into closet and spend some time with the Father and let Him show us who we really are before Him and how much we need His grace. Right judgment, it always starts with an examination of me before it leads me to do anything with others. Well, let me ask the last question. How does this apply to my life? Jesus gives us two applications in these verses, and if I was going to use a word that I think would help us today, when we think about this idea of right judgment, probably the best word for it is discernment. Right judgment is using discernment, being discerning as followers of Christ. And Jesus here tells us how this applies. First of all, in our relationships with each other's brothers and sisters in Christ, and then He tells us in verse 6 how it applies in our relationships to people that don't know God, unbelievers. Let me break it down for you. First of all, it applies to our relationship with our fellow believers. Look what He says there in verse 3, "Why do you look at the spec that is in your brother's eye?" The word brother here is a word that was used to refer to those inside the family of God. He immediately begins to take this principle of not being judgmental and apply it to our relationship with our brother and sister in Christ. Here's what I want you to hear me say today. We have a responsibility to our brothers and sisters in Christ to speak into their lives when God gives us some discernment about something in their lives. We have a responsibility. Listen, I have some men that have the responsibility. I've invited them into my life and I tell them I want you to speak into my life. You know why? I'm not all the man I'm supposed to be. I'm still in a process like you being conformed to the image of Christ. We need people that will honestly, with a spirit of love and compassion, speak truth into our lives to help us be conformed to the image of Christ. You and I as followers of Christ, listen, it's our responsibility to our brothers and sisters when God puts something on our hearts to go to them. Let me show it to you in the Bible, Matthew 18 verse 15 says if your brother sins, point it out for all to see, is that what it says? No, go and show him his fault in private. If he listens to you, you have won your brother. Let me give you three steps if you're going to confront a brother, sister, and Christ. Here's the first one, examine my own heart first. I love the way verse five is written. You hypocrite first. It means here's the priority of importance. Here's the priority of how this is supposed to play out. You see a speck in your brother's eye? Let me give you step one. Step one, deal with the log in your own. Examine my own heart first. The starting point is to examine my heart, to get along with God and ask God to show me, Lord, where in my life? Listen, that trigger of seeing something in somebody else's life should be a reminder of God's grace in my own life and drive me to my knees seeking God to conform me to the image of Christ. Joe Fryburgers, our new campus pastor in Boulder City, and Joe sent me an email this week as we talked about these verses, and he gave me three statements, and we don't have time to unpack them, but I wanted to put them on the screen. They were helpful for me. I wanted you to hear them. Three reasons why we need to examine our own heart first. Number one, self-examination helps me see my own sin. Number two, self-examination reminds me of sin's power and my need for grace and forgiveness. And number three, self-examination changes my attitude towards my brother and sister from condemnation to encouragement. That's good stuff. If you feel God is leading you to confront a brother, sister in Christ, let me tell you the first thing you need to do, get along with God and examine your own heart. Number two, ask God for the ability to say the right thing at the right time and the right way. I don't think it's coincidence that verse 7 of chapter 7 is Jesus saying ask, and it will be given to you, seek and you will find knock and it will be open to you. Now, we're going to talk about that next weekend and what that means. Let me tell you one thing we know for sure it means in the immediate context. Before you go confront a brother, sister, ask God for wisdom. Listen, you can say the right thing at the wrong time. You can say the right thing at the right time, the wrong way. Ask God to help us say the right thing at the right time in the right way. Can I be real honest with you? If we would simply examine our own heart first and then pray for God's wisdom, we would eliminate most of our mistakes when it comes to a judgment latitude. Oh, we're too quick to want to shoot off our mouth. Let's just be honest, we want to get our two cents in. Like for some reason, we think our two cents matters. If we would start with examining our own heart and then ask God for wisdom to say the right thing, right time, right way, we'd eliminate most of our mistakes. But then there's a third step and this is the real. You need to then go with a heart to serve your brother or sister. Did you hear what he said? And you will see clearly, I love this, to take the speck out of your brother's eye. Now listen to me, the log I told you already is this huge beam. Speck here is really more like a particle of sawdust. It's a little bitty, something that's in somebody's eye. You don't just blow by somebody and knock out a piece of sawdust out of their eye, right? You know what this is communicating, a willingness to get real personally involved and helping somebody take their next step on their journey with Jesus. You know what this is communicating, I'll do whatever it takes to help you. I mean you willing to get all up in somebody's eye, it's done got personal, right? I mean you don't just put you, you don't do that, right? I mean that's just, we don't just get up in somebody's face and start dealing with the little bitty thing, let me get that, I mean you do that with your wife or with your kids but let me just walk up to the average person, let me have to get that eye out of there, right? I mean that's personal, that's private. Jesus is here communicating that if our attitude is right, we'll have examined our own heart first, we'll have asked God for wisdom and then we'll be willing to go to that brother's sister and Christ and someone she knows something, you are not alone and whatever it takes to help you get through this, I'm in. Now listen to me, I mean this in all sincerity and in all humility but I mean it. If I hadn't examined my own heart first and asked God for wisdom and if I'm not to the place in my attitude where I'm ready to get involved whatever it takes to help that brother's sister move forward, let me tell you what I need to do, keep my mouth shut. That's the truth. Now I know that sounds strong but it's the truth, Jesus said don't judge, don't have a judgmental attitude and if you don't have a judgmental attitude let me tell you what we'll do, the first thing we'll do is examine our own heart and then after we've examined our own heart and removed those logs out of our own eye and let God deal with us over things, the next thing we're going to do is say God you give me the wisdom to say the right thing at the right time in the right way and when we've got that God so prepared us that we're ready to go to that brother and sister in Christ and do everything possible to serve them in taking their next step on their journey with Jesus and until I'm ready to do that the best thing I can do for the kingdom of God is keep my mouth closed. That's how it applies in our relationship, our brothers and sisters in Christ but then he gives us an application of how it applies to our non-believing friends, verse 6, do not give what is holy to dogs and do not throw your pearls before swine or they will trample them under their feet and turn and tear you to pieces. Was that me? Well let me give it to you real quick all right? Pearls and the things that are holy are symbolic for the gospel. The dogs and the swine, those were phrases that the Jewish culture would use to refer to those who were outside of God's family, they were not believers. Here Jesus in the first illustration he's telling us that as followers of Christ we have a responsibility to our brothers and sisters in Christ but in this illustration he's saying that as followers of Jesus we have a responsibility to be a steward of the gospel of Jesus. And in our stewardship of the gospel we need to be sensitive to God's activity around us. Hey let's be honest sharing the gospel with somebody and seeing them come to faith in Jesus Christ is not just an intellectual exercise right? It's not just convincing them of a few facts and having them acknowledge that they assent to the certain doctrines that we've laid out. No here's what we know that it's a spiritual experience. The holy, listen I don't know how many times in my life I'd heard the gospel. Growing up as a child I heard the gospel every week, every weekend, every time I went to a vacation Bible school kids camp, youth camp, I'd heard the gospel probably thousands of times but it wasn't until I was a freshman in college at the University of North Alabama that the Holy Spirit of God quickened my heart and did a spiritual experience where he drew me to a saving knowledge of himself and led me to the point of surrendering my life completely to the lordship of Jesus Christ. As we are stewards of the gospel we must be sensitive to God's activity around us. We must be aware when the Spirit of God is at work in our relationships and what Jesus is saying here is I should be discerning, I should use judgment. If I don't sense God leading, if I don't sense God speaking in that situation I should not put what is holy, I should not take the gospel and just cram it down the throat of an unbeliever. Why would he say that? Well let me read you this quote and I'll make a comment and be done. Oldman New Testament commentary says to persist in sharing with a resistant person waste time and energy. It can also destroy a relationship that might prove fruitful later. Listen, if you and I aren't careful as discerning Christians we can be so offensive in how we present the gospel so we can notch our belt to say I shared with another one today. We can be so offensive in how we share the gospel that we ruin relationships that if we just lived out the life of Christ, been sensitive to the leadership of the Holy Spirit of God, use biblical sound discerning judgment in presenting the gospel we could have waited for God to be at work in that relationship. Now you can't take this principle and use it as an excuse to never share the gospel. That's not what I'm saying. We need to share the gospel. We need to present the claims of Christ. We need to tell people that God loves them and has a wonderful plan for their lives. But what Jesus is saying here is we need to use good solid discernment and not give what is holy to do or he says they'll just run you over or they'll just chew it up and spit it out. I'm afraid that with our zeal to say we've shared the gospel we may have sometimes offended and ruined relationships that might have been receptive later if we just been sensitive to the leadership of the Holy Spirit of God. Jesus says do not judge. Don't have a judgmental condemning spirit but we are to be discerning people. Let's be sure that we interpret scripture in its context. Let's pray. Lord would you speak to us today through your word? God there are some rich, rich truths in this section of scripture that we have read this morning and God we ask you to give us real clarity today as we think on these things as we dialogue these things in our hearts before you and God I pray that you would not allow the enemy to remove the seed that has been sown but God I pray these things would take root in the heart and life of this fellowship. As you sit quietly there before the Lord this morning before we stand and sing a song of worship and have an opportunity to respond publicly I want you to just deal privately with God in your heart. And I want to ask you a couple of questions and here's the first one. Is there any area of a critical judging spirit in your life right now that you need to repent of? Hey that's the first step. The first step is to repent. If you see areas in your life where you've had a critical and judgmental spirit you've only been about pointing out the wrong and not about getting involved and helping people take next steps. If you're just looking on the outside and making some judgments when you've not had conversations and you don't know their heart the starting point for you this morning may be repentance is there anybody that you need to go to right now maybe they're in this building maybe after this service is over you need to go to somebody and ask their forgiveness for a condemning judgmental spirit. Any logs in your own eye? It's greater to you the sin of others are your own sin. And finally today are you a Christian? Have you ever given your life to Jesus Christ? Maybe you're here today and the Spirit of God has convicted you of sin and you know that you need a Savior. If the Spirit of God is drawing you you sense God speaking to your heart and you don't know what next steps to take we're about to stand and sing a great song of worship and as we sing this song of worship if you're here today and you do not know Jesus Christ and you're ready to give your life to him and be forgiven of your sin and have a relationship with God. We've got some pastors here at the front we've got some prayer volunteers at the back and if God is spoken to you while we're singing listen to people next to you will let you out you just slip out of your seat come to one of these at the front go to one of these at the back and just say I need Christ today and they'll show you how you can be saved from the Bible. Maybe you're here and you just have a burden you need somebody to pray with you you you've got a a log in your own eye that you need you need somebody to speak into your life and give you some counsel and to pray over you today hey that's why these pastors and prayer volunteers are here you go to any one of them today and say hey I need somebody to pray with me that's why they're here while we're singing you go to one of them and they'll talk with you Lord as we sing this song of worship God would you speak to us Lord may we not just hear these things and move on may you do a deep work in our lives for your glory and honor it's in the name of Jesus we pray.