So for those of you who are new today, we've been going through a sermon series on the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus's most famous set of teaching. And part of the image you may have noticed here on the stage and Mary's just let down a string is a kite. And a kite I think is a wonderful image to describe the Christian life. When a kite has string on it, a good base, and it gets a good gust of wind that's soaring. There it's flying as a kite, but cut off that string, here's sure that kite might fly, might be able to sail in the air for a bit, but it's going to come crashing down. A kite is only a kite if it has strings. And these strings here, if you can see them, we're up to our seventh string represent different aspects of Jesus' words here to help us flourish to help us soar. And today's string I have titled true colors. I want to be a flourishing person. You need to be able to show off your true self and not be hypocritical. Now those words on the screen do not judge or you two will be judged. Many a Christian and many a non-Christian will use this to justify not calling people out. Yes, perhaps you've heard that saying hey Jesus says don't judge or you'll be judged. It's like that non-Christians will throw back on Christians lots and lots. There's a big problem that we have. Now here, what Jesus talked about here is not calling out bad behavior. In fact, Jesus himself would do that in a few verses later. He'll say hey, you'll know people buy their fruits. Good trees produce good fruit, bad trees produce bad fruits. That's actually not what he's talking about. He's talking about something far, far deeper. He's calling out hypocrisy. The problem with the English language is that when we see the word judge, we think ah condemnation. Yeah, doing things that calling people out for doing bad things. No, this is about hypocrisy is what Jesus is talking about. Now in the sermon so far and can I just have the slight change? Thank you. Ah, let's just go over a bit of revision. So for those of you new, just kind of orientate yourself around the sermon. So in the sermon, Jesus has spoken about sort of, I guess, behaviors that will happen in this lifetime. If you do certain things in this lifetime, there will be a reward in the next one. And so Jesus starts off with the classic beatitudes. Blessed are the poor in spirit, says that for theirs is the kingdom. Blessed are those who mourn, fell be comforted, blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth and so forth. There's this idea here that if you do something now, a certain type of behavior, there will be that future reward. And Jesus also too talks about this idea. He says, "For unless I tell your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you'll certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven." So not only do you have to have good behavior in this lifetime, but there needs to be this righteousness. Righteousness is a very fancy religious word. Just means doing right things, doing things that God would like. Just saying, "Unless that surpasses the hypocrisy of the religious leaders of that day, have a righteousness that is actually from the heart, not about external actions, and you can't enter into the kingdom." And then the last couple of weeks we've looked at Matthew chapter 6, and this idea, Murray looked at fasting and prayer and giving. And Jesus here, this talks about being a hypocrite. And so this is just one example here to remember that. So when you give to the needy, you'll announce it with trumpets as the hypocrites in the synagogues and on the street to be honored by others. So again, this idea of what that if you are a hypocrite, if you're doing something in the here and now, he will be rewarded for that. And Jesus, when he looked at last week, Jesus' words about building up treasure in heaven, not on earth. And so that's client orientation for where today's passage comes on. We can go back to that Matthew chapter 7 things key so people can see it there on the screen. This is where we're back to now. This idea of judging. With all that in mind, actions that happen in the here, impact will happen in the future. This idea of, "Oh, can we keep going back to the words?" Oh, has this? This idea. We'll go back. So this idea of what we do in the here and now will impact the future. We'll also, too, as part of that, this idea of not doing things externally. Oh, yeah. The first slide, thanks, Keith. So Matthew chapter 7. There we go. Perfect. So I'm going to read this back out of all that in mind so you can see it there. Do not judge or you, too, will be judged for in the same way you judge others, you will be judged. And with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. You see that idea there? Hey, if you're judging people now, if you're showing hypocrisy, there will be this measure. There will be this measure when the kingdom comes in its fullness. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, "Let me take the speck out of your own eye when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?" You hypocrite. First, take the plank out of your own eye and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. Do you not give to dogs? What is sacred? Do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet. And turn and tell you to pieces. The passage is quite scary. Very scary in many ways, isn't it? This idea of judging and being measured and taking planks out of your eye. So I've called this sermon true colors. Because how easy is it to look at someone's lifestyle and to think they're doing something wrong, thinking out within your own heart or saying it out loud to someone, but then in turn going and doing the exact same thing or something worse. This is where flourishing comes in. There's the importance of having your true colors, your true face. So people know that there is a genuineness. Hey, it's really easy just to follow, I guess, religious practices. It's really easy to rock up the church on Sunday. It's really easy to just follow a different kind of prayer guide or reading plan. That's the easy part, the externals. What's really hard is having righteousness, which surpasses the Pharisees, i.e. righteousness which Jesus was talking about. That's from the heart. So this passage is reminding us of we have to be true. We need to, as old saying says, practice what we preach. Oh, and I've just seen the screens died on me because I was going to show you a wonderful little picture. When I was at kids' church, there it is. When I was at kids' church years ago, I was given this little journal, and the idea was that you had to write in this little journal over a sentence or a picture of what the teaching was about. I remember when kind of preparing a speaker says, "Oh, that's right." So I couldn't find that journal. Sadly, it's been lost in the sands of time. But I thought I'd recreate it for you all. And my drawing as a six-year-old has not improved. And so there it is there in all its glory. My picture for you to remember this image of what hypocrisy looks like. And it's a little bit funny. It's a bit silly. But that's the point of it. The point Jesus is making is like, hey, if you're going to walk around with a log in your eye, how silly is that? You're going to be hitting things, you'd be running into things. It's a crazy image. And the crazy image to think of someone who has a log protruding out of their eye, hitting things running into people, looking at someone else with a little respect in their eye and saying, hey, let me remove that for you. It's ridiculous. It's silly. And that's the point. The only one thing you remember from this sermon is this image of Mitch's terrible little stick drawing with a log coming out of it is that as silly as that image is, it's as silly as someone who's walking around thinking it there better than others when they're not. You need to have your true colors on display. You need to actually practice what you preach. It's kind of scary stuff. Sometimes it's easier to have a rule for the, but not for me. As someone that teaches the word of God, week in and week out, sound here and say, yeah, it's really easy to go, hey, this is what you should be doing and walk away and not do that myself. So many ways this passage is aimed squarely at me more than you because I want to be someone who flourishes. I want to be someone who flies the kite and just be sawing in my Christian faith. I want to be someone who reads God's word and is challenged by it and puts it into practice. It's easy to tell something, say you do this and not do it yourself because I don't want to be like this stickman for a log out of my eye, whacking into things as I walk around. The question that I had and perhaps you're wondering yourself is when Jesus says, how can you say to a brother, let me take the speck out of your eye when all the time there is a plank in your own eye, you hypocrite first take the plank out of your own eye and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye and be really helpful if Jesus gave us a manual, wouldn't it? And I said that kind of guy, okay, I know what that means, I don't mean to take it out, but how can we do this? Well, does that look like practically? I imagine if someone came up to you and said, hey, I've noticed this, you're sending your life, but don't I, I've taken the log out of my own eye before I've approached you, I still feel like it's a bit hypocritical. So as I was thinking and mulling and praying and researching over this, where something came across my mind, this idea of self-awareness, like, oh, okay, so what Jesus is talking about here is this idea of becoming self-aware and there's a stack of research out there about becoming self-aware, but I just want to look for secular research, there's lots of secular research out there and practices you can do around emotional intelligence and being people that reflect on emotions and feelings. I was like, I want something deeper, I want something from a Christian perspective and I came across a practice, it's about 500 years old, it's called The Examine from Ignatius of Loyola and I've heard of this, but I've never actually done it and there's an app you can download, which I did the other day, the Nation Examine and there's like a modern one which actually has different on the app, if you just put it into the app store or Google Play, whatever and download the Examine app, there's one that can actually talk about different areas of your life, it's been updated, but here's the original one that Ignatius wrote and for Ignatius he made his, I guess, priest, the Jesuit society which he formed do this everyday, and tradition has been done at midday or in the evening and it's been said to be by Ignatius, the most important 15 minutes of your life. I was like, 15 minutes, huh? I can spare 15 minutes, how many of us spend a good 20, 30 an hour on social media, mindlessly scrolling? Let's see some hands, oh wow, oh wow, you're very good, no one here mindlessly scrolls day in and day out, oh, wonderful, it's only just me, but yeah, before night or midday, whatever works for you, this is what Ignatius would say, one, place yourself in God's presence, just spend a moment just praying, reflecting, what it might look like for you just to sort of prepare your heart for prayer, and then he would say give thanks to God for his great love for you, and then partly in the next step would be to pray for grace to understand how God is acting in your life, praying for this spiritual wisdom for knowledge of, okay, how is God speaking me? What is God doing in my life in this moment today? Now this is what I love, spend some more at reviewing your day, recalling specific moments of every joy, or sadness, anger, and frustration. I'm sure we could all think of those moments, even today, just doing that, just reflecting upon that, and then in those moments, this is where, I guess, the secret sources, they're all challenged. In fact, I don't want you did, said, thought in those instances, and did they draw you close to the God what they push you away? As part of it, you need to be honest with you, that's not like, oh, you know, I was really, I got angry at this and it made me feel more close to God. No, it needs to be self-reflective and challenging, like, well, no, I got really angry with this person in traffic, and I swore and hocked my horn and flashed him, okay, and that's not really honouring God, it's acknowledging that. And as part of that, you spend some time looking forward to tomorrow and thinking about, I like this, how you might collaborate more effectively with God's plan for that day. This recognition that even in, like, the mundane moments of life, you can partner with God for his plan in your life, where it'd be really, really big or really small, and then Ignatius would finish with a time of praying our Father. This is something that's new for me, I haven't really tried this, but I feel like that this is a great way to start removing the log from your eye. And if you do download the app and that has like, like, Pacific instances, say with conflict, or you got big decisions, or there needs to be repentance in your life, it's structured in a way that there's a verse for that just to reflect on and then working through each of these questions. And so here's my challenge for myself and for all of you. If you want to be people that want to remove the log from your eye, I encourage you, try the X-Men. Make this 15 minutes, and that's easy, it can be 15 minutes maximum, could be a little bit more, less of where I want to be, and become people that show true colors, to become more reflective, to recognize those moments in your life where, okay, yeah, I've really stuffed up on that, and Lord, help me to work through that. Lord, help me to partner with you in your plan for my life. This won't make it perfect. This won't mean that you'll magically stop sinning. But I think that this is a fantastic start to be people who remove the log from their eye and can clearly see and help others with their challenges. The National Church Life Survey, NCLS, they do research on the state of Christianity and Australia, and they've got some research data on some of the reasons why people don't come to church. And I come around the exact percentage, it's in the 60s, I kind of couldn't find it. But anyway, it's about 60% of people do not come to church, because they feel like Christians are judgmental and hypocritical. It's pretty common, like if you talk to the average Australian, they're like, yeah, Christians are judgmental, hypocritical, I don't practice what they preach. It seems to be a pretty common vernacular. Well, if we want to change that, perhaps this is just a really helpful little exercise to start. To dedicate 15 minutes to spend some time doing self-awareness on yourself and asking God to transform and change you. So then your true colors will be revealed, and people will notice that. This year, Murray and I have been reading through a book called The Emotionally Healthy Leader. It's written by a pastor, a man called Pete Scazero, and he's written a number of books around emotional health, but one of his big sayings is you cannot be spiritually healthy without being emotionally healthy. And his testimony is that he formed a church, you know, started with 20 people, grew to a mega church, bustling at the seams, he goes, I didn't rank right. Small groups, prayer meetings, lots of church services for guys, but I was unhealthy emotionally, and my congregation was unhealthy. And I love this sort of quote from him where he talks about why you need to have emotional health, why you need to be self-reflective. And he says here that there are, the reason is that there, because there are lots of Christians who are lousy human beings. He said, I'm talking about people who are judgmental, critical, they're offensive, they're touchy, unapproachable, they're unsafe. And I say they might know the Bible, they practice their spiritual disciplines faithfully, they're faithful churchgoers, they've accepted Jesus. He says here, they're just not warm people. They're not soft and they're not loving. It's a pretty damning condemnation to come from a pastor. Perhaps we know people like that who proclaim to follow Jesus. Or perhaps if we're being really honest, perhaps we are little like that touchy, unapproachable, cold. This is what Jesus was talking about. Jesus here wasn't just talking about calling out bad behavior. In fact, in some ways where we meant to do that. In fact, that's the whole point of taking out the log from your own eyes so that you have the spiritual maturity to help someone see, hey, this is what you're doing wrong. Let me help guide you in that. But never to be in a place of arrogance or superiority or to think that you're better than someone else comes from a place of humbleness. It's the whole point of the beatitudes. Bless all the poor in spirit. Bless all those who are most of all, bless all those who are humble. Bless all those who hunger in thirst for righteousness. It's a type of people Jesus wants to see who he's followers. And so friends today, that's my challenge for all of us. Let's be people who take the log out of our eyes. And I would invite you, and because this is new for me too. So it's not me saying like I've been doing this for years and years and I've got this covered. I'm only just starting this. This is something that I want to implement in my life, the X-Men. If you feel that you can give up 15 minutes a day, to help close the day of reflection and prayer and becoming more aligned with God's will for your life. This is a wonderful place to start. Oh, I close up. We have the baptism tank here, and Alex is all raring and ready to go, aren't you? It's very exciting. But baptism, this isn't the sign that, hey, I've got everything together. I have ticked every box to be the perfect, super Christian. No, this is just many ways to start of a journey. And if you feel like, yeah, I want to publicly declare that I want to follow Jesus, that I haven't got things all together, that my life's not completely and fully sorted, but I'm going through God's help and God's spirit. We're going to do this together. I invite you to come up and be baptized as well. This is a sign of what Jesus has done in your life, taking away the sin, the hypocrisy, the evil that's within us and giving us life and wholeness and fullness, because Jesus wants us to soar. He wants us to ground our life in the strings of his word so that we can be a people who bring flourishing, only to our own lives, but to our families, to our communities, to our workplaces. He wants us to be light in the midst of darkness. I'm going to pray for us now. And while the band is going to sing the final two songs, Alex and I will get ready to be baptized. And if you are feeling that you would like to also be baptized, you can come on up the front. We have towers, we have spare clothes if you want to get changed into and to accept Jesus in those waters of baptism. Let me pray for us now. Yeah, Jesus, I just pray that we be people that remove the logs from our eyes. A law to not be people that are judgmental and hypocritical, but people who show our true colors. And we thank you that Ignatius gave us that simple tool 500 years ago to help us do that. So help us to be people that reflect upon the areas where we've stuffed up, reflect upon the ways that we can better align ourselves with you and honor you and honor those around us. And I pray, Lord, that we are a community, Lord, that has removed the logs from our eyes through humbleness, through self-awareness. That will bring a transformation to our community about the power of the gospel, to transform us, not just to make us a bunch of people that follow a bunch of spiritual rules or disciplines, for people that love you, that serve you, and they have a wellness of life living within us. And I pray this now in Jesus' name. Amen.
