The Art of Speck Removal

As the spirit was moving over the water, spirit, come move over us. Come rest on us. Come rest on us. As the spirit was moving over the waters, spirit, come move over us. Come rest on us.

Come rest on us. Calm down, spirit. When you move, make my heart pound when you fill the room. You’re here and I know you are moving. I’m here and I know you will feel me.

Calm down, spirit. When you move, you make my heart pound. When you fill the room, you’re here and I know you are moving. I’m here and I know you will fill me. Fire and wind come and do it again.

Open up the gates. Let heaven on in. Come rest on us. Come rest on us. Fire and wind come and do it again.

Open up the gates. Let heaven on it. Come rest on us. Come rest on us. Come down spirit.

When you need my heart when you fill the room, you’re here and I know you are moving. I hear and I know you will feel me. Spirit, when you know you can when you feel you’re here and I know you won’t feel me. I’m here and I know you will feel me. Holy Spirit, come rest on us.

You’re all we want. You’re all we want. Holy Spirit, come rest on us. You’re all we want. You’re all we want.

Holy Spirit, come rest on us. You’re all we want. You’re all we want. Holy Spirit, come rest on us. You’re all we want.

You’re all we want. Come down sp you’re here and I know you are moving out here and I know you will feel me come down spirit when you feel the moon. You’re here and I know you are. I’m here and I know you will feel me. Come down, spirit.

When you move, you make my heart pound. When you fill the room, you’re here and I know you are moving. I’m here and I know you will feel me. Calm down, spirit. When you’re moving my heart when you fill the room, you’re here and I know you are moving.

I’m here and I know you will fill me. Amen. Come thou fountain. One of my very favorite hymns. It’s a little taste of what’s coming at the him sing later today.

Come the f of every blessing. Tune my heart to sing thy grace. Streams of mercy, ever ceasing. Call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me somewhere Lord your son by living tongues above.

Raise the mountain fixed upon it. Found of God’s redeeming love. Here I raise my ever hither to thy help I’m hold by thy good pleasure safely to arrive at home. Jesus saw me when a stranger wandering from the f of God. He to restue me from danger his precious blood.

Oh to grace how great a de I’m constrained to be. Let thy goodness like a feather bind my wondering heart to thee. Don’t to wonder Lord I feel it. Don’t to leave the God I love. Here’s my heart.

Oh, take and seal it. Seal it for thy courts above. Here’s my heart. Oh, take and seal it. Seal it for thy courts above.

Romans 12 says, “Beloved friends, what should be our proper response to God’s marvelous mercy? To surrender ourselves to God to be his sacred living sacrifices and live in holiness experiencing all that delights his heart. For this becomes your genuine expression of worship. Stop imitating the ideals and the opinions of the culture around you. Be inwardly transformed by the spirit.

Take my life and let me be deadly Lord to thee. Take my hands and let them move at the impulse of the Lord. At the impulse of the Lord. Take my feet and let them be swift and beautiful to thee. Take my voice and let me sing.

Always only for my king. Always for my king. So take my heart and for it. Take my mind transform. Take my will.

Come forward to yours. To your soul. Take my life, my God, I pray at your feet treure. Take myself and I will be ever all for thee. Ever only.

So take my heart and forever. Take my heart and transform it. Take my word. Come for me to yours. To yours, oh Lord.

To yours. To yours, oh Lord. Ever the off for thee. Father God, we thank you so much that you are the God of peace. And no matter how we came here this morning, we can know that there is rest in you.

There is refreshment by your Holy Spirit. There’s joy that comes from knowing your son, knowing what he did for us on the cross, knowing he did not stay on that cross or in that tomb, but that he’s alive today. And God, thank you that most importantly you achieved peace between us and you. I pray that that would change the way we live. Change our thinking.

Change the way we relate to others this week and going forward. Speak to us from your word. We pray in Jesus mighty name. Amen. >> Thank you.

You may be seated. All right. I’m going to invite all the kids to come up here for a moment. We’re going to have something fun for you. Just the kids.

Just the kids. You can have a a seat here on the stairs. You can you can face outward or you can face towards me. Either way, we have VBS coming up though in a month, June 22nd. Yes.

Love the excitement. That is going to be good. So actually I’m going to have you guys guess. I need a volunteer. >> Johnny’s hand went up first.

Johnny, I want you to can you come up here for a second? I want you to without looking in the bag, reach in there and feel it around and and guess what object is in the bag. Okay? So, reach in there without looking. >> It won’t move.

>> It won’t move. I promise it’s not going to bite you. It’s a fair question. >> Okay. And then without taking it out, what do you think it is?

Here, I’ll give you a hint. It has to do with light. Okay. Well, that would be really cool. It’s not a laser beam, but I will You can pull it out.

What is that? >> It says, “Walk in light.” >> Walk in the light. Yeah, that’s right. And do you know what this is right here?

>> This is called >> a glow stick. >> Yeah. And And you are right. It’s It’s all about Jesus. So, look now.

Does anyone know what color this is going to be? >> Pink. >> Red. >> Blue. Yellow.

Okay, we’re gonna find out. You ready? >> Who said blue? Okay, it’s blue. >> I said blue.

>> Okay, there you go. >> All right. Now, real quick here, I’m gonna gonna talk to you guys a little bit about light. So maybe you can turn and kind of face me either on the stairs or on the on the floor there because the light this is the theme of VBS this year. You guys are invited.

Your friends are invited. So we want you to go tell your friends also. But look, this is all about Jesus. So these are search lights that are going to point us to Jesus. The first one says promised because Jesus was promised all through the Old Testament.

The first part of the Bible, the Bible says Jesus is coming and then he comes. So he’s promised. He’s fulfills all those what we call prophecies. The second one is that says perfect. See that?

Because Jesus was the perfect one. You know, everybody else who’s ever lived here, stay over here. Stay over here. I know that looks really exciting. Every single one of us has sinned.

Do you know that? And Jesus is the only one who is perfect, sinless. And so he is the perfect one who not only set an example for us, but he became a sacrifice for us. And then he, this one says, I skipped one here. Powerful.

Powerful because when Jesus came, you know what he was doing? He was healing people. People who couldn’t see, he gave them sight. People who couldn’t walk, he gave them the ability to walk again. Jesus was powerful.

He can help us in our lives. And then this one says proven because Jesus died on the cross for our sins. And then what happened? Does anyone know? >> He resurrected.

>> He resurrected. Which means >> resurrected. >> Amen. >> You got it. And that proves that he is God who came to save us.

That’s right. And then this last one is plan. Because from the beginning of time, God had a plan to rescue sinners because we had sinned. We needed to be forgiven. God had a plan.

He was going to do something about that through Jesus who the Bible calls the light of the world. And you know something else that the Bible says that just like that glow stick, what’s your name? >> I’m sorry. >> Yuan. Just like Yuan’s got that light there.

Do you know that we are called to be lights in the world? >> Yeah. >> And and the way So, think of this. When you have a flashlight, what’s important is not looking at the flashlight, right? What’s important is what the flashlight is shining on.

And that’s what we’re called to do. We’re to put the light on Jesus and show other people who he is. And he did all those things that we just talked about. Okay. So, this next month, we’ve got VBS coming all about Jesus being the light of the world.

Okay? I’m going to pray for you guys and then you can have a we got something for you. Don’t worry, we got something for you. And then and then you’re going to make your way back to your seat. Okay?

All right. I’m going to pray. Father God, we thank you for these kids. Thank you for the excitement and just the joy they have. Thank you that you are the light of the world.

That you came to save each and every one of these kids and that they can share this message with others and be a search light for you pointing to Jesus. I pray that we would do that and that this VBS would be a complete success. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen. All right.

Thanks guys. You can go ahead and grab your little gift that Miss Becky has for you and then make your way back to your seat with your parents. All right. The kids are going to join us this morning. It’s the month of five Sundays.

So we have them join us on the first Sunday and we’re gonna enjoy having them with us. If you have your Bibles, we are in the Gospel of Luke. >> Miss Becky has something for you. Look at that. Miss Becky has something for you.

Yeah. All right. All right. Luke chapter 6. Here we go.

So, we are smack dab in the middle of the sermon Jesus preached that is called the sermon on the level. It’s a parallel to the sermon on the mount and it’s all about Jesus talking about the kingdom. This is Jesus in this sermon. He’s saying this is what it’s like to have life in the kingdom, to live in God’s kingdom. And he’s already talked about things called the biatitudes, the blessings of life in the kingdom.

He’s talked about the golden rule, how you treat others, and he’s talked about loving your enemies. All these things Jesus is pointing to to show us who he is and why he came. So, think of this sermon as as the sermon of Jesus as a master class on how to make your life count for eternity. This is Jesus telling all of us, this is what it means to invest in eternity. This is what it means to be my follower.

And he says at the end of the sermon, if we build our lives on his words, we will be able to weather whatever life throws at us. If we plant ourselves in his teachings and live as if he really is king, that changes everything. I don’t know about you, but the more I study Jesus’s words, the more I’m convinced that he really is an expert on human nature. He knows all about our tendency to see flaws in others and have trouble seeing them in ourselves. He knows that we have these blind spots.

For example, have you ever noticed that if someone cuts you off in traffic, that guy is a maniac and he’s going to get somebody killed? But if you happen to be the person cutting someone else else off in traffic, well, you have a good reason for it. You’re late for something very important, right? It can all be explained. We can think in this way all the time about so many different things.

And partly it’s because we live in a very meentered culture. The culture encourages us to actually think this way. First about ourselves. The writer Ashley Brilliant once wrote, “All I ask of life is a constant and exaggerated sense of my own importance.” And we laugh because it’s true, isn’t it?

Believe it or not, they even have t-shirts they sell today that say, “I heart me.” And partly it’s because we have this inflated view of ourselves and we tend to think if there’s any kind of disagreement, I’m the one in the right. The other person needs to be proven wrong. I need to show why they are wrong. And so we need some selfassessment.

And that’s what Jesus is encouraging us to do. And he does this by using this memorable and somewhat ridiculous illustration really of a guy having a massive log in his eye trying to help someone else get a speck out of their eye. And here’s the thing. Jesus might offend us a little, but he promises if we will listen to his words, if we will receive them and humbly walk as if they are true, we will be better for it. We’ll be changed, and eventually we will more look more like him.

And the world needs Christians that look more like Jesus. Amen. Here’s the big idea this morning. Jesus has a vision for your life and it involves you being shaped and molded by his word, his spirit, and his church into a person of grace and truth. So, if you’re able, please stand for the reading of God’s word.

Luke chapter 6, beginning in verse 37, Jesus says this, “Judge not, and you will not be judged. Condemn not and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. 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. He also told them a parable. 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.

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? 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, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck that is in your brother’s eye. Thank you. You may be seated.

Not long ago, I was preparing a orange chicken meal for a family at dinnertime and one of my sons walked into the kitchen and nonchalantly popped one of those pieces of orange chicken into his mouth. And I responded by saying, “Hey, what are you doing? Got to wait till we’re all seated together as a family.” And so we set the table, put plates and forks out, and I put the orange chicken into this serving dish and looked at how delicious and perfectly you know, glazed over it was. And I impulsively popped one in my mouth.

And as I’m enjoying this sweet, savory, crunchy goodness, I look up and I see my son staring at me with wide eyes. I had only less than a minute ago chastised them for doing something that I was now doing. Talk about having a log in your eye. I apologized to them and they were gracious to forgive me for that. Being a bad example as a dad.

But I know I’m not alone. Now, how many parents here have corrected your children for something only to in a a few short moments be doing the same thing? Right? I think many of us know what that’s like. You know, like you’re telling your kids, “Don’t yell.”

Only as you’re telling them that, you realize you’re yelling at them. This is common. And this is what Jesus is getting at when he starts talking about this art of speck removal. It’s not wrong to try to help people. It’s not wrong to to help people get into the truth and try to show people if they’ve gone off into a ditch, if they’ve gone wrong.

It’s good to want to help people, but Jesus is so clear. If you’re going to do that, you have to first do some self-examination. Look first at that log and see if there’s any timber that needs to be removed from your eye. In verse 37, he says, “Judge not and you will not be judged. Condemn not and you will not be condemned.

Forgive and you will be forgiven.” In your notes, the humble forgive quickly, knowing they have received great mercy. You know, Jesus came into this world that is filled with relationally broken men and women. We were made to love God, love one another. But because of sin, we all struggle to love, to show consideration for other people, to put others first.

And the more we focus on ourselves first, the more we miss our purpose. And the more everybody gets hurt, including ourselves. We struggle with navigating relationships. We offend one another. We say things we don’t mean.

We betray one another’s trust. We lie to one another to get out of a jam. We explode in anger at one another when things aren’t going our way. This is the human condition. And this is why we need Jesus so badly.

And if there’s one verse that Americans know better than John 3:16, it would be this one. Judge not that you not be judged. The cardinal sin of our culture is judging. And that’s because the one absolute is that you must show tolerance and never call anything sin. And so the statement from Jesus taken out of context is is used like a divine gag order to silence anybody for making any kind of moral claim or any kind of moral judgment.

The question is is that what Jesus was doing here? See the thinking for our culture often goes like this? You and I we are each on a personal quest for fulfillment. That is the greatest good. Me being personally fulfilled.

And so if anyone obstructs that quest, if anyone in any way becomes an impediment to that, me me being authentic and me being fulfilled, they’re a problem. That’s why you hear people say, “Who are you to judge me?” Right? And if they know you’re a Christian, they can add, “Don’t you know Jesus said, “Do not judge. Judge not.”

Unfortunately, as this so often happens, this verse is lifted completely out of its immediate context and it’s lifted out of the context of the whole Bible, which consistently calls us to make moral judgments. For example, how many are aware that right after this in the Gospel of Luke, literally the very next section, Jesus calls us to make a moral judgment. He says, “Be aware of the people you’re dealing with. Identify them by their fruits.” How do you do that without making a moral judgment?

We’re called to test teachings and lifestyles by the word of God. In fact, the Bible says, “Test everything and cling to what is good.” Cling to what is good. So that means that every time I preach, I would encourage you test what I’m saying by the word of God. Does it line up?

If anything doesn’t, you should throw it out. It is the measuring stick. Taken in context, Jesus is not making a blanket statement saying that Christians are never to make any moral judgments are are never to call anything sin. He’s not doing that. That would be ridiculous.

To say all judgment is wrong is actually self-refuting because think about this. If someone says, “Who are you to judge me? How can you call this sin?” What are they doing? They’re judging me.

They’re judging me. They’re saying I’m not to call something morally wrong and they’re saying what I’m doing is morally wrong. It’s self-refuting. That’s the problem with moral relativism. It it self-destructs.

We all have to make moral judgments in life. When you hear about something in the news and you and you know it’s wrong in your gut, you’re making a moral judgment. If you see someone in the grocery store cut in front of someone else in line, you immediately make a moral judgment. You know what they’ve done is wrong. The only question is whose authority do you appeal to when you make moral judgments?

Are you going to appeal to Christ or the consensus? To the word or to the world? Who is your authority for making moral judgments? Because you will make moral judgments. That’s part of being made in the image of God.

You make moral judgments because you know there is a good and there is an evil. But there is a kind of judgment that Jesus is condemning. Jesus is coming after the self-righteous, hypocritical, condescending kind of judgment. He is taking to task those who have this judgmentalism that lacks any kind of warmth, any kind of mercy that doesn’t identify first that I am a sinner. And so if I’m going to help sinners, I need to own that I have my own sin struggles.

This is a phariseaical attitude that condemns others and is eager to throw rocks at other people. One of the clearest proofs that you’ve received God’s mercy is that you will want to show mercy to others. You’ve been changed by a God who loved you even in your sin. Even before you had proven any worth or proven any goodness to this God, he loved you. And that changes how you respond to others.

So that means as a Christian, when you’ve been wronged, you’re not just a passive victim or an angry victim. You’re an empowered agent of God’s grace. That’s in those times, in fact, when you’ve been wronged that you’re given this golden opportunity to show the love of Jesus to others. The world says forgiveness is only for those who deserve it or forgiveness is too weak. It’s too soft on justice.

But as Christians, we believe that there is a God who at the final day will execute perfect justice. He will write every wrong to the perfect degree. Our systems of justice are flawed. You think about this. Many perpetrators get away with what they’re doing.

Every year murderers get away with murder. Nobody catches them. So, if there is no God ruling the universe, who’s making sure that justice is meed out? It’s only when you believe that there is a God who will take care of justice that you’re set free to forgive others. Because you can leave all that judgment, all that justice to God.

More importantly, if you’re a Christian, that means you need to in humility recognize I’ve received mercy. I was not treated in a harsh, condemning way by Jesus. You You own That’s what it means to be a Christian. You own that you have morally failed, that you needed forgiveness, that you needed mercy. And so, how can you acknowledge that and not want to show mercy to others?

This is what Jesus gets at when he says, “Condemn not in verse 37.” And you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. See, the humble realize how much God has forgiven them. They are in awe that God would be so merciful to them.

Knowing everything about us, he forgives us. And so they want to show that same forgiveness to others. Even in verse 37, we see the foreshadowing of the cross because when you think about it, it’s only at the cross of Jesus Christ that perfect mercy and perfect justice meet. And that can only happen in God’s perfect wisdom. Only at the cross.

I can’t think of any other way for God to remain righteous and also forgive sinners. The cross was the only way. He had to come. He had to be that perfect sacrifice for us. This last year, we saw Erica Kirk, the widow of Charlie Kirk, publicly forgive the man who shot and killed her husband, leaving behind her and her two little children.

And I don’t care what side of the political aisle you are on, that is powerful. That is powerful. When someone gets up and says, “I forgive those who have wronged me because of what Jesus did for me.” That changes everything for you. That’s the power of the gospel on display.

Jesus says in in verse 38, “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.” In your notes, the humble give generously, knowing God has graciously blessed them. The humble give generously.

When you give generously, God promises to fully pour out his kingdom blessings on you. And the image here is of a farmer who would go and and collect grain and put it in a sack and you know it would be the corn or the wheat or whatever and then after putting it up filling it up all the way shaking it and then letting it settle down more and then pouring more in and then repeating the process until there is no more space for any more grain in that sack. And that’s the image that God has given us that he is the generous God who pours out blessing over abundance into our lap so that it’s spilling over that bag. In fact, God is generous. The measure we use is measured back to us.

And Jesus here, what he’s doing is echoing an image from Malachi 3:10. In that passage, God actually calls us to test him, which is crazy because that’s like one of the main things, you know, you can’t do normally. Jesus told Satan, “You do not put the Lord God to the test.” And yet God in Malachi invites us to test him. He says, “Take a look.

See if I don’t notice your tithes and offerings. See if I don’t supply overabundance to meet all your needs and give you more than you expected in return. And according to Jesus, that wasn’t just an old covenant promise for past days. This is a new covenant promise. He’s renewing that promise, saying, “This is still true of God.

If you give generously, you will be blessed in return.” Jesus is talking about the joy of giving generously. And the humble are generous because they recognize this is God’s world. Everything I own, it’s only because it’s come from God in the first place. So, how can I not share with others what I’ve have?

You know, the biggest reason that you and I struggle with generosity. Worry. We worry that in tough financial times, we won’t receive a reward for being generous. We worry that we won’t have enough for ourselves or our families. We worry and and worry is the biggest killer of generosity.

It’s where you put your faith. That’s what tells you. But Jesus is saying that generous giving, ironically, is actually the cure for worry. We tend to think that, you know, if I give, I losing something. I’m missing out somehow.

And and Jesus says that’s actually the opposite. In my kingdom. The truth is that when you open your hand to give, you’re not losing something. In reality, you’re opening your hand to give. You’re also opening your hand to receive blessings from my father.

And he will pour them out in abundance. And you need to know this. You cannot outgive God. He has endless resources, unlimited wealth, unlimited storehouses. So if you open your hands to receive from God his blessings that he wants to give you, then you are tapped into a resource that will never run dry.

He always has more to give you. And he wants to give you more because he’s a generous father. That’s what Jesus is saying here. By the way, study after study proves Jesus right. Those who are generous in their giving are over and over going to be happier in life.

They’re going to have more meaning in life. They’re going to see themselves as part of something bigger than themselves. The question always comes down to this. Are you as a follower of Jesus going to take Jesus at his words? Do we really believe that this is who God is?

That when we give generously, then he’s going to keep pouring out blessings, pouring out blessings, and it will fill up and and should be shaken down and overflowing onto our lap more than we could have expected, more than we could imagine. That is what God promises. When you give generously, you’re investing in eternity. And those who invest in eternity, not in the circumstances of this life, but in eternity, they get to experience joy. After highlighting the beauty of humility, Jesus then moves on and sets his sights on hypocrisy.

Verse 39 says, he also told them a parable. Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? Here’s what Jesus is saying in your notes. The hypocrite is overconfident in his grasp of the truth and leads others astray.

The problem as Jesus correctly diagnoses here is that we all all human beings everywhere have a kind of spiritual blindness. We we struggle to see things as they really are. And in the worst cases, it shows up in religious contexts because that’s where people are claiming to speak on behalf of God or lead others in the way of God. Or maybe better said, it shows up in leadership and influence. The Pharisees were blinded by their religious zeal.

Pilate was blinded by his ambition. That’s why he couldn’t see justice when it was right in front of him. King Saul was blinded by his envy. It was so obvious that what he was doing to David was wrong and yet he kept doing it. We’re all prone to blind spots.

And we have to be careful here because hypocrisy is rooted in thinking, “I know better than others. I have it figured out. I know best.” The Bible says, “Do not be wise in your own eyes.” In other words, don’t assume you’re the smartest person in the room.

Don’t assume you’re the one who has it all together. You should assume that there are things you’ve missed. You should assume because of sin, I need to have my vision corrected. I need the help of others. I need people to guide me.

I see this as an especially important warning for pastors like myself, pastors, communicators, teachers, today I would say YouTube influencers as well. All of these, but it extends beyond that. It’s parents. It’s small group leaders. It’s anybody who has any level of an influence over others.

He’s saying be careful. Make sure your eyes are seeing clearly because if you’re leading others, you do not want to lead them into a pit. It’s worth thinking about who are you influencing? Who in life is influenced by you? And who are you being influenced by?

Flawed teachers produce flawed students. Pastors are certainly not infallible. Teachers are not infallible. YouTube influencers are not infallible. Scientists are not infallible.

We’re all dust. But the word of God is infallible. This alone is what you can stake your life on. If something does not measure up to this, you can know it’s leading you astray. And I’m only doing my job as I’m leading you more into the grace and truth of this book.

If I’m in any way deviating from what this word is leading towards, I have missed my purpose. But this is true for all of us who have influence over others. So here’s the point. If you’re blind to your own massive flaws, you can’t really help others. The Bible says, don’t be wise in your own eyes.

If we want to be cured cured of spiritual blindness, you have to spend time in the word of God. There’s really no way around it. Because if we are, as Jesus correctly says, we are spiritually struggling with blindness, then that means we need a new lens. Just like when you go to the doctors and and they take a look at your eyes and they say, “Okay, this is what you need or this is the surgery you need. Maybe this is what needs to happen for you to see things correctly.”

I remember the first time I got glasses, it was like a whole new world opened up and I I couldn’t I couldn’t believe how well I could see way in the distance. I didn’t know that was possible because I had forgotten. And the word of God is like that. Psalm 119:105 says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. It lights the way in a dark world.”

This book is supernatural. It explains who God is. It explains who you are. It explains why you’re here. And it has the power to change your life.

It helps you see what’s really going on in the world. In other words, sin has a blinding effect. And so, we should seek course correction. You can’t do the Christian life on cruise control. You can’t just assume things are going to go well if you just take your hands off the wheel and do nothing.

You’re going to end up in a ditch if you do that. You have to assume there will be course corrections needed. And most often that will be by the word, the spirit, and the church. If you want to grow, you have to see where you’re going. And Jesus carries this idea of spiritually blinded people forward by saying, you know, why is it that you see this little bitty speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye?

You see that so clearly. It’s glaringly obvious. You want to tell them about it. You want to say, hey man, look, this is embarrassing, but you got a speck in your eye. And all the while, you have got this massive tree trunk sticking out of your head.

It’s ridiculous, but it’s true. And and by the way, if anybody imagines that Jesus went around just like, you know, speaking in this stoic monotone all the time, you have to know Jesus is funny. He’s he’s hilarious. Actually, he’s just painting this picture. I mean, imagine an opthalmologist coming into the room and he’s got this big old 2×4 sticking out of his skull and, you know, he’s knocking everything over and he’s giving people concussions and he sees the patient sitting in the chair and he says, “Oo yeah, that looks bad.

Let me let me help you out here with that. That is the image Jesus is giving us. And he says, “You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye. And then, and only then, you can see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” In your notes, the hypocrite is quick to critique, but slow to repent.

Quick to critique, slow to repent. And I hate to say it, but Jesus is right on the money here. I know that because I’ve seen it in my own life where I have been that doctor with a log in the eye. We all have these blind spots caused by our self-righteousness. It it keeps us from seeing things as we really should see them.

It it helps us realize, you know, there’s flaws in others, but we have flaws ourselves. So, if you’re going to help other people, you have to first address yourself. Or it could be that we’re not blind to our own flaws. Maybe we know all about them. We know that there’s these deep flaws in our character, but we try to cover over them.

We try to hide them so that nobody sees those logs in our eye. But hypocrisy tends to expose itself. The Greek word for hypocrite is used of a actor wearing a mask. And so the idea Jesus is talking about somebody who’s two-faced. Basically, they have this carefully curated public image that they want everybody to see.

They want everybody to think, “This is who I am.” And then in private, they’re a totally different person. That’s a hypocrite. And this is why we hate criticism because we think of criticism as an attack on our self-image. We think that person is trying to expose me for who I really am.

That’s why we’re even tempted to say things like Jesus must be talking about the Pharisees here. Isn’t that our first impulse? Oh, this is about the Pharisees. No, if you look at the context, who’s Jesus talking to? His disciples, his followers.

He’s not even talking to the Pharisees here. He’s saying, “You guys need to hear this.” Which means what? This is for all of us. Every single one of us.

You can’t find anybody in this room or in the world who does not struggle in some way in what Jesus is talking about. And though we may see a speck in someone else’s eye and think, you know, out of love, I want to I want to show them the error of their ways or I want to help them be corrected or I I want to help that person who’s stuck in sin and it’s sad and I want to help them get out of that. We can be of no help to others if we haven’t first addressed the log in our own eye. But the Bible gives examples where loving confrontation is needed. I think of the example in the Old Testament of King David when he sinned.

You know, he had all this wealth. God had raised him up to this place as king and he saw a woman he wanted took her as his own. He was the wife of some she was the wife of someone else. And then he had her husband killed. Piling sin upon sin all in an effort to hide his original sin.

He was caught in this web of selfdeception. He thought, you know, well, maybe because I’m king, you know, maybe because I’ve done so much for God’s people, maybe God’s going to, you know, overlooked my adultery, my murder, maybe he just won’t notice. That’s the way people justify things. David was spiraling. He was desperately in need of somebody to call him out.

A loving friend who trusted who was trusted and knew his issues and could help him. Enter Nathan the prophet. Nathan tells David a little story. He says, “David, let me tell you about somebody in the kingdom. There’s this wealthy man who has all these flocks.

He’s doing really well for himself. And then there’s this poor man. And he has this little lamb that he loves. He cares for this lamb like a pet. And when a guest comes to the wealthy man’s house, he thinks, you know, I got to have a nice meal for this guy and instead of taking from his own flocks, he goes over to the poor man and takes that one little lamb that this man loves and serves up lamb chops for his guest.

And as David hears this, he is infuriated. He’s so angry. He says, “Stealing someone else’s little lamb, that’s terrible. That’s disgusting.” He slams his fist down in anger.

A man like that deserves to die. And Nathan points right at his chest and says, “You are the man, David. You are the man. I’ve been describing you. Only what you did is far worse because you took the wife of a man and you had him killed.”

There was a massive log in David’s eye and yet he was infuriated by this speck in someone else’s eye. Isn’t that interesting that when David was caught in this deep sin, even though there was this massive log, everybody reading the story can see it as Nathan is telling this story, he still has this profound sense of right and wrong. See, he knew all along what he was doing was wrong. He knew it, but he rationalized, he justified, he excused himself. That’s how that log gets in there.

It hurt for David to receive that from Nathan. It always does to be called out for sin. But you know what? Because of a Nathan in David’s life, he was able to repent. He was restored and he received God’s mercy and forgiveness.

It’s always painful, but it’s so worth it when you are able to come clean and take that log out. If you are prone to harsh criticism of others, if you’re always fault-f finding, if you’re always disappointed in others, if people are always doing things wrong, if people are just such a a disgrace, or people are just always messing up in your eyes, be careful because you probably have a log. And if you find yourself critiquing others more than repenting of your own sins, then you’re not following the way of Jesus. The problem, as the Bible explains, is that we’re all prone to selfdeception. Every single one of us.

We can be so convinced that we’d even be willing to die for being right. We’d be so convinced that we’re in the right. And yet Jesus says, “So often, you’re actually wrong.” It stings to be called out. How does this log in the eye show up today?

Well, it could show up as overconfidence in the conclusions you’ve reached. You might be overconfident that you’re right about something and when someone tries to correct you, someone tries to help you see another perspective, you immediately shut it down because no, I’m right. There’s the log. Or maybe you judge people’s motives and you assume you know why people did what they did and you have no idea, but you’ve concocted this whole story in your mind saying that’s why they did that. Oh, obviously someone like that would do that.

Or sometimes it looks like distancing yourself from a fellow Christian, someone you should be loving, someone you should be caring for. It’s distancing yourself from them because you see the sins they’re struggling with or the addiction that they’re struggling with and you feel morally superior and you want to create distance. Ironically, we love to point out hypocrisy in other people or institutions because we want to feel morally superior. According to Jesus though, we’re all hypocrites by nature. All of us struggle with this.

Various forms of self-righteousness. And these forms of self-righteousness are what keeps us from seeing our need for repentance. Which again, that was the first word of the kingdom. To get into the kingdom, you have to repent. Repent for the kingdom is at hand.

So what’s the solution? If we all struggle with this, what do we do? The solution is always radical honesty before the cross of Christ. It’s coming clean to God first. The gospel reminds us that though we have been harsh and critical of others, Jesus did not treat us in that same harsh condemning way.

We only know about the specs in other people’s eyes. Think about this. Jesus knows the full extent of all your sins. He knows everything that you’ve done, every wrong move, every wrong word and action. And still he extends mercy to you.

He wants you to be in relationship with him. He still wants you after all that. And he offers us complete forgiveness because he paid for your sin, including all that hypocrisy and self-righteousness. He paid for all of it on the cross. It has been put away, and all you need to do is come straight to him.

He offers eternal life through his resurrection. And when you take that plank out of your own eye, and again it’s painful because just imagine if you did have a plank in your eye, how painful that would be to remove it. In the same way, if you remove that, it’s painful, but you stop trying to condemn people and you start wanting to understand people. You start wanting to find out more about their story. You start showing compassion in a new way.

You start to empathize with people because you realize, you know what? Yeah, they have something. I had something massive. I had a much bigger sin, at least in my view, than what they have. Jesus didn’t say this, though.

He didn’t say, “When you see your brother struggling with sin, no, just let him do his thing. Don’t be judgy.” No, Jesus didn’t say that. He said, “When when you have removed first that massive plank from your eye, you’ve repented of your sin, then go and help your brother or your sister remove that speck.” In your notes, Jesus humbles hypocrites, exposes our self-righteousness, and transforms us into people of grace and truth.

And we don’t want to miss that that word brother in what Jesus is saying. He uses it over and over in this context. He’s saying, “This is how you’re to think about accountability. It’s a family relationship. This is your brother or your sister you’re talking about because the church is a family.

We don’t do criticism or critique like the world does it. The world just wants to cancel people or shut people down or expose people so that you feel better about yourself.” That’s not how the church does it. In the church, you’re a family. And so when you are helping someone, you come alongside them with that compassion and humility that says,”I know that I have sin that you’re going to help me take care of and I’m going to come alongside you and help you as well.”

And we’re going to do this together. We’re going to help each other follow Jesus because that’s what it’s all about. It’s not about comparison. It’s not about who sin more or who’s more in the wrong. No, it’s about how can we help each other follow Jesus.

Here’s what you need to know. Jesus has a vision for your life. And it involves him molding and sculpting and shaping you into his image through the word, the spirit, and the church. All three are needed. You need to be in community with other believers.

You need to be filled with the Holy Spirit, following his will for your life. And you need to be in the word of God because this is the corrective lens that shows us. It’s like a mirror. The Bible says it’s a mirror that shows you in your true condition so that then you can repent. You can leave that old way behind.

Philippians 1:6 gives us this glorious promise. Says, “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” In other words, every single one of us, we are being worked on by Jesus right now. And it’s not going to fail. It’s not going to be one of those projects that you put in your attic and and forget about and hope it goes away.

Jesus will see this to the end. And you will be made like him. So, let me ask this honest self assessment question as we close here. Are you quicker to critique other people and institutions than you are to repent of personal sins? As we go to communion together in just a moment here, this is the question to be asking.

This is what Jesus wants us to focus on. How am I having a log in my eye and focusing only on the specks in other people’s eyes? How am I avoiding that log? You know, God wants to shine the search light on us as well. He wants to show us the things that we need to repent of.

Because as we do that, as we repent, we can grow closer to him. We can experience more of his joy, more of his mercy, more of his love. Again, Jesus wants this for us. And it’s about honesty. Let’s pray together.

Awesome heavenly father, you are the God of light. You root out the darkness in our hearts, in our minds, in our lives. Lord, I think of all the ways that you have shown me logs in my eyes. And I thank you for that. I know that that is a tender and sweet mercy that you didn’t leave me in that place where I was self deceived.

Thank you for doing that for each one of us who’s come to you. And I pray that you would continue to work in our lives. Show us those logs that still need to be removed. Help us to also be ones who care about others enough to love them and seek to help others after we’ve repented of our sin. Help us to be those who come alongside others as family, not in a condemning or critical spirit, but in a brotherly, sisterly way to help each other follow Jesus.

We pray in his mighty name. Amen. At this time, I’ll ask the servers to come forward for passing out the elements and we’ll take them together as a family. Jesus wanted us to remember the gospel regularly and he wanted us to call our attention to the fact that this is a new covenant act that we do when we take the Lord’s supper together. So this is for all those who have put their faith in Jesus, made that public declaration, I am following Jesus.

And there’s a prophecy in the Old Testament that talks about this new covenant that we’re now a part of. Jeremiah 31:31 says, “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. My covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord.” This is what he will do for us, what he promises to do.

I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, “Know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sins no more. The new covenant promise that Jesus gave is that our sins would be remembered no more. And he gave us the bread which represents his body given for us.

Let’s take that together. After taking the bread, he he brought a cup to his disciples. He showed him and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood which is poured out for you for the forgiveness of sin. Gracious Father, we are humbled when we think about what your Jesus did for us. We’re in awe when we consider that he loved us though we had gone astray like sheep away from the fold.

Thank you that he came in pursuit of us. Thank you for loving us first so that we can love you. Lord, we ask that you would work in our hearts, draw us closer to you this week. Help us to be so committed to knowing you more, to make that our our great pursuit in life, to know you more, which is possible because our sins are forgiven in the blood of Christ. We pray in his mighty name.

Amen. >> Please stand with us. In Christ alone my hope is found. He is my light, my strength, my song, this cornerstone. Song and ground firm through the fiercest drought and storm.

What hides above? What depths of peace? Who fears are filled with striving seas? My comforter, my all in all. Here in the love of Christ I stand.

In Christ alone took on flesh, fullness of God in helpless claim. His gift of love and righteousness scorned by the ones he came to save till on that cross where Jesus died. The wrath of God was satisfied for every sin on him was laid. Here in the death of Christ I am there in the ground his body lay. Light of the world by darkness slain in glorious day up from the grave he rose again.

And as he stands in victory, since curse has lost its grip on me, for I am his and he is mine. Bought with the precious blood of Christ. No guilt in life, no fear in death. This is the power of Christ in me. From life was right to final.

Jesus commands my destiny. No power of hell, no scheme of man can ever pluck me from his hand till he returns. Who calls me home here in the power of Christ. I’ll stand till he returns or calls me home. Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise him all creatures here we praise him above heavenly host. Praise father, son, and holy ghost. Amen. Amen.

All right. Well, just wanted to remind you since it’s the first Sunday of the month, we have our benevolence fund. So, if you have a a desire, God’s put it in your heart to give towards that, that’s at the door on your way out. Also, tonight is or this afternoon, I should say, is the him sing. So, if you’re able to make it, we have soup and bread after it.

The him begins at 4, but the the time to drop off if you have soup or bread that you’re going to bring 3:45 down in the great room is when to drop it off. It’ll be ready for us after the him sing. And then, the last thing is that we’re going to have baptisms next week. So, yeah. So, praise God for that.

On Mother’s Day, we’re going to have baptisms. Not only for those who are inviting others to come to the baptisms, but just know that if if you have others who are interested in baptism, let us know. We want to know if it’s not this coming Sunday, future Sundays as well, we’ll be having baptism. Let us know. Thank you.

Have a great week. Hey, John. Heat. Heat.

Transcript machine-generated from the sermon audio, so it may contain errors. 9,518 words.