Righteous Judgement vs. Hypocritical Judgement | Matthew 7:1–6 | Chris Fowler

Three years ago this weekend, we came, and I preached my first sermon here at Journey. On that next Tuesday, two days later, all of the partners voted me in, and my family and I began the process of moving here. It was just a gift to be able to serve as your pastor.

As we hit that anniversary mark, I just wanted to say thank you for allowing me to serve as your pastor here at Journey. We're in the middle of a series on The Sermon on the Mount, and today that brings us to a passage in Matthew chapter 7. We're going to be in verses 1-6, and this might be a passage that you're very familiar with, or it could be one that maybe you've never heard before.

I tend to find that it falls into the category of overlooked or over-weaponized, and today's title of the sermon is called "Righteous Judgment versus Hypocritical Judgment. " To judge is to analyze or to evaluate. It can also mean to bring justice or to condemn, and in this sense, the justice and condemnation belong to the only true, pure, and righteous judge.

This alone belongs to God. However, to evaluate or to analyze, to form a critical opinion of something, either positive or negative, belongs to us, so long as it is connected to building up and not tearing down. Now, we've talked about how sometimes these sections in our Bibles can be a little misleading or can lead us astray.

We've also discussed the fact that chapters 5, 6, and 7 of Matthew are all interconnected. They're all Jesus's Sermon on the Mount—one cohesive teaching. These divisions can sometimes feel separate, disjointed, and disconnected.

But I'm curious: in your Bible—mine has section headings—a lot of times in the section heading for this passage it says "Judging Others. " What does yours say? Does yours say something different than that?

"Judging Others"? Not "Do Not Judge"? The word "kreno," or "judge," shows up quite often in the New Testament.

Its primary usage is not in a negative connotation, as we often use it; it signifies seeing things rightly and using a right heart to respond to what is seen. In John 13:35, Jesus says, "They will know you are my disciples by your love. " Your love must be seen, and it must be judged by others to be true and genuine, and then they will know that you are my disciple.

Later in chapter 7, Jesus tells us that it is the fruit we bear that will be recognized—the fruit that we bear that will be judged by others, or maybe the fruit that we don't bear that will be recognized or judged by others. So, before we start this morning, I want us to reset our expectations of what judging is. I think we have it in such a fully formed negative connotation that we’re missing out on what the scripture is really saying.

There is clearly a right way to judge and a hypocritical way to judge. In order for us to use righteous judgment, you need to do three things. These are the three things we're going to see in the passage today: First, you need to watch your measure.

Second, you need to clear your field of vision. Third, you need to discern your audience. These are the three things that we're going to see in the text today.

I want to invite you to stand with me as we read from God's word this morning. If you're new, we stand to honor the reading of God's word, not out of right, ritual, or practice, but to set it apart as different than everything else that we read in our life and to honor God's word as different. So today we read from the book of Matthew, the servant of the Lord, who recounts for us the words of Jesus, saying: "Judge not, that you be not judged.

For with the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when there is a log 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 dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.

" This is the word of the Lord. Father, this morning, God, we praise you for who you are. For you alone are worthy; you are worthy to be praised.

In all of the ways in which we praise unworthy things, Lord, would you convict us of that this morning and reorient our affections to the only true and right and proper place, to the only true and proper person? You are Creator, and, Father, this morning, as we walk through this text that might be polarizing for some of us, can we get outside of the constructs we've created in our minds? Can we get outside of what culture says, and can we hear what you have to say, God?

Through the power of your Spirit that is with us this morning, would you. . .

Transform our hearts today so that we may be formed more into the image of Jesus as we are gathered in this place. Speak now, for your servants are listening, and it is in the name of your Son we pray. Amen.

You guys can grab a seat. Watch your measure! You can't judge me; you do you, I'll do me.

Don't you worry about me. Only God can judge me. Y'all have heard that before, all over the place, right?

We hear versions of it all the time. Don't log into social media if you don't want to hear it. We hear it in the places where we live, where we learn, where we work, and where we play.

Everywhere we go, y'all, I saw it on a sweatshirt at the grocery store yesterday, right across the back: "Only God can judge me. " I couldn't help but think about a rapper I used to listen to in the '90s who had a track with this title. I would not suggest Googling it; the language is quite explicit.

Only God can judge me. What is it that people are actually saying when they declare this? What is it they're actually getting at?

Do you really think that they're actually getting at the reality that they will one day stand face to face with their Creator God at the end of their life, and they will face judgment? I don't think that's what they mean at all. Some maybe, but definitely not for most.

Most are really saying something more along these lines: "I'm going to do whatever I want to do, and you don't have the right to tell me otherwise. You can't judge me. " It's essentially a defensive posture: "Back off!

You don't know me. Who are you to speak into my life? You can't judge me; only God can do that.

" For others, this phrase likely comes from this very passage of Scripture: "Judge not, that you be not judged. " You can't judge me; only God can do that. It's easy to see how someone could iso this verse—to take a verse out of its context and to give it a meaning that it doesn’t actually convey.

"Iso" literally means to lead into versus "exag," which means to draw out of—to understand something within the context in which it was originally said. Iso-ing a passage of Scripture is not only dangerous, but it also makes us dangerous. If we do this, we misunderstand, and if we do this for others, we are misleading them into faulty understandings.

Sadly, this happens every day, even with people who've been in the church for decades. But let's not be those people today because there's more here than just verse one. There's the first word of verse two that includes us into this one.

It says, “For, with the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. ” There's this verse: “Only God. ” The verse is not saying, “Rather, only God can judge me.

” The verse is saying, “Watch your measure! The way you judge, you're going to be judged in the same way. ” But that's not the way we like it, is it?

We want to receive grace upon grace, but we want to give none upon none. We want to be treated graciously, but we don't want to treat others graciously to the same degree or more than they've treated us. We want the scales to measure in a way that they're skewed in our favor.

I was at the grocery store last week, and I was picking up some deli meat for the kids’ lunch. I remember going up and ordering whatever's on sale that week—anybody else? So I had to wait until I got there, and I saw it was on sale.

Then I looked down at the scale, and before they ever put anything on there, it already showed 8 lbs. Then they added the paper! There's no deli meat on this scale yet, and I'm already paying for something: the paper!

Now I'm paying for air, and I'm paying for paper, and I'm not going to eat the paper. I guess you could put it on a sandwich; it might give you a little extra texture or something. I don't know; I'll pass.

But it feels like, in that moment, I'm being cheated. It kind of reminded me of the dishonest merchants of the Old Testament that we read about. They used rigged scales to cheat their customers.

Hosea says that they loved to oppress people. Proverbs 11:1 says that a false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is His delight. Now maybe you're wondering how this deli incident and how these merchants connect to judging.

Because Jesus says, “With the measure that you use, it will be measured to you. ” If you're using different scales to judge others than you're using to measure your own life, you're like the dishonest merchant. You're deceptive and unjust before the Lord and before others.

And that's what Jesus is getting at here with this word picture about a speck and a log: “Why do you see the speck in your brother's eye but do not notice the log that is in your own? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is a log in your own eye? ” Oh man, isn't this the human condition?

Experience, though I feel like I could camp out here all day like this! The speck and log thing is such a beautiful metaphor; it's like Jesus—it's just like the word picture that He gives us here—it is so rich and beautiful! It’s like taking directly out of a carpenter's workshop.

It's this picture of being around all these things; it's something that you could clearly see happening. It's also one that is found in two rabbinic sayings of the day, addressing hypocrisy. Jesus is illustrating the hypocritical judgment that many then practiced, and many of us practice today.

Aren't we prone, though, to see the speck in our brother’s eye and our sister’s eye? Are we quick to want to call that out? And don’t we also want to avoid acknowledging the log in our own eye?

That was pretty quiet in this room right now. It's the first time you all have been quiet the whole sermon, so maybe you’re sitting there and feeling some level of conviction, or maybe you’re just far more holy and righteous and pure than I am. But I know that this has been a struggle for much of my life.

Deep down, though I would never say it out loud, I think I'm better than other people. I don't think I'm as sinful as other people. I don't think that my sins are nearly as bad as your sins.

I don't think I need to confess and repent as much as that guy and that lady do. I’m pretty gifted at pointing out specks. What about you?

Are you judging others with a skewed scale? Are you living in layers of sin yet calling out your brother and sister in Christ for their sin? Are you practicing hypocritical judgment?

Right in the center of our field of vision is a big, fat log—our own sin. And because that log is located right in the center of our field of vision, our measure is out of whack. We need to watch our measure.

Jesus doesn't call us to eliminate judging others; He calls us to judge others, not unmercifully, but to judge them mercifully. And when we do, whether unmercifully or mercifully, whatever measure we're using, we're inviting the same upon us. We’re all in need of grace, so we must judge others as those in need of grace, just as we are.

And we probably should start with searching our own hearts before opening our mouths. We should start with judging our own lives first; we should start by applying the same measure to ourselves that we want to apply to others. But the only way that we can truly watch our measure is if we've cleared our field of vision.

Look with me at verse five: “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. ” You hypocrite, Jesus says.

Now remember, this is not disjointed from the other passages, the other weeks of sermons we've had lately—they're all connected together to this one teaching of Jesus. And if we go back to the beginning of chapter 6, this is not the first time Jesus has brought up the word or called people a hypocrite. Jesus is using this language again: don’t be like the hypocrites who, in public places, are praying and giving to the poor and the needy for attention.

Don’t be like them; don’t fast and intentionally make sure people see you looking gloomy and weak like the hypocrites do! Remember, “hypocrite” is a word that means actor, pretender—someone who's portraying something that they don't actually believe or that they aren't actually applying themselves. It's a pretender; it's a fraud.

And in this context, Jesus is saying, “You hypocrite! You're acting like you don't have sin and that you have a right to address someone else's, but you don't. You're just putting up a facade of right actions while lacking the right heart.

” Jesus is connecting this with a contrast between a right heart and right action. Now let’s not forget, you can produce all sorts of right actions and not have a right heart. We can have moral change in our lives, but we haven't been transformed by the good news of the Gospel.

But if you have a right heart, you will necessarily produce right actions. He says, “Don’t be like the hypocrites who have just right actions; be genuine and true, who has a right heart. ” Jesus is saying this: don’t go after the speck in your brother’s eye first—that's what the hypocrites do.

They go after the speck in their brother’s eye first; they’re the self-righteous ones. Instead, go after the log that is in your own eye first—that's what the one whose heart is made righteous by the Lord would do. Then, and only then, will you clearly see how to help your brother out.

Paul says in Galatians 6:1-2: “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. ” We must measure where one another is, and we must act upon it.

We must use righteous judgment, though, but it only works if we have a righteous heart. It only works if we've cleared our field of vision. It only works if we've confessed and repented of our sins first.

For if we don't, we're acting like hypocrites. This is the crux of righteous judgment: we must have a clear field of vision. If we are living in sin, we must confess, we must repent.

And let me be blunt for a moment. are eaten up with all types of sin, but the one that most of us are eating up with is pride, in some way, in some form, in some fashion in your life. Pride reigns and rules for most of us; either we think we're better than other people, we think we deserve more forgiveness and restoration, or we think that other people should look up to us because we're good at what we do.

Either we think we've pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps all because of ourselves, without any help from anyone else or any intervention from the Lord, or maybe we just think others aren't as deserving as we are. We think that they're less than us because they can't afford to do what we can do, or go where we can go, or live where we live, or that they will never get their acts together like we have. But pride is raging all around us.

So many of you think you aren't a murderer. You're like, "Well, at least I don't struggle with that, right? " Pride's not, I mean, it's kind of like not that big of a deal, right?

At least I'm not a murderer. You forget what Jesus said in this same sermon: if you're angry with someone, you're going to face the same judgment that you would if you were a murderer. At least I haven't cheated on my spouse.

And Jesus says if you look lustfully upon a woman—or we can infer if you look lustfully upon a man—you've committed adultery in your heart. We're sinners, and we're prideful when we think these things; this shows the fruit of our pride: at least my sin is not as bad as theirs. Our pride is keeping us from having a clear vision.

It's like a deposit on our eyes that keeps us from being able to see clearly. Our pride is sin, and our sin is our pride, and we must confess and repent of it this morning, for we tend to be a prideful people. That's what our whole country is built on.

That's why we have a reputation of being judgy as Christians. It's not because we judge one another with a proper measure and with clear vision; we're judging one another and the sins of the Earth with a righteous heart. It's that we're judging the sins of the world who don't yet know Jesus, and we're doing it with prideful hearts and with hypocritical hearts.

Now, to be clear, there can be a litany of other sins in our life, and there are all of these sins. These are the logs in our eyes. You guys ever flown with kids before?

Boy, that is something. I remember when our kids were little, like when we just had Ella and Ava, and they were both under two, so they could fly free. I remember Jan and I taking a trip for work at the time, and she went with me, and the girls came with us.

I remember I was flying, and let me tell y'all something: going through security with multiple strollers is an absolute beatdown. I'm not going to act like it was joyful; it was not. Nobody was happy.

Everybody was crying—the TSA agent, the girls, me—all of us. Nobody was enjoying it. Then I remember the first time that we got to fly all four of us together, and the kids were a little older at this point, so we didn't have all the car seats and all the extra things and all the toys, and like all the stuff—we didn't have all that.

We were flying from Atlanta to Houston, and I had this work trip, but we were also going to get to go and visit some really good friends that live down in that area. So we all four flew together; they were a little older, so carrying their own backpacks through was a little easier. We didn't have all the strollers; we didn't have all the stuff.

Also, TSA PreCheck— all the kids went with me. Jana went through the normal line, and we waited on her for another 30 minutes. You know, it was great.

But I have this really vivid memory of that trip. It's not like that one where Ella and Ava were little, and we dealt with all the stuff going through security. I remember sitting in the seats; we're all buckled up, and the flight attendant comes over the intercom and says, "In the event of cabin depressurization, masks will drop from the ceiling.

Put your mask on yourself first and then take care of others around you. " She specifically said, "Parents, put your mask on and then help your kids. " And I'm like, "Yeah, right!

What parent in the world would ever do that? What loving parent would do that? " Right?

Nobody. That's basically what calling out the speck in our brother's eye without taking care of the log in our own eyes is doing. Though, if we put our mask on first, it better equips us to be able to take care of our kids.

Are you putting your mask on first, or are you trying to put it on others first? Are you dealing with a log that has clouded your vision, your ability to see your own sin, or are you focusing on the speck in your sister's eye? Are you hypocritically judging others?

We aren't called to not judge others, but we are called to deal with our own sin before calling out the sin of others. Righteous judgment is the call. You need to clear your field of vision, and you need to discern your audience.

Look with me at verse six: "Do not give dogs…" What is holy? And do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you. Now, this verse might seem a little bit weird, odd, and out of place at first glance, right?

Jesus was talking about logs and specks. Where did he get on dogs and pigs? But it's connected.

Jesus calls his followers to use wisdom in how we share truth, when we share truth, and to whom we share truth. He reminded them, "Hey, you aren't God. You aren't the true and righteous judge.

You're not approaching others from a completely pure posture, so approach them humbly. " But after you've examined yourself, after you've confessed your sin and judged yourself—not against the standard of others or the standard that you've created, but judging yourself against the standard God has laid before us—now Jesus calls them to use caution, to be discerning. Not everyone will receive the truth; some will reject it, and some will grow in hostility toward it and toward you.

Now, this verse is speaking explicitly about those who will reject the truth; these are the dogs and the pigs. Jesus warns us not to give what is holy to what is unholy. Don't give gospel-centered correction to those who don't have a framework for the gospel.

Don't give gospel-centered correction to those who will despise it, those who will trample you. Does this mean we don't declare the good news of the gospel to them? No, it doesn't.

We should absolutely do that, but we can't expect to rebuke someone with a framework they don't even hear. Don't give it to those who will trample it, or even those who will use the truth and, as you lovingly share, attack you, even when your heart was seeking to help them. But how do we recognize who the dogs and pigs are in our lives?

How do we recognize who these people are? We can start with those who are hardened by sin. If we truly know people in the places where we live, learn, work, and play—if we’ve truly engaged and loved them with the good news of the gospel—we know whose hearts are hardened by sin.

Someone who pushes back on correction constantly, who dismisses you, or who scoffs at you when you call them to walk in the way of Jesus, someone who responds with hostility toward the counsel of the word of God—these are the people not in a posture to receive. That is not your audience. Proverbs 9:7-9 says this: "Whoever corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse, and he who reproves a wicked man incurs injury.

Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you; reprove a wise man, and he will love you. Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning. " Now, what is not explicit in this verse is the flip side—this is what is implied, this is what is implicit.

When we give holy things, like gospel-centered correction, to the right audience—with mature brothers and sisters in the faith—there is a place for confrontation and correction of sin. There is a place to use judgment against God's standard with kindness, compassion, mercy, and humility. And when we do, it is a gift that can lead to restoration, a gift that can lead to repentance, a gift that can lead to reconciliation.

And if we first examine our own heart, if we've put our own oxygen mask on first, if we've removed the log from our eye, then we are equipped to offer loving reproof to others. This is our right audience. We must use great discernment, though, in our correction, just as we should use wisdom and humility in how we judge.

We must use wisdom and humility in when and to whom we give correction. If the person continually rejects wise counsel, withhold it; instead, pray for God to soften their heart. Y'all, this is a lesson I wish I'd learned a long time ago.

I think back to when I had this intern when I was a youth pastor. He would constantly ask for my advice and counsel, and with the wisdom that a 26-year-old man has (you determine how much that was), I would sit with him and give him my own advice. I would measure it against the scriptures and say, "This is what you should do; this is what you should not do.

" And every single time, he wouldn't take it because he would also go and ask 16 other people until he found somebody who would give him the counsel that aligned with what he wanted. He would go and do that thing, and then he would come back and say, "Well, that was a disaster, you think? " He would ask again, and I would give it again, and he would not take it again.

Chaos and pain and disappointment would roll through for him, and I would be disappointed and frustrated, and it would be repeated over and over. I tried to give him advice, but he didn't listen. It took me years to realize that he didn't actually have a receptive ear to hear.

He loved Jesus, but he was enjoying his sinful patterns more. He loved the advice I gave him, but he loved the advice of others more because it fed into what he wanted to hear. He was resistant, and eventually, I stopped giving him correction and I stopped giving him counsel.

Years later, he came back around and apologized, and he thanked me for being there for him, and even though he didn't listen to me in those years. . .

It, in that moment, it helped my heart, but it didn't give me back that time and energy that I poured into him. But it did help me to learn a lesson. Now look, this is probably the opportunity many of you—uh, some of you—will take the opportunity to say, "Well, if I'm unsure who the pigs and dogs are in my life, maybe I'll just avoid calling out my brothers and sisters.

Maybe I just won't call out sin in their life anyway. " And, you know, like you know them, really never know how they're going to respond, so I think I'll just not. I think there are two things for us here.

The first is this: I think when we say we're just going to avoid calling out our brothers and sisters in sin because we don't know how they'll take it, that's probably false humility. I think it's probably actually rooted in the fact that you don't want to deal with the log in your own eye first. Come on, if that's you, you need to repent this morning.

You need to confess your sin, for the King is coming, and He has called His people to live a righteous life. He has made us a royal priesthood, a holy people, a nation set apart for Him—a people who were once not a people but who are now God's people. He has given us the ministry of reconciliation, and how can we be fully engaged in the work that He has called us to when we're unwilling to confess our own sin?

The day of Christ's return is sure; it is promised. We don't know when it is, but it is coming soon, and He has called us to live in right relationship with Him. May we be found in Him then—to be those living holy and righteous and engaged in the work of reconciliation that He's called us to.

The second thing I think is that we won't know how they're going to take it unless we've first prayerfully engaged. You know, I think sometimes we think we know how somebody's going to reply to something, so we're going to, like, tiptoe and maybe back off, like a little stiff-arm distance, making sure we don't get hit. Sometimes we're just reading that end of the situation.

We're really just assuming the worst of them, and I think sometimes it's because we don't know how they're going to respond. But it's probably part of how we come at them; it's how we approach them. "Hey, listen, you've got some junk in your eye.

You better take a step back. " Let's try that a little differently. Then I think there are these other times that we just don't prayerfully engage with one another.

We engage, ain't no doubt about that. We will barrel into conflict. Even people who are afraid of conflict, you push them enough, and they will just lash out.

But have we prayerfully engaged with them? Unless you've prayed and you've discerned through the Spirit that these are people who are not going to receive the truth, then you can't know if their heart is receptive or if it's rejecting. If you're too afraid to engage, in Colossians 4, Paul says, "Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.

Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. " I believe that we can apply this same principle to those who claim to be followers of Jesus—those who we've seen fruit, we've seen evidence, we've judged their life and seen that they walk with Jesus. Yet we don't know whether we can engage with them or not.

We should make the best use of our time; we should let our speech be gracious, and we must trust the Spirit to know when and how we ought to speak to each person in order to apply righteous judgment. We must speak truth with discernment. Correction is valuable, and it requires judgment, but it should be given to those willing to receive it.

Some will resist the truth with hostility; don't waste your wisdom where it will only provoke resentment in them and toward you. But pray for discernment of when to speak, when to be silent, and when to dust your feet off and move on. Ultimately, we have to remember that our job is to help one another to grow in Christ, to spur one another on.

The scripture says it is not to absolve everyone of sin, nor is it to issue condemnation for everyone else's sin. This is the work of the Lord's, and the reality is that we all stand in the path of condemnation because of our sin. But God, being rich in mercy and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, at the right time sent Christ to die in our place—to pay the debt that we were never going to be able to pay, that we had rung up as if we had an unlimited supply of being able to do.

Yet we were never going to be able to pay our debt. So God, in Christ, comes to dwell among us, defeating the power of sin and death when He lived a sinless life and was crucified as a criminal. So that our sin debt, which was the criminal offense that we all had, is taken away.

He steps into our place; He takes our guilt, our shame, and our condemnation upon Himself, and instead gives us righteousness, holiness, purity—a new identity that is set and secure in His work. He takes it to the cross; our sin is crushed, His death—He's buried in the grave, and in. .

. That moment on that Sunday morning when he takes air back into his lungs, and when he comes out of the grave, he has executed his condemnation of sin's condemnation over us. He has executed right justice; he has judged once and finally for all that for those who believe in him, sin has no power over you anymore.

You have been called to walk in new life with him, but not just a new life that gives intellectual assent to him, not just new life that responds as an emotion, but is the holistic nature of our whole being as we live, as we move, as we breathe, as we think, as we act, as we feel. As we do, we are a new creation in Christ, which means we can no longer live to our own standard. We've been given one to live to, to judge ourselves by, and to spur one another on in this framework.

In God giving up his life for us, at the day we stand before judgment, Christ steps in and says—I don't know what he says, but it feels like it's got to be something along the lines of what Paul says in Romans: "There is therefore now no condemnation for this one. Judgment for their sin I've taken is no more for them. " We can use judgment to spur one another on in growing up into our identity in Christ, and we should.

And let's be honest, Church, we're a little soft. We don't want people to call out our sin because we prefer to just act like it doesn't exist. I heard someone say one time that the greatest single thing that could happen would be if a news crew followed us around all day, and on the evening news—okay, maybe it needs to be a social media crew today; I don't know.

I was thinking, how many people in here even know what the evening news is? Probably like 17. The greatest single thing that can happen is if a news crew follows us around all day, and then they show the video live for the world to see, because we couldn't hide our sin then.

And when our sin is real, our Savior must be real. Are you living in a place where you're still trying to hide your sin? This is not the life we're called to.

Confess your sin; pull out that log and repent before the Lord this morning. You can come up in a minute, and you can kneel. You can do it down front; you can do it in your seat.

You can take somebody outside with you, cry out upon the Lord to forgive you for your sins. Then let's toughen up a little bit and let's spur one another on in the faith so that we could call one another out in a gentle, loving, and kind rebuke to live in the way of Jesus, not to live in the way of ourselves or the world. We can do this.

We think we can't; we think we don't have it in our own power. And praise be to the Lord, we don't! But he is with us, and because he is with us, we can, through the power of His Spirit, because Jesus gave His life for us, grow into who He has called us to be.

Part of this is to be spurred on by one another in love. We can confess our sins before him; we can call our brothers and sisters up into maturity and relationship with Him. Each week, we gather, we take communion together.

Paul gives the instruction: "When you gather, take this meal. " So, as we gather today, we take this meal as Jesus did the night with His disciples before He was betrayed. When after dinner, He took a loaf of bread and He broke it, and He said, "This is my body that is broken for you.

" Then He took a cup of wine and He said, "This is the cup of the New Covenant; this is my blood that was shed for you. " Anytime you eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim the good news of the Gospel. We proclaim that Jesus has taken upon Himself the wrath of God that we deserve for our sin, rebellion, and our rejection.

He took the judgment that we deserved upon Himself and gives us new life with Him. If you're here today and you're a follower of Jesus, we say, "Come and take this meal; it's for you. " There are five stations around the room: two in the back of the room and three across the front.

Each of the ones on the outside has a gluten-free option if you need that. You'll come up and you'll tear off the bread, being reminded that His body was broken so that that log could even be removed from your eye; that His blood was shed so that the speck could be removed from your eye, so that you might be washed clean and may walk in new life with Him now and in every moment in this life, and in eternity with Him. So, we say, "Come and take this meal," being reminded that His body was broken and His blood was shed for you.

But confess your sin before the Lord before you come. The Scriptures warn us about coming to the table flippantly, about coming unprepared in our hearts. May we not be a people who do that this morning.

If you're here today and you're not a follower of Jesus, you may have felt like. . .

you heard me say that there's a speck in your eye, and I know that there's a speck in your eye. Not because I know. .

. You, and I'm coming at you directly, but because there was a speck in my eye before I knew Jesus, there were logs. Maybe you're aware of what those are; maybe you're fully aware that there's nothing in your own power you can do about it.

Let's say this morning: don’t come and take this meal; it won’t mean anything to you. Instead, we say, "Take Christ; come and take Him today. Allow Him to remove that burden of condemnation and wrath that is upon you—the righteous judgment of our Creator that is upon you.

Allow Him to remove those from you so you may walk in new life with Him, with full and fresh vision. Father, this morning, God, as we transition our worship from the word to the family meal, God, would we commune with You in these moments ahead? Would we be reminded that Your body was broken and Your blood was shed for us?

But, Father, would we also come and confess our sins before You? May we also, from our time in the scriptures today, Lord, see that the way in which we are currently judging others, the way we imply that in our lives, the way that we go about it, the same measure is coming for us. And, Father, most of us, if not all of us, do not want to be judged that harshly.

So, Father, would You reorient the way in which we encourage, evaluate, and call out in our brothers and sisters in Christ? May it be done so in such a gracious, loving, and merciful way that we ourselves would be willing to receive it. And, Father, would You give us wisdom in knowing who, when, and where we can apply these same standards of Your scripture to others as we can to ourselves?

So, Father, be with us now. May we be a people who repent and confess, and may we be a people who feast on You. And it’s in Your Son's name we pray, amen.