Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] You're listening to a live recording from Westside Church in Bend, Oregon. Thanks for joining us.
[00:00:06] Good morning, everybody.
[00:00:08] I'm Evan. I'm the other guy. And it's great to be together today as we continue in Jesus most famous teaching, the Sermon on the Mount, or what he called the good news about the Kingdom of God. We're gonna be in Matthew chapter seven this morning.
[00:00:22] Back in 2023, Barna Research Group, which is a little large national research organization, they did a survey of Americans who don't claim any specific religious affiliation, and they gave them a list of attributes, both positive and negative ones, and asked if that applies in their opinion to the Christians they know or their opinion of Christianity itself. Things like love for other people, friendly, moral and ethical. That one got only 16% of people.
[00:00:54] The top two attributes that came back from this study were judgmental at 48% and hypocritical at 49%.
[00:01:04] I'll tell you that if this is the reputation of Christians at large, and I would push back a little bit like most Christians I know are not hypocritical and judgmental, but we know what the reputation says.
[00:01:17] And today what we're going to look at is where Jesus all the way at the beginning, actually goes after these very specific things as if it's part of the human condition.
[00:01:29] And we are not maybe immune from the effects of judgmentalism or hypocriticalism. Okay, so Matthew chapter seven. I'm going to read this. Would you stand with me as we read today's passage from Jesus Sermon on the Mount?
[00:01:46] Jesus says, do not judge others and you will not be judged, for you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged. And why worry about a speck in your friend's eye when you have a log in your own?
[00:02:02] And how can you think of saying to your friend, let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye when you can't see past the log in your own eye. Hypocrite.
[00:02:10] First get rid of the log in your own eye, and then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend's eye. And don't waste what is holy on people who are unholy.
[00:02:18] Throw your pearls to pigs, they will trample the pearls and then turn and attack you. So keep on asking and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking and you will find. Keep on knocking and the door will be open to you. For everyone who asks receives Everyone who seeks finds, and to everyone who knocks, the door will be open. You parents, if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not. So. So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give good gifts to those who asked him? And then we get to the golden rule. Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets. So, Lord Jesus, we thank you for your teaching your word today. Let it challenge us, let it change us. May we hear it and put it into practice.
[00:03:09] Like you say, the wise person has ears to hear. Give us those ears to hear today. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. You can have your seats. Thank you for standing.
[00:03:20] Now, I don't think of myself as a judgy person, which is exactly what a judgy person would say.
[00:03:27] Maybe you're the same.
[00:03:29] But we like to think of ourselves as easygoing, really kind, empathetic folks.
[00:03:37] And oftentimes we are blind. As Jesus tells us in today's passage, we are blind to the judgmental attitudes that are present in our lives. And I was thinking about, what are those things in my life that I actually am unashamedly judgy about?
[00:03:51] And you could ask my wife. I am very passionate about making sure in our home that especially in the wintertime after the sun goes down, that the temperature and brightness of the lights is cozy and warm because we're not animals now, growing up, all light bulbs, right were incandescent or halogen. Everything was really warm toned. And then we've moved into LEDs, which is wonderful and great. The technology is amazing, all that. But now you have the opportunity to choose the color temperature of your light bulbs. And like many of you who were not raised outdoors, we choose lights that emit a cozy, warm light, especially like in the dining room. And they make bulbs that are daylight temperature match. They're very cold and bright, and they're great for places like laundry rooms and operation rooms, the checkouts at Walgreens, perfect for this color of lights. And I'll tell you, I know that some of you, you've put those in your dining room chandeliers.
[00:05:01] And so if you invite me over to your house and we sit down for dinner and you flip on that chandelier, and what I'm hoping for is this cozy, warm light that calls back to the Fires that our ancestors sat around each evening and you flip on the light and up comes, you know, daylight temperature, 140 watt equivalent light. I will get up and leave before you say grace.
[00:05:28] This is not why I've come to your table. And this is the thing you might think, man, Pastor Evan is a psychopath. Okay, maybe. But I do get passionate about these things and you probably do too. And much more than these trivial issues about preferences or pet peeves. I know that we also get passionate about judging other people's behaviors or choices or what they spend their money on.
[00:05:55] Oftentimes we look to the side with this attitude of judgment that leans into condemnation because if we can push other people down just a little bit, guess what? We feel about ourselves a little bit better, right?
[00:06:09] And I think we all fall into this trap maybe at different levels of placing ourselves in that role of judge. And N.T. wright says there is one judge and you are not him.
[00:06:22] That God is the only one in his perfection and in his holiness is able to sit in the seat of judgment in our lives. And here's the thing about the mercy of God is that the one who has the right to judge us in this season, if we are breathing in this room in this season of our lives, he has looked at us, seen our shortcomings, our failures and our mistakes, and he has decided to extend mercy and forgiveness and a path towards transformation and healing in our lives rather than condemnation.
[00:07:01] And if the one who is righteous and holy enough to have the right to judge us has declined to do that in this season of grace that we are under because of the work of Jesus, what right do we have to stand in judgment or sit in the seat of judgment over anyone else in our lives?
[00:07:20] If Jesus has the ability and the right to condemn us and chooses not to, what should we do in our lives, in our relationships?
[00:07:35] This is something that happens for all of us. We judge ourselves by our best intentions and we judge others by their worst behaviors ourselves by well, I did that horrible thing, but you know what? I wasn't intending to hurt somebody. I wasn't intending.
[00:07:53] And we know on the inside all the different ways that we justify to get to the behaviors maybe that were less than ideal. But we oftentimes do not extend that same generosity when we are judging others behaviors or choices.
[00:08:08] And this is absurd.
[00:08:10] This is absurd that we would look ignorantly towards our own lives and with arrogance and judgment at others. And this is why Jesus uses this absurd metaphor of trying to pick out the speck in someone's eye when you have a telephone pole sticking out of your own.
[00:08:26] And I know today we read that, and I heard a little bit of a light chuckle. I bet that killed when Jesus first said it.
[00:08:33] I mean, this is like the best stand up comedy that the first century has to offer. You know, when people are imagining that the person, like trying to get that speck of that grain of sand out of somebody's eyes and then Jesus, the big punchline, you know, and there's a log in your own eye. And they laughed and laughed.
[00:08:53] But for us, we have to understand that it is absolutely absurd to try to point out the faults of others when we look ignorantly at our own lives and behaviors.
[00:09:06] Timothy Keller says it this way. He said, the gospel is that I am so sinful that Jesus had to die for me, yet so loved and valued that Jesus was glad to die for me. And this leads to a deep humility and deep confidence. At the same time, I can't feel superior to anyone, and yet I have nothing to prove to anyone.
[00:09:27] See, it's this superiority that Jesus is coming after.
[00:09:33] It's this idea that because I am so figured out in my life that now I'm superior to others and I can bar the door of forgiveness to them because of their failures and their mistakes and this kind of condemnation, this judgment that leads to condemnation that we take as our own role in other people's lives, it always interferes with the work of God in another person.
[00:09:58] Dallas Willard says, unless we cut off the urge to judge, we will become the very thing that stands in the way of God's transformative work. It is the job of the Christian, as part of the body of Christ, to extend the hope of a transformed life, especially those far from God.
[00:10:14] Think about your own life.
[00:10:16] Think about those moments when you took a step towards transformation, towards healing, towards forgiveness.
[00:10:23] Aren't you glad that someone with their judgmental attitude didn't stand in the way of you and the mercy of God?
[00:10:31] And Jesus is inviting all those who would have ears to hear and who would follow him in his way to. Instead of being the obstacle someone faces between themselves and their current state and the mercy of God, that we would be those agents of transformative work, that we allow the way that the forgiveness of God works through us to extend that same kind of forgiveness to others.
[00:10:56] I think this is why Jesus explains it this way. When we train ourselves to be condemning and everything is through a judgmental lens, what we actually invite is to be condemned and to be judged ourselves. But when we stepped into this Wonderful wide open space of extending forgiveness and seeing everything through the lens of the mercy of God. What we invite in our own lives is forgiveness and the mercy of God.
[00:11:21] What a beautiful and better way to live.
[00:11:25] So you say, okay then what is Jesus saying? That we can't have opinions about anything or anyone.
[00:11:31] No boundaries, anybody, anybody gets access to you now because we can't judge them worthy of it or not?
[00:11:37] Well, of course not. Actually, Jesus immediately talks about how we have to have discernment in relationships. Verse 6 Don't waste what is holy on people who are unholy. Don't throw your pearls to pigs, they will trample the pearls and then turn and attack you.
[00:11:54] Can I tell you that Jesus is aware that there are very toxic people around you and what a beautiful thing that he actually gives us permission to live in healthy relationships where we do actually have boundaries.
[00:12:10] And I think that one of the most unhealthy things to do is to lack discernment in relationships.
[00:12:17] And maybe one of the worst ways to try to be a Christian in this world, and maybe this is what the barn of research was pointing to, is Christians who lack discernment but have all the judgment right?
[00:12:30] And this expresses itself in many ways. But you can imagine the person who is filled with judgment and self righteousness up on their high horse all the time, opinions about everybody.
[00:12:42] They will tell you exactly what's wrong with everyone around them. But then they are also susceptible to toxic relationships and online conspiracy theories and they live this life that is completely void of discernment.
[00:12:55] Wow, that's a terrible Christian way to live, right? Jesus is inviting us actually to be the most discerning people with the least amount of judgment and condemnation.
[00:13:06] And in this way we actually model the way of Jesus that was so potently transformative that some of the most notorious sinners in Jesus day flocked to him and were changed by him.
[00:13:19] And those who knew scripture the best, the most religious, the most high on their horse, they couldn't stand Jesus. And I want to invite you to live the same way, to be so compelling to those in need of the mercy of God that they flock to you. And in religious spaces with self righteous people that there's tension. Why? Because they can't understand this kind of transformative work.
[00:13:45] This is the way of Jesus.
[00:13:49] Out of the blue, after this passage on judging and discerning in verse 7 and 8, it seems like Jesus does a big pivot.
[00:13:57] Verse 7, 8 says, Keep on asking and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking and you Will find, keep on knocking and the door will be open to you. For everyone who asks, receives everyone who seeks, finds and to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.
[00:14:12] It feels like Jesus is making this wild pivot back to prayer.
[00:14:17] If you were here the last couple weeks, the last two weeks, we walked through the Lord's Prayer and talked about the nature of prayer and how we're called to have this robust prayer life that is not for the public, but it's between us and God.
[00:14:31] And so then why is Jesus, after talking about judgment and discernment, why is he pivoting back to the idea of prayer?
[00:14:40] Well, here's the thing.
[00:14:42] If judgment is what we do to take other people down around us so that we feel better about ourselves, I think that is a reflection of insecurity.
[00:14:53] When I don't feel secure or content or at home in who God has made me to be, I will always tend to try to cut down those around me so that I feel okay. And my wife and I, she's here. And we oftentimes, when we find ourselves being a little bit too judgy at people in our lives, even people that we love dearly, one of us will stop the other and we'll say, we're awesome, we're amazing, we're the best. We're so great to point out that this is actually what we're going after.
[00:15:25] We're not actually caring for or hoping for transformation in those around us. We're looking at their behaviors and saying, well, I'm so glad we're not like them.
[00:15:34] Right?
[00:15:35] And Jesus has a better way for us to find security and identity and to be at home in who he's made us to be. It's not in judging and cutting each other down. Instead, it's going back to the place of prayer that for Jesus, that position before the Lord, where we are humbled in his presence and experiencing this robust relationship of prayer between us and God, that that is where we will find our deepest security, that it's in prayer that we cultivate a life where we say, I am okay and I don't have to compare myself to anybody else around me, and I sure don't have to condemn them so that I feel better about myself. I find those pieces of my identity in the place of prayer.
[00:16:25] So if in this passage, Jesus is telling us not to judge and don't be a hypocrite, to discern well and to find security in the place of prayer, there's one more thing that I think we have to catch on to what Jesus is talking about when he's inviting us in to be a transformative agent in lives and the relationships around us. Do you know that the most powerful and effective way that you will have to see the kingdom of God come in your life and your world is through your relationships?
[00:16:58] Now there is moments to, you know, boldly speak truth to power and to speak out against injustice in the world and unrighteousness in the world.
[00:17:08] That is all valid.
[00:17:10] But often it is in the quiet and normal places of our relationships and one on one and with those in our family and our friends and our co workers and those that are in our community that that is where the gospel does its best work.
[00:17:27] And if there is an assumption that your most influential you will ever be is to, you know, go on social media and just blast your opinions, I got news for you.
[00:17:36] Oftentimes we find that that just exemplifies and creates these echo chambers. But in real relationship, we have the ability for the work of Christ to activate in us a transformative effect in our world.
[00:17:52] And the healthiest community is not one where everyone comes together and we're all perfect to start out with. And so there's never any problems, never any tension, right?
[00:18:03] But instead it's one where we like iron, sharpen one another.
[00:18:08] And if we want to have this kind of transformative effect in our relationships and face to face, we have to know the nature of how God allows truth shape us.
[00:18:20] I don't want a community where we just all pat each other on the backs and say, you're so awesome, I love you. And deep down we're discerning actually. Well, there's some really destructive behavior going on. But I can't say anything. Cause I'm not gonna judge anybody.
[00:18:35] I appreciate the sentiment, but Jesus is not asking us to be undiscerning.
[00:18:40] He's inviting us to a kind of community where truth is shared, but only with the bridge of love and relationship that can support it. Do you know that truth needs a bridge?
[00:18:52] And the heavier the truth, the stronger the bridge.
[00:18:56] What will happen otherwise? If you just, you know, walk around Safeway and you just, you look around and see somebody that you think you disagree with, you can go up and say, excuse me sir, I've got some truth I need to lay on you. You know, that's not gonna go well for you.
[00:19:12] If you come to this place and you see somebody you've never met before and you maybe overhear something you disagree with, you say, excuse me, I've got some truth. I Need to throw your way. Listen, that is not how truth transforms. Truth transforms when there is a bridge of relationship and love.
[00:19:29] And to get to this point, oftentimes it takes a long, slow investment in relationship with one another. So that when there is a need for truth to transform, it can be received.
[00:19:46] Ephesians 4. Paul speaks to this. He says we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ.
[00:19:57] He doesn't say we will throw the truth down, growing every way more and more like the people we want to be. No, he says that to become like Christ, it requires both truth, but it also requires love.
[00:20:11] And I want you to think like in your life and in your relationships, in your families.
[00:20:16] I'm sure there are people that you would love to just hit them with the truth, right? Phone book to the side of the face, that kind of truth, that will not be the transformative work that you're hoping it will be.
[00:20:29] Instead, with great care and investment, we build these bridges of love and, and compassion and empathy for one another. And then on that bridge, we allow the truth of Jesus transformative way to take its effect. I've experienced this in my own life. I wanna show a picture of a place that you might recognize, especially if you have been in Bend a long time.
[00:20:50] This building is still there. It's not the pilot, but you drive in anymore. But to me it will always be Pilot Butte Drive in.
[00:20:57] This was part of our community for many, many, many years. Pilot B driving there on the east side of town.
[00:21:04] And I believe that shape of building is because it used to be an A and W and they put fireplaces in the middle.
[00:21:11] I think it was 1960s, something like that. But we had this drive in for many, many years on the east side of town.
[00:21:18] And the reason I show this is because I remember a conversation that I had inside that Pilot be drive in that was transformative and changed the trajectory of my life. Way back about 20, 25 years ago, I was attending this church and was not well behaved.
[00:21:43] I was in a season of real rebellious attitudes and dishonesty, immorality, all these things. And so my youth pastor, who had been my youth pastor for many, many years, asked me to go sit down with him at Piley Drive. Pilot Beau driving. So we sat there in that corner booth and he just laid into me. I mean, he.
[00:22:06] He shared some truth that really annoyed me.
[00:22:11] And I listened. And he was calling out the behaviors and the attitudes and the rebellious stuff that was in me.
[00:22:18] And I remember just staring at my burger, being like, well, I need to finish this burger before I leave, because, you know, he bought it. So I'm not gonna turn down a free meal, but I'm gonna get out of here.
[00:22:29] I'm gonna stop having this conversation. This was a conversation that was a continuation of several others we had had. And so by the end of this meal, I was just so annoyed and so unwilling to receive what my youth pastor was saying that we stood up from that table and I said goodbye, and I got in my car and, like, that is the last conversation I'm gonna have with him.
[00:22:53] And so I drove away, moved to Portland, stayed with family for a while, and we come back and visit my parents. And I remember one time, and Alyssa and I were dating at the time, so we came back together to Bend.
[00:23:08] And we're in blockbuster. Like, the blockbuster now, but back then, it was just blockbuster. It was a blockbuster. Now it's the blockbuster, and we're there, and I see my youth pastor, like, across the room in the blockbuster. And I literally. I think I actually said it to my wife. I said. I said, duck. So we ducked behind the rows of VHS and DVDs. You know, I think it was in the transitionary time on the way to DVDs. So we're ducking, hiding, you know, from my youth pastor because of the awkwardness.
[00:23:41] But, you know, those few years while I was away, there was something that was. That was. Stayed with me from those conversations I had with my youth pastor. And in 2007, we moved back. One of the first conversations I had and the first appointments I made was with my old youth pastor. And we really hadn't talked since that time at Pilot Be Drive in. And I sat with him and I said, I wanna thank you for what you said back then. I couldn't receive it then, but I want you to know it stuck with me.
[00:24:07] And it wasn't just because it was true what he was saying and I needed to hear it. That was all true. But the reason it stayed with me, the reason I came back to that conversation several years after that, was because he had spent over a decade since I was just a little guy, a decade investing into that relationship and building a bridge so that truth could have an effect.
[00:24:32] And he was very gracious and kind.
[00:24:35] And then not long after that, he got sick. And if you were here back in those days, you remember very well, Pastor Steve Stern had als, and he went through a long battle with als. And I remember the day, it was during a summer camp, and I was now the youth pastor Here at Westside, and his son was in my youth group.
[00:24:57] And we were here. We did like an on site summer camp, and it was crazy. We did a slip and slide off the back edge of the property here, but we didn't take the trees out because we couldn't afford that.
[00:25:08] And so less than 15 minutes into registration, as, like, kids are still in line getting registered, a girl broke her ankle on the slip and slide. It was not good.
[00:25:19] Thankfully, Pastor Josh, he's much more concerned with safety these days. So if your kids are in youth right now, they're gonna be fine. All right?
[00:25:27] But I remember during that first summer camp, I got the call from one of the family members. They said, you know, Steve has passed, and you need to find his son and get him home. And so I felt that way. And I also realized, like, I had no idea where his son was because we had vans all over town with people all over. So I got in my car and I started driving across town trying to find Steve's son.
[00:25:52] Finally found him and took him to the house.
[00:25:55] And I told him, we need to get you home. Your dad's not doing well. We walked through the doors, and his mom told him that his dad had died. And. And we stood in that living room. And I will never forget as we stood in that living room, and I'm standing arm around my youth pastor's son just after Steve had died, and we sang this song, which is an older song now.
[00:26:19] We sang, you're rich in love and you're slow to anger.
[00:26:22] Your name is great and your heart is kind. For all your goodness I will keep on singing. 10,000 reasons for my heart to find.
[00:26:30] And on that day when my strength is failing the end draws near and my time has come still my soul will sing your Praise. And ending 10,000 years and then forevermore bless the Lord, O my soul.
[00:26:41] And I want to tell you that I would never, ever have thought, sitting in that booth at Pilot Butte Drive in a, that I would ever have anything to do with that youth pastor again. But beyond that, no concept that God would do such a work of transformation in my own life, to put me into a place of support and care for his family and to be present in a journey that even this church would take. No idea.
[00:27:10] And I don't think he knew that either. What Pastor Steve was doing in those moments was saying yes to the, I'm sure frustrating, tedious work of showing up in somebody else's life, Bringing truth with a bridge in a way that wasn't judgmental he wasn't condemning me. He was holding out hope that God still had the ability to transform and that the truth would one day set me free.
[00:27:37] And I want to encourage you wherever we're at. Listen, I'm not asking you to throw out discernment. I'm asking you lay aside condemnation and take up the call of God to be a transformative voice in somebody else's life. Don't shy away from the truth.
[00:27:51] Don't back off and say, well, I can't have any opinions anymore. No. But approach every relationship not with a heart of condemnation, but with a heart, one that believes for gospel transformation, that the grace of God and the forgiveness of Christ would make itself known, not in spite of your judgy attitude, but because you are there.
[00:28:11] We never know how God will use us.
[00:28:14] And we would never know, maybe until we get to heaven one day.
[00:28:20] All the ways that the truth in love worked through us to change and transform lives. Amen.
[00:28:27] Amen. I want to pray for you. Would you bow your heads with me today?
[00:28:31] Lord, I pray for this kind of work to continue to happen even as it did 20 years ago in this place. For me, that many would experience that kind of transformative work of Jesus.
[00:28:48] Lord, I pray that we would lay down condemnation, comparison, pettiness, and that we would take up this way of Jesus.
[00:29:00] Lord, transform us. By your grace.
[00:29:02] May we understand first and foremost that we've been forgiven much and because of that, we would love much.
[00:29:11] Lord, we worship you and receive your words today. Challenge us, shape us and move us. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:29:20] Amen.
