The Heart of Discernment

And read verse 5 with me. But as for those who turn aside to their crooked ways, the Lord will lead them away with the doers of iniquity. Peace be upon Israel. And Lord, I do thank you that for those of us that trust in you, Lord, you are truly a stronghold. Amen. So, Lord, if there's an aspect of our heart that has found rest in some place beside you, I pray that we would quickly change that.

Lord, that we would put our trust in you, the God who keeps His promises. And so, Father, I pray that as we spend time in your Word this morning, that you would minister to our hearts and do the work that only your Holy Spirit can do. Lord, overflow me with your gift of teaching and all of us as your people. Lord, just bless us with that gift of hearing, which your Spirit wants to minister this morning.

In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. You may be seated. You may be seated. And if you would open up in your Bibles to the book of Matthew, chapter 7.

Matthew, chapter 7.

The title of this morning's message is The Heart of Discernment. I kind of struggled coming into chapter 7. In chapter 7, we begin to close out the Sermon on the Mount. There's a lot of different subjects that he addresses in chapter 7, so I struggled a little bit with finding a thematic element that went with all of them. But it's kind of interesting, the more you study, the more you read, the more you realize

there is kind of a theme that goes into it. And so for these first 12 verses, he really deals with discernment, in particular, in the way in which we deal with our brothers and the world around us. And so as he deals with this aspect of the heart of discernment, he's going to tell us about three things. He's going to talk about judgment, he's going to talk about prayer, and he's going to talk about the golden rule.

And so those are the three subjects we'll cover under this heading of the heart of discernment. And so it says in chapter 7, verse 1, Do not judge. So that you will not be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged. And by your standard or measure, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that

is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, let me take that speck out of your eye, and behold, the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite. First, take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. Do not give. What is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample

them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces. So he begins with this first subject of judgment, and he quotes, or he gives us the verse that is the most quotable verse among anybody who's never been to church before. Do not judge, so that you will not be judged. I guarantee you know somebody who has never darkened the door of a church and lives the most sinful lifestyle on the face of the earth.

But if you ever... If you ever tried to talk to them about what they're doing wrong, they would quote this verse to you, only they would probably quote it in the King James Version. They would say, judge not, lest ye be judged. You know what the Bible says, after all. Well, it unfortunately gets used in our world as a blanket statement to say, I can live my life how I want to, and you can't tell me what to do.

As a matter of fact, there was a Miley Cyrus song. Oh, that's right. I'm going to quote a Miley Cyrus song up in here. There's a Miley Cyrus song called Can't Stop, Won't Stop, and there's this line in it that says, only God can do it. Only God can judge. And I remember hearing that line, and I remember thinking, that should not be something you're proud of, because it's true.

Only God can judge. But listen, God will judge, and you need to understand that. So, but that's the philosophy most people in the world live by, is don't judge me. I want to live my life how I want to. But the problem is, they don't understand what that really means. Because much like the Pharisees in Jesus' day, when they came to him asking questions that didn't line up with what God's word had to say, he confronted them and said,

you don't understand what the word says, and you don't understand the power of God. And that's what's going on in our world when they misquote this verse. And so, we must first look at this and say, what is he not saying? Because that's what we've done with many of these principles that we've talked about. And what he is not saying is, he is not saying that we should not confront other people with

sin. As a matter of fact, when we move later into chapter 7 of this Gospel of Matthew, which hopefully we'll do next week, we're going to see that he says, that we should judge others by the fruit of their lives. So, for us to say that God is not telling us that we should never confront sin or identify sin in the lives of other people would be anti-biblical and against everything that God has told us that we're supposed to do. The question is, what does he mean if he doesn't mean that we're not supposed to ever confront sin?

Well, I think the best way that we can understand that is to look at what this word judge actually means. This word judge means to condemn or to criticize. And Kenneth Weiss puts it this way when he says, Well, that hits a little bit more home for me. I don't know about you, because I can be pretty critical in my heart. I can have a pretty critical spirit towards people sometimes.

And so, what he's telling us is, we should not begin to condemn or criticize people because they don't do things the way that we do them. Nor should we condemn and criticize people because they've fallen into some sort of sin. And so, he's going to deal with this about what this looks like. He says, Don't judge. Now, listen. We are called to identify sin, but we are not called to condemn sin.

I think that there's a real difference in that. It has to do with our heart attitude. Is your heart attitude towards restoration, or is your heart attitude towards destruction? And so, there's a fine line that we walk as believers in Jesus Christ between identifying sin in the lives of believers and in the lives of the world around us, and condemning sin in the lives of the world around us.

Or, And so, when do we cross that line? At what point in time do we begin to become people who are judgmental, who are condemning and critical, instead of people who are seeking restoration? I think there's three ways that we can identify the ways that we can cross our line. Number one, we can apply our standards, not God's. We can apply our standards instead of God's standards.

We all kind of have that perfect idea, don't we? We have that idea of what walking with Jesus should look like, and what a Christian should look like, and how they should dress, and all those kinds of things. And unfortunately, those standards don't often line up with what God's Word has to say, because they're standards we've created in our own mind. Let me give you a quick little illustration.

We just finished up with a wonderful worship time, a wonderful time of praising God. Now, I would venture to say that there's probably, at some point in time, two ends of a spectrum of people in just about every worship service that you go to. At the two ends of the spectrum, you have one group of people, which are very reserved by nature. And the people that are very reserved by nature, when the Spirit's really flowing in their life, the most that they're ever going to do is they're going to sing out enough to where maybe the person next to them can hear what they're singing.

And that means that God's Holy Spirit is flowing in through them in a way that they are fully surrendered in their worship unto the Lord. And then you have people who are a little bit more like me. I'm a little bit more outgoing of a human being. I am a little flamboyant in everything that I do, right? Which is why I do this when I talk. It's funny, when I go to the little Facebook machine, sidebar, when I go to the little

Facebook machine and it shows all of the videos, every video, the initial picture clip that it shows is me doing this. I'm like, how does every video, the little clip, the little thumbnail clip have me going, I must do that a lot. Why? Because I'm kind of a loud person in a lot of things that I do. Now, for me, when I'm really rolling with the things of the Lord,

and I'm surrendered in worship, my hands are up, I'm singing at the top of my lungs, there's probably a certain amount of sway, not only in my hips, but in my upper body as well, because I'm into the music. Now, if I, as a very outgoing person, look at you, who are a very reserved person, and I say, you're doing it wrong. You are not actually fully surrendered to the Lord in worship because you're not doing it the way that I am. At that point in time, I have applied my own standard to you.

And not God's standard to you. And I'm now being critical of you and condemning you for something that you're doing, which God doesn't care about. God's concerned with our hearts. And in the same way, you can do the same thing to me. If you're really reserved, you can say, you're being too loud in the way that you're doing that, which is probably true, but that's okay.

And so when we apply our standard to other people, a standard that is not God's standard, we become very judgmental and very critical of them. Well, there's a standard. There's a second way that we can cross that line. The second way that we can cross that line is by identifying sin in others, but not ourselves. Boy, we're good at it, aren't we? We're good at being able to hold the mirror in the direction where everybody can see the mirror.

I'm going to hold my mirror like this so you can see what's wrong in your life, because quite frankly, I've seen you this week, and you need to see this mirror. I've been watching you, and you need to see exactly what's wrong in your own life. We're really good at that, right? Scripture points out a really good example of that. There's a really interesting reference to this with the life of David.

When David was caught up in that sin with Bathsheba, and Nathan had to confront him, Nathan told him a little story. Do you remember the story Nathan told him? Nathan said there was a very rich man, and he had all the wealth in the world, and he had all the livestock and all the lambs he could have wanted, and then there was a poor man. The poor man only had one little lamb that he loved with all of his heart.

Well, the rich man had some friends over for dinner, and he decided he wanted to sacrifice the lamb so that they could have a meal together. So instead of taking from his own flock, he went over to the poor man and took the one lamb that he had, and he butchered that lamb and cooked it up and served it to his guests. Do you remember how David responded? David goes, And Nathan looked at him and goes, David looked at something that really wasn't that big of a deal, not a sin punishable by death according to God's law.

A big deal to sin. It should have been restored fourfold. We talked about that last week. But not according to God. According to God's law, was it something that was punishable by death? And yet David took that mirror and shined it on somebody else and said, that's how bad they are. Now, you may not be calling for the death of the people that are around you,

but I do think that sometimes we as believers can have a real tendency to identify what's wrong in everybody else's life and fail to identify what's wrong in my life. But when I do that, when I spend more time thinking about what you're doing wrong than I do thinking about what I'm doing wrong, then I've crossed the line and I've become judgmental. And so we can apply our standards instead of God's. We can identify the sin in the lives of others and not ourselves.

But the third way, the third way that we cross the line is when I take part in the identification, but not in the restoration. When I take part in the identification, but not in the restoration. You see, the Lord always shows us what's wrong in our life because He has such a desperate desire. He has such a desperate desire for us to be right in our lives. Therefore, if I'm to have the heart of Jesus in the way that I handle my brothers and sisters in Christ,

then my heart behind identifying what's wrong in their life should be so that they can be made right in their walk with Jesus Christ. Restoration should always be the goal. Do you know what that means? That means that when I begin to see the sin in the life of somebody else, I don't tell everybody else about it. I go to that person about it. You see, I think we can have a real issue in the church today,

the church in general today, and that's that when somebody has done something wrong, we like to go tell everybody else about it instead of going and telling that person about it and saying, this is what I'm seeing wrong in your life, and I want to point it out to you so that you can be restored in your life. You see, when I tell everybody else about it, it doesn't do anything to restore them. That's just me identifying sin. Having no heart for restoration.

When we do these three things, which I think we can oftentimes as believers in Jesus Christ be very guilty of doing, we cross the line and we become exactly what Jesus tells us not to be. We become one who judges other people. Well, as I was thinking about that, I asked myself a question. So what's the heart of the issue? What is the heart of this issue of being judgmental?

Behind the heart of this issue, I think, are two things. So this is the heart of the issue behind being judgmental. Number one, pride. Man, that's a word we hate, isn't it? I hate that word. I used to deal with pride, but I dealt with it. And now I'm writing a book about how I've dealt with pride. I'm calling it pride and how I overcame it by myself. I'm just kidding.

But doesn't that sound awful coming out of someone's mouth? And yet somehow when we condemn other people, that doesn't sound as bad, even though there's every bit as much pride involved. You know why it doesn't sound as bad? Because it makes them sound bad, not me. But that's what pride does. You see, pride looks at other people and says, I'm better than you.

I'm better than you because I would never give in to that sin that you've given in to. You see, we find the sins that we've identified and said, that's what's really bad, and if I haven't done that, then I'm better than you. And you know what happens when we do that? We forget that Jesus put my sin next to their sin in the same list in the book of Romans. Which is why I will never believe that.

I will never believe somebody when they say, are you telling me that gossip is every bit as bad as the sin of homosexuality? I just can't believe that. Well, you could not believe it all you want to. But that doesn't change what the Bible says. Because God put it in the same list. You see, some of those sins sound worse than others, right? And if it's not the sin I take part in, then that's clearly worse than mine.

And Jesus is like, but actually it's not. Because some people's decay, may be a little further than others, but decay is decay nonetheless. You see, at the heart of this issue is pride, because I bolster myself by making you feel bad about you. Well, there's a second issue I think that's at the heart of this problem, and that's insecurity. You see, sometimes in our walk with Jesus Christ,

we can feel a little bit bad about ourselves, probably because we still struggle with sin. Because I still have areas of sin in my life that need dealt with. And when I struggle with those areas, those areas of sin in my life, I don't like to admit that those are there, probably because of pride, but also because of insecurity. I think, oh no, I'm not as good as I thought that I was.

I'll find somebody that's worse. And because of that insecurity, we like to point out what other people do that's wrong, because it makes me feel better about myself. I say, you know, I struggle with this, but at least I don't struggle with that. I struggle with this, but at least it's not that. I may be bad, but I'm not them. And we do that because it builds us up.

It makes us feel a little bit better about ourselves. It's because of insecurity. And that pride and that insecurity cause us to cross the line into being judgmental.

Well, he goes on to tell us why we should not judge other people. He says, for in the way that you judge, you will be judged. And by your standard of measure, it will be measured back to you. He says that same standard of judgment that you're using is what's going to be used against you. Now, I don't believe that when he says that standard of judgment that you're using,

being used against you, means that God will use your standard of judgment against you on the day of judgment. We know that as believers in Jesus Christ, our sin was dealt with at the cross, and nothing can change that. So what's he referring to? Well, I think what he's referring to here is a principle that runs throughout Scripture, and that's that what you sow, that you will also reap.

If you are continually judgmental and critical to God, if you are continually judgmental, and critical towards other people, do you know what's going to end up coming back to you? Judgmentalism and criticism. Because you've shown no grace to anyone, therefore no one wants to show grace to you. Let me give you a little illustration. When I was living in Kansas City,

there was a church in Topeka called Westboro Baptist. You guys remember that church? They used to protest all the time, and they would protest particularly against anything. Well, they protested everything. They protested all kinds of funerals. As a matter of fact, they would go and protest at the funerals of soldiers because they said the reason why these soldiers are dying

is because God is judging America for its homosexuality. Therefore, you should not celebrate the life of an individual who has been killed in judgment. I'm not making that up. That's how they really felt. And then they would go, there was a Billy Graham crusade when I lived in Kansas City. When I lived in Kansas City, Billy Graham came through to Arrowhead Stadium,

and I got to go help and be a part of a group of people who were in Kansas City. I was a part of a group of people who were in Kansas City. I was a part of a group of people who were in Kansas City. All of that, all of our college group did. We were kind of a part of the team that after people got saved, we would help pray with them and all that kind of stuff.

Well, we show up to this Billy Graham crusade, and you know who's out front? The Westboro Baptist Church protesting. Why? Because they said homosexual people cannot be saved, and it's wrong to preach the gospel to them. And you go, now, I would call that the height of being judgmental. Well, time goes along, and the guy whose name I can't think of, that started Westboro Baptist Church,

he dies. And they released, his family did, a public statement after his death. Do you know what the public statement that they released was? It was a request. Please do not protest at our father's funeral. Do you know why they released that? Because they knew that the standard of judgment that they used was going to be used against them. Because they knew that people were going to show up

and protest his funeral because they were so glad that guy died. Now, that's a pretty, that's a pretty extreme case. But I think you get what I'm saying here. You see, when I dole that out to other people on a consistent basis, when I allow myself to spew out that criticism and that condemnation to the people that are around me, constantly, do you know what ends up happening?

I reap what I sow, and it comes back to me. He says, don't judge, or else you will be judged, in the same way that you've been judging other people. Well, now he gives us a little bit of an illustration as to how we should handle these things. He says in verse 3, Now, I love this because Jesus uses maybe the most ridiculous illustration anybody has ever come up with to illustrate what we tend to do as human beings.

He said, how is it that you, with a 2x4 sticking out of your eye, can see a splinter in the eye of your buddy? Right? That seems like a pretty ridiculous, this thing, can you imagine right now? You're looking to see how all of your friends are doing, and the entire time that you're looking, you're waving this 2x4 around, it's just smacking people in the face, and you're like, you over there, I see the splinter.

He's probably going, you put it there. He says, how, if you've got this thing sticking out of your eye, how are you going to try to point out all the specks in somebody else's? He said, not only that, if you've got a 2x4 sticking out of your eye, how are you going to be able to see clearly to remove a splinter from anybody else's eye? Now, he uses this to illustrate a point.

Each of us has our own set of issues, and potentially they're even bigger than the issue that we see in somebody else's life. And until we deal with the sin in our own lives, we will never be able to truly deal with the sin in somebody else's life. And so after he gives this somewhat ridiculous illustration, he goes on to give his exhortation. And the exhortation is two-fold.

Notice what he says in verse 5. He says, 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. I want you to take note of the fact that he didn't say ignore the speck in your brother's eye. Because taking note of the fact that your brother has a speck in his eye, there's nothing wrong with that.

He says, but first, deal with the 2x4 that's in your own eye. Deal with that log that's sticking out of your own eye. And then you will be able to see clearly to deal with what's going on with you. What's going on with your brother. Remove the log that's in your eye. What he basically tells them here is, you need to deal with your own judgmental attitude first.

And then, you can see clearly to deal with the attitude or the sin that's in your brother's life. So, again, the question comes up, how do we deal with a judgmental attitude? Well, I think that there's two things that we need in our lives to deal with this sort of an attitude. Number one, number two, I need an understanding of my own sin. I need an understanding

of my own sin in my own life. You know what happens when I begin to gain that understanding of my own sin? I begin to approach things much differently. Because I don't approach things from a mountaintop. I don't approach things from the top of a soapbox. I approach you in a very broken, contrite, and humble sort of way. You see, I think, what we need to gain

as believers in Jesus Christ is a beautifully broken heart. Because once I begin to understand my own sin, my own weakness that I have in my life, I gain a great deal of patience for the people that are around me. I gain a great deal of grace for the people that are around me. Because I no longer look at myself as better than them. I look at myself as a sinner saved by grace

who wants to see other people saved by grace. But that can't happen if I don't have a grace that can save me. I have a distinct, acute awareness of what goes on in my own life. You see, that mirror that we like to shine on everybody else, sometimes we need to turn it around and shine it on ourselves. And the only mirror I know of that can really shine on me

to show me what's really going on in my life is the Word of God. Because that's what James refers to it as. He refers to it as a mirror that reveals things in our lives. You see, I think it would be a wonderful thing if we as the church, all of a sudden became this beautifully broken group of people. That when we approach those that are around us, yes, we confront the things that are wrong,

because don't get me wrong, we have to confront sin. But we confront it in such a way with a desire to see people be restored and with an understanding that I am simply a broken man who wants to point you to the Savior who saved me. I need an awareness of the sin in my own life. But not only do I need an awareness of the sin in my own life, but I need an understanding of God's grace.

I need an understanding of God's grace. I need an understanding of God's grace. You see, that awareness of my sin wipes away my pride, but that understanding of God's grace wipes away my insecurity. Why do I find myself insecure in my walk with Jesus Christ? Why do I find myself insecure in my life? Because I can't rest in who I am in Jesus Christ. I can't rest in the fact that

I belong to Him and that's it. And that's all that there is to it. It's nothing I could earn. It's nothing I could gain. It's not because of how well I can perform in some way, shape, or form, or anything like that. It's simply because His blood was shed for me. It's simply because He loved me enough to die for me, to save me. And when I begin to gain that understanding of grace,

it starts wiping away all those insecurities because now all of a sudden the opinions of the people around me aren't nearly as important as the opinion of the one who created me and the one who saved me. Because if I know that He loves me and He accepts me, then I'm much less concerned as to whether or not you love me and accept me. All of a sudden, all that insecurity starts to get washed away. If you're here this morning and you're battling those insecurities because I think in the world we're living in right now, there's a lot of people that feel really, really insecure.

There's a lot of people, for a myriad of reasons, there's a lot of people that feel really insecure and they need a good dose of just being able to rest in the grace of God. If you need the grace of God just to be just a great big papasan chair in your living room where you just chill and just relax and you can just finally go.

I think that there's some people out there and there's some people in here that feel that way.

So as I gain that distinct understanding of my own sin and I gain that distinct understanding of God's grace, pretty soon it changes the way I treat people and it changes the way I look at people. Pretty soon once I've pulled that plank out of my own eye, I no longer look at my brother and say, I can't believe you got that speck in your eye! I look at my brother and I say, how can I help? I've noticed you've had some problems and I just want to love you and I just want to help you.

Let me tell you about how I feel. Let me tell you about where I went wrong. Because I'm here to tell you right now, once you do that with somebody, they're not scared to tell you anything. I was having a conversation with a guy the other day who's had the opportunity to mentor some kids out at the high school. And he was telling me what he gets to do. Well, as I was talking to him,

I also had a conversation with one of the teachers from the high school. One of the teachers told me, he said, it's amazing how they will tell him anything. And the reason why they'll tell him anything is because they know he'll accept them no matter what. Because they know he's not going to be shocked by what they tell him. Brothers and sisters, I think if we gain this kind of a hard attitude,

we could start seeing some real change not only within the church, but within the world that's around us. You see, most of the world right now views the church as judgmental, mean, and critical. And I hate to say it, but sometimes they're right. There's a reason why that stigmatism comes about. There's a reason why that stigmatism comes about. There's a reason why that stigmatism comes about.

There's a reason why people feel that way. And it's because sometimes the church has given them a really good reason to feel that way. But if we as the church would stop worrying about how holy everybody thinks we are and start really gaining an understanding of the brokenness that I have because of sin, then it would begin to change my attitude. And if I begin to gain that brokenness that I have because of sin and I find my rest in God's grace, pretty soon I don't need to tell the world how bad they are.

I can just show them how good Jesus is. And I can begin to love on the people that come to church on a Sunday morning instead of worrying about whether or not they're going to judge me for how I look. You know what? We probably are because we're all judgmental people. But now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's lay it aside.

And let's begin to love each other for who we really are. But it won't happen if we don't do those things. If we don't begin to understand who I am and who I am in Christ, I'll never become what God wants me to be. And so he goes on to give a second thought. He gives a second exhortation after he tells them to deal with their sin first and then they can know how to reach out to others.

He gives a second exhortation. Look at what it says in verse 6. He says, Now that doesn't seem to fit in. Would you agree with that? That verse seems to be like, well, where'd that come from? Jesus got a little distracted right then, right? No, that's not what happened. This absolutely fits in because this comes with the aspect of discernment. Because remember, he just said,

take the plank out of your eye first and then you can remove the speck from your brother's eye. What does that mean? It means it's okay to identify and confront the sin in somebody else's life as long as you've dealt with your own first. Because then you're going to approach with the right heart. But not only do you need to approach with the right heart, meaning a heart of love,

but you must have a heart of discernment. He uses two illustrations as a part of this exhortation. Did you take note of them? The first thing he said is, don't take what's holy and throw it to the dogs. Now, when you and I think of a dog, we think of a dog living in our house, maybe sleeping in our bed, probably peeing on your carpet, right? Like we think of a dog as a part of our family.

That's not what dogs were like at that point in time. Dogs ran wild and they ran in packs and they were dangerous. They were considered unclean according to the law. So what he says here is, don't take that which is holy. What is that which is holy? Well, according to the Greek language here, you could say that that which is holy is meat that had been sacrificed

on the altar that could then be taken and eaten by the sacrificer. Kind of like what we've been talking about in Leviticus. He says, don't take that which is holy and throw it to the dogs which are unclean. What does he mean? He means, you need to know whether or not someone's heart is ready to be confronted in their sin. Because there are people in the church

who are professing Christians who are walking in sin that are not ready to be confronted in their sin yet. And, if you do, it will be like throwing something holy to the dogs because they'll end up turning on you and attacking you. I've seen it happen. It's happened to me before. It's been quite a while back now, but it's happened to me before where I've confronted somebody too early

and they weren't ready to hear it yet and they attacked me for it. And I was like, not how I saw that going, but okay. So he says, use some discernment in the way that you do this. But then he gives a second illustration. Did you take note of it? He says, and don't throw out, don't throw out your pearls before swine who will trample them under your feet. The pearls are the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Who are the swine? All of the people of the world. There are some people that you should just not give the gospel to. Or, you need to know when it's time to be done preaching. Because they're going to take everything that you say and turn and twist it and use it against you. And we have to have discernment to know that. Because sometimes, as we're out giving the truth

to the people that are around us, you can just tell, that's not going to go well. They're going to be really upset about that. And it requires discernment. Because sometimes, the people that you don't think want to hear the gospel, that's exactly who wants to hear it. And sometimes, the people you think are the most ready, that's exactly who does not need to hear it.

It requires a heart of discernment. It requires a heart that understands when it's time and when it's not time. How do we gain that kind of heart? Look at verse 7. Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. And he who seeks, finds. And to him who knocks, it will be opened.

Or what man is there among you who when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? I hope not. If then, you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father, who is in heaven, give what is good to those who ask him? So, he now gives us this principle

about asking, seeking, and knocking. He goes into talking about prayer. How do we gain this kind of a heart of discernment? To know who we should give the holy things to and who we should throw out the pearls to. Well, I don't have it in myself. In my flesh, I just make the wrong decision all the time. What do I do? I go before the Lord and I ask him. I ask and I seek and I knock through prayer.

And I ask and I seek and I knock for two reasons. Number one, to gain discernment to know who to speak to and who not to speak to. But I also go in prayer and I ask and I seek and I knock to have the right kind of heart attitude. Because also in and of myself, I will always hold on to my judgmental attitude. I will always hold on to the attitude that will condemn and criticize other people.

The only one that can change that is Jesus. The only one who can reveal the sin that's inside of me is Jesus. The only one who can really truly help me to rest in that grace of God is Jesus. And so I must ask and I must seek and I must knock. Now, it's interesting to take a look at these words because if we were to read them in the Greek, we would find that they would read just a little bit different.

We would find that those words would read ask and can't. Seek and keep on asking. Seek and keep on seeking. Knock and keep on knocking. If you will, what Jesus does here is he presents for us persistence. That we are to be persistent in our prayer life, particularly in these areas. Now, I believe that this is an overarching principle for our entire life. In the direct context of what's being said here,

he's saying that we should be persistent in the way that we pursue God in a heart of discernment and a heart that is not judgmental. It's not judgmental towards other people. And if we do so, he will answer by giving us the right kind of heart and by giving us discernment. But he speaks of persistence in prayer. Now, here's a question for you. Why does God always speak to us about being persistent in prayer?

As a matter of fact, there's going to be a parable that Jesus tells later about persistence in prayer. Why does he speak to us about persistence in prayer? Is it because God loses track of things really easily? Like, is God ADHD? Like, in the middle of you talking to him, he's like, shoot, what were they talking about? Oh, yeah. That's right. Wait, what was I going to do for them?

Oh, I'm glad they asked again because I forgot. I do that. I'm really good at that kind of thing. But that's not what God does. God's not ADHD in the way that he deals with things. During first service, I called it ADD, and then I got to thinking about the fact that that's not a title any longer. That's not a diagnosis. It's ADHD now. So God's not ADHD about things.

That's how I am. That's why I'm telling you this story right now. It's because I'm ADHD with an ADD wing, right? I don't focus very well. But that's not how God is. We don't have to be persistent so that God will remember what we're praying for. We have to be persistent because we need to remember what we're praying. We have to be persistent because we forget.

It's interesting to think about your prayer life in a day, isn't it? I always start off my morning when my alarm goes off by first of all thinking, bummer, my alarm went off. And then the second thing I think is, dear Jesus, I really need your help today. It doesn't get a lot deeper than that first thing in the morning. It doesn't get a lot deeper than that mid-morning.

But anyway. It starts off with, dear Jesus, I just need your help today. And then I go and I start waking my kids up and that's when I really get angry. And I'm like, dear Jesus, I really need your help right now because I'm going to fly off the handle at any moment. And sometimes I follow through with that prayer and sometimes I don't. And sometimes I fly off the handle.

Some people can tell you about it at some point in time. And then I'm on my way to school in the morning to teach my class. I'm like, Lord, I don't know how to teach these kids. I don't know how to speak to the teenage mindset anymore because I'm getting old. Lord, I need your strength. And then after I leave my class, I'm on my way down here to the church.

And I'm like, Lord, I have no idea what's facing me at church today. Because when you live in this neighborhood and your church is in this neighborhood, you have no idea what's facing you at church today.

One time, I probably shouldn't tell this, but hey, I already started. One time, it was in the summertime two summers ago and I'm on my way back from lunch. And as I pull back from lunch, or pull back in from lunch, I know all these little knucklehead kids in the neighborhood. I love them to death. But I know all these kids in the neighborhood and they all know me.

And they come running up to me like before I can even pull up to the curb. They're like, Pastor Ryan, Pastor Ryan, Pastor Ryan. I'm like, whoa, what's going on, boys? They're like, we threw something in the dumpster and some lady got out of the dumpster. I don't know who she was. Scared us to death. I'm not making that up. That really happened. A lady came popping out of the dumpster.

She had her bed in there. This is what I mean. When I am praying on my way down to the church in the morning, I pray, Lord, I don't know what's facing me today, but I need your strength for it. Because you just never can tell what's going to happen. Listen, I clear all that out before you guys get here, okay? So I don't want to see any scared looks on any faces right now.

We get that dealt with. But you just never know. But it's kind of interesting, even in the midst of all of those prayers, you know what I can still do in between each of those prayers? I can still forget that God's my only source of hope. God's my only source of hope. God's my only source of strength. And I think to myself, I got this. That's why we have to be persistent in prayer.

Because we forget. Not only that, but we have to be persistent in prayer because I think God loves to see. God loves to see our absolute dependence upon him. And so he first of all tells us to be persistent. But the second thing I take note of is that he shows it being progressive. He says, ask and keep on asking. Seek and keep on seeking. Knock and keep on knocking.

Let me give you a little illustration. Let's say, you want to do a little project this afternoon and you need to borrow something from your neighbor. I'll use a drill because I'm a guy. Let's say I want to borrow a drill from my neighbor. So I shoot my neighbor a text. Hey, can I borrow your drill? I ask him. He doesn't answer it first, so I keep asking him.

He finally answers, yes, I'll bring it over later. Well, that's a non-discriminant sort of a time frame. And so I think, I wonder what later is. And so I begin seeking. Is his car still in the driveway? Yeah, his car's still there. Gosh, he's still not here. I haven't forgotten about the request. And I look and I go, is he really coming? I don't know if he's really coming.

So finally, what do I do? I go over to his door and I knock. Only he didn't really want to let me borrow his drill anyway, so he's sitting there in his living room pretending he can't hear me. So I keep on knocking, right? That's the idea behind what Jesus is saying here. There should be a progressive aspect to our prayer where we don't just give up the first time,

but it's progressive in nature and we just continue seeking the Lord for these things. Now listen. We're then given what happens here. He says, You know what that means? That means God will answer our prayers. Now, he may not always answer it the way you want him to because as we've pointed out before, there's three ways God answers prayers. He either says yes or he says no or he says wait,

but he'll always answer our prayers. But I do believe that when we are praying for a heart of discernment, in a heart that is loving and not judgmental, God always answers those prayers. And he always says yes because that's his desire for us. He goes on to illustrate it. He says, What man is there among you who if his son asks for a loaf will give him a stone

or if he asks for a fish he will not give him a snake, will he? Can you imagine? You go home this afternoon and your kid's like, Dad, I want a cheeseburger. And you're like, okay, well here's a cheeseburger. It's a stone. Ha, ha, ha. Chew on that. No, we wouldn't do that. That's mean. Right? That's a terrible thing to do to somebody. Or if he's like, ooh, you know what sounds really good

for dinner, Dad? Fish. Perfect. Here, have a reptile. Have a snake. Ha, ha, ha. Listen, if I show up to my dad's house and he puts a snake on my plate, I'm never going back to my dad's house. There's no two ways about that because that's wrong. Right? Jesus cursed them. I curse them. It's how I do things. He says, of course not. He says, if you being evil know how to give,

give good gifts, how much more is your Father in heaven, how much more will he not give what is good to those who ask him? So he says, pray about these things because that's what God wants to do in our life. And so we've dealt with the aspect of judgment. We've dealt with the aspect of prayer. And now we look at the golden rule. Notice what it says, verse 12.

In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you. For this is the law and the prophets. That's kind of an interesting phrase right there, isn't it? Especially when you take into account the context of what he started off with. Because I believe that this is a summation of verses 1 through 11, where he says, don't be judgmental, deal with your sin first,

and when you need discernment, ask for it, and I promise God will give it to you. Why? Because in everything, therefore, we are to treat other people the way we want them to treat us. You see, Jesus sums up this entire section with this one. One verse. And I was thinking about this this morning during first service, as I was talking about it, and all I could think was,

in the context of what he's speaking of here, if I were to get caught up in some sort of a sin, if I, as Pastor Ryan Nicholas, were to get caught in some sort of a sin, somehow I fell in some way, shape, or form. My life was never the same because then I could no longer be Pastor Ryan because of it. You know what I would hope? What I would hope is that I would be a Christian.

What I would hope is that I would be a Christian. What I would hope is that rather than the people that I minister to on a daily basis going and telling everybody the story of what happened, I would hope that instead you would come alongside me and you'd put your arm around me and you'd say, we'll get through this thing together. That's what I would hope. That's how I would want to be treated.

That's how I would want to be loved if I was caught up in some sort of a sin. If I made some sort of a decision, if it was a life-altering decision, the worst decision I've ever made in my entire life, and that decision caught up with me, you know what I would hope would happen? I would hope someone would come alongside me, put their arm around me and say, let's walk through this thing together. We'll figure this thing out because you're my brother in Christ.

And because that's what I want someone to do for me, do you know what I'm going to do if one of you comes to me and tells me how you fell in sin? I'm going to put my arm around you and I'll say, let's walk through this thing together because I want to see you grow when you walk with Jesus Christ. I'd come alongside you and I'd put my arm around you and I would say, let's work through the, let's work through the consequences of this decision together. You see, brothers and sisters in Christ, that's what he's talking about here.

He's saying, treat others the way that you want to be treated. And if your life ends up getting caught up with sin, then rather than being someone who in some sort of condemning way comes down and criticizes the person who's caught up in the sin, why don't you come alongside them? Put your arm around them and say, let's walk through this thing together because my greatest desire is to see you restored in your relationship with Jesus Christ. Wouldn't it be amazing if somebody came and confessed their sin to you and you did that and you never told a single soul about it?

Nobody. Nobody had any idea because that's the way you would have wanted to be treated.

You see, there's been times in my life where I have done this, where I have had to go to somebody and say, I sinned in a really big way and I've seen them put their arm around me and walk me through it. So I know that's always how I want to treat other people. Now, is there a tendency in me for the judgmental side to come out? Absolutely. That's why I need to keep asking,

keep seeking, and keep knocking. Because I want the right kind of heart. But ultimately, this is what God wants us to do. And I've seen it happen in my own life. And it's a beautiful thing. He closes up here by saying, this is the law and the prophets. You ever thought about the fact that what the law and the prophets actually told us about was restoration?

All of the law and the prophets taught us about our lives being restored back to what God actually intended for our lives to be. Our lives were destroyed through sin in the garden. When our lives were destroyed by sin in the garden, God began to work out a plan to restore us back to himself. The law began to reveal that plan to us because the law revealed to us, first of all, our sinfulness and our inability to save ourselves.

It then began to show us that because of our sinfulness and our inability, there had to be a sacrifice for sin. That sacrifice that was made was continual for a long time until the day when God said, until the perfect sacrifice, which is what the law told us would come, until the perfect sacrifice came that restored us back to what God intended for us to be, and that is to have a relationship with our creator. That's what the law told us about. Do you know what the prophets speak about?

Are the prophets kind of harsh sometimes? You bet they are. But you know why they were harsh? Because somebody's heart wasn't ready yet, and they had to get tenderized a little bit. But what did the prophets always do with the nation of Israel? They always told them, your purpose to know God has been violated by sin. I want to see your purpose restored. Therefore, this is the sin.

You need to repent of it. That's why I say, when God tells us right here that we should treat others the way that we want to be treated, because it sums up the law and the prophets, that's exactly what he means. Because what do the law and the prophets do? They taught us about restoration. And that's what we should be in the lives of others. Amen? Amen. This morning is Communion Sunday,

and I'm trying to work it out to where the kids can come in and join us for me to share about communion. So if the, I see one kid, if we can get the kids in the sanctuary here. It occurred to me, and then somebody else asked me about it as well, that I spend a lot of time explaining what communion is, but the kids don't hear it. And so I want the kids to come in so that they too can hear about what communion is all about.

Come on in, kids. Find your moms and dads.

Come on in. Tiny people walking. Oh, look, they've got crafts too. I love crafts.

Kyle, can you help her find? There you go. Right up here. Dan, can you put your hand up? There we go. Okay. So this morning we're going to celebrate communion together. Now, as we celebrate communion together, we've had a wonderful message about what the heart of communion is all about, and that's restoration. Because that's what God teaches us through communion.

Because as we partake of communion, we have the bread and the juice. The bread, of course, represents the body of Christ, and the juice represents His blood. And because of the body that was broken for us and the blood that was shed for us, our lives can be made right with God. And so Scripture tells us every time we partake of communion, we declare the death of Jesus.

Because we tell everybody in the world that the only way that I can be made right with God is because of the sacrifice that He made where His body was broken and His blood was shed. As a matter of fact, Jesus on that last great night of the feast took the bread and He broke it. And He said, this is my body which is broken for you. As often as you do this, do this in remembrance of me.

And then He took the cup and He said, this is the cup of the new covenant of my blood which is shed for you. As often as you drink it, do so in remembrance of me. But we're told that we're to do so in a worthy manner. Now what does it mean to partake of communion in a worthy manner? Well, I think it means two things. Number one, it means that if you don't know Jesus

as your Lord and Savior, this doesn't mean anything to you. And so to partake of communion in a worthy manner, the first thing that needs to happen is you need to put your faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. And it's as easy as bowing your head and asking Him to become your Savior, admitting that you're a sinner and asking God to be your Savior. But there's another way that we partake of communion in a worthy manner.

And as believers in Jesus Christ, we partake of communion in a worthy manner by making sure that our hearts are right with Jesus. You see, as we go throughout a day, or a week, or a month, we end up falling into some aspect of sin, whether it be through giving in to sin in some way, shape, or form, or by gaining that judgmental, critical, condemning attitude towards other people. Relationships get damaged, and our relationship with Jesus Christ gets damaged. And so it's very hard for us to partake in something that declares the death of Jesus that unified us with Him if our hearts are separated from Him because of sin.

And so to partake of it in a worthy manner, we must now ask God to, by the power of His Holy Spirit, reveal the sin that's in my life, confess the sin that's in my life to Him, and allow Him to cleanse me. And then my heart can be right before Him. And so I'm going to ask the worship team to come up. And as the worship team is up here, they'll be singing this last song.

And as they're singing this last song, my encouragement to you is that you would ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart, to see if there be any wicked way in you, to see if there be any wrong attitude in you, and then confess those things to Jesus. And His Word promises that if we confess our sin, that He's faithful and just to forgive us of our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And so I would encourage you to do that as we sing this last song. Now the ushers are going to come down and begin handing out the elements.

And as they do, as you receive your element, if you would please stand and we'll partake together. Oh, the joy to be Joy to know it's when I decrease You fill up my soul What a joy to see Joy to hold it's when you increase I want nothing more Wash me in glorious light Oh, the joy Haste in my Focus my Joy Joy Joy Joy Joy Joy Joy Joy Joy Joy Joy I want nothing more To see Joy To see Joy You know what, take one second and just look around you. Think about the fact that that's your family. Not even the ones you're actually related to.

But we're all family. I point it out because that's what we're doing right now. We're celebrating the fact that we're family because of the blood of Jesus. We're celebrating the fact that we're one united family because of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Amen? Father, we come before you. And I just thank you so much for the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.

And Lord, I pray that you would continue to do the work of us becoming family. Lord, family within the body of Christ at Calvary Chapel of Ark City. We're the family within the body of Christ worldwide. Lord, I thank you that your body broken declares your love for us. Lord, that your blood shed declares our forgiveness. And Lord, that as we do this, we tell the whole world

that the only hope that I have is in Jesus. And so, Lord, we praise you for the hope that we have in you. We praise you for the joy that we can find in you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Let's partake.

Would you bow with me one more time? Lord, I pray that you would be with us as we go out from this place. Lord, I pray that your word would continue to sink deeply into our hearts. Lord, that only the things of you would remain. The things of me would stay behind. Amen. And Lord, that you would just marinate our hearts in the truth of who you are and the truth of who we are

and the truth of who we are in you. Lord, be with us as we go out. In Jesus' name. Amen. Lord, bless.