(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Men, the title of my sermon this evening is, look in the mirror, look in the mirror. You see, oftentimes it's easy for us to see the problems in other people and see sins in other people and pass judgment on others, but then be blind to some of the very same sins in our own lives. And so we need to look in the mirror and do an examination of ourselves. And when you hear a sermon that's preached from the Bible, you should be most ready to apply it to yourself before just kind of applying it to other people. I remember one time I was preaching, this has happened a few times, when I was preaching this guy was sitting with his girlfriend and I started preaching about something and he just started going, he just started like silently and really subtly pointing at her like so that she wouldn't see, but so that I would see like, yeah, you know. And that's kind of the mentality that we can sometimes have is to be thinking, oh man, you know, where's so-and-so who really needs to be hearing this? I hope, are they here, you know, are they getting this? Are they paying attention? But when in reality, the person that we need to be the most concerned with when it comes to being rebuked for sin is first and foremost ourselves. The Bible says in verse one here of chapter two, therefore thou art inexcusable, oh man, whosoever thou art that judgest, for wherein thou judgest another thou condemnest thyself, for thou that judgest doest the same things. Now a lot of people will be quick to pull out verses like this to try to claim that we should just never judge or that just judging in general is wrong. Of course, they're taking this completely out of context. The problem here is when you're judging people for doing the same thing that you're doing. And of course, we have the famous passage in Matthew chapter seven verse one, judge not that you be not judged. But a lot of people just interpret that as just judge not period. But what he actually says is judge not that you be not judged, for with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged, and with what measure you meet, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the moat that is in thy brother's eye, but consider'st not the beam that is in thine own eye, or how wilt thou say to thy brother, let me pull out the moat out of thine eye, and behold a beam is in thine own eye, thou hypocrite first cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then never judge anyone. Is that what it says? No, it says first cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the moat out of thy brother's eye. It's not that judgment is wrong. Obviously there are many places in the Bible, those of us who actually read the Bible, that say that we should judge. You know, Jesus Christ said, judge not after the appearance, but judge righteous judgments. The Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians, know ye not that we shall judge angels? How much more things that pertain to this life. And the Bible says he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. But you see all of these verses are completely ignored and forgotten by the crowd that just wants to say judge not at all ever for any reason. The problem here in Romans chapter 2 verse 1 is the one who is judging another, but at the same time condemning himself because he that is judging is doing the same things. This is called hypocrisy, when we judge other people for doing the very things that we ourselves are guilty of. Look down if you would, actually let's continue reading there for a moment. It says in verse 2, but we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commits such things. So the people that are guilty of sin are not just off the hook. Don't judge me, nobody should judge me. Judge not, only God can judge me, but rather we know that the judgment of God is according to the truth against those who commit such things. So the guilty are still guilty, but here's what's going on in verse 3, thinkest thou this old man that judges them which do such things and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? So the Bible is not saying that the guilty people are off the hook, he's just saying that the judgmental person who is a hypocrite and doing the same things is not off the hook either. Both of them are guilty in the sight of God. Jump down to verse 21, it says, thou therefore which teacheth another, teacheth thou not thyself? You know, you're telling everyone else how to live their lives or you're giving advice to other people, but are you listening to your own advice? Thou therefore that teacheth another, teacheth thou not thyself? Thou that preacheth a man should not steal, dost thou steal? Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery. But getting up and saying a man should not commit adultery is correct, but you better not be committing adultery. Dost thou commit adultery? Thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege? Thou that makest thy boast of the law through breaking the law dishonorest thou God? For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you as it is written. He's speaking to the Jews here and he's talking about the fact that the Jews were really big on the law of God. They, oh man, they're so into the law when it came to condemning other people, condemning the Gentiles, pointing out the faults of others, but they weren't really that into the law when it came to actually regulating their own lives and their own hearts. They just wanted to apply it to other people and as a result, the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles as they hypocritically talk such a moral talk even while living rotten sleazy lives, not loving God, not loving their neighbor as their self, but rather just loving, condemning other people and pontificating and being self righteous. They need to turn around and look in the mirror and see themselves for what they are and see their own sins. You see, our sins typically look a lot worse on other people than they look on us. Now if you would flip over to Matthew chapter 23. Matthew 23 is sort of the hypocrisy chapter because Jesus is preaching a hard sermon in Matthew 23 and he's really calling out a lot of hypocrites and it's a great chapter on the subject of hypocrisy. Jesus starts out in verse number one here, it says, then spake Jesus to the multitude and to his disciples. We're in Matthew 23 verse two saying, the scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses seat. All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do, but do not ye after their works for they say and do not. And that is a great definition of hypocrisy, people who say and do not. They talk a big talk, but they don't walk the walk. And he says that they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be born and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. But all their works they do for to be seen of men, they make broad their phylacteries and enlarge the borders of their garments. So these people, they love being religious outwardly. They love to wear religious clothing. They want everybody to see them coming a mile away as a man of God and how spiritual they are. And they talk a big talk about being righteous, but they actually do not regulate themselves at all. They lay a heavy burden on other people, meaning a very strict way of life on others, but then they themselves live loosely. They do what they want. And it says they don't touch these burdens that they lay on other men with one of their fingers. You know, they preach all these things, but then they don't actually practice it. All their works they do for to be seen of men, right? Because that's the essence of what hypocrisy is, putting on a show, talking a big talk, but you're not actually doing it. And it says they love the uppermost rooms at feasts and the chief seats and the synagogues and greetings in the markets and to be called of men, rabbi, rabbi, but be not ye called rabbi. And he goes on and on in the chapter about these hypocrites. They love the accolades. They love to lift themselves up and to tear other people down. They think that they're better than other people. You know what? This mentality can creep in even amongst say Bible believing Christians where you have this prideful attitude thinking that you're so much better than everyone else and looking down on other people. And it's perfectly exemplified in the story of the publican and the Pharisee who both go to the temple to pray and they go to the temple to pray and the publican is praying and the Pharisee is praying. The Bible says the Pharisee prayed thus with himself. So he's not even praying to God. He's literally praying with himself. He's just talking and his prayers not even making it past the ceiling because he is just talking and God doesn't care what he has to say and God's not listening to him at all to the point where he's praying with himself. The Bible says and he says, Oh God, I thank thee that I'm not as other men are. You know, it's this self righteous prayer sounding so thankful to God, which seems like a good thing, right? Thanking thank you, God, that I'm not like other people. I'm better. It's wicked. It's a wicked attitude. You say, Well, I am better. Well, then you're exactly who I'm talking to right now because, you know, a lot of people say, Well, what if it's true folks? That is a wicked attitude. That is not funny. That's just wrong. That's just sin. That's just pride. Right? You're not better than other people. Okay. But you are so much better than other people. You know what? The Bible says that we should esteem other better than ourselves. So let's say that you legit are better than other people. You shouldn't think about it that way. You should think of them as better than you. That's what the Bible says. What does it mean to esteem? Well, think about the word estimate, right? There are people who go around and for a living, they put a price tag on things. They drive from house to house deciding how much that house is worth or deciding how much this car is worth and they're called an estimator, right? They go and look at jobs and decide how much a job is worth and they estimate them. You know what it means to estimate something in that context is to put a value on something, put a price tag on something to estimate it is to decide the monetary value. And so when he says, let each of us esteem, esteem others, it means put a value on others better than ourselves. Think of them as better than ourselves. Not saying, oh, I'm better than them. No, no, no. Think about them as being better than you, even if it's not true. That's how you should think about it. Okay. And now go through life trying to figure out if you're better than other people. Why don't you just decide that other people are more important? Why don't you just decide that you need to work on yourself and that you have a long way to go and be humble in the side of God because God gives grace to the humble, but he resists the proud. And God wants us to be humble, to be, uh, meek, to think of other people as higher than ourselves and not to be puffed up, arrogant, filled with pride. Oh, I thank you God that I'm not as other men are. And then he, in fact, uh, let's turn there. It's not in my notes, but I want to turn there. Luke, somebody help me with the chapter 18, Luke 18. Very good. Hive mind at work. Luke chapter 18. He said, I thank thee, oh God, verse 11, God, I thank thee that I'm not as other men are extortioners, unjust adulterers, or even as this publican. Now here's the thing. We could pray that prayer tonight because of the fact that probably very few people in this room are extortioners or adulterers or whatever, you know, it's kind of listing these really big sins, these big things, and he's all puffed up about himself. But I guarantee you that this guy's got a whole bunch of other sins that he's not listing, right? Because we all have our sins that we're guilty of. And then we all have sins that we're not guilty of at all. And it's so easy to pick on other people's sins that we're not guilty of when we in reality have other problems as well. Okay. You know, for example, I could get up here and preach hard against alcohol and I could then turn around and look down on people who drink alcohol because I don't drink any alcohol. I've never been drunk. I don't even know what beer tastes like, you know, and I could just act like I'm so much better than people who drink. But here's the thing about that. I should be preaching hard against alcohol because the Bible preach start against alcohol. But should I look down on the one who struggles with that sin and think that I'm better than them? Absolutely not. No. The reality is that I have sins that I struggle with. They have says that they struggle with and you know, you could talk to two different people and for one of them, alcohol is a major struggle. And for another person, alcohol is not even on their radar. I mean, alcohol is just frankly not on my radar. Okay. I'm 42 years old. I really doubt I'm all of a sudden just going to take up drinking at 42. It's just not going to happen. Okay. But you know what? Some people really are struggling with alcohol. Some people really are struggling with drugs and it doesn't make them better or worse than you and me because we've got our sins that we struggle with. They've got their sins that they struggle with. And so it's always easy to name some sin that somebody else out there is doing and condemn that harshly. But then our sin is no big deal and to turn a blind eye to our own sin. Now again, the answer is not to stop being hard on alcohol. The answer is not to say that sin is no big deal or something. No, my friend, that we're sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commits such things. But the point is to look at ourselves and examine ourselves and not get prideful and realize that in another life we would be that drunk or that alcoholic. We all have the same sin nature and there's no temptation that's taken any of us but such as is common to man. Okay. And so if I had been raised in a home where my parents were drinking and if I had gotten a taste of alcohol at age 12 or 13 or 14, you know, I'd probably be someone who drinks. Very likely, right? Look, if I was raised in a Hindu home, I could be a Hindu right now. If I was raised in a Muslim home, I could be a Muslim right now, right? It's not that I'm better than other people. It's that God blessed me and my circumstances and I chose to get saved and follow Christ. And so by his word, he has allowed me to dodge a lot of these bullets that are out there in the world, not because I'm such a great person, but because he's a great savior and because I put my faith and trust in him, he not only saved me, but he also gave me of his Holy Spirit to help guide me into truth and to convince me of my sins and help me to realize a better way of living. I mean, look, if I didn't have the Bible guiding my way of life, I'd be living my life in a stupid way. It's not just that I'm so smart or that I'm so much better. No, it's that I had the Bible as my guide. Okay? Even if I grew up in a Christian home, if I didn't go to a church where the Bible is being faithfully preached, if I didn't read the Bible myself and I just leaned upon my own understanding, I would be making all kinds of stupid decisions and ruining my life. And it's not that the people out there just ruining their lives are just idiots and you're so smart and they're fools and you're wise and you're strong and they're weak. No, my friend, but by the grace of God, there go all of us. We could all under other circumstances be out there living the wrong kind of life because the Bible says, I know that in me that is in my flesh dwell with no good thing. And that's the apostle Paul talking and we could all say the same thing. We could all say that in our flesh there is rottenness, there is a sin nature, there is wickedness. And if we don't put on the new man, if we don't rely on the Lord to help us and put on the new man and walk in the spirit, we will all go down a dark path. Now my dark path is not going to be the same as your dark path, but we all have a dark path that we could go down if we do not take heat unto ourselves. Now my dark path is not going to be drinking. It's not going to be drugs, right? But yours could. You know, some of you that have struggled with that in the past, well, you know what? That's probably what you would revert to, right? But all of us have multiple dark paths open unto us and all kinds of sins that are out there. And just because one sin doesn't tempt you, a different sin does. So this guy is saying, oh man, I'm not an extortioner. I'm not an adulterer, but he's not really listing a lot of sins, is he? Because I guarantee you that if we started listing sins, pretty soon we'd start to hit this guy and what he's guilty of. And I'll promise you one thing he's super guilty of is pride, which is a major, major sin that will lead to a whole bunch of other sins. Being proud and stubborn is like the big one that kind of begets all these other sins in many ways, right? There's certain kind of keystone sins that just really take root and infest your life. And the two big ones that I always think about are pride and envy. Those are the two big ones, right? I mean, envy just opens the door to everything else. Pride just opens the door to everything else, right? And so these couple of sins are some of the most dangerous things that we should constantly be working on and saying, you know, am I being proud? Am I prideful right now? And constantly checking because it's so dangerous. And then also checking, you know, am I coveting right now? Am I envious? Those are kind of the two big ones that really will just open up a whole world of iniquity unto you. But this guy, you know, man, he's just so great. He's so thankful that he's not an extortionate. He's not an adulterer. He fasts twice in the week. He gives tithes of all that he possesses. So the guy's paying his tithe and he's fasting. But is he fasting for the right reasons? He's not fasting because he loves the Lord. He's not fasting because he loves his neighbor. He's fasting as a bodily exercise so that he can be proud about it and boastful about it. Hey, look at me, you know, I fasted. I fast twice a week. You know, it always cracks me up when you hear preachers talk about how they fast. When the Bible literally says like when you fast, don't tell anyone that you're fasting. It says you don't want to appear unto men to fast. Anoint thy head, wash thy face, that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. And he says how you don't want to be like the hypocrites of a sad countenance. Why? They disfigure their faces like, oh man, you know, I'm hungry because they want to appear unto men to fast. They want to get credit for fasting. Why? Because all their righteousnesses they do for to be seen of men. And so they, if they didn't get credit for fasting, what's the point of even fasting? Right? I mean, if it's not going to be on social media, then what's the point of even doing it? Well, guess what? We're supposed to do good works for the sake of doing good works and that our Father can see in secret and he can reward us openly what he sees in secret as opposed to, hey, everybody look at me, I'm praying. Look at me, I'm fasting. Look at me, this is me tithing right now. This is me going soul winning right now. You know, now obviously we talk a lot about, you know, big soul winning things we do and, and, and big mission strips that we do just because we're trying to hype things up and get people excited and, and provoke one another to love and to good works. But you know what? You should never have this motive of, hey, look at me, I'm soul winning right now. And it makes sure everybody knows what I'm doing or something like that. That's a wicked attitude. It's wrong. And if that's your attitude, you're headed for a fall. You're headed for destruction when you want to get credit on this lifetime for all the good things that you do. Let me tell you something. Those who serve the Lord are not going to get credit for a lot of the good deeds that they do in this lifetime. They're going to be rewarded by the Father, which is in heaven. But those who get the credit now, the Bible says, well, they already have their reward. They're getting their reward right now. All of the accolades. Hey, look at me, you're the, you know, I've heard pastors talk about fasting for 40 days. I'm thinking like if you did that to your body, tormenting your body for 40 days, this unhealthy just pushing yourself to the brink of, you know, I mean, I mean, unless you're some of these guys maybe could could handle it, but because they've got they've got so much in reserve, you know. But I'm saying like, you know, you're just you're really just going to go to the men if I was going to go to the brink like that, man, I would I would make sure nobody knew about that because I want to get a reward for that. I mean, rather than to go through all that and then, hey, everybody just finishing up my 40 day fast here. It's like, are you brain dead? Are you stupid or something? Like, why would you want to go through all that for nothing? For nothing? Because if you're doing it for accolades, you're doing it for nothing. You're doing it for less than nothing because you're doing it for vanity. And so this guy says, I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I possess in the public and standing afar off would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven, but smote upon his breast saying, God, be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone that exalted themselves shall be abased. And he that humbles himself shall be exalted. And so it's so funny at the end of verse 11, he literally says, I thank God that I'm not as other men are extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. He's literally pointing at a guy who's going to heaven and saying, thank you, God. I'm not like this guy. And he's literally going to hell. Let that sink in. Here's a guy who's going to spend eternity in hell and he's like, man, I'm so thankful. I'm not like this, this guy who's literally going to heaven, who's literally in heaven right now and the Pharisees in hell right now. What irony that some of the people today that we might despise or look down upon, they could be saved children of God. And here we are despising people and so forth. Now look, obviously if we believe that salvation is by grace or faith, we're going to heaven too. Okay. But this guy is not even going to heaven because this guy doesn't believe in salvation by grace or faith. He thinks he's going to heaven because he's so wonderful, because he's fasting twice a week because he gives the tithe and all of those things. And so we want to make sure that we don't allow this spirit to creep into our own hearts and lives. This Pharisaical Jew type of an attitude of we're better than them. You know, we shouldn't look at this world and say, hey, you know, these people are trash. We should feel bad for them and try to pull them out of the fire if they're unsaved. And if they're saved, we should be trying to show them a more excellent way and teach them to observe all things that Christ commanded us. It's not saying to be soft on sin. Okay. Obviously we should preach hard against sin, but we should also have the life to back it up. And when we go to church and hear a sermon, the first person that we should be thinking about is ourselves. You say, well, that's easy for you to say, Pastor Anderson, because you're the pastor. So you're not listening to preaching. You know, you're doing the preaching, but you know what? When I'm actually writing the sermon, I'm actually preaching to myself. So while I'm writing the sermon, I'm looking at myself and I'm looking in the mirror. Okay. And the Bible is the mirror and I'm looking in the mirror and I'm saying, you know what? Am I like this? Is this how I am? Even if it's something that's not like me at all, you know, it never hurts to just ask that question. I'm just in that. I'm so in the habit of asking that question, even things that I'm not guilty of at all. I constantly want to just be asking myself, am I guilty of that? Is this me? You know, I'm reading about these villains in the Bible, reading these lists of sins, reading these attributes of wicked people or all the wicked things out there. And I'm constantly asking myself, is this me? Am I like that? Am I, man, I don't want to be that guy. I don't want to be like that. I don't want to be like that person. Hey, apply the sermon first and foremost to yourself. It's always easy to just apply it to someone else. And by the way, this is why certain topics are so popular to listen to because they're, they're so easy to follow. Like people love the preaching on end times Bible prophecy because they don't have to change anything. I mean, think about it. You know, the pastor's getting up and, and rebuking all these wrong end times teachings and you're sitting there, you're crossing the T and dotting the I when it comes to Bible prophecy. But you know, it's kind of no skin off your back at the end of the day, is it? Now of course these people are like, well, you know, you, you know, you guys who want to stay here for the tribulation, go ahead. You know, I'm leaving, but if you want to stay, go ahead. Because if, like as if what we want plays a role and like you just make your own reality or something, it is what it is. But here's the thing. It's not some big sacrifice for us to just acknowledge the fact that the rapture is not going to take place today. It can't take place at any moment because there are certain things that have to happen first. And if we get that biblical view of a post tribulation pre wrath rapture and we get that all figured out, we got the chart, we got the timeline, we got it all figured out. It really doesn't change anything about our lives. It hasn't caused me to buy one single stitch of storable food. You know, I'm not doing it. Okay. You know, it has not caused me to change anything about the way I live my life. And you know, that's what's so great about it because you can show up and listen to the pastor preach hard and everybody's shouting Amen and everybody's excited about something because it doesn't actually impact them at all. It doesn't actually call out anything that they're guilty of. You know, once they stop being pre-trib, they can just enjoy those sermons for the rest of their life. You know, maybe the pre-tribbers are squirming a little bit because they've been lying or they've just been deceived, but some of them have just been straight lying because they've been studying the Bible their whole lives and they're still lying about it even though the truth has been shown unto them. But here's the thing. You know, another subject that people love to hear that face-ripping preaching on is the Sodomites. Now part of this is legitimate because of the fact that we go through our week having the world cram this filth down our throat and so it is cathartic. It is refreshing to actually have someone vent some of the rage that we all feel toward that filth and wickedness because we don't like being exposed to that stuff. It's irritating. It's vexing. I mean what does the Bible say about Lot? Lot vexed his righteous soul from day to day. I mean it's vexing. It's so irritating. It's so enraging that that's why people love to go to church and hear the hard preaching because like, man, finally somebody's not insane. Somebody hasn't lost their stinking mind. But you know, one of the reasons why we like to hear that preaching is just because of the fact that it's something that we've never been guilty of, we're never going to be guilty of. It takes zero effort to obey that commandment. And so it's kind of easy to just sit back, yeah, burn them. But here's the thing, I'm for your enthusiasm and again I say burn them, okay? But at the same time though, you know, we need to also be excited about all of God's commandments, all of God's word, and sometimes the word of God is going to strike us where we live. And you know, there are people, they'll go to church and they'll go to church and they'll go to church until the pastor preaches on something that they're guilty of and then that's it, they're mad. You know what, you are lame, okay? Because here's what's funny, you expect everyone else to sit through all the preaching that you like. And then it touches you and now all of a sudden it's like, aw man. Well you know what, that's what some other dude's saying about alcohol, aw man. Some other dudes get you cigarettes, aw man. You know, divorce, aw man, tattoos, you know, everybody's, there's going to be somebody who is pricked or annoyed by something because it's a little too close to home or it hits a sensitive area, well you know what, why don't you just suck it up and understand that the whole Bible's going to be preached, none of us is perfect, we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God, and why don't you just acknowledge that you have some areas in your life that you need to work on. And so hearing a sermon that touches you at the quick and makes you a little uncomfortable, hey, that's a blessing to actually go to church and get some teaching that can help you correct something in your life, as opposed to just being a cheerleader while Pastor Anderson just gets up with the flame thrower and just torches all the sodomites and torches all the weirdos, you know, and you're just like, ahh, you know, and then I start getting on your sin and all of a sudden you're like, whoa, what are we doing here? What's the problem here? Until Pastor Anderson gets on your Barbie movie or whatever, and now all of a sudden you're mad. And by the way, this afternoon, it came to my attention that one of the women in the Barbie movie is a freaking dude, it's a dude! One of the women in the movie is actually a dude in drag, I mean isn't that enough to just be a deal breaker right there? Hey, can I give money so that I can look at a dude? You know what else is a woman? And listen to me, because sometimes it's hard to cut through the language of the world that we're living in today because the world, they've corrupted language so much, they'll say like a transgender woman and you're like, what is that? Like is it coming or going? You know, and where did it start? Where is it going? What's going on? You know, right? Does anybody else get confused? I want to stay confused. I hope I never understand this stuff. But it's like, you know, so then they'll sit there and say well it's a transgender woman and you're like, well what is that, what is that? Well let me just help you, it's a dude in drag. It's a transvestite, it's a dude dressed up like a woman. So you know, oh you know, go look at all the Barbies, well one of them's a dude. Well which one, you know, why don't we just not go? Because that's just a deal breaker right there. Like I don't want to set that wickedness before my eyes. Unbelievable. But then, but you know what though, I'm the bad guy though, right? I'm the bad guy for getting up and rebuking the two big popular movies that everybody wants to go see. And you know what, by the way, why would we just follow a multitude to do evil? You know, like just the fact that all the other movies are all tanking in the box office it seems like, I don't really follow these things but it seems like, I mean correct me if I'm wrong, I didn't think many people really went to the movies that much anymore because I thought everybody just has their phone and their home theater and their, you know, whatever, COVID and all that, I thought that that kind of just all changed things. But you know, it's like all these other movies are doing poorly financially from what I understand and then all of a sudden you just have these two movies, two movies that just everybody has to see these two movies and they're just raking in hundreds of millions of dollars, just huge, just everybody's got to do it. And why do you want to see it? Well, because everybody else is seeing it, right? And it's just like, everybody's got to go do it, you know? Well, you know, right now to me that's just like a red flag right there. Like everybody wants to do it, count me out. Because I know that broad's the way that leads to destruction. And guess what? There's a thing called the rulers of the darkness of this world. And you know what? They have certain agendas and certain plans and that's what they're going to push. That's what they're going to put out front and center. And of course they're going to sugarcoat it and make it look good. Okay? Flip over if you would to 2 Samuel chapter 12. So the point is, it's always easy to hear someone else's sins ripped on, but then all of a sudden when it hits where you live, you can't get all sensitive about it. Okay? You know what? So when I'm preparing a sermon, I'm convicted by my own conscience. When I'm preparing a sermon thinking, oh man, I need to work on this, ah, I'm like that or whatever, depending on the subject. All of us have weaknesses. All of us have sinful tendencies and in our flesh we have that sinful nature. If we're not walking in the new man, if we're not walking in the spirit, we've all got problems. And so even just preparing sermons or reading my Bible, I'm convicted by my own conscience. Or when I'm listening to someone else preaching, sometimes one of my preacher friends will hit on something and ouch, that applies to me. Well, there goes another friend. No, he's still my friend. Faithful are the wounds of a friend. You know, and we, and by the way, you say, well yeah, but you're wrong. Oh, okay. So what if, so what if I'm wrong? You know, what, what if, what if I'm wrong, like 1% of the time, well, you know, somebody wrote me an email one time saying, you know, well, you were wrong about this one thing and so now I just don't know if I can trust anything that you say, well, let me just tell you something. I'm going to be wrong again. I've been wrong before. I'm going to be wrong again. You know, but guess what? Most of what I'm saying is right, but at the end of the day, it's your job. You and the Holy Spirit to figure out what, whether what I'm saying is right or not. You know, I never asked you to come here and just mindlessly believe everything that I say and just mindlessly follow everything that I teach. No, I am teaching stuff that is derived from scripture. I'm up here quoting scripture. I'm backing up what I say and if I'm not backing it up in this sermon, I could point you to another sermon where I'm backing these things up. I've got the receipts, my friend, but if you don't agree with me, get over it because newsflash, you're never going to find a church where you agree with everything. You will not. You leave here because I don't agree with something that Pastor Anderson preached. You're going to go to the next place. You're going to agree with even less. You know what I'm saying? You're going to agree with even less. You know, well, Pastor Anderson is just a little over the top on this one. So what? So what? I mean, you know what? Maybe I get a little carried away sometimes. Maybe my friends get a little carried away sometime. So what? Good. Big deal. You know, here's the thing. Some of these churches out there, they're never going to go over the top because they're so far from the top. Because I was preaching on the road trip and I used this illustration of like basically they're driving their spiritual vehicle at like five miles an hour. They're not going to get a speeding ticket. It's just not going to happen. Right? Because they're, you know, they're just, some of them aren't even leaving the driveway. They're guaranteed to be safe. Okay. But you got the old IFP cruising at 15 miles an hour with their hazard lights on going like, well, you know, he's got a new IFP, it's a little crazy, a little wild. You know, we're going places. We're doing stuff. Yeah. Are we going to sometimes maybe, look, I'm not going to crash and burn, but you know sometimes I'm going to bump the curb. There's going to be a curb check every once in a while. So what? Who here has ever been driving your car and you've done the curb check? Guess what? Anybody who's hands not up is probably just never driven a car and Miriam, did your hand go up? Because I've seen you do it because everybody's done it. Okay. Every single person. Okay. We've all sinned and come short of the way we should be driving our cars. And so here's the thing. The only way to never get in an accident is to never leave the driveway. Okay. And you know what? It's so easy for these grandmas, pastor granny, pastor Sunday granny driver, he would never do those things. He would never say those things, right? You didn't really do much of anything or say much of anything. You know, uh, it's easy to just get all bent out of shape because the pastor preached hard on your sin. Maybe got a little overboard in your mind. Maybe you're right. Maybe you're wrong. Even if you're right, you're still not right to think that that is just a reason for you to get all bent out of shape because the man of God got a little too worked up about saying, Oh, say it isn't so, you know, it's so funny because I'm, I'm reading my Bible and I'm reading about all these preachers and, and I, and I don't see where God is constantly trying to tone preachers down. You know, I don't see Paul telling Timothy, Hey, these preachers are getting too radical. You know, these guys are preaching too hard. You know, I don't see Paul telling Titus, Hey, whoa, easy on the sodomites, buddy. You know, but that's what people say today, don't they? Because it's just all about prophesy to us. Smooth things, right? We want the easy listening, smooth preaching, right? Smooth jazz Sunday mornings at 10 30 the soothing sounds of pastor Anderson. I mean, come on. That's what people want, right? They want, they want pastor. What pastor, what's the guy with the saxophone? Yeah, pastor Kenny G over here. You know, that's what they want. Well guess what? That's not what God has called us to do. He called us to sound the trumpet, not to gently play the sax. All right. I'm not against the sax. It's a great instrument. Okay. I'm not against necessarily Kenny G, but I think he needs a haircut big time because I'm pretty sure he's a long haired hippie. Am I right? Okay. All right. So I'm just making sure, cause you know what? Cause what if I'm wrong and then you could never ever believe anything I ever say ever again if I, if it turns out Kenny G has a crew cut and I got it wrong. Well, I doubt it. Did I have you turn to second Samuel chapter 12? You see, we're quick to condemn other people and not see the beam that is in our own eye. It says in second Samuel chapter 12 verse one, the Lord sent Nathan unto David. He came unto him and said unto him, there were two men in one city, the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing save one little ewe lamb, which he had brought and nourished up and it grew together with him and with his children. It did eat out of his own meat and drank of his own cup and lay in his bosom and was unto him as a daughter. Okay. So I mean, this guy's poor, he's got this pet lamb that he cuddles with and spoons food into its mouth for whatever reason. And there came a traveler under the rich man, verse four, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his herd to dress for the wayfaring man that was coming to him, but took the poor man's lamb, dressed it for the man that was coming. I mean, took this poor guy's pet that he loved and cooked it up for dinner, even though he just has tons of sheep and goats of his own that he could have fed. He instead kills the neighbor's pet and feeds it to his guests. Now that's a pretty bad story, isn't it? I mean, that's a, what a mean guy. I mean, you know, when you read that, you, you, you're probably gonna have the same reaction that David had where David's anger was greatly kindled against the man. I mean, you'd be super enraged at this rich man that would do such a thing. And he said to Nathan, as the Lord liveth, the man that had done this thing shall surely die and he shall restore the lamb fourfold. That always cracks me up. Like he's, kill him and then make him pay four, four times, like in that order. Like if he's dead, you know, and he has to pay, okay, I'm going to be, I'm going to die, but do I really have to pay back quadruple? That always cracks me up. But then what does Nathan the prophet say to him? He says to him, thou art the man. Verse seven and Nathan said to him, thou art the man. Now he's not saying like David, you demand, all right? What he's saying is the man from the story is you because David has all of his wives and all of his concubines. Whereas Uriah the Hittite just has one wife that he actually loves and cares about his one wife. And instead of David enjoying his own wives and concubines that he already has too much of because you're only supposed to have one, he turns around and does what? Takes away Uriah's wife from him. And not only that, he murders Uriah the Hittite. And so Nathan says to David, you, oh, the man should be put to death and pay fourfold. You're so mad at this guy. You are that guy. It's you. Look in the mirror, David. It's you. That's who you are. And you know what? What David did is so much worse. I mean, the guy who took the lamb is a big jerk, but you know what? What David is way worse. But yet David is super mad about something way more minor, relatively speaking, than committing adultery with a man's wife and then murdering her husband to cover it up. So much worse. But yet he's so quick to condemn someone else and not to see the beam that is in his own eye. Now, in David's defense, he acknowledges it right away and he says, I've sinned against the Lord. And Nathan the prophet tells him that God is going to give him grace and that he's not going to die, that God's going to give him a break, because what did he pronounce as judgment upon himself? He shall surely die and pay fourfold, and he says you're not going to die. But he does pay fourfold though, because four of his sons end up dying for the one man that he killed. And so he does pay fourfold because, of course, if you go down through the story, you're going to read about how Amnon's going to die, Absalom's going to die, the baby that's conceived with Bathsheba, the very product of the sin is going to die, and Adonijah's going to die. And all four of those are a retribution. That's lamb one, lamb two, lamb three, and lamb four for what he did to Uriah the Hittite. And so we want to make sure that we don't just always focus on the problems that other people have and not think about our own issues. That we always hear a sermon and just want to apply it to other people, but then, you know, hey, we give ourselves a pass and it's no big deal. You know, you're quick to notice the children disrespecting you, but what about you disrespecting your husband? How about that? Or you're quick to see your wife disrespecting you, but how about when you disrespect the boss at work? Well, that's different because the boss at work is a blah, blah, blah. Well, your wife could say that you're a blah, blah, blah, and your kids can say that mom and dad are a blah, blah, blah. Everybody's got an excuse and a reason for why they have a bad attitude. But you know what? If you expect your followers to have a good attitude toward you, then you better have a good attitude toward your authority and not be a hypocrite, right? And it's so easy to sit there and say, well, yeah, these people out there that are committing that sin, they need to get right with God. Well, but what about you? You know, what about you? Because we've all got our weaknesses. We've all got our blind spots. Nobody's perfect. And you know, it's easy to just act like, you know, the, the, the pre-tribbers that, you know, they've got this goofed up doctrine, but you know what, what about, what about doctrine that you've been goofed up on in the past? Obviously you're not knowingly currently goofed up on doctrine or you'd fix it, but you know what? We've all been goofed up on things in the past. I could think of dumb things that I've believed in the past and things that I've been goofed up on in the course of my life, wrong doctrines, wrong interpretations that I've had silly things that I've believed in. You know what? We've all been guilty at some point and you know, if you would flip over to Titus chapter three and I'll close there. Titus chapter three. What's the title of sermon? Look in the mirror. Look in the mirror. And you know what? The Bible says that if you're a hearer of the word, but you're not a doer of the word, you're like a man beholding his natural face in a glass. Now when the Bible says beholding your natural face in a glass, that what that means is a mirror, okay? Obviously mirrors are actually a pretty high tech invention if you think about it, like the really good mirrors that we have in 2023. I mean just these perfect crystal clear mirrors. That's not something that they would have had necessarily in the Bible days. You know they're looking at themselves in a shiny piece of metal or in a water's reflection or something. They don't just have some perfect bathroom mirror, okay? So they talk in the Bible about beholding your face in a glass, right? Or seeing through a glass darkly or something like that. Because we're talking about windows and mirrors that are not necessarily perfect. Whereas today we have these perfect windows and perfect mirrors, okay? So it says that the person who looks at the Bible and doesn't put it into practice, they're like a man who beholds his face in a glass, for he beholded himself and goeth his way and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. It'd be like if you looked at yourself in the mirror and you were checking something in particular and then the moment you looked away you don't even remember what you're even checking or what it looked like. You didn't even see what you looked like. So here's the thing. If we look in the Bible, the Bible says if we look into the perfect law of liberty and continue therein, being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, then we shall be blessed in our deed. So the Bible's like a mirror, but we're not supposed to look in the mirror and forget what it showed us. We're supposed to look in the mirror and remember what it showed us, meaning that we do based on what we learned. So when we read that we're not supposed to be prideful, we go away and we act humble. We put it into practice. When we read that we're not supposed to be drunk with wine, we're in his excess but be filled with the Spirit, then we walk away and we be sober. Not being a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, doing what the Bible says, look in the mirror every day. So when I'm reading the Bible, what's the illustration? According to James, I'm looking in the mirror when I read the Bible every day. But you know what, sometimes when we read the Bible we're not looking in the mirror. We just read the Bible and we're thinking, oh man, brother so-and-so needs this. Oh man, you know, let me email this verse over to so-and-so. She needs to hear this, he needs to hear this, instead of looking in the mirror every day and saying, hey, is this me? Am I guilty of this? Am I doing this? That's what we ought to be doing, looking in the mirror of God's Word, checking in the mirror. Now I've always had trouble kind of relating to this illustration of beholding my face in a glass and going my way and straight away forgetting what manner of man I was. But what I always think of is the cell phone, some more modern illustration. And who's ever done this? You pull out your phone to see what time it is, you look at the time, put it in your pocket and you have no idea what time it is. Who knows what I'm talking about? Wow, man, it's so refreshing when I'm normal, you know? Because sometimes I'll be like, yeah, you know that thing? And then there's like one hand goes up, I'm like, oh man, whoops, you know. Thank you, everybody agrees with me. You literally pull out your phone for one purpose, check the time, and then you're like, wait, what time was it? And you know, that's how some people read their Bible. Read the Bible and just, whoop, in one ear, out the other, they don't apply anything. And if you don't apply anything, you're like the guy who looked onto his cell phone, and then he goeth his way and straightway forgetteth what time it was, okay? You want to make sure that you actually do some self-examination as you read the Word of God and apply it to yourself first and foremost. Look, yes, we want to preach the Word of God to others, we want to help other people, we want to exhort one another, we want to preach the Word of God and help other people grow and learn the rules, but you know, first and foremost, we should always start by examining ourselves. And if you're just always just passing every test, every self-check, you're just like giving yourself an A and an A+, constantly, you know what, you're not doing it right. You know, you're reading all these, you're reading the fruit of the Spirit, you're like me, me, me, me, me, also me, me, me, me, you know, you're not doing it right. Okay, you need to be actually honest with yourself about your faults and shortcomings and weaknesses. In Titus chapter 3, it says in verse 3, for we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lust and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another, but after that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he has shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, and he goes on and on, but he's basically saying, look, we've done stupid stuff too. It's easy to look down on other people. What about all the bad stuff we've done? What about all the stupid things we've done? And it says in verse 14, and let ours also learn to maintain good works for necessary uses that they be not unfruitful. We need to make sure that we're doing maintenance on ourselves, maintaining good works, not letting ourselves become unfruitful, be lenient with others and strict on yourself. Don't be strict on others and lenient with yourself. Don't be slack with yourself and then you want to hold everybody else to a really high standard. No, my friend, we all have areas in our lives that we could work on and you would do well to take this sermon that I'm preaching to you right now. You know what's funny is that there's probably someone in here right now thinking, you know, yeah, so-and-so really needs to hear this sermon. Like irony of ironies in a room this size, there's probably somebody literally who's applying this sermon to someone else, okay? When in reality, I would ask that everyone first and foremost apply this to themselves, and I invite you to do a self-check and look in the mirror and then on a daily basis when you're reading the Bible, you know, it's easy for people to just be like, oh, I'm so disgusted by David in the Bible. You know, well, look in the mirror, you know, it's like, oh man, I'm so disgusted by this character or that character. I mean, some of the characters are pretty disgusting, but here's the thing about David though, David's a man after God's own heart. That's what the Bible says. So David was not a rotten person. He was not a horrible person, and yet he did something horrific. He did something so egregious, so heinous, so horrific, why, just stop and think for a second, why do you think God put a story in the Bible about the man after his own heart doing something horrific? It's to let you know that no matter how good you are, no matter how godly you are, no matter how spiritual you are or think you are, you are not invincible. And that you have the capability to go down a dark path and that you need to maintain good works for necessary uses that you be not unfruitful because all of us need to take heed lest we fall. Because all of us, all of us have that sinful flesh and all of us have bad proclivities and you know what? You're just going to let your bad habits and your bad tendencies and your bad inclinations just go unchecked. You're just going to get worse and worse and worse and you know what? You're eventually going to become a person that could do something like what David did. And maybe you won't go quite as far as David because God kind of uses extreme examples just to make sure everybody's covered. You know like you read the book of Job, nobody can read the book of Job and go like oh that's nothing compared to what I've been through. So that's why he gives you like the most extreme possible example because otherwise if he told a more moderate example you'd be like well you know what about what I'm going through? It's so much worse. Nobody reads Job and says I have it worse. So when you read the David story, yeah it's extreme. It's a radical extreme story but the point is though you can go down a dark path. David didn't get there overnight. He gets more and more relaxed in his morality, he gets more and more relaxed until he just becomes more and more rotten as he indulges his sinful tendencies instead of keeping them restrained and unchecked. You know when you're sitting there just adding more wives and adding more concubines, you know you just get used to just kind of just getting what you want and you just kind of get used to just gratifying your sinful flesh and then pretty soon you'll do anything to gratify it even at the expense of adultery and murder. Not me! Well you know what? Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. Let's bow our heads in our word of prayer. Father we thank you so much for the mirror of your word. Help us to look in that mirror every single day Lord and not to get so worked up about what other people are doing wrong that we don't see the elephant in the room of what we ourselves are guilty of. Lord help us to do a self-examination and in Jesus' name I pray, amen.