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

Alright, the title of my sermon this afternoon is Judging Foolishly. Now, we're gonna come back to Romans 14, so keep a bookmark there. We're definitely gonna spend a lot of time in Romans 14, but go ahead and flip over to Matthew chapter 7. Matthew 7 is a great starting point, I think. Romans 14 just has a lot of what I'm gonna cover this afternoon, but I think it's appropriate to start in Matthew 7, and I want to start off just with this. Most of you know, if you've been coming to church for any length of time, that I don't buy into today's modern Christianity that's the judge, not Christianity, where they read Matthew 7 verse number 1, the first two words, and then just stop there as if there's nothing else after those two words, okay? Because judging is appropriate, and judging is something that people do all the time. In fact, the words that you hear coming out of my mouth right now, you're judging in yourself whether or not those words are right or true or accurate. I hope you are, at least. You ought to be, if you're not, you shouldn't just be just opening up your ears and just saying, okay, well, it's anything that you say, I'm just gonna accept. You ought to be judging what's being said, and we ought to do that all the time, okay? Now, I'm not gonna spend my time this evening, I've done this already in other sermons, talking about the things that we ought to be judging and that Christians ought to be judging, that God judges, that we ought to judge, you know, when it comes to wickedness and filth and abomination, you know, that needs to be called out for what it is. But let's get the full understanding of Matthew chapter 7 in the context, and we're gonna read beyond the first two words. Look at verse number 1 in Matthew 7, the Bible reads, judge not that ye be not judged, okay? All those words together mean a lot more than just judge not, and as we continue to read, we'll get even more understanding of what God wants us to know about judging, you know, the same God that has an entire book called Judges, okay? Judge not that ye be not judged. So the warning and the admonition here is that whatever judgment that you're gonna judge, the judgment that you're gonna pronounce, it's gonna apply to you just as much as applies to anybody else, okay? You're no special above someone else, so whatever judgment that you think is right, whatever judgment that ought to be pronounced, it applies equally to everybody. So if you don't want to have, you know, the judgment that you think is appropriate applied to you, then he's just saying, well, judge not, and we'll get this, this is the meaning. Look at verse number 2, it says, for with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged. That's why you should judge not that ye be not judged, because whatever judgment you judge, you're gonna be judged with that same judgment, and with what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you again. Now, this doesn't mean that you could never judge anything. What it means, though, is that you got to be careful with how, with the judgment that you come up with, because it ought to be righteous, and I'm willing to say this, that yes, I'm willing to look at God's Word and look at God's judgment and say, this is the judgment of the Lord and the law of the Lord is perfect, and that if this is God's judgment, then I want this to be the judgment also, and if I fall guilty of these things, then you know what, so be it, then I deserve to suffer whatever the consequence would be as well, because God's judgment is righteous. So if I'm gonna judge and say, you know what, drunkenness is wicked, it's wrong, it's a sin, and God's gonna judge people who are out there getting drunk or fornicating or, you know, start listing off the sin, I better not just be a hypocrite and doing the same exact thing and then pronouncing all this judgment on people, because if I am, guess what's gonna happen? It's coming on me, and it's gonna come down on me again, you know, they'll come down on me, and even harder, I would say, in the position that I have and everything, God's not gonna be happy with that at all, but we need to realize, you know, you can't start getting this holier-than-thou attitude of just thinking that you're so great, and you're so perfect, and everybody else is wicked and wrong, because you start taking that judgment, and especially if you start taking things beyond what God's Word says, you know what's gonna be applied to you, and oftentimes, and this is what the the Scriptures combating against is this is the the people who want to nitpick at everybody else's lives and call out what everybody else is doing wrong, the vast majority of time the people who are doing that have major problems in their own life. Now why they do that, you could be debated, a lot of people might think that's because they're just trying to make themselves feel better because they've got so much wickedness and, you know, whatever, but it's a truth that happens a lot, which is why the Bible continues to explain the judge not that you be not judged. Look at verse number three, the Bible says, and why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye? A mote is just, I mean, we could consider it a speck, something that's really small, a small piece of, you know, a little splinter, a little shaving, a little something that gets stuck in your eye. Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye? You're like, oh wow, look at that, you've got a problem there in your eye, but consider it not the beam that is in thine own eye. You've got a huge problem with your own vision, with your own sight, that's corrupting your view to be able to discern what's right and wrong, and you're gonna focus in on the smallest thing that somebody else has. Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, let me pull out the mote 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 shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. And you know what else this verse doesn't say? It doesn't say, well, you've got a beam in your eye, you can never ever judge again. It's not what it says. It says first take care of that beam, right? But then once you take care of that, once you get that out of the way, you know what, you'll be able to see clearly then, and then you will be able to help that person who has that mote in their eye. Now, both of these are problems for the people themselves, right? The mote and the beam. It's a problem for those individuals. And here's the other thing, when it comes to judging, we're gonna get into all of this. The judgment should be because you're trying to help somebody, right? The person has the mote in their eye, and the person has the beam in their eye, they both have problems. And at the end of it, I think both would end up being thankful if they had that problem fixed. They can look back and go, man, I didn't even realize how bad it was. And think about it, you know, guys especially, we could get some little problems, you get some little slivers and some splinters, some, yeah, whatever, I'm not gonna worry about it, right? But then it can fester and just get worse and worse and worse, and you leave that in there, yeah, you know, you kind of deal with it. Then finally, once you just bear it out and go in and have someone take care of it or whatever, you take care of yourself, you're like, man, I didn't realize how bad that was until now the pain's finally gone, I've been living with that for so long or whatever, right? If someone else was able to just help you with that, you ought to be thankful. Now at the time when when they start poking and prodding, you got someone trying to get some in your eye, it might actually hurt a little bit worse trying to get that mote out of your eye. It's gonna sting even more than that little thing that you'd be like, whoa, hold on, no, I don't want you to help me, right? I can deal with this. But once it's out, it's a lot better, right? And obviously the beam, I mean, you got to take care of that. You got to get rid of that thing, because that's gonna make you not even be able to see, right? The mote's gonna maybe blur your vision a little bit from time to time, but it's gonna be that little thorn that's in your side. And the application here is, you know, we all have problems to one degree or another. The more problems that you have, the harder it's gonna be for you to help anybody else. One, who's gonna want to listen to you if you're some big stinking hypocrite that's got this huge spiritual problem in your life, but you're gonna tell everyone else what's wrong with them. No one's gonna want to listen to you anyways. The thing about it, this way, you have a fornicating drunk come stumble in here, and let's just say whatever you have in your life that's not right, they just start laying in on you about what your problem is. How well do you think that's gonna be received? Like, dude, you could barely stand. Why don't you take care of your problem first, and then come back and try to help us out with the, you know, with the smaller problems that we have, right? And, I mean, no one's gonna want to listen to them anyways. Now, but once you get that beam out of the same person, they get the beam out of their eye, they start to be actually see clearly, because oftentimes when you can't even see clearly, you're gonna be mistaking motes for eyelashes, for, you know, whatever. There's actually no problem there. But when you can start seeing clearly, then, oh, now I can really help you, right? So, for example, someone might have been bad with alcohol and drugs in the past, they got that beam out of their eye, excuse me, they've gotten past that. It doesn't mean you could never talk about that again. Once you can see clearly, you can help someone else out and go, wait, hold on a second, don't get started down that path, don't do that. I know you say you're just having a few drinks or whatever, but, look, don't go down that path. That's not good, it's not gonna lead you in a good place. There's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with that kind of judgment. Turn over, if you would, to Leviticus chapter 19. Leviticus chapter 19. But this is all just laying the groundwork for what I really want to get into because, like I said, I'm not gonna get into all the things that we, you know, should be taking a hard stand on and we should be judging. I've done that in other sermons in the past. I do want to focus in on more of the attitude that can go along with the judgment, unfortunately, that shouldn't be this way and some of the things that people might start to get, we'll call it judgy on, in a negative connotation, right, in a way that we ought not to be. While we personally strive to be as closely conformed to the image of Jesus Christ as possible and while we all ought to be striving to get all the sin out of our life, you also ought to be able to show some degree or level of grace to others as well because just as you are not perfect in everything, be careful about how closely you want to put a magnifying glass on other people to help them because it's not gonna go over well for one and for two, you know, be careful because with the judgment that you judge, you're gonna be judged and if you start getting really fine-toothed comb on every single little thing that other people do, you know, you might be blinded to yourself. Look at Leviticus chapter 19. I love this part of the law. I think a lot of people don't even realize what all is written here. Too many people just want to stray away from, oh, that's the Old Testament. Oh, that's God's law. I don't want to hear that. We're free from the law. Look, there is so much great truth and doctrine here. Look at Leviticus 19. We're reading verse number 15 and again this is in regards to judging, judgment. You shall do no unrighteousness in judgment. Amen. You know what? No one should be unrighteous in their judgment. We ought to have righteous judgment. Thou shalt not respect the person of the poor nor honor the person of the mighty, but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbor. Hey, that's a great standard. God's standard. You know what? It doesn't matter if they're rich. It doesn't matter if they're poor. You just judge what's right because what's right has nothing to do with how much money someone has. It's not dependent on that. The rich person's word isn't worth any more than the poor person's word. It doesn't matter. It's all taken on its own merit. That's righteous judgment. But let's keep reading here. Look at verse number 16. So it starts off by commanding, you know, don't be unrighteous in your judgment, which means that, first of all, you need to judge if you're not going to be unrighteous in your judgment. God knows we're gonna have judgments. Don't be unrighteous in it. Verse 16, thou shalt not go up and down as a tail bearer among thy people, neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbor. I am the Lord. And none of this, these verses aren't just in here, oh coincidentally, now it's talking about gossiping, whereas before it's talking about judgment, because there's a lot of the same people that will get unbalanced in their judgment can also be the same people that are going to be gossipers and tail bearers and just talking about other people as well. The ones that want to magnify everybody else and just focus on everyone else's sins often tend to be the ones that are going to go around and start spreading and talking about what they find out about so-and-so and everything else. They go hand in hand. Verse number 17, thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart, thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor and not suffer sin upon him. So by not hating your brother, one of the ways you can do that is by rebuking them to not suffer sin. Not suffer means not allowed. Now I thought rebuking was bad. No, rebuking is good when it's appropriate. We all can use a rebuke from time to time. Everybody can. And it's not out of line to rebuke someone when they're getting in sin. But again, I'm gonna, you know, we have to keep the Matthew 7 in mind. Hey, whatever judgment you judge, you're gonna be judged. Keep that in mind. And we're not talking about the smallest little infraction. We're talking about, you know, serious sins. You know, you know, what is it that you're gonna actually, you know, care about your neighbor enough to rebuke them? It's gonna be, it's gonna be a, you know, a sin. You don't want to allow them to get into some sin. Why? Because you care about them. Because you don't hate them. And the example I just brought up about, you know, drinking, drugs, look, if you care about people, you're gonna warn them about that. Look, I don't want you to go down that path. It's gonna destroy you. I'm gonna rebuke you, maybe, if you need to be rebuked, but not because I hate you, not because I want you just to feel bad. If I want you to feel bad, it's just that you'd get godly sorrow that works repentance. So that, yeah, you should, you know, maybe you need to be ashamed of something that you've done or something that you're doing so that you could stop doing that and do what's right. But the whole point of doing that isn't to make yourself feel so much better than them, it's to help that person. But if you're doing the exact same things, you're not really in any position to help, unfortunately, because you got a big old beam sticking out of your eyes. Now, also one more point on the beam and the mote thing. There is a difference between the beam and the mote, because there is also people out there who want to say, oh, well you're a sinner, I'm sure everybody's a sinner, so nobody can say anything and no one can judge about anything. Then why would you have a beam and a mote? Why would you have some really big problem and some really small problem in the parable itself? Why would you have that? It makes no sense. There would just be two beams or two motes or two, you know, it makes zero sense. Of course, there is degrees of severity. Everybody's a sinner, yes. Nobody's perfect, yes. All sin is worthy of hell, yes, but all sin is not equal. It's not equal. That's why 1st Corinthians 5 tells us the types of sins that you need to separate with people over. Because not all sin is equal, which is exactly why in God's law there's different punishments for different things, because they're not all the same. Now, they're all wicked and wrong and we shouldn't do any of them, but they're definitely our degrees of severity. But let's keep reading here now, because sometimes rebukes are necessary, but I didn't even want to get too far into that this evening either, because there's gonna be times where rebukes are appropriate and we ought to be rebuking people, but I'm gonna be focusing more on the times when you shouldn't be rebuking people at all, because it's just not appropriate. Verse number 18 says, Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people. Look, if you have a grudge against someone that's a brother or sister in Christ, that's a sin. If you have bitterness and you're holding grudges against people, it's a sin. It says, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, I am the Lord. And notice, it doesn't say thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself only if they are good to you, only if they treat you right. It says, love your neighbor as yourself, I am the Lord. So with your brethren especially, you know, we ought to love your brother or sister in Christ, and I bring this up all the time in my preaching, usually in context of marriages. You know, the Bible gives us what the role of the wife and the role of the husband is, and it doesn't tell you only to do those things. It doesn't tell wives to be submissive only if your husband's a good guy. It doesn't tell the husbands to love their wife and to have that self-sacrificial love only if their wives are being good and obedient. No, you do what you need to do because what God said for you to do, and that's what's right, and nothing else changes that. So if we're supposed to love our neighbor as ourself, then you know what? That's what we need to do. If we're not supposed to bear any grudge against the children of thy people, then that's what we're supposed to do, regardless of how they are to us. As I mentioned before, you know, judging is, turn a few back to Romans 14 now, we'll go back to Romans 14. Judging is necessary, it's inevitable. People are doing it all the time, and that's why we have court systems, they're judging the law. I mean, if there was no, if there literally was no judging at all by anybody, then you'd have no punishment for crime, because who's gonna judge? Who's gonna even say that's right and that's wrong? You couldn't even, you couldn't even do any of that. It's ridiculous. Of course there's judging, and of course normal rational people are gonna accept, yeah, we have to have judging because these things are just wrong. You can't just go off and murder somebody and have no consequences for that. Oh, don't judge. Well, of course we're gonna judge. You can't just go off and take someone else's property and steal and, you know, don't judge me. Who do you think you are? Like, you just stole my money. Don't judge me. What do you think? Of course we need judgment. Of course we do. And you know what I say? I say we use God's judgment, because, you know, man has been able to come up with all their own morality and all their own ethics and all their, you know, their ethos, and you could go back to the Greek philosophy and you could look at man's wisdom, but I don't want to go to man's wisdom. I think we already have morality defined for us in the scripture, and we have judgment defined for us in scripture. I think we just go with that, but that's a whole another sermon anyway. We go, I don't want to get too far off onto that, because it's not about, tonight's not about all the things that we should be judging. Internally, you're always judging and making decisions on those judgments, everything that you do, right? And that's normal and you should be doing it. You should always be judging every situation, everything you're doing, the decisions that you make should be based on your own personal internal judgments. Now, when it comes to our external judgments, meaning the judgments you're going to pronounce with your mouth, you ought to maintain a filter on your mouth. And this is a problem I think everybody is guilty of from time to time, is not having the appropriate content filter on our mouth. See, this would be great. For those of you who know a little bit about, it's not that hard to understand, but you know, my day job, I work in IT. So for the business, we have different filters, we have a firewall that controls the content that can be accessed outside of our internal network and inside the network, right? So if people go on the internet, there's a content filter that's supposed to block anything that's regarding alcohol, drug use, pornography, you know, whatever, like all these different things so that the people inside can't access those. It's a filter. It's called literally a content filter so that database whatever knows, you can't see that site, so it doesn't allow any access at all. Those things are great. I mean, it's very helpful because even if someone were accidentally going to go to something like that, it's going to, it's not going to allow them to defile themselves and defile their minds and seeing wicked things by accident, right? And it's great because it also keeps people who want to go and see those things from being able to go and do that stuff within the company as well. But wouldn't it be great if we could have that same content filter on our mouths, right? Where it's just, because that's automatic, that just happened. This is like, nope, you try to do it, nope, can't do it. We have a content filter on our mouth. When you're gonna say something foolish, you're gonna say something that you ought not to say that all of a sudden you're like, your lips are moving and nothing's coming out. Man, that would be awesome. That would save so much drama and trouble and, you know, the Bible says that the tongue, you know, it's a little member, but what a great fire, little, you know, what great damage a little fire kindles, right? And that that tongue is a world of iniquity. When it comes to our external judging, we need to have a filter on our mouth. We need to be careful with the comments that we make to people too because, like I said, the judging is going on all the time and all these little comments that could come out, you might even realize it, you're just like throwing these judgments out at people and it happens a lot. Now there's a difference, there's a big difference between suffering sin upon somebody and just being a jerk with your judgmental comments. I think people are agreeing with that statement here. Romans 14 helps us get in the right spirit because the Bible's not going to give you every single instance, every single possible example that could ever come up in how we ought to judge. We don't want to judge foolishly and just start spouting off the mouth and just saying everything that comes out and I'm not even saying that it's always wrong. So here's the thing, you might be making a right judgment in your mind about something you see with someone else, but it's still not appropriate just to make the comment to that person because if you think about it there's something else that's probably in the equal playing field with whatever you're seeing that you're doing wrong that now you know you're making a judgment against them but it's like man I really don't have that room to talk about that, right? And in Romans 14 we have two examples of things that people can actually be believing that are not right but it's not even worth causing any dissension over between the people and that actually the person who's more spiritually mature and knows more ought to be able to let things go and just not cause a problem over it. And this is talking about things that people believe that are not right which completely shows us that it's you don't always have to correct everybody on every little thing that they're wrong about. That would be judging foolishly. Romans 14 helps give us that spirit. Look at Romans 14 verse number one, the Bible says, him that is weak in the faith receive ye but not to doubtful disputation. So we want to receive people who are weak in their faith. We want to help build them up and make them stronger, right? But hey, they've got faith, amen. They may be a little weak in their faith, we want to receive them. Look at what it says in verse 2, for one believeth that he may eat all things, another who is weak eateth herbs. Now right off the bat the Bible is letting us know who's right and who's wrong. And I could take an entire sermon and explain why he that's able to eat all things is right, because that's what the Bible teaches, that we could eat all things, that we don't have dietary restrictions anymore, that we don't, you know, all this stuff from the Bible, versus the person who only eats herbs, it'd be like a vegetarian, okay? And the Bible says that that person's weak, just like verse 1 says him that is weak in the faith. Well who's weak in the faith? The person who only thinks that you can eat herbs and you can't eat anything else, right? I mean this is what the Bible says, but understanding that and knowing who's right and who's wrong, let's keep reading the passage because it's going to help explain how we ought to deal with that. You've got two people that have faith. One person is a little bit weaker than the other person. We're just talking about eating food. Look at verse number 3, Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not. So the person who knows, the person who knows they could eat all things, and that's fine, there is no reason to despise that person who has that belief that says, no, no, no, I can only eat vegetables. I can only eat herbs. Don't despise that person. There's no reason to have ill will towards that person or anything like that. And then it says, and let not him which eateth, excuse me, that eateth not, judge him that eateth. So vice versa, the person who's weak, now, okay, you don't think that, you know, but don't go judging this person who's now eating everything. It says, for God hath received him. Who art thou that judges another man's servant to his own master he standeth or falleth? Yea, he shall be holding up, for God is able to make him stand. Jump down. Well, we keep reading here. Verse number 5, one man esteemeth one day above another, another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. So the first one had to do with eating, right? One eating all things, another one only eating herbs. This is talking about people now taking one day and making it special versus not making it special. And the only thing that pops up in my mind are people who want to observe the Sabbath day and say, this is dedicated to the Lord. Or, you know, whether it be Saturday or Sunday, you know, there's people who do that and say, you know what, I'm not doing anything else. This day is dedicated to the Lord and I'm completely, you know, we're not going out to eat, we're not going anywhere, we're going to spend time together with family, we're going to go to church, we're going to do this, you know. Hey, that's great. Amen. There's nothing wrong with that at all. The problem comes in though when you start enforcing that on other people when the Bible clearly says that the Sabbath has been done away, that Christ is our rest, that Christ is the Sabbath, that that's no longer part of the law. But it says here, just let everyone, every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. Look at verse number six, he that regardeth the day regardeth it unto the Lord and he that regardeth not the day to the Lord he does not regard it. He that eateth eateth to the Lord for he giveth God thanks and he that eateth not to the Lord he eateth not and giveth God thanks. Right? So we've got two different types of believers, brethren, saved, you know, one person believes this way, one person believes that way, one person's right, one person's wrong. But you know what? In this case the Bible is saying, you know what, to each his own. Because this isn't like worth causing some major problem over. Now obviously, you know, all of God's Word, all the teachings, all doctrines are important to one degree or another, but the weak person, you just want to help them grow. You don't want to cause strife and division and problems with those people, so you give them space to let them learn these things so that they become stronger too. Right? We don't need to have this this type of, you know, despising especially or dissension where where it's going to cause a problem because then you're not actually caring about that person that much, especially when you're coming from the standpoint of being more spiritually mature. Verse number seven, for none of us live it to himself and no man die it to himself, whether we live we live unto the Lord, whether we die we die unto the Lord, whether we live therefore or die we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ both died and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and living. Verse 10, but why dost thou judge thy brother or why dost thou set it not thy brother for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. And, you know, this is a concept that basically at the end of the day saying, you know what, we're all gonna have to stand before Christ for our actions, for our beliefs, you know, like we're all gonna be judged by him anyways. So if it's not a matter of like someone's just getting off and someone being a vegetarian is not them getting off into some sin, right, where the Bible would say like well it says not to suffer sin upon them. They're just not eating certain things. Someone who's regarding a day to the Lord and saying we're not gonna work, we're not gonna do anything, they're not just going off and getting into some horrible sin that you're gonna want to step in and stop them and be like hold on a minute there, you know, brother I don't want you to stumble and fall into this, you know, fornication or whatever, you know, like like whatever this this problem could be. Two completely different things. So don't conflate them and make them the same, right? And people like to do that too much either. Let's let's take it in context because both of these issues that are brought up at the end of the day they don't really matter that much. Verse 11, for it is written as I live said the Lord every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God so then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Let us not therefore judge one another anymore but judge this rather that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way. And hopefully by the end of the sermon I want us all to walk away with this attitude and the mindset like Philippians 2 says one of our Bible memory passages that that that we would esteem other better than ourselves and at the end of the day that leading thought and spirit is gonna if you let that prevail in your life it will help you to not have this foolish judgment that I'm preaching about to have this this bad type of being real judgy on people and nitpicking over all the little things because if you're actually considering them and you're caring about them then you're not gonna be putting these stumbling blocks in your brother's way because you're gonna realize that all you're gonna end up doing if you just if you dissect every single aspect of a person's life nobody likes that happening. Now the big things no one likes being told the wrong about anything but if you just start going down this list you're gonna you're gonna make your brother despise you if you just start doing that. That's just a fact you're gonna you're gonna cause a real problem. Let's jump down to let's jump down to verse number 21. I'll start reading verse number 19. Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace and things wherewith one may edify another. This is what we're looking at we want to we want to be able to have peace and we want to be able to edify one another within the church we want to be able to build people up right and strengthen them. For meat destroy not the work of God. You know just for meat just for what you can eat don't destroy the work of God for that. It's not worth it. All things indeed are pure and again that's you know we know who's right but it is evil for that man who eateth with offense. It is good neither to eat flesh nor to drink wine nor anything whereby thy brother stumbleth or is offended or is made weak. So you know these people these problems with these things and it's this this small area don't make it worse for them. You know as a church one of the things that I try to do is regardless of the reason if people have a problem you know the church is providing food I try to do my best to meet the needs of everybody that's going to be there because I care about them and if someone has a spiritual problem saying well I can't eat this stuff because I'm vegan I'm vegetarian and I think you know what you know what I'm gonna do my best to accommodate them because I don't want to just put some unnecessary stumbling block before them and make some big issue out of what they're eating when we can help teach them about so many more things. Now it also doesn't mean that if I'm preaching a sermon that I'm gonna just not talk about the truth and not preach what the Bible says okay but when we're dealing with people we have interactions with brothers and sisters in Christ it means and and man if people could just get that right too. You know the preaching you hear from behind the pulpit is not the same as everyday interactions with other people. There's a certain way that God is ordained for men of God to preach and and to cry aloud and spare not and and to stomp with the foot and and and smite with the hand and and lift up your voice like a trumpet okay but you don't do that in day-to-day conversation you know you don't you know you don't act like it you're not gonna see me out talking to someone I run into someone on the sidewalk going man sin is wicked it's you know like you'd be like whoa okay you off your meds or what buddy you're gonna have a regular dialogue with people right so while I may get real animated preaching about something and I might get animated about preaching you say you know what the Bible says that we can eat all meats that nothing is to be refused that what God is glad cleanse they're you know call not that common or unclean and explain all the meaning behind it and hopefully that the weaker person in the faith can understand and pick up on that but at the same time right I'm not gonna then cause some big problem with that even if they don't agree with that after the sermon I'm still gonna say hey we're having we're having food as a church we're having a potluck whatever you know what what do people need what can we get for you it's fine it's fine we're gonna do our best just to accommodate that and hopefully help you to grow and become stronger about in verse 22 has thou faith have it thyself before God happiest he that condemneth not himself and that thing which he alloweth verse 23 is also important he that doubteth is damned if he eat because he eateth not of faith for whatsoever is not a faith is sin areas like this you can be putting a stumbling block you say password I don't know what how it's putting a stumbling block in front of people if I'm just you know not regarding them at all because I don't have to because I'm right you can often encourage people to do things that they don't believe in themselves and what the Bible is explaining here if you have somebody who has a personal conviction about what they're allowed to eat that let's say you have someone that says I don't believe we can eat pork because they misunderstand the Old Testament dietary restrictions and think that that's still in place today right and they say I don't think that we could eat it I don't think we should and you just go oh it's fine everything's great you're like loading up their plate with some bacon and like you know doing all this stuff you may end up making them feel uncomfortable enough and just start to eat because other people turn it to but if in their heart they still think it's wrong to do that it is a sin for them because that's not a faith or not acting of faith and we don't want to bring that sin upon people by forcing this issue and pushing it on them and things like that because we don't want them to sin which is really interesting that that's you know but that's what the Bible teaches he that doubt if is damned if he eat because he eateth not a faith for whatsoever is not a faith is sin even though the actual act isn't sinful if you think it is but you're doing it anyways that is a sin so be careful with all of your self justifications with your own sins to thinking you could try to justify something away because if deep down in your heart you actually still think that that's a sin and don't do it that's serious don't I mean don't do it you could use all kinds of exam you know I always like using other holidays and stuff and with Romans 14 as well because you know there's a lot of people out there that that don't that don't celebrate Christmas or Easter because they say it's pagan and we're not gonna do it I don't want anything to do with it and everything else and they might come into a church like ours where I'm preaching you know what there's nothing wrong with celebrating Christmas I understand the history I understand the origin I understand all these different things but if someone wants to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and and read the Bible and explain to their kids that we're happy that our Savior was born and that we're recognizing that and we do it on the 25th that there's nothing wrong with that okay that's what I believe and that's what I teach but you know what if you believe something different but everybody else is just going along and doing this thing and celebrating don't do it if you in your heart think that it's wrong and I try when I preach also just to get that point across as well because while I do think that there is nothing wrong with it I don't want to put a stumbling block before anyone else either and always I'm sure to make sure people know it look it's not a commandment to celebrate Christmas this is not at all either do it or you don't let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind but you know what we can't take that verse I remember which is what a lot of people do and just apply that to everything well drinking is wrong for you but it's not wrong for me well fornicating is wrong for you but it's not wrong for me I mean I just prayed and the Holy Ghost said that it was fine so I'm just gonna do it okay look now you're taking way too many liberties with that passage because you look at the context that is not what it's talking about at all in a greater context of the Bible obviously we've already read a bunch of verses that talk about not suffering sin upon people and judging and everything else that no no there's still right and wrong and it applies equally to everybody God's law applies Romans 14 as these great examples turn if you would to turn to 2nd Corinthians chapter 10 2nd Corinthians chapter 10 you know the problem where people end up judging foolishly and it's usually it's almost always the small matters right because as I said before you know sin is sin if someone's involved in major sin like you don't need to understand all the details to know that something is wicked and wrong for example someone if someone is just out committing adultery no set of circumstances underlying the adultery is going to make the adultery okay it's not going to justify that I don't care if your wife hasn't been giving you attention I don't care if she left and went somewhere else if you're married to your wife and you go out and commit adultery you're committing adultery it doesn't matter if all these other things happen look it's still wrong it may help you to understand how it happened but it doesn't justify what happened and the judgment would still be the same it's still adultery and still wicked it's still wrong completely 100% but the smaller areas that the more the the the areas that might be a little bit more murky where you're thinking like well is this even a sin you know and and oftentimes the thing I think of is standards right and that's where a lot of misjudgments will will come in and when I say misjudgments I'm not talking about the internal misjudgments I'm talking about the external ones where you're actually making the comments then and saying something to someone as opposed to just keeping your judgment to yourself and and taking it in and analyzing say okay well you know it's very easy for you just to take in a judgment so you know what that's not for me that's not something I would do at home that's not something I would do with my kids but you know what there's no reason for me to say anything to them about it because that's their business but when you step over and just start decide to open up and not have that content filter on your mouth that's where we oftentimes will get into a problem Bible says in Proverbs 18 verse 12 it says before destruction the heart of man is haughty and before honors humility so again bringing up that humble attitude humble spirit then verse 13 says he that answer at the matter before he hereth it is folly and shame on him now primarily I think this applies to slightly different context and I'm using it in here but it's still the same truth right when you don't really have the full story we don't really understand something you can't just go off and make judgments it's folly and shame you got to hear the whole thing out to really get a now again there's still a depending on what it is adultery is still wrong you don't have to hear out all the reasoning behind how someone committed adultery if you know that they commit adultery it's just wrong but there's other things that that may you that may influence whether or not you're even going to open up your mouth and start judging someone when you understand the back story understand more behind it you know for example you see someone whether in their life or not living up to your standards and you feel compelled to make a comment about it but the comment isn't even really helpful at all anyways this happens a lot with people who are new parents one child or two children and they want to tell the person who has six seven eight nine children you know what they're doing wrong or the people who have no children that are telling the people who have children all the things that doing wrong with raising their families those are areas that you might not fully appreciate or understand what's going on and all the responsibilities and everything else before you start making your comments another example that someone might be judged as being lazy right but they don't understand any of the underlying conditions that may be preventing them from doing all the things that they actually would want to do or try to do my wife was just on the gently led sisters I think that's the name of the thing that mrs. no trees puts on and I I don't think I've ever mentioned this from the pulpit before because I there's there's a way I might get into this too you know it's a way that we ought to act and there's things that are appropriate to talk about things that are not and in the Christian life you know you ought to be able to just do your work do what needs to be done try not to be a burden on other people and bear the burden yourself right and be able to work and push forward and do things and you know what if people misjudge you just let it roll off your back and you keep going and you don't have to explain everything but since it's a good example and I kind of use myself in general when I make up examples because I know me the best and I can't think of another example of someone else to use one of the things that came up during a show is a lot of people were saying wow I never knew that about you wow I never knew that about you wow I never knew that about you because those of you don't know my wife has been involved in a very very serious accident when she was younger very serious broken bones broken spine broken hips broke you know broken knee all kinds of problems which caused pain every single day of her life but we don't want to be the type of people that's just looking for sympathy and just trying to get all poor you poor you because look everybody has some different things in their life that they have to deal with you have your struggles we have ours but oftentimes people might not realize all what's going on and you might come over and be like wow your you know dishes are dirty in the sink or whatever right and it's like sorry you know I would like to have everything spic and span but sometimes my body just hurts too much and my husband's working you know two jobs and you may not understand the whole story so the little comments the judgy comments don't help at all what spirits are you even bringing forth when you when you want to go there now look I'm not asking for sympathy and I'm not trying to rail on anybody here or to make anyone feel bad because it's not it's not a problem it's just an example that I know really well that maybe other people have no idea about and that we have to at least keep things like that conscious that there may be some other underlying issues why everything isn't perfect in somebody's life before you just go off and want to judge and make your judgy comments and judge foolishly so consider that as well now if what was going on is some major sin that's different but the little details the little nitpicky things don't go there because you don't know and it's easy to get involved with that because you might now look there's nothing wrong with thinking oh wow look I don't want to have this in my house or whatever and this is great do that at your house then don't run things the way that we run things or don't you know like but you don't need to verbalize that and start bringing those judgy comments out because it's not going to do anybody any good and this is what we're gonna see at the end of the day it doesn't do anyone any good anyways when you start nitpicking over the little the little problems and all the minutia in people's lives second Corinthians chapter 10 is where I had you turn look at verse number one the Bible reads now I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ who in presence and base among you but being absent and bold toward you but I beseech you that I may not be bold when I am present with that confidence wherewith I think to be bold against some which think of us as if we walked according to the flesh for though we walk in the flesh we do not war after the flesh for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ and having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled now there's a lot of things here and you probably want to read through this slowly maybe later on because the wording and the verbiage isn't always like super clear with the way that we speak today but basically he's saying I'm using the meekness and gentleness of Christ and in presence I'm based among you like really low I'm lowly but since I'm not there being absent you know what I'm being a little bit more bold towards you and he's he's beseeching you says that I may not be bold when I am present with you and the reason why he's saying he's gonna warn them ahead of time because he's hearing about these problems and these things that people are saying about him and all these other issues that are going on he's saying look I don't want to have to be that guy when I show up so I'm just gonna write this letter right now boldly and let you know hey you need to get some things fixed you need to get some things right because when I go there I don't want to have to have this boldness and and have this talk with you and he and he's saying here look it's not a fleshly war it's not like he's gonna go in and physically do something to somebody because the weapons of our warfare are our spiritual not carnal so he's not saying he's gonna go and in like literally round people up and do something with them but he's saying verse 7 let's keep reading here says but do you look on things after the outward appearance if any man trusts to himself that he is Christ let him of himself think this again that as he is Christ's even so are we Christ's and this is that mindset look you know that you're Christ well so am I right so are we because what they're doing here is they're disparaging the Apostle Paul and they're kind of bringing forth some railing accusations against him and saying all these these nasty things about the Apostle Paul and he's bringing up hey what are you just looking at the outward appearance and I have no idea what the Apostle Paul looked like outwardly we know that he had some kind of infirmity some kind of thorn in the flesh I think it might have had to do with his eyes with his vision because he he comments about how large a letter he's written with his own hand and and he talks about how the people would have given their own eyes for him you know when when he first came unto them how you received me and you would have plucked out your own eyes for me you know and and you know those references kind of indicate that maybe he did have some kind of problem with that who knows right but whatever it was could have probably been something also that was displeasing about his outward appearance that people might also look down on him for just because he doesn't look normal and he so he asked him here do you look on the on things after the outward appearance if any man trusts to himself that he is Christ let him think let him of himself think this again that as he is Christ even so are we Christ verse 8 for though I should boast somewhat more of our authority which the Lord has given us for edification and not for your destruction I should not be ashamed that I may not seem as if I would terrify you by letters so God has given them the authority to use the language he's using and to give the rebukes he says but it's not for your destruction it's for your edification he's I'm trying to help you out here but he says I also didn't want to seem as if I'm gonna terrify you by letters and in verse 10 he explains more what they're doing is for his letters say they are weighty and powerful but his bodily presence is weak in his speech contemptible they're saying oh yeah he could really write a rough letter but when he's here it's like he's nothing that it's not a big deal is his speech is contemptible and that no one's gonna take him seriously it's just his letters that are that are weighty and powerful verse 11 says let's such and one think this that such as we are in word by letters when we were absent such will we be also indeed when we were present saying you know the same way that I'm writing is gonna be the same way that I'm speaking when I come there's no difference verse 12 for we dare not make ourselves of the number or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves but they measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves are not wise now I probably spent a little bit too much time explaining that whole passage because the verse 12 is really what I wanted to get to what they were doing is judging themselves by comparing themselves among each other about how great they were and the possible saying that's not wise judging yourself among themselves comparing yourself among themselves that's not a wise thing to do it's like you know instead of comparing yourselves against each other why don't you compare yourselves against God against against the Bible right like I was saying it's God but like just against his word right it doesn't it doesn't matter you could be the the you know the the most righteous thief if you're all just a bunch of you have to hang around with a den of thieves and robbers what do you really have to you know you have no no room to stand turn if you would to the last place I'll have you turn is in 1st Corinthians 13 turn to 1st Corinthians 13 I'm gonna wrap this up I don't want to repeat my overtime of this morning if I was in the Ephesians 4 29 let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth but that which is good to the use of edifying that may minister grace unto the hearers right one of the main focuses that we ought to have with our communication that proceeds out of our mouth there are things that are good for edifying things that are helpful right the the the comments that are just judgy we don't need those how about the stuff though that's going to edify and help and minister grace unto the hearers 1st Peter 4 verse 8 the Bible says above all things have fervent charity among yourselves for charity shall cover the multitude of sins use hospitality one to another without grudging right this this selfless spirit being hospitable to people yeah we'll put you up we'll take care of you but not grudging against the person that you're helping as every man hath received the gift even so minister the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God if any man speak let him speak as the oracles of God if any man minister let him do it as of the ability which God giveth that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ to whom be praise and Dominion forever and ever amen 1st Corinthians 13 we're going to close on that I'm looking for the verse in Romans 14 close to where we started Roman or 1st Corinthians 13 is is a chapter it's all about charity right and the Bible says and in a few places that you know that that charity is like the end like you want to you want to receive a charitable heart now charity is not just talking about giving money to people like that's how we commonly use the word charity today that if you're talking about charity it's oh yeah you're just giving money to someone I'm actually going to turn there myself because this wasn't part of my notes but in fact that that whole definition of charity in the Bible is destroyed in this chapter because just giving money is doesn't even necessarily it's not even necessary charity according to Bible I'm not saying that through charity someone can't give money but I'm saying just the act of giving money is not charity in and of itself the Bible says in verse number three it says and though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and though I give my body to be burned and have not charity it profiteth me nothing you can give everything that you have to feed poor people and that's still not charity so how is that possible well it's possible because a lot of people give a lot of money to what would be called charities and they don't do it for the people they do it because they want to look good in men's eyes they like to sound the trumpet when they give their own they want to make sure everybody sees how great of a person they are so that they could get their rewards here on earth not because they actually care about the recipients of that money and you know what many people create their own charities and they still end up funneling money it's it's you know there's a lot to it besides just charity charity has more to do with your heart right so giving your money to the poor can be charitable I'm not saying that it's not I'm just saying just the act alone doesn't just constitute charity according to Bible because that word charity comes from it's like caring right it's a love we care about other people verse number four the Bible says charity suffereth long and is kind charity envyeth not charity vaunted not itself is not puffed up we want to have a charitable attitude as Christians and charity the Bible says it suffers long meaning you're not gonna get offended so even if other people may be judging unrighteously you cannot be offended you can still say you know what I'm just gonna suffer that I'm gonna allow that I'm not gonna say anything I'm not gonna cause any problems they can say what they want to say and I'm gonna move forward that's having a charitable heart I understand they don't know the full story or whatever the case may be I'm just gonna move on and you know obviously on the flip side too if there's some truth to what people are saying then take that as well and say I'm gonna try to improve upon myself even if you know it may not be that appropriate if the shoe fits you know just just wear it for yourself and and counted a blessing that that you can you know maybe make an improvement somewhere but charity suffereth long and is kind charity envyeth not charity vaunted not self is not puffed up verse 5 does not behave itself unseemly seeketh not her own is not easily provoked thinketh no evil so again you know if you have charity you're not going to be easily provoked you know little things aren't gonna make you that upset and cause you to anger and you ought not to be thinking evil on people as a result of being provoked you know verse number six says rejoice is not iniquity but rejoices in the truth beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things and there's that it's a long-suffering bearing enduring right having a charitable heart and that could go on both sides of the coin the person who you might want to feel like you just need to make all these comments well why don't you just suffer long the the minor infractions that you're witnessing and just just allow that to let it be and then on the flip side if you're the receiving end of that just suffer long and smile and be kind and say thanks whatever you know like let it go and and you know within the church we want to have unity and nobody's perfect right so so we're not perfect you're not perfect you know we're all gonna have our own little problems and some people might have problems of you know being a little judgy or making these other you know we need to be able to not get too focused and wrapped up in the little things because we all want to work together and we don't want a bitterness in our heart we want to be able to work together for the same cause as brothers and sisters in Christ to do the things in the face the things that really matter you know the day that you choose to celebrate the food that you eat these little details you know that's not that big of a deal but but you know it is a big deal is is working together and yoking up and getting in that plow and going out into the highways and the hedges and compelling God's house to be filled and preaching the gospel to every creature and you know doing those bigger things and you know what the bigger deal is is being able to identify okay this is actually appropriate of a rebuke because I don't want to suffer sin upon my neighbor because they're actually going down a really dark path that's something I need that they ought to be warned about and I don't want to spend all my time talking about all these stupid little details that they don't even want to talk to me if I see them start to go down you know an actual like really disastrous path judging you know we got it we got to be careful with our words and we want to make sure we do it right because there's way too many people not doing it right and it causes people to just have this whole attitude as well just can't judge anywhere as far as I were a prayer to Heavenly Father Lord we thank you so much for your words and for the wisdom we could find from the Bible Lord I pray that this sermon will be a help to someone this afternoon and help us all Lord none of us are perfect we all have lots of room for growth and improvement God help us all to identify those areas where we can be better where we can do better Lord and I pray that you would just teach us and guide us and and help us to be in unity as a church in spirit and in faith dear Lord and that you would just really use us to get a lot of work done for you we love you in Jesus name we pray amen