Should Christians Judge? - S8E1

We have finally made it to Matthew chapter 7 verse 1 We're gonna answer the question should we judge other people and it's gonna be surprising because the answer is both yes and no You Welcome to the forgotten Jesus podcast we'll learn about the real Jesus I'm your host pastor Adam French here with pastor Robbie Gallady and Candy Gallady both accomplished authors and Robbie's the pastor of Long Hollow Church and the founder of replicate Ministries yes, and in a new seat at a new studio. Come on. Yes. Can we get? Yeah? We are back with a new studio and that's why we've been gone for so long Because we wanted to get the new studio So if you're watching on YouTube you're seeing it But if you're if you're online you see it, but if you're listening you're gonna have to pull over and check it out Yes, our team really killed it and subscribe go to YouTube. That's a great way. You subscribe get in there Listen right Hollaway. Yeah, Brian. Everybody. What's the what kind of vibe you clap? Are you feeling right now? What do you feel like I feel like what do you feel like I'm when I came in? I feel like it was just like a Like a calming vibe very serious. Yeah, yeah, we got rid of the grass wall I don't know what that was but What do you think? Jeremy Yes, we're back with our usual gang again. I was telling Vivian. I was in I was in Dallas last week Jeremy and I went on a Three-city three event was a lot but we went to Dallas and met some people listed the podcast and they came up And I was describing Vivian. I was like oh y'all know Vivian from the podcast. They said oh, yeah We know Vivian, so yeah, yeah at the church we call her the Viv. Yeah the Viv. Oh, yeah She's got a one and all there. Yeah, there's some Vivians out there, but we have the Vivian the one and only bit Just quick update Adam and I we said this last time we're together. We have YouTube channels now Come on Adam is focusing on recovery addiction sobriety All things that have to do with that. So you want to check it out? Pastor Adam French just at pastor Adam French and that's what I did to the same thing We both is and I'm past pastor Robbie gallery, so

Yeah, we just crossed the sixty five thousand subscriber mark and I'm about to see this is bonkers to think because we started in March We're about to hit three million views For the podcast for the yeah for the YouTube channel three million. Yeah. No, I will say it's the revelation sermons that have been a little controversial that have gotten a little traction, but I'm doing a series on the Bible now. Can you trust the Bible and so anyway if you aren't so you can check those out on YouTube Absolutely, is that right? All right today. We're back with a bang. Mm-hmm season eight Well season eight and took us seven seasons to get to Matthew Chapter seven who's counting. Yeah, we're taking our time. It's a deep guy. It's a little point. The part There's people tell me yeah when I was on this trip. They said hey, we don't rush anything We want to we want to squeeze the word for every nugget we can find so today Is gonna be a good one. We're gonna ask the question Should a Christian judge people judge anybody but judge people. So candy Matthew chapters I'm already sneezing from the new studio. So bless you. Everything's brand new in here Yeah brand new in here. Okay for the word Matthew chapter 7. Excuse me. Yeah, candy. I want you to read one through six Okay, I do six all right seven one through six Do not judge so that you won't be judged for you will be judged by the same standard with which you judge others And you will be measured by the same measure you use Why do you look at the splinter and your brother's eye? But don't notice the beam of wood in your own eye or how can you say to your brother? Let me take the splinter out of your eye and look there's a beam of wood in your own eye hypocrite first take the beam of wood out of your eye then you will see clearly to take the splinter out of your brother's eye Don't give what is holy to dogs or toss your pearls before pigs or they will trample them under their feet turn and tear you to pieces Wow, okay, there's a lot there. It's a lot. Okay, so so years ago. I asked the question on Twitter back then X Should a Christian judge? I just want to get kind of a poll from my Twitter audience or Twitter followers Should a Christian judge people and I've gotten a lot of different spot. I just wrote a couple of them down first person said absolutely not second person we're all sinners and not in any place to decide a person's position to judge another person. And then another person simply wrote, nope. So that was kind of that kind of the consensus. So I want to just break down this passage. And I

want to take it in sections because you have to understand a couple things. The thing that confuses people is verse one. Jesus says, judge not that you what won't be judged. Yes. Here's the question as we begin. I want to ask you guys think about this. Is Jesus with that line? Just take that line by itself. Is Jesus forbidding judgment of another person? It's very hebraic answer, by the way. Yes. And no, yes. Very hebraic. Yes and no. And remember, you cannot build your doctrine on one scripture. So I'll bring in a couple more to help us. John 724 says, do not judge by appearances. But if you judge judge by what? The right or with the right judgment. Okay. So that throws kind of a monkey wrench in there. First Corinthians 512 Adam, you go there. Candy first john for one. First out for one first Corinthians 512 Titus 310 is your turning as for a person who stirs up division. After warning him or her once and then twice have nothing to do with them any longer, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful. He is self condemned. Now right away, you're noticing a pattern here. How will I know if a person is warped and sinful? How will I know if a person is stirring up division? If I don't make a judgment? Okay, you see we're going here, I have to make a judgment to determine. Okay, Adam read this one and candy and then we'll unpack what's going on. First Corinthians 512. For what business is it of mine to judge outsiders? Don't you judge those who are inside? Wait, what? Okay, hold on. Read that again. For what business is it of mine to judge outsiders? Don't you judge those who are inside? And the 13 says God judges outsiders, remove the evil person person from among you. This is talking about church discipline. Yeah, the guy who's sleeping with his father's a new wife. Okay, here's the thing. Right away that

that messes your theology up if you're saying we can't judge anybody because right away God saying, Paul saying, no, you have to judge, particularly those inside the church, right? First, first John for one. Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. Okay, so let's just take that. Let's say we have a church. We always say the spirits makes people uncomfortable. Test every person test every personality test every staff member or church member that you could say that way to soften it. How do you test a spirit or a person or an action or so? How do you test them? You have to make what? A judgment? Yeah, I was a bait you you base it on their their thoughts and their actions, but it's it's how you perceive it. Yeah, like you have to you can't just it would be like somebody saying you had results, but you didn't plan to get the results. Like, that's what you're trying to say is like, yeah, you don't just get you don't just say all this person's this way without passing a judgment. Well, and I think in my mind, and correct me if I'm wrong, but when I hear judgment, I think negative, like I think judgment is bad. Yeah, the word itself, you know, but it doesn't necessarily have to be negative. Like you can judge something that is also positive, correct? Yeah, that's a great point. Yeah. Okay, so that's a great point, because that's immediately where I go to, I'm like, well, I don't want to be negative and be judging somebody that we're you know, I do things in my own life, you know, I'm saying that are worthy of someone judging, right? But if we can change the perspective of how we view it, that there is positive judgment, but there's

also negative. Yeah, so think of it this way, judgment that leads to condemnation, judgment that leads to evaluation, that's the way you need to think of it. Okay, two types of judgment. Candy's right, the word judgment in our society has been hijacked by people to say, Hey, you even see tattoos, don't judge me only God can judge me. Yeah. Okay, we'll get to that. But brother, if that's you with that tattoo, or if you believe that, God help you. Because that's going to be a day, my friend, when the God of the universe, who will do no wrong, and make the right judgment judges us. Okay, so don't don't say oh, only God could judge me. That's that's terrifying. In a sense, think about it if you're living wrong. But the point is, judgment can lead to condemnation. And you see that a lot on line. But judgment is simply just evaluation. I'm making a decision. I'm coming to a conclusion based on this. Now, I'll show it to you from the text. means, the greatest thing you could do is look within the New Testament, let's say, if you're studying, but you want to like bring the search down. It'd be better to find that same word or concept under the same author. So like if Paul says it, you want to find Paul saying it in another letter. But what's better is if you find that same word or concept in the same book. So like if Jesus says it, it'd be cool to find it in Mark if it's Mark. But even better than that is to find it in the same chapter. And that's what we have here. Jesus is going to clarify for us in multiple ways. That's what the rest of this sermon is about by the way, just news flash. The rest of the sermon is about judging. That's what you're going to do. You're going to judge who enters the kingdom of heaven. You're going to judge who's a sheep and a wolf. You're going to judge what kind of tree that person is, you're going to judge what kind of house you, but it's all about judging. But the best one is the one we just read. So I can't even read again. Verse six, read again. Matthew seven, Matthew seven, six, why is what Jesus says here? You have to judge. Look what he says. Don't give what is holy to dogs or toss your pearls before pigs or they will trample

them under their feet, turn and tear you to pieces. Okay. Here's what Jesus says. You need to decide if that's a hog or a dog. Okay. Yeah, that's a judgment. So Jesus is the same right out the gate. Like you got to have your wits about you that you can do this. Ray Prichard pastor and author says it is the best explanation I can give you. He says, Jesus is not saying that we should never pass any sort of judgment. Every day you and I make hundreds of judgments about things around us. It's not wrong for instance to sit on a jury and render a verdict, nor is it wrong for an admissions committee to decide which student to accept or to reject. We do that. Nor is it wrong for an employer to decide who gets a promotion? Who doesn't? Nor is it wrong for schools to judge whether students are worthy of a high honor at graduation. We all have to make decisions every single day that involve other people. We pass judgment on appearance, behavior, speech, deployment, department, attitude, work ethic, productivity, keeping a breaking of promise, guilt or innocence, which person we believe and which person we do not believe. So Jesus cannot be, just hear me if you get nothing else. Jesus cannot be saying in a blanket way, you can never judge. It's not what he's saying generally. Jesus says don't judge with a caveat. Did you catch what he said? Don't judge, don't be quick to judge because why? Two things. One is you cannot determine the heart of a person. So he's going to get to. You don't know the thoughts or the heart of a person. And number two is the second thing is God is the final judge. And if you judge them, the judgment you judge to them is actually ping ponging back to you. And this is pretty sobering as we get into this because what it says is we can judge what people do, but we don't have a clue why they do what they do, which leads to verse two. Reverse two, can he say on verse two, for you will be judged by the same standard with which you judge others and you will be measured by the same measure you use. Okay. So what Jesus is now saying is, okay, now we've established judgment. You can judge, but you need to understand, whenever I throw, whenever I throw shade at you, darkness comes my way. So you got to, or whenever I throw light on your life, just know there's a spotlight coming back on mine. I'm telling you, this will change. I was studying this to sport. I was like, wow, I mean, I was very overwhelmed. I was like, man, it's pretty sobering. Here's the words that make sense measured back to you or given back to you. What do you think Jesus is saying there? Be careful not to judge because it will be measured or given back

to you. What does that word mean? Well, I think it's exactly what it says. Okay. You do it to somebody else. Somebody's going to do it to you. Yes. And I feel like with judgment, again, I'm not a negative person. So I don't like to be negative towards someone else or things of that nature. I don't like to be negative. I just like to be factual. Well, I don't know. I think I might be. She says, well, am I big to differ, but I'm just telling it. I'm just telling it. Yeah, I'm like, she didn't want to pass judgment on you. So she just said, well, no, because we know because we have conversations all the time and he'll say something about a situation or about a person and I'm like, not our problem. Like, we don't have to decide this, right? Like, we don't need to be passing judgment or being critical because I feel like judgment can become criticism. Yeah, true. You see, and that's where we, there's a fine line there. And I feel like we cross the line too many times is what I'm saying. Yeah. And I'm not like, so like, for instance, I learned this years ago, but there was a person in my family that was doomed. sinful. And I had had something similar in my past. And I just knew where it was leading. And I didn't want them to go that route. And so I was trying to convince them not to do those things. And I realized as I was going through this process, with good intentions, and a love for this person, I began crossing a line where I was judging that person more than I was loving that person. And I knew I was never going to win them or win the argument or win what I was trying to get them to see. If I was continually coming across like I was judging them, like, you know, you know, even though I did not have bad intentions of that, but I still believed that God was showing me, you need to love this person. And in your love for this person, they know how you feel. You've made it clear, you know, what you've been through and what you see them doing. Now you need to love this person and let me work. And so I just feel like there's a there's a line and there's a balance where we're not becoming critical of somebody, but it's

a genuine love for someone. Or even, and I mean, you have to correct me or clarify this. But I feel like sometimes we jump into a situation to judge somebody and it's not our place. You know, like, if I'm not in someone's inner circle necessarily, and I haven't earned the right to have influence in a relationship, then who am I to tell them anything? You know, and you know, I've heard these situations like somebody's spouse will pass away or they get a divorce and then within a couple months, they're dating somebody else. Okay, in either of those situations. And you're like, and people are like, Oh, my gosh, don't you think this is too soon or this isn't right or whatever? And I'm like, are you this person's best friend? Because if you're not in their sphere of influence that you can speak into their life, this is none of your concern. They have parents, they have best friends, they have sisters or brothers, let them speak into their life. That's not necessarily your place. So I think we have to know our place or better yet, they didn't ask you for your opinion. Correct. Like, who are we to do that? And so I think we have to really weigh who we're judging. Do you do you see what I'm saying? No, it makes sense. Yeah. And be careful as we navigate that with good intentions and being led by the Holy Spirit and not let's go because I know there have been many times I have done that, not in a beneficial spirit driven way. And I don't want to do that. So I'm very hesitant to do that. And that's why, like, when you and I talk sometimes and I'm like, Well, I don't know if this is our place to say a thing about this person or this situation. We have to just navigate it very well. That's good. And I think it's hard. Yeah. Well, I was going to say is that we have to be very careful. It's like

judgment needs to be with prudence. It makes me think about Genesis four, because the human heart is so selfish. You got Cain and Abel. And what was Cain's problem? God's favor. God judged. Now, he accepted both the offerings. God, God loves us all equally. But positionally, we're not equal. Scripture doesn't, Scripture says that clearly, right? There's bridge, there's pore, there's kings, there's all that. So like he was the human heart, you know, doesn't take favor very well. That's the reason why I think it's hard for us to accept judgment, right? When that's why you have to, like she said, you have to have these trusted people that you know, love you. And when they say something to you and they say, Hey, Adam, I saw her, would you say that sounded like your pride, right? And so they're they're evaluating me, but I know that they love me. So it's easier for me to hear that. Now, if it was some random person, they could be true, but I'm thinking, they don't know what God's doing in my life. You see what I mean? Like, yeah, we want favor, we don't want to be judged. Yeah, right. And so you think about this, the first person born of a woman became in one generation away becomes the first murderer. And send right a turn quick. Yeah, you know what I mean? And that that that word fury is the same word that we talked about. We just read in first Samuel 18 when it says that Saul was furious at David. When he heard him saying he has his 10 1000 10. So it's yeah, I love what you're saying. I think that we're, you know, we want we want to be we want to be encouraged. We want to be praised. But the valuation part hits our heart in a different place because human hearts set up were so prideful. Yeah. So here's, yeah, it's funny you

said this guy was thinking in a real world illustration this morning. But the principle here before we move on is there was a reciprocal structure to the kingdom of God. Now, those outside the church call it karma, but it's not karma. I mean, now, in a sense, let me just say that there if you don't know biblical theology, you could see it like that. But God gives a clarification Paul does what you sow is what you reap. What you do for others comes back to you. In a sense, that's why Jesus love your neighbor as yourself. I mean, there's a, there's a, there's a line neglect ourselves. There's a study done years ago. This is crazy. Think about it. But the study was how people care for their dogs and cats better than they care for themselves. For example, and notice Touchy Side because we got some good dogs. They'll come after you too. But here's the point. They found out that people who are overweight, out of shape, heart issues, high blood pressure refused to take pills from the doctor for themselves but they would break their neck to get chewy packages to give medication to their pets. This is a phenomenon. I mean, look at me, don't believe me. But here's the point. The point is there's a reciprocal nature to the kingdom of God, meaning what you sow, what you reap. And the sense is the way I treat you actually will come back on me. And I was thinking, I mean, I hate to admit this, but I can't even always get on to me about this. And I would joke, I would say, oh, we just joking, we just joking. But I remember, and it really was fear and it was being feeling inferior and wanting people to like me and wanting people to acknowledge me and approval. That's really what the heart of it was. But here's how it manifested. And you probably seen this because you've been around me long. When I first got here, man, I used to just jokingly quote, talk about other people, other pastors, not necessarily church folk, but pastors like, oh, that guy read a reason, his church growing, you got to be watering down the gospel, you know, or, and I'm not saying people don't do this, but, or man, that guy, man, he struts sitting down on that dude or this guy's pride for an arrogant. Well, I would do that a lot, you know, jokingly with my friends and they would chime in with me. And I realized I was thinking back, I was getting hammered by other people attacking me. I don't know if this is a parallel, but I was thinking today, by God's grace, I don't get hammered

as much. Candy knows, you remember this from when I first got here, Vivian, when I first got here, I was getting hammered by people criticizing, blogging, anonymous emails. I must say, don't search send me emails and I must sort of hammer you, but do you hear my point? It's almost like, Candy helped me, like, I don't do that. I mean, I'm not saying I'm part of it, but I don't do that hardly at all anymore because, Candy was like, you can't, oh, I'm just joking, babe, but you can't do that because some people don't know, but it's almost like now, and I don't know, maybe I'm mature, I'm older, but here's what I realize now, always try to give people the benefit of the doubt. You don't know what that man's dealing with. You don't know what that pastor's going through. You don't know the deacons he's dealing with. You don't know the trouble. See, like when I was getting hammered at long, how people didn't know what was happening outside the church, they're just like, oh, Robert, the church is the client view, but they don't realize, man, I'm just surviving from my life here. And so I realized it's a whole lot easier to extend an olive branch and just say, you know what, I'm going to give that guy the benefit of the doubt. Jesus said this, for if you forgive others, their trespasses, this is the same principle, your heavenly father will forgive you. But if you don't forgive others, your trespasses, your heavenly father won't forgive you. I heard this story one day of a preacher that was building an overhang for his garage, and he was outside his house in the neighbor. He noticed that one Saturday comes outside and grabs a beer and sits in a lawn chair and starts watching him. His neighbor's lost, and he's watching him. And the preacher notices the longer he worked, the neighbor was. He never went inside. The neighbor didn't take a break. He took a break. Neighbor came out, the neighbor came out. And so the preacher stopped when he was doing a Yossa neighbor. He's like, he said, trying to pick up some carpentry skills, eh? And the neighbor replied, no, I'm just waiting to see what the preacher says when he hits his thumb. He's ready to judge him. He's ready to judge him. If it was 20, 20, 16, he had his phone out. Oh, yeah, exactly. But we know people like that. People have, I had a lady at my former church. She said, I like to criticize and love. And she told me that. She said she had the gift. Yeah. It was a lot of criticism and a lot of construction. But what Jesus is talking about here is this. He's talking about judging a person one unfairly, but judging knowing it's going to come back on you. Now, let's just take judgment for a moment. Just so we're on the same page. There's two types of judgment that will happen at the end of time. Okay. Believers will be judged and unbelievers will be judged. If you've heard

this before, it'll be a recap, but I think it's important. And the person that says, don't judge me. Only God can judge me. Like I said earlier, are you really looking forward to that? Because as a pastor, I'll be honest with you. That's, that's a sobering. That's a scare. Even as a believer, I said, what do you scare it up? Well, I'm meant to give an account. And it's not so much of all the things I did wrong. I think the overwhelming point of that is a Christian pastor, leader, minister, the gospel man of God, warmer God, is you will be overwhelmed by all the things you didn't do for Christ. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I think the tears are. tear that's in heaven you understand that's seeing Jesus so people say well there's no tears and I'll get that but there are tears before you enter into eternity and I think those tears will be feel the way this when you and I stand face to face with our risen Savior and he reaches out with those nail pierced hands and he says Adam I've been waiting for you brother come to me and at that moment when Jesus for the first time your faith becomes sight and you realize everything you read about was real and Jesus you're gonna see him and you're gonna think man I wish I would have told more people about him I wish I would have done more I wish I would have shared more I wish I would have so that's what the tears are gonna be okay so before that moment or at that moment they're gonna be two judgments okay first judgment is a judgment reserved for believers only born again Christians where Jesus has been identified and accepted and received as their Savior for their sin that's one judgment and those believers you and I have read this table in this room we're going to that it's called the Bema Seat or the Bema Seat Marty Kosolam and our friend his podcast the he calls it the Bema but I've heard he said the Bema Seat regardless B E M A seat I'll get to that at the moment the other judgment line I don't know how B but imagine it's a line that goes for millions and millions of people standing in line and this is a line this is where Jesus says on that dale separate the goats from the sheep that line always ends up in one place is called the white throne of judgment in Revelation and that sentence is always the same it's two different kind of judges people say guys are gonna judge believers yes he will he's going to judge us based on what we have done for

him so let's take the first one those who stand on that line before the Lord as Christians okay what is guy gonna judge us on candy what do you think what is that line about well I think it could be about numerous things it's gonna be about maybe the things you did or didn't do for him maybe holding you accountable for things that you should have done that he told you to do and you didn't or I mean sometimes I think about things like in our life and I'm like I wonder if Robbie's gonna stand before the Lord on that or am I probably me and I'm like do we spend enough time with our kids do we have it do we do we take advantage of every single moment that we should be to like have a teachable moment and you know I'm saying and I'm like and I'm praying so but I'm like one day we will stand before the Lord and will he say you blew it because you should have been doing this or you should have been doing that and I'm like that kind of stuff weighs on you you know like as a parent or as a spouse you know it's like are you are we really doing what he's telling us to do or will we stand before him and he'll say you could have done more or you could have done better on the things that really matter you see what I'm saying yeah I don't okay yeah that makes yeah I see where you're going I don't know fully if he's going well I don't think any there's no condemnation in heaven you know judgment seat so I don't know if that here's what I think is gonna happen I do think you're gonna feel like godly I wish I would have done more but I don't think Jesus is gonna have to say anything I think our life is gonna say everything things we did and things we didn't do I just think it's kind of like here's here's a close second thing I would this is off the cup but this close thing I can think of it it's kind of like the moment I stole from my parents Jeremy Moses stole from my parents lived without gas electricity and water still 15,000 my parents call me on the phone you know the story don't ever come back you know that your dad's disappointed I'm furious don't ever come back to this house three months lived in my own and just downward downward spiral hit rock bottom and my sister invited me to my grandfather's 80th birthday party to save my life if she doesn't invite me I'm dead right now and I wasn't gonna go

even told I'm not gonna see the family but on that morning I didn't know the time but the Holy Spirit prompted me to go to the party because I wasn't going like the the night before she stopped buying the way in from college should stop by and slit me money under the ashtray as I was you know coked out on drugs and alcohol and she said Robert you're coming to Mora Laurier and coming up to you a thousand times but that morning the Holy Spirit prompted me and I got high you know took two oxycontin's got high and went to the party and the first person I ran into mom didn't have to say word when I opened that door was my mom and the only thing she said to me was the oh I didn't see my mom in three months my family you know how close we are took my parents every day my mom and sister died can't even tell you I love my parents I told them every day I'm trying to make up for a lost time maybe but this all she said was how are you doing and here's this angry prideful And all I could say was not good. And she didn't have to say another word. And I knew in that moment, I let my mom and dad down. I think that's kind of what heaven will be like. It's not going to be Jesus saying, why didn't you do it, man? He's not going to have to. He's not going to have to. You're going to see him and you're going to say, God, lead, Lord. Oh, wait. So, okay, so that's the beam of seed. The beam of seed basically is taken from second Corinthians. Paul is, I'm sorry, first Corinthians. I think it's first or second. Fact check that, Caden. I think it's in Corinthians.

I'll tell you that. I think it's three or four. It's basically based on the, I think it's three. It's based on the works. You could look it up. It's based on when you take gold, silver, and Stupressus stones and you show up with wood clay and stubble. Okay. So you take those two and everything that is burned up, wood clay stubble, which is temporal, is destroyed. So everything you did for you, two, first Corinthians two, second Corinthians five. Thank you, Caden. Boom. Caden to read. Second Corinthians five. Thank you. I was way off. Okay. Thank you. I knew it was Corinthians. I knew it was the Corinthians. I knew it was the Corinthians. Okay. So it's going to burn up, but gold, gold, silver, precious stones will stay. Here's the thing. On that day, everything you did for yourself, we read it in Matthew 6, 1, we wear a practicing righteousness before that men to be seen by them.

If you do, you will have no reward from your father in heaven. That's the wood clay and stubble gone. So everything you did and sadly, a lot of people are going to realize they have no money in their spiritual bank account when all of the works for themselves are burned up. Then what's left, that's what CT said used to say, "A life will soon come to pass. Only what's done for Christ will last." And whatever is left, God is going to use that account, whatever you have credited in your account to him, he's going to trade that in. Think of it as like a trade-in. You're going to trade in and he's going to give you authority and trust. This is how it works. So everything you did for him, he's basically the HP score goes up. The score goes up. All right. Robbie's at a 35% trust level. Okay. We can put him over X in heaven. Adam's at a 50% trust level. Put him. Vivian, 95%. Vivian, you're running the show. We're all working for Viv and have a check. - Okay. - Let's go. - So, but the point is that's how God determines eternity. So the little bit of time we live here and how we live on earth, God is determining, if you get nothing else, this is it. God is determining if he can trust you today to see if he's able to

entrust you with more authority, power, dominion, and heaven tomorrow. Remember, heaven is not, we'll get to this eventually. Heaven is not naked babies with wings on clouds singing hymns. That's not heaven. In fact, we're not even going to heaven after we die. We're coming here. The new heaven is there, but the new earth is here. We're coming to populate a governmental system in the sense like earth. Okay. That's the believers, unbelievers. Unbelievers go to the white, great white throne of judgment. Okay. White meaning pure, great meaning final stop, and judgment. Now, imagine the line. Okay. I want you to imagine just picturing your mind. You look back if you're in that line, God forbid, and you look back. And it's as far as the eye can see. And then all of a sudden you turn around and look to the front, you barely see, but you start to hear as you get closer, the same verdict over. It doesn't matter what the circumstances are, it's the same verdict. And here's the question. I don't know if it's going to be like this, but here's the question. You're going to stand before the Lord and God's going to say in a roundabout way, have you send? Are you a sinner? What is the answer to everyone? Yes. Everyone. Absolutely. Yes.

There's going to be no, well, I'm not as bad as so. No, no, guys, don't worry about your brother. Don't worry about your drug addicted daughter. Don't worry about your drug addicted brother. No, no, I'm asking you, Robbie, are you a sinner? Okay. And you're going to say yes or no, it doesn't matter. Guys are going to say look behind you and behind you, like a garbage dump of trash are going to be the sins you've accumulated on earth. Just piled high as you can. Let's imagine just a trash dump of your life of sin. And God's going to say, all right, you've sinned. We've all said, do you have a payment? Who's going to pay for that so you can get in here? Because the only way in here is perfection, holiness, righteousness. You've obviously said you're not righteous. What is your payment? And you're going to say, I don't have a payment. And God's going to say, here's the problem. If you pay for your sin, you die in your sin. And if you die in your sin, the wages of sin is death. Go to hell next. That's the line. Now fast forward or go to the other side. You and I stand before the Lord on that day in the pharmacy. Do you have a set, of course I do. Jesus said, "Hold on, Dad, hold on, Dad." I got this one, that one's mine. Candy Gallady, don't judge it on Candy Gallady. Let me write my name on her name, Jesus Christ.

- Whew, thank you Lord. - And the reason you, that's why heaven is all about Jesus. It's not about how good we are, how that, that's why, so knowing that in mine, you start to realize, who am I to judge you? Because I'm not getting in heaven based on judgment on my own life. The reason I'm going to heaven is God doesn't judge me based on what I should be judged as. So the reality is, I think the reason you're more critical if you're listening and you're a judgmental person, the reason you're more critical of others is because you've lost sight of your own judgment that you deserve. When you and I realize we are sinners who are desperate, I don't know if you're a senior pastor of a mega church or run a big ministry or whatever, if you forget what it's like to be lost. We just read in Samuel, we read in Samuel now as a church, but Samuel starts great. Who am I that you're going to pick me? I mean, Saul starts great. Saul's like, who am I? You're going to pick me. I'm the least of all the tribes. And Samuel should have said, hey, keep that attitude, bro. You're going to go far. And then just what, two chapters. Here he is, a few chapters. Here he is saying, oh, did y'all see the monument?

I built to myself, they got the nose right. Look at the cheek bone, it's me. Oh, by the way, bless you, brother. I've done every, what happened? He forgot where he came from. He forgot that he's a sinner who deserves to be judged and by God's grace, God has set him free. And I think if we live with that attitude or gratitude to serve us well. - Yeah. I would say too, like if you're kind of evaluating, is it your place to judge someone, you know? This is kind of how I think of it in my mind. I like, I always feel like, stay in your lane candy, bloom where you're planted, you know? Don't come up above that and don't compare and don't do all these things. Stay in your lane and stay where you're planted. I tell you this a lot too. Like this is not our place, whatever. I'm going to stay here. If something happens in life of situation, a person that you know, and you have the influence and authority to speak into their life, then by all means do that. You know, obviously, pay then prayer. If you don't, I always ask myself, 'cause you hear about these, like a minister that falls or you hear about a terrible situation, whatever it may be. And so I always ask myself,

what can I learn from this so it doesn't happen to me? And so instead of like, like I have no authority or no right to speak into this person's life, I may not even know them personally, right? I have no, there's no room for me to do that there. And I can assume something from the situation, but what do I need to learn so that it doesn't happen to me? We will talk about that all the time. You know, especially when it comes to people in ministry because that's our life. If they fall or something immoral happens or whatever, we're like, what do we need to do so this doesn't happen to us? So you can always learn from a situation that you know of that is happening out there, even if it is not a situation that you actually speak into or you actually pass a judgment of any kind or criticism. What can I learn and how can I implement it because I do not want this to happen to me. I don't wanna be one to participate in something like this. - That's good. - And the most thing in two things, one is, it's easy to judge in a positive light or to relate if you've experienced the pain. So like if I've been homeless, so I know what it's like to be homeless. I've struggled with addiction, I know what it's like to struggle with addiction. I've had Trump, like we can relate.

I think we have a tendency to what? Not judge as harshly because we've already had that beam in our eyes. It's when we both have beams, but I've never had your beam. And he's talking about the little beam in his eye. I think that's where it's hard. And I was thinking I love just the analogy that you painted 'cause it makes me think of Psalms. I think it's 128. We're talking about the fear of the Lord. And fear of the Lord is reverence. And here's what I was thinking. If we wanna be, 'cause my mind goes, okay, how do I make sure that I'm intellectually and spiritually in a biblical place when judgment is presented to me, like you just said. And I think it is having that awe and that reverence of what God has done and then who God is today. Because here's what I've been talking about, boys, we're doing Sundays at seven now. We're doing an hour together in the Word. What I was saying is is that the holiness and the reverence of God that we have for God should literally bend our hearts towards obedience. 'Cause if I just know that, oh God is all powerful, if I know all these facts theologically about God, but it doesn't bend my heart to obedience, I hope this but does this bend my heart when someone crosses my path that it's none of my business But also does it bend my heart when God puts that person in front of me and he's saying Adam I'm calling you to speak life and speak truth and love to somebody

So it should come from that posture of heart of like listen I could our seats could be reversed and they have been yeah out of reverence for God I'm going to speak truth and life into your heart. I'm going to evaluate what's happening with you Because I want you when you're standing before God to experience his glory in a whole new way And you know like you said when we get to the place that we get so that's the two things Yeah, I was kind of thinking when you guys were talking well if we forget where we came from we're returned to where we started I mean that's good. That's what just hit me. You said that because think about it. What happens with a guy like us or any of us We God takes us from nowhere like Saul and let's say you become a pastor a leader a ministry leader All these guys who have fallen they get to a place where they think they're immune from sin and they can do no wrong And in the pastor ministry you got to be careful too You got to realize this we for a living have to judge people in a sense to help them like I got to diagnose your addiction I got to diagnose your marriage. I've got to diagnose your challenge pastor. I'm sure I got I've got to diagnose that I've got to judge in a sense Well, the problem is when you become calloused to that and you become Hardened to people and you become cynical and judgmental. That's what happens to pastor And then what happens is you get to a place where you start looking down on everybody I heard someone say we're the most critical to people who don't sin like us So when you sin differently than me like oh, I'd never you know sin like that guy with that sex before or I'd never do Well, never say never because while they may have a sin. They're struggling with you have a sin you're struggling as well. So I Leave us with this because this is this is interesting Jerry Bridges said it the best way and this helped me so much Jerry Bridges said on your worst day You are never beyond the reach of the grace of God as somebody needs to hear that on your worst day You're never beyond the reach of the grace of God. However on your best day You're still desperately in need of the grace of God On your best day. So it's from grace to grace and I think that's a place We put a comma because next week you're not gonna miss what does it mean to take out the Spec from your brother's eye and the log and by the way, don't forget the dogs and the pigs You're gonna you're gonna love this they actually have an insight and a connection to people and Particular races is pretty interesting. I love it excited to hear about that

Well, thank you for tuning in on the forgotten Jesus podcast if you want to be a come-up part of our team Get that subscribe button. You can also hit the little alarm so that you'll know when the new episodes come up So thank you for joining us today You you you (gentle music)