(This transcript was generated by AI. Apologies for any inacuracies)

We're gonna pick back up today talking about some things that Jesus never said.

Now, if you've ever had conversations with people before, ever had a letter written to you, and you just decided to read the first sentence in the letter or take the first sentence in the conversation without taking the entire conversation into context, you may make that statement or that first sentence say something that it really didn't say.

And today we're gonna learn from a sentence Jesus said, and it was the first sentence in an entire statement that he was saying, that people take out of context and make it say something that Jesus never said.

And that particular statement is found in your Bible.

If you wanna go ahead and look it up, it's in Matthew chapter seven and it's verse one.

And we're gonna be looking at that today and kind of tearing that apart because Jesus never just said what that one statement says, it goes on to say so much more.

And we're gonna learn what that says today.

You know, our Bible gives us an opportunity to join up with some incredible friends to help us be all God's designed us to be.

In the book of Proverbs, the wisdom book, it says this in Proverbs 27, verse 17.

It says, as iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.

And that's an interesting proverb that's spoken there because really what it says is we have the opportunity to make each other better, but whenever we have some friends that are really gonna make us better to be all we're designed to be, there's probably gonna be some sparks that fly.

As iron sharpens iron, it says, so a friend sharpens a friend.

Now, my wife, Kim, she's right over here, she's actually my best friend.

And she's not my best friend because she always does everything I want her to do.

She's my best friend because she causes some sparks in our relationship.

Come on, somebody.

Her interest is my interest.

In other words, she desires for me to become everything that I'm created to do.

So oftentimes, she'll speak words into my life that I'm like, ouch.

That hurt a little bit.

But then, a little bit later on, after I process what she said, and she's not perfect in any way, but after I process what she says, I'm like, you might be right, but I don't think so.

No, I'm just.

I always know it's for my betterment.

And here's the reason I know that.

It's because we have a relationship.

We have had an ongoing relationship for over 30 years now.

And I know that she has my best interest in mind, has our best interest in mind, and desires for great things to come out of our life together.

And today we're gonna learn something that Jesus never said, but oftentimes if we don't dissect what he really said, then we'll miss so much in our life.

I want you to know that God has allowed you to come to Christ Jesus, okay?

So that you can have your sin forgiven, so you can have eternal life.

But he also wants sin not to overtake your life and overpower your life.

So he puts you in something called a family, a church, a group of people, that's designed to help you move away from sin in your life and step towards God so your heart can be healed.

See, the Bible says sin kills, but Jesus heals, come on.

Maybe that should be the sermon today.

Sin kills, but Jesus heals.

And how does he heal us?

He forgives us of our sin, but he also, we learned a few weeks ago, he don't only forgive us of our sin, he begins to show us how to hit the mark of God's glorious standard with our life, be all God's designed us to be, live life on purpose, live life as a part of a great plan.

But if we're not careful, we'll get that off track sometimes.

And so what God does is he allows us to be a part of a group of people, or the Bible refers to it as a body, to help each other accomplish what God's designed us to do.

And you're designed to be a part of God's plan.

You and I, every single one of us, are designed to be a part of what God's doing in the world, to illuminate God's presence in this world, to shine his presence in this earth, to be a part of God's goodness, overtaking evil in the world.

But in order to do that, we have to have some good friends in our life.

So if you have your Bibles, we're gonna look at something Jesus never said today, and dive into what he really said.

Matthew chapter seven, verse one, it starts off in this passage of scripture where Jesus is in the middle of a talk and on his sermon on the mountain.

He's given some incredible information here, but he says to a group of people there, he says, do not judge others and you will not be judged.

And so here is the place that people take it out of context.

They read that one sentence and stop reading.

And they say, hey, you've heard this before.

Don't judge me, man.

Come on, don't judge me or don't tell me anything I'm doing wrong.

I'm just gonna, I'm gonna do it my way.

I'm gonna live my truth.

I'm gonna do my thing.

I'm gonna do what I think is right.

And Jesus never said that we're not to judge one another.

He just says, listen, if you're going to judge somebody, literally what he's saying here is do it with the right heart, the right attitude and make sure you do it to the right people.

And so we take that statement out of context, do not judge others and you will not be judged.

And we stop there and we miss so much in our own life because we don't want nobody to judge us.

But let's continue to read what Jesus said in verse two.

He says, for you will be treated as you treat others.

He says, the standard you use in judging, the standard you use in judging.

So here he says, you are to judge.

He says, is the standard by which you will be judged.

Now for verse two makes me ask another question, judged by who?

Because it says here, the standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.

Does that mean to be judged by God or is it to be judged by another person?

Well, the Bible doesn't tell us that.

But if we read it in context and we read on down to verse 12, it says this.

It says, do unto others as you would have them to do unto you.

That's what we know today in our world as the golden rule.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

And so here, Jesus is basically saying, listen, judge other people, but judge them with the right heart.

Pay attention to why you are judging them.

What is the purpose of you speaking into their life?

What is the purpose of you saying anything about them running their life off the rails?

Is it truly to help them or is it simply to condemn them?

And so a heart that God desires for the church to have or for you to have to be a real friend is to not say nothing about somebody's sin, missing the mark of God's glorious standard where they're taking their life and running in the wrong direction, but it is to say something about it, but also begin to try to help them get their life back on track or let them run to a place where they see that they're running their life off the track and then they can eventually get their life back on the track.

But God says that as brothers and sisters in the faith, if we belong to the church, we should speak into each other's life.

Because there's another passage of scripture I want to bring in to this message today.

And it's given by the Apostle Paul as he was speaking to the church at Corinth in a letter called 1 Corinthians.

And so he was speaking to these people and he was talking to them about having a life with Jesus and being all that God had created them to be.

And if you get to chapter five in 1 Corinthians chapter five, there was a man that belonged to their church and he was living life off the rails.

The Bible says he was in an inappropriate relationship with his mother-in-law.

And the Bible says that Paul tells those people, you need to say something about that.

You need to speak into that man's life.

And he says it this way as we get to 1 Corinthians chapter five, verse 12.

He says, he says, as far as it goes for me, he says, it isn't my responsibility to judge outsiders.

Those outside of the church, those outside of the faith, those who were not in a right relationship with God by believing in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.

He says, it is not my place to judge outsiders.

He goes on to say, but it certainly is your responsibility church to judge those inside the church who are sinning.

Now that's a remarkable passage of scripture because we all have people inside of the church say, hey, don't judge me.

And what they're really saying is I wanna live life like I wanna live life.

And I really don't want nobody to step in and say anything about what's going on in my life.

And if we have the heart to really restore people back to their relationship with their heavenly father, and we really believe that Jesus heals and sin kills, then if you're believing that that sin is killing that person, hurting that person, hurting the family of God, hurting the message of God, then the Bible says you have a responsibility to step in and say something.

But it is to do it with the right heart.

In other words, treat people the way you would want to be treated whenever you live life off the rails.

Other words, he says, let's help each other get life back on the right path.

Let's help people step back into the right relationship, but let's always make it a point, if we're going to be a person who judges, let's judge with the right heart.

And so the right heart is always, I want you restored.

I want you back in the right, if they belong to the church.

Oh, if they don't belong to Christ, if they haven't put their personal faith in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, I really don't really have an opportunity to speak into their life.

But if they do belong to Christ and they're a part of the family, according to the Bible, what I'm to do is I'm to step in, if I'm a part of their family, and I'm to say, hey, look, what you're doing is hurting you and it's hurting the body and it's hurting the testimony and the witness of what God wants to do through us in this community.

And so what I would love for you to do is to be restored in that relationship and repent of your sin, step back towards God and begin to let God heal your heart.

It's never done to Johnny one up somebody and say, you screwed up and I'm better than you, come on.

And so I'm bringing this to light because I'm better than you, I'm bringing this to light because I have a heart to help you understand who God really says that you are.

See, God has a purpose and a plan for every one of our lives.

And if you belong to the family, let me ask you this, if you have a child that belongs to your family and that child is about to walk out in front of a big truck and it's about to run over them, would you judge them?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, you would, you would tackle them, you would throw them in the ditch if you could get to them.

And the reason is, is because you know what, about to hurt themselves, hurt everything around them and your love runs so deep, you wouldn't be like, oh, maybe, maybe you should get out of the way.

No, no, no.

You'd be like, dude, you're about to get yourself killed and I'm fixing to tackle your butt and I'm fixing to judge you and I will throw you in the ditch.

Come on.

Because you love the kid.

You love the kid.

So God says, whenever we judge, he says, just make sure you treat others in the way that you want to be treated.

Use the standard in your judging that you would want to be a judge by.

It never says, don't say anything to anybody about their sinful life, but we must judge with the right heart.

The next thing I wrote down about this passage of scripture, we must judge for the right reason.

Look what it says here in Matthew seven, Jesus keeps talking.

He says in Matthew seven, verse three, he's talking to some people who were being hypocritical in their judge, and they were basically saying, I'm better than you.

But Jesus says this, he says in verse three, he says, why worry about a speck in your friend's eye when you have a log in your own.

He says, how can you think of saying to your friend, let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye when you can't see past the log in your own eye.

He goes on to say, hypocrite first, everybody say first.

That means before he says, first, get rid of the log in your own.

I do something.

Look at yourself in the mirror, check yourself, check your heart.

He says, and then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend's eye.

That's an awesome passage of scripture because what it says is the right attitude is this.

You know what?

I'm here to help in every way I can.

Now you have to humble yourself and allow me to help.

The Bible says pride comes before the fall.

But if somebody is really going to speak into my life, I have to humble myself and allow them to speak in my life.

But I always want someone speaking to my life is willing to look at their own life first so they can help my life.

And that's what Jesus is saying.

Make sure you judge for the right reasons, judge, but judge for the right reasons.

It's always to help somebody and not to hurt somebody.

It's always to restore somebody and not condemn somebody.

And he says, you know what, just make sure you're not doing it for the wrong reasons.

Let me give you an example.

Maybe you don't like something somebody wears.

And you're like, you know what, you shouldn't wear that.

Now, if you're saying it for the right reasons, because they're setting themselves up for failure, and they're leveraging their body in a way to just attract people to their body so that they can be fulfilled because somebody likes the way they look, you know what, that's one thing.

And they're setting themselves up for failure.

And you're really trying to tell them that to help them and to help everybody else around them.

Like, you know what, you shouldn't wear that.

But if you're saying that because you can't wear it, it's a whole different story.

Because you're jealous because they can wear it and you can't wear it.

He says, look at your own self first.

And make sure you're not speaking into somebody's life.

Because you're thinking that you're better than they are.

But you're truly speaking into somebody's life because you want to help them step back in the right relationship and become all God's created them to be.

My friends, we have a responsibility as the church.

And our responsibility is to help each other with our gifts.

The Bible calls us the body of Christ.

And we're each given various gifts.

But the Bible says those various gifts are given to us so that we can help each other.

Help each other what?

Grow in our relationship with God so together we can be a witness to the world around us.

See, God has a purpose for your life.

And it's to be in right standing with him through the bloodshed of Jesus Christ.

Jesus came to forgive the penalty of sin on a cross.

He resurrected from a grave.

You are fully forgiven of that sin.

But God don't only want to forgive you of that sin so you can live eternal life with him in heaven.

He wants to forgive you of that sin to show you how to get it right and live life like God intends for you to live life and not let sin destroy your life.

Come on.

So God wants to forgive you so he can heal your heart.

We talked about that a few weeks ago.

It's one thing to know that Jesus forgives our sin so we can spend eternity with him in heaven.

It's another thing to know why he forgives us.

And it's not just so we can go to heaven.

It's so we can be healed.

Sin kills, Jesus heals.

But the way Jesus heals, pay close attention, is he came and he modeled how to live a life in right relationship with God, a perfect life.

But he didn't only model that.

He showed us how to follow him and he modeled that.

But the Bible says when he ascended to heaven, he sent the third person in the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, to live in us, to coach us, to teach us, to begin to partner with us so we can move away from sin, move towards the living, the life that God intends for us to live and our heart be healed and not let the sin take us out.

Everybody wants forgiveness because they want to go to heaven.

That's awesome.

But the real purpose in forgiveness is so you can be healed, my friend.

By his stripes, we are healed.

And that's not just speaking of physical illness, healing.

That means that your heart, by his stripes, by his wounds, by the things that were lavished on Jesus, he was a perfect man in every way, but they took him out.

And because he went to a cross and defeated death and resurrected from a grave, you and I can have our heart healed from the power of sin and it doesn't have to take over our life.

Wow.

But see, when I judge somebody, I need to do it with the attitude of, look, man, I'm here to help in every way I can.

Let's get this thing restored so that you can move forward with your life.

See, we have to do it with the right heart.

We have to do it for the right reasons.

And it's to help people heal and be all God had created them to be.

But pay close attention, we got to do it to the right people.

So see, Jesus keeps talking in this passage.

And here in context, the very next verse, verse six, this is what he says.

Remember, he's talking about judging.

He's talking about judging with the right heart.

He's talking about judging with the right attitude.

And then he makes this kind of radical statement.

He says, don't waste what is holy on people who are unholy.

He says, don't throw your pearls to pigs.

They will trample the pearls and then they'll turn and attack you.

What does that mean?

What that means is oftentimes we're trying to speak into people who don't belong to the family about their sin.

And really we haven't earned the relationship or the right to speak into their life.

Remember, they're not part of the family.

They live in outside of the family.

Remember Paul says, it ain't my responsibility to judge the outsider.

Basically he says, my responsibility is to be a witness to the outsider.

There's a big difference in being a witness to the outsider and being the judge of the outsider.

And I'll go ahead and tell you right now, if you're standing on a street corner with a bullhorn screaming, turn or burn, the person outside of the faith ain't hearing what you're saying.

And you're just throwing, you're throwing your pearls to the pigs and all they're doing is trampling on those pearls.

But if you choose to step in a relationship with those outsiders and begin to let them see the shining light of Christ in your life and through your life, and you bear witness and testimony to Christ is who he says he is, then eventually they may listen to what you say.

But in context, what Jesus says is a lot of times we're wasting our voice on judging the sinner that lives outside of the faith.

And you know what, that's like throwing pearls to pigs.

And basically what we should be doing with the right heart and the right attitude, doing what Paul said, it is being responsible and helping those on the inside of the church.

See, this is beginning to be what Jesus meant in Matthew 7.

The right people that we are to judge is those people who belong to the family of faith.

But we got to do it with the right heart and the right attitude.

They got to know we're for them and not against them.

They got to begin to understand that God has a purpose and a plan for our life together.

See, it's one thing for me to help you understand that God's got a bigger purpose for your life.

It's another thing for me to help you understand that God has a bigger purpose for your life, but he has a collective plan for our life.

So what is the plan for our life?

It's to be some people that have been called out of darkness into the wonderful light, saved by the blood of Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit, walking in our gift mix and together shining the light of who Christ is in the world around us and changing the whole community.

Come on.

But if the leg ain't functioning right, then hey, leg, let's get you back in line so we can be the body and work out God's plan in the world.

See, we've isolated Christianity to individuals.

But Christianity is God saving us as individuals, but pulling us together as a family and giving us gifts to be a representative to those who don't belong to the family so that they want to step into the family.

And so this is why it's important to speak to those inside of the church.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5 about this man that was living in this horrific sinful lifestyle, he says, you know what, you need to get him out of the church for a minute because here's the deal, he's like a little bit of yeast and he's going to infect the whole batch of dough, so you need to set his butt down until he gets it right because it's messing up the testimony of what God wants to do through the church here in Corinth.

So again, our heart here at Valorous Church is we might tell you to take a break, time out, but our heart is also we want you to achieve everything that God has designed you to be.

And together, you know what, whether I like it or not, when you put your faith in Jesus Christ and you belong to this family, you're part of this family.

And I might not always like what you do, but the reality of it is, is what God says is, you know what, I need to have the courage to come into you because I love you way too much to leave you where you are to say, you know what, I want to restore you in that right relationship.

You got to humble yourself and receive it.

But my heart is to restore you and set you back in the right relationship with God and through time begin to let him heal your heart.

So together we can be a display in this world for his greatness because he has a plan.

Come on.

We don't, we don't judge here at Valorous Church to condemn.

We judge here at Valorous Church to help heal hearts.

And guess what?

It gets messy because you're like, well, what do you do about this situation in this circumstance in that what we're going to do is we're going to look at ourself in the mirror and we're going to say, what does God want here?

What God wants is for me to get the log out of my own eye.

Maybe he wants to show me something in my own heart that I need to get rid of.

And when I do get rid of that, you know what?

Then I need to go to my brother, my sister, and I need to speak in their life and say, come on, let's together, get back on board and let's see what God wants to do in our life and through our life.

Come on church.

This is what it means to be a part of a family.

We serve a God who came to a world that was full of broken sinners.

And he didn't come with a pointed finger.

He came with open arms and he gave his life on a cross to forgive humanity of their sin.

And I would be a bad brother, a bad sister, if I didn't let you get to the end of yourself and come back to God and not do all I can to fully restore you in that relationship.

And the Bible says that what we're to do is to love each other.

Come on, as Christ has loved the church and begin to love each other.

That means we got to say some hard stuff sometimes.

We got to judge each other sometimes.

We got to speak into each other's life sometimes.

Because the reality of it is God wants what's best for you.

God wants what's best for me and pay attention.

And God wants what's best for his church to be a shining light in this world.

He don't want a broke down church.

He wants a church that's healed.

And the church is a hospital for sinners, but it's a hospital for sinners for a reason.

So you can come in here and get healed.

Healed of the power of sin over your life.

And there has to be some context where you let some people get into your life, begin to speak into your life.

And again, when you're running life off the rails, you don't want to hear from nobody.

I get it.

But, but the reality of it is, is eventually, hopefully if somebody takes the time to receive you like the loving father received the prodigal son, when you come back home, God may restore you, put a ring on your finger.

He'll put shoes on your feet and he'll say, welcome home, welcome home, welcome home.

So today, don't take out of context, what Jesus said.

Judge me, but don't condemn me.

Judge me and treat me the way you want to be treated when your life goes off the rails.

And let's see what God can do in us and God can do through us.

I really believe that if we create an environment for people to come home and step away from sin and step towards God, that we're not gonna be able to contain what God's gonna do in us and through us.

But we have to have willing hearts to love each other and build each other up in the faith to see what God wants to do.

My friend, Jesus never said that we're not to judge.

He just said when we do it, let's do it with the right heart, the right attitude and to the right people.

Let me pray for you today.

In just a moment, after I pray, our worship team is gonna come out and they're gonna sing another song during this response moment.

This altar is gonna be open all across the front of this stage.

There's kneeling benches.

There's crosses on both sides of this stage.

There's gonna be prayer partners stationed by those crosses.

But maybe today you just need to come get something right with God and come to this altar and begin to let God begin the healing process.

Jesus heals, sin kills.

Maybe you need to repent of your sin today and just say, God, I wanna start trusting you.

Maybe you're in this room today and you've been a judge and judge for all the wrong reasons.

And today you wanna just say, God, forgive me for judging for the wrong reasons and help me be a better brother, a better sister to those around me.

Maybe you're in this room today and you've never surrendered your life to Christ.

I need you to know the reason he came today was to forgive you, give you eternal life and heal your broken heart.

But in order for that to begin to happen, the Bible says that we need to come and say, God, you know what?

I'm repenting of my sin and I'm trusting Christ Jesus and what he did on that cross and his resurrection.

For my forgiveness and my wholeness, that relationship can begin the moment you say that.

I need you to know today when you enter into God's family as a Christ follower, he wants to connect you to a group of people.

So together we can be a shining light in this world.

So God's not asking us just to make a commitment to say, Jesus, I want forgiveness, but Jesus, I want forgiveness, and I need your healing to rush all over my sin.

And this is a body where we're not perfect, but that can begin to happen if you will make the commitment to step in and begin to join him in the process.

But I don't know what you need to deal with today during this altar moment.

The prayer partners will be up here in the front, but I'm going to pray.

And as we sing this last song, maybe you want to come to the front and pray.

Maybe you want to just stand in your seat and worship.

But God's getting ready to do something really powerful in this place, in people's heart, in people's life.

Again, if you need to leave, it's an emergency we totally understand.

But I would take the opportunity to stay in the next five minutes and just begin to see how God works in our heart and in our community.

Because God does amazing things when we respond to his work.

So let me pray for us and you move as God moves.

God, I thank you so much for every man, every woman, every boy and every girl in this space and place today.

God, I thank you for those online.

God, you call us to be a part of a family that will make us better.

Jesus, we thank you for coming and rescuing us from our sin, forgiving us with the blood shed on that cross for our sin.

We thank you for paying that penalty that we couldn't pay.

And Jesus, if there's one here today that hasn't trusted what Christ did on that cross, may today be the day of their salvation.

And that is you today, just maybe right where you sit.

God, today I surrender.

I repent of my sin and I trust Christ for the forgiveness of my sin.

God, we don't only want forgiveness of our sins so we can have eternal life and go to heaven one day, but God we need our hearts healed.

So Holy Spirit, I pray that you would begin to rush over people's heart and people's life and you would begin to touch people where they need to be touched and let us be the body of believers that embrace each other, not condemn each other.

May we have a humble heart and not a heart full of pride.

May we recognize that we all mess up, but God we have a family that will begin to put us back together.

God, I don't know how you're going to move in each person's life in this room today, but God I pray you begin to move by the power of your spirit and we pray all of this in Jesus most holy and precious name.

Amen.