Don’t you judge me! Of all the verses in the Bible this is one that everyone seems to know and love using – Christians and non-Christians alike. But, does this verse mean what we think it means? Are we using it correctly?
This is a true story. Carol Blymire, a writer and editor, shared a series of tweets describing a situation that occurred in her office that she had a hard time believing happened…a senior editor for their publishing company was working a young writer going over edits for an upcoming article they were getting ready to publish.
She was giving her feedback and reviewing remarks she had made on an article and the editor, her boss, pointed out that she had misspelled hamster by adding a “p” to the word – spelling it hamp-ster.
Instead of taking the point, the young woman argued strongly telling her that was the way she learned to spell it. She started raising her voice and insisting hamster was spelled with a p – and at this point the entire office is peeking uneasily over their cubicles trying to make sure they understand this is about the spelling of hamster. The boss calls up hamster on dictionary.com, shows her, expecting her to realize her error instead she got more adamant, and even emotional, holding back tears. She was offended and indignant and ended up calling her mother and started telling her about this while on speakerphone.
And what would you tell your twenty something -year old son or daughter if they called you from work in a situation like this?
Well, instead of telling her that her boss was indeed correct and hamster is truly spelled with no ‘p’ – she took her child’s side, and further, she actually told her – keep in mind that this is all on speaker – she told her that her boss was an idiot.
The young editor through tears told her mom, “I mean, I always spell hamster with a P, she has no right to judge me.”
She has no right to judge me. This twenty-something felt unfairly criticized and judged by her boss on a settled fact on the agreed upon spelling of a basic word: hamster
What’s interesting, is that when this story was shared on Twitter, comments streamed in from people relating similar encounters in the workplace – dealing with coworkers who were also completely incapable of handling basic critique in the workplace.
University campus counselors are reporting a shocking increase in the inability of students to deal with basic disappointment or constructive criticism.
What is going on? Well, you didn’t sign up for that long of a sermon, so I’m going to address from scripture one brief possible answer:
We hate being told that we’re wrong.
We’re in the middle of a series called “True Meaning.” We’re looking at verses that are used a lot and really mis-used a lot. Our hope is to come to know the true meaning of some of these commonly and misused verses. The Bible is not – as some have said “Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth” – it’s not a manual on how to behave – it is the record of God revealing himself to his creation, reaching out, redeeming and how we can be made right before Him. If we approach the Bible looking for tid-bits of wisdom and to-do’s or not to-do’s – even though it contains all of that to some degree – if our focus is what the Bible can do for us -then we miss the point – and the point is knowing God.
The passage we’re looking at today is a popular verse and it’s unique because even non-Christians use it. If there’s one verse that everyone seems to know, it’s this one:
It’s funny because you never hear someone repeat this verse without a tone…Judge Not! It’s a sassy verse, a defensive verse, a how dare you, back-off man, verse and it gets extra mileage from Christians and non-Christians alike because they can toss in Jesus’ name for good measure.
Of course, there’s more to it and that’s what we’re going to look at this morning. What’s interesting is this verse is used kind of in both directions…
I mean when we’re feeling judged we might whip it out to get someone to leave us alone…
And when we don’t want to get involved we can pull out this verse to justify our “who am I to judge?” position.
Either way, we should know the true meaning of this verse, don’t you agree?
Think about the young writer and not wanting to be critiqued on her spelling of hamster…most people replying to that thread were sympathizing with what seems to be the obvious problem – she couldn’t handle the truth.
But an interesting group also commented that maybe we should understand her plight, know her background, even some have suggested that spelling is a social construct and allowances have been made for alternate spelling – so why not here. Hamster – hampster – tomato tomatoh – who are we to judge.
Are you feeling the tension? This is a kind of big deal, it’s running deeply in our society and without sounding like I’m exaggerating, it’s an issue of biblical proportions. It really is on that scale, because at the root of the issue is to some degree our misuse of these words
What if we could get it right on this one? What if by, as the Bible says, “We rightly divide – or correctly understand and teach – the Word.” We could move forward in issues like this instead of just spinning back and forth in a weird world where everyone is right and no one is wrong except of course the person who timidly lifts their hand and suggests that there is actually a right and wrong.
You see, I think you’ll agree that deeply embedded in our nature is the sense that we are right. I mean, we wouldn’t have done it, said it, felt it, or posted it if we didn’t think so…right?
And we didn’t even have to be taught this attitude. We just come out of the shoot pre-loaded with that software. It’s in our nature.
Ever met a toddler? No one teaches a child to say “you’re not the boss of me!” But somehow, they come out with that exact mindset.
And two-year-olds don’t have the corner on this market. We all want our way and our own actions justified.
We all want the boss to appreciate our spelling.
The ref to make the call against the other team;
friends and family to accept our lifestyle;
social media to agree with our opinions.
So, when Jesus says, “Judge not.” We happily tuck that easy to memorize verse into our pocket in case anyone tries to disagree, criticize or otherwise make a call that’s not in our favor.
Someone tries to judge our actions? We bring out the foul card faster than a World Cup soccer ref, drop the mic and, feel not only justified but self-righteous because we have the very obvious words of Jesus himself on our side. Don’t Judge.
If anyone appears to judge us, we can just remind them, “Hey, don’t judge – Jesus said it, so, simmer down and let me be.”
On the other hand, we read “Do not judge” and we think, yeah. That’s good. I won’t judge and that clears the way for us to not step in, not confront – and that’s a relief because confronting is uncomfortable and we don’t want to come off as judgmental.
And when we’d rather not step in and make a call, we also look down at that card and use that verse to assure ourselves that we can stay out of it because, well, Jesus said so. Don’t Judge. Shrug. Judge you? Oh, don’t worry…JESUS says I can’t..
And as much as we hate being judged or appreciate the free pass in case we might need to make a judgement, there’s something else I think we all hate maybe more …being misunderstood.
At the heart of this series, “True Meaning” is our heart to know, really understand what God says.
We come from a good place and hopefully a humble place when we can recognize that we might have missed the point of what the Bible says either because we were taught incorrectly or because we just didn’t take the time to understand it.
So, when we look for true meaning, we’re not only doing the right thing -we’re doing the biblical thing. Paul said:
Study and do your best to present yourself to God approved, a workman [tested by trial] who has no reason to be ashamed, accurately handling and skillfully teaching the word of truth. (2 Tim. 2:15)
When someone uses our words against us or to hurt someone else… we hate that and rightfully so. When someone misses the meaning of our words it’s frustrating and divisive. And yet. Are we doing that to Jesus? Let’s see… Here’s what Jesus said:
Μὴ κρίνετε ἵνα μὴ κριθῆτε — “Judge not, that you be not judged.” What if those five Greek words were the only words we had from Jesus Christ? Would we be missing anything? Of course.
The gospel writers recorded about 3000 of Jesus’ words. And John said that “the world itself could not contain the books that would be written” about what Jesus did.
SLIDE (little image of the verse) 
But we often treat Jesus’ words like sound bytes. Phrases that we end up misusing and miss the meaning of.
Jesus spoke literally volumes so before we yank five words from all that and use them to get our way or avoid doing something
Let’s put his words back into the context.
What had Jesus been teaching when he said “Judge not”? Jesus said those five famous words in the middle of the most famous sermon of all time…the Sermon on the Mount.
Matthew includes this part of Jesus’ sermon after Jesus says, “do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.”
Luke sets this part of Jesus’ sermon right after he has said,
“Love your enemies…” and “be merciful”
The larger context of this sermon has been Jesus’ elevating what it means to be a true disciple. Lifting and redefining religion not as a bunch of rules to follow but a heart that follows hard after God and seeks first God’s righteousness.
It’s all been a series of “be this—not that” – in a way, it’s Jesus holding up a huge Venn Diagram with the religious people in the circle on the left and the true disciples on the right and in the middle the only common connection is a claim to know God.
The religious teach…
- Don’t murder – Jesus says – don’t even hate
- The religious said, no adultery – Jesus said don’t even lust
- Love your neighbor and hate your enemy – Love all, even your enemy
- Put your righteousness on display? No, be holy for God
- Pray for all to see how religious you are? No, pray with humility to God alone
- Fast and make sure to post about it and look gloomy? No, keep that between you and God
and Jesus warns just a few verses after
“Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”
The sermon on the mount is a warning against following in the hypocritical ways of the religious leaders.
They infamously judged others from a place of pride – not humility – oppressive and legalistic instead of merciful.
And right in that context, in the middle of a sermon about not worrying, loving enemies, and being merciful…in the middle of a sermon separating the truly righteous from the hypocrites, Jesus says,
“Do not judge that you be not judged!”
Wait, what? The righteous are separated from the hypocrites…isn’t that a judgement?
Are we to judge or not? Is this a trap?
Look what Jesus says after – and I’m jumping over one part on purpose for now, but look what’s coming in Matthew’s account:
Chapter 7 verse 6 – actually this is another pretty well-known and quoted verse…
“Do not give dogs what is holy,
Anyone hearing this statement would think of the temple sacrifices. No one would take the lamb set aside for the offering to God and toss is out to the mangy street dogs
and do not throw your pearls before pigs,
throwing a pearl to a bunch of filthy pigs is a little easier for us in our culture to imagine and we know how stupid that would be
lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.“
Jesus is saying, don’t be undiscerning.
Know what is valuable and make a judgment. Who should get what you have? Only those who will receive it. How will you know? You’ll have to make a call…make a judgment.
Keep reading…it’s pretty interesting…
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits.“
Here Jesus is saying that you can judge if a person is good or evil by the words they speak. Good. Evil. Righteous. Unrighteous. Dogs, pigs, holiness and hypocrisy…and sandwiched between all of these opposites is “don’t judge.”
But the way he has just shown is full of judgment! Be this…not that! Think this way…not that way! Be these people…not those!
You might feel like spectators in a tennis match…but
Wait for it…
Here’s what’s exciting about really knowing the Word of God in the context. It’s deeper, richer, and more satisfying and fulfilling when you see it and hear it and embrace it all…it’s the difference between seeing a pebble and witnessing the Grand Canyon. And while it’s a lot to take in, it’s so worth it when we do…
Listen…
In 5:17, speaking to his followers he makes sure they know this…
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets;
The Law and Prophets – that was the Jewish Bible – the foundation the audience had for their decisions about what was right and wrong and Jesus is clear
I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
– I’m not throwing that out – I’m fulfilling it all.
Jesus explains that true disciples are about the heart and spirit of the law. Yes, obey the law, but do it with your heart not with nit-picky legalism and don’t add to the law your personal preferences – if God says don’t, don’t. Where God is clear about His design and creation – honor that.
So if Jesus fills the sermon with various kinds of judgments we have to make about people and whether they produce good or bad fruit and their intentions whether there are true or false prophets in order to lead a blessed and God-honoring life, clearly it’s not as simple of “Judge not” over and out.
So, what kind of judgment is he saying not to do…take a look at Matthew 7:2
Jesus compares “judging” to measuring he says,
“For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.“
To this day we still use this word picture…you see justice personified and she’s holding a balancing scale.
.
Jesus tells his hearers to judge with a fair scale, rather than the unfair scales they experience regularly. Judge with integrity and empathy, not hypocrisy.
And anyone listening would have immediately connected with what he was saying because they’ve all been on the receiving end of the unjust measuring of the Romans, the tax collectors, and the religious leaders.
And while that is sinking in and resonating he tells a joke…an illustration really it’s a little absurd and packs a punch and he does this to make a point …a good one…
Why do you see the speck – splinter, or speck of sawdust – that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.
So, are you imagining this…
one guy with a little, barely noticeable speck of sawdust in his eye, the other has a two-by-four.
Now sawdust in the eye is no joke and we all know how irritating that is…maybe we blink and squint and move on..but a log? You’re not moving anywhere with a log in your eye.
First, how could anyone see a splinter without noticing a massive beam?
Second, why does the guy with a piece of lumber sticking out of his face offer to do eye surgery on his neighbor’s eye?
Jesus calls the person with the beam a hypocrite – not that he has a log to begin with, but that he has the nerve to try to point out someone else’s issue. That’s the hypocrisy. That’s the sin. That’s the – you better not be judging anyone Mr. Plankface
So, what’s the fix? Get that plank out. Have a plankectomy…
Remove the log. Have a log-otomy…then
…Does Jesus tell both of them to just deal with their eye problems by themselves? No. Does he say get that log out and go on your merry way? No again.
Jesus tells Mr. Plankton with the beam to get it out before helping his brother with the splinter. But do help. Help the brother with the splinter.
Jesus doesn’t remove the responsibility of believers to help spot and remove sin. He says, “and then you will see clearly to take out the splinter from your brother’s eye” (7:5).
And we can laugh a little and imagine the absurdity of it all. Obviously I can’t call out someone’s little splinter when I’ve got my own log to deal with.
And we get it…but there’s something still difficult about it. Not because Jesus tells us not to judge, but because he warns us to show humility when we do judge—And that’s hard. Because we do need to judge we just can’t judge what we see on the outside, Jesus also said,
Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.” John 7:24
So, pulling out “don’t judge” and making that a sort of life verse is really missing the point, isn’t it? Jesus expects us as Christians – true disciples – to judge…
And do that – even that in the spirit of a true follower of Christ which he’s just explained in the entire rest of the sermon – mercy, humility, peacemaking, with meekness and love.
What Jesus is doing here is he’s disarming us from being prideful.
In order to see – and we should see if we’re being merciful and we’re loving our enemies and greeting them – in order to see we have to deal with our plank eye – don’t be so prideful that you point out someone else’s little splinter before you deal with your log.
But do deal – deal with your log and do take specks out…go to one another –
Understand that the word Jesus uses for “judge” is krino
Greek krinō can mean to condemn or judge overly harshly;
that is what it means here.
Jesus is talking about the critical, judgmental, condemning, self-righteousness of the Pharisees. They weren’t criticizing people because of sin, they were criticizing them because of their personality, their weaknesses, their preferences even the clothes they wore. They were criticizing their motives, which they couldn’t see of course.
To go around saying, “Well, we should love everybody and never judge anybody,” that isn’t what Jesus is saying.
In fact, in the law that Jesus said he perfectly fulfilled it says that if you don’t rebuke a sinner, you actually hate – yes, HATE them. Listen…
Leviticus 19:17 Do not hate a fellow Israelite in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in their guilt.
In other words, to allow him to sin is to hate him, not to love him.
So, if you see sin, it is love that makes a change. It is love that demands repentance. Paul said it was God’s kindness that bought us to repentance…why? because if he hadn’t we’d have died in our sins and that’s the farthest thing from kind.
People say, “Oh, I don’t want to say anything. We just love everybody.” No, when you find sin and you tolerate it, you are hating your brother, not loving him.
Love confronts and forgives and restores; it is hate that ignores and lets a person go in that path.
Can I just say that It would be easier if this were just Judge Not. Let God sort it out.
It’s not though. See our faith is more nuanced than that – it requires much of us because we’ve been given much and honestly I think we’re just too tired to really think harder about it.
I am.
I’d rather not be confronted. I’d rather not confront.
But, that’s not what the Bible says.
But I see this exact mindset in the way we engage in the church. We have a Bible – God’s word – that clearly lays out one path to God, one righteous way of living, truth and falsehood, good and evil – and yet, for fear of offending, churches have slinked away from teaching doctrine because it sounds too exclusive.
Churches tiptoe around truth and soften the blow in the way they teach the Bible.
Because of this, many of us in the church have become uncomfortable with absolutes and suspicious of anyone who seems firm in their conviction.
We’ve thinned out the holy words of God to just the quoteables like “I can do all things through Christ” or “ Ask and it will be given to you.” and placed them on bumper stickers and magnets.
We’ve plucked out phrases from the Bible that feel inspiring and shared the happy sounding teachings of Jesus on photos of sunsets and kittens.
We pop Bible verses like Xanax hoping that will get us through the day and then pop another quick quote the next day looking for the same fix.
Instead of allowing God’s holy word to work in our sinful hearts and causing us to sob in recognition of our sin, we’ve cuddled up to the comforting passages that make us feel good and have dismissed the harder passages as outdated – they’re culturally irrelevant.
The most important command in the Bible is no longer one of the 10 Commandments or even the greatest commandment…you shall love the lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength – the most important command today has become: Judge Not.
We’ve made “judge not” our life verse – not by putting it on a mug or refrigerator magnet, but by living in a way that keeps true godly engagement at arm’s length all while justifying our distaste for confrontation by missing the true meaning of Jesus’ command.
And if you break that command – ironically in the judgment of others – you’re dismissed, unfriended, blocked, and blackballed even by people within the church.
I’m sure that can’t be true you say. But it is.
And do you know why I know it is true, because I include myself in the we.
I tiptoe around truth. I am cautious in speaking around people for fear of offending. I’ve held back from reaching out because I didn’t want to come off as judgmental. I can be offended and prone to see myself as being treated too harshly. I see the speck in other people’s eye and miss the big log in my own. I don’t want to hear criticism. I push off the critique of others and dismiss them as being in no position to “judge me.”
And so, because it is statistically unlikely in a room this size that I am the only one who has an issue in this area I know I’m talking to at least one other person. One other hypocrite like me.
So, this message is for you and me today. Not for someone sitting next to you or someone you wish were listening…it’s for me and for you and for anyone else who might want to confess that we miss the mark and we need to understand what the true meaning of God’s word is even if we end up uncomfortable with what we learn.
Don’t judge others from a hypocritical, prideful heart.
Don’t refuse to be judged either. It goes both ways.
And it also means…we gotta move in. We gotta speak up.
Here are three principles to consider in understanding and living out the true meaning of this verse:
- Don’t be judgy but do make judgments There’s a difference between being judgy and making judgments. Judgy cares about being right – making a judgment cares about the person. Being judgy is critical and hypocritical. Making judgments is discerning and humble. Followers of Jesus must make moral judgments, with a full awareness of their own sinfulness. We are people of mercy and grace because we’ve been given such deep mercy and amazing grace. We need to correct sin in the church, but listen:
For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? 1 Cor 5:12
There’s sinful behavior all day long in the world. Television, movies, YouTube, on the street, in advertising, people we know…
Our call as believers isn’t to judge non-Christians calling out their sin – unless you’re a uniquely called prophet along the lines of John the Baptist – that’s not our job.
But, with our own brothers and sisters in the church – our community in Christ we do have a call – each of us do.
If it comes to this, it’s up to us to prayerfully address a Christian
Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.
If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’
Then…
2. Never judge with hypocrisy – Check your heart
Jesus commands his followers to make judgments about sin; however, we can’t see ourselves as better than others. We have to have that plank-ectomy first – get that plank out of our own eye.
I love David’s heart in this…as he’s singing the praises of God and caught up in how wonderful God is, how well God knows him and has provided for him, he suddenly gets angry – angry at all the wicked people around him – an even though it’s a righteous anger – I mean he’s not angry that someone cut him off in his chariot – he’s genuinely angry that people are defaming God – so it’s righteous, listen to how mad he gets in Psalm 139:
SLIDE
If only you would
slay the wicked, O God!
I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies. Psalm 139:21-22
I mean he really yells it out and then…then this beautiful, humble, shift in his tone…he knows he needs that logotomy.
Search me, O God,
There it is…humility
and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
Taking his eyes off the offenders and asking God to
See if there is any offensive way in me,
Why…
and lead me in the way everlasting.
That’s our heart. Never hypocritical. Never prideful. Always asking first God to check our hearts first.
That’s why we read that we should..
be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,
After getting confronted by Nathan about his adultery David wrote this and again…hear his heart…
Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Why? Because he wants other sinners like him to also be restored…
Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
so that sinners will turn back to you.
Don’t cast me out God…clean my heart and I will teach others
Shouldn’t that be our hearts too?
I mean right here in this church sitting next to you across from you and even right here behind this podium are people who need you – your heart your love your willingness to come before God and get your heart made new. Your willingness to move in and speak truth and hear truth in love.
Along with that plank-ectomy, we all need a heart transplant! We need our hearts new…why?
So we feel good…
sure, we’ll be much better when we are right with God with a clean heart
but also and always so we have nothing hindering us from reaching across the aisle.
And so #3 in our principles for applying this is
3. Don’t fear.
Perfect love, godly love, the love that Jesus gave us and modeled for us – that kind of love casts out fear.
In the church…we should be so full of love that there is no room for fear…fear of hearing from people pointing out sin
Or fear of confronting sins in one another. No fear.
Perfect love casts that out.
Instead, we are people of grace and room to grow and expectation that we’re all sinners saved by grace. Not one of us has this down.
We are transparent and not hypocritical. We cultivate openness and elevate grace. We cherish one another. This community in Christ isn’t for people who have their act together…it’s for people who have Jesus.
Then, instead of isolating ourselves when we are hurt or angry, instead of avoiding a person who has wronged us we would come with no judgment – no heart to condemn and sit in the place of God, but a heart to restore.
There’s a simple test to see if you’re operating in fear or love – are you fearful of encountering that person who you need to speak to? Are you fearful that someone may confront you about a sin in your life?
For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. 2 Tim 1:7
When you find yourself lacking power, love or a sound mind…you’re likely living in fear.
Let me tell you something that may shock you…we’re all human – except maybe Ruth Carter who is mostly angel with a dusting of human in there – but me, I’m human, from the roots of my freshly covered grays to the bottom of my heart – my heart that is “deceitful and wicked and beyond understanding” according to the Bible.
And while you and I may have grown up and grown older…we are all still to some degree that same foot stomping two year old as likely to demand our own way, to judge without mercy and to withhold righteous judgment out of fear.
And we are prone to read a command like don’t judge and use it to justify our resistance to hearing truth from our brothers and sister and also use it to keep from speaking God’s truth in love when all along if we held the greatest command closer to our heart and let its truth resonate within us and pour out of us we’d see a revolution in this place…and what is that command?
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength…and love – truly love your neighbor as yourself.”
Love is patient and kind and doesn’t envy. It’s not boastful, prideful, or rude. It doesn’t insist on its own way or get irritable or resentful. It is sad when wrongs are done and so happy when truth prevails. Love bears all things, believes and hopes and endures through all things and when everything else fails and fades and passes away love remains.
That is why we can come to one another and hear truth – be discerning, lift high the cause of Christ – and do it all – even when it’s hard – for the Love of God.
And so, when we come to a verse like, “Judge not, lest you be judged” let’s not use these words for our convenience. it is neither a command to never to judge or to avoid judging – it’s a command to judge without hypocrisy. Plank-free judging.
How then can we have a plank removed? We can no more remove a plank from our eye than we could perform our own Lasik eye surgery. Only someone with perfect vision can remove our plank – and we know that person.
Jesus. Jesus sees past our eyes and into our hearts.
What would happen to our relationships? Our church? if we surrendered to the plank remover? If each of us laid it down before the mercy of God and prayed like David, “Search me, Oh, God…Know my heart.”
I can tell you what would happen. Healing. Because not only does God’s perfect love search our hearts it casts out fear – fear of judging, being judged and
In a moment we’re going to worship in praise and prayer and come to the altar, to the great plank remover – Jesus Christ – and remember him at the communion table. When Paul addressed the church about communion he reminded them of what Jesus said, that the bread represented his own broken body and the wine represented the new covenant in his own blood and that it was to be a remembrance of Him.
And Paul also admonishes those who take communion to first examine – or judge himself – so serious was this issue that Paul said people were weak and sick and even died – why? For taking communion in an unworthy, unexamined manner.
As we come to the table today, examine your heart. Judge truly, as Paul said.
Maybe you’re sitting here today and you know the Holy Spirit is moving in you.
You have sin in your life that you know you need cleaned out. You have resisted and avoided making things right with someone in your life. You’re tired of fear and hesitation and you want the spirit that God gives us and it’s not a spirit of fear but of power and love and a clear thinking mind – a mind that can discern and act in bold love.
Today, right now is your time. The praise team is going to lead us to the altar – the room of grace before God.
And as we sing, you can come forward for prayer. Communion tables are in the back of the room. Take the bread and the cup and remember the body and blood of Jesus Christ broken and poured out for you.
True Meaning is the theme of our sermon series, but really it’s the theme of every sermon. La Mirada Church is a place where we teach and preach and live to share always the true meaning of life in Christ and the true meaning of His Words. If you want to be a part of this church you can come up and speak to one of us during this time as well.
Let’s pray.
Father thank you for your love for us. Thank you for your Word and how it slices open our hearts and teaches us what is true.
We pray in this moment that you would continue to work in our hearts. Keep us focused on your love. Help us judge rightly how you want us to live. Forgive us and cleanse us and accept our worship now as we come to the altar and praise you. In Jesus’ name, amen.
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