Welcome to our Deep Series Learning to Think and Live Deeply. Today we will discuss judging. Many of us are probably trying to get away from judging

Transcription

1 1 Welcome to our Deep Series Learning to Think and Live Deeply. Today we will discuss judging. Many of us are probably trying to get away from judging and that is why you come to church to escape the flood or growing spirit of judgment rising in our society and yet the topic has followed you here. Don t judge me too quick Recently a man tried an experiment: for a whole week he kept track of his judgments about other people. He felt he was a very non-judgmental person. Here's what he discovered: Judging [others] is fun! Judging others makes you feel good, and I'm not sure I've gone a single day without this sin. I even judged my daughter for being moody which especially bothers me when I'm being moody (but of course I have a good reason!).my dog received the hammer of condemnation for his bad breath this week. I watched the news and condemned "idiotic people" who do such bad things. The reality TV shows are full of people I judged as sinful, ignorant, stupid, arrogant, or childish. I got in my car and found a host of inept drivers who should have flunked their driving test and I threw in a little condemnation on our Department of Public Safety for good measure! At the store, I complained to myself about the lack of organization that makes it impossible to find what I'm looking for, all the while being tortured with a terrible taste in music playing in the background? I stand in suppose ably the shortest line, the '10 items or less which I judge is way too long. I then analyzed the shoppers and counted more than 10 items in three of the shoppers baskets And why can't that teenage checker focus and work so we can get out of here? And what IS she wearing? At the end of the week he concluded: I was great at judging the world around me by standards I would highly resent being held to! Judging makes us feel good because it puts us in a better light than others. Who was this guy? John Burke, Pastor of Gateway church in Austin Texas. 1

2 2 This was an honest confession of a pastor to his congregation. Maybe we can take a deeper look at the way judging is addressed in scripture. Judging is a word that seems to be very interchangeable in scripture. It is the greek word krino and it is scattered all throughout your bible. It requires an understanding of the context in order to understand it s tone and meaning. List examples: Matthew 7:1 Do not judge, or you too will be judged. Notice the boomerang effect. This is a good verse for self appointed fault finders and Monday morning quarterbacks. The best type of judgment is when you judge yourself first, not others. Luke 7:43 You have judged correctly, Jesus congratulated Simon who judged well after a little spiritual quiz on love and forgiveness. Romans 14:5 One man regards (judges) a certain day above the others, while someone else regards every day alike. Paul describes how people regard (judge) certain days differently and it s ok. Don t get overly wrapped up on judging people over secondary, non essential issues. Acts 27:1 When it was decided (judged) that we would sail for Italy, Paul decided (judged) they should set sail. Typical daily decisions or judgment on a route to take or a restaurant to go to. We have made a number of judgments this morning. 2 Corinthians 5:14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded (judged) this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; Paul concluded (judged) that Christ s love controls us. Acts 13:27 The people of Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognize Jesus, yet in condemning (judging) him they fulfilled the words of the prophets, The religious leaders condemned (judged) Jesus which led to his death. We see a variety of applications on the act of judging. There is the negative type of judging associated with condemning, the neutral type of judging associated with daily decisions and the positive type of judging associated with recognizing and aligning with God s will. 2

3 3 God wants us to judge well. We are to judge with excellence. Which means to decide well, to conclude well. John 7:24 Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly. John 7:24 Look beneath the surface so you can judge correctly. (NLT) This verse means a lot to me when I look at people, situations, myself, the world. The conclusions I draw can either be surface based or can be from a deeper place. The deeper we go the better we judge. There is judgment designed to hurt, which doesn t contribute to the problem and there is judgment designed to help, which has hope, and is motivated by love. Jesus said to make correct conclusions. When we make correct conclusions that include both what we see and what we don t see. What is on the surface and below the surface. Last week we learned that faith includes the realm of what we see but more importantly what we don t see. Where as sight only includes what we see. We are instructed to live by faith and not by sight. So correct judgment comes from faith based conclusions. This is one of the most important topics in my mind for followers of Jesus today. These judgments or conclusions then inform our responses to our world. Let s discuss good judgment! 1. Good judgment comes from getting to know Jesus. What is the context of this teaching? People were judging Jesus incorrectly. His family mocked him. His brothers judged Jesus in a negative and shallow light. They teased him essentially. Wow. Teasing the Son of God. Mocking Jesus. Where does that come from? Shallow judgment. Do you see culture and portions of society mocking or teasing the Christian faith? Where does that come from? From a shallow judgment. 3

4 4 This is why Jesus instructed them not to judge that way. They will miss the wonders of what God is doing. The religious leaders judged Jesus with jealousy and suspicion. They missed the wonder! This flawed judgment led to unspiritual attitudes, choices and behaviors. Negative attitudes towards God are a result of shallow judgment. Getting to know Jesus will be the best way to excel in all of your judgments and therefore in all of your responses. We don t want a superficial view of Jesus but a personal and in depth view, otherwise we can commit the same sin of his family and the Pharisees. To judge well in life first involves your conclusion about Jesus. Jesus is a Savior and his mission was to save. People who resisted him misunderstood him. They did not see Him as a Savior or their Savior or even a need to be saved. God is into the saving business. Saving people from sin, from eternal death and from the devil s power. When we make judgments about people, about situations do we include the main mission of heaven? Saving the world through Jesus. Or are we still judging from the surface and appearance. The brothers of Jesus changed when they judged Jesus correctly. Instead of resisting Him they joined Him. On the surface he was their brother, below the surface he was their Savior. 2. Good judgment comes from getting to know people. God wants us to consider what is beneath the surface in other people. Our faith based conclusions about others will lead to a positive Kingdom impact of some type. This isn t just about thinking well or correctly but living well, which usually means ministering to people. A correct judgment towards people will always lead to some form and desire to minister to someone. Bad, shallow or incorrect judgment throws people aside, casts people away, categorizes people or simply ignores or rejects people. 4

5 5 Shallow judgment is a key contributor to what is derogatory, which means to diminish someone. We cannot copy the impersonal, generalization and mean spirit of social media in regards to people, celebrities, politicians, church leaders, etc. We are not called to surface oriented rhetoric. Great judgment attaches the value God sees in every person. The judgment of God towards all people is found in a famous bible passage. For God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son. We can t have correct judgment without John 3:16. Jesus ability to bless his enemies comes from His personal judgment that even though people are nasty, immoral and evil God the Father loves each one and desires all to be saved. Judgments about people has to be both surface and subsurface. With people what you don t see is where the cause is and what you do see is the symptom. Jesus saw symptom and cause. He said a bad tree bears bad fruit and a good tree bears good fruit. So if you want to change the fruit you have to change the root. Which was his whole mission. Inside out change. Jesus wants to make changes under the surface that then will appear as fruit above the surface. You may think someone has a fruit problem but we they have is a root problem. Doug Don t work on what is on the wall, work on what is in his heart. It changed the root and changed the fruit. I believe when you love people like God does you are more insightful. You are open to a whole new world of information about people that is critical. Having empathy is to honor each person. Empathy is not agreement but it is understanding. One night In 2008, Paul Herbert, a municipal court judge from Ohio, one of his daughters asked him, "Daddy, what's your purpose in life?" 5

6 6 Herbert gave a vague answer about being "a light on the bench," but that night, he prayed candidly to God: Can you show me some way that I could be a judge for you in my work?" After seeing a typical procession of domestic violence victims, the sheriff brought a prostitute into Herbert's courtroom. Herbert realized that she looked exactly like one of the domestic violence victims he'd been seeing. It shook up his categories. Herbert began researching the criminology of prostitution and what he learned stunned him. Around 87 percent of prostitutes are sexually abused, typically starting at around age 8. They often start using drugs to deal with that trauma around age 12. The girls run away from home or foster care and are dragged by predatory pimps into the commercial sex trade. Herbert decided to apply his faith to his work. He launched a new program called CATCH Court, which stands for "Changing Attitudes to Change Habits." Prior to this program, prostitutes simply cycled in and out of jail. But through Herbert's two-year program, women convicted of prostitution receive drug treatment and counseling. They appear before Judge Herbert weekly in the courtroom to report on the progress. Herbert describes some of the women who have completed the program: "One [woman] was sold when she was a little girl by her mother to older men for crack cocaine. Today she is in Phi Theta Kappa at Columbus State Community College." Another was kidnapped by a motorcycle gang and abused, then transported to other gangs. Now, she is two years sober from heroin. But Herbert also emphasizes the spiritual transformation that has occurred in his life. He said: The Holy Spirit continues to reveal how much I've been forgiven, and how similar I am to the individuals that come before me. That's really hard to say! My job is to judge. But the farther I go along in my faith the more I realize that I'm just like most of them and that makes me more understanding, more kind, more merciful. 3. Good judgment comes from getting to know yourself. 6

7 7 People are known to be biased about themselves. Like the Pharisees that were blind but thought that they saw. We can have a tendency to exaggerate our strengths and underestimate our weaknesses. We can carry around blindspots that do just that, make us blind. A study by a couple of researchers at the University of Toronto and at James Madison University in Virginia proved something that we may already know. They concluded that we cut ourselves more slack than we give to others. The study claims that we all have "bias blind spots" because there's a mismatch between how we evaluate others and how we evaluate ourselves. One of the ways to be excellent in judgment is to be self aware. What bothers me in others is usually something I am struggling with myself. Jesus says before you go after someone s sliver you should work on your own log. You see, a splinter comes from a log, they are both wood. When I see in my son a sliver of impulsive behavior or a sliver of procrastination or s sliver of selfishness and then I bring the big old log of judgment. Why? I know that type of wood in my own life. I have had that log of impulsiveness, procrastination and selfishness in my own eye and in my life and I recognize that type of timber. When someone is overly critical of people it can be they really are judging themselves and revealing their own struggle. Someone who can quickly and easily identify splinters in someone else is because they know that type of timber. However when you see God s forgiveness in your own weaknesses, your own log it changes the way you think about the weaknesses of others. Remember forgiven people forgive people. Do you feel forgiven or judged in your weaknesses? Determines how you respond to the weaknesses of others. 7