 How you guys doing? Good, good, good. I was telling Pastor Caleb yesterday, I thought the intro was longer and I almost missed it and I had to run up here and add a side cramp for like the first 10 minutes of the message. But anyway, I'm on time today. Good to see you, Portage. Good to see you. You look amazing and welcome to Radiant Church. My name's John. I'm this campus pastor here in Richland and I'm thrilled to be here. It's summer. Summer is back in Michigan. Are we happy or what? Come on now. Hello humidity. So here, this is a confession. I hadn't turned my air on once at my house this summer because I'm Dutch, but also because we have like some trees and stuff. So it wasn't terrible, but I knew it was gonna get to 90 degrees on Saturday. So Saturday morning, real early, I was like, okay, we'll get a jumpstart on this. Shut all the windows and I turn on the air conditioning for the first time and it's literally heat. Like it's kicking out heat. Not like, hey, I think it's just warming up and it'll get cold. Like molten lava heat is coming out of the every vent like massively. And so I'm like, wait, turn it off, open the windows. And my children reacted calmly, which was nice. My teenage girls weren't very dramatic about it. Kidding. Dad, we're dying. My face is melting off. And I was like, you know what? Whatever, girls. I grew up in a home with no air conditioning ever. And my room was upstairs and I had one window the size of a man's hand, basically. And you just dealt with it. You put a fan on your face and you went to sleep and you soaked it up with towels the next morning. That's how it worked. But anyway, we got it fixed. Thank God. Tim Thomas love you. I'm over and now it's comfortable in my home in case you care or want to come over. All right, hey, if you brought your bibles, turn to Luke chapter five. Luke chapter five, we're in a series called Heroes. And we're looking at people of the faith in the New Testament specifically that God used to fulfill the plans and purposes that he had in that time. And what I want to remind us is heroes in the Bible are not like superheroes with like, you know, superpowers like Superman or Spider-Man or something like that. They're normal everyday people that God used in powerful ways. And that should encourage us 2,000 years later because that's exactly how God works today. He's not looking for the Navy Seal elite Christians. He's saying, look, you may have issues. You may have some insecurities. A lot of the heroes we're gonna look at were actually known more for what they didn't do than what they did or ways that they failed as opposed to ways they were heroic. So I want that to be a encouragement to you, especially today, because again, I spoke on Peter a few weeks ago and I kind of had to go the failure route. And today we're gonna talk about failure again. So welcome to Radiant Church. Luke chapter five, I wanna pray though before we begin. Father, I do ask that in these next few moments that we have that Lord, you would speak to our hearts, God. You said that your word is alive and it's powerful. That God, it's sharper than a two-edged sword. It's a discerner of the thoughts and intents of our heart, God. So I pray that you would be the one that reveals what we need to hear in our hearts, God. Where there needs to be encouragement, bring that. Where there needs to be correction, bring that, God. Where there needs to be an admonishment, God, do that in our hearts, but have your way. Holy Spirit, minister to us in this place by your grace. We pray in Jesus' name and everyone said. All right. Luke chapter five, I'm gonna read a few verses and provide a little backdrop. Verse eight, I'm gonna start. It says, when Simon Peter saw this, he fell down at Jesus' knees saying, depart from me for I'm a sinful man. For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish which they had taken. And so also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon or Peter, do not be afraid, from now on you will catch men. So when they had brought their boats to land, they forsook all and they followed him. If this is familiar, if you were here a few weeks ago when I spoke on Peter, I read this exact same passage because Peter, James, and John who are mentioned in here were all business partners. And so today's heroes are brothers. Their names are James and John. They're the sons of Zebedee. And they were also called to be Jesus' disciples at the same time as Peter. So it went like this. Jesus was preaching to the multitudes. He asked if he could use their boat. They were done fishing. They hadn't caught anything. They're cleaning their nets. And Jesus goes out a little bit. It's like a little amplifier and he speaks to the crowds. And then when he's done, he says to Peter, now I want you to go out into the deep and launch out your nets for a catch. And Peter's like we poiled all night but okay at your word. And then they have this miraculous catch of fish. It's actually ripping the nets. They need partners to help them. It's sinking their boats. There's so many fish. And Peter's response is to fall down and to say, depart from me. He recognized that Jesus was God. And Jesus said, it's okay. I'm changing the direction in the course of your life. From now on, you're gonna be a fisher of men. And at that point, Peter and James and John who were his business partners left everything. Left their nets, left their fishing industry, left Zebedee, their dad and followed Jesus. And so the irony, I think of James and John in many ways is that this was probably the most heroic thing that they did. Like they left their nets. There was this radical obedience but almost every other thing that they did with Jesus, they were corrected for or rebuked for. We're gonna look at that a little closer today. But they were brothers, little help maybe just with who they were because again, there's a lot of James in the Bible. There's a lot of John's in the Bible because it's an awesome name, obviously. So it can be a little confusing. Like who are all the James and who are all the John's? I feel like we don't have that problem as much today though because we don't use common names anymore. And that's fine. I'll stay John. People today sometimes name their babies crazy names. Am I right? Is that okay to say? Yeah, like sometimes you're getting introduced and you're saying, oh, your baby's so beautiful. What's his name? And they can't even just say the name. They have to give you like the backstory as to why they came up with this name. Like, oh yeah, we really love music. So his name's treble clef or something like that. And you're just like, oh, that's beautiful. This must be bass clef, his younger brother. No. But James and John were popular names. So John is the same John who wrote Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and then he wrote for second and third John and Revelation. So that's the John. But James, his brother is not the author of the book of James in the New Testament. That's actually Jesus's half brother, Mary and Joseph's son. And he didn't believe that Jesus was the Messiah when Jesus was on the earth. So there's not much mention of him until after the resurrection, Jesus was revealed to him and then he becomes an incredible pastor and founder of the early church. So that's that James. Then there's another James, one of the disciples who's not this James either. His name is James of Elphia. So they didn't have last names. They used their dad's name. So Simon Peter was son of John. James and John are the sons of Zebedee. And then this other James is the son of Alpheus. And so to not get them confused, they called him Lesser. Which is brutal, right? Like, hey, you get to be a disciple but you're not nearly as important as this James. So he's James and you're Lesser. But hey, I guess he got in the gang. He's one of the 12. So this James is the brother of John. And so they're the sons of Zebedee and they had a nickname from Jesus. He called them the sons of thunder. You may read that in your Bibles. And the reason for that is because much like Peter, James and John, especially early on in their ministry with Jesus, they were very fiery. They were zealous, they had ambition and they were rough around the edges. I mean, you have to remember, these are fishermen. They're not educated, they didn't grow up going to seminary or anything like that. Jesus called them from their job as fishermen and now he's using them literally to impact the entire world. He's spending his time with them and what we're gonna see is in the beginning, James and John were very rough around the edges and more often than not, Jesus had to correct them, even rebuke them. So I'll give you a couple examples in Mark chapter nine also in Luke chapter nine. John goes and forbids someone from casting a demon out of another person in the name of Jesus. So he basically tells Jesus, yeah, we saw someone and he was trying to minister in your name and cast a demon out, but we told him, you can't do that because you're not one of us. And Jesus had to correct him and he had to say, no, no, no, if they're not against us, they're for us and no one's gonna cast a demon out in my name and then speak evil of me. So that's one instance. Then in the very next chapter, Mark 10, the disciples are fighting, arguing about who's gonna be the greatest and James and John, like sidebar Jesus, they pull him away a little bit and they say, we have a favor, we need to ask you. And Jesus is Jesus, so he might already know what they're gonna ask, he says, what is it? Well, we want, when you establish your kingdom, Jesus, when you really come back in power, and that's another message they might not have realized what Jesus was gonna do, we wanna be one on your right hand and one on your left hand. Basically like we want positions of authority. We want a title. We want to make sure people know we're with the king. And Matthew's version of it actually says that they sent their mother in to ask Jesus. It wasn't even them, which is so epic. You imagine sending your mom into your boss's office like, go get me a raise. My boys have been working really hard, so his mother asks and Jesus says, well, can you be baptized with the baptism? I'm gonna, and he's asking these questions, oh, for sure, for sure, because they don't really understand what they're asking. And then the other disciples hear about it and they're angry, especially Peter, because Peter, James, and John used to do everything together. They were a tight knit bunch, but this time they're like, no, we'll leave Peter out and we're gonna just ask Jesus to do this for us. And then in Mark 10, there's a beautiful teaching that Jesus does about what authority in the kingdom of God looks like. So as they're all arguing about who's gonna be the greatest, Jesus pulls them aside and he says, you've seen it in the Gentiles, in those who aren't followers of mine, that those in authority, they lord it over people, but it's not to be that way with us. For whoever wants to be great among you must become the servant, and whoever wants to be first has to be last. And Jesus flips the whole dichotomy of what authority looks like, of what ministry looks like, of what following Jesus looks like, and then he makes this statement, for even the Son of man, me, I didn't come to be served, but to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many. So Jesus, again, is correcting Peter, James, and John, which he had to do a lot, and they were a part of his absolute inner circle. So there's 12 disciples, but those three, those three were the most prominent and they were the closest. When Jesus was on the Mount of Transfiguration and his glory was revealed and they saw Elijah and Moses on the mountain, that was Peter, James, and John. And when Jesus healed Jarius' daughter, raised her from the dead, he went to their house, the people were already wailing, they were having a funeral. He said, she's only sleeping. They were like, what are you talking about? And he sent everybody out, except for Peter, James, and John, and then he raised her from the dead and then in the Garden of Gethsemane, before he went to the cross, he asked Peter, James, and John to stay and to pray. So this was the inner circle of Jesus' disciples and they still didn't always know how to react, didn't always follow Jesus the way that we might think they would if they were that close to him. And again, that should be an encouragement to us. We're all on a journey to know Jesus more. We're all on a journey to have the heart of Jesus and they missed it in a few of these instances. And one in particular that we're gonna look at, I want you to turn to Luke chapter nine, flip a few pages over, we're gonna look at today. This is sort of the granddaddy of mistakes that James and John make. So let me just give you a quick backstory. Jesus, the Bible says, is resolute in going to Jerusalem. He understands his time is near. He's going to have to endure the cross. He's gonna be crucified at the hands of the religious leaders and so he sets his face towards Jerusalem and the quickest way to get there is to go through Samaria. But Samaritans and Jews had centuries of conflict and really of hatred towards each other. That's why when Jesus ministered to the woman at the well in John chapter four, she was a Samaritan, they were in Samaria and she was like, shocked, why are you talking to me? Jews don't talk to Samaritans. They didn't like each other without getting too historical. The reason is centuries earlier, King Assyria. The king of Assyria had captured Ephraim, which was one of the northern tribes of Judah at the time and he had sent people to go occupy it, but some of the Jews had remained. Later they regained that area, but they intermarried with the people that the Assyrians had sent there. So they started worshiping idols. They didn't follow the Jewish Torah the same way. So actual Jews looked at Samaritans they called them half-breeds. They called them dogs. They had absolute disdain for them. They could not stand them and Samaritans didn't like Jews either. They thought they were stuck up and mean and so there was just all this animosity to the point where if someone was going to travel to Jerusalem, they would take a couple days journey to go around just to avoid going through Samaria, but Jesus is resolute. The Bible says and he's gonna go through. So verse 51 of Luke nine, let's read that together. It says, now it came to pass when the time had come for him Jesus to be received up, that he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem and he sent messengers before his face and as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans to prepare for him. So Jesus sends messengers ahead to prepare because he's not gonna be able to get through in one day's journey. So he says, hey, I want you to find lodging for me, find sent people ahead, find us a place to eat somewhere where we can stay for the night. But they, the Samaritans, did not receive him because his face was set for the journey to Jerusalem. So basically the Samaritans were like, oh, he's going to Jerusalem? Oh, I'm not helping him. That means he's a Jew and we don't like the Jews, so he can't stay here and he can't eat here and he's not welcome here. That was the response that Jesus got when he sent messengers. And verse 54 says, and when his disciples, James and John, the sons of thunder, saw this, they said, Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them? Just like Elijah did. That's amazing. James and John here, oh, they're not gonna treat Jesus right? Oh, they're not gonna acknowledge who he is, his Lordship, oh, okay, all right. And they weren't like, hey, maybe we'll, I don't know, keep either house or something, you know. They went straight Old Testament, straight prophet judgment. Do you want us to call fire down on them, Jesus, and consume them and burn them up? And they didn't just say that, they actually asked Jesus as if he was gonna be like, yeah, honestly, it's probably, it's probably time. Can you imagine? They'd never seen Jesus do anything like that. Like he's gonna suddenly just turn all Godfather and be like, handle it, you know, kind of a thing. They said, do you want us to do that? And imagine Jesus. What is it, you mean you love me so much, guys, that you'd be willing to burn an entire Samaritan village to the ground? Maybe he's like tearing up, yes, flame away, I'll just be back here trying to keep it together. So sweet, no, look what he says. In verse 54, he says, verse 55, but he turned Jesus and he rebuked them. And he said, you don't know what spirit you're of. For the Son of man did not come to destroy men's lives, but save them, and so they went to another village. Here's the deal, James and John, they're zealous. They just saw Jesus in his full glory on the Mount of Transfiguration, literally just before this. And so there's part of them that's like, wow, he is the Messiah, wow, that was Elijah, Moses. This is getting real, this is happening. And there was something in them that just rose up when these Samaritans who they didn't like to begin with rebuked Jesus, denied Jesus, didn't accommodate Jesus, and they didn't manifest it in a good way, but there is something to the fact that they were willing to defend the name and who Jesus was to people that they were in conflict with. And so what I wanna talk about in the time that we have today is what does that mean for us? What can we learn from James and John and Jesus obviously about how do we respond to people that are against us as Christians? People that are not following Jesus, people that are not seeing through the lens of Christianity that we see through. What is our call, what is our purpose? Because obviously James and John calling down fire, Jesus rebuked, but the question then becomes how do we stand for truth? How do we defend Christianity? How do we enable people to know that we're not willing to lay down our beliefs? We're not willing to change and shift with culture, that there is a standard we believe in and his name is Jesus. Are we able to judge other people? Are we able to defend the name of Jesus? And if we are, what does that need to look like? So that's what we're gonna talk about today. I'm gonna give us a couple of things. So again, when I talked about Peter, I talked about failing and today I'm talking about judging. So welcome to Radiant Church, where we want you to feel good. So just turn to your neighbor right now, we'll break the ice and look at your neighbor and say, you're judging me. Okay, perfect, good. Portage, nice job. All right, what does that look for us today? Here's the first thing I want you to know, recognize that there is truth. That's what we need to do in 2019 is we have to recognize there is truth and it can be defended. There are things that we need to believe about who we are and who Jesus is and the truth is not wavering, it's not changing with the times, it's not changing with culture, the truth is in Jesus. And your Bible's in Ephesians chapter four. There's a scripture I absolutely love. Paul's talking about people who are alienated from God because of the darkness of their minds, people who are separated from God because they won't acknowledge who he is. And then in verse 20, he says, but you have not so learned Christ. He's talking to the church. If indeed you have heard him and have been taught by him, Jesus, as the truth is in Jesus. The truth is in Jesus Christ. That's what we believe as followers of Jesus. Truth is found, not in a book, not in a law, it's found in the person of Jesus. And he said that to Pilate in John chapter 18 when he was about to be crucified. Pilate said, are you a king? And he said, if my kingdom were of this world, Jesus said that my followers would fight. They'd take up arms and they wouldn't let me be handed over to the Jews, but my kingdom is not of this world. And then Pilate says, so you are a king. And Jesus says, yes, I'm a king. And it's for this cause that I was born and it's for this cause that I came into the world to bear witness to the truth. And all who hear my voice know the truth. That's what he said. He said, yep, I am a king. And it's not a kingdom of this world, but I was born, I was created to bear witness to the truth. And then Pilate looks at Jesus and it's one of the most remarkable scriptures. He says, what is truth? What is truth? And I feel like the culture of 2019 is a pilot culture, our American culture looks at truth and says, well, what is truth? Jesus might say he's the way, the truth and the life, but what is it really? And that's not my truth. And we have a culture that is shifting and changing the standard. And what I'm saying as Christians, that is not our call. We understand the truth is in Jesus and it can't be separated from his character or his word or who he says that he is. So when we see things that are contrary to Jesus, we are able to recognize that that's not truth and we can judge those things. So we as Christians say murder is wrong, abortion, it's wrong, racism, it's wrong, adultery is wrong. And it's okay to do that, but you're going to have some people who say, you can't say that because that's your truth and you're judging me. How many of you've ever heard someone quote Matthew seven where it says judge not or you'll be judged? Has anybody ever heard someone say that? Yeah, it's a scripture that people know, even if they don't know the Bible, even if they don't know another verse, John 3.16 or Jesus wept, they will know, judge not. And they'll get all King James on it sometimes with some attitude. Oh really, that's what you, well listen, judges not, let ye be judged. Help me Lord, that's what the Bible says, right? And Jesus did say that, but they use that to say, oh, you can't discern, you can't decide that something's wrong, no, you're judging me when you do that. And that's not what Jesus was saying. Jesus was saying, was not saying we can't judge. Look at what the Bible says in John 7, verse 24. This is Jesus's words. He said, stop judging by mere appearances but instead judge correctly. So you can't extrapolate one verse, judge not, let ye be judged and set it down as the end all of verses. No, and another verse he says, you can judge but don't do it by appearance, do it correctly. And so what Jesus is saying church in Matthew 7 isn't that we can never judge. He's saying that when we judge we have to be very careful how we do it. We have to be very sober about how we do it. Because our tendency as humans is to look for the speck in someone else's eye and not see the plank in our own eye. That's what Jesus was warning against when he said not to judge. But in the same chapter, three verses later he says, watch out for false teachers, watch out, don't throw your pearl before a swine. How are you supposed to know if someone's a false teacher if you can't judge what they're saying? If you can't judge it by the truth that's in Jesus. So as the church of Jesus Christ we're not called to be conformed to the world, we're called to be transformed by renewing our minds to the truth that's in Jesus. And when we judge, we can look at things and say that's outside of God. That's not the truth that's in Jesus. But we don't wanna do it with mere appearances. We don't wanna judge harshly. We don't wanna judge hypocritically. That's what Jesus was teaching in Matthew 7. Don't judge by just appearances. And it's so easy to do, so easy to do. Some people have the spiritual gift of judging by appearances. Not this room, portage. I'm kidding, getting portage, we love you. But some people do like, oh, did you see the car that they have? Oh, you see the house that they, they need a car like that? Don't judge people by their appearance. You don't know what that person gives. You don't know what that person does for other people. Oh, did you see her, what she was wearing? Oh, did you see, and we judge people by their appearance? And that's what Jesus is saying, we don't do. We don't judge harshly. We don't judge, you know, angrily. And we don't judge out of a place of, you know, contempt or like James and John did, where we wanna see, you know, some judgment upon people. We want our judging to be restorative, not punitive as Christians. We don't wanna have that, you know, spirit that James and John did. And if we're honest, we see that a lot. We see that in, and I see that sometimes in the church. I'll share a few examples. I've been here a long time, but some people come in and you can see that they're like angry about, so they want to be critical. And so they'll come in and be like, oh, I see you got a cafe. Look at that espresso machine. How many orphans could that have fed, you know, or something like that? And then people about the worship. Ah, the worship, it's too loud. It's too showy. It's too smoky in here. What is this? Gorillas in the mist? What is happening? And people will miss the revelation God wants to have for them because the one of the worship leaders has a rip in his jeans. And God just wants you to know he's holy. That's why he does that. You know that? I'm just kidding. I'm kidding. But they are, sorry. People are like, that's so bad. They're like, ah, ah, and they come in here. And they judge by appearance. I was at the gym once, not recently. Unfortunately, but this, I would wear my radiant shirt and this lady came up to me. I don't think she knew that I worked there. I don't know if it would have mattered, but it's like, you go to that radiant shirts and I knew it wasn't gonna be like, good. I was like, no, someone gave me this. I don't even know, I'm just kidding. I go, yeah. And it was so amazing. She goes, I was gonna go to that church, but someone told me the pastor needs bodyguards. Oh, sorry, that was supposed to be funnier. It struck me as funny. And so I said to her, I said, well, they're not really like bodyguards. We have a security team. We have a safety team. It's not like, you know, they follow him to QToba or something like that afterwards, but just the way that she said it, judging by appearances. Oh, your pastor, your pastor needs bodyguards. Like he's that big of a deal and so don't do that. That's what Jesus is saying. But when you judge, the second thing is this, have the right spirit. You can judge things, but you wanna have the right spirit. Jesus said to James and John, you don't know what spirit you're of. You think I came to destroy the world. No, I came to save it. I came to redeem it. I came to buy it back to myself. I'm not here to judge. I'm not here to say I wanna destroy. I'm here to say I want to save and redeem. And we as Christians have to have the right spirit about judging, about everything really. I mean, again, don't come into your day critical. Don't, here's what I wanna say. If you believe something in your heart, you will look for evidence to support that verdict throughout your day. So if you believe the worst about people, if you believe church only cares about money and whatever it is, you're gonna look, you're gonna have an eye that looks to support their evidence for that verdict. But if you wake up and you say, you know what, Lord? Today, I'm looking for opportunities to be a blessing. I'm looking for opportunities to walk in love. I don't want to be critical. I want to love people. I say surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. And you look for evidence to support that. God's working together all things for good in my life. And you can literally change your spirit from being critical and being bitter and being offensive to saying, God, I wanna look more like Jesus in my life. Help me to have the right spirit. And when it came, especially to James and John, and here's what I wanna say to us as the church, we have to stop judging non-Christians as though they were Christians. We have to stop doing that. Too often, we're looking at people who aren't Christians, don't claim to be Christians, don't know Jesus, and we're judging them. Can you believe they're doing that? Can you believe they said that? Yes, I can believe that because they're not Christians. Arise and shine, the Bible says, because darkness is in the land. And there's gross darkness amongst the people. There are going to be dark times and dark people, but our job is not to judge them. Our job is to love them into the kingdom of God. That's what we do. We can't be judgmental against people who aren't even claiming to be Christians. Look what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 5. He was talking about actually incest in the church and judging that. And look, there's another sermon for another day about people who are Christians that are outside of what God says. But Paul says, what business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? We judge those inside. Then he says, God will judge those on the outside. So we can't look at Muslims and we can't look at atheists and we can't judge them and say, can you believe these people? Can you believe they would do that or they're not doing this? Of course, they're not. They're not Christians or people within our community who are living a certain way and not following God and not honoring and using bad language and all of these things. We don't want to be a church that pushes them out because they don't look like us. We have, this is family and that's great, but I can't put my family rules, what I say should happen to my household, onto somebody else that isn't part of my family. And we do that too often as Christians. I grew up in a church where if you didn't look like everybody else, we would let you know, basically. Like kind of like, why are you here? What are you doing here? Kind of a thing. And we don't want that for our church. We want people who are outside of a relationship with God who may be struggling about what they believe, who may be steeped in addiction or something going on in life. You are welcome at this church. We want you here. I said last service, I was outside and I saw like some cigarette butts that had been put out right before someone came into church and maybe one other that was not so cigarette-y looking. And my heart wasn't like, oh my word, someone had wacky tobacco where they came in here. My heart is, praise God, we have some people that come in here that aren't assuming they have to be perfect to come into the house of the Lord and we don't want to judge them and we don't want to push them out. No, you have the right spirit. Ephesians six says we don't wrestle against people. Our war is not against people. There's principalities and powers and things in the heavenly spiritual realm. That's where we battle, but people were called to love. We're not even called to change people. Like you can come to church but first you gotta get rid of that clothes and maybe shave and put some deal. No, we don't change people. We love people. And then we introduce them to the God who can change them. And we let the Holy Spirit do his work just like that God changed me and changed you. He loves that person and all he's asking us to do as his children is love them that are outside and say you're welcome. There's grace for you. You can be here. Jesus said to Peter, you're gonna be a fisher of men but too often we wanna clean the fish before we let him in the boat. We want like nice salmon filets with no bones, no scales, tempura battered, ready to fry. That's not how fish come. They're jumping all over and they have barbs sticking out and scales everywhere and that's okay. You get them in the boat and then you clean them. There's grace and then there's truth. But man, we can't treat people that aren't Christians like they should be adhering to what Christians do. Last thing is this, be humble. So we recognize there's truth. We can uphold the truth. We can judge but we wanna be real careful about how we judge. We wanna have the right spirit when we judge and there's absolutely no judgment that's worse than self-righteous judgment. Then when we pretend like we come to church and we don't have any issues and we have it all together and we can point at other people and say you can't do that. Stop doing that. How come you're not? And whatever it is and I'm telling you that's the thing that's turning the world away from wanting to come to church is because we're hypocritical. We act like we don't have any issues. We do have issues. Everyone in this room has issues. And if you don't think you have issues, you're lying and I'm judging you right now basically. I'm just kidding. Well we do. We do. We're not an issue-free area but we don't self-righteously say you have to look more like me before you can be part of the family of God. No, you don't even have to believe to belong. You can be here. That's the grace of Jesus Christ. And then his truth changes us. But self-righteousness, man, pride is the thing that God says he opposes more than anything else. He opposes the proud. Like if you're confident in yourself, your confidence is in the wrong thing. If you think, yes, I've got it all together. Yup, I should be the one communicating who's right and who's wrong. You're not humbling yourself. It's the grace of God that gives us any ability to be righteous. It's the cross of Christ that redeems us. Otherwise we are broken, we are lost, we are prone to be selfish in and of ourselves. We have to recognize it's only the grace of God. So when people fall, when people fail, we have to restore them with a spirit of love and a spirit of gentleness. I'm telling you when I read about pastors who fall morally or have some sort of an embezzlement thing or something like that, my heart isn't, I try hard to not let my heart be like, I can't believe that. I would never do that. People trusted them, telling you about by the grace of God, that could be any of us. And when you humble yourself, you say, God, I pray for them, I pray for their family, I pray for that church, God restore them. Sometimes church, even pastors are the worst when it comes to judging. Oh, that church, they do this and they do that. And no, we want to love people. We want to have the right spirit, believe the best about people and be humble. Luke chapter 18, there's a story of a tax collector and a Pharisee. And the Pharisee begins his prayer like this. Oh God, I thank you that I'm not like other people, adulterers, extortionists, or even like this tax collector. No, no, no, I fast twice a week. I tithe on everything, starts giving his resume. And it sounds ridiculous, but many times as Christians, that's where we put ourselves. Oh God, I think I'm not like that guy. And I might not have it all together, but at least I'm not as bad as them. And our self-righteousness tends to excuse ourselves while we accuse other people. Well, they have real issues. I just flew off the handle once, but I mean, God knows my heart, but they have serious anger issues. And we begin to accuse others while we excuse ourselves and we judge. And we think that somehow we have an opportunity or the ability or the right to judge other people. And God says no, but by the grace of God. You know what Jesus says we are? Jesus calls us sheep. Sheep are stupid animals, do you know that? It's not a compliment. The most gifted, most talented, most anointed person is a stupid sheep, according to Jesus. So we don't have confidence in ourselves. You might have some pastors, people, self-help books, trust in yourself, you need to believe in yourself. The worst thing you can do is believe in yourself because you're a sheep and I'm a sheep and we're prone to wander, we're prone to go astray. That's what sheep do. That's why Jesus called us that because in and of ourselves we have no ability to be righteous. Jesus said that our righteousness is like filthy rags. Jesus, look what I did, I was so good for you to date. No, it's disgusting to me, apart from the cross. You're sheep, sheep have no defense mechanisms. Sheep can't run fast, sheep aren't strong. Sheep have no armor, they have wool. The only thing they can do when they're attacked is be like, would you like a sweater? Here, I made this for you. They don't do anything. They're the dumbest, they will die of dehydration 20 yards from water because they can't find it. And you're like, dude it's right there and they're like meh, and then they fall all over dead. That's what sheep do and that's what Jesus said about us in our own strength. And so when we're judging other people, we're condemning ourselves. Have the right spirit for people that have messed up, for people who aren't Christians, for people who don't see the way you do. We don't wanna be those who call down fire, we wanna be those who ask God to move in the nations, move in the lost. People aren't what we're fighting against, or who we're fighting for in the kingdom. That's the right spirit. God, break my heart for what breaks yours. Help me see like you see. Help me stop being critical. Maybe it's a political thing, maybe it's something in your family, somebody who wronged you. The grace of God says you can be set free from a judgmental spirit, but you have to humble yourself. That's what God is asking us. To do when we see other people. I want you to stand on your feet if you would. I wanna just pray with you. And I want you right now just to close your eyes in just these few moments. I really prayed that God would speak to your heart as an individual. I tell people I'm always preaching to myself first when I'm up here. I'm far from perfect in any of these arenas. But I want you to ask the Holy Spirit, where are the areas of my life where I've become critical? Where I've become judgmental? It's so easy in our social media world to see somebody put something on Facebook. Oh, they support that candidate? Oh, they're pro this, they're anti that. Oh, they're Democrat, they're Republican. It could be a political thing. It could be a offense against someone in your family. It could be a people group or a race that you've held something in your heart. Only the Lord knows. But he wants to set us free. He wants to recalibrate our hearts. Jesus said in Acts 1.8, He said, you're gonna be my witnesses when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And if we're not careful, instead of witnesses, we become judges. And instead of shining into the darkness, we're just yelling at the darkness. Why are you so dark? Instead of shining our light and letting people be drawn to the goodness and grace of God. That's all he asks of us. Love people, stay true to my word. You don't have to bend, you don't have to feel bad about being a Christian. You may face persecution, but know this, you don't have to judge people. Let God do that. You pray, you believe the best. You seek God's favor for every single person you come across. And it will literally change, not just your life, but it can change the world. So much division in our world, so much hatred politically, socially, economically. I believe God wants to use us to be a healing agent in the lives of people. I want you to just put your hands like this and posture of receiving. And hopefully the Lord has revealed something to your heart and God, I just pray for radiant church right now, God. Lord, you know all of our hearts, God. Nothing's hidden from you, but the beauty is you're not angry, you're not mad, you're not pointing out our sins, God. You're lovingly bringing your Holy Spirit into our lives. You're revealing your heart to us and for us, God. You're a gentle savior. You're a loving God, you're a merciful God. Nothing we can do can separate us from your love, God. That's in Christ Jesus. So I thank you for that today and I ask you to reveal to each one of our hearts where we've become bitter, where we've become judgmental, where we've been motivated by anger instead of love. God, just reveal that to us and we give that to you. We want to look more like Jesus. We want to be witnesses and not judges, God. Witnesses of your love and your goodness to the world around us, Father, in our families and our workplaces, God, at our church. We want our spirit to be like your spirit that's moved with compassion for the lost, God. That sees the least of those and reaches out to them and loves them, God. And Father, we pray for Radiant Church, God, we're stepping into a new season. God, we're entering downtown with a prayer center. The epicenter of downtown is gonna have a radiant footprint, God, and we humbly ask you to give us wisdom on how we can minister to the people there, God, to the homeless and hurting in downtown. We know there's gonna be opposition. There's gonna be persecution, God. People are gonna judge us by appearances. People are gonna judge our motives. And God, we ask, Father, let Radiant Church have an outpouring of the grace of God to reach our city with the love of Jesus. God, we don't wanna judge people. We don't wanna harshly treat people. We want the love of God to be manifested in downtown through our prayer center, God. We are dedicating that space to pray for revival, to pray for salvation, to pray for healings and restoration in hurting people in the name of Jesus. And we ask you for your favor. We ask you for grace. We ask you for the ability to be radiant to the world around us, God. And we say, like the psalmist said in Psalm 140, many will see and be amazed and put their trust in the Lord, God. That's our prayer and we thank you for it in Jesus' name. That's what everyone said. Amen, come on, let's get Lordy. Hand clap today.