Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Twisted, Part 2: Do Not Judge

Episode Date: February 21, 2016

The Bible is full of wisdom. People love to quote their favorite verses to encourage and inspire each other—but sometimes, those verses get taken out of context. What happens when the most important message of all gets Twisted? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Thanks for joining us here at Life Church, where we are one church meeting in multiple locations with a mission and a passion of leading people to become fully devoted followers of Christ. If you'd like to learn more about us, you can always check us out online by visiting life.church. Coming up today, we'll join our senior pastor Craig Rochelle as he continues to guide us through some of the most misused verses of the Bible and helps us to understand their true meaning and part two of his message, Twisted. Well, I'm really excited to dive in this week to part two of a four-part message series called Twisted. And what we're doing is we're looking at some of the most misused verses in the Bible. For example, let me tell you briefly about next week. We're going to look at what may be one of the most popular verses in the Bible. If you've ever had a verse on your refrigerator with a magnet or had a verse on a coffee mug, chances are it was Jeremiah 29-11.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to buy. bless you and prosper you, not to harm you to give you a hope and a future. How many like that verse? You like that verse? Excellent. Next week, I'm going to show you that verse doesn't mean exactly what you think it means. And before you throw the coffee mug away, let me tell you, after we're through looking at it in context, you will love it even more than you did before. Today, we're going to look at what is probably the number one most quoted Bible verse by non-Christians and one of the more popularly quoted verses by Christians is from Matthew chapter 7 it's verses 1 and 2 these are the words of Jesus and help me out what is this very

popular verse Jesus said do not what he said do not judge or you two will be judged now the way I said it nobody says it the only way I've ever seen someone say it is with attitude do not judge or you two will be judged okay it's always with attitude and usually It's the King James Version with attitude. Judge not, lest ye be judged. Okay, people don't even believe in the Bible, but boy, they believe in that verse, and they say it with attitude, okay? Jesus said, do not judge, or you too will be judged.

For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use it, it will be measured to you. In other words, you have no right to tell me how to live. I'll do what I want with my life. You do what you want with your life? You're a sinner too. It doesn't matter what I do, as long as it makes me happy, as long as it doesn't hurt anybody. Judge not, let's ye be judged, do not judge, or you will be judged as well.

In fact, I'm going to argue that this is one of the most pervasive values in culture today. Tolerate everything, every kind of behavior, every kind of belief system. You have no right to say if something is right or wrong, do not judge, or you will be judged. It does stink to be judged, doesn't it? How many have you ever been wrongly judged? You've been wrongly judged? Oddly enough, that's never happened to me.

It's just no one judges me. Never happened to me. I actually walked up on two people talking about me in a grocery store. Believe it or not, they were saying, yeah, I heard he holograms himself from one place to another. Another guy said, no, actually, he flies to church on a helicopter. And this was the guy who was doing the groceries and the guy bagging the groceries. And then I said, hey, guys, like, oh, praise Lord, pastor. see you, all this kind of stuff.

I'm like, yeah, you guys were talking about me. Can you hurry up, though, my helicopter lands in three minutes to pick me up from the grocery store? But anyway, it does feel horrible to be judged, and it's no secret that this theme alone is probably the number one thing that drives non-Christians away from Christianity. The Christians are so judgmental. They're so narrow-minded. They're hypocrites. They're judgmental.

They're so judgmental. Jesus said, do not judge, or you too. will be judged. Is that exactly what he meant when he was saying it? In other words, if that's true, then we have to acknowledge that no teacher has the right to judge an essay. Who are you to say that was an A or A, or B, you have no right to judge my paper. If we take it at face value, then no one on a jury has the right to judge or hold someone accountable for a crime. Who are you to say, if I'm innocent or guilty? And a police officer has no right to tell you if you're driving on the wrong side of the road. Who are you going to judge me? I just feel better driving on this side of the road.

You have no right to tell me where I can drive, okay? Is that what Jesus was saying? I think we would probably agree that at some level, maybe we're allowed to judge. I'll ask you some questions and you kind of think about it. And this is meant to be a little bit tricky. For example, do you have the right to judge someone's funny haircut? Oh, I can't believe they do that. Do you have the right to judge that? What do you think? I don't know. If you're sitting next to him right now, don't look at him, just look forward, pretend like you don't know what we're talking about.

Okay? What if it's your kid's haircut and they want to get a bad word shaved into it? Do you have the right to speak into that? Well, you don't judge. Who are you to be a judge? What if some random guy at work, he's married, but he's really flirty? You don't know him? Do you have the right to speak into his life?

Say, hey, bro, you're married? Do you have the right to do that or not? But you tell me? What if he's your best friend and he's in your small group and he's a Christian and he's married and he's really flirty and it looks like it's bad. Do you have the right to speak into his life or you to never ever judge? Let's try this. A culture says that anybody can have sex with anybody, right? That's what culture says. Anybody can have sex with anybody. So you can't judge someone's sexual life, right? Well, what if someone wants to have sex with a 12 year old? Do you have the right

to speak into that? Or can you not judge that? What if the 12 year old is yours? Okay. Do you realize how complicated and yet important, incredibly important it is that we get this right? Do not judge or you two will be judged. What exactly does that mean? We never have the right to call someone and say, that's wrong behavior, or do we ever have the right to do that? It's complicated and it's important. Now, how many of you were with us last week at church?

You're with us last week? With us? Excellent. Okay. If you were here, you remember, we went through a real brief kind of teaching on how do we accurately interpret or understand Scripture. How do we do this? And we talked about three things.

Number one, we talked about understanding the context. What is that? What we don't want to do is take a verse out of context. We want to know who wrote this, when did they write it, why did they write it, to whom were they writing to, what comes before this verse, what is after this verse. We don't want to just pull a verse out of context. We want to understand the context. The second thing we talked about is that the best way to interpret scripture is with other

scriptures. The best way to interpret the Bible is with the Bible. In other words, we're not going to just interpret it with our feelings or our experiences. The best way to interpret the Bible is with the Bible. We're not going to build a theology based on one verse taken out of context. What we're going to do is see what else does the Bible say about that theme or that topic. We're going to look at the totality of what God says through His Word and we'll build our theology upon that. The third thing is we're going to not just be students of the Word, but doers of the Word.

We're going to apply it. The Bible is not a text to be studied. It's a letter to be lived. So we want, when we're trying to understand what does the Bible say, we want to understand the context, we would interpret scripture with scripture, and we want to apply it to our lives. So let's try to do that with this text, Matthew chapter 7 versus 1 and 2. The context. What comes before Matthew chapter 7? The answer is Matthew chapter 6.

This is not a trick question. This is really, really easy, okay? Oh, we're talking about judge you. I don't want to get this wrong. Okay, Matthew chapter six, comes before Matthew chapter seven. And in Matthew chapter six, one of the big themes is hypocrisy. Jesus was railing on the Pharisees for their hypocrisy. In verse two, in verse five, and in verse 16, he's dealing with hypocrisy.

So the flow of teaching, as Jesus is talking, is on the theme of hypocrisy. We get to Matthew Chapter 7. Jesus says Do not judge. Later on in that very same chapter, he says, watch out, be on your guard, be aware of false prophets. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I'm not allowed to judge

but if I'm going to deem someone a false prophet, what do I have to make? A judgment, that this person is not from God. So in the very same chapter, Jesus says, do not judge. He actually implies that you're going to have to make a judgment. Is that what he was really saying?

hypocrisy, and then he actually says in the very same chapter, watch out for false prophets. What I want to do is show you very clearly that Jesus is not telling us that we should not live with discernment. He's not telling us that we never have the right to speak into the lives of other believers. What he's telling us is that we should be very, very careful and never judge hypocritically. Do not judge, or you two will be judged. And the same measure you judge, others, so too will you be measured. Versus one, verse two, and then verse three. In context, he goes on to say, why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, let me take out that speck in your eye

when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? And then he says, you're what? You hypocrite. You hypocrite. The big theme in this teaching is more. more hypocrisy than it is judgment. He says, you hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, then you will see clearly to do what? To remove the speck from your brother's eye. In other words, you're not ever going to hold yourself back and not help your brother to see more clearly,

but you're not going to go pick apart everybody else when you've got your own problems. Look in the mirror first. Don't pick apart other people's little false when you've got big issues in your own life. He's saying, don't judge hypocritically. In fact, that's the context. And now what I want to do is I want to try to interpret the Bible with the Bible.

I want to look at other verses that talk about this very important issue of judging. And so I want to look at four different things that the Bible clearly says about judging. What is clear about judging? And the first thing is from Jesus. and he teaches us that we should never judge superficially. He teaches us never judge superficially. And let's be honest, almost all of us do this, and we do it often. Here's what Jesus said in John 724.

If you have a paper, Bible, this isn't read, this is Jesus. He says, stop judging by what? Let's all say it. He says, stop judging by mere appearances, but instead, what are we to do? Judge correctly. Whoa, whoa, whoa. You see what that says? Jesus says there is a time to judge, and when you do judge, judge accurately, judged correctly,

but please do not judge by mere appearances. And this is quite often. Some of you, you have the spiritual gift of judging by mere appearances. Oh, who does she think she is? Wapping in there like that. Oh, he's so full of himself, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And we all do this. One of the funniest things to me is I've been judged by mere appearance.

on the negative side wrongly and on the positive side wrongly on the very same issue. It's hilarious to me. I work out with a guy I told you his name is Poclos. Not his real name. It's his nickname. Because every guy who's really good friends with another guy, you never call him by the real name. There's always a nickname. Pocko Bruski.

That's his nickname. That's his full nickname, first and last nickname, okay? Pocklewski is a big old boy. And Pocko Bruskees remodels homes for a living. And so a lot of times he'll forget his bag, like almost all the time he forgets his workout bag. He's running late. So he comes to the gym wearing these just ratted out jeans with a shirt, we go holes in it, pain on it. Don't tell Paco this.

But sometimes he smells like a home remodeler when he gets to the gym. And he comes in just looking, you know, really, really bad. We've been working out for 20 years together, big old boy, and I've been judged wrongly on both sides. on the negative side. I've heard this so many times. You know how arrogant Pastor Craig is? The guy is so full of himself. I mean, he thinks he needs security at the gym.

Every time he's there with this big old security guy, big old scary-looking security guy, because Pastor Craig, he needs security at the gym. Now, the other side, I've been judged to be more godly than I am. Our pastor, he is such a man of God. I've heard this so many times. You would not believe how righteous and holy he is. I mean, even at the gym he's ministering to people,

he works out with this homeless guy. I mean, that's how godly he is. It's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's Paco, okay? He's not security, and he's not homeless. He's just a smelly house remodeler that I've been working out with. It's so easy for us to do this to be judgmental of somebody else. Be very, very careful.

Man, don't judge from a distance. Well, that rich guy, man, I mean, in a way they spend their money, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No. No, no. You don't know what they do with their money. You see one little picture. You have no idea how many people they are helping.

Don't judge that. Oh, well, I met her and oh, was she? No, no, num, num, num, no, no, no. Okay? Listen, yeah, if you happen to know that her mom is dying in the hospital on that day, you might have compassion for her and be praying for it, and she may be a wonderful person. You had one encounter.

You don't judge that. Can I chase a rabbit trail just for fun? Okay. In the church world, oh, we don't like that pastor. We don't like that church. Oh, wow, blah, blah, blah. And you know him? You met him.

No, no, I just don't like the way. No, no, no, no, listen to me. As a church, what we're going to do is we're going to be for people who are for God. We're not going to judge people from a distance. We're going to give people the benefit of the doubt. We're going to believe the best. We're not going to judge by mere appearances. We're going to believe and trust and believe the best about people.

Do not judge by mere appearances, Jesus said, but judge correctly. There's time to judge Jesus is saying, but don't judge from a distance. Don't just judge by what you hear. Don't just judge by one encounter. We're going to judge correctly. Jesus teaches us, number one, that we should never judge superficially. Paul teaches us that we should never judge hypocritically. We should never judge hypocritically.

In fact, he's talking to the Roman believers, and he's telling them, hey, guys, listen, when you're pointing out sins and other people, you need to understand. that oftentimes you have the very same sin in your own life. Be careful is what Paul is saying. Watch how he says it in Romans 2, verse 1 and verse 4. He says, you may think you condemn such people, but you're just as bad, and you have no excuse. When you say, they are wicked and should be punished, you're condemning yourself for you

who judge other do these very same things. And then in verse 4, his tone changes. And I love the grace and the passion and the intensity in Paul's words. He said, don't you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? In other words, why are you picking them apart? And God has been gracious to you. I mean, you think you're perfect. Who are you?

God's waiting on you to change as well. He says, does this mean nothing to you? Can't you see that God's kindness is intended to turn you from your sins? Don't judge hypocritically. What is it that we do? This is so easy and so common. What do we do? We tend to accuse others and we excuse ourselves.

Oh, you ought to hear what they did. Oh, my gosh. Do you know what I heard? Oh, oh, oh, oh, wait, wait, wait, wait. You don't know the whole story. If you just knew what I went through, you'd understand. Oh, if you just knew my intentions, you know, well, that's not who I am. That was just one time, right?

Come on. Oh, man, you guys are so quiet. I must be preaching really good. because I've never heard it this quiet in a long time. It must be like getting on a nerve. You're so quiet. Right? We accuse others and we excuse ourselves.

Here's what I've discovered. The place where you issue your harshest judgment often reveals your deepest weakness. If that didn't hurt, let me say it again. The place where you issue your harshest judgment often reveals your deepest weakness. I've noticed this. I mean, it's so true. It's so true. Whenever I find myself quick to judge, oh, I can't believe. Whenever I find myself quick to judge, it's often an indication that I should look in the mirror because it's probably a reflection of some kind of sinfulness in my own heart. Let that sink in. You judge others, you're condemning yourself. Probably the most pointed

example of this that I've ever seen was this guy called me years ago and he was, livid on fire with fury about his roommate. Two Christian guys living in the same house, and his roommate was looking at pornography. I can't stand in that. I won't tolerate that kind of sinful behavior in my house. Who was he to do that kind of stuff on my... And it was like this.

Okay, that's bad, but the response was like, ah! Okay? The very next day, the very next day, it came out that the same guy that was angry at his roommate for looking at porn have been having a multi-year affair with a married woman. Okay? What was going on here?

He wasn't able to deal with his own sinfulness, and because of a self-hatred or self-denial or some kind of sickness, he was judging someone else for the very type of sin that he was involved in. And this is why we need to be so careful. This is why over and over and over again, and the Bible says, you're going to correct other people. Be very careful. You may be tempted to sin as well.

We never ever judge hypocritically. We never judge superficially. Number three, if you're taking notes, this is so important. We never hold non-Christians to Christian standards. We never hold those who are outside the family of God to our own family standards. In fact, this is what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 5, verse 12. He said, what business is it of mine to judge those outside the church?

In other words, if they're not Jesus followers, who am I to tell them they should be living any different ones? That's none of my business. Then he says, are you not to judge those inside? It's God's to judge those outside. In other words, if they are believers, aren't we together as iron sharpens iron supposed to help one another, spur one another on toward good works, to show love, to help gently restore people who have fallen away?

Aren't we to help other family members? In other words, at my house, we have certain rules or certain shows we don't watch, certain language we don't use. Listen to me, I can't hold your kids accountable for my family rules. Not my business. Your family. If someone is outside the family of God, we don't hold them accountable to Christian family rules. It's not our place to judge.

And this is probably the number one reason why so many non-Christians step away from ever pursuing God because the judgmentalism and hypocrisy of Christian beliefs. Oh, you should never act like that. And they're going, well, I've seen you, you're not perfect either. Right? Man, you guys are quiet today. This is this real stuff. That's why, at our church, we really, really believe.

There are many of you that would say, I'm not a follower of Jesus, and you are welcome here. Man, we want you here so much. In fact, I'll tell you right now, you do not have to believe in order to belong. You can belong before you believe. Let me say it this way. You can belong before you behave. the way others think you should behave. You see, this is the way Jesus was.

He went up to people who were doing really crazy, bad things, and he loved them, and he loved them, but he didn't leave them there. And it was Jesus who changed them, not other people. And here's the key. I am not called to change people outside the family of God. I am called to love them and introduce them to a God who changes them, even the same God who is changing me.

And this is so, so, so, so important that we get this right. So you're like doing something that is challenging. You're addicted to something. You've got some kind of sexual stuff going on. You're smoking the funny weed. You lose your temper. You don't fully know what you believe. Listen to me.

If you're here sincerely seeking to know, is there a Jesus? Is he real? If you're honestly pursuing him, you are welcome no matter what you are doing right. now, you are welcome, you are welcome. If on the other hand you come in trying to push some kind of agenda from the outside, hey, that may not go well for you, it may not go well for us. If you're coming here on level ground with all the rest of us sinners who need a Savior and say, I'm moving toward Jesus, you're absolutely completely welcomed, loved, and embraced. Let's step toward Jesus together and let's let him conform us to who he wants us to be.

we will not hold those outside the family of God to the standards of those inside the family of God. It's God's place to deal with them. It's our place to love one another. This is so important that we get this right. When Jesus said, do not judge others or you two will be judged, he's not telling us that we don't have the right or calling to speak into one another's lives.

In fact, we're going to find that there's a time that we as the body of Christ are supposed to come in and help others. What does the Bible say about judging? Don't judge superficially. Don't judge hypocritically. Don't call those outside of God's family to live according to God's family rules. And number four, this is really important. Always help restore fallen believers.

Always help restore fallen believers. And the reason this is so important, please listen, is because this will be you at some point. This will be me at some point. Because listen, we are all volumin. vulnerable to temptation. None of us get it right all the time. And in the family of God, when someone strays, family members come and say, hey, we love you too much to let you go down that road. Let's get back on the path of righteousness. And we all need to be willing to help others,

and we all need to be open to correction from others. This is what Paul said in Galatians 6, 1, and 2. Don't miss this. He said, brothers and sisters. Now, who is he talking to? Brothers and sisters, this is inside the family. Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a what? say it with me if someone is caught in a sin. Now, wait a minute. Who are you to say that's a sin? I mean, who are you to judge that's a sin? Who are we talking to?

People in the family. We agree in the family that God's word is truth, and when the Bible's clear about something, then we're going to live according to that. If someone is living according to something that is contrary to God's word, what do we call that? Called a sin.

Is that politically correct? Nah, not so much. Who do you say it's a sin? Well, this is our family rules. We don't hold you to our family rules. You don't hold us to your family. These are our family rules. If someone that we love is going contrary to God's word, it's called a sin.

And those who live by the spirit should do what to that person? Gossip about them, kick them out of the church, kick them while they're down, shoot the wounded, tell them, you're going to hell where the worm never dies in this weeping and gnash the teeth. Bless God, not going to allow that kind of behavior in our church getting them out of the hair to center. No, right? No, no, no, no, no, no. What do we do? You who live by the Spirit should do what?

You should restore that person, how? Gently, gently, gently, gently. With the same grace that you would like to be shown, you show to them. With the same love that you would like to be shown, you show them. With the same grace that God gave to you, you give to them.

You restore them. You help get them back on the right path. You do it with love. You do it with compassion, and you do it with grace. And then Paul says this, but watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Oh, this is so important we get it right.

The moment you start correcting others, you could be vulnerable to pride. Pride comes before falling, you don't want to fall as well. The moment you start, you have to be very, very, you have to be wise, you have to discernment, you have to have tons of wisdom, or you may also be tempted. Then, this is beautiful verse two.

Paul says, here's what we do. In the family of God, this is what we do. We carry each other's burdens. When some person is down, we take the burden off, the burden off and we love them back. We carry each other's burdens and in this way we fulfill the law of Christ. We always help restore fallen believers. I'll tell you my favorite story about this. It involves a very close personal friend of mine. Pastor Chris Beale and Cindy have a story that is maybe my favorite restoration story that I'll have in my whole life. 14 years ago this week,

Pastor Chris was brand new on our staff, had been on staff for six weeks, and he confessed to God, he confessed to his wife, Cindy, and he confessed to me that he had multiple extramarital affairs, okay? I mean, multiple ones. And Cindy, as you can imagine, was devastated. I was devastated. Our church was really, really hurt. And he was obviously broken and wanted to make things right. And so we sat down, had real hard, long conversations, a lot of prayer, and said, look, you will submit yourself under the care of the church, you've got to step down. You can't be a pastor and do that. You have to step down. But we'll care for you and we'll work to help rebuild your marriage. And who knows, one day, if you're in a good place, you know, maybe, you could restore

you to a place in ministry. Well, I'm telling you, this couple worked hard. They did everything they were asked to do. The next week I announced it to the church, the very following week, they were on the front row worshiping God saying we're a part of this family. And I told the church, we don't shoot our wounded. We're going to love them. We're going to pray for them. Nobody's going to gossip about them. They're going to be at the foot of the cross. like I'm at the foot of the cross, we're here to receive grace from Jesus, and we're going to do everything we can to help restore their lives. Well, a year went by, things were getting better. Another year went by. There's healing. More time went by. There's a lot of progress. Eventually enough time

went by. We thought, you know what? We've seen significant fruit and healing. Let's give him a shot in an entry-level point on staff again at the church. He was faithful with a little, we gave him a little more. Faith with a little more, gave him a little more. Fourteen years after the confession, I am incredibly proud to say to the glory of God that the very person who confessed to that kind of sin is now leading the largest life church location and doing it well and doing it with integrity. And let me tell you right now, this is who we are as Jesus followers. This is how we do it. This is how we do it. The same grace that forgives us is the same grace that we use to restore others. And this is how we do it in the family of

God. We don't pretend like it didn't happen and we don't kick people out and shun them away. We love them back into the fellowship. If someone is caught in a sin, we call it a sin. It may not be popular in the world today, but that's what we call it. But we don't kick the person down because guess what? We sin too. We love them back, gently, praying that they could be restored and even promoted to do more things in the kingdom of God because that is the kind of God we serve. So how do we do this. And this is so important. When Jesus came, John 1.14, he came full of grace and truth. This is what the text says. When Jesus came, he was full of grace and truth. I can't prove this, but I have a theory. In the text, the word grace, caris comes first. I think grace comes first

because without grace, truth is harder to digest. When Jesus came, he came full of grace and truth. Here is the problem too often in the church world today. When there's all truth and no grace, it drives people away. You ought to behave like this, and that's not right, and you got to do this, you got to do this, and this is what the Bible says, and this is truth, and you got to do this. When there's all truth and no grace, that leads to rebellion. Well, screw that, I'll do whatever the heck I want. Flip it on the other side, when it's all grace and no truth, oh, God loves you.

You can do whatever you want. God loves everybody. You can do whatever you want. You can do it at who am I? to judge you, all behavior is equal, all beliefs are equal, you can do whatever you want. When there's all grace and no truth, that leads to license meaning people behave any way they want. When Jesus came, he came full of grace. It's the loving kindness that draws people to repentance. He came full of truth, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

And that is how we, as Jesus followers, love one another. The same way we were forgiven. grace, the same truth that says we need a Savior, truth, is how we proclaim the love of God to everyone else around. Those outside the family of God, we don't judge them. We show them grace and proclaim truth. Just like I am a sinner who needs a Savior, so do you. And the loving kindness of a God who accepts you as you are is so great. How can you reject that love? and those inside the church. If someone strays, listen, we love them enough

to tell them the truth. You're going down a path that's going to hurt you. It's going to hurt people. But we always do it with grace because we are equally in need of the grace of God. And that's how we do church. When someone falls by the grace of God,

they can be restored. Brothers and sisters, when someone you love is caught in a sin, what do you do? you restore them gently. But be careful. Jesus said, do not judge, you two will be judged. He didn't say we never have the right

to speak into someone else's life. That is culture's interpretation of that verse. That's not what the totality of the Bible says. The Bible teaches us, don't judge superficially as stupid and dangerous. Don't judge hypocritically. Your harshest judgment often reveals your greatest weakness. Never holds someone outside the family of God

to family standards. But when someone in the family starts to get into trouble, listen, we love them way too much to let them hurt themselves. With the same grace that has been given to us, we give to them as we use truth to bring them back on the path of righteousness. And the truth of Jesus is what sets people free.

And that's how we accurately interpret the words of Jesus to bring healing, to bring restoration, and to help people find the same grace that transforms us, the loving kindness of God, which brings people to repentance. So Father, we ask that as a church, your Holy Spirit would help us to live this well God, may we be a reflection of your love to those outside of the family.

And God, inside the family, may we treat each other with grace and with truth, loving back to a point of righteousness. All of our churches, as you reflect, I'm going to ask you a broad question, and this may not feel like it applies to you now. But let me just say right now there are some of you that you've got someone that you love that is a Christian that's doing something that's kind of dangerous to them, sinful. and there's often two wrong extremes. One is, hey, don't do that, don't do that, do that, no grace.

Others is, well, it's not my place to be involved. If you're in community with them, if you're in a committed relationship with them, if they're a part of your inner circle, maybe God wants to use you to help bring them back to truth. There may not be that going on right now, but I promise you at some point, if you're a consistent Jesus follower, that will happen. When that happens, we want to get it right. At the same time, we don't want to turn people away from God,

by judging them according to standards that are our standards, we want to love them to the grace of God. So my question is this. Those of you who are Jesus followers, would you join me in praying and asking God to help us get this right, to do it in a way that honors Him, doesn't turn people away,

but actually draws them to the loving kindness of God. If you're a Jesus follower, and I hope this is all of you, say, I want to get this right. Whenever I'm faced with this, and you will. In our culture today, you'll likely be faced with it this week. I want to get this right. Would you lift up your hands right now if that's you?

Father, even as a hand is lifted toward heaven today, I pray that you would plant these truths in our hearts. God, if I said anything that's inconsistent with your word, I pray that your word would just bring correction into all of our hearts. We pray, God, that your truth would set us free. The same grace, God, that has been given to us, help us to give to other people as well. For those outside the church, I pray, God,

you'd give us a supernatural love for them, just to love people, love people, love them, love them, reflect your love, and draw them to Jesus with His love. God, I pray, give us the courage to tell the truth, and the only truth would be we need Jesus. We all need, and we all have sinned, and we all need Jesus. I pray God for those inside the family that at times in my own personal family, we have to have difficult conversations, and we always want to do it with grace, and we always want to proclaim truth.

May we in the family of God have the courage to do this, and to do this. do this well. God, if we're on the side of loving someone else back to truth, may we do it with grace and humility. God, when we're on the side of receiving this type of correction, may we be open to what you'd want to say to us, not making excuses, not rejecting it, not being hard-headed, but being open, God, because we want to please you and be conformed to the image of your son. God, help us as Jesus followers get this right. As you keep praying today, nobody looking around all of our churches. Let me tell you what's happening right now. There are some of you that you're going to be feeling kind of a mixture of things. Some of you right now you're going to be going,

okay, I'm doing some things that are wrong, and you might feel a little bit of guilt by that. The same time, I'm hoping that you're feeling drawn toward God. You're feeling drawn toward God. What is that? That's His Holy Spirit. That's what he does. He draws people. Some of you right now, you don't even know why, but you've been just, you've been feeling drawn to God. Let me tell you why, because God is good, because he loves you. You may think, but I'm doing bad things. Listen to me, God loves you even as you are right now. He loves you.

Love is not just something that he does. Love is who he is. And this is how much he loved you. That he sent his son, Jesus, born of a virgin, who lived without sin, to become the perfect sacrifice for the forgiveness of your sins, the perfect sacrifice. Jesus hung out with people that were very imperfect. He loved them. He accepted them as they were, but he didn't leave them there.

I can't change you. You can't change you. You need a God who can change you. You can't be good enough for God on your own. It's only because of Jesus that our sins are ever forgiven. There are those of you today, you recognize. I need his forgiveness. You recognize that.

Guess what? That's the loving kindness of God drawing you to him. So what do you do? You simply say, yes, you call on him. When you do, he will hear your prayer, forgive every sin, make you brand new. And there are those of you you are here today because this is your prayer. Jesus, I give my life to you. That's you at all of our churches.

Say, yes, lift your hands high right now. Say, yes, I surrender. to him right back there toward the back, right back over here, over here as well. God bless you guys. Way back over here to the back in the middle section. The loving kindness of God is drawing you. Right up here close to me, way back over here, all the way in the back section. Wow, somebody give God the glory, the honor as His Holy Spirit draws people.

Church online, you click right below me. Here in this middle section say, yes, Jesus, pray with those around you. Pray Heavenly Father, I give you my life. Save me from my sins. Make me brand new. Fill me with your spirit so I could follow you. My life is not my own. God, I give it to you.

Thank you for new life. Now you have mine. In Jesus' name, I pray. Would you worship loud, worship big. Welcome those born in the wonderful, loving family of our good God. From those of us here at Life Church, we are honored to play a very small part in what God is doing in and through your life. And we would love to continue with you on that journey.

to find out some next steps about your relationship with Christ, all you have to do is go to life.church slash next. Or to see if there's a life church location in your area, you can find out by going to life.church slash locations. Here at Life Church, we are relentless in pursuing those who don't know Christ, all in an effort to allow God to eternally change their life. And one of those is John Abaka,

who after walking through the doors of Life Church for the very first time, had his assumptions of church completely changed. And as a result, his life was changed as well. I always knew there was a God. You know, my mom had taken me to church growing up, but I didn't really know the basic principles of what it means to know God, what it means to have a real relationship with them.

I actually lived right across the street from my church, and I would see all the cars coming in. To me, the average Christian was a hypocrite. So even before I knew anyone that even went to the church, I already had these thoughts of this is how it is. So I'm going to put that label on Life Church. As soon as you pull up in the parking lot, you see young people, people smiling,

people excited to go to church. Everyone was clapping, hands bumping. Growing up, I never saw that. I never saw anybody excited to go to church. Craig got on, and he starts talking. I don't know even what the sermon was about that day, but I remember how it affected me. It was everything that God's been trying to tell me.

I left that place feeling like a completely different person. I didn't change immediately. It took some time. It took some reoccurring attendance. It took some digging into the scripture. It took me going into a life group, having people sharpened me, having people invest in my life. My verbiage, my want-toes, my drive,

my passions in life are completely different. I feel like it's embedded into my soul and my being now. And I think God wanted me there at that moment. And I think that God had been calling me for a long time. And he used Life Church to get to me. And, yeah. For those of you in the Kansas City area, we are excited to announce that our 25th Life Church location

is launching Easter, 2016, in Overland Park, Kansas. If you or someone you know would like to be a part, we would love to get you connected. And to do that, all you have to do is go to life.church slash overland Park. Plus, the all-new Craig Groshell Leadership Podcast is available today. For episodes, resources, or additional content, you can find all of that and so much more at life.church slash leadership podcast. Thanks again for joining us.

It's our mission and our passion to lead people to become fully devoted followers of Christ because we believe whoever finds God truly finds life.