Who Made You the Judge? (cont'd)

Of all the words that are misunderstood in today's culture, perhaps the two biggest are love and judgment. In just a few moments, Pastor Paul Shepherd clears up any confusion when he shares today's Destined for Victory message who made you the judge.

But before he gets started, he joins me now from his studio in California to talk about a special gift we have available for you. Pastor, I'm excited for a couple of reasons about the thank you gift we have for all who give generously. But we're doing this because I know you feel that Get Your Hopes Up is a message everyone needs to hear and see.

Absolutely. I'm eager, too, to share this encouraging word with our listeners. We all know that hope is a premium commodity these days.

You can't find it easily at all. We look around and we see all sorts of challenges, both in the world at large and also in our personal lives. As a pastor, I'm seeing the effects of the vicissitudes of life on my members and I hear from listeners even as they share their praise reports and prayer concerns.

And it's just a challenging world. The bottom line is I thought this is a time for me to remind people that we've got to get our hopes up and we've got to keep them up. Because pain, heartache, reality is just among us and we are going to deal with these challenges.

But I believe God has given us every reason to get our hopes up and to keep them up because he is Lord of all, not just the good stuff. He's Lord of everything that's going on. And even when chaos surrounds us, his plan and purpose will prevail.

I constantly remind myself of what we say daily on this broadcast. He who began a good work in us is going to bring it to completion. So in this message, people are going to hear me share and I'm going to use case studies from the scripture how people who faced real life challenges, such as we're all going through, but how they saw the Lord's hand in the midst of it, how God brought them out of it and gave them hope and help even in difficult times. And I hope that people are going to be blessed as they receive this video message. The title of the DVD message is called Get Your Hopes Up and it is our gift to you this month by request as our way of saying thanks for your generous gift to Destined for Victory. Call 855-339-5500 or visit pastorpaul.net to make a safe and secure donation online. You can also mail your gift to Destined for Victory, Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, California 94538.

Again, Destined for Victory Box 1767, Fremont, California 94538. Please don't ask anybody to love you by not speaking to you about areas you really need to take a look at. Don't ask anybody to love you by getting up off of you when somebody needs to be on you. If you see a brother or sister who has fallen and you point it out to them and try to help them work their way through it, you're not judging them, you're loving them. That's the truth of God, straight from His word. And today on Destined for Victory, Pastor Paul Shepherd helps us see that truth a little more clearly. So once again, here's Pastor Paul with his message.

Who made you the judge? Look at Matthew 7. We'll look at the first five verses.

Jesus is speaking here. He says, 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 will be measured to you. 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 the speck out of your eye, when all the time there's a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite.

First take the plank out of your own eye, then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. Now he started the passage by saying, don't judge or you too will be judged. And that's the part people love to latch onto. Jesus said, don't judge. But when you read the context, it is clear. You don't have to have gone to seminary to know when you look at that context. What Jesus is really getting after is the hypocrisy of trying to get other folks straight when you're more jacked up than they are.

That's a theological term, jacked up. Jesus is saying here, if you venture to try to pass judgment on the sin in somebody else's life, while there's even greater sin in your life, he's simply pointing out your hypocrisy. And he's saying, if you want to help somebody, start by helping yourself.

The man in the mirror, the woman in the mirror, start with them because he says if you get rid of your plank, then you have clearer sight to help somebody else. That's the only point he's making. Everybody see that? So when he leads with don't judge or you too will be judged, he's simply doing a comparative analysis of sin in your life that needs to be addressed while you're busy ignoring that and addressing the sin in somebody else's life. Under no circumstances is he saying, I don't have the right to help my brother or sister deal with an issue that needs to be resolved in their own life.

Everybody see that? So we should learn to understand the scripture always in its context. Don't grab do not judge three words and think you've gotten me up off of you.

Do not judge or you too will be judged. It's a comparative statement. He's talking to hypocrites. This is part of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, and this was preached not to folk who were just open to him only. The Pharisees were there. The scribes were there. I can very easily picture Jesus looking right at the Pharisees when he got to this part of the message.

He's looking at the whole audience talking to him about all the things he said, the beatitudes and all the other things. And when he got to Matthew 7, I can very easily, I don't know it for sure, I wasn't there, but I can just imagine him looking at the Pharisees the day over in this section and he looked at them and said, do not judge or you too will be judged and went on to talk about the hypocrisy. Because we know the Pharisees were expert hypocrites as are many church people. Amen. Whole lot of church folk are hypocrites. They focus on things they have no business focusing on and they ignore what they really need to be dealing with.

If that's not you, then don't get upset. Paul never encouraged in his epistles us not to walk in accountability. He never encouraged, uh-uh, don't say something to somebody else or else you're judging them. That's not a biblical reality. The Bible in fact encourages us that we are to walk with each other, that we're to help each other. Look at what Paul said for instance in Galatians 6. If your brother is overtaken in a fault, you who are spiritual enough to not major in other people's business, you are the only ones who are eligible to help him.

Everybody who's carnal, everybody who's a gossip, everybody who's a busybody, everybody who's a backbiter, everybody who's a slanderer, everybody who is a hypocrite has no business addressing other people's sins. He says you got too much personal work to be on the restoration team. When they ask you to be on the team, you ought to say nah, look I got my own stuff to deal with.

Y'all might have to be my team. That's what you ought to do. He said if anyone is overtaken, sin overtakes them. They're caught in, they're known to be in sin.

How do you deal with it? He says you who are spiritual, that knocks out a whole bunch of folk. You who are spiritual, look at what he says to do, restore. You got to get down to the issues of what's going on. You got to get down to the issues of okay, let's be a medical team and treat this spiritual ailment, this spiritual disease to the end with the goal of getting you healed. You ever run into church folk who don't want you healed, they want you killed?

That's what we've got to address. Your goal in somebody else's life is to help them get better and you can help them get better if you don't come alongside and say there's some stuff we really got to deal with here. So when folks try to get you up off of them like don't speak about the sin in my life, an example, I'm shacking with somebody I'm not married to. And you say now, you know, what are you going to do about this situation? You know what the word says? And you know, I care about you.

What are we going to do about this situation? Don't judge. You say no, no, I'm not judging you. God is both of our judge. I'm doing what the word says, which is to help you, spur you on to love and good works.

I want to see you in the center of God's will so that God can bless you. I'm not trying to hurt you. I'm not trying to embarrass you. That's why I'm not blogging about you. I'm trying to help you.

You see the difference? The restorer has to get in your business, but they're not in there to kill, they're in there to heal. You have to be a healer and not a killer. That's God's role for you in the lives of other people. My job is to help.

I want to always get people better than they are right now. And sometimes the only way you can do that is we got to deal with some messy stuff. You don't ignore the mess, you got to deal with it. But the doctor's not coming in there and say, oh, Lord, look at all this cancer.

Oh, my God, ought to be the shame of yourself. Been eating all kind of stuff that they've been filling you full of cancer and you're just not doing what you're supposed to. No, doctor, when you need surgery right now, it's going to stand there and rebuke you. I don't need a rebuke, I need an operation. After the operation and after I go through the systems and the recovery and all of that, then you might want to say, now, as you move forward, here are some helpful suggestions.

Here's some lifestyle changes that will really benefit you. Then you can talk, but you did the work of healing first. What's wrong with church people is we think we did our job when we killed you. They didn't wipe you out, consigned you to hell. You ever met those folks? Their favorite words are, you're going to hell. And I'm here to tell you they don't represent Jesus.

That's my whole point. They don't represent Jesus. Neither, though, should you use do not judge as a way to try to get people from dealing with what's going on in your life. So we've got to be accountable to one another, but it's to the end of restoration. That's what Galatians 6 says, you who are spiritual restore such a one.

And I love this. He said, in the spirit of meekness, considering yourself. See, I get to restore a lot of people as a minister of the gospel.

I've done it over the years, restores a lot of people. I know stuff about folk that if y'all knew about them, you wouldn't shake their hand anymore. You'd carefully avoid them during meet and greet time. And what you're doing is passing judgment on something you have no business discussing, which is why God calls me to be confidential. Any of y'all come in my office, tell me whatever. It's going to my grave with me. You don't have to worry about it. You have to worry.

I wonder if if he's sitting up in the house with Sister Meredith talking about the stuff I just told him. Be assured. Let me speak in King James that I'm more authority. Be thou assured that thine secret is safe with me.

Not only because it's an ethical requirement, a requirement of the law, because God helps me to consider myself. We'll be right back with more of today's Destin for Victory message from Pastor Paul Shepherd, Senior Pastor at Destiny Christian Fellowship in Fremont, California. Listen to the program anytime by subscribing to the podcast.

It's available at Apple Podcasts or wherever you get yours. You can also listen on demand at Pastor Paul dot net. That's Pastor Paul dot net, where you'll find a host of great resources at our online store, including some books and DVD messages from Pastor Paul. We should always be careful not to judge, not to condemn.

But that doesn't mean we should let our brothers and sisters in Christ wallow in their sin. So here's Pastor Paul with the rest of today's message. Who made you the judge? I've been there. I've been the one in need of loving, godly people coming around and saying we got to deal with some stuff here. I've been there. I know what it's like to mistreat people because I've been mistreated and I know what it's like to consider myself.

Listen, I've heard stuff that y'all couldn't keep a straight face if somebody told you. And I sit right there and just keep the conversation rolling. Now, when I was a rookie pastor, I have to admit there were times when after I got through ministering to somebody and they walked out of my office, I said, Oh, my God. But even then, I didn't call up Meredith.

Are you sitting down? But, you know, I live long enough and I went through enough and I discovered things about myself enough till I got to the point where you can't even make me change my response anymore. I've heard too much. I'm way past that. I heard about murder in my office and walked out and like I'm just going on to the next day because I minister thoroughly to you, told you what you need to do, guide you through the right godly process and all of that stuff.

I've had to stand with people in their trials because they're admitting to some some sin, some wrong that has been a criminal act. Been that done that got stuck in the company. You can't blow my mind anymore.

The people beat you to it. But you know what I am able to tell you? There is nothing God can't restore you from.

There is nothing no wrong in your life that God can't help you get right. There is no sin that the blood isn't able to cover. You don't have enough sin where Jesus said, I don't know. I said a lot of blood, but I ain't got enough for you.

No, no. Your sins, past, present and future are so covered in the blood that Jesus says, I don't even remember what you did. The Bible says he cast your sin in the sea, remembers it no more. You might have people who remember what you did, but God forgot it on the cross. Thank God for the cross.

You better thank God for the cross. There's enough blood to cover your hypocrisy. If you'll repent for being a hypocrite, probably most hypocrites is they don't think they have to repent. They think they're proud of their hypocrisy. They're proud of being a Pharisee. But when you read your Bible, Jesus had more negative stuff to say about religious people than he ever said about sinners. To the sinner, he said, listen, we got to deal with this.

But he did the restoration approach, not the judging approach. That's what you ought to do. Come alongside people only for the right reasons. If you're too bothered by what they did, you're not part of their restoration. You hear me? Some of you parents are too bothered by what your kids have done. You are too bothered by their lifestyle. You're not their restorer. You love them, pray for them. That's your job.

You're done. Ask God to bring somebody else who doesn't have as much skin in the game. You know how some of y'all do. Your kids are a reflection of you in your mind, and when they're doing wrong, you feel embarrassed. At a certain point, you got to realize you got to answer to God for yourself. Some of you all with these grown children, I got a word from God for you. Quit trying to live their lives for them. You taught them the best you could. You took them to church. Well, some of y'all took them to church.

Even if you didn't take them to church, they now know you saved going to church and all of that. And you've spoken some things into their lives. You got to pray, Lord, let that word, let that seed fall on good ground. Bring some other people into their lives who can help them. I am not going to try to make them live their lives my way. I got a word for you. Get up off of them. In Jesus' name. Pray for them.

That's the best thing you can do at this point. Because some of you all are too personally involved. You act like it's a reflection on you. Nobody's thinking you're a horrible person because your kids are acting crazy. And if they do think it, just correct them. Say, no, I did the best I could, but now I give them to God.

They're grown. I can't live their lives for them. All I can do is make sure they're not dealing drugs out of my house. Pat them down before they come in if you have to. Say, hey, baby, good to see you. Hold on.

Come on in. You want something to eat? At the end of the day, we all answer to God. You don't live anybody's life for them. If you weren't the best parent, take that to the Lord and let him help you forgive yourself.

Because some of you all, that's really where your guilt lies. You didn't do the best job of parenting. Welcome to earth. Welcome to earth. We show up broken people.

We live broken lives until God gets a hold of us and not only saves us, but then gets his word into those areas where we can change our thinking and our direction. And you got to let yourself free. If you didn't raise your kids right, there's enough blood to cover that. I said there's enough blood to cover that.

You made horrible decisions. There's enough blood to cover that. Anybody sitting here or listening to this message who is ridden with self guilt and self loathing in Jesus name, you've got to release yourself because you can't go back. No, you're looking a little too holy. I'm supposed to be done, but I need two more minutes because of the way you all look.

Has anybody here listening to this message, has anybody done things that when you think about it, you are totally ashamed of? Let me see some hands. Y'all see all these hands, including the pastors. So we can't live our highest lives.

If we try to pass judgment on ourselves, we'll never get anywhere. The good news is on a hill called Calvary, Jesus stretched out his arms. He didn't stretch them out. They stretched them out for him.

They nailed them to a wooden rugged cross. They pierced him in his sides, pierced him in his hands, thrust a crown of thorns hard down on his head. Blood was dripping from his head. Blood was dripping from his hands. Blood was dripping from his side.

He had been beaten all night long the night before, and he hangs there beyond recognition, bruised and bloody and hurting and tortured. He did all of that so that you could be free from guilt, free from condemnation. There is therefore now no condemnation to those of us who are in Christ Jesus, whom the son sets free is free indeed. I'm not bound. I'm free. You might know something about my past, but I can tell you about my future because Jesus has set me free. If you will let yourself enjoy the freedom that's in Christ, then you have every reason to let other people know freedom is available to them. Quit judging them for what they did wrong. Come alongside and say, if you want to, I can help you get things right because I've been there.

I've done that. I know the restorative grace of God. I know that God is able to take you from the gutter most, pull you up to the uttermost. Thanks so much for joining us for today's message, Who Made You the Judge? Always glad to have you with us. If you'd like more information about the Destined for Victory program or the DVD we're offering as our thank you for your generous gift this month, be sure to stop by our website, pastorpaul.net.

That's pastorpaul.net. Planning's not the issue. The issue is presuming you've got another year ahead of you. So when you tell God or tell other people what's going to happen without the God factor, that's the problem because you don't even know what's going to happen tomorrow. That's next time in Pastor Paul Shepherd's message, If You Want to Make God Laugh. Until then remember, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory. .