May 2, 2021
Morning Service

Jesus continues His teaching to help us to grow into the followers He wants us to be.  Last week He taught us to avoid worry by putting our pursuit of Him and His kingdom as our primary goal.  The many distractions of this world and our busyness in it, often detours our central focus away from our Lord.  “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”  This is the road map to a worry free life; putting Him first in all things.  Trust Him to lead you down the path that He desires us to go and to provide everything we need along the way.  Do what you can, then trust Him for the rest and allow Him to fill you with a peace that passes all understanding.  Isn’t that the place we all want to reach in our faith?  If you are not there yet, take the steps necessary to get there.  Look in your mirror and determine what areas of your life need to become more focused on Jesus and a little less on me.  We can get there, but it takes effort to seek His kingdom and His righteousness.  It is an exciting journey that we are all on together.  Today Jesus again tells us to look in the mirror first before being critical of others.

 Mat 7:1-2 "Judge not, that you be not judged.  (2)  For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.

            It is not by coincidence that Jesus follows up speaking on wealth and earthly riches with the command to not judge others.  It becomes very easy for us to judge others on how they choose to use the resources God has given them.  The rich look down upon the poor and the poor look down upon the rich judging one another upon very trivial things like the car they drive, the clothes they wear, or the house they live in.  We in America tend to judge a person’s righteousness by what God blesses them with materially.  James commanded us as the church to avoid judging by appearance and then showing partiality.

 

Jas 2:1-4 My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality.  (2)  For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, (3) and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, "You sit here in a good place," and say to the poor man, "You stand there," or, "Sit here at my footstool," (4) have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts    .

            Jesus commanded us to “Love our neighbors as ourselves” and showing partiality to anyone because of appearance is not truly loving them.  We should not show partiality based upon their appearance and this does not only include their financial status.  We cannot show partiality for any reason including sex, race, political affiliation, or social status.  Our society today is not trying to close these gaps that divide us but are making the gaps larger by stirring the pot and pointing to racism as the solution to racism.  The exact thing they are condemning; they offer it as a solution only from the opposite perspective.  In reality, each of us can be a part of the problem or we can be part of the solution.  The solution is not to silence or cancel those who have a different opinion than you blaming them for being wrong or just uninformed.  The solution is found when we love others as Jesus loved us without partiality.  We don’t see rich or poor, black or white, republican or democrat we see a person God created and died upon the cross for.  “All lives matter!” should be our cry to others.  Don’t judge your brother, but love him as your Heavenly Father loves him and loves you.  Each of us individually and as the church are held accountable to God on how we view one another and treat one another.  Jesus prayed in the garden for us, not to allow our differences to divide us but as the church to be unified as one.

 

Joh 17:20-22 "I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; (21) that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.  (22)  And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one:

            We should not view one another as being divided by our many differences, but need to be united in the one thing we all have in common.  We stand together on truth.  We all have been wonderfully and beautifully created by a God who loves us.  We all share the commonality in that we are sinners saved only by the grace of God.  We see the source of evil as not something from the outside of us, but from the inside; my sin is why I need a Savior.  We acknowledge as Irwin Lutzer stated “we don’t have a skin problem we have a sin problem.”  We have confessed those sins and been forgiven by the sacrifice given freely to us by our Savior.  We all must point to Jesus who changed us from who we were to who we are now.  “I was one way but now I am different.  The one thing in between was Him.”  We all have a different story, but we are all part of His story.  He chose us to follow Him and we have accepted.  We follow unified as one body.  It is our relationship, a dependence upon Jesus that unifies us and it is His desire that we live as one.  We as the church need to use this as a foundation to walk this journey with one another; we are better together.  The church is not a group of people who share common backgrounds and interests, but who share a common “life.”  Paul defined the culture in the church in his Colossian letter like this:

 

Col 3:11 where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.

            How is that for a radical cure for the racial unrest we are experiencing today?  Christ is the center of our world, not us.  It is the church that has the answer to all this racial unrest; He is our common ground that we stand united upon.  We learn from each other and edify one another, not tearing each other down.  How do we get to this point personally and also as a body of believers?  By of course seeking Him first and allowing the Holy Spirit to transform us into the true and faithful follower we all are trying to become.  We must all see the world as Jesus sees it and love it as He loved it.  It begins with a deep honest look at yourself and see if there is any racism, partiality, or a judgmental attitude that we must repent of in our own lives.  Jesus gives us an example that we can all understand again back in Matthew. 

 

  Mat 7:3-5 And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?  (4)  Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your eye'; and look, a plank is in your own eye?  (5)  Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

            Jesus exposes this tendency of ours to be able to see a small fault in others while ignoring the same fault in ourselves.  He purposely exaggerates the situation to drive the point home for us.  How hypocritical is it for a person with a 2x4 in his eye to try to pull a small splinter out of the eye of his brother?  We must be able to look honestly into our spiritual mirror and take steps to remedy our own faults first before we criticize others for their short comings.  The truth be told we often are quick to criticize others who exhibit the exact same faults that we struggle with; Lord help us to be overcomers in this area.

            Where do you stand in the racial divide in our nation?  Are you part of the problem or part of the solution?  Are you guilty of judging others by their appearance only without having any idea of what their story is?  You are plainly commanded here today to work to free yourself from that mentality.  Celebrate life and the diversity of the people around you.  Love everyone as you have been loved; without judgement or partiality.  LOVE NEVER FAILS! (I Cor. 13:8)