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Jun 02, 2019

Of Splinters and Logs

Passage: Matthew 7:1-6

Speaker: Brian Land

Series: Sermon on the Mount

Category: Grace Brevard

Keywords: grace, spirit, hypocrisy, judgement, blind, need, self righteousness, deceived, empathy

THEMES & NOTES: The flaws and failures of others are so much more obvious and offensive than our own, and we all get a rush from pointing out how wrong they are (whether that’s just silently in our hearts, with our close friends as a “prayer request” or publicly online) The true issue is that we are all blind to our blindness, unable (and often unwilling) to see our desperate need for grace as we distract ourselves with how much others need grace, which keeps us from our own healing and being able to be a hope-filled agent for the healing of others. The Gospel gives us confidence to safely face and confess the enormity of our rebellion so that the Holy Spirit can remove our “sin logs” while enabling us to love others in the midst of their weakness.

ORDER of WORSHIP

PRELUDE: Jim Gaffigan - McDonalds

CALL TO WORSHIP: Psalm 130:1-5,7

LEADER: 1 Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord; 2 Lord, hear my voice. 3 If you, Lord, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand? 4 But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be revered. 5 I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope.

ALL: 7 Israel, put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption.

SONG: You are My Vision

READING: James 2:12-13 ESV

LEADER: 12 So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. 13 For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy.

ALL: Mercy triumphs over judgment.

SONG: Your Grace is Enough

PRAYER: The Broken Heart (adapted from The Valley of Vision)

ALL:  Blessed Jesus, though our sins rise to heaven your merits soar above them.           

LEADER: Though unrighteousness weighs us down. Your righteousness exalts us to your throne

ALL:  Grant us to hear your voice assuring us that by your stripes we are healed.

LEADER: That you were made sin for us that we might be righteous in thee

ALL: We are guilty but pardoned.  Lost but saved. Wandering but found.

LEADER: Holy Spirit, keep us always clinging to the cross. Open to us the springs of your divine conviction and truths.

ALL: And move us to love as we’ve been loved; flooding us every moment with Your unending grace.  

CARE / GRATITUDE / MISSIONAL LIVING:

MESSAGE: Of Splinters and Logs

ILLUSTRATION: AGT - Kodi Lee

CENTRAL TEXT:  Matthew 7:1-6 ESV

1 “Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. 3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. 6 “Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.

SONG: Give me Jesus

SONG: Great are You Lord

BENEDICTION: 2 Corinthians 13:11

LEADER: 11 Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.

ADDITIONAL SCRIPTURES:

  • Psalm 141:5
  • James 4:11-12
  • Galatians 6:1
  • Ephesians 4:32
  • John 8:7

MEDIA:

6.02.19 Album

DISCUSSIONS QUESTIONS:

  1. On a scale from 1-10, how judgemental of others are you?
  2. In which categories are you most likely to be judgemental
    1. Spiritual
    2. Moral
    3. Appearance
    4. Political
    5. Financial
    6. Possessions
    7. Past Mistakes
    8. Personality
    9. Relationships
  3. Why are we judgemental?
  4. What are you saying about yourself when you judge somebody else?
  5. Why is it so difficult to acknowledge our own flaws?
  6. What does it mean to be “blind to our own blindness”?
  7. How then do we come to see our own blindness?
  8. To the level that we can own the log in our own eyes is the level that we can correctly point out the splinter in somebody else’s.
  9. What does “correctly” mean? (both why and how we do it)
  10. When SHOULD we correct others?
  11. Who are we called to correct (see the first word in Gal 6:1)?
  12. Why does Jesus say that our need is huge while others’ is smaller?
  13. How is Jesus both our Judge AND our Atoner (payer of our sins’ penalty)?
  14. How can this very truth renovate our impulses either toward self-righteous delight in correcting others, or fearful avoidance of correcting others?

QUOTES:

  • “Everybody wants to know the truth, but nobody wants to hear it….everyone wants to be heard, when no one has asked for advice.” - T Bone Burnett
  • “Conviction without experience makes for harshness.” - Flannery O’Connor
  • “Discipleship does not afford us a point of vantage from which to attack others; we come to them with an unconditional offer of fellowship, with the single-mindedness of the love of Jesus.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer
  • “What precisely is profound in Christianity is that Christ is both our atoner and our judge, not that one is our atoner and another our judge, for then we would nevertheless come to be judged, but that the atoner and the judge are the same.” - Søren Kierkegaard
  • “One should not always throw the cloak over a brother’s faults. One must not be meekly charitable against all reason.” - Dale Allison
  • "There but for the grace of God, goes John Bradford" - as Bradford watched prisoners being taken to the gallows (c. 1550), before he would be burned at the stake.
  • (So what did he learn from Breaking Bad?) "That every single person alive, as meek and mild as they seem, can be dangerous given the right set of circumstances." - Brian Cranston (USA Today 10/27/13)

SERMONS: