Sermon Transcript

0:00:14.0

Well, a life changing study for me.  I’ve loved this study.  I’ve read through the Sermon on the Mount a number of times, but, you know, when you’re getting to preach and to deliver the truth, you just kind of go into it in deeper levels.  And God has been teaching me so, so many things.  Every one of the messages in the Sermon on the Mount series is a single word title.  And today’s title is “Tolerance.”  And we turn a corner in the Sermon on the Mount.  We’re in chapter 7.  And we can almost see…you know, we’re in the homestretch here, okay.  Matthew 5, 6, and 7.  We’re not far from the end here in the Sermon on the Mount.  And as you're gonna find, Jesus ramps it up here a little bit.

0:01:00.4

Read with me or follow along as I read Matthew 7:1-6.  “Do not judge, or you 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 is a plank in your own eye?  You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”  Now verse 6, “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs.  If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.”  Wow!  Some strong words there coming from the Savior, aren’t they?  Very strong words.  We need to take some time to find out what they mean and how they apply to us today.

0:02:21.7

I will tell you that the text of scripture that I just read, especially the first verse, is the most misunderstood and misused and misapplied text in the Sermon on the Mount.  I doubt that there is a person in this room who has not heard or even used the phrase from verse 1, “Judge not, lest you be judged.”  We’ve all heard that.  And people in our culture and our world today, even non church-going people, they’ve heard that phrase before.  They may not think of it in the context of the Sermon on the Mount.  But we hear people say, “Judge not.  You have no right to judge, okay.”  But it’s so misunderstood, so misused.  And so let’s take some time in the beginning here to try and drill down and see what Jesus is really saying and what is He meaning.

0:03:20.9

As I unpacked the commentaries and the scholars this week and just pulled all the books out in my library and read through a number of references, I found that there are basically three different views that people had on this particular verse, “Judge not, lest you be judged.”  Now, the first one would suggest that we should abolish our judicial system.  This is Tolstoy’s view.  You know, “we should just get rid of the Supreme Court and get rid of all those elected judges because Jesus said, ‘Judge not.  We don’t need a department of Justice.  Just get rid of all that stuff.”  Hey, while we’re at it, why don’t we get rid of Olympic judges?  I mean, who in their right mind has the right to hold up a 9.5 and judge a gymnast, right?  Tolstoy didn’t say that, but I’m taking his crazy idea to an extreme.  And while we’re at it, let’s get rid of judges like Simon Cowell, who has…you know, why does he have the right to judge a talent contest?  I don’t want to spend a whole lot of time on this view because it was kind of ridiculous and not many people held on to it.  But it was out there at some point from Tolstoy.

0:04:30.3

The second view said that we should embrace…these are my words, but we should embrace political correctness and avoid making critical moral distinctions based on truth.  Now we’re on to something here.  This is where our culture is living.  We have people saying, “Judge not, because you don’t have the right to judge me, especially to make critical moral distinctions based on truth.  Whose truth?  Your truth or my truth?  You have your truth, but I have my truth.  Truth is relative to the individual, therefore we need to be tolerant of one another, which means the absence of any critique or critical moral distinction based upon truth.”  Is that what Jesus is talking about here?

0:05:27.7

My friend Larry Osborne is the lead pastor at North Coast Church in the San Diego area.  In fact, his book that I hold in my hand says that he is recognized as one of America’s most innovative pastors.  I’ve got to talk to Larry about that.  But it’s true, he is.  He is a father figure.  He is an innovator.  He is a pioneer in so many areas of ministry.  They’ve got a great ministry in the San Diego area.  I had a couple come up to me after the 8:00 service and say, “We attended there for years, and Larry is a great guy.”  He wears those Hawaiian shirts out there.  But Larry wrote a book years ago.  And he and I actually had breakfast in Dallas about 6, 8 months ago.  And we talked about ministry.  He’s kind of a father figure to a lot of pastors.  And he had just republished a book that he had published years ago, only this time under a different title, Ten Dumb Things Smart Christians Believe.  And he landed upon this subject here in Matthew 7.  Listen to what he says about tolerance.  He says, “Unfortunately, tolerance no longer means what it used to mean.  It once meant granting others the freedom to be wrong.”  Interesting.  “It didn’t preclude critique and criticism.  It simply sought to offer evaluation in the spirit of grace and humility.  That’s a long way from today’s definition of tolerance as affirming that everyone is right no matter they believe or what they do.”  He goes on to say, “This new definition of tolerance has become so widely adopted that even many Christians believe that it’s inappropriate to critique or criticize the religious beliefs or moral standards of others.”  I think he is spot on.  He is spot on.

0:07:20.9

And we’re living in this politically correct culture that tells us we cannot judge.  We cannot make moral distinctions based upon truth.  Judge not, because your truth is your truth and my truth is my truth.  And we’ve let that seep into the church today.  And we need to expose the falsehood for what it is.  If that’s what Jesus meant when He said, “Judge not,” then we’re gonna have a problem when we get to verse 15 when He says, “Watch out for false prophets.” Because if we can’t make a moral or theological distinction based upon the truth in God’s Word, then how do we know the difference between a false and a true prophet?  So Jesus did not tell us to do one thing and then give us something contradictory later in His Sermon on the Mount.  So view two doesn’t hold any water here.  He’s not talking about political correctness.  So what does He mean?

0:08:23.2

View number three, here’s how I’d phrase it.   We should stop finding fault with others when our own lives are so messed up.  Ouch.  Ouch.  One of the scholars that I read said that Jesus called a spade a spade.  He was a truth-teller, wasn’t He?  And He didn’t mind, even early on in His ministry, standing on the hillside overlooking that Sea of Galilee of just speaking the truth as it is.  So finding fault in others when your own life is so messed up I think is what He’s saying here.  And I love the way John introduces Jesus in his gospel, John 1.  “We behold his glory, the glories of the only begotten of the father, full of,” here it is, “grace and truth.”  A perfect balance in Jesus.  He was a truth-teller, but He did it in a gracious way.  And I want us to hear that through the pages of scripture today, because what we’re gonna unpack here in this section of the Sermon on the Mount is hard.  It’s hard.  It’s visceral.  But understand that it comes from the sovereign judge of the universe who came full of grace and truth.  You tip to one side or the other and your life is going to be out of balance.  He wasn’t a truth-teller with a hard edge.  Nor did He tip so much to the other direction that He was all full of grace that He couldn’t make a moral distinction based upon truth.  You follow me so far?

0:10:24.1

This critical, fault-finding spirit that Jesus has in the bull’s eye, you find it everywhere.  You might find it in your marriage.  You may be married to somebody who is always finding fault with you.  Or maybe you are the person in the marriage who has just developed this critical, fault-finding spirit.  And when I meet somebody like that, these days the question I’m asking is, what kind of home did you grow up in?  I want to explore that a little bit, because how did this critical, fault-finding spirit develop in you where you’re always looking for the wrongs in somebody and pointing them out?  That you never have an encouraging word.  That you never way, “Way to go.  I’m proud of you,” or whatever it might be.  Where did that come from?  Did you grow up in a family perhaps where there was this toxicity in your parents’ marriage where you heard the criticisms back and forth?  And maybe you never heard from your father or you never heard from your mother what a great job you’re doing.  I grew up in a family where my dad just…every opportunity he gets, even in my adult years, “I’m proud of you, son.  You’re doing a great job.”  And as we have phone calls, me in Washington and him in Houston, he always adds, “How are those Washington people treating you,” you know, because he sees the politics on, you know…he’s an armchair politician.  But some of you didn’t grow up in a home like that where you were affirmed.  And all you heard was, “Can’t you do any better than that?  You’re not this.  You’re not that.”  This critical, fault-finding spirit that seems to have roots in maybe the environment that you grew up in.  And then you become an adult and you get married.  And you’re in this marriage, and there’s this toxicity.  And you just can’t quite figure it out.

0:12:29.3

Sometimes it happens in churches too.  You ever been in a church where there just seems to be a spirit of criticism and fault-finding everywhere you go?  And you wonder, how does that develop in a congregation?  What kind of teaching was there?  We’ve all perhaps heard preachers to seen preachers who kind of have a hard edge.  And I’ve heard some people say, “You know, I grew up in a church that I really didn’t feel like I went church unless the pastor beat me up a little bit, you know.”  That kind of thing.  “I’ve got to feel bad when I come out of church, you know.”  Not a lot of encouragement and uplifting.  And maybe it’s not so much the hard-edge preaching as it is the absence of grace in the recipe of the sermon presentations.  It makes me think of what Sinclair Ferguson says at this point in his analysis of this text.  He says, “The heart that has tasted the Lord’s grace and forgiveness will always be restrained in its judgment of others.”  That is powerful.  That is spot on, friends.  Because when you have really tasted of the grace of God—I’m not saying that you’re sitting there singing, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound,” and just mouthing the words.  I mean really, in a visceral, soul-transforming kind of way, experience the grace of God—it puts a governor on a critical and fault-finding spirit.  It just puts a governor on that.  Because you just say, “I’ve been the recipient of God’s grace and forgiveness and His mercy.  How can I stand in judgment and a fault-finding kind of way with you?”

0:14:26.2

Well, where do we go from here as we work out way through the text?  I call them some tips about tolerance.  Tips about tolerance this morning.  Number one, do not stand in the place of God.  Let’s go back to verse 1.  “Do not judge or you too will be judged.”  He goes on to say, “For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged.”  And who will do that judging?  Well, it’s the sovereign judge of the universe, right?  “And with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”  You get the sense that if we judge others inappropriately with this critical, fault-finding spirit that we pile on extra judgment for ourselves.  Okay?  You get the idea there?

0:15:07.2

Now, with that in mind, I want us to turn from Matthew to Romans 2.  Love to hear the pages turning.  Romans 2. Romans is a deeply doctrinal book.  Paul is not as personal in the book of Romans as he is in other places, but we’ll go there in a moment.  But in Romans 2 listen to what Paul says.  And I wonder if he has in mind this teaching from the Sermon on the Mount when he says this.  Romans 2:1, “You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself.”  Why?  “Because you who pass judgment do the same things.”  I like his rationale there.  “Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth.  So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment?”  Now, listen to this.  “Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?”  What is he saying here?  He says those of us who have been on the receiving end of God’s kindness and tolerance and patience…and let’s be quick to say God is not tolerant of sin.  No, He judged sin at the cross, right, so that He would turn to us.  And with a heart that overflows in generosity and kindness toward us and tolerance…not a critical, fault-finding kind of relationship with us.  No, there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.  God is not looking at you, He is not looking at me in Christ in a critical, fault-finding way.  And He says those of us who are on the receiving end of that, maybe we’ve forgotten the riches and kindness and His tolerance toward us if we’ve developed this critical, fault-finding spirit toward another person.

0:17:20.0

Now, let’s go to a more personal letter.  1 Corinthians 4.  And if you’re a student of the New Testament, you know that the apostle Paul found himself in the unenviable position of having to defend his ministry over and over again.  The critical attacks came against Paul.  And he, in a very apologetic kind of way, says…he wasn’t defensive, but he had to defend his ministry.  And you get that sense as you read 1 Corinthians 4:3.  Listen to this.  “I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court.  Indeed, I do not even judge myself.  My conscious is clear, but that does make me innocent.  It is the Lord who judges me.  Therefore, judge nothing before the appointed time.  Wait until the Lord comes.  He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts.  And at that time each will receive his praise from God.”  You see, Paul was on the receiving end of some critical, fault-finding people who wanted to judge his motives.  And that’s always a slippery thing to do, isn’t it?  Because who can look inside a man’s heart or a woman’s heart and judge their motives?  Only God can do that.  And so if we find ourselves in the position of doing that, what we’ve done is two things.  We’ve looked at God and said, “God, You know that throne You sit on?  You need(0:19:00.0) to get off there, and I’m gonna sit there.  I’m gonna put myself in the place of God.”  And the second thing that we do, friends, is we preempt the final Day of Judgment.  Because Paul here says wait until the appointed time when the sovereign judge of the universe will expose the motives of men’s heart and bring to light what is hidden in darkness.  In the meantime, don’t put yourself in the place of God with a critical, fault-finding spirit toward another person.

0:19:38.2

That’s tip number one.  Let’s go back to Matthew 7.  I would phrase tip number 2 this way.  Correct yourself before you correct others.  Let’s read on in verse 3 again.  “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,’ (0:20:00.0) when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?  You hypocrite,” He says, “first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”  My friend Larry Osborne likes to say this is the point at which Jesus says deal with your own stuff first, okay.  And He uses this great kind of anecdote here about a speck in somebody’s eye and this plank that is sticking out of this other guy’s eye.  And it’s meant to be a little humorous, okay.  Now, we don’t understand Hebrew humor, but 2000 years ago there were probably some chuckles going through the crowd there on the hillside.  Because just imagine in your mid this guy with this big board, this plank sticking out of his eye.  If you drew that as a cartoon you’d kind of go, “Ha-ha, that’s kind of funny.”  And humor has a great way of disarming us so we can receive the truth.

0:20:59.0

Now, I’m not a natural humorist.  Jay Leno and those guys, their jobs are secure.  I’m never gonna be a standup comedian.  I don’t have the gift of humor like some people do.  I have the gift of laughter.  I love to be around people who have the gift of humor.  If you're that way, invite me over to your parties.  I’ll laugh at all of your jokes.  I just love to be around people who have a hilarity about their life and they can see people in kind of a crazy lens.  It’s just fun to be around those folks.  We kind of have a running joke in my family that, you know, every once in a while I’ll say, “Yeah, kids, dad just provided some humor for the family.”  And my kids kind of roll their eyes, like, “Yeah, right, dad.  You know, you’re funny, dad.”  They don’t get my humor, and we don’t really get the humor here.  But Jesus uses this kind of humorous anecdote to slip the truth in.  And have you noticed that when it comes to humor, a joke can be told and everybody else is laughing but you when you discover the joke’s on you?  And you just kind of go, “Ha…oh.”  That’s kind of what’s happening here.  Listen to this again.  “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 is a plank in your own eye?”  Ha-ha, chuckle, chuckle.  “You hypocrite.”  In other words, the joke’s on you.  And it was silent on the hillside because they knew there was a bull’s eye right at them.  Yeah.

0:22:38.5

What is he saying in the analogy here?  He is saying that we have a tendency to exaggerate the faults in others and minimize the gravity of our own.  And it’s hypocritical.  It’s a hypocrite thing to do.

0:22:57.1

Now, it doesn’t mean that we have to be perfect before we make moral distinctions or have hard conversations or, you know, confront somebody.  But look what He says by way of priority.  “First, [first], take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”  I get the impression that that word “first” probably involves a lot of time for you and me to kind of examine our own hearts.  Before we ever begin to spit nails and shoot bullets in a critical, fault-finding way toward our spouses, toward our children or toward one another in our church, correct yourself, Jesus would say, before you correct others.

0:23:57.5

Here’s a third tip here.  And it’s all based on verse 6, and I would phrase it this way.  Safely guard the sacred and priceless things in your life.  Now, if your heart is a little bit heavy up to this point as mine is and was during the week just processing this truth that He is unpacking here, this is where you need to strap on your seatbelts a little bit.  Listen to what He says.  “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs.  If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.”  That’s pretty graphic imagery.  What’s He talking about here?  He’s talking about sacred things.  He’s saying don’t give those sacred things in your life to the dogs.  And priceless things, don’t cast your pearls before the swine.

0:25:05.7

Let’s talk about these pigs and dogs.  The pigs that He’s talking about here, this is not Wilbur in Charlotte’s Web, if you remember the story, the cute little pig that he was.  This is not Miss Piggy in the Muppets, okay.  This is not a cute little piggy bank on your kid’s shelf.  To the Jews who were listening that day, pigs were vile, vile animals.  And what the little sheep that was spotless and blameless was to the worship practices of the Jews, pigs were to the vile, cultic worship practices of the pagans.  And so you remember the time that Jesus crossed the Sea of Galilee and came to the region of the Gerasenes?  And the demoniac came out of the caves possessed with seven demons or a legion of demons.  And Jesus cast out the demons, and the demons said, “Oh, Jesus, let us…” run to what?  The heard of pigs.  And the pigs became possessed by the powers of darkness, and they went over the cliff and into the sea below.  And if you understand what Jesus was doing on that side of the Sea of Galilee, it was a direct shot against the powers of darkness.  And so you’ve got to understand the visceral response from the Jews.  Don’t cast your pearls, your priceless things before the pigs.

0:26:44.9

And then the dogs.  How many dog lovers do we have here this morning?  I love dogs.  I’ve got a sweet golden retriever named Mandy.  We got her from a rescue agency in Texas, and she is just the sweetest thing.  I mean, she is the definition of man’s best friend.  I walk into the house at night, and she follows me around.  She gets in front of me as best as she can.  And if I stop, she sits in front of me.  And what she wants me to do is take my face and plant it on her face and just rub her ears.  Just rub her ears.  And I’ve never seen a dog like this that is so trusting and so giving that I could take my human face and put it on her dog face, and she never snips at me.  She never bites at me.  Never done it once.  She’s just man’s best friend.  She loves unconditionally.  You might have a dog like that.  I don’t know.  Maybe a little lap dog that you like.  It’s not the kind of dogs Jesus is talking about here.

0:27:39.9

You see, there were dogs that ran wild in the hillside of Palestine.  And these were vicious animals.  You would not even begin to think of putting your face on their face, because they would rip your face to pieces.  We would call them junkyard dogs here.  And Jesus says don’t give what is sacred to the dogs.  Don’t give what is priceless to the pigs.

0:28:13.7

I’ve got to tell you the scholar and commentators, they wrestled a little bit with the context of verse 6 here.  How does it fit into the flow of things?   Is it stand alone?  Does it fit with verses 1-5?  Does it fit with verses 7 and following?  I think—and most of them concluded—that it fits perfectly with His discussion here.  Because what He’s saying is this. There are some people in this world who are so in bondage to this critical, fault-finding spirit that you have to protect yourself against the vicious and vile attacks of pigs and dogs.  Now, I know that’s visceral, isn’t it?  It’s visceral.  But He says sacred things in life, the priceless things in life, there may come a point where you have to protect those and be aware of the vicious and vile pigs and dogs that are out there in the world.  I come to the end of a text like that, and I just want to go hug my dog Mandy.  You know, put my face on her face, you know.

0:29:24.8

But here is some application that I was thinking of this week and where does this play itself out.  I was thinking of the kind of toxic political environment that we have in our country today.  National, local, state politics.  It’s pretty toxic right now.  Politics has always been kind of rough and tumble, hasn’t it?  But it’s at a new level these days.  And you’ve heard people say we have a vacuum of leadership in our nation.  And I believe that is true for this reason.  The environment has become so toxic that good people who would make excellent leaders and legislators in our country have seen the toxicity in our system now and have said, “I am not going to risk the sacred and priceless things in my life, namely my family and my reputation, and allow the vicious and vile pigs and dogs on both sides of the political aisle rip and tear all of that to shreds.”  There are some great people who have stepped forward to serve at a tremendous cost to them personally and their families.

0:30:48.3

And if that isn’t powerful enough to think about, what’s worse than that is church politics.  And I want to be careful here, because I know that some of you are new to the faith.  Some of you listening to the sound of my voice or watching on the internet.  You may be at another church.  Even as I say that, you have a reference point somewhere.  If you’ve been going to churches all your life, you’ve got some kind of reference point, okay.  I don’t need to expand that at all.  But I’m here to tell you, friends, that it is a blight, a hidden blight, on the church in North America, the church politics.  And it’s a sin.  Unless there is a sin issue or a heresy issue, the politics and the caucusing that happens in a lot of churches, tearing churches apart and families apart, it needs to be exposed.  Denominations that are fighting.  I know there are doctrinal issues.  Sometimes there are sin issues.  But sometimes people just can’t get along.  And when they can’t get along, the outside world says, “See?  That’s why I don’t embrace your Jesus.”  Or was it Gandhi who said, “I love your Jesus.  I just don’t like Jesus followers.”?

0:32:24.8

Cathryn and I have learned over the years to guard and safely protect the sacred and priceless things in our life.  And one is a call to ministry that I take very, very seriously.  I remember 2 ½ years ago when I met the search committee and the elders.  And I said…there’s always this conversation at some point and a good conversation about, you know, “Pastor, if we call you here, we are entrusting you with this church and this ministry.”  I take that very seriously.  There is a stewardship.  There is a trust.  But somewhere in the conversation I always that around, and I say, “And if I come here, I’m trusting you with my call to ministry and depositing it in a place, hopefully a healthy place, where that call can thrive and grow in the context of a community of believers who are passionate followers of Christ and just want to share the gospel and win people to Christ.”  Our family is a sacred and priceless thing, okay.  And Cathryn and I are kind of protective.  And you just need to know, a lot of senior pastors especially have some walls built around them because of experiences that they’ve had.  And maybe we’re a little overly protective about that, but we protect our kids, our marriage.  Our house is a sacred sanctuary for us because inside the walls of that house you won’t…we’re not perfect, but it’s not a toxic environment where critical, fault-finding things are going on.  And we protect that.  It’s priceless to us.  Our children are priceless to us.

0:34:14.2

But about a year ago my daughter was in a 5th grade Sunday school class here.  And a little girl came up to her and said, “We don’t like your daddy.”  And it bothered the heart of my then 10-year-old daughter for about 8 months.  Because at Sunday lunch, I get home about 1:00 or so, and we try to have lunch together.  And I said, “Hey, guys, how was church today?”  “Daddy, she was back.”  “I’m sorry, sweetheart.  Just try to ignore her.”  While Cathryn’s driving home with the kids, “Mommy, she was back today.”  And I just…the images in this text are so visceral, friends.  They’re visceral.  But the stakes in the kingdom of God are much higher than anything in politics.  But we’ve allowed the toxicity of this world to squeeze—and I’m talking churches across the country, denominations, individual churches, perhaps it applies to us too—to squeeze us into that mold of vicious and vile attacks from pigs and dogs.

0:35:42.5

Well, where do you go from here?  You know, I’d like to go hug my dog Mandy.  But my heart raced to the cross.  I just wonder.  You know, Jesus is delivering the Sermon on the Mount on the front end of His ministry, and I know He had some sense of what He was heading to.  Let’s fast forward to the day when He rode into the city of Jerusalem on a donkey.  And He heard the sounds of, “Hosanna!  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”  And the sounds of singing and the palm branches and all that quickly had turned to, “Crucify Him!  Crucify Him!”  And the vicious and vile pig and dogs of the religious establishment of that day arrested Him.  And they put Him on trial.  And they mocked Him, and they scourged Him.  And they falsely accused Him.  They beat Him.  They whipped Him.  They took a crown of thorns and pressed it into His head.  They took Him outside the city gates, laid Him on two wood beams, and took nails about that long and pounded them into His hands and into His feet.  They suspended Him between earth and heaven and crucified Him.

0:36:51.2

Now, I know it was all part of the plan of God, but I think He had a picture of it.  He knew how vicious and vile it would become.  And yet there on the cross with His hands spread out, He said these incredible words.  “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”  And the story doesn't end.  A kind and gracious rich man took His body and gave Him a proper burial.  And they rolled the stone in front of it.  And three days later, just as He said, He rose from the grave.  He came out of that grave and declared victory over sin and death.  And the shot across the bow that He sent in the region of the Gerasenes, He declared once and for all the powers of darkness are dismantled.  They lose.  And then He met with His disciples.  He ascended to the right hand of the Father.  He said, “Stay here until I send the Holy Spirit.  I’m going back to the Father.  He’s gonna come.  You can’t do this without the Spirit of God within you.  I’ve been with you, but now we’re gonna be in you.”  And He’s there at the right hand of the Father, praying and interceding for saints like you and me.  And His lips are pursed to the trumpet.  He’s coming soon.  And let’s be the kind of people who are found to be faithful with what He has given to us.  Let’s pray together.

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Father, thank You for Your Word and for truth that You have given to us, even as hard as it is to deliver and to receive.  But we thank You for Jesus.  We thank You for Jesus.  Father, pour into me and into every one of us in this room such an amazing experience with Your kindness and grace and tolerance toward us that the world looking in would say, “Yeah, there’ s a place where I don’t find an unkind word.  There is a place where I find encouragement and grace.  Oh yes, truth, but the perfect balance of the two.”  May we be people of grace who can really say how amazing it really is.  In Christ’s name I pray, amen.

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