Untitled Sermon (28)

A never watched Star Wars as a kid- not once, because I was terrified of Star Wars. You see, when I was 9 months old I had corrective surgery on my eyes. I was born cross eyed and they went in and corrected the muscles around my eyes. Well, I can remember a very vivid repetitive dream I had throughout my childhood when Darth Vader came into the operating room and attacked my eyes with a light saber, thus guaranteeing that I would never be a big fan of Star Wars.

Apparently eye surgery can leave some strange effects on a child.

In today’s passage we read about an eye surgery of sorts. Jesus is giving us some thoughts on sin, judging, and even a little bit on evangelism. There is a lot packed into the few verses.

I must tell you, I think Jesus’ words here hold so much value for Christians in 2023. Our culture has really become a place where people feel empowered to share their opinions, beliefs, and convictions freely without any care for how it affects others. I just told someone this week that I don’t know how our world has gotten to a place where people- including Christians- would feel so free to be so nasty and hurtful with the words and judgement they use on one another. The truth is you can be 100% right about the sin in someone else's life- and at the same time be 100% in sin yourself by how you address that sin.

So, today, lets see what Jesus said about how Christians are to look at, address, and even confront sin in one another’s lives.

First, notice that Jesus does not call us to ignore, skirt over, or act like the sin isn’t there.

There is no point in the Bible where we are called to ignore sin. In fact listen to some of what the Bible says about sin:

James 4:17 “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”

Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

1 John 1:8-10 “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”

Galatians 5:19-21 “Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

So, it is safe to say that the Bible wants us to acknowledge sin and avoid it.

ignoring sin is like ignoring a full garbage can. Anyone else have teenagers in here? Ones who like to try and act like they dont notice that the garbage is full? It can be spilling over the side, and they are still trying to jam trash down in it. You know what happens when you ignore the trash for long enough. It takes itself out, right? It disappears? No! It makes twice the mess and is twice as stinky and disgusting as it was when it first got full.

Regarding sin, one observed:

Man calls it an accident, God calls it an abomination

Man calls it a blunder, God calls it a blindness

Man calls it a defect, God calls it a disease

Man calls it chance, God calls it a choice

Man calls it an error, God calls it enmity

Man calls it fascination, God calls it fatality

Man calls it an infirmity, God calls it iniquity

Man calls it luxury, God calls it leprosy

Man calls it liberty, God calls it lawlessness

Man calls it a trifle, God calls it a tragedy

Man calls it a mistake, God calls it madness

Man calls it a weakness, God calls it willfulness

This passage is not about ignoring sin in our lives or the lives of our brothers and sisters. The Bible never tells us to do such things.

Second, notice that we are called to self examination before anything else

The Bible is both a mirror and a lens. When we approach the Bible we should see it as a mirror that helps us view ourselves and make the changes in our own lives that need to be made. This is the first step in confronting sin.

Before you confront sin in the world- you should first confront the sin in your own life! Or as the old saying goes- sweep your porch before you sweep mine.

I once saw an interesting sign in an employment office- it was a full size mirror with a sign that hung next to it that said “if you were a business owner, would you hire this person?” as an encouragement for people to think about how they presented themselves, and what kind of employee they would be. I wonder, could we do the same thing as Christians?

Jesus is clear in this passage, we need to clear the plank from our eye before worrying about our neighbors. He does not say do nothing about your neighbor, but check yourself first. He says that we should pull the log out of our own and AND THEN we will be able to help our brother.

Third, notice that this kind of accountability is rooted in relationship

Jesus uses the term “brother” three times in this passage. This is extremely important. Accountability is rooted in relationship. In fact, I would say this is where most Christians make their biggest mistake when it comes to calling out sin- they try and call out sin on people they do not have a relationship with.

One of the things I have become more and more aware of in ministry is that in order to help someone get the sawdust out of their eye, it is helpful to understand how it got there in the first place. Stories empower healing.

When I broke my arm I got really tired of explaining to doctors, nurses, and everyone else how I broke my arm. By the 8th person I just wanted to say- its in the chart! But then I remembered, they were not being nosey or making small talk, they wanted to know the story to help inform them on how they should treat my injury.

What if we did this in the church? What if instead of sitting in your pew and casting judgement on the woman who is going through a divorce- you invited her to coffee and heard her story? What if instead of judging the man with alcohol on his breath you had him over to your place and just talked about life.

But instead we assume that we know the entire story. Chuck Swindoll told of his being at a pastor’s conference where he would be speaking. The first day there a man approached him and said how greatly he had looked forward to hearing Dr. Swindoll speak and his delight at now finally being able to realize that desire. That evening Swindoll noticed the man was sound asleep only a few minutes into of the sermon. Swindoll thought to himself that perhaps he was tired after a long day’s drive and couldn’t help himself - but this continued to happen night after night. Dr. Swindoll soon became very upset in his spirit with this man! On the last night the man’s wife came up and apologized for her husband’s inattention to the messages. She then explained that he had recently been diagnosed as having terminal cancer and the medication he was taking to ease the pain made him extremely sleepy. But it had been one of his life-long ambitions to hear Dr. Swindoll speak before he died, and now he had fulfilled that goal.

What if we saw an opportunity to help- because have you ever had sawdust in your eye? It’s kind of painful- its really not fun,.,

After all, I would argue that helping someone get sawdust out of their eye is an act of mercy and compassion...

It seems, friends, like what the Bible is tell us here is to not be a censorious person. Have you ever met one of those? A censorious person has a default setting of critical. They always have them most negative things to say about other people. They see every- except themselves and those closest to them- as wrong, as mean, or as sinful. A censorious person has the uncanny ability to see everyone else’s shortcoming from a mile away and once they see them they make sure that they point them out for the world to see.

ne of the powerful figures in Wall Street fell in love with an actress. For many months he was always seen escorting her about in the fashionable circles of town. Deciding to marry her, he first put a private detective to the job of looking into her former dealings and friends in order to guard himself against any rash mistake. At last he received his agent’s report. “Miss Blank enjoys an excellent reputation. Her past is spotless. Her associates have been above reproach. The only breath of scandal is that, in recent months, she has been much seen in the company of a business man of doubtful reputation.”