Look At Yourself First

Look at yourself.

Matthew 7:1 Judge not, that ye be not judged. 2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. 3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

To begin with brothers and sisters, Christian Friends, Well Wishers and Saints of God there comes a time when we have to put first things first. We have to live Righteous and it can’t be “Do what I say but not as I do.

And when I first got here the leadership team spoke and I heard a great brother tell me Rev we are going to follow you as you follow Christ. The formula for success is to be Righteous. Not just talk but actually be Righteous. The thing that impressed me most about this leadership team is that they have a real love for God and a deep respect for the Pastor. And To A Pastor that will make him go over ,above, and beyond the call of duty for them.

Let’s read the text again. Matthew 7:1 Judge not, that ye be not judged. 2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. 3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

I did the research on this text up and this if what I found. Somebody say What you found Rev?

The first principle of judgment is that we ought to begin with ourselves. First things first, start off with what’s wrong with you before you go to pointing fingers at anybody else. And in this sermonic presentation Jesus tells us to be careful of having a one sided view about any of our brothers or sisters. Jesus did not say that it was forbidden to judge others,because careful discrimination is essential in the Christian life. And saints of God 3 John 1:11 Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God: but he that doeth evil hath not seen God.

In other words The blind can not lead the blind because they will surely fall into a ditch. First get yourself together because Christian love is not blind. And let me back this up with scripture (Phil. 1:9–11) says .9 And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; 10 That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ; 11 Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.

Paul was saying in that Philippian text when you make judgments they ought to be in love because the congregation was mature enough to see the truth. In essence Paul knew that he was talking to people with good sense that knew right from wrong. And the church said Amen.

Tell your neighbor: we know right from wrong too.

Listen to this church, The person who believes everything and all that he/she hears, and accepts everyone who claims to be spiritual will experience confusion and great spiritual loss.

Everybody is not speaking for God! Just stirring up messing. brothers and sisters before we judge others, we must first judge ourselves. Yes indeed. There are several reasons for this.

1.We Shall Be Judged (In v. 1). The tense of the verb judged is very important because its past tense. And past tense signifies a once-and for-all final judgment. I didn’t know that until I researched this text this week. And that teaches talks and tells us that You and I are not the Righteous Judge . Only God is the Righteous Judge.

Tell your neighbor: God is the Righteous Judge

First things first judge yourself, then you’ll be in the posture of being prepared for that final judgment. Everybody in here has to get ready for that great getting up day. That Great Day when it’s His to call and Ours to answer, then and only then will we be ready to see God’s face.

And Jesus spoke this lesson because The Pharisees “played God” as they condemned other people.

Wait nah a noteworthy fact to teach the church is that everywhere you look in the NT scripture where Jesus is talking to the Pharisees, Jesus is telling the Pharisee off. Somebody ask me why? Why was Jesus always telling the pharisees off... because they were always trying to play God while putting everybody else down!!!

And get this now, the Pharisees never considered that God would one day judge them too. And that’s why, since I’ve been here I’ve told you it’s not good to point fingers at people because you got one finger pointing at them and three fingers point back to your self… And lastly you got your thumb pointing at God.

Somebody gave me real good advice while I was cutting grass on Monday before the big rain. It was in the Spirit The Young man came to me and said plain and clear Pastor the plan was for you to flip out, flash out, then fizzle out.

Because church here’s the truth, “In crisis situations a man/woman will fight or flight. And you’ll already know I’m I’ll fight. And I said Lord Don’t let me do nothing so stupid that I can’t recover from. And because # 1. We Shall Be Judged and then #2

2. We Are Being Judged (v. 2). Look at verse 2 and let’s read it together 2. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. “ Church Somebody is mad at you right now because you picked peace over drama and distance over disrespect”. It’s been a long time since anybody disrespected me publicly in church with character assassination. Church it happened when i was young and I didn’t handle it too well. The deaconesses made me go to my car and leave because they knew me.

I didn’t like then and I definitely don’t like it now. And the difference between then and now is that I’m much older and wiser. I already know touch not my anointed and do my prophet no harm.

2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

Brothers and sisters the word of God say in the book of Galatians “Be not deceived God is not mocked what soever you sow that shall you reap. If you sow bad seeds bad stuff is coming back your way. If you sow hate and you see that the church is coming together in love then you’re the problem! Anybody that sow negative divisive seeds and create a hostile church environment is coming on behalf of the devil. God is not the author of confusion. Thing will be done decent and in order in God’s church.

And this is how you know where you stand If your absence doesn’t bother them that you’re gone then your presence never mattered to them in the first place. First things first look at yourself. I told ya’ll I know I’ve got flaws and faults and fizzures but I’m not going to try to throw you under the bus to make myself look good.

And so brothers and sisters Not only will God judge us at the end, but people are also judging us right now. People know you in the community yeah. And people know exactly what kind of person you are. My oldest daughter Angelisa, her fiance said you want to know what people in Gonzales say about you? I said yeah. Keith said Man Pastor they say you one of the last OG out there.Everybody know you don’t play. People in the community knows you.

And the text says that we receive from people exactly what we give. The kind of judgment, and the measure of judgment that we spit out, comes right back to us. We reap what we have sown. And that’s why I won’t purposely do you dirty. I know it comes back… And for the record Rev Griffin was a good man. And if it wasn’t nothing for you to do him dirty, then I know it wouldn’t be nothing for you to do me dirty too.

# 3.We Must Clearly See How To Help Other People And Not Pull Them Down (vv. 3–5)

Tell your neighbor: Down Pull Them Down

Let’s read verse 3. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

Isn’t it funny that some people can come and tell you all about your life and their lives are tore up from the floor up. Yeah 3x. Some people try to tell you about your marriage and ain’t even married. Some people try to tell you about how to grow your hair and they ain’t got no hair. Tell you about your nails and haven’t had a manicure in years!!

It’s funny to me that some people try to tell me how to preach and can’t preach out a wet paper bag. The bible says And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? 4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?

Jesus says in essence You’re talking about the splinter and a speck of dust in my eye and you forgetting about the big 2x4 that’s in your eye. Isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black.

The Pharisees that Jesus was talking to, would often times judged and criticized others to make themselves look good. Brothers and sisters Jesus chose the symbol of the eye because this is one of the most sensitive areas of the human body.Listen folks If we do not honestly face up to our own sins, and confess them, then we blind ourselves ( guest what ) to our own selves! And if you’re blind to yourself then certainly you cannot see clearly enough to be able to help somebody else. The bottom line is that The Pharisees saw the sins of everybody else but they couldn’t see their own sins.

Then #4.

In verse 5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.

This sermon is about self examination. Look at yourself first. And in ministry we a taught by the word of God to be ever so careful to teach in love, and Minster with sensitivity and to serve with compassion. We are servants to the body of Christ and this community. And the church said Amen.

Jesus says to the Pharisee in verse 5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. In bible study we gave the definition to the term Hypocrite. A hypocrite is a person that wants everybody to believe that they are more spiritual than they really are. They are a stage actor.

Jesus told the Pharisee that they were hypocrites over 20 different times in the bible. So we know that the pharisees didn’t like Jesus for talking to them that way. And brothers and sisters the truth will either gather you solid friends or the truth will create you new enemies.Listen to the title of this sermon Look at yourself first…

And then lastly Jesus says some rather harsh things to the Pharisees. Look at verse 6 Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.

Jesus calls the Pharisees dogs and when you were called a dog in the bible, they were calling you a heathen. Jesus is calling the highest religious authorities Heathens…OO OO wee what an insult to people who thought of themselves as holier than thou and better than everybody else. And church I’m glad the term that’s my dog is playing out because That means that to Jesus you ain’t nothing but a heathen. Lord have mercy.

Then finally Jesus calls them swines and pigs and hogs. And in Jewish culture that was one of the worst insults you could receive. Even today if somebody call you a filthy pig , a ball hog, or a nasty swine you’d be offended. Because in Jewish culture they were forbidden to eat the pork in pigs.

Brothers and sisters If you dress up a pig, put lip stick on the pig. Put a cute little bonnet on her head, tie a pretty pearl necklace around her neck and try to think that that pig will be civilized, hah just let that pig get around mud and slop. That cleaned up pig will go a wallow in the mad and then feel right at home. and all that pretty stuff you put on her the bible says shell mess up your precious pearls.

In other words all of the good works you do, if there is a pig in the house they’ll come and trample over holy stuff and treat it like slop. And if that’s not enough, Jesus said that the heathen dogs if you mess with them they’ll turn around attack you and rip you to pieces.

The bible says a soft answer turns away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger. So Look at yourself first before you try to straighten out anybody else. Look at your own lifestyle and make sure it lines up with God. Look at your own character first before you try to engage in Character assassination . Check your own attitude before you use self aggrandizement to belittle others. Look at your own supercilious ways before pointing fingers at others. And lastly consider you own past record before you engage in innuendos and here say speculations and accusations. And lastly consider that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God and that we all are a work in progress. I’m through that’s it and that’s all.