The message
All I need is a little more discipline. All I need is a little more commitment. All I need is a to little more to try a little harder. But in the gospel, what he's saying is what you need is a lot more dependence on me. And we're not really good at depending on anybody else other than oursel because we don't trust many people.
And the reality is there's good reason why you don't trust people because people have a problem with being trustworthy.
However,
Christ is not like most people. Christ is infinitely trustworthy and he's somebody you can trust.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 2:39
So then we have to then when we engage the Gospel, we have to do the hard work of detaching oursel from this idea that people are untrustworthy and lean into this idea and concept that we need to be dependent on Christ to live this kind of life. You just can't do it on your own strength. So here in chapter 7, we read this.
He gives us a command. That's not easy to do. If you drive down the road out of your parking lot at least 10 miles, you will struggle with all of this with people who are not even believers. May or may not be. They're just humans out on the road cutting you off. Judge not, lest you be judged. Inside the life of the church, it's one thing. It's judging everybody because everybody else has a problem and you're infinitely perfect is silliness, right?
That's silliness. Judge not, lest you that you be not judged for. And this is extremely sobering. This should terrify you to the core knowing how we are.
Don't let this be lost on you. For with the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged.
Let that one sit for a while. Like when you read this week in preparation for today, hopefully you did. That should terrify you. That one day you'll stand before the Lord and he will judge you at the level you judged others. Ye and with the measure you use, he'll measure to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye but do not notice the log that is in your own?
That's a hilarious image. That's hilarious. Or how can you say to your brother, "Let's take that speck out of your eye, man, when there's a log protruding out of your own, you hypocrite." And we hate that word, right? Like we love coming to church and people even outside the church love talking about how much they hate hypocrites. It's calling people who do this a hypocrite.
You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye and then you'll will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. And then it just goes sideways here. It just really gets weird. 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. How do you know if people are dogs and pigs if you don't judge them?
Wait a minute. Wait. Whoa. You said don't judge. What's the cutest animal ever? A koala bear. Aren't everybody shouldn't everybody be seen as koala bears? Now you're going to call people pigs.
Don't you have to use judgment to know if they're a koala bear or a pig? This has gone off the rails, but just hear me for a second. That means that if at the end he is telling us to use sound judgment to determine whether someone's a dog or a pig or what they are, that judgment is not necessarily the problem.
So don't get it convoluted and create yourself a t-shirt that says, "Don't judge me." That's not the point of this text. Are you with me today? Now, I don't know what your conversations were around small group, but if it was, don't judge me. Don't judge me. That's not what he's saying. Because at the end of it, he tells you to use sound judgment to determine whether people are dogs or pigs. So, what is he saying then?
What is he saying? I've titled this sermon, and I think it's fitting, clean heart, clear eyes.
If you don't have a clean heart, you don't see life the way God intended.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 7:12
That the way that you begin to see life the way God intended. The only way you get there is by allowing him to clean your heart. And how many of you know if you've if you're alive, if you're breathing and you're you're sitting under the sound of my voice, how many of you know that you have some heart issues that God is still working on?
Amen. Yeah. Now, he is good that he's diligently doing that, right? It's good that he's faithfully and consistently helping us with our heart issues. And the more that he cleanses our heart, the more he helps us to see life the way that he sees life.
He's trying to do something to help us. Clean hearts gives us clear eyes. There is a dangerous illusion that many people live under today. They believe that they see clearly, but the reality is they don't because their heart is prideful, selfish, and it's tainted. They believe that their judgments are accurate when they look at other people. They believe that their conclusions about others are justified.
But Jesus in this text pulls back the curtain and exposes something terrifying.
You can be very confident about how you're seeing other people and at the same time be completely blind.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 8:41
I love the Scripture because whenever Jesus is healing people, he heals a lot of blind people. Now, what's crazy about that is the blind people that he's healing, they don't necessarily know that they're blind. I mean, they know that they're blind. Sorry.
Like a blind person who hasn't seen their whole life that he goes up to and that can't see, that person is aware that when they walk around, they bump into walls because they can't see them. However, when he talks about the hypocrites, he's talking about people who cannot. They think they can see, but in reality, they don't see life the way that he intended them to see it.
Their pride has blinded them from seeing others the way they see themsel. And people have become distorted. The way they see theirel is distorted. Truth becomes distorted. This sound familiar?
Today we live at a time where truth is infinitely distorted.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 9:55
We cannot and I and listen, it is my heart ambition to help people inside the walls of the church the next several years, particularly this church, but inside the walls of our church to help us be able to determine the difference between a cultural worldview and a biblical one.
If ever there was a time for us to have the tools to know how to distinguish between that which is not godly and that which is godly, specifically when Scripture is used to preach falsehoods. Today is the day. We have entire organizations and churches building around false narratives, false ideas structured by cultural preferences over God's word. It's happening everywhere. And today we are blind.
We don't see it. This is not a critique because this has happened to every single person in the room including me. There are Scriptures, track with me here, that we go through since we've been preaching through Scripture that we go to and we discuss in small group and
We repeat cultural worldviews that are not biblical ones just because we've heard it so much.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 11:23
A perversion of truth around a Scripture that's not biblical.
That when you look at the greater narrative of Scripture, it's not what it's saying. Point one, we'll move on. A clean heart sees people clearly. We're just going to break this up the way that Jesus did it. A clean heart sees people clearly. Matthew 7:12, "Judge not that you may not be judged, for with the judgment you pronounce, you'll be judged, and with the same measure you use, it'll be measured to you." So basically, he draws this imagery of a courtroom.
That's the imagery. Jesus opens this passage by dragging us into a courtroom. And honestly, if you think about it, many people are comfortable living there. We love the courtroom. They've spent years sitting behind the bench of judgment, evaluating people, weighing their failures, passing verdict on their character, other people's character, delivering quiet sentences in the chambers of their heart.
Some people in the church have turned criticism into a spiritual gift.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 13:04
They critique pastors. They critique churches. They critique their spouses. They critique friends. They critique culture. They critiqued everyone. Is that you? And the entire time they sit comfortably in the judge's seat. Listen, just listen to that. If I was on trial for murder. And it says, if you've ever talked bad about your brother, you're a murderer.
So that's all of us. Me. Me, too. It's all of us. We're all murderers. And if we're on trial, we go to the courtroom and we're on trial for murder. And I stand trial and they give a defense, but I don't have much to defend because I did it.
And the judge then slams his goble and says, "you know what? You're guilty. Sentenced to life in prison." You know how ridiculous after that happened? If I broke away from the policeman, ran up to the judge's seat, knocked him out, sat down on the seat, banged the gavvel, and began to pass judgment on everybody else in the room. You know how ridiculous that would be?
Yet, that's what we do.
We have just been found guilty of a heinous crime. Yet, we think we are entitled to the judge's seat.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 14:54
And honestly, I'll just say this. Many people begin to pass judgment on others because they've been rightfully judged.
Let's make it fair, right? I mean, if I'm a murderer and you guys are murderers, then I want to make sure you get yours because I've got mine.
Sometimes it's just about getting even. Sometimes it's not even that you can't see that other people that you're not the problem. Sometimes you can clearly see you're the problem. You just want to make sure that because Okay. So, how many of you have kids? How many of you when one kid is in trouble, they say, "but they so, sometimes it's not that you're blind from seeing your issues.
The issue is you know that you have issues and you want it to be fair.
But you're not judge. You're not the supreme judge. I personally don't want somebody who is a murderer judging my case for jumping somebody's fence and going in their yard trespassing. I don't I don't want that person. I want somebody who's done everything right to be my judge. And that's Christ. We want a judge. We want the judge's seat because it keeps us from sitting in the chair of the accused.
As long as I'm the one evaluating you, I never have to examine myself.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 17:01
As long as I'm pointing out your failures, I don't have to face my own. As long as the spotlights on your sin, the darkness in my own heart stays hidden. The reality is the judge's seat is comfortable because it protects our pride. But there's another problem hidden beneath this. If you believe that you can judge so easily, if you're so confident in your ability to identify what's wrong with everyone else's life, then the question becomes unavoidable.
Why are you then not living to the same standard you're judging other people? Because clearly you're aware of what's right. Track with me here. The most judgmental people should be the holiest people.
We just jumped off a Scripture. It says, "Above all things, seek me, my kingdom, and my righteousness."
If you can judge everybody else of what they should be doing, that lets me know you know what you should be doing.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 18:15
I just don't like that they behaved that way. I just don't like that they did that. But then you do that. So if you can identify that they shouldn't do that, why do you give yourself permission to do that? I if people in the church are the most judgy people, let's just say they are. I don't think they are. I think everybody's judgy.
But if people in the church are pretty judgy because you should do this and you should behave this way and you shouldn't do that and I found that when people become Christian right off the bat, they tend to get pretty judgy about what people should do because now you know they're aware of what they should do, but then they don't do it.
I just don't like it when I don't I don't need to get specific.
Yeah. Yeah, I'll get specific. I don't think they should be out drinking and doing that get and behaving that way and then posting video about it. That comes from a man who in the privacy of his house looks at pornography. Are you with me today?
I actually found it's over 50% of the church. It's somewhere in the 65%. I think it's actually higher, but I'm staying lower. It's higher in the church have an issue with this. Listen, it's a pervasive issue. Sean, why are you talking about because it's a massive issue and you guys are judgy. While you practice sin, you practice it and you're judgy.
God's trying to do something with your heart. If you can identify what's right and wrong, allow God to change your heart regarding what you're doing.
How many of you know that God's got his hands full with you? And quite honestly, he don't need your help fixing other people.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 20:37
You take all your energy and you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteous ways. You do that. Don't forget we just came off that and now he's trying to say don't avoid doing what you should do by focusing on what other people should do. That's what he's saying. Don't get it convoluted.
Keep it connected contextually. Don't turn this into a verse. Well, you can't judge me. You can't judge me for what I'm doing. That's not what it says. It allows you to pick specks. Just get the plank out first. He counsels you to pluck specks, to identify specks. He says, "you can get the plank out first." And by the way, the reason he wants you to have this gigantic plank out is so you don't go digging around in people's eyes, whacking them out with the plank.
You got to get intimate with people to lovingly deal with a speck.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 21:55
A speck is way harder to get out than a giant old plank. You just pull the plank out. A speck, you could poke somebody's eye out. You got to How many of you like when my wife gets a hair in her eye and I try to get it out, I'm dainty and gingerly, as she's opening it, trying to gently and I got to get close to get that out.
This is a communal, relational, intimate moment that can only be established by an individual that's willing to do what's right for them before they help their brother or their sister. Some of us can't care for our neighbor because we won't focus on self long enough to deal with our own issues.
There's a problem with us living this way. The question is why are we not living by the same standard we judge? If you can clearly see what's what's wrong with others, then you already know what is right. Which means
The issue is no longer ignorance. The issue is disobedience.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 23:09
The problem is not that we cannot recognize righteousness. The problem is that we refuse to submit oursel to it.
We point out the sin of others while quietly excusing our own. And Jesus says something here that should make the room go silent. The same courtroom you use for others is waiting for you. The same measure you use is the measure you will be used on your own soul. Think about that. Every time you've dismissed someone, every time you've spoken about someone with quiet contempt, every time you've gossiped about someone, every time you've looked at someone else's failure and thought, "I hope they get theirs." Jesus says, "the scale's coming back, brother.
It's coming back." Pride loves the judge's seat because it never intends to stand trial, but yours is coming. And do
Don't you dare think you're going to stand on your own accord before Christ. You best be covered by the blood that's offered through his righteous life.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 24:23
Because if not, you're doomed when that judgment comes.
You're in trouble if you don't put your faith in him. Number two, a clean heart sees itself clearly. So he moves from the courtroom. Track with me. And he moves us in front of a mirror. I love this. 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? Or how can you say to your brother, "Let me take the speck out of your eye," when there's a log in your own, you hypocrite.
First, take the log out of your own eye, and then you'll see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. This is the mirror. He moves us from the courtroom to the mirror. The problem as I mentioned earlier is not is that he exposes is not primarily that we notice specks. The speck is real. The problem is not observation. Track with me here. The problem is not that you observe the speck. That's not the issue he's talking about.
He's not punishing you because you like that person has a speck in their eye. That's not that's not what it is. The problem is practice, your own practice. Imagine going to a nutritionist who can explain in great detail how you should eat, what you should eat, the way you should eat. They can describe proper nutrition, what balanced diet is, the discipline of eating properly.
They know exactly what healthy living looks like, but their own life tells a completely different story than what they know. They don't practice it. They base their whole diet on Froot Loops and Oreos, but they're telling you what you should eat.
That's crazy. That's crazy. You mean to tell me you have all this knowledge about what you should eat if I were to get a glimpse into your home, your cupboards and your refrigerator and your freezers all filled with trash food. But you're telling me what I should eat? That would be annoying. Amen. I've I've met some people like this. Their own life tells a different story.
They do not practice what they prescribe.
There's no nothing more annoying than people who don't practice what they prescribe.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 27:37
And they write scripts for everyone.
You shouldn't do this. You need to add this, you should be prescribed this, you should behave this way. Yet their own life lives the opposite. Or imagine hiring a physical trainer. They know every exercise. They understand strength and training and conditioning and endurance. They can explain exactly how to transform their body, but they never train. You pay them to train you, but they hadn't been to the gym in 15 years.
I'm kind of like, I'll pass. I'd rather eat a crispy cream donut. And when I eat a crispy cream donut, just track with me here for a second. I go all in because them things are fluffy. You know what I mean? Like little bits of heaven. They're fluffy. So when I eat one, I go like I want to make I do believe that when you take 12 of them, and I do this every time I go to Orlando because I can't do this in front of Brooke.
I take I get a whole I get all I get the plane because that's good and I get a whole box of them. There are 12 of them. I get 12 of them and I take them and I smash them all 12 of them into a dozen decker and you can smush them down where it's one doughut and that's way less calories.
Right. Right. I'd rather eat a dozen decker donut than go be trained by somebody who's never worked out. Why am I going to go to them for counsel? The reality is the mo. Let me just say this. I'm not saying you shouldn't notice this spec. I'm saying seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and live accordingly.
Become a practitioner to the scripts you write for others.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 30:04
That's a full-time job right there. What would the church look like? Track with me if we stopped pointing our fingers at others and started dealing with the planks in oursel. How would the world see the church if it were less plank ridden?
Some of you want to be a witness to your family and you want to be a witness to your friends and you want to be a witness to the world. Let me tell you don't need a theological degree to do that. You just need to rid yourself of the plank and your life becomes a living testimony to those who are far from him.
Some of you need to walk the plank of your own life and get a clear picture of your own issues.
Walk the plank. You know what I mean? I don't know. I'm sorry. I don't even know why I said that. I just it is what it is. The issue is not that they don't have the knowledge. The issue is they lack the credibility to tell me what to do because they don't even do it in their own life. You would begin if you saw this nutritionist and this physical trainer, you would begin to quietly question, why should I follow the advice that the teacher refuses to follow?
The good thing about the teacher who is Jesus Christ is he followed the advice he gave.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 31:56
That's somebody you can trust. So if you're going to follow somebody, be led by somebody, be taught by somebody, it should be him. It's funny because we'll pay people to train us how to get healthy when they have knowledge, but they're not great practitioners. But we won't even trust the one who did it perfectly.
There's a massive beam sticking out of our own eye. And the issue though, and I want to remind us, is noticing the spec. The issue is that we haven't dealt with the log. We have knowledge without obedience. We have advice without repentance. We have insight for others but blindness towards oursel. And Jesus says to them, "You're a hypocrite.
You're not a struggler. Not an imperfect believer. You're a hypocrite." Because hypocrisy is not simply failing.
Hypocrisy is teaching what you refuse to practice. It is calling others to standards you quietly excuse in your own life.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 33:13
It is confronting sin publicly while tolerating it privately. And Jesus asked a piercing question. How can you say to your brother, "Let me take that speck out of your eye? How can you correct what you refuse to confront?" Let's just move on.
Let's move on. Number three, a clean heart sees truth clearly. 76 Matthew 7:6 do not give dogs what is holy and do not throw your pearls before pigs. It's funny because what we immediately go to whether in our personal devotional life or whether in discussion or whether maybe even sitting in here now is who the dogs and the pigs.
Don't look to the left or right because that'll get real awkward. Who are the dogs and the pigs? Don't throw it before them, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you. When we ask who the dogs and the pigs are, I don't believe that's where Jesus is placing the emphasis here.
The focus of this verse is not about the animals. The focus is about the pearl.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 34:39
You know how pearls made? It's interesting. There's a grain of sand from the ocean gets in a clam, wiggles its way into the clam and gets stuck in there.
And over a immense amount of time, it the clam releases something that covers that grain of sand one layer at a time to make it smoother. And less painful for the clam until it produces a pearl of exceedingly great value.
I love this. Now, in this text, Jesus is comparing the pearl of great value to the truth of his word.
That's what he's saying. Now, if we were to we were to understand the nature of a pearl, where the pearl comes from, and the fact that pearl is developed through irritation, through trouble, and over time, and we were to connect that to truth, what would we learn from that?
Here's what I've learned from that. Some of us, we don't want to seek truth like a treasure hidden in a field.
Track with me. I'm going somewhere with this. The Bible says that I want you to seek, we just learned, seek first the kingdom of God. That means it's going to require some work. That means it's going to require some digging. That means it's going to require some irritation. That means it's going to take some time. If I were to be told, here's here. Hey, Sean, here's 50 acres. Somewhere in that 50 acres is a treasure. Can you get the imagery of me with a shovel out there digging holes trying to find the treasure? How many holes if you did a fly over of that 50 acres would you see?
If the only way I could determine where the treasure was by digging for treasure, hole after hole after hole. And if you did a drone fly over, there would be all these holes of me seeking that treasure.
Today, we want treasure without seeking. We want treasure without trouble. We want treasure without time.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 37:21
We want it immediately. Nuke it for me. Give me the truth of a text without me having to discover it on my own.
See, the issue today is not who are dogs and pigs. The issue is what does it take to develop a pearl? How long does it take for a pearl to develop? And how easy is it to snatch it up? I'm afraid today in the life of the church, we want to come on Sunday and be fed without having to seek.
Just give me the truth, son. I'd rather I would rather get a sermon short than watch the whole sermon. I don't even have time to watch the whole sermon. The so the sermon is unearthing. Somebody has already unearthed and set the treasure on top of the ground and done the work of digging it out. But I don't even have time to watch the whole sermon.
I just need the short of it. It takes time to get truth. Are you with me today? I'm not impromptu in this thing. This took hours to dig out truth. For those that come on Sunday, track with me here. Just track with me. I'm not trying to be mean. That come on Sunday. You never open the word. You never you never look at it. You don't engage it, you don't pray, you don't do any of that and you want to come here and snatch up the treasure.
He's saying you don't understand its value because you discover the value when you go through the pain. I tell you right now, the way I value a pearl is very different than the way a clam does, right?
Cuz it was painstaking to develop that pearl. It came from pain. It took time to develop that. You know why we cast the byproduct is casting it to the wrong place? You know why we cast it to the wrong place? Because we don't understand what it takes to get it. Because we just want to nuke it in our society.
Just give me the truth.
You know why some of you have a perverted truth? Because you're getting nuke truth from people who nuke truth and didn't actually dig it.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 40:11
They just had something cool to say. And you're you, let me tell you, and you adopt truth. Base your life on false truth because that person who told you that truth that you trusted didn't even dig themselves.
They winged it and just said something about it that wasn't true. They didn't look at Scripture in context. They didn't see what God was really trying to say. They didn't do the hard work of digging. They didn't value. They didn't understand that a treasure takes time to develop.
Track with me here. This is a problem in the church today. We want to go straight to the dogs and the pigs. You know why? Because we're judgy and because that gets the heat off us. We don't want to talk about the pearl, because that's going to cost us something. That'll make us have to sink. We don't want to talk about it being a treasure.
And today, honestly, no one here in this church, but all the other churches in town, right? Those people, right? That's a joke. Those people are bored with truth.
You know why? Too hard. It's too hard. Takes time for a pearl to develop. Jesus says there's something holy, something sacred, something precious, a pearl.
Sometimes the problem is believers have who stopped valuing the truth they've been given. They become bored with it. Truth becomes ordinary to them. The gospel becomes familiar. The word of God becomes something they hear so often that it no longer feels precious.
And
When truth is no longer treasured, it becomes easy to mishandle it. We speak about sacred things casually.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 42:30
We place holy things in careless environments. We treat the gospel like common information instead of eternal treasure.
But there's another layer to the pearl that deepens Jesus warning and takes time.
And slowly by layer, God forms something beautiful in the soul. Be encouraged today. It takes time for truth to do its work in you. This will help you today. This will help you. I'm going to throw you a bone. I'm going throw you a pearl at the end of this thing. Takes time for truth to do its work in you.
Takes time and through time truth confronts you. It irritates your pride. It presses against your assumptions and it exposes your heart. And
Slowly, layer by layer, God forms something beautiful in your heart.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 43:36
But today, we want pearls without process. We want truth instantly. We want wisdom immediately. We want understanding without the long work of seeking. So instead of digging for truth, we skim for it.
My boys make fun of me all the time because when they text me, I skim their texts. And I often get home after reading their text and later I will say, "Why did you say this?" And they're like, "I clearly didn't say that." Actually read my text.
Don't skim it, Dad. Skimming leads leaves out pertinent information. But we skim because we're busy. Too busy to in fact to value that which takes time.
This takes time. I just need everything to be quicker. I have a microwave. I do 90% of my cooking in a microwave because I needed to be quicker. I needed to be quicker. I had a slow cooker and then I needed an Insta Pot because I needed instantly quicker. All of life quicker. It needs to be quicker. And then God gives us this. And this takes time. And then we go, how can I convert this into a nuking situation for me?
Let me tell you,
When you take truth and you try to nuke it, you make yourself Lord.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 45:25
And the entirety of the lens by which you view Scripture is through the lens of self. And you hope you're going to get what he's trying to say in that text. It will not happen. We watch short clips. We call it understanding. We hear quick sermons and think we've grasped the depth of Scripture. We ask friends for advice and assume we've acquired wisdom. We listen to what someone else on earth instead of doing the hard work of seeking God oursel. And when truth is received this way, it is rarely treasured.
Because we value most what we search for, what we suffer to obtain, what we patiently uncover, we value.
Many believers today don't seek truth this way. So, how will they ever treasure it this way?
Pastor Shawn Gray · 46:29
And because they don't treasure truth like they should because they did not seek it the way they should, they naturally will cast it where they shouldn't. You tracking with me? See, that's at the end of the line. See, all of us are wondering about where to cast it.
But just like he said, stop focusing on everyone out there and start paying attention to how you view the pearl.
So, it's amazing because we can get through the first two parts, track with me here, and be like, I need to focus on me. And then we get to the pearl part, and we go them dogs.
We can't even make it to the end of the Scripture after being corrected twice about courtroom and the mirror. And we get to the third one, and we're like, who are the dogs? And who are the pigs? They're probably a pig. They're probably a pig. They're a pig. They're a pig. That's a dog. What? We just learned to stop doing that. You're the problem.
The problem is not the dog and the pig. The problem is the person who doesn't treasure the pearl.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 47:46
See how easy it is? Do you see how easy it is? God help us.