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Planks & Specks / Fruit & Trees
It’s easy to spot what’s broken in someone else’s life. What’s harder, even though it's deeply transformative, is pausing long enough to see the blind spots in our own. Many of us stumble through life either avoiding tough conversations or swinging the gavel with self-righteous certainty.
Pastor Curt invites us to lay down the weight of condemnation and step into honest, humble self-reflection. By shifting from criticism to accountability, hearts can move from defensiveness to real change.
Instead of trying to "fix" others, find the freedom in looking at your own heart and asking God to guide you further.
Scriptures Referenced: Matthew 7:1–7, Matthew 7:15-23, Luke 7:36-50, John 3:17, John 9:39, John 10:7, 2 Timothy 3:16-17
Key Insights
- Self-examination must come before confronting the faults of others.
- True discernment means offering love without sliding into silent approval.
- Fruitful lives are marked by humility, not just outward activity or words.
- Asking God honestly opens the door to unexpected provision and change.
Key Sections
00:00:00 - Honest Self-Reflection
When all you see are other people’s flaws, relationships get stuck and your own blind spots grow. Pastor Curt unpacks why confronting your own brokenness is the only path to empathy and real relational progress.
00:09:49 - Practice Humble Discernment
There’s a world of difference between calling out sin out of love and standing over someone in condemnation. Move from judgmentalism to genuine discernment that brings people together, not drives them apart.
00:18:43 - Test the Fruit
Ever felt lost about whom to trust? Pastor Curt points to Jesus’ challenge to recognize people by their fruit—lives marked by consistent, humble growth, not just impressive talk or big gestures.
00:34:11 - Live Out What You Hear
It’s one thing to agree with truth; it’s another to build your life on it. Here’s your invitation to move beyond lip service and let humility shape your actions, opening the door to belonging and deeper spiritual freedom.
https://springhousemidweek.captivate.fm/episode/planks-specks-fruit-trees
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Gathering Times
- Sundays, 9:00 AM
- Sundays, 11:00 AM
- Thursdays, 6:00 PM
Contact Info
Springhouse Church
14119 Old Nashville Highway
Smyrna TN 37167
CCLI License 2070006
Transcript
Hi everybody. It's been about
Speaker:six or seven years since they, they brought me up here. So
Speaker:I'll see you again in another seven years. And
Speaker:so I'm excited. I love talking about God. I love
Speaker:talking about his Word, I love talking about what
Speaker:God has done in my life. And so
Speaker:because I'm a walking, talking miracle. And so
Speaker:I ended up. Barbie had asked me to consider teaching
Speaker:during this, the sermon of sermons. And tonight is the last night.
Speaker:And she gave me Matthew 7:1:7. And
Speaker:I think she realized like, hey, we got the rest of that chapter.
Speaker:Can you go ahead and do the whole chapter? And I was like, not
Speaker:unless we want to sit there for 12 hours. We'd
Speaker:have a Paul teaching in acts kind of situation where the guy falls out the
Speaker:window, dies, raises from the dead. And so
Speaker:we're gonna focus on Matthew 1, I mean 7:1 through 7.
Speaker:And then we're gonna kind of, kind of bullet point the rest of it just
Speaker:to kind of get. Cause there's a lot in Matthew 7
Speaker:in the previous teachings. In
Speaker:the rest of the Sermon on the Mount, main focus
Speaker:was the interior of the spiritual life.
Speaker:In this chapter he starts focusing, shifting to the way we think
Speaker:and treat others. And so let me pray and then we'll
Speaker:get into it. Father, I thank you for your
Speaker:word. I thank you that it's alive, that it's
Speaker:active, that it's sharper than a double edged sword. God,
Speaker:I thank you that it is our weapon. God.
Speaker:Father, I pray you use the words through your Holy Spirit tonight to
Speaker:transform people, to transform hearts, minds and souls. God.
Speaker:Father, we thank you for your son who
Speaker:died for our sins. We thank you that you sent a helper
Speaker:to help us, an advocate to live inside us. God. It's in
Speaker:Christ's name we pray. Amen.
Speaker:So Matthew 7 begins with
Speaker:Judge not. And I saw a thing the other
Speaker:day. It was how most people read Matthew
Speaker:7 and they had Judge not. And the rest of it was just scribbled
Speaker:out. And so. Cause it's one thing, Judge not is
Speaker:used by a lot of people who aren't Christians. You're not supposed to judge.
Speaker:And it's used by a lot of Christians. Judge not. But we forget to read
Speaker:the rest of the passage. So tonight I'm going to read Matthew
Speaker:7:1:5 real quick.
Speaker:It says judge not that you be not judged.
Speaker:For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged.
Speaker:And with the measure you use it, the
Speaker:measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you see the
Speaker:speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice
Speaker:the log that is in your own eye. Or how can
Speaker:you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your
Speaker:eye when there is a log in your own eye, you
Speaker:hypocrite. First take the log out of your own eye
Speaker:and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your
Speaker:brother's eye. The funny thing I see here too is like
Speaker:Jesus calls them hypocrites. Was a little bit of a judgment, but I am he
Speaker:can do that. He's Jesus. And so
Speaker:before we move forward, I think we need to define
Speaker:judgment because this can get a little confusing
Speaker:because in John 3, Jesus says he is not here to
Speaker:judge the world. Fast forward to John
Speaker:9. He says, for judgment I came into this world.
Speaker:What? He did not come to judge the world, but for judgment
Speaker:I came into this world. What are we talking about here in John
Speaker:5, chapter 5, verses 26 through 29.
Speaker:And if you're following your Bible reading plan, that was the reading
Speaker:this morning. It says, for as the Father has life in
Speaker:himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in
Speaker:himself. And he has given him authority to judge
Speaker:because he is the Son of man. Do not be amazed at this,
Speaker:for a time is coming when, when all who are in the graves will
Speaker:hear his voice and come out. Those who have done
Speaker:what is good will rise to live, and those who have done
Speaker:what is evil will rise to be condemned, judged.
Speaker:So there's a time coming where Jesus will call those that are in the grave,
Speaker:and some will go on to living and some will go on to
Speaker:judgment. That's what Jesus will do. And so we must be
Speaker:looking at judgment from two different angles. There's a Greek word
Speaker:that they use in the Bible for judgment. I'm trying to not
Speaker:butcher this Krino K R I N O
Speaker:which can mean to discern or to condemn.
Speaker:So we're looking at two different ways. So is Jesus saying here, do
Speaker:not be discerning or do not be condemning.
Speaker:If a brother or sister was to call out a particular
Speaker:sin in your life, they're not condemning you to hell.
Speaker:They're not passing judgment on you. They're not in the judgment seat saying, you're
Speaker:going to hell. Just like in the same way, if they say, hey, you're living
Speaker:a righteous life, I see some good things in your life. They're not telling you
Speaker:you're going to heaven, they're just pointing out a particular thing in your
Speaker:life. And so I want to give you
Speaker:a little. Just small testimony real quick. A lot of y' all have heard my
Speaker:story. I came here in 2008. I came from
Speaker:Memphis. My kids are not in here. Good. And I was a
Speaker:bad drug addict. I was an alcoholic. And I came here, and most
Speaker:my friends and family thought I was coming here to die.
Speaker:Because in Memphis, at least, I had the people around me that cared about
Speaker:me to try to look for me. Cause I'd disappear for days.
Speaker:But here, they thought I wouldn't have that safety net and
Speaker:I would come here to die. And in a way, I did, just not in
Speaker:the way they thought. And so I came here. I moved in
Speaker:with two guys. I was upset that when
Speaker:I found out they were Christians, and I am. But they
Speaker:invited me to church. And I came into church, and
Speaker:Pastor Ronnie was singing Can't Buy Me Love by the Beatles. And I was
Speaker:like, okay, I kind of like this place.
Speaker:And so I am. I started coming back, and I
Speaker:kept coming back. And soon after, my
Speaker:mom passed away. This is very quick testimony. And it was the day after her
Speaker:funeral that I officially was saved. Felt a touch by God on
Speaker:my arm. I stood up, and I knew I was changed.
Speaker:No rehab, no withdrawals, Nothing. Completely
Speaker:changed. September 13, 2008. So
Speaker:after a little bit, I had this feeling. I was like,
Speaker:man, I'm saved. I have this new life. I have a new story.
Speaker:I. So I've got to call my friends in Memphis and tell them about it.
Speaker:So I called all my friends in Memphis and I said, hey, listen, what happened
Speaker:to me? Hey, this can happen to you. You're going to hell.
Speaker:I called about 10 different people and told them the same thing.
Speaker:Told every single one of them, you're going to hell. They didn't get
Speaker:saved. It didn't work. I don't know why. And so. But I
Speaker:started. I have this judgment testimony of
Speaker:condemning and not a righteous judgment, not a
Speaker:discerning judgment. I used to get on Facebook.
Speaker:I used to get on Facebook and talk about women wearing yoga
Speaker:pants and start a fight with people in the church.
Speaker:One day, there was a big ice storm,
Speaker:and I went to work and I wrote on Facebook and condemning everybody
Speaker:that didn't drive to work that morning. I was judging everybody.
Speaker:And so I'm happy to say I'm not that guy anymore. I don't
Speaker:wear yoga pants anymore. And so. But
Speaker:I actually earned a nickname in the church. A couple people called me
Speaker:the Church Splitter. And I used to laugh about it.
Speaker:And then God got Ahold of me. It's like, that's an
Speaker:awful nickname to have. That's something awful to be known as,
Speaker:as a person who splits the church. And it came
Speaker:because I was judging from a superior position. I
Speaker:was judging, thinking, I'm better, I'm better than them.
Speaker:And that's not the kind of judgment we are supposed to use. Church.
Speaker:This is a warning of condemning others
Speaker:and versus Jesus goes on to explain how we are to approach somebody who's caught
Speaker:in sin. I'm going to read verses three through five again.
Speaker:Why do you seek the speck that is in your brother's eye,
Speaker:but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can
Speaker:you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye when
Speaker:there's a log in your own eye, you hypocrite. First take the log out of
Speaker:your own eye and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of
Speaker:your brother's eye. We think about the woman that's caught in adultery.
Speaker:They bring her and throw her before Jesus
Speaker:and he says, what? Let he who is without sin
Speaker:cast the first stone
Speaker:and what happens? They all walk away. Because what he
Speaker:had them do is realize the beam in
Speaker:their own eye. And then he told the
Speaker:woman, where did they go? He says, go and
Speaker:sin no more. So this is what we're
Speaker:supposed to do. These are, these verses are. It's talking
Speaker:about how we need to self reflect before we like
Speaker:approach anybody about something in their life, we need to self
Speaker:reflect about the beam in our own eye. If we approach them
Speaker:as if they do not measure up or we look down on them, our approach
Speaker:is wrong. It's far easy to be
Speaker:generous to ourselves when judging. Like,
Speaker:you know what I used to say to myself when I said that stuff on
Speaker:Facebook? Oh, they don't know my heart.
Speaker:They don't know my heart behind this. I'm not
Speaker:judging them. They don't know my heart behind this because I was
Speaker:giving myself. It was way easy to be generous to myself
Speaker:than what I thought they were doing that was wrong.
Speaker:We set a standard in others life, but ignore it in our own life.
Speaker:We set a standard for others that we don't follow ourselves.
Speaker:We break this command when we think the worst of others.
Speaker:Anybody have a conversation they gotta have with somebody right now
Speaker:I'm asking, is there a conversation you've been putting off because you've
Speaker:been playing it off in your head and it's automatically gone to a fight
Speaker:before you even have it? Because you're thinking the worst of that person right now.
Speaker:You're thinking it's going to go one way because you're not. Look, you
Speaker:haven't removed the beam from your eye to talk to them yet.
Speaker:We break this command when we only speak to others
Speaker:of their faults. Yeah,
Speaker:I read this one time, and I thought it was good. It's like, you know,
Speaker:you got a real friend when they stop only complaining to you and start
Speaker:telling you their joys. But if you got to find
Speaker:somebody that's constantly just telling you everything that's wrong with you or you're doing the
Speaker:same to someone else, you might be on the
Speaker:wrong form of judgment. We break this
Speaker:command when we judge the entire life only
Speaker:by its worst moments. When we injure. When we
Speaker:judge somebody's entire life by only their worst moments.
Speaker:Kevin talked about, if you look at somebody and only see that one
Speaker:sin that they did that one time, you're looking down on them
Speaker:with judgment. You have a beam in your eye.
Speaker:Kevin does that very well. As far not judging.
Speaker:I've known a lot of people that have done wrong things to Kevin, and he's
Speaker:constantly. They're constantly back in his life. I'm one of them.
Speaker:I've done something wrong to Kevin, and he's never once, like, brought it up again.
Speaker:Like, in my opinion, wrong, wrong. And so he
Speaker:does that very well. Not holding sins against
Speaker:people, not throwing stones. He does that very well.
Speaker:We break this command when we judge the hidden motives of others.
Speaker:Anybody ever think somebody's always got an angle,
Speaker:like, oh, they're talking to me because of this. Oh,
Speaker:they just want this from me. When you're judging, you're judging
Speaker:the hidden motives of everybody's heart. You might be breaking this
Speaker:command. If you have your Bibles.
Speaker:Let's turn to Luke, chapter seven, and I'm
Speaker:going to read a quick story for you.
Speaker:Verses 36 through 50,
Speaker:One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him. And when he went
Speaker:into the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table, and
Speaker:behold a woman of the city who was a sinner,
Speaker:when she learned that he was reclining at table in the
Speaker:Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment,
Speaker:and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began
Speaker:to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with
Speaker:the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed
Speaker:them with the ointment.
Speaker:Now, when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to
Speaker:Himself. If this man were a prophet, he would have known
Speaker:who is touching him, for she is a sinner. And
Speaker:Jesus answering, said to him, simon, I
Speaker:have something to say to you. And he answered, say it, teacher.
Speaker:A certain money lender had two debtors. One owned
Speaker:500 denarii and the other 50. When they
Speaker:could not pay, he canceled the debt of both. Now
Speaker:which one of them will love him more? Simon answered, the
Speaker:one, I suppose, for whom he canceled the larger debt. And he said
Speaker:to him, you have judged rightly. Then turning toward the
Speaker:woman, he said to Simon, do you see this woman? I entered
Speaker:your house. You gave me no water for my feet. But she
Speaker:was. She has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her
Speaker:hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came
Speaker:in, she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not
Speaker:anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment.
Speaker:Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are
Speaker:forgiven, for she loved much. But he who
Speaker:is forgiven little loves little. And he said to her,
Speaker:your sins are forgiven. Then those who were at the tables with
Speaker:him began to say among themselves, who is this who even forgives
Speaker:sins? And he said to the woman, your faith has saved you. Go in peace.
Speaker:You have Jesus who's reclining at a table, and
Speaker:Simon discerning the right
Speaker:kind of judgment, discerning judgment, discerning his thoughts.
Speaker:He points out to Simon what the woman
Speaker:is doing. And then he alerts
Speaker:Simon of the beam in Simon's
Speaker:eye. This is the correct way
Speaker:to approach somebody who you might feel
Speaker:is caught in sin or God has asked you to
Speaker:speak to them.
Speaker:In the end, if you see a brother or
Speaker:sister caught in something that is detrimental to their walk with God,
Speaker:first we check our own hearts and motives. What is our
Speaker:heart behind this? What is our motive? Is God telling me to
Speaker:speak with them? Self reflection is
Speaker:the most important step in this. It's looking at the log in your
Speaker:own eye is the most important step right here.
Speaker:Acknowledging our own failures is a humbling process. So when you
Speaker:start to acknowledge and look at the beam in your own eye,
Speaker:what it starts to do is humble you.
Speaker:It becomes a humbling process when you start to reflect with
Speaker:the Holy Spirit. Sometimes it can get a little ugly.
Speaker:Like, gosh, because the cl. Like I've noticed, like the closer
Speaker:you get to Jesus, a little more. Little more things get revealed.
Speaker:A little more dirt gets a little more visible.
Speaker:Then we can approach in love. Because love believes all things and
Speaker:Love, hopes, all things. When we're humble,
Speaker:when we've self reflected and we've checked our own hearts and
Speaker:motives. Because and remember when we approach them, all Scripture
Speaker:is God breathed and is useful for teaching,
Speaker:rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness so that the
Speaker:man, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for
Speaker:every Good work. That's second Timothy, chapter three, verses 16 and 17.
Speaker:If correction, rebuking, training and teaching is necessary,
Speaker:Scripture should be where we start. I
Speaker:am one day I got up here and I
Speaker:spoke over the offering and I said, money
Speaker:is the root of all evil. And
Speaker:I thought, you know and I know the right scripture. The right
Speaker:scripture is money is the root of all kinds of evil. And
Speaker:as soon as I stepped off the stage, Kevin came up and he said, hey,
Speaker:all kinds of. And I was like, thank you.
Speaker:Yes, I need that correction. I long
Speaker:for that correction. I have pastors that I trust in my life
Speaker:that can correct me because I know they do it with humility.
Speaker:He wasn't doing it to judge me. He did it because he loved me.
Speaker:And he knows when I get on this stage, I don't want to say a
Speaker:scripture wrong. And I did and
Speaker:I could receive that because I know him and I know his heart.
Speaker:How do we discern right judgment?
Speaker:I'm glad you asked. If we
Speaker:go back to Matthew 7, verses 15
Speaker:through 20,
Speaker:beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but
Speaker:inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize
Speaker:them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered
Speaker:from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? So every
Speaker:healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased
Speaker:tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot
Speaker:bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.
Speaker:Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into
Speaker:the fire. Thus you will recognize them
Speaker:by their fruits. Thus you will
Speaker:recognize them by their fruits.
Speaker:We are called to unconditionally love, not unconditional
Speaker:approval. We are called to
Speaker:unconditional love, not unconditional approval. What does it mean
Speaker:to recognize them by their fruits?
Speaker:I mean, we've been going through John 15 all year,
Speaker:so you should recognize this just a little bit.
Speaker:We should pay attention to the manner of living a teacher shows.
Speaker:We should pay attention to the manner of living a teacher shows. Do they show
Speaker:righteousness, humility and faithfulness in the way they live?
Speaker:We should pay attention to the content
Speaker:of their teaching. Is it true fruit from
Speaker:God's word? Or is it man centered, appealing to ears that want to be tickled
Speaker:we should pay attention to the effect of their teaching. Are people
Speaker:growing in Jesus or merely being entertained and eventually falling away?
Speaker:I like, I like a
Speaker:good teaching where I got to go back and like, look at it
Speaker:and learn from it and grow from it. Like, like, I'm not looking for an
Speaker:aha moment. Like, you figured out something in the Bible that I never saw
Speaker:before. No, I'm looking at something where God, where a spirit, like,
Speaker:reacts and like, hey, you need to work on this.
Speaker:You got a beam in your eye here. You need to work on this.
Speaker:I don't know if we got any football fans in here. There's a talking about
Speaker:recognizing them by their fruits. There's a football coach. His
Speaker:name, his name's Mike Tomlin. He's not a coach right now.
Speaker:He was a great coach.
Speaker:He has a Super Bowl. He, I think, I don't
Speaker:know how many years in a row he never had a losing record,
Speaker:like for like so many years in a row. And it looked very
Speaker:good. This looks very good for a coach,
Speaker:but to never have a losing record, only one Super Bowl. But if you start
Speaker:digging a little deeper, you learn. Like most of
Speaker:these great coaches, they have what's called a coaching tree. Like
Speaker:Ronnie, like Wayne, like Bruce. They have many people
Speaker:they've discipled that have gone on to do ministry elsewhere.
Speaker:All over the world. People all over the world, they've
Speaker:taught and are out doing ministry at this very moment. They have
Speaker:like a teaching tree. And so there's a certain thing,
Speaker:a lot of great coaches have a coaching tree.
Speaker:Mike Tomlin has no coaching tree.
Speaker:If you look a little deeper, there's no coaches that coached under him and went
Speaker:on to be head coaches somewhere else. Which kind of tells you
Speaker:he probably wasn't developing these coaches.
Speaker:And so if we have teachers that aren't developing,
Speaker:people there aren't like, what do you always say? Make disciples who make
Speaker:disciples. Right. Make disciples who make disciples. And
Speaker:so if we look at, we're just being entertained, a lot of people kind
Speaker:of fall away. I don't know how many
Speaker:years have I been an elder? Do you remember
Speaker:some amount of time. Pastor Ronnie was still the pastor
Speaker:when I became an elder. So I'm that elder, old
Speaker:Pastor Ronnie. I remember the day, not the exact day, but I remember exactly where
Speaker:I was. We were in the foyer and he came up to me and he
Speaker:said, this is a very self righteous story. So I'm sorry,
Speaker:but he came up to me and he asked, hey,
Speaker:we're, you know, the elders talked And I was wondering if you would consider being
Speaker:an elder. And honestly, up to that point, I'd
Speaker:never once in my life. I'm not trying to sound super humble either. I'd
Speaker:never thought about being an elder. I was like. I
Speaker:was genuinely surprised. And so I was like, well, let me pray about
Speaker:it. And so I wrote. I don't know if I sent
Speaker:Ronnie a text or an email, wrote him. I was like, so what do I
Speaker:have to do? Like, what does that mean?
Speaker:What do I have to do to be an elder? And he was like, I'm
Speaker:asking you to be an elder because you're already doing it.
Speaker:He had already recognized fruit in my
Speaker:life that I might not have necessarily seen, but he had already seen
Speaker:it. He said, you're already doing it. That's why I asked.
Speaker:And so he recognized fruit. That maybe
Speaker:I would venture to say people will recognize fruit in you before you see it
Speaker:in yourself. A lot of times you look at the Book of
Speaker:Acts when they're talking about Apollos and how eloquent he was
Speaker:and studied. He was like, he wasn't writing that about
Speaker:himself. Luke wrote Acts. He was writing
Speaker:that about Apollos. They recognized this in him.
Speaker:Once again, these verses should cause one to
Speaker:reflect before asking it of anyone else.
Speaker:Do I bear fruit unto the Lord?
Speaker:Pull that beam out, Church. Get that beam out of your eye, y'.
Speaker:All. There's a lot
Speaker:of topics in this chapter, and so this
Speaker:was the main one God had me focus on. But I'm going to kind of
Speaker:do, like, a quick hit checklist of the rest of it because there's so
Speaker:much stuff in. In
Speaker:Matthew, chapter seven. The next one is ask
Speaker:and it will be given. Ask and it will be given
Speaker:is verses 7 through 11.
Speaker:So have intensity, passion, and persistence in prayer.
Speaker:Have intensity, persistence, and passion in prayer. There's a
Speaker:persistent widow. We have that story in the Bible to follow.
Speaker:It's consistently seeking God. We have.
Speaker:Most of y' all know, me and my wife are the directors of community servants
Speaker:here in Weary. And what we've realized,
Speaker:like, is sometimes, like, we just say it out loud
Speaker:and, like, God makes it happen.
Speaker:We were. I was.
Speaker:We have some. We have a basketball goal in the neighborhood. It has no
Speaker:backboard. It's just a realm. And
Speaker:so I was like, man, I really like some basketball goals for the
Speaker:neighborhood. And so the next day,
Speaker:one of the board members, he does these. Y' all
Speaker:know them storage wars. He goes and buys these storage units that nobody
Speaker:has paid for for a while. He buys them and then looks and sees what's
Speaker:inside. And there he's like. And he called Michael,
Speaker:who's the property manager, and he said, hey, I've got three basketball
Speaker:backboards in this storage unit. Could y' all use
Speaker:them? And it was the day before I had said that to Michael, I'd like
Speaker:to have a basketball goal. But they had no hoops. It was just the backboards.
Speaker:And then another guy that works out there all the time, he was like, hey,
Speaker:I have a basketball hoop. Could y' all use this? So I was just
Speaker:like, God, one day I was like, man, we're going to need paint. We need
Speaker:some paint. And we went into this unit that somebody just
Speaker:moved out of, and we needed this beige interior
Speaker:paint. And we walked in, and I was just like, what's in this
Speaker:closet? And there was a whole five gallon bucket of beige interior paint
Speaker:that had somehow got left in their closet.
Speaker:We had a team in their team in a couple weeks
Speaker:ago, and we had a lot of work that were requiring safety glasses.
Speaker:And I was like, lord, we don't have safety glasses. And I
Speaker:really don't have time to Emma, run off property and go get
Speaker:them while everybody's working. So I walked into our equipment warehouse, and I was
Speaker:just like, lord, we need safety glasses. And I went over to
Speaker:this bucket, this milk crate, and it had gloves in it. And I moved some
Speaker:gloves. It's a whole packet, brand new package, a four pack of
Speaker:safety glasses just sitting in there. And so God is like,
Speaker:sometimes we have to be persistent. Sometimes we just need to verbalize
Speaker:it. Like, God, this is what we need right now. We
Speaker:gotta be truth tellers before God. This is what we need. Like, if you're a
Speaker:truth teller before God, like, God, I don't like this.
Speaker:I don't like what's happening right now. I don't like what you're doing. He can
Speaker:handle it. We can be truth tellers before God. But also
Speaker:sometimes you should have been like, God, I'm not set. Y', all,
Speaker:please don't leave here saying, like Kurt told me if I said it. This
Speaker:isn't. This isn't. Name it and claim it prosperity. I'm just.
Speaker:I'm just saying these things have happened, okay?
Speaker:The golden rule. Everybody knows the golden rule. Do what? Do to
Speaker:others what you want done to you. And the thing
Speaker:that God put on my heart, like, about this part is,
Speaker:you ever call somebody you ain't talked to in a while,
Speaker:and they're mad, like, man, you don't ever call me no more. That's
Speaker:how, my friends, Satan, method man, you don't have to call me no more. And
Speaker:I'm like, I'm calling you because you've never called me either.
Speaker:Like, I'm calling you to check in on you. And like, if
Speaker:you want people to love and reach out to you, you should love and reach
Speaker:out to others. Do unto others as you want done
Speaker:unto you. If you want people to reach out to you, you should reach out
Speaker:to others. It's like we're called to check on people. I could
Speaker:do a whole night just on this time. We could be here all
Speaker:night just on. Just on the do unto others part. Because
Speaker:it's real easy. That's the part we also talk about. We have more
Speaker:lenient judgment on ourselves when people don't do
Speaker:what we hope they do. But we're not doing the same thing.
Speaker:We expect others to do what we won't do ourselves.
Speaker:Enter by the narrow gate. The gate is wide that
Speaker:leads to destruction, y'. All, this is
Speaker:just. That's just the entrance. Enter the narrow gate.
Speaker:There's a long way to walk after you enter.
Speaker:The long way to walk after you enter. But wide is the gate that
Speaker:leads to destruction. There's a lot more people walking on that
Speaker:destructive gate. Jesus is
Speaker:the gate. He says that In John, chapter 10, I am
Speaker:the gate. And a lot of people consider
Speaker:this the scariest verse in Scripture where he talks about
Speaker:in verse 21 through 23.
Speaker:Let me just go ahead and read that real quick. Not everyone who says to
Speaker:me, lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven,
Speaker:but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven
Speaker:on that day, Many will say to me, lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in
Speaker:your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works, works
Speaker:in your name. And then will I declare to them, I
Speaker:never knew you depart from me, you workers of
Speaker:lawlessness,
Speaker:saying lord, Lord is good, but not
Speaker:enough. Saying lord, Lord is a good thing.
Speaker:Calling out to Lord is a good thing,
Speaker:but that's not it. It could only be bare words. There's no heart,
Speaker:soul, or spirit behind it.
Speaker:I saw this quote, and I can't. I forgot to write down whose name it
Speaker:was. But I loved it. There are those that speak like
Speaker:angels, live like devils, that have Jacob's
Speaker:smooth tongue, but Esau's rough hands.
Speaker:There are those that speak like angels, live like devils,
Speaker:that have Jacob's smooth tongue but Esau's rough hands.
Speaker:These are not people who lost their
Speaker:salvation they never had it.
Speaker:When he says, I never knew you. It wasn't, I knew you for a little
Speaker:bit, and then
Speaker:says, I never knew you. In the end,
Speaker:there's only one basis for salvation. It isn't mere verbal
Speaker:confession, not spiritual works, but knowing
Speaker:Jesus and being known by him.
Speaker:The last thing I want to talk about tonight is build your
Speaker:houses on the rock. It's a great marriage book if you'll get out there.
Speaker:Marriage on the rock. Build
Speaker:your houses on the rock. He ends by saying,
Speaker:everyone who hears these words of mine, this is the end of the Sermon of
Speaker:the Mount. Who hears these words of mine and does them will
Speaker:be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
Speaker:A lot of houses look the same on the outside.
Speaker:Every house at Weary Housing is painted red. They look the same
Speaker:on the outside, but inside is where it counts.
Speaker:There was a. Recently, there was a guy
Speaker:from the electric company. They were doing something out there in the front
Speaker:of the property. And he said,
Speaker:you know what they should do with this property?
Speaker:They should just bring a bulldozer in here and just knock it all down and
Speaker:do something else with it. That was his
Speaker:suggestion. Because you know what he does? He looks at the
Speaker:outside. God
Speaker:looks at the heart. If he took the time to
Speaker:come in and learn about the history of what has
Speaker:happened in that neighborhood, if he took the time and took that beam out of
Speaker:his eye and came in and saw God's favor and
Speaker:providence and protection over that neighborhood,
Speaker:he would know the heart. He would know. By prayer and
Speaker:petition, with thanksgiving, we present our request to God
Speaker:for Weary housing. We're
Speaker:constantly praying for that neighborhood.
Speaker:Because God, man looks on the inside, but the Lord looks on the
Speaker:heart. And so
Speaker:tonight, I didn't even get to. I didn't even get to casting
Speaker:your pearls before swine. I didn't even get to that part. And so
Speaker:it says at the end. And when
Speaker:Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished
Speaker:at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had
Speaker:authority and not as their scribes.
Speaker:Hopefully, they were astonished to the point of it
Speaker:affecting their life. Cause it's real cool to hear a
Speaker:good sermon. Like, you ever read something? Sometimes me and my wife, we read together.
Speaker:Tina's right there. Everybody looked at her. That's funny.
Speaker:And so sometimes we'll be reading at the table at the same time in the
Speaker:morning, and I'll be like, look at this. That's so good. And that's the
Speaker:extent of it. I think it's good. And then I walk away and don't
Speaker:live out anything that I just read. Like, that is so cool.
Speaker:So my hope is when they leave astonished, they weren't like, man, that was
Speaker:a good speech. Now let's go to the bar or whatever
Speaker:they went to back then. I don't know. And so
Speaker:it has to go from here to here.
Speaker:It can't just be your lips. It can't just be your mind.
Speaker:You should leave here searching yourself on how to remove the beam from your eye.
Speaker:Because it's real easy to go out and be criticizing. And
Speaker:I do it all the time, y'. All. When I say I have a testimony
Speaker:of doing bad judgment and judging people, I'm still walking that out. I
Speaker:look at stuff on Facebook, I look at something somebody post, I look at a
Speaker:news article, and I'm like, ugh. And
Speaker:instantly, I'm like, instantly in that moment, I think I'm better than them.
Speaker:My beam is back. Sometimes I remove it. There's, like,
Speaker:still a splinter left, though. And so I have to constantly.
Speaker:It's something I have to constantly fight is my flesh.
Speaker:And so I encourage you, like, even driving, I'll be
Speaker:driving and I'll see the way somebody's driving, and I'll just be
Speaker:like, and I'm doing my 10 and 2 o'. Clock.
Speaker:I'm stopping at the stop sign. I might run a red light
Speaker:every now and then, but it's okay when I
Speaker:do it. It's okay when I do it. And so
Speaker:my hope tonight is that you leave here and are able to self
Speaker:reflect and not not leave here in a way where you
Speaker:feel condemned or guilty or just
Speaker:asking God, like, God, do I have a beam in my eye?
Speaker:Is like, help me remove this beam in my eye.
Speaker:Because what it does is it puts you in position of humility and you're able
Speaker:to help others with the splinters in their eyes at that point.
Speaker:Father, I thank you for your word.
Speaker:Lord, I pray if anything that was set up here tonight, that stick, that
Speaker:we don't just be hearers of the word,
Speaker:but we be doers of the word. God,
Speaker:Father, I pray your protection as everybody goes out and goes home tonight.
Speaker:God, Father, I say a special prayer for Mr.
Speaker:Douglas right now, who's in the hospital. God, I pray you protect him, get
Speaker:him where he needs to be and to the person he needs to be with.
Speaker:Father, we just thank you. We thank you for the church. We
Speaker:thank you that it was your idea, not ours. God, it's in your
Speaker:son's name we pray Amen. Good night.
