We're on to Part 2 of the new series!
This one really caused me to re-evaluate how I live my Christian life.
I hope my notes do it justice so you can understand the concepts.
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Do you find Christians judgmental? Have you been judged by Christians before?
Why are Christians so judgmental? This is very different from what we read in the Bible.
We don't want to be judgmental Christians — we want to represent Christ accurately.
So, we need to understand... what did we Christians get wrong about Christ?
We got it wrong about Christ because Christians have a Cause and Effect Mentality.
We apply the Bible with a Cause and Effect mentality.
We have turned the principles of God into formulas. We like formulas because we can understand them.
John 9:1-3 (MSG)
"Who sinned his man or his parents causing this man to be blind?"
In vs 3 Jesus said, "You're asking the wrong question. You're looking for someone to blame. There is no such cause-effect here. Look instead for what God can do.
Jesus is saying we got it wrong because the disciples didn't react with compassion.
Instead of having pity on the man who was blind from birth, they asked “who sinned?” — they were looking for someone to blame.
And Jesus said they were looking for the wrong thing.
The disciples made the same mistake as so many of us make today.
Instead of looking at the sinner, we should be looking for the God of Redemption.
Instead of finding fault we should be finding love.
How do Christians translate God's principles into formulas?
Examples:
(1) Sowing and Reaping
The formula in our minds:
SOW + REAP = PROSPER
We think - if you sow, you will reap.
BUT we are so smart we try to make it work BACKWARDS.
So, Christians will see a person who is NOT prospering and they conclude the person is not sowing.
This is absolutely wrong!!
The principles of God work forward not backward.
(2) James 5:16
We convert the verse into a formula:
CONFESS OF SIN + PRAYER + FERVENT PRAYERS + RIGHTEOUSNESS = HEALING or PRAYERS ANSWERED or AVAILS MUCH
All this is good. We should confess our sins. We should pray fervently. We should be righteous.
BUT It goes wrong when we work backwards...
When we see a Christian friend not healed or someone whose prayers not answered, we think the person didn't do one of the things listed...
Instead of having compassion or sympathy and stand with the person who is sick or going through tough times, we say things like "You need to have more faith" "You should pray more."
This is ridiculous!
It is as ridiculous as — if you have a fat uncle who died of a heart attack.
Then when you see a fat person you say "you will die of a heart attack."
Even worse is when we hear of someone who died of a heart attack we assume the person is fat or is unhealthy.
That is wrong! There are people who die of heart attacks who are perfectly healthy!!
We begin to make assumptions of the Bible and work backwards!
Don’t assume!
Just because people are broke and bankrupt we cannot assume that the person is not tithing.
Just because someone is divorced we cannot assume that the person is a bad husband.
Just because a Christian couple's kids don't attend church we cannot assume that there was bad parenting.
We cannot work backwards.
Take for example...
PRAYER + FAITH = HEALING
If someone is sick, the last thing people need when they are suffering is to hear “You need more faith” or "maybe you are out of God's will" or “God is humbling you" or "maybe God is teaching you something"
God is our Father. No Father teaches through sickness. Christ is compassionate and caring.
If someone got into an accident and was knocked down and is injured... you don't ask if he crossed during the green man -- the cause doesn't matter.. We should just help. That is the heart of Christ.
When you see a young lady who is pregnant out of wedlock, it doesn't matter what happened, whose fault it was -- just help. What matters is now. God is a God of Redemption.
John 9:3
... neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in Him.
When there is a problem, don’t look for the sinner.
Look for the God of miracles who can turn the situation around.
Some formulas to delete...
If you walk in the perfect center of God's will you will be blessed
-- we think if a person is blessed then he is in the will of God... Prosperity and blessing doesn't mean the person is in God's will... Poverty doesn't mean the person is out of God's will
-- when we see someone not blessed Christians assume the person is not in the center of God’s will or that the person was not obedient.
We want to build a church to represent Christ as accurately as possible.
When a Christian backslides, Christians think that the person's life will become miserable and he will one day come crawling back to church
— NEVER HAVE THAT ATTITUDE!
-- When a person leaves church, God, like the prodigal son's father, is waiting for the person to come back
-- The heart of God is love and mercy not judgment and anger
-- It's not about right or wrong or “I told you so"
— While we were still sinners Christ loved us.
*** CLAUSE: It doesn’t mean that when people make foolish decisions there will not be consequences. We will not have heavenly penalties but there will always be earthly consequences. Our heart should be embracing and accepting. This is the heart of God.
Romans 2:4
... The goodness of God leads you to repentance
Matthew 5:45
... God makes the sun shine on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
Rain = blessing
We ask: How can God bless the unjust and the evil? Where is the justice?
Shouldn’t evil people be punished? How can you continue to allow Your love and mercy to be on these people?
Shouldn’t Your justice be swift and sure?
But in reality, there are times when bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people.
There will be judgment but not now.
The justice is in heaven. But for now He is showing His love and mercy.
But Christians want the judgment now.
We think this is unfair, because we want God's justice to happen now. But remember when we were bad... If God's justice was swift and sure we would have no time to be where we are now... That time will end but for now it is His love, mercy and goodness. As much as we had time, God is giving other people the time.
John 3:17
God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but that through Him the world might be saved.
If you think Cause and Effect...
(1) You will not be able to reconcile God and reality / life with the Bible. If you want to mature, you need to understand that it is not about Cause and Effect. Otherwise, you will think the Bible is just a moral code of ethics or that God is not just.
When you are confronted with reality, you need to accept the Sovereignty of God. He can bless the unjust. He can do what He wants. He is God.
Matthew 5:45 "He makes HIS sun rise..."
He is stamping His authority that the sun belongs to Him.
Can you accept the sovereignty of God?
(2) You will not understand the grace of God.
Some people decide to become judge and play god... They begin to "help God" to mete out justice or bless other people.. If you do that, your heart becomes harder and we become a cold, clinical Christian and we become more judgmental... Those Christians will want more of the God of justice instead of the God of love.
We need to leave the judgment, the timing and sentencing to Him.
(3) God refuses to be confined into a formula.
When we try to fit God into our formula and our box and He doesn't, we say that we won't believe in Him.
If we do that then God is not God.
If you can fit God into the box then He is not God - we are god and He becomes a genie in a bottle.
God's style is the moment you box Him in, He will get out. God will not exist in our formulas.
When they boxed Him into an ark, He got out.
When they put Him in the temple, He tore the veil, He got out.
When they put Him in a tomb, 3 days later He rose and He got out.
(4) If we are not careful, we will become like the Prodigal Son's brother.
In the older son's mind, he was the good son who deserved the party and the fattened calf. He was self-righteous.
He couldn't understand the heart of God which is I love you who stayed at home but I also love the prodigal one...
He saw life through “I deserve it; he doesn’t deserve it."
We are not the judge.
We are the witnesses of God's love, mercy, grace and power.
If we are like that, our hearts will be hardened. We will become cold and clinical.
The Bible said we ought to guard our heart because out of it flows the issues of life...
The most precious is our heart - we must continue to have a soft heart…
Every year we grow older we should be more like Christ, without a bitter or cynical heart BUT more loving, compassion and merciful.
It is not Cause and Effect but Christ and Effect.
When Christ is in our heart the effect should be that we are more loving, gracious, compassionate, caring, merciful, faith-filled...
James 2:13
For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. MERCY TRIUMPHS OVER JUDGMENT.
There is a higher law…
Mercy triumphs over even right judgment.
