(soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) - All right, good morning, church family.

Happy Lord's Day. Hope you had a good week from the Lord. Before we get started, I'd like to read for us from Psalm 121. I will lift up my eyes to the mountains from where shall my help come? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth.

He will not allow your foot to slip. He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper. The Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun will not smite you by day, nor the moon by night.

The Lord will protect you from all evil. He will keep your soul. The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forever. Amen. So as we come before God this morning to worship, we are worshiping the God who graciously loves us, who keeps us, and who protects us.

So let us sing and let's worship together. (soft music) (soft music) ♪ I lift my eyes up to the mountains ♪ ♪ Where does my help come from ♪ ♪ My help comes from you ♪ ♪ Maker of heaven ♪ ♪ Creator of the earth ♪ I lift my eyes.

♪ I lift my eyes up to the mountains ♪ ♪ Where does my help come from ♪ ♪ My help comes from you ♪ ♪ Maker of heaven ♪ ♪ Creator of the earth ♪ ♪ Oh how I need you Lord ♪ ♪ You are my only hope ♪ ♪ You're my only prayer ♪ ♪ So I will wait for you to come and rescue me ♪ ♪ Come and give me life ♪ (soft music) (soft music) Sing one more time, I lift my eyes.

♪ I lift my eyes up to the mountains ♪ ♪ Where does my help come from ♪ ♪ My help comes from you ♪ ♪ Maker of heaven ♪ ♪ Creator of the earth ♪ How I need you Lord. ♪ Oh how I need you Lord ♪ ♪ You are my only hope ♪ ♪ You're my only prayer ♪ ♪ So I will wait for you to come and rescue me ♪ ♪ Come and give me life ♪ ♪ Oh how I need you Lord ♪ ♪ You are my only hope ♪ ♪ You're my only prayer ♪ ♪ So I will wait for you to come and rescue me ♪ ♪ Come and give me life ♪ ♪ Oh how I need you Lord ♪ ♪ You are my only prayer ♪ ♪ So I will wait for you to come and rescue me ♪ - All right, good morning.

Welcome to Bryn Community Church. Before we get started, we have an announcement from our sister's ministry about our holiday outreach. So we'll have Grace come and give an announcement. - Good morning, good morning. My name is Grace and I have some amazing opportunities to share about how this church can get involved this holiday season.

First things first, we have this coming December, we have visitation to the Brookdale Anaheim assisted living facility. This season, this event will be on December 16th from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. We'll sing a few Christmas carols and do a simple craft with residents. Adults and children are both welcome.

While we're only there for a short time, we'll choose to continue this event to show Christ's love to the elderly and hopefully have meaningful conversations with them. Romans 10, 13 through 15 says, whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on him and whom they have not believed?

How will they believe in him who they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it's written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news of good things? So come join us on December 16th.

Next up, we have an opportunity to learn more and support the Living Well Pregnancy Center here in Orange County. Living Well provides free pregnancy services for women at the crossroads of unplanned pregnancies. Their goal is to equip these women and families to make life-affirming, informed choices through the foundation of truth and hope.

There are not many pro-life pregnancy clinics around the area, so we wanna really rally and support those who are on the front lines doing the work to reach out to love on these sweet mothers and babies. As a church, we'll be hosting a baby bottle drive. My other bottle had changed.

It was so much more dramatic when I shook it up here. But here we go. If you have any loose change, cash, or checks, please, if you would donate to the Pregnancy Center, after you receive the bottle, please return the bottle within the next few weeks. The last day to collect will be December 10th.

You can donate to the Living Well, excuse me, Pregnancy Center directly as well. Also, besides the drive, if you have diapers, wipes, or baby clothes, they also take that as well. In Psalms 139, it says, "For you form my inward parts. "You knitted me together in my mother's womb.

"I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. "Wonderful are your works, and my soul knows it very well. "My frame was not hidden from you "when I was being made in secret. "Intrincately woven in the depths of the earth. "Your eyes saw my unformed substance in your book, "were written every one of them, "the days that were formed for me, "when as yet there were none of them." Besides giving of your time and resources, the biggest, biggest thing you could do is please pray.

Please pray for this ministry if they fight for the life of the unborn children in this battleground state, and please help these families navigate this new and sweet stage in life. I'll see you after service, thank you. (audience applauding) - Okay, just a few more announcements before I started.

First of all, the Thanksgiving regional dinners. So if you haven't signed up for that, that's taking place on November 19th. Today is the last day to sign up, so there's only, again, a few more spaces available. So if you do not sign up by tonight, they won't be able to place you in a group.

So if you are planning to sign up and you haven't signed up, please do that by today if possible. And then along with that, again, on the Saturday before that day, our outreach team is gonna be having an outreach Thanksgiving dinner. So they're gonna be at someone's home, and if you have people that you wanna share the gospel with or they just have a lot of questions, it'd be an opportunity for that night to get together with the outreach team.

Pastor Mark is gonna be leading that in that home group, and so he'll be sharing the gospel, he'll be answering some questions, and there'll be opportunity to interact with other believers there. So if you are planning to bring somebody, that would be a good place to bring them to.

Again, that's happening on October 18th. That's Saturday before the 19th, okay? Everything else, you guys can look at it for yourselves on the app. But I do have one question. We are, because of the church growing, and as you guys can see, our first and second service is starting to get crowded, and so we are in the process of thinking through possibly a third service.

And so we're kind of wrestling through what's the best time to do that. So we haven't come up with a concrete time yet, but I just wanted to get a, I think this is the fastest way to kind of get an idea of where you guys are at. If we had a service at 1230, okay, that would be our third and final service, how many of you are willing to come to the 1230 service?

(audience laughing) All right, so we're gonna have four people in that service. (audience laughing) Which won't help us at all, okay. If we tweaked it and we had an eight o'clock service, would be the first one, and then this service would be extended to 1130 service, or 1145, how many of you would be willing to come to the 1130, possibly 1145 service?

(laughs) Okay. 1130 service, let me say 1130. If we had 1130 service, you would come to the 1130 service. It's only 30 minutes later than now. All right, now we have 20 of you, okay. So you would come to the 1030 service, 1030 service. 10 o'clock service. (audience laughing) Okay.

You guys did not help at all. (audience laughing) I'm more confused now, yeah. I asked the first service at nine o'clock if they wanted to come at eight, and a good chunk of them, about two thirds of them, said they would come at eight. So I was very happy with that group, but.

(audience laughing) This group didn't help at all. All right, so continue to pray for us. We're trying to figure out what the best way to deal with that. I mean, we're trying to maximize the space that we have, and it is a good problem that we have because we are growing, but there's a lot of good things happening at church too, and I want you guys to know there's a lot of people coming to Christ, and ever since the pandemic, we've seen more people just walk off the street just asking about the gospel and about Christ more than we've seen in the previous years.

So God has used that opportunity to stir up people in searching for meaning and purpose, and it's not just our church. I've been talking to other churches and other Christians saying that they see that happening too. There is a stirring up of people looking for meaning and purpose, and so that's a good thing.

So we wanna be able to accommodate that, continue to share the gospel with them, and see them come to Christ, but in order to do that, obviously, we're gonna have to make the best of the space. So please be patient with us. We don't know exactly what's gonna happen, but it may happen sooner than later, so just kind of give you a heads up on that.

All right, after I pray for the offering, our brother Oswald is gonna come up, and he's gonna give his testimony and be baptized, and again, if you brought a physical offering, there's a physical offering in the back, and the rest of you, again, if you can give it to the Zell that's up on the screen.

All right, let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your goodness, your love that you pour upon us. Lord, we are in constant, dire need, Lord God, of your grace. Lord, we pray for help. We pray, Father God, that you would give us a proper understanding of who you are, that all that we do, the worship that we give, will be an overflow of the mighty work that you are doing in us.

Help us, Lord God, that even in this giving, that it would be an act of worship, may it be multiplied 30, 60, 100-fold for the purpose of glorifying your name. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) - All right, church family, let us stand together, and I'll take a minute to greet those around you.

(congregation laughing) (congregation chattering) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) ♪ Who breaks the power of sin and darkness ♪ ♪ Whose love is mighty and so much stronger ♪ ♪ The King of glory, the King above all kings ♪ ♪ Who shakes the whole earth with holy thunder ♪ ♪ Who leaves us breathless in all in wonder ♪ ♪ The King of glory, the King above all kings ♪ ♪ This is amazing grace ♪ ♪ This is unfailing love ♪ ♪ That you would take my blame ♪ ♪ That you would bear my cross ♪ ♪ You laid down your life ♪ ♪ That I might be set free ♪ ♪ Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me ♪ ♪ Who brings our chaos ♪ ♪ Who brings our chaos back into order ♪ ♪ Who makes the orphan a son and daughter ♪ ♪ The King of glory, the King of glory ♪ ♪ Who rules the nations with truth and justice ♪ ♪ Shines like the sun in all of its brilliance ♪ ♪ The King of glory, the King above all kings ♪ ♪ This is amazing grace ♪ ♪ This is amazing grace ♪ ♪ This is unfailing love ♪ ♪ That you would take my blame ♪ ♪ That you would bear my cross ♪ ♪ You laid down your life ♪ ♪ That I would be set free ♪ ♪ Oh, Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me ♪ ♪ Worthy is the Lamb who was slain ♪ ♪ Worthy is the King who conquered the grave ♪ ♪ Worthy is the Lamb who was slain ♪ ♪ Worthy is the King who conquered the grave ♪ ♪ Worthy is the Lamb who was slain ♪ ♪ Worthy is the King who conquered the grave ♪ ♪ Worthy is the Lamb who was slain ♪ ♪ Worthy, worthy, worthy ♪ ♪ Oh, this is amazing grace ♪ ♪ This is unfailing love ♪ ♪ That you would take my blame ♪ ♪ That you would bear my cross ♪ ♪ You laid down your life ♪ ♪ That I would be set free ♪ ♪ Oh, Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ All that you've done for me ♪ (soft piano music) (soft piano music) ♪ Father of kindness, you have poured out grace ♪ ♪ You brought me out of darkness ♪ ♪ You filled me with peace ♪ ♪ Giver of mercy, you're my help in time of need ♪ ♪ Lord, I can't help but sing ♪ ♪ Faithful you are ♪ ♪ Faithful forever you will be ♪ ♪ Faithful you are ♪ ♪ Faithful forever you will be ♪ ♪ All your promises are yes and amen ♪ ♪ All your promises are yes and amen ♪ (soft music) ♪ Beautiful Savior, you have brought me near ♪ ♪ You pulled me from the ashes ♪ ♪ You have broken every curse ♪ ♪ Blessed Redeemer, you have set this captive free ♪ ♪ And I can't help but sing ♪ ♪ Faithful you are ♪ ♪ Faithful forever you will be ♪ ♪ Faithful you are ♪ ♪ Yes you are ♪ ♪ All your promises are yes and amen ♪ ♪ All your promises are yes and amen ♪ ♪ Faithful you are ♪ ♪ Faithful forever you will be ♪ ♪ Faithful you are ♪ ♪ Yes you are ♪ ♪ All your promises are yes and amen ♪ ♪ All your promises are yes and amen ♪ (soft music) ♪ I will rest in your promises ♪ ♪ My confidence is your faithfulness ♪ ♪ And I will rest in your promises ♪ ♪ My confidence is your faithfulness ♪ ♪ And I will rest in your promises ♪ ♪ My confidence is your faithfulness ♪ ♪ And I will rest in your promises ♪ ♪ My confidence is your faithfulness ♪ ♪ Faithful you are ♪ ♪ Faithful forever you will be ♪ ♪ Faithful you are ♪ ♪ Yes you are ♪ ♪ All your promises are yes and amen ♪ ♪ All your promises are yes and amen ♪ ♪ All your promises ♪ ♪ All your promises are yes and amen ♪ (soft music) - Amen, you may be seated.

(soft music) - Good morning, church family. My name is Azul Lai. I'm a second year at UCI, and this is my testimony. Like many other people, I grew up in a Christian household with parents and an older brother that faithfully walked with the Lord and actively served in church.

And although I knew of who God was, and I believe that Jesus had died on the cross for my sins, I never fully understood what it meant at the time. It was simply something I knew in my head, but my life was no truly different because of it, and it was not something that was personal to me.

As I got older in middle school and high school, I began to stray further from my faith. Having lost my grandparents and other family members to various illnesses or other personal struggles, I began to become bitter and angry towards God. And in my anger, I questioned whether God truly cared about me.

I even began to question if he was real, and even if he was, how could I continue to believe in a God that seemed to be so indifferent to my life and my problems? And although I had completely strayed away from my faith at this point in my life, I still continued to go to church to appease my parents.

Church became a habit, a place where I could simply go through the motions and put on a performance once a week. But I had now fully put my faith in academics, the hopes of a career, worldly accomplishments, and in friendships or relationships with others. I believed that accomplishing or gaining these things would truly make me happy and cover up all of my problems.

And as I delved deeper into the things of the world, I became consumed in my pride. I was selfish and cynical, often only caring about what I wanted, while being completely indifferent to the cost and effect that it had on others. Coming into college, I had the same selfish and worldly mindset.

However, for some reason, I felt the need to truly examine my faith one last time, because with no more parents to appease, going to church on Sundays was completely up to me. And now looking back on this moment, I knew that it was the Holy Spirit that was working to soften my heart and heart.

Coming to Berean, I was extremely blessed to have such patient brothers and sisters, not only to walk alongside me through my questions and struggles, but to also constantly point me to Christ through it all. And also their passion and desire to seek after the Lord was and still is a great encouragement to me.

And during this time, I began to consistently spend time in the word for the first time, even after attending church for so many years. And I also prayed to God that he would soften my heart and that the gospel message would truly become personal to me. However, throughout most of my first year, I still held onto the things of the world and my own fleshly desires.

It was not until later in the school year that although it seemed that in many ways I'd accomplished or gotten everything that I ever wanted, it did not give me the joy or satisfaction that I thought it would bring. I struggled often with stress and anxiousness. I remember during this difficult time that I was reading through Romans.

I remember reading Romans five verses one to two. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand and we exalt in the hope of the glory of God.

And in my desperation, I prayed to God that I would no longer simply keep him at a distance, but that I would truly live a life that was glorifying to him. That he would forgive me for how I'd strayed away from him for all those years, all the bitterness and anger that I held onto for so long.

I prayed that I would truly submit to his will for my life no matter what it may be. And I prayed that I would trust in him throughout everything recognizing that my wisdom had failed me time and time again. Recognizing that throughout my life, God had always been faithful even though I ran away and rejected him.

He had loved me through it all and he had always remained sovereign and provided for me through it all. Now after placing my faith in God, although my life is not perfect and in many ways there are still many struggles and ups and downs, through it all I'm able to find comfort, joy and hope in my identity centered in Christ.

I wanted to end with reading from 1 Peter 1, verses six to seven. "And this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while if necessary you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ." Thank you.

(audience applauding) (water trickling) - Oswald, do you understand when you're going into the water you're being guided to Christ's death and when you come out you're being guided to his resurrected life? - I do. - And I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

(water trickling) (audience laughing) (audience applauding) - All right, thank you for that great testimony. If you can turn your Bibles with me to Luke chapter six, we'll be reading from verse 39 to 45. Luke chapter six, verse 39 to 45, this is the second part that we started from last week, reading out of the NASB.

And he also spoke a parable to them, "A blind man cannot guide a blind man, can he? Will they not both fall into a pit? A pupil is not above his teacher, but everyone after he has been fully trained will be like his teacher. Why do you look at 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, brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother's eye.

For there's no good tree which produces bad fruit, nor on the other hand, a bad tree which produces good fruit. For each tree is known by its own fruit, for men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they pick grapes from a briar bush. The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good, and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil, for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart." Let's pray.

Father, we pray for your Holy Spirit's help to guide us and lead us, give us understanding beyond just mental consent, that it is not simply the words, but your very heart. I pray, Father God, for your guidance. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. You know, as a pastor, when I meet other pastors, one of the first questions I usually get is, what school did you go to, right?

What seminary? And the reason why they ask that question is because they say, depending on what seminary you go to, they're gonna determine, it's like, oh, okay, so you believe these things, or they assume certain things. Or if I said I went to Master's, like, oh, you went to Master's.

Or I went to Westminster, it's like, oh, you went to Westminster. So there are certain things that, if you're sitting under a certain kind of teaching, certain kind of philosophy, they would assume that you adhere to that, right? Probably as members of the church, if you meet other Christians, one of the first questions that you may get is, what church do you go to, right?

So if you say, I go to Saddleback, say, oh, you go to Saddleback. Or if you say, you go to Grace Community Church, oh, you're a John MacArthur guy, right? Or maybe some people would ask you, no, I mean, what church you go to? I go to Berean, it's like, oh, you go to Berean, right?

So whatever church you say that you are, there's certain assumptions that people will make about you because you're under a certain type of teaching, right? And so either you adhere to that and become like what you're being taught, or you're very frustrated, you want things to change, but it's not being changed, it's being changed, so you kind of, you know, are not happy where you're at.

So eventually that'll cause you to leave and find a church where you feel like you're gonna be able to learn and become like that, right? Or you conform and you become whatever is being taught. That's exactly what Jesus was saying because prior to this text that we're looking at, Jesus was teaching his disciples that the primary thing that God desires of his disciples is to practice the love that he practiced with them.

He said our identifying mark, the highest identifying mark of a genuine believer is his love, it's the quality of his love, this agape love, to love people the way he loved us, to love people that are difficult to love, love people that are our enemies, who are persecuting us, who are out to harm us, to bless them, to do good to them.

And he says the reason why it's hard for you to understand is because the leaders in your life were blind, and they were blind leading the blind, so that's why they ended up falling into a pit. And so all of the things that he's saying here was an indictment against these Pharisees, that they were under poor leadership.

In fact, we talked about that last week, how much the Bible has to say about leadership in Israel, and how much it has to say about leadership in the church in general, that if you don't take leadership seriously, it's just a matter of time that the church or the organization will go down as the leader goes down.

As much as the Bible says about the Pharisees, and as much rebuke is given to the Pharisees, you know, we talked about last week how repeatedly, over and over again, you Pharisees, you hypocrites, you hypocrites, you hypocrites, you actors, you're living up to the role, the title that you've been given, but you're not actually leading because you yourself are blind.

But before we're too harsh on them, we have to understand that the Pharisees, when they first started, they didn't start by saying, you know, let's organize and become good hypocrites. That's not how they started. They started out thinking that they're not gonna be like the other Jews who kind of compromise and become Hellenized and become more and more worldly.

They knew that God's judgment came upon the nation of Israel because they didn't take the warning from God seriously. So the Pharisees got together, and the name itself means to be set apart. They wanted to be holy. They wanted to be disciplined. They wanted to take the law seriously.

They wanted the Lord's blessing. But as time went by, their desire to be holy eventually turned into self-righteousness. And Jesus explains here the reason why they were blind, primarily, is because they were focused on other people's unrighteousness instead of their own. Next week, we're gonna be talking about the second part of that, is because their very nature was not changed.

And all they did was have a checkoff list that they were good at, and then whoever didn't do what they were doing, they needed to fix. The text that we're looking at in Luke chapter 6, 41 and 42, basically, Jesus is indicting the leaders of Israel. The reason why they are blind is because they were blind to their own problems.

Verse 41, "Why do you look at the speck "that is in your brother's eye, "but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?" In other words, you're so concerned about this little toothpick that you're trying to pick and say, "You know, you got this in your eye, "you got this in your eye, "but you got a log in your eye." Obviously, it's in hyperbole describing how blind they are in verse 42.

Or, "How can you say to your brothers, "brothers, let me take out the speck that is in your eye, "when you yourself do not see the log "that is in your own eye?" You notice he's saying, "You're blind." The previous verse, he said, "You have leaders who are blind who are leading you, "who are leading other people who are blind, "that's leading you into a pit." And so he describes here why they are blind.

They are blind because they do not see their own sins. They're so concerned about sins of other people that they became blind themselves. When you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye, you hypocrite. First, take the log out of your own eye, then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother's eye.

Every single one of us are much better at pointing out other people's sin than our own sins. Most of you probably don't know what your car smells like. Once you bought the car and that new car smell disappears, and then after about four or five years, and you're the primary driver of that car, your car begins to take on your smell.

And you don't know it because you've become so accustomed to this smell until somebody new comes into your car and they say, "What is this?" And you say, "What smell? "What are you talking about?" Because you've become so accustomed to that smell. At our house, we have two cats that I adore.

If you don't know what sarcasm is, that was sarcasm. Every once in a while, somebody will come into our house and they say, "Your house smells like cats." I don't smell it 'cause I'm in it. I've been in it for a long time, so I don't smell it. But when people come into our house, they'll say it started to take on the smell of the cats, which I'm very happy about.

Again, it's sarcasm. I don't recognize it because I'm in it. I'm a part of it, so I've become so accustomed to it that I don't recognize it. And it is in the same way with our own sins. We become so accustomed to it that we don't realize how it looks to other people.

So other people see our sins and they wanna take that out, but we're so good at seeing other people's sins that we think that if we just fix that, everything would be so good. You say, "A more godly spin to this?" Is that, "No, I need to speak the truth in love "because I'm doing God's work.

"How do we ever disciple anybody "if I don't point out other people's love?" We're cowards. We're afraid to point it out, so we take on a godly spin to focusing on other people's sins for the kingdom of God, right? 'Cause other people are not willing to do it, so I'm gonna go out and point out, "This is sin.

"This is sin." I remember back in college, I was a part of a ministry, and it was a charismatic ministry, and part of the charismatic thing that they was doing was that God told me that you had three sins. And the leaders would walk around and say, "I have this vision.

"You have three sins." And I remember the people who are under that would walk around saying, "I know two of 'em. "I don't know what the third one is," right? And they were constantly focusing on, "What is the other sin I need to do?" Now, that's a charismatic spin to that, but naturally, we have a tendency to think if they change, everything would be better.

See, that was the problem with the Pharisees. Pharisees were constantly focused on other people's sins. In Psalm 139, 23-24, it says, "Search me, O God, and know my heart. "Try me and know my anxious thoughts, "and see if there be any hurtful way in me, "and lead me in the everlasting way." See, an individual who is truly growing in their faith is somebody who is broken over their own sins.

The problem that we have if we're not careful is that we get so focused on other people's sins, one, it blinds us, and then it exaggerates their sins, and so we have a tendency, we're living in constant frustration that they're not doing what they're supposed to be doing. And so it leads to frustration, not only to you, but it leads to frustration with everybody else.

In 1 Timothy 4, 16, as Paul is training this young pastor to take over as the pastor of the Church of Ephesus, he's training this young pastor up, and he says, "Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching. "Persevere in these things, for as you do this, "you will ensure salvation both for yourselves "and for those who hear you." You notice here, he says, "In order to save them, "in order to save yourself, to do what?

"Examine them carefully to make sure "what they're doing wrong. "Make sure you assess them properly "to make sure you can tell them what they're doing wrong "so that they can be discipled and be better, "they can do things better." He says, "No." He says, "In order for their salvation "and for your salvation," he says, "Watch yourself.

"Watch yourself, your life, and your doctrines carefully." What happens to a community where people are trained to constantly examine other people? And that's their primary focus. What ends up happening? You have a community of people who are constantly concerned about what other people think. See, that's what happened with the Pharisees.

Pharisees, because they're hypocrites, they presented themselves as godly, even though they were ungodly behind the scenes, created an environment where they were under bondage. They were constantly under bondage because they knew that they were gonna be judged for whatever they did, whatever they said, whatever they did, wherever they lived, whatever they didn't do, they knew they were gonna be called out.

He says, "The reason why they were blind "is because they were so focused on themselves, "on other people's sins." You know, it's interesting that when it comes to wealth, we have a tendency to compare it with people who have more than us, right? Americans, you know, we're all wealthy, but then we always find somebody who's wealthier than us.

Right? If you're making 100,000, you know somebody who's making 200,000. If you live in a nice house, three-bedroom house, you know somebody who has a four-bedroom house. You drive a nice car, somebody has a better car than you. You have Tesla 3, somebody has Tesla S, right? So whenever we come to, come about wealth, we have a tendency to justify our pursuit of money because we're not rich, 'cause we have a tendency to always compare to the people who are better than us.

But when it comes to our righteousness, for some reason, we do exactly the opposite. We look at people who are worse than us. We're failing. We're not doing what we're doing. At least we're not as bad as them. So we justify. We justify pursuit of riches by saying, "We're not really rich like them," and we justify our sins by always comparing with people who are worse than us.

That's exactly what the Pharisees did. Luke 18, 11 through 13, the Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself. "God, I thank you that I am not like other people, "swindlers, unjust adulterers, "or even like this tax collector. "I fast twice a week. "I pay tithes of all that I get." You notice here he's chosen swindlers, unjust adulterers, or even tax collectors, the worst of sinners that everybody acknowledges are sinners.

And he says, "Thank God I'm not like them." In other words, I am righteous. We have a tendency to always compare our righteousness with other people who are more unrighteous, and so therefore we don't feel as bad. The tax collector, on the other hand, verse 13, the tax collector standing some distance away was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast saying, "God, be merciful to me, the sinner." And Jesus asked the questions to his disciples, "Who was justified?" Says the tax collector.

Because he recognized his sin. He recognized his need for a savior, and he's the one who asked for forgiveness. The Pharisees were blind because they were focused on other people's sin. In fact, in 2 Corinthians 10, 12, it says, "For we are not bold to class, "to class or compare ourselves "with some of those who commend themselves." In other words, they look at themselves like, "Thank God I'm not like those people.

"And because I'm not like them, "those other people need to get fixed." But when they measure themselves, by themselves, compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding. What's another way of saying they are without understanding? They're blind. They're blind. Because they're so focused on other people's sins, other people's unrighteousness, that they have become blind, so they do not see themselves, nor do they see others with correct vision.

Because they're so focused on other people. Matthew 23, 23 says, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, "for you tithe mint and dill and cumin, "and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law, "justice and mercy and faithfulness. "But these are the things you should have done "without neglecting the others." When we focus our righteousness, and say, "At least I'm not as bad as them." The Pharisees were walking around saying, "You know, I keep the law, I keep the Sabbath, "I tithe, I pray, I evangelize.

"I do all of these things, "and those sinners are not doing "what they're supposed to do." But he says, "The weightier things of justice, "mercy, and faithfulness, "which in God's eyes are more important "than what they were doing." So you completely justify that. You don't care about the people who are hurting.

You don't care people about suffering. All you care is that they live up to the standard that you've created. And as a result of that, what do they say? They became blind. So everything coming out of their mouth was blind. They're not seeing things clearly. So if you're not seeing things clearly, everything coming out of their mouth is coming through a filter of what?

Of self-righteousness. That's why self-righteousness causes you to be blind. So everything that you say, everything that you assess is coming through a blind filter. So if you're wearing a yellow sunglass, everybody is gonna look Asian. Everybody's gonna look Asian because of the sunglass that you have on. And you don't realize that you have that sunglass.

You think everybody else is wearing sunglass but you. And because of that, you are blind leading the blind. You know what's interesting is in 1853, there was a society called American Track Society. And they determined that they needed to eradicate worldliness in the church. So they went on a campaign to eradicate drinking and dancing.

So they went on a campaign that we can't have a church that's a centrist that looks out the world, who's doing this and doing that. And they were going preaching, they wanted to bring revival. And then somebody pointed out to them, you're so concerned about the drinking and dancing, but you're not addressing slavery.

And in the thick of things, he said, why won't you speak against slavery? And their response was, it's too divisive. It's too divisive. That's why we don't wanna touch that, it's too divisive. They were focusing on these external things that they feel like we're gonna bring revival, but the real issue of that generation, they did not touch.

In Romans 2, 1, it says, therefore, you have no excuse, every one of you who pass judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself, for you who judge practice the same things. You're so focused on changing the world, and changing other people. But you're so blind to what other people see so clearly.

The sin of pride, the sin of neglect, sin of licentiousness, you don't see it. It's like, what smell? I don't smell any smell, right? Something's wrong with your nose. I remember years ago, when I was a college pastor, I remember somebody came to me and they said, can you please pray for my parents?

And they would go, every time they would come home, they would share the gospel with the parents, and they said every time she would share, the parents would kind of like, basically, I don't wanna hear it, I don't wanna hear it. And one day, she said, you know what, I'm just gonna confront my parents.

She went home and started sharing the gospel, and was very aggressive about sharing the gospel. And then the mother, she came back to me so discouraged, and she said, what happened? And she said, when I try to press my parents about their claiming to know God, and say, no, you don't know God, you need to do this, you need to do that.

And then the mother turned around and said, you want me to go to church? I said, you need to be a good human being first. And she knew exactly what her mother was saying. She was disobedient, she was arguing with parents, she wasn't doing what her parents wanted her to do, and she was just kind of living in rebellion, but then she would come home and try to share the gospel with her.

And then I said, I can't hear what you're saying, because you're not practicing anything that you're saying. When you've talked to people who've left the church, how many of them left the church because they said that the pastor's wearing a suit, he's not hip? Or, oh, the songs in the church are so fuddy-duddy from the 1970s, I just couldn't sing anymore, so I walked away from the church?

Or the way it was organized, or it's just too, how many of you, maybe some of you have that, but most people who, I'm not talking about people who moved churches, I'm talking about people who fell away from the church, how many people that have you talked to who try to share the gospel with them, and he says, I don't want to go to church, because the church is what, filled with what?

Right, you already know, hypocrites. Hypocrites. Because we have a tendency to be so focused on what the world is doing, and not focused enough on what we're doing. And that's a church version of it, but in an individual version, we have a tendency to focus all our attention on what other people need to fix.

And we become blind to ourselves. When you do Bible study, right, what inspires you to do Bible study? Now, I can be up here, tell you why it's so important, and the leaders of the church can expound upon the passages, and the things that we've learned, and show you our insight, and there's, that's also important in the church, but just from even my own personal experience, what inspires you to grow in your faith, to take the word of God more seriously, is you have somebody in your Bible study who is so hungry.

They are not the most, they're not the experts, they're not the best in everything, and they just, maybe they just became Christian, but they're hungry. They're coming in with questions. What am I supposed to do? What does this mean to me? Man, this is so exciting. And their hunger to learn, and to grow, is infectious.

And then you have somebody in the group, it's like, yeah, you know, I read this book, and I read that book, and I know this, I can argue with this, and I can take you on with this, and I can do that. Who's inspired? All it does is like, at best, like, oh, you know a lot.

The end. But you're not inspired, in fact, you get irritated. Whenever somebody begins to show off about their knowledge, about what they know, about the Greek syntax, and you start going off on that, and it's like, nobody comes out of that Bible saying, oh, I wanna study the Bible.

What inspires people are other people who are just humbly wanting to learn and to grow. And that inspires other people to want to grow and to learn. It is our constant focus on, we need to change the world. We need to change the church, we need to change the people.

And all you produce are other people who are doing the same thing. Now, if we ended our sermon here, and we said, okay, we should never judge. Never, how dare you. The Bible says, do not judge, don't ever judge. Ever, ever judge. Is that what he says here? No, what he says here is, take the log out of your own eye first, right?

First, so that you can see clearly, to be able to make righteous judgment. In fact, in Luke 6.42, it says, 1 Corinthians 6.3, it says, do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more matters of this life? We are called to judge. Our eternity is going to be that we're gonna be sitting in the seats of judgment.

So if we're gonna do that, you need to be able to do that well here. But there's a difference between judging and being judgmental. Judgmental is somebody who is unaware of their own sins and focus all their attention on what other people need to do. And all it creates is greater stink.

'Cause nobody's challenged by that, nobody wants that, nobody wants to be around that. But he says, take your log out of your own eye. Make the focus of sanctification you. And when you are sanctified, when you are growing, you'll see how much it inspires other people to do the same without you saying a single thing.

If you wanna inspire people to pray, pray. Pray hard. And when other people see you doing that, they will be inspired to do the same. In 1 Corinthians 5.12, for what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? What are we to do?

Why are we so concerned about what the secular non-Christians are doing outside the church and not concerned enough about the church, about ourselves? The reason why the church needs to be what God called us to be is because the primary way that we're going to shed the light in the world is to become a brighter light.

Right now, the problem with our generation is that the light in the church is so dim that you try to take a dim light and you go into the darkness and they don't even recognize that the light is on because they can't see the difference between the church and the world.

So he says, in order for the church to be able to see clearly, we need to learn how to judge. Again, not being judgmental, to judge. And again, how does that start? Is with ourselves, right? Focus on ourselves, on our own sanctity, on our own growth. John 7:24, "Do not judge according to appearance, "but judge with righteous judgment." He says to judge, but to judge righteously, right?

Now, some of you guys may be sitting here thinking like, yeah, that's what I've been doing. This whole time I've been righteous judgment, right? What stink? You don't see any stink? Let me give you some practical things to look at to see if you are making righteous judgment, right?

First of all, if you're not in the word of God, right? If you're not in the word of God and you don't know what the word of God says, don't be overly confident about your opinion 'cause it's your opinion. And all you're saying is, my opinion is better than your opinion.

It's just opinion. It doesn't matter, it's your opinion. The church is not my church, it's not your church. We don't base what's right or wrong based upon how I feel or how you feel. It's based upon God's word. So even if I don't like it, if the word of God says something, we obey.

I obey and you obey. I remember years ago, we were doing a Bible study on Timothy and we talked about women leadership and we said we don't practice women eldership in our church and she got so mad. She was a graduate of Smith College, was known to be hyper-feminist and I remember that Bible study, she came at me like she was gonna body slam me.

She said, "How can you pervert the word of God like that?" I said, "What are you talking about? "We just shared the word." It's like, "That's not what the word of God said. "You're picking and choosing what you want to "and you're perverting that. "That's not what the word of God says." I said, "Okay, let's actually examine the Bible together." If you ask me for a passage, obviously you're not gonna trust me.

So what I want you to do is I'm gonna give you some time to go look at the word of God and ask people that you respect, who you think know the Bible well. Ask them for the texts that talk about this issue and then I want you to go study it for yourself.

So I gave her some time, "Yeah, I'll do that." So she went and then she never got back to me. It took maybe like six weeks, seven weeks and she never got back to me. So I went and asked her, "So what happened? "Did you do that?" To her credit, she did her homework.

She went and looked at all the texts and she said, "Well, I guess that's what it says." That's what she said. Okay, so let me make this clear. You said I was perverting the text, right? So now you've looked at it unbiasedly and you admit that this is what the text says.

She said, "Yeah, but I don't like it." Okay, so let's separate, right? Let's separate what the Bible says and you don't like it. So one, you say, "Well, that's what the word of God says." So let's look at the second part, you don't like it. So what don't you like?

You don't like what I'm saying 'cause all I'm doing is quoting scripture. What you don't like is what God said 'cause you just admitted that God said it, right? She's like, "Yeah, but I still don't like it." So I challenged her. So now we're, at least we can talk honestly.

So now the question is, should the word of God change or should you change? Should the word of God change or should you change? If your perspective of what was right and wrong contradicted the scripture, should you change or should the Bible change? To her credit, she gave in.

To her credit, she gave in. She said, "That's what the word of God said." And it took her a while for her to accept that. And I give you an example of that. How much of people's protest in what I say or what the church does and what we believe is coming from their own bias?

What they've learned, what they think is right, what seems fair, what doesn't seem fair, but it's not based on scripture. So first and foremost, if you do not know the word of God, where you need to focus your primary attention is to know the word of God so that what you say and how you judge things are not based upon your personal bias, but the word of God.

But secondly, first of all, right? So you need to know the word of God. But secondly, you need to obey the word of God. The word of God, not only do you know it cognitively, but the word of God needs to be judging you. Hebrew chapter 4.12, "For the word of God "is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword "and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit "of both joints and marrow and able to judge "the thoughts and intentions of the heart." You notice here the word of God, first and foremost, is to judge your thoughts and your intentions, right?

A Pharisee is only focused on what they are doing, what can be measured, I did it, I memorized scripture, I studied scripture, I evangelized, I do this, I do that, so they check it off, but what does he say? It judges what? Your thoughts and your intentions of your heart.

We can't measure that. We don't know that. No one can look at you and say, "Your thoughts and intentions are off." But you know that, the Holy Spirit knows that. So the word of God is open to let it judge me. Not how can I use this to judge other people, but the word of God is open to judge me.

I started as a pastor when I shouldn't have, right? At 19, the guy who was discipling me said, "His friend is planting a church, "they need a youth pastor, why don't you go and teach?" And at that time, they only had four kids, so the worst I can do is to ruin four kids, right?

So at that, we're safe. But because I started teaching so early, I was constantly preparing sermons, and there was a period when I was like 20, 21 years old, I was giving about three or four sermons a week, so everything that I was learning had to turn into a sermon.

But I remember a friend of mine doing Bible study gave me a Bible, and I was wrestling with this so much that at the cover of the Bible, I wrote for myself, "Read this for yourself." "Read this for yourself," because I was constantly reading it for other people. So I have that in my study, even to this day, every once in a while, I'll open it up, and it's all tethered, it's all broken up, so I can't use it anymore, but at the very front of that, every time I open it up, in my handwriting, I said, "Read this to yourself." Because the danger of being a leader is you put on a teacher's cap, and so you always see things through that lens.

What do they need? And so if you're not ready, you get ruined, because you're no longer a student. You no longer ask questions, you have the answer. So if you, in a room full of pastors, right, you have 20 pastors, and somebody asks a question, "What does this text mean?" You will get 20 answers, 'cause everybody's used to just giving answers, and that's the hard part of being a leader, 'cause we're supposed to give answers, so we have an answer for everything.

Even if we don't know, we have to give you an answer, and it ruins you. That's why becoming a leader, when you're not ready, doesn't help you. It ruins your growth, because you're constantly reading things for other people. How can I teach? What do they need to know? And we're not in the word of God to let it judge the thoughts and intentions of our heart.

What is my motive? Am I filled with pride? Does this make me proud? Am I using it to judge other people? And that's why I said, don't let a new convert become a leader, because he will fall under the same judgment as the devil, which is wanting glory, wanting his own glory, and then he was ruined as a result of that.

So the word of God, you need to know the word of God, you need to have the word of God constantly judge the thoughts and intentions of your heart. You need to obey the word of God, James 1, 23 to 25, for if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror.

For once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was, for one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer, but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.

If you know that you have compromise in your life, be quiet. If you don't have a good grasp of the word of God, be quiet. You shouldn't be a teacher, you should be a learner. If you're compromised, don't teach. You should ask. You should be asking, "Lord, search me and know me.

"Lord, I'm a sinner that needs your forgiveness." That's where we should be. Man, we've had people in our church literally struggling with adultery. And I say, "Yeah, yeah, you know, that's really bad. "I shouldn't be doing that." But what's our view on cessationism? What's our view about Calvinism? And they're concerned that maybe the proper theology, and they want to be a Christian, but the proper theology, and they want to debate about proper theology.

Dude, you're living in sin, in compromise. I don't want to have this conversation with you because right now that's not your priority. Until you are repentant of your sins, you shouldn't be concerned about what other people are doing. 100% of your energy should be on asking the Lord for forgiveness and being restored.

These Pharisees were walking around with all kinds of sins and worried about other people's sins and sweeping their own sins under the rug. We have too many people who are eager to teach and not enough people who are eager to learn. That's most of the problem with the Pharisees.

Let me say a third and final thing. If you're not praying, be quiet. Does that sound harsh to you? In fact, there's a better word for be quiet that I'm choosing not to use because they're filming me right now. Not praying is no different than if I came up here and said, "You know what?

"I was so busy, I didn't get to pray." It's no different than saying, "You know what? "I just didn't have time to open up the Bible. "I just didn't have time to read the Bible." It's no different than saying, "You know what? "I just didn't have time to open up the Bible this week, "so let's see what the Holy Spirit has to say." Let's see.

Right? How many of you are gonna take me serious if I approach the Word of God that way? That guy's just, he's gonna just wing it. He's not speaking the Word of God. And yet, in the Western church, especially in Bible-preaching churches, speak so confidently with authority and are readily admit, willing to admit, "I don't pray." But they speak with such authority, with arrogance, that this is God's will, this is God's purpose.

2 Corinthians 2, 10 through 11, "For to us God revealed them through the Spirit. "For the Spirit searches all things, "and even the depths of God. "For who among men knows the thoughts of a man "except the spirit of the man who is in him? "Even so, the thoughts of God no one knows "except the Spirit of God." If you're not communing with the Spirit, you shouldn't be speaking.

Because the Word of God are not just a statement of facts for you to find out. If you're not praying, you don't understand the heart of God, so you've perverted the Word of God because you're blind. You're not able to see clearly. And because you're not able to see clearly, your conclusions come from an altered vision.

Because you're not aware of the thoughts and intentions and the arrogance of your own heart that causes you to see other people with perverted vision. Let's admit, right, let's admit, this is something that we need to fix. When we see a problem in our generation, especially in the conservative Bible-teaching churches, we get organized, we have conferences, we write books, we write articles, but we don't pray.

We don't pray, but somehow that has become acceptable. Even though the Scripture says you're blind, you're not capable of seeing truth if the Spirit of God is not moving. If you're not humbling yourself and allowing the Word of God to judge the thoughts and intentions of your heart, before you go out trying to change the world for Jesus Christ, then it could be that your whole vision of how you look at things is wrong.

And yet in the Western church, it has become perfectly acceptable to allow a huge portion of what it means to be a true follower of Christ and yet be so arrogant and so bold to claim that we know the truth. If we are not humble before the Lord, begging for Him to get involved, is this righteous anger that I have, is it righteous anger or is that self-righteousness?

If you're not humbling yourself before the Lord in prayer, you would not know. What smell? I don't smell anything because you've gotten accustomed to compromise. That was the problem with the nation of Israel. It's not saying that we shouldn't judge, but we need to judge rightly. James 5, 19 to 20, "My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth "and one turns him back, "let him know that he who turns a sinner "from the error of his ways "will save his soul from death "and will cover a multitude of sins." We are to judge, but righteous judgment.

We are to seek the truth. We are to speak the truth in love. But until we focus our attention on ourselves first, your whole vision of what you think is right and wrong will easily be perverted. And Satan himself will use that to pervert your view of righteousness, to pervert the church, to pervert discipleship, pervert evangelism, pervert prayer, pervert Bible study.

It says in Galatians 6, 1 to 2, "Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, "you who are spiritual," spiritual is an individual who has spent his time focusing on his unrighteousness and asking for forgiveness. "He who is spiritual restores such a one "in a spirit of gentleness." Even when you see things clearly, he said it ought to be done with gentleness.

"Each one looking to yourself "so that you too will not be tempted. "Bear one another burden "and thereby fulfill the law of Christ." Years ago, somebody got me free tickets, right? First class tickets to come from Asia to the United States, right? I was on a mission trip and I happened to be in Hong Kong and somebody was generous enough to say, "Hey, I want you to pass.

"I want you to experience what first class feels like." And I got to ride first class, right? First time ever in my life. And I got in there and then there's, again, the first class is usually pretty empty. There's only three or four people in there. And I've ridden business class before, but first class was a different experience.

And anything that I did, and I remember I would drop a napkin and they would come running to pick it up for me. I dropped it again just to see if they would do it. (congregation laughing) Sure enough, they came. They picked it up and they put it back.

And I felt so uncomfortable, because I was a peasant in first class, right? I didn't belong there. I didn't earn, I didn't pay for it. Somebody just gave it to me. Imagine if I was walking around, I was like, "Oh, these peasants." You know what I mean? How dare they look into first class?

What's wrong with these people? Only if they worked as hard as I did and they could sit up here, you know? Close that curtain. You know what I mean? I'm eating my food and I'm filled with pride because I'm in first class. Not the whole time I was there, 'cause I was fully aware, you know what I mean?

These people are, I don't know what they're doing in life. Maybe CEOs of companies, I don't know what they're doing in life, but maybe they belong there, but I knew I didn't, 'cause I didn't earn this. Every single one of us in this room that knows Christ was saved by the grace of God.

We won a spiritual lottery that you and I did not deserve. We didn't deserve this. So imagine people who are saved by the grace of God, nothing that you have done, nothing that you will ever do, simply by the grace of God and live the rest of our lives thinking, "Oh my gosh, these guys stink.

"Why can't they be more righteous? "Why can't they know more? "Why can't they do this more?" Can you imagine what that looks like from God? How he saved us by the grace of God and we're spending the rest of our time disgusted by other people's sins, because we have forgotten the disgust that he saved us from.

What do you think the scripture means to live up to the gospel of Jesus Christ? How do you live up to something that you've been given to for free? To live up to the gospel of Jesus Christ means you've been given this to you for free. So that same grace that you were saved from, saved for or by, that you live by that same grace.

You live by that same grace. Because every single one of us were lottery winners. We didn't have a great idea, we didn't come up with a great invention, we didn't develop Facebook, right? We didn't have a computer. We were just given this eternal life, adopted. And if we understand that and we live under that grace, shouldn't we feel compassion for others who don't have it?

He said the reason why the Pharisees were blind is because they somehow thought they earned what they had. And as a result of that, they were so impatient with others who didn't earn it like they did. That's why the beginning of our sanctification is recognition of that grace. Grace justifies us, grace sanctifies us, and it is grace that will glorify us.

Let's fix our eyes upon our sanctification. And I guarantee you that when we are committed to grow, you will see the fruit of that in other people without having to organize, without having to tell everybody, right? Just you loving the Lord, you humbly serving the Lord, you want other people to worship?

Don't worry about what other people that come into this room and give the best worship that you can give. I guarantee you, it'll affect the people around you. You want other people to serve? Serve, serve the best that you can serve. I guarantee you, other people will see you serving and saying, I'm inspired by you.

You want other people to take the word of God seriously? Be the best student that you can be. Be diligent, pour yourself into that, and I guarantee you, people will see that and say, I wanna be like that. And you will see discipling happening because of your sanctification, because of your growth, because of your love.

Doesn't that change our paradigm, what the church is supposed to be? Isn't that the kind of church that you and I wanna be a part of? I don't wanna be a part of a church where everybody's looking and examining each other. You're not doing this, you're not doing that.

No, I wanna be a part of a church where even my own mistakes are forgiven and your mistakes, mistakes, right? That even if we discipline you, it's because we love you. I pray that that would be the case because Phariseeism doesn't require work. It'll creep in, it'll just creep in if we do not actively pray, search me, know me, see if there's any hurtful way in me.

Let's pray. (pastor and congregation murmuring) Gracious Father, help us. Help us, Lord God. We know the truth, and yet we get so easily entangled, Lord God, in ourselves. Help us to recognize the gift that we have been given so that we would worship you in spirit and in truth and that that worship would be infectious to all those around us.

We thank you for your word. We thank you for your patience. We thank you for your sacrifice. May Christ receive the reward of his suffering, our praise and our love and our adoration. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Let's all stand up for the closing praise. (congregation murmuring) (gentle music) ♪ O great God of highest heaven ♪ ♪ Occupy my lowly heart ♪ ♪ Own it all and reign supreme ♪ ♪ Conquer every rebel power ♪ ♪ Let no vice or sin remain ♪ ♪ That resists your holy war ♪ ♪ You have loved and purchased me ♪ ♪ Made me yours forevermore ♪ ♪ I was blinded by my sin ♪ ♪ Had no ears to hear your voice ♪ ♪ Did not know your love within ♪ ♪ Had no taste for heaven's joys ♪ ♪ Then your spirit gave me life ♪ ♪ Opened up your word to me ♪ ♪ Through the gospel of your son ♪ ♪ Gave me endless hope and peace ♪ Help me now.

♪ Help me now to live a life ♪ ♪ That's dependent on your grace ♪ ♪ Keep my heart and guard my soul ♪ ♪ From the evils that I face ♪ ♪ You are worthy to be praised ♪ ♪ With my every thought and deed ♪ ♪ Oh great God of highest heaven ♪ ♪ Glorify your name through me ♪ ♪ You are worthy to be praised ♪ ♪ With my every thought and deed ♪ ♪ Oh great God of highest heaven ♪ ♪ Glorify your name through me ♪ Let's pray.

Now the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, eternal love of God the Father, may reveal the power of that grace in our lives, in our speech, in every way, that Christ and Christ alone may be exalted, loved, worshipped, and followed in this church.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. (gentle music) ♪ My son ♪ ♪ They called him Jesus ♪ ♪ He came to love ♪ ♪ Heal and forgive ♪ ♪ He lived and died ♪ ♪ To buy my pardon ♪ ♪ An empty grave is there to prove ♪ ♪ My Savior lived ♪ ♪ Because he lived ♪ ♪ I can face tomorrow ♪ ♪ Because he lived ♪ ♪ All fear is gone ♪ ♪ Because I know ♪ ♪ He holds the future ♪ ♪ And life is worth the living ♪ ♪ Just because he lived ♪ Amen.

(gentle music) ♪ For my waking breath ♪ ♪ For my daily bread ♪ ♪ I depend on you ♪ ♪ I depend on you ♪ ♪ For the sun to rise ♪ ♪ For my sleep at night ♪ ♪ I depend on you ♪ ♪ Yes, I depend on you ♪ ♪ You're the way, the truth, and the light ♪ ♪ You're the well and everyone's dry ♪ ♪ I'm the branch and you are the vine ♪ ♪ Draw me close and teach me to abide ♪ ♪ Where the spirit leads ♪ ♪ As I'm following ♪ ♪ I depend on you ♪ ♪ Yes, I depend on you ♪ ♪ For the victory is still in front of me ♪ ♪ I depend on you ♪ ♪ Yes, I depend on you ♪ ♪ You're the way, the truth, and the light ♪ ♪ You're the well and everyone's dry ♪ ♪ I'm the branch and you are the vine ♪ ♪ Draw me close and teach me to abide ♪