Joyce Meyer - Matthew 7 Bible Study (08/18/2019)
This sermon from Matthew chapter 7 focuses on the dangers of judgment and the transformative power of love. The preacher, using verses 1-12 and 16, explains how judging others opens the door to spiritual attack and hinders prayer, concluding that a life of active love, framed by dependence on God, is the narrow path that bears recognizable fruit.
The Sowing and Reaping Principle of Judgment
Well, welcome to the program today. I'm so glad that you've decided to join us, and I hope that it really means a lot to you. Today we're going to be studying from Matthew chapter 7. I'm making an effort to teach people how wonderful it is to study the Word of God versus just reading it. There are so many lessons in Matthew chapter 7 that I know I will not be able to get through all of them in the time that we have here today. But we're going to get started. Matthew chapter 7, verse 1: "Do not judge and criticize and condemn others, so that you may not be judged and criticized and condemned yourself." Well, once again, we see the sowing and reaping principle that is all over the Bible.
It actually starts in Genesis, and you can find it probably hundreds of places: we're going to reap according to what we sow. So judging others always comes back to us at some point in something not very pleasant that we would rather not have in our lives. The easiest thing in the world to have is an opinion. I don't know that we can keep ourselves from having opinions, but perhaps with enough help from God, we can learn to keep them to ourselves. I have to whisper to myself often, "Joyce, it's none of your business." I'm not joking when I say that. I mean, I had to do it two or three times this last week. "It's none of your business."
Resisting Temptation and Knowing the Word
And so, it's not sin to be tempted. We're all going to be tempted. But one of the ways that we resist sin is by praying that the Holy Spirit would make us aware when we're about to be led astray or get into some kind of problem. And the moment that He does make you aware, then take some action to come against it. One of the reasons why we know the Word of God is so we can speak the Word of God when the enemy is whispering lies to our mind. And the truth is, when we judge someone, if you really study this out, it means to set yourself up as God in that person's life. Because only God has the right to judge.
Now, let me clarify that this is not talking about not judging sin. Obviously, if I know a married woman and she's having an affair with another married man, then I don't have to say, "Oh, I'm not going to judge that." I mean, I already know from Scripture that that's wrong. And I need to pray for her that her eyes will be open. But what we don't get to judge is somebody's heart. Because to be honest, we just don't have any idea what's going on in people's lives. You know, I can't just say, "You're a wicked person." Even good people sometimes do things that aren't good.
God Sees the Heart: The Why Behind the What
And that doesn't make what they do right. But it does mean that God doesn't just look on the outer appearance, but He sees the heart. An example that I can give is from my own life, being raised in an abusive home where I was really, really mistreated. I came out of that with a real hard core attitude. Very difficult to get along with. Got angry right away if I didn't get my way about everything. Just in general, a really, really, really bad attitude. And I can remember people saying to me sometimes, "What is wrong with you? What is your problem?" And you know what? I didn't even know I had one.
Because I was raised in that kind of an atmosphere. And so, I just kind of thought that's what you do in relationships. If you don't get your way, you just get mad and stay mad until you do get your way. But I'm so glad that even though my behavior was wrong, and God in due time really convicted me about my behavior, and He changed me, I'm glad that God saw my heart. And you see, that means that God knows the why behind the what. And that's something that we don't know. So, we have to be very careful when we start judging people's hearts.
That's why the Bible says to pray for your enemy and to pray for those that you see doing wrong things. It's not that we don't judge sin. And the Bible actually tells us that we should, and that we should try to bring people to a place of restoration. But that's a totally different thing than saying, "You know, you're a bad person. Get away from me. I'm not going to have anything to do with you." There may be a time to totally separate yourself from somebody. But we need to make sure that that's a direction from God and not just something that we decide to do.
The Measure You Use Will Be Measured to You
"For just as you judge and criticize and condemn others, you will be judged and criticized and condemned. And in accordance with the measure that you use when you deal out to others, it will be dealt out again to you." Isn't this sowing and reaping thing amazing? You know what I like about this? I like this because it gives me, under God's guidance, a measure of control over my life. And I don't like to just be the ploy of circumstances that I can't do anything about. You know, if I don't have any friends, I want to know that I can get some by being friendly and being good to people.
Now, you know, we pray. That always comes first. But I think something that Christians really, really, really desperately need to learn is that when we pray and ask God to do something, God is not always going to just do it for you. Much of the time, God opens your eyes and shows you what you can do. And He enables you to do it as you lean on Him. So it's not that God is not helping us and He's not doing anything for us, but we cannot sit passively by and just have God fix everything while we do absolutely nothing.
The Speck and the Log: Dealing With Your Own Issues First
"Why do you stare from without at the very small particle that's in your brother's eye, but do not become aware of and consider the beam of timber that's in your own eye?" And of course, if you read this scripture and some of the other translations, it gets really pretty funny. "Why should you try to take the speck out of your brother's eye when you have a telephone pole in your own eye?" So if you really think about that, and I've done little things on the platform sometime when I've been teaching—not a telephone pole, but a real long stick—and had somebody come up and so I'm trying to judge them and criticize them.
But because of my telephone pole, I can't even really get near them to help them because I keep knocking them down and slapping them, you know, with my pole and my judgment. And so this is really a wonderful lesson. It's saying, verse 4: "How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me get the tiny particle out of your eye’ when there's a beam of timber in your own eye? You hypocrite. First get the beam of timber out of your own eye and then you will see clearly to take the tiny particle out of your brother's eye." So he's basically saying here, we don't even begin to know how to help other people correct their problems if we're not dealing with the issues in our own life.
And so for me, even when I pray for other people that I think have a fault in an area, I always include, "And God, I know I've got plenty of faults of my own. So open my eyes and give me understanding about what my issues are." Because honestly and truly, sometimes we can be judging somebody and we're doing the exact same thing. It actually says that in Romans 2, verse 1. Why do you—why do those that you judge—you do the very same things that you judge them for? Because for them there is no excuse, but for us there's always an excuse. There's always a reason: "But you have no excuse to act that way. But if I act that way, it's because I had a bad day at the office."
Or, "Well I'm grouchy today because I don't feel good. I'm grouchy today because I don't get treated right at work. But don't you dare treat me like that. You have no right to treat me that way." Amen? Amen.
Do Not Throw Your Pearls Before Swine
"Do not give that which is holy, the sacred thing, to the dogs. And do not throw your pearls before hogs, lest they trample upon them with their feet and then turn and tear you in pieces." Okay, now, maybe you've read that lots and you're still just going like, "I don't really get that at all. You know, hogs and pearls and you know, what's the point here?" But I believe that God's given me some understanding on this and I believe that our pearls is the ability that God has given us to love people. I think that's the most precious thing that God has put in us.
The love of God is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. When you come into relationship with God, the love of God is poured into you which then is supposed to heal any brokenness in our life, enable us to love ourselves in a balanced way, to love God back but also to love other people. "One new commandment I give unto you that you love one another just as I have loved you." That's the most important thing that we can do as believers on a daily basis as far as our actions and our interaction with other people is concerned is to walk in love.
And love is something more than a word. It's something more than a theory. It's actually something that people can see and feel. It's patient. It's kind. It's humble. It doesn't demand its own rights. It's not jealous and on and on and on. So if I have the ability to love someone but instead of loving them I judge them and criticize them, then I'm throwing my pearls before hogs—evil spirits, the enemy—and that opens a door in my life then for those evil entities to come and bring some kind of torment in my life.
A Personal Story: Reaping What You Sow
Give you an example. Many, many years ago—I love it when I can tell a bad story on myself and say many, many, many years ago. I hate it when I have to say yesterday—so many, many, many years ago when I was still just teaching a home Bible study, so it was back at the very beginning, a girl came to our meetings every week. We had this little home meeting with 25 people in it and she just wasn't very disciplined. You know she'd come and then she wouldn't come and then she'd come and then she wouldn't come and she had a lot of problems in her life and we just really felt like, "Boy if you'd be diligent and learn the word, you know."
So then she got pregnant and because of being pregnant she said she felt bad a lot and she was nauseated and all these things and so she came even less and less and less. And I remember myself and two or three of the other Christian ladies in the Bible study just talking about, "Well she's just so undisciplined and she just makes all these excuses and blah blah blah." Now mind you, not one of us ever offered to go help her. Nobody ever said, "I'll come and help you get your housework done today so you can come to the meeting tonight." Nobody ever said that.
It's amazing how many times we just have opinions about what people do but we never move a finger to offer to help them. So I already had three children and she just kind of fell off the grid. We never saw her much anymore and we continued with our little home Bible study. I think I can stop right now and say thank God for his mercy toward us. Amen. With some of the dumb things that we do while we're learning. Thank God for his grace and mercy toward us that he gives us plenty of time to change.
So then I felt like God wanted me to have another baby and Dave at first thought I was kind of loony because we had three teenagers and he's like, "We can finally go do whatever we want to do, are you sure?" Well I really felt like that God had shown me that I was to have another baby and that this child was going to help us in ministry. Well that turned out to be Danny, who now of course is very valuable not only to me as his mom but also just, you know, between him and David they just do a lot here that makes me doing the rest of it doable.
Reaping Judgment and the Power of Repentance
The first three times that I was pregnant with David, Laura, and Sandra, I just felt super. The only symptom that I had was I just would be tired, really tired for the first six weeks, and I would go to the bathroom more than normal. Other than that, no symptoms at all. But when I got pregnant with Danny, I was so sick, so sick to my stomach. I can't even tell you how bad I felt. I would just lay on the couch and feel bad and I'd hear Dave and all the other kids out in the yard playing and having fun and, you know, playing ball or whatever.
And I would just think, "Oh my God, I'm so sick. I don't understand, God. I didn't even really have that much faith when I had the other three and now I'm believing in faith to feel good and, you know, and just nothing is working." And one day I just felt in my heart to read Matthew 7. And I did. Thought, "I don't know why you got me reading this." It kept coming back up and coming back up. Finally, to make a long story short, I felt like that God actually showed me that because I had judged that girl and had no compassion and mercy on her, I had thrown my pearls before swine.
That had opened the door for the enemy then, to make me feel the same way that I was judging her for feeling. And I thought she should get off the couch and come to the Bible study. And I couldn't even get off the couch hardly and go to the kitchen. And so I repented right away. "Oh God, I'm so sorry," I repented. Thank God. How many of you are grateful for repentance? Oh my gosh, I'm so grateful. So don't ever get a bad attitude when God shows you something that you're doing wrong. Just, "Oh God, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you."
There's no condition worse to have than to live in moral blindness and be doing things that are wrong and not even recognizing that you're doing them. I love the convicting power of the Holy Spirit in my life. And after I repented, I am not exaggerating to say probably by the next day, I felt totally fine and never had any problems again. And so I tell that story quite often when I teach out of these scriptures because it's such a practical example of how very often... You know, and I'm not saying this is all the time, but sometimes things happen to us and we just don't understand at all.
Or we'll hear that somebody's judging us critically and we're like, "Well, I just don't understand why they would treat me that way." Well, are they sowing or are you reaping? Are they sowing a bad seed? Or are you reaping off of a bad seed that you have already sown at some time in your life? You guys should smile more. This is a happy message. I know everybody at home, you're laughing, aren't you? You think it's really good. Amen.
The Connection: Prayer Sandwiched in Love
And you know, this isn't something we need to go, "All these evil spirits are watching every mistake I make." Thank God we've got his protection on our lives. But we need to realize, too, that the enemy is always looking for an open door in our life. And all we have to do is look at other scriptures. In Ephesians, it talks about don't let the sun go down on your anger. Don't give the devil any such foothold in your life. And so, when God convicts us, we need to straighten it out. Now, verse seven: "Keep on asking and it will be given you. Keep on seeking and you will find. Keep on knocking reverently and the door will be opened unto you."
Now, it really almost looks like we've totally switched subjects here. It's like, "Well, wait a minute. We were talking about not judging people and being loving. Now, all of a sudden, we're going to talk about prayer." But you're going to see in a minute how it gets connected. And I think it's just beautiful. "Keep on asking and it will be given you. Keep on seeking and you will find. Keep on knocking reverently and the door will be opened unto you." So, live your life as a person who prays about everything. And prayer can be simple. It doesn't have to be long. It doesn't have to be fancy. It doesn't have to be in any certain place.
Just ask for God's help in everything that you do. "For everyone who keeps on asking receives. And he who keeps on seeking finds. And to him who keeps on knocking, the door will be opened unto you. For what man is there of you? If his son asks him for a loaf of bread, will he give him a stone?" So, he's basically saying, if you ask God to help you, you don't ever have to be concerned that he's going to give you something bad. And to be honest, even if God doesn't give us what we thought we wanted, and we think, "Well, why didn't you give me what I asked?" If what he's giving you, whether you know it or not, is better than what you asked for.
Maybe you just haven't caught up with that reality yet. "Or if he asked for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, evil as you are, know how to give good and advantageous things to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven, perfect as he is, give good and advantageous things to those who keep on asking him?" So then, and this is the main point here. "So then" is referring to everything we've just said. And probably we just don't even pay attention to the "so thens" and the "ifs" and the "buts" in the Bible. We're like, "Okay, another subject." Now we're going to see it, but we're not.
"So then, whatever you desire that others would do to and for you, even do also to and for them, for this sums up the law and the prophets," which is love. Okay, now what I believe, this is what I believe that God showed me, and when he did, I got really excited about it. Really, the essence here is, look, whatever you need in life, you can get it, if it's right, by asking God. You can ask God for anything you want, anytime you want, every time you want. Just live your life asking. If we don't pray, then we're not dependent on God.
The Privilege of Prayer and the Love Sandwich
And prayer is not an obligation where I have to go somewhere and get in some certain posture, be in a certain place and sound real religious and then say that I've prayed. Prayer is the way we should get through every day. It can be done while you're walking. It can be done while you're—you can even pray while you're talking to somebody. You can be dealing with somebody out of something and not knowing exactly how to deal with it. And inside, you can be saying, "God help me, give me the right thing to say here." So prayer is the greatest privilege that we have as believers.
Who in the world wouldn't want to talk to God and know that he's listening? God just impressed it on my heart. I'm writing a devotional and he impressed it on my heart to just really share with people one day this week when I wrote it that when you pray, believe that God's listening. One time when Jesus prayed, he said, "Father, I know that you hear me." And so we don't pray wondering if God's hearing us. We know that he hears us. God hears us. And even if we don't get what we want the moment that we want it, God will take care of it.
Now, obviously, when you're praying for somebody else, their will's involved. But that still doesn't mean you shouldn't pray. But what I'm seeing here is all this stuff about love in chapter 7, 1 through 6. Don't judge. Don't criticize. Treat other people good. Now, all of a sudden, in the middle of this, I got this thing about prayer. And now I'm going right back to loving people again. So I believe it's kind of like, if you want your prayers to be answered, you better make so-called like a sandwich out of them. You got love on the top, love on the bottom, and your request in the middle.
Faith only worketh by love. It's energized by love. And that's knowing that God loves us, but it's also how we treat other people. And I don't know how you feel about it, but I think, to be honest, if I wasn't on television and needed a different message all the time in order for people watching to be interested, if I just was a traveling evangelist and just went from church to church, I'd be quite happy everywhere that I went the rest of my life to preach on loving people. Because I believe that that is one of... It is the most important thing, other than our own personal relationship with God, that we can do.
Because the Bible says you will know them by their love. How is the world supposed to want the Jesus that we love and serve if we're going to not treat them good? "So then, whatever you desire that others would do to and for you, even so, do to and for them." Almost done.
The Narrow Path of Love and Recognizable Fruit
"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate, and spacious and broad is the way that leads away to destruction, and many are those who are entering through it. But the gate is narrow, contracted by pressure, and the way is straightened and compressed that leads away to life." So, loving people is a narrow path. It doesn't leave a lot of room for all of our fleshly stuff, you know? It doesn't leave a lot of room for all of our fleshly baggage. Few, there are, who walk that narrow path. But I know somebody that's on it, and that's Jesus. And if he's the only one that's on it, I want to be on that path.
Many are on that broad path. Why? Because it's easy. On the broad path, you can do what you feel like. You can say what you think. And you know, the truth is, this is not what your salvation is based on. But I think anybody who truly is born again, truly born again, you're going to have to get around to developing some image of Christ in your life and becoming like him. Otherwise, we're just got a relationship with God to get, get, get, get, and not to serve him.
And, of course, you know that I'm very big on people being saved, but I'm equally just as big on Christians growing up and maturing, and not just having what Jesus died to give them, but behaving the way... I don't know about you, but I'm concerned about the world. And I feel like I've got a job to do besides just being in this pulpit, and that's everywhere that I go to represent Christ. And then, lastly, it says, goes on and talks about verse 16: "You will fully recognize them by their fruit." And I'm just going to have to stop there for lack of time. So, how are people going to recognize us?
Not by our bumper stickers and our Christian jewelry and our big Bibles and, you know, the fact that we drive out of our driveway every Sunday morning and go to church. They're going to know us by our fruit. Amen? Amen.