0:01

Hey everybody, Andy here. Welcome to Your

0:03

Move where we help you make better

0:05

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visit yourmove.is slash

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give. That's yourmove.is/give. Thanks

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for considering. And now

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back to the show.

0:35

I'd like to begin with something that purposely

0:38

will make all of us uncomfortable. And I've

0:40

done my best to put together a list

0:42

of things that will make all of us

0:44

uncomfortable. And so if at the end

0:46

of my list, if you're not uncomfortable, I want

0:48

to apologize ahead of time. And

0:51

if after I read my list, you just

0:53

want to shout out your adjective because I

0:55

missed you. You feel free to do that.

0:57

Although it may ruin Christmas for you and

0:59

draw undue attention to yourself. And even if

1:02

you're watching from home or in the car,

1:04

feel free to shout out your word if

1:06

I missed you. What

1:08

do you call a group?

1:12

What do you call a

1:14

group of lying, cheating, greedy,

1:16

covetous, lustful, porn watching,

1:18

tax dodging, racist, jealous,

1:21

judgmental, lonely, angry

1:23

people who eat too much, who

1:26

spend too much, who drink too

1:28

much, who medicate too much, who

1:31

worry too much, smoke too much, but

1:33

who gather to gather because they believe Jesus is

1:35

the light of the world and

1:37

they need more light. You

1:41

call that the church. Did

1:46

I miss anybody? Yeah,

1:50

you should clap. Yeah. In

1:53

fact, if you showed up today and you thought

1:55

you were surrounded by a bunch of holy people,

1:57

we just burst your bubble. Didn't we? Big time.

2:00

you showed up today, you're watching the day, you say,

2:02

oh, I don't think I really fit with the church.

2:04

Perhaps you found yourself on my list.

2:06

It's very odd to me to hear people

2:08

talk about the church like the church is

2:11

an institution, rather than a group

2:13

of people. That the church, you know, people sometimes,

2:15

maybe you've said this, well, the church ought to

2:17

do this, and the church ought to do that,

2:19

the church should do this, the church should do

2:21

that. My favorite one is when people say, Andy,

2:23

the church should take a stand, the church should

2:25

take a stand. And I have

2:28

a friend named Jonathan Reckford, I

2:30

first heard him say this, so I stole

2:32

this from Jonathan. He said, Andy, generally speaking,

2:35

when people tell you to take a stand, they

2:37

really want you to take their stand, right?

2:39

But here's the deal, and you know this, and if

2:41

you don't know this, it's time for you to know this, I'm

2:43

not the church, right? We are

2:46

the church. And besides that, the

2:49

church isn't a place where everybody

2:51

just all agrees on everything. The

2:53

church is a gathering of diverse people.

2:56

The church is a gathering of very

2:58

imperfect people, that's why you weren't offended

3:00

with my list, you could find yourself

3:03

on the list, right? The church is

3:05

a gathering of imperfect people with different

3:07

views and experiences, who really, they

3:10

don't agree on everything, we basically just

3:12

agree on two things. We just

3:14

agree on two things. We agree that God sent

3:16

his son into the world to forgive us of

3:18

our sins, and to help us get beyond ourselves.

3:21

To forgive our sins, and then to help

3:23

us get over ourselves. And secondly, we believe,

3:25

the thing that we agree on, is that

3:27

God sent his son into the world, and

3:30

when he did that, he extended something to

3:32

us, that now we are

3:34

responsible for extending to one another, and

3:37

others outside the gathering.

3:39

And that thing that we've been called to

3:41

extend to others is simply grace.

3:44

Grace when it comes to relationships, and grace

3:46

when it comes to us, is like the

3:48

oil in the machine. You know how machines

3:50

work, or you know enough about how machines

3:52

work to know why oil is important, and

3:54

grace is like the oil in society. Grace

3:57

enables folks who are different from each other

3:59

to work together. without destroying

4:01

each other. Grace allows people who

4:03

aren't like each other to

4:06

like each other. Grace allows people

4:08

who aren't alike to get along in

4:10

such a way that they're able to

4:12

accomplish amazing things, even though they

4:14

have differences. And the cool

4:16

thing is, the amazing thing is, the reason

4:19

we talk about this at Christmas is that

4:21

your heavenly Father, God, initiated

4:23

this. Your heavenly Father modeled this. In

4:25

fact, it's in one of the most

4:27

famous lines of one of our most

4:29

famous Christmas carols. God

4:31

and sinner reconciled. God and

4:34

sinner reconciled. At Christmas, we

4:36

celebrate the reconciliation of God

4:39

and sinner, and that could

4:41

not happen without grace.

4:45

You can be right without grace, but

4:47

you can't be reconciled without grace. And aren't

4:50

you glad, because I am just speaking for

4:52

me, aren't you glad Jesus did not come

4:54

into the world to be right? Jesus

4:57

came into the world to make things

4:59

right. In fact, within the context of

5:02

relationships, grace becomes amazing when it's extended

5:04

to other people. I mean, as I

5:06

said last week, grace is invisible. Grace

5:08

isn't even a thing until it's experienced.

5:11

And it's only experienced within the context

5:13

of relationships. And when God sent his

5:15

son into the world, he's extended grace

5:17

to us by sending Jesus to us.

5:19

And grace is most amazing when it

5:22

shows up in relationships because it can

5:24

only be experienced in relationships. And

5:27

you, this is amazing, you are most amazing when

5:29

you extend grace to other people. You

5:31

are most like your Father in heaven

5:33

when you extend grace to other people.

5:35

And in this way, God's amazing grace,

5:38

his grace to us, God's amazing grace

5:40

to you is an invitation to be

5:43

amazing. There's a sense in which grace,

5:45

or the opportunity to extend grace to

5:47

other people, is my greatest opportunity relationally.

5:50

And it is your greatest opportunity relationally.

5:52

It is your opportunity to be amazing.

5:56

But, and here's the rub, extending

5:59

grace to other people. is not easy for some

6:01

of us, is it? More specifically, extending

6:03

grace to certain people is not easy

6:05

for some of us. And

6:08

if I could just pry a

6:10

little bit, extending grace to certain

6:12

kinds of people, certain groups of

6:14

people, certain people who embrace certain

6:16

behaviors, or groups of people

6:18

that remind you of someone who hurt you in

6:20

the past, all of us have a person or

6:22

a group of people to whom it is very

6:25

difficult or challenging to extend grace.

6:27

And Jesus, this is so amazing, Jesus

6:30

tells us why. Jesus,

6:33

and perhaps what is the most

6:35

unsettling question asked by anyone at

6:37

any time, anywhere, Jesus explains why it is

6:39

unsettling or why it is so difficult for

6:41

me to extend grace, and perhaps

6:43

why it's so difficult for you to extend grace. But

6:46

I gotta warn you about this question. This question is

6:48

a difficult question. This question is like being punched in

6:50

the nose. And I just

6:52

wanna give one other qualifier. If

6:55

you're not a Christian, and by that I mean, you're

6:57

not someone who is following Jesus, you

7:00

don't have to play. You can kinda sit back

7:02

and watch all of us feel miserable when Jesus

7:04

asks us this question, because we're Jesus followers, and

7:06

if you're not chosen to follow Jesus, this

7:08

may be a good reason to never follow

7:11

Jesus, because this question is so difficult. It

7:14

really is like a sucker punch. It's

7:16

like he just gets right up in our

7:18

face. So, here's the question. Here's a question

7:20

that takes us right to the epicenter of

7:22

why it is so difficult for most of

7:25

us to extend grace to somebody or

7:27

to a group of people. Are

7:31

you ready for this question? You're watching at home,

7:33

you're driving, are you ready for this question? Because

7:36

this is gonna rock you back on your

7:38

heels. Jesus was the master communicator, and apparently

7:40

he knew how to land a punch. Here

7:42

it is. Why

7:46

do you look at the speck of sawdust

7:48

in your brother's eye and pay no attention

7:50

to the plank in your own eye? Oh

7:54

man, can you just talk about prayer or

7:56

our Father in heaven? I mean, why, yeah,

7:58

yeah, no, no, no. Why?

8:01

This is Jesus. And this is important to

8:03

remember because for the next few minutes you're going

8:05

to get very upset at me. I just want

8:07

you to know, I didn't say this. I wouldn't

8:09

ask you this question. This is Jesus. I'm just

8:11

the mouthpiece. You know, don't shoot the piano player.

8:13

Okay. This is Jesus asking you and asking me,

8:17

why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your

8:19

brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your

8:21

own eye? Why do you

8:23

focus? Why do you, you

8:25

know, look specifically? Why do you give all

8:28

this attention to get so amped up and

8:30

ramped up and emotional about the speck, the

8:32

little itty bitty thing that they do wrong

8:34

in your brother's eye and you don't pay

8:36

any attention to your issues, to

8:38

your problems, to your habits, to your

8:40

attitudes, to the plank in

8:42

your own eye to which somebody says,

8:45

I'll tell you why, because

8:48

it's not a speck of

8:50

sawdust. Okay. She's

8:52

a Democrat. He's

8:56

a Republican. That's

8:58

not a speck of sawdust. That's a

9:00

forest. Okay. So don't get all upset

9:03

with me and my response to him

9:05

or her. Hey, look, he's a white

9:07

politician. Okay. That's not a speck. I

9:09

went, I went by their home. They

9:11

were watching CNN. Okay. So

9:14

that is an issue for me. All right.

9:16

He has Fox News on all

9:18

the time, 24 seven, right?

9:21

But for some of us, it's more personal than that. For

9:24

your, your response is this is not a

9:26

speck. My dad left when we were eight

9:28

years old. He never looked back and my

9:30

mom had to raise three kids with none

9:32

of his help. And then when he got

9:34

old and sick, he shows up and he

9:36

wants us to help out. I'm

9:39

sorry. That is not a

9:41

speck of sawdust. That's

9:43

not a speck. I don't know what those are, but

9:46

those aren't specs. And

9:48

rightfully so. We should get a little defensive

9:51

run. A question with Jesus would ask us when he

9:53

doesn't even seem to know our story, right? Secondly,

9:58

Jesus, you might be tempted to sin. I

10:01

don't have a plank in my eye. First of

10:03

all, that's not a speck of sawdust. And secondly,

10:05

the reason that I look at the speck of

10:07

sawdust in my brother's eye and don't pay attention

10:09

to the plank in my own eye is I

10:12

don't have a plank in my eye. I

10:14

see the world as it really is. I

10:18

understand how things really work. I

10:20

know what's going on. Isn't

10:23

that true of you? I mean,

10:25

come on, let's be honest. You don't have a plank

10:27

in your eye, do you? I mean,

10:30

you're not in any way influenced

10:33

by your upbringing, right? Or

10:36

the environment you grew up in or in now,

10:38

right? I mean, these things couldn't possibly paint the

10:40

way you see the world or the people around

10:43

you, could you? It's ridiculous. You're not influenced by

10:45

your experience, your education, your health, your lack of

10:47

health, your health struggles, the fact that you've been

10:49

to get blessed with great health. You're not

10:51

influenced in any way in terms of how

10:53

you see the world and people around you

10:55

based on your success, your failure, your insecurities,

10:57

your opportunities, your IQ or your EQ, right?

11:00

I mean, some of you don't know

11:02

what EQ is because of your

11:04

IQ, but these things don't influence

11:07

the way you see the world, right? I

11:09

mean, Jesus isn't talking to you. He's

11:11

not even addressing you, is he? Perhaps, but

11:13

Jesus isn't through. He goes on.

11:16

He says, how? How can

11:18

you say to your brother? How can you

11:20

say to your brother-in-law? How can you say

11:22

to your sister, your sister-in-law, your neighbor, that

11:25

guy at work? How can you

11:27

say to that person, let me take the

11:29

speck out of your eye. Let me help

11:31

you see clearly. Let me help you see

11:34

the world the way it really is because

11:36

I see the world the way it really

11:38

is. When all the time,

11:40

Jesus says, he's just amazing, isn't he? When

11:43

the whole time that you've been critical,

11:45

the whole time you've had such a bad attitude,

11:47

the whole time you look at your watch every time

11:49

you visit because you told your wife in the car,

11:51

your husband in the car, we're staying 30 minutes, 30

11:53

minutes, 30 minutes. Ready? Go.

11:56

We got 30 minutes, okay? Why, why,

11:58

why, why? He would say

12:00

when the whole time you've had a plank in

12:03

your own eye and then if you're

12:05

not a Christian, you're gonna love this next part. In fact,

12:07

this may be your favorite thing Jesus

12:09

ever said. You may not even know he said this.

12:12

Jesus rears back and maybe with a

12:14

smile on his face, I don't know, Jesus

12:17

rears back and he

12:19

gives us a two word sentence. He says,

12:21

you hypocrite, through

12:25

which all the unchurched people are like, finally

12:27

somebody has given it to those church people.

12:29

Who was that again? Jesus said

12:32

that, yeah, he called his own folks hypocrites.

12:36

You send her. You

12:39

fall shorter. Right,

12:42

so what it means? You did it on

12:44

purpose-er. Over

12:47

and over. Do

12:51

you know why God is able to extend

12:54

grace to you in spite of you? Do

12:56

you know why God is able to extend

12:58

grace to you in spite of you? Do

13:01

you know why God is willing to give you

13:03

what you don't deserve even though he knows better

13:05

than anybody what you do deserve? Do you know

13:08

why God doesn't overlook sin that God chooses to

13:10

forgive your sin and treat you as if you'd

13:12

never sinned? Do

13:14

you know why God is able to extend? Great,

13:16

do you know why God decided to send his

13:18

son into the world to pay for your sin

13:20

so that you could be reconciled through

13:23

grace? Because

13:25

he could see you for exactly who

13:27

you are and

13:30

take all of that into consideration.

13:34

He knows, he knew all about

13:37

your upbringing. He

13:39

knows about your dad and your stepdad.

13:42

He knows about the environment you were forced into

13:44

or the environment you were taken out of or

13:46

the environment that you can't get out of now

13:48

or the environment that you're in now at school

13:50

or your fraternity or sorority or the people that

13:52

you're surrounded with or you showed up

13:54

in the big city and it's so different than the small

13:57

town you grew up in and you have to have friends.

13:59

Nobody can survive without. friends. He sees all

14:01

that. He gets all that. He knows

14:03

what you've experienced, what you've done and what was

14:05

done to you. He

14:08

understands your health challenges and why that

14:10

and how that set you back. It was

14:12

more difficult for you to connect. It was more difficult

14:14

for you to excel. It was more difficult for you

14:16

to connect. He

14:19

understands what success has done to you.

14:21

It blindsided you. Most people have a

14:23

difficult time passing the success

14:26

test. He understands what failure did

14:28

to you. He understands the connection

14:30

between what you were told as a child

14:33

and your failure as

14:35

an adult. He knows your insecurities. He

14:37

knows the opportunities you missed, the ones you

14:39

took advantage of, the ones you should not

14:41

have taken advantage of and where it led.

14:43

He knows all about your IQ and your

14:45

EQ. He took all of

14:47

that into consideration and having

14:49

taken all that into consideration and

14:51

what you did with it and what you didn't do with

14:53

it. And your heavenly father

14:56

decided to extend grace to

14:58

you. And the Apostle Paul, looking back

15:00

on the crucifixion and the resurrection of

15:02

Jesus, the Apostle Paul, who understood himself

15:04

to be the biggest hypocrite of all

15:06

even though he knew the law as

15:08

well as anyone else in the first

15:10

century, wrote this. But he

15:13

didn't have us in mind. He

15:15

had himself and his first century

15:17

brothers and sisters in mind. He

15:19

wrote this incredible, incredible statement. But

15:22

God, and this meant so much

15:24

to the Apostle Paul, but God

15:26

put on a demonstration. God

15:29

didn't just say it. God

15:31

didn't just send it in a letter. God

15:33

put on a demonstration of love, but

15:36

God demonstrates his own love for us

15:38

in this. While we were still sinners,

15:40

Christ died for us. Now the verb

15:42

tense here is really important and this

15:44

is, this is, I still can't get

15:46

my mind around this. The Apostle Paul

15:48

recognized when he was writing this letter,

15:50

this is what he recognized. While I

15:53

was north of Jerusalem, unaware

15:55

of what was happening in Jerusalem,

15:57

while I was north of Jerusalem,

16:00

Sending Jesus at the very

16:02

moment I was a sinner sinning

16:04

was dying for the sin that I

16:06

was sending think about this This

16:09

wasn't future tense This was the Apostle

16:11

Paul realizing because they lived at the

16:13

same time while I was still a

16:15

sinner actively sinning

16:18

Jesus was nailed to a cross

16:20

for the sins I was committing

16:22

at that very

16:25

moment He understood

16:28

grace in a way that I'm not

16:30

sure we can ever understand it because

16:32

he lived in the day and age

16:34

Imagine that while I was still sinning

16:36

Christ died for The sinner

16:39

I think if he had written that made the same statement with

16:41

you in mind and with me in mind and with us in

16:43

Mind and with the future in mind. I

16:45

think he might have written it this way, but

16:48

God Demonstrates his own love

16:50

for you or us in this knowing

16:52

ahead of time knowing

16:54

ahead of time the sins we would commit and

16:58

confess and repeat

17:01

and confess again Christ

17:05

died for us Anyway

17:09

Because that's what grace does

17:13

That God was able to take

17:15

your whole story into account and

17:18

gave you what you deserved least But

17:20

what you needed most and then he

17:22

says to you and he says to me come on I

17:25

just want you to do for others what I have

17:27

done for you, but

17:30

to be clear Here's what Jesus is saying He's

17:32

saying that look don't leave here and feel just

17:34

feel bad about yourself and tell your voice for

17:36

under your girlfriend or your roommate Or your fraternity

17:39

brothers your sorority sisters, or you know well You

17:41

know what I'm gonna try to be a better

17:43

person and I'm gonna try to be nicer Jesus

17:46

says no this isn't what that's about

17:48

that's not where this starts This doesn't

17:50

start with recommitting yourself to being sweeter

17:52

and kinder. He says first He gives

17:54

us a list first before

17:56

you try to figure out how to extend

17:59

grace to someone else. You will

18:01

never get that right unless first

18:03

you take the plank out of

18:05

your own eye and then and

18:08

only then will you see

18:11

clearly enough to know how to extend

18:13

grace to the people that

18:15

need what they don't deserve but what you've

18:17

been called to extend to them. This is

18:19

so powerful and just

18:22

honestly with me. See I prepared this message about

18:24

three weeks ago and it has been on my

18:26

nerves for three weeks and I couldn't wait to

18:28

share the guilt because this is such a difficult

18:30

question because I can't get up here and

18:32

talk about this without saying God okay you know if we

18:34

could just get past the Sunday when I present this then

18:37

I can quit thinking about this but I what

18:39

are the planks I am carrying around because there

18:41

are people I have a hard time with and

18:44

what is it about them that actually reflects on

18:46

something about me because

18:48

planks get in the way of

18:52

grace. So

18:54

here's my version of Jesus question. His

18:56

is better, mine is shorter. You

19:00

got planks? You

19:03

got planks? You got

19:05

planks? I don't know if

19:07

you have planks. Jesus says you

19:09

probably got planks. That's

19:11

why there's something you're not looking forward to. Don't

19:14

miss this because Jesus I think he is

19:16

saying look when you begin to see that

19:18

person the way I see that person you

19:21

will not dread the encounter as much as

19:23

you will see the encounter as an opportunity

19:27

to do something unsettling. You

19:31

won't dread that occasion that dinner that

19:33

party that meeting that gift exchange you

19:35

won't dread it as much as you'll

19:37

see aha here is the one

19:39

opportunity I may have all year to

19:41

do for someone what they would not

19:44

do for me because of what they

19:46

did to me that they're not expecting

19:48

for me to do for them and

19:52

here's the brilliance of Jesus teaching this

19:54

is why he says first first first

19:56

first you've got to examine your own

19:58

heart you've got to examine in what's

20:00

in your own eyes. First you've got to

20:02

remove the plank before you try to extend

20:04

grace. If you try to just be nicer

20:07

and more patient and more kind, but you

20:09

don't deal with your own planks, this isn't

20:11

going to work. First remove the plank from

20:13

your own eye, and then did you notice

20:15

the terminology? And then you will see clearly.

20:18

Then you will know. Then you will know

20:20

better. Then you'll have greater insight too. Then

20:23

you'll be a little bit more authentic when

20:25

you decide to do for someone else what

20:27

God through Christ has done. For

20:30

you. Here's what I've learned and honestly I've learned

20:32

this the hard way. I'm still learning this. The

20:35

more aware I am of

20:38

what God has yet to do in me. In

20:41

other words, the more time I spend

20:43

in the mirror of God's Word, the

20:46

more time I spend reading the messages

20:48

and the teaching and the activities

20:51

of Jesus, the more

20:53

I am aware of what God has

20:55

yet to do in me, the more

20:57

time I spend on my planks, the

21:00

less aware, the less aware I am of what

21:02

He has yet to do in you.

21:05

In fact, not only just the less aware to be

21:08

honest, the less bothered, the

21:10

less put off, the

21:12

less offended, the

21:15

more aware you are of what

21:17

God has yet to do in you, the

21:20

more aware you become of what God has yet

21:22

to do in you, the more aware

21:24

you become of the planks that you need to

21:26

remove, the easier it

21:28

will be to extend

21:30

grace to others because the less aware

21:32

you will become of what God

21:34

has yet to do in them because you have focused your

21:37

attention. This is what Jesus taught on what God has yet

21:39

to do in you.

21:41

This is so amazing to me. This is why I

21:43

love the Christmas story. At

21:45

Christmas, at Christmas, grace

21:48

came to earth. At

21:50

Christmas, grace came to earth to

21:52

dwell with us in spite

21:56

of us. And

21:59

this Christmas, You are going

22:01

to have an opportunity perhaps to do some

22:03

in spite of and It

22:06

won't be effective and it won't

22:08

work and you will find no joy

22:10

in it unless you first

22:12

remove the plank From your

22:14

own eye isn't this interesting that God was more and

22:16

this is the goal This is where you have to

22:19

get this is where I have to get this is

22:21

why this is such an important lesson right before Christmas

22:23

isn't it interesting that God was more

22:26

brokenhearted over our sin than he was

22:28

put off by it That

22:30

God was so brokenhearted over our

22:32

sin He sent his son into

22:34

the world to pay for our

22:37

sins so that God and sinner

22:39

could be reconciled Jesus

22:41

drew near even though we by

22:43

choice Had been far

22:46

away Jesus didn't take sides

22:49

Jesus came alongside isn't

22:51

that amazing and that's what we find

22:54

throughout the Gospels But there

22:56

was an exception There was a group

22:58

of people that Jesus did not come alongside of In

23:01

fact the kind of running-gun battle in the the

23:03

Gospels the per the group of people that Jesus

23:05

had the most conflict with They

23:08

weren't sinners in the traditional sense of

23:10

sinners You know this if you grew

23:12

up in church the people that Jesus

23:14

had the most problem with were people

23:16

who represented Graceless religion religious

23:18

people whose religious people whose planks

23:20

made it impossible for them to

23:23

see people the way He saw

23:25

them people who

23:27

had so dumbed down God's

23:29

law that they didn't believe they were in

23:31

the need of grace and

23:33

Jesus had no patience with that

23:35

group of people and

23:38

I don't want to be one of those people and You

23:41

don't want to be one of those people and

23:43

if you're not a person who's a church person

23:45

or someone who follows Jesus It may be because

23:47

you've run into Too many

23:50

religious people who embraced a

23:52

graceless religion

23:55

because the truth is when grace

23:57

is up front when grace

24:00

is upfront, when grace is out

24:02

front, there's something very, very attractive

24:05

about grace and the people who exhibit grace. In

24:07

fact, your favorite people in the world, I don't

24:09

even know you or your story. I don't know

24:11

you or your story, but some of your favorite

24:14

people, in fact, maybe your favorite person is a

24:16

person that wears their grace and carries their grace

24:20

out front. John said that Jesus was

24:22

full of grace and

24:24

truth. So I'm gonna ask you one more question, even though

24:26

this is another pesky question, but I feel like I need

24:28

to ask you. Jesus was full

24:30

of grace and truth. What are

24:33

you full of? Or

24:35

let me elaborate a little bit. What comes

24:39

out of you? What comes

24:41

out of you when you get shaken up? When

24:44

you get shaken up, what comes

24:46

out? When you bump into sinners

24:48

like you, when you

24:51

bump into sinners like you, the only difference being they have

24:53

a different list of sins. When

24:55

you bump into people who kind of get on your

24:57

nerves but actually you get on their nerves

24:59

as well because you're different, but you get on

25:01

each other's nerves. What comes out of you when

25:04

you get shaken up? When you get shaken

25:06

up, what comes out? So

25:10

what about you? Are you ready

25:12

to remove a plank? Are

25:14

you willing to remove a plank? Are

25:16

you willing to remove a plank so that

25:19

you can see clearly in order to benefit

25:21

and give grace to people around you? People

25:23

that you're sure are wearing the plank. People

25:26

that you're sure have the plank and

25:28

you're the one with the sawdust, would you

25:31

be willing to consider that perhaps you have

25:33

a plank that needs to be removed, that

25:35

is keeping you from extending grace to someone

25:37

in your life that honestly, this is no

25:40

exaggeration, grace from you

25:42

could change their life. Grace

25:44

from you would be an introduction to the

25:46

grace of God. Grace from you because they

25:49

know they don't deserve it because they are

25:51

so aware of what

25:53

they've done. It

25:56

could change their life. For some of you, that

25:58

is your story. It was the... grace

26:00

that you receive from someone who you hurt

26:02

deeply that ultimately opened you up to the

26:04

truth of Jesus. So the question

26:07

that I want to ask all of us

26:09

is are you ready for

26:11

grace to come to town? Are

26:14

you ready for grace to come into your

26:16

home? Are you ready for grace to envelop

26:18

and embrace the people that you're gonna see

26:20

and be around? Are you ready for

26:23

Christmas? And taking that plank

26:25

out of your eye, recognizing what's going

26:27

to be difficult for you to recognize,

26:30

acknowledging the thing that none of us

26:32

want to acknowledge about ourselves is the

26:34

best preparation for a season characterized by

26:37

grace. And here's the thing,

26:40

if you still feel superior

26:43

to sinners like you, you

26:45

still have some work to

26:48

do. And you've lived long

26:50

enough to know this, when there is

26:52

a person that really just gets on

26:55

your last nerve, oftentimes there is something

26:57

in them that is reflecting back on

26:59

something in you. And

27:01

we all know that. I think

27:03

Jesus would say, hey, as you celebrate

27:06

my birthday, as you celebrate my birth,

27:08

as you celebrate what God did on

27:10

your behalf during this Christmas season, take

27:12

some time to reflect and

27:14

remove the plank from

27:16

your eye. Grace really is,

27:19

relationally speaking, it really is the

27:21

unsettling solution for just about everything.

27:24

And Jesus was full of grace and

27:26

he extended it to people who were

27:28

nothing like him and then he asked

27:31

people like us who were nothing like

27:33

him to extend it to people who

27:36

are nothing like us and who may not

27:38

even like us. So

27:40

let's do that. This

27:42

Christmas season, let's

27:45

do something unsettling. Let's

27:48

be unsettling. Let's give

27:50

to someone what they don't

27:52

expect and what

27:55

they perhaps don't necessarily deserve.

27:58

And when you do this, Yes, you

28:01

will be like your Father in

28:03

heaven. You will

28:05

be part of the unsettling

28:07

solution. You will be

28:10

amazing. Amazing.

28:13

Just like. Thanks for listening. But

28:22

before you go, I wanted to take

28:25

a minute to thank everyone who supports

28:27

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on Your Move. Thank

28:57

you.