GREATEST OF ALL TIME | Week 8 | Sermon · Rewind

Pastor Daniel Goulding · Jun 16, 2024 · 41 min watch · 3 min read

GREATEST OF ALL TIME | Week 8 | Sermon

Big Idea

Quoting the message: Judgment is a big deal — but it's God who judges the world, and it's us who judges the church, end quote..

In Matthew 7, Jesus is not forbidding all judgment but condemning hypocritical and superficial judgment. The context targets religious hypocrisy, not discernment itself. Scripture consistently teaches that believers have a responsibility to hold one another accountable with gentleness and humility — while never imposing Christian standards on those outside the faith. The church's calling is to lead with grace that opens the door to truth, and to always restore fallen believers rather than discard them.

Key points

1
1Matthew 7:1-2 is primarily about hypocrisy in religious leaders, not a blanket ban on all judgment.
2
2We must never judge people superficially — Jesus Himself calls us to judge correctly, not by mere appearances.
3
3We must never judge hypocritically — we are called to deal with the log in our own eye before addressing the speck in a friend's eye.
4
4It is not our responsibility to hold non-Christians to Christian standards; our job is to love people to Jesus.
5
5Believers do have a responsibility to address sin within the church — lovingly and humbly — because we are accountable to one another.
6
6We must always restore fallen believers, walking alongside them with grace rather than shooting our wounded.
7
7The church must embody both grace and truth — holiness matters, but it is the grace of God that enables people to actually hear and receive the truth of God.

Application

Pastor Daniel calls every believer to examine the four commitments that define a church that gets judgment right. First, refuse to size people up at a glance — look past appearances to the person. Second, deal honestly with your own sin before confronting someone else's; your willingness to be transparent gives you the platform to speak into a friend's life. Third, stop holding people outside the faith to standards they have never agreed to — love them as they are and trust God to do the transforming work. Fourth, when a brother or sister stumbles, run toward them, not away. Create a community where it is genuinely okay to not be okay, where confession is safer than concealment, and where restoration is always the goal. This is how Rock Point changes its corner of the world's reputation of the church — one small group, one honest conversation, one act of grace at a time.

Take it into your week

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7-day devotional

A personal reading plan from this message — scripture, reflection, and prayer for each day.

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Jesus opens Matthew 7 with words that have become one of the most quoted — and most misunderstood — lines in the entire Bible. 'Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.' Pastor Daniel made the case that Jesus is not issuing a blanket ban on discernment. He is firing a warning shot at a very specific kind of judgment: the smug, self-serving kind that religious people have always been tempted toward. The Pharisees were masters of it — sizing people up quickly, sorting them into neat categories, and walking away feeling better about themselves. That is the judgment Jesus is going after. The standard-you-use line is especially sobering. It is not just a warning about what you say about others; it is an invitation to look at the posture behind what you say. Am I speaking to help someone, or to feel superior? Am I engaging with a person, or am I managing an impression of them? Those are uncomfortable questions, but they are the right ones. Today is a good day to sit with them honestly rather than rush past them.

For reflection

When you find yourself forming a quick opinion about someone, what is usually driving it — genuine concern for them, or something else?

Pray

Pray for honest self-awareness about the moments this week when you have been quick to size someone up.

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

Small-group discussion guide

For leading a group conversation about this message.

Open

Think about a time you heard someone say 'the church is so judgmental' — this message digs into what Jesus actually meant when He said 'Do not judge,' and what He's calling His people to instead.

Discussion questions

1
In Matthew 7:1-2, Jesus says, 'Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. For you will be treated as you treat others.' Pastor Daniel pointed out that this warning lands in a context aimed at religious hypocrisy. What do you notice in the surrounding passage that helps clarify what kind of judging Jesus is targeting here?
2
In John 7:24, Jesus says, 'Look beneath the surface so you can judge correctly.' How does that command sit alongside Matthew 7:1 — and what might it look like in practice to size up a situation without sizing up a person?
3
Matthew 7:3-5 uses the image of a log in your own eye versus a speck in someone else's. According to this passage, what is the log-and-speck picture actually saying about the sequence — what has to happen first, and why does that order matter for the conversation that follows?
4
In 1 Corinthians 5:12, Paul draws a sharp line between accountability inside the church and those outside it. Pastor Daniel applied this by saying it is not our responsibility to hold people outside the faith to Christian standards — our job is to love them to Jesus. What does that distinction change about the way a community like ours engages with people who aren't yet following Christ?
5
Galatians 6:1-3 describes gently restoring someone caught in sin, with a warning to watch yourself so you aren't tempted. Pastor Daniel challenged us to be the kind of community where it is genuinely okay to not be okay, and where restoration is always the goal. What would it take — practically — for a group like this to be a place where confession feels safer than concealment?
6
Pastor Daniel closed by saying it is the grace of God that enables people to actually hear and receive the truth of God — and that how Rock Point handles judgment, one honest conversation at a time, shapes the wider reputation of the church. How do you think grace and truth work together in that process, and where do people tend to lean too hard on one at the expense of the other?

Pray together

Ask God for the humility to look honestly at ourselves before we speak into others' lives, the grace to love people outside the faith without conditions, and the courage to run toward — not away from — brothers and sisters who are struggling

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

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GREATEST OF ALL TIME

Week 8 · 8 messages

Where these passages are preached

Matthew 7 John 7 John 8 Romans 2

Explore related topics

Church Accountability Grace and Truth Judging Others Religious Hypocrisy Restoring the Fallen

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