Self Righteous Christians | Jim Hammond | LWCC

let's talk about one of the primary reasons tonight that we could say the number one reason i do not look anything close to jesus christ okay and in my judgmental opinion most people i deal with don't look anything like jesus christ we read about in the four gospels i'm sorry if that just defended you i see a lot of people i argue with a lot of people you know we're supposed to be transformed according to the scripture second corinthians 3 18 in the amplified all of us that's all of us as with an unveiled face this is going back to moses you know he had a veiled face and they saw the glory right and and continue to be holding the word of god as in a mirror the glory of the lord we're constantly supposed to be being transfigured into his own image and increasing we're supposed to be increasing in splendor congregation um and for and from one degree of glory to another so why am i not there why have i not been there the last few months you know there was a time for numerous years where i promise you i spent four hours a day with god either meditating listening to the word praying in tongues confessing things or doing jamie hammond's breathing exercises and thinking about god and i can honestly be honest and say it has not been as four hours a day this last year um i've really focused on what what i do has got to mean something and but you know through all that i really be honest with you most places we traveled to when i was coaching the girls this year's girls varsity basketball team down at maranatha and everyone i dealt with outside of my team i can tell you for about two months i looked nothing close to a picture of jesus christ i have six ridiculous stories that i will unfold as the summer rolls on the point is there are many reasons but we are here hitting a primary reason tonight why a lot of people are not walking around at least emotionally acting like jesus christ christians by the end of the basketball season i realized i needed to at least go to god in regard to my demeanor my countenance my social interactions and my tone of voice in regards to not the world but other christians other denominations other denominations that don't like us and and you know you know how someone tells you a long story this happens to me in the out in the lobby sometimes just be very open with you after i preach and you find yourself they're making a point and you listen to real good for the first two minutes of the story but then you phase out into a daydream for 20 seconds to a minute and you fade back in and you can't you don't know what they just said so you're trying to act like you're listening real hard and pick up the story and the story continues to go on and you're just trying to look like you're listening my point is jesus christ was probably an excellent excellent listener an excellent listener even when he was even when he was tired um the new testament gives indications in the end times of the church uniting but it will never unite until the majority of christians especially in this city being that this city is where the end time revival at least in the united states will start at least prophesied by george washington carver said this is the very place of the end time revival that will roll down the mississippi from the twin cities are you wondering why the twin cities and the surrounding areas are in so much spiritual turmoil and attack don't you ever wonder how the majority of christians let's just say which each other not even with the world we're not counting on we're not talking about the world could wind up being caring considerate open-minded open-armed non-judgmental loving listening and you the most united group on the planet because the bible speaks of it in the new testament it will be counterproductive for the next few minutes if you listen through the following filter oh my gosh i am so happy i hope this person is at the 9 a.m this week to hear this i try to put down our own ability to cast judgment accusations which always turn into condemnation and not just be the ones that cast the stones but the ones that listen i've been around the church a long time and i've never seen so many christians either verbally emotionally through fault-finding and through local social media condemned stabbed so many other christians in the back and half the time they don't even have their facts straight but i'm pointing the finger at myself why do i sometimes participate or act as a mean christian to other christians martin luther king taught us you cannot eradicate hate with hate i'm talking to myself but be but being mean to people that are mean to you or your kids is not the answer i'm talking to myself john 21 20-23 let's let's talk about jesus but peter turned and saw the disciple whom jesus loved following along the one who had also leaned back on his breast he just reminds us of this at the supper and said lord who is that is going to betray you that guy i'm the guy writing that's me john when peter saw him he's walking with jesus he said jesus what about him peter just heard he was gonna meet a bad death if you read it what about him he says jesus said to him if i want him to stay until i come what is it to you what concern is it of yours really what he's done or if i keep him until i come back in the rapture that's what he's saying you follow me you don't worry about him you follow me so word went out among the brethren that this disciple was not going to die so a rumor came from that statement jesus never said you're never going to die john but rumor came out and that rumor never left for 50 years it was still prevalent in the church so word went out among the brethren that this disciple was not going to die verse 23 yet jesus did not say to him that he was not going to die but if i want him to stay till i come what is that to you so you had a rumor here and i want to explain how how this rumor got out and is the number one reason there are so many mean christians if you look at the base lying things here the reason this rumor spread is the very reason i believe christians we are mean and considered by many to be mean especially to each other there are so many people out there right now in the congregation that really don't want to accept that they're mean at all i know or even judgmental they're not judgmental you ever go to someone's house for okay when i was a kid and mom this is not a referendum on how i was brought up okay this is basically we're talking about ideals here but i remember going over to someone's house one time i was about 10 and those kids got to listen to whatever kind of music they wanted i mean they were doing the bee gees in the kitchen before dinner more than a woman more than a woman anyways i mean well then what is that right but but they got to watch whatever they wanted to on tv i remember being 10 years old and be told i couldn't watch scooby-doo because it promoted a spirit of fear i'm sorry mom but i love skateboarding i love how he talks what about the kids that couldn't eat all this any sugar cereal in the mornings were you one of those kids i love going to their houses they didn't grow up like me i mean i i look at those kids that grew up on sugar in the mornings and there's nothing wrong with them right now mom no just kidding okay i mean i remember being in a car riding with a family on the way to church christian family same christian family listen to 101 3 still radio station still here that's just what i heard and i mean the song i remember the song and i remember the songs in the car and the whole family jamming to the car and i'm sitting in the back feet seat with my friend and his sister and you remember that song about that man the gap band you dropped the bomb on me baby the whole family jamming out dropped the bum on me baby you know yeah i'm just like wow my family don't do this on the way to church you dropped the bottom you know i thought that was the coolest family i spent about six years at that family's house he had a stereo in his room and he got to listen to rock music all night and because i never got to listen to it i never went to sleep because i listened to it all night i mean i remember the shock of just the first time i went over there i saw a different way of life i saw a family with different ideals that did it a different way and i'm not criticizing them i will tell you what if i had to do it again with my kids i would be looser and i don't want to argue out there in the lobby after this but i would have loosened up on my kids and let them trick-or-treat okay my mama credit we got to trick-or-treat up to fourth grade then they started the church and that was over but anyway [Applause] so my daughter has never let me down that i never let her go trick-or-treat like a normal kid because that wasn't my ideal because i didn't grow up with that ideal so i just passed my ideal onto her right not just what they let their kids do but even how they dealt with each other was different so we have all we have a normal and that wasn't normal to me that wasn't my normal what i experienced all of us have different ideals or you could say different normals part of how our ideals develop is childhood one ideal is a cultural ideal which comes from by many of us being raised in this country and then being raised in the midwest right and we also have childhood ideals you know i remember being in singapore for two years in the middle of asia and american missionaries had a bad reputation for coming over there with their western culture into asia and trying to inflict western culture culture on to the asians and they were coming against americans for doing that so arrogant we are the best you know i remember preaching at a church over there because i was so judgmental of this small church asian church primarily a chinese english-speaking church 50 people and i got in there i noticed there's flags all over the wall and those chauffeurs you know those horns that they blow out of praise and worship started the whole place went nuts everybody had a flag and a chauffeur you know a horn so i'm up there you know i'm about to preach and i'm like i never seen anything like dude i'm the only one standing there and i you know i got this thing why ain't dancing unless the lord makes me dance i know that's not faith you gotta start the dance it'll take you over right it's never happened for me but anyways that's why i didn't start dancing then they're all dancing driving by the front row and blowing the chauffeur and then dancing along and i'm watching the flags and ducking flags and judging these people really just judging them and kind of laughing look at that guy you know to myself i'm about to preach never met these people and it was the worst time i ever gave they didn't get what i was saying but that was a different culture you know and i was just like well these are asians they're more uh if you go to their services they're not doing that with the flags in the chauffeur you know what i mean because i went to a lot of services over there a lot of churches and so for those of us who grew up in religious settings we have church ideals and religious ideals what we do with those ideals those cultural ideals of those childhood ideals is we take them everywhere we go and a lot of times we carry these ideas subconsciously i'm going to give you an example of that and we take our ideals and we we take them to the story of god and we take our ideals to the gospel and we take our ideals out of the culture or from our childhood to the story of jesus and a lot of times we take things out of the bible and we hear them through our normal filter and we see words and we translate them through our own ideals for instance if we see the word blessing we translate that in our western culture for something to have to do with success career finances and money blessing that is america most americans a lot of times blessing in the bible doesn't even mean money or success or career it doesn't mean that at all we listen to the teachings of jesus and we think we hear what he's saying we're supposed to be doing what he would do here's what happens with these ideals and we all have them and then we believe that jesus holds the same ideals we do let me take you to john 2 15 let me show you what i did so my favorite scripture for a few years on and off it depends on if how i was doing spiritually but john 2 15 and having made a lash a whip of cords jesus who never sinned drove them all out of the temple i'm just like well well jesus got mad he made a whip man he he didn't run from anybody uh huh see i'm taking my ideas i can fight back jesus jesus did something what dude he just did you go over there and flip the table nicely you know just just wave the whip around and and so that's i'm putting my ideals in you know this conference we were in uh three catholic schools two lutheran schools a baptist school and a charter school that maranatha is in new conference i had a feeling i probably was deceived by a few comments that had gotten back to me that we are very disliked because of where we stand in the christian community by these other schools i could have been wrong i judged them wrong so i would go into these other schools already with a my antenna is up somebody got a problem and they got a problem with me in here and probably they're going to have the refs it's going to be a rigged game and we can win anyways you know and and i mean i just go in with my defenses up because i don't think they like me they haven't told me they don't like me i'm assuming you know and i'm doing like remember dad's message on back in the 80s you know christians were so you know tearing the other cheat and dad came out and said you turn the other cheek if you're persecuted for being a christian for righteousness sake if someone comes into your your home and wants to rape your wife and take your stuff don't turn the other cheek and this this made mac famous in his velour sparkle this this sermon because no one had heard this no one we all thought turn the other cheek any time someone attacks you right well i took that message and i applied that to my own ideals that's right i would just say am i being persecuted for being a christian nope here we go right jesus went in the temple with a whip he wasn't smiling you know in that rumor i see when we take our ideals and apply them to the bible when we take the new testament teachings and we use them to speak our own ideals is it's a dangerous thing you know in that rumor we're talking about the disciples thought thought john was going to live forever that rumor got rolling through people assuming jesus said something he did not say and they took him out of context the reason we hear jesus saying something is he is not saying is it because we want to hear what we want to hear and you could say the main ideal in america is a successful career and i want to appear successful and when i walk into a room i want people to be impressed with me would you not agree that most people in america want that but you could say the main ideals of a villager in the hills of thailand are far far different than americans average ideals they're not thinking about a successful career when they hear blessing they're thinking about the next meal or what the horrible rash is that looks like it's on fire going up their daughter's arm because they have no medical assistance and you just gotta hope it doesn't spread they're not thinking about their success in those villages in their career your ideals are supposed to be disrupted on a regular basis by the gospel not the gospel being disrupted by your ideals and what you think someone deserves because you want to be god judge and jury of other christians if your ideals are not being interrupted by the gospel then that's when alarms should be going off in the ears of your spirit man i myself have extended seasons of my ideals not being interrupted by the word i just went through two months in a valley of defensiveness in the basketball world which is a very small world and that's when the alarm bells really go will go off if you're listening to the holy spirit i heard judah smith mention in a sermon to this one recently that is what produced this is it only took him one week i'm going to do it in two there should be an occasion times where god tells you and makes you realize you are wrong and you are judgmental remember i'm pointing finger myself and i know from personal experience when you realize it the fact that you've been in the middle of this valley of meanness being mean to people or trashing your enemies behind their backs because you get so caught up in their cause to bring you or your children down when's the last time you said to yourself oh my gosh i've been wrong about that john 21 23 in the amplified classic 21 23 so word went out among the brethren that this disciple was not going to die by them misunderstanding jesus yet jesus did not say to him that he was going to die so you've got a rumor or a teaching spreading rapidly that was sensational enough that it it seemed like that's what they wanted to hear you ever heard something bad about someone you dislike that has tried to hurt you and if you're honest with yourself you tell yourself that's what i wanted to hear and then you know that you can't revel in that thought you know that it's dangerous to revel in that thought you know a whole group of people can be collectively wrong remember richard jewell in atlanta the bomber that had his life ruined because they blamed him you ever do you remember that guy in the 90s so let's talk about this rumor that turned out not to be true because john didn't live forever john was the youngest disciple most scholars believe to put his age between 17 and 20. it was a different relationship he had with jesus you would almost call it a father-son relationship obviously jesus was affectionate with him and he jesus john's like one of those lovable artistic creative types in my opinion let's run through the timeline here you guys are aware at the conclusion of this gospel the gospel of john if you follow the timeline that was written all the disciples in this gospel were dead except john at the conclusion this book was not compiled until after john died it was written but not compiled okay not in the bible this book so pay attention to this john had started the church in ephesus the church in ephesus is watching and hearing rumors that john is getting old and looking old this is all documented it's a documented church freak out over nothing john's getting old the church is getting scared they're they're like waiting he's not supposed to die he looks like he's going to die from the best that the scholars could tell the very rumor was still strong among the church because that john was going to live forever so you have jesus never saying what they claimed he said and they had spread what they had claimed he said so when john died the church went into shock and you know whereas there's record a large number of church members in ephesus had concluded john did something wrong because he died and did not fulfill the fake prophecy in his church that he started let me give you an indicator of the unhealthy approach of the body of christ i e the church as in general takes today i just see it so often where they prop these spiritual leaders up as heroes and when they don't deliver the way people think they ought to deliver they tear down the spiritual leader they used to overly prop up in their own eyes i've seen it a thousand times so you have these spiritual leaders going from some type of overrated hero being brought down by means of social media so john dies of old age the church goes into a complete talespin and assume he's done something wrong there are many scholars that believe that john's writings in this book were put together by after his passing let's look at john 21 23 again because i want to show you something the word went out among the brethren that his disciples not going to die yet jesus did not say to him that he was going to die do you know that they believed that the guy that compiled it added that jesus did not say he was going to die and if you want him to stay survive till i come what is that to you that the compiler added it to quell the rumor the rumor was so bad okay everyone believes that they believe it was added in to to to the the distraught believers in ephesians were in such despair because they believed the rumor the rumor that stayed alive on people's lips over half a century think about that what could john have done so we have our ideals we superimpose our actual ideals on the teachings of jesus you don't think the devil is going to use other christians to stop you at what you're doing i think he'll use other christians more than the world that's what it looks like to me right now when things do not happen the way we claim jesus said it should happen and you wind up with disparity between large groups of people in the church christians get mean on all sides they really do and you take it all the way back to this person passing judgment through their own ideals judgment on someone else to what they think they ought to be doing a judgment on someone else because they don't think that person their judging is qualified so they make themselves god judge and jury you see it every day jesus said judge and you'll be judged um quickly uh i walked into a catholic school this year with that attitude had already had an argument with a a coach here an athletic a trinit i'm going to say their goal an athletic director here and and i go in and i'm just it's a very covered regulation following school you know there's regulations and it's the only way to explain it i hadn't experienced this yet and the other schools we've gone to you know i was already myth that we had to walk in single file and stand out there for a five minute meeting in the cold and so we get into the gym they start warming up there's five basketballs on the chairs that are wiped down i realize they're flat so i say hey coach can i get some balls out of the basket which i've done all year at all the gyms we got i'm gonna go over there and get in the balls so they can warm up now hey what are you doing across the gym girls are warming up between us what do you mean what am i doing you gave me flat balls you know he comes across you know and the next thing i know i am in a a 15-year pastor is an argument with an 18-year administrator in front of two teams warming up and he was a twin of me he was he was good he was good quick on his feet and it got bad and at one point i said well you're the one that came across the gym like a third grade principal you know i mean it got and he says i'll kick you out of here right now you ready to go you got anything else to say and i said no and he said you want to just start over and i said yeah i'm really sorry i've had a terrible season you know i mean this with this stuff is what i meant and then the lord turned it and we in the end i i literally am walking out of the gym with my hands around my arm around this guy and clove it with a mask so glad i met you not everybody's like us you know we're getting a big fight in front of everybody and just forgive each other yeah that's what they do in new york he's from new york he's telling me we're in new york and yeah nobody everybody does that there they get it out and then they're just friends like me and you no one up here does that he's scandinavians you know i mean i'm just saying look how he turned it and that guy did it the guy said you just want to start over the catholic administrator correcting the pentecostal preacher i could see the girls all just take a sigh of relief and they look at me weird as i we're watching the boys game and my new friend are over there you know like the girls just thought i was weird all year round jim please don't get in a fight tonight you know but listen now listen to this the woman let's talk about how christ what christ did in a situation like this let's look at jesus christ supposed to be images of him they brought the woman that was guilty of adultery to him they were religious leaders and what happens the accusers got accused by jesus christ himself the holier than thou's got accused by jesus christ himself he dealt with the woman that made the mistake privately after he sent him away mysteriously and then he says to the woman who condemns you now she said no one lord he said neither do i now go and sin no more in other words she had to get out from under the condemnation and he knew it to stop sinning yet you've got the body of christ condemning every day that i thought there was no condemnation in jesus christ i thought there was no condemnation in jesus christ he accused the accusers and dealt with the sinner privately oh let's be like jesus now this is uh we'll close on this scripture and pick it up next week and and maybe i'll do this in the morning services this one and then you give you guys a second one next week i don't know i mean there's all kinds of fun stories like that next week right matthew 7 2 okay amplified for just as you judge and criticize and condemn others the words of jesus this is for christians under the law this is for christians that that believe the old covenant is so important and they're hanging because most of the people slinging stones out there are holier than thous and this is what he's saying to him you will be judged and criticized and condemned in accordance with the measure used to deal out to others i'm talking to our congregation living lord me me right we need to pull together and let god lock god sorted out and receive his grace for our mistakes but it says in accordance with the measure you use to deal out to others it will be dealt out to you so i just i want to do this isaiah 54 14-17 three scriptures i think we skipped verse 16. i uh i was sweating so bad last week that i was wiping my makeup off off on my pants i blew pants i'm like sweating up here sweating up here you know it just looked real good on tape i'm sure but but i had makeup hauled down my blue pants so i bought you know i have forgotten this so i took one of dad's handkerchiefs at him but i want his suits i know it doesn't match all right but listen in accordance with the measure you use to deal out to others now people you know he's saying this under the law this is a law rule that he had not died yet there were no christians yet when he said this isaiah 54 14-17 this is for your family this is for your loved ones this is for the families of this church can we agree on this see we're establishing righteousness you know what righteousness is new testament righteousness correct well if you are established in righteousness you will be far from oppression and you will not have fear and you will be far from terror and it shall not come near you the terror now let's go to verse 15. because we're going to confess this i just want to behold they shall surely gather to get together but not by me whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for your sake for your sake this is if you're established in the righteousness of god how perfect god sees you not how good you are not establishing your self-effort in all the things you do let's go to the next verse verse 17 no weapon if you're established in righteousness no weapon formed against you shall prosper it doesn't say they won't be made it doesn't say they won't come at you every tongue that shall rise against the in judgment you will condemn in the end this is the heritage of the servants of the lord and it's not your righteousness the righteousness is of me he says it's the gift i gave you on the cross saith the lord that's your promise so can we say these three verses together over this church and you and your families the body of christ really the body of christ over the minneapolis metro area for everyone online let's go back to verse 15 we'll say it slowly here 14 say in righteousness we shall be established we shall be far from oppression we shall not fear and from terror for it shall not come near us next verse behold they shall surely gather together but not by the lord whosoever shall gather together against us shall fall for our sake and we receive that no weapon formed against us shall prosper every tongue that shall rise against us in judgment we will condemn this is our heritage the servants of the lord and their righteousness our righteousness is of you lord and we take it we take it you know that scripture i receive an abundance of grace that means take it doesn't mean receive means grab offensively grab the unmerited favor you don't deserve

Channel: Living Word Christian Center

Views: 400

Rating: 4.6923075 out of 5

Keywords: Living Word, Mac Hammond, Lynne Hammond, Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, Minneapolis, Faith, Grace, Jim Hammond, Jamey Hammond, Vision, Word of Faith, Love, God's Love, You Are Blessed, Jesus, Healing, Church, Sermon, Online Church

Id: Na_x2KrvyX4

Length: 35min 0sec (2100 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 19 2021