No Letting Up Luke 6:39-49

Last week looked at our relationships with others. – This week the sermon looks within-the relationship you have with yourself. Hypocrisy versus integrity – Hypocrite-same word in Greek for actor. All hypocrisy is acting. To act you put on a mask and the mask hid what you were really like. In acting the part is not the heart. – A good actor is someone who makes a disconnect between the heart and the role, but in life Jesus says this is disastrous. The human heart tends to divert attention and accomplish image management.

One form of hiding is a judgmental spirit— we hide ourselves by focusing on what is wrong with everyone else. Another form is I want to talk about your faults but don’t you dare talk about mine. Sensitivity to criticisms. Uncomfortable with the reality of what their heart is like. There are often people in our life that reveal our supposed hidden defects.

The reason this all matters so much: 42 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. When you have fooled yourself, Jesus is saying that is a deeper hypocrisy.

1. We fail to see the plank in our eyes. We really hate seeing who we are. We even have a way to approach the mirror. Physically we hate seeing ourselves. We test others to see what they think of us. – Oh, I look such a mess. – If I’d have known you were coming, I would have prepared something for you. – I never do anything right.

2. Plank—the load bearing beam in our house. All of us sense that there is something enormously wrong with us, and we are hiding it. If something is in your eye you know it’s there. But because it’s in your eye, you cannot see it. – We know something is wrong, but we hate to be called sinners.

The American soldiers forced the townspeople to view the carnage of the death camps. The practice of bringing German civilians from nearby towns to the concentration camps after they were liberated was started by General Walton Walker who ordered the Mayor of the town of Ohrdruf and his wife to visit the Ohrdruf labor camp after it was discovered by American troops on April 4, After their visit, the Mayor and his wife returned home and killed themselves.Ohrdruf labor camp Analysis: They didn’t know so they killed themselves, and they knew so they killed themselves. The guilt was overwhelming to them. They knew and they were holding down the truth.

Every person lives with a condemning voice. “I have to cover up what I really am.” Rethink your life. – Religious people – cover up – Anti-religious people – cover up – Deep transparency, total openness – cover – No commitment, no one knows me – cover – Sexually suggestive clothing – cover – Modest, unrevealing clothing – cover

3. Then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother's eye. Jesus is describing a healing action for the good of another. First, the plank has to come out of your own eye. How? a. Admit my own sinfulness and stop trying to save myself. b. When Jesus looked in our eyes what did he see? John 2 He saw us exactly as we are, not how he wanted us to be. He knew what was in us. He saw rightly.

You tell yourself about others what you need to believe in order to feel good about yourself. What did Jesus do about our beams? He was nailed to it. The only way to have the emotional health to be corrected or even instructed is to know that you are unconditionally loved. Then I can finally admit this or that sin that is plaguing me. (The emotional spiritual healing path—he shows his delight in me; he reveals the things in me that are not delightful. He does it to heal me.)

His kindness leads me to repentance. If and only if I know his kindness, can I drop my mask, stop spinning, drop the act, and begin to grow. The disciples screw every couple of chapters in the gospels. How do we know this? They were so convinced of the gospel of the kindness of the Lord that they told the stories. Jesus crucified on your beam. Then you can become a person of integrity. Humility and confidence. I want to help others. I have to have the confidence to help.