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The Dilemma of Judgement: Facing Our Own Blind Spots · Relish: a Christian podcast

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  Music.
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  To flavor, to be pleased or gratified by, enjoy.
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  We are hoping that what we bring to your table today might add some spice to your life.
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  Welcome back to another relish episode. How's it going, Don?
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  Oh, it's really spicy. Yeah, really relishing the situation.
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  Might as well play on the words. Yeah. It's going good. It's going good.
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  I'm a little anxious to see what kind of questions you've got because they've
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  been, shall we say, spicy.
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  Good questions. We could say that, yeah. We could say that. And I'm relishing those questions.
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  Sorry. Sorry, folks. I apologize. It's like what, four there?
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  Yeah, four in a row. That's way too much.
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  One or two is allowed. Three or four. Eh, that's over. All right.
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  We'll hop right into it before you can make more. Before I do another one.
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  All right. So like all throughout the Old Testament, we see God protecting Israel, walking with them.
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  So like Jews in Israel is God's covenant people. So then when Jesus comes,
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  the Jews don't believe in him.
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  So like, why is it that God's covenant people don't believe that his son is the Messiah?
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  Yeah. And there's a couple of events in there prior to that that even make it more pronounced.
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  So you've got a covenant people who are put together in Genesis chapter 12.
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  Those first three verses is where God makes the covenant with Abraham's offspring.
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  And, okay, that covenant is interesting because part of it is broken sooner than we think.
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  So in that covenant, it talks about, I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you.
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  I will make your name great and you will be a blessing.
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  I will bless those who bless you and I will, whoever curses you,
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  I will curse. And here's the piece that often gets missed, and all peoples on
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  earth will be blessed through you.
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  And so that first piece, I think, is somehow misunderstood, maybe even in the
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  Jewish realm, that they're called out to be this people that,
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  Not for just their own benefit, but they're called out to bless others,
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  to be a blessing to the world.
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  And I'm not sure the Jews ever understood that piece, because then they are
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  taken in captivity because of the famine.
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  And so in Joseph's time, they go into Egypt, and then over the course of time,
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  they're put into bondage.
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  They're brought out of that bondage and made into a nation.
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  The first rejection of God is, well, there's a few pieces there in the judges
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  that they reject God, but their first major rejection of God is when they call a king.
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  Because in calling a king in 1 Samuel, they're not rejecting the judges,
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  they're not rejecting the prophets,
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  but they're actually rejecting God's leadership by wanting to establish a earthly leadership.
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  So they move away from God's plan there.
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  In addition, over the course of time, between the political and the religious
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  things going on, the king would either lead them into being more faithful or out of being faithful,
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  like Ahab and Jezebel.
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  So through Ahab's wife, Baal worship was established inside the temple.
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  That's not good. Not at all. Well, that begins the downfall that eventually
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  has them taken into captivity again in Babylon.
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  And in that, they lose their sovereignty as a nation and would not gain it even at Jesus' time.
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  They would go from Babylonian rule to Assyrian rule to Greek rule and Roman
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  rule. so that they know them wouldn't be a sovereign nation, that, that,
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  Reality that they gave up God for a king came home to roost because they would
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  no longer have a political power anymore.
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  So it's as if they layer by layer over the course of time forgot what their
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  role was to be from Genesis 12, verse 3 and 4.
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  And so even when Jesus came, even when God came in the form of Jesus and physically
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  walked in their midst, they wouldn't recognize him,
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  mainly because they had put this religion that had changed so much from the
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  time of Abraham in the place of God.
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  So they couldn't recognize what God was bringing them, even through his own
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  son, even through their own prophecies.
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  I mean, Jesus fulfilled 360 prophecies, are better. It depends on how you count it.
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  All those prophecies came from their prophets, comes out of the word that they
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  were using and reading and studying, and they still missed it.
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  How many more did they need? Exactly. And Jesus would say, what else am I supposed to do here?
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  And as he weeps over Jerusalem.
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  What else could I have done?
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  And it's real. What else could God do to get their attention than what he'd already done?
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  Yeah, it's dynamic. Yeah, it's a good question. Now, what was the question again?
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  If Jews are God's covenant people, then why didn't they believe in Jesus as the Son of God? Yeah.
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  What's interesting now, especially during the conflict that's happening in Israel
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  at this moment, is there are more and more Jews coming to understand that,
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  yes, Jesus is the Messiah that we were looking for.
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  And now this judgment that's coming that's real too and it's prophesied in scripture
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  so they're seeing it a little bit more now but it's as if their religion was
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  so important they couldn't see the one for who they had the religion,
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  yeah religion became more important to God than God did that's pretty dangerous
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  stuff yeah and they kept calling out Jesus based on the Old Testament laws and yeah,
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  their understanding of Old Testament law.
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  You have a neat dialogue in Matthew, well, not dialogue, but probably to that
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  point, it's most readily discussed in Matthew 5.
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  Because Jesus would take, some of them are laws that we would understand out
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  of the Old Testament, but some of these are actually teachings of the rabbinic circles.
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  Like, we don't have it necessarily, an eye for an eye and tooth for tooth,
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  it's sort of in there, but it's not like in the Old Testament,
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  God said, take an eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth.
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  Leviticus 19.18 is the closest, but it's not quite the same.
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  Deuteronomy 15.8, it's still not quite the same as this.
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  When someone strikes you on one cheek, strike the other also.
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  Some of this is rabbinical work on top of the Old Testament.
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  And so Jesus is basically calling out, okay, now wait a minute,
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  guys, you scribes and Pharisees, I know this work.
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  I know this word and I know it well, and you ain't got quite,
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  you don't have it quite right.
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  And that's basically what Jesus is saying in chapter five. I'm not going to,
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  in verse 17, it says, don't think that I've come to abolish the law or the prophets.
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  I've not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.
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  I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not a smallest letter,
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  not the least stroke of a pen will in any means disappear from the law until
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  everything is accomplished.
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  So Jesus isn't trying to do a new update.
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  He's basically just saying, it stays in place.
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  You just misunderstood it.
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  And that's important nuance. Otherwise, without that peace in there coming from
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  the lips of Jesus, we really didn't need the Old Testament anymore.
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  But Jesus says, that all is pertinent yet. That's all valuable.
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  It's your point of view, your way of translating it, your way of interpreting
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  it needs to be updated. And so he did.
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  I hope he changed their understanding.
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  Yeah, and it has me thinking, you know, if God's people could have been faithful
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  from Genesis 12 on with the same faith that Abraham had, we'd be in a whole
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  lot different place today. Definitely.
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  Yeah. Yeah. Because, you know, the whole Rahab, the whole Hagar situation would have been averted.
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  Yeah, you got a lot of things.
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  If they could have lived this out, my, what a different world it would be.
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  And then I come back and say, well, okay, how do I live out what's been put on me?
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  We're human. Yeah. That got way beyond your question.
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  It did. Now you got me thinking about it. New question.
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  Well, I was thinking through when Israel appointed their king and then eventually
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  they don't, like you mentioned,
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  they don't have any more earthly leadership because they're under control.
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  It's just that God...
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  Kind of taking. Reload them in, maybe. Yeah.
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  So they took it into their own hands to govern themselves and then couldn't handle that.
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  So they're not governed by themselves anymore. They're going to be governed by Romans.
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  And really, they haven't governed themselves in quite the same way since as a nation.
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  Another one, since you brought up current day Israel, is the actual geographical
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  area of Israel still God's covenant people?
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  Or how does that work? We have illustrations of that geographic area in Revelation.
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  So there must be some biblical parallel in the future. to that geography.
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  Now, are everybody who calls themselves an Israelite from Israel and connected
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  to this people that we're talking about in Genesis chapter 12? I don't know.
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  We know there's going to be 144,000 Jews that play a significant role in the end times.
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  I guess I'm handling that very loosely because the politics there is really crazy.
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  And changes by the day as we speak.
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  I'm going to, rather than be prophetic, I'll probably be more pathetic.
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  I believe we need to be attentive to what Scripture says about Israel and what's going on over there.
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  Attentive to the prophecies, also attentive to the revelation of John.
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  And realize that this is a very crucial time on earth to make sure that everybody knows about Jesus.
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  Because we're closer to the end than the beginning. And the biggest work is yet to do.
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  Very crucial time. Is that what you were looking for? Or even close? Why not? Why not?
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  I like that spirit, Rowan. You covered the question and covered more.
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  Covered the question and more. There you go. All right.
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  What's wrong with judging? and why is it so hard not to judge? Hmm. Are we not to judge?
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  In some cases, but okay. I guess. So a lot of people will go first to Matthew 7.
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  Do not judge, this is Jesus talking, or you too will be judged.
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  For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged. And with the same
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  measure you use, it will be measured to you.
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  And so we decide, oh, we'll stop reading there and we're not to judge anybody, right?
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  Right? Well, you got the right look on your face.
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  So then you go on and it says, why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your
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  brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? What's that say?
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  I mean, it's both wood, right?
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  And so I'm looking in your eye and, oh, there's a speck in your eye.
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  And I recognize that speck. It's wood.
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  And why do I recognize it's wood? Well, because I've got this plank.
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  Like, in other words, we have a tendency to pick out in others the very same
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  thing that's in our own life.
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  And what I find that Jesus is doing here is saying, hey, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
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  Okay, it's all right. You see this back in the guy's eye.
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  But take care of your own plank first.
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  Because, and I found it true more times than not, that the person who comes
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  in and says, do you know what that person's doing?
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  And and and i i look at him
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  and say and you're not but in
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  reality you know we're sensitive to it because
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  it resides in us and it's not that
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  we shouldn't take care of the speck in the eye in the brother's eye we should
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  but we should take care of our plank first yeah and in taking care of the plank
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  it goes on how can you say to your brother let me take that speck out of your
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  eye when all the time there's a plank in your own eye.
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  You hypocrite. Now, Jesus uses that word, hypocrite. Yeah.
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  And that is an accurate translation. First, take the plank from your own eye,
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  and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.
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  See, Jesus doesn't take that away.
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  We take care of our own stuff, and then we help our brother.
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  And we recognize it because it's same, usually same material.
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  I see a little bit in your eye, But then I, oh, oh, I guess maybe that is in
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  my eye and I'll take care of it. Should we not judge?
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  I don't know. I think maybe we should judge.
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  I have to wonder when we get to John chapter 10.
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  Jesus is talking about, okay, this is at the end of the miracle where the man
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  born blind was given his sight back.
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  And it was done on the Sabbath day, so it really upset the scribes and the Pharisees.
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  When it upset the scribes and the Pharisees, they called mom and dad in.
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  And mom and dad said, hey, he's of age, talk to him.
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  And so he said, I don't know. I says, whether he's a sinner or not,
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  the man says, I don't know.
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  One thing I do know, I was blind and now I see. And he talks about Jesus.
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  I'm not going to judge him what he's doing, but one thing I know is Jesus gave me back my sight.
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  So Jesus hears that he's been thrown out of the temple because of this event.
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  So the man who had been given his sight back is thrown out of the temple.
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  And Jesus basically says, so do you believe in the Son of Man?
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  Do you believe there's a Savior? Do you believe?
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  Who is he, sir, so that I may believe? And Jesus says, you have now seen him.
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  In fact, you're speaking.
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  He is the one speaking to you. And the man says, Lord, I believe. And he worshiped him.
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  Then Jesus says, for judgment, I have come into the world so that the blind
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  will see and those who will see will become blind.
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  And the Pharisees who were with him heard him and asked, so what, are we blind too?
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  Basically, he's saying, so are we not seeing this right?
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  And Jesus said, if you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin,
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  but now that you claim you see, your guilt remains.
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  So judgment is not necessarily the issue. The issue is, do we want to be corrected?
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  And the Pharisees did not want that They didn't want to see it any other way
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  Than the way they were seeing it And Jesus was trying to reveal to them What they did not see,
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  Yeah, because they've They studied the word and know the word So they're stubborn to,
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  Change anything Yeah True,
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  So What do you think?
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  I think you did good Might be enough for this week, huh? Yeah.
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  Good questions and thought-provoking. Spicy stuff. I relish.
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  Definitely got beyond the original question multiple times. That's good.
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  Yeah. Good stuff. Good stuff. So you know you're having a good conversation.
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  Mm-hmm. When it gets deeper. Yeah. For sure.
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  Thank you, Rowan. Those were good questions. Thanks for answering them again, Don. Yeah.
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  Thank you for joining us for this podcast Feel free to become part of this ministry
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  by sharing it with others Our goal is to help each other grow deeper in our
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  understanding of who god is and is calling to us in our daily lives.
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  Music.