Jesus' Warning Against Hypocrisy

As Pastor Andrew mentioned, if I haven't had a chance to meet you yet, my name is Clay Stewart. I'm the high school pastor here at the Refuge, and my wife Sam and I get the privilege of leading Refuge youth. We love our students and love what we get to do with them. And today I have the honor of bringing the Word this morning post Easter Sunday. And Easter was honestly one of my favorite Easter services that we've had.

I think at the Refuge, if you were there last week, it was such a powerful, powerful, intentional time to celebrate and honor Jesus death and his resurrection. And I'll just say this, if you're one of the ones gassing up my dad for saying things like Riz and drip from the platform from Gen Z to you, please stop doing it. We're tired of hearing it, okay? Please don't gas him up. Don't fill his head with anything he doesn't need to hear.

But other than that, Easter was awesome. It was a powerful weekend. Amen. And so I'm excited to bring the Word this morning. I came across some statistics recently that really stirred my heart, actually.

When you're on social media or you're watching the news, so much of it can be negative. And honestly, I get tired of it. I don't watch a lot of news. I. I'm on social media, probably more than I should be, if I'm honest, but too much of it just becomes depressing. But I actually came across some statistics the other day that actually really kind of filled me with inspiration, motivation.

I came across some statistics from Barna Research, who does a lot of research in the church and amongst Christians and in the world. And Barna Research statistics, back in 2021, they reported the lowest personal commitment to Jesus since Barna started recording the stat at 51%. So in 2021, just a couple of years ago, we saw the lowest personal commitment to Jesus at 51% in the 50 years since Barna started recording the statistic. And the encouraging stat that I saw was that that number has surged in the last four years and is now at 66%, which is one of the highest. I believe we have a graph of it here.

You can see here 51% down there in 2021. And it has surged in the last four years personal commitment to Jesus to 66% in just the last four years. And I was researching this statistic more, and actually a large contributor to that surge is from Gen Z and millennial churchgoers. There's actually this movement happening right now of Gen Z young adults and teenagers who are coming back to Jesus at a pretty amazing rate. And so I was encouraged by that.

I began digging into this research some more and here's I found a confusing stat within this because while this is true, feelings towards the church are still majority negative. So I think I have a graph of this as well. 71% of people polled, both Christians and non Christians, have a positive opinion about Jesus. These are unbelievers and believers. 71% say we have a positive opinion about Jesus.

You can see that there at the top, that green bar that goes across the top. However, only 47% of people polled have a positive opinion about the church. 71% have a positive opinion about Jesus. 47% have a positive opinion about the church. And I came across this statistic and I began to question how can feelings towards Jesus, personal commitment to Jesus and positive opinion about Jesus be at such a high level?

And yet still the majority of people, both Christians and non Christians, have a negative opinion towards the church. And the research provided some reasoning for this. They polled people and the number one reason for non Christians, number two for Christians of why they have a negative opinion towards church is hypocrisy.

Now, I think that it's fitting that the Lord laid this on my heart because I think you can see this with Easter weekend. I think that a lot of us celebrate the resurrection, but not many of us live it. A lot of us can come to church and get excited and post on our Instagrams and our pastels with our families and wish people happy Easter. But that's not what Jesus died for.

See, the reason there's this disconnect between feelings towards Jesus and feelings towards the church is, is because of this issue of hypocrisy. And you know, it always kind of confuses me when people say that the reason they don't go to church is because the church is full of hypocrites. Or the reason they don't go to church is because they don't like hypocrisy. Well, can I just inform you, Jesus didn't like hypocrisy either.

In fact, it's actually one of the central themes in the last week of his life that he hits on over and over again. And it's what I want to share with you this morning. But this is why Paul writes in Philippians 1:27. He says, Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Christ. Then whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I. I will know that you stand firm in the one spirit striving together as one for the faith of the gospel.

Paul says, live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel. Now, the question that has to be asked from a statement like that is, are our lives lived in a manner worthy of the gospel?

And honestly, I was having a conversation with Sam, my wife, earlier this week, and I just. I told her, like, I don't actually really want to preach on what I feel like the Lord told me to preach on. And the reason that I say that is because when the Lord lays something on my heart to preach about, it's like he shifts a microscope over that area in my life. And so all week, I've wrestled with this question in my life. Am I living my life worthy of the gospel in a manner that is worthy of the gospel?

Am I celebrating the resurrection but not living it? And so I've been wrestling with that and it. And I was having a conversation as well backstage, and I just was perplexed sometimes at why Jesus allows us to communicate his word. Because He's God. So in reality, Jesus could get up here and Jesus could speak to each and every individual heart in the room a thousand times better than we ever could.

So sometimes I wrestle with this. Why do humans get the privilege of preaching the gospel? Why does Jesus, through the power of His Holy Spirit, not just instantly write it on our hearts? Because then there would be no room for it to be miscommunicated or bent for ulterior motives. But the reality is that Jesus gives us this privilege because in the midst of hypocrisy, he gives us an opportunity to live a standard that's worthy of the gospel.

And so the whole issue that we're. That we're. That I'm sharing on this morning is on that standard. So just be encouraged this morning. If you have had an issue with people being hypocritical in church, well, Jesus did, too.

And it's actually one of his.

It's one of his central themes in the last week leading up to his crucifixion. And we're gonna look at several of those. And I'll just say this honestly. If this message is for nobody else in the room, I'm preaching it to myself this morning because hypocrisy is the last thing I feel like I can get up on the stage and preach about. Why?

Because I feel like the biggest hypocrite of them all. Sometimes a pastor, somebody who should know the answers and get things right, and sometimes the enemy Tries to come with shame. And there's this element of preaching about hypocrisy that I go, it's a good thing Jesus did because none of us are really fit to preach about it because all of us are hypocritical. And so it's with that heart posture that I want to share this word with you this morning, knowing if this is for nobody else, I'm preaching it to myself because there are areas in me that are hypocritical at times. There are areas in me that God has to address in duplicit ways.

And. And he's done that time and time again in the prep for this sermon leading up to this point. But I feel like it's what's on God's heart to share with you this morning. So let's pray as we dive in this morning. God, we thank you for your word, Holy Spirit, we thank you for Jesus.

Thank you for the precious son of God. Thank you for the one who died and was pierced, for our transgressions. Thank you for Jesus, who we celebrate not just one weekend, but who we constantly remember is the only way that we stand where we are right now and that we come together in this place like we do. There is no other way outside of that. We thank you for the nails that pierced your hands, Jesus, today.

We thank you for your body that was given for us so that we could be whole. We thank you for your blood that was shed so that we could be purified. God, we thank you, Lord, that in the midst of our mess, in the midst of our hypocrisy, in the midst of our duplicit ways, God, that you still choose to love us, you still choose to use us, you still choose to write your story for mankind through the lives of your creation. And God, we're in awe of that this morning. Lord, I pray that our hearts would be sensitive to hear you speak.

God, that you would soften each heart that's here in the room. And, God, that we would not miss what the Holy Spirit desires to say to us. From the most seasoned believer in the room to the one who just began journeying with Jesus. Lord, let us have open ears to hear and open eyes to see. In Jesus name we pray.

Amen. Amen. So last week on our Good Friday service, after the service was over, I was having a conversation up at the front with my brother. We began to talk about this central theme in Jesus last week of his life. And honestly, I had never really put two and two together.

I'd heard the stories that I'm gonna share with you this morning. But I had never really considered when these stories and sermons that Jesus spoke took place in his life. And because of Good Friday, because of Easter, I was just meditating on the last week of Jesus life and considering the feelings that he had during that week and considering the prayers that he prayed. And I realized through this conversation that there are actually a number of occurrences where Jesus addresses hypocrisy. And I would go as far to say he doesn't even just address it.

He rebukes it. He calls it out in people. And here's what's amazing to that. Here's why Jesus is not like us. Because a week before he addresses all these things, people are laying palm branches down and shouting hosanna as he's riding into the city, thinking that this is the Messiah that they're going to give their lives for.

Now, I think if we receive that type of admiration and response, I think that the last thing we would want to do is say something that might jeopardize that praise for man. But what I love about Jesus is that Jesus does not succumb to the opinions and thoughts of the people who were just singing his praises. He doesn't adjust his message during the last week of his life to say, hey, I actually really liked that attention that I was getting from these people as I was writing. And I actually liked the validation that I was feeling because they really did believe me as the Messiah. So maybe I'll just cater just a little bit to what they want to hear.

Maybe I'll bend my message so that the itching ears are scratched and they'll continue to sing my praises. But that's not what Jesus did. No. In fact, Jesus sets himself up for crucifixion. The things that Jesus said in the last week of his life were the things that made people switch from singing Hosanna to shouting, crucify him.

Right? But he didn't back away from it because it was truth that we needed to hear. And so the last thing we want to do is back away from that. Jesus doubled down in what he stands for. Listen, Jesus could have harped on any last subject in the last week of his life.

And that last week of his life was pretty crucial to what we were going to be left with.

The last moments a person has in their life are the moments that they really double down on what they stand for. And Jesus shows us what he stands for. He is after a church. He's after a bride. That is not perfect, but that refuses to walk in hypocrisy.

That refuses to bend our knee to the opinions and thoughts of man and please others and put on a hypocritical front. But Jesus is after a church who's pure and undefiled in that way. And he doubles down on this many times throughout his life. We're gonna look at three different times where we see Jesus address hypocrisy. This is all within the Passion Week.

I know we're backtracking a little bit. We celebrated Easter, but I want us to really hone in on this and go back a little bit. So three different times that we see Jesus address hypocrisy. Number one, Jesus clears the temple. We've heard this story.

Sadly, it's often misquoted as a reason for people to have this indignation, this anger, and this lack of compassion towards others. Right? But here we see Jesus flipping tables. We see Jesus clearing the temple. And mind you, this comes directly on the heels of the triumphal entry.

So if he was gonna do anything to not rock the boat, it would have been right then. And yet here we see Jesus leaving the praise and the tunnel of men that were singing his praises and going to the temple. And this is where we pick up in our text, in Matthew 21, Watch what Jesus does. 12 and 13 are the verses we're reading within Matthew 21. It says this.

It says, Jesus entered the temple and he began to drive out all the people buying and selling animals for sacrifice. He knocked over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves. He said to them, the scriptures declare, my temple will be called a house of prayer, but you have turned it into a den of. Of thieves. So these people were buying and selling animals for sacrifice.

You know, that sacrifice was an important measure, important practice in the temple during that time. And yet Jesus is rebuking the people doing this practice in the temple. And a lot of scholars say it's because of the rate at which they were selling these animals. There's speculation that they were overcharging people and profiting off of what was a sacred practice they were bending it to profit themselves off of. But Jesus makes this statement that I think is so powerful that his house will be called a house of prayer.

See, his house must be a house of prayer. His house is a house of prayer. His house is not a house of politics. His house is a place of spiritual formation. It is not a place of trauma bonding.

See, sometimes church is one big trauma bond. We just come together and we share our experiences with people with zero hope to be healed from them and with the hope just to find somebody else who we can gripe and complain with about what we've been through. But church is not a place of trauma bonding. It's not a place of politics. It is a place of cultivated intimacy between God and man.

That's why Sunday mornings are special. It's because here in this place, we are creating an atmosphere of cultivated intimacy between God and man. It is not a place where we profit ourselves off of.

See, if we begin to treat his house as anything other than a house of prayer, Jesus says there's hypocrisy. And what does he do? He forms a whip of braided cords and he drives out hypocrisy from his house. See, there's a parallel because now we understand that the temple of the Holy Spirit is us. And so sure, people profit off of the physical corporate building the church, but also we profit off of what should be a house of prayer within ourselves gifts and callings and anointings that we have placed in us by God that we use to profit off of ourselves.

And that's where we have to allow the Holy Spirit to come with that whip of cleansing. Not because he's brutal or mean or antagonistic, but because he says, my house cannot be anything other than a house of prayer. See, if we come to church and we get more excited at the mention of a president than we do about the resurrected Jesus, then we may have turned ourselves into a house, a den of thieves rather than a house of prayer. Listen, if it's easier to get a rise out of our church when executive orders are mentioned rather than theological truths about who God is, then you may have turned the temple, the house of God, into a den of thieves rather than a house of prayer. If it's a place we just profit off of and we come together and we find similar interest and we use the church as something that it's not, then hypocrisy is evident in our lives.

And can I just be the first to say from the pulpit, there are so many times that I've done this, so many times where I have treated God's house, the temple of the Holy Spirit, even myself, as something that it was never meant to be. See, it's with fear and trembling this morning. It's not from a condescending place or a self righteous place that the message is preached. It's with fear and trembling church that I recognize that God is dealing with the Hypocrisy of profiting off of his house. So you have ministers of the gospel exploiting people for money, promising God's blessings if you give certain dollar amounts.

Come on. It's with fear and trembling that I say you have ministers of the gospel who are requiring amounts of money that are more than people's yearly salaries to speak one time at a conference or at an event. You have ministers of the gospel who are, who are going to these places, laying out all these stipulations of what it takes to bring them in and specific airlines that they have to fly and specific luxury hotels they have to stay in, specific food that they've got to eat while they're with you guys. This is real life.

And I love God's house, I love the church and it's with fear. And I love being a minister of the Gospel. There's nothing else that I would rather do. But there are people profaning the ministry of the gospel. There are people whose lives are not lived in a manner worthy of the gospel.

And that is me oftentimes. But there are people who are doing that with fear and trembling that I'm recognizing that in this place we cannot be people who profit off of the gifts that God has given us.

Because meanwhile Paul from a prison cell in Philippians one rejoices that we've been given this privilege of suffering with Christ as he's in the midst of struggle. Do you think that Paul was requiring a five star hotel to go preach to the church in Corinth? Do you think that Paul was laying out how much money needed to be spent on food while he was with them in their presence preaching the gospel, ministering? Come on. Do you think that Paul was charging an honorarium that left churches bankrupt because it was so high?

Right? Listen, don't hear what I'm not saying. I firmly believe that the wages that are. You should give the wages to people that earn the wages. Right, Like Paul.

That's a scriptural precedent that Paul lays out for us. But profiting off of God's house and God's gifts and God's anointings when they were never ours in the first place causes us to become den of thieves.

And again, this is not with self righteousness or condescending. So please hear the tone in this. This is with fear and trembling that I say that we've been given in ourselves over to this den of thieves theology.

And we have to understand that Christ says his house must be a house of prayer.

So that's the first area we see number two. The second area that we see Jesus address that he rebukes hypocrisies is when Jesus curses the fig tree. We see this later on in Matthew 21, same chapter as what I just referenced with driving out the temple, clearing the temple. He says this in the morning as Jesus was returning to Jerusalem, he was hungry and he noticed a fig tree beside the road. He went over to it to see if there were any figs, but there were only leaves.

Then he said to it, may you never bear fruit again. And immediately the fig tree withered up. Now listen, I've read this passage a lot of times in my life growing up as a pastor's kid. And it's really confused me a lot of times in my life because I just was like, as I'm reading this, I'm just thinking to myself, like, was Jesus hangry?

Like what's his deal? I mean like God, I understand wanting food and they're not being any. But cursing the fig tree. Was this, was this a display of anger from Jesus that was kind of a lackadaisical lapse of judgment. Like I just pondered it because I just was confused by it.

Why the drastic response of cursing the fig tree? And listen, I have a six months pregnant wife. I understand what hangry is.

Okay, so I was confused by this passage. But I think understanding the agriculture of Israel actually helps us to understand this passage. So let me break this down for you a little bit. In Jerusalem, fig trees in Israel, fig trees with full leaves like the one described in this passage. Again, the scripture said that Jesus found no fruit, but only leaves.

A fig tree with full leaves like the one described here was an indication that the fig tree had borne fruit. A fig tree only had leaves if it had fruit on it. In the time of year that Jesus was making his way into Jerusalem during this time when he passes this fig tree would have been a time where the earliest fig trees were beginning to bud. They were beginning to bear fruit. And so there were many fig trees that would have been ripe at this moment.

And so Jesus passes this tree with leaves on it and thinks there's fruit on that. And then when he goes and he finds that there is no fruit and there's only leaves, he curses it and it withers up. And this is the message that Jesus scent about hypocrisy in doing that. That we are cursed if we act as though we have fruit and yet have none to show by the way we live our lives.

Jesus saw leaves and thought, there's fruit far Be it from us to show the king leaves and not have fruit when he comes. Ask, listen. Fruit cannot be faked. Fruit cannot be substituted. There's no shortcut for it.

Leaves, on the other hand, we can act like we have leaves all day long. We can act like we have things together in our lives all day long. We can act like we're following Jesus all day long, right? But when the king comes asking for fruit, do we have fruit to give him?

Because if we act as though we have fruit and yet we have none to show by the way we live our lives, then we're cursed.

Listen. Far be it from us to be influencers, but not anointed ones. Oh, far be it from us to be gifted, but not fruitful. See, there's a difference between gifting and anointing. Gifting is a dime a dozen.

People who come and they, as I've already mentioned, they charge what they charge to speak. And they come and they breeze in and they preach and they breeze out. Listen, listen. Any gifted person can do that. But there's a difference between gifting and anointing.

An anointing is what produces fruit in us. An anointing cannot be faked or mimicked. It cannot be produced by anything other than intimacy with the Holy Spirit. That's the peace that allows us to bear fruit in our lives. Far be it from us to prioritize his gifts over his fruit.

The gifts are awesome. They're a blessing. They're the cherry on top to what Christ allows us to carry. But can I just tell you? The fruit is what Jesus is after.

Success is not building a big following for yourself and standing on a stage for others to hear you. It's not making a certain dollar amount of money. Success is living your life in a manner worthy of the gospel. Do you treat your wife well? Do you gather people in your home?

Do you feed them? Do you show the love of Jesus to those who have less? Do you make it your best effort to live a life where one day you'll preach the gospel, die and be forgotten? See, that's the fruit of a life well lived for Christ. It's not followers or money or influence or fame or notoriety or importance.

God, let me preach the gospel and die and be forgotten. There's no greater call in life. Because as long as they remember his name, it doesn't matter.

Because I want the fruit of God in my life. I don't want the evidence of fruit without the true thing.

Last thing that we're closing on today.

Last example of Jesus rebuking hypocrisy is this famous passage in Matthew called the seven woes. Jesus rebukes the Pharisees. Matthew 23:25 through 28, when we talked about Jesus doubling down. This is it right here. These are some harsh words to the Pharisees.

Listen to what he says. He says, what sorrow awaits you, teachers of religious law, and you, Pharisees and hypocrites, Strong words from Jesus. For you're careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you're filthy, full of greed and self indulgence. You blind Pharisee, first wash the inside of the cup and the dish, then the outside will become clean too. What sorrow awaits you, teachers of religious law, and you, Pharisees, hypocrites, For you are like whitewashed tombs, beautiful on the outside, but filled on the inside with dead people's bones and all sorts of impurity.

Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness. He's rebuking them because they have the form of godliness, but they deny its power.

They have the form of godliness, but they deny the power that can change them. I think it's easy sometimes for us to look at a passage like this and become righteously indignant towards the Pharisees. How could they not see Jesus as the Messiah? How could they not see the error of their ways, constantly looking for the attention whenever they give their money, constantly praying aloud in the streets so that people hear them? How can they not see the foot fault in what they're doing?

But here's the reality about the Pharisees. They're us.

See, there comes a point in your walk with Christ where at one point you were the woman caught in the act of adultery brought before Jesus, accusers throwing shame on you. And Jesus reaches down in his loving kindness and compassion and says, let he who is without sin throw the first stone and the accusers leave. And then Jesus says, go and sin no more. That's the act of salvation right there. But at some point we move from being the woman caught in the act of adultery, shown this display of amazing and affectionate grace and mercy to the religious Pharisees.

This is the danger of maturing and growing old with Christ. See, because a lot of us can receive at the level that the woman caught in the act of adultery did. We receive the mercy, we receive the salvation, we receive the grace from God. And then somehow, in the process of trying to become more like Him, Sometimes with good intentions. What I found to be true in my life.

We develop this self righteous attitude because of the grace and the mercy that we received when we had no answer for ourselves.

See, we become the Pharisees. And Jesus is saying to us, there are times in our lives where we're clean on the outside, but inside we're filthy and unwashed. I really feel the Lord dealing with this in the area, in the lives of believers that there are so many of us that act like we have a godly life, a godly household, we show up and we put on the front, but then we're constantly yelling at our family members in anger. Patience is a fruit of the spirit. Listen, there are so many of us that act like we have a relationship with God that's rock solid and yet we haven't spent time with him in weeks.

There's so many of us that are quick to give advice to others of about things going on in their lives, but are quick to refuse the advice or instruction or correction of other people when they come with things that we need to address in our lives. There's people who will bar crawl on Saturday and then come to church on Sunday. Listen, there is a standard that Christ has called us to live in. And so us acting like we've got it all together, us acting like we've made it and that we're delivered and that, you know, we're saved and sanctified when in reality we're cussing people out on the road and we're posting stuff on our social media that Jesus would despise. And a little, little news flash here that I tell our students all the time, what you like on social media is public.

Is it an accurate reflection of the gospel? Is it worthy of the gospel?

There's a standard. See, we act mature in the Lord, but then we can't even regulate our own emotions when a circumstance comes up in our lives. Like maturity is understanding that there's room for this in all of us. So it's not because I have it figured out that I'm telling you this this morning. It's because Jesus is addressing it in me.

So then Judas goes on to commit the highest form of Hypocrisy. In Matthew 26. He was walking with Jesus for three years of his life, learning, sitting at his feet, doing ministry with him, alongside him, serving him.

And then Judas felt entitled to something and he betrays Jesus for pieces of silver.

So here's the reality of hypocrisy. Oftentimes hypocrisy is birthed from a spirit of entitlement. It's because we think that we're owed something. And so all of a sudden this standard that we bought into when we were first saved gets dropped a little bit lower for us because we worked hard to earn it.

I heard Karen Wheaton say that we were born with nothing and will leave this earth with nothing. And yet some point along the way, we began to believe that the gifts that God gives us, the possessions, the blessings, were ours to earn.

Just before this moment where Judas betrays Jesus, we see the response to hypocrisy. If this is true, if all of us deal with hypocrisy, where's the hope in it? Aren't we all just lost? Aren't we all just wretched sinners who have no hope of reconciliation with Christ? Aren't we always going to be the Pharisees?

Listen, there's hope. And here it is. Jesus offers to us his response to hypocrisy. See, the solution is humility.

See, the solution to hypocrisy is humility, not self preservation.

If you get nothing else from this message, hear this. The the solution for hypocrisy, because it's all in us. Romans 3:23. All of us have fallen short of the glorious standard of God because it's all inside of us. The solution for hypocrisy is humility, not self preservation.

We have too many people who blow it, who make mistakes and then try to cover it up and preserve the parts of themselves to make themselves look clean on the outside. And Jesus shows us the way. John 13:2 5. Watch this. This is after he addresses hypocrisy even in his own disciples.

And this is what we see from him. It was time for supper. And the devil had already prompted Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God. And so he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist and poured water into a basin.

Then he began to wash the disciples feet, drying them with the towel he had around him. Here we see the response to hypocrisy. How do we deal with hypocrisy in our lives? It's adopting the same attitude and mindset of Christ to come humbly and to own our mistakes and to take responsibility and to be humble and to say, hey, I did blow this to confess to God, to confess to others. Hey, I'm not always who I portray myself to be here, I've messed up.

I've blown it. And I'm coming humbly because it's the example of the Savior that he's left for me. And there is no other way. We don't need more people in the earth trying to prove how holy they are.

Come on. We need Jesus.

Outside of him, there is no grace. There is no mercy. There's no hope for the hypocrisy that lives in each of us. But when we respond humbly, he draws near to us and he says, I'll cleanse you again. From that.

You say, but, God, I'm probably going to do it again tomorrow. And he says, if you come humbly, if you confess, I'll cleanse you again. God, what if I hurt you in that way? Lord, I don't want to betray you. And God's just saying that if we'll give him a humble response, that he's faithful.

First John 1:9. To cleanse us of our sins and to purify us from all unrighteousness. We need disciples who will own their mistakes, who will walk in humility and refuse to be a whitewashed tomb, not people who try to prove how holy they are.

See, I think that the perspective on the church from others around us would change if we'd be those who'd say, hey, I don't have it all together. I'm not better off than you. I'm not better than you because I've discovered this mercy and grace, and it was given freely to me, not by a way that I earned. And because of that, we're on the same playing field. Let me offer hope to you.

In this season, in this moment, I think if people adopted a posture of humility to say, we don't always get it right, we don't always know what we're talking about just because we're believers, we don't always live up to the standard. In fact, probably more times than not, we drop the ball.

But the standard of Christ is not perfection. The standard of Jesus is humility to own our mistakes, to allow him to deal with us.