In this 8-part series, Dr. Michael Youssef helps us discover the complexities and implications of Jesus’ profound Sermon on the Mount message—where Jesus shares the keys to happiness by giving us the Beatitudes and teaching us how to embody or appropriate them in our everyday lives. Preaching verse by verse, Dr. Youssef demonstrates how Jesus came to fulfill all that God taught His people in the Old Testament—showing us how to be salt and light, how to control our anger, and much more. He truly has given us all that we need to live a blessed life in Him!

Father, he is the most generous heavenly father and he loves you. Blessed Father’s Day, God bless this month, generous ministry partners have committed to june gift challenge, which means the impact of your contribution will be doubled. I want to encourage you to give generously a one time gift so that we finish our fiscal year strong. Thank you and God bless through your partnership leading the way is expanding to meet the growing spiritual needs of our nation and world and God is reaching more people through our ministry together than ever before. Over this past year, leading the way experienced a surge of new television viewers, website traffic and live stream viewers, not to mention brand new prayer partners and the creation of online discipleship groups in hard to reach areas. God is blessing and dr Yousef is pressing on to reach more people with the gospel than ever before. We are expanding to new stations, increasing navigator distribution and growing embedded field teams across the U. S. And around the globe. Large evangelistic events are on the horizon and you can be a part This month, generous ministry partners have committed a special June gift challenge where they have pledged to match up to $1.2 million dollars given to leading the way, dollar for dollar. You can double the impact of your giving and help leading the way, expand further into new areas for jesus amid this complex and broken world, you can help bring the good news of christ’s love to people in desperate need of the truth. Will you join us on the forefront of this crucial ministry by participating in the special june gift challenge, contact us to give a generous gift today. Okay. Mhm. Today we come to the very last in a series of messages which are entitled that appropriating the happiness that’s already in you, and we’re going to see this by judging carefully what is this, judging that Jesus is talking about? And probably out of all the passages in the scripture, this one is the most misunderstood by vast number of people, whether they’re christians or not. So what is this judge? Is he saying that we need to suspend our critical faculties? Is he saying that we just need to accept falsehood and never say anything about false teaching that is being false teaching, uh should we just accept it is jesus telling us uh to accept sin and rebellion without any complaint and take them as an acceptable thing? What is he saying? Well, what’s that mean? No, Lord is not telling us to turn a blind eye towards sin and rebellion, Jesus is not telling us to turn a blind eye will be willingly accept perversion and say, well, that’s okay, no, no, no, no, no, no. Remember this whole sermon on the mount that we’ve been going through it, that we’ve been spending quite a bit of time with it going through this, We saw the entire time. There is a contrast between true religion and false religion between spiritual truth and spiritual hypocrisy between God’s righteousness. That is in jesus christ imputed on the believers and self righteousness between the truth and falsehood, between the internal faith and the external rituals and the appearances of the, of the Pharisees, between God’s way and man’s way. It’s a contrast all the way through. In fact, If you go down to verse 15 of Matthew seven, you see our Lord Jesus saying beware of false prophets, beware of false prophets. In other words, you need to judge between those who speak truth and those who speak falsehood. We need to judge messages whether they are sound doctrine or false teaching. We need that to beware of false teachers. That is one of the warnings our Lord gives us. So what does this, jesus, jesus mean by this Judge not lest you be judged the greek word for judge or judging it. Screen. Oh that’s K R I N O fino. Now here’s the bad news. Okay, There are 12 different shades of meaning to that word. And that is why I told you you will really get them confused. 12 different ships. So how do we know from the context? From the context. So what does Jesus mean here in Matthew 7 1. Judge not first of all he’s referring to judging of another person’s motive. You see judging motive literally. The Lord is saying is a no no No one can judge another person’s motives except God himself. Now, we can judge action. We can judge words, we can judge policies, we can judge activities, but we cannot judge motives. Secondly, it is a reference to hasty judgment. Hasty judgment, judging before all the facts are in, you know, people like that, judging before all the evidence are in proverbs 18 13 said he, who gives an answer before he hears is folly. Only God is omniscient. Only God has all the facts in hands. Only God sees the past, the present and the future. But there’s more there’s more hasty judgment is often merciless judgment often merciless and merciless judgment manifests wrong view of God who is a very merciful God. And that is why judging motives is the same as playing God explain God. Now, I want to make this very abundantly clear. Jesus is not, not, not asking us to stop discerning and denouncing sin, but he is saying, don’t be quick to judge your brother or your sister’s motive. Why? Because the very standard by which you’re going to judge your brother or sister’s motive. God is going to use that same standard by judging your motives. And so, my beloved friends, first of all, judging motives can distort our view of God Judging Motives, 2ndly, can distort our views of ourselves can distort our own views. Look at verses three and four, I want you to use your measures. Just just just for a few seconds. Okay, use your imagination. Imagine you are watching or looking at a comic strip, seriously? And here is a an eye surgeon and he is performing a very delicate eye operation in order to remove dust from the aisles of his patient. But instead of a magnifying glasses so he can see clearly. He’s got two logs in his eyes, they had two logs blocking his vision. He said, Michael, That is ludicrous in the extreme and you’ll be exactly right. And that’s what jesus is saying here. But it’s all connected. When we judge a person’s motive, your view of God becomes distorted and when your view of God becomes distorted, your view of yourself becomes distorted, which brings me to the critical person again, the person who’s constantly judging another person’s motive, particularly in the body of christ. He’s talking to the believers here, I’m gonna show you how he switches, but he’s talking to the believers, judging motives is counterproductive. You see the reason why we often look for something to criticize somebody else’s because we are internally holding something that’s even worse as diversion as we’ve been seeing throughout the series of messages. The worst sin is the sin of self righteousness. The worst sin is the sin of self righteous cause a self righteous person can never be saved, Jesus said, And I preached on this in the last several weeks unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees? You say, wait a minute. These guys are meticulous. How can anyone have righteousness surpasses the righteousness of the Pharisees? Yeah, the righteousness of jesus. That’s the only righteousness that surpasses those guys and he gives it to her. He imputed his righteousness on us. So God the father looks upon us as as if we have never seen. See that’s the worst sin. Self righteousness. Self righteousness is the person who sees no sin in their own life. Or even if they see sin in their life, they minimize it. They they rationalize it, that they ignore it or they go blame somebody else for it, please hear me right, jesus is not saying to turn a blind eyes on your brother’s sin. Not at all. Not for a moment. But you better do some self examination and do some confession and repentance of your own sin before you can point your finger or help somebody else over their sin. Once you’re able to mourn over your sin, and that’s the very, very, very first message, blessed are you who mourn over your sin? That’s that’s the first of the beatitudes. But once you’re able to mourn over your sin, once you’re able to repent of your sin, then you’re able to help your brother or sister? Only then will you be able to see their sin in proper perspective. Only then will you be able to see God as the only perfect judge? Now, you notice from the scripture, That’s always there’s a balance here between one’s confession of their own sin and then able to help others with their sin. You remember the story of David, I know you do and and bathsheba and Uriah and and and and he just was going along his happy merry way until the prophet Nathan comes in and he confronts him and then he cries buckets and he repents and then he he writes psalm 51 it’s a psalm of confession. There’s a balance in that song and I want to show it to you. I’m going to show it to you black and black and white. What does David say created me a clean heart of God and renewed and renew a steadfast spirit within me, restore unto me the joy of your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit. What is David doing? He’s doing self examinations, he’s taking the logs out of his eyes, he’s confessing his own sin. And then and only then he’s able to say, I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will be converted to you. Only that beloved, you cannot minister effectively to another person when you have a sin in your life, you have to first repent of your sin in the confrontation of sin in another person’s life must be done beloved listen to me must be done in meekness. It must be done in humility, nothing pride, but we have nothing to brag about except the blood of jesus christ this whole time that we’ve just been looking at so far, jesus is talking about brothers and sisters in christ and families and homes and church family But then at verse six he literally switches gears, he switches gears ah and same theme but different applications now we’re going from dealing with sisters and brothers and they’re going to dealing with those outside of the christian faith with those who are non believers, the ones who have rejected the truth. He tells us how to deal with those two, he tells us how to deal with those who have perverted the truth and twisted the truth and hear what jesus is saying. If and when they’ve rejected your message, you witnessed to them and they rejected your message. What you need to do is just leave them to me sadly there are too many christians, I’m so busy shooting at each other and attacking each other. They don’t have any energy left to witness to the outside world. They’re so busy shooting down the saints. They don’t have ammunition left to tell people about the love of christ. Look at versus 7 to 12 of Matthew seven, look at them with me instead of shooting the Saints. What you need to do is pray ask, seek a knock because you have a benevolent father, a merciful father who wants to give good gifts to his Children And we saw that in the last message he wants to give good gifts to those who are broken in spirit. He wants to give gifts to those who trust him and trust his promises, he wants to forgive. And that is why as a forgiving heavenly father, he said, ask because he is so wise and a wise heavenly father. Therefore, Jesus said, seek because you have a generous hearted father knock on the door and keep on knocking, Who have you? When your child asks you for something good, you give them a scorpion oh, or a stone. But jesus is not talking about material things. God promised his provision that he’s going to provide. He’s going to meet all the needs of those who seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And here he’s talking about spiritual blessings that is beyond our ability to comprehend God’s common grace is like the rain and the sun. They come on everybody believers or nonbelievers. But there is a special grace that God promised only for those who put their trust in him, that he have promised those who placed God as the master over every aspect of their life. Don’t miss this, jesus is saying to his own about the spiritual blessings that comes with salvation. Daily forgiveness, daily deliverance, daily peace, daily containment, daily increase in faith, hope and joy. Daily victory over satan daily triumph over temptation. Ah daily victory over the critical spirit and daily overcoming judgmentalism and judging motives, someone will say well, Michael, if God knows all of our needs, why do we ask, seek and knock that is a great question, I am so glad you asked it. This is really a great question, I have a three pronged, these are not three points, but there’s three things very quickly, I’ll tell you one thing, but a minute, in fact if you blink, you miss them, I have a three pronged answer. First of all, prayer, suppose or presupposes knowledge. So what is knowledge, God, knowledge of knowing that God only going to give you that which is according to his will. Therefore it is our responsibility to discern the will of God. How do you discern the will of God for your life by getting to know him, I’m not talking about no about him, A lot of people know about him but getting to really, really know him and beloved listen to me whatever it takes, however long it takes for you to get to know God and spending time with him and his word, you need to do it. There is no substitute for it. That is the only way you become discern er and a discerning believer secondly, prayer presupposes faith, it’s one thing to know the will of God. And it’s another thing to trust him that he’s going to fulfill his will, beloved, I’ve been there many times, I’m gonna tell you more. One time I was absolutely certain of the will of God. I mean I heard God literally honorably, but it took six years for him to fulfill what he already promised. I could have given up. And I was tempted many times. Even when others give up, even when others get impatient, even when others move on, even when others say well God is not giving me what’s on my grocery list, I’m out of here. Ah But you keep on trusting, keep on believing, keep on seeking, keep on knocking. Because if your prayer and you’re praying according to the will of God, sooner or later, God will answer that prayer, beloved listen to me. God’s delay is not always denial. And the third thing I want to tell you in answering your wonderful question, why do we seek? Ask a knock? Because prayer presupposes desire a longing in the heart. You have to have that longing in your heart because you may know the will of God. You may even believe that God’s will will be fulfilled. But it’s really having the desire for the will of God. If you desire the will of God with all of your heart, you will discern that he and his will for you is never punitive. Did you get that? He loves you too much for that. And he will always always always give you what is best for you because he sees the future. You don’t he will always give you that which is your for your best interest in the long run. We’re always thinking about the short run. But God is thinking of the long run when you desire his glory above everything else. When you come in total agreement with him, he will bless you out of your socks. I know of what I’m talking about. That is my testimony. It really is my testimony. In fact, these three things asking, seeking and knocking. There are any present imperative. This is not take it or leave it. It’s in the present imperative. Those of you grammarian, you understand what I’m talking about. But not only that they are in the ascending order. They are in their sending order before you ask. You must know what you’re asking is according to his character, according to his character and when you know what the will of God is. You must unfailingly believe that he will grant it if it took years. He will. Now, beloved as I said, I’ve been there on several occasions. one time, it took six years I said, Lord, I know what I know, I know that you will, but he let me wait and wait and wear it. And the longer I waited greater the desire of my heart for that will of God. He was preparing me. He was preparing my heart to receive because I would not have been prepared to receive at the time. Sometimes people pray the will of God and they want the will of God. But they not don’t have a prepared heart to receive the will of God, How to overcome the critical spirit, how to overcome judging others motives by spending time with him in his word asking, seeking and knocking. I never give up visit L T W dot org today to grow your relationship with christ, strengthen your faith as you watch, listen to and read sound biblical teaching from Dr Michael, Yousef receive encouragement as you hear miraculous stories of God moving here at home and around the world through vision 2025 take a quick break and receive spiritual refreshment. As you read one of Dr Yousef’s daily devotionals visit L T W dot org today and join our global gospel movement. So growing up God really wasn’t a big part of my life in dealing with most of the problems in life. The answer was to pursue as much happiness as you could and to avoid as much pain as you could. And the longer I traveled on that road, it just kind of seemed like life wasn’t satisfying that banks began to build. I began drinking a lot and doing some drugs and nothing really seemed to matter. So I began to read the bible kind of on my own. It didn’t really understand it. And I read through Matthew and Mark and luke and john and one day I was traveling home from work after reading john 14, I popped on the radio and I was listening to a man named Dr Michael use and he was talking about christ being the only way to God and referenced john chapter 14, Jesus said in john chapter 14 verse six that I am the way the truth and the life right there in the car, tears just began to stream down my face and it was a moment where I understood, I understood in my heart that christ had died for my sins and he loved me. He does it because he loves you, That’s because he loves you. And in a half hour course, I drove literally from one kingdom to another. And so that started a long journey for me. I would listen to dr youssef all the time, going to work or to class and coming home from work or home from class. I’d pop on leading the way and I would listen to his broadcasts quite often and they helped me get familiar with what the christian faith was. I got plugged into a local church and began to really seek the Lord and I think through dr yousef, I couldn’t really see any other meaning in life other than to give this beautiful gift that I’ve received to others. One day as I walked into my bedroom, I fell on my knees overwhelmed by God’s presence and just heard that still small voice in my heart that said, I want you to teach my gospel. I talked to my local pastor and he directed me to a bible college here in massachusetts and so I began to train for ministry and eventually I became a pastor in massachusetts. I’ve been pastoring now for six years and I’m watching God do through me what he began to do through Dr Yousef, I am grateful that people like Dr Yousef continue to invest in areas that are difficult, like he did in Northfield massachusetts. I think when I came to the muni center to hear Dr Yousef, I was inspired that somebody saw the vision for New England, the way that I do, it is quite an amazing thing for somebody like dr Yousef to come to an area like this and give the gift. He has two pastors here and giving them training and I could think of no better use of my life than to reconcile other people to God through preaching the gospel the way that Dr Yousef has, Mhm through your partnership leading the way is expanding to meet the growing spiritual needs of our nation and world. This month, generous ministry partners have committed a special June gift challenge where they have pledged to match up to $1.2 million dollars given to leading the way, dollar for dollar. Will you join us on the forefront of this crucial ministry by participating in the special june gift challenge. Contact us to give a generous gift today passionately proclaiming uncompromising truth. Leading the way with Dr Michael Yousef. Thanks you for your faithful support through your continued prayers and gifts