Complicated

HELPING OR HURTING?

Pastor Hope Flask

November 2, 2025

Main Scriptures: Matthew 7:1-6

Additional Scriptures: Romans 14:10, 13, Galatians 6:1, Matthew 13: 44-46, 1 Corinthians 3:6, Psalm 34:18, James 5:16

POINTS:

• We were made for relationships.

• Vision: to build a Kingdom Community where the poor, captive, broken, and oppressed find a future and hope in Jesus Christ, our Victor.

• Cancel culture: the practice of public shaming, boycotting, and withdrawing support after individuals or groups have done or said something unacceptable or offensive, often amplified by social media.

• Judgment: to punish, to condemn, and to destroy.

• We can judge in the sense of criticizing but not in the sense of condemnation.

• When we criticize, are we trying to get the relationship back because we want them to see that what they’re doing is hurting themselves and others? Or are we criticizing them to cause them pain?

• We confront the behavior by speaking the truth in love.

• We need people who will tell us the truth about what is lodged in our souls, and we must do it carefully.

• Unless we see our sins as greater than other people’s sins, then we are not going to be able to help them with theirs.

• We must see our sins as a plank.

• The pearl is sacred and a metaphor for the Gospel.

• We must honor the pace of God in one another’s lives.

• The Kingdom of God moves at the speed of a seed.