Blinded by Hypocrisy | Sunday, November 2, 2025

That would you take out your Bibles, if you have one, and open them with me this morning to the Gospel of Luke. If you would stand with me, we're going to read from Luke chapter 6, continuing in the section that is Jesus's teaching in what is commonly referred to as the Sermon on the Mount.

Luke chapter 6, and we'll pick it up this morning in verse 39. There it says, "And Jesus spoke a parable to them. Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into a ditch? A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher. And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not perceive the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me remove the speck that is in your eye,' when you yourself do not see the plank that is in your own eye? Hypocrite. First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

For a good tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. For every tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good, and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

But why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? Whoever comes to me and hears my sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like. He is like a man building a house who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built his house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently, and immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.

God, I pray that you would give us wisdom as we consider the text of Scripture this morning and that you would help us to be doers of your word. That we would not only hear these things and not only think about them, but we would make application from the text, and those things would become a part of our lives. I pray that you would continue the work that you're doing by your word and by your Holy Spirit of transforming us by the renewing of our mind. And Lord, that that transformation would be evident; it would be seen in our lives.

It would be seen by ourselves and by others that we have been renewed, that we've been regenerated, and that our lives are producing fruit that brings glory to You. So, God, whatever You need to do to make us more fruitful, to bring glory to Your name, I pray that You would do that and help us to be a light shining in a dark place, a city set on a hill that cannot be hid. For we ask this in Jesus' name. And all those that agreed said, "Amen." You can be seated.

Immediately following the terrorist attacks in 2001, a couple of other leaders from here at the church and I got into one of my friends' suburban, and we drove cross-country to New York City. We left on the Saturday following 9/11 at about 5:00 in the morning and arrived in Manhattan at 5:00 in the evening on Monday. One of the guys we were with was a former truck driver, and he just liked to drive, so we drove all the way through because there were not a lot of flights at that point in time.

We went out to New York because the two leaders I was with were both from New York and felt compelled to go there to minister to people in Manhattan. We connected with the American Red Cross and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, and we were able to minister to a whole bunch of people near Ground Zero during that time. We made some pretty amazing connections with people while we were there.

One of the connections we made was with a man who was dispatched from the government here in San Diego. He was sent by the government to be a chaplain at Ground Zero. His name is Mickey Stoneier. Mickey became a very good friend of mine and has been a mentor of mine ever since. About a year after the events of 9/11, he invited me to take a class that he was teaching at a local Bible school in this area. The class was called Biblical Self-Confrontation, based on a large book of the same title. You can get this book if you want; it is called an in-depth discipleship manual.

For the next six or seven months, I went through this class with Mickey and a whole bunch of other people at this local school. Biblical Self-Confrontation was perhaps the most challenging discipleship class I've ever been in, and it was built on some of the words we just read in Jesus' teaching here in Luke chapter 6.

In the same section of Matthew's Gospel where we read this, we find the background for biblical self-confrontation. "Judge not, that you be not judged." As I said last week, this is the antagonistic unbeliever's favorite verse: "You should not judge me. Judge not, that you be not judged." For with what judgment you judge, it shall be measured back to you.

And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye and do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, "Let me remove the speck from your eye," and look, there's a plank in your own eye? Hypocrite! First, remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. Those words in verse 5—"Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you'll see clearly"—are the foundation of biblical self-confrontation.

This concept is built upon the idea of taking the Scriptures and examining your life through self-examination in light of the Scriptures to see where you measure up. However, that is not our inclination. Our tendency is to look at the Scriptures and think immediately about how they might apply to someone else. I have certainly experienced this over the years. There have been many times when someone has approached me after I taught a challenging message on a Sunday and said, "Pastor Miles, that was a great message. When will it be put online? I need to send that to my brother."

It is not easy to confront ourselves with the challenging teachings of the Scriptures. It is far easier for us to look at the speck in our brother's eye before we first consider the beam that is in our own eye. I call this the hypocrite's conundrum. The hypocrite's conundrum is the ability to see clearly the problems in others while we are often blind to our own problems.

We can be incredibly skilled at identifying even the most minor inconsistency or issue in someone else from a thousand yards away. Yet, we can fail to see the twelve-foot-long 4x4 sticking out of our own eye for weeks, months, or even years at a time. The hypocritical reality is that the beam in our own eye tends to be of the same sort of issue, problem, inconsistency, or sin that we identify as a speck in somebody else's eye. In other words, our sin...

Looks incredibly sinful on other people, but we have a hard time seeing it in our own lives. God wants us to do this hard work of biblical self-confrontation and biblical examination of ourselves. The challenge is clear.

Point number one, if you're taking notes this morning: true discipleship unto Christlikeness begins with honest self-examination. That honest self-examination, though, is very difficult. But that is what God is calling us to. Notice I said in this point that discipleship unto Christlikeness is what God wants to do in your life. He wants to make you more like Christ, more like Jesus.

Now, that brings up the question: what is Jesus like? That is a really good question. We'll talk about that in a moment. However, I think there's a preliminary question that we should answer before we address what Jesus is like. The preliminary question is: why should I want to be like Jesus? Why should I desire to be Christlike?

To answer that, I would say that Christ is the exemplar of what we were created to be. You see, when God made man, Genesis 1:26 and 27 says that God said, "Let us make man in our image and in our likeness." So, God made them male and female. In the image of God, He made them. You and I have been created in the image and likeness of God.

Now, the problem is that this image has been marred and stained by sin. Therefore, we are not the greatest representation by nature of the likeness of God who made us. But Jesus is. Jesus is the perfect image of God. Hebrews chapter 1 makes that very clear. He is the perfect image and likeness of God. He is the model of what we were designed to be, what God wants us to be.

He's not just a good moral example, although He is that. Rather, He is the perfect image of what God wants us to become. He is the fully realized picture of man as God intended him to be. To be more like Christ is to be more fully human. It is to be more fully the image of God as He originally made us to be. It is to be more whole. It is to be more alive. It is to reflect the likeness of God as we were intended to reflect the likeness of God. He made you to represent His glory.

In His creation, it is amazing to consider the beauty, grandeur, and awesomeness of all of God's creation. God did make an awesome creation. We see the pictures beamed back to us from things like the Webb telescope, showcasing the awesomeness of design. When we look at biology or chemistry, we witness the magnificence of creation. Yet, God made us unique among all the things He created, as image bearers to reflect His glory.

As I mentioned, sin has marred and stained that image, but Christ wants to transform us. This is why discipleship matters; it is through this process that God wants to make us truly glorifying image bearers of Him. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 3:18, "But we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord." This is what God wants to do in you and in me, by His Spirit and through the working of His Word, to make us more like Him.

This raises the question: What is Jesus like? The easiest way to answer that question is to study through the Gospels, which is what we are doing here on Sunday mornings in this series called "Meet Jesus." We are going through the Gospel of Luke to consider what Jesus is like. You can certainly do this on your own as well. Read through Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. If you've never read through the Gospels, you should. You might need a really good study Bible to do so, but reading through the Gospels will give you a good indication of what Jesus is like and what it is that God wants to transform you into—Christlikeness.

Another very simple way to answer the question of what Christ is like is given to us in two beautiful verses in Galatians 5:22 and 23, where we read about the fruit of the Spirit. What is the fruit of the Spirit? It is the evidence of God's Spirit in us. He gives us nine characteristics. This is not an exhaustive list of the character qualities of God by His Spirit in us, but it is a good list.

So, what does it look like when we are imaging God? We have the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. I suggest to you that none of these qualities are found in us independently of God.

The working of God is evident in us, and when His qualities are found in us, they reflect His image. Interestingly, these qualities can also be seen in people who are not yet Christians, as God has created all of humanity in His image and likeness. However, He desires to perfect these qualities and make them abundant in us. He wants us to be His image in the world, embodying love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. He aims to make these attributes a reality in our lives, which is the fruit of the Spirit.

It is noteworthy that the text we are examining discusses fruit. In verse 43, it states, "For a good tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit; for every tree is known by its own fruit." The rhetorical questions follow: "Do men gather figs from thorns? Do they gather grapes from a bramble bush?" The obvious answer is no. A good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, brings forth good fruit, while an evil man, out of the evil treasure of his heart, brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

Christ wants to make you more like Him, which is key. He desires my life to reflect love, self-control, and goodness. However, I suggest that this fruitfulness is impossible when I am blindly and hypocritically condemning and judging others for their manifold failures. It is easy to do; we are quick to point out the shortcomings in others where they do not measure up to love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. We can identify these failures in others very quickly. That person is being loveless, joyless, restless, impatient, unkind, evil, unfaithful, rough, or reckless.

Yet, in reality, we often fail to recognize that these same qualities may be abundant in us as well. Therefore, God wants us to engage in the difficult work that Jesus teaches in this passage: a critical biblical self-evaluation and self-confrontation. This is an important aspect of the Christian life. Paul states in 1 Corinthians 11:31, "If we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged." It is beneficial for us to test ourselves, to judge ourselves, and to see where we measure up in these areas. In the previous section of the Gospel of Luke, we considered this together last time.

This week, Jesus said, "Judge not and you shall not be judged. Condemn not and you shall not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven." His teaching in the Sermon on the Mount about not judging is often cited by antagonistic unbelievers, who interpret it as a command for Christians to never judge anything. However, that is not what He is saying. He emphasizes that our judgment of others must be preceded by a self-critical evaluation.

The command is not a blanket statement prohibiting all judgment. Instead, it instructs us to first remove the plank from our own eye so that we can see clearly to remove the speck from our brother's eye. Hypocrisy in judgment arises when we fail to judge ourselves first while constantly pointing fingers at others. Critical evaluation of others must follow a critical evaluation of ourselves. In other words, the true disciple judges himself before judging others.

When Jesus says, "Judge not that you be not judged," He is not commanding us to refrain from making moral judgments; that would be impossible. There is no way to live in this life without making distinctions and judgments along the way. He is not inviting us to a form of moral relativism. Rather, Jesus condemns our tendency to be hypocritical in our judgments, where we apply varying standards—setting a low bar for ourselves and a high bar for others. This injustice is akin to the unjust scales mentioned in Proverbs.

Jesus calls us to first look into the perfect law of liberty, to examine ourselves in the mirror of God's Word, so that we might judge ourselves rightly. If we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. Hypocritical judgment condemns in others what we fail to correct in ourselves, while righteous judgment removes the plank so that we can help someone else remove the speck.

In his letter to the Galatians, Paul writes, "If anyone is overtaken in a trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness." He then adds, "Considering yourselves."

Lest you also be tempted. So, make sure that we're evaluating ourselves first before we bring judgment upon others. It is an exhortation to introspective self-examination. Before we rip out the tweezers to try to find the speck in our brother's eye, we should make sure that we look in the mirror to deal with our own plank. Otherwise, we might be beating them over the head with the plank coming out of our eye.

The image that we all know, if you've ever flown and heard the stewardess talk about the security protocols before takeoff, is this: if the oxygen mask falls from the ceiling, what are you supposed to do first? Secure your own oxygen mask, and then you can help other people after you've done that. The same idea is present in this passage. We can be so blinded by the plank in our own eyes, even though the person we're trying to help is blinded by the speck in theirs. But what did Jesus say? If the blind lead the blind, they are both going to fall into a ditch. So, He says you need to first make sure that you deal with the problem that you have in your own life.

He is calling us here out of the delusion of hypocrisy and into the discipline of humility, which is a hard one. We are not humble by nature. His desire is for fruitfulness. A good tree does not bear bad fruit, and a bad tree does not bear good fruit. We will be known by the fruit of our lives. The reality is, as much as we don't want to admit it, is that we, in our fallen state, are all born fallen. In our fallen state, we have an evil heart, and that evil heart produces evil thoughts and evil actions.

Jesus speaks about this in Mark's Gospel, chapter 7, beginning at verse 21. It says, "For from within the heart, out of man proceeds evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness." Where do those things come from? They come from within and defile.

What does God want to do with those aspects of our flesh? He wants to prune it. He wants to cut it off. We see these same kinds of metaphors used throughout the Scriptures. God wants to take who you are, what you are in your natural state, and He wants to prune or refine you. That's another image.

The idea of the refiner is a powerful metaphor. You are like a great piece of ore that God has found in the ground. It is gold, but it has all kinds of impurities. So, what does the refiner do to remove the impurities? He puts the gold into the fire, and the fire melts the gold. The heavier gold falls to the bottom, while the impurities rise to the top. Then, God, like a master refiner, takes away the impurities. That is what He wants to do in my life and yours.

Here’s the challenge: He puts us in fiery circumstances and difficulties so that the impurities come to the top. That fiery circumstance in your life might be the person you’re sitting next to. They could be the one God uses to bring the impurities of anger, pride, unkindness, and all those things to the surface. God may have placed that person in your life to help you become a better version of yourself. I think that’s actually a significant part of marriage, to be honest with you. He brings those things to the surface and then asks this key question: Would you like me to take this away?

If we resist, if we are hard-hearted, or if we are arrogant, He will take us out of the fire for the moment, and those impurities will settle. But that test is coming again. Sometimes we are shocked when anger or arrogance comes to the surface. We might wonder, "How could that possibly be there?" And God says, "Yeah, I know. It’s been there the whole time." He desires to refine us. He wants to prune and refine us, as illustrated in the book of Jeremiah. I believe it is from Jeremiah chapter 18, which speaks of the potter and the clay. God wants to fashion and form us, but He must remove all the crud from the middle to make us into what He wants us to be.

He wants to prune and remove from our lives these evil things and replace the bad fruit, the evil treasures, with good fruit and good treasures. How does He do this? He does this first by giving you a new heart. When you become a follower of Christ and ask Him to come into your life, yielding to His lordship as Savior, He fulfills His promise through the prophet Ezekiel in Ezekiel 36:26. God gives you a new heart. He removes the old heart of flesh and stone and gives you a new heart of spirit. He puts His Spirit within you, and by His indwelling Spirit, He causes us to walk in His statutes, to keep His judgments, and to do them. He saves us. He gives us.

A new heart. He dwells in us by His Spirit. He transforms us by His grace. He wants to make you. He wants to make me more like Him. He says in John chapter 15, "I am the vine, and you are the branches. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He, the vine dresser, the Father, takes away. And every branch that bears fruit, He prunes so that it may bear more fruit." That's what He wants to do.

Point number three: the authentic disciple abides in Christ and produces increasing and abundant good fruit. That's what God wants to do. That fruit becomes evident. We are either going to see in us and in others the works of the flesh, which are evident. You can go read Galatians chapter 5 later on today, the last half of the chapter. The works of the flesh are evident; they are easily seen.

But listen, the fruit of the Spirit is easily seen as well. God wants to remove the works of the flesh, and He wants to replace that with the fruit of the Spirit. This is one of the reasons why being in fellowship with other Christians, not just on Sunday morning, but also in small groups like our small groups or within other fellowship groups in the church, is so important. It allows us to see each other's shortcomings and hopefully engage in self-examination so that we can challenge one another to be better.

Years ago, I'll never forget, I had a conversation with a gentleman who was a part of our church. This was probably 15 years ago or so. I had to have a hard, challenging conversation with him. I said, "Listen, what I'm seeing in your life is arrogance, outbursts of wrath, anger, and you're just a really hard person. I do not see love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control." I told him, "I'm not sure you're a Christian." He did not like that, but this is iron sharpening iron.

He started to defend himself and tell me all the ways that he was right. I said, "Listen, you do not need to prove to me that you are right with God and that there's fruit in your life, but you do need to do the work of examination." Paul told the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians chapter 13, "Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you unless you indeed are disqualified?"

So I said to him, "You need to examine yourself. If you find that the fruit of the Spirit is not evident, then you need to..."

Repent and ask God to do a transforming work in your heart. I guarantee you, God will do that. There are many times when I have to pray, "God, give me your patience in this circumstance," because I am not, by nature, a patient person. Thank you for not saying "amen."

Now, how is this abiding work that Jesus talks about related to abundant good fruit? How does this happen? Well, in John 15:7, it says, "If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be my disciples." As the Father has loved me, I also love you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love.

So, how do we abide unto good fruit? We abide in Him, and we abide in His words, allowing His words to abide in us. How do we know that we're doing that? If you keep my commandments, we do what Jesus has said.

Returning to Luke 6:46, we read, "But why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do the things that I say?" Whoever comes to me and hears my sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like. He is like a man building his house who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock. When the flood rose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and it could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock.

But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built his house on the earth or on the sand, without a foundation. Against that house, the stream beat vehemently, and immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.

Point number four: obedience is the hallmark of genuine discipleship and authentic faith. True faith produces faithfulness. James said, "Faith without works is dead." Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do the things that I say?

Do you want a life that withstands the hardships and storms of this life? Well, what does Jesus say? Whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock. The storms will come; you can be certain of that.

You will face storms. People you love will face storms, which will be your storm. You will go through difficulty and hardship in this life. I have lived long enough now to see people who stand well through hardship and those who do not. The amazing thing is that looking back over, I don't know, 25 years or so of Christian ministry, I have watched some people whom I once looked up to. I thought, "That man is such a strong believer. He seems to have everything in order." Then the hardship came, and it exposed that they did not have a good foundation. It's heartbreaking. There are individuals, faces, and names that come to mind even now of people who seemed like they had a really good built-up structure, but then the storm came and showed that the foundation was not there. They had not been doing what Christ said.

However, those who practice the way of Christ and put those things into practice by the working of His Spirit, by the encouragement and prayer, and fellowship of the church, fare better when the storms come. You can be certain that they will come. The Apostle James, who is also the half-brother of Jesus, keys in on the same idea. In James 1:22, it says, "But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror. For he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he is. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the word, this one will be blessed in what he does."

Quick question: How many of you would like to be blessed in what you do? This is not a trick question. If you're not raising your hand, pay attention. How many of you would like to be blessed in what you do? All right, we want to be blessed. Do you realize that God gives you the equation? The "if this, then that" conditional statement. He who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. Obedience is the hallmark of genuine disciples. Authentic faith produces faithfulness, and blessing is the outcome.

Saying this, I now have to give a disclaimer that I wish I didn't have to give. When I say "blessing," he who does this will be blessed in what he does. I do not mean the blessing that is often put forward by what is called the prosperity gospel, which I would call prosperity heresy. Unfortunately, prosperity gospel is certainly the biggest and most atrocious export of American Christianity for the last half century.

What does prosperity gospel say? It says that God wants to make you healthy, wealthy, and happy. That's his whole aim. The entire focus of the prosperity gospel is man-centered, not God-centered. It is focused entirely on the idea that God reigns in heaven to make you healthy, wealthy, and happy. That's the whole point of it. There are churches in our county and many churches in our nation that preach this. This is probably the biggest export of American Christianity for the last fifty-plus years. You can find it on cable channels and in all kinds of places.

It is amazing to me that it thrives so well in some of the most poverty-stricken places on the planet. I have been to Mozambique, Swaziland, and South Africa, and it is just astonishing how the prosperity gospel thrives in these places where people have absolutely nothing. Why? Because it keys in on the greedy nature of man. The purveyors of the prosperity heresy say that with the right kind of faith and positive confession, and if you give to my ministry, then you will find material and physical blessings. You won't be sick, you won't be poor, you won't have hardship, and you will be filled with joy. You will have a trouble-free existence.

Well, what's the problem with that? It is entirely the opposite of what Jesus taught. That is why I say it is the prosperity heresy; it doesn't line up with what Jesus taught. What did Jesus say? In this very context, I bring this up because here in Luke 6 is one of the favorite passages of the prosperity heresy. We have to address this. But what the prosperity teachers do is...

Highlight certain things that Jesus said to the exclusion of the entire context around what He said. Jesus said in this passage, "Blessed are the poor." You will not hear that from the prosperity heresy. "Blessed are those who are hungry." "Blessed are those who weep." "Blessed are you when you are hated."

Jesus said in John 16:33, "In the world, you will have much tribulation." That does not line up with the prosperity heresy, which tells you one of these things is false. I would suggest to you that what Jesus said is not false. In the world, you will have tribulation. But in the midst of these things, when Jesus promises His disciples that they will have tribulation, He also promises blessings.

So, what is He talking about? The prosperity heretics focus on something that Jesus said to the exclusion of the surrounding context. Here’s one of their favorite verses: Luke 6:38. "Give, and it will be given to you." That sounds pretty good. "Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, it will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure you use, it will be measured back to you." This is one of the favorites of the prosperity gospel. "Give, and it will be given to you, brother. Just give to our ministry, and you'll be given tenfold. You want that house? You need to sow some seed money into the church."

Do not clip that, Nick, from what is the context of that verse. Let me give it to you. Jesus said, "I say to you who hear, love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who spitefully use you. To him who strikes you on the one cheek, offer him the other also. And from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and from him who takes away your goods, do not ask them back. And just as you want men to do to you, do to them likewise. Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and it will be forgiven."

Then He says, "Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over." What’s the context? What are you to give? You are not supposed to give seed money to the prosperity gospel ministry. No, you are to give faithfulness, obedience, and forgiveness.

And God will return these things to you. The blessing that Jesus describes is a life that endures hardship. It stands in the midst of storms. We should be, therefore, the wise disciple who builds for a storm-resistant life. That's what God wants you to build: a storm-resistant life.

The blessing that Jesus promised is not the same as the prosperity heretics. Jesus's blessed life is a blessing of abundance. He says, "Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you." What things? He says, "I'm going to take care of the things that you have need of: what you're going to wear, where you're going to sleep, and what you're going to eat." After all these things, the unbelievers seek for, but you seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

He promises an existence filled with peace in the midst of the storm. He promises self-control when everything is coming against you, joy even in trial and tribulation. He gives contentment and peace in the midst of all situations, and He gives us a vision of a future kingdom. It is not the kingdom-now mindset of dominionist prosperity theology. It is "Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

God wants to do a work of transformation in us so that we shine with the fruit of the Spirit unto the glory of God in a time when people are desperate to see that. People need to see in my life and in yours: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control in abundance. God, prune whatever you need to prune to make it possible for those things to grow in our lives. Amen.

Would you stand with me as we close in prayer? God, thank You for Your Word. It is living and powerful, and it is sharper than any two-edged sword. At times, it cuts deep into our hearts. It exposes the areas of our lives and our hearts that are out of step, out of order with Your nature. God, You shine the light of Your truth on those areas of our lives so that You might be able to expose and remove those things from us. So God, I pray that You would make us into something new.

Measurable way more like You today and this week, God, where the works of the flesh are still evident in me.

My brothers and sisters, I pray that You would reveal those things to us so that we would be able to confess them to You. You promised that if we confess our sin, You are faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness.

God, would You cleanse us of all unrighteousness? Would You prune away unfruitful branches so that we might bear much fruit for Your glory? God, glorify Yourself in us. Make us better image bearers of You.

We pray this in Jesus' name. And all those that agreed said, "Amen."