Find The Gold In People

Find The Gold In People

Romans 2:1-4 “You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth.  So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment?  Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?”

We spend a lot of time in class talking about this topic of judging others and calling out other peoples sin last night and I think it was such a great conversation.  I wanted to share the idea with all of you as well.  We all know we shouldn’t judge others.  Did you know the extent to which you judge others is the extent to which God will judge you?  For me, finding that our, taking a minute to let that sink in was a game changer for me.  If I expect perfection from others and don’t cut anyone any slack, then God will do the same?  I don’t know if that is exactly how it works, but that right there was enough for me to double down on my efforts not to judge.  I know I am not perfect.  I know I have many flaws.  I know I need God to be very gracious with me and so that means I must be gracious with others.  To me, that seems like a small trade off.  

If I am gracious with others here on earth, how does that hurt me?  It may be inconvenient.  I may have to be nice to those I don’t like, I may have to put up with annoyances.  I may have to watch them make bad choices and not judge them for it.  However, if you compare that to the alternative, it doesn’t compare.  If you compare those inconveniences to what might happen if God judged me the way I was judging others, I would be suffering a lot more than inconveniences after I leave earth.  I want to spend eternity with my heavenly father.  Our time in this world is so limited when we compare it to eternity.  Romans 8:18 says, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”  Is it hard not to judge others, yes.  It is worth it in the end, absolutely.  

When I talk about judging others, most of you are probably thinking about how we judge strangers.  How we judge those we see on the streets, or in the grocery stores, maybe even those at work.  Those we judge when there is really no reason to judge.  We might judge someone’s outfit or the decisions they are making, but they don’t affect us.  Our judgement does not really affect them.  However, what about when we view our judgement as necessary?  For instance, we all want our children, or siblings, our family members to be successful.  We want them to have a good life.  When we worry they are headed down the wrong path, we feel it is our job to correct their course.  We are only try to help them be more responsible, be healthier, be whatever it is we think they should be.  Sometimes if our children, our loved ones, or our friends are doing something that we know is a sin we feel as though it is our duty to tell them.  We feel we are helping them to their salvation if we call out their sin.  We are only trying to help.  I get it, and yet, are we really helping?

In class we took a look at how Jesus dealt with sin in the Bible.  Sometimes, he did call it out, but only if needed and only with love.  For instance, the woman at the well, He let her know that she was living with a man that was not her husband, but he never once made her feel ashamed for it.  He was letting her know that He saw her, He knew her, all of her, and yet still loved her.  The woman caught in adultery, he didn’t scold her, he didn’t tell her she needed to get her life together, he didn’t lecture her on why what she was doing was wrong.  He showed her kindness, He saved her life, and he told her to sin no more.  What about Luke 19:1-10?  Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector who wanted to see Jesus.  Jesus called out to Zacchaeus and said, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.”  The scripture says others around were muttering that the Lord would dare to eat with a sinner.  Jesus never called out all Zacchaaeus’ sins.  He called him by his name, showing that He knew him and then He showed love for Zacchaeus by going to his house for lunch.  Then in Luke 19:8 it says, “But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”  

Why did Zacchaeus have a change of heart?  Why did he change his ways?  Why did the woman at the well change her ways?  Both of them had a renewal of the mind through an encounter with the love of Jesus.  Our goal in life, all of us, should be to lead people to encounter the transforming love of God.  I know we worry about our families and friends.  I know we love them and we just want what is best for them.  I also know that God loves them more than we ever could.  God wants more for them than we could ever imagine.  So, why do we think it is up to us and us alone to set them on the right path.  Why do we think it is our job to call out there sins?  Have you ever met someone or had someone in your life that pointed out all you did that was wrong?  Have you ever been around someone who made you feel like nothing you did was ever good enough?  How did that make you feel?  Did it make you want to work really hard to get that person’s respect?  Did it make you want to not even bother to try because there was no way they would be happy?  Did you feel any love from that person?  

The reason for the title of this episode is because our teacher kept saying we needed to look for the gold in people.  When you are mining for gold, you don’t always find gold.  Sometimes you pull up rocks, mud, sludge, or whatever else in mixed in with the gold.  However, you don’t keep that stuff.  You sift through all the junk and you only keep the good stuff.  What if we did that with all we meet.  Yes we see all the junk, the uncleanliness, the immature decisions, the sinfulness, and much more.  However, what if we were to sift that stuff out and just look for the gold.  Look for that one thing they are doing right, that one thing they have going for them, that one thing we can be proud of.  I think we definitely underestimate the power of our words and more importantly the power of positive words.  

Fear is gripping this society today.  There is so much fear, worry, anxiety.  We must fight it.  We must believe that our God is bigger than anything this world has to through at Him.  We must believe that God has the power to change our loved ones, to change us.  If there is one thing God has told me so many times over the years it is to be patient with the process.  He continues to tell me, because it takes multiple times, that the change I am looking for is coming, but it is not coming through my nagging.  My nagging only slows God’s plan down.  My nagging only closes the hearts and minds of those I want the best for.  God continues to tell me I just need to love the people and He will do the rest.  Sometimes this is counterintuitive.  I know you don’t see how affirming a person when they are making terrible choices can help the situation, but it can.  We need to come along side our loved ones.  Instead of acting like we have it all figured out, we can sympathize with their situation.  We can let them know we love them right where they are at.  They don’t need to change for us to love them.  They don’t need to be a certain person so we can love them.  We already love them and we are here to help when they are ready for the help.  Every single person in this world, whether they know it or not, is just looking to be loved, respected, and accepted.  

We are called to be like Jesus.  We are called to act like Jesus.  We are called to think like Jesus.  We can’t do this on our own, but with Jesus, we can do all things!  What if we put our worry aside for a moment and just lead with love?  What if we sifted through all the crap and called out that one thing they were doing right?  What if we just met people where they were and led them to an encounter with God’s transforming love?  I promise you, if you lead with love, you will be surprised at the changes you will see.  St. Augustine said, “Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.”  I think this applies to finding the gold in others.  You may have 101 reasons why this won’t work, why focusing on the positive won’t change anything, why your correcting them is necessary.  I get it and yet I am asking you to have faith.  Have faith that God can change the situation, change the person, change you.  Have faith that love is what is needed.  You will be surprised how different people act when they know they are loved and they don’t have to fight for love.  How about we all commit to trying this for advent?  Can you spend the next 26 days leading with love?  Can you stop the criticizing, judging, nagging, for the next 26 days and just find the gold in all those you meet.  Not just find it, but point it out and celebrate it.  God’s love is the most powerful tool for change!

Dear heavenly Father, please bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, forgive us for judging others, we don’t mean to.  Forgive us for nagging our loved ones, we only want the best for them.  Forgive us for making others feel unloved or unwanted, that was not our intent.  Lord, show us how to lead with love.  Jesus did it so perfectly, show us how to imitate Jesus.  We just want our loved ones to be successful and happy, whatever that looks like for them.  If this means we need to change or renew our minds to see them in a different light then we give you permission to change us too Lord.  Mold us and transform us to your likeness and image Lord.  We love you Lord, you are truly amazing.  We are grateful you love our loved ones more than we ever could.  We are grateful you are in charge and we are sorry we keep forgetting that.  You are amazing Lord.  You are the almighty one, the prince of peace.  We bless you, we adore you and we glorify.  We love you and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name. Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldy with Jesus.  I look forward to brining you another witness tomorrow.  Tomorrow’s witness will be a couple different ones from my encounter class.  I know you will enjoy them.  They all speak about healing, and who couldn’t use a healing?  I pray you have a blessed day and remember, Jesus loves you and so do I!

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