February 20, 2024 • 28 mins
"Judge not." "If we judge ourselves, we will not be condemned".. "I do not judge myself". "Can't we judge the smallest matters?" "Don't you know the saints will judge the world?" "We shall judge angels" So many Bible verses. So many seeming contradictions.
How can a Christian operate in this confusing set of principles?
In Episode 4 of We Are Near we take a stab at sorting out the confusion. To do so, we revisit Romans 12:2, a pivotal verse discussed in Episode 2. The Greek word used in this verse is dokimazo.... a key concept we need to understand to be successful and consistent as a Christian.
Dokimazo is a command to both test or discern, and then approve the "golden" portion of what we find. Much more than a critical or fault-finding, skeptical outlook, dokimazo calls us to submit every issue and situation to a careful test of content and principles. "Just the facts, ma'am." But it doesn't stop there. Once the "golden" thread of principle and ethics can be seen clearly in contrast to the perfect divine standards of love and justice, we are then tasked with acceptance, active submission, patient participation with imperfect people and situations in the process of finding the best outcome possible under the circumstances we have been presented with in the providence and grace of God.
This is heavy lifting. It is the attitude that can write a hymn, "It is well with my soul", after losing loved ones in a tragic disaster. It is the strength we find to go on in the face of health problems or personal loss.
There are always people who can point fingers and say "I told you so." What Christians are tasked with learning, is how to live with tragedy and look forward to the time when God will show us how to forgive, show love toward the offending person, and continue fighting for what is good and noble, without disillusionment.
This new podcast is meant for serious Christians -- people who are focused on following Jesus faithfully, until death. The trials are real, but the joys are beyond expression. Eye has not seen, nor ear heard ... the things God has been preparing for those who love him supremely.
The more we pay attention to the terms of discipleship and predictions of the actual deeds of Jesus' truest followers, there have not been many humble, meek Jesus followers who made it into the pages of history. Most genuine, obedient Christians have been laboring in anonymity, ignored or even hounded by the powerful forces of the outwardly respectable, "orthodox" Christian geopolitical system.
For the most part, the true followers of Jesus were not famous, they did not have official recognition, they did not seek or gain political power, and often they were oppressed, persecuted, neutralized in this life. Probably, few made their living as "ministers of the gospel". They were like the ancient prophets of old
-- men and women who suffered for their faithfulness-- "of whom the world was not worthy."
But the future era will be different. Jesus will exalt his obedient followers. They will be revealed by him as having been victorious in his eyes. He will promote them to places of power and influence in his future "government of the world, when the times are ripe for it." (Ephesians 1:9,10 -- Weymouth translation.)
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Owen Kindig (00:12):
Welcome to We Are Near.
This is episode 4, and we'restill in Romans 12 2, and I want
to focus now on a question thatmature Christians, I think,
often ask themselves.
What exactly are we supposed todo about judgment?
It's Jesus said in Matthew 7 1,Um, he said, uh, judge not, that
(00:36):
you be not judged.
And yet, um, we are told that,um, he said, he said that, uh,
Christians should be able tojudge, um, small matters.
They should be able to judgethings among themselves.
He, in fact, he said that thejudgment of Christians ought to
(00:56):
be more, um, Reliable withinspiritual matters, within the
church, I think he's speakingof, than, uh, than going to a
court of law.
He criticized the Corinthianbrethren for taking their
disputes between themselves to aworldly court.
He said, no, work those thingsout yourself.
(01:18):
Those kinds of issues need to beweighed by people who have
spiritual discernment.
He also said, I judge notmyself.
In other words, we are in dangersometimes if we try to, um, look
at ourselves critically.
(01:41):
Um, we might judge ourselves tooleniently.
We might judge ourselves tooharshly.
It's only the rare person whocan be objective when looking at
themselves.
And so he's, Paul says, I don'teven judge myself.
He says, I have one that judgesme.
And he knows that his, his lifeis safe in the hands of God and
(02:02):
of his, uh, elder brother Jesus,who, um, see him for what he is.
They see where his deficits are.
They see what his weaknessesare.
They understand what hisliabilities and his, Things that
he'll never overcome are.
And they understand what, um,what they need in order to
(02:24):
become victorious.
And the truth is that everysingle person whom God has
called and brought into hisfamily as a spiritual son, as a
son, um, you know, a Christiandisciple, every single person in
that category is, um, can havefull confidence that they can be
(02:48):
successful at the judgment seatof Christ.
The judgment of the followers ofJesus, Paul says, uh, has
already begun.
And, uh, we are going through atime of judgment.
And why?
Well, he says, so that we can beuseful in judging others.
(03:09):
He says that we will be, hesays, don't you know that the
saints will judge the world?
Don't you know that we willjudge angels?
That sounds crazy.
That sounds What in the world ishe talking about?
He's talking about the disciplesof Jesus who are being trained
to be reliable, fair minded,merciful, uh, encouraging
(03:37):
judges.
Not the kind of judges thatpoint fingers and say You're
guilty here, and you're guiltythere, and you broke this law,
and you, you did this thing, andyou were short tempered, and so
forth and so on.
That's not the kind of judgmenthe's talking about.
He's saying, I believe, that,um, we will become judges in the
(03:59):
way the ancient leaders ofIsrael were called judges.
They were called judges becausethey, They brought salvation to
the nation.
They brought deliverance to thenation from outside enemies.
They stabilized their foodsupply.
(04:19):
They, uh, solved the problemthat they were having with the
theft of their, uh,agricultural, um, uh, uh,
products that they were growing.
The judges kept them safe andallowed them to live.
harmoniously with each other.
They resolve disputes that arosebetween individuals and families
(04:43):
and tribes.
Those are the things that judgesdo in ancient times.
And Isaiah, when he lookedforward to the time when, um,
the Messiah would be reigning,he said, with my soul I have
waited through the night.
And he says, um, Uh, in myspirit, I will seek you early,
(05:06):
that is early in this, in thenew day, the, what we would now
call the day of the millennium,the day of the, of, of the
return of Christ, the reign ofChrist, the Messiah's reign.
It's the, it's the time, thegolden age that the Jews looked
forward to and can still lookforward to, and the time when
the Christians look forward to.
(05:29):
Uh, um, um, back when mostChristians believed that the
purpose of Jesus return was tobless the world.
So that time of looking forward,that is the judgment day, and
it's the day when the weak ofthe world are given strength and
(05:52):
the powerful and authoritativeand selfish The oppressors of
the world will be restricted andeliminated from their power of,
uh, their usurped power againstthe human race, against the meek
of the earth.
The meek are going to inheritthe earth under Christ's kingdom
(06:15):
and the, um, in the time ofMessiah's reign.
And The, those who are not meek,well, they will, um, they will
have some learning to do.
And that's what judgment is.
It's, it's, it's, it's, uh,encouragement, if you need it.
(06:35):
It's correction, if you need it.
It's discipline, if you need it.
And, uh, ultimately, it's, um,whatever you need in order to
become, um, safe to yourself andto the rest of the world.
That's what is promised.
That's the opportunity that thefuture holds for all people as I
(06:58):
read the Bible.
Okay, so now, for Christiansright now, um, how are we
supposed to judge ourselves?
Well, Paul says he doesn't judgehimself.
Well, then what should we do?
Well, we can look in the law.
James said, look in the mirror.
Look in the law of liberty.
(07:20):
And don't forget what you see.
You read the Bible, you look atyour activities today, and you
say, hmm, I see something that Idid that doesn't quite measure
up.
That's judging yourself.
Not judging yourself harshly,but judging yourself
realistically, and saying, Lord,please help me to learn what I
(07:41):
need to learn, uh, to be more ofan overcomer tomorrow than I was
today.
Please help me, uh, to become,um, more helpful to my wife.
Help me to be more patient withmy child.
Help me to be more diligent withmy boss.
And, uh, less sensitive whenpeople, um, you know, rub me the
(08:06):
wrong way or criticize me.
Help me to be, uh, able to relyon the standing that I have in
Christ and not be Irritable whenthings, uh, don't seem to, um,
reflect well on me in the, youknow, in my day to day
(08:28):
activities.
So, um, the latter part ofRomans 12.
2 helps us with the rightbalance of activity when we're
doing this discerning, judgingkind of thing.
Um, So let's read that.
(08:48):
We're going to go back to, uh,Romans 12.
We've been in Philippians here,so now I'm going to go back
over.
Where'd I, there's our cursor,okay.
So, let's see, we're inPhilippians, let's go to Romans.
(09:10):
Alright, here we are.
Okay, so Romans 12, Let's lookat this again.
Do not be conformed to thisworld, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind that byTesting you may discern.
What is the will of God?
What is good and acceptable andperfect, okay, so What we
(09:34):
learned the first two episodesago was that That that word, um,
the word is documadzo.
That that word documadzoinvolves two parts.
It involves a judging ordiscerning, and it involves a,
uh, an approval process.
(09:56):
And we discuss about the fact,let's find it here, it's, uh,
the you may prove, here it is.
Uh, Docky Madzo.
It's, it's Strong's 1381.
Um, King James says you mayprove.
Um, ESV that we were justreading says that you may
(10:18):
discern.
And, um, that we looked at it,when we looked at it two weeks,
um, two episodes ago, we sawthat, um, there is the
discernment part of this, andthen there is the approval.
And the agreement with the partthat we see that's good.
(10:41):
And it likened it to the idea oftaking a piece of gold and um,
taking that gold and smearing itStriking it, um, across a black
basalt stone.
If we were to go to a market inthe ancient Near East, we would
find a, uh, this black basaltstone, and upon that stone there
(11:02):
were marks made with, with,there was one mark that was made
with pure gold, 24 karat gold.
And, um, then, um, there wouldbe many marks under it that were
alloys of gold that came fromdifferent coins from around, um,
You know, the Mediterraneanarea, probably so based upon the
color that you would see in, um,in those, uh, marks that were
(11:26):
made, you could, you could makea decision.
You could discern, um, how muchalloy was in that, that darker
shade of gold that was that camefrom a coin from Saudi Arabia
or, um, um, Crete or something.
And you would be able to tellwhat the value of those coins
(11:49):
were.
And if you were sellingsomething, you would figure that
in to the price that you gave.
You would say, well, With thekind of gold you've got, uh, I'm
gonna need this many, um,whatever, dot denarii, or
whatever the, the, the, um, um,whatever the value, you know, is
it dollars, euros, what, it's,the, whatever the, uh, coinage
(12:12):
of the realm that you're comingfrom would be, you tell them
based on the, um, purity ofyour, of their gold, you tell
them how much product they'regonna get.
for that much gold.
Figuring in the, the, uh, uh,value, uh, of the alloy, which
lessens the value of the gold.
(12:34):
Okay, so, this process ofweighing something and then
seeing, ah, This much of it isdivine, this much of it is
human.
We can look at everything we seein our lives that way, can't we?
We can look at our, we can lookat the experiences we have, we
can look at the way other peopleact, and we can say, well, this,
(12:57):
that was, that thing they did,that was not exactly golden, but
considering the amount of alloythat they have, we can, we can
appreciate.
That there was a, there was acore value in there that was
good and we're going to approvethat.
And we're going to give themcredit for that.
It's a way of showing mercy tothose who, um, have, who bring
(13:20):
less to the table.
And it's a way of, of, uh,holding those who have more
capability and more privilege.
Maybe it's a, including perhapsourselves.
It's a way of holding ourselves.
to account or holding, um, ourbrethren who ought to know
because they are studying theBible, you know.
(13:43):
It's, it's just a way of, oftrying to grade on the curve, so
to speak, when we look at thethings in life.
We can also use it when we Gothrough experiences in life that
we're trying, we're strugglingto understand.
Why did God give me thisexperience?
You know, why, why at thismoment did I have to have a car
wreck or did I, a cancerdiagnosis?
What is it that's going on in mylife?
(14:04):
Why did my child need to, uh,you know, break their leg?
Why did my child get shotrandomly by some, um, some, um,
awful person with a gun?
You know, those are the kinds ofthings that we, that we struggle
to face, that we struggle tolive with.
(14:26):
And what we're asked to do asChristians, who are taught that
all things work together forgood to those who love God.
If we are in that category as aChristian, sometimes it's really
hard to understand why God wouldlet things happen to us that
(14:46):
way.
So, What I would suggest hashaving, you know, spent
something like, uh, the last,uh, what is it now?
54 years of my life as acommitted Christian.
I started when I was 17.
(15:08):
And so in the last 54 years I'veseen some things.
And I've made some mistakes.
I've gone bankrupt.
I've, I've Um, I had anotheralmost bankruptcy business
failure.
I've, you know, we all havestubbed our toe.
We all have experienced thingsthat we regret.
(15:33):
We've all made mistakes that wewish we could take back.
And, um, and there have beenmany things that have happened
to us that have been outside ofour control completely.
Completely beyond our control,and yet, they leave, they leave,
um, a mark upon us.
Paul had a thorn in the flesh.
(15:55):
We don't know exactly what itwas, but it does seem, when you
read about what he struggledwith, that perhaps it had to do
with his eyesight.
Perhaps there was some kind ofeye disease that he faced, that
he struggled with.
And he asked God, he told us,three times to have that
(16:16):
removed, and God said no.
He didn't maybe audibly say no,but he, he did not remove it.
And after asking God threetimes, and it wasn't removed, he
concluded, Paul concluded, thatGod was giving him a message,
and the message, as heinterpreted it was, um, my
(16:39):
strength, that is God, this isthe message from God, my
strength is made perfect inweakness.
That's what, that's what Paullearned from that experience.
And so Paul came to theconclusion that he would start
treating that setback, thatcircumstantial inconvenience.
(17:00):
that thing that kept him frombeing as effective as he could
be, you know, as a servant ofGod.
He started counting that asgold.
He started counting that asGod's will.
That was something that he, thatsomehow or other God was going
(17:22):
to turn into a benefit to him,spiritually speaking.
It might mean that it humbledhim.
To be so undesirable to listento and to look at as he was
speaking.
Maybe that humility that he wasforced upon him because of the,
(17:48):
you know, awkward effect he hadupon audiences.
Maybe that was something thatGod wanted Paul to go through.
Just as Paul took, just as Godtook two brothers.
You know, from the same mom,both of them were partners in
(18:10):
the family business, James andJohn.
James, I think, was the older,John was the younger.
Um, and yet, James was one ofthe first Christians who was
martyred after Jesus died andascended to heaven.
(18:32):
That when the persecution came,James and Peter were thrown in
prison, and James was beheaded.
And John lived the longest ofall of the twelve original
apostles.
He was exiled on Patmos.
He lived almost until the end ofthe first century A.
D.
(18:53):
So he must have been in his 80s,90s, perhaps as much as 100
years old when he died.
And He is the only one of theApostles, as far as we know, who
did not die a violent death.
We need to learn to accept theexperiences, the vicissitudes of
(19:13):
life, as something that isdivinely designed for our
benefit.
And that's what, that's whatthis discerning the perfect will
of God is.
You know, there's anotherscripture that talks about
patience.
It says, Let patience have herperfect work so that we can be
(19:34):
perfect and entire wanting thatis lacking in nothing.
What does it mean to letpatience have her perfect work?
I think what it means ispatience has the ability to
teach us how to live with thingsthat are imperfect and the
result of that is perfection andthat's what this discernment and
(19:58):
Of, you know, judging and thenapproving um, the experiences
that happened to us.
That's what this is designed toteach us.
When we put up with somebody inour family that we're nursing,
you know.
I mean, imagine, imagine, ourbabies were as close to
(20:20):
perfection as human beings getthese days.
You know, our four daughters,they were so Such good babies
and such good people, uh, sobright, so fun to be around, so
great to raise, uh, to have theexperience of parenting.
And yet, um, there are so manydevout loving, wise Christian
(20:51):
parents who have been called onby God to experience gut
wrenching difficulties withtheir children.
It might be a child that, um,you know, is born with a mental
retardation or some kind ofphysical disability or mental
disability.
Um, I know in our case, ourthird daughter, I had just done
(21:15):
a project where I interviewed aman, bright, Man, but he had
cerebral palsy and he told methat the reason why he had, and
he could, he, he, he spoke witha speech impediment and he, he
couldn't walk well, is hecouldn't, he needed help even
buttoning his shirt.
And, um, he told me that, uh,and he went to college and he be
(21:37):
got a, he got a degree in, in,um, uh, psychology.
And he, he was just the life ofthe party.
It was a great interview.
I had a great time with him.
But he told me that the reasonhe had this problem was because
when he was born, the umbilicalcord was wrapped around his neck
three times.
(21:57):
And I went through thatexperience.
It, it, it was gut wrenching.
It was an emotional andeffective video that I was able
to do with, with his help.
And then, um, not many monthslater, uh, our third daughter
was born.
And as she was coming downthrough, um, my wife's womb and
(22:22):
entering the world, The, um, thegynecologist reached in and felt
the umbilical cord and it waswrapped around her neck three
times.
And my wife and I were, oh mygosh, what's going on here?
(22:42):
There was no evidence ofstrangulation, there was no
evidence of difficulty in herbirth, but it could have, if she
had been, you know, just alittle slower coming out.
She could have had the sameexact experience as my friend,
the man that I interviewed yearsand years ago.
Could have been the same thing.
And, um, and, and Shelley cameout with no problems.
(23:07):
And we were blessed.
We were grateful.
But that doesn't mean that Godloves us more than he loves
those, those parents who gothrough the loss of a child.
Or those parents who, um, gothrough a physical disability
and spend They, from then on,have to spend and organize their
life around taking care of achild with special needs.
(23:31):
Those kinds of experiences arethe kinds of experiences that
teach us patience, and the workthat the Bible says we gain from
that is a perfect work.
What it does to the spirit ofthe human being who lives
through those things is it makesthat spirit perfect.
(23:52):
It makes, it makes usSuperhuman, superhuman in our
ability to understand, tosympathize, to empathize, to, to
deal with stress, to, to thankGod for the little joys in that
(24:13):
experience, to thank God for theexperience, to thank God for the
blessing of the spiritualblessing that we gain from that
trying.
difficult experience.
My heart goes out to the poorparents of children who are
killed in these incessant schoolshootings again and again and
(24:36):
again.
And I'm not saying that thatthis is an act of God by any
means, but God has permittedevil to happen in this world
until the time that is near.
When those problems are solvedand thankfully, it's not going
(24:59):
to go on forever and thankfully,there will be a reunion with all
of those who are lost.
They will come back.
They will re enter the land ofthe living.
They will be alive.
And the better for theirexperience, as will their
parents, and even as will themurderers who did their awful
(25:21):
things.
They will come back, will hatethemselves for what they've done
when they, when they, when theirbrains are working right and
they see what they've done thatwas so wrong.
They will have an opportunity totry to make amends, to try to
express sorrow, to try to becomebetter people, and to turn over
(25:44):
a new leaf.
Those are the kinds of thingsthat I see happening in the very
near future.
But in the meantime, thegrappling with evil and sin and
human weakness is a blessing toeach of us.
And this is the Magic sauce.
The magic stew that hu That,that the, the, that the
(26:11):
relatively small number ofChristians in the world are
simmering in.
They are learning, theircharacters are being transformed
by these experiences of lifethat are, that are a, a result
of the permission of evil intheir lives.
and in the lives of the peoplearound them and in their nation.
(26:33):
These are the things that theJews are grappling with.
These are the things that thePalestinians whose, um, uh,
loved ones were, you know,perhaps involved in a war
against Israel, and they're,they are suffering too.
Everybody is suffering, buteverybody is learning from these
(26:56):
experiences.
So Um, may it be that we willlearn to discern and to approve
the experiences that we have.
In the next episode, we're goingto look at other scriptures that
use Documanzo and, and learn howto apply this throughout our
(27:18):
Christian walk.
And we're also going to look athow that word is used in the
first chapter of Romans.
to describe the attitude issuesthat the human race has had to
deal with as a result of their,you know, kind of historical
inability to practice Dakemadzo,which means to discern and
(27:41):
approve the things that God doesin this world.
Thanks for listening, and, um,we'll be back with another
episode of We Are Near.
Welcome to We Are Near.
This is episode 4, and we'restill in Romans 12 2, and I want
to focus now on a question thatmature Christians, I think,
often ask themselves.
What exactly are we supposed todo about judgment?
It's Jesus said in Matthew 7 1,Um, he said, uh, judge not, that
(00:36):
you be not judged.
And yet, um, we are told that,um, he said, he said that, uh,
Christians should be able tojudge, um, small matters.
They should be able to judgethings among themselves.
He, in fact, he said that thejudgment of Christians ought to
(00:56):
be more, um, Reliable withinspiritual matters, within the
church, I think he's speakingof, than, uh, than going to a
court of law.
He criticized the Corinthianbrethren for taking their
disputes between themselves to aworldly court.
He said, no, work those thingsout yourself.
(01:18):
Those kinds of issues need to beweighed by people who have
spiritual discernment.
He also said, I judge notmyself.
In other words, we are in dangersometimes if we try to, um, look
at ourselves critically.
(01:41):
Um, we might judge ourselves tooleniently.
We might judge ourselves tooharshly.
It's only the rare person whocan be objective when looking at
themselves.
And so he's, Paul says, I don'teven judge myself.
He says, I have one that judgesme.
And he knows that his, his lifeis safe in the hands of God and
(02:02):
of his, uh, elder brother Jesus,who, um, see him for what he is.
They see where his deficits are.
They see what his weaknessesare.
They understand what hisliabilities and his, Things that
he'll never overcome are.
And they understand what, um,what they need in order to
(02:24):
become victorious.
And the truth is that everysingle person whom God has
called and brought into hisfamily as a spiritual son, as a
son, um, you know, a Christiandisciple, every single person in
that category is, um, can havefull confidence that they can be
(02:48):
successful at the judgment seatof Christ.
The judgment of the followers ofJesus, Paul says, uh, has
already begun.
And, uh, we are going through atime of judgment.
And why?
Well, he says, so that we can beuseful in judging others.
(03:09):
He says that we will be, hesays, don't you know that the
saints will judge the world?
Don't you know that we willjudge angels?
That sounds crazy.
That sounds What in the world ishe talking about?
He's talking about the disciplesof Jesus who are being trained
to be reliable, fair minded,merciful, uh, encouraging
(03:37):
judges.
Not the kind of judges thatpoint fingers and say You're
guilty here, and you're guiltythere, and you broke this law,
and you, you did this thing, andyou were short tempered, and so
forth and so on.
That's not the kind of judgmenthe's talking about.
He's saying, I believe, that,um, we will become judges in the
(03:59):
way the ancient leaders ofIsrael were called judges.
They were called judges becausethey, They brought salvation to
the nation.
They brought deliverance to thenation from outside enemies.
They stabilized their foodsupply.
(04:19):
They, uh, solved the problemthat they were having with the
theft of their, uh,agricultural, um, uh, uh,
products that they were growing.
The judges kept them safe andallowed them to live.
harmoniously with each other.
They resolve disputes that arosebetween individuals and families
(04:43):
and tribes.
Those are the things that judgesdo in ancient times.
And Isaiah, when he lookedforward to the time when, um,
the Messiah would be reigning,he said, with my soul I have
waited through the night.
And he says, um, Uh, in myspirit, I will seek you early,
(05:06):
that is early in this, in thenew day, the, what we would now
call the day of the millennium,the day of the, of, of the
return of Christ, the reign ofChrist, the Messiah's reign.
It's the, it's the time, thegolden age that the Jews looked
forward to and can still lookforward to, and the time when
the Christians look forward to.
(05:29):
Uh, um, um, back when mostChristians believed that the
purpose of Jesus return was tobless the world.
So that time of looking forward,that is the judgment day, and
it's the day when the weak ofthe world are given strength and
(05:52):
the powerful and authoritativeand selfish The oppressors of
the world will be restricted andeliminated from their power of,
uh, their usurped power againstthe human race, against the meek
of the earth.
The meek are going to inheritthe earth under Christ's kingdom
(06:15):
and the, um, in the time ofMessiah's reign.
And The, those who are not meek,well, they will, um, they will
have some learning to do.
And that's what judgment is.
It's, it's, it's, it's, uh,encouragement, if you need it.
(06:35):
It's correction, if you need it.
It's discipline, if you need it.
And, uh, ultimately, it's, um,whatever you need in order to
become, um, safe to yourself andto the rest of the world.
That's what is promised.
That's the opportunity that thefuture holds for all people as I
(06:58):
read the Bible.
Okay, so now, for Christiansright now, um, how are we
supposed to judge ourselves?
Well, Paul says he doesn't judgehimself.
Well, then what should we do?
Well, we can look in the law.
James said, look in the mirror.
Look in the law of liberty.
(07:20):
And don't forget what you see.
You read the Bible, you look atyour activities today, and you
say, hmm, I see something that Idid that doesn't quite measure
up.
That's judging yourself.
Not judging yourself harshly,but judging yourself
realistically, and saying, Lord,please help me to learn what I
(07:41):
need to learn, uh, to be more ofan overcomer tomorrow than I was
today.
Please help me, uh, to become,um, more helpful to my wife.
Help me to be more patient withmy child.
Help me to be more diligent withmy boss.
And, uh, less sensitive whenpeople, um, you know, rub me the
(08:06):
wrong way or criticize me.
Help me to be, uh, able to relyon the standing that I have in
Christ and not be Irritable whenthings, uh, don't seem to, um,
reflect well on me in the, youknow, in my day to day
(08:28):
activities.
So, um, the latter part ofRomans 12.
2 helps us with the rightbalance of activity when we're
doing this discerning, judgingkind of thing.
Um, So let's read that.
(08:48):
We're going to go back to, uh,Romans 12.
We've been in Philippians here,so now I'm going to go back
over.
Where'd I, there's our cursor,okay.
So, let's see, we're inPhilippians, let's go to Romans.
(09:10):
Alright, here we are.
Okay, so Romans 12, Let's lookat this again.
Do not be conformed to thisworld, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind that byTesting you may discern.
What is the will of God?
What is good and acceptable andperfect, okay, so What we
(09:34):
learned the first two episodesago was that That that word, um,
the word is documadzo.
That that word documadzoinvolves two parts.
It involves a judging ordiscerning, and it involves a,
uh, an approval process.
(09:56):
And we discuss about the fact,let's find it here, it's, uh,
the you may prove, here it is.
Uh, Docky Madzo.
It's, it's Strong's 1381.
Um, King James says you mayprove.
Um, ESV that we were justreading says that you may
(10:18):
discern.
And, um, that we looked at it,when we looked at it two weeks,
um, two episodes ago, we sawthat, um, there is the
discernment part of this, andthen there is the approval.
And the agreement with the partthat we see that's good.
(10:41):
And it likened it to the idea oftaking a piece of gold and um,
taking that gold and smearing itStriking it, um, across a black
basalt stone.
If we were to go to a market inthe ancient Near East, we would
find a, uh, this black basaltstone, and upon that stone there
(11:02):
were marks made with, with,there was one mark that was made
with pure gold, 24 karat gold.
And, um, then, um, there wouldbe many marks under it that were
alloys of gold that came fromdifferent coins from around, um,
You know, the Mediterraneanarea, probably so based upon the
color that you would see in, um,in those, uh, marks that were
(11:26):
made, you could, you could makea decision.
You could discern, um, how muchalloy was in that, that darker
shade of gold that was that camefrom a coin from Saudi Arabia
or, um, um, Crete or something.
And you would be able to tellwhat the value of those coins
(11:49):
were.
And if you were sellingsomething, you would figure that
in to the price that you gave.
You would say, well, With thekind of gold you've got, uh, I'm
gonna need this many, um,whatever, dot denarii, or
whatever the, the, the, um, um,whatever the value, you know, is
it dollars, euros, what, it's,the, whatever the, uh, coinage
(12:12):
of the realm that you're comingfrom would be, you tell them
based on the, um, purity ofyour, of their gold, you tell
them how much product they'regonna get.
for that much gold.
Figuring in the, the, uh, uh,value, uh, of the alloy, which
lessens the value of the gold.
(12:34):
Okay, so, this process ofweighing something and then
seeing, ah, This much of it isdivine, this much of it is
human.
We can look at everything we seein our lives that way, can't we?
We can look at our, we can lookat the experiences we have, we
can look at the way other peopleact, and we can say, well, this,
(12:57):
that was, that thing they did,that was not exactly golden, but
considering the amount of alloythat they have, we can, we can
appreciate.
That there was a, there was acore value in there that was
good and we're going to approvethat.
And we're going to give themcredit for that.
It's a way of showing mercy tothose who, um, have, who bring
(13:20):
less to the table.
And it's a way of, of, uh,holding those who have more
capability and more privilege.
Maybe it's a, including perhapsourselves.
It's a way of holding ourselves.
to account or holding, um, ourbrethren who ought to know
because they are studying theBible, you know.
(13:43):
It's, it's just a way of, oftrying to grade on the curve, so
to speak, when we look at thethings in life.
We can also use it when we Gothrough experiences in life that
we're trying, we're strugglingto understand.
Why did God give me thisexperience?
You know, why, why at thismoment did I have to have a car
wreck or did I, a cancerdiagnosis?
What is it that's going on in mylife?
(14:04):
Why did my child need to, uh,you know, break their leg?
Why did my child get shotrandomly by some, um, some, um,
awful person with a gun?
You know, those are the kinds ofthings that we, that we struggle
to face, that we struggle tolive with.
(14:26):
And what we're asked to do asChristians, who are taught that
all things work together forgood to those who love God.
If we are in that category as aChristian, sometimes it's really
hard to understand why God wouldlet things happen to us that
(14:46):
way.
So, What I would suggest hashaving, you know, spent
something like, uh, the last,uh, what is it now?
54 years of my life as acommitted Christian.
I started when I was 17.
(15:08):
And so in the last 54 years I'veseen some things.
And I've made some mistakes.
I've gone bankrupt.
I've, I've Um, I had anotheralmost bankruptcy business
failure.
I've, you know, we all havestubbed our toe.
We all have experienced thingsthat we regret.
(15:33):
We've all made mistakes that wewish we could take back.
And, um, and there have beenmany things that have happened
to us that have been outside ofour control completely.
Completely beyond our control,and yet, they leave, they leave,
um, a mark upon us.
Paul had a thorn in the flesh.
(15:55):
We don't know exactly what itwas, but it does seem, when you
read about what he struggledwith, that perhaps it had to do
with his eyesight.
Perhaps there was some kind ofeye disease that he faced, that
he struggled with.
And he asked God, he told us,three times to have that
(16:16):
removed, and God said no.
He didn't maybe audibly say no,but he, he did not remove it.
And after asking God threetimes, and it wasn't removed, he
concluded, Paul concluded, thatGod was giving him a message,
and the message, as heinterpreted it was, um, my
(16:39):
strength, that is God, this isthe message from God, my
strength is made perfect inweakness.
That's what, that's what Paullearned from that experience.
And so Paul came to theconclusion that he would start
treating that setback, thatcircumstantial inconvenience.
(17:00):
that thing that kept him frombeing as effective as he could
be, you know, as a servant ofGod.
He started counting that asgold.
He started counting that asGod's will.
That was something that he, thatsomehow or other God was going
(17:22):
to turn into a benefit to him,spiritually speaking.
It might mean that it humbledhim.
To be so undesirable to listento and to look at as he was
speaking.
Maybe that humility that he wasforced upon him because of the,
(17:48):
you know, awkward effect he hadupon audiences.
Maybe that was something thatGod wanted Paul to go through.
Just as Paul took, just as Godtook two brothers.
You know, from the same mom,both of them were partners in
(18:10):
the family business, James andJohn.
James, I think, was the older,John was the younger.
Um, and yet, James was one ofthe first Christians who was
martyred after Jesus died andascended to heaven.
(18:32):
That when the persecution came,James and Peter were thrown in
prison, and James was beheaded.
And John lived the longest ofall of the twelve original
apostles.
He was exiled on Patmos.
He lived almost until the end ofthe first century A.
D.
(18:53):
So he must have been in his 80s,90s, perhaps as much as 100
years old when he died.
And He is the only one of theApostles, as far as we know, who
did not die a violent death.
We need to learn to accept theexperiences, the vicissitudes of
(19:13):
life, as something that isdivinely designed for our
benefit.
And that's what, that's whatthis discerning the perfect will
of God is.
You know, there's anotherscripture that talks about
patience.
It says, Let patience have herperfect work so that we can be
(19:34):
perfect and entire wanting thatis lacking in nothing.
What does it mean to letpatience have her perfect work?
I think what it means ispatience has the ability to
teach us how to live with thingsthat are imperfect and the
result of that is perfection andthat's what this discernment and
(19:58):
Of, you know, judging and thenapproving um, the experiences
that happened to us.
That's what this is designed toteach us.
When we put up with somebody inour family that we're nursing,
you know.
I mean, imagine, imagine, ourbabies were as close to
(20:20):
perfection as human beings getthese days.
You know, our four daughters,they were so Such good babies
and such good people, uh, sobright, so fun to be around, so
great to raise, uh, to have theexperience of parenting.
And yet, um, there are so manydevout loving, wise Christian
(20:51):
parents who have been called onby God to experience gut
wrenching difficulties withtheir children.
It might be a child that, um,you know, is born with a mental
retardation or some kind ofphysical disability or mental
disability.
Um, I know in our case, ourthird daughter, I had just done
(21:15):
a project where I interviewed aman, bright, Man, but he had
cerebral palsy and he told methat the reason why he had, and
he could, he, he, he spoke witha speech impediment and he, he
couldn't walk well, is hecouldn't, he needed help even
buttoning his shirt.
And, um, he told me that, uh,and he went to college and he be
(21:37):
got a, he got a degree in, in,um, uh, psychology.
And he, he was just the life ofthe party.
It was a great interview.
I had a great time with him.
But he told me that the reasonhe had this problem was because
when he was born, the umbilicalcord was wrapped around his neck
three times.
(21:57):
And I went through thatexperience.
It, it, it was gut wrenching.
It was an emotional andeffective video that I was able
to do with, with his help.
And then, um, not many monthslater, uh, our third daughter
was born.
And as she was coming downthrough, um, my wife's womb and
(22:22):
entering the world, The, um, thegynecologist reached in and felt
the umbilical cord and it waswrapped around her neck three
times.
And my wife and I were, oh mygosh, what's going on here?
(22:42):
There was no evidence ofstrangulation, there was no
evidence of difficulty in herbirth, but it could have, if she
had been, you know, just alittle slower coming out.
She could have had the sameexact experience as my friend,
the man that I interviewed yearsand years ago.
Could have been the same thing.
And, um, and, and Shelley cameout with no problems.
(23:07):
And we were blessed.
We were grateful.
But that doesn't mean that Godloves us more than he loves
those, those parents who gothrough the loss of a child.
Or those parents who, um, gothrough a physical disability
and spend They, from then on,have to spend and organize their
life around taking care of achild with special needs.
(23:31):
Those kinds of experiences arethe kinds of experiences that
teach us patience, and the workthat the Bible says we gain from
that is a perfect work.
What it does to the spirit ofthe human being who lives
through those things is it makesthat spirit perfect.
(23:52):
It makes, it makes usSuperhuman, superhuman in our
ability to understand, tosympathize, to empathize, to, to
deal with stress, to, to thankGod for the little joys in that
(24:13):
experience, to thank God for theexperience, to thank God for the
blessing of the spiritualblessing that we gain from that
trying.
difficult experience.
My heart goes out to the poorparents of children who are
killed in these incessant schoolshootings again and again and
(24:36):
again.
And I'm not saying that thatthis is an act of God by any
means, but God has permittedevil to happen in this world
until the time that is near.
When those problems are solvedand thankfully, it's not going
(24:59):
to go on forever and thankfully,there will be a reunion with all
of those who are lost.
They will come back.
They will re enter the land ofthe living.
They will be alive.
And the better for theirexperience, as will their
parents, and even as will themurderers who did their awful
(25:21):
things.
They will come back, will hatethemselves for what they've done
when they, when they, when theirbrains are working right and
they see what they've done thatwas so wrong.
They will have an opportunity totry to make amends, to try to
express sorrow, to try to becomebetter people, and to turn over
(25:44):
a new leaf.
Those are the kinds of thingsthat I see happening in the very
near future.
But in the meantime, thegrappling with evil and sin and
human weakness is a blessing toeach of us.
And this is the Magic sauce.
The magic stew that hu That,that the, the, that the
(26:11):
relatively small number ofChristians in the world are
simmering in.
They are learning, theircharacters are being transformed
by these experiences of lifethat are, that are a, a result
of the permission of evil intheir lives.
and in the lives of the peoplearound them and in their nation.
(26:33):
These are the things that theJews are grappling with.
These are the things that thePalestinians whose, um, uh,
loved ones were, you know,perhaps involved in a war
against Israel, and they're,they are suffering too.
Everybody is suffering, buteverybody is learning from these
(26:56):
experiences.
So Um, may it be that we willlearn to discern and to approve
the experiences that we have.
In the next episode, we're goingto look at other scriptures that
use Documanzo and, and learn howto apply this throughout our
(27:18):
Christian walk.
And we're also going to look athow that word is used in the
first chapter of Romans.
to describe the attitude issuesthat the human race has had to
deal with as a result of their,you know, kind of historical
inability to practice Dakemadzo,which means to discern and
(27:41):
approve the things that God doesin this world.
Thanks for listening, and, um,we'll be back with another
episode of We Are Near.
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