Peter Roselle: Asking Before Casting Your Pearls (Matthew 7:6)

00:15 - There is a verse in here that could be misused in the context of this teaching…

00:20 - “Don’t cast your pearls before swine. ” We’ve all probably heard that verse.

00:24 - It doesn’t mean the person that disagrees with you is a swine and that you’re not supposed to give them the Bible… that would be really contrary, wouldn’t it, to everything we know about Jesus, so if it doesn’t mean that, what does it mean? I’m going to just unpack it quickly for you so you have a relevant way to use this.

00:43 - It means that God is a relational God. In the Trinity, we see a relationship between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

00:51 - Why does He say, “Don’t forsake the assembling together with other believers?” Because there’s something powerful when we come together as a family.

00:59 - Why do we call each other brother and sister? Because in the early days of Christianity, they were leaving their families…

01:05 - They were being rejected, and the church was literally like their new family… we’ve gotten so far away from that, and we get so fragile about things, We are here for a reason, and the reason is to shift the culture.

01:18 - So in these few verses here, Jesus is giving us a important formula to help crack that code of how to talk to people you disagree with.

01:27 - It’s a supernatural gift… It doesn’t come naturally or easy to us.

01:33 - “Judge not, that you be not judged. ” Anybody here think you don’t judge people? Good, no hands are going up, for those of you at home.

01:42 - So, if Jesus is telling us not to judge and we know that it’s an easy temptation to fall into, then we have to be intentional to fight the urge…

01:50 - It doesn’t mean “don’t be discerning. ” We must be discerning, but that’s different than judging. Because in the text here, the context of this word judging, it means “thinking less of the person” and devaluing them… l said last week, don’t ever say, “They can’t change. ” or, “They’ll never change. ” That eliminates God from the picture.

02:09 - You can’t eliminate God from the picture! You cannot say, “They’ll never change!” How many stories have we heard of Muslims having Jesus appear to them in their bedroom at night, and they’re getting saved? That was Ravi Zacharias’ story pretty much, right? So look, you can’t say they’ll never change! That’s right.

02:28 - - They might be stubborn, but so was I - Right! No! - Don’t judge them! So that you won’t be judged because, “with the judgment you judge, you will be judged. ” That’s a reciprocity, so God was forgiving of your mistakes… .

02:48 - maybe we should be forgiving of each other’s mistakes.

02:51 - That doesn’t mean “don’t tell them the truth,” but don’t judge them, “For with what judgment you judge, you’ll be judged back, and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.

03:00 - Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eyes, but you don’t consider the plank in your own eye?” Now, I know you all heard this, right? But this is a “very present help” verse (Ps 46:1) in this time of trouble that we’re in right now, right? Look in the mirror before you look out the window.

03:18 - That’s from the book “Good to Great. ” That’s not my original thought, but that’s what the author said.

03:23 - “The best leaders look in the mirror to find out “What is my ownership in this?” before they look out the window to blame everybody else for the problem.

03:31 - Right, that’s our job. That’s what Jesus is saying.

03:34 - You can’t focus on the speck in your brother’s eye until you look at your own things… and your own issues here, and then he calls them hypocrites, right? “How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye,’ and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite, first remove the plank from your own eye, and then you’ll see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. ” Now, I know that sounds a little theoretical, but here’s the deal: you should be one of the best listeners anybody ever met in their life… Why? Because you’re a Christian, and why then? As a Christian, you have Holy Spirit, and why then? Because you pray, and you spend time in the hiding place of God’s glory… and every person you look at, you look past the package… you look past the language that they’re using and say, “Lord, show me what you see when you look at this person.

04:21 - Give me a prophetic word for them. Give me a word of wisdom, a word of knowledge.

04:25 - Let me pray for something that they would not expect I would even ask them to pray about. “ That’s all the tools in the toolbox, but if you don’t go open the toolbox, and you just think, “What a loser… ” That’s what they used to do in high school, kids.

04:39 - I don’t know if they still do that anymore.

04:40 - When does Jesus do this? - Never! - Aren’t you glad? - Yeah! - He didn’t do it over you! Could he have? Yes. - Yes! Yes.

04:52 - - He didn’t give up on me. - [Congregant] Thank God! - So that’s this tricky verse now.

04:57 - “Don’t give what’s holy to the dogs or cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces. ” Now, I know that’s a hard verse because it seems like there’s only one way to look at it, but I would say the key is how you look at the word pearls, because a pearl would not be edible to a pig.

05:16 - “Lest they turn and tear you to pieces. ” See, because you are edible to a pig… .

05:22 - So the pearls in the context that I believe this is saying is that you’re trying to give somebody a sermon.

05:28 - You’re trying to lecture somebody on how they’re supposed to live because you think you’re better than them, and that’s a way of showing contempt for people.

05:35 - You didn’t take the time to build a relationship, so they are not able to hear what you’re saying… they feel like you’re lecturing them, and it’s like the old Charlie Brown, wa-wa, remember that? The teacher in the front of the class, wa-wa-wa.

05:50 - They’d shut you off! It’s like, “Who the heck are you to try to lecture me? You don’t even know me! You don’t know anything about me.

05:57 - You never took the time to even learn anything about me, and you’re coming here and giving me these lectures. “ So the way you start is by building a relationship, and that comes through prayer… You say, “Lord, I really have a burden for this person in the next cubicle,” or whoever it is.

06:13 - In my last office, it was the cleaning lady, The people that were coming in after the office closed to clean…

06:18 - There was a whole crew of them, and they most only ever spoke Spanish.

06:21 - What, you think they’re less important to God? No! Every person, you can’t even put a price, right? I’m going to skip the rest of the deeper part of that.

06:32 -… you could go deeper on it, but as long as you see this as pearls being “the wrong language to the right person. ” Don’t do that. Don’t lecture people, okay? You with me? I can’t tell with these masks on, man.

06:46 - All right, thank you. You can use your voice.

06:49 - So what should I do? If I’m not supposed to lecture them, what should I do? Ask. That’s called prayer. Ask. What does God love the most? People. How does he want to get to those people? Through people, so the best chance they have of having a revival and getting delivered from drugs, and all those cool verses in that song that we sang today, right? I just want to speak the name of Jesus over every addiction because the addiction is from the pit of hell, and God has the power to break it, and we have the power to help people… but not if we’re lecturing them! That’s what he’s saying.

07:23 - You need to build a relationship. Get to know them.

07:26 - Let them know that you really care about them before you try to give them advice because otherwise, it looks like you’re just getting another notch, “I got somebody to say the prayer today. ” I’m a great evangelist. “ No, sorry, it’s way deeper than that.

07:40 - “Ask, and it will be given to you. ” What will be given? A strategy of how to approach that person in my example.

07:47 - “Seek, and you’ll find. Knock, and the door will be opened. ” Just go there, to their desk, and say, “Hey, you have time for a cup of coffee tomorrow? I heard you talking about football.

07:54 - I really like football. “ Well, I don’t care, whatever way the Lord shows you.

07:58 - Say, “Sure, I’d just like to get to know you.

08:00 - What college did you go to?” Whatever you are in your world.

08:03 - You figure that part out. God’s a relational God.

08:07 - “For everyone who asks, receives,” so if you’ll just ask the Lord, “I know you want this person saved.

08:13 - Your Word says you don’t want one person to perish.

08:15 - How can I be used in that transaction?” Go to my sister-in-law, Linda.

08:21 - She could write a book about witnessing to people on your job.

08:24 - It’s amazing how many lives have been touched.

08:26 - Everywhere she goes, she leaves with more Christians there when she’s leaving than when she got there.

08:31 - Isn’t that amazing? What a gift! It’s all because she practices.

08:37 - She’s really good at it because she uses those muscles all the time.

08:41 - “What man is there among you, where if his son asks for bread will give him a stone, or if he asks for a fish will give him a serpent? I’m God,” He’s saying basically here.

08:49 - “If you even know how to give good gifts, and you’re asking me of how to help somebody know me better, you don’t think I’m going to tell you? Are you kidding me?” And how many miracles we’ve heard.

09:01 - I was just watching one again ‘cause this guy, Mike Hutchings, that’s coming, powerful deliverance ministry, and he was at Randy Clark’s meeting, teaching, and during the prayer session, there was a bunch of interns there.

09:15 - the were attending the Supernatural School of Ministry, and we have a man that attends our church that was the guy that went up for prayer, and there was an absolute miracle that happened, a complete healing from horrendous accident that he had.

09:30 - We should give the Lord a hand for this, okay? Complete healing, miraculous! (congregation applauding) All from a prophetic word that a student got that’d never met him… didn’t know him, didn’t know anything about him! Because you don’t even really have to know too much of the details of the thing they need prayer for.

09:48 - God knows already! You just act in the middle. You’re a conduit.

09:52 - You allow him to pour himself through you. That’s all. Just ask.

09:56 - He’s not going to give you a serpent. I already kind of quoted it.

10:00 - “If you, being evil, already know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father? Therefore, whatever you want men to do,” why don’t we stand? This is a good verse to end on.

10:10 - “Whatever you want men to do to you, do to them. ” Man, really, “Whatever you want men to do to you, do to them. ” That’s the Golden Rule: treat other people the way you want to be treated.

10:25 - I just think part of what we need to focus on right now…

10:28 - I said “Win the War for Your Altar,” right? “Win the War for Your Altar” because we’re going to need courage to press in and not just blow people off, but to really ask the Lord, “What’s the strategy, God?” And wait until you get the strategy before you interact with them because it’s really hard to treat other people the way you’d want to be treated if you were them.

10:53 - You know how you would want to be treated “as you,” but He is asking us to go a little further than that.

10:58 - Put yourself in their place. How can you do that? Through Holy Spirit.

11:02 - Help me understand what they’re going through.

11:04 - Help me understand how they’re processing all this information.

11:07 - If we (the church), are not a force for good in America in 2021, if the church isn’t leading the way, something’s really wrong.

11:14 - There’s so many tools in this book about healing relationships, right? And we got to lead by example. .