Pointing Fingers and Throwing Stones

Start with prayer—

Skit—Put on a skit (using a few of the children, if possible) of either the Pharisee’s bringing woman caught in the act of adultery to Jesus taunting Jesus to condemn her.  In the alternative, you can do a skit where one student has "allegedly" stole or broke something and another student is his/her accuser.

Scripture text—John 8:1-11

There are several different points this story brings up.  We could discuss the techniques of religious leadership in Jesus’ day v. today.  We could discuss the sin of adultery, and we could also discuss God’s mercy and how wonderful he is to forgive our sins, but today we are going to talk about pointing fingers and throwing stones.

Sometimes (as a matter of fact, very often) those of us who are apostolic, especially those of us who are females, tend to be a little critical at times of those around us.  Not only are we critical of the worldly people whom we know are sinners, but we also even criticize those we go to church with.

All of us  who have been filled with the Holy Ghost and live a holiness lifestyle know  what the bible says about modesty in dress and we also have somewhat of an understanding of what living a holiness lifestyle means so we often use those things and our own personal standards to be critical of others if their standards don’t quite match up with ours.   It’s almost like we carry around a big bag of stones and every time someone goofs up, or don’t meet our standards per se, we begin blasting them with stones.

We often act out the scriptures we just read.  We’re eager to point out other’s failures and then seek to have them stoned for their alleged wrongdoing.

Let’s see what the bible says about this type of behavior.

Scripture text—Matt. 7:1-5—everywhere you see the word brother, replace it with sister.  Why beholdest thou the mote (splinter) in thy “sisters” eye, but considerest not the beam  in thine own eye?  Or how wilt thou say to thy “sister”, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?

The bible has a word for this type of attitude.  It’s called “judging”.  The problem with judging is this...

Example:  Stick out your finger and point at the person next to you.  How many fingers are pointing back at you.  (4 that’s right).

The bible says judge not that ye be not judged (Matt. 7:1).   We must be careful when we start pointing fingers at someone else for what we think they’re doing wrong.  Why do you think that is?  It’s because when you point your finger at them, you always have 4 pointing back at you.

You see just like in our little skit, the bible tells us “he who is without sin can cast the first stone”.  Are any of us completely without sin, fault or failure?  In other words, are any of us perfect?  No, and for that very reason we have no right to ridicule or criticize anyone else.  When we point our finger at someone because of their faults, failures or even because of our own misconceptions of what we think they should be or do, we are not only judging them, but we are really condemning ourselves.  (Romans 2:1).  Those four fingers are pointing back in our direction.  God is to be the judge of everyone according to their deeds, not us.

Now yes the bible does tell us to use righteous judgment.  However, righteous judgment is not pointing fingers at someone because we are right and they are wrong.  It’s not telling someone that they have sinned or that they are a sinner and pointing out their problems (to them or anyone else).  Righteous judgment is for our benefit, it’s not to hurt someone.  To exercise righteous judgment is to make the right decisions in regards to ourselves.  It is to judge right from wrong.  It’s never to judge another human being to their hurt.  It’s never beneficial to be judgmental of another person.  We need to only be concerned about whether or not we are right in God’s eyes.

We apostolic’s (all of us) tend to be judgmental of our peers because we think we are alright.  We need to check to see if there’s a beam in our own life first before we start throwing stones.  You see it’s really none of our business if Alicia wears a slit in her skirt everyday that’s clear up to her belly button.   It’s not our business if Miranda, Kayla or anyone else at this church wears short sleeves.  Those are modesty and holiness issues but the bibles says...

Phil. 2:12—each person must work out their own salvation with fear and trembling.  In other words we must worry about ourselves and whether or not we are following God’s word and let everyone else work out their own salvation as well.  It’s up to each individual to make sure they are doing what’s right according to God’s word.

Besides, I can assure you that if there is anyone in this church doing something wrong that will cause them to go to hell or that hinders someone else especially in the areas of modesty and holiness, the pastor will address the issue.  

God has called us to be peacemakers not finger pointers.  The devil is the accuser of the brethren.  Are you a devil?  Think about it!

Memory verse— Matt. 7:1–Judge not, that ye be not judged.