NO CONDEMNATION / NEIL HOPPER / 4.12.26

We hope you are inspired and fulfilled by this week's message from Pastor Neil Hopper. If you would like to know more about us, visit our website at CLCC.church. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome to the Cedar Lake Podcast. We're a community in Cedartown, Georgia, learning to follow Jesus with scripture, prayer, love, and generosity. We're glad you're here, and we believe today's message will encourage you. To learn more about all things Cedar Lake, visit CLCC.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

Some of these thoughts this morning, you've heard from of a guy, maybe you've heard of this guy. He wrote several books through the years, and um his name is Dr. John Orderberg. And if you don't know him or his ministry, uh I was looking and doing some research uh a number of weeks ago on the subject of condemnation. And there are six, according to Dr. Orderberg, there's six different types of condemnation. But let's look, first of all, at Romans. You know this uh particular passage of scripture, at least I hope you do. If if you um if you know Romans chapter eight, then you're gonna you're gonna be thrilled with these verses today. Romans chapter eight. There is therefore now no condemnation. To them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. There's no condemnation. Now, what what we don't realize is there can be different types of condemnation, but the Bible claims this, and I believe it to be truth, and I want you to grab it as truth. It's not something that we put off to another day. This is who you are right now. There is therefore now no condemnation. No condemnation, none. And you cannot afford to be condemning to yourself and to others in the body of Christ. There is therefore now no condemnation. The word condemnation is a word that when we think about, when I think about it, uh I think about a building being condemned. It is to say, I'll I'll put it uh maybe in a little easier uh language, it is to say we don't judge anybody as hopeless, as useless, as you know what, let's just tear it down uh because it's it's never going to amount to anything anyway. So one version says this there's uh there's therefore now no condemnation to those who belong to him. If you already belong to him, that's a big deal. Now, here's why this is important, at least why it's important to me and why it should be important to you. Do you know what we just did a moment ago in worship is hard to do if you are self-condemning? The best worship comes when you are not condemning yourself. And what happens is oftentimes we don't have any trouble with the stuff we did before we got saved. But after we get born again, follow me in thought. After we get born again, sometimes because of things that are happening in your life, mistakes you make, or you just slipped up and straight up sin. Right? You you just you messed it up. And so what happens is you ain't thinking about all the thousands of times that you messed it up before you got saved. Somehow, the day you accepted Christ and you came to the altar and you were born again, now all of a sudden, I ain't even thinking about all that. Now you did some pretty crazy stuff like I did. You did some pretty sinful stuff. So I'm the only one, right? You better say amen up in this place. You did some sinful stuff before you were born again, but you ain't thinking about that. What um what really gets you is the stuff that's happened after you, I'm supposed to be saved. How can I happen? Well, what happens is, is you have flesh, you have desires, you have, you have um, you have untamed things that you haven't been able to tame or deal with, you haven't been able to crucify that. My point is this is that you cannot live a life condemning yourself. And when the Bible says, now that I belong to him, I'm not condemned. And I keep saying this a lot lately, you have to figure out how condemned you think you are, or what the word says about condemnation, because according to what I'm reading here, there is therefore now, right now, you say, Well, you don't know what I did this morning before I came to church. Well, if you've repented of it, we have to talk about repentance, right? We have to talk about the the Bible says that uh if we confess our sin, he's faithful and just to do what? To forgive us of our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, right? So I just want to make sure that we cover the topic in terms of saying, here's what we believe, and then we're gonna talk uh for a few minutes. I'm gonna just read this to you if I can find it really quickly, out of the amplified. Therefore, there is now no condemnation, no guilty verdict, no punishment for those who are in Christ Jesus, who believe in Him as personal Lord and Savior, for the law of the Spirit of life, which is in Christ Jesus, the law of our new being has set you free from the law of sin and death. Now, I believe it's important because of the things I'm going to talk to you about this morning. There are several things that I think are they're condemning, but I never thought about it until Dr. Orderberg shared these beautiful thoughts in a message, and I heard that message, and boy, did it ever resonate with me. So check this out. So the first type of condemnation that can happen in our lives is what I call aggressive condemnation, what Dr. Orderberg calls aggressive condemnation. And he told a story about a man whose car got stuck in the snow. And this man was so angry and aggressive that he got out, opened his trunk, took the tire tool, and he started beating on the car. Once he had beaten all the windows out, once he had beat the car up with the tire tool, he reached in the glove box and got a gun. Then he starts shooting, emptied a clip in the car, like the car had undone something to him. He empties a full clip in the car, reloads a second clip. He's shooting all the tires. He's pretty aggressive and pretty angry. And so what happens is sometimes we are aggressive in our approach to something, and for somebody who's not so aggressive and maybe they don't have the same feelings about this thing, whether good or bad, your aggression causes them to feel condemned. Well, if why should I not feel the same way about this, you know? So there is uh he was angry and he's condemning his car as if the car had something to do with it. Maybe what uh should have been done was is maybe you should have figured that out before you took out in the snow one morning, right? It wasn't the car's fault. So you can condemn, here's how this can happen: you can condemn life experiences, you can condemn your past, you can be functioning, you can be operating in a spirit of condemnation and you don't even know it. And when people begin to share stories, you say, we don't do that. I don't do that. Be careful when you're conversing with people that you you're your aggression or you you're always comparing, and you it's it's a condemnation in that you you're just saying, I would never do that. Well, you probably wouldn't. But sometimes you don't know what you will do until you're in a situation, and then you you react in a certain kind of way, and you'll say, I didn't even know that was in me. You know, they done pushed my button, I didn't know that was in me. So please, first don't shoot up your car. Please do not shoot up your car. Do not make Jesse come and find you on the side of the road and take you to jail for your nonsense. So here's what happens. Whenever somebody's really aggressive in their condemnation, it's a power trip. Their power makes you feel condemned and less. So just be aware that it brings, it brings comp you'll know this when it happens, it'll bring a fear-based compliance because you're so aggressive about something. They will oftentimes somebody will go along with you or say okay or whatever. It's a fear-based compliance. It's not done out of love. It's it's absolutely, there, they're gonna go with you because Lord have mercy, they're so aggressive. I'm afraid if I don't say yes and do what they want or whatever, they're gonna rip my head off. So it's a fear-based. Secondly, there's another kind, and it's silence-based. You don't say anything, but in your silence, you say in plenty. You, you, you, you, you know what I'm saying? You don't say anything. There is therefore now no condemnation. I know God isn't condemning them, but I need them to know I'm, and I don't, I'm, I'm kind of a little under the radar here. I'm a little covert. I'm under the radar. I'm not gonna say anything when you should say something. And so here's here's how this works. You uh uh one of the stories Dr. Orderberg told was as he said there was a man and his wife that went to France and they went to order, and they had cow tongue on the menu. Right? And so the wife said, I ain't eating that. And he said, Well, bring mine on out, I'm good to go. And she said, Is there not something else? And the waiter found something that she would eat and said, please. So when the waiter walks away, she said, You didn't like that, did you? And he said, I didn't say a word. She said, You didn't have to. I could tell by the look on your face, you didn't like that. You think I should have just gone to get along and not make a big deal out of it. You you think less of me because I won't eat what you eat. And this guy said, No, absolutely not. She said, Your silence said everything I need to know. The way you looked at me, you looked down your nose at me, you didn't have to say anything. So it is possible for you to be condemning and never say a word. It's possible the way that you handle a situation when maybe you could have just let it go or smiled or done whatever, but you didn't say a word. In other words, the spirit of who you are and the the way you kind of looking down your nose at them says plenty. We have the ability to say so much even in our silence. In fact, oftentimes your silence screams. And this can this can happen in a lot of areas of life. Sometimes we're we're we're screaming when we should be silent, and sometimes we're silent when we should be screaming. The words of the famous country song from Allison Krause, she said, You say it best. She was talking about the love she had for her husband. You say it best when you say nothing at all. So the song says, Oh, Mr. Webster, could never define what's being said between your heart and mine, and you say it best when you say nothing at all. What is what is what is that saying? That's saying there are times that somebody doesn't have to say a word and you know they love you. You you feel it, you know it, it's on their face, you know they love you. And there are times that they don't say a word, but their silence is saying plenty. Make sure that when you are silent, you don't you can be silent and don't have to be condemning, even if you disagree, you know, there's there's a way to do it. Um uh what we call uh you know a noisy silence. You you know what I'm saying? You you're you're silent sometimes, but when you walk out of the room and slam the door, you've said plenty. You're communicating. I know you're mad. You stomp across the floor and slam the door on me. You don't have to tell me nothing else. I know you didn't like this conversation, right? We don't have those at my house. It never happens at my house, but I know it happens at yours, right? You remember when Jesus said to a group of guys, he said, Hey, is it good to do evil or is it good to do good on the Sabbath? And you know what? They didn't answer a word. They didn't say a word, and their silence said plenty to Jesus on that day, right? Thirdly, there is a kind of condemnation that can happen that Dr. Orderberg calls perfectionism. Nothing is ever quite good enough. Now, just so y'all know, she's she's back there keeping kids. You don't have to tell her I said this, but Lori don't know how to stack a dishwasher. What's he? That's a man. She gets it all in there. Does anybody else do that? You can you read the book and figure out? Shannon got the same spirit of Mashandala Mashata. Y'all don't y'all do know how to load the dishwasher because she'll say, she'll say, Did I hear you in there reloading that dishwasher? I said, No, baby, I'm just helping. I'm helping you. That's all I'm doing. I'm helping you. You can help me by leaving it alone. I you can help me by leaving it alone. I did, I'm like, okay. But some, but that's okay if we're talking about washing dishes and how you load the dishwasher, but what about perfectionism in terms of making someone feel like no matter how good you do it, I'm a little disappointed in you. Do you know there was a study they did a number of years ago, and they asked people uh about their relationship with God, and one of the things that came up over and over again is they said, one of the things that is obvious the more people we survey about their relationship with Christ is that people feel as if God is always disappointed in them. Do you understand how how condemning that is? Who wants to worship a God that always says you, your best is not enough? Let me sing a little song. I've sung this for years. It's an old, old gospel song, not a gospel song, it's a secular song. You remember this? I did my best, but I guess my best wasn't good enough. Cause here we are back where we were before. Seems nothing ever changes. We're back to being strangers, wondering if we ought to stay our head on out the door just once. Can we figure out what we keep doing wrong? And why the good times never last long? What are we doing wrong? Oh, y'all remember that? So I did my best, but my best wasn't good enough. So that doesn't just work in God, that works in a lot of areas. I'm doing how many of you say, I'm doing my best, but I feel like my best ain't always good enough. Do you know there's something in the Bible called grace? When you give him your best, you give him your best, and where you fall short, there's grace. So perfectionism always feels, and then there's somebody who comes along, and that you they always make you feel like they're just a little bit disappointed in your performance. You're doing, well, I don't know. Or you can do what I tell them at the radio station all the time. I say, you know, y'all gotta do better. You know that person that's always saying, y'all just gotta do better. Say, man, what have you been doing all day? I don't know, y'all gotta do better. And so you're always trying to do better. And some people live their whole life before God that way. Perfectionism, where nothing is ever good enough. There's people sitting here this morning, and for your parents, you grew up in an environment where nothing was ever good enough. You don't have to raise your hand, you don't have to raise your hand, but you and I both know there are people sitting here this morning that you you were trying, but they didn't think you were trying hard enough. And so you understand a little bit of condemnation in that, just a little bit of condemnation, or maybe a lot. Some of you felt a lot of condemnation even in your own home because you just never quite measured up. Now, God help you if you had other high-achieving family members or siblings, then you surely were in a mess. See what I'm saying? So perfectionism is an issue. It it um it's one of those things that can stick with you throughout your adult life. Where I just and and I'm I'm telling you, there are people sitting here right now that you have you you haven't even recognized it, but you've dealt with a spirit of condemnation maybe your whole life, and you didn't even realize where it came from. You didn't even realize that maybe from from your family. If here's the thought: if God is not condemning you, who else has the right to do that? Who else has who are you gonna give the right to do that to you? If the Bible says you are the head and not the tail, above and never beneath, that is your position in Christ. If you know that verse, here's what you will know. That verse in Deuteronomy, I think it's Deuteronomy 28, that that verse in Deuteronomy says, if you will obey his voice, you will be the head and not the tail. Some of it is we're not obeying his voice because we don't know when he's talking to us, and we can't recognize and discern. Boy, somebody's coming at me with a spirit of condemnation, and I'm not gonna receive that. I'm not gonna receive that. God is perfect. I want you to understand, God is perfect, but he is not looking for you to be perfect because he knows you can't. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God had to send his own son to do. Why? Because you are not perfect. God is perfect, but he's not a perfectionist, and when you understand that, I just said a mouthful. God is perfect, but he's not a perfectionist. Okay, right? So next we have this type of condemnation. Some of you might participate this from in this from time to time, but they call it sarcasm. You know, you see those people that have that t-shirt on that said, I speak fluent sarcasm. You know, I I've seen those t-shirts. And and here's the out. You can be condescending in a joke, and if they challenge you on it, you know what you do? You go, and can't you take a joke? And you were condescending the whole dang time. Your spirit ain't right. That ain't a right spirit. That ain't a right spirit. So, um, so when you do this, it's a sneaky kind of condemnation, and it makes someone feel less than or judged by you, and it's no joking matter, even though it might have been said with a lot of humor and jokes. And there's an old saying, and this in and of itself will tell the story. There's an old saying that it takes women in the South a long time to take off their makeup because they have to take off both faces. See, it's funny, but it's a little bit condemning. See what I'm saying? It's funny, but it's a little bit condemning. We can play it off, but making somebody feel less than or undeserving is no joking matter. Right? It's just not. And then there is something called, if you're taking notes, there's something called conditional acceptance. I will accept you. Even families are this way. I accept you as long as you do what I'm asking you to do and you live by these rules and you do it. Doesn't mean you don't have rules in your home. Doesn't mean that you can't have boundaries and so forth. That's not what I'm saying. But you know, that family, that that family member who they love you so long as you're doing to suit them. Y'all don't have nobody like that, I reckon. Okay. So I'm I'm aware of families. There are families who love you as long as you do to suit them. And the minute you step out of that line, now all of a sudden, I don't accept that anymore. I don't, and it's not just I don't accept that, I don't accept you. So in this kind of acceptance, this kind of conditional acceptance, there is condemnation in that. You have to do a certain set of something for them to accept you. Y'all remember this one? There was one that said, baby, come as you are with just your heart. You know, you remember that? And I'll accept you as you are. Remember that one? That's that's an old, old song, right? That's an old song. We accept people. Do we accept people for who they are? Do we want God to change them? Yes, but at some point we we gotta love them right where they are so we can change them. Right? So that's the and then lastly, there is something that uh it's a condemnation called martyrdom. It's just, you know that person that's always the martyr for the cause. And they want to let you know in every story how much they have been crucified and how much they've done and how hard they have worked, and how I just, and so be aware that giving vent to your martyr martyrdom or complaint, and if it brings condemnation on everybody else in the place that don't do what you do, nobody around here just works as hard as I do. Y'all just don't know. And you you you sound like a martyr. One guy said, um, martyr, if martyrdom were a gift, you certainly could only use it once. Martyrdom is not a gift. And here's what happens be aware that sometimes in a competitive situation, you're competing with somebody and they're telling you just how much harder they work for the kingdom, how much harder they pray, how much more holy they are. They're a martyr, Lord help them. They're gonna let you know all the things you don't do that they do, and they're just oh, they've just given so much. They just, you see what I'm saying, they just are a martyr for this thing. And so it's okay to give a little vent from time to time. But just be aware that um whenever you do this, sometimes people feel condemned because they're not doing all that you're doing. Well, you're not volunteering as much as I am at church, and you don't do this for your kids, and you don't do that, and you know, uh you you don't work as hard. You it's just you're never good enough. It's a condemning in it's condemning in that you are all always, you are the only one that's just giving it all. If people would just give it their all like you do. Amen. So be aware that can come across as what what we call uh condemning martyrdom. I'm just doing it all, and man, oh, we if you'd ever just lay it out for the kingdom. Are there times you need to be challenged on laying it all out for God in the kingdom? Absolutely. Are there times you need to be challenged, but we don't need to do it in a condemning manner. If if I'm challenging you to go deeper, I'm challenging you to do it out of love and not out of condemnation. Do you know what? People rarely respond a lot to condemnation. What you need to know is that there is therefore now no condemnation. When you come in here, if you understood this verse, you would come in here every week, raise your hands, and if for nothing else, you would thank God and give him praise that you are not condemned. In any way, you're not condemned. Amen. That's good news right there. That's good news. And it just helps us in our relationships if we understand, you know, what what this spirit I say spirit of condemnation can do. There are people, I I want to pray for you before we finish this morning because there are people that are still living under a spirit of condemnation from your childhood. You're still living under a spirit of condemnation. Here's how you're gonna know that that you're living under that. When that condemnation comes, in any form that it comes in, any of the six or any other way that that the enemy sends it your way, it makes you feel like you are back at ten years old again. For that moment in your emotions, you go back to being a kid again, you go back to being, you know, nine years old again and somebody talking down to you. You go back to that tough conversation you had when you were a teenager, and they flat let you know how you just never lived up. You just never were quite good enough. And look, there are conversations that parents should never have with kids, they're con there, there's there's a place, obviously, I want you to understand what I'm saying, there's a place for you to set boundaries in your home and for your kids. But it is never appropriate to be condemning as if to say, and here's how here's how it works. When you're telling someone there ain't no hope, even they ain't no hope for God, even, you know, even if they got right with God, I ain't sure they'd be right. You've already condemned them before. I mean, let's just go on and put the gavel down. You've already judged them before they ever got started. The problem with that is you're not a real good judge. The best judges know everything in the story, they get all the facts and all the information. And since you can't see the depth of someone's heart, it's gonna be hard for you to be a judge. You don't know the whole story, you don't know the whole story. And so I just want to pray for you. Could you could you stand up on your feet? If you're one of those, if I could take that verse down, there's therefore now no condemnation. To them who are in Christ, walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. For the law of the spirit of life. That's where you live. Understand, you live under or in, I would rather say in the law of the spirit of life. And it's made us that law of the spirit. It's it's it's the law. There are some laws in the New Testament. We don't live under the Old Testament law, but we do live under a new law, a different law. We live under the law of life in Christ, and it's made me free from a law of sin and death. Because here's what happens in sin and death: it's a never-ending circle. You know how come the law is a never-ending circle, Pete? Because Hebrews 10 and 10 says that the law can't bring us to maturity. It actually says it can't make us perfect. For the law, having a shadow of things to come and not the very image thereof, can never make the comers thereunto. The word says perfect. Perfect, right? The law can't make it can't mature you. So you know why people get stuck in the law of sin and death and they like a hamster on a wheel? They like a hamster on a wheel? Because they're still functioning under the old law and not the law of life, because according to the scripture, the law of the spirit of life has made me free. I ain't on the wheel anymore. Amen. Bow your heads, let me pray. If you're one of those that don't mind slipping up your hand, I think it would be appropriate. I don't want to make you do something, obviously, and there is no condemnation even in this prayer. But if you say there's still some things that happen from way back in the day, and even you talking about it this morning, Pastor, just brings up so much. If that's you, it could have happened 30, 40, 50 years, 60 years ago. Slip up your hand. Slip up your hand. God, we break the spirit of condemnation. We bind it and command it to stop flowing and functioning in this house. We want to live by the Spirit. We want to live according to the life that Romans 8 and 2 say we have, the law of the spirit of life. And we make a declaration over this house and over this people that we have been made free from the law of sin and death. Thank you. I'm asking you to go back into our past and heal our future. Receive it right now, receive it right now. Just say this. If that's you, if you'd say it all over the building, it would help some people. Just say, I receive it. I receive it. I receive it. I break every cursed word spoken over you that said you would never be enough, you'd never be good enough, you'd never be this, you'd never be that. I break that in Jesus' name. I break that in Jesus' name. I break the thought of it in Jesus' name. What about all the times I've just absolutely blown it? I know better. You do know better. That's your heart saying, I need to repent. But it's not condemnation. Condemnation leads to shame and guilt. That's how you'll know the difference. Condemnation leads to shame and guilt. Conviction leads to Christ and love. We break it in Jesus' mighty name. We break it in Jesus' mighty name. We bind the spirit of condemnation and command it to go. We thank you, Lord, for what you're doing in this place and in our lives in Jesus' mighty name. And everybody said, Amen, amen, amen.