Healthy Criticism

Notes: Healthy Criticism
Pastor Pancho Juarez
Thursday, November 13, 2014
Harvest OC

Pastor Pancho is talking to us what he calls a very harsh subject. Criticism is something that everyone deals with.

1 Corinthians 4:1-5 NKJV
[1] Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. [2] Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful. [3] But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by a human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. [4] For I know of nothing against myself, yet I am not justified by this; but He who judges me is the Lord. [5] Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each one's praise will come from God.

Paul had criticism in all directions. He defends himself in this scripture.

Really nobody likes to be criticized.

Pancho is talking about a Sunday where after a service a woman came up and said that her niece said that he was an idiot. He said he wanted to respond to her in a carnal fashion.

She then said that her niece is a lifeguard and he immediately knew what the woman was talking about and it was a justified statement.

He blew the distress whistle in a pool and all the lifeguards jumped in and tried to save him.

When Paul was being criticized he said he did not pay attention to them because he only cares about what his master Jesus Christ calls him to do.

Pancho says we are all responsible for the talents and actions we take. We will be criticized for all the things we do.

There is instructive, constructive criticism and destructive criticism.

Acts 18:24-28 NKJV
[24] Now a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures, came to Ephesus. [25] This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things of the Lord, though he knew only the baptism of John. [26] So he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Aquila and Priscilla heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. [27] And when he desired to cross to Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him; and when he arrived, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace; [28] for he vigorously refuted the Jews publicly, showing from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ.

Pancho says Aquila and Priscilla gave constructive criticism and Apollo accepted it.

The criticism towards Paul was destructive.

Pancho is giving us a back drop about Moses in Exodus 18. Moses was a great man of God.

Exodus 18:6-12 NKJV
[6] Now he had said to Moses, "I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons with her." [7] So Moses went out to meet his father-in-law, bowed down, and kissed him. And they asked each other about their well-being, and they went into the tent. [8] And Moses told his father-in-law all that the LORD had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake, all the hardship that had come upon them on the way, and how the LORD had delivered them. [9] Then Jethro rejoiced for all the good which the LORD had done for Israel, whom He had delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians. [10] And Jethro said, "Blessed be the LORD, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh, and who has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. [11] Now I know that the LORD is greater than all the gods; for in the very thing in which they behaved proudly, He was above them." [12] Then Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, took a burnt offering and other sacrifices to offer to God. And Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses' father-in-law before God.

Criticism comes to all of us if we work in a light house, warehouse, White House or crack house.

It takes one minute to make someone's day and only one word to destroy someone life.

2 Corinthians 5:13 NKJV
[13] For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; or if we are of sound mind, it is for you.

2 Corinthians 10:2 NKJV
[2] But I beg you that when I am present I may not be bold with that confidence by which I intend to be bold against some, who think of us as if we walked according to the flesh.

2 Corinthians 7:2 NKJV
[2] Open your hearts to us. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have cheated no one.

Pancho is talking about a quote from a book, he said you can be doing anything and be a leader. Aristotle said if you don't want criticism then, do nothing, say nothing, be nothing. It was said there is nothing that can be more destructive to leadership then it criticism.

Leaders need to go to self sacrifice. Loneliness is something that leaders experience. Paul says he receives the Gospel from Jesus Christ and no one else.

Galatians 1:1 NKJV
[1] Paul, an apostle (not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead),

Pancho said some people like scripture when they are criticized. He said he likes to hum a song. That tells him to remember why he follows Jesus Christ. He said we need to be emancipated from our own sin.

Acts 26:15 NKJV
[15] So I said, 'Who are You, Lord?' And He said, 'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.

Acts 26:16-18 NKJV
[16] But rise and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will yet reveal to you. [17] I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you, [18] to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.'

That is where Jesus Christ gave Paul the mission in his commission.

He said Paul said after 30 years he was still looking to get closer to the Lord.

Psalm 141:5 NKJV
[5] Let the righteous strike me; It shall be a kindness. And let him rebuke me; It shall be as excellent oil; Let my head not refuse it. For still my prayer is against the deeds of the wicked.

Paul wanted a righteous man to criticize him, no one else.

Pancho is saying he can't believe that people at the age of 40 or at any age think they have it together.

He says criticism helps you by providing humility and ultimately would help with your self worth.

He says some people should speak right to your heart. Like your wife or children. They are your critics and are there to help you, after all they know you.

Pancho is telling us about Roman Law, how they would require a slave to stand behind their Generals. When people tell him he's a god, the slave would remind him he was not. Pancho says that role is played by his wife.

1. Understand criticism will come from all sides.

Paul welcomed criticism but only by Godly men. Keep an opened mind.

2. Seek to favor the Lord. Not the people and their opinions.

We are to obey God rather than men.

3. Present yourself to God.

Psalm 26:1-12 NKJV
[1] Vindicate me, O LORD, For I have walked in my integrity. I have also trusted in the LORD; I shall not slip. [2] Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; Try my mind and my heart. [3] For Your lovingkindness is before my eyes, And I have walked in Your truth. [4] I have not sat with idolatrous mortals, Nor will I go in with hypocrites. [5] I have hated the assembly of evildoers, And will not sit with the wicked. [6] I will wash my hands in innocence; So I will go about Your altar, O LORD, [7] That I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving, And tell of all Your wondrous works. [8] LORD, I have loved the habitation of Your house, And the place where Your glory dwells. [9] Do not gather my soul with sinners, Nor my life with bloodthirsty men, [10] In whose hands is a sinister scheme, And whose right hand is full of bribes. [11] But as for me, I will walk in my integrity; Redeem me and be merciful to me. [12] My foot stands in an even place; In the congregations I will bless the LORD.

Paul said we should only worry about what our Lord thinks.

4. Consider, ponder and contemplate the type of criticism.

He said Instructive Criticism should be listened too.

5. Criticism should be dispensed with gentleness.

The purpose of criticism should be to help or restore you.

6. Who dispensed the criticism.

"consider the source" is it a mentor or an enemy.

Galatians 2:11 NKJV
[11] Now when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed;

He said Peter was needed to be corrected.

Galatians 2:12-16 NKJV
[12] for before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision. [13] And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy. [14] But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, "If you, being a Jew, live in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews? [15] We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, [16] knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.

7. Is the critique accurate and true.

As a believer you are a new creation in Christ. Are you the same person as the person that was critiqued.

He says we aren't perfect but we need to run that race until we reach Christ in Heaven.

If you believe with your heart and want to receive the Lord then you will be saved.