Romans 2:1 therefore you have no excuse every one of you who pass judgement for in that which you judge another you condemn yourself for you who judge practice the same things it’s just human nature for every one of us to tend to compare ourselves with other people find things wrong with other people and then judge them in areas where we think we’re not guilty but this scripture confirms we’re usually blind you tend to judge in other people the very things that you’re doing or that are functioning in your life in some particular area I remember the very first time I recognized that was way back in the 1980’s I had gone to speak in a particular church and this was right at the time when news about Jimmy Swaggart who had fallen into immorality had come out and a lot of people were talking about that so after church I went to lunch with an elder and a pastor from that church and they began talking about Jimmy Swaggart and one guy said isn’t that terrible what happened to Jimmy and how he fell and sinned and was immoral another guy said yeah you know what’s even worse is the way people in the body of Christ judge Jimmy Swaggart they haven’t walked in his shoes they don’t know the pressures on his life and here they are judging him and the other guy said yeah you know that’s really true so many people are like hypocrites I mean they’re blind pharisees judge other people don’t know their circumstances that’s even worse people who judge they’re sinning just as much as Jimmy sinned I’m listening to these two men talk and I’m thinking my goodness these guys are the blind pharisees they don’t realize they’re judging the people who have judged Jimmy I mean they’re committing the very sin they’re accusing other people of they’re judging others I’m not even going to enter in to this conversation these guys are so full of self righteousness and pride and right at that moment the Holy Spirit stopped me He said well what are you doing? and I realized oh my goodness I’m judging these two men I’m at lunch with who are judging others it’s a whole chain of sin Jimmy sinned people judge him people judge the people who judge now I’m judging these other people and I realized Romans 2:1 is a principle you will tend to judge the very things that are operative in your own life you know many times people actually have a cycle of judgement that goes from one generation to the next and they don’t realize it one of the most serious types of judgement is judging your parents and many times that happens children especially in teenage years have conflict with a father or mother they’ll judge that parent cut them off and let bitterness get in their heart toward that parent that sets up a cycle of judgement and dishonor that will trasmit to the next generation if I’ve heard this once I’ve heard it a hundred times where parents will say now my teenage children judge me they’re disrespectful they dishonor me they never speak kindly of me one man we had in a Blessing Generations seminar shared that he said I have a 17 year old and a 15 yr old son and daughter so disrespectful and dishonoring me and never speaking kindly we just asked him the question when you were a teenager did you disrespect and dishonor your parents? he thought about it he said oh yes I judged them and I thought they were unjust and I judged them I said have you ever repented made that right? he thought no I guess I haven’t so we prayed with him in a small group he repented and he told me this story later he took opportunity early the next week to actually go to his father who was still living repent and ask his father to forgive him for the attitudes and the judgement he had as a teenager toward his dad his dad of course wept and forgave him and asked his forgiveness as well they had a tremendous time of reconciliation not that they were greatly estranged but just reconciling that fact that he had never asked his dad to forgive him and he said the most amazing thing happened I didn’t tell anybody what I had done not my wife, not my kids nobody he said from that moment I did that do you know the attidude of my teenage son and daughter completely changed toward me and I didn’t say anything to them it’s like something shifted in the spirit and what I realized he broke a cycle of judgement generationally and he had judged his parents and repeated that in the next generation when he repented he broke that cycle so the question today is is there somebody in your life that you’ve judged somebody that you need to repent repent before God and then ask that person to forgive you for the attitude maybe they did treat you with injustice but you judged them or are there people you look around and judge people and God is convicting you of that I encourage you to repent or do you have a cycle of judgement in your family did you judge your parents and now perhaps as a parent you’re reaping that with your children if so I just want to ask you to pray this morning to repent ask God to forgive you for the judgement in your heart towards your own parents let me just lead you in a prayer right now to repent and ask God to forgive you so if you did and you need to pray that prayer would you just close your eyes and just speak these words with me Father God I recognize today I did judge and then you say the name my father my mother whoever it was Lord I recognize that’s wrong and Father I ask you will you forgive me by the blood of Yeshua Messiah Father I repent of my judgement I receive your forgiveness and Lord I forgive that person who was unjust or wounded me and I break the cycle of judgement in my family in my life in the mighty name of Yeshua Amen