Steps For The Recovering Pharisee

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• Steps For The Recovering Pharisee

• Steps For The Recovering Pharisee

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Step 2 Stop Degrading Others

• Introduction
• Second week in recovery
• The realization of seeing the Pharisee in us
  causes us to become an illustration to ourselves
  in the recovery process.
• You are less critical and more forgiving
• You see souls that need love instead of sinners
  that need lowered.
• Think about the type of people that you could be
  scrutinizing (illustrations).

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Step 2 Stop Degrading Others

• Introduction
• This is a problem among all people
• The German and the Jew
• The Catholic and the Protestant
• The Hutus and the Tutsis
• The Serbs and the Albanians
• The KKK and the African American
• The Turks and the Kurds
• The modern Pharisee and the

Because Pharisees keep people out of the kingdom
of heaven, they are just as bad as any of the
above mentioned groups
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Step 2 Stop Degrading Others

• Stand In The Place Of Others
• You need to see things from their view
• Not only do we fail to see things from the other
  persons point of view, but we often fail to see
  the situation at all.
• Remember what happened when the Pharisees thought
  they could see Jesus told them that they were
  blind guides.
• After healing a physically blind man, Jesus
  taught us how we need to see spiritually(John
  913-16, 39-41 See Rev. 317-21)

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Step 2 Stop Degrading Others

• Stand In The Place Of Others
• We need to do better than the Pharisees
• Those in need of recovery from an illness cannot
  deny that they have that illness.
• We need to see ourselves in the eyes of others,
  especially the eyes of the Lord.
• You must see the importance of having someone
  around you to tell you what you are truly like
  (illustration)
• What do the people around you see in you?

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Step 2 Stop Degrading Others

• Stand In The Place Of Others
• We need to do better than the Pharisees
• Our version of ourselves is always different
  from the version that others see.
• In recovery, youare before othersshowing up is
  the hardest part.

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Step 2 Stop Degrading Others

• Stand In The Place Of Others
• We need to be among honest people
• Not just any recovery group will do. We need a
  group that will be truthful.
• Pharisees travel in groups these groups foster a
  collective, categorical blindness
• This was true of all other groups that degraded
  other people around them
• These groups replace truth with propaganda (say
  thisdont say that)

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Step 2 Stop Degrading Others

• Stand In The Place Of Others
• We need to be among honest people
• The Pharisees always traveled in packs with a
  mutual agenda (for degrading)
• Either the Pharisees wanted to try and catch
  Jesus in a fault (supposed) or they wanted to
  bring others to Jesus that they degraded to see
  what He would do.
• If a Pharisee was honestly interested in Jesus,
  they had to seek Him privately(John 31-2
  750-51 1939-40) Recovery!

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Step 2 Stop Degrading Others

• Give Others The Benefit Of A Doubt
• Those who think they are perfect cannot
• Bill Murray once said, Life can be very painful.
  Everyone has the same burdens, and however much
  you can share those burdens makes life easier for
  everybody. Its lonely otherwise. Every moment
  that you share someone elses pain, feel what
  they feel, makes you more human. He also said,
  It made me feel empathy for people I dont even
  like, because theyre going through it. I grant
  them all the slack I can.

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Step 2 Stop Degrading Others

• Give Others The Benefit Of A Doubt
• Those who think they are perfect cannot
• If you want to be a modern Pharisee and keep a
  law, keep the one in Galatians 61-2
• Pharisees are always lonely. When you are
  perfect no one wants to be around you.
• While other Pharisees may hang around you and
  possibly a few others who are only enduring your
  perfection, they will not open up to you or
  reveal very much with you.

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Step 2 Stop Degrading Others

• Give Others The Benefit Of A Doubt
• We also need the benefit of a doubt
• Failure, pain and dissatisfaction is common to
  all people Pharisees hide their faults
• Because Pharisees have not noticed and dealt with
  their own shortcomings, they have no sympathy for
  others who are hurting
• When you are able to sympathize with others like
  Jesus, you are recovered (Heb. 415-16)

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Step 2 Stop Degrading Others

• Application
• If you want to continue as a Pharisee
• You will continue in the addiction of judging
  others and degrading them to be lower than
  yourself.
• You will see yourself as perfect and will not
  seek to remedy your illness with the help of the
  Lord (Luke 148-14)
• You will not learn the lesson of humility that
  the Lord said the Pharisees had to learn(Luke
  1814)

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Step 2 Stop Degrading Others

• Application
• If you want to recover as a Pharisee
• You will humble yourself before the Lord today
  and seek His assistance
• You will start taking these steps toward making
  changes that will benefit your spiritual life and
  the lives of others.
• James 410 says, Humble yourselves in the
  presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.