• Application: This week, when you feel the urge to criticize a family member or a co-worker, perform a "Plank Check." Ask: "What am I ignoring in my own character that makes their flaw so annoying to me?" * Thematic Commentary: To encapsulate Matthew 7:1-5: The life of a disciple is a move from Condemnation to Contribution. You cannot contribute to someone’s healing until you have submitted to your own.

Imagine a master watchmaker who has spent forty years hunched over a workbench, repairing the most delicate movements in the world. To do his work, he uses two distinct tools.

The first is a High-Powered Magnifying Loupe. He uses this to find the smallest grains of sand, the tiniest flecks of rust, and the microscopic burrs on a gear that cause the watch to lose time. Without this lens, he cannot see the "specks" that ruin the mechanism.

The second tool is a Mirror on the wall behind him. At the end of every hour, the watchmaker must look into the mirror to check his own eyes. Why? Because if his own eyes are strained, or if a piece of debris from the workbench has fallen into his own eye, his vision becomes distorted. If he tries to perform surgery on a watch while his own vision is blurred, he won't fix the gear—he will crush it.

The Spiritual Reality: Most of us walk through life like a watchmaker who has lost his mirror. We walk around with our magnifying loupes permanently fixed to our eyes. We see every grain of sand in our spouse's temper; we see every fleck of rust in our coworker’s work ethic; we see every microscopic flaw in the "specks" of everyone around us.

But because we never look in the mirror, we don't realize that the reason the "watch" looks so broken is that we are peering through a lens smeared with our own pride, our own unresolved trauma, and our own "plank" of hypocrisy.

The Insight for the Restless Soul: Jesus isn't telling us to throw away the magnifying loupe. He wants us to help our brother with his speck! But He is insisting that we go to the Mirror first. As a Counselor, I see it every day: You cannot heal what you are busy condemning. When you deal with the plank in your own eye first, your magnifying loupe stops being a tool of judgment and starts being a tool of restoration.

Love is the watchmaker who cleans his own glasses before he dares to touch the heart of another.

• The Bridge: Use this illustration right after the Historical Perspective to help the audience visualize the absurdity of the "plank."

• The Counselor’s Application: "Men, some of you have been trying to fix your families with a magnifying loupe for years, and all you’ve done is scratch the surface. It’s time to put the loupe down and look in the Mirror of the Word."

Benediction: "May the God of all Grace give you eyes to see yourself as He sees you—fully known and deeply loved. And may that love overflow so that you see others not through the lens of judgment, but through the lens of Christ. Amen."

Call to Action: "If you’ve been living under the weight of someone else’s judgment, or your own, come find rest in the Grace of the Kingdom. Reach out to us."

Facebook Interaction: "Visit our Facebook page and share: What is one 'Lens' you are asking God to change this week? Are you moving from Judgment to Love? Let’s support one another in the comments."https://www.facebook.com/InsightpodcastRectitudes

2. Point 2: The Danger of "Sin-Hunting"3. The Two Points SummaryPoint 1: The Standard of Reciprocity (v. 1-2)Point 2: The Priority of the Plank (v. 3-5)