A Legacy That Lasts | 1 Corinthians | Week 7 | Pastor Jamey

Father’s Day can be sentimental, but we wanted to go deeper and speak to what actually shapes a home and a church. We start by honoring dads, grandfathers, stepfathers, foster dads, and mentors, and we name the pressure many men carry: you do not have to be perfect to be present. Your kids may not remember every sermon, but they will remember your prayers, your example, how you treat their mom, and whether your faith holds up when life gets hard. The legacy that lasts is simple and rare: a genuine love for Jesus that your family can follow long after you’re gone. 

Then the message turns to 1 Corinthians 5, where Paul confronts a church that is tolerating open, unrepentant sin. It’s uncomfortable, but it’s also practical: sin never stays contained. Like yeast, it spreads through a whole community, confuses immature believers, and weakens the church’s witness. We also tackle a common mistake Christians make today, judging outsiders while excusing what happens inside the church, and we talk about why loving accountability is not the same as self-righteous judgment. 

We close with a clear aim: restoration is always the goal. We walk through why confrontation should begin privately, why we grieve before we discipline, and why a church needs both grace and truth to keep its heart and its holiness. If this challenged you, share it with a friend, subscribe for more, and leave a review so more people can find the conversation.

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Transcript

Welcome And Why Dads Matter

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hello, this is Jamie Bridges, and thank you so much for joining us for this week's podcast. All of our services are inspired and built straight from the Bible. Let's get into this week's message recorded at Life Community Church.

SPEAKER_02 0:15

Hey, welcome if you're a first-time guest. Thanks for uh thanks for checking us out. Thanks for being here. Thanks for spending your Sunday with us. I know you could be in a lot of different places, but you're here, and so thank you. I do want to uh just chat with the dads for a moment. I'm not gonna ask you to to get up or anything like that. I just want to to chat, just have a conversation. I think this is important for us. Yes, you can get free coffee. Yes, we got some root beer and skiing bottles and all that kind of stuff. That that is just side notes. What I really want to do is I want to honor you. Uh I want to say thank you to you. Um not because you're perfect, not because you've never made mistakes, not because you've always had the right words or made the right decisions. Uh we honor you because every day you carry a responsibility that God Himself has entrusted you with. And I want us to see that. Um, again, you're here today because God has entrusted you uh with the responsibility of being a dad, a father, a grandfather, and uh many of the greatest moments that happen aren't uh on a stage, they're around a dinner table, or my personal favorite was long car rides with just us because you were not escaping a dad conversation, right? That was my favorite. Uh I yes anyway. Here's here's what I know your presence matters. I know that your prayers matter, your example matters, your words matter. Uh your your kids aren't gonna remember every sermon. They're just not, they're gonna, but they will remember what how you treated their mom. They're gonna remember that. They're gonna remember how you handled adversity, they're gonna remember those things, the way you talked about Jesus and whether your your faith was genuine or real when no one was watching. That's what they're gonna talk about. Uh to the fathers who feel like um you're winning right now. Man, you're just winning at this whole thing. Man, keep going. Uh keep serving, keep being humble. Don't be arrogant. Uh, it'll it'll turn, I'm sure. Uh to the fathers that feel like feel like you've you've failed, don't quit. To the fathers carrying regret, remember God's grace is bigger uh than your mistakes. You're not defined by those things, you're defined by what God says. And to the stepfathers, the grandfathers, the foster fathers, the spiritual fathers, the mentors, thank you for stepping into the gap and loving this generation. Um Psalm 78 says, You are to tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord so that they will place their hope in God. Like that's Psalm 78 summed up. Uh, your greatest success will not be what you built, what you earned, what you bought, or even what you accomplished. Your greatest success will be hearing your kids and grandkids say, My dad or my grandpa love Jesus. And um, and he taught me to love Jesus too. And so stand firm, lead courageously, love sacrificially, pray faithfully, serve humbly, and remember the same Heavenly Father that entrusted those children to you is walking with you every single day. He's never left you, he's never abandoned you. And so today I'm asking you to keep showing up, keep leading, keep loving, keep pointing people to Jesus. And I'll say this, and I think you'll all agree, it's good to be a man. And uh listen, there's not there's another day I don't go by that I say, thank you, Jesus. I'll take this man cold all day long. I'm just curious how she's reacting right now. I know. Yeah, you get a day, every day is dad's day, that's what I hear. Every day is dad's day. Yes, it is.

A Prayer For Fathers And Hurting Hearts

SPEAKER_02 4:39

Can we pray for the dads in this room? I read this quote. I just want to read it before I pray. It says this is not my words. It says, Dad, if you remember one thing today, remember your kids don't need a superhero. They need a father who follows Jesus with all their heart. The greatest gift you can give your family is not a better paycheck, a bigger house, or a perfect life. The greatest gift you could give them is a genuine walk with Christ that they can follow long after you're gone. And to me, that's it. Men, are we building a legacy, which is something you leave before you depart. That's the definition of legacy. That's the biggest thing. And if you're in this room and you're like, I've messed up, first and foremost, I'd say welcome to the club. Uh, we've all messed up. And uh, I'd say keep going. Amen. Jesus, I thanks for the thank you for the the men in this room. God, I pray right now for those that maybe maybe hearing the word father is doesn't give us warm fuzzy feelings. Maybe it's confusing for the person in this room that's lost a father, and this is a struggle day. For the person in this room that isn't a father and wants to, desires to be one, and this day carries more weight. Maybe it's not Hallmark cards and gifts, it's regret, it's hurt, it's pain, it's memories. God, I pray for that person right now who's hurting today, who showed up today, even though they didn't feel like it or want to, and this day reminds them of something that's not good. God, would you meet them today? Because I know, God, that you've never abandoned us and you are good, Father. I pray that they would know that today, beyond the coffee, beyond the music, beyond what's said, I pray that they would walk out of here and know that they are loved by you. But God, I pray strength and blessing over every father in this room, over every grandfather. God, that you would give us the strength to keep going, to keep listening to what it is that you're speaking and saying to us. God, we need your help and your word is clear. You're an ever-present help. In times of need or struggle, you're there. God, I pray Psalm 23 over us, though we're walking through the valley of the shadow of death. God, you walk alongside of us. God, we need you today. That is our statement. That is our acknowledgement. We cannot do this thing without you. We need you today. In Jesus' mighty name. Amen. Amen. Could you give it up for all the dads in the room?

Why 1 Corinthians 5 Gets Real

SPEAKER_02 7:27

A couple years ago, uh, because we've done a summer series every year and a book in the Bible, and a couple years ago on Mother's Day, um, I don't typically come up with the titles, people that put it online do. And uh the title uh four years ago from Mother's Day was Not Your Typical Mother's Day Message, uh, to which I would title today Not Your Typical Father's Day Message because of what we're in 1 Corinthians chapter 5. And if you've read ahead, you understand a little bit of what I'm talking about. If if you do not, you're about to. Um and Paul is again addressing the church. Okay, he's not addressing an individual, he's addressing the church. And this is why family matters to us. This is why we use the word family. We use the word family because we want to know who are we holding accountable? Who are we doing life with? And when people say yes to that, there's a responsibility, a weight that comes with it. It's easier to just kind of come in and leave without accountability. Slip in early, leave late, or leave early, come late. Like it's easier to do those things, not do life with people. What Paul's addressing is a church, a body of believers who believe in Jesus Christ. They've put their faith in Jesus, but they have a past. Anybody? They have a reputation, they have some things that are going on. There's some beliefs that they are believing that aren't of God. Okay? No different than what we're talking about. But note, he's talking to believers, he's talking to family people who are doing something that unbelievers or outsiders might look at and go, this is a little weird that we're talking about this. So if there's ever a moment, the invitation is we want people to be family. We want people to follow Jesus, we want people to believe in Jesus, we want people to walk in the call and the mandate, the purpose of Jesus. But we understand that people are a long way in this process and that we are all a work in progress. Right? No arrival moment in this place, no one has arrived, right? I make that clear all the time because I don't want us to get comfortable to think we're okay. Okay? You might be strong in some areas, you might have learned some things, but there's no moment where you're like, you know what, I can coast now. There's none of that. Okay, and this is what Paul is addressing. He's confronting the church at Corinth. And I know some of you, that word is a trigger word because we don't like confrontation. Nobody in this room goes, I love to confront people. And if you do, you are wrong. That is a problem. Like I have no problem just confronting all these people. Paul is addressing some crazy things that are happening. Now, understand, there's a belief system

The Corinth Scandal And Church Silence

SPEAKER_02 10:22

at the Church of Corinth that what I do with my body and what I say I believe can be two different things. Meaning, there was a lot of sexual immorality that was happening at the church of Corinth. And we'll see this in the first two verses. Because people were separating. I can believe in Jesus and what he's doing over here, and I'm gonna keep practicing what I used to do. What Paul is addressing is no, you can't. He's confronting this mindset, and here's why. Because he's understanding that if I don't confront this, it will spread, it's gonna grow. Younger, immature believers are gonna believe something they should not be believing. So Paul, instead of being silent, says, We need to talk about it. And you'll see this in the very first verse. I can hardly believe the report about the sexual immorality going on among you. Paul doesn't even say hi. He's like, What up? I can't even believe what's going on. He's he's shocked. Something that even pagans don't do. Paul's going, guys, what you're believing, what you should be grieving, pagans don't even do these things. I am told that a man in your church is living in sin with his stepmom. You are so proud of yourselves, but you should be mourning in sorrow and shame. Again, if you look deeper into this, this is not some freaky, uh, no offense, West Virginia, Arkansas thing going on. I apologize if I offended anybody from another part of the United States. This is not incest that was happening. What is happening is most likely, dad has died, son has kind of picked up the reins and said, Stepmom's hot, and I'm gonna have a relationship with her. Most likely they're the same age. Most likely they're close in age. And so on paper, this doesn't so this isn't so weird. What Paul is addressing is the fact that they're living in sin and no one's talking about it. Everyone's pretending like it's it's okay, like nothing's happening. Probable that this is a person of influence, probable that this person gives a lot of money, high influence, very, very wealthy of some sort, to the point where we're picking that over and sweeping under the rug the lifestyle. Again, also addressing the fact that, again, sexually they're doing some things that it's kind of like politics. You've heard politicians, no disrespect to politicians, but you've heard them say, Yes, I believe that, but I'm not going to bring that into my politics. Yes, I believe in God, but I'm not going to bring that belief into how I lead in politics. Right? This is what's happening. This is what's going on in Corinth. And it's happening at the church, not the state level, not the government level, not to unbelievers, but to believers, to people who say they believe in Jesus. This is what Paul is addressing. And he's doing it because he loves them. And I think we understand that on some levels. If you're over the age of 40, there was a good chance while you were in public school, you got a SWAT. Now, to the younger kids, that seems so far-fetched. But there was times I had to touch my ankles in the middle of a hallway, and someone was taking a board with holes in it. And in the name of discipline, hitting my hide, you know what I mean? In embarrassment. What was the crime? I was a minute late to class. And I either had to write sentences or I got a swap by Mr. Fitch You, seventh grade manufacturing. Not that I remember the moment or hold any bitterness. Why do I remember that? I have no idea. What Paul is addressing is discipline, to which every parent in this room we understand. We get discipline. The Bible says the Lord disciplines those he loves. We understand discipline. Your practice, how you do discipline, what discipline looks like. All of that might be across the board different, but we understand it. We don't do discipline because out of anger, we don't do it to mess with our kids. We do it so that we hope that they never do that again. Promise you, never late again to class to Mr. Fitchu's class. This guy. Can't even believe I was late. I think part of me, a little rebellious, was like, I want to prove that he's gonna do that. He won. One-nothing, Mr. Fitchy.

Discipline That Aims At Salvation

SPEAKER_02 15:04

Verse 4 says, In the name of the Lord Jesus, you must call a meeting of the church. I will be present with you in spirit, and so will the power of our Lord Jesus. Then you must throw this man out, hand him over to Satan, so that his sinful nature will be destroyed, and he himself will be saved on the day our Lord returns. Now, this sounds extremely harsh, and there's a good chance you've never showed up to church watching someone get kicked out of church. We'll address this at some moment, towards the very end, on what Jesus is asking of us as a church body. But understand, what he is doing in this moment is more eternal value than temporary value. We look at this as harsh. What he's saying is this man is contaminating the church, and because of that, something needs to give. And he says, I'm willing to say hard things to hurt his feelings in hopes that he spends eternity with us. We don't understand this because this isn't necessarily how we do discipline. What Paul is addressing again is sin never stays contained. He's addressing this so much that you see this in verse 6 that he's not even just talking about the sin, he's talking about how the church is responding to sin. He's saying, Your boasting about this is terrible. Don't you realize that this sin is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast by removing this wicked person from among you. Then you will be like a fresh, fresh batch of dough made without yeast, which is what you really are. Paul is saying private compromise eventually produces public consequences. And he's addressing that sin affects the individual, but it also affects the family, it affects the church, it affects the witness of the gospel. And this is what he's saying: one unchecked attitude, one offense, one addiction, one affair, one pattern of gossip can influence an entire church culture. And I think we get it. Every single one of us on some level have been affected by sin. Ours and others. So this is not like mind blown. This is us going, okay, what does this mean? I would also go, why are we quiet about it? If we understand the importance of it, why are we quiet about what he's talking about? And we we see in verse 9 through through 11, he's saying, like, listen, you guys have gotten this all backwards. You're judging people outside the church. That's not your responsibility. However, the people on the inside of the church, that is your responsibility. He says this in verse 12. It isn't my responsibility to judge outsiders, but it certainly is your responsibility to judge those inside the church who are sinning. The church gets this backwards. We tend to condemn the world and excuse sin in the church. We're not to watch CNN or Fox and be like, these people are so immoral. Of course they are. They're unbelievers who are living unbelieving lives. Why are you putting them in a standard of a believer? Oh my gosh, President Trump is, I don't know if he's saved or not. I know that blows some of your red minds. Oh no, he's a Christian. He said this way back here. I don't know if he isn't or he isn't. I would say his actions are questionable, and so is his Twitter account. As it doesn't matter to me, but you thinking I'm holding him to a moral standard, that's ridiculous. We're watching something and judging them as if they're believers. I would even say this. There were some people who put Trump on a higher standard than Christ. That got awkward. Expect unbelievers to act like unbelievers. That's one statement. Paul is addressing the other one. Hold believers accountable to the standards that they profess. This is what he's addressing. He's saying this is not permission for a critical or self-righteous spirit. Jesus condemned the hypocritical judgment, but commanded. He

Yeast, Influence, And Why Sin Spreads

SPEAKER_02 19:44

commanded loving accountability amongst believers. This is what he's addressing. What does this mean for us today? Life Community Church. What does this mean? It means this first and foremost. We must recover a holy grief over sin. The Corinthians were proud when they should have been brokenhearted. There has to be a holy fear that comes over the church. We have to grieve sin. We must choose restoration over reputation. Ignoring sin may avoid awkward conversations, but listen to me, it damages people. You know my biggest fear? That might be dramatic, but my biggest fear is we get to the end of this life. My biggest fear is not hearing, Well done, good and faithful servant, because I know who I am in Christ. My biggest fear is seeing people who said, Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you care enough to have a hard conversation? This is what Paul is saying. You're afraid to have a hard conversation by looking at someone in the eye saying, You shouldn't be doing this. You need to leave now because you're messing up everybody that's inside here. There are immature believers sitting in your small group that cannot handle what you're doing right now. I am more concerned that you come back. This is Luke 15. When the son comes to the father and says, I want what is mine. You've read that story, you've heard that story, and you've said, I can't believe a father allowed him to not just leave, but he gave him what was his. You know why he did that? He did that so that he would understand. When you leave here, you're gonna understand exactly what you have, and you're gonna pursue something. What happens? He had to be in a pig sty before he understood his father's love. That is a difficult thing to do. What Paul is saying is I'm more concerned about him leaving, not concerned about him leaving, I'm more concerned about him staying and resenting me than leaving and coming back. There's risk. I get it. Is it awkward? It is. It is difficult to sit across someone from the table while you're drinking coffee and going to dude. Really? Your stepmom?

SPEAKER_01 22:15

Come on, man. There's other girls out there. More your age. This is hard. What we're talking about is difficult.

SPEAKER_02 22:28

We gotta remember that holiness and love are not enemies. What God is calling us to, as believers, is holiness. And it is not popular. Just like statistically. Dad, you being in involved in your home statistically by unbelievers says your house is more likely to be a better home. That doesn't discount women. That just says when you come together as husband and wife, father and mother, statistically, your home is going to be better than if the dad was absent. That might not be what culture says, but statistics say that is important. What we're talking about statistically may be very difficult to do, but we got to answer a question as the church. Are we concerned about people's personal feelings right now or their eternal security? That's a genuine question. Because we can come in, drink a cup of coffee, have some warm fuzzy feeling songs played, and then walk out of here and go, I don't know that I want to do this thing. This is not all there is. This is not what it's only about when it comes to following Jesus. If this is the end all, we've messed it up. A weekly gathering for an hour? That's my relationship with Jesus, Paul is addressing, going, guys, I'm this is the warning. A church that celebrates what God calls sin will eventually lose its spiritual power. And listen, hear me. I don't know that too many people would know that it's gone. I think we've done such a good job of relying on ourselves. And I think there's areas in our life we don't need God. We got this one covered. You just handle the big stuff, big guy. I'll handle the small stuff. And all the while, Paul is going, I'm actually gonna ask you to do hard things. I'm gonna ask you to open your mouth. So why don't why don't we do that? Why do we remain silent? I think first and foremost, it's because we don't like conflict. We don't want conflict.

Stop Judging Outsiders Start Inside

SPEAKER_02 24:57

No one wants conflict. We confuse love with tolerance. I think that's a big one. Many, many followers of Jesus think loving someone means never challenging them. Just let me do what I do. We fear being called hypocrites. I'm gonna just throw this out right now. Every single one of us in this room, we're all hypocrites. And I've said this to you before. This is not a shocker. This is not like, oh my gosh, mind blown. We're hypocrites in this room. No different, and I've said this before, no different than you walking to the gym and seeing fat people. I expect them to be there. That got awkward, didn't it? Who do you expect to be in the gym? There's some guy over there, you can tell this is his thousandth session. He sold us on social media, but he also looks like he's been there a thousand times. I can tell. You know how I can tell? He's ripped. Then there's a guy over there, maybe that's his first time, tenth time, not as ripped. He's getting there. He's a work in progress. He's gonna be there one day. A thousand, two thousand, three thousand. He's gonna keep going. He's gonna continue to be ripped. Here's the promise, though, he's gonna die one day. He's pointing out unto every man wants to die, and then judgment. Every single one of us is gonna die, and we're gonna be judged. I mean, I uh hopefully that's not new news for you. It's what Hebrew says. Yes, in this room, but we fear being hypocritical so much that we just stay silent. Well, who am I? I don't want to say something. I don't want to say something that's awkward. Who am I to judge? Who am I to I got my own stuff going on? Maybe I should just stay out of it. And all the while someone is dying and going to a real hell. I know that carries some weights, it carries some responsibility, it carries accountability. This is what Paul is getting at because ultimately what we do is we underestimate the influence that sin has in our life, even though we've all agreed that we've been affected by sin, ours and others. We know it. But by not saying something, we're we're downplaying that. Well, everybody sins, everybody's gonna go through something, everyone's gonna do life hard, and in what? What do we get in the end? In the end, we get a quiet church who's lost its spiritual influence in a community, and then we go, I don't know what happened. Well, I do. You thought a spiritual gift was silence, because here's what I know about sin, and I know this is gonna get uncomfortable, but sin creates distance, it just does. Isaiah said, Your sins have cut you off from God because of your sins, he has turned away and will not listen anymore. Just as unresolved conflict creates distance. Listen, if you're ignoring someone that you have a problem with, there's distance. And you know when it gets awkward? When they show up for Christmas, and you realize I've not seen you or talked to you since last Christmas. Why is it weird? Because you've allowed something in the space that you have to allow distance to happen. But then there's some people you get in touch with, it's like you've seen them yesterday. It's like we're such good friends. It's been years, but it's like I saw what is that? That is right-standing relationship where we can pick up where we left off, but we understand distance, we understand awkward. This is what sin does it create a distance, it cuts us off, and it distorts my view of God. Instead of seeing him as loving, I see him as angry. Instead of seeing him as holy, we compare ourselves to others around us and we minimize our sin. Instead of seeing him as trustworthy, we doubt his goodness. Instead of running to him, we hide from him. This is what happened in the very beginning. The response of Adam and Eve was they had the perfect relationship until sin came into the picture, and then they distance themselves from him. And God is walking amongst the garden asking, Where are you? Not because they're playing hide and seek, and not because God didn't know, it was because Adam didn't know. Eve did not know. And ever since then, it's distorted our view of God. My view of God, Adam's view of God in this moment was God doesn't want to be around me anymore. This is what sin does. And Paul's saying, I'm willing to say hard things so that this man comes back. And people are influenced

Why We Avoid Confrontation

SPEAKER_02 29:56

differently. We know that sin also hardens our hearts. Hebrews says it, we're hardened by sin's deception. We say things like, This won't hurt anyone, you deserve this, or you can stop at any point, but eventually it dulls our spiritual senses and makes us unlikely to respond to conviction. I don't hear God's voice like I used to. You know why? Because I've distanced myself, I can no longer hear it clear. I'm gonna blow your mind right now. They can hear me better without the microphone than the guy at the top can. Not because they're deaf, not because they can hear, but because they're closer. You distance yourself from God, and then you go, God's not talking. God's going, I am. You're just far away. That's what did that's what sin does. It's exactly what it does. And now I don't hear God like I used to. I don't feel conviction like I used to. Now it feels like condemnation. Because sin changes not just what we love, but what we desire. It doesn't just affect behavior, it affects our desires. James says temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us, drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. But when sin is allowed to grow, it brings death. He's saying this is what it does. What once grieved us begins to entertain us. What once convicted us, now it seems normal. What once drew us towards God, now it's losing its appeal. This is why Paul says to the church in 1 Corinthians, to remove the tolerated sin from their midst. It never stays contained, it always spreads. It's no different than joy. Joy spreads, so does sin. And sin robs us of the confidence I have in God. I'm confident of who I am in Christ, not because of what I've done, but according to Ephesians 2, what he has done. I'm confident in that. My identity is in him. I'm a son of the king. That is my confidence. Sin robs us of that to the point where what David said is, restore unto me your salvation. David's saying, My salvation is my own thing. I need your salvation. Restore to me the joy of that salvation. Restore to me what not the day I got saved, not the day that I laid it down. Restore to me the joy that only you can give me, the peace that only you can give me. This is what it's robbing me of. My confidence in who I am in Christ. And so now we're saying things like, Well, I don't know if God has a purpose for my life. I don't know what it is. I don't know that God would use someone like me. What is that? That's shame based. When I when God restores the joy of his salvation to your life, all of a sudden the confidence, not arrogance, the confidence in who I am comes back in. It's not about what I've done, it's not works-based. I don't do good works to get saved. I do good works because I am saved. It's a big difference. Not holy because I need God to love me. I'm holy because I know God loves me. It's a big difference in those things. So, what is he ultimately saying to the church at Corinth? Some practical things. He's saying, Listen, I need you to care enough to say something. This isn't in your notes. This is the middle of the night thought. He says, I need you to care enough to say something. Listen, if I if I say I love someone and I'm not willing to say something, I'm ultimately saying I don't love someone. If your doctor sees something on the report and he sees it's cancer and says, You're all good, I'm gonna tell you that's a bad doctor. If I have a believer that I've given permission to speak into my life and he sees something and doesn't say something, I'm gonna say, I'm questioning your not salvation, but your practice of following Jesus. Because this is what I believe Jesus says. And then we confront fellow believers, not unbelievers. When Jesus said in John 13, 34 and 35, he says, This is how the world will know that you are my disciples by the way you as the church treat each other. Not how you treat the world, how you treat unbelievers first. If you're showing up on Monday and talking bad about your church, I promise you, the unbeliever that you work with has nothing, he wants nothing to do with your church. Oh, this girl in my small group, my God, she talks all the time. It's always about her. Why do you think when it

How Sin Distorts God And Desire

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comes to Easter and the one time of year you invite them to church, they say no? Because I know 90% of the time, if you invite someone to Christmas or Easter, they're gonna say yes. If they're actually saying no, I don't want to go to your church, it might not be just because of the church, it might be because how you represented the church. Because Jesus says, this is how the world, this is how the outsider, the unbelievers, are gonna know that you're my disciples by the way, this is the practice ground. He's like, listen, if you're worshiping on a Sunday morning and that person is in church and that person is desiring to follow Jesus, that person is here, and you're not treating them right, you're never gonna treat someone on the outside right. This is the training grounds. Like we got something in common. He's ultimately saying, we confront fellow believers, we don't non-believers. We address patterns, not imperfections. We address patterns. Paul is not talking about believers who struggle, repent, and seek help. He is addressing someone who is openly sinning, refusing correction, unrepentant, and influencing others. This is who Paul is addressing. Every believer battles sin. The issue is not stumbling, the issue is stubbornly refusing to turn. This is what he's addressing. If someone is bringing to your attention that you are sinning and you say, I don't care what you think, I'm gonna do it anyway, you are openly unrepentant of that sin. This is who Paul is addressing. And Paul says, Listen, you're seeing this public right now. Jesus addressed the private first. You're seeing the end result of 1 Corinthians 5. Jesus in Matthew 18 says, Listen, we confront privately first. While 1 Corinthians 5 deals with the public situation, Jesus says this in Matthew, Matthew 18. He says, We go privately. If privately doesn't work, we take two or three people with us. If two or three people don't work, we talk to the church about it. Hear me. Just because you've never seen that pattern in the American church doesn't mean it's not right. Because I'll put I'll include myself in this for a moment. The American church as a whole, big sea church, we're cowards. We ultimately care more about people coming back than salvation at the end of their lives. If we're honest enough to believe it. And the Lord dealt with me first. Listen, he says up front, you're to go to someone and you're to say, brother, there's something going on. I know it's happening, and I need you to repent of it. And if he says, I'm not gonna do it, take another friend with you from your small group and go back to him. What's he say? He says, Man, unload on 2v1. Double up. We need to talk. What you're doing is wrong. This is not about opinion, this is not my opinion doing something wrong. Biblically, you're doing something wrong. And you need to knock it off because there are immature unb there are immature believers who have just come to Jesus, they're just now attending the church at Corinth, and they think what you're doing is okay because we've watched you, we've celebrated it. Knock it off. Listen, I I will do I will do a mass wedding on this stage every Sunday, the rest of the year, if people will stop living with one another and start getting married. And I I don't I don't say that in condemnation. I say that so that you understand there is a church that wants to support you, wants to lead you, wants to guide you, wants to walk with you, wants to support how it is that you want to do life, but if it's this way, I've had people call me and say, Will you do my wedding? We want to get married, we don't want to live together anymore. We want to make it right, and I've had pastors tell me they won't do the wedding, and I've said, Let's go. In fact, I've made a statement, I've done I do more weddings of people I don't know than I do know, which I might need to question some things. So you're living this way, and you want to make it right, and someone's telling you no, and you want to give me an opportunity

Grace And Truth Plus A Week Of Prayer

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to share in three or four sessions. Yes, sign me up. This is what he's addressing. Not only that, we grieve before we discipline. We Paul says the church should have been mourning. Confrontation should never be angry, self-righteous, or vindictive. If confronting someone makes us feel superior, you've already lost the heart of Jesus. If that makes you feel good about yourself, you've lost the heart of Jesus. You could before you ever bring up someone, you ask the Lord, God, is there anything that's standing in the way of me and you? It's the speck in my own. We remember that sin affects everyone. And listen to me. This is the biggest thing I need you to hear. Restoration is always the goal. Restoration, the purpose is always repentance, healing, restoration, returning to Jesus. Always. The goal is never. The goal is never. How can I remove this person? The goal is always how can we help this person come back to Jesus? This statement right here scares me the most. And I'll end with this. A church that never confronts sin will lose its holiness. A church that only confronts sin will lose its heart. A church that Jesus desires holds both grace and truth together. If we are all truth and no grace, man, we become very self-righteous. If we're all grace and no truth, we become very tolerant. Church, Jesus embodied grace and truth. And the mandate is for us to us too. Amen? We make it? We okay? Probably some of you are mad at me, it's okay. Hey, this week. A lot of you know we're going into one life, and it's a month earlier than it's been. So I'm gonna ask if anybody that's going, if they would just stand for right now. In a moment, I'm gonna ask you to come up, but if you don't mind just standing. Most of the people have the same shirts on, so they're easy to tell who they are. And I want us to. This is not an event to pray for. This is uh I'm asking you to pray and fast this whole week. Uh because the things that that we encounter this week are not uh trivial things, they're they're death and life. And what opportunity we have is to speak life into students that maybe have a different background. There's no doubt in my mind we are we're dealing with a mental illness in our culture that has is everywhere, no matter where we go. It's affecting our team, it affects the kids that we work with. So I'm asking you not to just pray in this moment, I'm asking you from now to the rest of the week, when you think about it, would you pray for what is happening at this camp? Because eternal, there's an eternal responsibility of what we're talking about. So if you're by someone, if you don't mind just stretching out, grabbing a hand, putting your arm around the shoulder. God, thank you for the team that you've brought together, the way you've ordered our steps. God, we don't take lightly or lightly the responsibility that you've entrusted us with. We know that there's some crazy situations. I know this more than anything, there's a God that loves big, there's a God bigger than our situation. And I pray this week over every leader, over every cabin, over every activity to keep us safe. But God, I pray more than anything that there be students that know there's a God that loves them, there's a God that's not abandoned them, to a student that feels abandoned, there's a God that has never abandoned them, who's walked alongside them. I pray that they would feel that. I pray that this team would be strengthened to remind them of that. And God, it's so fitting that we're going out on Father's Day as a reminder that there is a father that loves them, that has a plan and a purpose for them, and that they are not alone. I pray that you give this team strength. I pray that you lead us in guidance.