SPEAKER_00: Well, good morning, Spring Lake.
SPEAKER_00: Good morning, my name is Garrett.
SPEAKER_00: I'm one of the pastors here on staff.
SPEAKER_00: I am mostly at our downtown campus.
SPEAKER_00: I'm over our downtown student ministries.
SPEAKER_00: I'm also over our young adult ministries across all three campuses.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you're a young adult and you're looking to get plugged in, I'd love to connect with you after service.
SPEAKER_00: But this is my first weekend ever at Lawrence.
SPEAKER_00: And so thank you for letting me be here.
SPEAKER_00: I feel very good.
SPEAKER_00: It feels very close to downtown.
SPEAKER_00: And so I might need to give Arlen the boot and I might need to come here more.
SPEAKER_00: But uh no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: Um this summer, this is your first time here, we've been going through this series called Uncomfortable, where we've been diving into a bunch of uncomfortable topics, a bunch of things uh that normally probably we wouldn't choose to learn about, to talk about uh on our own.
SPEAKER_00: But the importance of this series is that we do talk about these things, because the reality is that if we as a church are not discipling you on these topics, then you are being discipled by someone else or something else.
SPEAKER_00: The world is giving you its opinion, where the church should be giving you its opinion with the truth of what the Bible says about these topics.
SPEAKER_00: And so again, if this is your first time here and you're maybe seeing this, I would encourage you to go through the backlogs.
SPEAKER_00: If you've missed any of these uh topics we talked about throughout the summer, it'll be good for your uh own sanctification and good for just your own development as a Christian to talk about these things that maybe make us feel uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_00: And so I decided this morning to start off with an uncomfortable question.
SPEAKER_00: Is everybody ready?
SPEAKER_00: Good, quiet.
SPEAKER_00: That means everybody's ready.
SPEAKER_00: So my question to you is who here loves dealing with conflict?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, perfect.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's been most the first service, there's like four people there.
SPEAKER_00: It was crazy.
SPEAKER_00: Good and good.
SPEAKER_00: This this service is nice and calm, good.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, maybe another question.
SPEAKER_00: I want to ask you, how do you deal with conflict when it comes to you?
SPEAKER_00: So who here, raise your hand, who are my avoiders of conflict?
SPEAKER_00: When conflict comes that you avoid, you mean like maybe you're maybe you bury your head in the sand and you pray just goes away?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, who who here are my people that just shut down?
SPEAKER_00: That when conflict comes, you just shut down deer in the headlights?
SPEAKER_00: Hey, who here are my people that go in guns blazing, that there's no beef too small, that it needs to be squashed immediately, no matter what.
SPEAKER_00: Don't point fingers, don't point fingers at somebody.
SPEAKER_00: It's okay.
SPEAKER_00: Who here is really uncomfortable and wants me to stop asking questions?
SPEAKER_00: Bunch of you, perfect, yes.
SPEAKER_00: No, I think the reality is that yeah, conflict is an incredibly hard conversation.
SPEAKER_00: Confrontation is makes us feel uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_00: And these buckets that we fall into uh are not always the most ideal, and we don't always uh they're not always the best way.
SPEAKER_00: I think that Jesus wants us to deal with conflict.
SPEAKER_00: I think the world, when it talks about conflict, it says, you know what, like avoid the awkward situation, avoid the painful situation.
SPEAKER_00: Don't do that, it's not worth it.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus says, go to your brother, go to your sister who are living in sin.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's why this morning we're gonna be talking about church discipline, talking about some tough love this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh it's gonna be a little bit uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_00: But before we start talking more about the topic, I think it's good to talk about maybe some definitions and some good some good questions to ask yourself before we dive in.
SPEAKER_00: So we're talking about church discipline, we're talking about people that are followers of Jesus who are then living in unrepentant sin.
SPEAKER_00: And then what are the steps uh forward from someone that's in that situation?
SPEAKER_00: So this is not for the unbeliever who's living in sin.
SPEAKER_00: This is for someone that claims to be following Jesus Christ and then is living where uh they're not living how Jesus calls us to live.
SPEAKER_00: And they know that is true, and so that's good to have the same definition.
SPEAKER_00: But also some questions you should ask yourself before diving into this uh process of church discipline is one, is the person actually sinning?
SPEAKER_00: Is the person actually sinning?
SPEAKER_00: What I mean by that is that there might be things in your life, in your own life, in your own walk with Jesus, that you have certain preferences or you have certain convictions that you hold in your life.
SPEAKER_00: For instance, say that you're somebody who's struggled with alcoholism, and so you've made the choice to say, I don't think alcohol is good, I am not making uh I'm not gonna consume it, and that's that.
SPEAKER_00: But then you say me, say I'm out with my family, it's lunch, and I decide to have a beer, and that's it with my meal, it would then be uh inappropriate for you to say, oh, to go to me and say, Garrett, what you're doing, you're living in sin, you're consuming alcohol right now, even though that is your preference.
SPEAKER_00: So when we're going confronting people in their sin, we have to make sure that it is not based upon our preferences or things that we feel convicted about, that they are actually living in sin.
SPEAKER_00: The next question you ask yourself is is this a mistake or is this person living in unrepented sin, right?
SPEAKER_00: Because if it's just a mistake, every single time that happens, we don't need to go through the whole church discipline process.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes people can just make a mistake, recognize that, and then we can move on.
SPEAKER_00: But the unrepentant sin, what that means is that the posture of this person's heart is a little bit just like, ah, I just don't care.
SPEAKER_00: That it really just doesn't bother me anymore, that they have become callous in this area towards sin.
SPEAKER_00: And when we have someone in this situation, that's when we go, we go and we talk to them, right, in a just accountability sense.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's someone in your life group.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but then if they still have this callousness, that's when we move forward in this church discipline process.
SPEAKER_00: And so my goal this morning is to talk about three aspects of church discipline through the lens of scripture and to challenge us to live out what Jesus calls us to in this area.
SPEAKER_00: So please, church, play or pray with me this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I pray that your spirit would be moving this morning, Lord, that your spirit would help those who are just uh wanting, who are feeling uncomfortable by this topic and maybe wanting to check out, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I pray, Lord, that we would be able to hear from your word and what it has to say, and that we would be challenged to live out this morning, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We pray this all in your son's name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So this first aspect of church discipline is that church discipline is truthful.
SPEAKER_00: That church discipline is truthful, that we are called to confront fellow Christians living in sin, and we are called to share with them the truth.
SPEAKER_00: This is from Proverbs 27, 5 and 6.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Better is open rebuke than hidden love.
SPEAKER_00: Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy, multiple kisses.
SPEAKER_00: That this Proverbs talking about, that it is better for us to openly rebuke somebody, to share the truth, to confront them, to call out the ways that they are living, compared to, I think, the way that most of us live, where we're willing to like, ah, you know, I'm just gonna extend them grace, that we think we are loving them by hiding what they're doing, by throwing it under the rug, saying, you know, it's not really that big of a deal, it's okay.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna give this person a little extra grace today, that I'm not gonna call out their sin.
SPEAKER_00: And I think the reality is that that is our biggest struggle, or one of our biggest struggles that we currently deal with now in our current Christian climate, is that we don't like calling out sin, that it makes us feel uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_00: That we we don't want to step on people's toes and we come up with so many different excuses of why we shouldn't or why we don't need to do it, right?
SPEAKER_00: We say to ourselves, you know what, like I don't know them.
SPEAKER_00: I don't I don't know who they are, I don't know their past, I don't know the things that they have struggled with, I don't know their marriage, it's not my responsibility, I'm not church leadership, right?
SPEAKER_00: We say all these things as kind of a like, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: It's not my problem, it's not my responsibility, but we are called by the Bible, God's Word calls us to go to our brothers and sisters who are living in sin.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus gives us instruction about what this confrontation looks like in Matthew 18.
SPEAKER_00: So you want, you can flip there in your Bibles.
SPEAKER_00: Verses 15 and 17, Jesus gives instructions about what does it look like to deal with sin in the church.
SPEAKER_00: If we read along, in verse 15, it goes, If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault just between the two of you.
SPEAKER_00: If they listen to you, you have won them over.
SPEAKER_00: But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.
SPEAKER_00: If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church, and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus starts out and says, if there is a brother and sister living in sin, what you should do, you should go to them and uh confront them, tell them of their sin.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus says, firstly, to go to them.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say, go and gossip about them, talk about them behind their backs to other people.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't say that you should avoid them and how they're living, that you should just ignore the problem and you pray and you hope it goes away.
SPEAKER_00: No, Jesus says that you, that we need to go to them, that we need to go to this person that is living in sin.
SPEAKER_00: And notice he also says to go one-on-one, that you should go.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: We don't have to bring in the full cavalry, we don't have to go fully nuclear in the situation right away, but instead, we're to go and to leverage our own relationships that we have with people and go and talk with them and plead with them, and we say, I see how you're living, that it is not good, it is not what Jesus wants from you.
SPEAKER_00: And please, I pray that you would repent, that you would turn from your wicked ways and turn back to following Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And hopefully, in most cases, that it should just stop there, right?
SPEAKER_00: That someone hears their brother or sister on Christ on calling them out in their sin.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says that if they listen, that you have won them over.
SPEAKER_00: That praise God, that is an awesome thing.
SPEAKER_00: And so hopefully, most church discipline can stop right there.
SPEAKER_00: But if they refuse to listen, then you go to the next step, which is you bring two or three other witnesses that they would come along you to this person and that they would echo the same thing, saying, I see how you're living, that it is not good, that's not what God, that's not how God wants you to live.
SPEAKER_00: And that's beneficial for a couple ways.
SPEAKER_00: Firstly, you have now multiple voices speaking into the situation.
SPEAKER_00: Where if the person was confused and maybe thought, that's just their preference, that's just what they want, now you have multiple voices saying, No, we see how you're living, and it is not good.
SPEAKER_00: That this is not how Jesus wants, that you are living in sin.
SPEAKER_00: So it's good to have a multiplicity of voices speaking into a situation and calling out sin.
SPEAKER_00: But also, we see in Deuteronomy 19, the Old Testament, that if you wanted to confirm a crime, confirm that something has happened, that had to be confirmed by multiple witnesses.
SPEAKER_00: So also, what this does is you have multiple people confirming that this person is living how they are living, that they're living in this unrepentant sin.
SPEAKER_00: So it's not just me, I can go around and say slander this person, saying, I confronted this person and they're living this way, but no, actually, this confirms that this person is living this way, that they're making the choice to live in unrepentant sin.
SPEAKER_00: So again, we hope that they listen, that they hear our words and they repent and they turn from their ways, but if they then are not willing to listen, then you bring it to the church and you bring it to uh the congregation, and the congregation will do the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: They would plead with this person, they would turn from their ways.
SPEAKER_00: And finally, if they're still refusing to repent, that Jesus says that we are to treat them like a pagan or a tax collector.
SPEAKER_00: And so those are not uh very fond phrases, what Jesus is saying.
SPEAKER_00: Like these people are people that are outside of the people of God, right?
SPEAKER_00: Pagans are people that in the old testament, new testament are those who are worshiping false gods, worshiping false idols, and not viewed upon very fondly, but also tax collectors are people that were Jewish, that are now working for the Roman Empire Empire, that is currently subjugating the Jewish people.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and these tax collectors are viewed upon as Jewish traitors, that their kinsmen hate them.
SPEAKER_00: And so when Jesus says that you are to treat this person as a pagan or a tax collector, Jesus is saying that this person is to be treated like that.
SPEAKER_00: They're supposed to be treated as an outsider, that they are to be excluded from the covenant community, that they are, for lack of a better term, to be excommunicated from the assembly.
SPEAKER_00: I know that's probably the part where it feels the most uncomfortable, that it feels the most like we need to backpedal a situation.
SPEAKER_00: Like, ah, is that really do we need to go that far?
SPEAKER_00: Is that really what we need to do?
SPEAKER_00: But before you think that, let's think about how we got to this part, right?
SPEAKER_00: There's been a bunch of steps along the way, right?
SPEAKER_00: First it's one-on-one, and then it's one in a small group, then it's the church, and then finally, the last option is to go and have this person be excluded.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: This process has never been about kicking people out and excluding people, right?
SPEAKER_00: If that was the case, and the first time anyone would make a mistake, that they'd be kicked out and there'd be no one in the church.
SPEAKER_00: But no, this really the process has always been about giving people enough runway to see that what they're doing is not good.
SPEAKER_00: That whole process is about giving people an opportunity to see their sin and to recognize their sin and to turn back and to come back to following Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why we have a very similar process here at Spring Lake Church for those who are members of Spring Lake Church, who have gone through the membership process and say Spring Lake Church is my home.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be a part of this church with a couple nuances.
SPEAKER_00: Firstly, it's the same, you start out one-on-one.
SPEAKER_00: So we as congregants, as members of Spring Lake Church, if we know other people that are part of Spring Lake that are living in sin, in unrepentant sin, that we are to go to them and confront them.
SPEAKER_00: And the same, if they refuse and you go with a small group and do the same thing, and then if they refuse again, now instead of uh going and bringing the whole church in, instead, what we do is that we bring it to our elders.
SPEAKER_00: And our elders are people within our church that have been nominated by our congregation every year at our uh congregational meeting, which happens in September, and they are representatives of the entire congregation.
SPEAKER_00: And so the church, uh the church elders, they would go and they would meet with this person and they would do the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: They would plead to this person that they would stop living in their sinful ways and they would repent.
SPEAKER_00: And then finally, it's the same end that if they refuse to listen throughout all those steps, then we would revoke their membership as being a member of Springlate Church, and then we would ask them not to attend any more church activities.
SPEAKER_00: We would say, We want you to stay away.
SPEAKER_00: We want you to not be here because you're not living as you have uh agreed to, that you're not living how you should as a follower of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you are a member of Spring Late Church, that this is something that you have agreed to.
SPEAKER_00: So if you have people in your life, members of Springlate Church that are living in this unrepentant sin, that you've agreed to take part in this process.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you've agreed to it, then you need to be people of your word who are actually going to be calling out sin.
SPEAKER_00: And also you've also then agreed to submit to this process.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you ever in your life are in unrepentant sin, that if someone goes and calls you out, that means that you are that you have agreed to submit to this process, not just to run away and to uh leave the church, but to go through it in its entirety.
SPEAKER_00: But the thing about a process is that it doesn't really mean much if we're not willing to take the first step.
SPEAKER_00: And the first step isn't to run or go up the ladder and go and bring in the elders or bring in the pastors.
SPEAKER_00: The first step is us.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says that if a brother and sister is in sin, go, but that we need to be people that are willing to go and to call out sin.
SPEAKER_00: Pastor Arlen has a phrase that he has grabbed from a mentor.
SPEAKER_00: It's this phrase that Christians have courage.
SPEAKER_00: That Christians have courage.
SPEAKER_00: And usually he's used it in an evangelistic sense, that Christians need to have courage to go and to be bold in their faith and to share the gospel with anybody at any time, anywhere, and be willing to step out in faith boldly.
SPEAKER_00: But I think the same phrase can be used here that Christians need to have courage, that they need to be willing to step out into a hard conversation and call out a wayward believer that is living in sin, that we need to have courage.
SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, I think the reality is true that we don't have courage.
SPEAKER_00: And that there are many times, myself included, that we are not courageous.
SPEAKER_00: And the reality is that there's many times that we're afraid, that we live in fear.
SPEAKER_00: That we fear what this person might think of us, we fear just the awkwardness of the conversation, we fear what relationships we might lose by calling out sin.
SPEAKER_00: And I think the reality is, if I may be so blunt, is that we have replaced the fear of God with the fear of man.
SPEAKER_00: And we've let that be the loudest voice in our life.
SPEAKER_00: And so my one exhortation, my one encouragement to you, church, is that we need to have courage, that we need to be willing to stand on the truth, that we need to be willing to step out into the things that are uncomfortable, and we need to be willing to share the truth.
SPEAKER_00: That we must be willing to do the hard thing despite what might happen, despite the potential loss of relationships, if they if they close out from our from their life, that we need to be willing to share the truth with them, that we need to be a church that is courageous, that we're willing to love one another enough to share the truth with them.
SPEAKER_00: But also, this is where we need to be the most careful because we can quickly go from being courageous to being cruel.
SPEAKER_00: We can quickly go from standing onto the truth to then trampling people with the truth.
SPEAKER_00: It's good for us to know what we are supposed to do, but we also do know how we are supposed to do it.
SPEAKER_00: What brings me to my second aspect is that church discipline is loving, that church discipline is loving.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: I think there's sometimes that we like to think, ah, no, this is a situation that really calls for the truthfulness, and there's some situations that call for God's love.
SPEAKER_00: But the reality is that we need to do both of them at the same time.
SPEAKER_00: They're two sides of the same coin.
SPEAKER_00: Paul talked with us in Ephesians 4 that we must speak the truth in love.
SPEAKER_00: The truth that we speak must be bathed in love.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul really highlights this more in Galatians 6, verses 1 and 2.
SPEAKER_00: He talks about the posture of our hearts when confronting our brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_00: So in Galatians 6, 1 and 2, he says this Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently.
SPEAKER_00: But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.
SPEAKER_00: Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul again says, right, if there's somebody that's living in sin, you are confront them.
SPEAKER_00: But he says, You who live by the Spirit, you who are a follower of Christ, who are empowered by the Spirit, are to restore that person gently.
SPEAKER_00: And I think Paul is using those words of living by the Spirit very intentionally, right?
SPEAKER_00: In Galatians 5, one chapter right before, he's laid out the fruit of the Spirit, that if we are Christians and we're filled by the Spirit, that then we should then, when we talk to people, when we confront them, that we should be doing it with gentleness, one of the fruits of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Well, reality is we should, all parts of the fruit of the Spirit should be in this confrontation.
SPEAKER_00: But I think he wants to highlight gentleness because he knows what can happen if we are not gentle.
SPEAKER_00: He knows what happens if we are not willing to restore them gently, if our confrontation is not bathed in gentleness.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Who here has heard the phrase, sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me?
SPEAKER_00: That's a lie, right?
SPEAKER_00: That words can be wildly hurtful.
SPEAKER_00: That's in a room this size I can imagine that there's some of you that people have said things that are maybe are true, but they were not careful with their tongue, and now you hold scars to things that you have they have said how many years later?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Words can be some of the most hurtful things that we can experience in our life.
SPEAKER_00: So I think Paul wants us to know that, yes, the truth is good, the truth is important, but we need to make sure that we're doing it correctly.
SPEAKER_00: We need to make sure that we're communicating the truth in a gentle way.
SPEAKER_00: But Paul continues after talking about restoring that he says that we must watch out, we must watch for ourselves, or you may also be tempted.
SPEAKER_00: And I think what he is talking about here is he wants us to be careful of the sin of pride creeping into our life when we're confronting one another.
SPEAKER_00: I think he wants us to be careful that we don't become people who look down our nose at other people living in sinful situations.
SPEAKER_00: I think Paul wants us to be on guard that we don't ever become people that look at someone that's living in unrepentant sin and think, like, can you can you can you imagine this?
SPEAKER_00: You see how this person's living?
SPEAKER_00: Like, I would never do that.
SPEAKER_00: I I would never live how that person's living.
SPEAKER_00: I'd never sin like they are doing.
SPEAKER_00: I think Paul wants us to be on guard that pride and judgmentalism does not creep into our heart.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus talks about this in the Sermon of the Mount in Matthew 7.
SPEAKER_00: He gives the uh, no, not the parable, he talks about the man who has the watch out to confront your brother, to remove the speck in his eye while you have a log in yours, that before we go and confront somebody of how they are living, we must examine our hearts and the ways that we are living, examine the sin that is in our lives, that our confrontation cannot be bathed in judgmentalism or in pride, but it needs to be of gentleness and love.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul concludes this last uh section by talking that we must carry each other's burdens.
SPEAKER_00: We must carry each other's burdens for one another, that we, if we belong to Christ, again the Paul says that we've been united with the Spirit, that we belong to something bigger than ourselves, that we are brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_00: And so we need to love one another, that we need to care for one another in all situations.
SPEAKER_00: But I think there's times that we don't really uh like to love people all the time, or we don't like to tell people the truth all the time.
SPEAKER_00: We like to separate those things from one another.
SPEAKER_00: And I think the reality is that we love to hold true.
SPEAKER_00: Truth sometimes of the highest ideal and the highest good.
SPEAKER_00: That when we share the truth, sometimes we take an approach of a scorched earth where I don't care what's gonna happen, I don't care the ramifications, I don't care who it hurts that we want to share the truth.
SPEAKER_00: And we think we need to do it as fastly and as deftly as possible.
SPEAKER_00: But my caution is that we would not confuse urgency with harshness.
SPEAKER_00: That we would not think that we need to share the truth as quickly as possible and as hard as possible.
SPEAKER_00: So remember we need to take our time.
SPEAKER_00: And we do need to get to the truth, that is good, but in these times we need to know that it could take time for this person to repent.
SPEAKER_00: That, yes, the Lord and the Spirit can work how he wants, and so it could be one conversation, the person hears how they're living and they repent and they turn.
SPEAKER_00: But in uh I experience this is that people whose hearts are hard and callous, that's gonna take time.
SPEAKER_00: That's gonna take multiple conversations and follow-up.
SPEAKER_00: And so we need to love these people through that process.
SPEAKER_00: That we need to also be praying a lot that God would work, that we could, we should be confronting sin, that's a good thing, but then we need to also let God work.
SPEAKER_00: And we need to let God soften these people's hearts and reveal the ways that they are sinning.
SPEAKER_00: Our motivation should be to love these people throughout the entire process, right?
SPEAKER_00: If our art of how we think about this is like, you know what, all I need to do is correct people, point out their sin, and walking away, then I think we've missed what we are supposed to do in this church discipline process, right?
SPEAKER_00: Imagine this.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine I'm walking on a beach, and as I walk, I look out and I see somebody and they just sense in there drowning.
SPEAKER_00: So I go, I walk to the edge of the water, and I stop and I look at them and I say, stop it.
SPEAKER_00: Am I right?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, technically I'm I'm correct.
SPEAKER_00: They should stop drowning.
SPEAKER_00: But is that actually helpful in what's going on right now?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: So the most loving thing I do.
SPEAKER_00: No, the most loving thing I can do is to go run, dive into the water, bring the life reserver, throw it to them, help bring them back to shore.
SPEAKER_00: So in this process, yes, we need to be truthful, we need to tell people the truth, but I think loving them is that we need to walk with them back through this messy situation, right?
SPEAKER_00: We call somebody out and they repent of their sin, but maybe they might say, I don't know what to do next.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how I come back from this.
SPEAKER_00: So loving someone in this is willing to step into the hard situation, step into the messy situation, and help point them back to Jesus and walk with them back towards Him.
SPEAKER_00: But that raises one final question of why.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Why are we willing to do all this, right?
SPEAKER_00: If it's church discipline, it means that someone has done something wrong, and now they need to be punished for it.
SPEAKER_00: That they need, uh, that needs to happen to them.
SPEAKER_00: But that's where we get into that this process is all about restoration, right?
SPEAKER_00: This third aspect is that church discipline is restorative, that church discipline is restorative, that the end goal is not people just be punished for the sake of being punished, that people would be restored and redeemed from their situation.
SPEAKER_00: But unfortunately, there are times and there are churches and there are leaders who have taken church discipline and they have done it incorrectly, that they have wielded their positions and their power and authority wrong, and they have dealt out church discipline the ways they seem fit, and they have done it based on their preferences or whatever they want, and they have left scars, and they have left pain, and they have hurt people in the process.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you're here and you have experienced church hurt, that you have had someone uh give discipline to you where you it was not deserved, I just want to say that I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry that you have experienced that.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what God wants from this process, but I also want to say that I'm glad you're here.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm glad and I pray that this would be a space where you can heal, where you can grow from the situation.
SPEAKER_00: And I pray that this can be just a safe spot for you.
SPEAKER_00: I think if we look at scripture, we look at God's word, we can see that church discipline, that if it's done correctly, that the end goal is restoration through repentance.
SPEAKER_00: I think Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians 5, he gives an idea of this process of hardship, how it's ultimately restorative.
SPEAKER_00: So in 1 Corinthians 5, 5, Paul is talking to the church in Corinth, and there's a man who's living in sin.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul uh calls them out because they're not doing what they're supposed to be doing.
SPEAKER_00: He says that this man, that like, why are you not mourning of what's going on?
SPEAKER_00: This man should have been excluded from your community already.
SPEAKER_00: In verses, uh, in ver in chapter 5, verse 5, Paul says, Hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul is can is uh telling them that this person should be excluded, that in when they hand him over to Satan, they're handing him over to this man's desires that are evil, right?
SPEAKER_00: That Satan whispers to us and tells us though the things that we want, the things that we desire are actually good things, and we should follow them.
SPEAKER_00: And so what Paul is saying is that you should hand that man over.
SPEAKER_00: That the things that he wants, the things that are bad, let him do those things.
SPEAKER_00: If he's living unrepentantly, he doesn't want to turn, that you let him do that.
SPEAKER_00: But in doing that, if he wants to live for himself, then he can't be involved in a community that wants to live for Jesus and wants to live not to their own flesh, not to their own desires, but we crucify our own flesh and we follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So we let this man do what he wants as we then exclude him from the church.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul then says that this man hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh.
SPEAKER_00: And a couple weeks ago, Pastor Ryan, when he talked about hell, we see this word destruction is really connected to hell.
SPEAKER_00: And so in the destruction, this man is experiencing destruction of his flesh.
SPEAKER_00: I think what he's experiencing is a taste of hell.
SPEAKER_00: That in his actions right now, as he's being excluded from the assembly, that what he's experiencing is a little moment, if he would continue on this path, right?
SPEAKER_00: He's cut off from the people of God, and in a sense, he's cut off from God himself.
SPEAKER_00: And because we look at the life of a first century Christian, it's very different than what we experience right now, right?
SPEAKER_00: If I'm undergoing church discipline and I'm asked to be removed, I can go to a church down the road three minutes away.
SPEAKER_00: But if you are this man, you're in Corinth, and you have been excluded from your community, you have nowhere to go.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Say this man was a pagan, he's left his pagan, he's left his pagan ways, but now he can't go back.
SPEAKER_00: They don't want him.
SPEAKER_00: He's left their community, and now your church community, your brothers and sisters, they have removed you.
SPEAKER_00: And so now you have no one.
SPEAKER_00: There's no other church in Corinth, there's nowhere else to go.
SPEAKER_00: And so you'd have to uproot your life to find a new community.
SPEAKER_00: And so he has no one to live with, he has no one to trade with, he has no one to do life with.
SPEAKER_00: So he has been removed.
SPEAKER_00: He has nobody.
SPEAKER_00: He has nobody to do it.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_00: He's experiencing this hell.
SPEAKER_00: He has no more people of God to do life with.
SPEAKER_00: And he probably can feel like, oh my gosh, it feels like God has abandoned me.
SPEAKER_00: But the goal is not for him just to experience that.
SPEAKER_00: It's not the goal is not that we revel in his agony and we enjoy the pain he's going through.
SPEAKER_00: But the goal that Paul says is that so that his soul may be saved on the day of the Lord, that this man is being handed over, that he would experience consequences so that he would be able to see the error of his ways, that he would be able to wake up and be like, oh my gosh, I see what's going on, I see my sin, that the Lord reveals the sin to him, and that he's able to ask for forgiveness, and that he's able to repent, right?
SPEAKER_00: Those who have kids that you know that sometimes you need to have your children experience the consequences of their ways, experience what they're going through, so that they may maybe understand what is actually going on.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you are ever to start this process with somebody and ever gets to the very end, they're to be excluded from our church, I want you to know that what's going on here is for their good.
SPEAKER_00: That it is for their restoration, that they are being removed, that the goal, the hopes is that they would be restored, that they would be redeemed from their situation.
SPEAKER_00: But we also need to be a church that when someone does come back, when someone does repent, that we need to be a church that's willing to bring people back into our fold.
SPEAKER_00: That we can't be people that are always pointing in the rear view me and saying, Hey, remember how you lived that way?
SPEAKER_00: Remember when you were living in sin?
SPEAKER_00: Remember when you were unrepentant, remember when you were living like a heathen?
SPEAKER_00: No, we need to be a church that says, like, we're so glad that you're back.
SPEAKER_00: We're so glad that you have seen how you've been living and how it was wrong, and we're so glad that you have repented.
SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't mean that everything goes back to normal.
SPEAKER_00: There are consequences from their actions, there are scars that have been left, but we need to be willing to bring them back into the fold.
SPEAKER_00: We need to be able to say, We're so glad that you are home.
SPEAKER_00: And so we tell the truth, we do it in love, and we do it because we want to see people be restored.
SPEAKER_00: But we can talk about this process over and over and over again.
SPEAKER_00: It's good to talk about the what of what we're doing, but also we need to take time and slow down and reflect on the why and talk about the how and talk about what Jesus has done for us, right?
SPEAKER_00: That we need to reflect on how ultimately we restore people, we're able to restore people because Jesus has restored and redeemed us.
SPEAKER_00: That Jesus, that he has loved us enough that he's willing to not leave us in our sin, but he was willing to pursue us, to confront our sin, to bear our punishment, and to give us a way to come home, a way to be redeemed.
SPEAKER_00: So as we reflect on that and as we think about us and our brokenness and what Jesus has done for us, that we, imaging Christ, being made into his image, we need to be people, we need to be followers of him that are willing to go to our brothers and sisters and pursue them in the same way.
SPEAKER_00: That we need to be people that are willing to confront their sin.
SPEAKER_00: We need to, in the same way Jesus has pursued us, that we need to go to those people that we need to be willing to speak truth to their sin, to love them in gentleness and humility, and to help them to be restored through Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I pray, Lord, that we would just reflect on Jesus and his goodness and what he has done for us.
SPEAKER_00: That is by his blood that we are redeemed.
SPEAKER_00: It's by his blood that we are made clean and washed as white as snow.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we thank you for Jesus, Lord, and help us help us remember what he has done as we think about confronting our brothers and sisters and their sin, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And we pray, Lord, that you would give us your spirit of truth and a spirit of boldness.
SPEAKER_00: Let's not be afraid, to not have the fear of man live in our mind, but we would know, we'd have the fear of the Lord that we need to go and be courageous, and that we need to go and to call out sin in love.
SPEAKER_00: That we'd be able to speak the truth in love, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So Lord, help us to do that and help us to glorify and to honor you as we do that, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Pray this in your Son's holy name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.