Sovereign Grace Bible Church
These are the sermons and teachings of Sovereign Grace Bible Church in Biggsville, Illinois. We exist to fulfill the Great Commission through the Great Commandment within Gospel Community.
Sovereign Grace Bible Church
Belonging & Accountability: Understanding Church Membership & Discipline
Membership and discipline—two words that can spark heated debates or uncomfortable silence in Christian circles. But what if these concepts, far from being outdated religious formalities, are actually life-giving gifts designed for our spiritual flourishing?
Drawing from Acts 2 and Matthew 18, this message challenges our individualistic approach to faith by examining the early church's model of commitment and accountability. The first Christians didn't just attend services; they "devoted themselves" to teaching, fellowship, breaking bread, and prayer. They lived day-by-day in community, sharing resources and celebrating together with "glad and generous hearts." This wasn't an obligation they endured but an opportunity they embraced.
The biblical understanding of church membership isn't about signing papers or getting your name on a roster—it's about being "counted" among those committed to Christ and to one another. Just as no shepherd would say, "I have about 40 sheep, give or take," God's design includes knowing and being known within a specific community. Our modern resistance to membership often stems more from our cultural individualism than biblical teaching.
Even more misunderstood is church discipline, which has nothing to do with harsh judgment or control. Rather, it follows Jesus' pattern of loving restoration beginning with private conversations and gentle correction. Like the careful setting of a broken bone, biblical accountability requires tremendous delicacy and humility. As Galatians 6:1 instructs, we restore others "in a spirit of gentleness," always watching ourselves "lest you too be tempted."
Most Christians find it easier to manage workout routines with accountability partners than to tackle sin alone. Yet we've developed a church culture where it's somehow considered more loving to gossip about others' struggles than to speak truth directly. True love doesn't leave brothers and sisters trapped in destructive patterns—it reaches out with both truth and tenderness.
Whether you're skeptical about formal church involvement or seeking deeper community, this message invites you to reconsider God's design for spiritual growth. The progression is clear: salvation leads to testimony, baptism, church membership, and ongoing accountability and service. This isn't about religious obligation but discovering the freedom that comes from living within God's perfect design for His people.
All right, good morning. Good morning, as we are a church plant that is looking to plant in the fall. We don't have church membership just yet and in a sense, that's a good thing so that we can establish this foundation that we talked about as we go through these truths that are core to the Christian faith. And today we go over two key terms We've made it out of the salvation block and we've made it into the church block. So we will be having three sermons teaching on the doctrine of the church over the next three weeks, and the first one will be church membership and discipline.
Speaker 1:Now, many people those are like these hot button words, right, church membership. I've gotten into many an argument with somebody where they are telling me I can be a good christian and not be a member of a church. I don't have to be a part of this thing in order for me to be a good christian, to be satisfied in god and for god to be satisfied with my life. And church discipline is all the more a sensitive topic where the average American church looks at church discipline like it is this unloving, hateful bigotry, move of misogyny where everyone's just getting this aggressive anger out on each other and nothing could be further from the truth. It is actually unloving to allow Christians to be a part of a community and not be members of a church committed to that body. And it is even more unloving when a church does not discipline those that are in the church. Now, that does not sound the greatest coming off the tongue. So bear with me and we'll see what God's word has to say, because you don't care what my opinion is, you care what God's opinion is.
Speaker 1:We'll be in Acts, chapter two, in Matthew 18. We'll begin with Acts, chapter 2, and set this foundation of the membership first. Acts, chapter 2, verses 41 through 47, tells us a story of the early church. Peter preaches this great Pentecost message and what happens? This is God's holy word. So those who received his word were baptized and there were added that day about 3,000 souls and they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers, and awe came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles, and all who believed were together and had all things in common, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.
Speaker 1:Now again, we live in a generation where the word church membership can come with all these entanglements. And so let's clarify something real quick it is impossible to add to something that you are not counting and holding accountable. So, for instance, if you have a budget of some kind and you say I've added $10 to my budget, if someone said how much money do you have? And you said, well, I don't know, but I added $10 to it, we would say you're not keeping a budget. You may have money, you have no idea how much, and you are not stewarding it well if you don't know how much money is in it.
Speaker 1:In a similar sense, we all think that we've run with this idea of Christianity where I become a Christian and I get the jersey and it does not matter if I'm here, there or anywhere. And yet Little League Softball disagrees with you, because you can be the most caring mom out there yelling at the coach and saying my kid's going to play, but if you didn't sign them up and if they don't have the appropriate attire and they don't engage with the team, they will not play. We understand that when it comes to the organization of small children's sports, but when it comes to the church, we're offended and say whoa, whoa, you're, you're barking up the wrong tree, you're, you're encroaching on my rights. I have freedoms here, and what we would say is we're not forcing anyone to do anything, but we will allow the Bible to speak for itself and to speak clearly. That is our job here.
Speaker 1:One of our marks as a church will be expositional preaching, where we go verse by verse, through God's word, to expose what God's word says. Because, again, as I've said before many times and I'll say again, you don't care what my opinion is, you should only care what God's opinion is. So, those who received the word, the message that Peter preached, which was a riveting message, that was a little aggressive, actually, by our standards. We would be like you need to be. We need to be softer, peter. People aren't going to come. And then 3,000 people are saved and we're like I'm stupid, never mind, I'm sorry, peter, you know what you're doing. These people receive the word and they're baptized and they're added to the count of people.
Speaker 1:Now, what happens in this early church? We can argue more about the need for church membership, but let's look at the example of the early church. What does it mean to be a member Number one? They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching. So, being a Christian in community, in this promised community together.
Speaker 1:The first factoid that we have to go through is that you and I live according to God's word, and when God's word is taught, when it's preached, we are in agreement and say, yes, I will live my life according to what that says, because that is what guides my life. They devoted themselves to that. They didn't happen to come. Most of the time, sometimes all the times, they devoted themselves to it in a similar way that an Olympic athlete. If they said, yeah, I'm training for the Olympics and you said, cool, how much are you running? They're like, you know, like every now and then, when I got time, it'll be okay, and you're like I don't care how talented you could be the next Michael Phelps for all I care If you ain't practicing, you're not making it. Michael Phelps, for all I care If you ain't practicing, you're not making it.
Speaker 1:And again, we want to be very clear in this. We're not creating this distinguishing mark where those who say you know, I'm still confused about membership, I'm not sure about it, I'm not in yet, those are condemned and we're like boo on you. You've done a terrible job at life. What's wrong with you. That's not where we're at. What we do here at this church is we extinguish the fires of this world and say no, no, no. You will not tarnish what God has made pure. If God has said membership is good, we will scream it from the rooftops that it is good. The Bible has no category for a Christian that's not committed to a community of believers, and that continues here. They devote themselves to the apostles' teaching, they live according to it. They desire the teaching, but also to fellowship, this living life together, this sharing of meals as we see, to the breaking of bread and prayers, this idea that life is lived not just in a bubble.
Speaker 1:You were never made to be in community for an hour and a half on a Sunday morning and to cringe when it might go a little long or so-and-so is trying to talk to you afterwards. Or they asked us to go to lunch again. Really, I can only say maybe five times. And then eventually you got to get it, you and I. We have to understand you were made for more than that.
Speaker 1:But much like someone who grew up eating Doritos only their entire life, someone says, hey, what about a steak and some veggies? We'd say no, no, 30 years has taught me that Doritos gets me from point A to point B. This is what I know. It works well for me. Please leave me alone. And so we as a church look at them and say, okay, but there's a better way.
Speaker 1:Because if you and I go days without community, it doesn't go well for us. And on those weeks where we're like kind of forced to be together, there's a project or there's like extra events and we're like, oh man, I got to make it out to the pond and then I also got to do this thing and I got a meeting on Tuesday and oh my gosh, that's three days with church people this week. That's exhausting. And yet when you look at your life, you say, oh man, that was sweet, it was nice to be around friends that understand this spiritual realm of my life, who, when they say, how are you doing today, I can say today sucks. And they say, okay, I'm here for you, let's talk. Ones who cry with you when you cry, who love you when you need love, who laugh with you when you're laughing. We need that more than just the five minutes before service and the couple afterwards. You were made to be in community Membership is one of those commitments to each other, to the breaking of bread, to prayers.
Speaker 1:And then verse 43, we see that one of the effects of the early church was that awe, or this reverential fear, came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And you and I can look at that in the New Testament. We're like, okay, yeah, but ain't nobody doing no wonders and signs today, and what we will miss is that the most fantastic wonder and sign that could ever be done, that is greater than raising Lazarus from physical dead to physical life, is when someone is saved, when their soul goes from eternal damnation to eternal glory with God in one instant because of nothing they did. That is amazing grace. And you and I, we diminish and despise these ordinary means of grace because they're not flashy, it doesn't look like it's popping, like everything else, it's not as colorful. Really, I'm used to the more 10-second videos nowadays, so I need something better. Can you tell me your testimony in 10 seconds or less, because that's my attention span currently?
Speaker 1:We forget that life is much more than entertainment, that you and I were made to be in awe and wonder as somebody turns from their sin to Christ and says I am new and that that's the most amazing thing that will ever happen in your life. We should celebrate those things like that's true thing that will ever happen in your life. We should celebrate those things like that's true. Awe should come upon our souls as a teaching of God's word is done, as God's word is preached, as we truly actually live in community and say okay, my life is yours, god, life is yours, god. When that happens, this reverential fear will take over, and not because you've done X, y and Z, so now the equation's done, but because God honors his word and if you will do what he says, it will go well for you. I promise Verse 44, and all who believed were together and had all things in common, and they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need.
Speaker 1:Now, if you were like me and you grew up with a very literal interpretation of scripture, I'll never forget reading this as like a 12 year old for a wanna at some point in time, and I was like we're doing it all wrong. We have a house, we have cars, we have two cars, we have two cars. They sold everything and so we can get to this point where, if we don't have the correct interpretation, we take scripture where it never meant to go. So what do we see here? I want you to see a principle. So when we read Acts, we're not seeing prescription. Here's what you must do in order for this to happen. We see more of a normative. This is what happened, and from that we can pull principles upon which to live our lives. So when we see that they're selling possessions and belongings and proceeds to all as any had need, what is the heart behind that? As you look at your life, how does your heart align with that Right?
Speaker 1:One of the first things that comes to my mind is things that I say no to. I'm like no, I will not give that up. No, that's mine. No, we barely have that. I will keep that. I worked really hard to get that and we have small children and not enough finances. We will keep that. You and I have these things that we so desperately hold on to.
Speaker 1:What's the hard posture here? Is it getting more or is it giving more? Is it holding on to things or is it letting go? Is it looking at yourself or is it looking at the church. The church was not meant to be this one hour entertainment session where you get your fill up for the day and you go on your way. You are not that fuel efficient. You won't make it to next Sunday. You will fail. God says in his word that a generous giver is blessed. My dear friends, finances are a part of that, but in our day and age, the idol might even more so be your time or your emotional energy.
Speaker 1:My goodness, okay, any husband, fathers in the room? Yeah, you ever had a talk with your wife at like 10 30 at night and you're like bloodshot eyes, like no, no, no, I already woke up early and did my stuff and then I worked all day and then I shepherded to the kids and I took care of you and I took care of this place and I got the kids down and then I took care of our house for a couple hours and now you Okay, I can do this. No, I can't. God help me. What is that moment? It is the testing period. Okay, son, you act like you're a man. Here's the testing point. The testing point is not when you first get off. Okay, get a happy face, go in the door, go love people. The testing point is when you're at the end of your rope, will you still pour out for your community and, most importantly, your Christian community that lives in this room and lives in your neighborhood?
Speaker 1:They were selling their possessions and belongings. You do not need to go sell your possessions and belongings, but you might need to sell some of your time. You probably have things that take up way too much of your time, that take away too much of your emotional energy. I had a time when I was a young pastor and I took this like little psychological survey when I was working for a mega church and it was like awesome, because it gave me the scapegoat In my little survey. It said Dan, you know, you have the personality type where you just need time by yourself on a regular basis to just unwind and have nothing to do. I looked at my pregnant wife and our one-year-old and I said, yep, that's what I need. I need just time by myself. You got this. You're going to figure it out. I believe in you. This is what I've been told I need, so I'm going to take care of me, so I can take care of you. There had to be a point in time where I grew and said, okay, I can't hold on to these things. Now I also can't change 100% of who I am, but there's a middle ground here and a year from now, the middle ground should be closer to sacrificing than it was before.
Speaker 1:This is what community looks like. This is what church membership looks like. It is not this thou must, thou must. It is a. This is the best thing that will ever happen to you. It's going to feel terrible sometimes, but everything that's great in your life came at that same price.
Speaker 1:Do you want to get in really good shape? You know what it feels like? It feels terrible. It's no one. I don't care who you are, shannon, no one likes running. No one likes running. No one likes running. People choose to run because they want an outcome. Okay, we agree with that. We say the pain is worth the process that I'm going to get for this success, this result. And yet you and I have to look at our lives in this church and say, okay, do I look to my left, do I look to my right, and am I willing to go through the same discomfort for them that I would for my own personal goals that are the most important to me, and if the answer is no, I need to work on me. More importantly, I need God to work on me. I need to pray more. I need to ask for accountability, which is a very important word. We'll get to that word in a little bit Now, verse 46,.
Speaker 1:And day by day they were attending the temple together. Okay, so I'm going to say it again, day by day, because I want to hear you say it. What was it? It was good job, that's right. It was not once a week, it was day by day. You know, I bet these people were busy. I bet they their camel probably broke down on the side of the highway, they probably had a broken air conditioning unit that didn't exist yet. They probably had children that disobeyed and dishonored and drove their parents nuts. And you know what they did, day by day they met. They didn't make excuses, they chose to make it a priority.
Speaker 1:I had an interesting moment when I first got here a couple years ago, where a farmer and I were talking back and forth and I was talking about a men's study we're going to start. I'm like, can I get men in the word? Like let's do this? And he looked at me and he said pastor, like you're great, love your stuff and everything, but I never will have time for that. And I looked at the young farmer and I said okay, uh, question, if it's harvest season and it's 11 o'clock at night and you've been working for almost 24 hours straight, but you were gonna do one more field before you went to bed, are? Are you going to do the field? He said of course I'm going to do the field. What kind of question is that? I said okay, you will always make room for whatever you make a priority. You will sacrifice sleep. You will sacrifice sleep, you will sacrifice comfort to get what you want.
Speaker 1:The issue is not your time or your busy schedule. The issue is the desire of your hearts. Are you making a priority what you should be making a priority? Church membership necessitates a day-by-day lifestyle. Now that doesn't mean that the next week I want you to have a checkboard at your home and be like okay, monday we didn't see any church people. That was a fail. Tuesday we did see some people. That was good. Wednesday, also fail. So I think we're batting like a 600, which for baseball is good, but for great average is bad. So it depends on what game we're playing here.
Speaker 1:You and I don't need to be legalistic and say here's the standard. Let me start measuring myself by that and judging myself according to it and beating myself to smithereens when I fail. What we do need to see is, hopefully, after the last handful of weeks with learning, salvation is Christ's unending love for us and that that has sacrificed for us to be able to have the opportunity to do this. You and I, we don't have the obligation to church membership. We don't have the obligation to serve. We have been granted, by God's amazing grace, the opportunity to sacrificially love those around us. Now they received their food with glad and generous hearts verse 47, praising God and having favor with all the people Again showing the heart posture here. What are they? They are thankful. They are the word glad there actually can be translated joy. They are filled with God's Holy Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit, this joy. They have generous hearts where they are willing to give. They don't hold on to things and they are giving God the praise and the glory and the honor for it. And one of the results of that heart posture, one of the results of that kind of biblical community, is that the community around them looks in and has favor on them. The church is in good standing with the community.
Speaker 1:Now that doesn't mean that the church doesn't call out sin, right, and the church, just like, overlooks everything. It's like oh yeah, no, you wanna murder babies, go ahead, no problem, no problem at all. Like, no, no, no, no. Like we still call sin sin. We're still the conscience of the community and yet, at the same time, we should be known as such an agent of good in this area that the village board and the mayor and the grumpiest person in this neighborhood a year from now says this place is better because that church is here. And if they're not saying that, you and I have work to do because there are dying people out there that need loved. And what might get them to the gospel is you and I mowing their grass while they flip us the bird? What might get us there is picking up their trash and their issues and their problems while they hate us and talk about us behind our back. That is what a Christian community should be looking like and doing Now.
Speaker 1:Last part there, and the Lord added to their number, day by day, those who were being saved. So you cannot add to what you do not track. We see this at the beginning and the end. So again, if I was the pastor of this church and I said I have 40 members, and they said, okay, who are they? And I said, well, it's a mix, because sometimes, like these are here and those are there, so it might be like 60 or 70 people, but like people miss a Sunday sometimes, so we'll see.
Speaker 1:Again, shepherding mentality here. I'm called a shepherd in the Bible. How great of a shepherd would it be if you went out to his field? He said, hey, how many sheep you got in this field? 40?. Okay, what about those ones over there? Oh, yeah, those ones too. A little bit. What do you mean? A little bit? There is no little bit when it comes to cattle or sheep or anything else. Chickens, even a little chick counts okay. At all points in time in life we look at those things and say, yeah, that makes sense. There In the church it makes more sense.
Speaker 1:Christ died for the church. He is so committed to the church. He gave his entire life and continues to pray for her. You and I, at the very least, can be committed enough to sacrifice something more than a Sunday morning hour. Christ is worth more than that. Now, with that, let's go to Romans 12, 4, and 5. You don't have to turn there, we'll be there just quick. And then go to our next thing.
Speaker 1:Paul says for, as in one body, we have many members and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ and individually members one of another. Again, the Bible has no category for a finger that says I'm out of here, like Dan was talking about this living stone, this spiritual building that's up. No brick is like I'm out. That's not how a building works. I will have you know. God knows what he's doing when he paints these word pictures for us. They mean something clearly and specifically you and I belong to christ, but we also belong to each other. Now let's move on to matthew 18, 15 through 17.
Speaker 1:One of the necessary requirements that comes from membership is the concept of church discipline, and church discipline has gotten a bad rap. I have heard so many things over the years where people have said it's unloving to practice church discipline. It is hateful, it is unbiblical, I've been told. So let me explain something real quick. If your child or yourself you went to a math tutor and you said, okay, hey, I'm trying to get better at math. Can you show me how to do this? They said yeah, and they just kind of showed you the right way to do it. One time they said do this. And then you started doing do it. One time they said do this. And then you started doing it on your paper and you said is this right? And they go yeah, and then it turns out that you get the grade back later and it was wrong. You go back to the tutor and you're like, okay, I paid you. I know you showed me, but I asked you to check my work and it was wrong. You told me it was right. You and I are so much more offended by the tutor we paid $20 for one hour of their time that failed to do their job of telling us where we went wrong than we are. When a Christian brother or sister says my friend, I see this in your life and it's not going to go well for you if you keep going down this path. It is so much easier to be offended by the tutor and to think that's wrong, like how could they do that? And yet it's the same principle in the church you and I are called to be holy, and you and I are not not holy, but by Christ's amazing work in my life and in your life, degree by degree, we're growing more like him.
Speaker 1:Part of that process kind of like a long weight loss journey is this idea of accountability. There are crazy statistics. I think I said it once I don't remember what the exact number was, but it was more than majority of people. It's like 90% of people that start a New Year's resolution gym membership are not there by February. I want you to think about that for a second. Most of the people that start that don't make it One month. This giant commitment finances down gung-ho didn't make it 30 days. Statistically, of that little percentage whatever it is like 10 or 20 percent do make it past the one-month mark on their New Year's resolution.
Speaker 1:In the gym, majority of them have a workout partner. Because you know what's really easy to do when you're working out by yourself Sleeping in oh, it's so nice, it's so much better than working out. It's sleep. Do you know what's really hard to do? Because you and I are that for a workout, my dear friends, is it harder to work out every day or to kill the sin that's in your life every day, yeah, amen. And if you don't know, get married or have children, then you will know for sure. It is so much harder to kill one sin in your life than to work out every day. And yet most people fail at trying to work out by themselves every day without an accountability partner. Work out by themselves every day without an accountability partner. Now let's look at this process and see that it is not this hateful bigotry, aggressive, whatever you want to call it that has been understood in the past.
Speaker 1:Matthew, chapter 18, verses 15 through 17, says if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you. That every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. So first thing we see here if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault. The translation to you is against you is questionable. It's really just the principle of if you see your brother in sin, go and tell him his fault, and the words for go and tell is actually the words to reprove or to expose. So it's the idea of this. It's a corrective conversation.
Speaker 1:Now that doesn't mean that it has to be mean or yelly or have an angry face. There are I don't know how many bosses you've had. I have had many different bosses in my lifetime and there have been most of them where, when you're in trouble, you're just like I'm not a human being, I am mud, I am terrible, I suck at everything, I am out of here. I don't want to get better at that. I want you to stop talking to me Now. That's one option and most people fall into that.
Speaker 1:The Bible says you and I are to speak the truth in love. Right, so you and I speak the truth. So when we see sin in a brother or sister's life, we speak the truth. It is unloving to not speak the truth. So if your brother sins, go and tell him his fault. But what's the context here Between you and him alone? Church discipline. I've said this many times over the years church discipline should happen on almost a daily basis in a marriage, you are a much worse sinner than you think you are, and your spouse knows it. And so here's the idea is, you and I, we have this paradox.
Speaker 1:I think Jonathan Edwards said it best where or it might've been John Owen where he said that it is easier to see a thousand sins in someone else and to call them for what they are than it is to admit one in your own life and to put it to death. That sounds like John Owen. I'm going to go with John Owen. So you and I, we have to understand that is nature. You and I are like that. We are the greatest judge, jury and executioner that anyone has ever seen.
Speaker 1:You walk down the road and you're like that's bad, that's bad. I would not do that that way. Why did you talk to them that way? What are you doing? Do you even know how to dad? We're really good at it and you might not be as vocal about it. It might all be up here and that's okay, but it's true nonetheless. So if that's true and you and I those that are married have the blessing of someone that lives in your home with you, guess what they see in your life all the time.
Speaker 1:Those thousand sins. They got them down pat. They know them probably better than you do and you don't want to be the person that has the giant pimple on their forehead that everyone loves too much to tell. Susie, you got a giant everest on your forehead. You like we. I don't know why, but the pimple analogy. We're like, yeah, that would be terrible. Like if I said, do I look good to my friend? And they were like and like there's this giant pimple on my forehead. I would be mad.
Speaker 1:And yet there is this sinful relaxation that I get when people don't call me out for my sin and I pop off on my children and no one says anything. Or I'm disgruntled and agitated, irritated which are fancy words for sinful anger with my wife in any situation and no one says anything. There's a sinful relaxation in me of no one saw, or at least no one said, and yet I am so much better when things are fixed. You see, you and I walk around with all these relationship issues, which is why we communicate passively, which is why we don't know how to build deep friendships. It's why you and I don't understand how people talk or what they think really, because you and I don't do the most intimate portion of a relationship, which is accountability. It is saying I love you enough to be uncomfortable with you in this conversation and to say that was wrong and you shouldn't have done that. Now, in Galatians 6.1, I don't think I have it, I do Sweet.
Speaker 1:Galatians 6.1, it says brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you, who are spiritual, should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Okay, what kind of spirit? Yeah, gentleness, that sounds mean and aggressive. No, it doesn't. A spirit of gentleness. Not only that keep watch on yourself lest you too be tempted. Okay, we have a very different paradigm here. This is not, mr Authority. That's like slamming the gavel down. It's like thou hast sinned failure. Don't do that again. This is not what's happening, okay. This is saying, with fear and trepidation, lot of humility, gentle voice, go to them and don't sin yourself while you're telling them about their sin. That's how weak you are. Is that even in the moment where you're correcting someone, you have to take a moment to say okay, don't sin, be quiet. Say only the words that are necessary. Speak life, dan, don't speak death. Be kind and gentle and patient. And if you realize, those came off really natural, because I say to myself all the time because I am not those things, brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, okay. So what are the caveats here? Does anyone get excluded from this? No, it says anyone. Okay. What about small sins? Like you, like I just caught that person doing a white lie to their spouse. That probably happens all the time. Like it's fine, any transgression, okay. So there's no caveat for the kind of sin that we're calling to account.
Speaker 1:You who are spiritual meaning those that are currently in the sinful aspect right now should restore what is the heart of church discipline. It is restoration, it is reconciliation. It is not good for you to have yelled at your spouse and to walk away and to think everything's okay. It's not. You need to go and say you're sorry. You need to confess your sin, you need to ask for forgiveness. You need to ask for forgiveness, you need to make it right and if you don't, there will be this disrepair. You'll be like Ryan's clavicle right now, or it's just like it is not meeting. I will have you know it's not even close. Sorry for making you laugh. Like we look at that. Actually, you know what's really crazy. This is working out perfect.
Speaker 1:The word for restore there in the Greek is actually a word that they would use in ancient Greek for setting a bone. Now I want you to think about that for a second. If Ryan goes to the hospital and Doc's like, hey, I'm going to have the chiropractor come in and just, and you'll be good to go, don't worry about it, we'll bandage you up and you'll be good to go, ryan would say no, please, please, you will tear things. There's pointy and blood. No, no, thank you. How much delicacy is required for setting a bone and doing it well? Can you just speak the truth and just shove the bones together? I hope not. No, we have to speak the truth in love. Not only that. That spirit of gentleness is that spirit of humility. It is humbly realizing I am no better than you, and tomorrow you might be doing this to me. Keep watch on yourself lest you too be tempted. So that's the hard posture. Go back to Matthew 18.
Speaker 1:Look how honoring church discipline is. The first step isn't go tell it to the pastor so that he can put it on the announcements for next Sunday morning. Look how loving church discipline is, because you and I have grown up where we grew up in church, where we're more comfortable gossiping about someone's sin than we are confronting it. No, no, it's more loving to just say, oh my gosh, yeah, they're always like that. That's more loving in our eyes than going to them and saying, hey, we got some work to do here. Let's stop this. You're hurting you and everyone around you and I don't want you to be the town gossip anymore. I don't want people talking about you, but if we leave you there, they're going to keep doing it.
Speaker 1:We've grown up in church where it's easier and nicer to talk about people behind their backs in a dishonoring way than it is to faithfully tell them the truth to their face and say I love you enough to say this is a problem, my friends. That is a major problem, a major defect in the American church today, as you and I have grown up in church light, soft church, whatever you want to call it where it's been considered more loving to just overlook everything, and that's not the truth. There is a time and a place for overlooking an offense, but there's also a time and a place to call to account. I had a situation recently where someone in this congregation actually brought something to me, where there was relational disrepair between me and someone that was not in this church and I didn't realize it, and the person like, but, like it's like apologizing almost a little bit, like hey, like I know this is a little rough or whatever, and I said no, no, no, thank you, I would have never known that that person was hurt and offended. I forgot about this situation. I'm lost in the sauce. Thank you for bringing that to my attention so I can make it better. I can't again. Somebody in this room has got to give an amen to this.
Speaker 1:I am not a mind reader. I don't know when you're mad. I don't know what I did. I'm an idiot, okay, and you need to treat me like it. If I did something that hurt your feelings, where I sinned against you, you need to tell me, or I'll never know, and when I smile at you the next time and try to give you a hug, you'll be like I hate this guy and I will know. Still, I'm not that good. My wife is very emotionally intelligent. Me, I'm dense as a doornail that thing is. She's so happy I got nothing and you need to treat everyone like that, because we all take our turn, we all need corrected, we all need help. Look how honoring it is.
Speaker 1:Though it is a private interaction to begin with, church discipline begins one-on-one One friend going to another friend and saying this is sin and you need to turn from it. What happens next? If he listens to you, you've gained your brother. What is the goal? It's restoration, it's gaining a brother, it's winning someone to the truth, it's winning them away from their sin. And again, you and I have an easier time understanding the illustration of a drug addict. And we're like, yeah, no. Like if you had the drug addict person and like you have that, like one family member who's like, no, it's okay, just leave them alone. They're doing their own thing, like it's fine. Like you and I would be like no, no, it's not okay. Like their life's going in the toilet. We need to save them, we need to pick them up, we need to stop this, we need to do what we can to intervene, and sin is 10 times worse than that. We win our brother and sister in Christ not only back to right relationship with us and God, but we win them away from their sin, which poisons them daily.
Speaker 1:Verse 16,. But if he does not listen, take one or two along with you that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. So now the circle gets bigger. As church discipline continues, the circle gets bigger, and so now we bring a couple of trusted friends or elders of the church along for the journey and say here's what's happened. This person has not reconciled, they have not admitted their sin. I need help. So then those people go and say, okay, hey, we love you enough, all of us are here, we're having like an intervention, we're like we care about you a lot. That's why we have the sign Like we intervene in this person's life, verse 17,.
Speaker 1:If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. Now, this is excommunication. The idea here is actually, if he refuses to listen is excommunication. Sorry, verse 17. There at the beginning is you and I don't put it on the announcements and say okay, hey, dan went to so-and-so. They didn't listen. Then Dan and Dan and someone else went to him and they didn't listen.
Speaker 1:So now we're telling you guys, now what we do is we bring it to the church and say this person, over weeks or months, has been pleaded with by this person and then by these people and they will not listen and we need your help. Call them, plead with them, ask them to turn from their sin and hopefully they'll see this is serious enough that they will. That is the last step there, and if they don't listen to that, then let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector, which is the idea of let him be to you. Let them be to you as someone outside the church that's unrepentant in their sin, the same way you would treat the drunkie down at the bar who doesn't care a flip about Jesus or church or anything else. It's not that you don't love that person, but there are blessings to being a part of this community that you and I get to receive every day, and we will not allow them to feel those, to experience those, not because we're like you're not one of us or like get out, you stink, but because we want them to see the pain enough to realize the truth, and sometimes that's what's necessary. Now this last slide I want you to take home and read over with somebody you love. Pick which ones you're going to work on the most over this next week, but I'll give you this as our final point.
Speaker 1:This is kind of like a line graph of what this should look like in our lives from salvation to the end. God sovereignly, lovingly, saves us from our sins. That's the first step. You've got to get saved. If you're not saved, you cannot be from our sins. That's the first step. You gotta get saved. If you're not saved, cannot be a church member. That's a rule. From that we get a testimony where we're able to tell others how Jesus has saved us, and from there we are baptized. From there the next logical step is that we commit to a local church and its leadership, and that's membership. Then the next two are an ongoing circular.
Speaker 1:On an ongoing basis, we regularly hold each other accountable for sin, which is discipline, and we regularly use our gifts that God has given us to serve his bride, the church. My dear friends, church membership and church discipline are not hot button topics that you should run away from, but are rather some of the most comforting and securing words that we get to experience in the Bride of Christ. It is a grace of life that keeps you from your sin, that keeps us all growing and loving and leading our families in the direction that we need. Let us pray. And leading our families in the direction that we need. Let us.
Speaker 1:Pray Father, we come before you just in awe of your word and we ask that you would use the feeble attempt that I made to make it clear and you would open hearts and minds to receive more and more of what your word has to say. Lord, we ask that you would help us to be a church committed to you and committed to each other, that we'd be a community that compels the world around us to look in and say what is different about these people. Lord, help us look at church discipline not in this legalistic or authoritarian way, but in this loving accountability that we are all in desperate need of. Help us, lord, in our weakness, to keep our hearts and our minds focused on you, to take advantage of all the opportunities given to us to be in community with each other. And, lord, may your will be done in this place as we plant this church. May you get all the glory and the honor and the praise. In Jesus' name. We pray, amen.
