Latest / 4-Freedom Podcast / 142. Freedom In Finding A Church - Part 3 - Church Discipline
Transcript
- 0:00I do not mean to be mean. I do mean to be mad.
- 0:05Those that criticize this kind of preaching, they don't like
- 0:08authority. If you ain't got the King James,
- 0:11you ain't got. Hey.
- 0:11If you don't have a King James, you don't have a Bible.
- 0:18And he'd be surprised. Son, don't go to sleep while I'm
- 0:20talking. Hey, hey, hey.
- 0:22Don't, don't. Don't you lay your head back.
- 0:24I'm. I'm important.
- 0:25I'm somebody. I love you.
- 0:27You know I love you. Have I convinced you I love you?
- 0:30Yeah. You better.
- 0:31You better nod your head Yes. Sorry.
- 0:32Come on, pull it out there. All right?
- 0:34You stay awake and you listen to me.
- 0:39I still believe if you're cold in hell.
- 0:41You bragging my family for a moment.
- 0:42I'm a preacher. When you got dressed today, you
- 0:56dressed deity. This is the Four Freedom
- 1:02Podcast, a podcast that is part of the RFP Network that seeks to
- 1:07bring freedom in Christ from the spiritual abuse of legalism.
- 1:19And so fundamentalism is designed to unpack the idea of
- 1:23authority from Scripture. The problem with that is that
- 1:25that's not the defining principle in Scripture.
- 1:28It is a part of Scripture. But the defining principle in
- 1:31Scripture is love. I found my freedom in you.
- 2:03I found a joy. I can't.
- 2:08Lose and thank God it's true. You wrapped your arms around me
- 2:12and heaven broke through. From the moment she found me, I
- 2:18found my freedom in it. Welcome to the Four Freedom
- 2:22Podcast. This podcast exists to bring the
- 2:25freedom of the gospel for everyday Christians with
- 2:28everyday issues. Now here are your hosts, James
- 2:32Seyfried and Brett Morgan. Welcome back to the Four Freedom
- 2:38Podcast. Thank you for being with us this
- 2:41episode. We are coming to you today and
- 2:43we just got back from Nicaragua and I'll tell you we had a great
- 2:48time there with James and Lee and our different churches come
- 2:53together. 2 churches that had never met each other.
- 2:58Me, Lee and James were the only three in our group of nine that
- 3:02had talked before. And you know, we've seen each
- 3:06other on a Zoom meeting. But these two churches come
- 3:08together and we just became best friends and we had a great week
- 3:13in Nicaragua. You know, it's funny that you
- 3:15know all, you know, people come to Nicaragua and they smuggle
- 3:18out prescription drugs and here the Baptists are over here we're
- 3:22smuggling out coffee and the best chocolate in the world.
- 3:27I mean, we're talking this is Primo, Primo chocolate stuff.
- 3:31Maybe you can address that here in a minute, James.
- 3:34But as far as a coffee goes, the coffee is some good stuff.
- 3:38We were trying to save some for Christmas gifts, but it smelt so
- 3:43good in the cabinet that I told Emily, you know what, let's go
- 3:46ahead and crack one of these bad boys open.
- 3:49But I am thankful to be home. We had a great week and I'm
- 3:52looking to report. We've got homecoming coming up
- 3:55this coming Sunday and then we've got a revival through
- 3:58Wednesday. So I'm not going to report about
- 4:01our mission trip until the 29th at my church.
- 4:05James, when are you going to report to your church about the
- 4:08mission trip? We are scheduled to give a
- 4:11report to the church this coming Sunday, the 22nd.
- 4:15Our team is going to talk about the trip.
- 4:17I've got a video lined up to show them and then we'll give a
- 4:21little message on missions if time allows and what that looks
- 4:25like. But excited about being able to
- 4:28present that. As you were Speaking of
- 4:30chocolate, I was telling Brett before we got on.
- 4:32I am a dark chocolate kaholic. I love chocolate.
- 4:36I love any forms of chocolate and we came across this coffee
- 4:40shop that had and, and Lee said this is some of the best dark
- 4:43chocolate you ever eat. So I went on and I was like,
- 4:46what? I already got my coffee.
- 4:48I already bought my coffee for the road and everybody else was
- 4:51coming back and they have these chocolate bars and he was like,
- 4:53it's so good. Don't eat it until like if you
- 4:56eat it at night time, you're going to be jacked and not going
- 4:58to sleep Like it's that good. And so I'm I'm waiting, I'm
- 5:02finally, I'm like, OK, I'm going to go buy 2 bars of chocolate.
- 5:04I bought a 60% dark chocolate and 80% dark chocolate.
- 5:08I got home, I cracked open the 60% I had one little once one
- 5:14inch by 1 inch, not even that big, half inch by half inch cube
- 5:18off of it. I ate it Brett and I almost
- 5:22threw up. It was that bad.
- 5:24Like it. I don't know if it didn't have
- 5:27the sugar in it, if it was just chocolate.
- 5:29You know, when we eat chocolate, it's got sugar and milk and it's
- 5:32all cremied up together and maybe it's meant for baking, but
- 5:37I, I could not stomach it. Dude, it was so bad coffee out
- 5:40of this world. But the, the, the chocolate for
- 5:44some reason at that place. And maybe it was on there.
- 5:47Maybe it was listed in Spanish, not for do not eat cook with
- 5:52cooking chocolate. I don't know.
- 5:53But it was, it was rough to to stomach as well.
- 5:56So. That's crazy.
- 5:57I haven't tried any of it, but Emily did and she's did say it
- 6:02was gritty but but not that bad. But you know, I knew it was
- 6:06different than normal. It wasn't like Hersey's or
- 6:09something. Yeah, no, it was not Hershey's
- 6:11dark chocolate or as I showed you, a Tobron dark chocolate
- 6:14bar. We, we did have a great time,
- 6:18man. We're excited about presenting
- 6:19this week and can't wait to share with the church what
- 6:24happened and what's going on and how we can partner together and
- 6:27how we can do mission not only locally, but globally across the
- 6:32seas. And so I think that's part of
- 6:34the church. I think part of the church is
- 6:36doing things locally, doing things nationally in a, in a
- 6:41national level, but also finding a place outside of your own
- 6:45nation where you can minister and be a part and be a presence.
- 6:49And so I like that concept of having a personal person that we
- 6:53can talk with, that we can communicate with and excited
- 6:57about the opportunity for us to partner in the future overseas
- 7:01in Nicaragua, if the Lord allows, could be somewhere else.
- 7:04But right now, we're just praying through what the Lord
- 7:07has for us. Every church should have the the
- 7:12the Missions model of the Book of Acts, Jerusalem, Judea,
- 7:18Samaria, and the uttermost part of the world, your community,
- 7:23your county, your state, and then somewhere else in the
- 7:27world. Every church should have that
- 7:29model. Church shouldn't just focus on
- 7:32outside missions and ignore their back door.
- 7:36And you don't need to just focus on your back door and ignore
- 7:39outside missions. Every church needs to cover the
- 7:42full spectrum, and that's how we're going to reach the World
- 7:45with the gospel. Amen.
- 7:47That's so good, such good stuff and excited about that.
- 7:51So glad to be able to do that trip with you, Brett.
- 7:53And our church has been able to come together.
- 7:56That was the first time I've been in Nicaragua.
- 7:59It was the first time that our church and your church had ever
- 8:02been on a mission trip together or to get a mission trip period.
- 8:05But also together and just been able to serve with each other
- 8:10like that. The, the mix of, of guys and
- 8:12girls was perfect. The, the connection that we, our
- 8:16church has had together was awesome and so glad to be able
- 8:20to be down there and be able to interact with, with with Lee and
- 8:24the organization down there was great.
- 8:26And I don't think Nicaragua's seen so many genders at one
- 8:30time. And so that was probably the
- 8:32world was changed while we were down there was because of the
- 8:35gender overload hashtag, ginger overload.
- 8:41We're excited about the future, excited about man.
- 8:44Just a couple of weeks away, Brett, what we got coming up.
- 8:47Oh, couple weeks ago away we've got Ringgold, GA coming up no
- 8:52longer Fort Ogle for it, but we are going we are going to hope
- 8:59Church Catoosa in Ringgold, GA and we are looking forward to
- 9:04the RFP conference the for the sake of the Gospel Conference.
- 9:09We're looking forward to being there with the RFP family and
- 9:12network of podcasts. And if you are going to be in or
- 9:17around the Chattanooga area the first weekend of November, swing
- 9:23my Ringle Georgia, swing by Hope Church and come see us at the
- 9:27For the Sake of the Gospel Conference.
- 9:29We'd love to meet you, talk with you.
- 9:31Hopefully we'll get a chance to do some, maybe some, some
- 9:35sessions and talk with some other podcast host.
- 9:39I know in the future here we're going to do some crossover
- 9:42episodes. I'm looking forward to that.
- 9:44But I'm really looking forward to the for the sake of the
- 9:46Gospel Conference this year. I do believe it's going to be 3
- 9:49days this year. We're going to do Friday
- 9:51evening, all day Saturday and into Sunday morning.
- 9:55But we are looking forward to being there for that, what we
- 9:59got coming up after that. Well, Speaking of that, have you
- 10:03been able to listen to the newest podcast?
- 10:05I think they're part of the network.
- 10:06I'm not sure I think they are, but Brian's new podcast Text and
- 10:10Context. I followed the show but I
- 10:13haven't had a chance to listen to the episode yet.
- 10:15Well, for all of our listeners, if you haven't listened to it,
- 10:18fantastic episode, great train of thought there with Brian,
- 10:22Jason and Josh. They're going through texts of
- 10:26scriptures that have been taken out of context and putting them
- 10:29back into context, and it's going to be a great show.
- 10:33Great series going on. I enjoyed very much the very
- 10:37first episode been able to hear Jason's story, Jason Riddle and
- 10:42Josh Owen's story. I think that's his name, Josh
- 10:45Owens. And so go and listen to that.
- 10:49It's going to be a great thing. And it's it's going to be some
- 10:53good stuff. They're going to be hitting and
- 10:55I can't wait to to listen to the more of what they have.
- 10:58And but for us coming up after that, that weekend for me, Brett
- 11:03is an extremely busy weekend. We've got the RFP meet up and
- 11:06then I come back, it's homecoming Sunday for us in
- 11:09November and then the Monday and Tuesday is our Baptist State
- 11:13convention. And so I've got like four or
- 11:15five days of just bam, back-to-back to back-to-back
- 11:18stuff going on. So excited about what Lord's
- 11:21doing. But we are after that right now.
- 11:24We got off the phone with our missionary just a couple of days
- 11:27ago, Our Lady, our liaison there in Israel and still planning our
- 11:32trip in March. But that may get pushed a little
- 11:35bit with just some uproars of things.
- 11:37And so we're still excited about it.
- 11:39We still want to do the trip, but we want to be as safe as
- 11:42possible, she said. There's boots on the ground,
- 11:44people were there, people were touring the city.
- 11:47But we want to be as safe as possible as well.
- 11:50And so we're re examining some of those things may push it to
- 11:53the end of the summer or even the end of the year, but we're
- 11:57just looking at our all of our options of what we can do there.
- 12:00But we are so excited about Israel, can't wait to do it and
- 12:03go back and see the Holy lands. I know it's going to be a great
- 12:05time. James, you still use a pager,
- 12:08right? A.
- 12:09Pager don't use the pager. How did that go?
- 12:13Oh, no, no pager. OK, well, maybe that's a good.
- 12:16Thing. Oh, oh, is that the the bombing
- 12:18thing that happened? Yeah, I think I saw one thing
- 12:21about that. One thing.
- 12:23OK, Yeah. I don't know.
- 12:24Yeah, but I I watch very I listen to news all the time, but
- 12:28I don't watch news at all. I don't what I.
- 12:30Whatever, what I catch on social media is about the only news I
- 12:34get, so. So you've got an unbiased media
- 12:37source there? There you go.
- 12:38Exactly. Perfect.
- 12:40That's right, Brett. We are in our church series and
- 12:45we've talked about what is a church.
- 12:47We talked about church membership and this week we're
- 12:50talking about church discipline and what that is.
- 12:54So let's get a quick clip. I've enjoyed playing these clips
- 12:57over the last couple of weeks, a clip of church membership and
- 13:01what that sounds like in the world that we grew up in.
- 13:06To tell you what, trim that 16,000 member mega church right
- 13:10on down to a good Holy Ghost local church.
- 13:13That's 10 minutes of a real pastor having real pastoral
- 13:16authority. This regrettable.
- 13:23It happens. Sometime a man better have
- 13:25wisdom be full of God. But First Corinthians 5 is in
- 13:28your Bible, and sometimes you've got to exercise church
- 13:32discipline. Put that in your tailpipe and
- 13:36smoke it while I shut that corner, brother.
- 13:39Hey, man, Brother Brett. Well, what do you think about
- 13:42that when it comes to church discipline and what we were
- 13:46taught? Church discipline is from our
- 13:49world of view. Oh, just got to trim the 16,000.
- 13:53Got to trim it down, brother, it's too big.
- 13:56We got to trim it on down to a manageable number.
- 13:59That's right. You know, I've been going to
- 14:02church for a long time and you know, we had a conversation
- 14:06earlier about this. As far as church discipline
- 14:09goes, I have yet to see church discipline done in a biblical
- 14:15way. I've got a couple of stories
- 14:20that I could tell about how my pastor looking at the church
- 14:23just up one day just decided, you know, we've got some people
- 14:27on the church roll that don't come anymore, but shacked up.
- 14:30They're living together. So I'm going to grab a man from
- 14:33the church and I'm we're just going to ride around and tell
- 14:35them they're off the roll. And that's about the extent of
- 14:39it. Just nothing biblical about it.
- 14:41I've got friends also, I've got other friends that were dragged
- 14:46up in front of the church because, you know, they wore
- 14:51their hat wrong or they look cross eyed at somebody just for
- 14:54nothing reasons. And so I've yet to see, you
- 14:58know, church discipline done the right way.
- 15:02I know there are churches out there that do it.
- 15:04I've investigated. I've read some things about how
- 15:07you're supposed to do it, and I've studied it for myself, but
- 15:11as far as actually seeing it, especially in the independent
- 15:15Fundamental Baptist movement, I just haven't seen it done the
- 15:18right way at all. Brett I would, I would be scared
- 15:24to attend the church that someone was church disciplined
- 15:27because they looked cross eyed at someone because as many of
- 15:30our listeners know, I am cross eyed.
- 15:32I have a lazy eye. And so it would be every single
- 15:35week I would be church discipline for looking cross out
- 15:39at someone. There you go brother, you need
- 15:41to repent. I do need to repent.
- 15:43Yeah, I have. I as well have heard stories,
- 15:47but I've yet to, like you said, being a church that has
- 15:50practiced church discipline the right way.
- 15:52I've been a part of learning in this learning process.
- 15:55And I saw what we're going to go through today.
- 15:58But I did hear a story just a couple of days ago of a friend
- 16:01of mine I was talking to in Alexander County and a pastor
- 16:05friend whose dear friend of mine been at same church for 25 years
- 16:08now, celebrating his 25 year anniversary in just a couple of
- 16:12weeks. And he was telling me of how he
- 16:15was going through the old bottle, all the old minutes of
- 16:18the church. And I've got a book here of all
- 16:20the minutes of our church as well.
- 16:21And I've read through them and it's, it's interesting if your
- 16:24church keeps those minutes to go back and see how the church
- 16:27functioned 50 to 100 years ago. I mean, they're getting up and
- 16:30they're voting on spending a dollar somewhere.
- 16:32And it's like you're voting to spend a lot.
- 16:34Like, the church operated so much differently.
- 16:37But he said he was reading them back in 1950.
- 16:39A man was in the summertime, was out doing some stuff and had
- 16:45gotten drunk at local bar and was walking around town and was
- 16:50saw by some church members that he was drunk out in public.
- 16:53And he was saying some vulgar things and doing some things he
- 16:57shouldn't be doing as a church member.
- 16:59And the, the church minutes reported that they, they went to
- 17:04the man privately and addressed the sin and he was unrepented.
- 17:08And so the next business conference business meeting,
- 17:11they got up and they addressed the church and said that so and
- 17:13so has been seen drunk in public.
- 17:16And we understand drunkenness is a sin.
- 17:19And so therefore we are going to church discipline him and this
- 17:23fellowship and this commune with him so that he won't be a
- 17:26participated in Lord Supper. He's still welcome to come to
- 17:29church, but until he can be repented and restored, he won't
- 17:32be a part of our church membership.
- 17:35And he was like, dude, I've never seen this before.
- 17:37This was crazy. And so he continued reading in
- 17:40the very next month. The report was business
- 17:44conference. Brother so and so recognized
- 17:47that he had done wrong, came before the church at the
- 17:50business meeting, repented of his sin and asked the church for
- 17:53forgiveness and restoration in the church.
- 17:56And I looked at him and I said, Paul, that is something that our
- 18:01church is missing these days because that's what the church
- 18:04is there for. It's to build and edify one
- 18:06another up. And church discipline does that
- 18:09when it's done the right way. I've said several times, and
- 18:13I'll continue to say it, that I actually don't like calling it
- 18:18church discipline. I actually like calling it
- 18:21church restoration. We're going to read a passage of
- 18:23Scripture in a minute and we'll see that the point of the point
- 18:28of it is not to just discipline, to just throw someone out,
- 18:32excommunicate them. The point is redemption.
- 18:36The point is restoration. The point is to bring them back
- 18:40to God. Too many of us, we like to
- 18:42gossip and backbite and tattletale and kick people while
- 18:46they're down. But the point of the whole
- 18:49process is to bring someone back to God, is to restore them.
- 18:55And we need to keep that in mind as we go through this process
- 18:59and see what the Bible has to say about it.
- 19:02Absolutely. Well, as we get started, the
- 19:04couple of questions we want to ask you to get your mind started
- 19:07is, is God's love incompatible with God's discipline?
- 19:11Oftentimes people will say, well, God is love, and how can
- 19:14God love someone and discipline them?
- 19:16Another question is, is if God allows pain in our life, does
- 19:19that mean that God hates us? And what the Scripture we're
- 19:23going to start out with is Hebrews 12, five and seven, and
- 19:26it says this certainly not, of course this doesn't happen, but
- 19:29certain, this is not God's love. But it says, And have you
- 19:33forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as a son?
- 19:36My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor
- 19:40be weary when you are reproved by Him.
- 19:44For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and chases every son
- 19:48who he receives. It is for the discipline that
- 19:52you have to endure. God is treating you as sons.
- 19:55For what son is there in whom the Father does not discipline?
- 20:00Here God discipline is seen as an expression of His love.
- 20:05In fact, it's one of the markers that we understand that we're a
- 20:07child of God. When God disciplines, it shows
- 20:10us that we are his son and his child.
- 20:14CS Lewis once wrote and said the problem of reconciling human
- 20:18suffering with the existence of a God who loves is only
- 20:22insolutable so long as we have attached trivial meaning to the
- 20:27word love God as as we continue this thought, God's love to us
- 20:34is much simply is much to simply leave us where we are.
- 20:38That's what the gospel is reflecting.
- 20:40The gospel is saying we're not going to leave you where you
- 20:43are. We're going to bring you through
- 20:45the power of faith in the gospel to what God has called you to
- 20:48do. God's love is a holy love.
- 20:51God's love is what is best for us is not always to get to get
- 20:55our way, but you have to be aligned with His way.
- 20:59Brett, what's your thoughts on that and help us understand this
- 21:02from maybe a parenting position? Well, you know, we understand
- 21:07this and things like parenting and education and coaching.
- 21:11And yet when we come to the topic of church discipline, many
- 21:15are quick to throw out this idea as unloving, divisive,
- 21:19unnecessary. We love to talk about the idea
- 21:23of God's grace and mercy. We we like Jesus as Savior, but
- 21:28we struggle with Jesus as Lord that to follow him means to deny
- 21:34ourselves. It means to pick up our own
- 21:37cross and follow him. If we love him, we will keep his
- 21:41commandments. Now, I will say that I've gone
- 21:44to Hebrews 12 many times in the past to talk about eternal
- 21:51security. Because, you know, if we could
- 21:53sin and lose our salvation, then there would be no need for him
- 21:58to chastise us. There would be no need for him
- 22:01to discipline us because we aren't his children.
- 22:05But we are his children. And, and God does care what
- 22:09happens to us because we are the his children.
- 22:13We are adopted into his family. But people that are lost, God
- 22:18doesn't discipline them. He doesn't care what they do.
- 22:22But I, you know, I, if I don't discipline my children, it's
- 22:26because I hate my children. But I discipline them because I
- 22:30love them, because I want them to turn out right.
- 22:33I want them to grow up in God fearing Christians and I want
- 22:37them to be productive citizens. If I hated them, I'd I'd ignore
- 22:40them. But because we are our children
- 22:43of God, He does discipline us. He does chastise us.
- 22:48He doesn't throw us away. Back to our subject.
- 22:52No doubt there are real stories of church discipline being
- 22:57unnecessarily divisive and unloving.
- 23:00Rather than throwing out church discipline because of bad
- 23:05examples, we need to once again turn to the Bible to consider
- 23:09what it says. And I've seen this too, where
- 23:12church discipline is just like it's, it's taken to an extreme.
- 23:18It's very authoritarian. It's you know, we're going to,
- 23:22we're going to set you straight. You know, we're going to be mean
- 23:26to you in this process. We're going to, you know,
- 23:29scorched earth policy. We're going to make this as
- 23:32difficult as possible because we're here to punish you, and
- 23:37that's not the attitude we need to have.
- 23:39OK, So what is church discipline?
- 23:42How, you know, how many of us have seen church discipline
- 23:46before? We've talked about it already
- 23:48that, you know, we've seen this a few times done in the wrong
- 23:52way. You know, Brett, another way to
- 23:54look at that is how many of us have ever been taught anything
- 23:57while in church? Because we often think of church
- 24:01discipline as the negative. And there is an aspect to that.
- 24:04There is an aspect of the corrective side of it, of
- 24:08someone being disciplined in the corrective sense, where you go
- 24:12to someone and you work through some things we're going to talk
- 24:14about. But there's also the side of
- 24:16church discipline that we often forget that we're going to
- 24:18address. First is the formative side.
- 24:20Part of me as a parent is forming in my children how to do
- 24:25the right thing. When my child does something
- 24:27wrong, it is telling them why they did it wrong because they
- 24:30don't even understand what they've done wrong.
- 24:32Sometimes my son will do something, Brody will do
- 24:34something. And I'll say, Brody, do you
- 24:36understand why you said that or did that?
- 24:38And he'll say no, It's because someone at school said it.
- 24:41And so I thought it was fun to say.
- 24:43And I am teaching him. I am informing him to have the
- 24:46correct ideology, and I am teaching him something.
- 24:50And so in the formative sense, we're all under church
- 24:52discipline all the time because we're all learning and forming
- 24:57how we can be closer to God. And every church does this, and
- 25:01every church should be doing this in the right way.
- 25:03But not every church does the correcting in the discipline
- 25:06side of it. And so the most corrective
- 25:09discipline happens in a small scale of personal relationships.
- 25:14One friend begins to exhort another friend in love.
- 25:18Brad, I see you're doing something wrong.
- 25:19Then I come to you because we're close and we're we're doing life
- 25:22together. That's the term that people in
- 25:24church want to use. We're doing life together.
- 25:27And so I received correction in a small group setting and and
- 25:31this should be the normal and regular part of a Christian
- 25:34life. We should be going to one
- 25:36another, confessing our sins, living transparent and lovingly
- 25:40helping each other follow Christ.
- 25:42And this is important to start here because if this is not
- 25:45normal in our church culture, then taking the next step in the
- 25:49formal church discipline is going to be confusing and even
- 25:53unloving. Because if we're not loving in a
- 25:56small group and we're not correcting one another in a
- 25:59small group. And I'm not saying, hey,
- 26:01Stephen, who who's coming to church, man, you're this is
- 26:04wrong in your life. And I'm not correcting him in a
- 26:06personal level. And it's not part of normal
- 26:08church life. Then when we do this in a
- 26:11massive area where we've come before the church body as a
- 26:14whole, then it's going to look like, well, God's not love.
- 26:18This church isn't love. All they're doing is discipline
- 26:20people. But yet when we do it in the
- 26:23right way, we begin to show God's love as God is holy and
- 26:26God cannot allow this. And so this is church
- 26:30discipline. And from here on out, when we
- 26:32refer to this, we're going to be talking about the formal sense.
- 26:35So it's got to start with the personal sense.
- 26:37It's got to start in a small group first, but then we've got
- 26:40to expand this into what the formal sense of it in the church
- 26:43as a whole looks like. And so Brett, let's begin to
- 26:47transition this over to you may have something on the personal
- 26:50side of it, but transition this over to the the corporate side
- 26:54of of Matthew 18. When it comes to the fact that,
- 26:59and I've said this before, God is love, yes, God is love, but
- 27:03that the fact that God is love doesn't diminish other aspects
- 27:08of his character. Yes, God is love.
- 27:11He he's, he's all loving, but he's also all just, you know,
- 27:16and you can't just say, oh, well, God is all love, so I can
- 27:20everything is allowable. He wouldn't do that because he
- 27:23wouldn't discipline anybody because God is all loving.
- 27:26He'll accept everybody because he's all love.
- 27:28No, yes, he's all loving, but he's also all just at the same
- 27:34time and that, you know, God's love and God's justness
- 27:39intersects at the cross. So as we look into what the
- 27:44Scripture has to say to answer the question, what is church
- 27:48discipline, we have to go to the Word of God.
- 27:52So the first passage of Scripture we're going to look at
- 27:54is Matthew chapter 18. We'll begin reading in verse 15
- 27:59says if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his
- 28:02fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you've
- 28:06gained a brother, but if he does not listen, take one or two
- 28:11others along with you, that every charge may be established
- 28:15by the evidence of two or three witnesses.
- 28:17If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church.
- 28:22If he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as
- 28:26a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever
- 28:31you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you
- 28:33loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
- 28:35Again, I say to you, if 2 of you agree on earth about anything
- 28:40they ask, it will be done for them by the Father in heaven.
- 28:45Now what I see when I read this passage of Scripture is there's
- 28:50so many people that especially pastors that are, that are
- 28:53trigger happy on church discipline is they just want to
- 28:56immediately drag somebody up in front of the church.
- 28:59And they don't want to follow the process that Jesus places in
- 29:04Scripture where Jesus says, OK, you need to go to them in
- 29:07private first. This needs to be a private
- 29:09conversation at their home or in your office.
- 29:13And then if that doesn't work well, then you need to take
- 29:15witnesses with you. You need to have another private
- 29:19conversation with a few people. We don't need to be trigger
- 29:22happy and just drag somebody up in the church because we see an
- 29:26opportunity to flex our muscles. So here we have someone who is
- 29:31in sin. He's confronted in private, but
- 29:35he refuses to repent. Then two or three witnesses come
- 29:39in the next instance, again, he refuses to repent.
- 29:44Then it's brought before the church and he still refuses to
- 29:47repent. So then he's excluded or
- 29:50excommunicated, treated as a Pagan or tax collector.
- 29:55And I also want before we read our next passage, and then I'll
- 29:59pass it back over to you. I also want to see here that
- 30:04you, he's, this person is given an opportunity to repent in
- 30:08private. So it's not like, oh, this thing
- 30:11has happened. So now we we have to bring it
- 30:14before the church. No, the scripture says if they
- 30:19don't repent, you go to the next step.
- 30:22If they don't repent, you take it to the next step.
- 30:25So the goal is repentance here. OK, so let's read.
- 30:30Let's consider First Corinthians chapter 5 verses one through 5.
- 30:34It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among
- 30:38you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans.
- 30:43For a man has his father's wife. Are you ignorant?
- 30:47Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be
- 30:51removed from among you, for though absent in body, I am
- 30:55present in spirit, and as if I've already pronounced judgment
- 30:59on the one who did such a thing. When you are assembled in the
- 31:03name of the Lord Jesus, and my spirit is present with the power
- 31:07of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan and
- 31:11for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be
- 31:15saved in the day of the Lord. So right there we see the goal
- 31:19is the ultimate goal is not to discipline them.
- 31:21It's not to kick them out of the church.
- 31:23It's not to excommunicate them from the fellowship forever.
- 31:28It's not to throw them away and flush them down the toilet.
- 31:32The point of it is that they might be saved.
- 31:36The point of it is the restoration of them.
- 31:40We're going to skip down the verse 11.
- 31:42Read a couple more verses. But now I am writing to you not
- 31:47to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he
- 31:51is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater,
- 31:56revealer, reviler, drunkard or swindler.
- 32:00Not even to eat with such a one. For what I have to do with
- 32:04judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the
- 32:07church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside, purge
- 32:13the evil person from among you. Let me say one more thing about
- 32:17this passage before I throw it back over to you here in First
- 32:20Corinthians. The Corinthian church had
- 32:23several, several problems that Paul had received several
- 32:27letters condemning the actions of the Corinthian church.
- 32:32One of the things that the Corinthian church was doing is
- 32:35they weren't fellowshipping. They weren't having anything to
- 32:40do with lost people, with people in the community.
- 32:44They were sequestering themselves and Pauls like, look,
- 32:48that's not what I'm telling you to do.
- 32:50I'm not telling you to stay away from everybody, but what you do
- 32:54need to stay away from is you need to stay away from the
- 32:57unrepentant brother, because that is a danger.
- 33:01This is a warning to the church. James, you want to talk more
- 33:05about that? Yeah, I mean, this is this is
- 33:08where we get to the heart of the issue.
- 33:09And it really begins, you know, Paul doesn't give a lot of
- 33:12lists, but when he does give a list, I think it should be
- 33:15something that we take note of. And so we're going to take this
- 33:17list and sort of have a working definition for the rest of the
- 33:20episode. And our definition is this
- 33:22church discipline is the act of excluding someone who professes
- 33:27to be a Christian. That's where it starts.
- 33:28First, they've got to know Christ.
- 33:31If they're a Christ follower of the Holy Spirit's within them
- 33:34and is leading guided in directing them and they're going
- 33:37against the Holy Spirit. If they're a lost person,
- 33:39they're going to do lost things. And so it's someone who
- 33:41professes to be a Christian from membership in the church and to
- 33:44participate in the Lord's Supper for serious unrepentant sin.
- 33:49What are those? Serious unrepented sin?
- 33:51It says those guilty of sexual morality or greed, an idolater,
- 33:58a reviler, a drunkard or a swindler.
- 34:02He says these are the things that are the unrepented sin.
- 34:05They refuse to let go of it. And typically this is what
- 34:08people mean when they talk about Christian discipline.
- 34:11They are ex communion or excommunicating.
- 34:14They are not allowing the Lord's Supper to be done with them in
- 34:18that sense. And so as we think through that,
- 34:21we've got to begin asking ourselves, OK, these are some
- 34:24serious issues, sexual immorality, greed, idolatry,
- 34:28reviler, drunk or swindler. These are the things we need to
- 34:31aware ourselves with. And we begin to ask ourselves,
- 34:35OK, why should I even have church discipline?
- 34:38Why is this even a big deal? Why is this something that even
- 34:41should be talked about in the church?
- 34:44And I believe there's a couple of different reasons, 5 specific
- 34:48reasons from this passage that we just read to give us reason
- 34:53for church discipline. The first one I think is this,
- 34:55to expose sin. Verse 2 says this and you are
- 35:00arrogant. Ought you not rather to mourn,
- 35:02Let him who has done this be removed from among you.
- 35:05Sin grows in the dark and discipline exposes it for what
- 35:09it might be to be removed. And so we we must first expose
- 35:14sin. We must expose sin for what it
- 35:17is. Sin is destructive.
- 35:19Sin is horrendous. Christ came to abolish sin on
- 35:23the cross to pay for our sin debt because we royally messed
- 35:27it up in the garden. But not only is it to expose
- 35:30sin, it's to warn others. The church does not enact God's
- 35:33wrath towards sin, but its judgment acts as a dim pitcher
- 35:38to warn of a great judgment to come.
- 35:40Verse 5, You are delivering this man from Satan for his
- 35:44destruction of the flesh so that his spirit may be saved on the
- 35:48day of the Lord. Where we're warning this person,
- 35:50we're saying, hey, this is something huge in your life.
- 35:53We're trying to help you. We're trying to cause the sin
- 35:56that's in your life to be removed.
- 35:57Not only is it to expose or to warm, but it's to save as we
- 36:01continue to own, it says to save them.
- 36:03The aim of discipline is to wake a person up to the seriousness
- 36:07of sin. How often do we see someone who
- 36:10is, you know, right now I'm, I'm helping my son with football and
- 36:14he's playing and he's out there and he's doing some things and
- 36:17he'll do a couple of things in practice.
- 36:18And I'll call him to the side and I'll say, hey, Brody, you
- 36:20don't need to do that. Why not?
- 36:22Well, because that's a penalty. If you do that, you're going to
- 36:25get called for a penalty and and you're going to cause the whole
- 36:27team to suffer. Well, this is the same thing
- 36:30that we would do in church discipline.
- 36:32Hey, what you're doing is, is wrong at sin.
- 36:35Well, why can't I do that? Well, because you're going to
- 36:37cause the whole body of Christ to suffer.
- 36:39You're going to cause pain to come upon you and on the body of
- 36:42Christ. And so it's to deliver this man
- 36:44from Satan and then it's to protect him.
- 36:46Verse 6, it continues on and it says, do you not understand that
- 36:50a little leaven leavens the whole lump?
- 36:52And so he's saying here we through doing this is protecting
- 36:56the church. God's perfect plan for for for
- 37:00the world for redemption is the church and we're protecting his
- 37:04bride. And then it's to preserve the
- 37:06church's witness. Notice again in verse one, the
- 37:10part of the shock that's in the church that it's even tolerating
- 37:13this, it says, is it actually reported that there is sexual
- 37:17immorality above you of a kind that's not even tolerated among
- 37:20pagans. I mean, Paul is literally saying
- 37:23here, listen, church, you're doing things that the wicked
- 37:26people say is wrong as well, and you're allowing this to happen.
- 37:30You're ruining your own church testimony because you're not
- 37:33disciplining those that are around them.
- 37:35The church task is to draw a clear line between the world and
- 37:39God's people and what was lost if they don't enact church
- 37:44discipline because we lose the purity of the church.
- 37:48We lose the preservation of the church when we don't enact
- 37:52church discipline. So let's think about this next
- 37:56question. What sins actually require
- 37:59church discipline? Is there a passage we can go
- 38:02through it? It lists all the different sins
- 38:05that require church discipline, but rather than make a big list
- 38:09of sins that are done, you know that we should discipline once
- 38:13you should and once you shouldn't.
- 38:16It's better to do this by drawing principles from skip
- 38:19Scripture to help guide us. After all, if we look in First
- 38:23Corinthians 5 and verse 12, it says for what business is it of
- 38:28mine to judge outsiders? Don't you judge those who are
- 38:32inside? So in the church, we have to
- 38:35make a judgement call based on evidence.
- 38:37And while God knows all things, including the motives of our
- 38:42hearts, we are limited in our perspective.
- 38:45There's only certain things that we can see as a result.
- 38:49Scripture talks about us looking at the outward fruit of
- 38:53someone's life, but even that it's not, it's not an omniscient
- 38:58viewpoint. We don't have all the facts.
- 39:01As a result, a church should discipline for sins that are
- 39:05outward, serious and unrepentant, that that's a good
- 39:11a good criteria to go by when judging these things.
- 39:16So let's talk about these three outward, OK?
- 39:20A church shouldn't discipline someone every time they suspect
- 39:25that person is proud, every time they suspect that person is
- 39:29greedy. You know, for us to judge, we
- 39:33must be able to hear. We must be able to see.
- 39:37In part, that's why Jesus calls for two or three witnesses.
- 39:42So it needs to be something outward.
- 39:44It isn't. It means that we call it public.
- 39:47It needs to be public. It needs to be seen it, you
- 39:51know, we can't just assume that something's going on.
- 39:55We have to have hard facts before we act on this thing.
- 39:59And 2nd, a second word is serious, OK?
- 40:03There needs to be a place in the life of the church where love
- 40:07covers over a multitude of sins, a multitude of transgressions.
- 40:12Now when we say that, that's not to belittle sin.
- 40:17But it's to recognize it is a part of bearing up one another
- 40:22as we, as we seek to follow Christ.
- 40:24Look, we're all going to mess up.
- 40:26We're all going to trip up. We're not perfect.
- 40:28You know, we sin every single day.
- 40:32You know, if we were brought up before the church every time we
- 40:34sin, this would be a 24247 process.
- 40:39So it needs to be a outward sin, needs to be a serious sin, and
- 40:43then finally it needs to be an unrepentant sin.
- 40:46You know, as Jesus lays out in Matthew 18, it's when a person
- 40:50who professes Christ but refuses to let go of the sin that they
- 40:56are liable for church discipline.
- 40:58OK, whether or not the person is repentant is what the church
- 41:02needs to try and determine that lies at the heart of the issue.
- 41:07So this is an instance where you go to somebody who's a member of
- 41:11the church, they profess to be a Christian.
- 41:13You say, look, you're doing this and they say, ah, there, you
- 41:18know, I'm not going to change. I don't see there's anything
- 41:21wrong with that. And so I'm not going to change.
- 41:24OK, well, that's when you that's when you bump it up to the next
- 41:27level, all the way up to the church.
- 41:30So we these sins, they need to be outward, serious and
- 41:33unrepentant. Yeah, absolutely.
- 41:35So Brett, who leads this process, who is the ones that
- 41:40should be doing this, I think? It's.
- 41:42It's the ones with the keys. Yeah, so one with the keys is
- 41:45the church, right? We we got to have the church
- 41:48leadership, the church as a whole doing this.
- 41:51And so a lot can be said, but let's summarize it with this
- 41:54basic, these basic 2 ideas. The process ultimately should
- 41:58include as few people as possible.
- 42:01I think this is where the church has got it wrong so often
- 42:04because we have these little how do we say it the the nice way in
- 42:09the Southern Baptist, the South Baptist churches.
- 42:14I have a prayer request. Prayer request.
- 42:16Your sister, I have a prayer request, dear brother.
- 42:19And all of a sudden we frame this in the form of a prayer
- 42:22request and we tell everyone we got to pray for brother so and
- 42:25so because man. And all of a sudden now everyone
- 42:28in the whole community knows. And so Jesus says in Matthew 18,
- 42:34start with one. Let's make this circle as small
- 42:37as possible. Brett, if, if I've hurt you,
- 42:41don't go to your 17 pastors in your association first.
- 42:44Come to me first. And then if I'm not repented,
- 42:47then then bring a couple of people with you.
- 42:49And he's, he's trying to say, get as small as you can keep it
- 42:53small after that. If if they're still not repented
- 42:57after you've you've addressed them twice, then it goes to the
- 43:00church. But but it's got to start small.
- 43:02It's got to start where where as few people can be dealt with as
- 43:08possible because this is involving the needs of the
- 43:12process of protecting the reputation of Christ and the
- 43:15well-being of individuals. Now now again, don't don't hear
- 43:18what we're not saying. If it's a illegal or immoral
- 43:22situation, you go to the authorities like this is not so
- 43:28and so has done something wrong with the teenage girl and you
- 43:32let them deal with it with one another.
- 43:33No, that's a, that's a serious issue and we take that straight
- 43:36to the authority. We, we don't let that happen.
- 43:40But if it's something that's as like we just said, if it's
- 43:43outward, if it's serious, if it's sexual morality, if it's
- 43:47something that's done in a, in a, in, in a sin, but not an
- 43:51illegal thing, then we deal with it in the church.
- 43:54But then we also should allow the church leaders to lead the
- 43:57process. Galatians 6/1, it says Paul says
- 44:01if anyone is called a transgression, those who are
- 44:03spiritual should restore him. I believe one of those two or
- 44:07three witnesses should be a pastor, an elder, a Deacon in
- 44:10your church that's coming alongside of you and saying,
- 44:13hey, I want to help you lead in this situation.
- 44:15I want to be there as a guiding person in this situation so that
- 44:19you're there, so that the spiritual authority that God has
- 44:22placed over you is helping you in this light or responsible to
- 44:26one another. And so the elders can play a
- 44:29role of processing some very challenging things in the life
- 44:34of the church and so bring them alongside.
- 44:36And so the the role of a church member should play ultimately
- 44:39this. We should strive to live
- 44:40transparent lives. We should speak truth into one
- 44:43another. That's where we have got to get
- 44:45back to living transparent and speaking truth in love.
- 44:49This also includes repentance and rebuking that involves in
- 44:53this. We should inform the elders of
- 44:54things that are going on. You should go to your pastor and
- 44:57say, hey, I've dealt with Brett. He's not listening.
- 45:01I don't know what else to do. How can you help me in this?
- 45:04How can you help me navigate these waters?
- 45:06Let your pastor know. Let your leadership know.
- 45:09Let your elders know. Plead with the person that's in
- 45:12sin. They have an existing
- 45:14relationship with you. If you don't know them already,
- 45:17this is the time to start a friendship with them.
- 45:19Tell them they're in sin. Be honest with them, and then
- 45:22pray for them. Even if you don't know them very
- 45:25well, pray that God will work in their lives and great repentance
- 45:29and ultimately, like we said, restoration.
- 45:32I think it is so important that you brought up the issue of
- 45:39abuse and things that are legal in this process because this is
- 45:46something that's an issue in our churches.
- 45:48And that is we have to understand that we that the
- 45:52government is an institution that is instated by God and
- 45:59there are laws. And the last thing we need to do
- 46:02is, you know, sweep sexual abuse or illegal things under the rug
- 46:09for the sake of keeping it in the church when we are legally
- 46:13bound to report these things. And hiding abuse causes so much
- 46:18trouble and so much trauma and does so much damage to the
- 46:22church. So I'm glad that you brought
- 46:25that up. Which leads us into the next
- 46:27question. How quickly should we act and
- 46:31how long should this process take?
- 46:35Does this need to be something that drags on for six weeks?
- 46:39Do we need to do this, this next coming up Sunday?
- 46:42How long should it take? And, and the answer to that
- 46:45question is how fast a church should act depends on how long
- 46:49it takes to determinate to determine the characteristic
- 46:53unrepentant. So how long does it take to to
- 46:57work that out for? Let me give you an example in
- 46:59Matthew 18. The process can take some time.
- 47:03I mean, we've got three different stages that we have.
- 47:06We got to go to them once and we got to get two or three people
- 47:08together. We got to meet, we got to go.
- 47:10And so that could take some time.
- 47:13But we look at First Corinthians 5 and it seems there's a quicker
- 47:16pace going on here. Paul's pronouncing judgment
- 47:20calling, remove the man right now.
- 47:23OK, so these two texts, they don't illustrate that the church
- 47:27has two different approaches for different sins, but more like
- 47:33it's describing the same process, but the two passages
- 47:37are dropping in at different time periods in the process.
- 47:42And so that's that's what we're seeing.
- 47:44Because look, first Corinthians 5, this is a church.
- 47:46This is a sin that all the church already knew about, OK,
- 47:51one that that they were even arrogant about.
- 47:55So the process of starting small and then adding warnings, that
- 48:00wasn't necessary in First Corinthians 5 because he was
- 48:03already public. It was already, you could
- 48:06already see the man was unrepented.
- 48:08That was clear. So Paul said, look, it's time to
- 48:11excommunicate now it's time. One other example in Scriptures
- 48:16in Titus 310, Paul instructs As for a person who stirs up
- 48:20division after warning him once and then twice have nothing more
- 48:25to do with him. So the example in Matthew 3 has
- 48:29warnings. First Corinthians has no
- 48:31warnings, and here in Titus we've got 2.
- 48:35But Paul's urgency seems to reflect his concern to protect
- 48:39the rest of the church. But again that the determining
- 48:42factor in this is how long does it take to determine
- 48:45characteristic unrepentance? OK, can a pre emptive
- 48:51resignation avert discipline? I'm going to throw this to you
- 48:55because you had something to say about this.
- 48:58Yeah, so imagine someone's confronted with their sin.
- 49:01They they've done wrong, they've seen this, this area and they
- 49:06think that it's OK. They think, hey, I'm, I'm good
- 49:09with the Lord. I'm, I'm OK with this.
- 49:11This is not wrong. And so the church begins to go
- 49:14through this process and they just say, you know what, I'm
- 49:18just going to, I'm just going to leave the church.
- 49:20I'm just going to resign my membership, pull my membership
- 49:22and, and I'm just going to leave.
- 49:24So how does the church respond to this?
- 49:26The other question, I think, and, and maybe even how to find
- 49:29the answer is, as you mentioned earlier, who does Jesus give the
- 49:33authority to? The kings of the Kingdom in
- 49:35Matthew 16, In Matthew 18, the church has the keys to the
- 49:40Kingdom. And so the church is still
- 49:42responsible. The church is still in a way,
- 49:46we're going back to these points of we're trying to protect the
- 49:50body of Christ. We're trying to preserve the
- 49:52church's witness. And so in some situations it
- 49:56might be that the church gets up and says, you know, brother, so
- 49:59and so has left the church and, and we've been dealing with a
- 50:03specific sin issue. Maybe you don't go into detail.
- 50:06You don't need to go into detail, but there's been some
- 50:08sin there. And they were unrepented and
- 50:10they felt best for them to remove them.
- 50:13They're they they opted to move them, remove themselves from the
- 50:16membership. And so therefore, this is the
- 50:19church in this way, letting go of and disciplining to loose
- 50:23this person to say, hey, it's nothing that the church did
- 50:26wrong. It's what they are actively
- 50:28participating in in order for them to to to be let go in this
- 50:34membership role. And so the question we have to
- 50:36ask, and this is Brett, sort of the last sort of thing.
- 50:39We'll, we'll, we'll talk about two different things, how to
- 50:42interact with someone after they've been church disciplined
- 50:47and how do we restore someone after church discipline?
- 50:49OK, so we've talked through the process of how this works and
- 50:52how, what happens. But let's say we've got this
- 50:55place. We've, we've initiated church
- 50:57discipline. We've, we've done what First
- 51:00Corinthians says, First Corinthians 511.
- 51:03I'm writing this now to not associate with anyone that bears
- 51:06the name of his brother of guilty of sexual morality or
- 51:10greed and idolatry, reviler, drunkard or swindler, not even
- 51:14to eat with them. And so he's, he, Paul's making
- 51:16some pretty serious things. He said, I'm telling you, don't
- 51:19even associate with them, don't even fellowship with them.
- 51:22And so how do we make sense of this?
- 51:23How do we reckon this in, in our day and age?
- 51:26I don't think this means that we physically exclude the person
- 51:29from attending church. I think that excommunication
- 51:33here is barring the person from having the Lord's Supper
- 51:37together because this is intended to mark off those who
- 51:40are not repentant of sin. They're not trusting in Christ,
- 51:43but the church's gathering is an opportunity for them to sit
- 51:46under the preaching of God's Word.
- 51:48We should welcome and even encourage in most circumstances.
- 51:52Yes, still come to church. Yes, still come and listen to
- 51:55God's word been extorted and expounded and preached and
- 51:58applied to our lives because that's what they need.
- 52:01But Paul was saying to not even eat with such a 1.
- 52:04And I believe he's not saying here that we should avoid all of
- 52:08our non Christian friends. I rather would say that he is
- 52:11saying to avoid the one who bears the name of a brother.
- 52:15He's not saying if someone's lost don't eat with them.
- 52:17He's saying if someone who is a brother is living an open sin
- 52:22then we should not be identifying with them because
- 52:25it's unrepented. Love compels us not to act as if
- 52:29everything is OK and share a meal with them.
- 52:31But love compels us as a person. So is at stake that we should
- 52:36characterize the interactions with them as deliberate
- 52:40conversations about repentance. And I believe he's he's given
- 52:43warning here. He's saying, listen, they're
- 52:45they're living in a way that is not honouring to God, is not
- 52:49honouring what the word says that you identify with.
- 52:52And there has to be some radicalness in our life of
- 52:55saying, listen, I can't even associate with you in this area
- 52:59because you're not living the Christian life.
- 53:02You're not living what Christ has called us to do to be his
- 53:05light bearers in this world. And what if the question is, is
- 53:09what if I excommunicate someone? That's my church family.
- 53:12That's my my blood relative. And I don't think the words that
- 53:16Paul says here applies to that situation.
- 53:19Just as Peter and Paul would have categorized a living if an
- 53:23unbeliever spouse, a shared meal with a spouse does not have the
- 53:27same implication as a shared meal with friends.
- 53:30And so I think it's a different category altogether and we need
- 53:34to be careful with those things. But I think ultimately using
- 53:37discretion in loving and caring for them and sometimes loving
- 53:43for them in a way that doesn't seem the way the world.
- 53:47The world says accept everyone the way they are.
- 53:49Well, Jesus says repent and then you're accepted.
- 53:54And if we can't repent, then how can we have fellowship with one
- 53:58another? Amen.
- 54:00Our last question we're going to deal with today is when and how
- 54:04do do we restore someone from discipline?
- 54:08Well, just as discipline should take place when characteristic
- 54:10unrepentance can be determined, restoration should happen as
- 54:14soon as characteristic repentance can be determined.
- 54:18How long this takes will vary from situation to situation, but
- 54:22when it is determined the church should restore the person and
- 54:26forgive with no talk of of probation or second class
- 54:32citizenship. Look, when we are called to
- 54:34restore, we are called to restore fully.
- 54:38One example of this is in Second Corinthians chapter 2 verse 5
- 54:42through 11. Now if anyone has caused pain,
- 54:45he has caused it not to me, but in some measure not to put it
- 54:50too severely to all of you. For such a one that's punishment
- 54:54by majority is enough. So you should rather turn to
- 54:58forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive
- 55:02sorrow. So I beg you to reaffirm your
- 55:05love to him. For This is why I wrote that I
- 55:08might test you and know whether you are obedient in everything.
- 55:13Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive.
- 55:16Indeed, when I have forgiven if I have forgiven anything has
- 55:21been for your sake in the presence of Christ so that we
- 55:24would not be outwitted by Satan for we are not ignorant of his
- 55:28designs. You know verse 11's very
- 55:31instructive. There are times whether
- 55:34individually or corporately where forgiveness can be costly.
- 55:38It can be difficult, but Paul encourages forgiveness here, not
- 55:42only because you know, we've been forgiven ourselves because,
- 55:47but also because he doesn't want to be outwitted by Satan with
- 55:51unforgiveness, bitterness and anger and division.
- 55:54All of those things are soon to follow after that.
- 55:58All right, I hope that this has been helpful and I hope that
- 56:03being careful in our church membership and how we practice
- 56:07church discipline will help us drastically.
- 56:11We not only tell the truth to each other about our standing
- 56:13for God, but we also tell the truth.
- 56:16I think this is the most important thing, Brett, for us
- 56:18to take away from church discipline is we show the truth
- 56:21of God's love and God's mercy and God's forgiveness and God's
- 56:24grace to the watching world. When someone's done wrong and we
- 56:29welcome them back in with open arms and we love them and we
- 56:33care for them and we forget and we move on, man, that that is so
- 56:37powerful to the world because how often does the world hold on
- 56:41to these grudges? And we just by through
- 56:45repentance and through forgiveness, because we've been
- 56:47forgiven much and so we also should forgive much as well.
- 56:51We are opening up the door for the world to see a loving,
- 56:54caring God in a way that only He can show His love and.
- 57:00I'd also like to say closing out when it comes to this area of
- 57:04church discipline, church restoration, whatever you want
- 57:07to call it, it is so imperative that we don't fly off the handle
- 57:12and, and, and try to take this up on our own in this area.
- 57:17It is so important we go to the Bible and I would suggest every
- 57:21time this comes up, don't think you know what to do, Turn to
- 57:25these passages of scriptures, Open up the Bible, read Matthew
- 57:3018 every single time. Read First Corinthians chapter 5
- 57:34every single time. Write the steps down step by
- 57:38step and take the the approach that Jesus and Paul prescribe
- 57:44when approaching this subject. It is so super sensitive.
- 57:49That's why we need to let the burden of this fall on Scripture
- 57:53instead of falling on us because we don't have the authority
- 57:57personally. The church has the authority
- 58:00because it's been given by Jesus Christ.
- 58:02So we need to let the church be our and and the Scripture be our
- 58:07authority in this, and let the burden fall on Scripture.
- 58:11Yeah, we are. We are the armor bearer.
- 58:14We are the flag bearer of Christ.
- 58:16The gospel is what's gone before us.
- 58:19Christ has laid out what this looks like, and our
- 58:21responsibility is just to honor his name, bear his name, and go
- 58:26forth proclaiming his name. And by doing that and allowing
- 58:29the gospel to shine through, we allow Christ to be magnified in
- 58:33all these things. And so I think this is so vital
- 58:36for US. Church discipline is something
- 58:37we don't do. But I'll close it like this,
- 58:40Brett, if I know my son is doing wrong.
- 58:43And this, this happened this last week, Brett, we, we got
- 58:47home, we were, we were in the vehicle and Brody was just out
- 58:51of control. And so it hadn't happened in a
- 58:54while, but we continued to talk through him the whole way home
- 58:58and we're trying to calm him down, but he was just causing
- 59:01problems and, and we got home and I said, Brody, go to your
- 59:05room, It's time for an adjustment.
- 59:08And I went in and I looked at him and I said, I love you, son,
- 59:11but I'm doing this because I love you.
- 59:13And I had to discipline him and he cried and, and when we, we,
- 59:17we talk through that the way we do it in our household.
- 59:20But I did it because I loved him.
- 59:22I did it because I don't want him to act that way in any other
- 59:26situation. And I'm trying to do it for his
- 59:28benefit. I didn't do it because it was
- 59:30going to make me look good. No one was going to see that I
- 59:33didn't go before the entire church.
- 59:34And this is the first time I'm telling out loud because it was
- 59:38an issue that was dealt with between me and him and our
- 59:40family. And he apologized to his mother
- 59:42that we dealt with those things. And that's how church discipline
- 59:46should be done. It should be dealt with small so
- 59:49that God is glorified, so that His name is lifted high, so that
- 59:52ultimately everything that we do is done for the glory of God.
- 59:58Amen. Brett, anything else?
- 1:00:01I about covers it. Until next time to God.
- 1:00:05Not the pastor. Be the glory.
- 1:00:08Found my new name, found that good grace, found that healing.
- 1:00:14And the tears fell down my face when I found my beginning.
- 1:00:18It has no ending. I found that second chance,
- 1:00:21found my best friend, Found my forgiveness, found my happiness.
- 1:00:23I've been singing ever since. Thanks for listening to the Four
- 1:00:41Freedom Podcast. If you enjoyed our content, do
- 1:00:44us a favor by liking, subscribing, or sharing our
- 1:00:47podcast or whichever podcast platform you use.
- 1:00:51Be sure to join us next time for the Four Freedom Podcast.