What Members Should Expect 3

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You may be seated.
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I invite you to take out your Bibles and turn to 1st Corinthians chapter 3.
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Just hold your place there at verse 1.
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A few months ago we began our series entitled, A Biblically Functioning Church Revisited.
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And the reason why it's called Revisited, as most of you know, many, many years ago, we, having been prompted by God to do so, made a choice in regard to the theology and the leadership and the guiding of our church.
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And we began to seek out what the scripture taught about how the church is supposed to function.
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And so back in, I think it was 2008, 2009, we did a long study of the subject and as a result came to the conclusion that we weren't doing some things biblically, many things in fact, and that we needed to make some changes, and we did.
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Well this year, now looking at having been Sovereign Grace, we were a different, even a different name before that, now being Sovereign Grace since 2010, I wanted to revisit this subject because it's very important that not only do you have a good foundation, but it's important that you maintain that foundation.
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It's important that you maintain and always go back to the scriptures.
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One of the phrases that came out of the Reformation was Semper Reformanda, Latin for always reforming.
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Meaning always willing to go back to the scripture, be challenged in regard to your life, your walk, your holiness, your church.
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Because it is so easy to allow ourselves to begin to float away from the foundation upon which we start.
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It's so easy to begin to wander and to begin to allow other things to make their way in, to allow things in that ought not be in.
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And so again I say, we need to come back to these principles, making sure that we are standing on the truth.
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We've looked at a lot of things over this series, we started earlier in the summer, we've looked at things like leadership, how is the governing structure of the church supposed to operate, how do members interact with leadership, and how do leadership, what responsibilities do both sides have.
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And we're inside of an 18 point sermon.
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It's kind of a joke because 18 points is a lot, no way I would do that in one Sunday.
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But if you're coming here for the first time today, I want to just sort of bring you up to speed.
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Because we asked the question, should there be expectations when you come into the church? And the answer is yes.
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There are certain things that people should expect when they come to the church.
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Likewise, when a person comes to the church, there are certain things that the church should expect of them.
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Because it's a covenantal relationship.
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When I got married to my wife, we entered into a covenant.
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And when I got married to my wife, I looked at her and I made some promises.
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And you all know what those promises are.
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A promise to love, to honor, to cherish, in sickness and in health, till death do us part.
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Now, if I were to ever, heaven forbid, go nuts, and I would have to be nuts to leave my wife.
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If I were to ever go nuts and do that, that would be, she would be able to look at me and say, I had an expectation.
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You said, till death do us part.
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That's the expectation.
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Because in the covenant relationship, there is that.
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There's that expectation.
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And I expect that of her.
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I expect that when I get up tomorrow, she's going to be there.
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And the day after that? And the day after that? She better be, because if she leaves, I'm going with her.
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I expect something in the relationship, and she expects something of me.
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Likewise, when we come into the church, there is mutual expectation.
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We expect, when we come into the church, we've already seen six of the nine things.
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I said there's nine things that you should expect when coming into the church.
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And today we're going to finish that, and next week we'll start on the nine things that are expected of you.
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But there's nine things that you should expect when you come into any church.
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And what I said from the beginning, and I continue to say this, the expectations should not be superficial.
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Some people come into the church, they care about whether or not the pastor is wearing a tie, or whether or not the pastor is wearing a suit.
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Some people really want the pastor to be in torn-up jeans and a screen-printed t-shirt, because that's hip and relevant.
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I talked to a young man just this week, and he said that.
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Because he went to another church, and I was just talking to him.
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I said, well, tell me about your church.
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He said, well, it's not like this one.
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He says, our pastor is really hip.
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I was like, well, thank you.
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That hurt.
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But he really didn't mean to hurt my feelings, and he really didn't, because I didn't care.
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But it was just kind of funny, because he said, yeah, he wears torn-up jeans and screen-printed t-shirts and whatever.
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And I was like, okay, whatever.
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If he's preaching the gospel, I don't care what he wears.
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If he's preaching the gospel, I don't care if your church is like a warehouse or like a cathedral.
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It doesn't matter if he's preaching the gospel.
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But if that's what your concerns are, then I would say your concerns are misplaced.
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That's the point, and that's the problem in a lot of people.
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Their expectations are askew.
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They come in more concerned about the youth program than about the theology of the church.
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They come in more concerned about the ministry opportunities than they do about what the minister is preaching.
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And what happens is we have churches that are filled with people who don't have any idea what the church teaches or believes, but they really like the music, so they're going to stay.
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That's a problem.
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I'm not saying we should have bad music.
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I don't think we do, but you understand.
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It's the expectations are out of whack.
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So I'll give you the first six.
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If you haven't been here, I'm not going to elaborate on them.
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If you would like, you can go back and listen to the audio.
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The first one is you should expect biblical preaching.
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The preaching should come from the Bible.
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Number two, you should expect biblical theology.
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Biblical theology gives birth to biblical preaching, and biblical theology is you should expect theologically minded teaching.
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That's foundational.
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If all I'm teaching you is, if I'm telling you stories from the Reader's Digest and the latest memes that are going around on social media, if I'm making you laugh but I'm not making you think, leave.
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It should be theologically minded messages.
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The third thing, it should be a proper understanding of the gospel.
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The church can have a great men's ministry, but if they don't understand the gospel, all you're doing is you've got guys getting together and patting each other on the back.
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The gospel has to be preeminent, and it comes out in the theology and the teaching.
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Number four, biblical evangelism.
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You should expect that the church seeks converts the biblical way, not through manipulation.
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You know, in some churches you go into, when it comes time for the invitation, everything changes.
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The lights go low, the music comes up, and everything becomes a mood because the only way people get saved is when the mood is right.
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No, that's not.
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People get saved when they hear the truth and God opens their heart to believe it, and they're converted by the work of the Holy Spirit, not by the work of the sound man.
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No offense, Noah.
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So, biblical understanding of the gospel leads to biblical understanding of conversion.
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Because if you understand the gospel, then you'll understand how conversion and evangelism are supposed to work.
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So today we come to number six, which we started last week, but we're going to begin here.
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We'll do 6, 7, 8, and 9 today.
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So we're going to do a little bit of six, and then we're going to go to 7, 8, and 9.
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The sixth thing I said that we need to expect if we're coming into the church, we need to expect the biblical understanding of membership.
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Is church membership biblical? Yes.
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There are a few messages back.
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If you want the argument, I made the argument a few messages back, but it's very simple.
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Church membership is biblical.
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We're called to be in covenant with one another.
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It's part of what we are called to do.
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And if we're not seeking that, I would ask why.
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Why are we not seeking to be in a relationship where there are expectations and standards and things like that? Why is that not important? There are a lot of folks who just sort of hop.
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You know, they go from church to church, and they never ever settle.
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And I would ask the question why.
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And I'm not going to assume to know the answer, but I would want to know, is there a reason why you haven't settled and decided, well, I want to covenant with this group, and I want to be a part of this family.
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Again, church membership is biblical.
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And biblical church membership begins with a person who's been properly evangelized, biblically converted, and they're ready to serve God in that local body.
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And it is something that you should want to do.
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As I said, a lot of churches now are kind of getting away from the whole idea of membership.
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They're getting away from the idea of covenant because they want to take away all standards.
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They want to take away all responsibilities.
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The big phrase is come as you are.
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Now, typically, come as you are simply means dress how you want to dress.
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And you look around the room.
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I don't care.
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We're not going to step on your toes if you're wearing flip-flops.
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It'll hurt more.
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But nobody cares what you're wearing.
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So if that's what you mean by come as you are, nobody cares.
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Nobody goes home today, at least I know our family.
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Nobody goes home and says, hey, did you see that guy in the yellow shirt? Sorry, Dale.
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Now we will.
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But nobody cares.
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That's not the issue.
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But here's what come as you are has become.
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Because it started out as sort of come casual.
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Number one, you should never come casual to the throne of grace.
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And casual is not what you wear.
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Casual is what you are in here.
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We don't come to the throne of grace casually.
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We don't stand before the God of the universe like he is our buddy.
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Jesus is my friend, but he's not my pal.
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That make sense? He's my friend in that he's called the friend of sinners.
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Because he loved me enough to die for me.
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But I don't talk to him with no reverence at all.
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I talk to him like the God of the universe that he is.
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And so when I come into his presence in his house, there's a heartfelt reverence for him.
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And a respect for his people.
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And I understand that God has called me to holiness.
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Not to wretchedness.
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And that goes out into all my life.
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So again, this is most of this I talked about last week.
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One of the things that we should expect is a biblical understanding of membership.
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And membership begins with people who have been truly converted.
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Have you been converted to Christ? I've had people try to join the church who weren't converted.
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I don't know why.
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Other than it was the socially acceptable thing to do.
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My family has joined the church, so I want to join the church or whatever.
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But I have had people who are not converted come to me.
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Well, I want to join the church.
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Have you come to Christ? I don't know.
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Well, let's take care of that first.
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Because biblical membership in a local church begins with conversion.
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And so if we're not converted, we're not ready yet.
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If we're living in sin, we're not ready yet.
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We need to repent and turn to Christ.
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So let's go to number seven, because this is where the text...
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Like I said, that was sort of just finishing last week.
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Going to number seven.
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What should you expect when you come into the church? Biblical discipleship.
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Biblical discipleship.
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We're already there.
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I asked you to turn earlier.
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1 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 1.
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The Apostle Paul says, But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.
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I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it.
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And even now you are not ready, for you are still of the flesh.
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For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and believing only? In a human way.
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Can I pray real quick? Father, I thank you for your word.
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I thank you for the opportunity to preach it.
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I pray, Lord, that the introduction, though it was long, was meaningful.
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But I pray now, Lord, as we dive into the text, that you would keep me from error and use this to glorify yourself, to draw people to yourself, and to see your church grow in spirit and in truth.
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In Jesus' name.
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Amen.
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Biblical discipleship.
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A lot of you have probably heard that word.
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And I want to make a very, very important note.
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When we talk about evangelism, and we talk about discipleship, they're really one and the same.
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There's not a strong distinction between them.
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But I am making a distinction in this lesson because when we talk about evangelism in the way that I did earlier, two sermons back, I was addressing specifically the teaching of lost people to follow Christ, which is a form of discipleship.
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It's making disciples.
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That's what Matthew 28 says.
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It says, go and do what? Make disciples.
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It doesn't say go and make decisions.
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Go and have people make decisions.
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It says go and make disciples.
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So when we go out, that's what we're trying to do.
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When we go out and we have our track ministry, and we have the fishing hole, we go set up this booth at these fairs and these different bazaars and things, and we have these gospel tracks.
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We're not there trying to get people to make decisions.
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We're trying to get people to become disciples of Jesus Christ.
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Discipleship begins in evangelism.
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But it doesn't end there.
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And that's sort of what I want to talk about today.
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You are still growing as a disciple.
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None of you have arrived yet.
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And certainly I know I haven't.
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Do you all have that which you need to learn? Do you all have that which you need to forsake and grow in? I say forsake some things and get better in some things.
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Absolutely.
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None of you have arrived.
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We have been predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, but we ain't there yet.
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That conformation takes time.
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It's a growth process.
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And when Paul was talking to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 3, and by the way, the Corinthian church was plagued with a church that was filled with sin.
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It was a place that had issues with sin all throughout.
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And so a lot of these people coming into the church, though they had confessed Christ, many of them were bringing along the baggage of their life and had yet to understand some of the things that they needed to reject and they had yet to adopt some of the things that they needed to adopt.
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In fact, in this passage, he says, "...but I, brothers..." And he says brothers.
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And he calls them infants in Christ.
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So the assumption is that he's talking to believers.
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Now, here's the thing about that.
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There is the truth that anytime you speak to a crowd, there's believers and unbelievers.
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There's believers and unbelievers here today.
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There are people here today who have never confessed Christ.
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And there are people here today who have confessed Christ with their mind but not with their heart.
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They have not been converted.
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They have made a verbal profession and they don't have an inward possession.
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That is happening here today.
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That's why at the end of the sermon, I always call you to reflect on your own condition.
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I say, ask yourself, am I of the faith? That's important.
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So Paul is addressing people.
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He says, I, brothers, I cannot address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh.
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Now in Romans 8, he makes a strong distinction between people of the flesh and people of the spirit.
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People of the flesh are not saved.
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People of the spirit are saved.
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In 1 Corinthians, he's not making such a strong distinction.
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His distinction here is people who are infants in Christ.
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That's the term he uses.
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They're people who upon their salvation have not sought to grow in their spiritual maturity and as a result, whatever growth they have experienced has been very minor, if there's been any at all.
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Now there's always been some growth and my wife and I talked about this last night.
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Anyone who's been born again is going to grow.
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But it's sort of like the difference between maybe a person who grows naturally and a person who works towards their growth, maybe like a bodybuilder.
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You know, a bodybuilder goes and he works on his body and he gains strength and he gains muscles and he gains things because he's concerned about growing.
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Both people are going to grow, but one is going to grow a little bit more quicker and a little bit more maturely and maybe a little more guided because they're directing what they're trying to do.
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I think about this.
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People come into the church and there's all kinds of opportunities for learning and growing.
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And if all you're getting is Sunday morning, I want to challenge you to ask the question, if this is all you're getting every week, you're getting 52, in that chair if you're every week, you're getting 52 45-minute messages a year.
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If you're not studying the Bible outside of these walls, if you're not praying outside of these walls, if you're not engaging in some type of ministry, and we have various kinds.
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We have men's groups, we have women's groups, we have Sunday schools, we have Wednesday night is one that I think is often overlooked.
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Some of you can't because of work and things like that.
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And I'm not condemning anyone.
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I'm trying to give you the point.
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Is that part of the reason for the church and something you should expect is that we want to grow you.
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We want you to grow.
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We want you to become conformed to the image of Christ and that's a process.
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That's the goal of the ministry.
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Because if you're not growing, you're done.
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So we want you to quit being infants and start being mature adults in Christ.
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He says in verse 2, He says, I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it.
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And even now you're not ready, for you're still the flesh.
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But how does he define that? He says, For while jealousy and strife among you are you not of the flesh and behaving in a human way.
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Here's his point.
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He's like, look, I come to you and man, do I got some meat to feed you.
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But every time I come, I have to start over.
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Because every time I come, I'm having to deal with the stuff that should have been dealt with a long time ago.
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Jealousy? Strife? That's the things I'm preaching on? Should we not be preaching on the deeper and more profound things of God, but you're making me preach on gossip? Shouldn't we be concerned with the more profound things of God, but you're making me preach on thievery? Really? This is Paul's issue.
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There's so much more I have for you, and you won't let us break out of this shell.
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I'm quoting Paul, certainly not me.
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But you understand, right? I've heard theological institution teachers say you should never preach on a Sunday morning past, I think, what, fifth grade level.
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It should always be the most basic, basic things.
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You know what I say to that? I say I'm going to challenge you to think harder than you ever thought before, to rise higher than you've ever risen before, and to go deeper than you ever have before.
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Because that's my job.
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My job is not to sit on the cart and push you.
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My job is to get out in front and lead you to read, to study, to think, so that it causes you to read and study and think.
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That's my job.
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To lead the people of God in understanding the Word of God and living the Christian life before them.
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And that's the call.
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Come and follow and do it, and let's do it together.
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I love it when I get calls in the middle of the week.
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Pastor, I'm reading this Bible passage and I don't get it.
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Can you help me understand it? I just stop and I'm like, amen.
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I'm not amening that they didn't understand.
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I'm amening that they cared enough to try to understand.
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And I don't always know the answer.
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I'm like, I'll get back to you on that.
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That's a tough one.
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But you understand though, discipleship begins when we're converted.
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We're made disciples.
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But we grow.
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And if we're not growing, there's a problem.
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Paul is very clear.
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He says if we're not growing, it's because we're focused on the wrong things.
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It's because we haven't gotten past the simple things.
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There's a certain point where I shouldn't have to tell you not to gossip anymore.
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You should already know that.
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But yet we still gossip.
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So it's step back.
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Let's deal with the elementary stuff.
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And that's what Paul is saying.
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He says you're still in the flesh because while there's jealousy and strife among you, you're acting like you're in the flesh.
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You are in the flesh, he says.
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You're not of the flesh.
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Are you not of the flesh behaving in a human way? Yes, you are.
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You're behaving like unsaved people.
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And if you're behaving like unsaved people, we're not going to go any further.
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One of the saddest realities in the church is that we have believers who behave like they're not.
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In fact, that's going to come a little later.
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Because really, I'll give you the three things, and they're sort of bleed over today.
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I apologize, there's going to be a little bleeding.
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Because biblical discipleship is number seven.
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Biblical leadership is number eight.
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And biblical discipline is number nine.
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So that's the nine things.
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Biblical discipleship, biblical leadership, and biblical discipline.
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Biblical leadership.
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What is biblical leadership? Biblical leadership is found in the Scripture where it says, and God appointed them, pastors and teachers, apostles and prophets, and evangelists.
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For what? For the equipping of saints for the work of the ministry.
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That's our job.
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The leaders of the church, the elders of the church, the deacons to serve as examples in that area of service.
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That's the job of the leadership of the church is to provide examples and to teach the Word of God so that the church might minister within itself and minister to itself.
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And when you come into the church, you should be confident that the leaders that the church has ordained to those positions are biblical leaders.
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I'll tell you, there have been several times, there have been several times where names have come up and the elders have to sit back and say, okay, this is a good guy, he's a loving guy, loves his family, but he shows no desire to lead God's people.
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He shows no desire to lead his family in the study of the Word.
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Why would we put him as an elder? But he's a good guy.
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That's not what we're looking for.
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We're not looking for good guys.
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We're looking for guys who care about the Word of God and want to teach the Word of God and know how to lead people with the Word of God.
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That's what we're looking for because that's what the Bible is looking for because that's what the church should expect.
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The church should expect that the leaders have been vetted and that the leaders have been examined and that the leaders are called to the duty that you're putting them in.
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The eldership of the church is not a board position.
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It's not something that you simply have a committee that comes together and votes on.
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It's a calling from God.
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As much as I had to have had received a calling from God to stand in this pulpit and preach, Richard had had to receive that same calling from God to be an elder in this church and Jack the same calling as well.
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I'm not extra special because I get to preach.
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I just happen to be the loudest and this is my gift.
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Talking.
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Jack has his gifts, Richard has his gifts and it's good that we don't all have the same gift because we can all serve in the different ways that God's given us.
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And as God raises up other men to these positions and God puts other men in these positions, it will always be do they meet the Biblical requirement first and foremost? Do they know the Word of God? Do they love the Word of God? And can they lead God's people with the Word of God? That's Biblical leadership.
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And that's what you should expect.
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As a member of the church, you should expect that and it should not be negotiable.
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Number nine.
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And finally.
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This is going to bleed over some like I said because the Biblical discipleship comes from the leadership and then the discipline.
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Anytime I talk about church discipline, there's always a big like the hair on the back of people's neck starts to stand up.
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If you've ever been a part of church discipline or ever seen it happen, it's almost like some people don't think you can even do it in 2016 because the way that the church discipline is supposed to operate is that if a person in the church is sinning and they have been called to repentance and they refuse to repent and they have been brought before the church and called to repentance and they refuse to repent, that that person is to be removed from the body for the sake of the body and to encourage that person to repentance.
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Okay, we're not going to let you be part of the body.
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The problem in 2016 is if that happens, let's just say for instance that a person in the church was in sin and put out of the church.
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What happens? Well, they leave this church and they go down the street and they join another church and guess what that church does? Nothing, in general.
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They're excited to get a new person.
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They don't care the situation they came out of.
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That's not always.
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I have had times where people have left our church without a negative but the pastor calls me.
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Hey, we just got so-and-so came to visit the church and they said they were a member of your church.
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Well, yeah, they had a reason to leave.
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They weren't under discipline, no problems, but they had to leave for X or Y reason.
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Okay, thank you.
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I will say this.
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People come to our church sometimes and my first question is why are you leaving your last church? If you're coming to us from a church and sometimes people come while I was there and they weren't preaching the gospel, the ministry was not in accordance with scripture and we were not feeling like we were growing in the Lord.
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Okay, that's fine.
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That's good.
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Somebody comes and says, well, somebody in church made me mad.
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Have you sought reconciliation with them? No.
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We'll go do that.
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Now, sometimes reconciliation is not possible because as much as it is up to you to live in peace with all men, sometimes it's not up to me.
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There are people in my life that I'm not reconciled with because it's their choice, not mine.
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Would you agree with that? That there are times that that happens? But the reality is when you come to the church, the church should care where you're coming from and the situation that you're coming for.
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And if you're not coming for a biblical reason, ask yourself what reason are you coming for? You say, now, Pastor, this sure ain't a way to grow a church.
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I'm going to let God grow the church.
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I'll just preach the truth.
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And if God has decided we're going to be 75 strong until I die, that's fine.
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If God decides we're going to be less and I've got to get another job to pay for all my bills, that's fine too.
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You preach the truth and let God decide.
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But when it comes to discipline, just because other churches won't uphold what your church, our church does, doesn't mean it shouldn't be done.
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We just have to understand the reality that one of the benefits in the first century was that if you were put out of the church at Corinth, there wasn't Corinth 2 down the street you could run to.
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You know? There was only one church in Corinth and guess what? If you got put out, you were pretty much out.
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And so there was a reason to repent.
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And that reason sort of has gone away, unfortunately.
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I'm not saying it's bad that we have a lot of churches.
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What I am saying though is people don't feel any obligation to the church that they're in.
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You're in 1 Corinthians 3, turn over to 1 Corinthians 5 because I want to address something and this is going to start driving me to the conclusion.
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Some people say, man, church discipline, you're being judgmental.
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You're a hard case.
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You're a judger.
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If you go to 1 Corinthians 5, by the way, if you want to know the passage, go to Matthew 18 if you want to hear what Jesus said.
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Because it was Jesus who created church discipline.
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Jesus said, if your brother sins against you, go to him.
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And if he repents, you've won your brother.
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And by the way, that's how everything should begin.
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And let me say this again.
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If you have a problem with somebody in the church, don't come tell me.
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Go tell them.
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If they have sinned against you, if I have done something you don't like, come tell me.
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Do not tell everyone else.
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Come and talk to me.
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Well, you seem pretty scary.
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I'm a teddy bear.
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Just ask my wife.
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Seriously, go to one of the elders if you feel uncomfortable.
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I'm not above rebuke.
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I've been rebuked enough times to know that.
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But the reality that Jesus said, if your brother sins against you, go to him privately.
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Tell him his sin.
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If he repents, let it go because it's over.
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If he doesn't repent, you go get two or three witnesses.
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You bring them with you.
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And then try to impress upon him the need to repent.
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If he doesn't repent, you take him before the church.
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And if he doesn't repent, then he should be treated as a publican or tax collector.
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Put him out of the church.
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That's church discipline as Jesus explained it in Matthew 18.
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Well, the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 5 shows us what it looks like practically because Paul did it.
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1 Corinthians 5 says, It is reported among you that there is sexual immorality and of a kind that is not tolerated even among the pagans.
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For a man has his father's wife, and you are arrogant.
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Ought not you rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.
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There was a guy in the church who had an illicit affair with his father's wife which we assume was his stepmother.
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The church knew all about it.
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In fact, the church knew so much about it that Paul knew about it a long way away.
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So, this had spread far and wide.
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There's a church that's not dealing with sin.
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Okay.
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What does Paul say? Just tell him, come as you are.
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That's not what he said.
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He said you ought to mourn.
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Modern vernacular.
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You ought to be ashamed of yourself.
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You ought to absolutely be ashamed of yourself.
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Now, it's different if this guy was broken and repentant.
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This guy made a mistake.
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He foolishly and arrogantly committed a sin, and now he's broken before the Lord.
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You don't kick out somebody who's broken.
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You don't kick out somebody who is already experiencing the shame of their sin.
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You call them to repentance, and you lovingly restore that person.
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Absolutely.
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And that's for bad sin.
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Yeah.
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Even bad sins can be forgiven.
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Even really bad sins.
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Because guess what? If you break the law in one point, you've broken the whole law.
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So, we don't hold shame over anyone's head who is repenting or have repented of their sin.
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They've repented.
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It's over.
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But the point is this guy is doing this.
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It's an act of sin.
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It's an unrepentant sin.
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And guess what? Nobody has said anything.
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Paul said, Let him who has done this be removed from among you.
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He goes on to talk a little bit more about why this is so.
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He says, For though absent in the body, I am present in the spirit.
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And as of present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing.
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When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.
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What does that mean? Put the guy out so that he understands the danger that he is in.
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You turn him over to the world so that he understands the need for the church and he might get saved.
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See, that's where I think the problem of today with having churches that will just accept anybody any old which way because this doesn't happen.
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Putting him out no longer provides a point where he can say, I'm alone and I need to go back.
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Because now he can just find another fellowship that will take him without any question.
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This is kind of an odd topic, especially if it's your first day.
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But it really is important because Paul is addressing why this works.
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A person, when realizing that they need Christ and yet they have abandoned him, that brokenness can be what brings them back.
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In verse 9, this is key to what I wanted to say and really all that was just to prepare for this.
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Because verse 9, he says, I wrote to you in my letter.
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He's referring to a letter that we don't have essentially, which is fine.
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There's some correspondence that Paul gives that we do not have possession of.
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He says, I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people.
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Not at all meaning the sexual immoral of this world or of greedy or swindlers or idolaters since then.
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You would need to go out of the world.
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By the way, that's pretty much a very, very simple statement.
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He says, When I told you not to associate with sinful people, I wasn't talking about unbelievers because you would never have another relationship with anybody who was not a believer if that's what I meant.
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How many of you guys work with unbelievers? How many of you guys have family members that are unbelievers? How many of you guys have friends who even come into your home at times who are unbelievers? All the time, right? Are any of them sexually immoral? Are any of them idolaters? They all are if they're not serving Christ or serving something.
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Are any of them swindlers? You say, Well, I don't let them in my house but yeah, I know some.
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And Paul says simply, he said, Honestly, if I told you not to deal with them, I mean, you wouldn't be able to have a job.
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Adam is a policeman.
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If he wasn't allowed to deal with sinful people, you couldn't go anywhere because that's all he deals with all day long.
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Right? He said, That's not what I'm talking about.
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He says, But I'm writing to you, verse 11, not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he's guilty of sexual morality or greed or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard or swindler, not even to eat with such a one.
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One of the things I often hear people talk about the Amish.
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And one of the things that people say, Well, the Amish are so hard because they actually shun people and they won't eat with them if they abandon the faith.
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Well, they didn't make that up.
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Now, I don't say that everything the Amish do are right.
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I think they got some things kind of kooky.
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But the idea that if somebody abandons the faith, if somebody's living in sin and they call themselves a Christian and that we're not supposed to encourage that behavior, that's right here in the text.
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Oftentimes, this can be misunderstood as to say that we should never reach out at all to try to call them to repentance.
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But I think that when looking at Paul's corpus and the New Testament and the whole Bible as a whole, when you have somebody who's in sin who calls himself a Christian, it's not that you can never talk to them, but when you are with them, you should be calling them to repentance.
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You should not just simply be accepting what's happening.
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You should be saying, look, you call yourself a Christian, but you're living in sin.
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Those two things don't go together.
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Verse 12, he says, For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside, but purge the evil person from among you.
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I mean, look, guys.
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Everybody in the world runs to Matthew 7.1 any time you bring up a sin.
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What's Matthew 7.1? Judge not, lest you be judged.
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I like what Paul Washer says.
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He said, Twist not the Scripture, lest you be like the devil.
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Because I'm telling you, brothers and sisters, if I come to you, or if you come to me, and you say, brother, you're in sin, and my response is judge not, if it is an issue of sin, then I'm running to a passage and taking it out of context.
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Because Paul tells us very clearly here there are times when we do have to make judgments, very clear judgments as the body of Christ.
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And if you are coming into the church, you should expect that the church is going to hold you to a standard.
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That doesn't mean that we're going to expect anybody to be perfect.
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There's only one sin that can have you removed from the church.
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You know what that one sin is? Impenitence.
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Fancy way of saying refusing to repent.
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I'll end with a story.
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Some of you have heard this before.
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There was a man that I knew several years ago, and he went to seminary with me.
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Well, he actually went after I did, but he went to the same seminary that I went to.
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And he got a job as the musician leader of a church with a very dear friend of mine who was a pastor.
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So he was the music minister in this church.
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I think he became the associate pastor of the church.
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This man was not under our church.
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He was not under our authority in any way.
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He was under that other church and under their authority.
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But in the midst of his ministry there, he abandoned his wife and his stepdaughter and his adopted son.
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He just abandoned them.
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And yet the church did nothing because he was a good musician.
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I was walking in Walmart a few months after that had happened, and as I was walking in Walmart, he just happened to be walking my way, so we were going to pass one another.
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I had not talked to him since all this had happened.
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Well, in passing he stops, and now he turns and is walking beside me.
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And he said, things are going good at the church, and blah, blah, blah.
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And I honestly didn't really want to engage.
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I'm not...
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It's not always my way.
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I know I seem like I'm all confident and everything.
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I'm not always real confident, especially in moments like that where I don't really know what to say to a man who's abandoned his family other than repent.
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But he's talking about the ministry and everything, and finally he says, but you know, there are some people who don't want me to be leading music.
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There are some people that are really judgmental on me, and they don't want me to be doing what I'm doing.
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And I was like, God, really? Because you can't open a door like that and not expect that now I've got to walk through.
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So I turned to him.
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I looked him in the face.
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I said, you have abandoned your wife who you swore to be with till death do you part.
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You've abandoned her child and one that you too took on through adoption.
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How dare you stand on God's chancel and God's pulpit and proclaim His Word without repentance.
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And he says, well, you're just like them.
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You just want to judge me.
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I said, the Word of God judges you, and I want you to repent because I care about you.
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Beloved, if somebody calls you to repentance, you've got to think of how much they are having to overcome themselves to love you enough to come to you and care enough about you to call you to a higher standing.
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The times in my life that have been the most meaningful in ministry are when men and women have been loving enough in my life to come and tell me, brother, you hurt me.
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Brother, you need to repent.
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And I was thankful when I did.
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No one is above it.
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And when we come to the church, we should expect it.
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Father, I thank You for Your Word.
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I thank You for the truth.
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And I pray that this has been in accordance with it.
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I pray that our calls to repentance would always be saturated with love and grace.
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Never wanting to see someone abandon the faith, but wanting to see everyone that we call to repentance be restored to the faith.
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And be willing to restore them.
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Not holding anything against them that You Yourself, Lord, have not held against them.
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For You have promised that You will separate our sins from us as far as the east is from the west.
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And shame upon us, Lord, if we ever try to bring them any closer.
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I pray, Father, as we turn now to our time of communion, and our time of personal self-reflection, that You would open our hearts to truly commune with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
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And it's in His name we pray.
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Amen.
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Let's stand together and sing and prepare ourselves for communion.