Matthew 18:15-17 In Each Other's Business

You're listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filsak takes us through his series on the book of Matthew called

Not Your Average Savior. Let's listen in. I'm Don Filsak.

I'm the lead pastor here, and it's a pretty weird setting, to be honest, I mean, let's admit it.

It's a little bit different than what we normally do, and at the same time, I just want to welcome you to this gathering this morning.

People are going to be kind of filtering in here throughout the next few minutes, and thank you so much for coming out.

Isn't this just like Michigan weather? I waited until 5 o 'clock this morning to make the final call of whether we were going to meet outside or inside.

At that point, it said 90 % chance of rain and thunderstorms at 9 o 'clock. That is now going down to apparently zero at this time, so if you, you know, that's the way it works.

So, that's Michigan for you, you know, or it could have said zero, and then we would have had a really bad thunderstorm right at 9,

I don't know. So, that's the way it goes, but I do encourage you as much as possible, if you're going to get up and move around the building, to just go ahead and put a face mask on.

Some of you, I recognize that this is just an uncomfortable thing that you're kind of like, why are we doing this? This seems kind of extreme.

I just want to clarify that even just this past week, we were made aware of a local church where there was a COVID positive case that happened at their

Sunday morning service by handling it well, and according to the health department, because they wore masks while they were moving around the building and everything, they're continuing services even today because they handled that well, and so, just want to encourage you in that direction.

And today is Father's Day, so I just want to encourage you to take a moment today in whatever way that looks, if you're able, to honor your father and reach out if you can.

Maybe that's a phone call, maybe that's a visit, maybe that's a gift or something like that. But it is a, it's something that I think needs to be said occasionally in our culture.

It needs to be said more frequently than it is, but it is a high calling to be a father. It's a high calling, it's a good calling, it's a good thing.

And I think a lot of times in our culture, it feels a little bit like if you watch the sitcoms or the rom -coms, it's kind of a little bit of a funny thing to be a father.

But it is a really high calling and a noble and a good thing, and so, encourage those of you that are fathers to take that on as a good and joyful calling for you.

Let's not forget the whole social distance thing as we're here, and we don't want to make the national news at all, so just as much as possible, yeah, give each other some space.

This morning we're coming to a text that challenges us deeply. You see, we're a culture, if you think about it, and I think you're going to agree with me, we're a culture that produces phrases like live and let live.

How many of you know the phrase, live and let live? You do your thing, you do you and I'll do me, right? Like at the end of the day, it's you do your thing and I'll do mine.

We also produce phrases like if you don't have anything good to say, don't say, don't say anything at all, right?

Or we produce phrases like it's none of your business, right? It's none of your business.

We're an individualistic and independent people who really don't like,

I mean, I think you're all going to agree with me, we don't like people poking into our business, right?

Do you agree with me on that? Blank stares, you love it when people are up in your business?

Now, how many of you, go around and raise your hand, let's get some engagement here. How many of you do not like it when other people are all over your business?

We don't like that. I believe that that's true of us, generally speaking, as a culture. And now we enter into the church, which was established by Jesus Christ, the one who's going to speak to us through the text of scripture today, and he calls us to live a different way.

A way that when you really understand it is a beautiful way. It's a confusing way at first. When we read it, it could be even potentially a bit offensive because of ways that this passage has been misunderstood, but this passage, to me, highlights the beauty of what

God is calling us to in accountable relationships, where we love each other enough to not allow one another to go astray, where we love each other enough to continue to engage one another at deeper level things.

Certainly, we love to socialize and talk about sports. Man, remember back when there were sports?

Do you guys remember that? Oh, back when there were those kinds of things to talk about. We love those kinds of things, but here in a church, a church is a different thing.

It's where we go deeper than just those surfacy conversations. Last week,

Jesus told a parable of the wandering sheep. A sheep of the flock had wandered off, and a good shepherd goes and finds that sheep that has gone astray.

And this week, we're going to see that Jesus gives us a role similar to that of a shepherd in his parable, although we are always under the good shepherd, bringing people to the good shepherd, who is

Jesus Christ himself. He gives us a role that's like a shepherd, each and every one of us. We, recast, we, church, are the means that God desires to use to go off into the darkness and call back wandering sheep.

When a brother or sister gets tangled up in sin or false belief, who goes after them?

Who's going to pursue them? And I want you to ask this question as we're coming towards this text, do you want someone to come after you if you wander away?

Do you want someone pursuing you? So before we read this text, I want us all to consider five questions that set us up for this text.

I ask these five questions because they are five things that Jesus presupposes before he ever says what he's going to say.

Five things that I think we need to take on before we're going to be able to really even understand what we're reading here. And the way we answer these will directly impact our ability to understand and respect what

Jesus is calling us to do as his flock, as his church. So the first question that I want you to ask is, are you, think about yourself, are you able to delineate, to figure out, to discern what is and isn't sin?

Are you able to tell the difference? And if you can't, then it is impossible for you to do what

Jesus is asking of you here in this text. The second question is, do you know who else is in your flock?

Do you know who else is in your family? Do you know who else is under the shepherd with you? You see, without relationships here, you will not be connected enough to do what

Jesus is calling you to do here. The third question is, not only do you know who's in your flock, but do you genuinely care for one another?

Do you care for your brothers and sisters in Christ? You see, I think church in America has often become an audience, which, to be quite honest, ironically, is a little bit of what we're doing this morning.

It's a little bit more geared towards audience and a little less towards community. We're coming in, I likened this gathering right here to a wedding.

You come in, you're seated, and then we're going to dismiss. Hopefully if the weather holds up, you're free to go under the tent outside and socialize afterwards.

But we're asking for no social interaction in here, which is super ironic in light of this text, where we know that we're called into these authentic relationships, and although we might do this for a week, we know that this is not the standard for what it means to be the church.

If you don't care, then you will never do what Jesus is calling you to do here in this text.

The fourth thing, do you understand the gravity and severity and incredible danger of sin? You see, without the knowledge of how severe sin is, we will never understand why it must be confronted.

We will be very quick to let it slide or let it go, because we recognize sin in our own lives, and a lot of times, if we're honest, we're pretty gracious to ourselves.

Do you know what I'm talking about? We can be pretty gracious to ourselves and let ourselves have a long leash, and so we would just very readily give that to others without a thought.

And the fifth question, do you trust that Jesus knows what he's talking about in this text? Jesus prescribes something to us that goes against our cultural values of individualism and stay out of my business.

And so with those questions up on the screen, I think they're going to go up on the screen. Let's turn over to Matthew 18, verses 15 through 17.

Maybe they won't go up on the screen, we'll see. But Matthew 18, 15 through 17, you can navigate in a device or whatever you have available to you, and again, recast, this is

God's holy and precious word. This is a privilege that we have to hear from God, and he may correct us in the way that we think about our relationships within the church, and that would be a good thing.

Matthew 18, 15 through 17. If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone.

If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.

If he refuses to listen to them, then tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a

Gentile and a tax collector. Let's pray. Father, as we're marching through the gospel of Matthew and seeing how

Jesus rolled, I thank you for your word. I thank you for your word that corrects us and shows us a true and a better way, and even though we can come up with all kinds of rationale and logic and justification for why these steps may or may not be what we want to do,

I ask that you move in our hearts to trust you with it, to genuinely be a church that is loving and engaged and involved in each other's lives, to be a church of community.

And then, Father, I thank you that I get to use the title for you, Father, an example and a model for the role that those who are in this room and have that role of father get to emulate.

We get an opportunity to see you in that role in the way that you love, in the way that you're caring, in the way that you correct, in the way that you rebuke, in the way that you are gracious.

And so, Father, I pray that for every father that is here today and for the fathers of everyone who are here,

Father, that you would be guiding and directing into that awesome role that you've called us to. Father, I thank you for this day in Jesus' name.

Amen. Well, good morning, Recast. It's good to see you all this morning.

I'm Pastor Spencer. If I haven't met you, we're glad to see you here in person. Just got a couple quick announcements for you this morning.

First off, wanted to let you know that we're going to be having some short, abbreviated community groups this summer.

They're going to start next week, 1st of July, and run through the first week in August. So we're shooting to have them in about six weeks.

And what we're going to be doing is a discussion. You know, there's a lot going on in culture right now related to cultural tensions and racial reconciliation.

And what we wanted to do was to give you an opportunity to think through that issue from a biblical point of view, from a biblical lens.

And so we're going to have some book discussion groups based on John Piper's book, Bloodlines.

And it's just going to point us back to the Bible, hoping to see what the Bible has to say about racial reconciliation.

The book is free. You can get it online from DesiringGod .com. So we'd encourage you to check that out.

You can download it. We also have, if you're not a real techy person, we have some printed copies of the first few chapters in the back that you can pick out on your way out.

We're going to have a couple different options. We're going to have them on Wednesday nights, all right? Wednesday night, July 1st from 7 to 8 here at Recast.

We're going to have a couple groups going. And we're also going to offer a Wednesday morning group from starting at 630.

So if you're the kind of guy who likes to get up and do something before work, 630 a .m. on Wednesday, we're going to have some as well.

We're going to kind of construct it in a way that if you're not a reader, you don't have time to get through the whole chapter that week, you'll be able to participate in the discussion.

And so don't be afraid to sign up because you don't have time to read. We think if you come, you'll get some value out of it.

Just a couple other quick announcements. On the way out, we're not going to pass an offering plate. We never do that here at Recast, but we do want you to know if God has laid on your heart to give, we have some giving boxes.

So there's one on each of these two tables if you choose to go out these doors. And then there's also the regular giving slot you can take advantage of in the main offering table.

Other than that, we want you to be aware that we have online connection cards and online worship folders going on right now.

So if there's anything you want to know about what's happening here at Recast, jump on the website recastchurch .com and you can find information that would typically be in the worship folder.

And if you're new, we would love for you to jump in there and fill out an online connection card. So I think that's all

I've got. I'm going to pray for Don and we're going to get going. Let's pray. Lord, we love you.

We are so thankful that even though this situation is different and for us even stressful, we're thankful that you are in charge and you are sovereign over everything that happens.

And so Lord, we pray that we will be flexible with one another, that we will be gracious to one another, that we may see this difficult and trying time as an opportunity to be made more into the image of Jesus Christ.

Lord, we're thankful for your spirit that indwells us, that helps us to be molded into your likeness.

Lord, I pray for Don this morning as he brings the word, may your spirit work through the word to change our hearts, to soften us, to help us be more cognizant of how you want to change us.

Lord, I pray for Don. May you give him wisdom. May he be sensitive to your spirit this morning as he brings your word.

We love you, Lord. We are thankful for the opportunity to open your word and see what it is you have for us each and every day.

We pray for the kids this morning that they may be ministered to by their teachers. We just ask that in this whole place, your word will go forth and we know that when your word goes forth, it does not come back without fruit.

So we just ask that you will be here this morning blessing us with your favor. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.

All right, so some of you are wondering where in the world did the songs go? That's a legit question. Normally right now we do some songs, but what we're going to do is based on some guidelines that we've read in gatherings indoors, we're going to sing at the end.

So we are going to have a time of singing, but I'm going to preach now, and then we're going to have time of communion, and then we're going to sing some songs together at the end, and that way we're not in this room where we've all sang from the bottom of our lungs together for very long.

And so then we'll sing songs, then we'll be dismissed. And anybody who's uncomfortable, I've spoken with some of you, and some of you have been uncomfortable with singing in general, you can take communion and you can leave at that point, no judgment there if you're uncomfortable singing indoors in a gathering like this.

So that's why we're doing that in that way. So I encourage you to keep your Bibles open to Matthew 18, 15 through 17, we just read that together, and talk through this briefly here together this morning.

I made a super dumb mistake when I was younger, and not just one, not just one, but one that stands out to me.

How many of you can relate? Just off the bat, like right away I say I made a dumb mistake when I was younger, you can get that.

I was a counselor at Camp Barakel in northern Michigan. How many of you know where Camp Barakel is or have heard of it?

Way up north, way up here, still lower peninsula, but quite a ways up there, only just like 45 minutes from the bridge up there.

And I was a summer counselor there for three summers, I met my wife up there, super awesome.

But the one summer that stuck out to me is I was counseling one week in a cabin where the drain field wasn't working.

Now the drain field wasn't working, and there were 10 boys, 10 guys, myself, and then 10, nine high schoolers that were in this cabin together.

The bathrooms weren't working, and we had to go to another cabin to use their bathrooms and to use their showers.

Well that particular day we had had this really, really hot and sweaty activity, running around catching people flag belts, running through the woods, all that stuff, muddy, just grimy.

And now I've got a half an hour before chapel, I'm trying to get my guys through the shower. And it's just not looking like we're all going to get a shower in time here, and we've got 20 guys using one shower and half an hour trying to get through to chapel, it's not going well.

So I'm like going, I'm just going to end up like just, I'm crusty, I'm just covered from head to toe with grime and filth, and I'm like,

I can't do it. So I'm sitting out on a bench, I know this is a long build up, I'm sitting out on a bench and I'm salty about this,

I'm just super salty. My sister -in -law, soon to be sister -in -law, future sister -in -law, is a camper, she walks by and she says, what are you doing?

I said, I'm upset, I can't take a shower, there's no, she said, well all the girls are out of our cabin right now, they're already in chapel.

So I could stand guard at the door and you could take a shower in our cabin, no problem. Which if you know anything about Christian camps in the 90s, this breaks every single rule that they have written, okay?

I mean, taking a shower in a girl's cabin, are you serious? And not only mention that, how many of you sent your kids to camp?

How many of you love the idea of an adult male taking a shower in your girl's cabin?

Like that right there, is there something that's illegal about that? Probably not so good, right? So being the upstanding guy that I was in my 20s,

I said, no, how could I ever do that? How in the world could I take, no I didn't, I actually said, stand guard at the door, she did, and I took a shower in that cabin.

The interesting thing is that that ended up producing an interaction with me and my fiancé, who was

Linda, and I said, I can't believe I did this, but I did this. And she happened to mention it to the guy who was eventually our best man in our wedding, and he came to me the next day and said, this word is spreading, other counselors were talking about it, campers were talking about it, this word was spreading, and he said,

I'm going to give you 24 hours to tell the camp director, or I'm going to, but this is sin, this is wrong, you shouldn't have done this, and this needs to be exposed, this has to come out and we need to address this.

So can you imagine that scenario? How many of you think that that's an uncomfortable situation?

That's just not so good. How many of you want to leave and never come back, you're like, I don't trust this guy anymore, this pastor, this pastor is just freaky.

It's embarrassing in retrospect, and it was selfish, and it was dumb, and I can confess that it actually was sin.

I was motivated in a sense, not even all my campers got a shower, but here I am taking advantage of this situation, and I was caught in my sin, and I was held to an account.

And someone had enough love for me to call me out, to confront me, and to bring me back into line.

It wasn't perfect, I don't even think the blackmail component of that was necessarily great, you know, I'm going to tell the director if you don't, or whatever, that ultimatum is not part of the text in scripture, or whatever, but the confrontation was necessary to help me realize how selfish and dangerous my behavior was.

If your brother sins, go and tell him his fault, says

Jesus. Paul, the apostle, says it this way in Galatians 6 .1,

lest we think that it's only if you're sinned against. So the implications, by the way, that this text looks here is that, oh good,

I'm off the hook because the sin wasn't against me. So to clarify, Paul says in Galatians 6 .1,

brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, any sin, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness, keeping watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.

When we see someone sinning, we go and we talk with them about it. When we become aware of the clear and blatant sin of a brother, and hear me carefully, clear and blatant sin of a brother or sister in Christ, Jesus tells us to go to them and confront them.

And we are certainly to do so with humility, as Jesus says elsewhere, taking the log out of your own eye before you take the speck out of a brother's.

How many of you have heard that phrase before? Take the log out of your own eye. How many of you know that you already have sinned? And so if the standard of confrontation in this scenario is that you're sinless, well then this text doesn't make any sense.

This is pointless for Jesus to say this. But the point is to go with the humility that recognizes what it's like to be caught in your sin.

How many of you have been caught in your sin before? You've had that kind of... So you know what that feels like, and with that feeling, with that sense, with that humility, with that caution, you go forward into this.

We only ever go to someone else in a confrontation like this as a fellow sinner who knows what it's like to be caught and confronted.

But we are called nonetheless by Jesus to go. He says, take the log out of your own eye, take some time of introspection, but he still says go.

And we are to go in a certain way, and this is very significant, church. We go alone, alone, alone, alone.

We are called to go to the other in private. Between you and him alone, the text says.

This is where we would resolve so many personal and church conflicts. If we just follow

Jesus on this one point alone, go to the person alone in private.

Don't go ask your mom for advice. Don't go ask your dad for advice. Don't go to your workout buddies and see what they think.

Don't even go at this point, don't even go to your pastor and bring them in the loop. Don't go to your mentor and bring them in the loop.

If they have sinned, and you are aware of it, the text says, go to them alone.

Make clear to them their sin, the verb there in Greek is pretty clear, what you're trying to do.

You're trying to make it explicit, what they've done. And then encourage them to turn away, confess it to God and make it right.

My friend Jeff got this part right, he encouraged me to go to the camp director and let him in the loop, but he didn't bring the camp director into the loop.

He encouraged me to do so. And by taking that shower in the girls dorm, word was spreading around camp, and in that context a very large mess could have been caused by my thoughtless and reckless actions.

So the question is, can you see a confrontation like this as loving? Can you see it as loving?

To go after the one you see wandering away is to love them. To let them wander off into the danger of sin.

If you really believe sin is dangerous, if you really understand what it causes in our lives, to let them wander away into sin is to hate them.

Because sin will devour, sin will destroy, sin will crush and break potentials.

The pathway of sin is the pathway that leads right into the mouth of the roaring lion looking to devour little sheep any chance that he gets.

And so if the one caught in sin repents here at this point, you go to him alone, they say I'm sorry,

I shouldn't have done that. Then it has only been between the two of you and you've slung a wandering sheep on your shoulders and carried him back to the flock.

Jesus is granting us the privilege like a shepherd in this text.

We can gain back wandering brothers and sisters. But how many of you know life is never quite that cut and dried?

It's never that easy? It's really great when it works textbook, right? But it rarely does.

And so what if you go out to call back a lost sheep and you find them frolicking with the wolves and they say, you don't know what you're talking about.

These are my new friends. This is my new flock now and I love playing with sin.

And they refuse to come back. And I just want to point out that often at this step, often in our minds, what we think about when we think of things like church discipline as it's been called or what

I like to call it church accountability or relational accountability or just being kind and loving toward one another.

We often think maybe you have some history with church discipline. Maybe you have some understanding about it.

And we often think naturally about serious sins like adultery or fornication.

But I would suggest to you that the reason for this is that sexual sins are particularly difficult to turn from. So they happen to be the cycle, the realm of sins that are often the hardest to say no to.

They're often the hardest to repent and turn from at the point when confronted by one. Once the emotions and the physical body has been engaged with another, it is difficult to sever that tie.

And so these are the types of sins that often escalate through the levels of widening accountability because the person refuses to sever that relationship, refuses to cut that off.

I've seriously but tongue in cheek said this, that we would escalate someone here at this church through these levels of accountability for stealing pens from your employer.

Yeah, I said that and I meant it. And I know it sounds kind of tongue in cheek, but let me explain. You see, the nature of a sin that keeps going is an unrepentant sin.

It's a sin that you say, no, I want to continue this way despite the call to follow Christ.

How many of you know that the Bible says thou shalt not steal? Did you already know that? So what if you at the end of the day have just this,

I mean, your employer has the best pens on the planet. They also happen to have a very strict don't remove company property off the premises, which is apparently pretty common in companies.

How many of you work for a place that kind of has some kind of policy like that? They're just like, don't take our stuff.

But you're like, I love these pens. These pens are amazing.

You almost kind of have a pen fetish, right? It's like, I just love this pen. It's a gel pen. It's great.

I love the way that it writes. And so I'm going to take one every single time I leave. Every time

I walk out, I'm going to keep taking a pen. And somebody sees you, comes to you and you say, screw you,

I'm going to keep taking pens. So then they come back with another couple of people and say, you know what?

I mean, you shouldn't steal from your employer. This isn't right. And they still say, you know what? I love stealing pens.

Now obviously this is facetious, right? Like at the end of the day, but do you understand the nature?

It's not the severity. It's not the gravity. It's not the seriousness of the sin that causes it.

It's the reality that most people are going to repent when confronted about stealing pens. Are you getting what I'm saying? That's why you don't see church discipline in it, going all the way through all the steps of church accountability for stealing pens.

You don't see that very often. But you do for affairs. You do for things that people don't want to let go of anymore.

For sins where somebody is so engaged and so involved and so far down that road that they, even if the whole church stood in front of them and said, what you're doing, we love you and we want you back, please come back to Christ.

And they say, I love this sin more.

And that happens. And that's what we're talking about here is we're talking about expanding and widening the circle.

And so Jesus says, if they won't listen when confronted in sin by one person in private, then take another one or two with you.

And notice that the circle is widening, but not much. Jesus doesn't tell us who you should bring along, but it makes sense that you would be looking for someone who meets the five presuppositions

I mentioned in the introduction, and here they are again. You're going to be looking for someone who knows the word enough to identify sin.

You're going to be looking for someone who knows the family of God well. Someone who also cares about people and cares about the family of God.

Someone who understands the significance and the gravity and the weight and the danger of sin. And someone who trusts

Jesus to get it right in calling us to hold one another to account. Someone who understands that this text is important.

And the purpose of bringing along others is for another set of eyes on the situation. One or two sets of eyes.

At this point, everything would likely feel like a disagreement. At this point in the process, it probably feels like a disagreement.

I say you sinned, you say, no I didn't. Or here's why I'm justified, or here's why

I'm right. And so Jesus says, go with a couple new sets of eyes and look at the situation and establish, the text says, establish the charge.

At this point, I want to point out that this is a grace to keep moving through this accountability. You see, maybe it isn't all the fault and on the part of the accused.

I mean, maybe the accused doesn't think they sinned, and a couple of additional people coming along might convince them otherwise.

Maybe the accused is saying, get off me, you aren't the boss of me, and it would be good for a couple of other people to see that kind of hard -hearted, callous, cold response to a call to repent.

Or maybe the accuser is petty and is harassing the accused, and they're the one who needs to be held to account.

And the other people that they bring along are going to be able to identify that. You're being a jerk here, this isn't even sin, get over it, move on.

Do you know what I'm talking about? Because how many of you know some people could confront you about something that's just merely a disagreement?

It's merely a preference issue. So it's good to have another set of eyes, isn't it?

But finally, we get to the part that is often the most sensational and misunderstood, and it's in verse 17.

If the charge of sin is established and the offending party still won't repent and will not heed the call to repent of two or three brothers in Christ or sisters in Christ, the next step says it's to tell the church, it's what

Jesus says, tell the church. This is, again, often misunderstood, and I want to be clear, recast, this has no notion of seeking to embarrass a sinner.

It is not to gossip, and there is no hint in this text of seeking to shame them into submission.

You're not trying to shame them. It is to go after the wandering sheep who has gone off on their own in the night into danger.

And not everyone here will agree with me, but listen to me carefully. Present me, standing here in front of you right now, me,

I'm asking present you to do this to future me if future you catches me sinning.

I'm giving you permission in this flock to call me back. I want that, and I hope that you want that too.

If future me is stubborn, it may require radical steps for future you to call me back into the fold of God.

But I am telling you now, I don't want to go astray.

I don't want to wander off into the darkness. And if you love me, would you please commit to lovingly call me back?

And that needs to be the heart of a follower of Jesus. Knowing how prone we are to wander, how many of you would just raise your hand right now and testify,

I know my heart is prone to wander. I know that my heart is prone to leave the

God I love. I know that about me. And that's what church is about.

He has saved us into community, a community of love, a community of engagement, a community where we care for one another enough to, yes, even be in each other's business from time to time.

Telling it to the church does not end the scenario. The circle is obviously now significantly wider so that the entire church can bring truth and caution to the life of the sinner.

The reason to bring the church into the loop is to avoid casual fellowship with someone who is living in unrepentant sin before God.

At this stage, when a person has gone this far, it would be a call for everyone in the church to commit to interact with them differently than normal.

They interact with a person with a call to come back. When you see them at the grocery store, you have conversations with them as you would an unbeliever.

The call to them is to turn from sin and come back to your family, come back to Jesus.

If after a season of being called back, they even refuse the calls of the entire church body, which is, remember, people who love them, people who care for them, people who want their blessing and their benefit and what is good for them, then the final step is to shift them into a new mental category.

At the very end of verse 17, you can see it there. By their unrepentance, they are showing themselves to choose their sin over God.

Therefore, they are to be treated, the text says, as a Gentile and a tax collector. I want you to make sure you don't lose sight of who's using those two terms.

Who is it that's talking to us right now? Jesus, who ate with tax collectors and sinners. Jesus who broke the harsh and strict social rules against interaction with Gentiles.

I don't believe here for a second that He is endorsing, shunning an excommunication. I don't believe that that's what's going on here.

I think He is saying, mentally shift them, treat them as you would an unbeliever.

How do we treat unbelievers? Unbelievers are welcome here. Unbelievers are always, we're always willing to let them sit here and listen to the gospel.

We're always willing to interact with them and to bring the good news to them. We proclaim that the only hope is to repent of your sins and come to Jesus for His forgiveness to any and all who would listen.

We call them to come home to the welcome of their Father, just like the parable of the prodigal son.

We do not treat them casually, however, as fellow believers. We treat them as unbelievers that are in need of a new heart.

Because by their choosing, wave after wave after wave of progressive accountability, they have said,

I love sin more than Jesus. That's what they've been demonstrating as they go through this process.

So as we study the content, let's make sure we understand the foundations as we wrap this up. We wrap this up with the five presuppositions that I said, kind of moving those into a little bit more application.

We must know what sin is to even make sense of this, even to be able to engage in this in a cursory level.

Even to be able to take that first step, we ought to be able to identify sin. And so the first thing is study the word so that you can identify sin when you see it.

There will be conflicts of personal preference in any church, but only sin should be brought to confrontation like verse 15 is spelling out.

Not music preferences, drinking preferences, preferences that are just quite clearly free in scripture, but at the end of the day, knowing and studying the word of God to know what is sin.

And second, know your church family. Again, in one sense, maybe here at the end of quarantine, we're reacquainting ourselves with our church family to some degree.

But all of this presupposes that you're engaged much more than a mere audience on Sunday mornings with each other.

We need to be a community together. Know your church family. And then third, care about each other.

Care about your church family. I would never confront someone I didn't care about. So ask yourself, do you love your church family enough to have some tough conversations when they're required of you?

Fourth, never let sin be a lighthearted thing. Sin is devastating, and I fear that the glory of the grace that we have in Jesus Christ and the free forgiveness can easily be abused in churches like ours, where we just, yeah,

I'll just sin and I'll ask for forgiveness later. Don't play with sin. It is not a trivial thing to sin.

Fifth, trust Jesus in what he's prescribing for us here. You see, so many people think they know better than Jesus on this, especially when the circle widens.

That's when the gloves come off. That's when things get really uncomfortable. That's when things get weird, right? Why would we tell it to the church?

Why can't we just let them go? Why would we want to treat them like an unbeliever? Why would we make this public?

But Jesus is telling us how to roll when one of us wanders off into sin and refuses to repent of it.

And the question for all of us is, do you think he had it right? Do you think

Jesus gets it right here, or do you think Jesus needs some correction here? Jesus is our good shepherd, and he laid his life down for his sheep.

And so let's take communion during this next song as his flock together. It's a joy that we have to be in the presence of one another, and here remembering that we're always in the presence of Christ.

And if you've asked Jesus to be your Lord and Savior, then during the next song, take the cracker, which is kind of a little wafer thingy, thing type of thing, and try to remember his body that was broken for us.

And take that little cup of juice to remember his blood that was shed for us. And do this together, church.

Do this together, church, in remembrance of how severe our sin really is.

The Son of God himself died to bring us out from slavery to sin and death, and he has placed us into a community of love and accountability here, church.

Let's praise him for that. Let's pray. Father, I thank you so much for the gift that you've given us in community and accountability.

It doesn't always feel that way, and even reading this text, I recognize it seems quite archaic and outdated to some people, but Father, I see beauty in it because I see you giving us instructions about how to love one another well in a sinful world, making accommodations even for our sinfulness and our sinful tendencies.

Thank you that you show yourself in the text we looked at last week to always be a good shepherd who follows hard after the one who wanders, even leaving the 99 to pursue the one.

And now here in our text you're calling us as a church to be the type of church that pursues the one.

Father, I pray that you would keep us all on a short leash, that you would not allow us to wander far from each other, and that even now maybe some here would commit, and maybe for some the next action step would be to become a member accountable to this church, to become a member in a sense of saying, present me once, future me held to account by this church if I stray.

Give us faithfulness, Father, continue to protect us during this time, and Father, I look forward to when we can come back together as a whole church together in this place.

We look forward to that day, but for now we rejoice in the time that we've had together this morning, in Jesus' name, amen.