Transcription
[Music] [Music] Grab your Bibles and turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 2. We've made it to the second chapter, 2 Corinthians chapter 2. And this morning, we're looking at a message entitled, "Say You're Sorry." Have you ever heard that before? "Say you're sorry." Now, it depends on the tone of that, because parents will often say to their child that has offended their brother or sister, "Say you're sorry." And usually, the kid will say, "Sorry." But that's not what I'm talking about. I'm really praying today that for all of us, we will learn how and why we ought to adopt the doctrine of saying you're sorry.
Now, I didn't know this. I was, uh, I just learned this this last year. Did you know that around the world, Americans are known for one word? We use this word more than anybody. It's part of our vocabulary. And I thought, "That's ridiculous." And then I realized it's part of my vocabulary. Um, we are, we are almost always people who, when we step near someone, or maybe kind of, maybe our grocery cart gets too close to somebody else's, do you notice what comes out of our mouth very quickly? Isn't that something? "Sorry, sorry, sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." And I read an article that said that Americans are the most sorry people on the planet. And they went to describe what that meant, that Americans, and this was a good article, Americans have a sense of, of, uh, you're invading my space. Now, I don't know if that's good or bad, but you know, we can be somewhere, uh, in the world or somewhere in the community and say, "Oh, I'm sorry." Now, did it really warrant a sorry? I don't know. Maybe not.
But let me ask you this: Don't you think that when things do warrant a sorry, that we ought to issue a sorry? We would say, "Yes." But maybe for those of you who are a little quiet on, on the response to that, maybe you're right. You don't want a sorry unless it's truly meant, do you? There's nothing worse than somebody saying sorry because you know it's not meant. Nothing was learned from the act that generated the division. And Paul is going to be speaking to us this morning. And I mean, to us, by the power of the Holy Spirit, because every one of us today, in a church family, that's the context of what he's speaking about to the church at Corinth, or to the Church of California. And he's talking about a situation.
Now, church, by way of Bible study, we are given up the first three verses. We don't really need to spend time in them, but I'll read it all the way through, and you'll see why, because he covered that in the last chapter. He said, in verse one, chapter 2, "But I determined this within myself, that I would not come again to you in sorrow. For if I make you sorrowful, if I make you guys all upset, then who is he who makes me glad?" That's a sweet thing Paul is saying. "Man, if you Corinthians are all bummed out, then I'm going to be bummed, 'cause I love you. But the one who is made sorrowful by me." And I wrote this very thing to you, lest when I come, I should have sorrow over those from whom I ought to have joy, having confidence in you all, that my joy is the joy of you all.
And here now, he gets into the business of saying you're sorry. Everybody tune in to verse four. "For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears, not that you should be grieved, but that you might know the love which I have so abundantly for you. But if anyone has caused grief, he has not grieved me, but all of you to some extent." In other words, if somebody's causing grief, or in this case, has caused grief in the church, we're all bummed, not just one person. We're all bummed. "But not to be too severe, this punishment which was inflicted by the majority is sufficient for such a man, so that on the contrary, you ought rather to forgive and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one be swallowed up with too much sorrow. Therefore, I urge you to reaffirm your love to him. For to this end I also wrote, that I might put you to the test, whether you are obedient in all things. Now, whom you forgive anything, I also forgive. For if indeed I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven that one for your sakes in the presence of Christ. Verse 11, lest Satan should take advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his devices."
This is a powerful statement. And in my, uh, prayer, I said, "How it'd be nice for us to all be around a coffee table for this study." And I got to under, I, I have to say, in the, in the introduction to this book, 2 Corinthians, I made mention to you that it's one of the least taught books of the Bible because it's so personal. I think it should be taught more. It's difficult to buy commentaries that is expositors who have written on this book, why? Because it's just too personal. And yet, church, listen today, he's going to be talking about church discipline, church restoration. He's going to be talking about repentance. You know, when we say the word "sorry," what we're really saying is, "Honestly, I repent." You see, I, I like the word "repent" because I understand what it means. But I love the word "repent" because I know what it leads to.
And you might be saying today, "Repent? Isn't that an Old English word?" Yeah, technically, absolutely it is. It's an Old English word that means to turn your boat around. It's a sailing, it's a nautical term for sailing. Metanoia, the helmsman or the navigator would yell out, "Metanoia!" In the Greek world, and the Old English word is "repent." It means you're going one way, and then you get information that changes your mind. Watch, everybody. And the outward manifestation of your mind being changed is not saying sorry. You know what it is? It's turning your boat around. Now, what's your boat in this life? In this, uh, in this story, I'm talking about your, the boat's your life. You have a change of mind, you repent, and the evidence is that your boat, or your life, goes in a new direction. Sometimes we make it way too difficult. That's the word, by the way, that means conversion, repentance. It means to change the mind or to change the course.
Now, Paul is talking about specifically regarding the situation that you guys already know about in 1 Corinthians 5:1-5. Most scholars believe this is what Paul is talking about. However, it doesn't have to be exclusively this problem. But note this: this is, we are, listen, we addressed it in First Corinthians, and now he's speaking to us again in 2 Corinthians. And here it is, 1 Corinthians 5. And man, this is radical. It's just like it's right off the screen from Jerry Springer Show. "It is actually reported that there is sexually immorality among you." That's the church. "And such immorality is not even named among the Gentiles." The unbelievers, the unbelievers don't even do what you boneheads are doing. "That a man has his wife's or his father's wife." What is that? That a young man is having physical relationships with a stepmother in the church. And the church knew about it. And Paul is saying, "This is sick. The unbelievers don't even act like this." And he says, look at verse two, "And you are puffed up about it and have not rather mourned that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you."
Listen, the Bible says that when somebody's living in sin and they won't turn from it, you are to remove that person from the church. But, but where's the love? Forget your definition of love. That's not love. Your, your definition is not love. Well, we need to tolerate this stuff that is wrong and sinful. The Bible says that if you know, if someone's living an ungodly life, life, you're to confront them in love. You're to C, uh, counter their life. And if they won't do it, Paul, the Apostle, New Testament doctrine, theology, says if the guy won't repent, cast him away. Watch this, put him out. He's not allowed to attend. Look at verse three. "For I indeed, as absent in the body but present in spirit, have already judged as though I were present him who has so done this deed. Verse four, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, that's the next time you come together, along with my spirit, with the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, watch this, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh." Cast them out so that Satan will beat him up. To what degree? Even to the degree. Are you guys with me? Man, it's quiet in here. To the degree that this man could even be killed, or become diseased, or get run over, in this case, by a speeding donkey, and he dies. You say, "Man, that's harsh." Really? Well, look at the eternal perspective, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. They're talking about a Christian. Look, everybody, is this guy saved? Yep. Is he living like a lunatic? Yep. The Bible says to a Christian who, who won't repent, cast the guy out of the church. He'll destroy the church. He'll wind up being sexually involved with other women. Get him out of the church. Tell him he can't come back. Cast him over to the realm of darkness. But he's a believer. Paul says, cast him over. Let Satan knock him out. And even if necessary, take his life. Why? So that his soul is saved. Wow. Did you get that? All that we can go home right now. That's pretty heavy stuff. This guy up front goes, "Man, that's heavy." It is heavy stuff. Keep in mind that the church is to be a holy, spiritual organism. Did you know that the church is not a company? The church is not a business. Though it's tough in this world, the government and the laws require a church to be a business and to file everything like a business, but it's not a business. The church is a living, breathing organism, isn't it? Amazing when someone, watch, I'm making this up right now. If I point to you, no, no one told me anything about your life, but if you are sleeping with somebody and you think, "Well, nobody knows. Nobody knows. Nobody has to know." If you're sleeping with somebody and none of these people know, you say, "Well, I'm okay." You're not okay because guess what? Spiritually, invisibly, there's a cancer that emanates out from your life spiritually that begins to affect this body at large. And we may not even know you. How can that be? Because the church is alive spiritually, supernaturally. It's an organism. That's why Paul said in the book of Romans, "No man lives or dies alone unto himself." Wow. Powerful.
Here we go. First point number one, jot it down. Verses four to five. Say you're sorry because we're looking at God's recipe for forgiveness. I need all of you to take notes because at some point in time, this is all going to matter to us. Matter to you. God's recipe for forgiveness. What is it? Number one, add mercy. Verse four. Add mercy. "For out of much affliction," says the Apostle, "and anguish of heart I wrote to you. I'm writing to you about a very, very difficult situation. My heart is broken." And look what he says, "I've cried about it. Not that you should be grieved." I am going to bring something, and I've brought something to your attention, church. And I didn't do it to bum you out. I did it for a very, very key reason. Mark right now, church. When there is a sinner in the church, a brother or sister living in sin, doing sinfully, and there is repentance, there is godly sorrow. Notice that the, the arena, first of all, the atmosphere needs to be merciful. Now, did you hear what I just said? I am not, listen, church, I am not saying that you should be merciful to an unrepentant man or woman. Did you know that it is unbiblical to be merciful to a Christian who is unrepentant? A lot of men will be very soft on a fellow man when that man confesses his sin to the other man, and the guy says, "Oh, don't worry about it, brother. I love you." Most often, that arena, that atmosphere, is one man condoning the sin of another because they're both guilty of the same. A woman will often say to a woman, "Well, I, I understand why you're having an affair. Your husband's a jerk. Uh, my husband's a jerk. But, you know, I understand. I'll pray for you." That is sinful conduct being multiplied. You'll never rescue and help someone out of that. But you are to be merciful whenever there is repentance. And this whole message presupposes repentance, godly sorrow. If a Christian has not yet repented, leave them alone. There's not to be mercy extended. But where there is repentance, there is to be mercy.
In 1 Timothy 1:15, Paul says, "This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief." Look how, look how merciful. How could Paul be so merciful? Because Paul knew that he had received mercy. Verse 16, "However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering." Watch this, this is awesome. "As a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life." What is Paul saying? Paul is saying, "If Jesus can be merciful to me when I repented, then you ought to be merciful to a repentant brother or sister yourself." Someone say, "Amen." That is mandated upon the Christian house, the church. A loving church, which we'll cover love in a moment, is to be a merciful church. Mercy. But listen, mercy biblically defined. Mercy is the word that does not give the person what they deserve. That's what mercy means. To not give them what they deserve. If a, if you're going 100 miles an hour down the freeway, trying to keep up with me, and the police officer pulls you over, and he doesn't give you a ticket, he was merciful to you. You got that? We are not to reward people for what they deserve if they're repentant. Paul is saying, so number one thing is mercy. Jesus said, Matthew 5:7, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." And that's exactly what Paul is talking about. Jesus has been merciful to me when I repented, and I must be merciful to the Christian who has repented. Pretty good stuff, huh?
Now, if you're not a Christian today, you're saying, "Who cares?" And, uh, I'm saying, "You know what? The house of God should care about this because the Christian community should be the most merciful." But church, listen, God's recipe for forgiveness. Number one is mercy. The mercy should never be defined by a modern version of today's dictionary revisionism. Should never say, "Well, this is what I think mercy is." No. Number two, it's love. It's love. Look at the middle of verse four. It's got to be love. "But that you might know the love which I have so abundantly for you." Love. A church should be known for its biblical defined love, reaching out, caring. But listen, you guys, I, I have to be careful right now. Um, if I go longer than 30 seconds on this, somebody go like this. You guys, the church needs to exercise biblical love more than ever because even in the church today, the word love has been redefined, and it's all been watered down and destroyed. "If you love me, then..." Listen, the Bible says, "Love covers a multitude of sin." Godly love is powerful. Notice in the context of these verses that love and correction, discipline, and forgiveness are all inseparable for a healthy church. "That you may know the word," know means experience by practicality. What does that mean? That you might might know love by the hands and feet and the mouth of other Christians.
Now, you think about this. Sermons technically, listen, sermons shouldn't have to be, uh, dazzling or exciting, or the worship doesn't have to be, "Wow!" and everyone's hair is blown back and their eyes are wide open. Did you, man, what was that great worship? Listen, many churches today pack it, pack people in because it's very cool. And I'm not knocking that. But is the church known for love? Biblical love? It's not how the pastor does. You know, we live in a culture, and there's so many great ministries in California where pastors are almost, and the worship ministries are almost on, on, you know, American Idol every week, and people are judging. "I'll give them a five. The message, what was it? H three." That's a sin. If that pastor gave you one verse, that should be enough to convict your life and get you on your knees to pursue Christ, right? Well, how was the worship? "It was a little off." That's not for that's not for us. The worship was for God, not for us. "I don't like that song." Too bad. God loves it, right? It's not about us. But a church should be known for its love. Real, practical love. Love. Jesus said in John 13:34, "This is awesome." John 13:34, Jesus said, "A new commandment I give you, that you love one another as I have loved you." And that's a whole lot of love. "That you also love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." You guys, honestly, we don't need an evangelistic outreach if, first service alone, there's enough people at first service that if we just got up and started loving people, and the most powerful word I'm thinking about right now, really, for real. I mean, get all up in your neighbor's life with love. When's the last time? Imagine first service. What a first service. First service is under oath to make cookies for their neighbor. Say, "Jack, my neighbor is Satan." Satan lives next door to me. Then make Satan some cookies and take them over there. You might see the horns go down a little bit. And you know what? What a great example. Just use this. Use this. Say, "Hey, listen. You look, look, I know we don't get along. I know we've had our issues in the past. But here's the deal. I went to church today. My pastor said that we ought to be loving like Jesus. And so we mentioned, you know, for a service, making some cookies for our neighbors. And so I'm just doing that. Okay? Here you go." Do you realize if you just even did it like that, your neighbor would go, "Thanks, honey. Who was there at the door?" Uh, they might say, "Satan, our neighbor, because they probably think you're Satan." Beelzebub came over and brought us cookies. Why? What happened? That's a manner. I don't know. They said something about that they went to church and the message was about make baking cookies or something. You can do that. Every one of us can do that. You can even blame me when you enter, when you knock on the door. I'm supposed to do this. Get up and do it. Every church that has a personality, notice. And every church does have a little bit of a different focus than some other church that's designed by God. There are some evangelistically leaning churches. There are some teaching leaning churches. There are some churches that are very, very involved in inner-city issues. There are some other cities that are very involved. And you get the story, you get the picture. And all that's fantastic. Not every church is supposed to be exactly the same. Thus, God gives a church a personality. But what it does must be motivated by love, always.
Number three, look at verse five. God's recipe, mercy, love. Third is grace. God's recipe for forgiveness is grace. Verse five, "But if anyone has caused grief, he has not grieved me, but all of you, the whole church, to some extent. But look, not to be too severe. Um, don't gang up on the guy and kill him." Now, grace. Grace is the companion to mercy. If mercy says, "You deserve a spanking, but you're not going to get it." Grace comes along and says, "Do you want to go get an ice cream at the store?" You understand that I just committed some big sin, and I just got away with an inch of my life? I, I received mercy. And yeah, I understand that. But do you want to go get an ice cream? I'll, I'll buy it for you. That's grace. How cool is that? You should do that to your kids. Not often, though. Not often. The Bible says, listen, in Numbers 32:23, "Now, you need to hear this, everybody. Tune in. Listen very carefully to this, especially the technical doctrine of it." Numbers 32:23, "But if you do not do so, then take note." That is, if you don't repent, believer, take note, "you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out." Everybody, look, look at the screen. If, uh, go to the, go to the camera. Okay. You see this? See my finger? What I'm doing right now is what that verse means. To be found out is to be pointed out in a crowd. You see this? And you know this is true. The Bible says if you don't repent of your sin, it's got, listen, it's going to be found out. The word "found out" means to be pointed out publicly. Listen, ladies and gentlemen, church family, get this, get this right now. Have you sinned? To sin, and it may be you in your thoughts. It may be a sin regarding you and somebody else, or you and five people, or you and seven people. According to the biblical rules of confession, you are to go to either, listen, God first, and then that person, or God first, and then those two people, or three people. Are you with me? You don't go grab a microphone, tweet, text, or Facebook the sin. You are to confess it to the person, or if it's God only, to God only. Listen to the love. And are you listening? Listen to the brilliance. Love and mercy and grace to God's formula. If Joe sins against Mike, or Bill against Susie, Bill is to go to God first, and then go to Susie, and then probably back to God. Okay? Why? Because that was the person offended. That was the person sinned against. Now, watch this. If you don't do that, then God will publicly turn up the heat until what? Until you repent. So, listen, maybe you've committed some sin nobody knows about, but God only. And God is speaking to you. Then you are to confess it to God. Don't go online and say, "Hey, I should feel better today after today's sermon. Um, I committed this sin back in 1949, and I confessed it, and and now everyone is tainted in their mind about something that you should have never made public, and you've offended a lot of people when it should only have been talked about to God because you only sinned against God." God. If you sinned against two people, then you should go to those two people. Do you understand that? Then, listen, I, I have no, I have no story in my mind. I have no episode in my mind. I'm just saying this to text, to Facebook, to post, to blog about someone else's sin is to enter into that sin and to be as guilty as they are. That is the sin of gossip and division. And God says, "I hate it." And "I will not hold the person who sows discord, division among the brotherhood, guiltless." Be very wise. If that verse terrified you a moment ago, be sure of this: your sin will find you out. That's true. If you don't repent, repent of it. See that you've sinned against God and get away from it. Stop it. Make amends. If you harden your heart against God, and listen, maybe this is a warning to someone who's living in sin right now. God may be speaking to you right now, and He's saying, "Confess it to Me and forsake it." Or if you don't, He says, "I will point you out in a crowd." And you know what that looks like? Wherever that person goes, there is a cloud of guilt and shame over their life, so much that they almost have it written across their face. Everyone else knows there's something wrong with them. Have you noticed that? You guys know, you know what I'm talking about? It's like, "Are you okay? What's the matter?" "I'm fine. I'm fine." "Yeah, okay. I just thought I'd ask." There's something wrong. This is serious.
Number two, verses 6-8. God's recipe for forgiveness, or God's recipe for, uh, salvation and forgiveness and restoration. Mercy, love, and grace. Number two is verses six through. God's design for restoration is this. God has a design for restoration. Man, aren't you glad? I'm so glad. This is awesome. God has a design for all of us to be restored back into the family of God. Why? Because the Bible tells, the Bible says in First John that all of us sin. We all sin. Isn't it very kind of God to not throw us out of the family the moment we sin after being saved? Number one thing is this: God's design for restoration is, believe it or not, verse six, discipline. Will you write it down? On the count of three, can I hear you say the word discipline? One, two, three, discipline. So you can say it. It is real. But we live in a culture that thinks discipline is a dirty word. And we are destroying our churches. We are destroying our businesses. We are destroying our families and our children because we don't understand the biblical definition of discipline. It's to be rooted in love. It's to be rooted in mercy. It's to be rooted in grace. It's God's design for restoration. No one is ever restored back into a church without biblical discipline. They may come and go, but there's been no spiritual restoration made by the design of God. Do you all hear what I'm saying? This is critical. There's a lot of people that go in and out of a church who, because of unconfessed sin and undal with sinful conduct, the church is polluted, and it never grows. It's never holy. It's never effective. It's a living, breathing organism, the church. And discipline, he says in verse six, "This punishment," they are talking about the punishment that Paul said, "This is what I want you to do, cast the guy out." This discipline, this act which was inflicted by the majority, notice, not everybody was for it. You're not going to have everybody for it, is sufficient for such a man." What a beautiful statement that is. This guy, he got nailed, he got cast out, and apparently, that donkey did go by at a high speed and just clip him, scared him to death. The guy wound up repenting and making restitution, came back to the church, and's been restored. Paul is saying, "Hallelujah! Isn't that great?" I can tell you right now, 20, 21 years as a church, there's been two men in my life where I have rebuked biblically with my Bible open for their conduct, and they repented, and they are living, breathing, dynamic ministers in this church today. And that was 20 and 15 years ago for each guy. Okay? But there's, for every, for every one of those guys that receive it, there's 20 guys who won't receive it. And here's the tough thing as a pastor. You guys are, and you should be. I have to live this world of protecting you and the person who is sinned against you. So watch this. Let's say I'm hypothetical. I'm making this up now. Let's say someone sins against, um, our children's ministry. I don't even know. Just that's just what I'm saying. Someone sins against our children's ministry, and it would put your children in peril. Okay? We find out about it. We pull the guy off to the side, and we discipline him based upon the Bible. Watch this. And we say, for example, "You can't teach, and you're out of children's ministry. You can't use that language in front of the kids. You're in the penalty box and sit in that corner of the sanctuary. And in fact, uh, that's where you're going to be until we are convinced of your repentance." Do you guys all hear me? Yes. But you know what? I get letters. I'm making this up. This has not happened. I get letters though that would say, "I'm leaving the church. Why?" "I'll call you." "I'll write you." "Why? What happened?" "Because Fred's not teaching my children anymore." What am I supposed to do with that? Watch. I know something. See what I'm, are you guys with me? What I know what you want. You want me to tell you all the dirty details. Why? So you have something to tweet? So you've got something to gossip about? The Bible says we love morsels like that. Why? What happened? I won't say a word. You know how hard it is. And if we're going to be a godly church, if I know something that is private about somebody and it's caused them to step out of the public view, I'm the bad guy. I can't tell you the truth because then I would be entering into the sin of gossip. You, you get upset, and this happens. You get upset and you leave thinking that we're bad. But in reality, this person was sinning. We kept their sin private. Put them in the penalty box because it didn't warrant a public rebuke. They repented. Do you see what I'm saying? Wow. It's not easy, which I think is a why a lot of churches don't deal with confrontation. Very important. I just looked at the clock. This is, would you agree this is important stuff? Yes. Um, I could, I could go very fast and throw away both most of my notes, or we can just stop and go through this when we get back because this is a big deal.
Listen, how many of you, how many of you have been hurt or offended by something that has gone on in a church? Raise your hand. Put your hands up. How many of you are lying right now? Put your hands up. [Laughter] You guys, there's no way that you can be committed to a church that is a living, breathing organism and not suffer your pride, flesh, opinion, feelings getting trampled upon. You want to know why? All of us are sinners saved by the grace of God in the church. You hear that? "Well, it really hurt what they said." I'm not, I'm not discrediting the fact that it hurt. You just thank God Jesus never hurts you. Well, see, that's the problem. I really don't have any faith and I want to put my faith in people, and when they hurt me, then I get all disillusioned. That's what you are actually doing. Think about that. Who doesn't have a heart that's been kicked or offended? I have to tell you, in most cases in my life, I had it coming. I really did. But it takes a person committed to the Lord Jesus. I mean, God blessed the Corinthians. They were a messed up church, you guys. But you know what? A lot of people hung in there, and they grew by it. Is your heart bitter today? Has ministry violated your life, and you have just rolled up the carpet? You've, you've brought down the s, shut the doors, and you're out of business? "I'm not serving God anymore because people have hurt my [Music] feelings." And then there's the pendulum swing to the other side where I have to be careful about. I grew up before, before I became a Christian, I grew up, uh, used to having my feelings hurt. And I got so used to it that it just hardened me against people. I'm not saying this is good. Hear me out. And as a non-Christian, th that pain and that, that rejection was converted into anger and violence, and there was no mercy. There was no grace. And there was no love. And when you don't have that, you have pure rage and vengeance. And without Christ in your heart, that's, that's re, that, that will reign supreme in your life. Even in the life of a Christian, with unrepented, un-deal with sin, it often manifests itself with a flare of rage. Where did that come from? Something that's not been dealt with at the cross. And I'm convinced. I believe the reason why I got saved at the age of 19 is because I probably would have been dead by now. I would have either gone to prison or somebody would have killed me. And Jesus came into my life. And today, maybe because we've got to pick this message up next time, it's too vital to rush you. As a believer, are either bitter, and you've closed up shop and you're not open to God anymore? Or maybe you're not a Christian, and you're saying, "I need forgiveness in this area of my life. I, I'm held captive by the people that have hurt me. I want to get them." You ever feel like that? I'll leave you this last verse. Jesus himself is the one who instituted church discipline, people. Did you know that? Jesus himself. Here it is, Matthew 18, 18:55. I'm sorry, Matthew 18:15. Matthew 18:15, Jesus says, "Moreover, if your brother sins against you." This is the family of God. If your, how many of you have ever had a brother sin against you? A Christian sin against you? Again, there's a lot of liars that attend for a service. "Go and tell him his fault between you and him alone." Leave your computer or your phone at home and go to him alone. "And if he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he will not hear, take with you." That's the next visit. "Take with you one or two more." That's godly brothers and sisters. "That by the mouth of two or three witnesses," says every word may be established. It's godly. "If he refuses to hear them, then tell it to the church." That doesn't mean get on Facebook. It means take it to the church leadership. "But if he refuses even to hear the church or the church leadership, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector." It doesn't say he is a tax collector or a heathen. It says treat him like an unbeliever. What does that look like? You know. Now, this person, person who will not repent, remove them from the body so that Satan will beat them up and that they'll come back repentant. Isn't that sweet? You guys, this is love, mercy, grace, God's path. We'll get in next, next time of restoration. And I'll end with this. There may be a lot of us that attend this church, but you know what? It ain't nothing compared to how many people that are Christians who don't go to church anymore. Do you realize if we had a crusade to reach the Christian who is not going to church anymore, there wouldn't be stadiums big enough in America to fill to to to hold them all? There's more disgruntled Christians not fellowshipping than there are Christians attending church. And what if God's plan is to have them be forgiven, restored, so that the body of Christ can grow in holiness? That's the plan. See, it doesn't matter how big the church gets, but it does matter how holy the church gets. It doesn't matter how wide it gets, it's how deep it becomes.
Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for your truth this morning. This is soul-searching stuff. And Father, we ask in Jesus' name that as we have just now, even a little bit of time ahead of schedule, must be for a purpose. And maybe that purpose is for us to repent. Father, I pray that your Holy Spirit would be present, thick, right now. And Lord, that for those who are hearing from your Spirit right now, that they need to repent of a position that they've been holding, a position in their mind that somehow has nurtured their feelings, but it has not been nutritious. It has been the opposite. The more you have nurtured that emotion, unrepentant, you have gone further from God. You've become angry, bitter, critical, judgmental, cynical. And you, though you've been sinned against, you didn't handle it right. And now you are the one far from God. I'm going to ask you right now, before God, to repent right now. God is speaking to you. Tell Him that you are repenting of this, and that you're asking for forgiveness for restoration. You know, God may be speaking to you also to say to to go to that person and say, "I'm [Music] sorry."
Maybe this morning, you're not a Christian at all. And I know this was not a message for the non-believer [Music] today. But maybe you've gotten the point that Jesus not only died for your sins on the cross, but rose again from the grave. Not only that, but He's actually inviting you to join this living, breathing body called the church. It's not just this church that you're sitting in. It's, it's the church of God on earth. And I'm asking you right now, maybe that's you today, and you're saying, "I need Jesus. I'm bitter. I'm angry. Or I'm hurt. Or I'm scared. Or man, today you're talking about immorality, and I felt like you were sticking your finger in my chest." Friend, that was not me. That was the Holy Spirit of God. Heads bowed, eyes closed. No one looking around. Maybe today that's you, and you're saying, "I want Jesus." Is that you today? Can you put your hand up? And I'll just see that it's your hand that God has been speaking to you. And then I'll just have you put your hand down. God bless you in the back. Couple of hands up front. God bless you. Anyone else? God has been speaking to you. God bless you. Yes. Awesome. Right now, right where you're at, if you raised your hand, just, just pray this to the Lord. Say, "Lord, forgive me of my sins. Um, I don't even know quite what I'm doing, but I know that this has struck a chord in my heart. God, you're real, and I need help. I'm unholy. You are holy. I'm lost. You are the Savior. I'm on this earth. You're in heaven. I woke up to my existence. You're my Creator. Forgive me of my sins. I believe today that you died, as the Bible says, on the cross, and you rose again from the grave, and that you want to know me personally. I give you my life. Change me. I need a change in my life." And Lord, to those who are s, who are your children already, and they're saying, "God, fill me. God, heal me. God, restore me." Brother, sister, you talk to God now, and you settle that score with Him. He's been waiting for you to come back. Father, we pray now for these things, for the move of your Holy Spirit. We pray, Lord God, that this would be our revival in our midst. And God, that you would send revival across America, that there would be restoration and confession of sin toward God and healing in the church of God. We ask it in Jesus' name. [Music]