Overall, this week wasn't too bad. I had a tough couple of days landscaping on Wednesday and Thursday. The last day, I spent the entire 8-5 mowing out in the blazing sun and got moderately dehydrated. I still don't feel 100% back together from that yet, but this weekend has been full of resting and I am thankful that I had the opportunity for that. This morning, Bob continued his sermon series on The Church. Today's message was about church discipline. He began by making the point that as a culture, we have a simplistic view of sin. We see it as something that requires external action and that it is always visible rather than something that is bent within our soul. Our culture wants to think that we are born innocent and learn bad things from the circumstances surrounding us. Bob posed this example as a point against that theory: we never have to teach our kids how to be bad. They already know how to do that. The effort is put into teaching them how to behave and act according to the Gospel. We are not born innocent like our culture wants us to believe. And the Bible confirms this (Ephesians 2:3; Psalm 51:5). Again, we see an example of how the Gospel is a contrarian to the voice of the world in which we live.
Hebrews 3:12-13 tells us that sin is deceitful and that it can harden our hearts. On this note, Bob suggested that we should not be offended by confrontation from others about our sins because sometimes they may not even be visible to us. He then transitioned to his sermon text, Matthew 18:15-17, in order to illustrate how we as Christians are to approach church discipline by means of the Gospel.
Step 1 - Approach your "brother" in private (vs. 15) remembering that Galatians 6:1 calls us to restore our brother gently.
Step 2 - Have conversation again with two or three spiritually wise people as witnesses (vs. 16). Because, as Proverbs 18:17 promises, there are always two sides to every story.
Step 3 - Take the issue to the church (vs. 17) and by church, this means the members and the elders of the church.
Step 4 - If they do not respond to any of these efforts, we are called to treat them as Gentiles or tax collectors (vs. 17). This does not mean we cast them out or ignore them because the final goal in the Galatians passage is restoration. Rather, what is meant is that we treat them as non-Christians. Those who believe in Christ are new creations and their actions should reflect that. Christians repent of sin. They do not ignore it. By becoming a Christian, our conduct thereafter reflects Jesus and not us. Therefore, by living in unrepentant sin, we say that Christ, his death on the cross, and the Gospel are in line with and approve of unrepentant sin.
This passage from Matthew makes it clear that church discipline is meant to be relational. Not simply an accusation that expects repentance, but a joint pursuit of restoration. Because sin is deceptive, we are not always totally aware of our sins. We need biblical community and we need to welcome confrontation and discipline. We should never be ashamed or filled with guilt because of our sins because it is by Jesus' sacrifice on the cross and not by our own works that God smiles upon us. Everything was taken care of on the cross. Our job is to embrace that.
Before I end, I have to make note of a very significant point. At the beginning of the summer, I was given a very important responsibility by the church staff that was my top priority for the entire time I was here: build a pulley for the missional community leader party that happened last night which would allow beer to be raised to the balcony where the hamburgers were being grilled by the cook. To be honest, I never took this idea seriously. It sounded a little ridiculous to me. But in the end, it happened. Last night, Kendal and I successfully pieced together a pulley that not only raised beer to the balcony, but also allowed food to be lowered down to the hungry attendees. It got a solid two hours of use by everyone. And the kids there loved it. Below is a video interview by Kendal of me and Lane Freemyer (the brownie guy from my last entry) in which I am given an official Coram Deo letter grade for my efforts. And for all it's worth, in hindsight I am glad that I fulfilled my duty. It turned out to be really funny to watch everyone using it.
Oh, and I made my first mark in my new Bible today. It was a difficult decision because it was so clean and crisp. But it had to be done...I highlighted my favorite verse: Isaiah 49:16.
LOVE IT!!!! :-)
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