This week, my wife's grandmother passed away, Grandma
Clara.
And some of you guys know Grandma Clara,
and she still writes letters to some of
you.
She was here from the start with the
church.
And, you know, we just gave that series
on being in love with Jesus.
And I was trying to think, do I
know of anyone on this planet who was
more in love with Jesus than Grandma?
And I thought, no, not even close.
There are people that are committed to Jesus.
There are people who commit to serving the
Lord, people that have sacrificed everything for God.
But when I think about someone who was
truly in love with Jesus Christ, I think
no one holds a candle to Grandma.
My wife would tell me that when she
was growing up, she'd hear Grandma in the
room next door to her just crying and
praying every morning.
And she'd tell Lisa, she goes, you know,
every morning I get on my knees right
there by that corner of the bed.
And that's where I meet with God.
And she goes throughout the day, whenever I
pass by that corner of the bed, I
get weepy.
And I say to say to God, God,
I can't wait till tomorrow morning just to
be with you again and spend that quality
time with you.
And she was just talking to Jesus all
the time, all day long.
She would pray.
I mean, she was truly in love and
she could not wait to see him.
And so it was exciting when we got
the news and going, wow, she's she's finally
there.
She's finally there.
She told me one time that she thought
maybe that the Lord was keeping her alive
because he was going to return, you know,
before she died.
And so that she was waiting for that.
And the most impactful thing she ever did
for me personally, and I've shared the story
before, was this one time the whole family
went over to the Moore Park Melodrama thing.
This was years ago.
I know it exists anymore.
But we're over there at the theater.
And during halftime, I look over at Grandma
and I go, I go, Grandma, what do
you what do you what do you think?
What do you think of the play so
far?
Because it was clean, it was good, and
she's very godly woman.
And she goes, oh, I don't want to
be here.
And I say, OK, I go, well, there
was nothing bad.
You know, they didn't say any bad words
or anything that was wrong about the play.
She goes, oh, honey, it's not that she
goes.
I just don't know if I want to
be here when Jesus returns.
She goes, I'd rather be helping someone, I'd
rather be praying for someone, but I don't
want Jesus to return and just find me
sitting in a theater watching a play.
Wow.
You take the Bible seriously.
I mean, we've all heard the passages, right,
that Christ could return at any moment.
We want to be ready.
We want to be doing what he wants
us to be doing at that time.
But she lived it out.
Here was a woman who thought through every
moment of the day, what do I want
to be doing when Christ returns?
Do I want to be doing this when
he returns?
Not even if it's something horribly evil.
It's just because I want him to see
that I'm serving him, that I'm praying to
him, that I've been waiting for him.
And it's so weird when someone takes the
word of God seriously, isn't it?
It's convicting.
And you go, you know what?
That's the way we ought to live.
And needless to say, I didn't watch the
second half of the play.
I mean, I'm sitting there praying the whole
time going, maybe she knows something.
You know, I I'm just the whole time.
Just seriously, I was praying for neighbors, praying
for friends.
It changed the way I live, because when
someone lives out the Bible, suddenly you don't
have an excuse.
When you finally see it, that's what Brad
Buser did for us last weekend, right?
Because it's one thing for me to come
up and say, hey, deny yourself, pick up
your cross, follow him.
You know what?
Let go of your dreams.
It's another thing for someone who actually did
it to stand up here and say, you
know, I don't see any other way around
this thing.
You just do what God wants you to
do.
Remember a few weeks ago, we talked about
Matthew 25 and we talked about the sheep
and goat judgment and how Jesus says that,
you know what?
That's me that's starving.
I was hungry and you gave me nothing
to eat.
I was thirsty.
You gave me nothing to drink.
And I go, if we take that seriously.
Then we've got to be living our life
to try to help these people that are
in need around the world, because that's Jesus.
I'm not going to let Jesus starve.
And so we've got to be passionate about
these things.
And it's interesting, after I gave that message
and the podcast went out, we've been getting
emails all around the world.
People, people emailing us going, are you serious?
Your church is going to give away that
much.
You guys are going to take that passage
seriously.
People say, finally, a church is putting its
money where its mouth is.
You're really going to care for the poor
like that.
And it's just you're hearing these people because
suddenly now church is going, wait, now we
have no excuse.
If they're going to do that, because that's
that's that's the way it ought to be.
You guys are passages in scripture that we
have to take seriously.
I mean, every passage in scripture we have
to take seriously.
And again, I'm just tired of growing up
in church and hearing the message and then
not actually doing something about it.
As this morning, I share a passage of
scripture that we have to take seriously.
The elders discussed this a couple of weeks
ago.
It was either this last Monday or the
Monday before, and we agreed that I need
to teach on this.
But let me just say this right now,
because we're taking this passage seriously, some of
you will not return next weekend.
Um, you know, don't clap for that.
You're hoping for certain people, huh?
No.
No, by teaching this, though, seriously.
Yeah, last service guy just walked out after
saying that really.
Yeah, yeah.
All right.
And that's a very sad thing.
It's sad to me, but it's but it's
OK, it's OK, and the reason why it's
OK is you need to understand that ever
since we started this church, we have taught
a God centered theology.
That means that everything revolves around God.
We don't teach a man centered theology, which
is what most of the world teaches and
most churches teach is a man centered theology
where everything revolves around you and God is
just trying to appease you and do things
the way you want them done.
That's why I don't ask you, hey, what
do you guys want to do at church
next week?
Because it's not about you.
It's not about me.
It's about looking at this book and saying,
what does God want?
It's a God centered theology.
You see, and when you have a God
centered theology that says that everything revolves around
God, it answers the question when people ask,
you know, or people say, my life is
painful.
I've been through some hard times.
Things aren't going the way I want them
to.
So there must not be a God.
We hear that all the time.
I'm going through a hard time, so there
must not be a God.
Well, that's true.
There must not be a God.
Whose actions revolve around you.
But there could exist a God who believes
that everything should revolve around him, that God
could exist.
And that's the way the God of the
Bible explains himself, and that's why we pray
thy kingdom come, thy will be done, not
my will, your will be done on earth
as it is in heaven.
We grew up praying that prayer.
A lot of us growing up in Sunday
school, you learned in Catholic school.
Did you know that God wanted us to
take that seriously, too, that when we said
thy kingdom come, thy will be done.
Not just to repeat it and just to
say, oh, yes, I will be done on
earth as it is in heaven.
No, that we really mean it.
God, I want what you want.
Forget my desires.
Put my dreams aside.
This is about you.
This world centers around you.
And therefore, this church centers around God and.
The God of the Bible, when he describes
himself, he goes, you need to understand why
I do certain things on the earth.
It's really for one reason, and that reason
is me.
In the Old Testament, if we look at
Isaiah, I'm going to put a passage of
Isaiah, chapter forty eight, verses nine through eleven.
This is when God was telling Israel why
he wasn't destroying them yet.
He says this for my own name's sake.
I delay my wrath for the sake of
my praise.
I hold it back from you so as
not to cut you off.
See, I have refined you, though not as
silver.
I've tested you in the furnace of affliction
for my own sake, for my own sake.
I do this.
How can I let myself be defamed?
I will not yield my glory to another.
God is explained to the nation of Israel
because you know why I don't destroy you.
Is it because you're just such good people
and you're such a wonderful nation that you
know what?
I just figured I'm going to take care
of you because, no, the reason why I
don't destroy you is for my name's sake.
It's for me.
It's for the sake of my praise.
He's saying, see, if I destroy you and
everyone knows that you are my people, they're
going to say that, see, your God isn't
as powerful as our God.
And he goes, so it's for my own
name's sake that I'm delaying my wrath.
He goes, because I don't want to be
defamed, I don't want other people to say,
see, your God isn't powerful.
He goes, so it's for my own sake.
He says it again for my own sake.
I do this because he goes, I'm not
going to yield my glory to another.
Everyone needs to know that Yahweh God, the
God of Israel, is the almighty God.
And that's why I don't destroy you, because
you're rebellious and I should destroy you.
But I don't for my own name's sake.
You understand that it wasn't for Israel.
It was for him.
It was for his own glory, for his
own name.
It's no different in the New Testament, in
Colossians chapter one, verse 16, it says, for
by him all things were created, things in
heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether
thrones or powers or rulers or authorities, all
things were created by him.
And don't miss that word for him.
Why did he make everything so that he
could cater to the needs of all the
things that he made?
He made everything, it says, for him that
we are supposed to revolve around him.
We go, what do you want?
Rather than God, why aren't you giving me
what I want?
We teach as a church, this God centered
theology.
And I understand it flies in the face
of everything you're taught all week long and
other places where everything's about you.
The customer is always right.
It's all about you.
If you don't get your way, you know
what?
Fight for it.
And the Bible says, no, not my will
be done, but thine.
That's why Jesus prayed.
Even Jesus, I only say what the father
wants me to say.
I don't say anything unless he tells me
to say it.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on
earth as it is in heaven.
And having said this again, just want to
make sure you understand that you realize this
weekend is the 13th anniversary of Cornerstone Church.
We've existed 13 years.
And I yeah, and from its inception,
it's it's been about what does God want?
And from its inception, this has not been
Francis's church.
This is God's church.
It's not my church.
It's not your church.
If it were my church, I would do
a lot of things differently.
You wouldn't even want to know.
The reason is the reason is I would
do things differently because I disagree with this
book a lot.
I disagree with this book a lot.
But when I disagree, I still obey.
Because you don't have to agree with someone
to obey with, to obey him, see, because
when I disagree with God.
I assume I'm wrong.
Crazy, huh?
I just give him the benefit that you
probably know more.
I when I disagree, I go, you know
what, I assume that I'm wrong and you're
right, and so I'll still obey you.
See, the crazy thing is most people don't
do that when they disagree with this book,
they walk away and they go, well, forget
it.
I'm going to go my own way.
Or when I disagree with this book, you
know what?
I'm going to go with what I think.
Because God gave me a mind.
And I'm not going to just check it
in at the door.
That's crazy.
So you're going to go with your opinion
over God's.
That's nuts, it's it's it's like the other
day when two weeks ago we were visiting
my wife's grandma and we're up up north
and some other relatives were there and we
went out to lunch and during lunch, my
wife prays after she prays her her cousin's
daughter was there, who's like three years old
after my wife prays, she looks at my
wife and goes.
You did that wrong.
And we just kind of laugh and then
she goes, no, you don't do it right.
And Lisa's like, well, what did I do
wrong?
She says it was just wrong.
It was wrong and you couldn't get anything
out of her and pretty soon it's like,
OK, it's not cute anymore.
But but, you know, the whole it's just
so funny.
I was a little three year old telling
her, you know, you don't pray right.
You don't you don't do that very well.
And and I think how silly it must
sound to an eternal God.
When someone who's existed 20 years, 40 years,
80 years, looks up and goes, you didn't
do it right.
That's not the right way to do it.
I've got a better idea.
You see.
When you and God disagree, when you disagree
with scripture, whose viewpoint do you take?
It's very important, because if you don't follow
God's word, then you're really not a follower
of God.
I mean, you just follow God as long
as he agrees with you.
So in reality, who's who's your God?
It's yourself.
You know, at some point you just got
to say, you know what, I disagree with
this, but you know what?
God, this is God.
So I'm going to submit to it anyways.
And that's what we're doing as a church.
That's what we've always been striving for as
a church.
If this were my church, I wouldn't practice
First Corinthians, chapter five.
So if you ever Bibles, turn to First
Corinthians five, because we're going to do it
anyways, because God has written his word.
First Corinthians, chapter five.
First Corinthians, chapter five, starting in verse nine,
it's written.
I have written you in my letter not
to associate with sexually immoral people, not at
all, meaning the people of this world who
are immoral or the greedy and swindlers or
idolaters.
In that case, you'd have to leave this
world.
But now I'm writing that you must not
associate with anyone who calls himself a brother,
but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater
or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler.
With such a man, do not even eat.
What business is it of mine to judge
those outside the church?
Are you not to judge those inside?
God will judge those outside, expel the wicked
man from among you.
So what do we do with that?
Let's ignore it.
I don't like it.
I don't agree with it.
Sounds harsh.
Let's not do it.
Where do we go?
You know what?
That's what God says.
And because this is his church, you got
to understand, God says, this is my church.
This isn't Francis Church, not your church.
This is God's church.
He goes, look, I want things done a
certain way in my house, in your house.
If you want to have all sorts of
immorality, that's your home with your bride, whatever
you whatever kind of bride you want.
That's up to you.
But for my church, my bride, my house,
I want a house that is pure.
This is God speaking.
Because if you want to do things on
earth as it is in heaven, you really
mean that.
Well, here's what I want in my church.
I want purity.
When I come back from my bride, I
want to see that my bride is pure.
And I want to see that you've expelled
those who call themselves Christians.
But are living these immoral lifestyles.
Now, he makes it clear he goes, look,
I am not telling you because Paul wrote
this letter to the Corinthians and he said,
you know what?
In my letter, I told you not to
associate with the sexually immoral because I wasn't
talking about the people in the world.
I'm not telling you just to die and
go to heaven.
I mean, you wouldn't be able to talk
to anyone because you need to be out
there.
You can understand this.
I think the church has got it all
wrong.
What we end up doing is the same
thing the Corinthian church does, is we avoid
the people in the world that are immoral.
We run from them and we curse them
and we judge them.
And God says, what are you judging them
for?
You have no right to judge them.
That's God's job.
He goes, but inside the church, you are
supposed to judge him.
See, we allow sin in the church and
we go, well, that guy's leaving his wife
and I would have left her to, you
know, whatever type of thing.
And I'll put my arm around you and
the Bible saying, wait, no, no, no, not
in my house.
Not in my church.
And we let these things go on in
the church, and then we say how evil
those people are out in the world.
You guys, that's completely opposite of what God
desires.
God says, you know what?
The people who don't know me, they're going
to do what they're going to do.
And you need to love them.
You need to go after them.
Isn't that what Jesus did?
He was out with the alcoholics, with the
prostitutes, with the murderers, with the thieves.
That's who Jesus hung with.
Out in the world, we're seeing in the
church, it's supposed to look differently.
God says, I want the church to be
pure.
See, and I know that some of you
are thinking, man, Francis, you preach this type
of message and we won't need a, you
know, a building project.
We we you're going to get rid of
everyone.
Um, you know what?
What if what if unbelievers hear this message?
What if people outside of the church walls
hear this type of message?
It's going to turn them off to Christianity.
And I think you'd be surprised.
I believe the world is waiting for the
church to preach this message.
They are waiting for the church to get
serious about judging the sin that's inside of
the church and quit judging them.
And then suddenly we'll be a light to
the world and they'll be attracted to it
and say, OK, now I want to be
a place like that.
Because how many times have you shared with
people and they said, I don't need to
be a part of that church.
I know so-and-so.
He goes there, calls himself a Christian.
He's twice as immoral as I am.
Who needs your Jesus?
Well, what if the church was serious about
purity and suddenly in here we loved each
other enough that we went after each other
and confront each other on the things that
are not pleasing to God?
And we started judging those inside the church.
I tell you, that's not going to turn
people from this place.
It's suddenly going to be the salt of
the earth.
It'll be the light of the world.
So in First Corinthians five and verse 11,
he says, I'm writing you that you must
not associate with anyone who calls himself a
brother.
Very key phrase, calls himself a brother, but
is sexually immoral.
OK, so we're not supposed to associate, not
even eat with someone who calls himself a
Christian, but is having sex outside of marriage.
If you're unmarried, having sex, call yourself a
Christian.
I shouldn't even talk to you, should never
eat with you, according to the Bible.
If you're having an affair, call yourself a
Christian.
Unless you're going to turn from that sin,
I don't want to associate with you.
I will not associate with you if I
know it.
Other than to confront you, because that's what
God tells me to do, and so I'm
bound to that.
He says the immoral or the greedy guys,
this one's a little more difficult, because how
do you judge when someone is greedy?
And sometimes this is one that we belittle
here in Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks, you
know, because aren't we all greedy?
You know, aren't we all materialistic?
And so it's hard to judge on that
one.
It's like, when is a person truly greedy,
like greedy enough to not associate?
You know, I don't know.
That's that's necessarily the whole point of it
to say, well, that's the line, you know.
But it's more just the attitude of this
person's heart.
It's all about stuff.
You're always just thinking about stuff.
You're always just thinking about this earth.
The greedy, the idolater, and we're not as
associated with those who call themselves Christians yet
worship other idols or worship other belief systems.
It's not OK to say, well, Jesus is
one way and here's another way, here's another
way, here's another way.
If you're going to do that, call yourself
something else, but not a Christian.
A slanderer, that means if you say negative
things, untrue things about other people.
You gossip about other people.
Then we shouldn't associate with you, but that's
a pattern of your life.
Again, it's not saying that you slipped once.
We're all going to do that in different
areas.
It's talking about the person.
This is the pattern of your life.
You refuse to repent.
This is just what you do to you
are.
I mean, you guys understand this is a
good thing.
It really is.
Everything in Scripture is good.
It's for our good.
I mean, Chris, could you imagine what it
would be like if you knew that every
time you walked inside the church, that no
one in that room slandered you that week?
I'd be crazy to imagine how happy I'd
be if I walked up here every morning
and knew no one spoke negatively about me
this week.
I mean, what if the church was that
type of place where we took slander that
seriously that you could walk in and go,
you know what?
I know no one slanders me here.
I mean, the workplace everywhere else, but not
in the church, because they take it so
seriously that they confront and they don't even
allow people who are slanderers to stay in
that place.
What a light this place would be, how
people would run for a safe place like
that.
A drunkard, I recognize some of you, you
have some addictions and you struggle with those
addictions and you fight those addictions.
Some of you, you wake up every morning,
you say, Lord, just get me through this
day.
I don't want to sin against you.
I want to fight this thing.
You've got people holding you accountable.
And by the power of the Holy Spirit,
you're fighting the fight.
And I say, praise God for you.
You know what?
Because I know it's not easy.
I talk to people all the time with
different types of addictions, whether it's whether it's,
you know, alcohol, drugs, sexual, whatever it may
be.
And it's a fight.
It's a fight.
All of us have our addictions in some
area and it's a fight.
This is referring to the person, not the
person who's fighting, the person who just says,
you know what, I'm both.
I'm a Christian and I get wasted on
the weekends.
I'm a Christian and, you know, I'm a
drunkard.
He says, or a swindler, that's a person
who rips other people off.
Wouldn't that be great to know that, man,
if someone, you know, goes to Cornerstone, I
can trust his business.
He's not going to rip me off.
And if you are, if you have any
unfair practices, don't you dare put a fish
on your business card and make it look
like you're a Christian to get more business.
That's just the lamest thing you could do.
You're dragging the name of Jesus Christ down
with you.
You see, this stuff is to protect the
church, but it's also to protect the reputation
of Jesus Christ.
Do you understand something?
See, here's here's something we don't talk about
a whole lot.
I call myself a Christian.
That's an honor.
Whose name did I take when I called
myself Christian?
I took the very name of Christ.
Man, it's not more about Francis Chan, I
I'm a Christian, I took the name above
every name at the name of Jesus.
Every knee is going to bow, every tongue
is going to confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord, the glory of God, the father.
And now suddenly I've taken that name for
myself.
And you guys, that's an honor.
That's a sacred thing.
And Jesus, don't call yourself a Christian if
you're going to live that type of lifestyle.
Don't allow that in the church.
Paul was telling the Corinthian church, they see
the Corinthian church was proud because of their
immorality.
The Bible says that there was some immorality
going on in the church and they were
proud of it.
They were saying, look, we're an open community,
we allow everyone.
You know what, you can be a Christian
and do whatever you want.
See, we're not judgmental, we're tolerant.
And Paul says, you're proud of that.
This is God's church and he's saying, I'll
have none of that.
This is my house, this is my bride.
And that's why he's saying, expel, expel the
wicked man from among you.
So how do we do this?
I believe that scripture outlines this and explains
to us the process of how do we
expel the immoral person from within the church?
And I believe that process is laid out
in Matthew chapter 18.
I'm going to put it on the screen
for you in case you don't have your
Bible now there.
And then before I go through this, let
me explain that some people look at Matthew
18 and say they don't believe that this
this is this applies to all sin.
And I can understand because the first part
of it says, if your brother sins against
you, I understand there's some ancient manuscripts that
don't have the against you in it.
But because the the main ones do, we
leave it in if your brother sins against
you.
So people say, well, this is only a
sin if someone is sinning against you.
And I agree that that is what this
is referring to.
However, I don't see a better pattern of
how to confront sin.
I think this is such a loving way,
because how else do you expel the immoral
brother?
How else do you get out, get him
out of there?
Do you just see him sin once and
kick him out?
No, what what Matthew 18 explains is it's
a loving, loving process.
It says, if your brother sins against you,
go and show him his fault just between
the two of you.
If he listens to you, you've won your
brother over.
But if he will not listen, take one
or two others along so that every matter
may be established by the testimony of two
or three witnesses.
If he refuses to listen to them, tell
it to the church.
And if he refuses to listen even to
the church, treat him as you would a
pagan or a tax collector.
OK, there's a process here, you know, because
people are saying, man, are you going to
kick me out?
You can kick me out.
Man, that's not what this is saying.
There's a process.
Man, it's a loving process.
OK, this is so loving.
You can kind of get this because you're
going, oh, man, this seems harsh.
It seems extreme.
No way.
This is the most loving thing you do
for a person.
In fact, this this is Matthew 18, verse
15.
You know what verse 14 is about and
the stuff before that?
It's the parable of the lost sheep.
Remember that?
That's where Jesus says, hey, which of you,
if you have a hundred sheep and one
of them strays off, aren't you going to
leave the ninety nine and go after that
one?
And we look at that pass and go,
wow, what a what a loving passage.
You know, like a good shepherd, you go
after that one that strays away.
Well, then in the very next verse, what
does it say?
So if your brother sins against you, what
do you do?
You go after him.
See, people say, well, that's not loving to
go confront someone on their sin.
And the Bible saying, no, it's not loving
to leave him alone.
You're just going to let him stray.
You're like that one sheep that just wandered
away from from the flock and you're going
to let him go in their sin.
Now, if you love him, you go after
him and you show him his fault.
And he goes just between the two of
you.
It's a private matter.
That means if you see someone in the
church and sin, don't come running to me.
You're supposed to love that person enough to
talk to them and show them biblically.
Look, the Bible says this is wrong.
You can't go down this road.
And the Bible says that if he listens
to you, you win.
You've just brought your brother back into the
fold to you.
You just did it.
That was the goal.
That's the goal of this thing.
The goal is not to get rid of
people.
The goal is to win them back.
And he goes, and if he listens to
you, you've just won him back.
But then it says if he will not
listen, then take one or two others along
so that every matter may be established by
the testimony of two or three witnesses.
He's if you confront this person and they
don't listen, bring a couple more people with
you.
Maybe if three or four of you love
on this person, then they'll turn around.
You know, in the secular world, they call
this intervention, right, is to get the people
that love this person, let's all circle around
him and love him and let him know
that you can't go on living, even the
world does this.
This is in the church, can you get
a couple of people who love this person
and all go to them and show them
that it's wrong, because maybe he'll listen to
two or three of you, maybe several of
you in love, come to him and tell
him how much you just want to see
him walk with the Lord again.
That'll turn him around.
What a loving thing to do if he
refuses to listen to them.
Then tell it to the church.
See, if you've gone down the process and
you've talked to the person, you've brought some
others along and you talk to them, then
you can tell one of the elders of
the church.
And as the elders discuss it and go,
you know what, this is legitimate, then we're
going to bring it before the whole church.
And we will name names and say, you
know what, this person we've tried, we're loving
him, everything else, maybe if we all in
love, just go after this person and say,
you know what, you got to walk away
from her, you got to walk away from
this addiction, you got to walk away from
that.
Maybe if we all love on him, maybe
then he'll come back, maybe then he'll repent
of his sin.
Then the Bible says if he refuses to
listen, even to the church, the church leaders,
the church body, he refused to listen to
all that, he goes.
Then I believe that's what First Corinthians five
is about, then you expel the wicked.
Brother, from among you now again, remember the
context of this passage, because right after this
passage, he talks about forgiveness and talks about
how you know what, you've got to keep
forgiving.
You got to go after that lost sheep,
but there's a process in there, so it
is love.
And so let me just say this right
now.
If you are in this room this morning
and you call yourself a Christian, but you
have decided to continue in on in these
sins or any of those sins that we
mentioned.
You need to know that we love you
and we love you so much that we're
willing to ask you to leave.
We're so committed to restoring you that we'll
even take it to the point of asking
you not to come back until you've turned.
And in fact, if you have your Bibles,
go back to First Corinthians five.
I want to explain one more passage to
you, just two verses to show you how
serious this is.
In First Corinthians five.
Verse four, and this, again, is something that
we're going to we're going to start doing,
verse four, First Corinthians five, when you are
assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus
and I am with you in spirit and
the power of our Lord Jesus is present,
hand this man over to Satan so that
the sinful nature may be destroyed and his
spirit saved on the day of the Lord.
I know most you read that you go,
that's weird.
What does that mean?
Hand this man over to Satan when you're
assembled in a public assembly, these people have
refused to repent after everyone's gone after them
at that point, publicly to say this person
is no longer under Christ and God, we
hand him over to Satan.
And why would you do that?
Well, one, because the Bible says so, but
what sense does that make?
OK, why does the Bible say hand him
over to Satan so that what?
Yeah, it's about his salvation.
It's his hand, this man over Satan, so
that what his sinful nature may be destroyed
and his spirit saved.
On the day of the Lord, what's the
goal here, the person's salvation, right?
You see, the point is, is when I
say, you know what, this person's been handed
over to Satan and just publicly, God, we're
handing him over to Satan, have Satan have
his way with him.
And then the whole idea is we no
longer associate with him, we no longer eat
with him, this person, he or she goes
off in his or her sin, which he
or she loves so much that she wasn't
willing to let go.
She has indulges, indulges, indulges, indulges.
And then at some point, hopefully the hope
is that her flesh and these fleshly desires,
as she's fulfilled them all, she goes, this
isn't that great.
I miss what I had, I remember the
way it used to be when I was
a part of the church, I remember what
it was like to be close to God
and I gave all that up for this.
The hope is that at some point they
come to the end of themselves and they
go, man, OK, I want to come back
and then we with open arms say, yeah,
come on back.
This is what we've been hoping for is
what we've been praying for, that you've had
enough of Satan and you want all of
God now.
And that Bible says that that leads to
salvation because the Bible says that the godly
sorrow leads to repentance.
Which leads to salvation, whereas worldly sorrow, it
says, leads to death.
You see, it's not enough for when you're
confronted in your sin to go, yeah, I
know it's wrong, it's wrong, it's wrong, but
I'm not going to stop where, where, where
that's that's I'm not going to put my
arm around you seriously, because that would only
lead you to death for me to say,
oh, it's OK, you can keep calling yourself
a Christian and keep living this type of
lifestyle.
I'm not helping you.
I'm only enabling you and leading you to
death, the Bible says, and I love you
too much to do that.
See, even though we explain these things, I
guarantee you, people will walk away from church
this weekend and say they're judgmental, which, yeah,
we are.
We're supposed to be within the church.
Bible says that.
And you're going to say that we're unloving
and to that, I respond, no, the truth
is, is that you are unloving.
And you are also very arrogant.
Because you believe you have a better way
of restoration than what Jesus laid out, you
read this and you're not denying what the
passages say, you're just saying you have a
better way.
I mean, unless you can tell me now
that verse really means this is go ahead,
try.
And try to convince yourself that it means
something else, I mean, it's black and white,
how else do you read it?
But you think you have a better way,
and the reason why I say that you're
unloving.
Is the truth is, is by you not
going after these people and allowing them to
have this worldly sorrow and not really bring
them to repentance, it says you lead them
to death.
And the truth is, here's the here's the
bottom line is you care more about your
friendships.
Then you do about your friends, that's what
it comes down to, it's selfishness on your
part, you're more concerned about your friendship than
you are about your friend.
You can't imagine not having that person as
your friend is selfish.
You can't imagine them looking down on you
or thinking that you're judging them or doing
something bad to them.
You can't handle that.
And so rather than doing the right thing
that would lead them to life, you're going
to do the easy thing that will help
you keep your friendship, even if it means
your friend goes to hell.
And if you want to call that loving,
so be it.
But to me, I say that's evil, that's
self-centered, it's arrogant and it's very unloving.
You guys, this is a topic that is
tough to talk about, obviously, but it's also
something that's very dear to my heart.
And the reason is, is over these last
13 years, there have been times when I've
had to look at some of my friends,
people that I love.
I mean, really love, not acquaintances, not just
some guy that stepped into the church, some
of my absolute best friends that I've been
friends with for over 10 years.
And I've had to look them in the
eye over dinner and say, this is our
last meal together and read this passage and
say, how else do you read it?
Unless you want to tell me to my
face that you're no longer a Christian.
Otherwise, I can't talk with you, associate with
you, eat with you.
This is it.
This is goodbye.
And it's killing me to say this to
you.
You think there's any bone in my body
that enjoys doing that?
To walk away from these friendships of years,
some of the funnest people in my life.
But I go, you know, God, I don't
want to do this.
I don't even know if I agree with
this, but I'm a follower of you.
And my hope is that someday those guys
will look back and go, man, Francis did
what he hated doing, what he didn't feel
like doing in order to honor God.
Maybe I should do the same.
I don't want to leave my sin, but
I've had an example of someone who was
willing to even let go of a friendship
for the sake of honoring God because he
believed so much that this is a God
centered world.
Now, for those who are visiting, I mean,
weird weekend for you to come.
But honestly, I think you understand this better
than the people who go to the church.
I think you and your heart are going,
amen, and some of the churchgoers are angry
about this because you're going, man, I've been
waiting for the church to address its own
hypocrisy.
But here's what I don't want to leave
worried about, because some people, if you're visiting,
you're not a Christian.
You don't call yourself a Christian.
I don't want you to go home and
think, OK, well, then I got to get
my life together before I become a Christian.
I better get my life together before I
get baptized.
You guys, if you're going to wait for
that, it's never going to happen, OK?
Because the Bible teaches that it doesn't matter
what your past is, don't you understand?
I don't care how many people you've slept
with.
I don't care how many people you've killed.
I don't care what you've done in life,
you can be forgiven today.
It's all wiped away.
That's the grace of God.
I mean, the Bible says you come that
way and you recognize that you've sinned against
God and you recognize that God loved you
so much that Jesus already paid that penalty
on the cross for you.
And the Bible says you can be forgiven.
You can come up here and get baptized
regardless of what you did this week.
God's forgiveness is that great.
It's that huge.
And it's when you get baptized is when
you give your life to Jesus, that God's
spirit comes inside of you.
Now, the Holy Spirit of God comes into
you and he empowers you to put to
death the deeds of the flesh.
Many of us in this room are testimony
of that.
You're going, man, you know, the way I
used to live and then God came into
my life and man, I had the power
to get rid of this.
And I'm so glad I'm through with that
old life.
And man, how great it is to know
God and his power to put to death
the deeds of the flesh.
Man, that's that's the truth.
And we want you to experience that.
And then you walk on this journey with
us, a bunch of imperfect people that are
striving for this perfection, striving to live a
life that's honoring to the Lord and having
our lives revolve around him.
We would love for you to experience that
and you can experience that today.
And I want to make sure you understand
that.
In fact, right now, we're going to take
communion.
And another thing the elders have talked about
in the last couple of weeks is is
how you know how we used to have
the tables up here with communion.
I mean, right up until last week.
And we did that initially because we wanted
you guys to come early or stay late
and hang out as families and take up
communion together and give you some time.
But we recognize that while we were doing
that, some people would just walk up and
take up communion, not really knowing what they're
doing.
And the Bible says that's a very serious
thing that you want to avoid in First
Corinthians 11.
And so what we've decided is we're no
longer going to do that.
And what we are going to do is
we're going to pass communion.
But every time we pass it at the
church, which will be like once a month
or so, we're going to explain to you
again that this is only for believers.
This is only for those who have taken
the name of Jesus Christ on for themselves.
And it is and it's not for the
believers who are in ongoing sin that they
refuse to repent of.
In fact, we're going to use the time
of communion to announce those people and to
ask you to pursue those people.
Because biblically, it seemed like that was what
part of what communion was for a time
for us to to look within our own
body and make sure that we're worthy to
do this.
And so we're going to take the bread,
which represents the body of Christ, and take
the cup, which represents his blood.
And if you're visiting, you're not a Christian.
Man, it's so good for you to be
here just to watch this, not to partake
of it, but to watch because the Bible
actually teaches that we do this to proclaim
his death to you until he comes.
It's a sense in which we preach to
you when you're watching.
And it's a beautiful thing for you to
observe as we take the bread.
It represents the body of Jesus Christ that
was broken for us.
When we drink of the cup, it represents
his blood that was shed for us.
And it's time for us to remember what
he's done.
And so the usher is going to come,
the worship team is going to come and
we're going to pass the bread in the
cup.
And I'm going to ask you as they
do this, if you would hold on to
the bread and hold on to the cup
and we'll take of it together.
I'll come back up after we worship God
for a little bit and then we'll take
of it together.
But during this time, oh, man, you guys
listen to this.
OK, our hope is that you hear this
passage and you won't need anyone to confront
you.
You'll do it yourself, and that's what I
do when I read scripture, it's like, oh,
I need to change that.
I want that's what the Holy Spirit does
in our lives.
Right.
And we get convicted when we read those
passages and like, man, you don't need to
confront me on that.
I know I'm pursuing this.
I'm going to get this right.
That's called self-discipline.
And it's only when self-discipline isn't there
that church discipline takes place.
It's only when the Holy Spirit isn't convicting
you that the Holy Spirit in us, you
know, hopefully will help convict you.
But if you to this morning are convicted
and saying, you know what, I shouldn't call
myself a Christian and continue on in this
sin.
And you need some prayer.
There'll be people up here at the prayer
room.
And I ask that you come and pray
with someone during during this communion time.
If you want to get baptized, you want
to become a Christian today, understand this is
what you're committing to saying, you know, I
want to live a life that revolves around
God and his desires.
And I want a body of Christ to
come alongside and help me.
Then you can get baptized this morning as
well.
And so as the ushers come and pass
the elements, if you need prayer, we'll be
at the prayer room.