Matt Kessie // 1st Corinthians 5

i didn't think he was ever gonna end good morning um if you would open to first corinthians five that's where we're gonna be this morning uh i got this idea from mitch uh believe it or not mitch has a good idea every now and then and uh it was when he covers for steve to to start a book and just to kind of pick up where uh he left off and i i thought that was a brilliant um idea and uh so for sunday mornings what i'm covering for steve uh i've been going through first corinthians uh the last time uh or i should say the last place we left off was chapter four so that's why we're in chapter five this morning and today is like they were mentioning fellowship home fellowship sunday and so after the service you can go up there and uh check out all the different home fellowships but i thought that this uh passage was fitting for the day because uh when i kind of look at uh this this letter written to the corinthian church it's it's kind of it's a tune-up to the church is what it is and uh in the first four chapters there's some light tune-up stuff if you've ever done a tune-up on a car you know there's some spark plugs that you gotta you know deal with and oil change and all that kind of stuff chapter five is probably a major overhaul of what's going on so if you will stand with me uh and we'll read uh chapter five together um and we'll kind of start in chapter four verse 16. i'm going to try to get through to chapter six today because i think chapters five and six actually go together but we'll see how we do so chapter 4 verse 16 he says therefore i urge you imitate me for this reason i have sent timothy to you who is my beloved and faithful son in the lord who will remind you of my ways in christ as i teach everywhere in every church now some are puffed up as though i were not coming to you but i will come to you shortly if the lord wills and i will know not the word of those who are puffed up but the power for the kingdom of god is not in word but in power what do you want shall i come to you with a rod or in love and a spirit of gentleness it is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you and such such sexual immorality as is not even named among the gentiles that a man has his father's wife and you are puffed up and have not rather mourned that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you for i indeed is absent in body but present in spirit have already judged as though i were present him who has so done this deed in the name of our lord jesus christ when you are gathered together along with my spirit with the power of our lord jesus christ deliver such a one to satan for the destruction of the flesh that his spirit may be saved in the day of the lord jesus your glory is not good do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump therefore purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump since you truly are unleavened for indeed christ our passover was sacrificed for us therefore let us keep the feasts not with the old leaven north the leaven of malice and wickedness but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth i wrote to you not to keep company with sexually immoral people yet i certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world or with the covetous or extortioners or idolaters since then you would need to go out of the world but now i've written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother who is sexually immoral or covetous or an idolater or a reviler or a drunkard or an extortioner not even to eat with such a person for what have i to do with judging those who are outside do you not judge those who are inside but those who are outside god judges therefore put away from yourselves the evil person and let's pray father thank you so much for your word and when we start this letter off it actually is uh pretty encouraging in the sense um of what paul's considering himself to be and uh kind of given a right a right mindset um of what church is supposed to be about and here we get into a chapter where uh it's pretty it's pretty hardcore he's laying down uh the law here and uh it's an uncomfortable situation and lord we know that uh there are just times uh in in the church where we just uh we need to we need to tune up sometimes it's a little one sometimes it's a big one um and it's good for us to be on the outside of this looking at this um checking ourselves and um what is it that we're really doing here as christians and as a body of christ and so lord we just pray that you prepare our hearts for this um lord that um you would just speak to us through your word through your spirit that you'd be glorified and honored in the things we do we love you and we ask that you do these things in jesus name amen and you may be seated well there certainly is a lot of uh really cool things going on here at calvary we've just been growing like crazy busting at the seams uh the last time as i mentioned earlier that when i covered for steve on a sunday morning i ended in chapter four and that was a right before uh vacation bible school and uh you know paul is talking about his ministry and uh he's kind of being satirical and um i kind of put out a plea uh will people pick up an ore and help row the boat and uh it was wonderful to get all of the response we had over 200 people come out help out with vacation bible school for volunteers we had over 500 kids uh 550 kids i think registered for vacation bible school we had over 80 kids get saved and it was just awesome and and we're just thankful for um all the uh the support that the body has has given to the ministry but that's not the only thing that's been going on here at calvary our school is growing like crazy we have upward sports that are going right now we're doing football and cheer we'll do uh soccer in the spring they're um our our youth group is growing the children's ministry has grown it's a lot it's a lot of cool stuff that's going on and today as you just heard is is home fellowship sunday where you can go and and learn uh what fellowships are out there and as we grow and it's it's a really cool thing to see god moving but it's also um something to take into consideration that as we grow one the more people that come in the more what comes in drama right where there's people there's people are smiling yeah where there's people there's problems right it's a wonderful thing but it's also a growing pain at the same time uh also if the spirit is moving and god's doing great things then you can be sure that there's going to be an attack as well that's just the way that it's that that's just the way the world goes right until the lord comes back and fixes it all and it's something for us to keep in mind that we should never um really be you know allow ourselves to coast in timothy it talks about how our responsibility is to pursue righteousness and i played sports and um i don't know if you guys ever played football there's a there's a defense called prevent defense and john madden used to say prevent defense prevents you from winning right and it's basically just kind of setting yourself back and you're kind of giving up a little bit of ground defensively a little bit ground defensively a little bit ground defensively because you're not letting the big the big play happen and eventually you give up so many little plays that the other team ends up ends up winning and my philosophy as a soccer coach has always been the best defense is a good offense right and um my attitude in my walk with the lord is the same thing and i think that's what the bible tells us is i shouldn't necessarily be playing defensively i need to have a defense for uh where i stand but i need to be pursuing righteousness i need to be actively going after it i need to be on fire with the lord and we know what the bible says about being lukewarm right i need to be all in or not in god doesn't like me halfway in and so uh when you when we read this letter and i'm gonna kind of hit a couple verses in the few chapters here to kind of um get us uh in the mindset of what leads to chapter five because chapter five is is a pretty dramatic uh chapter um but it's it's important um i i love what paul does the way that he writes it's been considered that paul is one of the most um influential and probably one of the best philosophers uh throughout history and and um the more that i begin to learn philosophy because i i kind of uh i like learning philosophy and the reason i like learning philosophy is because i like to learn how to win arguments i'm just kind of that guy and so the more that i uh have been studying um logic and and um and philosophy um i'm realizing that philosophy is more than just the concept of um thinking it's organized thinking and paul does a fantastic job laying out his points because um a reasonable or a sound argument means that you start off with the premise and your conclusion follows the premise and paul does a great job of of leading us to those places in his letters which is why he's called uh such a masterful philosopher but i don't think that's um what his intention is ever to be and i'm going to show that in some of these uh um these verses in in first corinthians chapter 1 in verse 30 he says but of him you are in christ jesus who became for us wisdom from god and righteousness and sanctification and redemption that it is written he who glories let him glory in the lord and that's our duty as believers you know in this chapter he's talking about how the church had um gotten into this mode where they're like i'm all into apollos i'm all into peter i'm all into paul and they've forgotten that being a christian was about following christ and uh they they got caught up in their um their favorite teacher and and that whole thing and and paul's calling them foolish for that mindset because he says you know our intention here our duty is um is to follow is to follow the lord and specifically it's the glory in the lord and then in chapter two it leads to the point of all of that in verse 4 and 5 he says in my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom but in demonstration of the spirit and of power that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of god and what he's talking about there is authority and he says my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom and i meant and earlier i talked about how paul does such a masterful job of laying out his points and he has arguments and he he follows rules you know like what i would call uh the law of um identity a equals a b equals b uh non-contradiction and uh excluded middle and all that kind of stuff but he's saying none of that that you saw for me had anything to do with my education what it had to do was with the power of god and he goes uh it was demonstration of the spirit and of power that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of god and he's saying you guys weren't um especially dealing with chapter one you guys are so uh infatuated with these men who come and speak to you and you're like oh man i really like the way that apollos presents that or i really like the way that paul lines out his argument or i like how peter identifies with me and things like that and what paul is saying is guys you've missed the whole point and that's the fact that it's the power of god that's been the thing that's convinced you not any of these guys it's he he's the one that's done that and i've been watching this uh closely lately and i've been i've been thinking about this um on these specific terms because i'm beginning to see uh where christians began can begin to detract um or they can begin to detract or you can have people that are right on the cusp of becoming a christian and they can't get past their brain on that and what i mean by that is anyone know any anyone here ever heard of a guy named jordan peterson right great right great conservative he's a philosopher um and uh uh a great debater he's fantastic and and what he would consider himself as a pragmatic christian and uh so he he he he likes christianity and it seems like the reason that he likes christianity is because he can't think of anything better but it seems to be that he is even convin self-admitting that he himself isn't a christian yet but he likes the concept of christianity and he just can't go over to it and the problem with him is because he can only be founded on truths that are known in this world and not beyond it and that's his problem that's where he gets stuck and what paul is saying is the thing that and again paul is an educated guy this guy is brilliant and paul's going the authority it has to come from god and i found this to be um something that's been uh impressing on my heart recently i just watched uh i was on facebook and i saw this ad for this movie and you guys ever watch christian movies and they're cheesy right yeah yeah they're cheesy when i said you guys ever watched christian movies you guys were all silent yeah maybe maybe [Laughter] they're cheesy they're lame i totally get it and i i saw this ad for uh this movie and they added you know the trailer was fantastic and so i ended up watching i'm like oh man this is a cheesy movie but the premise was so brilliant the premise of this movie was it takes place in the 1800s and there's these professors sitting around the table and one professor wrote a book and he wants the professors he wants the seminary to endorse his book so all the professors have read it and now they're meeting uh to basically vote and and critique his book and so they all go around and they say i endorse your book i endorse your book i endorse your book and then it gets to the last guy that comes in and he says i'm sorry there's one thing that i have a problem with and he goes okay well what is it he goes well i'd like to talk him privately and the guy goes no no you can do in front of everyone and so they um kind of spatter about that for a little bit and then he goes okay well and he tells them open up to this page and they open up to the page and and i can't say the line verbatim but it's it goes um basically along these lines of thinking he said you write that um even if people don't recognize jesus christ to be the messiah that they can still live a victorious life according to his teachings and he said well yeah what's wrong with that because you know the the teachings are true and he goes but what you've done is you've um you've divided you you've you've separated uh the teachings of jesus christ from the authority of jesus christ and you can't do that he goes every time that we go out and we we quote something from shakespeare we always give credit to shakespeare you can't take that away from jesus christ and i'm i'm sitting there listening and i'm going oh my gosh you're right we do that how many how many times do you hear uh judge not lest you be judged you hear that often who said it jesus said it whoever who whenever do you hear people saying jesus christ said judge not lest you be judged do you hear it that way no no we don't hear that if i say [Music] who said ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country who said that oh yeah all these people jfk jfk jfk said it right we always give credit to jfk for saying that statement right but we don't give credit to jesus christ when he said things we might say well the bible says or you know we might just quote the verse but we don't give credit to him for saying that and i found why i was talking to a a mom yesterday i went to a soccer game and uh i was watching i was watching the soccer game and talking to a mom and uh she was telling me about how her husband once got in trouble because he's a teacher in the school district uh when he had sent out an email used the word god and he capitalized the letter g and so the school district got all upset with him and basically what it came down to is he couldn't uh use god with the capital g he had to use a little g and i'm thinking okay well how do we how do we use people's names when we use when we say matt am i supposed to capitalize my name so i i have to just go around using the little m format because it's a name his name is god and he's the one that that made the statement he's the one that made the declaration and if he made the declaration i have to give him credit for it if i give him credit he's a proper noun and i have to put a capital letter behind the proper noun oh no no you can't do that you know why they don't want to do it because it's authoritative that's why and the the statement that jfk said uh he said that and it's authoritative it came from the president okay yeah yeah we can handle that we like the president and all that kind of stuff but the minute that god does it we're going to change the grammar we're going to change the rules of english just because i don't like the authority that's behind it and that's the part that's the point that paul's making is you can sit here i can sit here and i can say this stuff and maybe you like it maybe you don't but the fact that it comes from the spirit and the power of god all of a sudden it becomes real and all of a sudden it becomes gut-wrenching and so um kind of uh leading to that uh we'll uh we'll just kind of hit some uh more verses in chapter three in verse six he says i planted apollos watered but god gave the increase and really that means to give credit to where credit's due and that's something that i need to be uh in consideration all the time this isn't um you know some special work that calvary chapel has the right way of doing ministry the work the right way of doing church no this isn't a movement that calvary chapel has figured out the pattern it's a movement of god that's the way it's supposed to go it's it's a a movement by the holy spirit it's uh dedication to his word and then you you begin to see the fruits from it and so um apollos comes in waters and paul plants and lays these things down but god comes and gives the increase and what you see here is a movement of god and that's really what should be happening among god's people in chapter four you see the um the responsibility of christians or rather our job description in verse two it says moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful and so there's uh um there's a expectation that we as christians are taking um what we do seriously especially those of us who are in the role of ministry and i'm kind of taking this approach because of um of what we're doing afterwards for the home fellowships we're going to be um you know as as we expand we're so big right we're growing and we have i just went and checked out all the uh different home fellowships i couldn't believe how many that we have right and i think it's a it's a wise um thing to consider the um the reverence and the weight of the roles that we have as ministers no matter what role you play whether it's helping whether it's a coach in upward soccer or upward football or it's a children's teacher and children's ministry children's ministry is not meant for babysitting you're not just keeping kids occupied while the big people are in service you have a responsibility to to raise those kids in the knowledge and the admonition of the lord and our our teachers do a fantastic job with it i've been doing youth ministry for 20 years and i'm getting harder questions from kids i'm getting more knowledgeable kids than i have in years prior and that's because of what's being taught in children's ministry and it's fantastic and so just because it's children's ministry doesn't mean that we slack off we take everything that we do in ministry whether it's coaching whether it's in the school whether it's in uh whether it's vacation bible school whether it's camps or whatever um to teach them the word of god because the the reason is is that if we don't teach men the word of god we fail men that's why we fail them if all we are is just getting together and hanging out and doing whatever then what we're left to is our own flesh our own intuitions our own imaginations and before you know it what you have here in chapter five verse one that it's actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you and such sexual immorality that is not even named among the gentiles that a man has his father's wife how did it get there what is going on somehow the christian church this corinthian church had lost um focus they'd lost a vision of what it is that they're gathering to do what are you doing if you're not gathering together in the name of christ in fact you'll see that verse 4 in the name of our lord jesus christ when you are gathered together what are we doing here for not gathering in the name of the lord jesus christ so there's a there's a couple things um that are happening here before i hit that again i wanted to come kind of approach this with the um with the weight of for those of us who are doing ministry whether it's children's ministry or it's a home fellowship or whatever ministry that we're doing we need to keep in mind what it is that we're accountable to god for and you can turn to ezekiel 34 but i'm going to read this this is ezekiel 34 verses 1 through 10. i'll read it you're welcome to open there if you want but this is what it says and the lord sorry and the word of the lord came to me saying son of man prophesy against the shepherds of israel prophesy and say to them this thus says the lord god to the shepherds woe to the shepherds of israel who feed themselves should not the shepherds feed the flocks you eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool you slaughter the fat leans but you do not feed the flock the weak you have not strengthened nor have you healed those who are sick nor bound up the broken or brought back what was driven away nor sought what was lost but with force and cruelty you have ruled them so they were scattered because there was no shepherd and they became food for all the beasts of the field when they were scattered my sheep wandered through all the mountains and on every high hill yes my flock was scattered over the whole face of the earth and no one was seeking or searching for them therefore you shepherds hear the word of the lord as i live says the lord god surely because my flock became a prey and my flock became food for every beast of the field because there was no shepherd nor did my shepherd search for my flock but the shepherds fed themselves and did not feed my flock therefore o shepherds hear the word of the lord thus says the lord god behold i'm against the shepherds i will require my flock at their hand i will cause them to cease feeding the sheep and the shepherds shall feed themselves no more for i will deliver my flock from their mouths that they may no longer be food for them and so you see that god takes this whole thing seriously this this um this issue of ministry seriously and we're held at a higher standard actually uh those are those of us who are involved in ministry and i need to um have that weight of responsibility that the people that i'm i'm over in whatever realm it is that they're god's they're god's flock and i need to be feeding them and i need to be protecting them and and specifically i needed not be driving them away and turning them away uh from the lord and from the the things of god and uh if it gets that point then god's gonna take it away and if god has to take away our ministry he's not happy right and so um there needs to be a reverence from those who are in charge but at the same time there is a reverence for those of us who are involved in these home fellowships so maybe you're someone that's going to a home fellowship what what role do you have what responsibility do you have and in hebrews 13 and verse 17 it says this obey those who rule over you and be submissive for they watch out for your souls as those who must give an account let them do so with joy and not with grief for that would be unprofitable for you and so um at the same token there's a responsibility that i have of being a good sheep and um what he mentions there is the responsibility that the guy has in charge who's over this whole thing and so uh for example um you know pastor steve he's putting a bunch of us pastors in charge he's putting some people in home fellowships in charge people in charge of children's ministry obviously he can't be at every single thing but the things that go on here even though he doesn't see and have a direct contact with he's responsible to god for and it is to his safety that we recognize the responsibility that one day he has to stand before god for the actions that i've done or the actions that you've done so there's a reference that goes both ways one for the people that are in charge and one for the people that follow and so um in here back to first corinthians 5 you see this um this issue that's risen up where there needs to be a complete overhaul things are going to get rowdy here right something big has just happened this isn't a little deal but before he gets to that in verse 18 of chapter four he says uh some of you are puffed up as though i weren't coming to you which means that there's some arrogance that's going on and he goes but i will come to you shortly if the lord wills and i will know not the word of those who are puffed up but the power and i like how he says that because it's it's funny how you have people that are um that are arrogant and they're all puffed up and say a bunch of things until the guy that shows up with the power i call those hyenas right they do a lot of you know cackling and laughing and all kind of stuff until the lion shows up right and uh and so you'll see that they don't really have a lot of power what they have is a lot of arrogance and he defines why in verse 20 he goes because the kingdom of god is not in word but it's in power and so there should be uh a reflection of the life that a person who is ministering for jesus christ displays do the things that i say reflect my life and vice versa and then verse 21 he goes what do you want shall i come to you with a rod or in love and a spirit of gentleness and i love that because he's giving them the option and i do this to my kids i don't know if you guys do this to your kids but i do this to my kids when i'm in the living room and i hear them arguing back in their rooms i'll go do you want me to handle it or can you handle it we'll handle it dad all right if you can't handle it i'll come and handle it and that's what he's doing there he goes you want me to come with a rod or do you want me to come in love which one do you want me to do well he's gonna bring the rod and here's the rod in chapter five there's um there's a few things that are going on here one he goes it's actually actually reported that their sexual immorality among you and such sexual morality is not even named among the gentiles that his man has his father's wife and you are puffed up and have not rather mourned that he was done this deed might be taken away from among you okay so number one you have a guy that is engaged in a relationship with this what we're assuming is his stepmom just the way that it's worded there we're assuming that it's a stepmom engage in a way that is obviously completely inappropriate but not only is it inappropriate but he's doing it publicly and the reason that we know it's it's being done publicly is number one paul gets a report about it i'm assuming that he got a letter or something somehow he gets a report that this whole thing is going on and number two in verse two it says and you are puffed up and have not rather mourned that he who has done this deed might be taken away from you so not only do people know about it but they don't feel bad about it enough to say something and this tells you um the the spiritual maturity of where this church is at how is stuff like this going on and no one's saying anything and we look at this and think that this is um you know kind of pretty incredible but this is when you look at chapter one you you see how he recognizes them as immature and foolish christians because of the way that they're just handling stuff in a day-to-day matter and goes you guys have have lost the concept of of what the power of the gospel is and the life-changing uh power that the gospel has in a person's life and you think that this is just some like intellectual thinking or this way of life or something like that it's not it's a surrender to the creator of the universe who loved you so much and died for you and your life has changed because of his death on the cross it's the gospel that changes lives that's what it is and if you lose that concept then again what you're left to is just your own way of living and so um because um they have um they have not grown and taken root in the gospel and in the word of god this is where the stuff leads to and uh we've seen this happen with uh within christianity in the last 20 years i'm i'm 40 years old and when i when i was 20 and started getting serious with the lord i saw a movement in the church movement called the seeker friendly movement and the secret friendly movement was this concept of um uh we want people in the seats we got to grow the church somehow and we can't grow the church if we're talking about sin we can't grow the church if we're talking about hell we can't grow the church if we're talking about what specific sins are so it's not just sin but we got to be careful about what sins we're calling sin because what we're going to do is we're going to offend people and we're going to hurt people's feelings and they're going to walk out and they may take half the group with them and so we got to tread lightly if we're going to keep people sitting in the seats and so what happened is you had a whole decade of watered down christians people who didn't know the word and they had no reverence for the word uh calling themselves christians and gathering and then what happened is you had those watered-down christians and i got i get to experience the whole generation of doing this is uh the watered-down christians leading ministry now you got watered-down christians not knowing how to answer any questions not being able to uh define uh terms of of salvation or sanctification or the purpose of it if sin doesn't exist then what did we get saved from and so sin has to be uh the the the sin sin has to be the topic of discussion if you're ever going to talk about salvation if you're ever going to talk about the cross if you're ever going to talk about why jesus came sin has to be the topic of conversation and your sin has to be the topic of conversation and how in the world do you know that you need to be saved unless you know what you need to be saved from and how is your life ever going to change if you don't need to be changed it doesn't work right and what what happens is you lead to an utter mess an utter mess of life in the name of christianity and then you've got unbelievers going well i'm really no you're really no different than me so why do i need what you have and we just become a joke to the world and that's specifically what's happening here is this is this is this has just become a joke to everybody that this is happening in the church that a man is actually having an adulterous affair with his stepmom of all things um and uh the fact that in verse one it says it's reported you know why is it reported what what what's happening that they have to you know someone's got to get a message out to paul hey do you know that this whole thing is going on and christians can kind of do this you know um we we come you know i just mentioned that that verse that jesus quoted judge not lest you be judged and christians can kind of you know fall into that fear of oh i don't want to say anything because i don't want to stir the waters i don't want to i don't want to make people feel uncomfortable and i don't want to cause problems and all that kind of stuff and so they're afraid to say stuff and they're um they're afraid to say hey this should not be happening in the church there's a passage in ephesians that talks about how [Music] whatever is done in secret needs to be brought to light and what happens in 8611 that's the name of the high school youth group and what i've told our kids is i said if i know that something um sinful in your life is going on i'm going to give you an option i'm going to give you one of two options you get to go and tell your parents or i'm going to go and tell your parents and um so they're like oh man right or if someone comes up to me and they say i've got a problem with so and so and i go then you need to go get it right and if you don't go get it right then i'm going to tell them that we have this conversation just so that you have this conversation with them and go and make it right you know what happens when i do that i do that like one or two times and then nobody wants to tell me things anymore so i kind of live this drama-free life and it's wonderful however it doesn't mean that drama doesn't exist right and so you see these drama things happening going on uh out of my sight right and so i have to find out from another leader i have to find out from my kids my kids i have to make my my children my own children spies or whatever because they know that if matt finds out then he's going to do something about it right and that's the that's the deal that paul is making here is why are you allowing this stuff to go on and no one is saying anything this is why it's it's gotten to this point because you see all these little things that go on oh i don't want to stir the waters oh i don't want to cause problems and you never reach reconciliation so it just grows and it grows and it grows and it gets worse and now here we are it's an utter mess and um if you've ever seen the downfall and i i i kind of do that i i listen and i uh read history of you know downfalls of certain churches where do you think the downfall of certain churches went happened how do you think that happened well you know i always thought something was weird but i didn't want to say anything and i always wondered about that but i never said anything and i've i've been guilty of it too or i've seen things and i'm like oh you know no whatever and you let it you let it grow and here we are we're out of control now and so um i know that there is a a concern as far as us being believers and being not wanting to judge people for things that they've done and part of that has to do with a personal guilt that you have and so it's like well you know i'm like that and um or i've done that before and no no no no no and just to kind of do um just to kind of go off on a uh a rabbit trail here um i i shared about this um on wednesday uh wednesday night a couple wednesdays ago but i i see that it's something that is uh specific to a lot of issues that our people are going through but it's the whole concept of dealing with personal guilt and i'll i'll see people that give their lives to christ and their their um they just can't get past the things that they've done in their past and so i've had people come up to me and they go matt uh i've done things in my past or you know um my friend has done things in their past and it just every time it comes up in my brain i keep asking for forgiveness and i keep asking for forgiveness and i keep asking for forgiveness and it's still weighing on me and the issue if if that's something that you're going through then the issue that you're dealing with um is is kind of one of two things number one the issue that you're dealing with is faith you need to have the right mindset of this whole thing um what the bible says is that if you confess your sins he's faithful and just to forgive you and cleanse you from all unrighteousness that means if i confess my sins to christ what does he do with my sin i'm forgiven and he separates he separates my sins as far as what the east is from the west you either believe that or you don't and one of the issues that people struggle in their thought life is that they don't buy into that truth and the reason they don't bind to that truth is because they think that god is the same way that you are and what i mean by that is if someone does something against you it's hard for you to not hold a grudge it's hard for you to um you know sometimes you go to bed at night and uh that thought is weighing on me whatever they did that's weighing on me and i can't get over it right and we think that god does the same thing with us and it's not true god's not like you when he says that your sins are forgiven he means it when he when he says that uh he separates your sins as far as the east is from the west he means it when he says that i see you as righteous your sins are covered i take no inventory of your sins that's romans 4. i take no inventory of your sins and i take inventory of your righteousness that not only does he mean that it's actually real it's a real deal so the first thing that you need to keep in mind is your mindset god has forgiven me okay then matt why am i agonizing over this thing why is it burning a hole in my brain why can't i get why can't i get past it and the reason that you can't get past it is because in romans 6 what we find out that that paul brings up a uh kind of a hypothetical question but but a logical question and he and he says um the question is should i continue in sin so that god's grace continue even greater or so that grace may abound should i continue sinning so that god's grace can further on in my life and paul basically his argument is twofold number one is certainly not because if we've died in christ then we're risen a new person and the second response is why would i continue to do the things of which i'm now ashamed why would you keep doing that and you know when i when i look at that i look at my daughters um we we adopted our daughters when they're two years old the twins and um when they were one they were foster kids and when they're foster kids it's against a lot of spanker kids right or slap their hands or anything like that and so we couldn't spank them we couldn't slap their hands well we would go to uh the in-laws house and they had a fireplace with a with a glass screen there and uh addison wanted to go and touch the fireplace right she's one years old it makes sense she just started walking and she wanted to go and touch the fireplace you know why god puts pain receptors in your hand because if you didn't have those pain receptors in your hand and you stuck your hand in the fire would you have a hand any longer no so god puts pain there for you to remember and so she would always want to go to the fireplace and if i could just slap her hand right if i could slap it hard enough for it to hurt right then she wouldn't go back and touch that fireplace but she's a foster kid against the law so i can't do that right so she goes and wants to touch the fireplace my my job is to pick her up and move her right that works right so she's right back there pick her up move her she walks back pick her up move her until dad looks away and then what happens she touches i see mom's going you know she touches it right but she didn't just touch it with one hand she leans on it right golf ball-sized blisters on her hands and blisters on every finger right and she had to you know wear a gauze and all that kind of stuff it was just horrible just uh traumatic obviously and you know thank you state if i could have just slapped her would you rather have a slap on your hand or put your hand in fire which one would you rather have yeah thank you state for you know not allowing me to keep my daughter's hand out of the fire um but you know what it was beneficial because every time she wanted to touch something later on like she'd go after my phone and i'd go hot hot don't touch but she learned right that's how you learn and so there are things in life that are painful and they keep you from going back there and so she never touched the fireplace again and so that that suffering that guilt that you have on your heart and on your on your shoulders that's been surrendered to god and as far as he looks at you it's clean it's gone matt why do i still suffer so you don't go back and do it that's why you remembered all of the uh the agony that you caused and all the hurt that you caused and upon yourselves and upon other people and it's a good thing that you remember so that you don't go back there and that's romans six why would i continue to do the things of which i'm now ashamed that stuff bums me out and um i need to uh to live differently and here you have people as you see in verse two that are puffed up and what they're doing is obviously they're causing all sorts of problems in chapter seven what he's going to do is he's going to talk about what a married life looks like and obviously this isn't it right and uh he says you're buffed up and have not rather mourned verse two that he was done this deed might be taken away from among you man that's cruel uh number one why don't you feel bad why is it that you guys know that this thing's going on and you have no remorse you have no regret what what is not only is this guy at fault here but it's the body why are they not at fault and that's something that we need to be you know considerate of uh when it comes to um just righteousness in the church this is something that's special the body of christ it's a special thing and i need to be protecting it and i need to be watching out for it um and what he does is he says um what you guys should have done in verse two is that this this deed might be taken away from among you either the guy repents or the guy needs to get kicked out one of the two and that's how things are done in matthew 18 where if there's a problem you go to that person you sort the whole issue out if it if the guy hears you wonderful if the guy doesn't hear you then you bring in someone else right now are the witnesses of uh two or three mouths you're gonna establish every word if they don't hear you then you bring it to the church and then you um here you have what you have here is you have church discipline that's going on and as a side note i didn't even mention this uh first first service but this is actually one of the the verses that i use uh for people that say that you can't know if someone's a christian or not just a little kind of theological side note there you know there are people that say you can't know if someone's a christian uh and they say because you don't know if they um you don't know their heart and so i'll go you mean if someone gives relief if if you if you lead someone to the lord they say the prayer you hear them say lord come into my life i'm sorry that i'm a sinner will you forgive me you see that whole thing you and they go hey matt am i a christian you're telling me that you can't tell them that they are nope you don't know if they are or not and part of it is because their thinking is well you don't know if they're going to end up walking away or not because if they end up walking away then they were never a christian in the first place and so because that's kind of the whole um you know perseverance of the saints type of thing once saved always saved and so if they ever walked away they were never christian in the first place and then i go well then how in the world do we do church discipline if i don't know if someone's a christian or not how do i do church discipline acts actually as he goes on here in verse 9 he goes i wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people yet i certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world or with the covetous or extortioners or idolaters since then you would need to go out of the world but now i've written you to keep now i have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother who is sexually immoral or or covetous and he goes on there and so he's um differentiating between a believer and a non-believer he literally says when i told you not to keep company with sexual immoral people i didn't mean unbelievers and you know as the point he's making is is because number one you're just gonna have to leave the planet right you can't be around anybody if that's the case uh but um uh number uh i just lost my train of thought um uh but but what you have here is the ability to tell the difference between a believer and a non-believer and so uh that that kind of just takes care of that whole situation that i can't know if anyone is a christian or not apparently i can and if they call themselves a christian or if or rather if i know that they're a christian and they're living an ungodly life then what paul says is i'm supposed to separate myself from them now this sounds like kind of like a harsh thing and i get it and i think one of the struggles that christians have with this whole thing is because um they feel like you know what i shouldn't be judgey you know and and i get it you know and that's why jesus says that before i go and deal with my brother's speck in their eye what am i supposed to do i remove the plank from mine right and so there's protocol here on this whole thing so i need it it's good that i'm checking myself out before i'm going and and harshen on other people but nonetheless that doesn't mean that it doesn't need to be done why does it need to be done and the reason it needs to be done is because it ends up destroying people's lives ends up being a wreck now i've struggled with this as you know i've been on staff for 20 years i've been doing youth ministry for 20 years and i was a i was a young youth pastor i was 20 years old and i had kids in the youth group that were coming for uh the wrong motives and so i would have boys that would come to the youth group checking out my girls and they were wanting um more than just a platonic relationship right they were wanting a physical one and there was a particular time where i had a conversation with one of my boys and um he wanted to have physical relations with my girls and and was trying to get there and i knew that um i knew uh he was in a kind of a fleshy life and he was a christian and so we chatted for about an hour and i said okay buddy here um here's the deal i need to hear from your mouth from your mouth i need you to say i don't want jesus and i don't want to go to heaven and he goes man i can't say that i said well you're doing it with your body i'm not going to sit here and let you go after my girls i'm not going to i didn't say pray but that's that's essentially what i meant is i'm not gonna let you pray on my girls uh and so uh if if you wanna follow jesus then you need to follow him if you don't wanna follow jesus i need you to say it with your mouth so i needed to say it i don't want jesus and i don't want your heaven he goes matt i can't say it and i said well do you want to you want to change do you want to be different because you're not going to go after them he's like well no i don't want to be different i'm like then you need to say it so we we himmed and had for like an hour of this whole conversation he's like are you gonna change or are you gonna um you know keep lying to my face you're gonna you're gonna tell the truth here and so he's like finally goes okay i don't want jesus and i don't want heaven i'm like okay now i understand and so he gets on his motorcycle and he takes off and about 20 minutes later i got a text from him and he said that was the worst motorcycle ride of my life i said good are you really are you willing to change no not yet okay tell me when you are and just live there in fear and that's what you have here he says in verse 5 deliver such a one to satan for the destruction of the flesh that his spirit may be saved in the day of the lord jesus now this guy is realizing the significance of of righteousness are you actually going to be a christian are you actually going to live this way you know we don't get to be a bunch of people that just come here on a sunday morning we hear a bible study we hear a maybe not even a bible study but a uh an inspirational talk or whatever and then we go on our ways and it has no effect in our lives because once again if if we don't teach men the word of god we fail men it's it's the word that directs our paths thy word is a lamp unto my feet a light into my path i've hidden your word in my heart that i may not sin against you the word of god is powerful than a double-edged sword it's living it's more powerful than a double-edged sword um the um all all scriptures god breathed and it's profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction and the instruction of righteousness the man of god may be thoroughly equipped for every good work if we don't teach men the word we fail men and we need to live by it and if we don't live by it if i had just let him there if i just let him stay there then he would have caused all sorts of poison in my youth group and i i dealt with this for um for uh several years where i was trying to pour into people trying you know the these kids that would come and i you know they they didn't really want to go for it with the lord but it was something to be a part of and i i gave them my time and i gave them my dedication and all that kind of stuff and in the meantime i had a whole group of people over here that wanted to hear the word and they and they wanted to grow and they wanted to listen and and in fact they suffered in our youth group because i spent more time on on these kids that didn't want to have anything to do with it this is why jesus said don't cast your pearls before swine because they trample all over it and that's that's what they did for a long time as they trampled on everything until what what happened after a couple years is they end up hating me and then you know the ones that i poured into they end up hating me and despising me these ones over here they wouldn't find uh a youth group or i know a bible study somewhere else that wasn't in my group or they end up just walking away from the lord because they never got fed i mean it was just an utter it just i i look back at it ago everything that i tried to do as someone who was non-judgey i just caused more problems but the moment that i took that stand and i said that's not happening here that we're we're i'm done with this thing um this whole thing of of being nice this is this is god's ministry and i'm looking out for it and i'm going to protect it and it was hard uh to see that guy go um and it and it felt um uncomfortable but guess what happened afterwards girls were safe and they brought their friends and they started growing in the lord and they started bringing their other friends and and uh pretty soon which he had was something that was healthy and that's how the body of christ is supposed to be it's supposed to be healthy and so i i don't sit here and um deter away from the commands of god in the word of god just so that people will come we don't do that we're teaching people the word of god i'm teaching them the gospel i'm teaching them what sin is for their betterment and what he says here in verse 5 delivers such a one uh for the destruction of the flesh that his spirit may be saved in the day of the lord jesus uh do you know what ever happened to this guy he got reconciled if he read second corinthians you'll see that um what the church did is they get tuned up a little bit too much and they don't let the guy back in you're done and paul goes pull it back a little bit come on you gotta let that guy in the guy's repented the guy's changed and and um you need to uh let the guy back in and i i think i love that that is all in history because we see that in in human history where we just tend to be people that swing one way or the other we get all ultra liberal or we get all ultra conservative and and uh and the question is is you know matt where do i where am i supposed to lie on this stuff because sometimes i just don't have enough information it seems from um you know i don't know i i don't want to say from scripture but what i when i say that when i say from scripture people are looking for like a specific verse for a specific scenario and i'll tell you what it is it's back in first corinthians one that everything that i do i'm supposed to do to the glory of god what would he say about the matter what's his sentiment what's god's heart when you read god's word are you just reading the the black and white stuff or are you reading the context and the sentiment of what's trying to be said and the um the sentiment that paul's doing here is not a sentiment where i'm going around um trying to uh be this cop or be this detective and look to to kick people out and all that kind of stuff that's not what paul's trying to say here what he's saying here is that there needs to be a a reverence and a love for god and that we need to be living that way and what you have is a guy that and not only a guy but you have a church that is just looking beyond something and allowing it to continue it's wrecking people and actually if you see in verse six he goes uh your glory is not good do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump therefore purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump since you truly are 11 for indeed christ our passover was crucified for us therefore let us keep the feast the feast that he's talking about there is the feast of love unleavened bread um what what they did is they would uh celebrate passover on the 14th of nisan it was the first part of the year and when they celebrated passover it was kind of like their fourth of july if you will where they re they remember when the israelites were delivered out of egypt they were slaves in egypt they were delivered out of egypt that was passover and on that night what they did is they took a lamb they slit its throat they um drained the blood into a bowl they took some hyssop they swirled it around the bowl and they took that blood and they put it on the top of the doorpost and they put it on the lentils and all of you know maybe there's some people here that don't but when they took that blood out of that bowl and they made this sign what are they what's the sign that they're making a cross across of the blood of the lamb right and so that night when the angel came over and killed the firstborn it killed the firstborn of everyone who didn't have the blood on the doorpost and it's a picture again of the blood of christ applied by hyssop which would be applied by our faith and that's how those people were saved by the blood of the lamb right that's what we as christians that's what we celebrate at passover christ died on passover right he was our passover lamb really cool but the day after passover that's the 14th does anyone know what happens on the 15th of nison you know it's the feast of unleavened bread and the feast of unleavened bread lasts for a week and what they would do is they would go into their house and they would clean it all of leaven leaven is yeast and it's um it's that little piece of yeast that you put in a piece of dough that makes the dough rise and all you have to do is just put a little bit a little bit in there and it makes the whole thing grow that's way that's why when we take communion it's like a cracker right you'll see like a cracker and it's matzah bread is what it is but it's it looks like a saltine cracker it's got holes in it and it's got different colors like darker brown and lighter brown and stuff like that that's all of literally a picture of christ the holes are a picture of the piercings the buttery marks on there a picture of his stripes and the fact that it's flat is a representation that there's no leaven in it and that's why we don't that's why we don't pass out a big loaf of bread we pass out the the thin wafer type things because it's a picture of there's no leaven in it and leaven is a picture of sin and on the feast of unleavened bread what the israelites would do is they'd go into their house and they'd sweep everything clean and make sure that there was no leaven or no yeast in the house so all of their their baked bread they would throw out and uh any yeast that was in there they would throw out and then they would go and especially if they had kids they would go check in the cushions and everything like that i was stuck i was reading uh an article about a hebrew mom that actually she's looking for cheerios everywhere i was like i don't know that there's yeast and cheerios is there yeast interiors i don't know but she's getting cheerios out she's getting everything out the whole thing is clean and that's just a picture of sanctification he needs to go and that's the point that paul's making here he goes in verse seven purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump since you truly are unleavened for indeed christ our passover was sacrificed for us christ was sacrificed because of my sin my sin is what put me in judgment of god it was it was but what put me at war with god and god didn't forgive me on the cross what he did on the cross was he paid for my sins i can forgive you and not have to die god can forgive me and not have to die but he paid for my sins my sins were paid for on the cross what i deserve in death he took in place for me and he was my passover but right after that what has to happen is there needs to be some sanctification that goes on there needs to be some cleansing i don't live in this life there needs to be a change and that's the point that paul is making we as christians need to be different he goes in verse six your glory is not good do you not know that a little love and leavens the whole lump we figured that out haven't we if i just a little little bit sin in my life it never stays little does it hey i see i see some kids going like this it's awesome that kids are doing that no a little bit it comes in and it it just keeps growing and what i need to do is i need to have the attitude towards sin that god does and that's the key is i need to have the same attitude towards sin that god does now here's the deal does god hate sin yes he does he hates it because it's a wreck it's an enemy right and it leads to death and death is an enemy it's the last thing that he's going to destroy but at the same time when you look in john 3 you'll see that jesus did not come to condemn men he came to save men so while it is an enemy he came to deliver us from that um from that enemy and i need to have the same attitude i'm not interested in kicking people out of the church i'm not interested in kicking people out of my youth group because i feel like they're not good enough or they're not holy enough or they haven't met my standard um it's something where i've got no other choice that's what it's that's what it's led me to i've got to know their choice i've tried reconciling you don't want to um we obviously can't reconcile here and so we got to go our separate ways just so you know that's what hell is about hell's the same way it's not like god's interested in sending you there it's because you don't want heaven it's because you don't want the good things of god you don't want the forgiveness of god the love of god the work of god in your life and god's sitting here trying to reconcile these things with you and you don't want it and god's going well i guess we got to go our separate ways it's not that i want to keep you out of heaven but it's just that you're not interested in going there and it's the same thing with the whole church thing it's why are you here if you're not here as he says in verse 4 in the name of our lord jesus christ when you're gathered together why are you here if we're not here to gather in the name of our lord jesus christ um and so you can also see again his attitude in verse nine he goes i rotated my pistol not to keep company with the sexual moral people yet i certainly did not mean with sexual or more people of this world um or at the covenant and all that kind of stuff and so he basically obviously again does there's a difference between unbelievers and believers and i don't need to go around judging unbelievers i don't need to be that guy that's judging unbelievers when i'm talking to unbelievers my goal is not to change their behavior and sometimes christians do that my goal as a christian is to get them saved my goal is to introduce them to christ and have the power of god work in their lives and then we can work on behavior but as far as believers go they know christ and they need to be dealing with these things and just to kind of i know i'm probably over but in chapter 6 he i want to hit a couple things here just to kind of build on that he doesn't change the premise but he does change the subject in verse 1 he goes dare any of you having a matter against another go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints do you not know that the saints will judge the world and if the world will be judged by you are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters do you not know that we shall judge angels how much more things that pertain to this life if then you have judgments concerning things pertaining to this life do you appoint those who are at least esteemed by the church to judge i say this to your shame it is so that there is not a one that there is not a wise man among you not even one who will be able to judge between his brother and what he's talking about here is that um the that christians for some reason they can't come to the point where they can reconcile things that they actually have to go to court over the whole matter and paul is going that's completely backwards why are you going to a worldly court to handle matters that you should be able to handle as believers within the body he goes one day we're going to judge angels if we're going to judge angels one day as believers we're going to stand um you know at the end times and we're going to judge angels if we're going to judge angels we can't judge these simple little things and the point that i'm telling you is is for those of you who are going to go and lead any sort of ministry whether it's a small fellowship or a home fellowship or a children's ministry or whatever that you need to be able to have a spine and you need to be pre and you need to protect the things that god's given you and that you have the authority to judge these things and not feel any sort of guilt or condemnation or anything like that you need to take a stand because what what god's put in your in your possession as a steward of his things you need to treat it like it's god's stuff and he's giving you the ability to judge these matters um and what satan wants to do is put these things into your brain of like well who gave you authority who said you can do it and uh you know how dare you judge other people and all that type of stuff well your answer is is the lord put me in charge and i have to stand before him one day and i don't have to stand before you and so if you're if you're going to stand before god and the things that he's given to you you need to keep that in mind and protect it and you need to stand up for the things that are right because people are going to come to your home fellowships and that's what we kind of need to have a concept of what home fellowships are not you know what they are not they're not a place to gossip and they're not a place to complain they're not a complete they're not a place to bring in new doctrine and they're not a place to create division that's not what they're for oh well did you hear what steve said on sunday well i don't really agree with that and pretty soon you got a whole new movement going on that's not that's not the mind of christ we're supposed to be of one mind this is not a place where we oh did you hear what they did at calvary christian school and we sit here and bring our our complaints and grumbles and then we it turns into a complaining session that's not what small fellowships are for and if you're in charge of one of those things you need to have the courage um and the authority to stand up and say that's not what we're here for and protect the things of god because as we grow again there's going to be an attack uh from the enemy and just the reality that people are sinners and the purpose of home fellowships is like what steve was saying was to pray for one another to sharpen each other to hold each other accountable and you saw the impact that it had on ryan's life when he stood up here he started crying like a little girl that's what god does to men isn't it that's what he does and it changed his life and so that's that's just kind of the charge um to you guys um and the encouragement to you guys to give you the the authority to protect the things that god has put in your control and to watch out for each other um to to feed the sheep obviously steve and us pastors we can't see everything so say something encourage one another we don't have to be detectives and and uh and be busy bodies and all that kind of stuff we don't need to be those people i just need to have the heart of jesus in this and so um um uh it's it's not my business to go and evaluate people and and all that kind of stuff but when we see sin it needs to be reconciled it needs to be dealt with you kind of get the drift get it and we need to not be afraid of doing that because it's for the the healthyness of the body well let's pray um father thank you so much for your word and uh um obviously there are times where things uh get a little uncomfortable a little dramatic but you know what it's gonna be okay um it's it's good uh lord we know that you came uh to pay for our sin and there's a day that you're gonna come back and judge men uh from their sin and uh it needs to be something that we have the same attitude towards that you do the same mindset that you do i'm so thankful that you're not interested in condemning and destroying men right off the bat even though they are wicked but you are interested in reconciliation you're interested in working things out not only that you're interested in pain for men's sin um but at the same time you don't belittle your standards and you don't let things slide and you don't pretend like things are okay and so lord we want to have the same heart and the same attitude towards sin and towards sinners that you do and lord we pray for your spirit and directing us on that we pray for uh your word as i mentioned your word is a light and to our feet and a lamp into our uh lamp into our feet and a light into our path and and uh and we hide in our hearts so that we wouldn't sin against you it's a direction and so i pray for these uh these people that are leading groups and they're going to groups that they would compare what's happening and going on in their ministries with what your word has to say and lord that you would straighten them out on those things now i don't know everyone that's here maybe you're new um and maybe you're not a christian and it wasn't my really intention to um to do that but you know i want to give that opportunity um i really do hope that when you see a christian you've seen someone who's different that that you look at them and you go you know what you talk differently you live differently and maybe you have maybe you haven't if you haven't i'm really sorry if you've gone to a church that um was maybe not up to your par maybe not even up to god's par i'm really sorry about that you know what you're going to come here and you're going to find out that we're pretty cool but we've got our faults too and uh we we're not um we don't claim to have anything perfect or do anything perfect but we do follow the perfect one that's who we follow and uh what the bible says is that if you give your life to christ number one he'll forgive you of your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness but what's really cool is that he literally makes you righteous that when you stand before him you're righteous in his eyes and if there's any guilt and there's any shame that you're carrying he can take that all away and you really are forgiven in the sight of god and what you can be is his kid not just hopefully but actually truly his kid and if you've never given your life to christ and you would like to he would like to go yeah man i i do i want i want a clean slate i would like god to forgive my sins i'd like to be known as good and i would like to start living separately than how i'm living now this leaven that you talked about this sin i want it gone i want it cleansed and i want to start living for christ if you would like to do that will you just raise your hand so i can pray for you is there anyone here that would like to do that i can't see anyone right there right there in the middle god bless you ma'am anyone else just want to give you an opportunity all right well if i didn't catch anyone i did catch one so i just want to pray for you father i just pray for this lady that wants to give her life to you you've been doing something in her heart and something in her mind and i thank you for drawing her to you and that she's responded lord i pray um lord that you give her the strength to to make a stand for you right now and i just ask that you do this in jesus name amen man you that raised your hand what jesus did is he called you openly and this is key because he says if you confess me before men i'll confess you before my father in heaven and that's really the deal is that me living for christ isn't something that i do uh in secret it's some something i'm supposed to do openly and so you raise your hand if you want to i'm just going to ask you to stand and i'm going to have you follow me in this prayer and this prayer that i lead you in it's not like magical unless you mean it and so these words that you say you got to mean it in your heart and so if you will if you could just pray this prayer after me father thank you for loving me and i'm sorry for the things that i've done will you please forgive me i thank you that you love me i thank you that you died on the cross for my sins [Music] i thank you that you rose again to prove that my sins were forgiven and i thank you that you're coming back for me will you please write my name in your book of life [Music] so i can go to heaven [Music] will you please fill me with your spirit and help me to follow you [Music] and i give my whole life to you now in jesus name amen god bless you fantastic awesome

Channel: Calvary Chapel Tri-Cities

Views: 549

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: 6L_GBSDhIAw

Length: 73min 34sec (4414 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 12 2021