Introduction:
Get Purified: When There's Sin in the Church... (1 Corinthians 5:1-13)
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RECOGNIZE sin. (1 Cor 5:1-2)
Ephesians 5:3 - But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.
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REMOVE the sinner. (1 Cor 5:3-5)
Proverbs 22:10 - Drive out a scoffer, and strife will go out, and quarreling and abuse will cease.
Titus 3:10 - As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him...
What do we hope to accomplish by throwing him out?
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In His heart: We hope He's ASHAMED.
2 Thessalonians 3:14 - If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person, and have nothing to do with him, that he may be ashamed.
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In His head: We hope He LEARNS.
1 Timothy 1:20 - Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.
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In His body: We hope He SUFFERS.
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In His Spirit: We hope He REPENTS.
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REMEMBER the purpose. (1 Cor 5:6-8)
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RESTRICT discipline to believers. (1 Cor 5:9-13)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:45-00:46
Open up those Bibles.
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The book of 1 Corinthians 5.
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1 Corinthians 5.
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Imagine a scenario with me.
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You go to the doctor because you have a suspicious looking spot on your skin, and the doctor gives you the news you don't want to hear.
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have skin cancer. So for the good of the body, for the health of the body, what needs to happen with that spot? You have to remove it, right? Right? You have to remove it. Or if you go to a doctor and they find out that you have cancer in your kidney, for the health of the body, what do you have to do? You have to remove it, right? If it's on your skin, for the health of the body you remove it. If it's on your kidney, for the health of the body you remove it. And what if there's cancer in the church? All of a sudden the Brakes got pumped a little bit, didn't they?
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Same principle.
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For the health of the body, it has to be removed.
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We're getting back into 1 Corinthians.
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Remember the first four chapters, one message really.
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It was get unified.
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Paul pointed out the Corinthians had a lot of problems with pride and boasting and factions.
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Get unified.
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Knock it off.
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Alright, next subject.
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Takes us to our next section here.
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Get purified.
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There was another problem in the church.
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There was someone who claimed to be a Christian but was living in flagrant, unrepentant sin.
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What do you do with that guy?
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Let's just pause for a moment.
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I'm going to ask you to please pray for me.
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To be faithful to communicate what God's Word says, I will pray for you to have a heart open to receive it.
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Let's pray.
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Father, be glorified.
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Be glorified as we spend this time in Your Word.
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glorified in the hearts of every one of us, that we would be very quick to disregard our opinions and have a heart to embrace Your truth.
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We thank You ahead of time, Father, for what You're going to do.
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Whatever that looks like to us, I guess doesn't really matter.
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what you do, Father. We pray in Jesus' name. And all of God's people said, "Amen." So what do you do? What do you do when there's someone in the church who claims to be a believer, but they're living in obvious, flagrant, unrepentant sin? What do you do with that person? We're going to get right into it on your outline. Get purified. When there's sin in the church, What do you do?
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First of all, number one, write this down, recognize sin.
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How about we start there?
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Look at verse 1 in chapter 5.
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Paul says, "It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you." Stop right there for a second.
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What is sexual immorality?
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What is that?
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I know what the words mean.
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I don't need a definition, but in our day, can somebody give me an example of what is sexual immorality?
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Because it seems like we live in a day that anything goes.
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So how can we say anything is immoral if everything is okay?
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What even is that?
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Well, he goes on.
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Look at the rest of verse 1.
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He says, "It's reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is is not tolerated even among pagans.
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For a man has his father's wife." Okay, now, I'm not going to bore you with the homework, but according to the Greek text, here's what's going on.
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There was a man who married, had a kid, and his wife dies.
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and he remarries, probably a much younger woman, and his son has the hots for his stepmother.
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And they start a relationship.
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And the man ends up divorcing the wife, the stepmom, because the Bible doesn't say they committed adultery, it says they committed fornication.
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So the man divorced his second wife, but his son continued an ongoing sexual relationship with his stepmother.
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Pretty shocking sin, isn't it?
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But not as shocking as the church's reaction.
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Paul's like, "What are you doing? What are you doing?" Even pagans would look at this and be like, "You're sick, bro! What are you doing?
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You're sleeping with your stepmother?" Paul's like, "Pagans are gagging at this thought.
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Church, what are you doing?
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You're just allowing this to happen?" You know, the church today is just like Corinth.
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We church, we live right in the middle of Sodom.
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And sin in general, and sexual sin specifically, we have - I don't need to sell anybody on this - we have very quickly moved from tolerating it, which is bad enough to applauding sexual sin.
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What do you think about that, Paul?
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Look at verse 2.
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He says, "And you are arrogant.
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Ought you not rather to mourn?
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Let him who has done this be removed from among you." Paul's like, "What are you doing?
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This should grieve you as a church.
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Having one of your members be in sexual sin.
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You should be sad about this.
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He goes, "You're so arrogant.
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You're so full of yourselves." That's what he was talking about in chapters 1-4.
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Constantly spraining their arms, patting themselves on the back.
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See, so sick.
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In Corinth, we saw this in the first four chapters, they made a big deal out of who the best preacher was, and then they make a very little deal out of flagrant, unrepentant sexual sin.
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Not much has changed there.
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The church is great at that, aren't we?
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We're great at that.
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We will make a big deal out of nonsense.
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Oh no, we'll fight about little points of doctrine that will never get figured out.
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We'll fight about that.
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But one of our members can be living a destructive, sinful lifestyle and we're like, "Oh, what can you do?" And we'll ignore that.
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Just like Corinth, Paul tells them and us how to deal with the sinner.
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But I think first we've got to make sure that we recognize what sin is, because I think in the landscape of the church today we've forgotten that such a thing even exists.
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Do we recognize sin?
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See, in Corinth, we're going to talk more about this here in a couple weeks, but the Greeks saw sex as a merely biological function.
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That's all it was.
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Sex was just a biological function.
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It's like this.
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You're hungry, you eat, right?
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That's just natural.
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and you're thirsty, you drink.
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That's just natural.
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And you have those urges, you just do it because it's just natural to do that.
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You know what the problem was in Corinth and in our church today?
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Same problem.
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We have lost the idea that marriage and sexuality are sacred things.
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We've lost that.
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We have completely lost that concept.
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There is no idea around this is a holy and sacred and precious thing that needs to be protected.
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We become a bunch of dogs.
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You study God's Word.
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Do you know how sacred marriage and sexuality is?
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I mean, this is God's picture.
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God says, "I have this." And this is all the way from creation.
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God says, "I have this design.
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I'm gonna take a man and a woman, and these two are going to enter a lifelong covenant with each other." They're gonna make this lifelong commitment, this covenant.
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They're gonna have a relationship with each other that's unlike the relationship they have with anybody else on the earth.
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and two will become one.
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And the physical manifestation of two becoming one is the act of intimacy.
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They're going to know each other in a way that no one else knows either of them.
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They know each other that way.
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This is a sacred thing.
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We find out in the New Testament It's a picture of the gospel.
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God enters a covenant with His people and has an intimate relationship with His people.
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It's a picture.
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And it's sacred.
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The church, when we abandon God's design, we disregard the sacredness.
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And we've abandoned all purity.
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And it is the church's job, yes, it is still the church's job to promote and pursue purity.
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To the extent - quick callback - Pastor Taylor just read Ephesians 5.
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Again, verse 3.
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"But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you as is proper among saints." We, church, have to deal with people that are in sin.
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But that requires recognizing when people are in unrepentant sin.
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Can we recognize that?
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What do you do?
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What do you do with the guy?
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Well, look at verse 2 again.
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Last part.
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"Let him who has done this removed from among you." You see that?
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The Bible says when someone who claims to be a believer is living in unrepentant sin, remove him.
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Get him out of the church.
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You're like, "Is that really what it says, or is that just kind of like your interpretation?" No, that's what it says.
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Actually, you're going to see this six times in the passage.
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In verse 2, verse 5, verse 7, verse 9, and twice in verse 11.
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In this case, you remove them.
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Paul says you grab them by the scruff of the neck and the seat of the pants, and you find a stained glass window and you throw him out.
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Remove him.
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We're going to ask you to step down from your position of leadership.
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Not, you can still come here but I need you to sit in the back.
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Not, alright, alright listen, you can come to church here but I'm going to ask that you not say anything, just keep your mouth shut.
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No.
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Out.
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You're not welcome here.
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You've got to recognize sin.
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And that leads us to number two.
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Paul touches on it, and I'm sure maybe the Corinthians were as shocked as some of you are now.
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So he elaborates.
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Number two, write this down.
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Remove the sinner.
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What do we do?
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We've got to recognize sin.
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God give us vision for that.
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And when we do, we've got to remove the sinner.
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Look at verse 3.
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Paul elaborates, "For though absent in body, I am present in spirit, and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing." Paul's like, "Guys, I'm not even there, and I know what needs to happen.
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How are you not seeing this?" Verse 4, he says, "When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus, and my spirit is present with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord." He says, verse 4, "This is according to the authority of Jesus in His name, and this must be done in the power of Jesus." What do we do with him, Paul?
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He says, "Deliver this man to Satan." He says, "Throw him out into the world." Like, "Oh, you want to live like the world?
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Is that it?
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You want to live like the world?
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Okay, go live like the world.
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You're not doing that in here.
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Because in here, we don't pattern our behavior after the world.
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So if you are, then you can go into the world and do that.
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Get 'em out.
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Get 'em out.
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And somebody's like, yeah, but you know, a guy like that, he needs church.
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That's true, but the church doesn't need him.
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The Bible is clear on this.
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The Bible is so clear on this.
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Proverbs 22, look what Proverbs 22 says, verse 10, "Drive out a scoffer and strife will go out, and quarreling and abuse will cease." Again, Titus 3:10, "As for a person who stirs up division," again, this isn't just about sexual sin, we're going to see that here in 1 Corinthians 5, it's other unrepentant sin But as for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him.
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Like, look, we've talked about this, and we've talked about this, and you're still causing problems.
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I'm ignoring you. We're all ignoring you.
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We're having nothing to do with you. Go.
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Like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
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You're like, time out. Why?
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Like, what good is it to throw the guy out of church?
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Like, don't we love people here? Absolutely we do.
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Well then, if we really love people, why, when somebody is stuck in sin, what good would it be to have them go out of church?
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Well, there's four things.
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Write this down on your outline.
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What do we hope to accomplish by throwing him out?
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Look, this is an act of love.
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You have to understand that.
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The most loving thing we can do is show them the door.
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What do you hope to accomplish?
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Well, there's four things you have to accomplish.
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And you're going to see here, you're going to hit him everywhere.
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Four things you hope to accomplish.
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First of all, letter A, in his heart, We hope he's ashamed.
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That's one of the things you hope to accomplish.
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We hope he's ashamed.
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2 Thessalonians 3:14.
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Paul says, "If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person." Here it is again.
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"And have nothing to do with him." Why would we do that, Paul?
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Look, that he may be ashamed.
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You're trying to shame someone?
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We are, actually.
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Shame for that person to be out in the world, maybe with friends and family, like, "Hey, don't you go to that church?" Like, "Ah, yeah, they kind of threw me out." "You got thrown out of church?
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That's embarrassing." "Yeah, that's real embarrassing.
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My conduct is so bad, the church doesn't want me there." What are we driving at?
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We want the person to stop and be like, what am I doing?
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Right?
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We hope he's ashamed.
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Letter B, so that's getting to the heart.
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Now we're going to the head, letter B in his head.
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We hope he learns.
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We hope he learns.
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See what Paul told Timothy, 1 Timothy 1.20, "Hymenius and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan," same terminology here in 1 Corinthians 5, right?
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whom I have handed over to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme." You see that?
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And it says, "We hope he learns." Like, talking to him didn't register.
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So go.
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Go think about your choices.
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Again, same principle.
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We want the person out of the church going, "What am I doing?
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What am I doing that these people who love and care for me, consider my behavior so bad that I have to be kicked out in the hall like an unruly fourth grader.
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What am I doing?
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So we're hitting him in the heart.
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We're hitting him in the head.
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In his body. We hope he suffers.
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We hope he suffers.
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Back in 1 Corinthians 5, says, "Deliver him to Satan." Whoa, why? He says, "For the destruction of the flesh." You know, Satan can touch your body, but he can't touch your soul. He can touch your body, but he can't touch your soul. And sin always, eventually, leads to suffering every time.
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You continue an unrepentant, flagrant, disobedient sin, eventually you are going to suffer.
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Disease.
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Depression.
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Addiction.
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Throw him out. Why?
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You've got to let him reap the consequences of his sin.
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You want to live like that? Go live like that.
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Let me know how that works out for you.
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Spoiler alert, it's going to wreck him eventually.
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We want the person to get out there living in his sin, if that's what he chooses to do, to get to the point where he's suffering in one of these ways, and he's like, "What am I doing?
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I wasn't suffering like this while I was actively seeking the Lord.
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What am I doing?" You're like, "Wow.
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Seriously, Pastor Jeff, you're saying you're hoping when they're thrown out, you're hoping they're ashamed, they learn a lesson and they suffer.
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Is that what you're hoping for?" "A hundred percent." "Why?" Well, look back at 1 Corinthians 5.
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Look at verse 5 again.
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He says, "Deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh." Here's the end goal.
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"So that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord." So that's letter D.
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In his spirit, we hope he repents.
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Listen, this is the hard reality.
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This is the tough love.
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But when somebody is in flagrance and refuses to repent, and they are shown the door, not trying to punish them. Like, "I hate you, I hope you suffer." No, no, no. It's, "I love you, and I hope that this suffering brings you back." You know who the poster boy is for this? It's the prodigal son. Luke 15, Jesus told the story. Now, maybe you're familiar with the story, but this, "Dad, give me my share of the inheritance." And the kid takes and he goes and he spends it all, and he's broke, and now he's feeding the pigs, and he's so hungry, he wishes he could eat the garbage that he's feeding the pigs.
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Now, remember the story.
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He had to get to the place where he was so broken that he says, "What am I doing?" So let me ask you, what would have happened?
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I know it's a made-up story, but let's get in it.
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What would have happened if dad would have run in to rescue him?
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What would have happened?
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Kids like him out of money and dad picks him up.
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"All right, son, come on home." Would the kid have learned anything?
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Would he?
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No!
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He wouldn't have learned a thing and he'd do it again.
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So dad, hard as it was, had to let him suffer the consequences of his own stupid choices.
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And that's what Paul is saying here.
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When someone continues to thumb their nose at God, despite your appeals, despite your tears, despite your pleading with them, despite your praying with them, and they still persist in sin, Paul's like, "The most loving thing you can do is show them the door." Because that's always the objection, anytime you talk about something like this. "It is so unloving, it is so unloving to kick somebody out of church." No, it is not. Unloving is allowing someone to dishonor the Lord. Unloving is allowing someone to think that sin has no consequences. Unloving is keeping someone from the joy of repenting and walking with the Lord. And he's never going to repent from his sin if the church just accepts it.
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So what good is it to throw him out? Well, the hope is eventually it benefits him by leading to repentance. But you know, that's only one of the benefits. Actually that's kind of secondary, believe it or not. Number three, write this down. When there's sin in the church and you've got to remove the sinner, number three, remember the purpose. Yes, it's about ultimately restoring Him, but there's a bigger purpose in mind than even restoring the sinner. I want you to see this in your Bibles. Look at verses 6-8. Paul says, "Your boasting is not good.
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Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the with the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened.
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For Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed.
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Let us therefore celebrate the festival not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the leavened bread of sincerity and truth." gives an illustration here, and it's an illustration from Passover, Exodus chapter 12. And it's an illustration also about bread. When you made bread, there would be a giant lump of unleavened dough, and you would have to take old leaven from a previous loaf, and you would have to put it in the new dough so that that leaven would permeate the whole loaf.
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Okay, now dial in here because this is such a beautiful and genius and multi-layered illustration.
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It's so profound.
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But see leaven in this illustration, it's a picture of sin.
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Verse 8, he says it's malice and evil.
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Paul here is saying the reason that you remove the sinner from church is the same reason you wouldn't put leaven in an unleavened loaf, because when you allow it in, it affects everything.
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You see that?
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It's about permeation.
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That's what Paul is saying here.
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Remember the purpose.
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Throw him out.
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Why?
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Remember the purpose?
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If he's here, if he's in the church, his sin, like the leaven in the lump, his sin is going to ultimately affect everyone.
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You're like, "Well, what's the deal with Passover?
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What's the illustration there?" Again, it's just crazy brilliant.
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But in the Passover, remember the last plague, death of the firstborn, Israel was to put the blood of a spotless lamb on their doorposts.
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And when they did that, that was the defining moment.
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That was its separation time.
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We are out of Egypt now.
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Separating from Egypt.
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We are called not to separate from Egypt.
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We are called to separate from the world and the ways of the world.
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That's why Paul says in verse 7 that the death of Christ is our moment of separation.
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Just for the Jews, blood on the door meant separation from Egypt.
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For us, the blood of Jesus means separation from the ways of the world.
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Do you see that?
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And with the Passover, and the leaven and the bread, here's how it all comes together.
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When they left Egypt, They were to take no leaven with them.
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Why?
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It was a picture of you're leaving that behind.
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You're not taking Egypt with you.
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You're separating now.
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So here's what Paul's saying.
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Church, Christ died to make you holy.
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Separate yourselves from the world, the ways of the world.
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Don't allow leaven - Why?
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Because the purity of the church is at stake.
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That's why.
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Because like leaven, sin spreads.
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Sin's infectious.
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So, verse 7, here it is again, "Cleanse out the old leaven." What's he saying?
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Get the unrepentant sinner out because He's going to affect everyone.
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Because as people, you are more tempted to excuse and ignore your own sin if you're in a community where we excuse and ignore sin.
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You are more tempted to excuse and ignore your own sin if you're in a community that excuses and ignores other people's sin.
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Don't believe me?
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If you teach in Harvest Academy, what happens if you have one kid in the class?
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One kid just had too much espresso that morning or something.
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Put a little too much saccharine on the old Count Chocula.
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And he comes in, and he is kicking people, and he is jumping up and down on the table, and he is screaming, and you don't address it at all.
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What eventually happens?
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None of you worked with kids?
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Oh, come on.
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It eventually happens.
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Oh, you have worked with kids, right?
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All of a sudden, little Joey's jumping on the table.
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What's little Billy doing?
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Apparently this is what we're doing, right?
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Little Joey's screaming.
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Now all of a sudden, little Betsy's like, it looks like we're screaming.
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And if you don't address it, what are you going to have in about two minutes?
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You're going to have an entire room full of kids all acting like little Joey.
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And little Joey's number needs to be up on that little screen right there.
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It says, "Come get little Joey." Why? He needs to be removed.
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Why?
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Not because we hate little Joey.
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But because little Joey's affecting whole class, you see?
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You know that same principle is true for adults, isn't it?
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If we tolerate or condone, God help us, applaud sin, what we do, church, is we create a culture where people are comfortable to sin.
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And it's not long before rainbow flags are hanging on the church.
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We're called to be different, aren't we?
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Aren't we called to be different than the ways of the world?
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Aren't we called to pursue the ways of God?
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Aren't we called to represent the kingdom of Jesus Christ here on earth?
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And you're like, "Oh, so what are you saying, Pastor Jeff?
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You have to be perfect to come here?" "Oh, no, no, no, not at all.
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No, we're not saying that at all." That leads us to Paul's last point here.
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Write this one down.
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Number four, restrict discipline to believers.
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Restrict discipline to believers.
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Look at verse 9.
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He says, "I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people." You're like, "What letter?" Well, there was another letter.
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He wrote them a letter before 1 Corinthians.
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And we don't have that letter.
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Do you think if God wanted us to have it, we would have it?
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For sure.
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For some reason, God didn't want us to have it.
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But we have some clues, right, about what was going on there.
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Part of that letter was He told the Corinthians you need to avoid immoral people.
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And now He's saying, "Look, that's what I told you before.
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It's true, but I need to clarify some things here, right?
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Because apparently you're not getting it." Verse 10, "Not at all." Meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers or idolaters.
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Since then, you would need to go out of the world.
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He says, "Look, when we say avoid sinners, He goes, "I'm not talking about avoiding non-Christians." He goes, "That's impossible.
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That is impossible.
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As long as you are living on this earth, you are going to interact with non-Christians." So this whole remove, separate yourself, he says, "I'm not talking about non-Christians at all.
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Yes, we should be loving and reaching out and sharing the gospel and inviting the church to non-Christians, absolutely.
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Paul's like, "I am so not talking about that." What are you talking about, Paul?
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Look at verse 11, here it is.
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But now I'm writing to you, not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother.
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Did you see that?
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if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler, not even to eat with such a one." Paul's making it very clear here.
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He's not saying we just avoid sinners, we avoid non-Christians. No, no, no.
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He says, "I'm talking about people who claim to be born-again believers but are unrepentant, flagrantly, proudly living in sin.
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By the way, not just limited to sexual sin.
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I think you saw that.
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Sometimes that's the only sin the church wants to pick on because they sin differently than us.
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It's not the only sin.
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But you have to see the difference.
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You have a Christian in sin.
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This happens all the time.
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All the time.
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You have the Christian in sin that's like, "Look, I am struggling. I need help.
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What I'm doing is wrong.
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I need help." And you have a different guy that is like, "Look, nobody tells me what to do.
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Who are you to judge me?
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What I'm doing is not wrong.
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Who do you think you are telling me I can't be with this person or do this.
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You don't tell me what to do.
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Nobody tells me what to do.
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You see the difference?
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There's a huge difference in attitude, and there's a huge difference in our response.
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Please hear me.
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If you call yourself a Christian and you come to me or one of our pastors, one of our elders, and you come to us and you say, "Pastor Jeff, I'm stuck in sin.
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Please help me.
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I realize this is wrong, and I want to honor Christ.
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I will do whatever it takes to get you on track in your walk with the Lord.
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I will work with you.
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I will spend as much time as we need.
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I will get whoever needs to be involved to get you on track in seeking the Lord the way you should.
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I will do anything in the world for you.
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You have to know that, and there are some people in this room that know that firsthand.
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On the other hand, someone who calls himself a Christian, but they're in sin, and they're lovingly confronted, "Hey, what you're doing isn't right.
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This is dishonoring the Lord." And they refuse to repent.
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"Who do you think you are?
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You don't tell me what to do." He's out.
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He's out.
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But listen, This is an austere passage for sure.
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And I sure hope to heaven that none of you think that anybody is reveling in the thought of evicting somebody from church.
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This is a horribly sad and painful thing.
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No one is happy when this has to happen.
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And this isn't meant to be harsh.
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You see, it's confronting people in a spirit of love.
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It's a plea to repent.
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Because of the Gospel, because of the Kingdom, because of our testimony, because purity matters.
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That's the point.
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If there's flagrant, obvious sin and there's an absolute refusal to repent, then they're out.
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And we can sit here today, church, and we can look at the text on the page, and we can agree with the concepts, but I'm going to tell you for a fact, It gets real hard when it actually happens to one of us.
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I mean, we can agree to the concept, but when there's a face and a name, then it gets real hard.
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This happened a handful of times over my ministry.
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I could tell you stories.
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I could tell you stories of a man who was sneaking off and having a relationship with one of the girls in the youth group.
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This was at a previous church.
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Confronted.
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Chip on his shoulder.
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"You don't understand." The man's 38. She was like 14.
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Confronted. He's like, "You don't understand.
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She's very mature. We have a special relationship." The law was involved, by the way.
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and he went to where he needed to go.
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But in that conversation with him, I said, "You are not welcome here." He said, "Where am I supposed to go?" And I said, "That's not my problem, but not here." Closing time.
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You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here.
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We had another situation with a man who asked for help in saving his marriage, He seemed real repentant until somebody from church caught him on a date with another woman out at a restaurant holding hands while they were at a table.
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He was confronted with that.
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There's the door.
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And look, I could tell you several more.
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I'm not going to.
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But I can tell you this, every single time in my ministry that's happened, those have been some of the most painful seasons of ministry that I've experienced.
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It's not fun.
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It's not fun to sit down with a brother or a sister and say, "You are dishonoring the Lord in your conduct, and we are begging you to turn this around." The hope when someone is removed, the hope is always that they repent and we will joyfully restore them, and then we all move on.
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It's in the rear view mirror.
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We're done.
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You repented.
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Okay, we're not going to talk about it.
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We're not going to bring it up.
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We're done.
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That's the hope.
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But you know what usually happens in our culture?
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Somebody's confronted with their sin.
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They get upset.
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Then what do they do?
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Off to Orchard Hill.
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I don't need to sit here and listen to this.
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Off to Northway.
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Off to anywhere but here.
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Hope they don't throw me out for sinning.
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I'm like, "I kind of hope they do." Yeah, that's typically what happens.
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People are disciplined and they just, they just, you know, pack up their Bible and they go to another church.
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And you're like, "Well, so discipline didn't do them any good." Well, maybe not, but it did the church good because tolerating sin will destroy the church.
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Look at verse 12.
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Paul says, "For what have I to do with judging outsiders?
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Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?" Paul's like, "Outsiders?
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Not my business.
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Members, my business." He talks about judging here.
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I'd encourage you to underline that verse in your Bible.
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Next time somebody says, "Don't judge me." Listen, we talked about this in the Sermon on the Mount.
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We are forbidden to judge motives.
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But look, here, we are commanded to judge actions.
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We are commanded to judge the actions of those in church, those who call themselves believers.
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We are commanded.
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We have a responsibility to the person, we have a responsibility to the church, and we have a responsibility to God.
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You're like, "Well, okay, what about the sin of the outsiders?
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What about them?
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What about their sin?
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What about the sin of the unbelievers?
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Well, verse 13, "God judges those outside.
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Purge the evil person from among you." Yeah, you know, the non-believers in sin, don't worry about them.
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God will take care of them.
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You love them, you share the gospel with them, you help them know and receive and believe in Jesus Christ, but as far as their sin goes, God will take care of that.
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That's His job.
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Your job, last phrase, "Purge the evil person from among you." Maybe your Bible has that in quotes because that's not a new concept.
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That's an Old Testament quote.
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You're like, "From where?" From Deuteronomy 13, Deuteronomy 17, Deuteronomy 19, Deuteronomy 21, Deuteronomy 22, Deuteronomy 24.
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There was a principle for ancient Israel that is for the church.
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Get them out.
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and get them out.
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At this point, you're like, what am I supposed to do?
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What am I supposed to do with this information, Pastor Jeff?
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And I can tell you, it is my sincere hope that you never have to do anything with this information.
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But, if you see a brother or sister in sin, you have a responsibility to encourage them to repent.
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Matthew 18 gives principles for the process.
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And I know Matthew 18 is if somebody sins against you directly, I think the principle still stands.
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Go by yourself. Get the whole story.
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Sit down with them.
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It's what I think I'm seeing, actually what I'm seeing.
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And if they refuse to repent, get some people from your small group.
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Like, "Hey, it looks like you're making some really bad choices right now.
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We love you and we care about you.
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We want you to get on track." If they refuse to listen to that, then you need to come and talk to me and we'll take care of it from there.
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But church, we are not headhunting.
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We are not looking for reasons to eject people.
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We are not making a federal case out of something minor.
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Okay?
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I saw Billy smoking a cigar at a wedding.
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Church discipline!
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No.
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"Slow down there, deputy dog." And we are certainly not assuming or judging character.
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The only thing we can judge is action.
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This is what I see you doing.
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And this is where God says that is wrong.
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We're talking about flagrant, obvious, verified, unrepentant sin.
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And we won't be a pure church if we refuse to deal with sinners.
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Let's pray.
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Father in Heaven, it's a lot easier to preach Psalm 23.
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But we are committed to preaching the whole counsel of God.
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And Father, as uncomfortable as this might be and as offensive as this might be, Father, give us the wisdom and give us the understanding that this is actually the most loving thing we can do is to allow someone to be shown the door if they refuse to repent.
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Father, You know our hearts.
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In every case, it's our hope that there is repentance and restoration.
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Father, You care so much about the purity of this church.
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And I'm asking, Father, that You would give us compassion and love, and at the same time, boldness and obedience to handle things in a way that glorify and honor You.
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We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read 1 Corinthians 5
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Why do you think people have a hard time with a church removing an unrepentant sinner, when the Bible clearly commands it?
What is the motivation behind removing someone from church? What does it do for the church?
Explain 1 Cor 5:5 in your own words.
How would you coach someone on “How exactly do I confront a brother in Christ who is clearly in unrepentant sin?”
Breakout
Pray for one another.