Amen, church. If you would go with me to Matthew 18. Matthew 18. We will jump back in where we left off last week, picking up in verse 12. We'll continue on with the fourth of five discourses of our Lord from the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew 18, beginning in verse 12. Hear the Word of the Lord Jesus Christ. What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I among them." And so, Lord Jesus, we pray that You would teach us as we just sang Your Word, that You would speak to us and equip this church for this type of one another love and care. For the glory of God, we pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. Again, this morning is our third of four sermons in a mini-series that I have titled, The Christian Community. And this week we're going to just press on in Matthew chapter 18 and look at the accountability and discipline of the Christian community. And we will see that Christ has called His church, His gathered church in the earth, to play a vital part in seeing that all the members remain at peace with God with one another and that he has given us instructions on how to carry that out. So let me just say a few things first about church discipline because there is probably a broad spectrum of views or even just what it is represented here today. And so some of you, especially if you've been members here for quite some time, you may be thoroughly understandable about this topic. And some of you, you may have heard the term, but maybe you don't know as much about it. You know there's Matthew 18, and there's a few other things, and you know we should be practicing church discipline, but you've never seen it. You've never heard it taught. Some of you, you've heard the term, but that's about it. And then others of you may have really no idea about what church discipline is. And so what we have in Matthew 18, 15 to 20 is what Albert Martin calls the watershed text, the foundational text in the New Testament that's a springboard for what the apostles will develop as church discipline. It is the watershed text. And the apostles will land themselves in this text as they build the church on their foundation. And so we must, brothers and sisters, see that the Lord Jesus' Word never changes. And that He is speaking to us today to obey all of His instructions, all of His Word, And if the church throughout the centuries is going to be faithful to Jesus Christ, it must practice accountability, and it must practice church discipline. And so, Matthew 18, 15-20 is not an exhaustive treatment on what we call church discipline. Again, it's the foundation, and the apostles will build this out. So hear me when I say this, a lot more could be said about church discipline than what I'm going to say this morning. And a lot more should be said to do this doctrine justice. Church discipline is very multifaceted. in its purposes. And there are many things being accomplished in the life of God's people through the exercise of proper church discipline. And we've taught on this before here years ago, and it's inevitable that I think we'll have to teach on it again. But today, as with last week, I really want to remain faithful to the context. of Matthew chapter 18 and stay in this discourse. And I trust that as we do that, we will continue to see this ongoing theme come out even more that we have been seeing in the 18th chapter of Matthew. And it will keep our minds focused on this theme of harmony and peace and love and unity in the Christian community. That's what we are really looking at in this text. And so I want to walk us through these ten verses, and I want to do something that I don't normally do in preaching, and I want to use the first person, we, and us, when I give propositions, because I really want this to land on us as the cross church. I want it to land on us, because we could arrogantly boast and say, oh, we're the good Reformed Baptist church. We believe in church discipline. We agree with it. We think we should be doing it. But then not ever actually practice accountability. That is very possible. And I don't want that to be us. And it has not been us, by the grace of God. Jesus spoke these words 2,000 years ago. And He's speaking to us these words today for this local church. And so let's jump in to this text this morning. First thing I want us to see this morning is that we must pursue straying brothers and sisters. We must pursue straying brothers and sisters. Why? Because they have value in the eyes of God. Look at verse 12. He says, What do you think, if a man has a hundred sheep and not one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? So remember from last week, Jesus has used this illustration of a child. Remember, he takes a child and he looks at the disciples who are struggling with this desire to be great. And he takes a child in his arms and he says, look, disciples, if you want to enter into my kingdom, you have to empty yourself of this arrogance and pride and become like children and enter into the kingdom. And so now Jesus is using the illustration of a shepherd. who has a hundred sheep in a fold, and yet one of them goes astray. Instead of being content with saying, oh, well, I still have ninety-nine, we'll let the one go, the shepherd goes after the one who strays, and he leaves the ninety-nine who have not gone astray. And so what is the shepherd's aim? His aim is to find the wandering sheep and to restore him to the rest of the fold. And why is this his aim? Because the sheep has value to the shepherd. The sheep has value to the shepherd. Look at verse 13. And if he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more. than over the 99 that never went astray. The sheep is worth so much to the shepherd that he leaves the 99 who are not wandering to go and search after the one, and then he rejoices over it when he finds it. It means something to him. It's valuable to him. And so what is all this getting at? Well, verse 14 explains the illustration for us. So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones, remember that phrase, little ones, should perish. And we see this all throughout the Old Testament, don't we? That God speaks of Himself as a shepherd. And He speaks of His people as His sheep over and over throughout the Psalms, in the book of Ezekiel, in the book of Jeremiah, we see this. And then Jesus in John 10 makes a shocking comparison and a shocking claim to deity and says, I am what? The Good Shepherd. I lay my life down for who? The sheep. Jesus gives us such an incredible glimpse into His heart and into the heart of His Father here. He says every little one, every disciple, every person who receives Christ and believes in Him has tremendous value in the eyes of God. And it is not His will that one disciple should wander away and perish, no matter how insignificant that disciple might seem to the world. We see His pastoral heart here and that He pursues those sheep who have wandered away from Him and from the rest of the fold. Because remember last week, the world presents stumbling blocks. The world presents temptations to sin. It causes offense to believers. And if believers are not careful, they might wander away into the world. And the shepherd goes after them. They may be led into sin, but God's pastoral heart is to pursue them and to restore them. And He has called us, His church, to participate in this pastoral work of caring for the sheep, of seeing the sheep. Brothers and sisters, we must be a community under discipline. We must be a community of accountability. where our great aim for one another is that we all please the Lord Jesus, that we all make much of Him, that we all use our days for fruitfulness, and that we all get to heaven. This is our great aim as a church. And so let me just, let me drop down for a moment. Guys, you want to be in a church that takes this seriously. You want to be in a church where the pastors and leaders and all the members of the church take seriously your value as a disciple of Christ. So much so that they will pursue you if you stray. That they will go after you if you stumble. That they will restore you to the fold if you wander off from the flock. That they will leave everything when you are in danger to come after you. You know, one thing that has become clearer and clearer to me over the years is that the way a person treats the corporate gathering of the saints usually gives us a window into their soul. And it gives us an accurate glimpse into the spiritual health of that person. And I understand that there are exceptions to this, such as health and locations and new babies, and I get all of that. But by and large, when a person begins to forsake consistently the assembling of the saints, it is very likely that that person is wavering in his or her commitment to Christ, and in his or her commitment to the church. You know, I think a lot of people might say to themselves, you know, guys, I know you want to be faithful. I know you really love the sheep, but why do we take so seriously pursuing those who have left or those who are not coming anymore? Shouldn't we just kind of let them go? No. No. We cannot let sheep wander off and perish. We must pursue wavering sheep because to let them go is a fundamental failure to participate in God's pastoral work. And it is a fundamental failure to value sheep the way God values sheep. Verse 14, again. It is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. What is the end result of a sheep that goes astray and is not restored? It perishes. It perishes. It falls off a cliff, or it falls into a pit. And so when we see sheep who are of this fold, members of this church, wavering, going off into the world, struggling with sin, forsaking the gathering of the saints, we pursue that sheep because if they are not found and restored, they might perish eternally. And God doesn't want them to perish, brothers and sisters. His heart for them is that they be restored. And Jesus is calling us to participate in this type of radical love and commitment. This love is what undergirds what we call church discipline. Not judgmentalism. Not harshness. Love. Commitment. Concern for the truth. Concern for our brothers and sisters' good. So brothers and sisters, it should never be the case, never, that someone can not show up 5, 6, 10, 15, 25 weeks and not hear from anyone except for maybe a text from a pastor or a city group leader. That is unloving. That is unloving. And it is, again, failing to see the value of the sheep. We don't care for sheep and love sheep because they are desirable. Or because we get something in return. We value sheep, again, because God values sheep. And He loves them. He set His seal on them as a disciple of Christ. So now let me transition us into this next section of the discourse. Because verses 10 to 14 give us sort of the framework for why we should pursue straying sheep. And now in verses 15 to 20, he's going to give us instructions for how to go about doing that. So I said earlier, we must pursue straying brothers and sisters because they have value in the eyes of God, and we pursue these straying brothers and sisters through the means of restorative church discipline. Restorative church discipline. And these five verses outline Jesus' model for pursuing straying sheep and restoring them to the fold. So there's a direct connection. 10 to 14 flow into 15 to 20. So let me acknowledge first just a few counter arguments in our day four church discipline. You know, what's the biggest pushback on church discipline? What's the biggest pushback that people have? They would say it's unloving. It's judgmental to confront people in their sin, to call them to repentance. To require a professing brother or sister live to a standard of holiness, that's harsh. That's judgmental. To desire and to require that we all strive for holiness, that's legalistic and religious, and you know we have all these terms that we use today. We just want to be gracious. We want to be loving. Guys, that sounds really romantic, but the problem is that the biblical testimony argues the exact opposite. I mean, let's just take God Himself for a moment. Revelation 3.19, Jesus says, Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline. So be zealous and repent. Hebrews 12.6 said, For the Lord disciplines the one He loves and chastises every son whom He receives. Church discipline is a mark of a church that loves one another. genuine love, biblical love. Not love the way we define it, not love the way our culture defines it, but the way Christ defines it. This is a mark of a true church. Let's just think about parenting for a moment. What does God say about discipline and parenting? Proverbs 13, 24, whoever spares the rod hates his son. But listen to this, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him. It's amazing. So brothers and sisters, it is extremely misguided for a church to say, you know, we don't practice church discipline because we want to be about grace. We want to be about acceptance. We want to be about love. Guys, churches that have that mindset are not only wrong, but according to Paul in 1 Corinthians 5, they are arrogant. They are arrogant. Brothers and sisters, if we are going to be a faithful New Covenant people, a faithful New Testament church, we must practice biblical, proper, restorative church discipline. So what does this look like? Well, again, I don't think Matthew 18, 15 to 20 is an ironclad step-by-step formula for how church discipline has to look every single time. I think we should understand these verses in principle, in light of principles. And I don't think it's necessary to try to fit awkwardly and sometimes dangerously every single church discipline case through these three or four steps outlined here. And why do I say that? Well, we see in other times in the New Testament that church discipline is mandated, but this process is not necessarily followed to a T. Let me give you a couple examples. In 1 Corinthians 5, a situation arose where a man was committing a grievous sexual sin that was public, and Paul called for the man to be removed when the church gathered together again. And he says, it is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you and of a kind that is not tolerated even among Gentiles or among pagans. So this member of the church at Corinth was participating in a sexual sin that pagan Gentiles in the completely corrupt, sexually perverse culture of Corinth wouldn't even tolerate. And Paul goes on to say, when you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus, and my spirit is present with the power of the Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord. So there may be times, brothers and sisters, when a person's sin is so detrimental, so harmful, so scandalous and grievous, that the person may be forbidden from coming to the table, and for a time even banned from coming to the gathering at all, depending on the sin. Along the same lines, there may be doctrinal error that is so contrary to the gospel, so contrary to biblical healthy teaching, so harmful to the health of the church, that the person who is spreading these false teachings must be rebuked and then put out. I see this in Titus 3 verses 9-11 where Paul says, But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. And listen to what he says, As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once, and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful, he is self-condemned. So Paul says to Titus, look, when people insist on spreading false teaching, teaching that's contrary to what I delivered to the church, rebuke him once, and if he continues to do it, quickly go and rebuke him again. And if he persists in stirring up division over doctrine, have nothing else to do with him. Because brothers and sisters, false teaching and heretical doctrine is so detrimental to the body. that to allow false teaching to spread over weeks and months has harmful effects on the sheep, and other sheep may be swept in and led astray. Paul says no. It must be dealt with immediately, especially by the leaders, because that false teaching could divide the body of Christ and infiltrate the church, and more could be led astray. So, brothers and sisters, let me just say, I think this is good for me to say publicly, there are many church discipline issues that never go public. And many of you never hear about things that are happening behind the scenes. That's great. That's how we want things to be. We want issues to be dealt with privately as much as possible to protect the church, to protect the person in sin. And so I want to just say that and encourage you to make it a weekly prayer of yours. You don't have to know anyone's name, but Father, help those who are wavering in their commitment to Christ. Restore them to the fold. Give our leaders, give our brothers and sisters who are involved, wisdom. Give them love for the straying sheep. And that is, brothers and sisters, participating in restorative church discipline. Now look with me at verse 15. He says, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. Now let me just acknowledge a textual issue here, because many of the earliest manuscripts do not include that phrase, against you. And it just merely says, if your brother sins. The NASB and IV simply translate it, if your brother sins. And I prefer that translation because it makes more sense in the context of the entire discourse. And so I don't think interpersonal conflict is so much in view, although it absolutely applies. But I do think the context in view here is corporate discipline and restoration. Nevertheless, what is clear is that Jesus envisions the discipline of the church to begin privately between two members. between you and him alone. Keep this confidential. Go to your brother. Don't assume. Don't go ask someone else and stir up gossip. Go to your brother. Pursue Him. And notice Jesus has shifted from using the word child or little ones to brother, which again means a believing disciple. So all throughout the Gospel of Matthew, the titles little one and child and brother are used to denote disciples, those who have received Christ. And now this raises the question, what kind of faults should we go and pursue our brother about? Well, Jesus doesn't tell us. He doesn't give us a scale and say, look, if the sin is on this scale, you go and confront your brother. If it's on this side of the scale, you leave it alone. He doesn't say that because in some sense, all sin, despite how small it might seem to us, can end up being detrimental. And there may be times when one's sin warrants a rebuke. Nevertheless, I do think that we can reach into other parts of Scripture and employ some wise principles here. Because the Bible does speak about overlooking offense. Proverbs 19.11, good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is His glory to overlook an offense. 1 Peter 4.8, Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Paul tells us to bear with one another. That love is not easily angered. It's not irritable. So I don't think that we should just take this as license to walk around and just rebuke each other all the time. for character defects and deviances that annoy us. We bear with those by and large. And I also don't believe that if a brother or sister has confessed a sin and is struggling, and it's known, he's made it known to a few people, I'm struggling with this, I'm fighting this, and I'm falling. I don't think we have to feel like we have to rebuke that brother every time he falls. If it's a known confession and a known struggle, Perhaps we could say more. But I think this text itself gives us some insight into when we should go and confront a brother or sister. Notice he says, if he listens to you, you have gained your brother. Gained him in what way? Gained him from wandering. From straying. Gained him back into the fold. This makes sense in light of verses 10-14 about the shepherd going after straying sheep. So when should we go and pursue a brother and sister who is in sin? When they are in danger of wandering away from Christ and from His flock. From Christ and His church. Galatians 6.1 really makes sense of this. Where Paul says, Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. And so the verb caught is not implying like a gotcha type caught. Like an exposure or being found out. It denotes being caught in sense of entangled. Someone is entangled in sin. Other translations say if anyone is overtaken by any trespass. So the idea is that when a brother or sister stumbles into sin and is overtaken by that sin, and is wandering away because of that sin, go confront your brother. Call him back. Restore him to the fold. And again, we are seeing that restorative church discipline is not mean or unloving, but it is near to the pastoral heart of Jesus Christ. And he says in verse 16, but if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. So the concerned brother is now to take two or three others along with him to establish the charge. This isn't one brother's word over against another brother's word. It needs to be established by two or three witnesses. And so they go with him, and if the other brothers say, yes, this is true sin, there's real neglect here, there needs to be repentance here, the pressure is now turned up on that sinning brother. Just like in the old covenant judicial system, church discipline has to be carried out by two or three brothers, and ultimately, the church. So by the way, just as a side note, Jesus here, I think, shows us how to use the general equity of the Old Covenant law to apply it to New Testament life, to church life. Because this verse that Jesus is quoting is straight out of Deuteronomy 19.15. where it says, a single witness shall not suffice against the person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established. So you get the idea that this is public. It's not just a heart issue that the brother is struggling with. It's something that is seen. It's verifiable. Then he says in verse 17, If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the leaders and then they'll decide what to do? No. Tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. So here we see that if the sinning brother remains in unrepentant sin, even after his situation is confirmed by two or three witnesses, It's clear, he's living in inconsistency with the way Jesus calls his disciples to live. He's not struggling and falling. He's not desiring to repent and stumbling. It says if he refuses to listen to them, you know, this person is bent on remaining in his sin and does not want to hear what the church has to say or its leaders. He doesn't heed calls to repentance. Jesus says, treat him as an outsider. as unholy, so he's no longer considered brother, like he was in verse 15, which is a title designated to those who are a part of Christ's community, a part of the family of God. He's now considered Gentile and tax collector, alienated from the people of God. First century Jews would have seen Gentiles as outside of God's covenant people. and they would have seen tax collectors as traitors, sellouts to the Roman state. And although first century Jews would have had interactions with Gentiles and tax collectors, what would they not have done with them? They would not have had table fellowship with them. They would not have eaten with them. Remember the Jews asked the disciples this, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners. That was frowned upon because it meant association. We don't understand this today much in our culture because we don't value table fellowship the way that it was valued in first century Palestine. But in those days table fellowship was extremely significant. Extremely significant. And Jews could not eat with Gentiles because Gentiles diets would make them unclean. So there was a great carefulness there. And so Jesus is saying, consider the unrepentant brother like that. Do not associate with him like you do a brother. Do not enjoy fellowship, table fellowship, with him like you do a brother in Christ, or a sister in Christ. And that disassociation is seen most fully by the fact that unrepentant sinners are not welcome to the table. So when an unrepentant sinner is removed from the church through proper, restorative church discipline, they lose the privilege of coming to the table. Why? Because this is where the people of God come and enjoy a meal together, and worship Christ, and proclaim His death until He comes, and renew our commitment to Him and to one another. We remember His death. We remember His bloodshed. And that privilege is taken away until Lord willing, that brother or sister repents. That doesn't mean we can't be cordial. That doesn't mean we don't love the brother or sister like we love our neighbor and do good to him or to her. We want them here at church with us under most circumstances. But something significant changes in the way that Christians interact with those who have been removed from the body via proper, godly, loving, restorative church discipline. 1 Corinthians 5.11, Paul says, but now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler. And here it is, not even to eat with such a one. Why? Because our primary gain is to restore him back as a brother. We pray for him. We plead with him. Brother, sister, come to your senses. And by the grace of God, the Holy Spirit will bring the unrepentant sinner to his senses and bring him back to the church. And when he comes back to the church, we receive him with open arms. We forgive him. We comfort him. We tell him the promises of God and the gospel who are for all repenting sinners. That's the goal, brothers and sisters. He says, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. Why? So that his spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord. We don't do church discipline because we think we are holier than thou. That is not the motive. Or because we want to be harsh. But because this is Christ's means of restoring wandering sheep to His fold. And I want us to see lastly, I want us to see the type of authority that Jesus ascribes to His church here. Look at verse 18 and 19. He says, "'Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in Heaven." So if you remember, Jesus made a similar statement to Peter back in chapter 16, and now He's saying it to the whole group of disciples. And I think the sentiment is that Jesus gives His gathered church an authority. An authority not to do whatever it wants. Not a name it and claim it, where we do whatever we want and say whatever we want and think heaven has to agree with us. Not where we twist Jesus' arm into giving us whatever we want. But no, an authority that says when we stand on Christ's Word, when we seek Him in prayer, when we agree, He's with us. He gives us that. And I agree that these verses are difficult to understand, but I think Jesus is saying that the church, insofar as we stand on the apostolic word, stand inconsistent with Christ's teaching, that we can determine, because God has given us the keys of the kingdom, we can determine who comes into the body, into the community, and who goes out of the community. But again, it's not like an infallible pope or some ecclesiastical board that has this unchecked authority. The entire church gathered officially in the name of Christ can receive believers in and can remove them from the body. Upon confession of faith, profession of faith, and baptism, we bring people into the body. And as Lord forbid an unrepentant sinner, after time and prayer and many appeals, much time has been given, continues to live inconsistently with what Jesus says a disciple should live, we have the authority to remove that person from the community. That's why when people join the church, we have them stand publicly and the whole body votes to receive them in. And when we remove someone from the body, the whole church must cast a vote to remove that person from membership. The best translation is, shall have been loosed, or shall have been bound. It's as if when the church makes an authoritative decision like this, it's like it's already been done in heaven. We're not telling heaven what to do, we're just essentially making official on the earth what's already done in heaven. So when we bring a member into the body, they are a Christian. In God's eyes, in heaven's eyes, they are a believer. They've entered into the universal church, and through bringing them into membership, we're making that official on the earth. Publicly declaring that. And that's what church discipline does. It makes official on earth what is already official in heaven. We are just confirming on earth, best as we know, God will be the final judge. We are confirming on earth, the best as we know, that this person is not a part of the body of Christ. This person is not a child of God. There's little to no evidence that would show us that we can have that confidence. And when we come together and make public prayers regarding these matters, and cast official judgments, insofar as we are standing on Christ's Word faithfully, Jesus says it's done. My Father in heaven will do it. It's done in heaven. I want to close by looking at verse 20. says, where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them. Not only does Jesus bestow His church with authority, but He promises them to be with them in a special way when they gather officially, particularly when they make decisions on disciplining members. Guys, this is why we value the corporate gathering of the saints the way that we do. It's not just that Hebrews 10.25 says not to neglect the gathering of yourselves together. That's certainly part of it, but Jesus is here promising the church. When you gather and pray in agreement on something, when you come together officially in my name, when you stand on the authority of my word and make decisions consistent with my teaching, I am with you. There I am among you. This is incredible. And again, to reference 1 Corinthians 5.4, Paul makes a very similar statement, showing that I believe he has access to Matthew 18.15-20. Because he says again, when you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus, that's the official gathering of the church, and my Spirit is present with the power of our Lord Jesus. When you gather, God's presence is there. You are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. So Paul acknowledges that Jesus will be present by the power of the Holy Spirit as the Corinthian church comes together publicly and officially to make a judgment on excommunicating the sinning member. But I don't think this promise only applies to church discipline. You know, when we hear the Word preached once a week, when we come together and come to the table, when we make prayers and supplications corporately as a body, Jesus is with us in a special way. That's why you should value your pastor's sermon more than you value the sermons you listen to on YouTube. Because that pastor that God has put over your soul to shepherd your soul, to speak His Word to you, has delivered a message from God to speak to you, to shepherd you, and He's with us as that is happening. That's why you should have expectations when you come in here, brothers and sisters. You should expect to change. You should expect to be convicted. You should expect God to minister to you, because He promises to be with us as we come together and agree in His name. And so brothers and sisters, I know that when we begin to talk about church discipline, Many more questions are raised than can be answered, and so I expect us really to get into the weeds of this discussion at city groups this week. But as we come to the table, I want to, again, put before our minds the overarching theme of reconciliation. Reconciliation. We take church discipline seriously because God takes reconciliation seriously. so seriously that He sent His only begotten Son to make reconciliation between Himself and lost sheep. Here lastly, the words of the Apostle Paul from 1 Corinthians 5, 18-19. He says, God, through Christ, reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. May the Lord use this church in this great work. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for Your Son, that He came to this world and died for us and reconciled sinners to You through His death, through His cross, through His bloodshed. And Lord, I pray that we as a church body would walk in your pastoral heart, that we would love one another deeply, and have a great concern for one another's good, and that we would be a body that recognizes our own sins and struggles and failures, and helps one another get to heaven. And so Lord, we thank You, we pray that as we come to the table, we could look to Your Gospel, and see that You have finished the work in full, on the cross. And we pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.