Good morning. Good morning.
Well, what a lousy day out there today.
I mean, this is a sunshine. And I mean, what?
You haven't seen that for a while.
And what, 70 potential degrees today?
I mean, we got it made right. If you're negative or upset or
depressed a day, that should turn it around.
Really. That's a good start.
So the Underwood family stand up, please.
Wanted to introduce little Brielle here today.
Brand new little baby at Calvary Chapel.
So congratulate them. Thank you.
Yeah.
That's one of those stories, like they were working on
babies, right, for a long time, and it's not going to happen.
And all of a sudden it happens. Right.
How many years you guys been married now?
12:00 So that should give people hope.
Never stop believing. You never know what God will do.
Just if you're trying to have babies, keep trying to have
them. That's a good thing, right?
But anyway, we are in the book of Second Corinthians this
morning. And before I start, I wanted to
let everybody know it's my lovely wife Cindy's birthday
today. She's she's 29, 29 years old,
right? So it's wonderful and I'm so
grateful to have her for 54 years.
And I think we're heading towards 55 years anniversary
this summer. So praise God for that, huh?
So let's pray Father, we thank you this morning for this
beautiful day you've given us, for the word of God, for each
other, for the opportunity, Lord, to this be in your
presence today worshipping you. And you're the holy and anointed
1 Lord. And your word is like water to
our soul, your words a lamp and to our feet.
And we love you Jesus, and that's that's why we're here
today. And we want your word to work on
us, to change us, to make us more like you, Lord.
And so Lord, again, we just commit all this to you and ask
your blessing on everything that happens today.
We pray in Jesus name, Amen. So we are working through the
book of Second Corinthians and we're in the 1st chapter, we're
picking up in verse 12 today and the title of this message is
misunderstanding ministry, misunderstandings.
And I wish we as people wouldn't misunderstand each other at
times the way we do. But that's where we're normal
human beings. We're, we're still falling
creatures. We still have a sinful nature.
And sometimes we get upset and uptight about things that in the
big picture of life aren't really that important.
But our, our pride at times and our egos and, and our sense of
being offended sometimes overcomes the, the love of God
and our heart and, and we struggle.
And the Paul went through this too.
He had struggles with even people he served with in the
church. He had different difficulties
with John, Mark and Barnabas in a missionary journey.
He had arguments one time with Peter and it was public in a, in
a meeting where Peter was trying to give preference to the the
Jewish believers to follow tradition that wasn't necessary
to follow anymore, especially for Gentiles.
And so he he called Peter out on that.
And these conflicts occur at times and and you wish they
wouldn't they they occur in marriages, they incur occurring
relationships with children. They occur in relationships at
times with people at work and that kind of stuff.
And how do we work through these kind of challenges whenever they
occur? And I'm so thankful that God
knows as he put his word together, that he touches on
every issue that the human experience encounters so that we
know how to to maneuver these things.
So some questions I wanted to ask before I read this text is
when plans don't work out the way you want them to work out.
How do you learn to trust God and depend on him when life
isn't going the way you would like it to go?
That's a big question. What's your attitude like?
Are you positive or negative when things go wrong?
What's your heart like? Are you upset?
Are you unsettled? Emotionally distressed?
How do you deal with other people who misunderstand you at
times? Are you humble and loving?
Are you proud and arrogant and not Christ like?
And I wanted to read Matthew chapter 5 before I get into this
text because as a pastor, I've been through things as well as
you guys at times with people. And it's never a pleasant time.
But the older I get, the more I'm able to sort of not focus on
the issues that the people may have with me or not with me.
It doesn't disturb me like it did when I was younger.
I don't think certain things are worth arguing about or fighting
about. And whenever I have problems, I
ask Lewis to take care of, take care of him for me and George
and John, right? I sort of step aside.
I don't have to be the front and center person anymore in this
place. And many of you women and men
who serve a Lord in the ministry here are a big help to to me and
maneuvering, you know, whenever things are getting sort of
challenging. But we, we've been in a good
season for a long time here and we've had unity and, and love
and and humility and being able to work together with one
another so that the church can flourish and grow and, and be
blessed. But Jesus has said in Matthew
chapter 5, when you have challenges with people, this is
what you got to do. He says love your enemies.
You've heard that it was said you shall love your neighbor and
hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your
enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate
you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute
you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.
For he makes his Son to rise on the evil and on the good, and
sends rain on the just and the unjust.
For if you love those who love you, what reward have you?
Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than
others? Do not even the tax collectors
do so? Therefore you shall be perfect,
just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
So I've learned, I've had to learn a long time ago that I
can't make everybody like me And, and that's not my, my
responsibility, but I certainly don't want to do anything to
cause people to intentionally not like me either, right?
So, but at times people just have personality conflicts or
whatever. So what I have to do is learn to
pray for people that I have problems with at times and ask
the Lord to give me love for them and not judgement and not
hatred and not attitude. And I find that the more I sense
God working on my heart to love people, all of a sudden the the
chaos or the distress or the unsubtleness of my heart at
times. If maybe someone isn't there
like it was whenever I wasn't praying for them.
That's a big, big plus, right? And you hear this word
irreconcilable differences. And sometimes when people get
divorced, the court document will say the reason for the
divorce is irreconcilable differences.
And maybe sometimes that's a reality for a lot of people that
in their lives, there are irreconcilable differences,
maybe serious disturbances or situations that occurred in life
that cause families to break up or people, you know, and, and
careers to, you know, meltdown or people in church to leave or
whatever. And, and those things you don't
want to see happen. But unfortunately, because we're
still living in a fallen world, they do.
So our our responsibility as Christians is to to do good to
everyone we possibly can and esteem other people more highly
than we do ourselves. In other words, I, I can't think
about my own feelings primarily or my own emotions.
I got to think like, well, how's this person doing doing with
this problem right now, this conflict and then be willing to
listen and to hear them out and to not think anything evil about
the person, even though I might disagree whatever to to try to
find a way of of peace and reconciliation and that that
honors the Lord right and in relationships whenever we can
come together as peacemakers, then he says we're blessed.
Blessed are the peacemakers he tells us and to be attitudes.
So as we go back to this text in Second Corinthians, Paul's
dealing at this time with a church in Corinth that has a lot
of problems. Some of the leadership are
dysfunctional and some of them aren't accepting his apostleship
and some of them don't want him to come around the church
anymore because he's the guy that planted it and he's the one
that got him going and started led many of them to the Lord.
But they're they're just some of them don't want to hear what he
has to say. And Paul was never intentionally
wanting to say anything to the church.
It would be diminishing anybody or any person or anything like
that. But whenever he saw things that
weren't going the way they needed to go biblically and
spiritually, he would have to speak into that situation with
grace and with love and, and sometimes the the truth being
straight up the way it is sometimes painful.
Whenever someone tells you something that you know needs to
be addressed and you're not ready to deal with it, you're
going to have a tendency to to push back and, and respond
emotionally and react in a uncharacteristic way because the
Holy Spirit isn't controlling you anymore.
Your your fallen fleshly nature is, you know, controlling you
and you have to prove you're right and the other person's
wrong. And, and that's not the way to
go about it. So he starts in verse 12.
He says our boasting is this the testimony of our conscience that
we conducted ourselves in the world and simplicity and godly
sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God
and more abundantly towards you. So that's the first statement
he's making toward these people that are really upset with him
because he wasn't able to make it to Corinth.
Like he said, he was going to get there because of weather
conditions. The Lord had a different plan.
He had to change his plans and some of the people in the church
were upset with him because he did change his plans.
And so he, he's, he's wanting to help them understand, you know,
the behind the scenes things here.
And he knew that because he was walking with the Lord that he
was ministering to them with a good conscience.
There was nothing in his conscience that was telling him
that what he had done was wrong or inappropriate.
Wasn't that He was perfect. But he allowed the Holy Spirit
to speak into his conscience. Lord, am I OK here?
Am I doing what it is you want me to do?
How can I bring reconciliation to some of these people that are
upset with me? He's asking for wisdom.
And he said that he came to them in sincerity, godly sincerity,
and not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God.
So he he had godly sincerity and he had the grace of God.
He wasn't depending on his own logic or his own thought
processes and how to conduct this relationship with a couple
of these people that were upset with them.
He really was seeking the Lord and he wanted what was best for
them. The grace of God and more
abundantly toward you. Verse 13 for we're not writing
any other things to you than what you read or understood now
I trust you will understand even to the end is also you have
understood us in part that we are your boast as you are also
ours in the day of the Lord Jesus.
So there was another letter, we have First and 2nd Corinthians,
but historically there was a couple other letters that were
lost. And one of the letters was very
strong and severe in the sense of what Paul had to say to the
someone regarding how they were behaving in in leadership and
how they were acting in the church.
He was calling them out publicly through this letter.
And so obviously the person that received the letter or the
people that were reading it that didn't like to hear what he had
to say were having an attitude toward him.
And so there's this broken friendship, this broken
relationship going on with him, the church, some of the people
in the church and the Apostle Paul.
But he, he was bragging though at the end of that verse there
that he is so excited about what the Lord's doing in all their
lives and also what he's doing in their lives that that the
Lord's at work. Let's keep the main thing.
The main thing is that whenever you see God really moving in
people's lives and in the church and in the community, you can't
focus on a couple of negative things that might occur
sometimes because there's too much good stuff going on, right?
And I, I was here yesterday at the men's breakfast with the
guys. There was 21 of us there.
And Matt that opens the back door there taught us in First
Corinthians 25 about God examining our hearts and how
he's always working to change us and to make us more like Jesus.
And I, I was just so blessed looking at those guys and so
many of the men in that group teach here on Wednesday night or
they're teaching the men's breakfast and so much good stuff
going on here at Calvary because of what the Lord's doing,
because of the Holy Spirit and his word.
And this happens in the women's fellowships too, that I, I, I
really hate to see when people can't take advantage of that or
be exposed to it if they want to, or come because they might
have a ought against another brother or sister and they
can't, they can't freely fellowship because they feel
constrained because of a, a broken relationship.
And So what we'll talk about how those broken relationships can
be healed as we move toward the Lord's Supper at the end of this
message. So he continues on.
He says, verse 15. And this confidence I intended
to come to you before that you might have a second benefit.
In other words, I'm going to come to the church and encourage
it and be a blessing to it. That's Paul's desire to pass by
the way of you to Macedonia, down by Greece, to come again
from Macedonia to you and be helped by you on my way to
Judea. Therefore, when I was planning
this, did I do it lightly or haphazardly?
He was. This was his direction from the
Lord. Or the things I plan to do.
I plan according to the flesh that with me there should be
yes, yes and no, no. So he's, he's trying to help
them understand that the changes that happened wasn't a result of
his own decision making. The Holy Spirit was leading him
to do something different. And he said, whenever I tell you
yes, I, I'm meaning yes from the Lord.
And when I'm telling you no, I'm being sincere and honest that my
no is a no. I'm not saying yes when it
should be a no or no when it should be a yes, but he's
straight up in his his communication with them.
And he said in verse 18, but as God is faithful, our word to you
was not yes or no for the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was
preached among you by us by me, Sylvanius and Timothy was not
yes and no, but in him was yes for all the promises of God in
him are yes and in him Amen to the glory of God through us.
And so the the big picture is in regard to struggles and
communication and relationship is not my opinion or my emotions
or my feelings or my offenses or my hurt or my pain or my
anguish. It really has to be focused on
like what's the big picture in the Kingdom of God?
And it's like his word is always what helps us to be able to be
reconciled. If we're listening, His word is
what calms us down. His word, as they sang in the
worship, is a lamp into our feet, a light unto our path.
He calms us. When you, the worship team sang
that this morning, I don't know about you, but I just sense this
calmness coming over me. Jesus, he's the Prince of peace.
He's the one that can heal the most damaged of relationships
and broken people. He he takes all of us as, as, as
messed up, broken people and that our lives have been ruined
because of sin. And he isn't offended by us.
He, he doesn't write us off. He doesn't say, I don't want to
have anything to do with you. He, he puts his arms out all the
time and says, come, come to me and I'll, I'll make this right,
I'll change it, I'll fix it, I'll fix you.
And for many of us, that's our testimony of his grace and, and,
and he makes us to be that way with one another.
I want to be that kind of person with other people.
I want to help them be made whole.
I want to see the Lord transform their lives and, and take
situations that seem impossible and turn them into wonderful,
wonderful stories. He, he's the one that restores
what the locust has eaten. He's the one that makes all
things new and he can still make all things new.
And the most broken and damage of of relationships.
And so he continues on and and he has Sylvanus and Timothy
working with him, which is a blessing to give him prayer and
counsel and talk things through and also be people who will
minister to that church in Corinth when he can't be there.
You, you have partners in ministry, you have guys that
help help you or women that help you or the body of Christ.
The team I'm so thankful for, for Lewis and John and George
and and, and Brad and Nick and Tom, the, the deacons and the
elders. I, I don't have to, to try to do
this myself anymore. I when I started with Cindy and
me and I certainly had no, I, I just knew I loved God and I
loved people and I wanted to see his word work in people's lives.
I thought when people got together kumbaya everybody flow
that way, something loving and joyful and peaceful.
It didn't take too long to realize, man, it doesn't,
doesn't flow that way sometimes, right?
And it was, it was chaotic at times and painful and I and I
hated it. You know, I had to go to church
on Sunday and I didn't want to go to church on Sunday, but I
had to because I was a pastor, right?
And so there there I am dealing with the, the conflicts of the
struggles that are backbiting or whatever, you know, and it
wasn't easy, but the Lord got me through it.
But now I have guys and gals beside me that pray for me and
give me counsel. We have a decision to make or
conflict that we have to try to resolve or whatever.
I don't have to be the guy that doesn't.
Now, I'll help if I need to, obviously, but there's other
people and we're going to find like the biblical manner of how
God chooses to deal with conflict and lives.
From Matthew 18 before we take the Lord's Supper today, that's
so straight up and clear. If we just do what Jesus says,
there'd be no problems in, in, in relationships and definitely
in the church. But lots of times we don't want
to do what Jesus says, right? We want to do what we what we
want to do and then we mess it up.
That's the problem, right? So anyway, he continues on that.
He says now he who establishes us with you is in Christ and as
an anointed us is God who also sealed us and has given us the
Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.
So the beautiful thing is everyone of you here today that
are born again or anointed by God, you have the Holy Spirit in
you and he's the guarantee that God is with you.
He's a guarantee of your inheritance.
Not any for eternity. But right now I'm in a
situation, Lord, I don't know what to do about it, but your
Holy Spirit's there and I'm trusting He will show me how to
resolve whatever the issue might be.
Now, most of my conflicts now in my life isn't in church.
It's with Cindy. You know, Cindy, she's tough,
man, she's wonderful, but she's tough and she will not put up
with nonsense in my life. She she will speak to me and
tell me like, you're out of line and you call yourself a pastor.
I said, no, they call me a pastor, right?
But but anyway, you know, she gets real with me and, and I've
learned to listen more than I did when I was younger as, as
opposed to justifying my position or that I'm right.
Or would she say gaslighter? You know that term gaslight that
our counselors back here know this gaslighting is something we
all can do to make it feel like it's the other person's fault
and not mine, right? So she knows all the terminology
too. I can't trick her like I used to
when she was younger that but anyway, I've learned how to, to
deal with conflict in my home in a way that honors the Lord and,
and ends up blessing her and blessing, blessing me too.
I've learned how to do that more now with my daughters and my son
in law's and my, my grandchildren and, and people.
I work with them. And, and what's wonderful is as
we're in the word of God and we're learning the word of God,
he teaches us how to get through these tough times in life,
doesn't he? He really does before you have
the word, man, you don't know how to deal with these kind of
issues and conflicts that happen in life.
And you, you're trying to find books or how do you deal with
this idiot? And how do you deal with this
person? And, and you just can't seem to
define a foundation. And then you get in the word and
you find, Oh my gosh, I should have looked here the whole time.
The Bible teaches how to dress these things and how to deal
with them. And then you begin to get change
you, the Holy Spirit transforms you inside and then you're able
to begin to be a peacemaker and not a troublemaker or a divisive
person. And so he promises us the Lord,
this guarantee the Holy Spirit. We're not in this stuff by
ourselves. Moreover, I call God his witness
against my soul that to spare you, I came no more to Corinth.
Not that we have dominion over your faith, but we are fellow
workers for your joy by for you, by faith, you stand.
So Paul was not a big shot. He didn't run the church in
Corinth, nor did he run the New Testament church.
He was a servant. He had an authority, but he
didn't push that authority down on people and make them submit
to him. He just LED them by love and
grace and was there to help people.
But it was up to them personally to hear from the Lord and deal
with their own hearts in regard to the difficulties and
challenges. And I don't have dominion over
your faith any more than you. You have it over mine.
I can tell you what the Bible teaches about certain things.
And it's up to you whether you're going to submit and yield
and surrender to the Lord and His will in regard to what His
Word says, or you're going to choose not to.
And if you choose not to, you know, I pray for you.
I know that God will deal with you if you're not listening.
He's patient. But it won't work out the way
you want it to work out if you don't do it.
Do it God's way. And so Paul in chapter 2 said, I
determined this within myself, that I would not come again to
you. And sorrow, in other words, he
knew that there was some of these people there that thus
didn't want to see his face. And he knew he had to deal with
some situations, but he wasn't going to go and create needless
sorrow and pain and anguish if they weren't able to receive him
and be open to the Holy Spirit and what he had to say.
For if I make you sorrowful, then who is he who makes me glad
but the one who is made sorrowful by me?
So there's a sad person, there's a happy person, there's a joyful
person, there's an angry person, there's a a mad person, there's
a gracious person. You always get two sides to the
conflict. So he says in verse 3, And I
wrote this very thing to you, lest I came.
I should have sorrow over the things from whom I ought to have
joy, having confidence in you all that my joy is a joy of you
all. For out of much affliction and
anguish of heart, I write to you with many tears, not that you
should be grieved, but you might know the love which I have so
abundantly for you. So Paul had so much love for the
church and for the people in the church.
And, and what broke his heart was whenever people weren't
flowing in the fruit of the Spirit, they weren't
experiencing the love and the joy and the peace and the
long-suffering and the gentleness and the goodness and
the meekness. There was angry and outburst of
anger and, and all the works of the flesh of, of saying things
that I regret I should have said or things I know I shouldn't
have said or whatever. And and you create more of a
mess whenever you don't do it again.
The through the power of the holy of us, Paul is pouring out
his heart saying that we need to forgive the person who offended
us. That's what we always have to do
in the Lord's Prayer. It says forgive us.
You know, when the Lord tells us to pray his prayer, I got to
forgive those who trespass against me so that my Father
will forgive me for my trespasses against him.
And later on, it tells us that if you don't forgive people
their trespasses, their sins, neither will your heavenly
Father forgive you of yours. That's shocking.
And so I'm saved, I'm going to heaven.
I, I love Jesus. Well, the Lord's like, well, if
you love me, you're going to forgive people.
That's who I am. I forgive people.
And if you're mine, you're going to be like me and you're going
to forgive people for their sins.
If you don't forgive people, then I'm not going to forgive
you. And then you think, what does
that mean? Does that mean I'm not going to
go to heaven? I think that's pretty clear.
If your sins are not forgiven by him, you won't go to heaven.
So this this relationship correlates with our
relationships with one another. And he and he loved them so much
and he was grieved by what he saw was occurring in the church
at this time. And so whenever you have
conflicts and maybe you're taking some notes, I hope you do
because you can think about these and maybe pray maybe you
have a conflict with a husband, a wife, a child, a neighbor, a
Co worker, whatever. You want to be able to have a
clear conscience and how you you do what you need to do.
You want to be able to have a loving heart and esteem others
more highly than you do yourself.
So we're going to go to Matthew 18 right now as we lead up into
the Lord's Supper and the Lord's Supper here every week when we
take it is an opportunity to break bread with the Lord,
obviously, and defeat on his life with each other.
But it's also an opportunity to make amends with with our hearts
with the Lord for sure, if we're out of sorts with him, but also
how we are going to see him fix situations in our lives with
with maybe some other people we need to to get right with right.
So Matthew 18 is the teaching on how we we handle these things.
He says if you're dealing with the sinning brother or sister,
OK, maybe someone sinned against you and did something wrong or
said something that wasn't that wasn't appropriate or whatever.
And all the sudden there's this conflict.
He says in verse 15, Moreover, if your brother and sister,
whatever sins against you, go and tell him his fault between
you and him alone. That's where it starts.
If we would do this in relate, like Cindy and I talk about
short accounts all the time. If I've upset her about
something, I don't want her to come to me 60 days later and say
you said this and you did this or you acted this way.
Or I mean, there used to be a time in my life we'd be talking,
she'd be upset and she would bring things up like like 20
years ago. I don't even know what she's
talking about, right? I really don't.
But she does. She knows you remember, it's
still there, right? And, and sometimes you have a
conflict with someone and they they burst out and you're like,
have you been holding this thing for me against me for a while?
And you didn't even know you had it in your heart.
But the Holy Spirit reveals it in a in a painful way sometimes,
but it's necessary to get it out.
So you can say, yeah, I didn't realize that was there.
And I need to to see the Lord deal with this thing and pull it
out of my heart says not an issue.
So all I could say when Cindy would say that I'd say I don't
really remember that, but I can see I was wrong.
Will you forgive me? And then you know, she she will,
she'll forgive me. It's important that she maybe
talks about some of these things with me at times.
Now it's usually within an hour that I know I did something
wrong. I can just tell by the
expression on her face the way she is.
Right. OK.
You're upset. What do you mean?
I said you're upset about something.
No, I'm fine. No, you're not fine.
I don't want to talk about it. Well, we need to talk about it.
What's wrong? Well, you said this and you did.
I said, well, that isn't really what I said, but you know, this
is what I meant. No, you meant.
And then we go through all that stuff, right?
So then finally I have to like, OK, Lord, where's the truth in
this? Is she deceived?
Usually she is the one that's deceived.
But no, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding.
I'm going to start a battle here.
It's her birthday. So I like the message.
Up until that part, Claire. But anyway, I have to listen and
all of a sudden, like I got to take what do you say?
The low, the low level thing. Maybe it wasn't my fault to the
degree that maybe she thinks it was.
Maybe, but I I just got to say you're right.
I was wrong. I mean, what do I have to lose
by admitting I'm wrong? I mean, I have everything to
win. She'll be happy.
Even if I know I was right. Doesn't doesn't matter anymore,
right? It's all it's it's already taken
care of. We move on, right?
We move on. I was wrong.
So I'm learning to say I'm wrong much faster and much quicker.
So anyway, you go to the person yourself alone and you might
think, well, if I do that, they're not going to be, they're
not going to listen to me. They're not going to want to
hear. And you know, and a lot of times
they're not, they're going to say, well, you, you were the one
that you were the fault, you were the and and then you got to
go through that. But then if you're humbling, you
say, OK, I got to hear what you're saying.
I didn't understand it what I did or how that happened came
across the way it did and and made you feel this way.
I, I had no idea. And I'm sorry that the way I
handled this with you cause problem and a conflict.
Will you forgive me? And most of the time the person
will be shocked that you are that quick to, to respond and
not need to try to cover yourself.
But you're just like, you're wanting to get it right.
You're wanting to get it out and you're wanting to get it passed
by. And if people can do that, and
it says here, if they hear you, you've gained your brother, OK,
So that's the upside. If they listen, they say, wow, I
hear what you're saying and I am sorry.
And all of a sudden the conflict is resolved and you can move on.
That's great. You've gained your brother.
But if they won't hear you, then you take one or more with you,
one or two or more that by the mouth of two or three witness
that every word may be established.
So it isn't like backbiting. I'm going to go get some people
on my side that really don't like this other person.
Like I don't like them right now.
No, that's not you. You want to get like some
impartial people to go case you to be a witness to the
conversation so they can be resolved and be taken care of
and then and then be moved on. And if you take the right people
and they're humble and they've helped you calm down a little
bit in your heart and not make a bigger deal out of something,
then it doesn't really need to be made.
Then again, the goal is the reconciliation and everything
will be resolved. But if the person refuses to
hear hear them, you with the two witnesses, then eventually you
got to bring it to the church, right?
And that's the last thing that you want to have to do in a
church. It is called church discipline.
And these aren't like minor skirmishes.
These are, these are big deals, usually someone spreading heresy
in the church or something living in blatant immorality or
someone being accused of a crime that they're not admitting to.
Or, you know, these, these, this is really the, the bigger stuff
that would eventually be brought to the church.
And and whenever the person isn't willing to repent of like
sadium or out maybe they have an adultery with someone in the
church and you got two families involved and you got to like,
OK, it's got to be dealt with. And if it isn't dealt with, I'm
sorry, you cannot come to Calvary Chapel next Sunday
because we don't condone this. We don't accept that this is not
pleasing to the Lord and this will offend and defile other
people. Or if they know what's going on
and we didn't deal with it appropriately or you know, but
the last thing you want to do is get to this point.
But if you have to, then you have to treat them, it says like
a heathen than a tax collector. And it doesn't mean you don't
love them. But in other words, if they're
refusing to get right with God, the church isn't really the
place to be hanging out. Just just don't come to church
for now. Surely.
I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound on
heaven, and whatever you loose on earth is loose in heaven.
Again, I say to you that if 2 of you agree on earth concerning
anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in
heaven for two or three are gathered together in my name.
I'm there in the midst of them. So whenever the two or three go
to the person with the two people that are in conflict, I
love that promise there that the Lord is there in the midst of
this conversation with all of us together.
Jesus is like he's the arbitrator.
He's he's the the judge. Obviously we're not, but he he's
the one that sees everything. He knows the heart, He sees the
conversation. He, he knows what he wants to
see happen as a result of the meeting and that's what he's
interceding and praying for that these families, these people,
these individuals could be reconciled and love each other
and have communion and, and fellowship together again.
And, and that's, that's the purpose of, of, of these kind of
verses to, to know how to, to get through these things as the
worship team can come forward and we can pray and, and take
the Lord's Supper together. So don't you like the Bible?
It's, it's just not like happy go lucky kind of simple stuff
all the time. It gets into the nitty gritty
stuff of what we all deal with as as Christians and as human
beings in life so that we might know how to handle life.
I love what the scriptures say that God has given us all things
to pertain to life and godliness in Christ Jesus is not one
subject that you are dealing with in your life that isn't
addressed in the scriptures. And that's why it says for all
scripture is given by inspiration of God as profitable
for doctrine, for reproof, for correction and instruction of
righteousness. The word of God reproves me.
It wakes me up, it corrects me. It it, it keeps me where I need
to be. If I don't have the word of God,
I'm rebellious, I'm proud, I'm arrogant, I'm always wanting to
justify my actions or my behaviors.
But whenever the the word is open up to me.
The Bible says that the word is sharper than any 2 edged sword.
It's able to cut divide the soul and spirit.
It's it pulls everything apart in the heart.
It says it's a very discerner of the thoughts and intents of the
heart. That's how powerful this word
is. It cuts, but it cuts in love.
It cuts with grace. It cuts to change you.
And the more you submit to the Word of God, the more you change
and the more you become like Jesus, right?
And that's the purpose of the church to worship the Lord, is
that we would become more Christ like because the more Christ
like we are, the more of a blessing will be to everyone
that comes into our past. So as we prepare for the supper
today, you know, I don't know what your deals are, your
issues, you know, with people, whatever.
I know, you know, my, my challenges with, with people.
I work with some people I I prefer not to sit at the dinner
table with when I'm in a meeting.
But I got to say, OK, Lord, that's my wrong attitude.
OK, how can I befriend this person?
How can I find a way to find something in common with them?
How can I be interested in them even though everything they say
and do an act turns me off, right?
God has not called me to be an isolationist from anybody.
You know, my flesh would be able to make a decision.
I come to church and I'm not sitting next to Jerry.
Why? I have no reason not to sit next
to Jerry, right? But if I think I have a reason
to sit, not sit next to Jerry, I got a problem, right?
I should be able to come in here and sit wherever I want.
And it doesn't matter because you're my brothers and sisters,
right? I love you and I trust you love
me. And we're here to love Jesus and
we're here to love the world like he loves the world he gave
himself for. So I pray that, you know,
Calvary Chapel is a place of not posturing and and and and what
do you call cliques? And, you know, these kind of
things that can occur, you know, like in the beginning of First
Corinthians, I'm of Paul, I'm of Paula, some of Cephas, you know,
like Wednesday night. Well, Steve's teaching, I'll go,
but you know, next week someone else is teaching.
I don't want to go because I don't like that person, right?
You know it's a goofy stuff, right?
How we. Personalities, we're not
supposed to be drawn by personalities.
We're supposed to be drawn by the Holy Spirit to be mature and
be able to, to accept the ministry and the life of
everyone that God's, God's brought into this place, to be
part of it. So that that's the prayer.
And so may Matthew 18 work in our hearts today.
If we have something that we got to deal with personally with
anybody, whether it's at work or home or marriage or kids or
church or whatever, that you, you do what he tells you to do
and you go to the person and you, and you ask him if you got
to do you have a problem with me?
You know, are you upset with me about something?
And that you, you, you get it resolved, right?
It's, it's a beautiful thing that pleases the Lord and that
blesses the church. So let's, let's just take a
moment as we're silent and think a little bit.
Let the Holy Spirit speak to our heart if there's anything that
we need to think about and and deal with.
And if there isn't, praise God, that's that's the ultimate
right. I love to take the supper when I
don't have any shame or guilt about something that is
happening in my life. I try to deal with it Monday
through Saturday 24/7. You're right, Lord, wrong
thought, wrong attitude, wrong action, wrong.
Forgive me, change me work in my life.
And if you do that when you come to the supper, it's more of a
celebration on Sunday. It's not a, a big deal of
confronting some big, big sin that I've been refusing to deal
with. But I'm, I'm ready to take this
to thank the Lord for who he is. Worship him, focuses on him, not
me or anybody else. And and just being grateful for
all that he's done on the cross and dying for my sins and being
patient with me and forgiving me and being merciful to me over
and over and over again. And say the Lord's Prayer
together, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name,
Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in
heaven. Give us this day Our Daily
Bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those
who trespass against us. And lead us not to temptation,
but deliver us from evil. For thine is a Kingdom and the
power and the glory forever. Amen.
Lord, we're thankful that you've given us your word.
It is truly the lamp into our feet of light unto our path.
Lord, I pray for all of us today, Lord, that you would
cause our hearts to be calm and to be desiring of fellowship
first with you and with one another.
Reconciliation of any kind of relationships that might have
gone awry somewhere, Lord, that can be healed and brought
together again. And love and respect, Father, I
pray for marriages. That's really where a lot of the
tensions are in many homes and families, that the marriages
would be open to you. And to be able to be reconciled
heart to heart, Lord, and the marriage and then with the
children, Lord, and then with our brothers and sisters in our
church and the people we work with every day.
We spend more time in our workspace many times than we do
even in our home or church. And sometimes that's where the
biggest conflicts occur at work. So, Lord, help us, Father, to
learn to be peacemakers, not troublemakers, not divisive, not
skiz causing schism or any of that kind of stuff.
Lord, put a watch in our mouth. Lord it we would never say
anything evil about anybody else if we can't say anything good.
And we shouldn't say anything about anybody, Lord.
So Lord, help us to be like you. That's what we're learning to do
every every Sunday, Lord, every Wednesday, every study, Lord, to
be like you. Help us to apply Matthew 18 to
our lives, Lord, a daily basis. And the night that Jesus is
betrayed, he took the bread in his hands, and he broke it, and
he gave thanks. And he said, Take, eat, this is
my body which is broken for you. Eat this in remembrance of me.
In the same manner, that evening he took the cup.
And he said, This cup is a new covenant in my blood, which was
shed for the forgiveness of sins of many.
Drink this in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this
bread and you drink this cup, he show forth the Lord's death.
He comes again. God bless all you wonderful
people. Keep on keeping on.