2 Corinthians 1:12-22 - Ministry Misunderstandings

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.

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

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

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

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

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.