Discover Heartland Week 3 - Church Structure

Good evening, everybody.

Right as I turned my mouse my mic on, I felt the urge to just burp.

So I apologize.

I was delayed and I knew I shouldn't ate so much food, but it was too good.

Uh yeah, I don't I don't know how I transitioned from that, so we're just gonna jump in.

Thank you guys for being here.

We're in session three of our membership class that we have been walking through.

And you guys might have read ahead, but we are in chapters five and six.

And as I began prepping for tonight, I realized that this is a lot to cover in one night.

So just we're gonna do the best we can to cover as much as we can, and if we have to push some of it into next week, we will.

But I definitely want to try to get through all of chapter five.

That's the main objective for tonight.

And uh again, you may have read ahead, you may not have it.

It's okay if you didn't.

We'll work through it together.

I'm gonna stay um somewhat closer to my notes tonight than I have other nights, uh, just because of some of the content we had to cover, and I want to make sure I cover it clearly and accurately.

Um, but a lot of this comes directly from the book, and if it doesn't come directly from the book, it comes directly from the research that was done in prep for writing this book.

So, and just um in our investigation of scripture over the years as it relates to church polity and church structure and authority within the church and church discipline and all the things that we see God tell us about his church in the New Testament.

So, with that, let me let me pray for us and then we're gonna begin working through chapter five.

Father, we are grateful uh for who you are.

Even today, as I just read through my notes and prep for tonight, just the blessing that your church is on us as individuals followers of Jesus.

God, we just pause to give you thanks for your church.

Um, God, the fact that we get to be a part of her, that we get to serve her, uh, the fact that you use us as uh sinful humans who have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus, that you use us to communicate the gospel to uh our neighbors and to the nations.

All these things that we see expressed in the context of your local congregations, God, it they are blessings for us to be a part of.

So we we give you thanks tonight.

We ask that you would speak speak to us through um through your word most foundationally as we look at different things within the local church, whether it be authority, whether it be polity, whether it be church discipline, what whatever the quote unquote topic of the chapter is.

Uh God, just speak to us through your word.

May we may we lean in and learn uh and may we do everything that we can as individual followers of Jesus, but also corporally as a as a congregation, as an ecclesia, as a gathered body, may we seek to be obedient to your word, regardless of what it takes or regardless of what it costs us.

So uh God, that's what that's what we want to do, is we want to be in submission to your word as it relates to the instructions for your church, and that's our aim.

Uh may it be so.

It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

All right.

So to begin with, I'm gonna invite you to open up to page 19 of the book.

If you don't have a book, you can go back to the back and grab one.

But page 19, we're gonna spend just a few moments on the basic church structure that you see there on page 19.

We practice what I would call elder-led congregationalism, and not just me, many others would call it that as well.

And what that means, it's and I wrote this out for you, elders provide leadership through the authority of the office as outlined in God's word, and the congregation serves as the final court.

And let me just kind of, if you're like, man, that sounds super complicated.

Let me give you some examples of of how that plays out to help you better understand that.

If you've been here for a while, you've seen when it comes, let's start with with budget.

When it comes budget time, what happens is the the staff under the leadership of the elders develop a budget, right?

We develop a budget, we make it super, super detailed, we try everything we we do everything we can to be good stewards of of the resources, and then we present that budget to you, the congregation, and then you, the congregation, votes to finalize that budget.

That budget is not finalized until the church votes and and affirms it and and um confirms it.

Another example is calling a pastor, right?

The elders may very well go on a pastor search and identify an individual to serve in a specific role, and they don't just say, hey, this person is going to be our new pastor of whatever.

Rather, we present as elders that individual to you, the congregation, and you, the congregation, vote.

So there's this balance of it's elder led, but it's not elder ruled, right?

It's elder led, but the congregation has that final court of authority, so to speak, as I mentioned in the definition.

So it's Jesus is a senior pastor, we would say it that way, because uh according to scripture, all elders are under-shepherds, right?

I'm an under-shepherd of King Jesus.

Michael is an under-shepherd of King Jesus.

We'll get into plurality more in a minute.

Dylan is an undershepherd of King Jesus.

All our lay brothers who faithfully serve as your elders as well, they are under-shepherds of King Jesus.

So you have Jesus is the ultimate uh shepherd, right?

Then you have undershepherds, so we're pastor-elder led.

Then we have deacons who serve, and we'll get into the specifics of elders and deacons in a minute as well.

But deacons who serve, and then you have congregation who approves or affirms.

So that if you're wondering what the basic polity is of Heartland, how does Heartland make decisions?

How are those decisions final?

That is what you can look at there, right?

Jesus is our ultimate pastor, right?

Ultimate shepherd, pastor elder led, deacons serve, and congregation affirms or approves.

And the reason that I believe in both elders and congregationalism, and I would point to a couple things, but for the sake of time, I'm just gonna point to two passages.

This is two of many.

We see in the New Testament that there are certainly elders who give an account for the soul of the congregates under their care, right?

We talk about that often.

We'll talk about that more here in a moment as well as we get through the content of the night.

But we also see in the New Testament that the congregation is the one who appoints elders.

I'm gonna read for you a passage out of Acts 14.

It says, And when they had appointed elders for them in every church with prayer and fasting, they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.

And then Titus 1, we see this.

This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order and appoint elders in every town as I directed you.

So we see this model in the New Testament, certainly of elders, of a plurality of elders, and again we'll get that to that more in a moment, but we also see that it was the congregation who ultimately appointed them.

And what you have with that is you have what we practice here, you have elder-led congregationalism, right?

Elder-led congregationalism.

That's what we practice here.

And as we look at the structure of the church, one of the things we have to look at, and I spent a couple of pages on the book, in the book talking about this specifically.

We're going to dive into it in a little more detail in what I have to say, is this idea of authority.

This idea of authority.

First of all, we we don't simply be believe that God's word is true.

We believe that God's word is authoritative, right?

It's not, yes, it's true.

Yes, it's without error, but it's also authoritative.

Our membership covenant, if you are a member, then you've already affirmed this.

And if you are praying through becoming a member, one of the things in our covenant that it says is that you submit to Scripture, to God's word, as the final arbitrator of all things.

And what we mean by that is there's no individual, there's no institution, there's no government, there's no human authority that rivals the authority that we believe God's word to have.

That's what we mean when we say that.

Right?

The congregation, you as the congregation, you have authority within the context of a local church.

Where does that come from?

It was ordained in God's word.

The elders have a certain level of authority within the church.

Where is that rooted in?

It is ordained in his word.

This is why you hear us say something similar to this quite often here.

The greatest sign of church health has nothing to do with numbers.

It has nothing to do with the personality of the pastor.

The greatest sign of church health is the church's obedience to God's word.

Right?

That is the greatest sign of church health according to Scripture.

Now, the elephant in the room, so to speak, with this is that the idea of authority, often today, specifically within the church, can scare people and can cause people to have a hiccup, right?

Some would even go so far to claim there can't be any authority within the church or it won't be healthy.

I would argue that that is the exact opposite of what scripture has laid out for us, right?

Many fall into the trap of uh maybe falling into attractionalism way of doing church or this cultural understanding that to challenge me or someone is to not love that person with the false idea that grace doesn't correct, grace supports.

Scripture, on the other hand, tells us that grace supports by correcting when in sin.

Grace supports by helping one another kill sin.

Grace supports by encouraging one another to live in God's grace and live obedient to his word.

You see, when you think about authority, you have to understand that the authority within the context of the church is rooted in Scripture and it is given to us for our good.

Right?

It is given to us for our good.

It is God ordained.

The word shouldn't be a scary word for us, right?

I think often we hear that word, authority, and we just we just balk at it.

But when you think about it in the context of God's word, it is really something that we should celebrate.

It is something we should praise God and thank God for.

It is a life-giving reality that to me, based on what I see in his word, it is in a direct expression of God's grace being exuded on us, his people, as a result of the covenant we have through him, through the shed blood and broken body of Jesus, right?

So, yes, Jesus is the ultimate shepherd, right?

That comes from the New Testament, that comes from this reality that, and I've I've preached on this, I can't remember when it was, it was probably three or four months ago.

This reality that Jesus is the cornerstone.

You've heard me say that before, Jesus is the cornerstone of his church.

And what happens if you remove the cornerstone of a building is it crumbles, right?

It it crumbles.

The church is built on Jesus, therefore, the authority in the church is built on Jesus, right?

That's what we have to remember.

The authority within the church is built on Jesus.

And to express this practically, when we gather on Sunday mornings, we don't gather to proclaim each other's name.

We don't gather to proclaim Heartland's name.

We don't gather to proclaim my name or Michael's name or your name.

We gather to proclaim Jesus' name.

And if we gather for any other reason, we are wasting our time, brothers and sisters.

Right?

We gather to proclaim Jesus' name, to proclaim the truth, that Jesus was fully God and fully man, that he lived the perfect life, that he died on the cross, that he rose again three days later, and that for all who repent and believe, you will be saved.

We gather to proclaim that truth, and as we gather and we proclaim that truth, we also, and this is where this begins to become even more beautiful, we also are in agreement with one another about that.

Right?

So we proclaim that truth, and we're in agreement with one another about that.

And that goes back to this foundation, this cornerstone, that Jesus is the cornerstone.

And as you do this investigation in the New Testament, we see that yes, Jesus is the cornerstone and that he built his church upon the foundation of the apostles.

And we believe that according to the New Testament, the apostles were giving a specific uh level of authority and unique gifts.

I outlined this for you in your membership book, but I want to be sure to hit some of it as well, some of the high points.

Let me read for you a passage out of out of Matthew 16.

We're gonna kind of do this inverse, and you'll see what I mean in a moment.

Let me read for you Matthew 16, verses 30 through 20, 13 through 20, excuse me.

Now, when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea, Philippi, he asked his disciples, Who do people say that the Son of Man is?

And they said, Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets, he said to them, But who do you say that I am?

Simon Peter replied, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

And Jesus answered him, Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven, and I tell you, you are Peter.

And don't miss this statement, on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.

Keep that in mind as well, we'll come back to that.

I will give you the keys of the kingdom in heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.

In this passage he asked Peter, Who do people say that I am?

And then he says, Who do you say that I am?

That most foundationally points to the very keys of the key binding and loosing that he talks about and that he discusses.

This acknowledgment of confession in a true Christ by an individual who is a true follower of Jesus.

Going on, Matthew 18, and this is the inverse 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, notice that word, 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 I am among them.

Here the same keys were handed to the apostles, were given to the church.

Right?

Don't miss that.

The same keys to bind and to loose that were handed to the apostles were handed to the church to have the authority to make decisions within the church.

And we have two different examples here.

We have chapter 16.

The gathered body has the authority to acknowledge, and notice I'm saying the word acknowledge, to acknowledge and not determine, to acknowledge that all evidence points to an individual being a faithful follower of Jesus.

Then in verse 18, you see the inverse of that.

You have the gathered body having the authority to remove an individual from membership when the individual's expressions or life contradict the gospel.

And we're going to talk about that more with church discipline in a moment.

The keys to the kingdom are exercised within the church during the membership process and also during the church discipline process.

To quote Jonathan Lehman, president of, I think it's title's president of Nine Marks, he says this churches possess the keys of the kingdom to say yes.

That is or is not a true gospel confession.

And yes, that is or is not a true gospel confessor.

And that is exercised during the membership process and also during the church discipline process.

We know that the church here in Matthew 18 refers to the gathered body.

I want to make sure I emphasize that.

It refers to a gathered body, it doesn't refer to an individual elder, it doesn't refer to a plurality of elders, it refers to the gathered body, right?

The gathered body and the authority that has been given to it.

I want you to think about it this way, and I think I mentioned this something similar in the sermon not too long ago.

If we as a church, I think we're at 280 active members right now, if we as a church have 280 active members, that means you as an individual member, you have one and two hundred and eightyeth of the responsibility within the context of Heartland Church.

That means when you lay out the responsibilities of the church, the acknowledgement of true confession, the protection of the true gospel, right?

We protect the sanctity of the gospel, the declaration of the true gospel to the nations, when we send and we go, all members, the exercising of church discipline, all members, not just the elders, not just a select few of members, all members bear a certain level of responsibility according to the New Testament.

Those who join the church but never participate in the covenant body.

Never participate in the covenant body, or ignore are they are ignoring the responsibility they have as part of the gathered body or the ecclesia, as we see in the Greek.

And then from there, I know that's a quick summation on this authority thing, but from there, we can begin to work towards the New Testament offices, which is what we're going to look at next, of both elder and deacon.

I used a statement earlier, and I used it on purpose.

I used a statement earlier that pointed to the congregation being the final court, so to speak, within the context of the local church.

And I know that can be a hard question because we also, and we saw this a little bit on Sunday, we also are called to submit to our elders, because they are called to give watch over our soul.

So how does the congregation exercise authority?

And how is the congregation the final court if the congregation also is to submit to elders?

And I recognize that's kind of can be kind of a mind-blowing concept to understand, but this is where we have to point to Scripture.

Right?

The elders provide leadership and the congregation submits to them insofar as they, as the elders are in submission to Scripture.

Okay?

So I'm gonna read that again.

The elders provide leadership and the congregation submits to them insofar as they, the elders, are in submission to Scripture.

That's why you hear, hopefully, you have heard us say things like Scripture says.

Or if you have come to us and asked a question about, hey, what should I do here, here, or here, we will respond with, well, what does Scripture say?

Because we believe the responsibility of the shepherd, right, as under-shepherds, is to submit to the word in all things and also to challenge you to do the same.

Here's two examples I'm gonna walk you through to kind of make this more practical.

If I stand up here on a Sunday morning on a regular basis and I preach heresy, let's just say I denounced that Jesus was fully God and fully man.

The elders, the other elders, the plurality of elders, and emphasis on and, and you as a congregation have a responsibility to hold me accountable to that.

To not live in submission to false teaching.

You're not called to submit to false teaching.

But with that, let me also say, going back to the question I said a moment ago, what does Scripture say?

Scripture tells us how to respond in such a situation to protect us in those types of situations.

1 Timothy 5, 17 through 19.

Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.

Be great to stop there.

But it also goes on to say, for the scripture says, you shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain, and the laborer desires his wages.

Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses.

So, according to scripture, how do you balance?

The church has authority, but the church is also called to submit to its elders, right?

According to Scripture, if there is a charge against an elder where there are two or three witnesses, you should hear that charge and it should be entertained.

If there's a charge against an elder where there's not two or three witnesses, that charge should not even be entertained.

Right?

When that process plays out according to 1 Timothy 5.

That would be the exercise of congregational authority in the event that the elder fails to shepherd you because they are teaching heresy and are failing to point you to the truth of God's word.

So that's example one.

Example two.

In a church-disciplined situation, the elders run point on the final stages of it, right?

If a brother or sister is living in unrepentant sin and they have been confronted by multiple individuals within a church on a one-on-one basis and on a one-on-two or one-on-three basis, and there continues to be no expression of true repentance, yet they continue to pursue said sin.

The elders have a responsibility to get involved and call that individual into repentance.

And this is where this gets even more difficult.

This is not fun, right?

I've been a pastor for 15 years, I think, now.

These situations are never fun, and they shouldn't be fun for elders, and they shouldn't be fun for the church.

It's not about taking pleasure in the authority aspect for the church or for as elders, but it should be taken seriously as elders specifically because of this passage.

I want to read for you this passage.

This passage keeps me, it literally keeps me up all night.

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will give an account.

Let them do this with joy, not with groaning, for that would be no advantage to you.

I don't still I grasp this more than I did, and I don't know if I want to fully grasp the reality that one day I will stand before God.

It's hard not to get emotional.

I will stand before God and I will answer to him on how I cared for the souls of the people under my care.

And so will every other elder here.

That is heavy.

That is so heavy.

I will stand before him, I will give an account, so will the other elders.

And because of that, we are called to submit to God's word.

Period.

It doesn't matter if it's popular, if it doesn't matter if people are upset at us or they are pleased with us.

We are called to submit to God's word.

Now, continuing on in that, when it comes to the final stage of discipline, as we saw earlier with Matthew 18, which is removal from the body, it's not the elders that make that decision.

Right?

It's not the elders that make that decision within the context of the church.

They they very well may be running points on the final stages of it up until the bringing it before the church, but the elders are not the ones who remove someone from membership.

That is the congregation that has that authority, according to Matthew 18.

See, the authority of the church, and further, really the authority within the church, not just the authority of the church, but the authority within the church.

This goes back to what I said at the beginning.

It's bigger than any man, it's bigger than any organization.

It is rooted in the truth of what we see in God's word.

And it was given to us, and this is what we all have to understand.

It was given to us, not to be difficult or any of that.

It was given to us for our good and for his glory.

Therefore, we submit to it.

So, all of that said, elders at Heartland specifically, and at any church, they may phrase it differently, but at any church, according to the New Testament, they should provide the following.

And this is bulleted in that book for you.

Spiritual headship, which is a lot of what we just talked about, oversight, which is a lot of what we just talked about, and teaching of his word faithfully.

We'll say too, I want to emphasize this.

We firmly believe that the office of pastor, elder, overseer, you see those words used synonymously, but the office of pastor, elder, overseer is an office according to the New Testament that we believe to be reserved for men only, right?

And you have two offices within the church.

You have deacons and you have elders.

So elders, we believe it to have spiritual headship, oversight, teaching of the word, practicing all the things that we just outlined, reserved only for men.

Deacons, the second office.

There is certainly a spiritual aspect of it, but there's no governance from the deacons.

There's no spiritual headship from the office of deacons.

Sorry, I'm checking my time to make sure we're good.

They differ greatly, right?

Deacons are servant models within the church.

They're not the spiritual leaders of the church.

I'm going to read for you a passage out of Acts 6.

I believe this is in that book as well.

Acts 6, verses 1 through 6.

Acts 6:1–6

Now, in these days, when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews, because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.

And the twelve summoned the full number of disciples and said, It's not right that we should give up preaching the word to serve tables.

Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the spirit and of wisdom, whom will whom we will appoint to this duty.

But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.

And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man of full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip and Procris, and I didn't pronounce these words beforehand.

So you guys get the picture, right?

These they sat before the apostles and they prayed and they laid their hands on them.

Let me just speak to something that we we speak to every time we do a deacon installation.

The offices of elder and deacons, sometime during the, I can't tell you the exact date, but sometime during the 20th century, specifically in this church growth movement that happened in the context of the American church, this office of elder and deacon got blurred a whole lot within the context of different churches.

Many of you, many of us, I'll say us, because I was I was one of one of these folks.

We grew up in this senior pastor model, right, where the deacons had significant spiritual leadership within the church.

There was a senior pastor or a lead pastor, and the buck stopped with him.

Or, many of you may like, not in my church, maybe some of you were in churches where the buck actually really stopped with the deacons, right?

Not with the pastor.

That's not our polity here.

While I am quote unquote the lead pastor, not plasterer, I'm not very good at plaster, but the lead pastor, I gladly, gladly submit myself to the plurality of elders, which means that Michael and Dylan and Gary and Kevin and Rob and Rick and Mike can tell me to knock it off, and I listen.

And if I don't listen, they have permission to continue to do that, right?

Those brothers, just like I will, those brothers, this is something I don't want you guys to miss.

Those brothers will also give an account for your soul.

Just like I will.

And we can trace the plurality of elders all the way back to the New Testament.

I'll hit a couple of high points here.

We see James, we see Peter, we see Paul, we see Luke.

They all speak to this multiple elders within congregations and not solo elders.

I believe John, if I'm not mistaken, I believe John is the only one who refers to himself as the elder or an only elder.

But it from my understanding of the context of that passage, I think it's in 2nd, 3rd John both that he he does that.

It's my belief and my understanding of that as he's referring himself to acknowledge in that way, not to acknowledge that he was the only one at that church, but to acknowledge that he did hold that office.

It was more of a designation, not claiming to be the only elder.

So the plurality of elders can be traced all the way back to the New Testament.

It's not some new idea.

I've heard people recently in the last five to ten years say, man, where did people get this idea of elders from?

This I've never seen this before.

This is new.

No, it's just new in your contextual understanding.

If you trace the course of church history, even look at some of the statements of faith in the 1600s and the 1700s, you will see the acknowledgement of identifying not a single pastor, but a plurality of elders.

This can be traced all the way back to the New Testament.

It's not new.

Now, I say it that way and address that for a couple of reasons.

It's under a healthy plurality of elders that deacons are able and free to operate in accordance to Acts 6 and other things we see about deacons.

In some local churches, maybe some that you grew up in, certainly the one that I grew up in, it was hard for deacons to operate totally in alignment with only Acts 6 and not Acts 6 and not take on additional headship responsibilities.

In those situations, those should be reserved for men.

I'll say it this way too.

For deacons to be able to fully operate as deacons, there must be healthy eldership.

Now, listen to this.

This is what's so cool about the New Testament.

For elders to be able to fully operate as elders, there must be deacons.

Right?

For deacons to fully operate as deacons, there must be elders.

For elders to fully operate as elders, there must be deacons.

God ordained both offices for a reason, right?

For the benefit of his church.

Let me read for you 1 Timothy 3, 8 through 11.

Deacons likewise must be men of dignity, not double-tongued or addicted to too much wine or fond of sordid grain, but holding to the mystery of faith with a clear conscience.

These men must also be first tested, then let them serve as deacons if they're beyond reproach.

Women likewise must be dignified, not malicious gossips, but temperate, faithful in all things.

Additionally, Romans 16:1, we see Phoebe referred to as Diaconos.

Romans 16:1

It says, I command to you our sister Phoebe, who is a servant of the church, which is that centria, that servant word there is Diaconos, deacon, right?

Because deacons have the blessed opportunity here at Heartland to fulfill the role according to Acts 6, where they're simply, I say simply, that's not to demean the role.

You guys know my heart.

Where they're able to be servants, and elders provide spiritual headship and oversight for the soul, we allowed women to be deacons.

And most foundationally, importantly, we believe scripture leaves room for that.

It allows for that.

With that, I want to be crystal clear.

We are complementarian in our convictions.

We are complementarian in our convictions.

And if you're not sure what that word means, I compiled a definition to just kind of make it simpler.

Let me read it for you.

Complementarianism represents a major Christian perspective on gender roles that affirms spiritual equality between women and men while maintaining that they occupy distinct and complementary positions.

This view holds that some leadership roles, such as pastor or elder, are reserved exclusively for men, though both genders serve the church in different ministry capacities.

So do both men and women serve the church 100%?

But the office of pastor-elder here at Heartland is reserved for men based on our complementarian convictions from what we see in God's word.

Now, some more explanation on deacons.

Deacons meet the practical needs of the church, and as we saw in Acts 6 and other places, they free up the elders for the ministry of the word and prayer.

So that's most foundationally the simplest way to explain the role of deacons here at Heartland is they meet practical needs of the church, they're servant models, and they free up the elders for the ministry of the word and prayer.

All right, so now we've talked about polity, we've talked about authority, we've talked about the office of elders and deacons.

And look, I know that's a very quick view.

We could spend a week or two weeks on each and every one of those topics.

So I'm hitting the high point.

So if you have questions, write them down, talk to me.

If we have time after, we'll have a chance for you guys to ask questions, but ask your questions if you have them.

So we've talked about those things.

Now we're gonna move into church discipline.

I'm gonna read, I've got a couple of fairly longer quotes here because they're super, super helpful.

I'm gonna read some of those for you.

Let me start with one from Eric Raymond on church discipline.

This one is in, we have a church restoration document, church discipline document here at Heartland.

This one is in that document.

It says, Adam sinned in the garden, yet God pursued him and preached the promise of the gospel to him.

Abraham lied about his relationship to Sarah twice.

Moses disobeyed God and struck the rock.

David committed adultery and murder.

Jonah disobeyed God's call.

Thomas doubted even when he stood before the risen Lord.

All of these are examples and reminders that though our sins are heinous, or they are heinous, they can never separate a true follower of Jesus from God.

He delights in parting in us.

But the natural tendency for so many people is to hear the word discipline and think, man, that is so mean.

That is so hard.

That's a bad thing.

But it is beautiful and grace-filled.

It is beautiful and it is grace-filled.

If you're a parent, think about why you discipline your kids.

And I'm I know in the heat of the moment sometimes we discipline our kids because I'm tired of it, right?

That's what we will say.

But most foundationally, we discipline our kids because we love our kids.

Right?

We love our kids.

We treasure our kids.

We want them to learn what is right and what is wrong.

And you guys know as well as I do.

If you're a parent, how hard is it to discipline your kids sometimes?

I'm a softie.

Ashley's probably, I'm not going to make icon do either because I'm the soft one, right?

It's so hard.

But God gives us church discipline because He loves us.

Right?

He loves us.

Further, it's an expression of the authority we just talked about a few moments ago.

Again, this is an even longer quote, and I hate to use so many quotes, but I found this one from Bobby Jameson.

He's the pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in North Carolina, and it's too good not to share it, but I'm going to take a sip of my tea first and then I'll read it.

This is Bobby Jameson, Trinity Baptist Church in North Carolina.

Think about this for a second.

This kind of gives you the picture and responsibility of the elders, of the individual who's being disciplined, and the congregation in the midst of a church discipline process.

Imagine you're at a congregational meeting, and the elders recommend that the congregation discipline a man for habitual unrepentant drunkenness.

The elders use those exact words and explain that they've been working with this individual for some time, and he has stubbornly persisted in his sin.

They further explain that the Apostle Paul clearly teaches that people who live in this way will not inherit the kingdom of God, pointing to 1 Corinthians 6 11.

So they're recommending that the church act to exclude this individual from membership and to pray for his repentance and restoration.

Now it's over to you, the church members.

How do you respond?

What does it mean to submit to your elders when you, along with many other members in your church, are called to make a decision in this matter?

A full answer might differ from case to case, but here's the crucial part of it.

Trust.

An unsubmissive, unsubmissive, excuse me, member won't be satisfied with the seemingly sparse details that the elders provided.

Instead, he or she will demand a full account details of specific incidents, transcripts of the elders' conversations with the individuals, or else he won't go along with it.

He'll insist on having all the facts so that he can make an independent judgment.

He'll want to hear opposing arguments in the interest of quote unquote fairness.

He won't take the elder's word for anything.

He doesn't trust the elders, and he will cloak that mistrust in the language of responsibility or transparency or rights.

But that kind of attitude makes church discipline and many of the other churches' responsibilities virtually impossible.

It leads to the kind of committee of the whole congregationalism, which understandably gives congregationalism a bad name.

It paralyzes the church elders by giving them a title and responsibility, but hanging them out to dry when they most need a church's trust.

A submissive member, on the other hand, won't set himself up as an independent review committee for every decision that the elders make.

Instead, he'll recognize that the elders have been fully recognized by the congregation for the purpose of leading, and that in order to lead, they need to be trusted.

So a godly church member will be inclined to take the elders at their word.

He'll be inclined to trust their assessment of someone's sins.

He'll trust that they have faithfully followed the biblical steps to proceed with public discipline.

He'll trust that the elders have good reasons for not telling the congregation all of the gory details.

Now hear this part.

This is Robert talking for a second.

I want you to hear this part.

That doesn't mean he'll never, under any circumstances, dissent or voice disagreement.

For example, there may be times when a church member knows something that is crucial that the elders have somehow missed.

Again, this is Robert.

In that moment, you should communicate that.

Nor does it mean he'll never ask questions.

It does mean that he is willing to follow the elders despite not knowing every single little detail.

He will submit to them by trusting them.

Going on, he says, in order for a congregation to exercise its responsibility in discipline, the elders must give them enough information to act wisely, but in order for them to exercise that responsibility in a submissive manner, a congregation needs to also trust its leaders.

You see how the beauty of what God has given us with congregationalism and the beauty of what God has given us with the offices of the church go hand in hand there and work synchronously with one another and not in opposition to one another.

Church discipline is difficult.

I outlined seven things I want to I want to point to that is necessary for church discipline to take place.

Full submission to Scripture by all parties is one.

Trust from all parties, humility from all parties, patience from all parties, the whole church, right?

It's not done void of church involvement.

The whole church, and I'll speak to that more in a moment when I walk through the steps we see in Matthew 18.

Sixthly, submission to God-given authority.

And this is the most important one of all.

Commitment to the gospel.

Right?

Commitment to the gospel.

Now let me walk you through, and I wish I would have written down what page these are on.

Let me walk you through the steps that we've outlined in our in this book, according to Matthew 18.

This is what we see.

Step one, one-on-one, loving uh confrontation of sin.

If repentance occurs, the process ends.

If no repentance occurs, move on to step two.

One of the things I conversed with our deacons about uh recently is this is an area that I just just all cards on the table that I think we are weak at as a as a church in general, right?

Church discipline is not simply the elders get involved in a situation to make it stop.

Like I think some people have that idea of that's what church discipline is.

Right?

No, church discipline is when my brother, uh Robert's the first brother I see.

When Robert comes to me and says, Man, you said said this, that I heard you, I overheard you say this to this person.

That was not the right thing to say.

You were you were in sin in the way that you communicated to that person.

Robert is practicing church discipline with me.

That's what I would call a microcorrection.

That is beautiful, right?

And that that's something that we as a church should be doing with each other on a regular basis, right?

That that's something that we should be offering to other people.

It takes humility for that person to come to me.

It also takes humility from the person receiving it to receive it and respond appropriately and to say, yeah, man, you're right.

I'm sorry.

I'm gonna go apologize to that person too.

Thank you for bringing that to my attention.

It's over, right?

You move on.

You gained a brother, according to Matthew 18.

So that is church discipline.

So don't just hear to Discipline as being this thing that goes before the church.

It is that, but the first step is one-on-one confrontation.

The second, two or three, if that person doesn't respond well and they're like, yeah, you're wrong, man.

We got problems.

But two or three, then confront that individual, right?

If repentance occurs, guess what?

The same thing.

By God's grace, it's over.

And you move on.

If repentance doesn't occur, you move on.

What I've outlined as step 3A and 3B, right?

To take it to the church 3A.

With the polity structure at Heartland, this means that it would go to the elders and we would confront it.

If it ends, right, if they repent, then the process is over, right?

And if it doesn't, then you continue on to the next step.

Sometimes that involves things like uh communicating to the person that they're no longer welcome to participate in the Lord's Supper, they're no longer allowed to serve in certain areas, all with the heart of pursuing reconciliation in that person's heart and repentance in that person's heart.

And lastly, 3B, this is take it to the church for a vote of excommunication.

A couple of things I outlined here, this is not a step that is to be rushed into, right?

In fact, step two and or three A is often repeated multiple times, right?

This isn't like step one, three days, step two, three days, step three A, three days, step three B, three days.

We're taken to church two weeks later.

No, this is sometimes I've been involved in these where they are years.

Like it is years of work with individuals, right?

These things aren't to be rushed into, right?

These are done patiently and they're grace-filled, and they're loving and they are caring.

And the hinge point of all of it is humble repentance.

That is the hinge point of all of it.

God has given us this to help us remove the blinders from our eyes when we are deeply seated in sin.

He has given us our brothers and sisters to illuminate that for us.

And even when it comes to the final step, even if, God forbid, it comes to the final step and the person is put before the church to be voted, to be removed from membership, that is done not for the purpose of we don't ever want to talk to you again.

That is done for the purpose of beginning to see them as a Gentile or tax collector, as Matthew 18 says, which basically means we see them as unbelievers and we need to share the gospel with them and we plead with the Lord and we plead with the Spirit.

May this final step of church discipline be what the Spirit uses to break their hearts and remove the blinders of the sin that they are continuing to pursue.

It's not we're mad at you, it's not shame on you.

It is please, Lord, convict this individual of their sin.

God gave us that for his glory and for our good.

And we have to understand that church discipline is about seeking the restoration of the individual, right?

Now, just a couple of things, and I think we'll have about five or ten minutes for question.

A couple of things, like we I have been asked often, because even before I came here, church discipline is something that I I was I cared about, and one of the questions I actually asked the search team coming here is how do you handle it?

Uh I think we as believers and as a church should take it seriously because Scripture takes it seriously.

So if you come up to me and you ask me, why do you take that so seriously?

Because God's word tells me to.

When a brother or sister confronts a sin and another brother or sister with a statement like, Brother, you have been quick to speak and quick to become angry lately.

How can I help you?

And the other brother or sister says, I am so sorry.

You are right.

Can you keep me accountable?

Also, will you sit with me while I pray and ask the Lord to forgive me and to help me pursue Christ-likeness in this area?

That is church discipline and that is beautiful.

I think sometimes we say, Man, that's hard.

Yeah, it's hard, but it's beautiful and God honoring.

Second one there I wrote out when a brother or sister confronts a sin and another brother statement, sister with a statement like, Brother, you are considering or moving into divorce without biblical grounds.

You need to pursue reconciliation in your marriage.

How can I help you?

And the other brother or sister says, I'm so sorry, you're right.

I'm going to pray now and ask the Lord to forgive me.

Can you keep me accountable by ensuring I proactively engage help from the elders and reach out to my spouse to talk through the next steps?

Church discipline is taking place on a small scale.

That is a sign of a healthy church.

That is a sign of a healthy church member in confronting, and that is a sign of a healthy church member in receiving the confrontation.

And that is a beautiful thing.

And it is a God-ordained and God-given thing.

Lastly, I'm going to read you this passage from Galatians 6, and then I'll open it for questions.

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you are you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.

Keep watch on yourself lest you too be tempted.

We have to remember that church discipline was given to us by God in his word.

It was given to us for our good.

And the ultimate aim of it, as should everything else be in the church, is to pursue the sanctity and the proclamation of the gospel.

The sanctity and the proclamation of the gospel.

We should have a desire to see each other grow in Christ-likeness, even if that means we have to have difficult one-on-one conversations with each other.

Every time somebody wrongs you, that doesn't mean that you have to come to Robert or to Michael or to one of the elders and say, hey, so-and-so did this.

Because you know what I'm going to do if you do that?

I'm going to say, have you talked to them yet?

Because Scripture says you should go talk to them.

So I would encourage you, if you're considering membership or if you're already a member, please understand that you are very much an active part of church discipline on a daily basis with your brothers and sisters.

And that's not done just to confront, that is done because you love each other and you want to spur one another onto good works.

And one of the ways that you do that is through one-on-one church discipline.

I got done in time.

I didn't think I would.

We've got about nine minutes.

If anyone has any questions, I'll open the floor for questions.

Um I don't have time to get to the history of Heartland.

We'll have to hit that next week.

But I do want to leave a couple minutes for questions if anyone has any questions.

Yeah.

So I'm just I'm going to repeat what you said just for the sake of the sake of the record recording.

Uh she asked uh that sometime she said I mentioned church discipline sometime could go on for years.

Is that just due to the nature of the sin?

A lot of it has to do with the person's response.

So the times where I've seen it uh go on for years is where you see um a person fighting and fighting and fighting against the sin and living that they truly.

And yeah.

Um addiction is one of those things that's really hard if somebody is addicted to something specific.

And uh that's where the elders have to um trust the Lord's guidance and wisdom in those conversations, and we as a congregation have to trust guidance and wisdom.

Like if we see someone struggling with an addiction and believe them to be truly battling that addiction and not submitting to it and and being enslaved to it, so to speak, uh that some people battle addiction for years.

Some people battle it for a lifetime.

Not not everybody who comes to faith immediately puts down whatever their addiction is and is done with it.

Some people battle it.

Um, so when I say it could go on for years, man, I I may be having a two or three of my brothers may be sitting with another one of my brother every month for the next five years, challenging that person with with the hopefully the goal is that they are becoming more and more Christ-like, but it's not going to happen overnight.

So it's situational.

It's not really a black and white divorce.

No, it's not as black and white as divorce.

It's not, and repentance isn't, when we say repentance, it's not just simply I'm sorry, right?

It's a I'm I'm sorry and help me, right?

It's I'm sorry and help me kill it.

So if someone comes to me, I always think about Psalms 51.

Like I think we have to discern, does the person have a broken and contrite heart?

Because the Lord, we we see in Psalms 51, a broken and contrite heart the Lord will not despise.

Right after David, right, he commits adultery and murder, but he's broken over it.

Broken and contrite, yeah.

That's because some of these sometimes people don't mind.

Exactly, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, and that and that's where it, when there is, um, I don't know how the the right word to use there, but when there is complete opposition to any truth from scripture or any help, that is one thing.

When there is, I I see, I know what you're saying, I'm just struggling to live it out, that's a that's a different thing, right?

So I know what you're saying and I believe that, and I want to submit to that, but I'm trying so hard and I keep failing, that's a different conversation than I hear what you're saying, and that's I see it in God's word, but that's garbage.

I'm not listening to that.

So those those are two different postures.

One is a broken and contrite heart before the Lord, one is not.

So if a person's broken and contrite, your the church dismay process isn't continuing, right?

Through the through the end.

It is, it's gonna be those brothers sitting with him or those sisters sitting with her and helping them fight like heck to kill that to kill that sin.

But that's a great question.

And that's discipleship too, right?

That is discipleship.

Any other questions?

If you're afraid to ask it out loud, you can text me.

Well, even if you're not, even if you already are a member, I would encourage you.

A lot of this is outlined in our bylaws.

Um we're working to revamp our bylaws, update them.

We have been since the last family meeting in January.

Uh your bylaws matter, right?

They're an expression of how you operate according to God's word.

So I'd encourage you if you like so what from a step-by-step practical standpoint, how does that play out within the life of Heartland?

How does you appoint elders?

How do you uh appoint deacons?

How do you uh hire staff?

How do you do a lot of these things?

How does that authority get exercised within the context of Heartland?

The bylaws are a great place to go and look and to read about how that practically plays out within the life of our church here at Heartland.

So I would encourage you.

Those are on the website, you can find those on the website.

I would encourage you to go check those out.

Yeah, brother.

Yeah, yeah.

So um and approving.

Did I say selecting or approving?

Okay.

I I don't want to misspeak against our bylaws, but I'm just gonna use an uh Michael's in the room, so I'll use who him as the most recent example.

Um so Michael is an elder.

He came in as an elder.

Uh he was an already ordained brother, faithfully serving a local church as an elder.

That the elder, the elders found Michael by God's grace.

Praise, praise God for that.

We we found Michael, or he found us.

I don't remember how that worked, I can't remember exactly how that played out.

Then we presented him to the church as the candidate for worship pastor elder.

We didn't appoint him to that position.

We presented him to the church, and then the elders or the church voted and unanimously, he's the only pastor.

I'm the only pastor on staff that wasn't unanimous.

Just a little aside.

I'll bring that up every time.

D Dylan was, and he was, I wasn't.

Uh he was affirmed unanimously by the congregation.

So before he assumed the role of worship pastor, elder, the congregation was the final approval of that.

Does that make sense?

What about the congregation?

Within it like a unique elder.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, so that um I don't want to misspeak and misspeak from our bylaws, but I believe, don't hold this in stone.

I'm I'm not speaking bylaws here.

I believe the way they are outlined is the elders will identify the need for additional elders, and then there's a process that plays out at which the congregation has the final affirmation of that thing.

So, like um, for example, like if we have an explosion of we we uh and this this isn't meant to be like a woe is me, but we I mean we have there's eight of us right now, Dylan's on sabbatical, seven of us.

Even when Dylan's here, we're working our butts off um pretty regularly.

So if the, and I say all that to say, let's say we explode and had added a hundred new members, there would be a need for additional elders, at which point we would start walking through that process and and the final affirmation would come from the church.

The specifics of how those are nominated and all that, uh the bylaws would have that outlined specifically.

I don't want to miss misspeak.

Yeah.

And we're in the process of updating some of that too, so I don't I don't want to speak to what what the update presentation is gonna be against what the current bylaws are or vice versa.

So but we can I'd love to talk to you more about that after if you want.

That's a great question too.

Any other questions?

I'm sure my wife is gonna, when I get home, say, why didn't you talk about this?

Why didn't you talk about this?

But she hadn't asked any questions, so cool.

Let me uh pray for you guys.

And uh like I said, we're I'm an open book, elders are open book.

We just want to present as much information as we can.

And again, this is a each of these, this could have been four or five sessions alone, uh, all this this content.

So I try to just hit it high level.

So I understand there's probably some questions that some of you might have that I might I didn't answer, but I would happy, happily answer them offline.

So let me let me pray for us.

Father, we are thankful for who you are, we're thankful for your church, and um God, we're grateful that we get to be a part of your church.

We're grateful that uh it is uh our privilege, it is our um, it is our benefit, it is it is uh God, one of the great joys or should be one of the great joys of our life is being a part of your local church.

And God, I I pray that um you would uh uh protect your church.

Not uh obviously your global church, we pray for protection over your church, but God, for your the specific expression of that here at Heartland, God, we we pray for protection over her.

Um most foundationally, because we are an outpost of gospel proclamation and gospel evidence to the world.

Uh so God, we pray for protection of your church here so that we can continue to proclaim the gospel with as little um with as little challenge as as possible as it relates to unnecessary challenge.

God, we also recognize that uh your word calls us to be obedient and that your word also says it's not if we'll face suffering, but when.

Uh so God, we also know that uh the same truths we've looked at the last a few weeks ago is is when we labor, the labor is going to be hard, the labor is going to be difficult, but the labor is not going to be in vain because we are laboring for the gospel.

Uh may that be something we always keep in our minds and hearts here at Heartland.

Uh, may you continue to equip us in that way.

May you continue to equip us to be obedient, and may we continue to follow through in obedience to the things you have asked us to do.

It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Thank you guys.

We'll see you guys next week for session four.