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Join us every Sunday morning at 9 or 10:30 AM in the Maywood Center. Sermons & Bible Studies available online on any podcast platform or visit our YouTube channel "@flipsidechristianchurch"! Download our app at https://flipsidechristian.churchcenter.com/setup for more info about our church and ministries.
Flipside Christian Church
Madera Ranchos, CA
In the chair backs in front of you.
There are these cards on these chairs
that they're sitting there.
Please take one of these out.
Everybody get one of these.
Should be on the tables as well.
This is to help us understand
the process
of what we call spiritual formation.
Spiritual formation is the the
the discipline,
the opportunity to be formed spiritually,
to be able to fulfill.
What a life that Jesus said, hey,
follow me this way.
And so we've come up
with this spiritual formation pathway
to help us understand
the steps we take to do that.
We use four words here called belong,
become, give and go to help us
walk this pathway of discipleship
and forming ourselves
biblically in the image of Christ.
And so you're going to see this little
infographic everywhere.
You're going to see it everywhere,
because I want you to know
what your next step is.
We say it all the time.
Take your next step.
What's my next step?
Well, this is will help you understand
that so you can grow and form yourself
spiritually through these four steps
of belonging, becoming, giving and going
and then just living in this process
of being formed spiritually.
And so if you'll just look at this,
we start here in the life of this church
by belonging to the local,
to the Body of Christ
through the expression
of the local church flipside.
And that happens a couple of different
ways.
One, take the one on one class, and David
White is going to lead
all of this whole process.
So in a couple of weeks
is going to teach the one on one class.
It'll help you understand
the basics of our church, our faith,
our doctrine, our purpose, our mission,
our vision, all of that.
And it will introduce you
to the foundations
of doctrine that we think are really,
really biblically important.
And then part of
that is just showing up weekly.
And if getting baptized,
haven't been baptized by immersion,
getting baptized by immersion,
and then the become part as you grow
and the way you
you become the image of
Christ is one of the ways that will help.
That is, go to the 201 class,
where you'll learn about
the spiritual disciplines necessarily
necessary to form yourself spiritually.
Learn how to flip journal,
how to read the Bible,
and then get involved with some type
of smaller community group, either
what we call a rooted class or a huddle
in context of community to form us.
And then we take this next step
of our formation
and giving back to God
what he has given us.
And part of that process for us
is the 301 class
that will walk us
through your spiritual gifts.
If you if you have a relationship with
Jesus, you've been given at least
one spiritual gift by God Himself,
and they'll help you discover that
so you can give that energy back
to God in ministry
and serving,
people will be invited to serve on a team
and for some,
the Financial Peace University,
so that you can understand
how do I get my financial life in order
and live a life of generosity
and giving back to God what he's given me?
And then the go part of
that is the 401 class, which is the class
to teach you how to share your faith.
There are six ways,
biblically that we can share our faith.
One of them fit you perfectly.
We want to teach you what that is
so you can share your faith
as a follower of Jesus, and then join us
in not just serving a ministry,
but ministry ownership
and really leading in that and the work
that we do in missions
work at locally and abroad.
So this is the four main
spiritual formation pathway.
You should know
by looking at this what your next step is.
Follow that.
Now there are
some people have been here for 21 years,
and they've never taken the second step
to becoming really
in, in, in the image of Christ.
They show up a lot, which is great.
But there's some other things
we need to do to form a spiritually.
And so this this will help
you know what your next step is.
So when we say take a next step here, this
if you have any questions
about any of this, how to get involved,
how to get in the pipeline of this,
see Dave, Pastor David,
this is his job to oversee all of this.
Okay. You got it.
You're going to see that everywhere.
We're going to talk about that a lot.
So just get used to hearing those words
right.
Hey we're in chapter 18 of Matthew.
Jeff did a great job last week
introducing us in the first six verses.
We're going to go through verses
seven through 20 today.
Okay.
So there's a lot
there's a lot to get through.
And I'm going to do my best.
I'm going to do my best
to get us through that.
I want us to understand something about
about Matthew 18.
The conversation started with
who's the greatest?
And Jeff did a great job
teaching about that last week
that I want to know who's the greatest.
The reason they're asking
that question is twofold.
One, because only three of them
got invited up on the mountain in Matthew
17 Peter, James and John.
They got this special invitation
with Jesus up on the mountain where Jesus
was transfigured into all of his glory,
his heavenly glory, only three of them.
So obviously
they're walking around thinking.
We're the best.
The other nine are down waiting for them
to come down the mountain.
And they have this opportunity
to do this incredible ministry.
And they failed.
So, you know,
there was conversation going on.
Hey, how'd you guys do?
We were with Jesus.
You guys blew it.
And so, you know,
there's this a right, like you
get 12 fellows around,
they're going to start talking.
And so so the natural quest
who's the greatest decide for us
because we were up there.
They were down here. They failed.
We got to see some pretty cool stuff.
And Jesus response is, none of you are.
None of you are the greatest.
You can't do a thing without me.
And so you need to humble yourself
and be childlike.
You didn't say childish. It's a childlike.
But he knew that
we're going to drop the ball and it says,
because you won't humble yourself,
because you will be self-serving.
I'm self-absorbed.
I'm going to walk you
through my expectation
of how you deal with each other,
when each other
let you down,
when each other sins against you,
when each other walk away from you
or walk against you.
And I'm going to show you, I'm
going to tell you what my expectation is.
And that's all.
That's all the rest of Matthew 18.
Now, underlying this whole thing,
all of Jesus's
teaching, the backbone of it all
is this thing called generosity.
And here's what I mean.
Jesus is going to talk about in Matthew 18
being merciful.
And he says, when you're merciful,
don't be stingy with your mercy.
Be generous.
It's going to talk about forgiveness.
And he's going to say, when you forgive,
I wasn't stingy with forgiveness
with you, so don't you dare be stingy
and forgiving other people.
Be generous.
Do you follow this generosity?
Backbone runs through everything.
Jesus taught everything and and actually,
even when Jesus talked about resources
and finances,
he always talked about it with this
backbone of generosity running through it.
I don't know if you knew this
in the Gospels, Matthew,
Mark, Luke, John one verse
out of every ten talks about resources,
finances, and being generous with them.
Did you know that one
out of every ten verses in the Gospels,
Jesus talked more about resources
than being generous
with our finances
and being just for the resources.
He taught more about that than he talked
about heaven or hell combined.
Do you follow?
So this idea of generosity
in every area of our life is the kind of
the backbone of Jesus teaching,
and we're going to see it in this.
And so this question, who's the greatest?
None of you know, Jesus says,
you've got to be dependent on me.
You're not great at all.
Matter of fact,
this was such an issue for them.
Who the greatest that James
and and and James
and John's mom is going to get involved
this conversation in Matthew 2020.
She's going to come to you and say, hey,
Jesus,
make sure that my two sons
are at the front of the line.
Like, this was so rampant in them.
They want to be the greatest.
They want to be upfront.
They want to be honored.
And just like
you got to get over yourself, man.
Humble yourself.
So because you're going to blow it, I need
I need to help
you know how to live with each other.
And so here's the big idea for verses
seven through 20 of Matthew 18.
Jesus's kingdom is not casual about sin
nor stingy with mercy,
and his must be the same.
We're not
casual
about sin, nor are we stingy with mercy.
And so he's
going to deal with these two things.
And so right up front,
let me read verses seven, eight and nine.
Jesus says,
woe to the world for temptations.
Woe to the world for temptations to sin,
for it is necessary that temptations come,
but woe to the one
by whom the temptations come.
And if your hand or your foot causes you
to sin, cut it off and throw it away.
It's better for you to enter life,
crippled or lame, down with two hands
or two feet
and be thrown into eternal fire.
And if your eye causes you to sin,
tear it out and throw it away.
It's better for you to enter
life with one eye than with two eyes
to be thrown into the hell of fire.
Those are some pretty strong words,
wouldn't you agree?
Yes, pretty strong words.
He says.
Temptation is going to come. It's
part of this world order.
This world is broken, fallen,
and it's coming apart.
There's no that's no surprise to anybody.
My kingdom is coming.
But it's not here and still yet.
So we live in a broken, fallen,
sinful world.
And it's going to perpetuate
broken, fallen us and sinful people
and mindsets and lifestyles.
He said that's a given.
But don't you be the one through
whom this stuff comes.
Don't you be the one through
whom comes the propensity for materialism,
for greed, for bitterness, for lust,
for hatred, for anger.
What are you saying is
this sin is too dangerous to tolerate.
And so he uses really strong language.
Your eye, your hand,
your foot causes you to sin. Cut it out.
Get rid of it. Can you imagine?
Now he's not talking
about self-mutilation.
What is that word?
Mutilation. He's not talking about that.
I want to be very clear about that.
And here's why.
He's not talking about self-mutilation.
Because self-mutilation doesn't go
far enough.
It's not extreme enough.
When you cut your hand off
and still sin, right,
you poke your eye out and still sin.
The problem is, it doesn't go far enough.
The problem is it's a deeper issue.
And when he says, you're right,
I your right hand or right foot?
Back in those days, the right was
the was the favored position.
So the right hand, the right hand was the
favored strong position, not the lefties.
So sorry lefties.
Any of you left handed.
Yeah.
So my dad tells me that when my grandma
when his mom was little coming
up in school, she was left
handed way back in the day and it was so
looked down upon they had to retrain her
how to write with her right
hand on our left hand,
because it was just bad.
Lefties were bad,
and it was back in the good old days
when teachers had a ruler
and they could whack you with it.
So every time she used her left hand,
they'd whack it.
That's pretty brutal.
So, lefties, sorry you're out of luck.
This was back in that culture.
So what Jesus is saying is this listen,
even that what you consider
to be good and strong, if it leads
you away from me, get rid of it.
Even that which you can sort of
be a blessing if a lead you away from me.
Get rid of it.
See if we can walk away from Jesus
not just in sin, but in the good stuff
God's given us, just cause us
to neglect Him in His Kingdom.
Neglect risky for him to be in generous.
Get rid of it now.
As as as tough as that language is.
Let me put it in, in in our language.
Let's not talk about our eye or hand
or our foot.
Let's talk about this.
If this in our life
causes us to go further away from Christ
rather than closer to him.
Get rid of it.
Anybody?
Some of you are like, oh no,
now you're just meddling.
That hits.
I'd rather poke my eye out than live
without my phone.
It's what he's saying is this too is to.
Sin is too dangerous to tolerate.
Do whatever you got to do,
but separate yourself from it.
Nothing is worth it.
That's what he's saying.
Sin is not a pet to coddle.
It's a predator to kill.
That's how we have to approach it.
Some of us have grown
so because of mercy and grace.
And I get
it is profound and it's beautiful.
And it is there because of sin.
Fantastic. But.
Sin is deadly.
And some of us have been so enamored
by mercy and grace, which we should be.
We treat sin
as an optional thing, like it's okay.
When we fall into sin.
We rely on God's grace 100%.
But please understand this, my friends,
that grace does not make sense.
Safe.
It makes repentance possible.
It's grace that says your sin is deadly,
but it doesn't have to destroy you.
Repent of it and experience
the undeserved and unmerited favor
and blessing of Almighty God.
When you repent.
There will always be things in this world
that will cause people to stumble.
Jesus says, don't you dare be the one
through whom other people stumble.
Cut away sin in your life.
Jesus says, don't
negotiate with that
which is destroying you.
He's talking about radical discipleship.
Radical discipleship requires
radical action.
He's not talking about casual
Christianity.
Radical discipleship cuts off what casual
Christianity excuses.
He's saying it's that serious.
And he says, listen,
if we don't deal with this sin
issue and it's not by being religious,
it's not by working ourselves up
into doing everything
right, it's by confessing sin.
It's by relying on God's
mercy and grace to forgive us our sin,
cleanse us from all unrighteousness
by what Jesus did on the cross.
If we don't do that, sin is so deadly.
He says, why would you?
Why would you live in sin and
suffer the consequences of hellfire?
Strong language.
I want you to understand something.
Hell, biblically is never spoken
of as allegory or folklore.
Never.
It's always spoken of as a real place,
just like heaven.
Heaven is never spoken about in Scripture
as allegory or folklore.
Heaven's always talks
about as a real place.
So if we're going to talk about
the reality of heaven,
we have to talk about the reality of hell.
Now, I agree
that biblical imagery is fascinating
and grandiose and uses
some powerful imagery to communicate
the reality of heaven and hell,
but they're both real places.
And the results of a lifestyle of sin
without repentance is the reality of hell.
That's how deadly.
It's how deadly sin is
and how beautiful grace is.
Charles Spurgeon said this
if I think lightly of hell,
I will also think lightly of the cross.
And so Jesus says, this is too deadly
and dangerous to flirt with man.
Get rid of it.
And then look at what he says.
Verses ten through 14 see that you do not
despise one of these little ones.
For I tell you that in heaven there
angels always see the face of my father
who is in heaven.
What do you think?
If a man has 100 sheep
and one of them has gone astray.
Does he not leave the 99 on the mountains
and go in
search of the one that went astray?
And if he finds it truly I say
he Joyces over it
more than the 99 that never went astray.
So it is not the will of my father
who is in
heaven, that one of these little ones
should perish.
He said, listen.
He introduced his idea of angels here.
He says, listen,
even for my kids who go astray,
they still have representation before
the father, though, they're getting dumb.
The angel is still representing the before
the father.
Did you know that every Christ
follower has representation in heaven,
not just of Christ
to the father, but of angels?
Now, I don't believe
that every person has a guardian angel,
but I do believe
that every Christ follower
has angels ministering to them.
And the reason I believe that is because
the Bible says that Hebrews chapter one.
Are not all angels ministering spirits
sent to serve
those who will inherit salvation?
Those have a relationship with Jesus.
God employs angels to serve us.
Realize that.
Now, I don't believe
we all have a guardian angel
because some of us have a lot of guardian
angels.
He's just like,
oh no, we need a lot more than one.
Please.
And so he's saying,
listen, people will get dumb.
They're going to walk.
But they still have representation
before my father him.
So be careful about
how you treat each other.
This passage of the
wandering sheep is different for you
Bible students.
This is different than Luke 15.
In Luke 15, Jesus tells us similar
parable says A shepherd has 100 sheep.
One of them
gets lost and he leaves and angles
find the one that's lost.
That's different
than what he's saying here.
Here's how it's different.
The one in Luke 15 got lost.
They just have ever been there.
Like spiritually,
you just got turned around.
I'm sorry, I just.
That's different than it. Here.
The sheep isn't lost. Here.
What does the sheep do?
Went astray.
He knows this.
He knows where the shepherd is
and this sheep chooses.
This is Isaiah 53 six.
All of us, like sheep, have gone astray.
Each of us has turned our own way.
This is the sheep that hasn't become.
This is the sheep
that was once a part of gospel
that has purposefully chosen to walk away.
That's some of us in this place right now.
And I love the fact
that even when we wander
of our own volition, where's the shepherd?
Do pursues.
He pursues.
I love the fact
that this is not a frustrated shepherd.
Now, when my boys were little,
we had three beagles.
And you ever had a beagle?
Okay. Little beagle.
They're great dogs,
but they are infuriating because they're.
They're the Houdini's of the dog world.
They will find a way to escape
whatever enclosure you put them
in, and their nose takes over,
and they know where home is.
They know where their food is.
They know where their safety is.
But the nose takes over
and they wander off into who knows where.
And I cannot tell you
how many times are little beagles
and little peanut would get out
and just be gone.
And as the dad gets his responsibility,
it was to go find this
Cupid dog.
I would leave everything else at home
and get on my truck
and drive all around the ranchos,
because who knows where this dog is?
And I'm rolling my window down.
Peanut.
It's about as loud as, like a whistle.
He's not going to hear me,
but I had to do something out.
I would spend and there were times when
those dogs would be gone for days on end.
My boys are upset.
They're worried if peanuts
going to come home or not.
I'm just frustrated.
I'm like, stupid.
Like,
that's not the shepherd.
We get Chase on all kinds of stuff,
sniffing everywhere,
and this shepherd just pursues. Why?
Because he knows the peril of hell.
And by his mercy
and his grace wants to rescue us from it.
Even when we get stupid and walk away.
You understand?
And if that's true for me, it's true
for you.
And Jesus says, don't you dare despise
one of those wayward beagles
because they have representation
before the father.
I care about them. Listen.
Wandering beagles matter.
And you may be a wandering beagle.
And you matter.
Didn't stand.
So come home.
If a wandering beagle gets offensive.
Don't be offended.
Sometimes wandering beagles
cause a whole bunch of heartache and pain.
Sometimes beagles wander
because they're just immature.
Sometimes if beagles wander
because they have wounds
they're running away from.
And we don't understand their wounds.
Sometimes beagles wander
just because they're selfish.
Sometimes beagles wander
just because they're narcissistic.
No matter.
We don't have to be offended by
offensive beagles.
See, I can take sin
seriously
without taking every offense personally.
Do you follow?
Now, it doesn't mean I have to have
a relationship with a wandering beagle.
It doesn't mean
I have to try to be their best friend.
But it doesn't mean
I have to take their offense
personally all the time, either.
And so here's what you're saying.
Don't cause someone to stumble.
Don't despise one who does stumble.
Don't tolerate sin and destruction
that's going to create in your life, nor
be the reason for in someone else's life.
And go after the wandering beagles.
Wandering beagles are important enough
for us to pursue,
and every pursuit of a wandering
beagle is going to be costly.
It's going to cost us
time, energy, emotions, finances.
But every time we pursue a wandering
beagle is a radical act of discipleship
by his church. You understand that?
See, at the
end of the day, what Jesus is saying is
that sin is too dangerous to tolerate
and people are too valuable to abandon.
And so if you're a wandering beagle,
you got a place here.
I'm not going to be soft with what
the Bible says about sin and repentance,
but you're too valuable to be abandoned.
You got a place here.
But every time you're here
as a wandering beagle, I'm going to call.
I'm going to call you back home.
The Bible is going to call you back home.
Do you follow?
Verses 15 through 20?
If your brother sins against you,
go and tell him his fault
between you and him alone.
If he listens to you and your brother.
But if he does not listen.
Take 1 or 2 others along with you,
that every charge may be established
by the evidence of 2 or 3 witnesses.
If it refuses to listen to them,
tell it to the church, and if it refuses
to listen to the church, let them be to
you as a Gentile and a tax collector.
Truly, I say to you, whatever you abide
on, or shall be bound in heaven,
and whatever you loose
on, or shall be loosed in heaven.
Again I say to you, if 2
or 3 of you agree on earth about anything
you ask, it will be done for them.
By my father in heaven.
For 2 or 3 are gathered in my name.
There I am among them.
Let me just say this real quick
about verse 20.
The size of the prayer
meeting doesn't matter.
2 or 3 people together in prayer
can move heaven and shake earth.
Do you understand that?
We do a First Tuesday prayer meeting here.
The first Tuesday of every month.
There's a few very faithful people
that are moving heaven and shaking earth.
I'm thankful that God doesn't judge the
the the validity of the ministry
based on the size of the prayers.
But having said this,
let me say this also.
Some of you need to show up
on the first Tuesdays and pray.
Jesus says, listen.
God offers immeasurable
forgiveness and mercy, and his disciples
have to do the same thing.
That's what he's saying here.
It says
when your brother sins against you,
let me help you understand this.
This is not an instruction
of how to deal with
everybody in your life
who offends you or sins against you.
This is directed to your brother
sister in the church.
So those in the church
that you have relationship with,
that have a relationship with you,
a relationship with the body
in the church when they're offensive
and they offend you.
The instruction of, of of
Jesus here is go to them one on one.
But but let me let me just unpack this
a little bit.
This doesn't mean that you confront
every offense that's offered.
It doesn't mean that you're friends
with everybody who offends you.
There are some of them. You just.
They're not part of my world.
This is talking about those brothers
and sisters in the church.
Do you follow?
If you're if he says this.
But let me tell you
an overarching principle
before we get into the one on one,
one on two to church deal.
The overarching principle of this
whole thing is Proverbs 1911.
Good sense makes one slow to anger,
and it is his glory.
To what?
To overlook an offense,
that word to his glory.
It means it's beautiful.
It's beautiful.
Just to. Oh, I know they offended.
I know they sinned against
overlook it.
That's what he's saying.
And again, this is to those who are in the
your brother, your sister,
because we have a relationship
with each other,
because we're close
to each other in the church,
sometimes you just gotta overlook
how offensive we are to each other.
Do you follow?
This isn't
directed to the culture out there.
There's too much offense
in the culture out there.
There's too much offense by people
that were not friends with, let alone
the ones we are.
Let them be.
And even with each other, just.
But there are times when their
confrontation has to happen, certainly.
And in this relationship, if we're going
to keep a relationship with each other.
There are sometimes we got to go
one on one to each other.
And the Bible says here, when it sins
against you, that's the Greek word
harm to
you had missed the mark here, buddy.
I thought we were.
I need to just tell you.
Look, that one stung.
That hurt I was.
And the Bible says
be listens to you. Great.
You want your brother?
The goal is restoration, not winning.
Do you follow?
And you know the quickest way
to restore your relationship.
You know what it is.
You just say sorry.
Just say sorry.
You don't
have to believe that you were wrong.
You say, you know what?
I'm sorry.
Forgive me.
And the moment you say I'm sorry.
Forgive me.
By God's word, they have to forgive
you and be done with it.
They have to.
Then that's what I like.
People like. Pastor. You were like.
I'm sorry.
Forgive me. My bad.
And now I put it right back on them.
All right,
now you've got to forget about it.
You know what I'm saying? Like,
it's just. See?
We're done. We're done.
I want to be best friends anymore,
but we're just, you know, we're done.
So good.
But the Bible says
if he doesn't let you take 2
or 3 witnesses and go show him
what you think his fault was.
Now, listen, those 2 or 3 witnesses,
they're not 2 or 3 supporters.
You don't get people to a three.
That's already going to say
what you want them to say to,
you know, level against this guy.
You say you to judge between us
and we will both abide by what you to say.
So if you tell me
that I'm overly sensitive
and I just need to forgive them
all, abide by that.
If you tell that person
they're gaslighting
and they're playing the victim card
they got, agree to that.
But you to be the judge between us, that's
what it's saying.
You got it.
It's not getting people
to gang up on them.
And if they still like, you know,
take it to the church.
It doesn't mean we have a church meeting
and everybody's dirty laundry.
It means if they are in their in sin
and they're unrepentant,
you take it to church leadership.
And church leadership says, listen,
this whole mercy and grace repentance
thing is profound.
I get it.
If, if, if you're a wandering beagle,
but if you admit you're wandering
and you come back on repentance,
we're all good.
You don't got to be perfect.
You just got to repent.
If they say, I'm a wandering beagle
and I love being a wandering beagle
and I never want to come back,
then you say, listen, as a church,
we're going to ask you to go wander.
But don't wander.
In the context of this community.
You're unrepentant.
You want to wander, go wander.
And Jesus says that
whatever you as a church
bind on earth will be bound in heaven,
where the loose on earth
will be loosed in heaven.
In other words, what you saying is, heaven
will give the stamp of approval on
whatever the church leadership has
decided, as long as it's done biblically.
None of you
know this, but we have done this
a few different times in this church
because it's not something you publish.
It's something you live.
And most of those times
those wandering beagles
have come back.
You follow.
Let me give you this.
The context of this in job. Job.
No fault of job,
but his life was being torn apart
by the work of the evil one,
completely torn apart.
And they had these three friends
that came to him and they said, job,
let me tell you what's wrong with you.
This is what's wrong with you,
and this is where you're wrong,
and this is when you're in error
and this is where you're sitting
and bop bop bop bop bop.
And they were so offensive
and so horrible to job horrible.
And job never defended himself.
And he never chastised them.
He prayed and he said, God, I'm going
to leave it to you
to correct those people.
They were so offensive to me.
And at the end of this account and my
this is this is God talking,
and my servant job shall pray for you.
Three wandering beagles who are offensive.
For I will accept his prayer and not deal
with you according to your folly.
For you have not spoken of me.
What is right
as my servant job has so eliphaz
the bill, dad, the Shiite,
and so far the name on sight
went and did what the Lord had told them,
and the Lord accepted jobs.
Prayer. He didn't get offended at them.
He let them run their mouths.
He said, God, you take care of them.
I don't need to be close to them,
but I'm going to pray for them.
God, you handle your business.
And he prayed for
those who were so offensive
and God honored his prayer.
This is who God is.
And God says if they're that offensive
and they just refuse to agree.
What does he say?
Treat them as what?
Was what a gentile and tax collector.
Let me close with this.
Who's writing these words?
Matthew Levite?
What was his former job?
Now you're starting to see it.
Treat him as a tax collector.
That doesn't mean go
wander somewhere else.
Idiot.
You know, welcome.
Here it means, listen,
we realize you're walking away,
but I'm going to pursue you in gentleness
and in call
because God has a purpose for your life.
And I want to call you back.
Come on.
Treat them like Jesus treated me.
He didn't pitch a fit.
He didn't hunt me down.
He pursued me because his
mercy and his grace are so beautiful.
That's what we do with offensive beagles.
You got it.
Because that's exactly
what God has done for us.
Don't you pray with me.
Father.
Thank you
that you pursued
this wandering beagle.
Thank you
that you are slow to anger
and abounding in love,
not willing that I should perish.
And father,
I pray that you would help me respond
to wandering beagles in my life
with the same mercy and grace.
I pray to help our church
be a church for and of wandering peoples.
You're a good God.
There's nothing better that we can do
to give our lives to you.
Save us for the torment of separation
from you.
Save us from hell. Save us from our sin.
They'll be ushered into eternal life. God.
Thank you.
Friends,
I want to invite you in this moment.
If you've never given your life to Christ
because of what Jesus did on the cross,
because he was raised from the grave,
I want to invite you in this moment.
Say God, I admit it.
I am a wandering beagle running away,
living life on my own terms.
Jesus, I believe that you died
and were raised from the grave.
Save me and I commit to turn from my sin.
And I dedicate my life
and my allegiance to you and you alone.
Did you just make that commitment
and then discover
what it means to follow him and enter
that spiritual formation pathway?
All of us.
I wouldn't encourage us to say, look,
we cannot live this type
of radical discipleship
apart from the power of God.
And I would encourage
all of us in this moment,
say God and empower me
by the power of your spirit
to love you with my whole heart and soul
and mind and strength, without delay
and without hesitation.
Whatever I've got is sacrifice
and cut out of my life.
God, give me the strength to do it
and fill me with your spirit
and the power of your spirit
to live a holy life
because you're worthy of it.
Jesus, we love you.
Help us love you more.
In your name I pray. Amen.
Listen, I love you, church.
You're doing a good job
going through the book of Matthew.
We haven't even gotten the tough stuff
of Matthew 18 yet.
Next week
we're going to wrap up Matthew 18.
And Jesus is going to keep
putting the throttle down.
So so here's my read, Matthew 18
over and over and over again this week.
Let it live inside
and come to life within you.
Read it over and over and let's meet
next week and really impact the
the heart and the meat of this thing
in the last part of Matthew 18.
The good.
All right, stand up
church, let's sing one more song.