The Church of Eleven22 - Your Business Is My Business - 1 Timothy - Wk 9

Episode Date: March 3, 2025

How should we honor church leaders while also addressing sin within the church family? In this sermon, we explore 1 Timothy 5:17-25 and the biblical balance of grace, accountability, and leadership. Christian leadership isn't about power—it's about service. Pastor Joby teaches on the importance of carefully vetting leaders, lovingly confronting sin, and having trusted people who speak truth into our lives. This Weekend’s Story - https://youtu.be/Xg5Z_DD3Bhw This Weekend's Deepen Episode - https://youtu.be/RrEIW7Oxy8c  — The Church of Eleven22® is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Eleven22 is led by Pastor Joby Martin and based in Jacksonville, Florida, with multiple campuses throughout Jacksonville and the surrounding areas. To find out more about how God is moving at Eleven22, go to CoE22.com

Amen and amen. Church, can we give God praise for all that he is doing in and through our student ministry? Amen, amen, amen, praise God. All right, if you got your Bibles, you better. First Timothy, chapter 5, we're going to cover verses 17 through 25. This is the ninth week as we've been walking through this letter from the Apostle Paul, to young Timothy, who is the pastor of the church at Ephesus. It's called the pastoral epistles.

You'll see why here, especially, because Paul is showing Timothy how to run a church. And so this is super insider baseball in our church. time together today. So a part of what we're going to do is Paul is going to be talking specifically about how Timothy runs elders and pastors that are on staff at the church, but there's a bunch of application to all of us, all right? And essentially, what he's going to teach him today is one of the most countercultural things you'll ever encounter in your whole life. And the idea is that we're in this family together, and because we're in this family together, your business is my business. And my business is your business. How many have ever heard the phrase? Well, that's none of my

business. Then what are you doing on social media? You liar? See, you don't actually believe it. But there's actually a productive way to go about this. So last week, he talked about how the church, how the elders and pastors and staff of the church, how they honor widows. And by the way, we were able to connect with over 50 widows this week. So thank you for letting us know who you are because we want to love you, serve you, take care of you, et cetera. And so now it's kind of under the same banner of how we're honoring different people. And here he's going to talk about how to honor elders and pastors. And then he's going to talk about how to handle church discipline, especially when the leader's sin.

So that's a lot of fun. But I don't know if you know this, if you're going to be a Christian, especially a Christian leader, you've got to do hard things. You've got to do hard things. It's easy to receive the grace of Jesus. It's very hard to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. That's a good place for an amen. All right. And so if you exist to make other people happy, then you should sell ice cream for a living.

The last thing you should do is try to be a Christian leader. So again, I'm going to be weaving in and out of some specific things that Paul gives to the elders and leaders and pastors of a church. But just know this applies to all of us. Okay, so here we go. Chapter 5 verse 17, Paul says, to Timothy, let the elders, that word there is presbytero. maybe you hear the word presbytery or presbyterian in there. That's where they got their name from. And it means elder pastor.

It's actually three different Greek words that are used that get translated as elder or pastor or overseer. And they kind of get mixed around together. And so they're sort of interchangeable. So it says, let the elders who rule well. Now this is going to be a shocker to some of you, especially the younger you are, the more shocked you're going to be about this. But that's all right. Okay. Hang on over here.

Ready? God is into hierarchy and order. God establishes certain people to be in charge of stuff. It just does. Like in the household code, there's husbands and wives, there's moms and dads, and then there's children. There's bosses and employees. God's into order, and he's into hierarchy. But God's hierarchy is different than the world's hierarchy.

It's very, very different. That God's hierarchy is more about responsibility than rights. The God's hierarchy is it's more about serving as opposed to being served. And in the church, in God's kingdom, if serving is beneath you, then leadership is beyond you. It's not for you.

And in fact, my job, ultimately, is to serve you and not the other way around. You don't exist to serve me. That's not how this goes. It's not like when we do Vision Sunday, I'm saying, here's where I'm going, who wants to help me get there. That's not how it goes.

That God does not give churches to pastors. God gives pastors to serve churches. That's how this thing works. And so everybody on our staff and our teams and all of that, we all exist so that you can discover and deepen our relationship with Jesus Christ. That's why we exist. So let the elders who rule well, and the way we are supposed to rule is we are supposed to rule like Jesus rules.

John, the Bible says that Jesus, knowing all authority in earths, have been given unto him, to show his disciples the full extent of his love. He's at the table doing the last supper with his guys. And the way he was going to show them his authority and the full extent of his love is he didn't preach another sermon, he didn't do another miracle. The Bible says he gips up from his table, dresses himself as a servant, washes his disciples' feet.

This is the kind of leader we serve. This is the kind of, now there was no doubt that he was in charge. Like when he returns and everybody bows down, and peas a little. He's not going to be like, no, get up. We're just, we're all the same. We're not the same. We're not the same. But he didn't count equality with God something to be grasped. He took that leadership and that power and authority that he has, and he humbles himself and he leverages it so that you and I could know God the Father. When he gets done, washing feet, he says, I have set for you an example. You'll be blessed if you do likewise. In Matthew chapter 20,

two of the disciples come up to Jesus, and they're like, well, actually they send their mom. So you can know what studs these guys are, okay? They probably were born in the wrong time. Anyway, I don't have time for all that. We're doing a whole series in the fall. Buckle up, boys. And they're like, hey, mom, will you go talk to him? See if we can both be like senior VP of Jesus Incorporated?

Didn't go good. Didn't go good. You see, anytime we try to leverage God for our positional of authority, it's always really, really bad. And Jesus is like, hey man, the Gentiles lord their authority over others. It shall not be so among you. He says, even I did not come to be served, but to serve and give my life as a ransom for many. So there is authority, there is hierarchy, but it's more about responsibility and serving. So you can have a lot of opinions about this church, and you do.

I've read about it. That's awesome. I will stand before the Lord and give an account for you. That's the difference. So let the elders who rule well, so we're supposed to rule, be considered worthy of double honor. Oh, let's go. I like this. Especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.

So especially me. I like this verse. Y'all should memorize this one. And he's actually talking about financially. In the context, he's saying, financially we're going to take care of the widows and financially we're going to take care of the pastor. We'll praise God for this. I love it.

It's crazy. Some people have asked me what my full-time job is. Did you know that? They literally people say, what else do you do? I just emotionally pray for you. And if you quit sinning so much, I could get some stuff done. Are you serious? And there's all kind of different churches, and there's bivocational men and women out there and all of this. But in fact, when I've told you this before, when I felt called to ministry, we didn't grow up in church. And so like my dad's experience with church and this current thing that is 1122 is very, very different. And when I told him, I'm not going to med school, I'm going to go to seminary. And he said, boy, what's seminary?

And I said, well, let's preacher school. And he said, what? Why the heck would you need a school for that? You only work half a day a week and study one book. Why you need a whole school? I'm like, I don't know, but we probably should go. And then I went into student ministry. I was going to be a youth pastor, which is a part of the reason this church, man,

this church will always, always, always prioritize our kids and student. ministry because I'm just telling you, over 80% of people that become Jesus followers do so before the age of 18. So most of y'all people are, you know, you're worthless, but those students, there's some real hope there. And I was like, well, Daddy, I'm going to be a youth minister. And he said, boy, you don't get up and go to fun. You get up and go to work.

And he's right. He's right. Paul says, he says, let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who's labor in preaching and teaching. and you have afforded me the ability to labor in this. I might be very good, but I work real hard at it. And I realize that it is moderately delivered, exceptionally received, and let me honor you.

You're the best people to preach to on the entire planet. I preach 12 times in six days last week, okay? That's just all over the place. You name it, I've been there preaching. Those people, there are nothing compared to you. When I stand up here and go, if you got your Bibles, I wish you could see it. You're like a bunch of sunflowers. Your face go, and you lean in, and you got your journal,

and you take notes and some of you're trying to step in to the to the bar that amen frank set and i'm and you know you're getting better okay you're getting better this is totally like a two-way thing and sometimes you're like wow why you get so into it you help me okay you help me do this so thank you thank you thank you thank you so i know it's moderately delivered exceptionally received but because you honor me you and because of the staff that i have working with me you allow me to spend the time in the text i'm not working to work this thing out on a Saturday night trying to get ready for the weekend, man, that you allow me, my full-time job and my primary responsibility is to lead this place, cast and fund the vision,

and just labor in this word that every single week, we ain't going to be, they don't like, they ain't like milk and cookies in here, man. We're going to have meat and potatoes and we're going to dig in, and you allow me to be able to serve you that way. So thank you for that. Okay. And I totally feel double honored here? I mean the way the respect to honor the way you you treat us on staff, the way you treat me, the nice words, the emails, the lobby, I have no idea why you stand in the line in the lobby to talk to me. All right, I love you too, man. Thanks. Dad told you to wait in the truck, but I appreciate it. I bet I got stopped 10 times this week in an airport. And so listen, don't stop. Don't stop. Don't stop. Don't stop.

you're never a bother. Your brothers and sisters, we're in the same family. You wouldn't walk up to your brother and be like, I am so sorry to bother you. I know you're busy. Who's not busy? But I got time for you to, the Bible says that we're supposed to encourage one another

as long as it's called today. Okay? And so unspoken gratitude is worthless. And so it encourages me more than you know. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And sometimes. Sometimes I get mean emails, that's fine. But it's, it's, normally don't read them.

Part of the reason is because the meaner you are, the dumber you are and you actually think my email is Jimmy Crackscorn and I Don't Care.com and they go there. It's kind of weeds itself out, so that's neat. But I love it, man. Two weeks ago, I think it was two weeks ago, we have a couple in our church named Bob and Ann Lynch. And I've met them a hundred times.

And one of my favorite things is Bob, always introduces both of them to me and doesn't just assume I know who they are, even though they're vision ambassadors and they're highly involved, and I should know everybody's name and I don't, okay? So I hate it when you go, you remember my name?

Oh gosh, I'm so sorry. I should, but no. So he entered, like two or three weeks ago. I don't know what I was preaching on. I think when I got all choked up about Coach Bulley, and he probably thought, this guy has issues. And so he just kind of, He comes up after a service and says, hey, Bob and Ann Lynch, I go, hey, I know y'all.

And he just says, hey, look at me in the face. And he's older than me. And he kind of pulls the Paul and Timothy thing. He goes, look at me. Look right in my eyes. I look at him. And he just goes, we love you. We love you.

And I was like, okay? I mean, I don't know, man. What's wrong with me? I appreciate it so much. I appreciate it so much. This church, here's some insider baseball stuff. there's so much attack of the bride of Christ online these days about how every church is doing everything wrong and even the phrase mega church has a very negative connotation listen we ain't trying to be mega

anything you know what this city's mega lost how about that when people are like why's it got to be so big who do you want me to uninvite because you're on the top of my list right now my Bible says you tear off the roof to make room for one more. What are we talking about here? The reason it's big because we serve a big God and his desire is to save all people. I mean, part of the reason we didn't, I mean, we didn't build like a 25,000-seat auditorium here

to do this all thing to be about me. We didn't, man. We just move into every neighborhood we possibly can. Let me tell you who loves a growing church, somebody with them one more. Well, they love it. They love it that we got another campus coming to their neighborhood or you can watch online.

So, anyway. So the way this thing is organized, one of the great things about being non-denominational. Some people ask, what denomination are you? I'm like, we're a mutt. We're nothing. So great. Is that it didn't have a group of people

that met 100 years ago to tell us how we necessarily had to be organized. What we did when we planted is just to the best of our ability and our understanding, read the timeless word of God, and then try to apply it to the, the time that we live in to be faithful to how God says organized church. And so there's not a lot of prescription and description in there about how many services to have and what times and all of

this kind of thing. But our church is what we would call staff led and elder governed. Staff led, that means we've got a bunch of people that we have on staff that are like experts in what they do. And then we have a group of overseers to make sure the whole thing, going in the right direction. It's just basically a division of labor. And our elders, right now we have nine elders, including me. I'm the only staff person that's an elder by design. And all of our elders are volunteers and always have been. And this is very important. Some people hear this is a jab. This is not a jab. Our elders are actually old guys that have eluded things. That guy riding up down on the bicycle with the short sleeve certain to tie and the helmet with his friend.

that's not an elder. You can't be a 22-year-old elder. Before the church began to use the word, it just meant the old wise dude in the community that knew more than you do. And so one of the first things I did when we were going to plant a church is I assembled this group of old guys

who had eled things that loved God. Pastor Britt preached only a few weeks ago when it talked about the qualifications of the elders. And so we just kind of looked through there and said these men are qualified and put them together. and there's again we started with forward and we added two then we added two and I'm one and and I don't have enough words to convey how important our elders are to the direction and the

vitality of the church of 1122 there's something in like the the heavenly supernatural of what's going on I remember one time the whispers were getting real loud Grech and I were on a mission trip in Jamaica and we were in charge of delivering the sandwiches at lunch And so it's like riding go-carts up there. It's a live Mario cart. Man, I'm riding the wrong side of the road. We're going up the hill. And we've got all these sandwiches that were taken to a construction crew.

And I look over at her and I'm going, babe, what if I'm just making this whole church plant thing up? She's like, well, you should have told me before now. What are you talking about? And I'm like, seriously, what if it's not like God's plan for our life? And I'm just thinking too much of me. What the world needs is me pastor in a church? What if that's it? And she goes, well, you trust our elders, don't we?

Don't you? We go, yeah? So if you were off, don't you believe that God would tell them and they would tell you? So you could, you take any scenario in our church, and we have a group of overseers, like approving the budget and the decisions and when we do this campus and that campus. We've got a bunch of staff people that work on it all the time and are experts in it. And yet our overseers oversee me and help me oversee our staff to the glory of God and to the mission. and I am surrounded by a staff that is the literal best.

The staff of 1122, you have no idea how talented they are. You should, every time you see a staff member, you should say, thank you, thank you, thank you. You should hug them, you should pray for them, you should high-five them. You should encourage them like crazy. You should give them honor. And half the honor you give me, somebody else on staff deserves it, I promise. I'm just the one with the microphone that gets up here and says all the words, okay? So he says, let the elders who rule the people.

will be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. Verse 18, here's how we know it's talking financially as a part of it. For the scripture says, you shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain. That's Deuteronomy 254. And it's quoted again in 1st Corinthians 9, 9. And, quote, the laborer deserves his wages. Jesus himself said this in Luke 107. By the way, Paul considers the words of Jesus, scripture, as recorded in Luke.

that's a really big deal at some point. We'll talk about that, okay? And so that means we pay our staff. And so thank you for your generosity. And nobody in ministry is going to get rich, all right? There's a lot of ways to get rich. Be it at church, any one of them. But we pay our staff because people make disciples

and people lead people to Jesus, not programs. And we need people to run these kind of programs that make disciples that makes disciples that make disciples. And I want to give a special shout out to one of our staff members named Alex Gonzalez because she runs our HR. Look at her, okay? And she's married to a mustache with a head. Look at that thing.

He's awesome. His name is Armando. He's the first responder, so that's cool. Alex is an expert in this stuff. Because it's one thing to have Bible verses, and then every time the government makes a decision about taxes or what it means to be a contract worker, or we are compliant with all of these things,

and she works with the Bible first and then also in alignment with to keep us legal and me out of jail, she does all of these things in a great, great way. We spend 39% of our budget on staff. That is, you see, you don't know church stuff. That's very, very lean. Most churches, especially big churches, get up into like 50, 55%. And again, here's the thing, man.

People lead people to Jesus. We have 356 employees. Isn't that crazy? Those are the people that we pay to work here. The rest of you, good for nothing. All right. Now, the reason we can be lean is because of how well you serve.

We have 356 staff people. We have 6,802 serve staff people. And you're like, why don't you just say 6,800? Because it ain't 6,800. Those extra two, every single one of those people matter. And the reason that we can be as lean as we can and only spend 39% of the budget on staff is because of how many of you volunteer your time,

to serve the bride of Christ through the Church of 1122. And this is the biblical model. Ephesians chapter 4 verses 11 says this, and he, that's Jesus, gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the shepherds and teachers, consider that like church staff roles to equip the saints for the work of ministry for building up the body of Christ. So you know what this means? That means those of us are at our own church staff. We're not actually in the ministry.

We left the front lines of the ministry when we went to work. church. Do you know what our job is? Our job is to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. All right, now all you were covering Catholics, look at me. I know it's like half of you. I've got shocking news. If you have surrendered your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, you're a saint. There you go. Amen God. There you go. That's it. You're a saint. Call you Catholic grandma. I'm like, hey, I got some crazy news. This year for Christmas, I'm getting you a necklace with my face on it, all right? Saint Ted. Why? Because you have been imputed with the righteousness of Christ.

Your primary identity is no longer a sinner. Your primary identity is that you are a saint, and you are actually in the front lines of ministry. And our job is your staff. It's like a coach. You're on the field. We're on the sidelines. We are equipping you for the work of the ministry, and you're doing a great job. Okay?

So so far, so good. I wish we could just wrap it up, all pat ourselves on the back, but we can't. because then it's almost like Timothy says, all right, Paul, but what if a staff or an elder, what if they're not doing good? Well, this is fun. Verse 19. He says, do not admit a charge against an elder

except on the evidence of two or three witnesses. In other words, there's some serious accountability to being a pastor or a staff member or an elder, but you can't just like, your opinions don't rule the day. There are some guidelines here. And so he says,

do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses. By the way, this includes an online charge. That when people just talk about church leadership, outside of the context of the local church, man, this is called gossip. And Paul puts this kind of gossip. He calls it gang green. I dare you to just Google gangrene photos. Have fun with that.

Put a safe search on because it attacks the extremities. and you're going to get blocked. Okay, so. So the accusations against an elder and against a pastor are very, very serious, and we take them very seriously, as should every church. And we have fired some people over our 13 years. Why? Because they disqualified themselves from ministry.

Some maybe for a lifetime, but definitely for a season. There are qualifications right here in this letter. But they're never disqualified from the first. faith. But there is a different standard when God calls you into ministry. I mean, the Bible warns you. If you think you want to do what I do, you should not, unless God makes you. I'm telling you, man. I don't know if you've ever said, like, the shepherd never gets to hang out in the middle with all the fluffy white sheep. You ever notice that? The ones are just doing great. No, he's got to constantly leave to 99 to go get the idiot that was out there running away.

way again. This is just the nature of it. But nobody's ever disqualified from the faith because of a thing that they do. They may be disqualified from a position of leadership in the ministry, and if a shepherd is dangerous to the sheep, he's got to go. Period. Again, because the church does not exist, like the flock doesn't exist so that shepherd's going to have something to do. The shepherd exists to love and to care for the flock. And if any place ever gets that backwards, they're out of line with what the scriptures say. And even if somebody from our staff has disqualified themselves in sin, then we're going to do everything we can to restore them and do our best to take care of them and their family, because we are a family. Now, for the rest of us, for the rest of the church.

Now, in context, I think this next verse is aimed at elders, but it's applicable for us all. Ready? Verse 20, as for those who persist in sin. If that's you, stop it. You aggravating us, all right? Look at your neighbor and say, stop sinning. Boy, that'd be great if y'all listen to each other. There you go, amen. As for those who persist in sin, check this out, rebuke them in the presence of all so that the rest may stand in fear. Now, this is talking about elders and pastors.

This isn't for everybody. This doesn't mean some church leader sins, you blast them all over the internet because of this one verse. Can you imagine if this is the way we ended our services each week? All right, today we're going to respond to the gospel and we're going to sing and we're going to bring and we're going to pray. And if all the persistent sinners would come up here and we're going to point y'all out to everybody, no, man, that's not what it is. It's not what it means at all. It's not what it means. But if you remember, like in the book of Galatians, Paul addresses Peter publicly because Peter was not walking in accordance with the gospel. He was being a hypocrite.

He was eaten with the Gentiles when nobody was around. He could get him something like pork ribs. But when the Judeaids are from Jerusalem, he was afraid of their opinion. And so he acted like he was too good to be with those people then. And so Paul confronted him to his face. Why? Because in Galate, in the book of Galatians, it says that Peter's misstep in this area of sin was even causing Barnabas to sin. And so this, when a leader is failing, then people follow that leader. So for the sake of the flock, for those elders who persist in sin, you rebuke them in the presence of all so that the rest may stand in fear. Now, this idea of rebuking a brother or sister in Christ is still in conjunction with Matthew chapter 18, but elders and pastors are held to a higher

standard. Okay? Now, here's what the Bible calls us to do. This is crazy. If you see your brother and sister in sin, then what we are called to do is not just pray about it, but to do something about it. And this is the most countercultural thing you've ever heard because every, your whole life you've been told, mind your business. Right? Mind your business. Well, here's it's crazy, man. If we're in the same family, then your business is my business, and my business is your business. See, we're a family. So to rebuke the persistent center, the reason we do this is because we love that person and we love the family of God. Now, the context of this is the local church, not a website, not social media channel.

And the big lie is when you begin to say, well, you know what, that's not in my business. Okay, let me take you something that I've taught you about a hundred times. And when everybody gets on this, we can move on to the next subject, okay? Do you have four mat carriers in your life? Do you have four corner toters in your life? Do you have some people in your life that you have said when I find myself on the mat and at some point, we're all going to be on the mat? This is Mark Chapter 2. There was a paralyzed guy on the mat. Some of you at some point, physically, financially, relationally, emotionally, spiritually, you're going to find yourself on the mat and you're going to be paralyzed and you're not going to be able to help you. Do you have four people in your life that will pick up a corner,

of your life and tote you to Jesus. And when they hit the obstacle, they don't stop there, but tear off the roof so they can get you to Jesus. Write them down. Write the names down. And if you don't, you're not doing it right. And you can't just think about

who they might be in your heart. The moment you know who these people are, you have to deputize them. This is so important. You should tell them out loud, you're my mat carrier. And they're like, what's that mean? Share this sermon.

And what you're saying is, listen, if you see me in my life heading in a direction that's going to go off a cliff instead of being obedient to the voice of the good shepherd in my life, I want you to love me more than you love what I think about you, and I'm giving you permission, I'm deputizing you. I want you to go, whoa, you told me to do this. The way you're talking to your wife's not good, dude. That financial decision that you want to make doesn't seem to line up with what the script. says about how to honor God with your money. I think this thing you're about to do is illegal, dude. Don't do it. I'm telling you, man. You need at least four. I got eight, but I'm twice as bad as you, so I got eight guys. Give them permission.

Why? The Bible says the church is a body. Can you imagine if your foot was, something was wrong with your foot? And your brain thought. somebody would do something about that foot. You dummy. You dummy. It's your foot. Look around, man. This is the body of Christ. All kind of different service times and places and whatever. We're one body. We're one family. If the enemy can convince you when you feel something about somebody, Tammy's ruining her life. Oh, well, you've done everything you can do because you feel the feels.

Nope. You have to do something about it. Now listen, it works way better when you have pre-agreed on who is going to have that kind of input in your life. It typically doesn't go good. It's just some rando. It's like, hey, can I spend a minute with you and tell you what a sinner you are? But who are you again? Oh, I go to the Thursday night at Fleming Island and I thought I'd just, you know, I'm on Sin Patrol for 1122. That's my job. Sweet. I'm telling you, and if you're excited about this right now, you should just pray about it, okay? This should terrify you. And the worst thing that you can do, this is the dumbest thing, because you see it all the time, it's pride taking over. It's the pride of life. Is that you feel good right now because everything in your life is going okay. At least your private sins aren't public, so you're like, okay, hey, Ted, I want you to be my Mac carrier.

He's like, all right, I'll do it. And then six weeks from now, he's like, hey, I've been meaning to talk to you. and he begins to point out something in your life, and then you stiff-arm him from the thing that you ask him to do, you dummy, he's never going to do it again. Because what he goes is, oh, you weren't being serious. Oh, okay, I got the rules to the game. I can play your game.

No, we'll just die of finitis, and it'll be fine. Oh, it's just fine. Everything's fine, okay? It's invite people into your life, and then, here's another truth, man. We talked about it during the Galatian series. You'll never be free until you learn how to be honest. You'll never be free until you... learn how to be honest. I hope you have a lot of people in your life. And your spouse should be one

of the first ones. Invite them in. You know what Gretchen knows about running a church? Nothing. She's got the best advice of anybody of you, though. I mean, just the other month ago or something, she was like, hey, there's this particular staff person. And I know you're being clear and I know you're being direct, but you should probably show a little more grace to that person. you know what I said? Yes, ma'am. Not because I'm scared. Because I'm trying to, if I go, do you know,

you want to lead a church? What did you plan a church? The moment I stiff arm, her, she's going to go, oh, wow. I mean, I love him. I want what's best for him. I know him better than anybody. And I'm the least impressed person on the planet

because I know him. But if he don't want to hear this, okay, I want to be the best pastor I can be. In our Deepen podcast, I think it was last week. Pastor Ryan Britt said these words. rebuking others is a reserve responsibility, but encouraging is a command that we all share. There's some teeth to that. So I'm not unleashing you to have the spiritual gift of rebuke, you know. Just be walking around your skirts too short and that music's sinful and quit.

This works way better when you were in a gathering in a relationship with other people, a disciple group. You've got some Mac carriers and you're inviting these people into your life. Matthew 18 is the model. Matthew 18 is the model. In Matthew 18 beginning in verse 15, the Bible says, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If the church did this, everything changed.

First of all, there's a bunch of questions. I preached on it for a long time last year. But if your brother, the first question you have to ask when somebody sins is, is this person my brother or not? I don't know why in the world. We're terrible about this in the South. we try to hold a lost world to some kind of Christian standard that they never signed up for. If this person is not your brother, you need to have an evangelism conversation, not a reconciliation

conversation. First and foremost, they need to be forgiven of all of their sins against an almighty God, not just the one sin against you. Then it says if your brother sins against you, is it actually a sin? Or are they just getting on your nerves? I've looked at the whole proverbs. There's no verses about confront those that get on your nerves. Is it your own person? Is it your own subjective likes and dislikes that they are doing or did they break a law of God if your brother sins against you Some of you have the spiritual gift of being offended for other people Stop it now here. Here's what most of us do right here like okay like so Tammy's in your group and you love Tammy and she's about to ruin her life Because she just came into a group. She's like I met a guy and he's great and you're like I know that guy he ain't great

And in that moment you begin here's what you're praying dear God. I pray somebody would do something about that And God's like, yeah, I was kind of thinking the same thing. You're the somebody. I mean, virtually every single time in my life, God has walked me down. He didn't write a message in the sky. He didn't give me some sort of revelatory dream. It came through a brother or sister in Christ that God had sent into my life. To do, not just feel, not just pray, go and tell him as false.

between you and him alone and if he listens to you you have gained your brother praise god sometimes it works you know why jesus keeps going it hardly ever goes that way 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 this is this is not a confrontation this is an objective third party this is why a disciple group matters so much this is why we push against age-graded disciple groups too we don't just don't want all you 20 you're sitting together the amount of the concentration of in one living room is astounding. That's why even in 1825, we got some grown people in there with you to be like,

all right, Tammy, relax, okay? If you refuse to listen to them, tell it to. The English translation is the church, but the problem is it wasn't a church yet. That word is ecclesea, the gathering. This would be more like tell it to your disciple group, like the people that know you and love you and are for to you, that they could get involved. And if that person reviews is to listen, listen,

to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Now, I've heard it preach that if somebody's sinning and you tell them, hey, quit sinning and they're like, I ain't going to quit sinning. Then you say, get out. That's not what you do. How did Jesus treat the Gentile and the tax collector? Love and grace, spoke truth. Did he let them be in charge of anything?

Nope. The standards for the qualifications for leadership in the church are not diminished. But grace is extended to everyone. Listen, is there somebody in your mind right now and you're like, oh, no, there's somebody that I need to go talk to? Maybe share this sermon first, kind of warm them up, greased the wheel. There's a big difference between judgmentalism and loving somebody and pointing out sin in their life. one you lower yourself and humble yourself to lift them up and point them to Jesus in judgmentalism you put them down and lift yourself up and point to yourself that's the fundamental difference

and then he goes on to say this all right so he says if an elder sins if a staff person sins if a pastor sins persistent in sin you rebuke them in the presence of all so that the rest may stand in fear Verse 21, in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of the elect angels, I charge you to keep these rules without prejudging, doing nothing from partiality. In other words, you don't protect the persistent sinning shepherd. You protect the sheep. So woe to any church that has done this, and a lot have. And then he says, and the Lord shows up, there's this really famous verse that gets misquoted,

not in our church, because if somebody did this, I would rebuke them. where two or three are gathered, I will be with you. That's not a worship verse. That's in Matthew chapter 18. It says when two or three go to confront somebody in their sin so that they will turn back to Jesus, Jesus says, hey, I know this thing seems impossible, but I'm going to show up in a supernatural way because unity in the church and reconciliation matters like crazy. And you might think this is an impossible situation, but I got good news if the tomb is empty,

anything as possible. And so I'm going to show up and do for you what you'll never be able to pull off on your own. That's not a worship verse. It's a reconciliation verse. So let me ask you this question. Do you have people in your life like this? If not, what you need to do today is invite some people in your life to be these kind of people in your life. And again, you can't just assume it. Well, I'm sure if my brother saw me doing something terrible, he'd probably let me know. No, no, no, no, You gotta deputize them. You gotta say, here's what I'm asking you to do, and I'm happy to serve you in any way that I can too.

Is there somebody that you need to have a conversation with? I mean, do you care more about that person or what that person thinks about you? Because random drive-by guiltings or gossip, they're never effective, are they? So for example, man, the amount of emails I get about how I should and shouldn't preach, they're adorable, they're just adorable, all right?

And here's why. I think this is the pastor Britt line too. I'm going to give him credit this time. Next time I'm going to steal it. And from now on I'm going to say, I've always said. So I heard him say this in some meeting or something. Of all the things the Lord has given you responsibility over, this thing is not it. And so in our church, a part of the role of the elders that we have is they are responsible to oversee the teaching ministry.

And I have a group of pastors on the teaching team and the creative team. and they have input in the way I preach. So if one of those people have input into that, it carries an enormous amount of weight. It's like when I played football and I had a coach, I expected him to yell at me. Why? Because he wanted me to be better so that we could be better,

so that we could win. So I had signed up for him to coach me to be under his instruction so that we can win. The rando in the crowd that was yelling stuff at me that couldn't fit in a pair of football pants since the Reagan administration, his opinion was not very big. When you don't deputize a group of people to say, will you speak to me in my life, then everybody just sounds like the crowd, and you'll have a tendency to not listen to anybody.

But when you've got some people, and you know that they love you and they love Jesus, then it's not drive by guiltings anymore or gossip, that the goal is restoration. And when we have these conversations, Galatian 6.1 says, this way, brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression. You who are spiritual, it doesn't say have a prayer meeting about it, though you should probably pray and get powered up. You should restore him, check this out,

in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself lest you two be tempted. And so do you have those kinds of relationships? Because trust me, at some point you're going to need them. Back to 1st Timothy, verse 20, 22, again, he's still actually in the context of elders. He says, do not be hasty and laying on of hands.

What he's talking about is, I know your church needs leaders, but that should be a long, slow process before you declare that this person is qualified. And so we are actually in the process right now are bringing on some more elders. We have nine currently, me included, I'm one of those, and we're bringing on five new elders. I wanna share you their pictures, here they are.

Good looking group, look at those fellows right here, all right? That's it, man. They've been through about a two-year process. It'd be about the equivalent of getting a graduate level theology degree on what we make them read and write and try to know their character and get to know them. It's Rick Graham and Richard Burke and Alan McCurrick and Dr. Mark Mezzanese and Joby Haskell,

the other Joby. How about that? That all would be confusing. So anybody that's like, Jobie, I'm just going to send it to him. Be like, hey, man, these people don't like you. That's it. Very long process. You should pray for these men.

You should pray for these men. I'm telling you, man, the bullseye of the Christian leader, I mean, the birth mark of the Christian leader is a bullseye. And these men are signing up for frontline spiritual attack. I'm just telling you. And so he says, do not be hasty and laying on of hands, nor take part in the sins of others. keep yourself pure. There's two things here.

In the context of the elders, it's like, if you lay hands on a guy that you haven't vetted for a long time and he's got some kind of sin in his life, and the church is going to look like you're condoning that sin by elevating him too soon, so don't do that. But regardless of whether you're an elder or not, this is true for you too.

Nor take part in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure. Coach Bulley used to tell me this all the time. show me your friends, I'll show you your future. I'm just telling you, some of you, your future doesn't look good because your friends don't look good. And I don't want to tell me they're not pretty. I'm talking about they're idiots, and you're going to be an idiot.

Proverbs says, he who walks with the wise grows wise, but the companion of fools suffers harm. Anybody got a good story about you didn't actually do the bad thing, but they locked you up too because of your friend? Anybody? Oh, I got many a testimony. I was the companion of fools and suffered a whole bunch of harm. You hang out with fools, you're going to be a fool.

I mean, I'm telling you, look around at the people that you spend your time with. That is your future. And then occasionally I get somebody that's like, well, here about pastor. Didn't Jesus hang out with sinners? Totally. You got me. Just want to bring up two things. One, you ain't Jesus.

And every single time Jesus was the influencer and he was never once influenced. So he did go to the party and people got saved. And you went to the party and got drunk. We're not talking about the same ministry. He met the adulterous woman at the well and she got saved and went and told the whole town. You met the adulterous woman and went home with her. We're not talking about the same thing. He who walks all the wise goes wise, the companion to fools suffers harm.

And then this little side note, he goes, hey, no longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach. and your frequent ailments. Southern Baptist, look at that. Lutherans, it says a little wine. Got it? Now, while we're helping each other not sin, don't be a legalist, man. What is wise for you is not salvific for somebody else.

Pay very close attention to that. You've got to love some people to give them good direction. Because it is your direction, not your intention, that determines your destination. I want men in my life that are helping me be a dad and be a husband and be a preacher and just be a man. If I'm doing something unhealthy physically, I want them to be able to speak into that

just as much as if something is theologically off. Then in verse 24, he says, the sins of some people are conspicuous. In other words, like, you don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out, hey, that's a sin. Going before them to judgment, but the sins of others appear later.

So again, in regards to church leaders, this is why we take our time. It's a two-year process. We have these men go through so many things. but this is true in your own life. Here's a part of the problem when we judge people that we don't know is you don't know them.

You don't know them. And so many times what you perceive as great unhealth or great sin, if you actually got to know people, you'd be like, oh gosh, I didn't know that. Well, if I'd been through that, I'd probably be much worse off than they are. There's this really famous thing,

and it's so dumb, only God can judge me. Oh, help you. He's going to judge you. You want to go ahead and take a couple of warm-up classes before you get to him, though. You understand what I'm saying? You don't want anybody to never speak truth into your life, and then the first time you're ever confronted with truth is at the Great White Throne

Judgment and go, uh-oh, this ain't going good. You want a whole bunch of people that love you and love Jesus and know the word to be like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I think you think this is okay, but you have bought into a bill of Goods and let me help you because I love you point out some things in your life so that, so that one day, everything will be different. I mean, I heard this great quote the other day. It was by Dr. Crawford-Loritz.

He's preached here before. He said, when you're a baby, you look like your parents. When you're old, you look like your decisions. Yeah, I'm going to steal that one too, okay? this time Dr. Crawford-Ritts next time I'll say I've heard it said after that I've always said when you're a baby you look like your parents when you old you look like your decisions don't you want some people in your life they help shape your decisions give you ears to hear the voice of the good shepherd this is way beyond right and wrong

this is about life and death because we have an enemy that wants to steal kill and destroy but we have a good shepherd that speaks he says my sheep hear my voice they will not listen to a stranger. And every single time we take steps of obedience in the direction of Jesus. One day, our life is just a culmination of those decisions. Did we reject the voice of the shepherd or did we obey it? You want to be surrounded by some other people, some other sheep and some undershepherds that are helping you hear the voice of the good shepherd and march in that direction. And again, no matter what you're dealing with and trying to hide, it will come to light. The sins of others appear later and you will never learn to be free until you learn to be honest. So who knows you?

So also good works are conspicuous and even those that are not cannot remain hitting. Everything you have in this life, everything you have in this life is either going to bring you regret or reward. The most dangerous thing that you can do that our world and particularly this American culture teaches you is I got this. You do you. Boo. That's it. That's none of your business. All you're going to have is you. What God offers to you is the spirit of God in you and the family of God around you. Not to be judgmental to beat you down, but to help you hear the voice of the good shepherd and mark. in his direction. You see, one of the favorite verses that non-Christians quote,

or Christians in sin, is didn't Jesus say judge not? You would not be judged? Yep. And then the whole rest of that paragraph is how to judge one another. And he said, listen, man, why do you see a speck of dust in your neighbor's eye and you don't see the plank in your own? I read one Jewish commentator, like a messianic Jew, he said that he thinks that that's just a matter of perspective. Like the sin in your life and the sin in my life are the same size, but the speck in my eyeball

looks like a two by four because it's so close to me. And he says, so what you do is before you come in being all judgy, be like, ha ha, pastor told me to tell you, sinner, sinner, sin, you know. So before you do that, the first thing you better do is you better grab your Bible and quit using it like, like, like bono's, and be like, ah, got you. And instead use it as a mirror to be like, uh-oh. and allow this, like, walk in the forgiveness that Christ has purchased for you at the cross. But then it gets going, so that you can help remove the speck of salt dust from your neighbor's eye.

And listen, moms, when your kid's got something in their eye, how do you get it out of their eye? It's real gentle, right? You're like, don't you try that at first? You don't be like, all right, I'm going to smack you on the head. And the centrifugal force of this thing is going to send it to the same. No, no, no, no, no. Some of you went to some head smack churches, okay? That ain't it, that ain't it.

You're like, well, why do I do that? Here's why. Aren't you glad when Jesus saw you and me in our sin and our shame and our stumbling and struggling? Aren't you glad he didn't look down and go? That's none of my business. They'll figure it out.

And so what Jesus did is, the thing is, he didn't have a log in his own eye. to remove. So he placed it on his shoulders and he carried it to Galgasa. And he died in our place to forgive us of those very sins. And then he called you and me the moment we received the forgiveness of Jesus at the cross, the moment we believe when he said, it is finished that it counted for us, that we are reconciled unto God. And then you and I are supposed to be ministers of reconciliation to one another, not to just point out their sins, but to help them hear the voice of the good shepherd so that they can walk in obedience with him. If you want to be a Christian,

you're going to have to do hard things because we serve a shepherd that said, my yoke is easy, my burden is light. My commands, they are so countercultural that you're going to have to die to yourself, pick up your cross, and follow after me. And since God himself is a relationship, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, perfectly submitted love relationship, he has called you and me to be in those kinds of relationships one with another. We have been saved by the church. We've been saved into a faith family, into a church, into a body, into this family. And we need each other. So if you don't have those people in your life, before you leave today, you're going to leave today, should do that. If you need to text some people or if you need to walk up to some people,

that you should have a few people that when you find yourself paralyzed, they would tote you to Jesus. And some of you may have some work to do. And there may be somebody that you see and they are heading their life in a direction that you know it's going to hurt them and you don't just think about it, you don't just feel about it, and you don't just pray about it. You go and you do something about it. You say, hey, I love you so much that I'm going to risk our relationship for the sake of you. And what's incredible is that Jesus himself promises to be among that conversation.

Your business is my business and my business is your business because this is a family business and we're in his family. Would you please stand? Let me pray for us. Our good and gracious heavenly Father, God, we thank you and we praise you,

God, for this church, the church of 1122. God, I praise you for all the Bible believe in Jesus loving churches where your lampstand burns bright in those churches. But God, we're in this one. And you've called us to do this thing together. Oh, Lord, I pray for so much grace and conversations.

God, I pray that the enemy is going to lose so much ground because he had some men and women. He had them isolated. He was kind of calling him out of the herd, getting them isolated, so that that devil that prowls around like a roaring line was about to take some out. But, God, at just the right time, your word comes. And that disciple group, that care group,

is going to surround somebody that's being tempted and tricked by the enemy. God, I pray for some broken and contrite hearts. God, I pray against a defensive posture that comes from pride. God, I get it. That's my natural instinct. Lord, I pray that he would rip all my natural instincts away and that the fruit of the spirit would abide in me and in every single person. God, I pray for courage and not fear.

God, I pray that the fear of man would not rule today. But, God, we would be obedient. to you. God, I pray that this would be done in love. And God, I thank you that we're supposed to imitate you, Christ. And when you saw us in sin and sickness and in brokenness and heading in the wrong direction, you made it your business to come, not just die for us, but die instead of us. And God, because you have reconciled us unto yourself and your Heavenly Father, may we be ministers of reconciliation one to another. And Holy Spirit, we pray you go before us.

We pray that you'll be in the midst of us. And God, we do this for your namesake and your namesake only. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. So church, we're going to respond. We're going to leave out the part where we publicly rebuke the sinners. We're not going to do that. But we are going to sing.

And we're going to sing a song that's all about prayer. And so maybe the biggest prayer that you're praying, for sure, if you know you need to have a tough conversation, that you would pray for the strength to do that, but also that you would pray that you would be the kind of person that would be open to rebuke from a brother. That would be way better than kisses from somebody that's just trying to butter you up. And we would bring our ties and offerings,

and that we would pray. So let's sing, let's bring, let's pray. Let's respond. The reality is everything already belongs to God. And when we give financially, we're acknowledging that we trust him. If you just watch this and feel led to make a donation, text the word donate to 441122 or visit COE22.com slash donate. Your generosity is not only an act of worship, but an investment so all people can discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ.