Restoring a Sinning Brother

This is a pretty awesome sermon I found by Johnny Mac.

We have seen in Matthew 18 how the Lord instructs His disciples in regard to disciplining and forgiving those who sin, having discussed the whole matter of reproving and rebuking sin in being ministers of holiness, and seeking those sinning Christians in order to bring them back to the place of obedience. We also have discovered how utterly important it is to forgive on two levels: first, to forgive with the heart immediately without bearing a grudge; and second, to forgive relationally when the person turns from the sin and is brought back to the fellowship.

Though the areas of discipline and forgiveness were thoroughly dealt with in Matthew 18, there is one one other related area that we haven't really discussed in detail...the ministry of restoration. What do you do when someone sins? You discipline them. What do you do when they repent and turn from that sin? You forgive them in the fullest sense. Then what do you do after they are forgiven? You restore them, taking them all the way back to the place where they were before they fell. The ministry of restoration seems to me to be a vital and final link in the process of dealing with sin in the church.

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Finding A New Church

I have been thinking about finding a new church for a while now. There a number of reasons why I have been feeling like this. One main reason is that my pastor has strayed away from Christ centered preaching to that of prosperity. Now I am not saying that I don’t believe God can heal you or provide your needs. I just don’t believe that Jesus died so I can push a Benzo and never catch a cold. I believe that He deserves the glory whether I’m sick or healthy.

“Hey what’s going on man? I see you’ve been studying a lot. How much you really believe that. I mean I’ll tell you what I believe and why I believe it but trust me it’s not the norm.” –Phanatik, Spare Rituals

I would find myself going home after service and going into long discussions with my wife about what was wrong with Sunday's sermon. It started with me questioning teachings that were presented without any scriptural support. Often when scriptures were used, they were taken out of context. It came to the point where I was no longer being edified. Everyone there is mad cool and I have grown really attached to the department that I serve in. I’ve had the chance to help out in media and even the outreach. But the final straw was when our church invited Doctor, Apostle, Pastor, Reverend Fred KC Price to our church (I will save that for another post)

However this did give me the opportunity to get grounded in the scriptures and strengthen my faith. I began to search out the scriptures for myself to get a better understanding of what I truly believe. I am really glad that God gave my wife a peace about this as well. During this time I was listening to sermons by RC Sproul, Mark Driscoll, John Piper, Eric “Pastor E” Mason, and Justin Cox from P4CM. So when it came time to choose a new church I was torn between Grace Community and P4CM. My wife and I took a trip to P4CM on Sunday and it was truly amazing. Everyone was mad nice and you can feel an earnest heart for the Lord. The sermon was on point and I feel that God has led us here to this new church family.