I just wanted to send out a quick note to inform you about the rest of this school year.

We will be wrapping up our regular meetings on June 5th with our annual bonfire. We normally start a little later that evening and go a little later as well. It’s always more fun to have a bonfire when its a little darker.

We will also be attending Milaca’s Baccalaureate on May 22nd at 7:30pm. This means that we will not be meeting at church that night, but will be encouraging our group to head up to Milaca and support our seniors.

On another note, we will be hosting a Winter Retreat Follow-Up bonfire at Jason and Rachel’s house on May 17th. If you went on the Winter Retreat, we would like you to show up and reminisce about the weekend. We would also like to hear how things have been going over the last couple months. We will start the bonfire at 6pm and it will go till 8pm. Hope to see everyone there that night.

Other than that, the year will go on as normal. We will be stepping back our youth activities over the summer, as usual. We encourage small groups to be intentional about getting together throughout the summer and we also encourage our youth to be intentional about getting together. We will also have the summer calendar to hand out at the Year End Bonfire.

Hope you’ve all had a great school year and I know you’re ready for summer!

     A little over 20 years ago on a cold Minneapolis evening, Marlon Green found himself in a situation that he never expected to be in. He was 16 years old and had decided to head out to a party with a bunch of friends. After hanging out for a while, he noticed an older guy hanging around the party. The guy was 21 years old. His name was Laramuin Byrd. Eventually the two got into a heated argument. They were both a little drunk and both were very agitated. They kept going back and forth with each other. Neither of them would back down. In the middle of this battle Green noticed Byrd reach for something. Assuming it was a gun, Green decided to strike first. He pulled his gun out and Byrd three times in the upper body and then finished him off after he fell to the floor. At sixteen years of age, Green was a murderer. Eventually he was convicted of 25 ½ years in prison for manslaughter.

     Can you imagine what was running through his head? How much farther can you fall? You just took the life of someone’s child. What about Byrd’s mom? Can you imagine how she reacted? She said, “I was full of hatred. I saw him as an animal. I wanted him caged. I wanted him to be locked up for the rest of his life. That was justice for me.” I can’t even come close to understanding how she felt. Back to Green. Do you think he saw himself as anything more than an animal? Did he see himself differently than Byrd’s mom saw him?

     Years later after Green had spent a significant time in prison, Byrd’s mom scheduled an appointment to meet with him. He said that he was hesitant to meet with her–I wonder why–but thought it might help bring her closure. In that meeting Byrd’s mom looked at Green and told him that she forgave him for what he had done. Before the meeting was over they were holding onto each other and Green said, “You will be the one to help me cry.” Can you imagine how Green felt after that meeting? That massive weight that had been on his shoulders for so many years, could now be lifted off. Now, he calls Byrd’s mom his second mom and she sees him as her child.

     I want you to keep that story in mind as we dive into the catechism tonight. Last time we finished up the second section of the catechism. For those of you who don’t know, the catechism is broken into three sections: the first section is called guilt; the second section is called grace; and the third section is called gratitude. You can see the progression of understanding that is followed. Before we can begin any part of this journey, we need to understand our guilt before God. If we skip this part, the rest falls short. We will never fully experience the other two sections–especially the last one. Our understanding of guilt should be followed by God’s grace. Out of that should flow gratitude.

     The passage for tonight that I want you to look at is found in Luke. Recently this passage has helped me understand a lot about the current state of the church. Hopefully you will see the connection before the end of the night as well. Let’s take a look.

• First, meditate on the sin in your life–This may be quite a downer, but that’s what it’s supposed to be. Begin to understand how much you fall short. Think through all of the ways that you have let God down.

• Then, meditate on God’s grace–This is where we always want to jump, but don’t jump here too quickly. Realize that even though you fall tremendously short every day, God has still saved you completely by His grace. It not a work of you own but solely by God’s undeserved GRACE.

• This should lead to extreme gratitude. I honestly believe that if we do the first two steps, and we are completely honest with ourselves, the gratitude will come and we won’t need to focus on this question of the catechism.. We need to make this a regular part of our lives–a regular spiritual discipline.

Now, what about the role of the coach? The coach’s job is to help you to become the best speaker/player that you can be and to help the team function better as a whole. What are some ways that the coach accomplishes this task? They encourage you. They challenge you. They have practices and drills that help you work as a team. If you aren’t doing something correctly, they will show you the right way to do it. They will give you tips on how to improve. After listening to these things, would a coach be a good coach, if they never corrected the things you did wrong? Of course not. They wouldn’t be teaching you anything. How about a player? If one of your teammates noticed that you could do your job better, should they tell you? Of course they should. Everyone on the team wants to become the best they can be. Why wouldn’t you want to get advice?

You probably already understand where I’m going with this message, but I think it’s very important to put it into perspective. As you listen to our verse for today, keep in mind what I was just talking about. Let’s take a look at it. It’s Matthew 18:15-17.

“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.”

In this passage Jesus does two things. First, he establishes the importance of church discipline. The fact that Jesus take the time to outline this process tells us that it is important. Along with that, importance is established by the strong consequences that come at the end. This isn’t something that we should take lightly. Secondly, Jesus gives us a procedure to follow when moving forward with church discipline. These steps aren’t suggestions by Jesus. This is the process that believers must follow.

What I want to do tonight is slowly work our way through the passage and help you to understand what Jesus is trying to get at. Along the way I will be tying in other scripture references to clarify things and to help you understand this topic better. Again, if you have any questions or concerns, wait till the end. You will have plenty of opportunity to ask them when I am finished.

If your brother sins against you…
This verse doesn’t question whether someone is going to sin against you. That’s not what the “if” is there for. It is inevitable that someone is going to sin against you. When that happens, this is how you should respond. I also want to mention something. The question should arise, “Are we only to practice these steps when someone sins against us, or when we notice sin in someone’s life?” If we were to only look at this verse, we would have to say, “only when someone sins against us,” but there are other verses that broaden out this passage. In Luke 17:3-4 we see Jesus saying, “Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.” In this verse, we don’t see the “against you” mentioned. It only says, “If your brother sins, rebuke him.” This means that the ministry of rebuke isn’t left only to sins that happen against us, it is also for sins that we take notice of.
There is one more thing in this section that I want to point out. It says, “If your brother…” This doesn’t mean your flesh and blood brothers or just males, it means brothers and sisters in Christ. Why is this an important distinction? This distinction is important because we have a different role and responsibility when it comes to our fellow Christians than we do when it come to non-Christians. The steps that Jesus has laid before us are for Christians in particular. This doesn’t mean that we can’t utilize parts of this process with non-Christians, but it will look different. In order to understand this a little better, I want to take a look at another verse. It’s from 1 Corinthians 5:9-13.
I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”
Do you get it now? God is the one who judges those who are outside of the church–the non-Christian. It is our job to judge those within the church–the brothers and sisters. This process is primarily for those who are within the church claiming to be believers.
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.
This is the first step of the process, GO and TELL them their fault between YOU and HIM ALONE. Now, remember what I said at the beginning. This isn’t just in regards to sin that’s been done against you. It is stretched out to noticed sin as well. So this is applicable when you notice sin in the life of anyone that claims to be a believer–especially those in this youth ministry. This group is your primary responsibility when it comes to issues like this.
So, what do we do when we notice sin in an Ignite member’s life (leaders included)? Before I get into what you should do, let me tell you what I typically see happening. Someone notices sin in the life of a fellow Ignite member and they go and tell a friend about it–especially when it is “against them.” Then the buzz starts going around the group, “Did you hear what so and so did?” And this continues to spread more and more until our group is slowly divided into two separate groups–one for each person’s side. This is not how it is supposed to be handled–especially by Christians! Jesus says that you should talk to the person, one on one, by yourselves. Did you hear that? One on One by Yourselves. This means privately and quietly. This isn’t about spreading rumors about the person who has sinned, it’s about helping that person. As a fellow believer in Christ our desire should be to help that person not hurt them. This is why we do it quietly. Nobody else needs to know about it at this point. Give them the opportunity to confess their sin and repent of it, just between you two and God. This is extremely important! Here’s what James has to say about this. “My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins” (Jm 5:19-20).
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.
So what happens if they refuse to listen to you and/or refuse to repent of their sin? Then we bring more people into the mix, but only one or two others. We’re still not talking about bringing the whole ministry into the know on this issue. We’re talking about bringing one or two people in who can help with discernment on the sin. Jesus says we are to do this “that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.” This means that we can’t trust our own discernment and if we are going to bring a charge against someone, we better have sought out the counsel of other people first. This isn’t about running around with our emotions flying all over the place. This is a serious matter and we need to make sure that we are handling it properly. I would recommend that these “one or two others” are leaders in the ministry–at least one of them. If you have approached someone in this ministry about an area of sin in their life and they totally blew you off or handled the situation improperly, that is when you should talk to a leader/leaders. At this point, you still shouldn’t have talked to anybody else about it.
If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church.
This is the next step in the process. If the person completely blows off the rebuke of the individual and the group, then it gets brought before the church. I think this can possibly mean a couple things. There are some denominations that take this passage to mean literally, “the church.” In order to complete this step they will bring the offender in front of the entire congregation and point out their sin asking them to repent. To be honest, I can’t say they are entirely wrong. That is the natural reading of the text. In our case, we bring it before the elders–who represent/lead the church. In this ministry it gets brought before our YMT (which is Ignite’s elders). We are the representatives of this ministry and are in charge of overseeing everything–including discipline.
Before we move onto the next step, let me reiterate a point. The whole point of this entire process is bring someone back into a proper fellowship with Christ–to bring them to repentance. The purpose of doing this is the same purpose that we talked about at the beginning of this message. As a member of the body of Christ, you should be striving to be as close to Him as possible. Therefore you should desire for people to point out areas that you are struggling in. Also, you are a member of this body and should desire for it to be as healthy as possible. Therefore you should be willing to talk to members of this group that you see living in sin. On top of that, the YMT are the coaches of this group. And just as a coach wouldn’t be a good coach if they didn’t correct areas of your game that aren’t beneficial, the YMT is the same. We would not be good leaders if we didn’t help correct areas of your life that are separating you from Christ. The goal of each step is to draw someone into a closer relationship with Jesus Christ, not to bring condemnation!
And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.
This is by far the hardest step in the process. It may be hard to talk to someone one on one. It may be hard to bring their sin to the YMT. The hardest decision that needs to be made comes down to the YMT. At what point do we ask someone to leave the group? If they continue to live in unrepentant sin and have refused all correction from everyone, this is the final step. Remove them from the church. Instantly the question comes up, “Why is that better? Aren’t they being influenced just by hanging around Christians? How is removing them from the good influences better?” Again, the goal of this is to lead someone to repentance. If someone is truly a Christian, this would shake them to the core. The thought of being removed from the body should break through even the hardest heart. Sometimes this is what it takes for someone to realize the depth of their sin. If they realize their sin and truly repent, they should be brought back into the church.
This is repeated often throughout scripture. In Titus Paul says, “As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned” (Tit 3:10-11).  Again in 2 Thessalonians Paul says, “As for you, brothers, do not grow weary in doing good. If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person, and have nothing to do with him, that he may be ashamed. Do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother” (2 Thes 3:13-15). There are many more, but I won’t spend anymore time dealing with them. This is overwhelmingly the practice that scripture calls us to.
Now as we wrap up, I want you to look at your life. How have you handled situations like this lately? Have you followed these steps? Have you loved the person enough to talk to them 1 on 1 first? or did you jump on the bandwagon and hurtfully spread the “news” all over our group? If you’ve done this, then it is probably you that needs to be talked to because you have caused division in our group. How have you dealt with the sin that you see in others lives? Have you dealt with in out of love? or out of pride and hate?

In short, the author is saying that only true Christians participate in the Lord’s Supper in a worthy manner. Why do I say that? Because the description of the person who can come to the Lord’s Supper is the description of a Christian. Now, look at this description with me and see if it fits with your idea of a true believer.

First he says, “Those who are displeased with themselves because of their sins.” This is a distinguishing mark of a Christian. They are displeased with themselves because of their sins. Kevin DeYoung looks at this description and says, “Isn’t it comforting to know that the Lord’s Table is not for those who smile all the time and have great self-esteem, but for those who are ‘displeased with themselves because of their sins?’” This is important for us to remember today. All too often we try to ignore our sins and try to look past them so that we don’t feel bad. This verse says that one of the marks of a Christian is that they are “displeased with themselves because of their sins.” Let’s not overlook that point.

Second he says, “but who nevertheless trust that their sins are pardoned and that their continuing weakness is covered by the suffering and death of Christ.” This displeasure is different than the displeasure of the world. We don’t find ourselves spiraling downward to the point of no return. We are displeased with ourselves, but we have hope in our savior. We may be displeased but we trust that Jesus Christ has paid for all of our sins past, present, and future. That is why we aren’t crushed, yet we can still be displeased with ourselves. This takes us to the next part.

Thirdly he says, “and who also desire more and more to strengthen their faith and to lead a better life.” This line has been retranslated from the original version, and I think the original version is better. It says, “and who also earnestly desire to have their faith more and more strengthened, and their lives more holy.”  This is the kicker for most Christians. We should never be satisfied with sin in our lives. NEVER! There should be a constant tension of hope and displeasure as we live the Christian life. We go through this life displeased with the sins that we commit, yet we are constantly trusting and relying on Christ as we conquer those sins. This description means that if you are a Christian, your constant desire will be to grow closer and closer to the Lord and to live a more holy life. What does that mean? It means that if you are claiming to be a Christian but there is no desire to grow in Godliness, then you need to examine your faith. If you are completely satisfied with your relationship with God right now, and have no desire for it to improve or change your life, it is time to examine your faith. A Christian life means a life that has been transformed by the Holy Spirit and a life transformed by the Spirit seeks God.

How about the last thing that he says? He says, “Hypocrites and those who are unrepentant, however, eat and drink judgment on themselves.” This is the definition of a non-Christian–those who are hypocrites and are unrepentant of their sins. Now, you might say this eliminates most of the church since Christians are stereotyped as being “hypocrites.” I like what DeYoung has to say on this point. He says, “Hypocrites are not those who live worse than they profess–that’s all of us. Hypocrites are those who cannot see, or are not honest about the gap between their talk and their walk…The Table is for those who hate their sins, not for those who coddle them or excuse them or make no effort to turn from them.”  This is a rock solid description of a hypocrite and yes, there are some in the church who fall in this category. The truth of the matter is that anybody who is a Christian should never be called a hypocrite. Ever. Christians admit that they fall short every day and that they rely solely on God’s grace to get them through life. We are displeased with the sin in our life. How can we be hypocrites? The real hypocrites are the ones who say that they are basically good people. They are not honest about the hate/sin that is deep within them. They think they are good because they don’t believe their sins are “all that bad.” Before I get off of this point, I want you to think about DeYoungs last sentence. It is very powerful and should cause you to think. He says, “The Table is for those who hate their sins, not for those who coddle them or excuse them or make no effort to turn from them.” When you look at your life, does this describe you? Do you hate the sin in your life? or do you write it off as “not too bad”? What about coddling your sin or excusing your sin? Does that describe your life? Finally, what sort of effort do you make to turn from the sin in your life? Are you actively trying to overcome it? There are questions that you need to answer!

Back to our passage. What does Paul say after talking about who should come to the Lord’s Supper? He says, “Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.” In light of this message, Paul says examine yourself. Take a look at your life and see if it matches up with the definition of a Christian. In this context, Paul is saying that we should examine ourselves before we take the Lord’s Supper. As the elders are distributing the Lord’s Supper, you should be examining your life. What does it look like? Am I displeased with my sin? Am I relying on Christ for my salvation? These are the questions you should ask yourself in order to make sure you are participating in a worthy manner.

What happens if we don’t participate in a worthy manner? Paul goes on to say, “For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.” By participating in an unworthy manner, you are bringing judgement upon yourself. That’s a pretty big deal. It’s a big enough deal that Paul says, “That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.” This judgement has even caused some to die. This isn’t something to be messing around with. Take the time to examine yourself, and make sure you participate in a worthy manner.

I want to close with a passage from another catechism that may comfort some of you. It is my own translation of it.

You may doubt being a real Christian or doubt that you are prepared to participate in the Lord’s Supper, yet still be a real Christian and not have assurance yet. If you are scared that you are not a real Christian, and desire with all your heart to be found in Christ and to repent of all your sins, maybe you should have assurance. In this case overcome your unbelief and strive to resolve your doubts because this sacrament is designed to relieve even the weak and doubting Christian. By doing this you should come to the Lord’s Supper and have your weak faith strengthened.

I want to end with Paul’s thoughts on the Lord’s Supper. He didn’t see this as just another thing that we did. He said, “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread” (1Co 10:16-17).

We have also had an Android Tablet donated along with 2 flexible keyboards.

It should be a great night of fun & fellowship, along with an opportunity to partner with our ministry as we equip teenagers to bring the message of reconciliation to their schools, communities, and surrounding states.