Should The Church Kick People Out?
Memory Verse: 'I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. '
John 10:9
Sermon Sentence: As followers of Jesus, we must be extremely careful with God’s word, using it to bring people to God, not hoping to push them away from Him.
John 10:9
Sermon Sentence: As followers of Jesus, we must be extremely careful with God’s word, using it to bring people to God, not hoping to push them away from Him.
Day 1
Read 1 Corinthians 5:1-13
This chapter makes me think of a lot of the scandals that we have seen played out in the news. Someone is caught in an affair of some sort and news articles all point out that everyone is shocked that this person was doing this. Then we start to hear the rumors of how everyone in their circles knew it was all going on and just didn’t say anything. From our place of disconnect, we wonder how in the world that could be something that is happening in real life and why people don’t seem to speak up too often. This story reads like that news story to me.
How could this be happening in a church? Why would no one really even say anything at all? Those are questions that we don’t get the answer to here, but there are certainly answers that could have been given. This story is not told with those blanks filled in and so we can’t get lost in those details. The details we are supposed to get lost in are the ones that we are given. This story was not recorded in the collection of the Bible so that we are aware that it happened one day, a long time ago. There is something to be learned here. It is the job of the reader to meditate on that and try to work through the part that God intended for us to get here. Make sure you study the principles: the Bible’s view of sin and the church’s response to that. Make sure you see Paul’s adamant stance for the Holiness of God’s people in light of the culture that is opposite that. Notice Paul’s strong line between the way the world is supposed to be and the way the church is supposed to be. Because when we focus on those things, we can start to see the lessons that apply to those sins that we have given a lesser place to and are dealing with in our own lives.
What does Paul mean by “a little leaven leavens the whole lump?”
What good does removing this situation from the church do for the church and the person that is at fault?
How can you know the line of how far you can apply this idea to all the other sins not listed here?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
This chapter makes me think of a lot of the scandals that we have seen played out in the news. Someone is caught in an affair of some sort and news articles all point out that everyone is shocked that this person was doing this. Then we start to hear the rumors of how everyone in their circles knew it was all going on and just didn’t say anything. From our place of disconnect, we wonder how in the world that could be something that is happening in real life and why people don’t seem to speak up too often. This story reads like that news story to me.
How could this be happening in a church? Why would no one really even say anything at all? Those are questions that we don’t get the answer to here, but there are certainly answers that could have been given. This story is not told with those blanks filled in and so we can’t get lost in those details. The details we are supposed to get lost in are the ones that we are given. This story was not recorded in the collection of the Bible so that we are aware that it happened one day, a long time ago. There is something to be learned here. It is the job of the reader to meditate on that and try to work through the part that God intended for us to get here. Make sure you study the principles: the Bible’s view of sin and the church’s response to that. Make sure you see Paul’s adamant stance for the Holiness of God’s people in light of the culture that is opposite that. Notice Paul’s strong line between the way the world is supposed to be and the way the church is supposed to be. Because when we focus on those things, we can start to see the lessons that apply to those sins that we have given a lesser place to and are dealing with in our own lives.
What does Paul mean by “a little leaven leavens the whole lump?”
What good does removing this situation from the church do for the church and the person that is at fault?
How can you know the line of how far you can apply this idea to all the other sins not listed here?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
Day 2
Read Romans 1:18-32
The wrath of God is not something that is talked about much. I wonder if it is something that you have given much thought to. If God loves as intensely as we say, or as John 3:16 says, then He must also have a wrath of an opposite passion as well. I don’t know how you process what it means that God has wrath, but notice what this section of scripture says. The wrath of God is not flippantly or meaninglessly unloaded when He just feels like letting off some steam. It is against the unrighteousness of man. Against all ungodliness. Unrighteousness has to be the absence of righteousness. So the complete emptiness of that which God contains and gives. God is righteous and He makes us righteous in Him. It is not that we are just not making the mark that He expects of us, but that we reject that very thing He gives us. It is one thing to not be able to make it to the mark, it is another thing totally to just choose not to even take what is offered to us freely. There is no way then to be unrighteous than to reject and despise God. Those things that can be known about God, are plain to us.
So the rest of this passage becomes an explanation of what ungodliness is like in practical terms. The end of this section explains to us the ultimate wrath of God. When God finally backs off and gives us exactly what it is that we wanted…ungodliness. The problem with ungodliness is that God gives life and therefore the less godliness we have, the less life we experience.
How would you explain the wrath of God to a person that is not familiar with the Bible?
Do you think that the idea of a loving God could exist without the idea of wrath?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
The wrath of God is not something that is talked about much. I wonder if it is something that you have given much thought to. If God loves as intensely as we say, or as John 3:16 says, then He must also have a wrath of an opposite passion as well. I don’t know how you process what it means that God has wrath, but notice what this section of scripture says. The wrath of God is not flippantly or meaninglessly unloaded when He just feels like letting off some steam. It is against the unrighteousness of man. Against all ungodliness. Unrighteousness has to be the absence of righteousness. So the complete emptiness of that which God contains and gives. God is righteous and He makes us righteous in Him. It is not that we are just not making the mark that He expects of us, but that we reject that very thing He gives us. It is one thing to not be able to make it to the mark, it is another thing totally to just choose not to even take what is offered to us freely. There is no way then to be unrighteous than to reject and despise God. Those things that can be known about God, are plain to us.
So the rest of this passage becomes an explanation of what ungodliness is like in practical terms. The end of this section explains to us the ultimate wrath of God. When God finally backs off and gives us exactly what it is that we wanted…ungodliness. The problem with ungodliness is that God gives life and therefore the less godliness we have, the less life we experience.
How would you explain the wrath of God to a person that is not familiar with the Bible?
Do you think that the idea of a loving God could exist without the idea of wrath?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
Day 3
Read 1 Corinthians 6:9-20
I want to leave most of this passage for us to meditate on. For me, the key is verse 11 for the follower of Jesus. What is being described and explained here is not a part of the follower of Jesus life. So many times I have heard of people reading verses like 9-10 and wondering how we could declare that God is loving, because what about the people that struggle with these things? Verse 11 gives the answer to this puzzle. To follow Jesus means to repent from sin. So it doesn’t matter what the list is, the point is the same. Does a liar go to Heaven? Well no. Because a liar is still a liar. It is not the lie they told that day that would send them to Hell, it is their refusal to admit that they are liars and need to be followers of Jesus, people of truth. Does that mean the saved liar will never lie again? That is not what Paul is trying to argue here. He is simply explaining that repentance and following Jesus means that we have left the old behind and are moving toward the new.
What is something that you learned from reading this passage carefully?
How would an understanding of this passage have helped you in the past?
What does it mean that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit within you?
How does this become your prayer today?
I want to leave most of this passage for us to meditate on. For me, the key is verse 11 for the follower of Jesus. What is being described and explained here is not a part of the follower of Jesus life. So many times I have heard of people reading verses like 9-10 and wondering how we could declare that God is loving, because what about the people that struggle with these things? Verse 11 gives the answer to this puzzle. To follow Jesus means to repent from sin. So it doesn’t matter what the list is, the point is the same. Does a liar go to Heaven? Well no. Because a liar is still a liar. It is not the lie they told that day that would send them to Hell, it is their refusal to admit that they are liars and need to be followers of Jesus, people of truth. Does that mean the saved liar will never lie again? That is not what Paul is trying to argue here. He is simply explaining that repentance and following Jesus means that we have left the old behind and are moving toward the new.
What is something that you learned from reading this passage carefully?
How would an understanding of this passage have helped you in the past?
What does it mean that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit within you?
How does this become your prayer today?
Day 4
Read Genesis 19:1-22
If you are new to the Bible, you are probably pretty concerned about what you just read! If you have been here before, you probably are STILL pretty concerned with what you just read! What an awful story! I hate it every time I read it and I think that is a really good response to it. You may even be thinking that maybe some of those words you just read mean something else in the Bible language, and they do not. This story is sick. Lot, Abraham’s nephew, and his family, had found themselves in a really dark and terrible place. The moral fabric of the society was about as disgusting and low as it could get, highlighted by this story. God was done with them and was ready to bring judgement against them. But in light of God’s promise to Abraham and how Lot had become wrapped up in that promise as well, God was going to save Lot and his family. We will read the second half of the story tomorrow, but you should see this part of the story as an illustration of the sin’s final result. It is not good. It is destructive and spirals to an end. God does not want or hope for life in this way, because it only spreads. You may wonder where I get that part of the story from in this much, but we will see it tomorrow. Lot was not living in a good spot and God’s compassion was to absolutely deal with the sin, but also absolutely offer compassion to His people that are caught in the middle of it. That does not mean that Lot has no responsibility for where he has found himself. A careful reading of the story before this proves that out. But Lot’s poor choices are still overshadowed by God’s compassion for keeping His word while also being Good and Just.
The story is a great metaphor. In it we see how God wants us out of the place of sin and brought to the place of real life. And even when it is too late (spoiler alert for tomorrow!) God’s grace goes even further than our chances. So don’t live in the place of sin. Get out and flee from it. God has not called you to that, He doesn’t want you there, and there is no life where you think you may be trying to make a life.
Why do you think Lot is living here?
Do you see God’s approach as compassionate as it is seen in this story alone?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
If you are new to the Bible, you are probably pretty concerned about what you just read! If you have been here before, you probably are STILL pretty concerned with what you just read! What an awful story! I hate it every time I read it and I think that is a really good response to it. You may even be thinking that maybe some of those words you just read mean something else in the Bible language, and they do not. This story is sick. Lot, Abraham’s nephew, and his family, had found themselves in a really dark and terrible place. The moral fabric of the society was about as disgusting and low as it could get, highlighted by this story. God was done with them and was ready to bring judgement against them. But in light of God’s promise to Abraham and how Lot had become wrapped up in that promise as well, God was going to save Lot and his family. We will read the second half of the story tomorrow, but you should see this part of the story as an illustration of the sin’s final result. It is not good. It is destructive and spirals to an end. God does not want or hope for life in this way, because it only spreads. You may wonder where I get that part of the story from in this much, but we will see it tomorrow. Lot was not living in a good spot and God’s compassion was to absolutely deal with the sin, but also absolutely offer compassion to His people that are caught in the middle of it. That does not mean that Lot has no responsibility for where he has found himself. A careful reading of the story before this proves that out. But Lot’s poor choices are still overshadowed by God’s compassion for keeping His word while also being Good and Just.
The story is a great metaphor. In it we see how God wants us out of the place of sin and brought to the place of real life. And even when it is too late (spoiler alert for tomorrow!) God’s grace goes even further than our chances. So don’t live in the place of sin. Get out and flee from it. God has not called you to that, He doesn’t want you there, and there is no life where you think you may be trying to make a life.
Why do you think Lot is living here?
Do you see God’s approach as compassionate as it is seen in this story alone?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
Day 5
Read Genesis 19:23-38
After many years of ministry and sitting with people, there is rarely a thing that I hear that surprises me. What I have learned over the years is that there is a story that is way more complicated than every headline seems to declare. What I mean by that, is that when you spend time sitting with people in their chaos and lives they are struggling through, there is rarely a time that you can’t find a place to be at least somewhat empathetic with how they ended up where they are and why they are acting like they are.
But this story I still struggle with. Is there more to the story? Surely…but I have enough too. It is the Bible, so surely nothing is misrepresented! So the destruction comes. And it stinks, but it makes some sense too. The rest of the story has to be considered with those thoughts as well. The thought in light of the destruction that God is bringing is: maybe if we get people that shouldn’t really be there out, then they will be saved. So after the story of Lot leaving town is told, we see the hesitation from his wife, and then the tragedy. From here our minds can speculate that maybe she didn’t really want to leave. When the dramatic music slows down and it feels like they are far enough out of town, the reader will begin to speculate that they made it out and are safe for the rest of the story. But remember, the destruction was coming because of the perversion that was in the town. So the chapter ends like a horror movie where we thought the villain had died and in the closing scene something dramatic unfolds to give the idea that there is more to the story. Such is our story here. The closing scene tells a disgusting story of incest that leaves the reader wondering what in the world just happened.
I am sure you are disturbed. I am sure you are confused. The takeaways are not too difficult to unpack, but clearly there is a consideration of Lot’s wife that we are supposed to meditate on. We can’t look back. We can’t second guess if what we are being saved from is really worth giving up. It is. It was bad back there and it will always be. So don’t go back. Don’t entertain the thoughts.
But then, just know that the problem is in our hearts. It was not the “town” or the “circumstances” or “those people.” We were part of the problem. We can be the problem here if we allow the sins or the logic that those people “over there” allowed to make the decisions they made. And there is so much more in this story.
How does this story apply to your life today?
What are the things that you are taking away as lessons in this story?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
After many years of ministry and sitting with people, there is rarely a thing that I hear that surprises me. What I have learned over the years is that there is a story that is way more complicated than every headline seems to declare. What I mean by that, is that when you spend time sitting with people in their chaos and lives they are struggling through, there is rarely a time that you can’t find a place to be at least somewhat empathetic with how they ended up where they are and why they are acting like they are.
But this story I still struggle with. Is there more to the story? Surely…but I have enough too. It is the Bible, so surely nothing is misrepresented! So the destruction comes. And it stinks, but it makes some sense too. The rest of the story has to be considered with those thoughts as well. The thought in light of the destruction that God is bringing is: maybe if we get people that shouldn’t really be there out, then they will be saved. So after the story of Lot leaving town is told, we see the hesitation from his wife, and then the tragedy. From here our minds can speculate that maybe she didn’t really want to leave. When the dramatic music slows down and it feels like they are far enough out of town, the reader will begin to speculate that they made it out and are safe for the rest of the story. But remember, the destruction was coming because of the perversion that was in the town. So the chapter ends like a horror movie where we thought the villain had died and in the closing scene something dramatic unfolds to give the idea that there is more to the story. Such is our story here. The closing scene tells a disgusting story of incest that leaves the reader wondering what in the world just happened.
I am sure you are disturbed. I am sure you are confused. The takeaways are not too difficult to unpack, but clearly there is a consideration of Lot’s wife that we are supposed to meditate on. We can’t look back. We can’t second guess if what we are being saved from is really worth giving up. It is. It was bad back there and it will always be. So don’t go back. Don’t entertain the thoughts.
But then, just know that the problem is in our hearts. It was not the “town” or the “circumstances” or “those people.” We were part of the problem. We can be the problem here if we allow the sins or the logic that those people “over there” allowed to make the decisions they made. And there is so much more in this story.
How does this story apply to your life today?
What are the things that you are taking away as lessons in this story?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
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