Why do it? 1. save a soul 2.come to agreement.

First is self-explanatory, there will be no one around to agree if you don't save a soul. Why is agreement necessary? Let's read. If any two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.

Do you like to have your prayers answered? Agreement is a prime ingredient. How can God answer our churches prayers if we aren't in agreement? Even if the same words are coming out of our mouths God knows our hearts, and if we aren't in agreement He is being asked to pit one person's requests against another's. In a war, everyone is praying for victory for their side. How can God answer prayers that are based on human politics? It would be unloving and unfair. Illustrate w/ kids both begging the parent for opposite things. If parent takes toy from one and gives it to the other, what is the parent guilty of? Favoritism, and God is no respecter of persons. He doesn't play favorites, so if we intend to have our churches prayers answered, we'd better seek agreement. Brain tumor man story.

The next phrase, however, casts an even more interesting light on this subject. "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I with them." Can two people in the church agree that they want to have world domination and expect God to give it to them? What sort of agreement is He talking about? Agreement that can be called gathering in Jesus' name. We cannot go around professing Jesus' name and expecting to get our own way.

We can come from the other direction, too. What does it mean to be gathered together in Jesus' name here in this passage? To be in agreement. We aren't praying in Jesus' name if we aren't in agreement, folks. We can't claim the presence of Jesus here among us by this promise if we aren't in agreement. Jesus is there when we come together in His name, and He is not divided!

How do we get agreement? Only if we see ourselves in Christ. We can only agree if Christ is in us when we come together. Christ is there when we gather if we have Him in each of us.

The three areas of benefit from applying matt 18

Who are the four main players or groups of players in the drama of Matt 18?

Straying person, me, church, and 2 or three witnesses.

Which of these groups benefits most from the interaction? Trick question. It's important for all of them. In fact it can be life or death for all of them.

Person who's straying:
They may be saved, they may grow, they may

Church:

The people in it are protected from the destructive behavior of the straying person.

You:

Those who have stood up against evil are much less likely to engage in that same evil. This is the principle of the OT takeover of Canaan.

How far do we take it? If we see our brother eating cheese and we know this is not good for his body temple, do we go and show him his sin? I can't tell you the answer to that. But here are the criteria. First you are trying to save the brother's soul. If it is in danger from too much cheese, then by all means go. Second, you are trying to come to agreement so that you can pray together and God can bless your ministry together. If this is not an issue that is preventing you from coming to agreement in ministry together then perhaps it's not an issue to bring up.

Isn't the Holy Spirit supposed to do this? What is the Holy Spirit supposed to do?

Why one person first?

Confidentiality–what if you're wrong!

embarrassment

Why do this? Is it worth it to confront someone in order to come to agreement? Does it work? Haven't we tried this before?

What was the point of doing this?

save a life

to agree

These are two of the most basic principles on which the church is built. If we aren't in the business of saving souls, what is our business? And if we aren't in the business of being in agreement, I don't know how long you'll be able to call us the church.

Are you willing to make Lockeford SDA Church a place like that? here's what it's going to take.

If we save a life at the expense of agreement, we kill a life. If we agree at the expense of saving a life, what have we agreed to? death.

Children's story about the importance of the inside and the outside. Only things with working insides and outsides are alive.

Do you like your stuffed animals? Which do you like better the stuffed ones or the live ones? Aren't you glad God made everything to be good on the inside and the outside? God is pretty smart, isn't He. Aren't you glad He knows what it takes to make a complete, healthy animal?

Sermon: pray

Does God know what it takes to make a complete healthy church? Yes, he does. And last week we looked at two reasons to follow the principles of Matthew 18 that lead to a healthy church. Number one, to save as soul. Number two, to come to agreement. God knew that you can't have a living church without both of these things going on. These are two of the most basic principles on which the church is built. If we aren't in the business of saving souls, what is our business? And if we aren't in the business of being in agreement, I don't know how long you'll be able to call us the church.

Some people would like to have one or the other. They want to save souls without coming to agreement. It doesn't matter to them whether church members agree or not. These folks say things like, "It's the heart that really counts. All we need is love in our hearts, it doesn't really matter what you believe or teach or do." They don't follow the Matthew 18 directives because they're afraid that someone might get discouraged if corrected and leave the church. That may be the best thing that ever happened to some people. Did you hear that? Don't believe me? Fine, believe Paul. Speaking about a sexually immoral man he writes to the Corinthians in 1Cor5:5 "hand this man over to Satan, o that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord." What does it mean to hand him over to Satan? Keep reading, down in verse 13 he spells it out quite clearly, "Expel the wicked man from among you."

You can't really save souls without being in agreement. If I think it's okay to cheat my brother and still be part of the church, I've missed the point of having a saved soul. In heaven no one is going to have more money or more toys than anyone else, so let's say I'm a saved cheater. When I get to heaven everyone will laugh at me as I try to steal the gold cobblestones from the streets, and I won't get it. Heaven would not be a happy place for me, because I've tried to be selfish in it. If anyone is going to be saved, he will have to be one who has agreed that selfishness is a corrupt way of life. Everyone who thinks differently has missed the point.

You can't have the inside alone. This is why James says, faith alone if it has not works, is dead. You can't separate a true trust in God for forgiveness from a trust that what God says needs forgiving is true. If nothing is offensive to God, nothing needs forgiving, that what is your trust in God about?

Some would like to have agreement, but at the expense of saving souls. Have you seen this in action? These are the legalists. They would like to have everyone in the church behave exactly like them, and they'll use manipulation and shame and everything else to make it happen. And they may get their wish, but at what expense? Souls. In some cases they drive people who are sincerely seeking God away from the church. In other cases they kill their souls right in the pews. They get agreement on the outside, people conform their behavior, but in their hearts they hate it, and they know they're faking. Anyone who fakes it for long dies right there in church, sitting on the pew.

"As long as they're coming to church isn't that the important thing? We wouldn't want them to stop coming, they used to be so regular," as if church attendance somehow is a guarantee of salvation. There will be a high percentage of lost people who are attending church if Jesus' evaluation has any merit. The people who got the greatest denunciations from Jesus were church-goers. In fact, He said that some people, when they become church goers become 2x the sons of hell as the people who brought them into church.

Here's the problem with being afraid to confront anyone for fear of discouraging someone from coming to church. It doesn't really save souls.

It's really too bad that people aren't as smart as God. Some people are mostly concerned with how things look on the outside. As long as the animal looks good on the outside, they're happy. It doesn't matter to them that it's dead on the inside.

Children's story: inside and outside

sermon: prayer

I.	two reasons to confront like matthew 18

A.	save soul

B.	to agree

II.	Which reason is more important?

A.	What happens if we save souls w/out agreement?

1.	what does that look like?

a.	God loves you, you and he don't have to agree about what is right and what is wrong. He doesn't mind if you come to heaven and hurt his family there.

2.	What's wrong with that?

a.	God does care about right and wrong, and he doesn't let anyone into heaven who it wouldn't be safe to have there.

b.	Have we really saved the soul? No.

B.	What happens if we agree w/out saving souls?

1.	what does that look like?

a.	You've gotta do this and this if you want to go to heaven, and if you don't agree with me, you're going to be lost!

2.	What's wrong with that?

a.	What if someone does agree with you just to get to heaven? They stop drinking and stop smoking alcohol and start drinking soy milk. They've changed their behavior outwardly, but what's in their heart? They'd love to go back to the beer and cigarettes, but they're scared to because that would be disagreeing, and people who disagree are lost. Well, it's true that people who disagree are lost. They're not safe to have in heaven, but outward agreement and disagreement is not where it's at. God looks at the heart. And if the heart still wants to go back to the old ways, then God isn't fooled.

b.	Have we really gotten agreement?

One is individual, one corporate, one focused on mercy, one on law, one spirit, one letter, or spirit and truth, or grace and truth,