quoted about confessing sins to one another and praying for each other so that you may be healed
16 Confess your offenses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The insistent prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective.
the man at the Pool of Bethesda, used to illustrate step six and willingness to be made well
1 After these things, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
2 Now in Jerusalem by the sheep gate, there is a pool, which is called in Hebrew, “Bethesda”, having five porches.
3 In these lay a great multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, or paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water;
4 for an angel went down at certain times into the pool, and stirred up the water. Whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was healed of whatever disease he had.
5 A certain man was there, who had been sick for thirty-eight years.
6 When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had been sick for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to be made well?”
7 The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I’m coming, another steps down before me.”
8 Jesus said to him, “Arise, take up your mat, and walk.”
9 Immediately, the man was made well, and took up his mat and walked. Now it was the Sabbath on that day.
10 So the Jews said to him who was cured, “It is the Sabbath. It is not lawful for you to carry the mat.”
11 He answered them, “He who made me well, the same said to me, ‘Take up your mat, and walk.’”
12 Then they asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your mat, and walk’?”
13 But he who was healed didn’t know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, a crowd being in the place.
14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, “Behold, you are made well. Sin no more, so that nothing worse happens to you.”
15 The man went away, and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.
16 For this cause the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill him, because he did these things on the Sabbath.
17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is still working, so I am working, too.”
18 For this cause therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath, but also called God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
19 Jesus therefore answered them, “Most certainly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father doing. For whatever things he does, these the Son also does likewise.
20 For the Father has affection for the Son, and shows him all things that he himself does. He will show him greater works than these, that you may marvel.
21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom he desires.
22 For the Father judges no one, but he has given all judgment to the Son,
23 that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He who doesn’t honor the Son doesn’t honor the Father who sent him.
24 “Most certainly I tell you, he who hears my word, and believes him who sent me, has eternal life, and doesn’t come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.
25 Most certainly, I tell you, the hour comes, and now is, when the dead will hear the Son of God’s voice; and those who hear will live.
26 For as the Father has life in himself, even so he gave to the Son also to have life in himself.
27 He also gave him authority to execute judgment, because he is a son of man.
28 Don’t marvel at this, for the hour comes, in which all that are in the tombs will hear his voice,
29 and will come out; those who have done good, to the resurrection of life; and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment.
30 I can of myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is righteous; because I don’t seek my own will, but the will of my Father who sent me.
31 “If I testify about myself, my witness is not valid.
32 It is another who testifies about me. I know that the testimony which he testifies about me is true.
33 You have sent to John, and he has testified to the truth.
34 But the testimony which I receive is not from man. However, I say these things that you may be saved.
35 He was the burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.
36 But the testimony which I have is greater than that of John, for the works which the Father gave me to accomplish, the very works that I do, testify about me, that the Father has sent me.
37 The Father himself, who sent me, has testified about me. You have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his form.
38 You don’t have his word living in you; because you don’t believe him whom he sent.
39 “You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and these are they which testify about me.
40 Yet you will not come to me, that you may have life.
41 I don’t receive glory from men.
42 But I know you, that you don’t have God’s love in yourselves.
43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you don’t receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him.
44 How can you believe, who receive glory from one another, and you don’t seek the glory that comes from the only God?
45 “Don’t think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you, even Moses, on whom you have set your hope.
46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote about me.
47 But if you don’t believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”
Jesus on anger equaling murder, and leaving your offering to be reconciled to your brother before returning to worship
21 “You have heard that it was said to the ancient ones, ‘You shall not murder;’ and ‘Whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’
22 But I tell you, that everyone who is angry with his brother without a cause will be in danger of the judgment; and whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ will be in danger of the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of Gehenna.
23 “If therefore you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has anything against you,
24 leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.
25 Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are with him on the way; lest perhaps the prosecutor deliver you to the judge, and the judge deliver you to the officer, and you be cast into prison.
26 Most certainly I tell you, you shall by no means get out of there, until you have paid the last penny.
quoted as benediction, that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that your fellowship may be with the Father and his Son Jesus
1 That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we saw, and our hands touched, concerning the Word of life
2 (and the life was revealed, and we have seen, and testify, and declare to you the life, the eternal life, which was with the Father, and was revealed to us);
3 that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us. Yes, and our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
This message was the ninth installment in the pastor's series working through the twelve steps of recovery with a biblical foundation. The focus landed on step nine, making direct amends to those we have harmed, wherever doing so is possible without causing further injury. Jesus's teaching from Matthew 5 on anger, reconciliation, and settling with your accuser while you still have the chance formed the scriptural backbone of the sermon.
What was said
the pastor opened by briefly walking back through the first eight steps, because understanding step nine depends on having the earlier ones in view. Step one is admitting powerlessness over our problem. Step two is coming to believe a power greater than ourselves can restore us. Step three is the decision to turn our will and our lives over to God. Steps four and five are making an honest moral inventory and then admitting what we find, to God, to ourselves, and to another person. Steps six and seven are being entirely ready for God to remove those defects of character and humbly asking him to do it. Step eight is making a list of everyone we have harmed and becoming willing to make amends to them all, and one woman in the first service offered a useful shorthand for that list: everybody you ever loved, and everybody who ever loved you, because those are the people you hurt most.
Step nine adds a limiting clause that makes it harder than it first sounds. The instruction is to make direct amends wherever possible, except when doing so would injure the person or others. Paying back money you stole is straightforward. But some harm cannot be undone by a payment or an apology, and the pastor described a conversation that morning with a man who holds himself responsible for a child's death. Going back to the family in that case would likely unburden the one confessing while placing a new burden on people who are already carrying something unbearable, so the step requires spiritual discernment and, where possible, a sponsor, pastor, or trusted friend to help think it through.
Jesus raises the stakes considerably in Matthew 5. He moves the standard from the act of murder to the condition of anger, and from the act to the attitude behind it, saying that calling a brother "good for nothing" or "you fool" puts a person answerable before God's judgment. The standard he sets is one none of us can meet on our own, which is exactly the point. The impossibility of it drives us back to the earlier steps, back to admitting we cannot manage this ourselves.
What Jesus prescribes is immediate action. If you are at the altar presenting an offering and you remember that your brother has something against you, you leave the offering and go to him first. Reconciliation with the person you have wronged is not optional and not secondary to your religious exercise. You come back and finish the offering afterward, but the relationship comes first. Then Jesus adds urgency: come to good terms with your accuser quickly, while you are still with him on the way, because you will not always have the chance.
Two stories from Ken Sandy, a peacemaker and relational wisdom practitioner who was present at the first service, illustrated what this looks like in practice. One involved two ranchers who had not spoken in twenty years over a fence dispute. One of them left church under conviction the same morning, drove directly to his neighbor's house, apologized, and they reconciled. The other story was Ken's own. He had written a sharp defensive letter in response to a vicious accusation, and years later pulled it out of a file and wept reading it, because though every fact in it was true, the spirit that drove it was wrong. He called the man, who considered the matter already settled, and told him anyway, because the sin was in what had motivated the letter, not just in what the outcome had been. The pastor's point was that amending your behavior going forward is the heart of the step, and that kind of honesty can bring people closer than they were before the original offense.
The sermon closed with the note that Christ works in community and the devil works in isolation. That was the thread connecting the twelve steps conversation to the small group effort happening in the church that morning. Step nine is not something you navigate alone. It requires the kind of honest, ongoing relationship with at least one other person that makes confession real and accountability possible.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages
in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
The pastor talked about how steps one and two need to come close together, because admitting powerlessness without believing there is a power greater than yourself that can restore you is just depression. Where have you seen that pattern play out, either in your own life or someone close to you?
The fearless moral inventory in step four uses an objective standard rather than comparing yourself to other people. What makes it so tempting to measure ourselves against others instead of against God's word, and what does that habit cost us?
Speaker 1Alright. Good morning, everybody. How are you? Good to see you. Some of you haven't seen in a while.
It's really nice to see you. Would you stand up? I'm gonna invite Scott Humphrey if he'd come forward and Oh, he's here. If you're here.
Speaker 2He's
Speaker 1here. I'm gonna ask you. He snuck in the first Sunday he was here in this little foray. He snuck in late, so I wouldn't ask him. But he's been tuning up the pipes for a little while.
He might be a little rusty, but we're gonna go for it anyway.
Speaker 2How's that?
Speaker 1It's not every single night. Every single night. You know, for forty something years. Yeah.
Speaker 2I'm just making a joyful noise with y'all. Amen.
Speaker 1To God be the glory. Would you sing it with us?
Speaker 2To God be the glory great things he hath done, so loved he the world that he gave us his son, who yielded his life and atonement for sin, and opened the life gate that all may go in. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Let the earth hear his voice. Praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord. Let the people rejoice. Oh, to the father through Jesus the son and give him the glory. Great things he had done. Great things he has taught us.
Great things he has done. And great our rejoicing through Jesus the son. But purer and higher and greater will be our wonder, our transport when Jesus we see. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.
Let the earth hear his voice. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Let the people rejoice. Oh, come to the Father through Jesus the Son and give him the glory.
Great things he has done.
Speaker 1Amen. We sang the first and the third. They're good ones. There's a second one in there. Oh perfect perfect redemption, the purchase of blood to every believer, the promise of God, the vilest offender who truly believes that moment from Jesus a pardon receives.
Praise the Lord. That's a good How about victory in Jesus? This goes right along with the sermon series. There is victory to be had and it's in one place. It's in Jesus.
Speaker 2Amen.
Speaker 1Watch it for the key change on the last. I
Speaker 2heard an old, old story, how savior came from glory, how he gave his life on Calvary to save a wretch like me. I heard about his groaning of his precious bloods atoning, then I repented of my sins and won the victory. Oh, victory in Jesus, my savior forever. He sought me and bought me with his redeeming blood. He loved me air I knew him, and all my love is to him.
He plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing blood. I heard about his healing, of his cleansing power revealing, how he made the lame to walk again and caused the blind to see. And then I cried, dear Jesus, come and heal my broken spirit. And somehow, Jesus came and brought to me the victory. Oh, victory in Jesus, my savior forever.
He sought me and bought me with his redeeming blood. He loved me air I knew him, and all my love is to him. He plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood.
Speaker 1Here's a
Speaker 2key change. Oh,
Speaker 1it's not yet. It's not yet. I got it again.
Speaker 2That's right.
Speaker 1It's on the chorus is the key change. Right before.
Speaker 2I heard about a mansion he has built for me in glory. And I heard about the streets of gold beyond the crystal sea, about the angels singing and the old redemption story. And some sweet day, I'll sing up there the song of victory. Here we go.
Speaker 1Song
Speaker 2Victory in Jesus, my savior forever. He sought me and bought me with his redeeming blood. He loved me, and knew him, and all my love is due him. He plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood.
Speaker 1Amen. Amen. Thank you, Judy. Y'all can have a seat. I blew it again.
Speaker 2It's just the way that it goes.
Speaker 1Oh, yeah. This morning, the first service, we had a we had a moment where one of us, who knows? I think it was me. Carl thinks it was him. Hit the wrong note at the end of the song and it sounded like a trash can rolling down a hip.
And as soon as it was over, that's what Carl said. That sounded like a trash can rolling down a hill. I told him step 10 is next week. When you're wrong, promptly admit it. I think it was me.
I know it was me in this service and I didn't do it on purpose, but there we are. Announcements, here we are. Awana clubs. Awana club is starting here tomorrow night, 05:45 right in this room. You see the circle or the oblong circle, the ellipse is on the floor and we are gonna have a lot of kids.
Last week, we had 70 registered kids for this thing. We have about 30 volunteers, so a 100 folks that are dedicated to getting scripture into the minds to reach the hearts of the kids. That's happening tomorrow night 05:45. If you're a volunteer and your family come on down and we'll have something made for you to eat beforehand about 05:15. Children's church happens during the first service and there's a class for lower elementary, upper elementary, middle school, and high school, and there's even a preschool class as a part of the nursery these days.
Men's lunchtime study. It should say lunchtime study because there is no lunch provided. No. It's men's study at the lunch hour, Thursdays 11:55 in the Fellowship hall. Come and go as you need to.
It's a businessman's lunch knowing that you're gonna be out of there by 01:00. It's great. I enjoy it. Carl enjoys it. It's a big kind of midweek bump for us.
We really, really enjoy getting together, looking at the word, praying for each other. It's great. Right before that, there is a ladies precept study that happens. They're covering the book of Mark. Heidi Groesch is kind of leading that, facilitating that these days.
That's her number if you wanna ask more questions. But Thursdays at 9AM, they're using scripture to interpret scripture, so it's an inductive Bible study with the book of Mark. The Sunday school group for adults meets during the 9AM service and here, there is a Sunday school class or a small group class in there in the fellowship hall. Just letting you know that. This morning was small group Jamboreeapalooza.
If you came in after that, there were a bunch of people gathered down the hall just trying to get us all gathered into smaller groups of folks because it's easier to have a life on life experience with one another when it's a smaller group rather than a larger group. Jackson Hole, speaking of large groups, the Jackson Hole Women's Community Bible Study meets here Wednesdays from 10AM to noon. They start out in this room and then they break out into smaller sessions all over the church to pray for one another. 10AM to noon right here. It's a community wide study involving probably five or six different churches in town and it's wonderful.
So it's good. 10AM to noon right here on Wednesdays. Youth group, middle school, and high school is meeting today, 2PM to 4PM on Sunday. Mike always has something fun planned and a great message planned and some interactive time and usually food. So that's happening.
And the small group Jamboreeapalooza is sort of an ongoing effort to stir one another up into love and good works in the context of community. If you would like to help out with meals between services, connect hour like a little breakfast or snack time, coffee time in between, we'd love to have you volunteer for that. And on Monday nights, cooking those Awana meals. It's that time of year again. So if we need more volunteers, if you'd be willing to do that, let us know.
And I think that one's fine. If you all don't want to move up and in, that's alright. Would you stand with me? I'll invite Scott back up. And as we prepare our hearts, I know it's a mouthful, I kinda talk fast for somebody with this heart of a draw.
Can we prepare our hearts for the Lord to show us who he is, how he is, how he wants for us to be. Lord, prepare us to be a sanctuary. Amen.
Speaker 2Lord, prepare me to be a sanctuary, pure and holy, tried and true with thanksgiving. I'll be a living sanctuary for you. Lord, prepare me to be a sanctuary, pure and holy, tried and true with thanksgiving. I'll be a living sanctuary
Speaker 1Lord God, you are holy. The only thing I know of in scripture that is said three times in a succession like this is holy, holy, holy. Now, Lord God Almighty, you are completely other. You are infinite. Where we're finite, Lord, and we have a limited shelf life.
You are the same yesterday, today, and forever. You are holy, Lord. May we understand a little glimpse of your holiness today that we have not seen before. Would you show us who you are? I think of Isaiah in the temple where the whole room was lit up with your presence like the just your robe and the glory around you.
And he just, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. In Jesus name, Lord, may we may we get a glimpse of your holiness. I think that a lot of what's wrong with us today is we wanna experience your love without experiencing your holiness. Would you show us lord who you are? Amen.
Holy, holy.
Speaker 2Of holy holy. Gracious father, gracious father, We're so blessed to be your children, gracious father. And we lift our heads before you as a token of our love. Gracious father, gracious father, precious Jesus, precious Jesus. We're so glad that you've redeemed us, precious Jesus.
And we lift our hands before you as a token of our love. Precious Jesus. Precious Jesus. Spirit, come and fill our hearts anew, Holy Spirit. And we lift our voice before you as a token of our love.
Speaker 1Amen. Y'all can have a seat. I'm gonna invite the usher forward. Maybe I'll get a couple of ushers. Would you pray with me?
God, I'm so thankful to be here this morning. I'm so thankful to be here gathered with your with your people. Humble and obedient servants, Lord. That's what we wanna be. We gather together in your name to praise you, to lift our hearts and heads and hands and voices and all that together.
It is a token of our love. Lord, what we're about to do this offering is sort of a token back of we recognize that you have blessed us with all that we have and we wanna give back, Lord, to just see the advance of the gospel, to see the the helping with human suffering. We wanna see, Lord, you with the priority of the proclamation of your good gospel also meeting the needs of people of a lost and dying world. In Jesus name, Lord, can we be actively participating in the advance of the gospel? Can we be actively participating in seeing people removed from the kingdom of darkness and being brought into the kingdom of marvelous light?
I pray Lord that we would not resist, that we would not quench the spirit, that when we feel you say and move, we'd know we have the power behind us to move. Lord, maybe we'd be unbridled and reckless towards you, reckless towards your will and your way. In Jesus name, amen. Wow. Thank you, Judy.
What a grand song. It makes my first two points actually that Christ has regarded my helpless estate. So for the last few weeks, we have been talking about the 12 steps of recovery. So 12 steps of recovery, I preached through the whole New Testament, I've done the greatest hits here and there, done a few Old Testament passages between those books, but in the last six and a half years, the thing that I've seen the most spiritual progress and transformation in my own life and in a close circle has been these 12 steps. And so I've been making a biblical case for each of the steps along the way.
How many of you before I started presenting them knew about the 12 steps but really didn't know what they were and just kind of heard them and was like, Yeah, few of us. That's that's kind of the way. I I was kind of like that six and a half years ago and when I really thought, I'm gonna take these things seriously because a friend was needing help and that friend was going through and beginning to go through the steps and I thought, I'll go through them with you. Why not? And I tell you what, it made a huge difference.
Biblical basis for it, I think is unquestionable. The beginning group in Akron, Ohio and beginning groups in New York, there's no doubt about the Christian basis in this, but they recognize some stuff that to keep it kind of nonpartisan is very helpful. So we're gonna go through them. I I was in the first service I said, so how many of you just barely knew about them and now since I've done this, this is step nine. I've done this for like seven or eight sermons.
How many of y'all think you could preach this sermon right now because you've heard it so many times? Yeah, I know. That's the way this is going to go. Step one, step one. In the first service, we had that Jamboree a Palooza in between and Nick was going to do a little bit.
We had a guest. There's just a friend in town, Ken Sandy was in town. I'm going try to remember his story and tell it to you. He had somewhere else he had to be during this hour. But step one, we admitted that we were powerless over our problem.
Whatever that problem was, if it's alcohol, it's alcohol, if it's lust, it's lust. If it's, you know, thievery, deceit, lying, whatever. Whatever it is, we admitted that we were powerless over our problem. We all have fallen short of the glory of God. We all have sinned.
John says, if we say we're without sin, we're a liar. Hey, that's a sin. Right? We've got sin in our lives. We admitted that we were powerless over our problem, that our lives had become unmanageable.
That song, although we didn't have any words to it, that Christ has regarded my helpless estate. I can't do anything about this. You sin, there's no way that you can do anything about it, but Christ has regarded my helpless estate and he has shed his own blood for my soul. If we get step one that we can't pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, we don't have any bootstraps, deflation at depth, you just feel terrible and it is depressing, it's very difficult. You need to get through step one and two real quick close together.
I know that I can't, but step two, we came to believe that a power that's greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. I know that capital p power right there is God. I know that. But I also see the utility in allowing someone who is coming with some reluctance that just came into a place of absolute utter humility of realizing they couldn't do it on their own, their life is unmanageable, My life's unmanageable, but there is someone who could restore me to sanity. It's a willingness to believe and it's a seeking after that power that's greater than yourself.
And I say in the marketplace of ideas, Christianity wins if you give it a chance. Christ wins. If you give him a serious shake, he wins. We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity, willingness, belief, seeking. Step three is making a decision.
I can't, God can, I'm gonna let him at step three. We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God. Now, is a decision to surrender. It's a surrender towards the power that's greater than ourselves, towards. And there's a statement of humility that's included at the end of this step that I think is very powerful and helpful.
As we understood him, it is to say, I can't, God can, I'm going to let you but I really don't understand how. It's a statement of humility. I don't know this infinite God as well as I want to. I'm surrendering my will and my life over to God as I understand them. It's still believing, still seeking, still willing, and surrendering the decisions.
Now, he says that if we will do that, well, let's just keep going. Step four. Step four. So turning your will in your life over, what is it that God wants for me? I know I've got a problem I can't do anything about.
Making a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. When
Speaker 2we
Speaker 1look at ourselves, if we're looking around at other people and saying, well, I'm not as good as that guy, but I'm way better than that guy. That's that's not good. That's not good. We need an objective standard. Christ is a good objective standard and we think, oh, but he's Jesus.
Well, let's look at his word then and self examine with an objective standard. For good self examination, James actually, the book of James comes up a lot in early Alcoholic Synonymous literature. It's really, really good. It's very practical. I've always called it the gospel in work clothes.
It's like where the rubber hits the road and self examination is a big part of the book of James. We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. Now, I've been putting this slide up here for weeks and weeks now, it's like ten weeks. And it's almost ridiculous in it's in the list. And it's not exhaustive.
There are sins that might show up in your life that are not this list, but this is a good framework, a good grid to view your life through if you're doing a fearless and searching moral inventory. You can look on this list and you can probably find something. These are mainly from the epistles of Paul mainly. There are a couple others, but mainly from there. Now towards the end of the sermon, we're going to hear Jesus and he makes it even more difficult.
It's not murder, it's anger. Right? We'll we'll hear that. Anger is on this list too. This is helpful because it's an objective standard and we can look at it and in humility, we'll see ourselves somewhere on that list.
Step five, when we do see ourselves on that list, admitting to ourselves that you know what, I am I guilty of that. Enmity, strife, whatever it is, I'm guilty of that. I find it in myself, Lord. Wait, Lord, we admitted it to God. We admitted it to ourselves and we admitted it to another human being, the exact nature of our wrongs.
Now, in a recovery process, they're typically in the group setting and it really helps because you've got a group of people who are struggling the same thing you're struggling with and you can just say, this is what I'm struggling with and like, hey, me too. And it's really, really helpful. Admitting it to God, to ourselves, and to another human being. Now, if you're having a protestant moment here and you're thinking, don't need to confess my sins to anybody else. He can't absorb my sins anyway.
I I know. That's fine. I'm I'm with you theologically but it's still helpful. Step five is confession. Admitting it to God is first.
You're admitting it to yourself as soon as you see it on the list, you know. Is that me? Yeah, that's me. I admit it to God to myself and to another human being. Now, first John one nine says, if we are homo logao, if we are confessing or if we are saying the same thing, if we're agreeing with God about our sins, He's faithful and he's just and he will be forgiving us our sins and he will be purifying us from all unrighteousness.
It's primarily about agreeing with God about your own sin in your life instead of saying, this shouldn't be wrong. You made me this way. Consider this, in our time, I mentioned holiness because of the song. In our time, I think that one of the pernicious half truths, it's not an outright lie. Jesus loves me just as I am.
Yes. Jesus does love you just as you are, but he loves you too much to leave you where you are. He wants to move you to be more like him. He wants to move you to be more like God. Now, that's true no matter what your personal proclivity is, whatever your sin is.
He does he loves you too much to leave you there. If you are agreeing with him about your sin, he's faithful and just, he'll forgive that one, he'll probably reveal some more to you and he'll be purifying you of those two as you humbly submit to him and agree with him. And then, for those of you who are wrestling with whether you should confess to somebody else or not, it really helps. The reason it made it into the steps is because it's one of the most helpful things that you can do is say it out loud to somebody else with skin on them. It's great to pray.
Pray in your prayer closet, that's wonderful, but when you admit it to somebody else, there's a different kind of accountability that comes into play and you've got somebody else praying for you. Be confessing your sins, progressive action in the Greek. Therefore, be confessing your sins to each other and be praying for each other so that you may be being healed. God is the one who's doing the healing so that you may be being healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
If there's somebody who's just a little further down the road of recovery than you are, it's really helpful for that to be them that you're talking to. Right? If they're a little further down the road, and how is one made righteous? In humility, going to God, asking for his will for your life and living an open dialogue with him in agreement. The only righteousness we have is imputed to us based on Christ's righteousness.
Self righteousness is no righteousness at all. The prayer of someone that is righteous, made righteous by God is powerful and it's effective. Step six, we were entirely ready to have God remove all of these defects of character. I say this one in utter in seriousness. If you get through one, two, three, four, five, it's a beautiful thing to know that you're forgiven, to be forgiven, to bask in it.
But you will probably go right back to it if you don't keep in the process. And step six is we're entirely ready to have God remove all of these defects of character. If you want to hold on to it as a part of your identity, but this is who I am, This is the way that you made me. This is mine and I don't want to give it up. Gotta let you have it and you won't move forward and you'll probably be stuck in it and enslaved to it.
If you're entirely ready though, even though you got some excuses. Right? I I preached this one from John five, the man at the Pool Of Bethesda had been there for thirty eight years and when Jesus saw him, he had compassion on him and he asked the guy, do you want to be made well? And the guy gave him a couple of excuses. Well, I don't have anybody put me in the water.
Well, he needed a small group. He needed some people around him. When the angel stirs, there's nobody to put me in. But Jesus recognizes dismay, recognizes trouble, knew that he did want to get better, and he healed him. Step six, we're entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
That is a conviction that this is wrong and it should not be and only God can make this right in me. I'm willing to change. I'm ready for the change. Step seven is asking humbly for God to remove these shortcomings, to take them out of our life. This no longer needs to be a part of my identity.
That's the old creature. I'm a new creation in Christ. Step seven is about humble submission and rebirth. I used Nicodemus's interview with Jesus where he spoke so much about being born again and born from above. Humility before God, agreement about your sin is a place where when you are ready, God can bring you into this kingdom of marvelous life.
He can help you remove these shortcomings. Step eight, this is what I hit last week, Prologue. We made a list of all the persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all. How many of you all? How many of you all made an actual list?
This week, you actually thought about it. I thought about my first grade teacher, I thought about all these different people. Was going chronologically, trying to come up with it. Actually, myself, I've been I've been thinking about this series for a long time. I've been going through this for a while, and I still hit somebody and I think, oh, gosh.
God forgive me for that. I didn't even realize that one, you know. But last week after the service, a very wise person came forward and said, I I can help with that eight. I can help with step eight. Step eight's easy.
And I was like, okay, hit me. This is great. And she said, you can generalize. You don't have to name them by name. Specifically, you just say, everybody I ever loved and everybody who ever loved me.
Wow. Because those are the people you hurt the most, the people that you love. You always hurt the ones you love. I still went with my first grade teacher. No.
I'm I'm serious. Making a list of all the persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all, the willingness to make amends is the important part. It's the willingness to change our behavior going forward. Now, some people see willingness to make amends is just saying I'm sorry, going back and saying I'm sorry to everybody that I've ever harmed. And maybe that's helpful, maybe not.
I had three people say they were sorry to me as they were walking out of church this morning. They hadn't done anything to hurt my feelings. They hadn't done anything. They just thought it was funny, I think. But willingness to make amends is about amending behavior and acting differently in the future than you did in the past.
Right? A willingness to do that. Now, I've put this list up here. I've circled different ones each time, but if you recognize this and you recognize that this is the way that you are drawn to be sinful, I say step eight is about recognizing that there are people that are harmed. There's no such thing as a victimless crime.
If you are loving, you have to be loving someone. If you're sinning, you can be sinning against God or you can be sinning against another person. Oftentimes, our sinning against God is sinning against another person. Relational harmony is difficult to maintain unless we're absolutely humble before God, unless we're allowing him to direct our steps. And so step eight, when you recognize what you've done in step four, step eight is about recognizing whom you who you have harmed.
Step eight, we made a list of all persons we had harmed and we became willing to make amends to them all. The willingness to do that. In step nine, there's a limiting factor. Here it is. This is where we're starting today.
We made direct amends to such people wherever it was possible. If you know that you've stolen from someone, pay them back. That's easy. If you have harmed someone in a way that you cannot pay them back, it gets to be more difficult. It doesn't stop right there when we made direct amends to such people wherever it was possible.
I use ridiculous examples when I'm doing premarital counseling often, and they'll come in and they're completely Twitter pated with one another, and we're talking We're going talk about forgiveness. That's the main subject of premarital counseling, and and we're getting to that and so I'll say, in this process, if eventually, I mean, y'all love each other and I can see that, but eventually, you're going to hurt one another's feelings. Eventually, you're going to sin against each other and you will be tempted to go off into your own inner room. Thank you. And going off into your own inner room and then you there's a separation and you begin to drift and we don't want that.
So recognizing it. Thank you very much. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you.
Very sweet. So good. We made direct amends to such people wherever possible except when to do so would injure them or others. Now, that part of it is very difficult. It has to be spirit led.
It's helpful to have another person, the one you confess to maybe or a sponsor in the programs. Typically, there's a sponsor to help you determine whether it might cause more damage. But I was talking about premarital and I'll say to the bride to be and the groom to be, I'll say, let's just imagine that he kicks your dog. Oh my goodness. I could see the bride's face just go.
Now, I'd never I hope that never happens, period. I'm not a I'm not advocate for dog kicking. If he does that, how does he pay back for that? There's nothing he can do to pay back for dog kicking. So, making a direct amends to that is amending your future behavior, But there's nothing you can do about what you've done in the past.
Asking forgiveness is very helpful in that case and being able to see that they're doing what they can to go forward. We'll get to that too. But making direct amends to such people wherever it's possible except when to do so would injure them or others. I spoke to a fellow this morning. He's not in the room.
And he told me a story I've never heard before. I've known him for several years. And he said, I cannot do this certain ministry. And he said, I can't do it because it's it's too close to my heart. And he said, I hold myself responsible for the death of a child.
He was not responsible for the death of a child. My pulpit is dripping. Thank you. Thank you. Okay.
I'll put it right there. So the fellow said this morning, he said, legally, was not responsible, but he holds himself responsible for it. How do you ever pay back for that to the kid who is gone? Or to the parents who remain having lost that? I I don't think any amount of anything that he could do would assuage that for them.
If he came to me, he confessed that to me, I don't know how that would ever be. Making the amends where it's possible and appropriate to do so that wouldn't cause further harm to them or to others. So there's that to consider. And I say, having a sponsor, having a maybe spiritual advisor or pastor, having a friend that you can talk to about it to see whether or not when someone has harmed a child particularly, it's usually not best for that person to go back to that child. It would be unburdening themselves, but it'd be putting a burden on the kid.
So I'd say, trust the process wherever it's possible, where it's not going to cause injury. And that's something that has to be spirit led. It's it's something that I can't specifically say. Now, step nine, I've got a little scripture for us and I'm gonna try to remember some of Ken's stories from this morning. Making direct amends.
This is restitution. So in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is talking about personal relationships. Now he's already laid out a pretty hard road on the Sermon on the Mount by the time we get to this. This is Matthew five twenty one through twenty six And twenty one, he says, you have heard that it that the ancients were told you shall not murder. And you have heard whoever commits murder shall be answerable to the court.
But I say to you, it's it's more involved than that. It's not just the actual act of murder that everyone who's angry with his brother shall be answerable to the court. And the court there, Jesus says the court, that's what it says. So anger is answerable to the court. God is the righteous judge.
Whoever says to his brother, you good for nothing. How many times do we in our minds say, look at that good for nothing? How many times do we do that? Oh, that guy makes me
Speaker 2so mad.
Speaker 1You good for nothing shall be answerable to the supreme court. God is judging our hearts and whoever says, you fool shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. Goodness gracious Jesus. Really? That's a really really impossible standard.
On our own, I don't think any of us can deal with that kind of a standard. We've got a problem here because anger does rise up and judgmentalism rises up and thinking we're smarter than other people does rise up within us. Therefore, because this is true, therefore, if you're presenting your offering at the altar, if you're coming forward and you're presenting your offering at the altar and there you remember, so this is that moment of realization for you. You remember that your brother has something against you. Let's say this is valid.
Okay? You did something to them and you remember it in your religious exercise. What do you do? This is Jesus. He's telling us what to do.
He says, leave your offering right there before the altar and you go. You go. First be oh, couldn't help it. First be. Message for us this morning.
First, be reconciled to your brother. There is no real relationship with God. You can't say that you love God and not love your brother. It's both. It's with all we are loving God and loving people through Christ.
That's the way that it's possible. First, be reconciled to your brother. It's very, very important. And I know people are hurtful, and I know we mentioned this morning for the small Greek jamboree palooza down there, that people do get hurt in community. We do, but we also get healed in community.
We also get through things through the process of reconciling to the other. Leave your offering there. When you remember it, when you recognize it, you promptly admit it, you go to them and you do the best you can to make it right. That's what step nine is about. Now, first be reconciled to your brother and then you come back and present your offer.
It doesn't say to ignore one. So I just ended with this slide, come to good terms with your accuser quickly. Come to good terms. Make it right as best you can quickly while you are with them on the way, while you have the chance, I should say, while you still have the chance because you won't always have the chance. In fact, some of the people we've wronged are no longer with us.
Some of them won't be here a month from now. We don't know. So while you still have the chance, while you're with them on the way, the new American standard adds to court because of the context, but it is added while you're with him on the way so that your accuser won't hand you over to the judge. Now, this is something you're guilty of. It's saying make it right as best you can so that you don't get dragged before the judge and the judge to the officer and you will not be thrown into prison.
Truly, I'm telling you, you're not gonna come out of there until you've paid the very last quadrants and if we gotta have some Greek, we gotta have some Greek, it's the last word today. One fortieth of a day's wage, it's a really small sum. It's a fortieth of a denarius. Truly, I say to you, it's not going to go well for you if you don't make up. Human relationships aren't important to God, and I know this says to a brother, and there are times where it's just impossible.
There are times where the other person is being impossible. Romans twelve eighteen, I think says that as much as it depends on you, you seek to live at peace with all. So you do the best that you can. They may reject that, but you do the best you can to make for peace. Now, right there, I invited Ken Sandy up to just tell a couple of stories.
He's an attorney by training and he's been a relational wisdom three sixty as his ministry. They're from up in Billings. Last year, we did we did a staff retreat to the conference that they had at this place. He's known this for years and years. He's a good friend of Judy Bases, the peacemaker, most everybody's heard of it.
And he stood and he told a couple of stories. One of them was about two neighbors that had not spoken in twenty years. They had property, good fences make good neighbors, they decided to build a fence, and then one of them did not pay what the other one thought he should pay, and they had not spoken since that fence was built. That's pretty literal, building a fence between yourselves. But one of them said he wasn't gonna pay.
Even upon visiting, nope, not gonna do that. They got upset with each other, had not spoken in twenty years. And Ken said that he was speaking on this particular passage and as a rancher, they were in a really small town and the pastor took him to the only restaurant in town afterwards and this rancher comes in towards the end of the meal and said, I I was fell under deep conviction today. I knew there was something literal between me and my neighbor. I knew there was something figurative between me and my neighbor and I knew what was going on and I knew I'd held it against him and I knew he'd held it against me and I felt so convicted.
I left church house this morning and I went straight to his house and I walked in and said, I'm sorry. And I sought to make it right and he leaned in towards me and we were able to make it right. And then he was able to see Ken and tell him that. Ken himself said that he he's an attorney. He's another friend of his attorney.
Every once in a while, attorney gets perturbed and likes to write a real nasty letter. So he said the fellow wrote a kind of a nasty letter, accused him of all kinds of stuff that you don't want to be accused of. Questions integrity, questions all kinds of professional practice, and and it's it's his livelihood, it's also his his thing. He's Ken Sandy, he's relational wisdom, you know. This guy kinda gets after him and then Ken goes into lawyer mode and he writes kind of a nasty letter back or you know, everything he said was truthful.
Everything he said was a legitimate defense. He had all the documentation to prove, how he did what he did. There wasn't any real question in Ken's mind whether or not he was guilty towards this guy, or towards the offenses, but the guy's nastiness led him to a fervor of defending himself that he did and he wrote a letter and Senate kept a copy, filed it away. And then, he was completely cleared by the authorities that decide whether this is true or not. No.
There's no doubt about what you did. What you did was right and good. That's not a problem. Went back to the guy and said, hey, I know it was awkward. It's awkward.
You've been declared innocent and and I'm really it's gonna be weird between us but we need to get together. So they sort of reconciled, know. So fast forward five years later, and Ken's going through some files and he picks out one of the letters. So much better. Y'all go watch the first service if you wanna hear him tell the story.
Okay? Spoilers. He said, I went back through this file and I pulled out this letter and I read it and he said, I just began to weep. Every line of it was true and every line of it was vicious. And it was just wrong.
He said, he said, I was so convicted that I called the guy and I said, hey, man. I'm so sorry about this. He goes, we made up. We're reconciled. We're fine.
He goes, no. I had no idea of the level of sin that motivated that. And when I read it again, I was ashamed and embarrassed and I just needed to tell you that what was motivating me was unholy and improper and just wrong. And he said, they are closer than they've ever been because of having the wherewithal to amend behavior going forward. Right?
You coming up? Yeah. Would you please? Yeah. I I thought the Jamboree a Palooza.
I'm so glad that you are. Thank you, Nick. Yeah. Yeah. Please.
Thank you.
Speaker 3I always like being a closer, and he's a good opening act, isn't
Speaker 1he? Yeah.
Speaker 3That's great.
Speaker 1Thank you so much. I hate landing the plane.
Speaker 3Yeah. No. That was great. This all ties in to the small group Jamboreepalooza because when you're interacting with different people, you you have a chance to either heal or sometimes hurt each other and then have the opportunity to grow and learn to heal. And nineteen years ago, I was just bitter and angry because I was making movies and nobody was helping out.
Nobody's getting behind me. And I was basically forced to go to the small group, and slowly, those guys graciously unwound and untangled me and helped me to be less angry and less full of myself and less concerned with myself. And we had the small small group Jamboree Palooza before the service here, but I heard some folks didn't know that it wasn't gonna be after this. So Diane and I are gonna be in this back corner here with a list of all of the the small groups that happened here. Would you consider getting into community with people here through the church?
If if you don't find something you like to in the back or you don't have time or you're watching online, we set up a survey on our website that you can go to, just first b jackson dot org. Can fill out that survey. Let us know what you're looking for. If we're missing something, if there's something you wanna start, we also have a ton of books and resources that we would love to be able to get into your hands. And if there's something you don't see, let us know.
We'll order it for you, and we'll pay for it. Whatever we can do to equip you to to make that change in your life or in the lives of other peoples, would you let us know too? Do you have another song? Yeah. You'd like to sing?
Okay. We're gonna close you out with a song, but do remember we'll be in that back corner if you wanna talk about small groups.
Speaker 1Thank you.
Speaker 2Thank you.
Speaker 1I appreciate it. The we're gonna sing have thine own way. And I think that the reason that God has put us in community is because we do iron sharpens iron and we do both comfort and challenge one another. And so I think for a long time, we've been talking about finding somebody who is not exactly like you. We usually do small groups with age and stage like how old you are and what stage of life you're in.
It doesn't have to be that. It can be geographic. We had one elder years ago. This was at one of the elders meeting. Scott was there.
Dave might have been there too. When we were there and he says, we're going do the small group thing. I think we all just number the bottoms of their chairs like we do for basketball. 1234. 1234.
You know, whatever. 12345. And he said, just number them off and put them in the group and say they're in it. But it doesn't matter how, they tend to be very organic here. So however the Lord leads, he's leading us towards community, not away from it.
Christ works in community and the devil works in isolation. So would you stand with me and we're gonna sing this song as a prayer. Have thine own way, Lord. We'll sing as many verses as come up on that screen and then I've got a benediction for you. Thank you, Scott.
Speaker 2Have thine own way, Lord. After thy will while I am waiting, yielded and still. Have thine own way, Lord. Have thine own way. Search me and try me, master today.
Whiter than snow, Lord. Wash me just now as in my presence, humbly I bow. Have thine own way, Lord. Have thine own way. Wounded and weary, help me, I pray.
Power, all power, till all shall see Christ only always living in me.
Speaker 1Hold or my being absolute sway. That is turning my will and my life over to God as I understand him. From first John one, here we are again. That which we have seen and we have heard, we declare to you that you also may have with us and truly our fellowship is with the father and with his son Jesus. Lord, would you make it so by the way of your spirit?
