I see the danger. Before we jump into the proclamation of the gospel, I just want to take a moment to to honor the director of our outreach, Ms. Brittany Timmons. If y'all help me celebrate her.
Brittany leads the arm of our ministry called Serve M25. We pull that right from Matthew's gospel in Matthew chapter 25, when the Lord Jesus Christ calls us to be mindful of those who are less fortunate than ourselves. that outreach is not something we just want to mobilize you to do.
Outreach is not something we wanted to be organized. We want it to be a life that you live, that as a follower of Christ, you're always concerned about those who are less fortunate than yourself, that we're not just walking past a homeless person in front of Walmart. I want to thank all of you who went out this week all across our city to do outreach.
We thank you for serving and donating those hours to be able to do that. And my prayer is that we would not just be a church gathering in the city of Atlanta, but that the people outside these four walls will feel the love of Jesus through our presence, that we will be his tangible hands and feet in our city. If you are guests, we welcome you to 2819. If you're watching me across this camera or sitting in an overflow room, we welcome you to 2819 all across the country and around the world.
To all of our brothers and sisters, we're so thankful that you're here. And if you are not a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, we know that you're in the room. We know that you're watching right now across that camera.
We want you to know that you could be long before you believe. You could keep coming in here and listening to these holy conversations we're having about the Lord Jesus Christ from his word. And our prayer for you is that at some point in time during the proclamation of the word or during a song that you might be brought out of darkness into the kingdom of light. that your eyes might be open and the Lord through his mercy might bring you aboard the ark of safety before it's too late that you will be among those he knew before the foundation of the world while you're still breathing and it's not too late for you to be rescued. We pray that you would become one of the brothers and sisters in the faith and we pray that would happen in a moment when you least expect it.
We are in a series right now called Wisdom and Wonder. We are walking through Matthew chapter 12 through 20. together. We're on the back half of that series. I don't want to presume you knew who Matthew was. Matthew was a Jewish man who lived in the first century AD, outcast from his community because of his job with the Roman government.
He was converted to Christianity by the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Matthew went on to be a follower of Christ and an eyewitness of Christ. Before he was brutally executed, he went on to write the gospel that bears his name. He would die for what he saw, a resurrected Savior.
For the man you and I call Lord, his bones were never found in a box or a usherary. He is alive, seated at the right hand of the Father. I said he is alive, seated at the right hand of the Father.
And today we're going to unpack for all of our note takers, Matthew chapter 18, verses 10 through 14. And as we go through this text, I just want to say to some of you, as we go through this text, you will not see verse 11. I teach out of the ESV. You will not see verse 11 come up on the screen from 10 to 14 because verse 11 was redacted from the Scriptures because it was not a part of the original manuscripts of the Bible. Verse 11 appears in Luke's gospel of the same account we're going to read, but you will not see verse 11 because it was redacted. It was removed from your English versions of the Bible because it did not appear in the original manuscripts of Matthew.
So I don't want you to be caught off guard when we go straight from 10 straight to 13 or 12 and you don't see verse 11. It was not there in the original manuscript. That's why it's not here in this ESV Bible. Matthew chapter 8 verses 10 through 14. Matthew 18, 10 through 14 is where we're going to unpack today. And we're going to title this message, Leave the 99. Leave the 99. Eternal God and ever wise Father.
Lord, I just lay my heart bare before you right now, confessing my own sin before the people, acknowledging, God, Lord, the weakness in my own heart and in my own flesh, asking you for strength to communicate and to proclaim, God, Lord, your eternal word. God, especially now as I look across this room and just knowing that we're living in a very narcissistic and self-absorbed generation. Someway, somehow, let not this word bounce off the hearts, God, of your sons and daughters. But Father God, I pray in the name of the Holy One that this word, God, will bear fruit.
fruit in our hearts, that we will be brought not only closer to you, but closer to each other. Lord, as we see the day approaching as your return, I pray we would take more serious this beautiful thing, God, that you have created called the church. And I just pray, God, that we would leave with a revelation of what you have said.
We would take it seriously, and there would be an increase of love in our heart, not only for you, but for our brothers and sisters. I ask, God, Lord, that you would move right now in this room. I rest our attention. Let nothing be more important than this moment right here. And I ask for that in the mighty and the majestic and the matchless name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Amen and amen and amen. Leave the 99. Our family, as I was preparing for this message, you know, I thought to myself that one of the most devastating emotions that will ever pass through the human heart is the feeling of worthlessness. When we feel like through some season or some mistake, some area of failure where we are no longer valuable in the sight of God.
It is this painful emotion that often pushes followers of Christ into places of isolation, and then in its most extreme form, it pushes some of us even to the brink of committing suicide or contemplating suicide. That emotion, if you've never felt it, can be oftentimes compounded by those people who are in our lives who don't have the sensitivity to see where we are. Instead of showing compassion for where we are, all we get from them is silence and negativity and scorn. When we are in a place of shame in which they should be leaning into what we are going through and showing a type of care instead... All we get from them is ridicule for where we are, and then it pushes us further away into isolation and deeper into feeling like we have no worth and value.
As I was praying about this message this morning at 4 a.m., my face down in a carpet with tears flowing from my eyes, this very text forced me to reflect on a season of my life, one of the darkest seasons of my life, when I was estranged from Christ. ran from the community of saints because of sin in my life and because of brokenness in my life and because of shame. I ran from the people of God. ran from the Lord Jesus, thinking that I was unworthy and thinking that I was unuseful and thinking that I was useless in the eyes of God.
I find myself alone, isolated in a basement, thinking, like, God is done with me. There is nothing else the Lord is going to get out of my life. I have hurt him too bad. I have hurt others too bad, and there I was, isolated all alone. It was in that dark moment of my life… That God sent one man to come and find me in that darkness.
And as that man came to find me in that darkness, man, he's sitting in the room right now. It was through that man the Lord reminded me that I was still seen. That I was not forgotten. That he had not taken his hand off of me. And that through one person that cared enough to find me in my distress.
I was reminded of God's love, and I was reminded at his care that although I felt unworthy, although I felt worthless in that moment, the Lord, through one person coming to find me, reminded me, watch, that I was still valuable in his sight. Now, family, this is the deep cry of the Lord Jesus Christ in this text, and I want to remind you… that Matthew chapter 18 is one of the most important passages in all of the New Testament. For it is Matthew chapter 18, which all of the doctrines of the New Testament that teaches us how to live in biblical community, all of them find their origin in Matthew 18. Before the apostle Paul ever wrote a letter, before any letter was written in the New Testament to teach churches how to live together in the context of community.
All of the doctrines of the New Testament about how we should govern ourselves, all of it is founded right here in Matthew chapter 18. It is the very first teaching to the church about how we govern ourselves in the context of community. It is the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 16 who prophesied the birth of the church where we are right now. On this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
When he said that, he was not talking about a building. He was not talking about a Sunday service. The word church in Greek is ekklesia, which means gathering of the saints. It's only us who have been deceived by Constantine that calls the church a building, so we say we're headed to a church, and we think we're headed to a building. That emerged in AD 300 with Constantine when he started building beautiful basilicas, and then he chained the Bible.
to pulpits in those basilicas, so that the only time you could hear the Word of God was to go to a building. As a result of that, we started saying we're going to church instead of saying we are the church. That's Constantine language. But Jesus said, on this rock I will build my ecclesia, I will build my gathering. And then in Matthew 28, 19, where we get our name from, he gives the church their only commission, spread the gospel and multiply disciples.
But before the Lord Jesus sends them out with the message of the gospel, he first talks to them in Matthew 18 about community so that their message of the gospel would not be hindered by their behavior inside the context of the local community. so that their message would have credibility. He wanted to teach them first how to govern themselves amongst each other so people will believe your message when you go out there in the world.
Jesus is in his early 30s. He's approaching the end of his ministry on earth. Just a month on some change from this text, he will be brutally executed, buried, and resurrected. In this gospel, he's doing everything he can in this text to try to prepare his children for his transition, to prepare them for his exit.
So he teaches them from the Sermon on the Mount that he was the Son of God. He cast out demons again to show them his power. He deals with the temple tax to show Peter that although you was in debt, I'll pay your debt. And although I had no debt, I sacrificed myself to make sure your debt was paid.
And after the issue with all of that, man, Matthew records for us. inside of Peter's house, this teaching, this sermon, this periscope of scripture from the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew chapter 18. I'm going to keep reading to you this over and over and over because by the time we get to the end of chapter 18, I want the whole thing to be tattooed to your heart. So in Matthew chapter 18 verse 1, Matthew wrote, at that time the disciples came to Jesus saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?
They're asking a question born of their own insecurities. They're full of vanity. They want promotion, power, and prestige. They want to know when Jesus is gone, which one of them will be the most powerful. Instead of focusing on the fact that their Messiah is about to leave, the only thing they're focusing on is which one of them will have the top dog, the HNIC, when the Lord is gone.
I just used letters, I didn't say it. I see one of the elders is looking at me like... And verse 2, in calling to himself a child, he put the child in the midst of them and said, Truly, I say unto you, unless you turn, repent, and become sanctification, transformation, like children, you will never enter into the kingdom of heaven. That the Lord is saying there are people who will be in church their whole life and never make it into glory.
They would have went to conferences and read books and listened to podcasts and sermons and never make it into glory. What a terrifying thing to sit in a seat every Sunday only to die and wake up on the other side for the Lord to say, I never knew you. You and I had no real relationship.
You was churchy, but you was not intimate with me. Some of y'all feel bad for atheists. I feel bad for people who have a false assurance with the title Christian, but who have no relationship with the Lord at all.
For nowhere in this book did he ever call us adults of God. He called us children of God. He says we must be converted to be like little children, trusting, humble, lowly, meek.
He said, if we're not like that, we'll never enter into the kingdom of heaven. And then he says, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. So the Lord says greatness is synonymous with humility. In the world, we say greatness is synonymous with prestige, power, influence, following, social media, IG.
We think people are great because of fill in the blank. No, the Lord said purge the church from that foolishness. Greatness is humility, not platforms.
Not microphones, not books and conferences. People are great who are childlike in nature. That's what he said.
And then he said, whoever receives one such child in my name receives me. So now he's using a child to typecast followers of Christ. He's not talking about a child now. He's talking about you and I, sons and daughters of the Father.
And he says, whoever receives such a one, man, How you treat another follower of Christ is how you treat Christ himself. That's what he's saying. Watch.
Then he says, watch. But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it will be better for him that he have a millstone fastened around his neck, and he'd be drowned in the depths of the sea. So the Lord is reminding us, man, people will commit sins. but you better not be the cause of people committing sin. That in the context of biblical community, let people while out all they want, but you better not be the cause of people whileing out.
This is for the seductress trying to trap boys in the church with your breasts hanging out all the time. This is for dudes taking women out of town in Mexico and y'all not married with one hotel room. This is for people who are sowing seeds of discord in the church and tearing up the church. This is for people that tear up teams with slander.
This is for all of you trying to build your own ministry inside of this ministry to lead people astray. This is for every person who you are the cause. I know that's your boyfriend or girlfriend, but she is the cause of you being in sin all the time. Not real and you're storing up wrath for yourself for the day of judgment.
The Lord said, do not be the cause of any other Christian being led into sin. He said, it'll be better for you to be dead. than being a person he blames for somebody else falling into sin.
It would be better for you to not be breathing. The Lord said it would be better for you to not be breathing than you be the cause of somebody else committing sin. How many times are you going to pass the blunt to another brother or sister? That instead of using prayer for your stress, you use drugs for your stress, not knowing that in that moment the Lord is saying, listen, it'd be better for you to be dead than pass that off to your brother or sister.
Like, why do we act like he can't see? Like, we be trying to hide. Like, any hiding spot you have is so dope that he can't see. And he's given us this teaching about ethics and values because he's trying to protect us, listen, from hurting ourselves and hurting each other because he knows that sin is destructive and it is dangerous and it is damaging to his children. and in his love for you.
That's why he's calling us to take sin serious. That's why he said in verse 8, and if your hand or if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands to enter.
end to end to be thrown into the fires of hell. It's what he's saying. If you're hands and foot, if you're committing sins, any sins that you are involved in since the commission, cut it off. The Lord is saying, this is not cutesy. It is not demure.
It's not for you to treat it like it's a pet. No. He said, don't make it like it's demure. It's cutesy.
No. Hate your sin. It's what he's saying. Deal aggressively.
with your sin. Too many people say, I'm a Christian. Play around with sin. It's cutesy. It's demure.
Don't know you're headed to damnation in your unrepentance. So don't treat it as cutesy. Don't make it demure. Don't sweep it under a rug. Don't put it in a closet.
Recognize you said cut it off. Deal aggressively with your sin. He says, if your eye causes you to sin, man, pluck it out. It's better for you to enter life with one eye than for two eyes to go into hell. That is sins of the heart.
The eye is the lamp of the body from the Sermon on the Mount. So deal with the sins that you are doing. Deal with the sins of the heart. Unforgiveness, pride. Lust, anger, rage, jealousy, covetousness.
You'll wring that stuff out of your heart. He's telling us that because he doesn't want us to sin. He said, Woe to the world!
That is a pronouncement of judgment to the world for sins. He says, Woe to the person through whom sin comes. On the backside of him talking to us about taking sin seriously.
Follow the text. Because when this is written, there are no chapters and verses. It's one complete thought.
On the heels of Jesus telling us, family, children, deal aggressively with your sin. That is, don't play around with it. I'm watching as it is killing y'all, destroying your relationships, your marriages, your friendships.
For some of y'all, sin has cost you opportunities that you were supposed to have. You've lost jobs because of sin. You've ruined seasons because of sin.
I know the pain of this personally for myself. It's why he's telling you, man, deal with it aggressively because it's robbing you of the best life possible. It hurts people and causes them, watch, to run away from God.
Now follow the logic of Jesus. See the wisdom and wonder in his teaching. On the heels of telling the church, man, protect each other from sin.
in. Watch this. He comes what he says next in Matthew 18 verse 10. See, here is our verses that you do not despise one of these little ones.
Stop. I want to draw your attention to a few things in part A of this verse. He says, see that you don't despise one of these little ones. Which little ones? Not children, followers of Christ.
Now, the Lord gives you and I not a suggestion. Pay attention. He gives us a commandment. Here is the commandment.
Do not despise followers of Christ who you see struggling with sin. or fell into some bad circumstance or going through some distress. You see them in a bad season.
He said, when you see members of your community going through hardship, dealing with sin, they made a mistake, they fell away. Watch. Don't despise them in that moment. To despise is to devalue another human being. It's to say, dang it, she had another baby out of wedlock.
She's not valuable to Jesus. Man, he keeps falling into the same sin. He's not valuable to Jesus. It's for us to look at people that we don't like and say, surely God don't like this person. Look at the way she dresses.
Look at her bundle. It's not even sewed in right. Look at how she'd be dressing when she'd come to the gathering.
Surely the Lord don't love that sister right there. She's from Bankhead. There's no way the Lord would ever use anybody from Bankhead. She's from Clayco.
No, the Lord would never use nobody from Clayco. It's us moving in the community, watch, and having hatred in our heart, disdain in our heart. Watch this word, contempt in our heart for other brothers and sisters. This is us being so pro-black that you're anti-white. You got your little African thing hanging around your neck, and you think because, oh, it was a white man's religion, and they had us in slavery, and they misused the Bible, so now you're a Christian, but you hate white people?
You use your melanin as a platform for idolatry? And so you're so pro-black, you hate white people. That's looking at a brother or sister with contempt.
Or you're so evangelical, you're so white, you hate black people. You're racist and you don't like them because it's something they cannot control. Like the Lord didn't give us Ephesians through Paul that divided, that line was destroyed.
That he said he formed in us one complete body. You're Christian, but you hate somebody because they don't have melanin in their skin? You anti-white, you anti-Hispanic of the person sitting on your row?
So you look at them with contempt because of your past or what your grandmother told you? You think they're not valuable to Jesus? Watch.
And what the Lord is trying to do, listen, follow the text. The whole chapter is about how to keep us safe inside the context of community and try to teach us to stop hurting one another. And what the Lord was saying right here in this text is, I want y'all to live amongst each other in such a way, watch this word, that you do not keep dishonoring.
Brothers and sisters, you hate them for what? You got no reason. It's like people always trying to come at me on Instagram.
Why are you always wearing black? It's hot, man of God. Why don't you have a conversation with me? This is the Lord saying, pray more than you judge. Pray more than you slander.
Pray more than you critique. Stop moving around the church and just hating people for no reason. Say, I don't like her, so you just hate her for no reason.
I don't like him, so you just hate him for no reason. This is you moving through the body and just have hatred for somebody on the end of that road for no other reason than what's in your flesh. Watch. And for as much as you're giving pushback against this, man, if we would lean into the teachings of Jesus, we would feel something in church that feels more loving and more accepting and more godly than all of the drama we keep feeling right now.
The church is full of drama because we despise one another. We fight, and we hate on one another, and we end DMs tearing down somebody on your team. Watch.
Because we despise one another. To despise is to devalue. It's to say somebody's not important. It's to say God would never use them.
It's to see them as less as important as the way God sees them. You make a judgment on them based on some mistake, some failure. It's to look at the single mother and be like, man, she ain't no good. It's to look at the dude.
dude that dressed urban like there's no way God is going to use him. It's to look at people and for nothing but the flesh to just devalue another human being. It's to not see the Imago Dei in their face that all of us was created in the image of God. It's to not see their worth and value.
It's to not see their dignity. Listen, some of this has been… Keep going. Some of this has been proliferated because of celebrity. I hate that in the church, where you exalt some big name because they got some big following, but we walk right past a single mother in the lobby that she means nothing to Jesus.
She got 50 people on her Instagram. This person got a million people on her Instagram. And because you hold them in high regard, you hold this one in low regard.
You despise this one because she ain't important like that one. The Lord said, stop behaving that way. Come on. What we talking about?
Celebrity makes us value more people more highly than others. I'm not more important than Don my assistant Am I more valuable than him because I'm on a platform and he's sitting in a chair So the Lord is warning his church, listen, y'all will have a better time together, and you would enjoy each other better, and it would feel better when you come to church that you're not always dealing with church hurt all the time. you get to a church that teaches you the Scriptures without trying to sugarcoat what Jesus is saying, without making you feel comfortable in your sin, until you finally get to a place where they will confront you in your sin and say,"'Stop being nasty and stop hating people unnecessarily. Stop demising. Do not demise. Do not despise another brother or sister.'"1 Corinthians 8, 1-3 Verse 10, part B, for I tell you, why is God so serious about this command? For I tell you that in heaven, the angels always see the face of the Father who is in heaven. Okay, preacher, I don't get it.
I want to draw your attention to the word for. The word for is a transitional word that anchors the last thing Christ said to what he's saying right now. It connects the two. The word for means reason or purpose. Watch.
Do not despise another brother and sister for, or i.e., do not despise another brother and sister because. Do not look down on another brother and sister like they have no value because. And then he makes a case for why they have value. He says, for I tell you that in heaven...
Their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. Now watch. Jesus is giving us access into an unseen realm that you and I can't see. He's teaching us that in heaven, watch this, there are angelic beings that stay before God, watch this, on behalf of the sons and daughters of God. Gosh.
We know that angels are created beings. We know that some are more powerful than others. We know some deliver messages.
We know some execute judgments. Now we learn here from Jesus about an unseen realm that the Lord actually created angels, watch, that watch over the Christian church in the world. Now, this is not a doctrine for your little guardian angel on your shoulder.
That's not what this is. What the Lord is saying, watch this, they stay before his face, watch this, that there are angels in heaven that are always pleading your case when you fall into sin, when you, gosh, when you make mistakes. When you fall short, there are angels in heaven that be pleading your case. Like, yo, people are saying, look what Philip did.
And there's an angel saying, Lord, be merciful to Philip. Look what Tanisha did. And there are angels in heaven saying, be merciful to Tanisha.
The Lord's saying, man, his children are so valuable. Wow. They are so valuable that I even assigned angelic beans.
To watch over them and to plead their case in heaven so when you're in the basement feeling insecure and unworthy, there are angelic beings calling your name before the Father. Lord, don't give up on Tawana. Don't give up on Tanisha. Don't give up on John. Don't give up on Sarah.
Lord, have mercy on them. Lord, they're trying. There are angels in heaven that are pleading your case before the Father.
Then these angelic beings, man, they intervene in the lives of his children. The unknown writer of Hebrews said in Hebrews 1 and verse 14 around there, he said, man, angels were created to serve the sons and daughters of God. Y'all don't believe that?
Back it up with the text. Acts 12. Back it up with the text. You want proof.
You want evidence. Acts chapter 12, verse 1. Acts written by Luke, who recorded the first 30 years of church history. Luke said, about that time, Herod the king laid vows. hands on some who belonged to the church. Watch this.
He killed James, the brother of John, with the sword. When he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. So he killed James. The Jews are happy. He said, Who else can I kill?
Oh, yes. I'm going to murder Peter also. You want evidence?
Whoever said that, okay? Watch verse four. And when it had seized him, watch, he put him in prison, delivering him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out to the people. So Peter was kept in prison. Watch.
Peter was kept in prison. Peter could not get out. Pay attention. Peter's in prison. He cannot get out.
Now, you don't know Peter personally. You just saw on Instagram Peter got locked up in prison. So now you tear down Peter. You see him as unworthy.
You see him as unvaluable. That was that dude that betrayed Jesus three times, denied him, didn't know him. Now he's in prison.
I see what's going on. Surely that dude is no longer valuable to the Lord. That's what we do, right?
Despise these little ones. Watch the back half of verse 5. So Peter was kept in prison. Watch this word.
But earnest prayer for him was being made to God by the church. Pray more than you judge. Pray more than you critique. Surely that dude that denied Jesus three times, man, he's finished.
He's no longer valuable to the Lord. He's in prison. But instead of...
But instead of despising him, watch, because of his circumstance. Like nobody ain't been jammed up in sin and needed grace. Oh no, you was born on the altar and been perfect your whole life.
Like you never been in a jam and needed help. But instead of despising him, the church was praying for him. How does the Lord respond?
Verse 6. Now when Herod was about to bring him out, on the very night Peter was sleeping, between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries before the door, were guarding the prison. And behold! I like this part right here.
You think this is a fairy tale. Behold! A strong word that means pay attention.
Behold what he said an angel a what an angel a what always making appeals on your behalf an angel of the Lord stood next to Peter gosh he stood next to Peter he stood next to him and the light shone in the cell he punched Peter in the face that's the Philip Anthony Mitchell translation struck him in the jaw He punched Peter in the face, saying, get up quickly. That's why you've got to follow instructions. That's why the Scripture teaches us you better be careful how you treat strangers, because oftentimes you entertain angels unaware. That old person you met in the bathroom that told you to get your life right because God got something for you in another season and you blowed him off like you wasn't talking to an angel that was trying to give you instructions. The homeless person that gave you a word.
He punched Peter in the face, and he said, Get up! And his chains fell off. Man, I like when God get involved.
Chains break! When God... Woo! Woo! Chains be breaking when God get involved!
I know I'm not the only one that's ever felt bound by something and that God got involved and chains broke off and fell on the floor. And we said to the devil, no more. I'm free in this area right here.
Do I got any free people in the room right now? Has anybody ever heard the sound of chains hitting the floor when God got involved? Don't do that no more.
Don't go there no more. Don't smoke that no more. Ain't bound by that no more. God got involved and chains just broke off. Just fell on the floor.
The angel said to him, Dress yourself. Put on your sandals. He did so.
He said to him, Wrap your cloak around you and follow me. I like that word. Follow me. You ain't got to figure it out on your own. Just follow me.
Spending too much time trying to figure out everything on your own. Just follow him. I'm almost done. And he did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision.
When they passed by the first and second guard, they came out the iron gate leading into the city, and it opened. Because when God gets involved, doors open. And it opened for them its own accord, and they went out from the street, and immediately the angel left him.
When Peter came to himself, he said, Oh, snap! Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me. Rescued me. You see that word?
Rescued me. That is God intervening in a circumstance you could not handle on your own. Rescued me from the hand of Herod. and from all the Jewish people.
Now watch. Do you think the Lord would go through all that trouble to send an angel if Peter was not valuable? And it's the same thing he does for you and our family.
You can look over your shoulder and see how many times, man, angelic beings have intervened in your life. You was in a car. crash and the angel held you to the seat that you didn't fly through a windshield man i think about times god intervened in my life even before i was saved man man man when a friend and i drove off a cliff drunk on our way to a gunfight in durham north carolina trump full of guns straight off a cliff to the bottom of the ravine walk out without a scratch The Lord, knowing that this day would come for me when I'll be serving him right here, man, he held me as the car toppled down that ravine all the way to the bottom to make sure I did not die before my time.
Oh, my. Is anybody thankful for the intervention of God in your life? You don't even realize how many times angelic beings have interacted with your life, given you words of instruction, protected you in car accidents.
Bullets could have killed some of you and still alive. Some of you should have been in a box, but you're only alive because of the intervention of some angelic being in your life. Now look at me. Do you think God would go through all of that to assign angels to his church if you was not valuable to him? So follow the text.
I'm about to be done. No, I can't. They want to get to the restaurant. I can't take my time.
It's 1245. I already know. It's the third gathering. They want to get to the restaurant.
I already know. So, we're here for the Lord, not just for a gathering. So, you think the Lord... Did this for Peter because he was perfect? Watch.
And never made a mistake. And never found himself in a jam. No, the Lord is saying don't despise any childlike follower of Christ because they are very... valuable and precious to me.
The evidence of that is that I went through great lengths to even watch this, assign angelic beings to watch over their lives. He would not do that if you were not valuable. Now, I'm about to finish, but pay attention. This is in the context of believers who have fallen into sin, who have made some mistakes, who have wandered away from the church, who have gotten into issues, and they feel embarrassed, and they run.
This is for the believers who find themselves in a position of distress, and automatically we look down upon them because of where they are instead of seeing that even in the middle of that mess, they are valuable to God. So the Lord would strengthen his argument by giving one of the most famous parables in the scriptures. When he gives this parable in Luke, it is for the unbeliever.
When he gives the parable in Matthew, it is for the believer. So he closes this section with these final words, he gives a parable, a story to strengthen his argument. Verse 12, what do you think? He said to them, if a man has a hundred sheep and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the 99 on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray?
Somebody should just say thank you like the Lord ain't come get some of you when you wandered away from him Like I'm the only one that's ever been in a season when you wandered away from the Lord Jesus Christ And he came and got you personally for himself. He sent somebody to come find you Now, pay attention as I close. The Lord is using language from Palestine, pictorial language that the people can understand.
He calls you a sheep. I don't want to embarrass you, but you do know a sheep is one of the most unintelligent animals on the planet, i.e., they are stupid creatures. They fight each other. They bust their heads on walls.
Sheeps are prone to wander. They can barely survive without a shepherd. They need a voice to guide them.
They need a voice to feed them. They need to be protected by a shepherd. That's why they barely survive without the shepherd. Now pay attention. Watch.
Sheep in first century Palestine was so valuable, they were worth a lot of money. To lose a sheep would be like to lose half your salary in a year, especially if you work for somebody. So you knew if a sheep got away, man, you took that other group and you pushed them into a ravine, and you run to go find that sheep that is lost. Watch. The Lord is trying.
So the person who wanders from me and their sin, their failure, and their mistake is so valuable, man, I will go after them personally for myself. Watch. You say, preacher, I don't get it.
Watch. You know what the Lord is calling us to? He's not only calling us, follow the text, to humility and childlikeness.
I'm done, Frank. He's not only calling us to humility and childlikeness. Watch.
He's calling the church. Watch. To have a pastoral heart so that when we see brothers and sisters wander because of sin or mistakes, we don't just treat them like they don't exist. You don't get it, do you? This is you being in a squad.
I'm closing. This is you being in a squad, a small group. And one of your girlfriends disappear. She has some new boyfriend, and now she ain't showing up anymore. Man, he's busting it down.
And now she don't want to pray because she feels ungodly, and she feels like God can't. Of course, God is not listening to her because she's in sin, and she's getting piped down. And now she ain't coming to squad.
And then nobody's looking for her. No! What the Lord said is, get in the Uber.
Get in the Lyft. Get in the car. He says, and go to her house.
Bang on her door and say, girl, where you been? Let's pray about this. Let's talk about this.
Let's help you watch. Go back to the Father. What the Lord has said, he wants his church, watch, to have a pastoral heart. They was on your team, and they're not showing up anymore. Go and find them.
They was in your small group, and they're not showing up anymore. Go and find them. Man, that married couple that stopped coming.
that I used to have dinner with, man. Go and find them. Watch.
And the Lord ain't talking about people that he needs to put out of the church. That's coming in the next half of Matthew 18. He ain't talking about rebellious people. He's not talking about those he pruned out of the church. He's not talking about Hebrew Israelites standing in the parking lot of 2819, giving out your little fig tracks, leading people to false doctrine. He ain't talking about those people.
that need to get ran out the church if they don't get saved or get right. Now, he ain't talking about them. I'm talking to you. He ain't talking about them.
He's talking about humble, childlike Christians who just find themselves in a bad season, a bad moment. And while they wander from Christ because they feel guilty, they feel ashamed, they feel unworthy, he calls the church to shepherd itself. Watch. Man, there's over 3,000 people that attend 2819 every week. There is no way myself, one man, and the elders, and our spiritual care team can keep watch over that many people.
It's impossible. Watch. The Lord knew this.
The church that he's writing to, I hate mega churches, the first sermon that Peter preached, 3,000 souls is added to the church. Now they have a church of 3,120 people, and they only have seven elders and a group of apostles. They can't watch over the entire church for themselves, so they have to go back. to the teaching of Christ to remind them, y'all must shepherd each other. That is, watch.
People disappear. Go and get them. They're not coming to church anymore.
Go and get them. That is, watch this word. Watch this word. Keep the family together. Fight together.
Push against sin together so that we all arise in glory together. So nobody get left behind. See, and some of you, this ain't important to you, right? This ain't important to you because you ain't never wandered.
But I told a story on a podcast this week right before I got saved when I was suicidal. I was sitting in my apartment, Durham, North Carolina, shotgun on my lap, drinking a fifth of Hennessy to get myself drunk enough that I would have the courage to pull the trigger. And when I get to the point where I could pull the trigger and I got the barrel facing my chin, man, this girl, her name was Tiffany. I can't find her.
She used to twist my locks. She was a Christian. I stopped showing up for my appointments.
I stopped going to get my locks done. Now Now Tiffany Watch is wondering, where is Philip? And so she just comes randomly that very night. She comes to visit me at my house. My door is unlocked by the providence of God.
And Tiffany walks through the door on that night. She sees me sitting there with a shotgun in my lap, with tears in my eyes. She walks up to me.
She takes my hand, and she sits down on the floor next to me. She does not say a word, but the ministry of presence. The Lord saw in me what I could not see in myself.
He saw a day that I would serve him. He saw a day where I would preach for him. He saw a day...
I will be a herald for him and he saw in me He saw in me value that people could not see in me and sent one of his children man to He sent Tiffany to my apartment That if he did not send her that night, I would not be standing here. And then it would be two years later, two years into my Christian walk, I would hurt God. I would fall into sin. I would hurt him badly. I would hurt people.
I would be in a season of darkness thinking I'm done. I'm over with. Man, there's nothing God is doing in my life.
And then God sends one man to come find me. He's sitting in the room right over there. He's sitting in the room right over there. Nobody came to find me except this one man right here. And the Lord used him to remind me that I was valuable.
Two times in my life, God sent somebody to bring me back. This is the way he wants us to love one another. You see your brother or sister gripped in a dark season, gripped in sin, running from God in rebellion, man, go bang on their door, send the text, call them.
Go say, man, listen, man, you can do better than this. I know you feel unworthy. I know you feel like you failed.
I know you feel like it's over, but come back to Christ. Come back to the fellowship. Come back to church.
Woo them back and remind them that they are valuable. And then he said, says in verse 13, and if he finds the sheep, truly I say to you, man, he rejoices over it than over the 99 that never went astray. That is, man, watch the word if. You see that word? That's a clause that gives us an uncomfortable margin for saying some people may not be found.
Some people will be apostate. They will not come back. They're going to love their sin until they die and go to hell. And maybe you won't find them.
And that's to say some of them may leave and end up under another shepherd in another flock, and that's okay. But to the best of your ability, go rescue the brother and sister who was your friend, who's hurting, who wandered. Why are they straying and you're not going to get them? Keep the family of God.
Together. Why is this important? Listen to me.
Look at me with your young eyes. Millennials and Gen Z's. Listen to me.
I know you're young and you think you're popping. I want to warn you. Time is running out.
I know you don't read, and I know you can't connect the Bible to the news, so you're not aware that time is running out. We don't have all this time left. The Lord is going to return soon, and what we need to be doing right now is serving Christ with us.
with a whole heart, turning away from sin, dealing with sin, and staying together, staying in church, in the group, on the team, in the squad. Don't be out there trying to do life by yourself. Stay together. Why is this important?
Verse 14. So it is not the will of the Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. That it is not God's heart that any one of them who wanders would completely shipwreck their life. Go and get them. Go and get them. And I know some of you think, like, man, that's too much for me.
Like, I ain't got time to be rescuing people. Really? You don't got time? Man, you were separated from the flock because of sin, and then God sent the greatest missionary.
in the world from heaven. He came from heaven. He lived a perfect life. He died for your sin, was resurrected, and then through the power of the Holy Spirit, he came after you and reconciled you back to the Father. He came after you and… wooed you back into the fellowship of God.
He wooed you back. He came and got you when you was in the club and wooed you back into the fellowship of God and made you a singer and that everybody loves your music now because God took what people saw as not valuable and anointed it and used it for his glory. And what the Lord did for so many of you in this room, he came after you and brought you back to the Father.
He reconciled you. So who are we to not do that for others? Go and get them.
Go and get them. Don't let anybody wander from the flock. As soon as they come up missing, go and get them. Go and find them.
Find them. Find them. And bring them back. Jesus is going to return soon. Keep the family together.
Eternal God and ever wise father. Lord, I have done what you've told me to do. And Lord, now I pray, God, Lord, the weight of the word will come to bear on the hearts and souls of your sons and daughters.
I pray, God, you will pour. pour out on us, God, a pastoral spirit that we would care deeply about our brothers and sisters, that we would stop looking down upon them and hating them, Father, for no reason. But God, I pray, God, with a shepherd kind of love, God, we would do all we can to fight against sin, to be childlike, to be humble, God, and to keep the family together.
Father, bring back the wanderer. Bring back the prodigal son and daughter who belong. under this banner. Rescue the one who's in darkness right now.
Rescue the son, the daughter that's in darkness right now. And Father, I pray God right now for some unsaved person under the sound of my voice that you would woo them right now to yourself. Save, set free, and deliver, and bring them back into fellowship with you. I pray this over them right now in the mighty and the majestic and the matchless name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
And somebody said, please don't move. Please don't move. Stand up, Colin. Come here, Colin.
Come up here. This is the man that came and got me. If it wasn't for this man, I probably wouldn't be here today.
When I thought the Lord was finished with me, when everybody else crucified me and ridiculed me and saw no value in me, this man came and found me in the darkest season of my life to remind me that God was not finished with my life. He took me to Jamaica, his country of origin, to just love on me and shepherd me and remind me that I still had worth and value. I wonder how many other people, man, that God would be using for the future that y'all won't go and get. So, Colin, in front of everybody, I honor you. I love you.
I thank you with all of my heart. He drove here from North Carolina to be here this morning. Thank you. I don't know, is there anything you want to say to them or are you good?
Somebody bring me a microphone. Phil, Pastor Phil, I don't know where Tiffany is right now, the girl who's twisting your locks. And for whatever God was losing me for years ago, it wasn't twisting locks, it was ministry, you know. And we were in a place together, doing some work together.
Yeah. And... Can I just say from the other side of it, the locks twister and the person in ministry that God placed in your life to mentor you at a time in ministry that it was needed, the other perspective and your perspective as I sit here and listen to the community or the family here at 2819, there are me moments. You understand?
There are me moments that God is waiting to meet you at. And it's a trajectory. It's a trajectory, Pastor Phil, that we all have to meet. And he's helping to take you there. This community is helping to take you there.
But from the other side, the locks twister or the pastor that was just doing his job. But loving his little brother. There's another side and there's a room filled of locks.
twisters and ministers or a banker or a lawyer or a hairdresser or barber that you have it you have me moments to meet that could result and will result and when I walk in here this morning behold a movement of God a move of God That really is birthed from a me moment. I didn't know what was, I didn't know. I just love it. I was just loving my brother, right? Tiffany just went to find him.
And it's a response to a me moment that everyone in this room has. Me moments. As sure as Tuesday follows Monday and Wednesday follows Tuesday, there will be me moments in your life.
And we can look at this and think it's a big revival, because it is. Revival. It's nothing new. It's a revival. Reawakening.
Refreshing. It's happened before, and God is drawing us back together again, but it happens through. Pastor Phil, it happens through all these me moments.
Sitting here, there's somebody for you to call, there's somebody for you to go back and get. And as I, I just, you know, I walk in here, drove here with my wife and I walk in here and I see why, I see why my me moment happened. I just, I mean, I'm, I mean, bad man don't cry. Unless you're named Pastor Phil.
But, but there was, there was a, there was, there were so many of those moments that we shared, but that, that me moment that you're referring to, I didn't know I was just doing, I was just doing, I just saw it. Guys, you understand that I saw it. saw this i saw this and and and it's just the fulfillment of it because because because you're going back because you're going out and when you feel it you have to be able to meet your me moment you understand trick can i tell him three quick three quick things three quick things my jamaican coming out Listen, listen, it is number one you have to answer the question should I?
It's three quick questions. Can I give it to you? I know you want he say you like to eat that restaurant But three quick questions should I?
That has to do with your heart That has to do it with with with are you able to see it? to see the field 17 years 17 years ago are able to see past just the client that you're twisting their locks right that's the should I do it should I do it do it that's vision clarity able to see number two could I hmm that is capacity do I even have the authority or the influence in this man's life for him to can I even save him would he listen will the door be open it was unlocked but what is the could I the should I or the could I and then the third the third question so the second one is capacity can I do it right the third one It's Woodeye. So once you're able to see it, and once you have the authority, the influence, because you're coming here, you're listening, you're being fed, so you have a could I, you have the capacity, would I.
That's your heart, your passion, your desire. Are you lazy, you just can't bother? Was I going to fly up from Jamaica?
to just answer a question the should i the could i would i and there's so many me moments in here everybody pat your chest pat your chest and say me me me i'm here for a reason you're not just here to be a recipient of this movement And I am declaring right now in the name of Jesus, this is not just an Atlanta movement. This is not just an Atlanta movement. Because I am telling you, there are people in Jamaica hearing and feeling what is happening.
This is a revival and a movement of God. And it is as small as you in your chair. And you in your moment.
But it is as big as the nation. Pastor Phil, I honor you and Pastor Lena, and I'm really here just to watch and see what happens here. But do not just be a recipient of this movement. It just blows my mind, Phil. I'll shut up now.
But just to see the single mom and the men, the families that are here receiving. Don't just receive. Don't just receive.