Stuxnet: A Modern Parable of Infection

Speaker 1 0:01

And for the rest of us . I will invite to stand for the reading of God's Word this morning , from 1 Corinthians , chapter 5 , verses 1 through 13 . The Word of God reads this way it is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you , and of a kind that is not even tolerated among pagans , for a man has his father's wife , and you are arrogant . Ought you not rather to mourn ? Let him who has done this be removed from among you , for , though absent in body , I am present in spirit and , as if present , I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing . When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus , and my spirit is present , with the power of our Lord Jesus , you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh , so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord . Your boasting is not good . Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump ? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump , as you really are unleavened For Christ ? Our Passover lamb has been sacrificed . Let us therefore celebrate the festival not with the old leaven , the leaven of malice and evil , but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth . I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people , not at all , meaning the sexually immoral of this world , or the greedy and swindlers or idolaters . Since then , you would need to go out of the world , but now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed or is an idolater , reviler , drunkard or swindler , not even to eat with such a one . For what have I to do with judging outsiders ? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge ? God judges those outside . Purge the evil person from among you . This is God's word . Thanks be to God . You may be seated , and may God bless this reading and preaching of his word .

Speaker 1 2:12

In 2010 , iran was working to develop nuclear weapons , and at their Natanz facility they had hundreds of centrifuges that were spinning , that were busy enriching uranium to weapons-grade levels . But then something strange started to happen . Although their monitoring systems reported that everything was functioning normally , their centrifuges were mysteriously failing in ways that were just barely detectable . They were spinning just slightly too fast , for example , enough to not trip up their systems , but just enough to burn themselves out and then become useless , and the malfunction was so subtle that it took the Iranians months to detect . But it was consistent and eventually they realized what was happening , that someone was sabotaging them . That someone was Stuxnet .

Speaker 1 3:16

Stuxnet was a highly advanced piece of malware . No one has ever formally taken credit for who developed it , but it was reportedly developed by the United States and Israel working in partnership . It was certainly some . It was so advanced it had to have been developed by some government and not just a private citizen . But it used four what are called zero-day exploits in Microsoft Windows , which is another reason why you should be using Apple products . But it used four zero-day exploits in Windows . Most malware has one or two zero-day exploits and Stuxnet had four of them . So a zero-day exploit is like a hidden . It's a hidden vulnerability , it's like a back door that nobody knows about except the intruder , and because it's unknown , once it's discovered , it can take up to 90 days to patch that , which gives the intruder a long and a dangerous head start . So how did it actually get into their system ? Well , the method was simple and it was brilliant . Somebody put it on a USB drive and dropped that USB drive in the Natanz parking lot with a certain belief that whoever stumbled upon it would plug it into a computer , wondering what's on this USB drive , which is why you should never plug in a random USB drive into your computer . But someone did that and unknowingly unleashed the most dangerous malware that the world has ever seen .

Speaker 1 4:52

This story , if you're interested , is told on the HBO documentary Zero Days . It's a fascinating documentary , 2016 documentary , and it marked . It's fascinating not just because of that event , but it marked a new era in global security . Cyber warfare had arrived , we learned at that time . The world learned that a nation could enter into another nation's systems , whether it be their power grid or any other kind of system , and they could lie there silently , hidden for years without anybody ever knowing it , waiting for the perfect time to strike , and by the time that you realize that they're there , it's too late . It's really scary . That's the world that we live in today .

Speaker 1 5:41

Stuxnet is a modern parable of infection , something that enters secretly and silently and that spreads and waits almost in an unseen way , something that causes invisible damage and something that , once it's discovered , if it's not dealt with urgently , it can completely destroy a system from within . And I bring that up because that's exactly what Paul sees happening in the church in Corinth . From what we've read in our passage this morning , we're in a series in 1 Corinthians . If you are visiting and just joining us , we have been walking through 1 Corinthians . I did not choose this passage for Father's Day , it just happened to land on it . Our series is called Bless this Mess because the Corinthian church was a mess and every local church is a mess .

Speaker 1 6:38

But in chapter 5 today , paul confronts a serious problem . There is unrepentant public sin that the church is tolerating . The issue is not really so much the sin or the nature of the sin . The issue is the church's tolerance of the sin . That's what this chapter is about , and Paul's warning is clear . He says this kind of sin is an infection . It's devastating and it may go unnoticed for a while , it may seem like it's under control , but if it is left unchecked it will damage not just one person but it will do damage to the whole body .

Speaker 1 7:18

And so Paul here is calling on the church to act , not harshly but seriously , because church discipline is painful but necessary , and that's really the main point of our sermon this morning . Church discipline is painful but necessary . Why is it necessary . Paul gives us three reasons in this passage why church discipline is necessary . It's necessary for the glory of God , it's necessary for the health of the church and it's necessary for the salvation of the sinner . Those three reasons for the glory of God , for the health of the church and for the salvation of the sinner . So first , church discipline is necessary

Confronting Unrepentant Sin in Corinth

Speaker 1 8:02

for the sake of God's glory .

Speaker 1 8:04

For the sake of the glory of God , paul says in this passage . One of the subtexts here is that there needs to be a real , visible , marketed difference between what he calls insiders and outsiders those inside the church , whom you are to judge , paul says , and those outside the church , who he says I have nothing to do with judging them , god judges them . Inside the church we are to judge , there's supposed to be a difference in some kind of barrier we're going to talk about what he means by that between those who are inside and those who are outside , because he's deeply concerned about the reputation of Christ when those who bear his name , who bear the name of Jesus , live in unrepentant sin in a visible way out in the world and nothing is being done about it . It casts shade on the glory of God , it obscures the glory of God . Look at verses 9 through 13 .

Speaker 1 9:07

Paul says in verse 9 , I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people . And then he's quick to add not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world , or the greedy and swindlers , or idolaters . He could go on and on . Since then you would need to go out of the world . That's verses 9 and 10 . So Paul's reminding the Corinthians the world is broken , full of sin , and that's exactly where the church is called to be . We want to be in the midst of the world , in relationship with the culture , in a redemptive way . That's why we're here , in the heart of the city , in Findlay Market . We don't want to be off on an island somewhere . We want to be in the midst of the world . That's where the church is supposed to be . We're not meant to withdraw or avoid people because they're sinful . We're sinful too , but we're supposed to live in the world with compassion and with humility .

Speaker 1 10:04

But a line gets drawn , however , when someone claims the name of Jesus . When someone claims the name of Jesus , paul says in verse 11 , but now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of , et cetera . And then Paul lists several sins and it's by no means exhaustive , he's just talking about unrepentant sin . And then he says not even to eat with such a one . So to bear the name of brother means someone who has made a public profession of faith , someone who has been baptized , who has taken the name of Jesus , who says I'm a Christian , I'm a representative of Jesus , has taken the name of Jesus , who says I'm a Christian , I'm a representative of Jesus , someone who's joined the church . And notice , paul is not talking about someone who struggles with sin , because all of us struggle with sin . All of us sin countless times throughout the week and fail in ways that we know and even in ways that we don't know . We all struggle , know , and even in ways that we don't know . We all struggle . But he's talking about unrepentant , ongoing sin , a lifestyle that contradicts the gospel while still claiming to represent it .

Speaker 1 11:15

Then Paul draws the boundary line clearly and he says in verse 12 , he says what have I to do with judging outsiders ? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge ? God judges those outside . And then he quotes from the Old Testament purge the evil person from among you . The responsibility to judge and to hold people accountable is not for outsiders . Paul says that's God's job . We do not judge those who are outside of the church , but inside the church , among those who profess Christ , who claim his name , we're called to hold one another to account , to hold one another accountable in love , with grace , but in a serious way . And here's the idea Paul is saying we are tolerant toward outsiders . We are nonjudgmental . We're welcoming , we pray for them , we bless them . We don't let their lifestyle or their worship of pagan gods get in the way of our relationship with them . We're tolerant toward outsiders . We are accountable toward insiders . Paul creates that distinction , he doesn't create it , he draws attention to it . O are accountable toward insiders . Paul creates that distinction , he doesn't create it , he draws attention to it . Outsiders and insiders we're accountable toward insiders so that God may be rightly glorified .

Speaker 1 12:37

I'll just give you a parallel illustration . I've said this before but I'll elaborate on this . But at our gym I'm part of a kickboxing gym nobody is allowed to take a fight unless they have been training at that gym for at least a year and unless they go through a fight camp , which is a more rigorous period of training before that event . If they don't do that , they're not allowed . Why ? Because when they step into the ring , they're wearing the name of the gym on their shorts says Powell MMA on their shorts , and they represent the gym that they're coming from , and so how they perform says something about the quality of the gym . I mean , if they go out there and they're just like totally gassed and they get knocked out in the first you know five seconds , it's like wow , I'm not training at Powell , you know . Note to self , they represent the gym .

Speaker 1 13:33

If you claim the name of Jesus and if you belong to a church , whether or not you realize this , it's a serious commitment . But whether or not you realize this , you represent Christ . You're a representative of Christ . He represents us in heaven before the Father , and we represent him here on earth . It's amazing that he's given us that responsibility . We represent Christian faith and you represent your local church . You are a representative of your local church , and how you live speaks to the watching world . It says something about who Jesus is , what it means to be a Christian , what kind of church you're a part of . How you Live speaks volumes .

Speaker 1 14:14

Another example and I asked permission to share this . So this is shared with permission . But many of you know Pierre , a young lady in our church .

Inside vs Outside: Who We Judge

Speaker 1 14:25

Last year she became a Christian . Last year Jesus invaded her life . She wasn't expecting it , nobody else was expecting it , but he invaded her life , called her to himself and she became a Christian . She was not part of any church at that time and she asked herself she said , okay , now that I'm a Christian church at that time . And she asked herself she said , okay , now that I'm a Christian , do I know anybody that's a Christian , like a real Christian ? And even she was even able to discern the difference between there's people who just claim to be a Christian , people who really live it out . And she knew one person , a guy named a young man named Michael , who's also part of our church . I didn't get his permission , sorry , michael Young man named Michael . She says Michael's a real Christian . I'm going to go to his church . And she came here and she has not missed a Sunday since and that's been almost a year . So congratulate her today on a year of being a Christian and praise God for that .

Speaker 1 15:17

But that's what's at stake . This is what's at stake . If you are a Christian , if you claim the name of Jesus . You are someone's glimpse of who Jesus is , and who knows when those seeds will bear fruit . We can't plan that or prepare for that . We can just , you know , live obedient to the Lord . But that is what's at stake . So what does that mean for us ? There's many applications we can make . I'll just make . I think I just have one here . I just have one .

Speaker 1 15:51

One way to apply this is that church membership being a member of a local church , making a commitment to follow Jesus with a particular people , church membership matters . It is what draws the boundary line between insiders and outsiders . It clarifies who the church is responsible to correct and who we are called to patiently welcome without judgment . So anybody can come and worship with us and journey with us for a long period of time . And if you're not a , if you're not a member of this church , if you've not made a public commitment to follow Jesus with this people , then there's a lot that's messed up in your life that we're going to tolerate for a very long time because you've not claimed the name of Jesus . But when you become a member and when you claim the name of Jesus , of course we still need to be tolerant with one another , but we're going to hold one another to account . We're going to help one another to follow Jesus in the ways that we said that we wanted to . So we do want very messy people to come into the life of this church without shame and fear , so that God can work on them .

Speaker 1 17:01

But accountability begins with church membership . So if you are not a member of a church here or anywhere , I just want to encourage you to make that a priority . There are going to be seasons in your life where you're between churches . Maybe you've just moved to town , or maybe you're transitioning out of a previous church community and you're taking some time to discern , and that's fine . But you should recognize that it is a strange and irregular thing for a Christian to be without membership in a local church . So I just want to encourage you to make that a priority . Who have you given permission to hold you accountable ? That's another way to ask that question . And if you are a member , if you're a member here , remember what you signed up for . Membership is saying I want to follow Jesus with all of my life . Will you help me do it ? Will you hold me accountable to that when you became a member here . That's what you were saying and it also means that you're committing to do the same for others .

Speaker 1 18:06

Notice that in this passage there's the offender in 1 Corinthians 5 , but Paul does not rebuke that person . In this passage Paul rebukes the church . The sin is bad , what this guy did is bad , but what's worse is that the church has tolerated it and has done nothing about it . Paul rebukes the church in 1 Corinthians 5 . We have to give each other permission to call us to something better and we have to be courageous enough to do it with one another , so that the watching world can get a glimpse of the glory of God , of who God is . So point one church membership is necessary for the glory of God . Point two it's also necessary , or sorry , church discipline is necessary for the glory of God . It is also necessary for the health of the church , because sin damages the whole community .

Sin Damages the Whole Community

Speaker 1 19:05

It cannot be tolerated . Because sin damages the whole community . It cannot be tolerated .

Speaker 1 19:09

So let's look closer at the case that Paul confronts in 1 Corinthians 5 . This particular case is a case of sexual immorality Corinthians 5 . This particular case is a case of sexual immorality . A man is likely involved in a relationship with his father's wife , likely his stepmother . And there's not a whole lot that we know about it , just these words that we have from Paul . But even the little information that we have tells us several things . First , the sin is public , so this guy is not hiding it . Everybody knows about it . He has likely embraced it .

Speaker 1 19:44

If this news has reached Paul , who is in Ephesus , surely everyone in Corinth knew about this . It was a public sin . Two the sin is ongoing . Sin Two the sin is ongoing . This wasn't a moment of failure , this wasn't . This guy messed up one time in the past and now is living with the guilt of that . It's an active relationship . It's an ongoing pattern . He's actively living in this relationship and the sin is unrepentant . There's no sorrow , there's no struggle . It's not a struggle with sin . He's not struggling with it at all . This is something he has embraced in his life as normal and to be celebrated , so that it's .

Speaker 1 20:29

Those are important details , because I'm not talking here about you know , aaron has a , you know has a bad day and yells at his wife and then we kick him out of the church . It's not like that . This is a public , ongoing , unrepentant sin . And Paul's message is clear . He says , ongoing , unrepentant , public sin cannot be tolerated . Why ? Because it does not just harm that person , that individual , but it damages the whole church . Look at verse 6 . He says , as much as we might like to think that sin is containable and that it's manageable which we all delude ourselves into thinking that even sin in our own lives , that if we just give it a little bit of space in our lives , that it'll stay there , that it won't move into other parts of our lives or into other parts of our church , we are sorely mistaken and we are being deceived . And we're deceiving ourselves , because sin always spreads . Wherever it is allowed to live unchallenged , it will always quietly grow like leaven Paul says here like leaven in a lump of dough .

Speaker 1 21:51

In professional cycling do we have any cyclists in here or any professional cyclists in here ? In professional cycling , like in an event like the Tour de France , riders are not racing as individuals . It's a team race . They ride in teams and they ride in a tightly packed unit called a peloton . So if you have the workout machine , this is where that word comes from . It's a unit of cyclists . And here's how the peloton works . One rider called the puller takes the lead position and he absorbs the wind resistance and he has to work the hardest , but he creates a slipstream of wind for the rest of the people in the team to ride in , and behind him his teammates draft . They're riding in his wake and it's easier for them , they're saving energy , they're gaining speed and then and they rotate eventually , eventually , another rider will ride up to the lead and he'll start to pull and then the others will have an easier time and they'll follow him . But in order for that to work , the team has to be tight , they have to be disciplined , they have to be synchronized , they have to be moving as one unit , and I mean that they have . They've got to be really tight , like they're going 30 miles an hour at least , and they're wheel to wheel , inches apart , elbow to elbow . And if one rider drifts out of line you may have seen videos of this , but it gets catastrophic If he gets distracted or careless or just veers a little off course , he is liable to take the whole team with him . The whole peloton will be taken out .

Speaker 1 23:30

And that's what Paul is saying about the church . He's saying in the church we're not riding solo , as much as we might like to think that we are , we're not . We move together . We're not riding solo , as much as we might like to think that we are . We're not . We move together . We're growing together . We suffer together . And when any one of us falls into unrepentant sin , and if the rest of us say nothing or the rest of us allow it to happen or let it happen , it's not just the harm of the person that's at stake , but the whole formation can be damaged by that . So just to make a sort of a positive application of this point , think about that Peloton illustration .

Speaker 1 24:09

In the church we need to pull for one another . We need to be pulling for one another . Not all of us are going to be equally strong in the Spirit all the time , and that's part of the reason why we're part of a church . Sometimes God ordains it that way where you know you might be struggling for a season , but someone else in the church or a close friend is doing well spiritually . Not all of us are going to be equally strong in the Spirit all the time , but when the Spirit is at work in your life , when you are feeling energized , when you're feeling the joy of the gospel , when you're walking in repentance and joy and clarity of mind , pull . Pull for others in the church . Create a wake for others to ride in . Lead the way in humility and worship and in faith and in prayer , in humility and worship and in faith and in prayer . And when you're tired , when you're discouraged or dry spiritually or struggling , fall back into somebody else's draft . Somebody else that is in your church community that's just more in tune than you are at the moment . Who is pulling for you and encouraging you in repentance ? And when you're moving at all steam ahead , who are you pulling for ? That's how we move forward together .

Speaker 1 25:25

This is what the author of Hebrews says in Hebrews 10 . He says let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works . Not neglecting to meet together that's key but encouraging one another , and all the more as you see the day drawing near . So you pull for me and I'll pull for you , and together let's make sure that no one gets hardened by the deceitfulness of sin . That's what we're supposed to do for one another . So church discipline is necessary for the glory of God , but also for the health of the church . And finally , we see that it is necessary for the salvation of the sinner , for the salvation of the one who is of the offender

Discipline for Salvation, Not Punishment

Speaker 1 26:11

. Without discipline we will never change . Without discipline we will never change . Church discipline is necessary again , not only for the glory of God and not only for the health of the church , but also for the good of the person who is caught in sin . Church discipline is necessary to help them .

Speaker 1 26:31

Look at what Paul says in verse 5 . He says you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh , so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord . Such a strange verse , because it just seems like these two polar opposite concepts in that one verse deliver him to Satan for the destruction of the flesh , so that his spirit might be saved . That's fascinating . What's going on there ?

Speaker 1 26:56

The phrase deliver him to Satan refers to what we would call excommunication , and it means removing someone from the visible fellowship of the church , no longer recognizing them as a member , no longer welcoming them to the Lord's table , no longer regarding them as a fellow believer , but removing them from among you . But notice the goal of why we would do this . Paul says it's not punishment , it's not vengeance , we're not trying to get back at him because he harmed us . It is so that his flesh may be destroyed and his spirit saved in the day of the Lord . In other words , it's not about harming somebody , it's not about cutting somebody off . It's about doing everything that we can do to call them back , doing the most that we can do to call them back to repentance . So what does this mean ? Well , paul is saying sometimes the most loving thing that the church can do , or that we can do , is to let someone experience the full consequences of their choices . Sometimes , the most loving thing that we can do is to let someone experience the full consequences of their choices to stop shielding them from the natural fallout of their sin .

Speaker 1 28:15

The good news about sin and unrepentant sin is that it's unsustainable and that it's self-defeating . And that's good , because what that means is that it never leads to lasting joy . Even though we get deluded into thinking that we can find it there , it never leads to that . It always breaks down . So when someone is handed over to their sin okay , this is what you want to pursue pursue it . When someone's handed over to that , they will eventually find themselves at the end of it Like the prodigal son in Luke 15 , when his luck ran out in the foreign land and he came to himself and he remembered how good he had it with his father and he returned home . That is the heart of church discipline . That's why we would practice church discipline . It's not about rejecting somebody or shunning someone , but it's about redemptive exposure , exposing them to the path that they want to go down until they reach the end of it , even in the most severe discipline , which would be excommunication . The hope is that the person will realize the emptiness of their sin , that they will remember the goodness of the gospel and how good they had it with God , and that they would come back home .

Speaker 1 29:38

There's a guy named Oz Perlman and he is an ultra-marathon runner , which I I never aspire to be , but he runs two to three marathons a year and is always training for it . And in order to train he runs dozens of miles every day . And when asked why he does that because that's a great question why would anyone subject themselves to that , to so much pain and discipline he had a fascinating answer . He said this is why I do it . He said that when you push yourself and when you do hard things , like when you wake up in the morning and you run 10 miles and that's the first thing that you do in your day . Everything else in your day is much easier because you've already done the hardest thing that you're going to do all day , or you've already done the hardest thing that you're going to do all day , or you've already done the hardest thing that you're going to do all week . Everything else in life becomes easier because now , the little trials that we face throughout the day , the little frustrations they're never going to be as difficult as the 10 miles that I pushed myself to run this morning . So there's a paradox there , this fascinating paradox , that if you do hard things in life , everything else in life will become easier . But if you avoid doing hard things and if you never push yourself , everything else in your life will start to feel overwhelming and it'll become harder because you never actually push yourself to do anything truly difficult . Why do I bring that up ?

Speaker 1 31:14

I bring that up because sometimes people do not grow spiritually or emotionally because they have never had to face difficulty . Sometimes people don't grow because they've never had to face any consequences or any difficulties . They have been protected from consequences . People around them have always absorbed the cost of their dysfunction . They've always softened the fall or made life easy and , as a result , certain people never mature . They remain stuck in the same habits and the same dysfunctions year after year .

Speaker 1 31:51

And that's where church discipline comes in and can be so helpful . When we tolerate unrepentant sin in the midst of the church community , when we do nothing , when we don't say anything , when we just let it happen and let it unfold , we are not loving that person , we are enabling them and we are allowing them to stay in their dysfunction , disconnected from consequences and disconnected from reality . So if a person refuses to acknowledge their sin and to repent , the most loving thing that the church can do is to let them feel the weight of their choices so that down the road , lord willing , they can see this isn't working and something needs to change . Church discipline is one of those hard things that leads to necessary growth , and it's not because we want to hurt somebody , but it's because we want to see them healed and they're never going to change if they never have to face anything difficult .

Speaker 1 32:58

This is one of those sermons where you might think , oh , this is really interesting information and I hope we never have to use it and , you know , maybe I'll dog ear this and years later , if we ever have to deal with a case in our own church , we can go back and listen to it . But the truth is this that there are cases , severe cases of discipline , like what we find in 1 Corinthians 5 , where Paul has entered the situation 10 steps down the road and it's already deteriorated to such a terrible point . That's a severe case and there are . That does happen . But each and every one of us needs discipline to grow and to change . All of us need discipline and the point that I'm making in point three is that without discipline we will never change . Sometimes that's church discipline , but all of us need discipline For all of us . Without discipline we will never change , and each one of us will be disciplined by the Lord .

Speaker 1 34:03

Listen to Hebrews 12 . Again , hebrews 12 , 6 , it says the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son or daughter whom he receives . Every child of God will participate in discipline . We will all be disciplined by God

A Father's Discipline: God's Loving Correction

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and I always define discipline for my kids like this . When I'm meeting it out as imperfectly as I do , I say it's a little bit of pain now , meant to save you from a lot of pain later . Henry , harvey , lucy , june , I'm giving you a little bit of pain now , in whatever form that might be , whether it's taking away something good or dishing out something painful . I'm giving you a little bit of pain now because you have to stop doing this , because if you keep doing this down the road you're gonna get fired from your job and we're trying to save you from a lot of pain later . That's what discipline is . It's never done out of anger . In our sin as parents , we often lash out and discipline out of anger , but real godly discipline is and discipline out of anger , but real godly discipline is not done out of anger . It's always done out of love and without discipline we will never change .

Speaker 1 35:20

For us , sometimes that discipline is self-discipline , like fasting or spiritual disciplines . Fasting is a great example of something that we do that's hard , where we push ourselves to do it , but it makes everything else in life easier . If you can say no to a cheeseburger , you know fasting from food . Or let's be inclusive about this If you can say no to carrots or vegetables , which are good , then you can certainly say no to sin , which is bad , right . So fasting is one of those hard things that we do that makes other things , like resisting temptation , easier . So sometimes it's self-discipline .

Speaker 1 36:07

Sometimes the discipline that we receive is divine discipline . It's directly from the hand of God , like painful circumstances that God sends into our lives because he loves us too much to let us live without him . He loves us too much to let us be prayerless and faithless , prayerless and faithless . And so he will send some kind of thorn into your life in order to discipline you . And sometimes the discipline is church discipline because we've failed to discipline ourselves . God's discipline is not getting through to us , and so sometimes we need church discipline . We need one another , we need brothers and sisters in Christ calling us to something better , because they love us too much to let us ruin our lives . However it comes to us , we all need it and we will all get it , because our God is a loving Father , a good Father , who loves us , even discipline . So maybe you're in the midst of it right now . We don't have any ongoing church discipline cases in our , but maybe you're being disciplined by the Lord right now , or maybe you're disciplining yourself right now .

Speaker 1 37:22

Remember this , whether it's now or later , even discipline has good news at the bottom of it , because all of the anger that we deserve because of our sin is not in the discipline . It's not there . It got taken away , it got put somewhere else . It got put on a cross when Jesus took the anger of God toward our sin and took it to the cross and absorbed it in his death and it was buried in a tomb and it's gone . So none of God's anger is in that discipline . God's not angry with you . He loves you and because he loves you , he's going to discipline you .

Speaker 1 37:59

And whether it's self-discipline or divine discipline or church discipline , don't be discouraged . Let that discipline have its intended effect that we would ultimately be healed , that what is out of joint would be healed properly and that we would share in his holiness . To that end , let us pray Our Father , you are good , you love us more than we understand , more than we can know . The love that we experience for our own children is just even a small glimpse of the love that you have for us . You have adopted us as your children . You've brought us into your family . You have given us all grace .

Speaker 1 38:56

And there's no anger , but there's lots of love and there's lots of discipline that we need in order to change in ways that are necessary to become people who resemble your son , jesus Christ . So we pray that you would prepare us for that . We pray that you would help us not be discouraged when we're facing that . We pray , god , that you would help us to be more self-disciplined and more proactive in our seeking you and in our growth , so that we would not need further measures and we know that we will . We know that we do and that that happens but help us to grow in our self-discipline so that the rest of life could be joyful and easy , as we are yoked together with Jesus , whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light . We thank you in his name and for his sake , amen .