00:00 Introduction and Weekly Update

00:33 Addressing Global Christian Persecution

01:45 The Call to Prayer and Reflection

03:31 Daily Bible Reading: Matthew 18

07:36 Understanding Church Discipline

10:23 The Importance of Forgiveness

14:42 Closing Thoughts and Prayer

16:07 Outro and Podcast Information

Find out more about Compass Bible Church.

Learn more about our Bible Reading Plan.

Questions or Comments? Email us podcast@compassntx.org

Hey everybody.

2

Welcome back to another edition

of the Daily Bible Podcast.

3

Hello.

4

What do we got?

5

We got Wednesday or midweek,

so hopefully your week's gone.

6

Okay.

7

So far the weather's cooling off out here

in Texas, which is a welcome exchange.

8

And yeah, we've got we had baptisms

this past weekend, which we're awesome.

9

Yeah, the church showed up, thank you

for staying and staying afterwards.

10

We had quite a good showing of

people that remained afterwards

11

to, to witness the baptisms.

12

And I know that meant a lot to

those being baptized, but also

13

just, it was really cool to see

our church family there together.

14

That was a great weekend.

15

Certainly a weekend of

celebration for sure.

16

What are we supposed to feel about these

Nigerian Christians that are getting

17

slaughtered halfway across the world?

18

It's so hard because

we're reading headlines.

19

Or maybe you're listening and somebody's

talking about it on a podcast or something

20

like that, but yeah, one person that

I follow said, if your pastor's not

21

talking about Nigerian Christians.

22

He's probably not being

faithful or something.

23

Something like that.

24

That was the implication anyway.

25

Wow.

26

Like what is your pastor

saying about this?

27

People need to be, people

need to be talking about this.

28

Why aren't your pastors

talking more about it?

29

Why?

30

And what they're trying to do.

31

I think giving the most

charitable read here is to get

32

it on people's radars For sure.

33

So things can be talked about.

34

Yeah.

35

And it's a horrific.

36

Awful tragic development.

37

It's not new.

38

By and stretching the imagination

the numbers are staggering.

39

And part of it is, and you and I

have talked about this before living

40

in the 24 7 social media news world

we're aware of so much more than

41

we ever have been aware of before.

42

Yeah.

43

And the loss of life for

faith it, I'd say two things.

44

Three things maybe.

45

First it should grieve us.

46

These are our people.

47

And so as much as we don't have

names and faces to associate

48

with them it should grieve us.

49

This should be something that breaks our

heart, that people are dying because their

50

faith, the families are being slaughtered,

that the children are being killed.

51

This is evil.

52

This is wicked and we

should condemn it as such.

53

First, second.

54

You need to be praying.

55

You need to be praying for those that are.

56

Going through this for those that are

surviving, for those that are on the

57

run, for those that are fearful, for

those that, don't have the peace to be

58

able to sleep through the night because

they're worried that they might be next.

59

Pray for those Christians.

60

Pray for their faith to remain intact.

61

Pray for them to be

strengthened in their faith.

62

Pray for their witness to be strong

and for God to bring an end to

63

this evil and this wickedness.

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And third let it be sobering

to you and we're gonna be even

65

talking about this Sunday.

66

The idea of the Christian's

relationship to government.

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And we just spent some time as pastors

and leaders talking about this here

68

in preparation for next week, we

have a unique place in this country

69

where we have a lot of privileges,

a lot of rights, a lot of freedoms.

70

We don't fear for these things, but

this should be a sobering reminder

71

to us of the cost of following

Christ that is being born by.

72

Other brothers and sisters

throughout the world, right?

73

And so it should make us grateful

for the freedoms that we have.

74

It should also cause us

to say, what am I doing?

75

How am I stewarding the freedom that

I have to be a Christian right now?

76

That it doesn't cost me

the fear of losing my life?

77

And so how am I living in

light of that right now?

78

Those are just some initial thoughts to

what's going on there and how we should

79

be thinking about it and reacting to it.

80

Amen to that.

81

The more you see this stuff,

the more you should be praying.

82

I know we talked about prayer recently.

83

Semi-recently, and we never

wanna look down on that.

84

It feels so impotent.

85

I know.

86

I can often feel like,

man, I wanna do more.

87

But never discount the impact

and the power of your prayers.

88

Pray for these people.

89

If you have any ability to do

something about it, then great.

90

Do something as your soul

allows, as your conscience.

91

Conscience dictates.

92

But never look down on prayer.

93

Please pray for your fellow brothers

and sisters across the world who are

94

Christians and what we assume as much.

95

We don't know what kind of Christian they

are, if they're Presbyterian, Baptist

96

or whatever else, really doesn't matter.

97

What matters is that the Lord

knows and we can do something

98

in our prayers on their behalf.

99

Yeah.

100

Matthew 18.

101

That's right.

102

Matthew 18 is our DBR for today.

103

Familiar text to those

of you in the church.

104

But it, before we get to the part

that's probably most well known from

105

this it opens with something that

we've read before, and that is the

106

argument about who the greatest is.

107

And again, Jesus is gonna take

this child and say, Hey, you

108

need to become like this child.

109

In fact, he says, unless you turn

and become like children, you will

110

never enter the kingdom of heaven.

111

Whoever humbles himself like this child

is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

112

And I just think about the

nature of childlike faith.

113

We talked about it briefly last time.

114

Dependence that we need to have.

115

The total surrender, the recognition that

a child has that, apart from those that

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they depend on, they're really helpless.

117

They can't, provide for themselves.

118

They can't drive over to the

grocery store to get food.

119

They can't prepare the

food when they get at home.

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They don't know how to do these things.

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They're completely dependent upon those

that are their care takers, those that

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have been put in authority over them,

and God is calling us as Christians

123

to that level of dependence upon him.

124

That we have to recognize

our need for him.

125

It's not as though we are

contributing something as I

126

believe that the Mormons would say.

127

In fact, I think it's in the Book of

Mormon, that it says, salvation is

128

by grace alone after all I've done.

129

And so this call to childlike faith

is a call to say I bring nothing.

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I need God for everything.

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It's a full surrender on him to

provide the salvation we need.

132

So again, that opening there

of calling to childlike faith.

133

From here, he speaks to the the danger

in leading the children into sin.

134

He says, woe to those to the world for

temptations to sin for it's necessary

135

that temptations should come, but woe

to the one by whom temptation comes.

136

And so he is talking more generally there.

137

Other times he's talking about the

danger of causing a child to stumble.

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And it says, better to have a

millstone tied around his neck.

139

That's not this necessarily, but when he

says it's necessary that temptations come.

140

That's an.

141

Odd saying and we might say,

well, why is it necessary?

142

And I think that what he's driving

at here is based on the fact that the

143

world is broken, the world's fallen.

144

You are going to face temptations.

145

You just need to be sure that

you're not the one that is doing the

146

tempting that you're not the source

of temptation in someone else's life.

147

And then he goes on to talk about the

radical amputation of sin in our lives.

148

We need to make sure that we're

dealing with sin seriously.

149

That any place we see it, we're

getting rid of it, cutting off the

150

hand, gouging out the eye so forth

and so on, as we've seen previously.

151

Verse 10, he gets into a parable, he

says, again, speaking of the children,

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do not despise the little ones.

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I tell you that they're angels in heaven.

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That's an interesting phrase.

155

We all have guardian angels.

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It seems to imply, come on, that

there are angels that are, what's

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my angels name assigned to us?

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Can I ask them to review themselves?

159

You can go for it.

160

How tall are they?

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I don't know.

162

How many dance on the head of a pin?

163

How many can dance on the head of a pin?

164

People wanna know these things.

165

I'm comfortable.

166

Especially when we consider the

Ephesians six spiritual warfare idea.

167

And even what we saw in the Book

of Daniel where there was an angel

168

dispatch to Daniel who was opposed

and couldn't get to Daniel in time

169

because he had to fight against

Satan At that point I'm comfortable.

170

With there being angels that are assigned

to us and what does that look like?

171

Do I have a guardian angel

touched by an angel of that show

172

and everything else like that?

173

Mm-hmm.

174

That interaction between us and them.

175

I don't know what that looks like.

176

I don't know how much power God imbues

in them to watch over us and to even

177

affect change in our circumstances.

178

I don't know.

179

I don't know if they've been

given that much authority, but I'm

180

comfortable with the idea that there

are angels that are assigned to us.

181

And we should also say too, God

doesn't need, angels, not like God is

182

saying, please help me, that I'm just

so overwhelmed with all these kids.

183

What do do with them?

184

Can you babysit them for a second?

185

Yeah.

186

He does not need angels, but he uses

agents to accomplish his purposes and

187

all I have to do is point to you and me.

188

God could preach the gospel without

you, but he chooses to use you and

189

in a similar sense, he can minister

to us apart from any other being.

190

He chooses to use angels.

191

And so whether or not you have a

personal angel that's been following

192

you since you've been Christian or since

you've been born we don't know, right?

193

This is too ambiguous to say yes or no.

194

What we can say is that there is some

kind of evidence to see that they're

195

watching and they're engaging in some

way, and maybe they're reporting to

196

the Lord about what they're seeing.

197

Does God need this?

198

No, he doesn't.

199

But God uses agents and this is

one of the ways that he does how

200

they interact, what they do for

you, what they don't do for you.

201

Those are all questions well beyond

our pay grade and we can't say, but

202

what we can say is that God has always

taken care of us in one way or another.

203

Yeah.

204

Well, let's get into the

text that is kind of the.

205

Meat of Matthew chapter 18 where

a lot of people go in their minds

206

when they think about this chapter.

207

And that is the issue

of church discipline.

208

Now, this is interesting because the

church was not in existence at this

209

time, and yet we refer to this as

dealing with church discipline and.

210

It's instructive to know that Jesus was

well aware of what was gonna happen.

211

In fact, we read recently that Jesus

told Peter, you are Peter, and upon

212

this rock I will build my church.

213

So he's already referenced the existence

of church and church in the Greek

214

literally just means called out once.

215

And so here, when he is talking about

how this should take place, he's

216

going to use the word church and he's

talking about the called out ones,

217

those that are gonna be his followers.

218

Jesus has already forecast that

that's going to be a group that

219

is going to exist after his

ascension is going to happen here.

220

So he's talking here about how we deal

with matters of sin within the group.

221

That is his called out ones,

the church as we know it today.

222

And the pattern is if somebody is in

sin, as we talked about recently on

223

the podcast, you go to that person

you show them their sin and hopefully

224

you're gonna win the brother.

225

In that instance.

226

Hopefully in that instance, that person

is going to be shown that they are in

227

error and they're gonna repent from their

sin and they're gonna wanna be restored.

228

If not, he says, you need to bring

somebody with you, two or three witnesses

229

with you, and that way, hopefully they're

gonna be soft then to the voice of others.

230

Maybe they don't see it when it's just

you, but maybe they're gonna be humble

231

enough to say, okay if multiple people

see this in me, yeah, I need to repent

232

if they're still resistant, he says, you.

233

It to the elders.

234

You bring it to the church.

235

The church then meets with them, and

again, it's imploring for restoration.

236

This whole thing is about restoration.

237

And if they're still resistant

at that point, then they're

238

gonna be put out of the church.

239

They're going to be the determined

is, has been hijacked by the

240

Catholic church, but excommunicated,

so to speak, they're put out.

241

Mm-hmm.

242

They're treated as somebody

that is not a believer.

243

And that's the point here again,

because we want them to be.

244

Aware of their need for repentance.

245

And so that's kinda what's going on

here in this process, in Matthew 18.

246

Yeah.

247

This is one of the things that should

be happening in the regular, at

248

any church that's doing good Gospel

ministry, we care about each other.

249

And so what this requires is you

to be able to go to your brother

250

or your sister and say, Hey, can

I point something out to you?

251

Do you wanna see something that I see?

252

And you might be wrong, I should say

that you're not gonna do this nilly

253

willy with anybody that you see, but

there is such a care for somebody that

254

if you see them sinning, you should be.

255

Gracious enough, kind enough,

bold enough even to go to them

256

and say, here's what I see.

257

And if they listen to you,

you've gained your brother.

258

Yeah.

259

You have gained somebody and you

have a friend now that's going to

260

listen to you in ways that maybe

they wouldn't have otherwise.

261

'cause you gain trust with that.

262

Right?

263

You gain credibility.

264

This is something that even though

it's about church discipline, you

265

think about the big scary thing

where the pastors are doing things.

266

They're bringing you up on the stage

perhaps, and putting stuff in front

267

of others we're not talking about that.

268

Right?

269

We're talking about level one, right?

270

You go to your brother or your sister, you

bring up sin, you help them confront it.

271

You help them deal with

it, and then you move on.

272

What a great blessing it would be for

every church to have people doing this.

273

Yeah.

274

'cause then it would keep the

church clean and pure in God's side.

275

Yeah.

276

From here, Peter comes up and

says, Hey I've got a question about

277

forgiveness, Lord, how many times

do I have to forgive my brother?

278

Because this all seems

pretty, pretty messy.

279

All of this sinning against

and everything else that we've

280

been talking about right now.

281

And Jesus says so you need to

forgive him 70 times seven.

282

And that's just, you need to never not

forgive is essentially the call there.

283

Forgive to the fullness of

completion that number seven.

284

When it's combined with 70 there it's

emphasizing that number of completion

285

there that Jesus is referring to here.

286

And so then he goes on and tells

the story about two people.

287

One had accrued a debt

that was insurmountable.

288

If this guy worked every day of

his life and paid every penny

289

that he ever made to the king, he

would never get outta this debt.

290

And the king calls him in

calls for the debt to be paid.

291

The man begs and pleads for forgiveness,

and the king forgives his debt, sends

292

him out, the man goes and finds his.

293

Buddy who owes him still a significant

amount of money, not a small

294

amount, still something significant.

295

And yet the friend can't pay it just

like he couldn't pay the king and

296

he begs and pleads for more time.

297

But this man who had just been forgiven

so much by the king demands that

298

he be paid and throws him in jail.

299

The king gets word of it.

300

And the king comes back to the man

that didn't forgive and grabs him

301

and throws him in jail instead.

302

This is one of those parables that

I think is man, sometimes it's the

303

necessity of forgiveness is underplayed.

304

I think in the church, I think we allow

a spirit of unforgiveness to exist and

305

look for reasons why I don't have to

forgive far more than we wrestle with

306

texts like this, which seem to imply,

man, if I don't forgive, how can I expect?

307

To be forgiven by the Lord.

308

Amen to that man.

309

That's a scary passage to work with.

310

And I think one of the challenges for

any of us is that we've all been hurt.

311

People hurt us in different ways.

312

They say things about us, they

say things to us and we naturally

313

say, well then forget you.

314

Right?

315

You're toxic.

316

I want nothing to do with you.

317

But the truth of the matter is the

church doesn't have that privilege.

318

Not that it's a privilege to.

319

Exercise in the first place.

320

We just don't have that.

321

If you truly are in a relationship

with another Christian who's also

322

been bought with the same blood that

you've been bought with, you have

323

an obligation through Christ to do

what you can to reconcile with them.

324

Mm-hmm.

325

Paul says that you're to live that

peace with everyone and so far as

326

it's possible for you to do that.

327

Paul knows that there are times that

you can't reconcile a relationship,

328

but most of the time you can't.

329

Most of the time you can if you're

willing to put in the sweat equity,

330

and Christ expects that of us.

331

So this is a really heavy text.

332

And I think for most of us,

we're gonna hear it and say, oh,

333

but what about this situation?

334

What about that situation?

335

I know that there's a lot of us

that would say, there's people

336

that I really struggle to forgive

people that I don't wanna forgive.

337

But we're obligated to.

338

And even though that doesn't mean that

you will always transact forgiveness,

339

that does mean that you have to have the.

340

Attitude of forgiveness.

341

So someone might be dead long

gone, that ascend against you,

342

or you send against them and now

you say, oh, Christ has saved me.

343

I wanna change that.

344

Can I reconcile with them?

345

Well, you can't because they're gone.

346

They're not in the picture.

347

You don't have their phone number anymore.

348

There's no way to contact them or

they're off the planet entirely.

349

Whatever it is.

350

Christ doesn't necessarily expect

that forgiveness be transacted, but

351

it must have an action in the heart.

352

There must be an attitude of forgiveness,

and if there's a possibility for the

353

transaction of forgiveness to take

place, then great, we should do that.

354

Yeah, and I think part of our

misunderstanding is we wait for

355

forgiveness to become easy or we

wait for somebody to come to us and.

356

Seek our forgiveness.

357

Yeah.

358

And so then it feels like, okay,

now it doesn't cost me as much to

359

forgive you because you've humbled

yourself and you've come to me

360

and you've sought my forgiveness.

361

Right.

362

But forgiveness isn't easy.

363

Forgiveness costs all the time.

364

Even when somebody comes to us

and says, will you forgive me?

365

There's gonna be times that you're

not gonna feel like forgiving them.

366

Yeah.

367

Forgiveness is costly to us, just

like it was costly to the father.

368

And yet it's to your

point, something that we.

369

Are called, we are obligated to do to

the point that Jesus says my Heavenly

370

Father will do this to every one of you.

371

If you do not forgive your

brother from your heart.

372

Our forgiveness in the eyes of God

is connected to our willingness

373

to forgive other people, which is.

374

Very sobering when it comes to whether

or not we want to hold grudges and

375

harbor bitterness against people.

376

Yeah.

377

So resentment and bitterness are all

evidence that you did not forgive.

378

And Christ does not hold that lightly.

379

He wants us to feel the weight

of what he's saying here.

380

He calls us to have the attitude

of forgiveness and man, what

381

we need to heed that warning.

382

What he's saying here is not meant

to be RIFed with, we're called to

383

be a people of forgiveness because

we've been forgiven of our debts.

384

How dare we hold the debts against others?

385

Against them?

386

Yeah.

387

Yeah.

388

Amen.

389

Well, let's pray and then

we'll down with this episode.

390

Well, it's a heavy passage that

we just read and yet one that is

391

for us and for the church and we

are wanted to be obedient to it.

392

We wanna be a church.

393

That deals with sin in, a radical

way, even as we talked about cutting

394

off our hand and gouging out our eye.

395

We wanna be a church that doesn't trifle

with sin, that doesn't treat it lightly.

396

And part of that comes with this church

discipline process that we talked about.

397

We wanna be a church that loves one

another well enough to care about

398

the godliness of our brothers and

sisters in Christ, to be willing

399

to have the hard conversation.

400

God though we don't want to have

too many where we would have

401

to take it to the full extent.

402

We wanna be ready to do that.

403

And if we do that, Lord, we wanna do

that well and do that in obedience

404

to what your word calls us to.

405

And that would help us also to be

a forgiving church would help us

406

to remember how much we've been

forgiven even as earlier Jesus.

407

Had had the woman of ill repute wash

his feet with her tears and her hair.

408

And the Pharisee thought if he only

knew, and she said he loves much

409

because she's been forgiven much.

410

Lord, may we have that awareness of

our ourselves and how much we've been

411

forgiven, such that that would overflow

into a spirit of forgiveness towards

412

other people as well, regardless

against the church of bitterness and

413

division and holding grudges against

each other and help us Lord, to forgive.

414

Even though it, it costs us Lord to

forgive joyfully because we know it's

415

an expression of our understanding

of the gospel, and it's only possible

416

because of the gospel that we can

have that mindset in the first place.

417

So we pray this all in Jesus name, amen.

418

Keep your new Bibles.

419

Tune in again tomorrow for another

edition of the Daily Bible Podcast.

420

See you.

421

Bye bye.

422

Bernard: Well, thank you for

listening to another episode of

423

the Daily Bible Podcast, folks!

424

We're honored to have you join us.

425

This is a ministry of Compass

Bible Church in north Texas.

426

You can find out more information

about our Church at compassntx.org.

427

We would love for you to leave a

review, to rate, or to share this

428

podcast on whatever platform you're

listening on, and we hope to see

429

you again tomorrow for another

episode of the Daily Bible Podcast.

430

Ya'll come back now, ya hear?

431

PJ: Yeah.

432

I would agree with

everything that you said