Authentic Christianity #16: Our Brothers Keeper

What is the right response when you see, one of your fellow Christians messing up what's the right thing to do when you see, a brother or sister in Christ that's, doing something wrong or something sinful? What is the most valuable and the most loving thing that we can do to help out a brother or a sister who's falling into moral failure? What exactly does God want us to do? What should we do? 

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Well. Good morning. So, today we're going to be talking about what is the right response when you see, one of your fellow Christians messing up what's the right thing to do when you see, a brother or sister in Christ that's, doing something wrong or something sinful? What is the most valuable and the most loving thing that we can do to help out a brother or a sister who's falling into moral failure? What exactly does God want us to do? When, when we see our brothers and sisters, falling into sin. What? What should we do? Well, the first thing, I thought I would examine are some of the things that, people do. That aren't, backed up by Scripture. One of the common things that I've heard, throughout my Christian walk is this idea that, when somebody sins, the person who is encouraging them says, listen, God loves you just the way you are. Don't worry about it. God loves you just the way you are. You can ignore, the condition of your moral condition because God accepts you and loves you just the way you are. Well, one of the problems with that response is you're going to have a hard time finding, scriptural backing for that idea. Another thing that's common is that when we see our brothers and sisters in sin, we think that the best thing to do are often what we do. Do as we go. Complaining to another Christian about what this Christian is doing. That's another, common response to our brother and sin that that, you can't find any scriptural backing from or for. You're not going to find a passage that says when your brother sins, the best thing to do is go gossip about it with other Christians. That's not, a productive, response. Now, there are various other responses in scriptures, and I'll just go over some, and then we'll look at the one that, we'll be focusing in on this week. In, in John chapter first, John chapter five, one, one idea, in Scripture is that when your brother sin, gets to a certain point in first Corinthians five, it says, this is the most radical, is that you're to cut them off from fellowship. Another, idea in first Timothy five is a public rebuke of those who are in sin. And, Matthew eight, it talks about bringing those who are in sin before church leadership. And, then in Galatians chapter six, verse one, it talks about, gently correcting or rebuking your brother when you see them and sin, correcting them. Of course. Not in every circumstance. When you see your brother sin, you don't kick him out of fellowship or in every circumstance. When you see your brother in sin, you don't, take them before the elders of the church. There's different, appropriate responses to, different, situations or actions. For example, if, one of the young people in our church, saw one of the, adults in our church, at a convenience store buying a lottery ticket. It would be inappropriate for that young person to go up and say, Mr. Smith, as a Christian brother in Christ, I want to let you know that you're not properly stewarding your resources to the glory of God. That would not be an appropriate response, even though they may be right. There is one action, and all the actions that we're called to do that is always appropriate, that in every circumstance and in every situation where we see our brothers sinning or falling in some kind of moral failure, that it's always right for us to do, and it is the one thing that we should do first and before anything else that we do. Can anyone guess what that might be? That's what we'll be looking at this morning. It is, not always right or always helpful to, kick people out of the church. It is not always right or always helpful to correct people in in every circumstance, no matter what. But there is one thing that is always, needful. And it's always needful before we take any other response to each other's sin. What can help us more and what can help us help each other more, then getting God's help involved in a, moral failure. The one thing we're going to be looking at today that we're called to do in, first John chapter five, verse 16, is to intercede for our brothers and sisters when we see them and moral failure solicit God for his help in the situation. Today, as we continue in our series Authentic Christianity Reflecting Christ's love, we're going to be looking at, the effect our prayers have on others. Look at the thing is, is that I was in such a state, such a moral condition in my life that nothing could have a positive effect on me except for, people who prayed for me, interceded for me, in my behalf. I don't want to think of the absence of blessing and deliverance and power I would have missed out on if it hadn't been for people interceding for me. And if it isn't for people who continue to intercede for me, prayer opened the doorway to salvation. It enabled God to penetrate my heart in ways that were, impenetrable through, the sharing even of the gospel. Because I was so ardently anti-Christian. The one of the people who interceded for me that I credit for God's hand moving in my life, was, a young woman named Leslie. I was living up in Mammoth Lakes, back in the winter of 74, 75, living a, hedonistic, partying lifestyle. And I knew a few Christians up there, and she was one of them. And she would come over and play cribbage with me every Thursday night. We had kind of a friendship where we would play cribbage together, and she knew better than to share the gospel with me. The few times she had tried, she ran into a buzzsaw. But the one thing she did continue to do was she continued to tell me that her prayer group was praying for me, and I would smile and say, that's cute. It wasn't within more than a month of her telling me that that that God started to move in ways that had never moved in my life before. And the first thing he did was convict me of my sin, which wasn't an easy task for me because I wasn't given to guilt very easily. You know, I was your everyone else's fault kind of guy. And, I see her prayers as being crucial to, God's conviction and bringing life into my life. Her intercession was more powerful than anything else that she could have done for me. Can we serve each other in any way more effectively than through intercessory prayer? Are we willing to work at intercessory prayer to be a blessing to others? Is there anything that helps more in the spiritual development of others than heartfelt prayer, which moves the hand of God? If we can get God's hand to move and move in people's lives through intercessory prayer, how can that not be the most powerful thing that we can do to affect change, to bring a channel of God's life and blessing into a person's life through prayer? Do we have confidence? Do we have reason to be confident in the effectiveness of our prayers for others? Think about that as we look at today's message entitled Our Brother's Keeper, we'll be taking a look at, first John chapter five, verse 16 and 17. Our brother's keeper, heavenly father, Lord, as we come before you in prayer, we ask God that you would open up your word to us, that we might just see the potential that is within this, anonymous act of charity, one towards another, where we can bring our concerns for our brothers and sisters before you, and we can ask you to act on their behalf. Lord, we need, other people's prayers in our life. And, Lord, I, I would be totally offended if I knew people were going out and talking about my failures to each other, but I am. I am grateful for anyone to talk about my failures to you, because you hear and you act in my best interest. Help us walk away from this day with a confidence in the power of intercession. Lord, in Christ's name we pray. Amen. First John chapter five, verses 16 and 17 says this. If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life. I refuse. I refer to those who sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that he should pray about that. All wrongdoing is sin and there is a sin that does not lead to death. Okay, here we are. Here we see that, we have a command, to Christians, for Christians. And that command is that if we see our brothers committing a sin that does not lead to death, that we are commanded to pray for them. Now, this passage gets a little confusing, because as soon as we hear that term sin that leads to death, we automatically focus on that. And in focusing on that idea of what sin leads to death and what doesn't lead to death, it distracts us from the main point of this, these two verses, which is we're called to intercede for our brothers when we see them in sin, that does not lead to death. So, it's necessary for me to just take a few moments to to explain the difference between sin that leads to death and sin that doesn't lead to death. And then get back to our main point. Theologians have been really struggling over the years with the various, ideas or points of view of what it means to have sin that leads to death. There are a variety of, explanations out there of what? This idea of sin leading to death means. And, so I don't really want to get into a full explanation of all the different ideas and why I believe what I believe, because it's a distraction from the main point of this verse here, which is we are called or commanded to intercede for our brothers and sin. But let me just say this. There are two ideas that I think come closest to, the meaning of sin that leads to death. The first is that it's referring to the very same thing that Jesus talks about when he, speaks in Mark chapter three, verse 28, where Jesus says, all the sin and blasphemy, a man will be forgiven him. All sin and blasphemy of man will be forgiven him, except blasphemy against the Holy Spirit that will never be forgiven. Now what he's talking about there is that all of the garden variety of sin that men do, including blasphemy against God, will be forgiven them. Everything that we do will be forgiven except for. And he's talking about in the context of the Pharisees, attributing, the work of God to Satan, except for the one thing that won't be forgiven is if we, turn away from the testimony of God himself about the nature of Christ and about who Christ is, and about the work of the spirit of God revealing truth. So the one thing that will never be forgiven is the rejection of truth, the rejection of truth. How can the rejection of truth be forgiven if we, accept the truth about Christ and His sacrifice for us, then all other sins are forgiven. But if we completely reject, Christ and His ministry, how can anything be forgiven? Because he's the means of of that forgiveness? That's one idea of what, that sin that leads to death could be referring to the unpardonable sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit. The other, explanation that I think comes close to that and is similar to that, is that, the explanation that here, he's, John is referring to something that he's talking about in the context to his letter, which is the sin or the heresy of the Gnostics that he's warned earlier about. And the sin of the Gnostics is to deny Christ and to minimize, immorality, which is really the same thing as, the impassable sin that that Christ is talking about. Now, I don't want to say any more than that, other than to say, that the deadly or sin that is mortal, is is not what we would refer to as the mass are the majority of sin that we see. In any case, 99% of the time when our brothers are sinning, we're not witnessing what we'd call sin that leads to death. We're witnessing sin that that might, go down the corridor, into the deadly sin. But it isn't the deadly sin, and it's it in itself. And, if we see our brothers in sin, that isn't the deadly sin isn't a complete and absolute rejection of Christ. We are to pray for them when we see our brother in moral peril, we are to call out for his rescue. And the theme of this morning's message is this, that, through intercession, we become our brother's keeper. Through intercession, we become our brother's keeper. Let's take a look at verse 16 again. If anyone sees his brothers commit a brother, commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life. He should pray and God will give him life. What is the most helpful thing that we can do for our brother in trouble? Is there anything greater than we that we can do to benefit our brother in trouble than to get God's help involved? Can we, with all our wisdom and all our insight and all our counseling skills, match what God can do? Can the best of my resources even come close to what God can do in a person's life? About 15 years ago, there was a young man who had been recently married who was going through, a lot of anxiety and struggle in his life. And, he had a lot of self doubts and depression and anxiety. And he'd been seeing a Christian counselor for, well over a year. And, he there was no real visible benefit to it. And one day he asked the elders of his church to pray for him, and they laid hands on him, and they prayed for him. And they ask for, God's help in his life. And something happened at that moment. And I remember the pastor quoting exactly what he said to me. He said that this person who had been struggling with these besetting, self-doubts and anxiety and depression said, I don't know what just happened, but I know this in this one moment of prayer, more has been accomplished in me than in a year of counseling. He felt a difference. He felt a deliverance. He experienced a a light and a life come in to him that he had not experienced in all, of human, effort. Sometimes we need to look at a situation and say, this is a little beyond me. I need to call 911. There was, a story in the news again this week. It's a typical story of a young kid. It was a story of, looked like about a five year old boy who found his mom collapsed in the hallway of their house, and he knew enough to call 911. And the paramedics came and revived his mother. This is, a good illustration of where we are at with a lot of our brothers in need. Sometimes it's beyond us to help, and the best thing we can do is call 911, give God a call and ask for his help. Whether we get personally involved and bring in correction or not, whether we're called to confront our brothers and sisters and sin directly or not, whatever the case is, the first and best thing for us to do, is to intercede for our brothers in trouble. Trying to save a brother or sister without God's help is, like bringing a gun without bullets to a gunfight. It is not, going to be an adequate resource to, draw a person into, safety. I remember when I was, in college, I was, in a lifeguard training class, and the very first class at the very first thing that the, trainer said, as he said, whatever you do when you're trying to save a person's life, who's drowning, try to do whatever you can not to come into contact with that person. If there's a shepherd's hook along the side of the pool, or if you have a boy or a towel, do anything not to get in contact with that person, because if you contact them as soon as you contact them, you're in danger of a double drowning. So after having said that, he went. And the next three weeks we trained on what to do if you have to contact yourself with the person. We did all of the diving training and turning the person, training and swimming that the person training and all the training necessary to, save somebody if you didn't have anything other than yourself to save them with. And so the time of the testing came, and I remember when the testing time came, what he had said on the very first day. So I wanted to save my response to the end. So I let everybody else test in front of me. And we had a guy in the pool that was pretending like he was a drowning victim, and everyone dove in and swam down around their legs, grabbed their ankles, turned them around, climbed up their back, secured them so they couldn't have a double drowning and swam them in. And, then when it came my turn to, save the victim, I walked over, grabbed the shepherd's hook, stuck it out, and handed it to the guy who was dragging, who was drowning and, pulled him to the to the side of the pool. And the instructor seemed a little miffed at me at first. Like, that's not what you're supposed to do. But then he realized that's what I was supposed to do. I was supposed to rely on something beyond myself if I was able, and, and that's the first thing we should do in saving our brothers in need is not to try to go in there and save them ourselves. If there's any other way we should bring God's help to bear. We should bring the power of God to bear into a situation where we see our brothers or sisters falling in moral peril. And if God instructs us, or if we're led, or if it's appropriate to bring correction or rebuke, then by all means we need to do that. But the first thing we need to do is call 911 and ask for help from beyond to get God involved. Intercession is the most valuable act of love. And it is a privilege for us as Christians to be able to reach up and call 911 for our brothers and sisters in need again this morning. The theme is through intercession, we become our brother's keeper. And point number one is intercession brings an assured remedy. No one ever calls 911 and thanks that the paramedics are who the fire department is not going to come. We should not call out to God and think he's not going to come. Verse 16 says this if anyone sees his brother commit us in, that does not lead to death. He should pray and God will, and God will. It says God. Well, it doesn't say God might. It says God will bring life into our putrefying conditions. We, when we ask him, for those who aren't completely closed off to him, his life will, bring in an edify edification. It will penetrate. It will convict of sin and bring life. I don't know if you guys know the story of the Imperial Valley, but the Imperial Valley is a desolate place that nothing grew in until the American Canal was built and brought water from, the, Colorado River. And it became a verdant valley where most of the, the most of the lettuce in the United States is now grown. And, that's what that's the difference between, life without God's life and a life that's irrigated with God's life. Have you ever been in an airplane and flown over and seen these circles in the desert? That's the only difference between the green part of the circle and the dead part. Outside the perimeter of the circle is that one has water on it, and the other does not. The dirt is the very same dirt, but one is irrigated and the rest is not. This is the difference between God's life being, brought into a situation and God's life not being brought into a situation. Though sometimes it says here that God's life is always brought when we intercede that God will bring his life. So what is it, you know, that causes us to doubt that that will happen? Well, sometimes, pastors, I've prayed for people, and nothing's happened. Nothing's happened. I've prayed and I've interceded for years and nothing has happened. It's like water and ground and nothing green comes up. What is the deal with that? Well, there are soil conditions where it doesn't matter how much water you put on it. You like this lava field here? It could rain, 40in a year and that would remain the same. What I want to say to you is, if you intercede, God's life will be poured out. And if, when we. When we intercede and when God's rain of life comes down and we see no change, why would we automatically think it's because God didn't act? We see in the parable of the sower and the seed, where Christ says the seed goes out ubiquitously on all forms of different soil, on the hard ground, on the rocky soil, on the soil that's full of weeds, and on the good soil. We see in that teaching of Christ that that God's seed, God's truth, ubiquitously goes out on all different types of soil, but only one type of soil, responds in a productive way to the truth. That's the good soil that there's not Rocky, that's not hard, that's not choked with weeds. And we see in that, illustration, the illustration of the difference between God's truth and the condition of the hearts of men when we intercede, God will give his life. And the result depends on the receptivity of the soil. For those God has elected, the soil is good and the product will be, will be productive. Going back to that lava flow, actually, there is is hope for a lava flow field heart, because that was my heart before intercession. So one of the things intercession can do is, break up the lava field, through conviction so that it can actually receive the water. If you look real closely there, there are little, grain spout sprouts. Let's see if I can. Right there. There's a little plant there and a little plant. There. It is. It is possible over time to have a lava flow heart, be broken up. So, we should never stop interceding because, intercession brings, first of all, the breaking up of the soil through the conviction of sin, but then also the productivity of the soil through the raining of God's truth. Again, the theme is that through intercession, we become our brother's keeper. Point number one is intercession brings an assured remedy. Remedy. And point number two is intercession is not optional. For brothers in need. Let's take a look at verses 16 and 17 again. If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life. I refer to those who sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that he should pray about that. All wrongdoing is sin and there is a sin that does not lead to death. Okay, we can choose to intercede or not intercede. For those who have completely turned their back on the truth and who have rejected Christ and His sacrifice. This is not a command not to intercede for those whose sin has is leading to death. But it is, a command to pray for those who, whose sin does not lead to death. This is not an optional thing. Here we are commanded to intercede for those who are open to Christ and have, shown themselves to be receptive to his mercy for all of us when we fall into some kind of moral failure. Our brothers and sisters in Christ are commanded to pray for us. What keeps us from doing our duty? What keeps us from, entering into, the work of intercession? Well, one thing. It is work. I think one of the reasons why we don't pray for each other as much as we ought is it's work. And not only is it work, it's thankless work. It's anonymous work. No one gets gets a, gets put on a big tower and said, here's the intercessor who prayed me into good health because it's work that never has, is really ever seen, other than by God himself. And, I think that's one reason that we might not, do it. Another reason is we might look at somebody who is, fellow Christian and think, you know what? They don't even deserve my intercession. Kind of like, Jonah with, Nineveh. I don't really want. I know God's merciful. And I don't really want God to be merciful to this person because he doesn't really deserve it, or maybe even that person that we should be interceding for we're mad at because their moral failure is against us. And so the heck with them. I'm not going to ask God to help them. They've offended me. Why would I ask God to help somebody who's offended me? The heck with them. Let them get what they deserve. Well, let me just say that in every case, it's irrational for us to not pray for the health of our fellow Christians. The reason why it's irrational is because we are one body. And regardless of the, I has offended the ear, the ear still needs the eye to see. Well, and regardless of the ear gets no credit for interceding for the eye. The eye ear still benefits if the eyes vision clears up. We are one body and we are affected as one body by the spiritual health of each other. Thinking. Think about it in terms of being a team player on a team. Sometimes, team players rejoice when another team player is injured because maybe now I won't have to sit at the bench. I can get in, get into his position because, because he's injured and, I don't hope I don't hope that he gets better because, he's injured. Now I get to play. But any team player that wants the best for the team is going to recognize that what's best for him as an individual player player is blessed for the team as a whole. And the team is best. Best in the best condition. When all of its players are healthy, we aren't unaffected by each other's spiritual health. We are either strengthened or weakened by each other because we're one body. The moral condition of the individuals, add to the moral condition of the whole. For good or for evil. The health of the church is, the health of its members. Corporately, we do well to pray for each other. We're really praying for ourselves. We're praying for our own body. When we're praying for parts of our body. I'd like to conclude this morning, after going through the theme in the two points, by reading about that in Ephesians chapter four. Again, the theme this morning is through intercession we become our brother's keeper. Point number one is intercession brings an assured remedy. Point number two is intercession is not optional for brothers in need. Concluding this morning with Ephesians chapter four, verses 11 through 16, it says this. It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for the work of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up. Until we reach the, reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ, then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves and blown here and here and there, by every wind of teaching, and by the cunning craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming, instead speaking the truth in love. We will in all things grow up in him who is the head that is Christ. For in him the whole body is joined together, as joined and held together by every supporting ligament, and grows and builds itself up in love as each part does its work. Heavenly father Lord, just just a lot of times, when I see, the, the lack of health in the broader body of Christ and maybe in my own life or in Christians around me, that I just feel like detaching and, just going off and being by myself, Lord, and just, just living my own life with just you. But, Lord, I would be as stupid as a ear thinking it could just go off and, experience life without the, without the rest of the body. Lord, we are called to glorify you as one body. And none of us, comprise all of its parts. All of us only comprise one part of the body of Christ. And Lord, we pray, Lord, that you would layer upon our hearts to, call 911 to intercede for those who are in need to bring health and wholeness and and help to those who, have collapsed and can't get up, who who are in the need of emergency care, who need help from above to get back on track. Lord, we pray, father, that you would excitedly give us, the desire to help our brothers through intercession. And that sister to sister, brother to brother, member to member. We will experience and increased health as we pray for each other. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.