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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 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. In its most extreme form, it pushes some of us even to the brink of contemplating suicide.
This emotion is often compounded by those people in our lives who don't have the sensitivity to see where we are. Instead of showing compassion, all we get from them is silence, negativity, and scorn. When we are in a place of shame where they should be leaning into what we are going through and showing care, instead all we get is ridicule. 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 one of the darkest seasons of my life. When I was estranged from Christ and ran from the community of saints because of sin in my life and brokenness and shame, I ran from the people of God and from the Lord Jesus thinking that I was unworthy, unuseful, and useless in the eyes of God.
I found myself alone, isolated in a basement, thinking like God was done with me. There is nothing else the Lord is going to get out of my life. I have hurt him too badly. I have hurt others too badly. And there I was, isolated, all alone.
But it was in that dark moment of my life that God sent one man to come and find me in that darkness. 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 through one person that cared enough to find me in my distress, I was reminded of God's love and his care. Although I felt unworthy and worthless in that moment, the Lord through one person coming to find me reminded me that I was still valuable in his sight.
Family, this is the deep cry of the Lord Jesus Christ in this text. I want to remind you that Matthew chapter 18 is one of the most important passages in all of the New Testament. It is Matthew chapter 18 which contains all of the doctrines of the New Testament that teach us how to live in biblical community.
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 find their origin in Matthew 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 prophesies the birth of the church. He says, "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 eklesia, which means "gathering of the saints."
We have been deceived by Constantine who started building beautiful basilicas and then changed the Bible to put pulpits in those basilicas so that the only time you can 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 gathering."
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. He does this 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 or so from this text he will be brutally executed, buried, and resurrected. In this gospel, he's doing everything he can to try to prepare his children for his transition, to prepare them for his exit.
In Matthew 18:1, 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 who will have the top position.
And in verse two, 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 like a child—transformation like children—you will never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven."
The Lord is saying there are people who will be in church their whole life and never make it into glory. They would have gone 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 worker of iniquity." You had no real relationship with me. You were churchy but you were not intimate with me.
Nowhere in his book did he ever call us adults of God. He called us children of God. And 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 said greatness is synonymous with prestige, power, influence, following, social media. We think people are great because of what they have. 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.
Then he said: "Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me." 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, how you treat another follower of Christ is how you treat Christ himself."
Then he says: "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." The Lord is reminding us: people will commit sins, but you better not be the cause of people committing sin. In the context of biblical community, let people walk out if they want, but you better not be the cause of people walking out.
This is for the seductress trying to trap boys in the church. This is for dudes taking women out of town and you're not married sharing one hotel room. This is for people sowing seeds of discord in the church and tearing it up. 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.
The Lord said: Do not be the cause of any other Christian being led into sin. The word Jesus said it'll be better for you to be dead than be a person he blames for somebody else falling into sin. It'll 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? Instead of using prayer for your stress, you use drugs for your stress, not knowing that in that moment the Lord saying: "Listen, it'd be better for you to be dead than pass that off to your brother or sister." Why do we act like he can't see? Like we be trying to hide? Any hiding spot you have, it's so dope that he can't see.
He's given us this teaching about ethics and values because he's trying to protect us from hurting ourselves and hurting each other. Because he knows that sin is destructive and dangerous and damaging to his children. And in his love for you is 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 then with two hands to enter into the fires of hell." If your hands and feet—if you're committing sins, any sins that you are involved in—this is a commission: cut it off. The Lord is saying: deal aggressively with your sin.
Too many people say, "I'm a Christian," and then play around with sin. Don't treat it like it's cute or demure. No, hate your sin. Deal aggressively with your sin. Don't treat it as cute. Don't make it demure. Don't sweep it under the rug. Don't put it in a closet. Recognize he said: cut it off. Deal aggressively with your sin.
He says: "If your eye causes you to sin, 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. So deal with the sins that you are doing. Deal with the sins of the heart—unforgiveness, pride, lust, anger, rage, jealousy, covetousness. Wring that stuff out of your heart.
He's telling us that because he doesn't want us to suffer. He said: "Woe to the world that is a pronouncement of judgment to the world for sins. And then he says: Woe to the person through whom sins comes."
Now 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—don't play around with it"—I'm watching as it is killing you all, destroying your relationships, your marriages, your friendships. For some of you, 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 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," here is what he says next in Matthew 18:10:
"See that you do not despise one of these little ones."
I want to draw your attention to a few things. He says: see that you don't despise one of these little ones. Which little ones? Not children, but followers of Christ.
The Lord gives you and I not a suggestion—pay attention. He gives us a commandment: Do not despise followers of Christ who you see struggling with sin, who fell into some bad circumstance, who are going through some distress. When you see members of your community going through hardship, dealing with sin, they made a mistake, they fell away—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." Or: "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 doesn't like this person. Look at the way she dressed. Look at her bundle. Look how she'd be dressing when she comes to the gathering. Surely the Lord doesn't love that sister right there."
It's us moving in the community and having hatred in our heart, disdain in our heart, contempt in our heart for other brothers and sisters.
This is us being so pro-black that you're anti-white. You've got your little African thing hanging around your neck and you think because 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. You're so pro-black you hate white people. That's looking at a brother or sister with contempt.
Or you're so evangelical, so white, you hate black people. You're racist and you don't like them because of something they couldn't control. The Lord didn't give us through Ephesians through Paul that divided that line. 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're anti-white, anti-Hispanic toward 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. 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.
What the Lord is saying right here in this text is: I want y'all to live amongst each other in such a way that you do not keep dishonoring brothers and sisters you hate for 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. "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 having hatred for somebody for no other reason than what's in your flesh.
If we would lean into the teachings of Jesus, we would feel something in church that feels more loving and more of Him 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 in DMs tearing down somebody on your team. God, 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 important than 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 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, just devalue another human being.
It's to not see the image of God in their face. We were all created in the image of God. It's to not see their worth and value. It's to not see their dignity.
And listen, 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. She means nothing to Jesus. She's got 50 people on her Instagram. This person's got a million people on 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, man." What we're talking about is celebrity that makes us value some 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?
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 if you're not always dealing with church hurt all the time. Finally, you get to a church that teaches you the scriptures without trying to sugar coat 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. Stop hating people unnecessarily. Stop despising."
Do not despise another brother or sister. 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."
I want to draw your attention to the word "for." The word "for" is a transitional word that anchors the last clause to Christ's saying right now. It connects the two. The word "for" means reason or purpose. Watch: "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 there are angels. Always see the face of my father who is in heaven."
Jesus is giving us access into an unseen realm that you and I can't see. He's teaching us that in heaven, there are angelic beings that stay before God on behalf of the sons and daughters of God. 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.
And now we learn here from Jesus about an unseen realm—that the Lord actually created angels that watch over the Christian church in the world. There are angels in heaven that are always pleading your case when you fall into sin, when you make mistakes, when you fall short. There are angels in heaven that be pleading your case like, "People are saying: Look what Phillip did," and there is an angel saying: "Lord, be merciful to Phillip." "Look what Tanisha did," and there are angels in heaven saying: "Be merciful to Tanisha."
The Lord saying: "Man, his children are so valuable. They are so valuable that I even assigned angelic beings to watch over them and to plead their case in heaven. When you're in the basement feeling insecure, unworthy, man, there's angelic beings calling your name before the father: 'Lord, man, 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.
These angelic beings watch and intervene in the lives of his children. The unknown writer of Hebrews said in Hebrews, around chapter 1, verse 14: "Man, angels were created to serve the sons and daughters of God."
Do you want proof? Do you want evidence? Acts chapter 12. Luke, who recorded the first 30 years of church history, said: "About that time, Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. Watch. He killed James, the brother of John, with the sword. And 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 also you."
Watch verse 4: "And when they had seized him, 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."
Peter is 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 the 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? We despise these little ones.
But watch the back half of verse 5: "So Peter was kept in prison, but God—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, Jesus." But instead of despising him, because of his circumstance—like nobody's ever been jammed up by sin and needed grace—oh no, you were 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, watch—because of his circumstance—the church was praying for him.
Well, 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 centuries before the door were God in the prison. And behold"—a strong word that means "pay attention." "Behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to Peter."
Gosh, he stood next to Peter. He stood next to him and the light shown itself. He punched Peter in the face—that's the Philip Anthony Mitchell translation. He struck him in the jaw, right? He punched Peter in the face saying: "Get up quickly." That's why you got to follow instructions. That's why the scripture teaches us: "You better be careful how you treat strangers, because often times 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 blow them off like they wasn't talking to an angel who was trying to give you instructions. The homeless person that gave you a word.
Yeah, 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 get involved. Chains be breaking when God get involved.
I know I'm not the only one that's ever felt bound by something and then 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." Hallelujah.
And the angel said to him: "Dress yourself, put on your sandals." And he did so. And 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.
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 to the iron gate leading into the city. And it opened because when God get involved, doors open. And it opened for them of its own accord. And they went out.
From the street, 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 angelic beings have intervened in your life. You was in a car crash and the angel held you to the seat so you didn't fly through a windshield.
Man, I think about times God intervened in my life even before I was saved. When a friend and I drove off a cliff drunk on our way to a gunfight in Durham, North Carolina. Trunk full of guns. Straight off a cliff to the bottom of the ravine. We walked out without a scratch. My God, the Lord, knowing that this day will 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, giving you words of instruction, protecting you in car accidents. Bullets could have killed some of you. You're 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.
Glory! Hallelujah!
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. The Lord closes this section with 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.
He closes with these final words. He gives a parable—a story—to strengthen his argument. Verse 12:
"What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray?"
Gosh, man. Somebody should just say thank you. Like, the Lord didn'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—pictoral 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. They are stupid creatures. They fight each other. They bust their heads on walls. Sheep are prone to wander. They could 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. Jesus, thank you, Lord.
Now pay attention. Watch. Sheep in first-century Palestine were so valuable. They were worth a lot of money. To lose a sheep would be like losing 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 ran to go find that sheep that is lost.
Watch. The Lord is trying to tell us: The person who wanders from me in their sin, their failure, and their mistake is so valuable, man, I will go after them personally for myself.
Watch. Said preacher, I don't get it. Watch. You know what the Lord is calling us to? He's not only calling us to humility and childlikeness. He's calling the church 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.
Do you get it? This is you being in a squad, a small group. And one of your girlfriends disappears. She has some new boyfriend. Now she ain't showing up anymore, man. He's busting it down and now she doesn't want to pray because she feels ungodly. 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.
But what the Lord said is: Get in the Uber. Get in the Lift. Get in the car. He says: Go to her house. Bang on her door. And say: "Girl, where you been? We, let's pray about this. Let's talk about this. Let's help you."
Go back to the father. What the Lord is saying is: He wants his church to have a pastoral heart. They were on your team and they're not showing up anymore. Go and find them. Yeah, they were in your small group and they're not showing up anymore. Go and find them. Man, that married couple that stopped coming, that you 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 fake tracts leading people to false doctrine. No, he ain't talking about those people that need to get ran out of the church. If they don't get saved, they'll get right.
No, 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.
Man, there are 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—the first sermon that Peter preached, 3,000 souls are 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 themselves.
So they got 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. Keep family together. Fight together. Push against sin together so that we all arrive in glory together. Together."
Thank you, Lord. Amen. So nobody gets left behind.
Some of you, this ain't important to you right now 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 in North Carolina with a shotgun on my lap, drinking a fifth of Hennessy to get myself drunk enough that I have the courage to pull the trigger. And when I get to the point where I could pull the trigger, I got the barrel facing my chin, man.
But 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 Tiffany is wondering: Where is Phillip?
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 the shotgun in my lap with tears in my eyes.
She walks up to me. She takes my hand. 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 where I will be a herald for him. And he saw in me value that people could not see in me. And he sent one of his children, man, to God—thank you, Lord. He sent Tiffany to my apartment.
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 has for 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. My God, 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 and say: "Man, you 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 says in verse 13: "And if he finds the sheep, truly I say to you, man, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray."
That is: Man, watch. The word "if"—you see that word? That's a clause that gives us 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. Like, I know you don't 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 our 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, man. 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 is: It is not God's heart that any one of them who belong to us 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. He 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 ruled 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 now everybody loves your music. 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 would 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 belongs 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 majestic and matchless name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen and amen and amen.
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 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. In its most extreme form, it pushes some of us even to the brink of contemplating suicide.
This emotion is often compounded by those people in our lives who don't have the sensitivity to see where we are. Instead of showing compassion, all we get from them is silence, negativity, and scorn. When we are in a place of shame where they should be leaning into what we are going through and showing care, instead all we get is ridicule. 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 one of the darkest seasons of my life. When I was estranged from Christ and ran from the community of saints because of sin in my life and brokenness and shame, I ran from the people of God and from the Lord Jesus thinking that I was unworthy, unuseful, and useless in the eyes of God.
I found myself alone, isolated in a basement, thinking like God was done with me. There is nothing else the Lord is going to get out of my life. I have hurt him too badly. I have hurt others too badly. And there I was, isolated, all alone.
But it was in that dark moment of my life that God sent one man to come and find me in that darkness. 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 through one person that cared enough to find me in my distress, I was reminded of God's love and his care. Although I felt unworthy and worthless in that moment, the Lord through one person coming to find me reminded me that I was still valuable in his sight.
Family, this is the deep cry of the Lord Jesus Christ in this text. I want to remind you that Matthew chapter 18 is one of the most important passages in all of the New Testament. It is Matthew chapter 18 which contains all of the doctrines of the New Testament that teach us how to live in biblical community.
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 find their origin in Matthew 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 prophesies the birth of the church. He says, "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 eklesia, which means "gathering of the saints."
We have been deceived by Constantine who started building beautiful basilicas and then changed the Bible to put pulpits in those basilicas so that the only time you can 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 gathering."
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. He does this 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 or so from this text he will be brutally executed, buried, and resurrected. In this gospel, he's doing everything he can to try to prepare his children for his transition, to prepare them for his exit.
In Matthew 18:1, 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 who will have the top position.
And in verse two, 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 like a child—transformation like children—you will never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven."
The Lord is saying there are people who will be in church their whole life and never make it into glory. They would have gone 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 worker of iniquity." You had no real relationship with me. You were churchy but you were not intimate with me.
Nowhere in his book did he ever call us adults of God. He called us children of God. And 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 said greatness is synonymous with prestige, power, influence, following, social media. We think people are great because of what they have. 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.
Then he said: "Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me." 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, how you treat another follower of Christ is how you treat Christ himself."
Then he says: "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." The Lord is reminding us: people will commit sins, but you better not be the cause of people committing sin. In the context of biblical community, let people walk out if they want, but you better not be the cause of people walking out.
This is for the seductress trying to trap boys in the church. This is for dudes taking women out of town and you're not married sharing one hotel room. This is for people sowing seeds of discord in the church and tearing it up. 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.
The Lord said: Do not be the cause of any other Christian being led into sin. The word Jesus said it'll be better for you to be dead than be a person he blames for somebody else falling into sin. It'll 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? Instead of using prayer for your stress, you use drugs for your stress, not knowing that in that moment the Lord saying: "Listen, it'd be better for you to be dead than pass that off to your brother or sister." Why do we act like he can't see? Like we be trying to hide? Any hiding spot you have, it's so dope that he can't see.
He's given us this teaching about ethics and values because he's trying to protect us from hurting ourselves and hurting each other. Because he knows that sin is destructive and dangerous and damaging to his children. And in his love for you is 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 then with two hands to enter into the fires of hell." If your hands and feet—if you're committing sins, any sins that you are involved in—this is a commission: cut it off. The Lord is saying: deal aggressively with your sin.
Too many people say, "I'm a Christian," and then play around with sin. Don't treat it like it's cute or demure. No, hate your sin. Deal aggressively with your sin. Don't treat it as cute. Don't make it demure. Don't sweep it under the rug. Don't put it in a closet. Recognize he said: cut it off. Deal aggressively with your sin.
He says: "If your eye causes you to sin, 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. So deal with the sins that you are doing. Deal with the sins of the heart—unforgiveness, pride, lust, anger, rage, jealousy, covetousness. Wring that stuff out of your heart.
He's telling us that because he doesn't want us to suffer. He said: "Woe to the world that is a pronouncement of judgment to the world for sins. And then he says: Woe to the person through whom sins comes."
Now 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—don't play around with it"—I'm watching as it is killing you all, destroying your relationships, your marriages, your friendships. For some of you, 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 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," here is what he says next in Matthew 18:10:
"See that you do not despise one of these little ones."
I want to draw your attention to a few things. He says: see that you don't despise one of these little ones. Which little ones? Not children, but followers of Christ.
The Lord gives you and I not a suggestion—pay attention. He gives us a commandment: Do not despise followers of Christ who you see struggling with sin, who fell into some bad circumstance, who are going through some distress. When you see members of your community going through hardship, dealing with sin, they made a mistake, they fell away—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." Or: "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 doesn't like this person. Look at the way she dressed. Look at her bundle. Look how she'd be dressing when she comes to the gathering. Surely the Lord doesn't love that sister right there."
It's us moving in the community and having hatred in our heart, disdain in our heart, contempt in our heart for other brothers and sisters.
This is us being so pro-black that you're anti-white. You've got your little African thing hanging around your neck and you think because 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. You're so pro-black you hate white people. That's looking at a brother or sister with contempt.
Or you're so evangelical, so white, you hate black people. You're racist and you don't like them because of something they couldn't control. The Lord didn't give us through Ephesians through Paul that divided that line. 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're anti-white, anti-Hispanic toward 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. 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.
What the Lord is saying right here in this text is: I want y'all to live amongst each other in such a way that you do not keep dishonoring brothers and sisters you hate for 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. "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 having hatred for somebody for no other reason than what's in your flesh.
If we would lean into the teachings of Jesus, we would feel something in church that feels more loving and more of Him 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 in DMs tearing down somebody on your team. God, 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 important than 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 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, just devalue another human being.
It's to not see the image of God in their face. We were all created in the image of God. It's to not see their worth and value. It's to not see their dignity.
And listen, 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. She means nothing to Jesus. She's got 50 people on her Instagram. This person's got a million people on 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, man." What we're talking about is celebrity that makes us value some 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?
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 if you're not always dealing with church hurt all the time. Finally, you get to a church that teaches you the scriptures without trying to sugar coat 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. Stop hating people unnecessarily. Stop despising."
Do not despise another brother or sister. 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."
I want to draw your attention to the word "for." The word "for" is a transitional word that anchors the last clause to Christ's saying right now. It connects the two. The word "for" means reason or purpose. Watch: "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 there are angels. Always see the face of my father who is in heaven."
Jesus is giving us access into an unseen realm that you and I can't see. He's teaching us that in heaven, there are angelic beings that stay before God on behalf of the sons and daughters of God. 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.
And now we learn here from Jesus about an unseen realm—that the Lord actually created angels that watch over the Christian church in the world. There are angels in heaven that are always pleading your case when you fall into sin, when you make mistakes, when you fall short. There are angels in heaven that be pleading your case like, "People are saying: Look what Phillip did," and there is an angel saying: "Lord, be merciful to Phillip." "Look what Tanisha did," and there are angels in heaven saying: "Be merciful to Tanisha."
The Lord saying: "Man, his children are so valuable. They are so valuable that I even assigned angelic beings to watch over them and to plead their case in heaven. When you're in the basement feeling insecure, unworthy, man, there's angelic beings calling your name before the father: 'Lord, man, 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.
These angelic beings watch and intervene in the lives of his children. The unknown writer of Hebrews said in Hebrews, around chapter 1, verse 14: "Man, angels were created to serve the sons and daughters of God."
Do you want proof? Do you want evidence? Acts chapter 12. Luke, who recorded the first 30 years of church history, said: "About that time, Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. Watch. He killed James, the brother of John, with the sword. And 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 also you."
Watch verse 4: "And when they had seized him, 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."
Peter is 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 the 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? We despise these little ones.
But watch the back half of verse 5: "So Peter was kept in prison, but God—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, Jesus." But instead of despising him, because of his circumstance—like nobody's ever been jammed up by sin and needed grace—oh no, you were 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, watch—because of his circumstance—the church was praying for him.
Well, 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 centuries before the door were God in the prison. And behold"—a strong word that means "pay attention." "Behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to Peter."
Gosh, he stood next to Peter. He stood next to him and the light shown itself. He punched Peter in the face—that's the Philip Anthony Mitchell translation. He struck him in the jaw, right? He punched Peter in the face saying: "Get up quickly." That's why you got to follow instructions. That's why the scripture teaches us: "You better be careful how you treat strangers, because often times 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 blow them off like they wasn't talking to an angel who was trying to give you instructions. The homeless person that gave you a word.
Yeah, 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 get involved. Chains be breaking when God get involved.
I know I'm not the only one that's ever felt bound by something and then 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." Hallelujah.
And the angel said to him: "Dress yourself, put on your sandals." And he did so. And 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.
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 to the iron gate leading into the city. And it opened because when God get involved, doors open. And it opened for them of its own accord. And they went out.
From the street, 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 angelic beings have intervened in your life. You was in a car crash and the angel held you to the seat so you didn't fly through a windshield.
Man, I think about times God intervened in my life even before I was saved. When a friend and I drove off a cliff drunk on our way to a gunfight in Durham, North Carolina. Trunk full of guns. Straight off a cliff to the bottom of the ravine. We walked out without a scratch. My God, the Lord, knowing that this day will 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, giving you words of instruction, protecting you in car accidents. Bullets could have killed some of you. You're 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.
Glory! Hallelujah!
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. The Lord closes this section with 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.
He closes with these final words. He gives a parable—a story—to strengthen his argument. Verse 12:
"What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray?"
Gosh, man. Somebody should just say thank you. Like, the Lord didn'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—pictoral 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. They are stupid creatures. They fight each other. They bust their heads on walls. Sheep are prone to wander. They could 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. Jesus, thank you, Lord.
Now pay attention. Watch. Sheep in first-century Palestine were so valuable. They were worth a lot of money. To lose a sheep would be like losing 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 ran to go find that sheep that is lost.
Watch. The Lord is trying to tell us: The person who wanders from me in their sin, their failure, and their mistake is so valuable, man, I will go after them personally for myself.
Watch. Said preacher, I don't get it. Watch. You know what the Lord is calling us to? He's not only calling us to humility and childlikeness. He's calling the church 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.
Do you get it? This is you being in a squad, a small group. And one of your girlfriends disappears. She has some new boyfriend. Now she ain't showing up anymore, man. He's busting it down and now she doesn't want to pray because she feels ungodly. 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.
But what the Lord said is: Get in the Uber. Get in the Lift. Get in the car. He says: Go to her house. Bang on her door. And say: "Girl, where you been? We, let's pray about this. Let's talk about this. Let's help you."
Go back to the father. What the Lord is saying is: He wants his church to have a pastoral heart. They were on your team and they're not showing up anymore. Go and find them. Yeah, they were in your small group and they're not showing up anymore. Go and find them. Man, that married couple that stopped coming, that you 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 fake tracts leading people to false doctrine. No, he ain't talking about those people that need to get ran out of the church. If they don't get saved, they'll get right.
No, 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.
Man, there are 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—the first sermon that Peter preached, 3,000 souls are 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 themselves.
So they got 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. Keep family together. Fight together. Push against sin together so that we all arrive in glory together. Together."
Thank you, Lord. Amen. So nobody gets left behind.
Some of you, this ain't important to you right now 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 in North Carolina with a shotgun on my lap, drinking a fifth of Hennessy to get myself drunk enough that I have the courage to pull the trigger. And when I get to the point where I could pull the trigger, I got the barrel facing my chin, man.
But 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 Tiffany is wondering: Where is Phillip?
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 the shotgun in my lap with tears in my eyes.
She walks up to me. She takes my hand. 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 where I will be a herald for him. And he saw in me value that people could not see in me. And he sent one of his children, man, to God—thank you, Lord. He sent Tiffany to my apartment.
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 has for 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. My God, 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 and say: "Man, you 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 says in verse 13: "And if he finds the sheep, truly I say to you, man, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray."
That is: Man, watch. The word "if"—you see that word? That's a clause that gives us 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. Like, I know you don't 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 our 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, man. 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 is: It is not God's heart that any one of them who belong to us 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. He 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 ruled 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 now everybody loves your music. 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 would 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 belongs 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 majestic and matchless name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen and amen and amen.
