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Part 36 of 44Journey Through Matthew
Wisdom & Wonder Series - Matthew 18:1-6
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Part 36 of 44Journey Through Matthew
Wisdom & Wonder Series - Matthew 18:1-6
Continue exploring
Connected by scripture or shared themes.
We are in a series called "Wisdom and Wonder," walking through the book of Matthew together, specifically Matthew chapters 12 through 20. Matthew was an outcast Jew converted to Christianity by Jesus Christ who became an apostle and eyewitness to his ministry. According to Fox's Book of Martyrs, Matthew was killed for his faith.
Matthew recorded five major discourses—five major sermons from Jesus Christ. Matthew chapter 18 forms a bridge from the fourth discourse heading into the last discourse, which is found in Matthew 24 and then the Great Commission. This is one of the most important chapters in the New Testament. The entire chapter 18 is one sermon from the Lord Jesus Christ, and it will take five weeks to unpack. Today we're laying a foundation by looking at Matthew 18:1-6, titled "A Measure of True Greatness."
We are probably living in the most narcissistic, the most self-absorbed, the most glory-seeking generation in the history of our nation. Never have so many people been desperate to be seen, to be known, to be famous, to be influencers. We see this from the highest offices in our land down to married couples fighting in their homes for dominance.
Because of our fallen nature, we all have a bent towards having an exaggerated, inflated estimation of ourselves. Too many of us think more highly of ourselves than we ought to. We are offended not because people have done something wrong, but because we have an exaggerated self-esteem.
In our society, we see this manifest in unhealthy ambitions, vain ambitions, toxic fights for comparison, competition, and fighting one another for seats at the table. People fight on ministry teams, fight for songs, fight to be on platforms. Everyone has something to say. Everyone is a sage. Everyone has an Instagram live.
"Why this kind of unhealthy ambition to be seen, to be known, to be famous, why this kind of desire for power and prestige and position is something very normal in our society, it is something completely different when we see this behavior manifesting itself in the church."
I want to remind all of you that although the church has been infiltrated by man-made doctrines, secular humanistic doctrines, and perverted doctrines, the church—in Greek, the eklesia of Jesus—which does not mean a building. Stop telling people you're "headed to the church." You're headed to a building. We are the church. This term came because of Constantine and Rome when they created basilicas and then we started calling basilicas the church. The word church when first heard in scripture is the Greek word eklesia, which simply means "gathering."
It was the Lord Jesus Christ who created this thing we call the church. As imperfect as she is with all her issues, Christ founded this, not man.
The original manuscripts of scripture do not have chapters and verses and headers. The writers of these ancient texts wrote whole arguments that ran from beginning to end. Chapters and verses are only here so we could find passages in the Bible.
In Matthew 16, Christ asked his followers, "Who do men say that I am?" They gave various answers. He said, "But who do you say that I am?" Because it's one thing for the world to have a misunderstanding of Christ, but his people need to understand who he is.
Peter said, "You are the Christ, the anointed one. You are the Son of Almighty God." The Lord turned to Peter, changed his name from Simon (which means little stone) to Peter (which means rock in Greek), and said:
"Peter, flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but you are Peter, and on this rock, on this revelation that I am the Son of God, and upon you who will become the pastor of the very first church on the day of Pentecost, I will build my church. Not TD Jakes' church. Not Steven Furtick's church. Not Philip's church. I, Jesus, said will build my church. And the gates of hell cannot prevail against her."
There is no force in all of the world that's going to stop the progression of the church. In Matthew 28, Jesus gives the church its first mission: "Go and make disciples." That's the only mission of the church. If we ain't about that life, we ain't about nothing.
The Lord created an entity of followers. Then he gave that entity a commission: go spread the gospel, multiply disciples—not churchgoers, but committed followers.
But in Matthew 18, what the Lord gives the future church is its first teachings about community. This is very important because before the Lord sends them out, he first teaches them how to live amongst each other as brothers and sisters.
"You love to post and you love to get on Instagram live, but when people get near you, they can't stand you. Don't nobody want to hear about our God of love when we don't know how to love each other right inside the context of biblical community."
Before Paul writes a letter, before James writes a letter, before Peter writes a letter, all of the doctrine in the New Testament about community begins right here with Matthew 18. All of the teachings about how we govern ourselves in the context of community begin right here.
"The very first teachings in the New Testament about community in the context of the church begins right here in Matthew chapter 18. So if we don't get Matthew chapter 18 right, then we don't get the rest of the gospel right. Why? Because we don't have credibility to preach to people if we don't know how to love each other right in here. When you do community poorly, it robs you of the credibility for your message."
Matthew 18 is the foundation of all doctrine for proper biblical community.
Jesus is in his early 30s. It's just about a month away before he would be executed. He has traveled to the city of Capernaum where he set up his home base of ministry operation.
At that time, immediately after the temple tax issue, the disciples came to Jesus asking: "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"
Family, pay close attention to what they're asking the Lord. They're in the home with the Lord. He is trying to prepare them for his exit. Just moments before this, we read that the Lord prophesied to them about his coming execution, his death and resurrection. He's teaching them about eternal principles to prepare them for his exit.
The only thing they are preoccupied with is: "Lord, amongst us 12, when you leave, which one of us is going to be the greatest?"
It makes sense that they would ask this because they heard Jesus kept saying he was about to leave. Think about it: Jesus said to Peter, "On this rock I will build my church." Now there are issues inside the camp. Is Peter his favorite? Why is he exalting Peter above us?
Nine of them saw Jesus take three disciples—Peter, James, and John—on top of a mountain while the other nine were at the bottom trying to figure out what was happening up there. When they came down from that mountain, why was Peter different? Why was James different? Why did John have a new pep in his step? What did they see up there that we did not see?
They see a power vacuum happening. The Lord is about to leave. The hottest rabbi in the streets at the time is about to leave. They're hearing him exalt Peter. They see three men on a mountaintop. And amongst themselves, they're trying to figure out: when the Lord leaves and his seat is open, which one of us is going to take that seat?
Mark tells us this happened on the way to Capernaum. In Mark 9:33, Jesus asked them: "What were y'all discussing on the way here?" But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest in their group.
"From the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Start listening to some of these preachers, you will hear what's in their heart. You start listening to some of these people on Instagram, you start hearing what's in their heart."
The Lord sees their question. These men are full of unhealthy ambitions. They're full of a desire for glory. They want to be seen. Just like you and I, everybody has to be an influencer, everybody has to have a ministry, everybody has to have their name in lights.
Thank God for social media, but one part of it I hate is that it's given a platform for fools to have a voice. Now everybody got a revelation. You just got saved on Monday and we're listening to your doctrine on Wednesday. Why? Because all of us in our nature have this: a desire for an inflated exaggeration of yourself. You want to feel more important than what you really are.
So you post only for the sake of going viral. If you don't get enough likes, you take it down and you change your angle just so you could get a little bit more likes on the next post. What you're really doing is trying to massage the insecurities of your heart by hoping enough people will like your post, because what you're trying to stroke is your desire for exaggerated importance.
"We are addicted to approval. We addicted to likes. We addicted to praise. We love that stuff because what we really itching is that broken part of us that want to feel more important than what we really are."
It's in the room. We want to feel important. We want status. We want people to love us and to like us. That's why you crumble as soon as somebody critiques something you have to say. You find your self-worth in your title. You find your self-worth in positions. God forbid you lose your job. Then you lose your whole identity. You are so title-driven that something shifts in that title or you lose your job or you're no longer an athlete, you lose your whole identity because you find importance in all of these intangible things. But not in Christ.
The Lord, in his love, sees in them this unhealthy, toxic desire for glory that's in you and it's in me. He could front and act like you want, but it's in the room. That toxic desire for glory is the way you respond to social media. It's all over. The Lord sees this in them, and in his love, watch how he responds to their question.
Matthew 18:2-3 — "And calling to himself a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, 'Listen, truly I say to you, all of you, plural, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.'"
That is a profound and powerful statement. The Lord turns to them and said, "All of y'all listen." He takes up a child. The other gospel writer says he picked up a child in his arms and then set the child down in front of him. In this context, a child would have been no older than 2 years old.
So imagine the Lord with a little boy, 2 years old, just rubbing the top of his head while they're all staring at the child. And then he looks at these men in the eyes and said: "To all of y'all who are glory-seeking and glory-chasing and you feel important and you're trying to get status, I want y'all to pay attention.
"Unless you turn and unless you become like this little child, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. You've been around me for three years and you're going to miss the kingdom because you're not like this child. You've been in church your whole life, but you're going to miss the kingdom because you're not like this child. You've been going to services your whole life, but you're going to miss the kingdom because you're not like this child."
It's going to be a terrible day in the end when people stand before the Lord and he said, "I never knew you." You did services, you did conferences, you did books, you listened to podcasts, but you never turned, you never became, you were never like this little child. And because you're not like this little child, you cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. You're going to be on the outside as a beggar.
I want to draw your attention to three words in the text.
First word: Turn. He says, "Unless you turn, you will never enter into the kingdom of heaven." The word "turn" is a theological word for repentance. Unless you repent from that unhealthy desire that's in your heart and in mine.
When you hear "repent," you think it means "I'm sorry, Lord." But repentance is not an apology. You can apologize for wrong and continue down the same path of destruction. Repentance is taking your mind, your heart, and your life and going in a different direction than the direction you're in.
If I'm traveling this way and the Lord confronts me in my sin, at that moment of confrontation by the Holy Spirit, I have to make a decision: apologize and continue in sin, or apologize and repent. I say, "Lord, I will go in the opposite direction." You cannot go on 75 north and south at the same time. You can only go in one direction.
When the Lord confronts you on sin, you have to make a decision in that moment: Am I going to turn or am I going to continue?
The Lord says to these followers—they've been walking with him for three and a half years—"You think you got an easy ticket in. No. Unless y'all repent, you're never going to make it into the kingdom of heaven." It's the same thing for you and I.
When you feel the conviction of the Lord coming against you for some nasty area of your life and he says to you, "You need to repent in this area," he ain't just asking for an apology. He's telling you to turn from that behavior.
"Man, you really arrogant in this area. Turn. Man, you really prideful in this area. Turn. Man, you really lustful in this area. Turn. Man, you be fighting people all the time in this area. Turn. You think you all of that in this area. Turn."
Second word: Become. "Unless you turn and become like little children." This word "become" is a very powerful word. It presupposes one thing and puts a demand on the disciples for a second thing.
Number one: "become" presupposes that the disciples needed to change. Just like all of us in here needed to change. Ain't nobody here arrived. Ain't nobody in this room got it all together. We all need to change. We need to turn and we need to become.
The second thing: "become" tells us that "become" is another word for process. You need to be transformed. The theological term for that is sanctification. It is the process through which you are transformed from glory to glory, from maturity to maturity. It is the process of being turned.
All of you sitting here and looking at me, I want to say something to you that's not going to make you excited. Listen to me. I know y'all love hearing sermons that make you think the gospel is about you. I know you love hearing messages that make you think that, especially in America.
I already know a lot of y'all have come from churches. You like reading devotional books that make you feel all gushy on the inside. You love listening to devotional podcasts that make you feel all gushy on the inside. It's like, "It's all about me. I'm wonderful. Jesus exists for me. He's my genie. Whatever I ask him to do, he's going to do. He was created to serve me. I was not created to serve him."
That's what's giving in America. You see a little journal. "Oh, Jesus, my friend, my little bracelet. I asked him for this and he has to come through." And in your mind, you actually think your Christianity is for God to serve you because of the toxicity of the messages you've been listening to that have been infiltrated by secular humanistic doctrines.
You love churches that are all about your purpose and all about your bag. And you actually listen to that and think, "Man, Christianity is about you striving and getting, and the Lord being behind you for whatever you want to do."
But family, there is a meta theme in the New Testament. A meta theme is anything you can trace from the beginning of the Bible to the end. And there is one message in the New Testament. It is not sexy. It is not exciting. It is boring in America.
Some of you don't even know it's in there because all you do is listen to sermons, but you never read for yourself. If you would just sit down and read one small portion of the New Testament—read Galatians, read Ephesians, take 20 minutes and just read something small—you're going to realize no matter which New Testament letter you read, there's only one message.
Here is the end goal of Christianity in the New Testament: Grow up.
All of the letters in the New Testament are trying to get you to grow up. They're trying to get you to mature. The stuff written to husbands is for you to mature. The stuff written to wives is for you to mature. The stuff written to singles is for you to mature. All of it is trying to get you to mature spiritually, mentally, emotionally. All of it is trying to get you to grow up.
"The end goal of Christianity is not that you will be rich and famous and got a bag. The end goal of Christianity is when you die, you will look like the one who saved you."
What the Holy Spirit is trying to do through the writings of the New Testament and his conviction of you is trying to transform you into the image of Christ. When he's dealing with your impatience, he's trying to get you to grow. When he's dealing with your idolatry, he's trying to get you to grow. When he's dealing with your lustfulness, he's trying to get you to grow. When he's talking about your finances, he's trying to get you to grow.
The whole thing, if you read through the New Testament, it'll be like gut punches left, right, and center. It's like you going in the gym for your mind, for your heart, and for your soul. The real message of the New Testament is: grow up. Mature.
"You've been doing this for 20 years and you still wrestling with the same stuff. You've been walking with Jesus for 10 years and you still got the same nasty attitude. You've been with Jesus for 15 years and you still praying for just tangible things. You 20 years in and still begging for houses and cars like you never read, 'Pray, Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.'"
You 20 years in and ain't no part of your prayer life flowing into the streams of the Great Commission. You 20 years in and still begging God for a condo and a boat. You ain't even praying for souls. You ain't praying for churches to be planted. You ain't praying for the gospel to spread. You ain't praying for eyes to be open. Your prayer life is boring because you're immature.
Third word: Like children. The Lord is teaching them about community, and he's saying, "I need all of y'all who's going to be in community to be like little children."
The next question we should ask is: "How do little children act?" I'm not talking about little ones who are being raised without discipline. I'm talking about a first century 2-year-old who is being taught in the ways of the Lord.
"Train up a child in the way that they should go. Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child and the rod of correction would drive it far away. Discipline your child with the rod for they shall not surely die."
I want everybody to look at the 2-year-old in front of the Lord standing right there—a little brown-headed Jewish boy. Somebody inside Peter's house had a little child. Look at the little brown-haired Jewish boy standing there with his brown eyes looking innocent as ever.
And while they're staring at him, these grown men, the Lord says, "If y'all don't become like him, you cannot enter in the kingdom."
Do you know that children in the first century AD had no sense of importance? A 2-year-old has no desire for status. A 2-year-old has no desire for glory. A 2-year-old doesn't have unhealthy ambitions. A 2-year-old is not competing to be the first person in a line. A 2-year-old is not vying to be the greatest person in their classroom.
A 2-year-old is dependent upon a caretaker. A 2-year-old is dependent upon a caretaker to provide for them, to protect them, and to look out for them. A 2-year-old doesn't like being in the arms of strangers. Another voice they won't follow. They love to follow the voice of their savior, of their caretaker. A 2-year-old will cry and hop out the hands of a bad person because they want to be close to their caretaker.
A 2-year-old likes staying close to their father. A 2-year-old is extremely meek. A 2-year-old is extremely lowly. A 2-year-old knows they have no desire for themselves. They have no will that's greater than their parents. They have no plans for the future for their own. They're totally surrendered to the hands of their caretakers.
So the Lord is saying to all of you: "Unless you want to become like this little child, be attached to your caretaker. See your caretaker for your provision. Your caretaker for all your needs. You have no personal will that's greater than your caretaker. You love the voice of your caretaker. So you stay close to his voice. Another voice you will not follow. Another stranger you will not follow. You're lowly. You're meek. You stay close to that caretaker. You have no will of your own that's greater than the will of your caretaker. You have no dream of your own that's greater than the will of your caretaker. You have no vision board of your own that's greater than the will of your caretaker."
Watch what the Lord does next in the text. The Lord doesn't even leave it to them to figure out what he's saying. He gives them his own hermeneutic. He uses his own word to interpret his own word.
Matthew 18:4 — "Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."
Man, that rocked me when I read that. You know why that rocked me? Because I've never attached greatness to humility. You never either. You're always running around society saying, "He's a great man of God. She's a great woman of God." Why are they great? You think they're great because they have a platform. You think they're great because they got a big following. You think they're great because they have gifting. You think they're great because they have talent.
You run around society always calling people great, but you're calling them great because of all the tangible things you see in their life. But in the eyes of God, greatness is humility.
You call men great for their power and prestige. God calls people great because of the content of their character. You see some pastor who got thousands of followers in a big ministry. You call him great, but he has a shallow prayer life. And the person who's really great is the old woman in the church who has no social media following, who could dethrone principalities and powers from her prayer closet. No, that woman is great.
Y'all call me great. My wife Lena is great. She's more humble than I am. She's more lowly than I am. She's more meek than I am. If anybody in our home is great, Lena is great. But you will never call her that because she's not on a platform with a microphone. You only call people great because you see platforms.
The reason you keep calling people great who got nasty attitudes, who are full of pride and arrogance, is because you let that worldliness creep into the church. You keep tagging greatness to people who have no concept of humility.
I'm tired of seeing videos with preachers hopping out of cars. I'm tired of seeing videos with preachers hopping out of jets. I'm tired of seeing preachers walking around flaunting all their wealth, but they're great men of God. Where is the humility? You call them great because you're full of the world. God calls humility great because he's full of the word.
"So God attaches greatness to humility. And humility is not self-deprecation. It's not hating yourself. It's not thinking poorly of yourself. Humility is having a proper esteem of God and a proper esteem of yourself."
Humility recognizes: I have nothing apart from God. I could do nothing apart from God. He is great. I am not. He is the savior. I am not. My whole life belongs to him. That is humility.
It doesn't matter if I got a million followers or 200 followers. It doesn't matter if I lead a church of thousands. If I don't have a proper esteem of myself as a servant and as a child, then I am not great in the eyes of the Lord. I'm great in your eyes, but I'm not great in his eyes.
This chapter is about what? Community. This is Jesus doing his first teachings on how we should live amongst each other. Now pay attention.
The first thing the Lord is teaching them in order for y'all to be in community is to be humble. Why? Because it takes humility to survive the rigors of community.
Some of you've come here with what we call church hurt. Somebody took advantage of you. Somebody offended you. Some pastor was praying on you. Somebody had sex with you and you didn't like it. You was abused. You was mistreated by people in the church.
The reason that happened to you is because you were running around believers who act like adults, but they don't act like children. The Lord ain't calling us to be childish. He's calling us to be childlike.
For all of you right now that's trying to give me push back like, "No, you can't tell me to act like a child"—nowhere in the Bible are you ever called an adult. You're never called an adult of God. Everywhere in this book, you're always called a child of God.
Nowhere are you ever called an adult. You know why the Lord don't call you an adult? Because adults are set in their ways. Adults have hardened hearts. Adults don't like to be coached. Adults don't like to be corrected. Adults are very prideful and arrogant. Adults can't be told they're wrong. Adults don't like to repent.
But the Lord don't want us acting like adults. You could be an adult chronologically, but in your mind and your heart, he wants you to have childlike humility. Because if we all act like little children, we will survive this experiment together.
"God, we got a better chance of loving each other well if we act like little children."
You fighting with somebody on the worship team because you want to be the lead on a song? You acting like an adult. You're not acting like a child. You fighting on some team because you want to be recognized by the leader? You acting like an adult, but you're not acting like a child.
They say to you, "Man, we're going to have to do something different with this team." You get mad and you cuss everybody out. You acting like a stubborn adult, but you're not acting like a little child.
It's because we don't have childlikeness that we are hurting each other all the time.
Matthew 18:5 — "Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me."
I pastor, I don't get it. If everyone is acting in the spirit of a child with humility, then when we have community with one another, what we feel is the reciprocity of the character of Christ.
So I'm fellowshipping with you and you're fellowshipping with me and we're going to Starbucks and we're having lattes together. We're getting an acai refresher together. Strawberry with the lemonade—not the water. And we're sitting there doing our Bible study in John chapter 3 with the acai refresher venti because the strawberry is getting away with all the ice.
And we're packing it with ice so you get two sips, right? So you got to get the venti so you get more of the acai. And we're sitting there and we're loving on one another and we're having conversation with one another and we're having this dialogue and because we're both childlike and because we're both humble, you're feeling Christ in me and I'm feeling Christ in you.
Now we have this beautiful dance of community going because we're both humble and we're both Christlike and we're both childlike. It's giving intimacy. It's giving reciprocity. It's giving "I like the way this feel." It's giving friendship. It's giving brotherhood. It's giving sisterhood. It's giving "I like him." It's giving "I like her." It's giving "let's hang out some more." It's giving "let's go get something to eat." It's giving "let's go to the movies." It's giving family.
As I'm describing this to you, I want you to see in the text: what I'm describing to you feels good. But when you acting adultish, it's not giving.
But I want you to see in the text: there is not an open door policy to give everybody that kind of reciprocity because there's a disclaimer in the text. Peep the details in the text. He said such a child. That word "such" is a criteria. If they're not Christlike, protect yourself. The Lord ain't called me to have that kind of intimacy with somebody who's not childlike.
Because I don't want to keep getting hurt by arrogant adults who don't act childlike. He said "such a child." There is a transition in the text when he's using the physical child to now typecast his children—you and I.
Before we leave, the last verse is the worst. Look at me. I'm about to offend half the room right now.
The Lord is teaching you and I about how to live in gospel community. You're going to survive the rigors of community. You need humility. You need to be childlike. But then he doesn't stay there. He goes one step further. Here is the heat.
Matthew 18:6 — "But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better if a heavy millstone be tied around their neck and they be drowned in the depths of the sea."
Pastor, I don't get it. So the Lord is saying if you're going to survive community, you need to have humility. That's giving. You need to be childlike. That's giving. But here is something that destroys relationships and tears up churches: when other believers lead other believers into sin. When your life causes other believers to sin.
When you tempt people into sin. When you got compromising friends who see you in sin and they be like, "Girl, it's all right. He know your heart." And then let you just have a license for licentiousness and sin. Yeah, he knows your heart. He knows your heart is wicked and full of sin.
You dating her in the church. You taking her to Cabo for what? You're taking her to Mexico for what? You got one hotel room for what? And you supposed to be a man of God, but now you put her in a position to sin.
This passage is for the seductress. This passage is for the fake friends. This passage is for the homosexual pastors who are married to men and tell people in their church it's okay, that God sees love, and you're trying to redefine the definition of marriage while you're leading people into sin. The devil is a lie.
This passage is for the false prophets and wolves who try to apologize to the LGBTQ community on behalf of black people. We owe you no apology. We all need to come out of sin.
This passage is for those who love to gossip and sow seeds of discord and you're in the church trying to build your own ministry and you try to lead people into your own thing. This is for all of us because of our mouths, our ways, our compromise, our lives who lead people around us into sin.
You need to hear the Lord. God said he hates sin so bad and he hates sin so much. He said it will be better for you to be dead than to cause one Christian to end up in sin.
"You better stop banging her. Better shut down that pipe game. The Lord said it'll be better for you to be a dead man than to lead one Christian into sin. It'd be better for you to be a dead woman than to dare lead one Christian into sin."
Why? Because sin is destructive. It ruins lives, ruins marriages, ruins relationships. Can we go deeper? It ruins community.
So it's for this reason the Lord says, "Be humble. Be childlike. But I need to protect y'all from hurting each other. You need to stop practicing sin. And if you're in sin, don't invite people into your sin. You better hide that. It'll be better for you to be dead than to lead somebody into sin. Don't tempt them into sin. Don't manipulate them into sin. Don't force them into sin."
This is for all the men who like calling girls "daughters" and you're praying on them to get in their drawers. This is for the dudes running around the church taking down women and stacking up your body count. This is for the sister in the church sending DMs to married men.
The Lord said you might as well go and jump off a bridge. It'll be better for you to be dead than to cause any other Christian to end up in sin. You better stop that gossip. Better stop that slander. You better stop sewing seeds in the dark. You better stop trying to tear up the squads. You better stop taking them to Mexico when you're not married.
I know you're wrestling with brokenness. I know you're wrestling with insecurities. I know you are struggling with the desire to feel important. I know you want to be a great influencer.
Look, I know. I understand. I've been there. I feel you.
There's a sister in our church. If I called her name right now, you would know her. She's one of the most famous preachers in America, a prolific author, preaches at conferences all around the country and around the world. You can find her on Wikipedia. All three names, right? People call her a great woman of God, a poet, a preacher, an author, married to a close friend of mine. Great people of God.
I called her when I was preparing this message and I said, "Hey sis, what does it feel like being on that mountaintop?" According to stats, less than 1% of all human beings with Instagram will ever have over a million followers. What does it feel like to be on that mountaintop? To have all of that status, to have all of that glory? Everybody's singing your praises. You're famous. Everywhere you go, they want to take pictures. Man, what does that feel like?
I asked her. She said to me, "Bro, this mountaintop up here, it's false. It's a mirage. It's painful up here. Everybody trying to get up there."
I hear a voice from the mountaintop saying: don't spend your whole life doing vain things and compromising your morals to get to that mountaintop. She said it's not worth it.
She said, "For her the more God increases her platform, the more she wants to go down in humility." She said, "Because bro, I am afraid of how God treats people who are prideful and arrogant."
Family, I know we all wrestling with insecurities, but man, if we're going to survive this beautiful thing called community, we got to be childlike in humility. We got to be Christlike in humility. We got to protect each other from sin.
We got to say, "Girl, don't date him. Girl, don't go on that trip. My dude, man, it's time to start running through these women, man. Put a ring on that."
Like, we got to start encouraging each other. We got to start encouraging each other. Come out of sin.
Like, "Yo, let me pray with you before you make that decision. Man, you're struggling with lust. Call me before you go look at pornography again. Listen, you was in masturbation the other night. All right, let's think about how we can get out of this."
It's like we keep each other out of sin. We lift each other out of darkness, out of licentiousness. We lift each other from that place. We live with Christlike humility. We see greatness as humility and we do community as little children of God.
Jesus set the example for us. He came from glory. He condescended to become a man and put on flesh. He divested himself of some of his privileges. He became a man. He bowed down and washed the feet of people who even betrayed him. He followed the Father in obedience to death on the cross. And now he has been highly exalted because the fastest way up in the kingdom is down.
I want to encourage all of you, my family. Listen, if we're going to do this right, if people going to respect our message, if we're going to have credibility and not be seen as hypocrites, we got to do community well. We got to love well. We got to be humble. We got to be childlike. We got to be Christlike. We got to protect each other from sin. We got to be anti-sin, aggressive against sin. We got to make sure we're not leading other people away from the Father.
My prayer for you is that you would take this serious so that you could continue to enjoy the beauties and the blessings of what God has given us here—the grace of community.
We are in a series called "Wisdom and Wonder," walking through the book of Matthew together, specifically Matthew chapters 12 through 20. Matthew was an outcast Jew converted to Christianity by Jesus Christ who became an apostle and eyewitness to his ministry. According to Fox's Book of Martyrs, Matthew was killed for his faith.
Matthew recorded five major discourses—five major sermons from Jesus Christ. Matthew chapter 18 forms a bridge from the fourth discourse heading into the last discourse, which is found in Matthew 24 and then the Great Commission. This is one of the most important chapters in the New Testament. The entire chapter 18 is one sermon from the Lord Jesus Christ, and it will take five weeks to unpack. Today we're laying a foundation by looking at Matthew 18:1-6, titled "A Measure of True Greatness."
We are probably living in the most narcissistic, the most self-absorbed, the most glory-seeking generation in the history of our nation. Never have so many people been desperate to be seen, to be known, to be famous, to be influencers. We see this from the highest offices in our land down to married couples fighting in their homes for dominance.
Because of our fallen nature, we all have a bent towards having an exaggerated, inflated estimation of ourselves. Too many of us think more highly of ourselves than we ought to. We are offended not because people have done something wrong, but because we have an exaggerated self-esteem.
In our society, we see this manifest in unhealthy ambitions, vain ambitions, toxic fights for comparison, competition, and fighting one another for seats at the table. People fight on ministry teams, fight for songs, fight to be on platforms. Everyone has something to say. Everyone is a sage. Everyone has an Instagram live.
"Why this kind of unhealthy ambition to be seen, to be known, to be famous, why this kind of desire for power and prestige and position is something very normal in our society, it is something completely different when we see this behavior manifesting itself in the church."
I want to remind all of you that although the church has been infiltrated by man-made doctrines, secular humanistic doctrines, and perverted doctrines, the church—in Greek, the eklesia of Jesus—which does not mean a building. Stop telling people you're "headed to the church." You're headed to a building. We are the church. This term came because of Constantine and Rome when they created basilicas and then we started calling basilicas the church. The word church when first heard in scripture is the Greek word eklesia, which simply means "gathering."
It was the Lord Jesus Christ who created this thing we call the church. As imperfect as she is with all her issues, Christ founded this, not man.
The original manuscripts of scripture do not have chapters and verses and headers. The writers of these ancient texts wrote whole arguments that ran from beginning to end. Chapters and verses are only here so we could find passages in the Bible.
In Matthew 16, Christ asked his followers, "Who do men say that I am?" They gave various answers. He said, "But who do you say that I am?" Because it's one thing for the world to have a misunderstanding of Christ, but his people need to understand who he is.
Peter said, "You are the Christ, the anointed one. You are the Son of Almighty God." The Lord turned to Peter, changed his name from Simon (which means little stone) to Peter (which means rock in Greek), and said:
"Peter, flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but you are Peter, and on this rock, on this revelation that I am the Son of God, and upon you who will become the pastor of the very first church on the day of Pentecost, I will build my church. Not TD Jakes' church. Not Steven Furtick's church. Not Philip's church. I, Jesus, said will build my church. And the gates of hell cannot prevail against her."
There is no force in all of the world that's going to stop the progression of the church. In Matthew 28, Jesus gives the church its first mission: "Go and make disciples." That's the only mission of the church. If we ain't about that life, we ain't about nothing.
The Lord created an entity of followers. Then he gave that entity a commission: go spread the gospel, multiply disciples—not churchgoers, but committed followers.
But in Matthew 18, what the Lord gives the future church is its first teachings about community. This is very important because before the Lord sends them out, he first teaches them how to live amongst each other as brothers and sisters.
"You love to post and you love to get on Instagram live, but when people get near you, they can't stand you. Don't nobody want to hear about our God of love when we don't know how to love each other right inside the context of biblical community."
Before Paul writes a letter, before James writes a letter, before Peter writes a letter, all of the doctrine in the New Testament about community begins right here with Matthew 18. All of the teachings about how we govern ourselves in the context of community begin right here.
"The very first teachings in the New Testament about community in the context of the church begins right here in Matthew chapter 18. So if we don't get Matthew chapter 18 right, then we don't get the rest of the gospel right. Why? Because we don't have credibility to preach to people if we don't know how to love each other right in here. When you do community poorly, it robs you of the credibility for your message."
Matthew 18 is the foundation of all doctrine for proper biblical community.
Jesus is in his early 30s. It's just about a month away before he would be executed. He has traveled to the city of Capernaum where he set up his home base of ministry operation.
At that time, immediately after the temple tax issue, the disciples came to Jesus asking: "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"
Family, pay close attention to what they're asking the Lord. They're in the home with the Lord. He is trying to prepare them for his exit. Just moments before this, we read that the Lord prophesied to them about his coming execution, his death and resurrection. He's teaching them about eternal principles to prepare them for his exit.
The only thing they are preoccupied with is: "Lord, amongst us 12, when you leave, which one of us is going to be the greatest?"
It makes sense that they would ask this because they heard Jesus kept saying he was about to leave. Think about it: Jesus said to Peter, "On this rock I will build my church." Now there are issues inside the camp. Is Peter his favorite? Why is he exalting Peter above us?
Nine of them saw Jesus take three disciples—Peter, James, and John—on top of a mountain while the other nine were at the bottom trying to figure out what was happening up there. When they came down from that mountain, why was Peter different? Why was James different? Why did John have a new pep in his step? What did they see up there that we did not see?
They see a power vacuum happening. The Lord is about to leave. The hottest rabbi in the streets at the time is about to leave. They're hearing him exalt Peter. They see three men on a mountaintop. And amongst themselves, they're trying to figure out: when the Lord leaves and his seat is open, which one of us is going to take that seat?
Mark tells us this happened on the way to Capernaum. In Mark 9:33, Jesus asked them: "What were y'all discussing on the way here?" But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest in their group.
"From the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Start listening to some of these preachers, you will hear what's in their heart. You start listening to some of these people on Instagram, you start hearing what's in their heart."
The Lord sees their question. These men are full of unhealthy ambitions. They're full of a desire for glory. They want to be seen. Just like you and I, everybody has to be an influencer, everybody has to have a ministry, everybody has to have their name in lights.
Thank God for social media, but one part of it I hate is that it's given a platform for fools to have a voice. Now everybody got a revelation. You just got saved on Monday and we're listening to your doctrine on Wednesday. Why? Because all of us in our nature have this: a desire for an inflated exaggeration of yourself. You want to feel more important than what you really are.
So you post only for the sake of going viral. If you don't get enough likes, you take it down and you change your angle just so you could get a little bit more likes on the next post. What you're really doing is trying to massage the insecurities of your heart by hoping enough people will like your post, because what you're trying to stroke is your desire for exaggerated importance.
"We are addicted to approval. We addicted to likes. We addicted to praise. We love that stuff because what we really itching is that broken part of us that want to feel more important than what we really are."
It's in the room. We want to feel important. We want status. We want people to love us and to like us. That's why you crumble as soon as somebody critiques something you have to say. You find your self-worth in your title. You find your self-worth in positions. God forbid you lose your job. Then you lose your whole identity. You are so title-driven that something shifts in that title or you lose your job or you're no longer an athlete, you lose your whole identity because you find importance in all of these intangible things. But not in Christ.
The Lord, in his love, sees in them this unhealthy, toxic desire for glory that's in you and it's in me. He could front and act like you want, but it's in the room. That toxic desire for glory is the way you respond to social media. It's all over. The Lord sees this in them, and in his love, watch how he responds to their question.
Matthew 18:2-3 — "And calling to himself a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, 'Listen, truly I say to you, all of you, plural, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.'"
That is a profound and powerful statement. The Lord turns to them and said, "All of y'all listen." He takes up a child. The other gospel writer says he picked up a child in his arms and then set the child down in front of him. In this context, a child would have been no older than 2 years old.
So imagine the Lord with a little boy, 2 years old, just rubbing the top of his head while they're all staring at the child. And then he looks at these men in the eyes and said: "To all of y'all who are glory-seeking and glory-chasing and you feel important and you're trying to get status, I want y'all to pay attention.
"Unless you turn and unless you become like this little child, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. You've been around me for three years and you're going to miss the kingdom because you're not like this child. You've been in church your whole life, but you're going to miss the kingdom because you're not like this child. You've been going to services your whole life, but you're going to miss the kingdom because you're not like this child."
It's going to be a terrible day in the end when people stand before the Lord and he said, "I never knew you." You did services, you did conferences, you did books, you listened to podcasts, but you never turned, you never became, you were never like this little child. And because you're not like this little child, you cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. You're going to be on the outside as a beggar.
I want to draw your attention to three words in the text.
First word: Turn. He says, "Unless you turn, you will never enter into the kingdom of heaven." The word "turn" is a theological word for repentance. Unless you repent from that unhealthy desire that's in your heart and in mine.
When you hear "repent," you think it means "I'm sorry, Lord." But repentance is not an apology. You can apologize for wrong and continue down the same path of destruction. Repentance is taking your mind, your heart, and your life and going in a different direction than the direction you're in.
If I'm traveling this way and the Lord confronts me in my sin, at that moment of confrontation by the Holy Spirit, I have to make a decision: apologize and continue in sin, or apologize and repent. I say, "Lord, I will go in the opposite direction." You cannot go on 75 north and south at the same time. You can only go in one direction.
When the Lord confronts you on sin, you have to make a decision in that moment: Am I going to turn or am I going to continue?
The Lord says to these followers—they've been walking with him for three and a half years—"You think you got an easy ticket in. No. Unless y'all repent, you're never going to make it into the kingdom of heaven." It's the same thing for you and I.
When you feel the conviction of the Lord coming against you for some nasty area of your life and he says to you, "You need to repent in this area," he ain't just asking for an apology. He's telling you to turn from that behavior.
"Man, you really arrogant in this area. Turn. Man, you really prideful in this area. Turn. Man, you really lustful in this area. Turn. Man, you be fighting people all the time in this area. Turn. You think you all of that in this area. Turn."
Second word: Become. "Unless you turn and become like little children." This word "become" is a very powerful word. It presupposes one thing and puts a demand on the disciples for a second thing.
Number one: "become" presupposes that the disciples needed to change. Just like all of us in here needed to change. Ain't nobody here arrived. Ain't nobody in this room got it all together. We all need to change. We need to turn and we need to become.
The second thing: "become" tells us that "become" is another word for process. You need to be transformed. The theological term for that is sanctification. It is the process through which you are transformed from glory to glory, from maturity to maturity. It is the process of being turned.
All of you sitting here and looking at me, I want to say something to you that's not going to make you excited. Listen to me. I know y'all love hearing sermons that make you think the gospel is about you. I know you love hearing messages that make you think that, especially in America.
I already know a lot of y'all have come from churches. You like reading devotional books that make you feel all gushy on the inside. You love listening to devotional podcasts that make you feel all gushy on the inside. It's like, "It's all about me. I'm wonderful. Jesus exists for me. He's my genie. Whatever I ask him to do, he's going to do. He was created to serve me. I was not created to serve him."
That's what's giving in America. You see a little journal. "Oh, Jesus, my friend, my little bracelet. I asked him for this and he has to come through." And in your mind, you actually think your Christianity is for God to serve you because of the toxicity of the messages you've been listening to that have been infiltrated by secular humanistic doctrines.
You love churches that are all about your purpose and all about your bag. And you actually listen to that and think, "Man, Christianity is about you striving and getting, and the Lord being behind you for whatever you want to do."
But family, there is a meta theme in the New Testament. A meta theme is anything you can trace from the beginning of the Bible to the end. And there is one message in the New Testament. It is not sexy. It is not exciting. It is boring in America.
Some of you don't even know it's in there because all you do is listen to sermons, but you never read for yourself. If you would just sit down and read one small portion of the New Testament—read Galatians, read Ephesians, take 20 minutes and just read something small—you're going to realize no matter which New Testament letter you read, there's only one message.
Here is the end goal of Christianity in the New Testament: Grow up.
All of the letters in the New Testament are trying to get you to grow up. They're trying to get you to mature. The stuff written to husbands is for you to mature. The stuff written to wives is for you to mature. The stuff written to singles is for you to mature. All of it is trying to get you to mature spiritually, mentally, emotionally. All of it is trying to get you to grow up.
"The end goal of Christianity is not that you will be rich and famous and got a bag. The end goal of Christianity is when you die, you will look like the one who saved you."
What the Holy Spirit is trying to do through the writings of the New Testament and his conviction of you is trying to transform you into the image of Christ. When he's dealing with your impatience, he's trying to get you to grow. When he's dealing with your idolatry, he's trying to get you to grow. When he's dealing with your lustfulness, he's trying to get you to grow. When he's talking about your finances, he's trying to get you to grow.
The whole thing, if you read through the New Testament, it'll be like gut punches left, right, and center. It's like you going in the gym for your mind, for your heart, and for your soul. The real message of the New Testament is: grow up. Mature.
"You've been doing this for 20 years and you still wrestling with the same stuff. You've been walking with Jesus for 10 years and you still got the same nasty attitude. You've been with Jesus for 15 years and you still praying for just tangible things. You 20 years in and still begging for houses and cars like you never read, 'Pray, Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.'"
You 20 years in and ain't no part of your prayer life flowing into the streams of the Great Commission. You 20 years in and still begging God for a condo and a boat. You ain't even praying for souls. You ain't praying for churches to be planted. You ain't praying for the gospel to spread. You ain't praying for eyes to be open. Your prayer life is boring because you're immature.
Third word: Like children. The Lord is teaching them about community, and he's saying, "I need all of y'all who's going to be in community to be like little children."
The next question we should ask is: "How do little children act?" I'm not talking about little ones who are being raised without discipline. I'm talking about a first century 2-year-old who is being taught in the ways of the Lord.
"Train up a child in the way that they should go. Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child and the rod of correction would drive it far away. Discipline your child with the rod for they shall not surely die."
I want everybody to look at the 2-year-old in front of the Lord standing right there—a little brown-headed Jewish boy. Somebody inside Peter's house had a little child. Look at the little brown-haired Jewish boy standing there with his brown eyes looking innocent as ever.
And while they're staring at him, these grown men, the Lord says, "If y'all don't become like him, you cannot enter in the kingdom."
Do you know that children in the first century AD had no sense of importance? A 2-year-old has no desire for status. A 2-year-old has no desire for glory. A 2-year-old doesn't have unhealthy ambitions. A 2-year-old is not competing to be the first person in a line. A 2-year-old is not vying to be the greatest person in their classroom.
A 2-year-old is dependent upon a caretaker. A 2-year-old is dependent upon a caretaker to provide for them, to protect them, and to look out for them. A 2-year-old doesn't like being in the arms of strangers. Another voice they won't follow. They love to follow the voice of their savior, of their caretaker. A 2-year-old will cry and hop out the hands of a bad person because they want to be close to their caretaker.
A 2-year-old likes staying close to their father. A 2-year-old is extremely meek. A 2-year-old is extremely lowly. A 2-year-old knows they have no desire for themselves. They have no will that's greater than their parents. They have no plans for the future for their own. They're totally surrendered to the hands of their caretakers.
So the Lord is saying to all of you: "Unless you want to become like this little child, be attached to your caretaker. See your caretaker for your provision. Your caretaker for all your needs. You have no personal will that's greater than your caretaker. You love the voice of your caretaker. So you stay close to his voice. Another voice you will not follow. Another stranger you will not follow. You're lowly. You're meek. You stay close to that caretaker. You have no will of your own that's greater than the will of your caretaker. You have no dream of your own that's greater than the will of your caretaker. You have no vision board of your own that's greater than the will of your caretaker."
Watch what the Lord does next in the text. The Lord doesn't even leave it to them to figure out what he's saying. He gives them his own hermeneutic. He uses his own word to interpret his own word.
Matthew 18:4 — "Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."
Man, that rocked me when I read that. You know why that rocked me? Because I've never attached greatness to humility. You never either. You're always running around society saying, "He's a great man of God. She's a great woman of God." Why are they great? You think they're great because they have a platform. You think they're great because they got a big following. You think they're great because they have gifting. You think they're great because they have talent.
You run around society always calling people great, but you're calling them great because of all the tangible things you see in their life. But in the eyes of God, greatness is humility.
You call men great for their power and prestige. God calls people great because of the content of their character. You see some pastor who got thousands of followers in a big ministry. You call him great, but he has a shallow prayer life. And the person who's really great is the old woman in the church who has no social media following, who could dethrone principalities and powers from her prayer closet. No, that woman is great.
Y'all call me great. My wife Lena is great. She's more humble than I am. She's more lowly than I am. She's more meek than I am. If anybody in our home is great, Lena is great. But you will never call her that because she's not on a platform with a microphone. You only call people great because you see platforms.
The reason you keep calling people great who got nasty attitudes, who are full of pride and arrogance, is because you let that worldliness creep into the church. You keep tagging greatness to people who have no concept of humility.
I'm tired of seeing videos with preachers hopping out of cars. I'm tired of seeing videos with preachers hopping out of jets. I'm tired of seeing preachers walking around flaunting all their wealth, but they're great men of God. Where is the humility? You call them great because you're full of the world. God calls humility great because he's full of the word.
"So God attaches greatness to humility. And humility is not self-deprecation. It's not hating yourself. It's not thinking poorly of yourself. Humility is having a proper esteem of God and a proper esteem of yourself."
Humility recognizes: I have nothing apart from God. I could do nothing apart from God. He is great. I am not. He is the savior. I am not. My whole life belongs to him. That is humility.
It doesn't matter if I got a million followers or 200 followers. It doesn't matter if I lead a church of thousands. If I don't have a proper esteem of myself as a servant and as a child, then I am not great in the eyes of the Lord. I'm great in your eyes, but I'm not great in his eyes.
This chapter is about what? Community. This is Jesus doing his first teachings on how we should live amongst each other. Now pay attention.
The first thing the Lord is teaching them in order for y'all to be in community is to be humble. Why? Because it takes humility to survive the rigors of community.
Some of you've come here with what we call church hurt. Somebody took advantage of you. Somebody offended you. Some pastor was praying on you. Somebody had sex with you and you didn't like it. You was abused. You was mistreated by people in the church.
The reason that happened to you is because you were running around believers who act like adults, but they don't act like children. The Lord ain't calling us to be childish. He's calling us to be childlike.
For all of you right now that's trying to give me push back like, "No, you can't tell me to act like a child"—nowhere in the Bible are you ever called an adult. You're never called an adult of God. Everywhere in this book, you're always called a child of God.
Nowhere are you ever called an adult. You know why the Lord don't call you an adult? Because adults are set in their ways. Adults have hardened hearts. Adults don't like to be coached. Adults don't like to be corrected. Adults are very prideful and arrogant. Adults can't be told they're wrong. Adults don't like to repent.
But the Lord don't want us acting like adults. You could be an adult chronologically, but in your mind and your heart, he wants you to have childlike humility. Because if we all act like little children, we will survive this experiment together.
"God, we got a better chance of loving each other well if we act like little children."
You fighting with somebody on the worship team because you want to be the lead on a song? You acting like an adult. You're not acting like a child. You fighting on some team because you want to be recognized by the leader? You acting like an adult, but you're not acting like a child.
They say to you, "Man, we're going to have to do something different with this team." You get mad and you cuss everybody out. You acting like a stubborn adult, but you're not acting like a little child.
It's because we don't have childlikeness that we are hurting each other all the time.
Matthew 18:5 — "Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me."
I pastor, I don't get it. If everyone is acting in the spirit of a child with humility, then when we have community with one another, what we feel is the reciprocity of the character of Christ.
So I'm fellowshipping with you and you're fellowshipping with me and we're going to Starbucks and we're having lattes together. We're getting an acai refresher together. Strawberry with the lemonade—not the water. And we're sitting there doing our Bible study in John chapter 3 with the acai refresher venti because the strawberry is getting away with all the ice.
And we're packing it with ice so you get two sips, right? So you got to get the venti so you get more of the acai. And we're sitting there and we're loving on one another and we're having conversation with one another and we're having this dialogue and because we're both childlike and because we're both humble, you're feeling Christ in me and I'm feeling Christ in you.
Now we have this beautiful dance of community going because we're both humble and we're both Christlike and we're both childlike. It's giving intimacy. It's giving reciprocity. It's giving "I like the way this feel." It's giving friendship. It's giving brotherhood. It's giving sisterhood. It's giving "I like him." It's giving "I like her." It's giving "let's hang out some more." It's giving "let's go get something to eat." It's giving "let's go to the movies." It's giving family.
As I'm describing this to you, I want you to see in the text: what I'm describing to you feels good. But when you acting adultish, it's not giving.
But I want you to see in the text: there is not an open door policy to give everybody that kind of reciprocity because there's a disclaimer in the text. Peep the details in the text. He said such a child. That word "such" is a criteria. If they're not Christlike, protect yourself. The Lord ain't called me to have that kind of intimacy with somebody who's not childlike.
Because I don't want to keep getting hurt by arrogant adults who don't act childlike. He said "such a child." There is a transition in the text when he's using the physical child to now typecast his children—you and I.
Before we leave, the last verse is the worst. Look at me. I'm about to offend half the room right now.
The Lord is teaching you and I about how to live in gospel community. You're going to survive the rigors of community. You need humility. You need to be childlike. But then he doesn't stay there. He goes one step further. Here is the heat.
Matthew 18:6 — "But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better if a heavy millstone be tied around their neck and they be drowned in the depths of the sea."
Pastor, I don't get it. So the Lord is saying if you're going to survive community, you need to have humility. That's giving. You need to be childlike. That's giving. But here is something that destroys relationships and tears up churches: when other believers lead other believers into sin. When your life causes other believers to sin.
When you tempt people into sin. When you got compromising friends who see you in sin and they be like, "Girl, it's all right. He know your heart." And then let you just have a license for licentiousness and sin. Yeah, he knows your heart. He knows your heart is wicked and full of sin.
You dating her in the church. You taking her to Cabo for what? You're taking her to Mexico for what? You got one hotel room for what? And you supposed to be a man of God, but now you put her in a position to sin.
This passage is for the seductress. This passage is for the fake friends. This passage is for the homosexual pastors who are married to men and tell people in their church it's okay, that God sees love, and you're trying to redefine the definition of marriage while you're leading people into sin. The devil is a lie.
This passage is for the false prophets and wolves who try to apologize to the LGBTQ community on behalf of black people. We owe you no apology. We all need to come out of sin.
This passage is for those who love to gossip and sow seeds of discord and you're in the church trying to build your own ministry and you try to lead people into your own thing. This is for all of us because of our mouths, our ways, our compromise, our lives who lead people around us into sin.
You need to hear the Lord. God said he hates sin so bad and he hates sin so much. He said it will be better for you to be dead than to cause one Christian to end up in sin.
"You better stop banging her. Better shut down that pipe game. The Lord said it'll be better for you to be a dead man than to lead one Christian into sin. It'd be better for you to be a dead woman than to dare lead one Christian into sin."
Why? Because sin is destructive. It ruins lives, ruins marriages, ruins relationships. Can we go deeper? It ruins community.
So it's for this reason the Lord says, "Be humble. Be childlike. But I need to protect y'all from hurting each other. You need to stop practicing sin. And if you're in sin, don't invite people into your sin. You better hide that. It'll be better for you to be dead than to lead somebody into sin. Don't tempt them into sin. Don't manipulate them into sin. Don't force them into sin."
This is for all the men who like calling girls "daughters" and you're praying on them to get in their drawers. This is for the dudes running around the church taking down women and stacking up your body count. This is for the sister in the church sending DMs to married men.
The Lord said you might as well go and jump off a bridge. It'll be better for you to be dead than to cause any other Christian to end up in sin. You better stop that gossip. Better stop that slander. You better stop sewing seeds in the dark. You better stop trying to tear up the squads. You better stop taking them to Mexico when you're not married.
I know you're wrestling with brokenness. I know you're wrestling with insecurities. I know you are struggling with the desire to feel important. I know you want to be a great influencer.
Look, I know. I understand. I've been there. I feel you.
There's a sister in our church. If I called her name right now, you would know her. She's one of the most famous preachers in America, a prolific author, preaches at conferences all around the country and around the world. You can find her on Wikipedia. All three names, right? People call her a great woman of God, a poet, a preacher, an author, married to a close friend of mine. Great people of God.
I called her when I was preparing this message and I said, "Hey sis, what does it feel like being on that mountaintop?" According to stats, less than 1% of all human beings with Instagram will ever have over a million followers. What does it feel like to be on that mountaintop? To have all of that status, to have all of that glory? Everybody's singing your praises. You're famous. Everywhere you go, they want to take pictures. Man, what does that feel like?
I asked her. She said to me, "Bro, this mountaintop up here, it's false. It's a mirage. It's painful up here. Everybody trying to get up there."
I hear a voice from the mountaintop saying: don't spend your whole life doing vain things and compromising your morals to get to that mountaintop. She said it's not worth it.
She said, "For her the more God increases her platform, the more she wants to go down in humility." She said, "Because bro, I am afraid of how God treats people who are prideful and arrogant."
Family, I know we all wrestling with insecurities, but man, if we're going to survive this beautiful thing called community, we got to be childlike in humility. We got to be Christlike in humility. We got to protect each other from sin.
We got to say, "Girl, don't date him. Girl, don't go on that trip. My dude, man, it's time to start running through these women, man. Put a ring on that."
Like, we got to start encouraging each other. We got to start encouraging each other. Come out of sin.
Like, "Yo, let me pray with you before you make that decision. Man, you're struggling with lust. Call me before you go look at pornography again. Listen, you was in masturbation the other night. All right, let's think about how we can get out of this."
It's like we keep each other out of sin. We lift each other out of darkness, out of licentiousness. We lift each other from that place. We live with Christlike humility. We see greatness as humility and we do community as little children of God.
Jesus set the example for us. He came from glory. He condescended to become a man and put on flesh. He divested himself of some of his privileges. He became a man. He bowed down and washed the feet of people who even betrayed him. He followed the Father in obedience to death on the cross. And now he has been highly exalted because the fastest way up in the kingdom is down.
I want to encourage all of you, my family. Listen, if we're going to do this right, if people going to respect our message, if we're going to have credibility and not be seen as hypocrites, we got to do community well. We got to love well. We got to be humble. We got to be childlike. We got to be Christlike. We got to protect each other from sin. We got to be anti-sin, aggressive against sin. We got to make sure we're not leading other people away from the Father.
My prayer for you is that you would take this serious so that you could continue to enjoy the beauties and the blessings of what God has given us here—the grace of community.
