 We are talking about resolving conflicts in the church, but here is a question in the chat from Christopher regarding communion. Let's answer it. In some denominations, there is an expectation that repentance confession needs to be done before taking holy communion. So this is in line with what Paul says, Christopher, that one must examine their heart and take communion in a worthy manner. So self-examination is a good thing, but there is no biblical basis to make someone confess their sins. Confession, if we confess it to God, that should be sufficient. But then there are certain other sins where it is important for us to confess to people, but not every sin needs to be confessed to a particular person. So there is to mandate this before communion would be unnecessary, because we don't see that in scripture. And I hope that answers your question, Christopher. Yeah, okay. Thank you. So I think that is also clear. I was saying that the simple and the common way of resolving conflicts is to first deal with, let two people who have the issue talk to each other. If that doesn't help, then have a third person step in and resolve the matter. If that doesn't help, then the leaders or the pastors can step in and try to resolve the matter. And then I was saying that not every issue is as simple as that. Sometimes there can be a matter where there's been a financial, what can you say, someone has cheated another person for a large sum of money. And it is a big deal, whatever has taken place between two believers. Or what about something to do with real estate? Everything was going well. Believers were dealing well with things, they were interacting well, they were trying to help each other. And then suddenly you hear this news about one brother trying to cheat another brother with regard to a land matter. So it may not even be like someone is trying to cheat another person. It could be like a subtle misunderstanding leading into other things and then before you know it, the matter is quite big and the pastor comes to know about it and then we have to deal with it. Because otherwise what will happen? It will affect the rest of the community and it will affect the local church. So there can be issues like this. What about divorce, family matters, family issues that can happen among people? Business, maybe two believers in the church, they're doing well in their business and they partner for some reason and an issue arises. So what do we do in such situations? What does scripture has to say? In fact, Paul when he wrote to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 6 verses 1 through 8, it is there in our notes, page 127. He says that believers can judge, believers are capable of judging issues and he sort of rebukes the Corinthians church and he tells the church not even to go to an external judge or anything, a court. So he says we are going to judge the world as believers. Then why can't we judge these matters? So he's encouraging the believers to judge within the community. Now, by taking this instruction, even when there are complicated issues, it is possible for us as leaders to help resolve the matter within the church. That would be ideal. If you can resolve it within the church, that would be the best thing to do. In fact, scripture here in 1 Corinthians 6 and verse 5, he says it is so that there is not a wise man among you, not even one who will be able to judge between his brethren. So it is going to need somebody with wisdom to speak into that situation and bring peace. So we can try to judge that matter. Now how can this be done? An issue arises, it would be good if we had some elders of the church, of people who have had experience over the years to step in and speak the wisdom of God in that particular issue. Let me, I'm just giving one example. Let's take like a huge marriage conflict that's going on within the husband and the wife. So how to resolve it? So if there are elders of the church, it would be good if they can speak and they can try to bring resolution. But it is also advisable to have a set of people who are experienced in that area. So what if there is a qualified Christian believer who attends church, but they are qualified in marriage counseling. They have a background in psychology and counseling and things like that. So it would be really good if we have people who are experienced in that particular area, business. Now an elder of the church may not have the expertise to comment on certain things. So spiritually, yes, we can take scripture, we can speak the truth of God's word to people and try to bring some resolution. But if there is someone who's experienced in the area of business, a Christian person and they can bring wisdom into that situation, it will be even better. So the point is it's good to have the pastor can know elders who can help. He has these people, these other people who can step in at a time like this. They may be from the church or they may not be from this particular church, but maybe they are from another church, a counselor. But the pastor should know where to send the church folks. So that's the whole thing. So then they can provide their expert advice to resolve the problem. So that is a practical thing to do. And one more thing, for a pastor it's good to know our limits. Now I may want to solve a problem completely, 100%. But I may really not have the experience to do it or the training, the equipment to do it. So the sooner I understand, hey, this is my limit. I can only say this much about this matter. Then put them on to somebody else who is experienced better equipped than us, a Christian person. That is something a leader should do quickly. So that is a practical thing to do. Then another practical thing to do is to just encourage both the parties involved that whatever decision will be made, it will be impartial. It will be based on God's word. It will uphold who God is and his justice, his righteousness and the principles of God's word. So just encourage both parties so that they are confident as this entire resolution, as this thing progresses to solve their problem. And also, wherever possible, it is good to put things in writing so that later on people might come back and say, no, but I said that and you did this. So there can be a lot of going back on their own words and these things happen. So as a pastor and a leader, for everyone's good, if it's possible, some of the key things that were discussed, some of the key decisions that were taken, it will be good if you can put that in writing and maybe have a confirmation from both the parties on that. So in this manner, within the church setting, it's possible to resolve some more complex issues. Now after having done all this, if both the parties are still not willing and they feel that, hey, you made an effort pastor but I'm not happy with this, then it's left to them. If at all the person says, I want to go to court or I want a legal resolution for this matter, we can't help it as the leader of the church because you've done your part to solve the matter within the church setting. But now the person wants to take it outside the church, we would just need to let them do it their own way. Because we have done our best in trying to resolve the matter. So this is how I said the simple issues, we just go by the Matthew 18 instruction. Talk it through to believers and third party, then finally bring the leaders in and that's how you do it. More complex, try to bring truth and then if there's an expert committee or a team, bring them in because they will be able to speak wisdom. After having done all this, if people are still not agreeing, then yes, whatever they want to do, if they want to go to court, then it's up to them. So that's how we would deal with these matters. Now let's continue to look at church discipline and consider some of the other aspects. So coming to correction, bringing correction to individuals, the principle that we must follow is that whenever there is a private matter, one must correct in private and not bring it up in public. Because sometimes it happens, there is a person in church, the pastor is not happy with and maybe in the sermon, an example in the pastor kind of makes a reference to that person. It's very upsetting for that individual who knows and others around who know what's going on. So making it a public matter, in some cases people don't keep it that subtle also. Directly go ahead and talk about it in public and disgrace believers in the church. That's not the biblical way of doing things. Matthew 18 says that try to resolve it in a private way and in correction, even try to bring it in a private way. Now if that doesn't work out only later, there is again instructions about how you must address some matters in public. So when it comes to bringing correction, there can be issues that arise because of cultural differences. One great example is in Acts 6 when the Greek speaking and the Hebrew speaking Jews had a problem with the delivering of food material to the widows of the Hellenists. So they complained and they said that we are not being treated well and it sure has arisen. Now the leaders of the church, they could have made a complete mess of the problem but they moved with the wisdom of God and God gives them the wisdom to appoint certain volunteers. This is the issue. Two parties are quarrelling. They are arguing with each other. Let's bring peace through God's wisdom. So God gives an idea. Why don't you appoint volunteers who will make sure that the Greek speaking widows get the food that they need. So they intervene in that manner and the problem is solved. So the conflict is resolved. Now there can be issues arising because of some groups forming within the church or we use the term clicks. So some people might say that I believe in this. I believe in Holy Spirit baptism but I don't believe in Holy Spirit baptism or I believe in grace. These people believe in law. So clicks can form on the basis of some teaching or clicks can form on the basis of I like this preacher. There can be three or four preachers in the church and then people can say that whenever this person features I like to come to church. I don't want to come to church when so and so is preaching. So the same way that Paul had to deal with matters in his churches, the Corinthian church, some people said I'm of Paul. I'm of Apollos. How did Paul deal with this? He was quite strict about it. He said, look, are you not acting like carnal people? I'm not acting like mere men when you have strife and envy and divisions among yourself and you make these clicks and say that I belong to Paul or I belong to Apollos. So he was quite strict about it. He addressed the matter in a letter. He addressed it quite sternly because in 1 Corinthians 4 verse 21 he also says, what do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod or love and a spirit of gentleness? That's very apostolic. He's not trying to cover up and say, okay, they will feel bad and all that. Paul is quite open. He's quite stern. He says, look, if you don't correct yourself, then what do you want me to do? Do you want me to come to you when I come in person with a rebuke or do you want me to come in a loving way? So he really wanted them to get things in order when they were creating clicks and trying to create division in the church. So he brought correction in that manner. He wrote it in a letter. There can be moral issues that people are facing. Now, how did Paul address that? In the Corinthians church, it is likely that at least one person was engaged in some form of sexually immoral behavior. Now, it also seems like this person was not willing to take correction. So what did Paul do? You have this in 1 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 5 where he says, Deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. So he's bringing very stern correction. Now, this is where it's become public. Maybe they attempted the Matthew 18 batter to talk to this person individually but there was no change of heart. So it's come to a point where the matter needs to be addressed publicly. So he's instructing the church and he's saying, Look, such a person, you deliver them to Satan or let them be whatever they want to do, let them do. But I will show you how this statement, and I think Christopher asked some time back also, Isn't it a little harsh to say something like deliver this person to Satan? But we see the intention of Paul here. He makes it clear for the destruction of the flesh. He only wants this person to repent and the bad idea he's saying distance yourself from this person. He adds in verse 13 and says put away from yourself this evil person. So yes, the action is quite harsh. The words are quite stern. But the intention is the restoration of that person. How do we know that? Later on in 2 Corinthians 2, he once again instructs regarding the same matter. He says this punishment which was inflicted by the majority is sufficient for such a man so that on the contrary you ought rather to forgive and comfort him. Lest perhaps such a one be swallowed up with too much sorrow. Therefore I urge you to reaffirm your love to him. So you see that he was strict with this individual so that the person will understand what he's doing is wrong. So that was the point. And later on after it has been a while and the person has hopefully turned away from his wrong behaviour Paul is reaffirming the love and he is encouraging the church also to reaffirm the love. Even if you want to call it judgment or rebuke or correction that is spoken over someone must be with the intention of that person coming back to God. That person being restored. That person once again living for the destiny that God has with him not to destroy them. But there is a place for strict correction in the body of Christ in the local church. Now disorderly behaviour. We know that when Paul wrote to the Thessalonians he spoke about somebody who had disorderly behaviour. So 2 Thessalonians 3 we see in that passage he basically says that you withdraw yourself from a brother who is disorderly. Maybe like in this case we see that that individual was not working. The person became a burden to the church family. Gossiping. Just engaging in destructive things in the community. So he's not happy about the behaviour of the individual and such behaviour is not appropriate for believers. And that is the reason he really wanted to warn and correct that individual. And he goes to the extent of telling the Thessalonians that you don't have to interact with this person. Like just it's okay you distance yourself from a person who has disorderly behaviour. Now whenever Paul is saying these things please remember he has their restoration in mind. He has the underlying intention is obviously love. But you know what to do. If people are so unreliable and not willing to listen the leader has to take some strict decisions. Now moving forward Paul talks about deceiving brethren. There can be some disorderly brethren. There can be some people with moral failure. There can be people who are causing strife, division, causing cliques. People who come in and make their cultural issues really big. There can also be people who deceive others. Paul calls them false apostles or false brethren and this was a real problem. Not just for Paul but other apostles also wrote about it. Peter wrote about it. John wrote about it. So obviously there were those who were bringing about strange doctrine, promoting some other kind of teaching. So all this was going on. So how did Paul really deal with that? Paul wrote again to the churches. So Galatians we know that the major issue for them is there are people who are preaching that one must follow the Jewish customs to be saved and to remain being saved. But Paul knew that that was not his scripture and he knew that the Lord Jesus and his sacrifice was sufficient for them to receive salvation. So he was very upset about it. So he addresses it in a letter. He said be careful about people who are bringing false teaching. So how we deal with deceptive, deceiving brethren. At least what I have observed is more than deceptive brethren being in the church, yes there are instances that you have people within the congregation who are propagating wrong doctrine and things like that. But at least I have seen that. What we do is be an advocate for the truth. You know we talked about mentoring fathers and mothers. So at the time when that sermon series was preached at ABC I remember on the internet there were a lot of teachings, sermons about that you have a spiritual father, you need to have a spiritual father. So when there are false teaching the best way to overcome that is to amplify the truth. So you put the truth out there. Whatever is the truth that will reveal the truth about that false doctrine that people are propagating. So amplify the truth. We may not have the opportunity to keep rebuking everyone who is preaching that false teaching but as long as you are preaching the right thing people at least will know that correct, so and so saying is based on scripture this is the actual doctrine. So amplify the truth and that should be good enough. Opposing brethren. In the experience of Paul, he did have people like this. There were people who were so, they could have been followers initially. They could have been very impressed by Paul and his ministry but later on they turned out to be his worst opposers. So he mentions names. When he writes to Timothy he says, Hymenius and Alexander whom I delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme. And then he goes on to add Pilateus to the list and again he says about Alexander, the coppersmith did me much harm. May the Lord repay him according to his works. You also must beware of him for he has greatly resisted our words. So there were people who were going against Paul. So what did he do? He had to issue, I am sure he would have gone through the Matthew 18 process and finally he has come to a place where he says just give up on these people so that they will learn on their own. But he also has to issue a public warning to the rest of the church to the rest of the believers and say be careful about so and so. So it has come to that point. Now is it okay for a pastor and a leader to do something like that? Now if there is a person who is creating trouble then yes, after having done everything a pastor would need to warn other believers as well. So it totally depends on how the leader has gone about it and what the situation is. So in some cases that may need to be done. Divisive individuals. Now a person who John writes about this when he talks about an individual called Diatriphus who always wanted to have preeminence and what he did is he would go and speak against the apostles and kind of say that in those days hospitality was a big thing because there were no hotels and all that. So whenever the apostles travelled the people of God travelled to new cities they would live with other believers and it was a common practice to provide hospitality to those serving in the word of God. But apparently someone like Diatriphus he was speaking against John and creating a sort of disregard in the hearts of the believers so that they were not welcome anymore by the church believers and John came to know about all this. So what does he do? He says, yeah. So he basically again publicly lets the church know that I am aware, Diatriphus is doing this and I am aware and he is telling people about a divisive brother. So that's what he does. He brings it out publicly and he tells the believers about it. So that's about dealing with people who don't listen to correction or the wisdom which is being spoken to them. Now coming to leaders, how do we deal with leaders? Because even that is a part of church discipline. When leaders make mistakes that again should not be brushed under the carpet. That's not the encouragement of God's word. We have to, if there's something that is wrong that has to be dealt with however. When we receive an accusation against an elder the Bible does tell us to give them double honor and treat them with double honor. So I'll just read this passage for us. 1 Timothy chapter 5 verses 19 through 22 do not receive an accusation against an elder except from two or three witnesses. Those who are sinning rebuke in the presence of all that the rest also may fear. I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels that you observe these things without prejudice doing nothing with partiality. Do not lay hands on anyone hastily nor share in other people's sins. Keep yourself pure. So Paul is instructing Timothy. He is telling Timothy to take up. Just because he says do not receive an accusation against an elder it's not that he's saying don't take it up. He's saying take it up but with proper confirmation. If you hear of an elder sinning then you need two or three witnesses. So you're doubly confirmed that this is true. And if again this person is not changing then he says those who are sinning rebuke in the presence of all that the rest also may fear. First of all go through that whole Matthew 18 process everything and if they are still unrelenting then it can come to a place where we may have to inform and let everyone know that so and so publicly that so and so has been engaged in this sort of sin or something like that. And also he is asking Timothy to be careful so that he does not, that he takes care of his own faith when dealing with matters of correction just for Timothy to be careful himself and not given to the sins of others. So that's how you deal with it. Basically we will deal with it but in a slower way in a more honorable way. How do we restore fallen ministers? Now those who have been serving God is it possible that they fall away from God? Yes it is possible and Paul gives an instruction to the Galatians Galatians chapter 6 verse 1 this is on page 132 and he says brethren if a man is overtaken in any trespass you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness considering yourself lest you also be tempted. So he says that a minister of God we already said with double honor first of all you confirm it you deal with that person with double honor and here in addition to that Paul is saying that you restore that person with gentleness you are aware that the person is sitting but with gentleness you be careful yourself whenever we are bringing correction to somebody we have to be careful ourselves to protect our walk with the Lord and our convictions and our standards so we have to be careful about that so one of the ways some practical aspects to this is when we hear of a minister who has fallen then what could be done is somebody that the person respects maybe they are accountable to another senior man of God or a woman of God in the city or part of that network of ministers or that organization so it would be nice if through that individual this person you could probably have that person speak to this minister and let the person know that what you are doing is not right and hopefully if that person accepts then the person could be taken through a period of restoration a period of restoration so what will that period of restoration look like basically the minister can step down from ministry now we already know God's word says the gifts and callings of God are irrevocable if someone is called to preach the gospel let's say that that person has an anointing over their lives it is a teaching anointing but because they are in sin now they have to come clean of that so for a season it is best that that person does not serve in that ministry so we might that senior minister of God who is speaking to the person might say something like hey how about you step down for about 6 months you don't preach you just come to church just be like a regular believer and just receive receive you walk through that period of repentance you walk through that period of change of heart and all that and then we will talk about it later and continue to be in touch with me and maybe the senior minister can also take the support of some other ministers of God to speak into the life of this fallen minister of God so basically what's happening is the person is not being shunned but the person is being helped into restoration by other ministers of God and hopefully over a period of time this person repents they come clean of everything and then they are in a place where they can step back again to preach God's word so that's just an example for us so if at all there are ministers of God who fall this is the way in which we can bring restoration to them and while talking about correction we must also remember that we have to treat people well we know that even though the Holy Spirit has made leaders, pastors, overseers over God's people we are not called to be lords over them meaning we don't we don't have the authority to kind of boss over people so we must treat them with respect and authority should not become abuse authority should not become abuse so I like this passage I'll read it for us 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verses 23 to 24 it says, moreover I call God as witness against my soul that to spare you came no more to Corinth not that we have dominion over your faith but our fellow workers for your joy for by faith you stand so it's interesting Paul served for a prolonged period in Corinth as compared to any other city he spent a lot of time there and he had really built up he had gone through a very difficult time with the opposition and everything that God had to speak to him and encourage him and say look don't worry you are okay so it was that difficult for him to do ministry in Corinth and after doing all that if somebody had served like that for the people they would feel that they own the people I've served and whatever you are today is because of me Paul could have said that but look at the way he is writing to the Corinthians not that we have dominion over your faith so he realises and recognises that yes I am ministering I am going out of my way to serve these people but they own their faith their faith is their faith the progress they have made is their progress so there are these boundaries and as leaders we can't just assume that we can have authority over people and just abuse them and get them to do whatever we want them to do it doesn't work like that we must always remember that we are stewards of the people whom God has given us so abuse, stay away from abuse and if that is happening again we have seen how a leader can be corrected and we should go about correcting that person so whenever correction is brought about in situations like this we already talked about this in kingdom builders there can be all kinds of responses you could have a person who says okay thank you pastor I didn't know I was doing this or that this was wrong okay fine I will try to change so somebody could genuinely repent and you might be able to see the fruit in their life but people can also have a bunch of negative responses so we said that people could probably complain so it happens they really like you and suddenly they don't like you at all so how do you deal with it basically you don't take it personally once you have corrected somebody they can't complain they could withdraw meaning they don't want to talk to you anymore or they just come to church like you can feel that wall between you and that individual okay so they might withdraw they might also retaliate they might come up you know bring up issues and then suddenly you feel very disrespected the way they are treating you maybe personally through some of the emails that they are sending you and all that or publicly publicly you know that they say putting you down and you are like wow what's going on this person used to really honor and respect me so much but now they are treating me so badly so there can be retaliation that we face or worse to you know departure they are just gone they pack their bags and leave because they don't think this church is worthy of them anymore so how do you deal with it no it is painful and I know when we talked about these matters and kingdom builders even there I said this is probably one of the toughest things to bring correction bring resolution of conflict and sometimes you wonder can I just not if I can only just study the one and preach the word that's enough for me now why do I have to deal with all these things but it's part of the responsibility that God has given us so we have to so in the case of negative responses we said this don't take it personally yeah for whatever reason that person is behaving like that but don't just mull over it and get depressed over it so don't take it personally don't take offense meaning carry that you know unforgiveness, bitterness and then we also react to the way they are behaving with us and give people some time if they are trying to process everything eventually you know it will sort out so give them some time if sometimes this happens people just tell you later that hey pastor I think I want to go to the other church or something like that so if they want to move on then with peace, with blessings let them move on because they want to grow in another place it's okay right so we just let them do that and continue their work with the Lord so don't take it personally don't keep bringing it up again and again this matter they were in my church and this is what they did so don't keep bringing it up again and again alright so that's how we deal with correcting people and then there's a note here which says correct in a timely manner do not procrastinate that's because you know it's so uncomfortable sometimes we can just pretend like I didn't see anything I didn't hear anything because that church can go on as it's going on everything is happy but what happens is if we ignore matters of sin, matters of division strife there's clearly some issue going on people are fighting both of them have the same business and they are competing with each other we are aware of all these matters so if we just ignore it it will end up in a like a volcanic eruption someday so when we come to know that there is a matter that needs to be resolved it is best to deal with it quickly okay and in a wise way so don't put it off for tomorrow some matters pastor says some matters you can't even sleep over it no, right now something has to be done so you have to just step in there and have the matter resolved so that's about correction and that's about church discipline anything to add to what I have shared please feel free you could do so or any questions we can discuss okay so if it's all clear we can go to the next chapter okay so I think that seems like you're okay with this subject alright so in that case yeah we have 5 minutes that's okay we will just start off the next chapter here which is about church order in gatherings so basically what this says is that everything needs to be done in an orderly way in a decent way and Paul instructs the Corinthian church he addresses certain issues when it comes to communion in communion people were coming to church and just eating a lot and getting drunk and that was disorderly so he instructed them in that manner if you need to eat you eat at home and you come and you please treat the Lord stable with reverence he gives them an instruction then now the Corinthian church was also known for the gifts of the spirit and they were greatly exercising the gifts of the spirit so when it came to the exercise of the gifts of the spirit he first Corinthians 14 is all about order he says okay when you speak in tongues do it like this when you prophesy do it like this so he is giving them instructions for the exercise of the gifts of the spirit so that also must not be done in a disorderly way so that was Paul's instruction basically when he sums up that chapter there in verse 14 he says let all things be done decently and in order so one of the things that Paul was passionate about was the order of church gatherings people came together for worship people came together for the exercise of the gifts of the Holy Spirit when people came together to be nurtured in the word of God whatever it is he wanted to see some order because it was all about honoring God so in this chapter here we are going to talk about how we can have order in our gatherings so based on what Paul said let everything be done decently and in order so whatever the meetings we have we can select a format which will give honor to God which glorifies God so that format can be such that things are done in an excellent way we give time for the important things in the service which would be the ministry of the word which would be time in worship which would be time ministering to the people we would also make sure that any wastage of time we are in there that can be cut off because sometimes what happens we might end up taking too much time on announcements people come there only for some 2 hours in that 2 hours let's say 30 minutes goes for announcements this happening that is happening then the people are not receiving what they came there for so we have to consider all these things things need to be done in order things need to be done with excellence we must ensure that time is not wasted we give priority to all the important parts of the gatherings and the things are done efficiently quickly things are done in a clean way so when there is order in all of these aspects of a gathering it really honors God so what we will do is we will probably continue with this in the next session and yeah we will continue to discuss this alright so let's close up with a word of prayer I just like to request someone to please lead in prayer please yes say please go ahead hello in the name of Jesus Father we thank you we love you because you are good we will continue to plan sorry to interrupt we thank you Charles I am sorry to interrupt you actually say let's start praying so can we let him complete please alright thank you our Father in Heaven we thank you for this class we've had thank you Lord for your daughter who you've used a lot to instruct us on the communion on orderliness in the church on how old God we ought to conduct ourselves and how and what we must not do to create factions Father we thank you for all that we have learned we pray Father that this instructions everything Lord we've learned will be expounded in our hearts and Lord we will be able to teach others and explain to them Lord the importance and the blessings that come with the communion and every other thing Lord we've learned in this class Lord we pray Father that you continue to increase your daughter with more wisdom to instruct us Lord more and to give us more revelation from the word and to make us better equipped to God to lead and to bring more people into the faith we bless you Lord we pray as we go for our older class we pray for wisdom to understand and we pray that Lord we will continue to be useful vessels in your hands thank you Father blessed be your holy name for in the name of Jesus Christ we operate Amen Amen thank you Sayyid and thank you Charles too sorry not getting me pray alright class so everyone have a blessed day and we meet again in the next session Thank you Pastor Thank you