Amen. You may be seated.
Children, you can be excused to your King's Kids classes.
And if you would open up your Bibles
to Matthew chapter 18, 15 through 20.
It's on page 979 of your Pew Bible.
And this is Jesus speaking.
Hear the word of the Lord.
If your brother sins against you,
go and tell him his fault
between you and him alone.
If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.
But if he does not listen to you,
take one or two others along with you
that every charge may be established
by the evidence of two or three witnesses.
If he refuses to listen to them,
tell it to the church.
And if he refuses to listen even to the church,
let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.
Truly I say to you,
whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven,
and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Again I say to you,
if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask,
it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.
For where two or three are gathered in my name,
there am I among them.
May God bless the hearing of his word.
Our church has been saved by the blood of Jesus
to be holy and blameless unto Jesus.
Individually that's personal holiness.
Corporately that means relational holiness.
How we conduct ourselves with one another.
So the question becomes,
what do we do
when one member of our church
sins against another member of our church?
What's the plan?
This topic is particularly important for us right now
in light of a meeting we've got coming up.
Last Sunday, Steve Bickle made an announcement.
He's the chairman of our elder board,
and he announced a special membership meeting
next Sunday, February 9th.
And that special membership meeting,
unless we hear otherwise,
we'll be taking a step as a church membership
in this process of church discipline.
We're going to tell something to the church.
We'll inform the church members
this is a member-only meeting
of a particular situation.
We're going to name a name, Lord willing,
and call the members of Christ the King Church
to act.
The reason why we would do something like this
is because we love Jesus,
and we love His church,
and we love members entangled in sin.
Maybe you've never heard a sermon
on church discipline before.
You've never heard those two words before,
church discipline.
Or maybe you've heard the words church discipline.
You know that there's something out there
that should be some kind of process,
but you've never been a part of something
like that before.
Or maybe you've witnessed church discipline
done poorly.
Or maybe you've witnessed church discipline
done well.
We've been needing to grow as a church
in this process that Jesus lays out
in Matthew chapter 18,
because we need to be a church
that does church discipline well
in love to restore and help.
Because we want to protect
the name of Jesus.
And we want to preserve the holy health
of our membership as a church.
And Jesus tells us what to do.
In Matthew 18, 15 through 17,
in particular,
He walks through four stages
of church discipline.
Step by step.
How to love a church member
entangled in sin,
and what to do if they don't listen.
Here's the definition of church discipline
from the start.
Church discipline is the loving process
the loving process
appointed by Christ
by which Christians seek to restore
a fellow church member
entangled in sin.
Church discipline is the loving process
appointed by Christ
by which Christians seek to restore
a fellow church member
entangled in sin.
And so in light of next Sunday,
the elders wanted me
not just to kind of refresh
your thinking about church discipline,
but to prepare you for action.
So here's how we're going to proceed
this morning.
I want to share with you briefly
just some general principles
about church discipline.
That will be kind of the first move.
But then I want to walk through
these stages with you,
giving attention to stage one
and stage three in particular,
so that we understand it,
so we know how to act.
Church discipline is the loving process
appointed by Christ
by which Christians seek to restore
a fellow church member
entangled by sin.
And so let's just look at briefly
some general principles
about the process of church discipline.
I'm going to rattle off four for you.
The first general principle is this.
Church discipline
is to be normal church practice.
It's just to be normal.
It's part of our life as a church.
Jesus is a realist.
And so when he tells us in 1815,
if your brother sins against you,
he's being realistic.
It's going to happen.
He knew we would sin against each other,
so he tells us what to do
when a brother sins against us
or a sister sins against us.
Now behind this
is an understanding
of what a church is.
A church is a group of Christians
in a specific time,
specific place,
with a specific leadership
that they have committed together
to follow Jesus.
It's a formalized commitment
Christians have made
to say we're living for Jesus together.
And with that comes a responsibility
for one another.
So every time we have
a membership Sunday,
the members stand up
and they kind of
re-communicate their commitment
to take these steps together,
even submit oneself
to church discipline.
It's a kind of mutual commitment
we're making together.
And then what Jesus does here
is he authorizes us to act.
If you look at verse 18,
he says,
truly I say to you,
whoever you bind on earth
shall be bound in heaven
and whatever you loose on earth
shall be loosed in heaven.
Because we have a responsibility
with one another,
he authorizes us to act.
The you,
the Y-O-U,
in verse 18
is not a singular you,
but a plural you,
a y'all.
He's speaking to the church.
He's authorizing the church
to take steps
to help a brother or sister
entangled in sin.
And what Jesus is doing here
is he's just normalizing something.
This week,
Kelly is going to send out
on Tuesday in her email,
there'll be a link in the email
to an article by Colin Hansen
and Jonathan Lehman
on the nature of church membership.
I would really encourage you
to take a look at that.
So the first principle is
church process is normal.
This church discipline,
it's to be normal.
We're dealing with sin in our lives.
Second,
church discipline
is a sanctifying process.
The goal is holiness.
You see in verse 15,
if your brother sins against you,
go tell him his fault.
But the goal is restoration.
The goal is sharing
in God's holiness
to rescue a brother
from their sin
and then to restore
that sinning sister
back to a fellowship
with God
and one another.
It's shalom.
It's peace.
It's holy peace.
Christians are simultaneously
justified and sinful.
We have been saved,
justified,
and we're being saved
in the sense
we're being sanctified,
and so we're not
a sin-free community.
And so we're going to need
to be dealing with sin
so that we would be
experientially more and more
holy and blameless
unto Jesus.
Hebrews chapter 12
talks about
we have a God,
a Father,
who out of love for us
will discipline us
so that we would share
in His holiness,
and that would happen together.
This is a sanctifying process.
Both personal holiness
and corporate holiness.
It's a loving process
to make us holy.
Sanctifying.
The third general principle
is that this is
an intensifying process.
These four stages,
as we walk through them,
I just want to tell you right now,
each one is going to intensify.
Jesus wants there to be
this increasing public nature
to each stage
of church discipline.
And the reason for that
is to bring a brother or sister
who's in sin
to bring them to their senses,
to help them see
the seriousness of their sin.
We don't do these things
to humiliate people.
We're doing these things
to call them back to Jesus.
This intensification
is to get people's attention
in stage three
where you tell it to the church.
That's where the church membership
is made aware.
Remember that this is
a loving process
Jesus has given
to seek to restore
church members
entangled in their sin.
It's a loving process,
which is the fourth principle.
This is a loving process.
Church discipline
is a loving process.
It's out of love for Jesus.
Jesus,
we want to honor Him.
We want to obey Him.
It's out of love
for His church,
His bride,
that He purchased
with His own blood
to make holy.
This is us loving
Jesus' people.
This is us loving
brothers and sisters
entangled in their sin.
Not this week,
but the week before
in our life group,
a brother asked,
what is this love
that we're talking about
in Ephesians 4?
Christian love
is a commitment
to do what's best
for another Christian
for the glory of Jesus.
We will exercise
our commitment
to one another
so that Christ
is magnified
in each other's lives.
That's how we love
one another.
That's Christian love.
I want to just point you
to a passage.
You see in Matthew 18 here,
in 15 through 20,
we have this process
of church discipline.
If you just look up
at the passage beforehand,
it starts in verse 10
through 14.
It's the parable
of the lost sheep.
It's this parable
of the shepherd
who leaves the 99
to go get the one,
the sheep that's astray.
Isn't it interesting
that after Jesus
speaks this parable,
He then talks
about church discipline?
You can't help
but make the connection.
Our good shepherd church
is going to use us
in order to go after
straying sheep
out of love for them,
to bring them back
to the fold.
These general principles,
let me just reiterate them.
Church discipline
is normal church process.
We are sinners.
We will sin against each other.
We need to be taking
these steps.
It's a sanctifying process.
The goal is to share
in God's holiness.
It's an intensifying process.
It's not necessarily comfortable,
but it's for other people's good,
and it's loving.
This is an act of love
to seek to bring people back,
rescue them from sin,
and restore fellowship
with God and others.
So with those in mind,
let's turn now
to the actual stages
of church discipline.
It starts with stage one
in verse 15.
If your brother sins against you,
go and tell him his fault
between you and him alone.
If your brother sins against you,
that's the beginning
of the early stages
of church discipline.
It's more common
than we think.
It's to be more normal
than we think.
Now, if you're wondering,
in Matthew 5, 23, and 24,
Jesus addresses the one
who's done the sinning.
He says,
if you're on your way
to the altar
and you remember,
you've caused an offense
with your brother.
If you've sinned against them,
stop what you're doing.
Go to them.
Make peace with them.
But here, in 15,
Jesus is addressing
not the one
who did the sinning,
but the one
who's been sinned against.
If you,
if your brother
has sinned against you,
he says, do this.
He says, go and show
him his fault.
You're not to wait
for him or her
to come to you.
You are to initiate
the conversation.
Now, you may wonder why.
I believe it's
to not to allow sin
to fester,
to not to give the devil
an opportunity
to keep short accounts.
You know, I'm not sure
if you've experienced
this yourself.
I'm guessing you have.
when sinners are
sinned against,
we tend to sin back.
But Jesus here
is saying this.
If your brother
sins against you,
don't sin back.
Love back.
Go and show him
his fault.
Instead of sinning back,
we love back.
It's the way
of the kingdom.
freedom.
It's the way
of Jesus.
And now you may
be thinking,
oh, how do you
do that?
Because that
sounds extraordinary.
The way that we
do that is by
laying hold
of our Jesus,
by abiding
in him,
by saying,
Jesus,
you are the
controlling center
of my life.
You're the
treasured center
of my life.
And I'm going
to live for you
even in a situation
like this.
I mean,
Jesus went
to the tomb
dead,
and he came
out of the tomb
alive so that
he would become
the controlling
center of our
lives,
that we would
treasure him
above all else,
that we would
obey him in all
that he commands,
even Matthew 18,
that we would
magnify him
among all people,
even among each
other,
and that we would
belong to Jesus
with the whole
church,
even those who
sin against us.
The way we go
about doing this
is not trusting
in our own power
and wisdom,
it's trusting
in Jesus.
It's tethering
ourselves to
Jesus.
If Jesus was
like an O2
tank, it's like
starting to breathe
in Jesus' air,
the rich grace
that comes from
depending on
Jesus.
Now, there's two
mistakes that we
tend to make
when it comes to
being sinned
against.
Mistake number
one is the one
I'm prone to,
and that's to
avoid it.
You don't want
to deal with it.
And what we're
talking about here,
when Jesus is the
controlling center
of your life,
he must compel
you to,
to do what's
pleasing to him,
to obey him.
The other mistake
is more of an
inner Pharisee
mistake.
That's when you've
been wronged,
and you pull out
both guns blazing,
and you go after
somebody.
both are not
pleasing to the
Lord.
And here's how
we can kind of
temper our hearts
when sinned
against.
Remember Matthew
7, 1 through 5?
Remember what Jesus
says there in the
Sermon on the
Mount?
He says,
before you try to
take the speck out
of your brother's
eye, would you
please take the
log out of your
own eye?
Before you go,
when you're
sinned against,
before you go to
someone, do the
heart work first
of self-examination
of, say, hey,
is there a log in
my own eye?
Here's what that'll
do.
It'll tenderize you.
It'll tenderize you
to this brother who
has sinned against
you, because it'll
make you remember,
oh, they're not the
only sinner in the
room.
They're not the
only one who is in
desperate, habitual
need of God's grace,
for so am I.
And what'll also
help is make you
realize that, yes,
this brother may
have sinned against
you, this sister may
have sinned against
you, but they've
also sinned against
God.
They've grieved
him.
Jesus must be the
controlling center of
our lives before we
go and tell our
brother or sister of
their fault.
fault.
Now, you may be
asking the question,
the weeds question,
well, how do you do
that?
What does that look
like?
Well, it starts with a
phone call.
You say, hey, so-and-so,
can we talk face-to-face
sometime soon?
We have something
serious to talk about.
Just be honest.
And then when you get
with them, it's just
between you and him
alone, you say
something like, you
know what?
Thank you for getting
together.
I love you.
But I want you to
know that when you
did this or did that
or didn't do this,
according to this
passage right here in
the Bible, I think
you sinned against
God and me.
And I just wanted to
get together with you
to tell you that.
At that moment, you've
been faithful to
Jesus.
You've done what he
has called you to.
You're not responsible
for your brother's
response at that
point.
You've been faithful
to him.
Did you notice it's
between you and him
alone?
This first stage is the
most informal and
private stage of church
discipline.
If you imagine the
circle of people who
are involved, it's the
smallest.
It's you and the one
who sinned against you.
You.
Now, stepping into
this may be
uncomfortable for many
of us.
Let's say there's
something in your mind
right now, but you
don't know what to do.
I would say reach out
to one of the elders.
You don't need to name
names, but you can be
able to say, hey, this
is a new step for me.
Am I doing this right?
And whether it's an
elder or a mature
Christian, a life group
leader, they then can
help you, pray for you.
Before moving on, I
just want to say this.
Just take the moment.
Has the Spirit of God
put someone on your
mind that you need to
get right with?
That you've either
sinned against or they've
sinned against you?
Don't wait.
For them to take a
step.
You've got precedent,
both for Matthew 5 and
Matthew 18 to initiate.
You've been authorized.
This is loving Jesus
and loving one another.
Now, in verse 15,
Jesus points to one
response.
If he listens to you,
you have gained your
brother.
If he listens to you,
what that means is this.
They're like, you're
right.
I did sin against you.
Will you please
forgive me?
That was grievous in
God's sight.
And at that moment,
you've been part of what
God is doing in rescuing a
brother from sin and
restoring him to
fellowship with God and
others.
Process is then done.
But what happens if he
doesn't listen?
That's where we move to
verse 16 in stage 2.
But if he does not listen,
take one or two others
along with you that every
charge may be established
by the evidence or two or
three witnesses.
I'm just going to quickly
move through this so we can
get to stage 3.
This is the step where the
circle of people involved
goes from two people now to
three or four people.
So this is an intensifying
process.
More people are being brought
into the situation.
More people are aware of it.
Now you might be asking,
who are these witnesses?
Well, it's a reference back
to Deuteronomy 19.15 where
every charge is to be
established by one or two
other witnesses.
And what they're witnessing
is not the original sin,
but they're witnessing this
brother who's been sinned
against, sister who's been
sinned against, going back to
the brother or sister that
sinned against them and
taking this step.
They're witnessing the
charge made.
And so if you've been
sinned against, you go to
your brother, he doesn't
listen to you.
At that point, you bring one
or two other mature
Christians in, preferably
who know the person who
sinned against you, and you
bring them and you make the
same case.
But now it's being witnessed
by one or two other people.
It's intensifying.
It's verifying it.
It's validating it.
It's establishing that this
has actually taken place.
And so if you find yourself
in that situation, it would
be like you saying something,
what do you say?
You'd be like, thank you for
getting together again.
I love you.
And because you didn't listen
to me the first time we met,
that's why I brought so forth
and so and so.
When you did this, or said
that, or didn't do this,
according to God's word,
I think you have sinned
against God and me.
And we've come to tell you
that.
And at that point, you've been
faithful to Jesus in stage
two, bringing one or two
witnesses with you.
You've been authorized to do this.
You don't need elder
approval to do this.
Jesus is telling us to do this.
Practically speaking, I would
encourage you to, if you find
yourself in this situation,
choose one or two mature
Christians to go with you.
Ideally, that know the person
who sinned against you.
It reduces the embarrassment.
And another note is when you
reach out to these one or two
people, you will need to explain
what's happening.
You will need to explain to them
the nature of the meeting that
you're bringing them to be a part
of.
One of the benefits is that these
one or two people, they will
observe you in the meeting as
well.
To help you.
So, Jesus doesn't say it, but if
your brother hears you at this
point, you've gained your brother.
You've gained your sister.
They're taking responsibility for
their sin.
They've asked you and God for
forgiveness.
And now what we're talking about is a
restoration of peace.
Shalom.
But what happens if he or she
doesn't listen to stage two, stage
three?
And we see that at the beginning
of verse 17.
If he refuses to listen to them,
you and the one or two witnesses,
tell it to the church.
It's this one sentence in verse 17
that represents the step of bringing
into a whole membership, into an
awareness of a situation.
Now, you may be saying, well, that
seems a little excessive.
I just want to remind you, this is
intensifying.
This is a way we love someone who is
demonstrating a arching.
And not listening.
This is a way that Jesus has
prescribed to bring all of a church
membership into a process out of love
for a member entangled in sin.
And so now the circle of people
involved, it expands to include a
membership of a church.
It's a little bit more formal because
now you have to have a church meeting
like ours next week.
You've got to make people aware.
It intensifies things.
And that intensity is actually good.
It's Jesus prescribed.
To raise the seriousness of sin.
In verse 17, we read,
if he refuses to listen to them,
tell it to the church.
The it is the fault, the sin.
It's the people, the person involved.
You're going to name a name.
You're going to explain a situation
sufficiently, honoring privacy.
Lastly, we don't want to air laundry
unnecessarily.
But enough for a membership
to become aware of a situation.
And so this tell it to the church
is in one sense an informational meeting.
We just want to let you know
what's going on here
with one of our members
and how serious this is.
But it's also a call to action.
What this stage is
is a rallying of the membership
of a church,
not just to be informed,
but to act.
To be used by our good shepherd
to bring back a straying church member.
We're getting all hands on deck
in one sense.
Here's what this is going to look like.
The question that we need
to be asking is this.
When we enter a stage
like this together,
we're asking the question,
what is the most loving thing
we can do
for our brother or sister
entangled in sin?
What is the most loving thing
that we can do?
And so when we make the church aware,
the members of our church aware
of a specific situation,
first and foremost,
it is a call to prayer.
A call to pray for this person
who's entangled by sin.
To ask God to move by His Spirit
to bring about repentance,
full repentance,
full ownership
of a wrong or wrong's done.
To take these things to heart.
To call for fasting
and praying on behalf
of this brother or sister
entangled in sin
because we love Jesus
and we love them
and we don't want them to stray.
We want to give them
every opportunity to come back.
Baby, come back!
So this step we'll take
is a call to prayer
for a particular person
and particular name.
But this is also going to be
a call to act
for our members
and the members
who particularly,
who know this person,
who have a relationship
with them.
It's a call to act.
To not avoid it,
not to ignore it.
Shoot them a text,
shoot her an email,
leave a voice message,
say,
hey, we had this church meeting.
I was brought,
made aware of what's going on.
I am praying for you
and that God,
you would humble yourself
and turn back to the Lord
and be restored.
I love you.
I don't want you straying.
Could you imagine a church
that loves a straying sheep
that way?
Not looking to shame them
to shame them,
but to call them back
to shalom.
And as for those members
who don't know this person,
don't have a relationship
with them,
but are aware of them,
know of them,
this informs what happens
when you bump into this person
at Woodman's
or Festival
or Chick-fil-A.
You don't talk about the Packers.
perhaps,
you say something like this.
I'm glad to see you.
I just want to let you know
that I'm praying for you.
That the members of
Christ the King Church
are praying for you.
That you would,
that you would turn
from your refusal
and that you would
humble yourself
and turn to the Lord
and seek peace.
Would you please talk
to the elders?
elders.
Speaking the truth
in love.
Not all speaking
the truth in love
shows up as church discipline,
but all church discipline,
every word of it
is speaking the truth
in love.
These are some practical steps
we're going to be taking
if we get to this point
next Sunday.
And I just want to make sure
you understand
and you're hearing
loud and clear,
this is out of love.
for a brother
or sister
who is entangled
in their sin.
But what happens
if they,
what happens
if they don't listen?
If they listen,
we've gained our brother
or sister.
We rejoice,
but if,
if they don't listen,
then what?
That's the second,
second sentence
of verse 17.
Stage four,
and if he refuses
to listen even
to the church,
if he refuses,
if she refuses
to listen even
to the church.
I forgot to mention
that process,
that time frame
when the church
is brought in
and we want to give
that sufficient time,
right,
for God to use
his church
to have these conversations
and to be praying.
so we don't necessarily
have a time frame
on it.
It's not going
to be 72 hours.
It's not going
to be two years.
We want to give it
sufficient time
for God to work.
But if,
but if this,
if this member
doesn't listen,
doesn't even listen
to the church,
what then?
Well,
let me just,
let me just help you
see the pattern.
in verse 16,
what if he does
not listen?
First sentence
of verse 17,
if he refuses
to listen.
Second sentence
of verse 17,
and if he refuses
to listen even
to the church.
There is this pattern
of refusal.
It's unrepentance.
It's,
it's an arching
of the back.
It's saying,
I will not
do that.
And it's,
it's made evident
in actions,
not so much
in words.
A straying sheep
who is refusing
to be brought
back to the fold.
Are they a sheep?
If we reach
that point,
Jesus is very clear
that the members
of Christ the King
Church are to
recategorize
how we think
about this person.
Did you notice this?
In verse 15,
if your brother
sins against you.
And at the end
of verse 17,
let him be to you
as a Gentile
and tax collector.
How about that
for intensification?
You treat him first
as a brother in Christ
and then you're going
to treat them
as a Gentile
or tax collector.
In Jesus' day,
what that meant
are those people
who are deliberately
in sin.
They're hardened
in their sinning.
They're refusing
to change.
I think Jesus
is speaking of
treat them
as a non-Christian.
Treat them
as someone
who has not
experienced
the transformational
grace of Jesus
that they're not
alive in Christ.
Christ.
And what we've
seen here
is the evidence
of that.
This is Jesus
helping us see.
Now what this means,
what this step is,
when we think
of them this way,
this is technically
what we call
removal from membership.
It's an act
of discipline
where we're saying,
no,
they're no longer
a part of our church
because they're no longer
seen as a Christian.
It also involves
a step of
excommunication
and what I understand
that to mean
is they are no longer
allowed to the Lord's table.
That's the reference
when I was doing
the communion meditation.
It's got implications
to that table
of our participating
together
in what Christ
has done for us.
It's terribly serious.
But this brings closure
for us as a church.
church.
We've taken the steps.
We've made the appeals.
We've brought in the church.
We've given it time.
And now,
the Lord Jesus
is giving us release.
Treat them now
as a non-Christian.
And this may raise
a couple questions
for you.
Could this person
who's been removed
from membership
excommunicated
from the Lord's Supper,
can they come
to a service
on a Sunday?
And the answer
to that is,
well,
unless there's
a legal reason
why not
or a safety reason
why not,
then yeah,
we would welcome them
as a non-Christian.
Praying
that they would
hear the gospel
and repent
and believe.
Take full responsibility
for what is done.
Another question
that may come up
is this,
well,
wait,
at that moment
in stage four
when you remove
them from membership,
did they just
lose their salvation?
Now,
this is
not an easy thing
to navigate.
I do think
there's this
ever so slight
possibility
that an actual
spirit-indwelt
Christian
could walk
through something
like this,
but I think
it would be
incredibly rare.
Incredibly rare.
In fact,
Jesus says,
treat them
as if they're
a non-Christian.
So I think
the better explanation
in terms of
did they lose
their salvation
would be
kind of thinking
in terms of
Matthew 24,
13?
The one who
endures to the end
will be saved.
The book of Hebrews
will make a claim
that a saving faith
is a persevering faith.
So if someone
falls away,
likely they were
never saved
to begin with.
This is the practice
Jesus outlines
for church discipline.
four stages
and after the service
next Sunday
we'll be stepping
into stage three
where we tell
the church.
Inform the church
of the person
involved,
the situation,
and call the church
to act
out of love
for him.
Church discipline
is the process,
the loving process,
the loving process.
Appointed by Jesus
himself,
by which Christians
seek to restore
fellow church members
entangled in sin.
It's a normal process.
This is responsibility
for one another.
We've been authorized
to do this.
This is a sanctifying process
that more and more people
would share in God's holiness
because that is good.
It is an intensifying process.
It becomes more and more public
as a brother or sister
refuses to listen.
That's not on us.
It's them.
It's a loving process.
Love for Jesus,
love for his church,
love for members
entangled in sin
who need to be rescued
and restored.
Think about it this way.
If you had a brother
or sister entangled
in sin
and you did nothing,
is that loving them?
It's not loving them.
This process
is a loving process
to track down
and bring back
straying sheep.
would you pray with me?
Lord Jesus,
we're thankful
for this passage
you've given us.
It's weighty.
It's serious.
It's important.
It's messy.
We don't do it perfectly.
We make mistakes.
Oh, but Lord,
we want to please you.
We want to guard your name
among the nations
and we want to preserve
the health of your people.
So, Father,
would you pour out
your spirit upon us
that as we walk
through these situations
together,
whether this Sunday
or down the line,
God, would you by your spirit
make us together
courageous,
gentle,
restore a brother
caught in a trespass
and a spirit
of gentleness,
loving,
faithful.
And we pray
for our brother
that, God,
you would grant him
repentance
and full restoration.
We pray this
in Jesus' name.
Amen.