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The Amish Voice 3
ILLUSTRATION:
Sometimes Christians can act just like sharks that sense blood
in the water: they circle in for the kill. But this is not God’s
way! Here is an example of how restoration is to be done:
One of the great preachers of the South was marvelously
converted when he was a drunkard. His ministry was quite
demanding and after a great deal of pressure and temptation
he got drunk one night. He was so ashamed that the very next
day he called in his board of deacons and turned in his
resignation. He told them, “I want to resign.” They were
amazed. They asked why. He frankly told them, “I got drunk
last night. A preacher should not get drunk, and I want to
resign.”
It was obvious that he was ashamed, and do you know what
those wonderful deacons did? They put their arms around
him and said, “Let’s all pray.” They would not accept his
resignation. A man who was present in the congregation that
next Sunday said, “I never heard a greater sermon in my life
than that man preached.”
Those deacons were real surgeons—they set a broken bone;
they restored him. There are some people who would have
put him out of the ministry, but these deacons put that
preacher back on his feet, and God marvelously used him
after that.
2. SECOND, APPROACH THE BROTHER IN A
SPIRIT OF GENTLENESS (v.1).
How desperately this charge is needed! Too often what is
displayed is a spirit of…
This approach, of course, is not ever concerned with restoring a
brother. It is bent more on downing or destroying him. And the
great tragedy is that it forces him to turn more and more to the
world, to those who are more understanding of his weaknesses
because they, too, are weak.
However, the spirit of rejection is not what Scripture is telling
believers to show. Scripture is saying to approach the brother in
meekness: to be gentle, tender, warm, loving, and caring.
Discuss his sinning, yes, but with him not with others!
Approach and love him, reach out to him, minister to him, help
him, show care and concern and
above all else
, stay after him.
Open your arms and welcome him back. Restore him into your
fellowship. Let him know that he is forgiven, forgiven by all
and accepted by all, warmly and tenderly.
“I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you
that ye walk worthy of the vocation [calling]
wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and
meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one
another in love” (Ep.4:1-2).
3. THIRD, WATCH YOURSELF (v.1).
Consider yourself, for you, too, can be tempted and overtaken
by sin. This is a crucial point, for all believers are tempted with
all kinds of sin (1 Co.10:13). There is a real possibility that we
may be overtaken by sin; therefore, we are to love and help our
fallen brothers just like we would want to be loved and helped.
The word
consider
means to look to oneself, to think about
oneself and to give attention to oneself. It means to keep an
attentive eye on oneself. If we really consider the matter, then
we will reach out in love and meekness to help our fallen
brothers. We have to help them, for we are all ever so subject to
being overtaken by sin.
“There hath no temptation taken you but such as is
common to man: but God is faithful, who will not
suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but
will with the temptation also make a way to escape,
that ye may be able to bear it” (1 Co.10:13).
ILLUSTRATION:
Some of the most inaccurate words that glide across the lips of
Christians are these: “I’ll never fall. It could never happen to
me.”
One of the first jokes of the age of automation describes a
QUESTIONS:
1. Who do you personally know who fell into sin but was
restored by other Christians? What kinds of things did
these loving people do for this person?
2. What causes some people to be judgmental? How can
trusting God help you to not be judgmental of others?
3. If you were to fall into sin, who could you count on to
help restore you? Why? Who would not help restore you?
Why?
QUESTIONS:
1. How should you pray before you approach a fallen believer?
2. How do you cultivate a spirit of meekness?
3. How could your having a spirit of meekness affect the fallen
Christian that you are trying to reach?
hardness
criticism
reproof
indifference
censorship
super-spirituality
harshness
rumor
holier-than-thou
rejection
slander
ostracism