So what is church discipline and why is it necessary? Today we look at some largely neglected issues of church life, and those issues are authority and discipline. What we're going to say this morning is this—that the authority to discipline is essential for the purity of the church and the spiritual health of its members. And I understand that it seems strangely old school to talk about something like discipline, right? But my goal is not only to help us see the necessity of it, but also to celebrate discipline as a form of love and an impetus to worship, to worship God.

This is really a neglected aspect of church life, largely because churches have become consumer institutions. Consumer institutions seek to draw and keep people by giving people what they want.

Now I understand that in an economy, in the business world, that kind of competition works well and it helps everybody try to do a better job and all of that, but this is not the economy and this is not the business world. That's not what the church is. So I have to ask the question, this giving people what they want thing, is that an act of love?

Now our culture says, yeah, absolutely that's an act of love. You give me everything I want and it shows you love me. But, but is that truly love? Certainly it's not biblical love. Biblical love is giving people what they need, giving people what is best for them. And this is the kind of love that we have from God. See God created us and God knows us and God gives us what we need. And you see, this is a beautiful thing. This is a loving thing. This is something to celebrate, and I hope we can celebrate that this morning.

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