From the Pulpit...

The Lord Jesus just said (18:14) that it is not the will of the Father in heaven that any of the little ones—ones who believe in Jesus—should perish. We learned from that paragraph about finding lost sheep that the Lord cares for His people, and none of them will be permanently lost. They might stray for a while, but not forever. It is because the Lord desires every sheep to be rescued that He instructs His disciples (and us) about what to do when a professing brother strays from the flock. The sinner does not do that by wandering to the mountains like a sheep with Alzheimer’s or dementia. He does so by living in sin and not repenting. For the church family, it is imperative to take the steps necessary to persuade the brother to repent and come back to the fold because God desires His people to be safe in the fold. The ministry of the church toward unrepentant sinners is often called church discipline. Regardless of the name of it, its goal is to bring sinners back, not push them away!