As we focus on the purity of the church, and necessity to lovingly encourage all to live obedient lives. We have been looking at Matthew 18:15-20 to understand the process that Jesus set forth to help the church maintain a body that is living in obedience to the Lord. We have seen that the first two steps are private exhortation (v15) and Private Conference, if the person in question still refuses to repent of their sin, what do you do. The next step, is one that must be addressed carefully. That is Public Announcement. Here we are told that if a person has refused the quiet and consistent exhortation of those who have spiritual oversight over a person, the next step is to make the church aware of the behavior, and that those who are able can privately approach the sinner, and attempt to draw them back to Christ. How is this to be practice? A practical approach is to call a private “members only” meeting where you share the attempts that have been made to bring restoration to the sinning member. After working through the principles of Matthew 18, it has become apparent that the one living in disobedience will not turn from their sin, and it become time to allow the body of Christ, to attempt to encourage repentance. This is not to shame the person into changing, but to again lovingly, come alongside the offender, and encourage them to understand how their sin affects their relationship with the Lord. Remember the purpose of bringing it before the church is so that it can be done in such a way that it encourages the congregation to find its role in the restoration process. Understand: love is to be the key to this process, we reach out because we are attempting to draw the sinner back into a biblical walk with the Lord. That is something that the body must always attempt to do.