Scripture: Galatians 5:26-6:10
Sermon Series: Galatians – Set Free, Live Free – Sermon 16

John Wesley, founder of the Methodist Church had “Rules of Life”:

Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.

That’s an expansion of Paul’s words in Galatians 6:2, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” Even if it’s on the 69^th Floor.

John Abruzzo survived 911 because his friends took that verse literally. At 8:45 a.m. on September 11^th, John was working on the 69^th Floor of the south tower of the World Trade Center. That’s when the first hijacked plane hit the north tower. Seeing the flames and debris filling the sky, everyone scrambled to evacuate the building. Everyone…except John Abruzzo. A quadriplegic since a diving accident 17 years earlier, there was no way he could make it down 69 flights of stairs by himself.

Eight men and one woman stayed behind to help him. Easing his 6’ 4”, 250-pound frame onto sleigh-like device that itself weighed 150 pounds, they began to take him to safety. It wasn’t easy. After they’d descended a few stories, the south tower shuddered when the second plane hit it. Soon the stairwell was filled with hot smoke and panicked workers racing to escape the doomed building. When they got to the 20^th floor, after an hour, they heard a roar outside. It was the sound of the north tower collapsing. The lights in the stairwell went out. When they reached the lobby, it looked like a deserted war zone: broken windows, smoke, debris, doors on hinges, furniture overturned, and no one in sight. As they exited the building, a fireman urged them to run for their lives. Ten minutes after they escaped the south tower, it too collapsed. John Abruzzo only survived because his friends carried him to safety.

These 11 verses we’re studying today are about true Christianity. True Christianity is seen in love, love in community. Spirituality is not isolating oneself but offering yourself to love and serve others. It’s loving others like Jesus loved us. It happens in community. It’s The Church’s EMT Plan.

What most people outside the church don’t understand and many of us inside don’t understand is that church life is messy. The reason it’s messy it’s that it always involves people, first our brothers and sisters in Christ. We’re the mess and the mess makers. Dealing with this mess we call the church requires knowing and committing to work through the messes that we make ourselves.

Love each other is found a dozen times in the New Testament. Matthew 22:37-39 says, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Biblical Christianity is not about me, or us, or me and my family. It’s about love toward my spiritual family, brothers and sisters in Christ that on your own you wouldn’t hang with. Because of Jesus, we’re spiritually related, we’re blood bought by the Savior and we’re family forever.  

Chapter and verse divisions weren’t in the original autographs. Galatians 6 is a continuation of 5. It reminds us that we’re responsible for each other.

We are to humbly rescue captive spiritual family members, 5:26-6:1. 

The greatest danger a Christ-follower faces isn’t disease or an accident. It’s sin. Sin is deadly for our souls and community. So, on your notes, jot down what you think are some big sins, sins that do the most damage. Got it!

Galatians 5:26-6:1: “Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.” Most wouldn’t write down conceited and envy. We think of sexual sins, stealing, or lying. Do a study of Satan and you’ll find his pride and jealousy provoked him to rebel against God.

Why are pride or jealousy so harmful to the church? They cause us to provoke each other. They cause division, arguments or fights. It’s why we stay away from certain people. They’re just not our kind of people, even though we’re going to spend eternity with them.

We all struggle with pride. But as Christ-followers, what do we have to be proud of? Without Jesus, we’re ugly from the inside out. What should characterize every believer is lots of humility.

Let me touch on some symptoms of pride: a critical spirit, harshness, superficiality, defensiveness, desperation for attention, snubbing others.

While pride is divisive in the church, it’s spiritually deadly for those who don’t know Christ. Pride is the sin most likely to keep you from crying out for a Savior. Those who think they’re well don’t look for a doctor. Maybe you’re sitting here today, you haven’t come to Jesus because you either don’t think you need Him, or you won’t humble yourself and admit you’re a sinful mess?

What about jealousy? What are some symptoms? Comparison, criticizing, complaining, or ingratitude. A jealous person sees the world through the lens of competition. Galatians 5:19-21 warns that envy can keep you out of heaven.

While all sin is detestable to God, certain sins are especially hurtful to the fellowship of the church. They must be dealt with, or they’ll divide the church. So, unrepented sin can’t be ignored. Like cancer, it damages the church.

I love how Paul instructs us to deal with it. It’s not a Simon Cowell  approach where you humiliate someone. The Message renders this: “If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day’s out.” So, what are other spiritual family members to do? Paul gives us four answers.

We must realize they are trapped by sin.The word caught was used for an animal caught in a trap. It describes a believer who’s been suddenly overcome by a temptation that came upon them unawares. It’s Peter who; after boasting he’d never desert the Lord, denied him three times. It’s a believer whose caught in a trap of some sin. The individual is trapped with no hope of escape.

We must realize they need the help of those who are spiritually mature.The phrase you who are spiritual describes those walking in the Spirit, filled with the Spirit, producing the fruit of the Spirit, and keeping in step with the Spirit. It’s not some class of super-spiritual. In fact, truly spiritual Christians would never use that term to describe themselves. The evidence of their spiritual maturity is that they’re alarmed at what sin has done to a brother or sister in Christ. Instead of walking on by, they stop to help. They don’t ignore it or gossip about it. They’re part of the healing process. It always begins first by praying for the hurting person and asking God for wisdom.

We must restore them gently.The word restore was used for setting a broken bone or mending a fishing net. If you’ve had a broken bone, you know how painful it is. If the doctor is rough, he can make the pain worse. Spiritual restoration must be done gently. When a fellow believer is down and hurt by sin, you go to his aid and do what you can to help them repent and recover.

We must approach them carefully.We must be careful, or we might fall into the same hole. Satan is tricky. He knows that if he can get one Christian trapped in sin, he may soon get another and then another. It’s why doctors wash their hands so often. Not only must they avoid giving germs to their patients, but they must also guard against receiving germs from their patients.

While Paul mentions pride and envy, he doesn’t specify that those are the only sins involved in restoration. This is a loving willingness to get involved with others and having an attitude that promotes restoration. Every believer is to care enough to get involved and act in a compassionate, gentle way.

Alcoholics Anonymous sets a powerful example of how to restore someone gently.  A.A. is a group of ordinary sinners who know what it’s like to be restored themselves. They’re gentle with those in the process of being rescued from addiction. They know the temptation; they know their own weakness and are willing to admit that they themselves are fully capable of falling again. The church of Jesus Christ needs to be more like A.A. than we often are.

2. We are to help carry the burdens of our spiritual family, 6:2-5. 

Burdens are part of our human condition. John Piper said, “a burden is anything that threatens to crush the joy of our faith –whether a tragedy that threatens to make us doubt God’s goodness or a sin that threatens to drag us into guilt and judgment.” So, Paul writes: “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load (Galatians 6:2-5).

Every Christ-follower has burdens.They may differ in size and shape and will vary in kind, but we all have them. The burden in verse 5 refers to an overwhelming load, an impossibly huge boulder weighing you down as you stagger along the highway of life. It may represent any number of things: sickness, sudden calamity, loss, loneliness, financial issues, broken dreams, a failed marriage, family problems, career setbacks, the death of a loved one.

It’s significant that Paul doesn’t focus on what the burden is. What matters is our response. that when we see a brother or sister staggering under a heavy load, we drop what you’re doing and help them carry that load. Instead of judging them, we help by doing whatever we can to assist them.  

Self-sufficiency is a myth.God doesn’t intend for us to carry our burdens by ourselves in isolation from our brothers and sisters. Stoicism taught that the goal of a happy life was self-sufficiency, the ability to brave the harshness of life without help or dependence on others.

There’s a sense in which God carries our burdens for us. Our biggest burden is the infinite burden of our sin and guilt. It’s a burden no one else can help us with. Only God could bear it. He did that when Jesus carried His cross to Calvary and died for our sins. Because Jesus carried our greatest burden…

We are to be Jesus.In every situation, do what Jesus would do, and so fulfill the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2b). What’s the “law of Christ?” It probably refers to Jesus’ call to love God supremely and to love our neighbor as ourselves. As you walk through life, and come upon those suffering from various troubles, ask yourself this question: What would Jesus do? Almost every time, the answer will be, “Jesus would make a difference in this situation.” He would be there, He’d care, He’d minister in love and grace.

It helps to imagine yourself as the one under a heavy load. What would you want a friend to do for you? As we do unto others, we do the work of Jesus. 

Paul then mentions a danger we must consider. When you see your brother or sister suffering, don’t be too proud to get involved. We’re often quick to judge and condemn. If you think you’re something special, it’s easy to condemn. But if you realize that you’re a nobody apart from the grace of God, you’ll be quick to show grace and help the hurting. When we’re more conscious of our own sin, we’re more forgiving of the failures of others.

Each of us has responsibility.We must carry our own load. Burdens of verse 2 refers to an overwhelming burden we can’t carry by ourselves. “Load” in verse 5 describes a soldier’s backpack. It’s something small, relatively light each person can carry. It’s the difference between a backpack and a boulder. One reason the backpack is light is so that as we travel, we have the strength to stop and help those around us struggling under enormous loads.

If your burden seems light, it’s not because God intends for you to go skipping and singing all the way to heaven. Open your eyes. Look around you. Find someone who needs the help that only you can give and then lend a hand.

It’s “I can’t do everything, but I can do something.” God doesn’t call us to “do it all,” but there’s something each one of us can do. Will you do it?

3. We are to share with the sharers, 6:6. 

Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches (Galatians 6:6). The thought here isn’t a payment. It’s a fellowship activity. A pastor and his church do life together. This is a general statement of responsibility with a wide application.

All of us receive instruction in the word from a variety of sources. It may be from a pastor or children’s ministry leader, a small group leader or a mentor. Often we receive great help from radio and TV Bible teachers. Many of us are instructed in the Word by the books we read and music we listen to. The list also includes Christian camps, colleges, and seminaries. The point is not where you receive the instruction but how you respond to it. If we want to reap a harvest of blessing, we must share all good things with those who instruct us in the things of the Lord. We owe a debt of love and gratitude. Often we can show our support in practical ways, such as through a financial gift.

If you’ve received a benefit, let that teacher know. Tell them. Don’t wait. Do it. Paul says we “must” do this. It’s a sacred obligation. If you’re blessed by some ministry or if you’ve been helped, don’t just be a taker. Be a giver, too. Loosen your purse strings and give them some support. You’ll be greatly blessed by God, and those ministers and ministries will be enriched.

Recently, my friend, Pastor Dan Nelson, spoke at our men’s steak-out. Dan is planting a church in Union Grove, so we asked our guys to give toward a Love Offering for Dan. We always give an honorarium to our speakers. Did you know that our men gave almost $400 to Dan that night? That’s on top of our $200 honorarium. It’s what this verse is talking about.

4. We must be aware of the laws of the harvest, 6:7-8. 

Have you seen that meme, Think like a farmer. They’re several statements that are about more than farmers: “Don’t blame the crops for not growing fast enough.” It ends with “Remember you will have good seasons and bad seasons – you can’t control the weather.”

Paul circles back to his agricultural analogy about the “fruit of the Spirit. “Think like a farmer” is wise counsel for Christ-followers. “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Galatians 6:7-10).

Sowing and reaping are mentioned three times. The harvest reaped has a direct relationship with seed sown. We tend to apply this negatively and only to the moral realm. That’s true but Paul’s specific applications don’t deal with sinful behavior but with giving and serving. He unpacks several principles.

The Principle of Investment: You reap only if you sow. You’ll never see a farmer taking his combine out to harvest seed he never planted. One practical illustration of this is in regard to friendships. Everyone wants friends, but not everyone has friends. Think of someone you know who has a lot of friends. What sticks out? He or she is friendly, generous, and listens well.  The harvest of friends is not an accident; it happens because an investment has been made in other people.  

The Principle of Identity: You reap only what you sow.What’s harvested is what was planted. Verse 8 pictures the Christian life as a country estate with two fields in which seed may be planted. The one field is the field of the sin nature with which we were born. The seeds are largely thoughts and deeds which conform to the works of the sinful nature.  To sow to the sinful nature is to pander and excuse it, instead of crucifying it. Every time we allow our hearts to be bitter, entertain a lustful fantasy, or wallow in self-pity, we’re sowing in the field of our sinful nature. What’s the inevitable harvest? Corruption. The word refers to moral decay. Like Gangrene it will spread to more and more areas of our lives. Sin results in moral gangrene. Broken relationships, broken minds, broken emotions and broken dreams.  

Thankfully, the field of the sinful nature isn’t the only field where we can sow. We can also plant in the field of the Holy Spirit. Sowing there is setting your mind on the things of the Spirit. The seeds we sow are thoughts and deeds. It’s the company we keep, leisure activities we pursue, worship habits we develop, and the diligence in pursuing our career “as unto the Lord.” 

Paul says we’ll reap eternal life. Here he’s using eternal life to describe the quality of life that results from sowing to the Spirit. It’s a life that appreciates the eternal as opposed to the temporal, the important as opposed to the trivial, the spiritual rather than just the material. When we sow to the Spirit, we begin a process of spiritual growth which pays eternal dividends.

The Principle of Increase: You reap more than you sow. What farmer would plant a sack of grain to harvest a sack of grain? The spiritual harvest also multiplies. This is a wonderful thing when we’re sowing to the Spirit.  

Consider the sowing to the Spirit that’s represented in regular Bible study and prayer. You reap the harvest of a closer walk with God along with peace and contentment. What about the sowing that’s done when we invest quality and quantity time with our spouse and children? Or the sowing done when we share our faith? The Principle of Increase is wonderful when we’re sowing to the Spirit but tragic when we sow to the sinful nature. Hosea 8:7 warns, for they sow the wind, and they reap the whirlwind.

Ernest Hemingway was famous for thumbing his nose at morality and at God, declaring that his life proved a person could do anything he wanted without paying any consequences. He considered the Bible outdated, useless to modern man and a hindrance to his pleasure and self-fulfillment. Hemingway’s life proved the folly of mocking God. His godless, debauched life led to complete despair, and ultimately he committed suicide.

The Principle of Interval: You reap only after you sow.And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up (Galatians 6:9). No matter what the farmer plants, the crop must have time to grow and ripen. The outcome of our investment in the Spirit is rarely immediately known. Sometimes the harvest comes weeks or even years later. Sometimes it’ll be apparent only in eternity. When we’ve sown in the Spirit we must have patience to wait for the harvest.  

A troubled marriage won’t be turned around overnight. A lifetime of bad habits cannot be reversed in a week. But we can start sowing to the Spirit now and eventually reap a harvest if we don’t give up.  If we don’t start now, it will be that much longer before the harvest will be realized.

The principle of interval is also a factor when we sow to our sin nature. That causes some to be careless, believing somehow they’ll escape the harvest. They won’t. There will be a payday someday. While God can and does forgive us of sins, consequences still follow.

Please notice the little phrase, as we have opportunity in verse 10. There’s a certain time of the year when a farmer can plant his crops. If he misses it, the opportunity is gone. That’s true in our Christian walk. We must be ready while the opportunity appears. If we let it pass, God may give the opportunity to someone else, and to that person will go the harvest as well.  

The Principle of Intervention: You can be forgiven and restored.While you can do nothing about last year’s harvest, you can affect the ones to come. If you’ve failed to live for the Lord, it’s not too late to start today. Yes, you may have wasted some good years, but God speaks in the book of Joel about restoring the years the locusts have eaten. 

Good seeds planted today may sprout and produce a harvest even after you’re gone. And we can do something about last year’s sowing and harvest. We can confess our failure and accept God’s forgiveness. Sin is never acceptable to God. Someone has to pay. But instead of you having to pay, God’s Son, Jesus stepped forward and said, “I’ll pay.” He died in your place and satisfied God’s wrath toward sin. While sin is never acceptable to God, repentant sinners are. 

Jesus said to a woman caught in the very act of adultery, “Go now and leave your life of sin.”  Tainted people can come to God by faith and receive, in effect, a transfusion of Christ’s blood.  God declares all those who receive Jesus and trust in Him, “not guilty.”

The Principle of the Immediate: You start with the needs closest to you.Paul’s last instruction is that we’re under a special obligation to show kindness to fellow believers. Because our faith joins us with Christians everywhere, we have a sacred responsibility to do good to Christians everywhere. That applies first to our church family. It reaches out to include other Bible-believing churches and believers in our community, Christian ministries of all kinds, and missionaries in distant lands. It’s having a godly concern for believers in your family, in our church, in your neighborhood, where you work or go to school.

In other words, if we want to sow good seed, start with the needs around you! Then open your eyes to wider horizons. Pray for open doors. Ask God to give you more so you can do more for Him. Open your eyes and you’ll see needs all around. You can’t meet them all, but you can do something.

Conclusion

God has called us to be in the rescue business. We’re His EMTs. Christ-followers can minister in two effective ways. One is by bearing burdens and the other is by sharing blessings. Are you a burden bearer? Do you share your blessings with others?

Do you ever get discouraged in serving the Lord, reaching out to people, praying for lost loved ones and friends to come to Christ. I know I do.

I was praying the other day for some friends that I’ve been reaching out to for years and I wonder if they’re any closer to Jesus than they were when we first became friends. Many of us need a dose of: And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

When do you think it’s too late for someone to turn to Christ? As I was preparing this sermon I read about the conversion of a man named Luke Short.   He was 103 years old when he started thinking about all the things he’d heard and seen through all his years. Suddenly, he remembered a sermon from John Flavel he’d heard 85 years before. He remembered it in detail and as he thought about it, it dawned on him that he was nearing death and judgment. As a result, he prayed to God for mercy and salvation in Christ. Amazingly, at 103 years old, Luke Short  became a Christian. He reportedly went on to live for three more years and, during those years, he shared the gospel with whomever he could. This inscription was put on his tombstone: Here lies a babe in grace, aged three years, who died according to nature, aged, 106.

Don’t miss the remarkable part of the story. The sermon that Luke Short remembered had been preached by John Flavel back in England 85 years before. When Short was 15 years old, somehow he found himself in a church listening to the famous Puritan preacher named John Flavel. Flavel was preaching on 1 Corinthians 16:22, If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed.  Our Lord, come! Flavel clearly and faithfully preached the gospel from this text. Luke Short heard the sermon, it went into his ears, but sadly it didn’t reach his heart. He remained an unbeliever. 

Sometime after this, he left England and migrated to America and ended up living a long life. Nearly a century had passed between the sermon and Luke Short coming to Christ between the sowing of the reaping. We reap what we sow and in God’s timing, John Flavel reaped his harvest.

It’s a reminder to each of us not to evaluate serving the Lord and ministry on the basis of immediate results. Most spiritual produce takes time to grow. And the harvest isn’t over even when we leave this life. God is still working and taking what we have sown for Him even when we’re already Home, just as He did with John Flavel’s sermon.

One last thing, if you haven’t yet committed your life to Christ, please don’t hold out like Luke Short. God gave him 85 years. God may not give you 85 minutes. If you don’t know Jesus, please come to Him today!