Speaker 1: Hey, what up.
Speaker 1: It's Mark Carter.
Speaker 1: I'm the pastor of Fierce Church.
Speaker 1: Welcome to our podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm so pumped that you're able to join us today.
Speaker 1: I hope this encourages you, inspires you, strengthens you, gives you hope to keep pressing on, and it's my prayer that this sermon gives you a more expansive view of God's love for you.
Speaker 1: Enjoy the message.
Speaker 2: So I have an alter ego.
Speaker 2: My alter ego, robert Jr, is my younger self, and that was a time when my younger self did not always listen.
Speaker 2: So one summer I recall that we went to some festival, a party, it was fun, and there were pools that were there and my mom told me if I get in the pool, don't go to the deep end.
Speaker 2: So, robert Jr, as fate would have it, robert Jr wanted to push the envelope and he went to the deep end.
Speaker 2: And when he went to the deep end, thinking that he could swim when he really couldn't, robert Jr began to drown.
Speaker 2: He began to sink in the water and as he was sinking and he was sinking, realizing that he was in trouble, something happened.
Speaker 2: This morning we're going to talk about restoration restoring one another in love, and that's what we're going to talk about this morning and love, and that's what we're going to talk about this morning.
Speaker 2: So I started out as a young sailor.
Speaker 2: I joined the Navy some years ago and I became a hospital corpsman, and basically, what a hospital corpsman is is a hospital corpsman is a medic in the Navy.
Speaker 2: As I received a little bit more specialized training, I became a field medical service technician, which gave me the ability to operate oftentimes, or to work or function with a doctor present or without a doctor present.
Speaker 2: The whole goal of the hospital corpsman is to make sure that sailors and Marines that are under my charge or under my care can stay in the fight.
Speaker 2: That's the whole point.
Speaker 2: When something is going on and things start to go left, sometimes the corpsman waits to hear the call corpsman up.
Speaker 2: When we hear the call corpsman up, the corpsman then runs to wherever the trouble is to see what is the matter, to try to fix it.
Speaker 2: When a Marine is hurt, when a sailor's hurt, and we assess the situation based on what we have, based on what we can do, based on the skills that we've been given, and our job is to do what we have to do A to get that person back in the fight or get them out of there so that they can get some healing, or take them to the fleet hospital, which is a hospital that's set up in the middle of nowhere, kind of like the story of MASH.
Speaker 2: You're familiar with the TV show MASH.
Speaker 2: So we get them to the MASH, which is nothing more than a mobile hospital, so that they can get the treatment that they desperately need.
Speaker 2: So either they can heal and come back to the fight, or they can heal or get out of there where they can get some better treatment and they can be better than when they left.
Speaker 2: The whole goal of what we do is to actually get people better.
Speaker 2: I said all of that to say.
Speaker 2: The church is the same way.
Speaker 2: The church, we have the responsibility to make sure that our brothers and sisters, especially when they've fallen into sin, can get back in the fight.
Speaker 2: None of us are perfect and I know that we look really good sitting here on Sunday mornings, but the reality is none of us are perfect.
Speaker 2: Our text this morning?
Speaker 2: Galatians, the sixth chapter, and I'll begin reading out the first verse.
Speaker 2: It says brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you, who live by the spirit, should restore that person gently, but watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.
Speaker 2: Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
Speaker 2: If anyone thinks that they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves.
Speaker 2: So here it is.
Speaker 2: I have experienced moments of restoration even in my own life, when I was out of all of the stuff that I said.
Speaker 2: Here we find that Paul, in this chapter of Galatians the other chapters he starts out very beautifully, very poetically, and he's really writing the letter to the church in Galatia and he wants them to understand how the church ought to operate, how the church ought to treat each other.
Speaker 2: And this time, when we get to the sixth chapter, he's relating to us how we ought to treat each other, how we ought to act towards each other, because we really are a faith-based community and because we are connected not by blood but by spirit.
Speaker 2: We are, in fact, brothers and sisters, so we're all connected together some way, somehow some shape, some form.
Speaker 2: We've been adopted into the body of Christ.
Speaker 2: Paul emphasizes that living out in this faith community, especially when we need each other the most, and when we need each other the most is not when we're having our mountaintop moments, not when everything is going good in our lives.
Speaker 2: When we need each other the most is actually when we are struggling.
Speaker 2: We need each other even more when we've fallen.
Speaker 2: We need each other more when we've fallen into sin and it seems like we've dug ourselves into a hole and there's no escape, there's no way for us to get out.
Speaker 2: We need each other.
Speaker 2: We have a responsibility, and the responsibility is to make sure that we can stay in the fight.
Speaker 2: We're talking about restoration this morning.
Speaker 2: We're talking about what happens when someone falls, and what happens, what is the proper response for us?
Speaker 2: What should we be doing?
Speaker 2: Well, I'm glad you asked me, because I came to tell you this morning.
Speaker 2: We have a call to restore.
Speaker 2: We are called to restore, and here the idea of restoration is when someone has fallen into sin, those who are led by the Spirit, and I always found it ironic that Paul would be writing a letter to the church but then he had to single out the spiritual people.
Speaker 2: I'll tell you who the spiritual people are.
Speaker 2: The spiritual people are those who are led by the Spirit.
Speaker 2: They are not novice in the Spirit.
Speaker 2: They're not novice in the faith.
Speaker 2: What they actually are is those who have reached some form of maturity, understanding that they're not all that and understanding that everything they are is because of God.
Speaker 2: You who live by the Spirit in six and one and have given us the ability to restore someone gently.
Speaker 2: And when it comes to restoration, I'll tell you exactly what it means.
Speaker 2: I can give you even a personal example for myself.
Speaker 2: When I was much younger, much more viable.
Speaker 2: I fractured my ankle.
Speaker 2: I was playing football.
Speaker 2: Any other time I would have been doing something crazy.
Speaker 2: But actually I was playing football with a bunch of kids and I fractured my ankle.
Speaker 2: When I fractured my ankle I had.
Speaker 2: First I said, oh, it hurts really bad.
Speaker 2: Oh, this is very painful stuff.
Speaker 2: I'm going to manage it.
Speaker 2: I'm tough, I can make it.
Speaker 2: I thought I could do it on my own, had it all together, but eventually the pain became so much I had to eventually go to the emergency room.
Speaker 2: When I went to the emergency room, the physician that was at the emergency room diagnosed me with a fracture of my ankle.
Speaker 2: He bandaged me up as best he could, but I had to wait to get to an orthopedic surgeon that could tell me how we were going to solve this problem.
Speaker 2: When I went to the orthopedic surgeon, the orthopedic surgeon said yep, that's what we thought.
Speaker 2: You have a fractured ankle and this is what we need to do.
Speaker 2: We need to have surgery, but we cannot do it right away because the swelling is too bad.
Speaker 2: I'll tell you what.
Speaker 2: We'll work on the swelling and you come back in a week and we'll check it out and then after that we'll schedule you for surgery.
Speaker 2: When the surgery date came, the orthopedic surgeon then explained to me the process of what was going to happen.
Speaker 2: And then, after some time, under the knife, a plate, nine screws later, the orthopedic surgeon fixed my ankle.
Speaker 2: What am I saying to you?
Speaker 2: Again, I'm glad you asked me.
Speaker 2: When it comes to restoration, restoration has the idea not of just splattering paint on a wall, not of just spray painting something, covering it up, putting lipstick on it, dressing it up.
Speaker 2: Restoration is actually the process by which something is healed.
Speaker 2: It means that when someone has fallen into sin, it is our job to one diagnose the problem, even though they may have did something against you.
Speaker 2: It means that we diagnose the problem.
Speaker 2: Hey, you did whatever you did.
Speaker 2: I don't know what it is, you pick it, you can pick it.
Speaker 2: Whatever it is that you did, I didn't like it.
Speaker 2: It was sin, and what sin does is sin grieves God and sin hurts those who love you.
Speaker 2: So, whatever that may be for you, when that person has done that, you diagnose the problem.
Speaker 2: This is what you did.
Speaker 2: It hurt me, it hurt God.
Speaker 2: This is how we make it better.
Speaker 2: Yes, you don't rush right into it.
Speaker 2: The surgeon did not rush right into fixing my ankle.
Speaker 2: Rather, he had to work on it.
Speaker 2: We had to get some stuff together.
Speaker 2: We had to straighten some stuff out before I got to the operating room.
Speaker 2: That's what we have to do with each other, especially when it comes to our fall.
Speaker 2: My brothers and sisters, restoration, the act of restoration, is actually not what you think it is.
Speaker 2: It's a ministry of love, and love is the elixir that heals the human condition.
Speaker 2: And the human condition that we have is sin.
Speaker 2: It's a nasty virus that when we catch it, it gets all over us and it can infect not just us but even the people around us.
Speaker 2: That's how sin works.
Speaker 2: We have to make sure that we can take care of one another.
Speaker 2: That's why we're called to restore someone with gentleness, because it could be you.
Speaker 2: It could be you with the fractured ankle.
Speaker 2: It could be you that has offended someone.
Speaker 2: It could be you that just offended God.
Speaker 2: We're not immune to sin, even though we sit in church.
Speaker 2: Now, how do we handle it?
Speaker 2: I'm glad you asked me again.
Speaker 2: I'll tell you.
Speaker 2: Well, according to Matthew, chapter 18, what we want to do is we want to talk to the person one-on-one.
Speaker 2: Let's have a conversation.
Speaker 2: If that doesn't work, we'll come in and we'll bring some elders in.
Speaker 2: Hey, I got a problem situation here with young brother.
Speaker 2: His slip is hanging and we need some help.
Speaker 2: Can you come with me to talk to him?
Speaker 2: If that doesn't work, then we bring him before the church.
Speaker 2: What we don't want to do in the restoration process is like those who caught the woman who was caught in the very act of adultery.
Speaker 2: Now, I don't know what Jesus knelt down and wrote, but I would imagine that those who brought the woman to be condemned by Jesus, jesus saw what was happening and he turned around and started writing some stuff in the sand, and I do know that they dropped all the rocks and he asked her where are your accusers?
Speaker 2: But listen very carefully that when those who had the haughty spirit brought this woman caught in the very act of adultery to Jesus, what they did not realize is they literally threw her at the feet of grace.
Speaker 2: We want to bring grace to people, but we want to do it the right way.
Speaker 2: We want to help people, but we want to do it the right way.
Speaker 2: So here it is we're called to restore, we're called to a sense of restoration, but in all of the restoration that we do.
Speaker 2: It's important for us to remember that we have to be humble.
Speaker 2: There is a great importance in humility that, after we've restored or we're in the process of restoration, we have to do this with the spirit of humility, recognizing our very own vulnerabilities.
Speaker 2: And I know, recognizing our very own vulnerabilities.
Speaker 2: And I know, I know, just like you, I am in fact sometimes all that a bag of chips and chains.
Speaker 2: I get it, I know, I know I get it.
Speaker 2: But here I am to tell you that you ought to humble yourself.
Speaker 2: The Bible says that you ought to humble yourself, therefore, before the mighty hand of God, and in due time he will exalt you.
Speaker 2: In other words, you're not all of that.
Speaker 2: You're not all that you think you are.
Speaker 2: You're not all that you think you have.
Speaker 2: What humility is?
Speaker 2: Humility does not take the place of being smart.
Speaker 2: If you're smart, be smart.
Speaker 2: If you have wealth, be smart.
Speaker 2: If you have wealth, be wealthy.
Speaker 2: If you have the pedigree and the pedagogy, if you have all of these wonderful things, have that.
Speaker 2: But humility is recognizing that you have everything that you have, not because of you, but because of him, capital H.
Speaker 2: When we restore each other, we have to be careful and mind ourselves that we could also be tempted.
Speaker 2: Restoration requires a heavy sense of self-awareness and there have been times even when I thought my wife might agree.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 2: There are times when I do think to myself perhaps I know a lot and I will say things or act a certain way, but my wife sometimes has to remind me that I have to bring it down a peg or two.
Speaker 2: I might be out there, you know she'll remind me.
Speaker 2: She'll remind me she's really good at it.
Speaker 2: That's what I can say.
Speaker 2: She's really good at it, she does a good job.
Speaker 2: You know I don't want to take anything from her, but here it is, in Philippians the second chapter, if you follow the Bible and if you believe the word of God, philippians the second chapter, starting at the third verse, lets us know that with humility, we ought to value others higher than we value ourselves.
Speaker 2: It is very difficult to help somebody when you're already perfect.
Speaker 2: It is very difficult to bring somebody in when you already know everybody.
Speaker 2: Nobody wants to, especially when someone has fallen.
Speaker 2: The last thing they need is a sermon from you.
Speaker 2: When someone has fallen, the last thing they need is to be talked down to in a condescending tone because they probably chances are.
Speaker 2: Human psychology speaks when someone has made a mistake, they already know.
Speaker 2: They don't need you to remind them, even though it is fun.
Speaker 2: I agree, and there have been times when my wife, whom I love and adore, has said a phrase that is not all that humble.
Speaker 2: She says I told you so and I was like whoa, whoa, whoa.
Speaker 2: That hurt, that hurt.
Speaker 2: I know I messed up.
Speaker 2: I realized that I did mess up.
Speaker 2: You're right, I should have known better, I should have done better.
Speaker 2: But here we are and this is where we are.
Speaker 2: What humility does for us is humility provides us with a sense of comfort and community Humility does not condemn.
Speaker 2: It is literally a process of reconciliation.
Speaker 2: That means you have to work out the differences because, even though you have offended me, my job is to love you through it.
Speaker 2: Even though you've hurt my feelings, my job is to love you through it.
Speaker 2: Even though you have done the most unlikely of things, my job is to love you through it.
Speaker 2: Through it, not only that, but I'm reminded very carefully that it may not have been just you.
Speaker 2: The things that we are subject to are not just for one person.
Speaker 2: The things that we are subject to is really everybody, because it starts out and I really like it in the King James version of the Bible where it says that word if Brethren, if a man is overtaken, and that if is not a chance or is not happenstance, it's really when.
Speaker 2: And so, when you're thinking in terms of humility, it's not really a question of whether you will sin, but when it's inevitable, it's in us.
Speaker 2: We were born in sin.
Speaker 2: We were born to do things that God didn't particularly like, which is why he had to send his son, jesus, to help us, because we could not help ourselves.
Speaker 2: Here it is.
Speaker 2: I want you to think about, or even consider, your own weakness.
Speaker 2: I can give you an Excel spreadsheet on my own hellishness.
Speaker 2: I've crunched the numbers, I've did the data.
Speaker 2: I know exactly what I'm capable of and I know that some people there are some monochromatic sayings that we have I would never do that, but I want you to know never is a very long time, provided the right light, provided the right circumstance.
Speaker 2: The reality is, if we're honest with ourselves, we don't know what we might do.
Speaker 2: Okay, I'll help you further.
Speaker 2: Tall dark might not bother you.
Speaker 2: A lottery ticket might not bother you.
Speaker 2: Goose the gray one might not bother you, the goose the gray one might not bother you, you might not like it, like I like it, but whatever it is, you like it.
Speaker 2: Can we be honest?
Speaker 2: We're all prone to sin, we all have proclivities, from the pulpit all the way to the parking lot.
Speaker 2: We have to, in humility, help those in this world who've fallen and think that they have no escape, those who have faltered, those who have fallen and think that there's no possible hope for them, because if there's hope for me, if there's hope for you, then surely there's some hope for them, right?
Speaker 2: Well, we talked about the restoration, the call to restoration, and then there's humility.
Speaker 2: We're still talking about restoration, restoring somebody in love, but we cannot forget that we are called to bear one another's burdens.
Speaker 2: This one is important.
Speaker 2: This is a big one, because burden sharing is not always as comfortable as it sounds.
Speaker 2: It's very easy on paper, but it's a very difficult concept.
Speaker 2: In fact, we're called to carry each other's burdens as a fulfillment of Christ's law.
Speaker 2: Here it is examples of burden bearing.
Speaker 2: I want to give it to you.
Speaker 2: Somebody, at the basic form, someone, has a heavy load and you jump in and you help them carry that load.
Speaker 2: When somebody's heart is broken or somebody's heart has been broken, your job in carrying the load is to talk to that person to see if there's anything that you could do to not take the pain away but ease the pain, because there are some times when pain is necessary in our lives.
Speaker 2: Someone is grieved.
Speaker 2: Our job as believers is to comfort that person.
Speaker 2: We can't take away the pain or the loss, but we can be present and we don't even have to use a whole lot of words.
Speaker 2: Sometimes you just simply need to be there.
Speaker 2: And when someone has fallen into sin and their heart is grieved and their heart is broken and they know that they've done something against God, do we beat them up?
Speaker 2: The answer is no.
Speaker 2: Our job is to find out what happened, how we can fix it, what path we can put them on.
Speaker 2: When we're restoring them and we're trying to get them to go down this path, what can we do?
Speaker 2: We have to carry this person.
Speaker 2: It's really the only way we have to share that burden.
Speaker 2: And in ancient culture, what burden sharing really was was if I had a lot of land and I couldn't work all the land, you'd come in there and you'd help me out.
Speaker 2: If I had a whole bunch of children I couldn't take care of, you'd come in there and you'd help me out.
Speaker 2: You'd provide me with some food.
Speaker 2: If I found myself not being able to take care of my family, the community would come together, help me out.
Speaker 2: So if we could do it for those things, can't we do it for somebody who's fallen?
Speaker 2: That we come together, that we come together and see what we can do to help this person, this brother, this sister that has fallen.
Speaker 2: What is it that we can do?
Speaker 2: What is it that you need?
Speaker 2: How can we get you on the right course?
Speaker 2: Can we pray for you?
Speaker 2: Can we give you some scripture, which is really the medicine that you need?
Speaker 2: How can we get you on the right course?
Speaker 2: Can we pray for you?
Speaker 2: Can we give you some scripture, which is really the medicine that we need?
Speaker 2: Can we talk to you?
Speaker 2: Can we be available for you?
Speaker 2: Can I make myself open?
Speaker 2: Can I bring you to my house?
Speaker 2: Can I give you some food?
Speaker 2: Can we have some conversation?
Speaker 2: Because I need to let you know that I'm not perfect either.
Speaker 2: I need to let you know that I've been through some stuff too.
Speaker 2: I need to let you know that there are some times when I've fallen into this hole of sin, but I had someone to help me up, just like you.
Speaker 2: Just like you, just like me, there was someone who helped me up.
Speaker 2: You know, I started out early.
Speaker 2: I was telling you about the story.
Speaker 2: I want to finish it now because I know you've probably been wondering what happened.
Speaker 2: So I was drowning in this pool after my mama told me not to go to the deep end, but I thought I could swim and all that.
Speaker 2: I was drowning.
Speaker 2: I was struggling in the water.
Speaker 2: I have no idea how long I was in the water.
Speaker 2: I have no idea how long I was struggling, but would you believe me when I tell you Somebody reached down in that water when they saw me struggling?
Speaker 2: I have no idea, even to this day, who it was that grabbed me and pulled me out of the water.
Speaker 2: And I'm here today to tell you that there is somebody right now who has the ability to reach down and pull you out of the water.
Speaker 2: There's an old song of the church entitled Love Lifted Me, and it goes like this I was sinking deep in sin sin, very far from a peaceful shore, very deeply stained within.
Speaker 2: I was sinking to rise, no more.
Speaker 2: But the master of the sea heard my despairing cry From the waters.
Speaker 2: Lifted me Now safe am I?
Speaker 2: The waters?
Speaker 2: Lifted me Now safe am I?
Speaker 2: Love lifted me.
Speaker 2: It was love that lifted me.
Speaker 2: It was love that lifted you and it is this love that we've been given that we ought to use in this sin, sick world to lift others.
Speaker 2: We're called to restoration.
Speaker 2: It's our job to see someone who's fallen, pick them up and then don't forget yourself, because you're not really all that you need to act in humility and then, when we have all of that, we can carry one another's burdens, fulfill the law of Christ, which is his love.
Speaker 2: Can I pray with you, Eternal God, our Father, lord, we thank you and we praise you.
Speaker 2: God, you've been so good to each and every one of us.
Speaker 2: We thank you that we can sit in this place of worship this morning as brothers and sisters who have been adopted into the body of Christ.
Speaker 2: We understand that it is not because we're so good and so mighty, and we understand that it is not because we've been so good, but we understand that it's because you have brought us to this place.
Speaker 2: You are our everything.
Speaker 2: You are the source of all of our resources.
Speaker 2: Father, I ask you now that you allow us to go out into this sin sick world when we leave this place with the ability to restore those who are down.
Speaker 2: Father, I ask you now that we remember our own proclivities while we are doing this, allow us to be humble.
Speaker 2: While we're in the process of restoration, father, help us to remember the great love that Christ has for us, because your word said that while we were yet sinners, you sent your son to die for us.
Speaker 2: Thank you, god, for being a burden bearer.
Speaker 2: Thank you, god for being a heavy load sharer.
Speaker 2: Thank you, god for being the source of all of our resources.
Speaker 2: We ask you now that if there's someone in this place or online that does not know you in the pardon of their sin, but wants to know about this power of restoration that you have, you allow them to hear your still small voice.
Speaker 2: Thank you, god for your son, jesus, who hung, bled and died on Calvary's cross.
Speaker 2: Thank you, father, for his shed blood, for without the shedding of blood there can be no remission of sin.
Speaker 2: There is no forgiveness of sin without the blood that he spilled.
Speaker 2: We're careful to give you thanks and praise in this place.
Speaker 2: We ask you to continue to bless us, your children.
Speaker 2: We need you during this time, we need you during this season, and we'll be careful to give you praise, thanks for all that you do out of a grateful heart.
Speaker 2: It is in your son, jesus' name that we do pray.
Speaker 2: Let us all say together amen.
Speaker 1: Hey, thank you so much for joining us today.
Speaker 1: If you don't have a home church and you're looking for a Bible preaching community that has its heart set on passionately knowing Jesus and being his witness in our generation, check out FierceChurch.
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