WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.899 Hello, today's scripture is from Galatians. 00:00:03.899 --> 00:00:12.820 Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who lived by the Spirit should restore that person gently. 00:00:12.820 --> 00:00:17.620 But watch yourselves, or you may be tempted. 00:00:17.620 --> 00:00:22.719 Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. 00:00:22.719 --> 00:00:27.539 If anyone thinks there are some sins when they are not, they deceive themselves. 00:00:27.539 --> 00:00:38.960 Each one should test their own actions, then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, for each one should carry their own load. 00:00:38.960 --> 00:00:40.640 This is the word of God. 00:00:40.640 --> 00:00:42.640 Praise be to God. 00:00:42.640 --> 00:01:05.340 Alright, thank you Charlie for reading the word for us here this morning. 00:01:05.340 --> 00:01:07.140 Just make sure this doesn't fall. 00:01:07.140 --> 00:01:09.859 Church, may the peace of the Lord be with you. 00:01:09.859 --> 00:01:11.859 If you're new, please come. 00:01:11.859 --> 00:01:15.099 If you're a new guest this morning, welcome to our service here at Crucible. 00:01:15.099 --> 00:01:19.060 I'm glad that you have chosen to come here and worship with us. 00:01:19.060 --> 00:01:25.859 If you would like to connect over coffee or meal with me and my family, we would love to do that with you. 00:01:25.859 --> 00:01:27.299 Please fill out a connect form at the table. 00:01:27.299 --> 00:01:41.780 There's an iPad there that will allow me to receive the information, an email, or a phone number that will allow me to connect and reach out to you to find a time for us to get together. 00:01:41.780 --> 00:01:51.579 So now, this morning we are, over the last couple of weeks actually, we have been on a sermon series on community that we started almost a month ago now. 00:01:51.579 --> 00:01:59.459 This morning we're looking at a letter that the apostle Paul wrote to a network of churches in this Galatian region. 00:01:59.459 --> 00:02:08.819 The Galatian region is, if you wanted to know where the country is, is modern day Turkey, and Paul wrote to a group of churches in that place. 00:02:08.819 --> 00:02:14.219 The letter of Galatians is one of Paul's most urgent and combative letters. 00:02:14.219 --> 00:02:25.539 The reason for this urgency and combativeness in his tone is that there was a crisis at the church that needed to be addressed quickly. 00:02:25.539 --> 00:02:27.259 So what was their context? 00:02:27.259 --> 00:02:28.860 What was the crisis? 00:02:28.860 --> 00:02:33.300 And what was the issue that these Galatian Christians had to deal with? 00:02:33.300 --> 00:02:49.620 Well they had to deal with a group of false teachers in the church that were misleading the community by insisting that new Christ followers had to be circumcised and keep the law to be fully justified by God. 00:02:49.620 --> 00:02:55.259 In other words, these false teachers were teaching that you had to add to your faith in Jesus. 00:02:55.259 --> 00:03:06.280 That being made right with God was not just by faith alone, in Christ alone, or by grace alone, but that you had to do extra work in that process. 00:03:06.280 --> 00:03:13.740 For these Christ followers at this time, at this context, it meant that they had to keep the law. 00:03:13.740 --> 00:03:16.680 But these false teachers, however, missed the point of the law. 00:03:16.680 --> 00:03:32.740 The law in the Old Testament was there to provide God's people with the reality and the truth that they could not keep it, and in exposing that reality and truth, the law was meant to reveal that their heart was sinful and rebellious. 00:03:32.740 --> 00:03:43.180 If to our heart's own devices, our hearts would never choose to follow God on its own, apart from the grace of God. 00:03:43.180 --> 00:03:46.400 Now the evidence in our world is this. 00:03:46.400 --> 00:03:49.000 It's in our own experiences and it's in our own lives. 00:03:49.000 --> 00:04:03.259 We struggle often to obey what God has set out for us in our lives, and we see evidence of this in Scripture from the very beginning with the characters of Adam and Eve, and all the way to the disciples of Jesus. 00:04:03.259 --> 00:04:26.459 You see, church, the story of Scripture is both the story of God, His love for fallen, broken, and sinful humanity, of mankind's rebellion and sin, and what God is going to do, or what He has done to redeem people, reconcile and restore them and their relationship to Him. 00:04:26.459 --> 00:04:33.480 Now these false teachers in these Galatian churches were not flat out denying Christ. 00:04:33.480 --> 00:04:35.420 They were adding to Him, right? 00:04:35.420 --> 00:04:38.339 So this is where it gets a little confusing. 00:04:38.339 --> 00:04:53.860 If you saw somebody who preached, you know, kind of an anti-gospel, don't follow Jesus, don't believe in His resurrection, these would be clear-cut examples of like, whoa, okay, that's totally false, it's totally wrong. 00:04:53.860 --> 00:05:12.019 But when you have a teaching that doesn't flat out deny or reject Christ, but adds some other kind of teachings from other religions, other ideas, then it becomes a syncretistic kind of faith, and those are the most difficult to root out and expose. 00:05:12.019 --> 00:05:21.540 But these Galatian false teachers were saying it's not just in faith or by faith, by grace alone in Jesus. 00:05:21.540 --> 00:05:25.819 See, the good news of the gospel is that we do not have to earn our way to God. 00:05:25.819 --> 00:05:29.180 That is the good news. 00:05:29.180 --> 00:05:34.360 That in Christ, God has provided a way for us to be with Him. 00:05:34.360 --> 00:05:45.259 In Christ, our sins, the very thing that separates us from God, is restored, and we have now been made new through His Son. 00:05:45.259 --> 00:05:56.579 In our posture, in our perspective, and in our outlook in life, as well as our hearts and lives, everything about us has been made new through Jesus. 00:05:56.579 --> 00:06:03.579 Now, the gospel of these false teachers was a faith by grace and work your way to God kind of gospel. 00:06:03.579 --> 00:06:09.860 Paul was shocked at how quickly these Christians in Galatia believed their message, right? 00:06:09.860 --> 00:06:18.800 In Galatians 1-6, he's like, I'm surprised just how quickly you've fallen away from the gospel, which is actually no gospel at all. 00:06:18.800 --> 00:06:34.139 Because if you've ever tried to work your way to God, if you've ever tried to earn God's favor, you'll know just how exhausting and how tiring it is because it feels like it never ends. 00:06:34.139 --> 00:06:39.759 And this was the situation and the context of what was happening in Galatians. 00:06:39.759 --> 00:06:48.459 So in our passage here that was read by Charlie here in Galatians 6, Paul focuses on the practical aspects of our faith in Christ. 00:06:48.459 --> 00:06:51.139 Allow me to ask this question for us here this morning. 00:06:51.139 --> 00:06:59.939 When was the last time someone in our community, in our church here, knew what you were carrying in your lives? 00:06:59.939 --> 00:07:04.100 Who in our community knows the weight and the burden of your heart? 00:07:04.100 --> 00:07:10.839 Now, I think there are several reasons for why we tend to carry our burdens by ourselves. 00:07:10.839 --> 00:07:19.420 One of the reasons is shame or the idea that we should be able to handle and carry these things in our lives on our own. 00:07:19.420 --> 00:07:33.939 Maybe we are afraid of burdening others, not wanting to disturb them with our problems, the thinking that other people have their own issues to deal with, so why should I bother them with mine? 00:07:33.939 --> 00:07:41.839 But church, there is a cost to carrying the weight of life and the burdens of our hearts alone. 00:07:41.839 --> 00:07:48.300 What often begins as manageable over time becomes too much to bear on our own. 00:07:48.300 --> 00:07:55.019 Trying to carry a weight that we were never designed to carry alone comes at a cost. 00:07:55.019 --> 00:07:58.100 And the reality is that in most church communities, people often say what? 00:07:58.100 --> 00:08:00.899 When they ask you, "Hey, how are you doing?" How do they respond? 00:08:00.899 --> 00:08:04.860 "Hey, I'm good. 00:08:04.860 --> 00:08:08.300 I'm fine." Right? 00:08:08.300 --> 00:08:20.220 Trying to display, portray that life and everything in their lives is okay, when in reality things are not okay. 00:08:20.220 --> 00:08:25.420 And that posture and that pretense is killing us, church. 00:08:25.420 --> 00:08:30.500 It is eating every one of us up internally. 00:08:30.500 --> 00:08:40.740 You see, we live in a time when carrying things on our own, being able to handle everything by ourselves is seen as something to be proud of. 00:08:40.740 --> 00:08:44.220 Like it's a good thing that we don't need anyone else. 00:08:44.220 --> 00:08:47.259 It's a good thing that we don't have to ask for help. 00:08:47.259 --> 00:08:49.259 I can handle everything on my own. 00:08:49.259 --> 00:08:55.179 I should handle everything on my own. 00:08:55.179 --> 00:08:59.720 And I think we like this because we don't want to be seen as weak. 00:08:59.720 --> 00:09:10.259 We don't like the idea that we are unable and that maybe just maybe we need to help and support of others as we walk and journey through life. 00:09:10.259 --> 00:09:12.659 How many here know how to drive? 00:09:12.659 --> 00:09:18.700 Yeah, I know how to drive. 00:09:18.700 --> 00:09:21.700 Anybody enjoy asking for directions? 00:09:21.700 --> 00:09:25.940 Yeah, no. 00:09:25.940 --> 00:09:26.940 I'm like this too sometimes. 00:09:26.940 --> 00:09:31.320 We're going on a road trip or we're going to a different city, we travel there and I have no idea, right? 00:09:31.320 --> 00:09:33.860 Even if Google Maps is helping us, sometimes it gets stuck. 00:09:33.860 --> 00:09:35.899 The data doesn't actually connect. 00:09:35.899 --> 00:09:38.100 And we're going in circles and we're lost. 00:09:38.100 --> 00:09:41.539 And Ruby would often say, "Just go and ask for directions. 00:09:41.539 --> 00:09:44.620 Go to the gas station or ask somebody for help." Like, "No, no, no. 00:09:44.620 --> 00:09:45.620 I got this. 00:09:45.620 --> 00:09:46.620 I got this. 00:09:46.620 --> 00:09:52.259 I know where we're going," which obviously we are totally completely lost. 00:09:52.259 --> 00:09:54.820 Why am I like that? 00:09:54.820 --> 00:09:57.519 Why are we like that? 00:09:57.519 --> 00:10:01.759 Is because we don't want to be seen as weak. 00:10:01.759 --> 00:10:20.279 We don't want to be seen as, "Hey, I don't know what I'm doing when actually we have no idea what we're doing." We don't like the idea that we're struggling and that other people see us struggle, so we hide. 00:10:20.279 --> 00:10:30.759 And we portray this image that is totally false as strong and we pretend like everything is okay. 00:10:30.759 --> 00:10:34.779 And the church is not immune to people living in this way. 00:10:34.779 --> 00:10:54.700 Many church communities, including ours, despite using the language of community and love, maybe have inadvertently set up a culture that does not allow people to share each other's struggles, to not allow people to not be okay. 00:10:54.700 --> 00:11:03.179 When they walk through these doors, when they come through the elevator and walk through the elevator doors, they all of a sudden have to pretend like everything is okay. 00:11:03.179 --> 00:11:13.940 I do want to say that here at Crucible, nobody here has to pretend like they have got it all together in life. 00:11:13.940 --> 00:11:18.860 It's okay, friends, to not be okay. 00:11:18.860 --> 00:11:36.539 And we as a community will do our very best to walk alongside each other, but we do not want to create a culture here where everyone feels pressured to perform and hold it all together. 00:11:36.539 --> 00:11:39.379 It's okay to break down. 00:11:39.379 --> 00:11:51.259 It's okay not to be okay because each one of you here, brothers and sisters, is beloved by God and by the community here. 00:11:51.259 --> 00:11:58.279 So let's pursue and be that kind of community where Christ has called us to love one another. 00:11:58.279 --> 00:12:03.379 And we want to look at this morning what exactly that looks like. 00:12:03.379 --> 00:12:13.259 What if God's design and purpose for community is built around the truth that some things were never meant to be carried alone? 00:12:13.259 --> 00:12:21.460 And that sharing them is not a sign of weakness, but a sign of faith and strength. 00:12:21.460 --> 00:12:27.500 So with this question in mind, just loosely here this morning, three things that we want to look at here in Galatians 6. 00:12:27.500 --> 00:12:31.419 First, the command to restore gently. 00:12:31.419 --> 00:12:36.440 That restoration is a form of burden bearing. 00:12:36.440 --> 00:12:39.779 Look at the kind of person Paul is referring to here in verse 1. 00:12:39.779 --> 00:12:42.960 A person who is caught in a sin. 00:12:42.960 --> 00:12:49.100 This is not a person who is deliberately and habitually choosing to sin. 00:12:49.100 --> 00:12:54.179 Paul is not referring to a premeditated decision to sin. 00:12:54.179 --> 00:13:00.460 The word in English caught is used to describe where a person is taken by surprise. 00:13:00.460 --> 00:13:07.179 They have been overtaken, maybe even tripped or fallen by sin. 00:13:07.179 --> 00:13:16.460 And this person is likely ashamed of their sin, distressed, stressed about what's happened and what they have done. 00:13:16.460 --> 00:13:32.139 And Paul says the community's response is to not exasperate the shame, but the community's response to this person is to draw close and to move towards that individual. 00:13:32.139 --> 00:13:38.059 Paul invites the community to come close, but not just to come close, to restore this individual. 00:13:38.059 --> 00:13:44.259 The person who has been caught in sin very likely is carrying multiple burdens in their hearts. 00:13:44.259 --> 00:13:55.620 The burden of shame, the burden of guilt, the burden of broken relationships, the burden of people looking down on them, the burden of fear, the burden of rejection. 00:13:55.620 --> 00:13:59.220 Paul is not saying that, "Hey, accept your sin. 00:13:59.220 --> 00:14:00.220 Don't worry about it. 00:14:00.220 --> 00:14:03.259 Gloss over it." No, and pretend like nothing's happened. 00:14:03.259 --> 00:14:07.139 No, that would be disingenuous. 00:14:07.139 --> 00:14:10.419 As a community, we're to restore that individual. 00:14:10.419 --> 00:14:27.500 You see the situation in Galatians, a little bit different in that the restoration here is based on the assumption that the individual caught in sin is willing to turn back to God, willing to bring their sin into the light. 00:14:27.500 --> 00:14:38.139 In other words, this person is willing to confess, but it comes with a cost for the person who is to restore this brother or sister. 00:14:38.139 --> 00:14:46.039 The person who restores bears the emotional cost of being present in someone's worst moment. 00:14:46.039 --> 00:14:53.700 The public weight of association and relationship with a person who has fallen and sinned. 00:14:53.700 --> 00:15:00.860 The spiritual weight of being humble in the process of restoring this brother or sister. 00:15:00.860 --> 00:15:14.659 You see, restoration, gentle restoration is the first thing that Paul mentions here because it's the most demanding when it comes to carrying another person's burdens. 00:15:14.659 --> 00:15:23.860 If the church fails here in verse 1, then it fails in verse 2 when Paul actually calls the church to carry each other's burdens. 00:15:23.860 --> 00:15:26.620 So what does it mean to restore? 00:15:26.620 --> 00:15:35.419 The word restore in Greek means to mend, to bring something back to the original condition or after damage or failure. 00:15:35.419 --> 00:15:39.120 So the goal of restoration is never to punish. 00:15:39.120 --> 00:15:44.080 The goal is always to bring the person back into wholeness. 00:15:44.080 --> 00:15:48.100 So if you can imagine it, it's like Humpty Dumpty. 00:15:48.100 --> 00:15:50.419 You know the rhyme of Humpty Dumpty? 00:15:50.419 --> 00:15:51.980 I don't know it by memory. 00:15:51.980 --> 00:15:57.659 Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, blah blah blah, then he fell off the wall. 00:15:57.659 --> 00:16:00.860 And then he shattered into a billion pieces. 00:16:00.860 --> 00:16:07.980 And so this would be like going to Humpty Dumpty and shattering him to billions of pieces. 00:16:07.980 --> 00:16:09.679 But what do they do? 00:16:09.679 --> 00:16:14.240 They begin to piece him back together again. 00:16:14.240 --> 00:16:17.139 So the goal of restoration is like Humpty Dumpty. 00:16:17.139 --> 00:16:24.019 We are broken, we are fractured, and the goal is to restore, to bring to wholeness. 00:16:24.019 --> 00:16:25.940 Kind of like a doctor. 00:16:25.940 --> 00:16:29.379 No doctor makes a diagnosis from across the room. 00:16:29.379 --> 00:16:39.100 In order for them to make any sort of accurate and precise diagnosis, they need to be close to their patient to see what the problem might be. 00:16:39.100 --> 00:16:46.419 And then they begin the work of restoring, of mending what was misaligned or broken. 00:16:46.419 --> 00:16:55.059 And not only are we to restore brothers and sisters who have sinned, but we are to do about it gently. 00:16:55.059 --> 00:16:58.019 Should we forget church? 00:16:58.019 --> 00:17:01.460 Gentleness is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. 00:17:01.460 --> 00:17:05.420 And so what does it mean to be gentle? 00:17:05.420 --> 00:17:20.420 What gentleness is, is approaching the person who has sinned with the same posture that both the restorer and the person who needs to be restored are both sinners. 00:17:20.420 --> 00:17:25.700 It is not seeing the other person who needs to be restored as less than. 00:17:25.700 --> 00:17:32.099 And the word that Paul uses here for gentleness means strength under control. 00:17:32.099 --> 00:17:42.539 It's referring to a lowly, humble, non-arrogant attitude and posture in restoring a fellow brother or sister. 00:17:42.539 --> 00:17:45.339 Gentleness is listening before speaking. 00:17:45.339 --> 00:17:56.900 It is taking the posture of hearing the brother or sister, being curious about their situation, asking questions before offering any words of correction. 00:17:56.900 --> 00:18:10.779 This is hard for us, not just extroverts, but all of us, because many of us, if not all, tend to jump right in wanting to offer a word. 00:18:10.779 --> 00:18:17.900 I'm often reminded of what James, the half brother of Jesus, said in his letter to the Jerusalem church. 00:18:17.900 --> 00:18:34.039 He says, "Be slow to speak and quick to listen." Gentleness is trying to understand what happened from the person's perspective before offering, before speaking into their lives. 00:18:34.039 --> 00:18:36.099 Gentleness is speaking the truth in love. 00:18:36.099 --> 00:18:39.140 This is not a passive act. 00:18:39.140 --> 00:18:50.099 Speaking the truth not from a condescending, not from a higher posture, but from a place where you want the best for the other person. 00:18:50.099 --> 00:18:57.180 You have either the best in mind as you speak truthfully and then graciously and also kindly. 00:18:57.180 --> 00:19:13.259 It's possible to speak the hard truth while also communicating to the person that their value and worth in the church, in the community, in the family of God is not in question. 00:19:13.259 --> 00:19:19.099 Gentleness is trying to stay present in the process of restoration. 00:19:19.099 --> 00:19:28.420 So it's not rushing the person who has fallen back to wholeness, because restoration is a journey. 00:19:28.420 --> 00:19:30.460 It is a process. 00:19:30.460 --> 00:19:36.579 And it can often be a very, very painfully, very slow process. 00:19:36.579 --> 00:19:44.940 Now Paul warns the one person who is restoring to watch yourselves, or they too might be tempted. 00:19:44.940 --> 00:19:46.920 What is he talking about here? 00:19:46.920 --> 00:19:48.920 What is the temptation? 00:19:48.920 --> 00:19:52.099 I think there are two things that Paul is referring to. 00:19:52.099 --> 00:19:56.680 First it's to guard against the temptation of pride. 00:19:56.680 --> 00:20:06.940 So the person who gets to help restore the individual who has sinned and fallen is in a position to often compare themselves to that person. 00:20:06.940 --> 00:20:10.259 Oh, I'm not like this person. 00:20:10.259 --> 00:20:11.259 I didn't do this. 00:20:11.259 --> 00:20:14.299 I'm not like that. 00:20:14.299 --> 00:20:20.180 We often think it, never say it. 00:20:20.180 --> 00:20:25.099 But this kind of heart posture and thinking can create a sense of pride. 00:20:25.099 --> 00:20:29.380 And if it's left unchecked, a sense of arrogance. 00:20:29.380 --> 00:20:37.900 Secondly, I think Paul is talking about here is to guard against the temptation of a harsh response. 00:20:37.900 --> 00:20:58.299 When restoration is often slow, if the person struggles in their processing and in their journey towards wholeness, the person helping with the restoration process can often be tempted to feel frustrated and often judgmental. 00:20:58.299 --> 00:21:03.339 Rather than continue with patience, gentleness, and kindness. 00:21:03.339 --> 00:21:12.779 But at this point of the process, it often reveals and exposes the heart of the person who is restoring. 00:21:12.779 --> 00:21:23.380 Is it more about the person that they're trying to restore or is it more about them and what's going on in their hearts? 00:21:23.380 --> 00:21:32.539 If the person who is helping forgets their own tendency to sin, then they will often not restore gently. 00:21:32.539 --> 00:21:34.920 How could you fall in again? 00:21:34.920 --> 00:21:42.599 How could you do this again? 00:21:42.599 --> 00:21:46.579 They will often do more harm than good. 00:21:46.579 --> 00:21:59.180 If we forget that we are sinners who have been saved by the grace of God, we will look at the person who has fallen. 00:21:59.180 --> 00:22:07.579 We will look down on that person, but we will also respond harshly towards them. 00:22:07.579 --> 00:22:17.099 Paul is warning not to discourage restoration, but to remind the person who is restoring to continually be humble. 00:22:17.099 --> 00:22:24.460 And not just humble, but aware of their own hearts and their own tendency to walk away from God. 00:22:24.460 --> 00:22:28.279 Second, we are to carry each other's burdens. 00:22:28.279 --> 00:22:29.900 So this is verse 2. 00:22:29.900 --> 00:22:39.339 Now the word burden in the Greek has the meaning of a sort of like heaviness that is overwhelming for any one person to carry by themselves. 00:22:39.339 --> 00:22:47.339 Paul is not saying that the church community should carry everything for everyone and that nobody has any sort of personal responsibility. 00:22:47.339 --> 00:22:49.240 That's not what he's saying here. 00:22:49.240 --> 00:22:58.960 What he is saying is that the genuinely heavy things in our lives, in the lives of the people are designed to be shared and carried together. 00:22:58.960 --> 00:23:00.619 So what kind of things? 00:23:00.619 --> 00:23:14.180 Things like grief, trauma, death, things like serious illness and sickness, depression, mental health, overwhelming life circumstances, loss of job, spiritual burdens. 00:23:14.180 --> 00:23:21.000 These are the kinds of things that no person in the community should have to carry by themselves. 00:23:21.000 --> 00:23:29.619 These are the kinds of moments where we have as a church the opportunity to carry each other's heaviness. 00:23:29.619 --> 00:23:39.900 Now our context today is obviously different from the context of the Galatian church, but their crisis of false teaching is not necessarily our issue today. 00:23:39.900 --> 00:23:45.140 The Roman social structure is not our social structure here in North America. 00:23:45.140 --> 00:23:47.819 So our situations are vastly different. 00:23:47.819 --> 00:23:54.279 And yet many of the burdens that we share as people remain similar across time. 00:23:54.279 --> 00:23:59.140 So there are a couple things that the Galatian churches share with us this morning that we have in common. 00:23:59.140 --> 00:24:02.740 There are theological and spiritual burdens that people carry. 00:24:02.740 --> 00:24:05.480 Back in the Galatian church, but also today. 00:24:05.480 --> 00:24:10.460 False teaching in the Galatian community created a heaviness that the people carried. 00:24:10.460 --> 00:24:25.859 And if you have been on the receiving end of false teaching, believed in it, embraced it, lived it out, and then realized that it was false, it can be very heavy on the heart and the spirit. 00:24:25.859 --> 00:24:34.819 It can move a person into a season, into a space of confusion, uncertainty, perpetual doubt about God, about themselves, anxiety. 00:24:34.819 --> 00:24:43.000 They can carry an extremely unhealthy level of guilt and shame in their lives and live from that place. 00:24:43.000 --> 00:24:46.180 And that bleeds into how they see the world. 00:24:46.180 --> 00:24:52.220 It bleeds into how they connect with other people, whether they can be trusted. 00:24:52.220 --> 00:25:02.059 They can be spiritual burnout, distortion in their understanding and view and relationship with God, and then the burden of religiously having to perform. 00:25:02.059 --> 00:25:11.259 You see, false teaching is not like, "Oh, whatever." No! False teaching impacts us. 00:25:11.259 --> 00:25:17.980 And when we realize that it's actually false, it can be very damaging to the person. 00:25:17.980 --> 00:25:20.579 It can be very shameful. 00:25:20.579 --> 00:25:22.059 It can be very burdensome. 00:25:22.059 --> 00:25:41.539 And people who often experience false teaching, toxic church communities, they come out of that space really, really struggling to reintegrate into healthier church communities, questioning whether every pastor and every teacher, whether it's legit what they're saying. 00:25:41.539 --> 00:25:49.019 And they often journey through alone without the community ever knowing that that person has gone through that process. 00:25:49.019 --> 00:25:51.500 There are economic burdens. 00:25:51.500 --> 00:25:59.140 In the context of Galatians, they had just, the people in this community just had enough to survive each day. 00:25:59.140 --> 00:26:02.480 They had no economic safety net. 00:26:02.480 --> 00:26:04.380 There was no insurance of any kind. 00:26:04.380 --> 00:26:06.500 There was no support for unemployment. 00:26:06.500 --> 00:26:21.220 A serious sickness in a family whose primary breadwinner, who is the main person to provide for the family, would quickly push a family into a desperate state, very quickly. 00:26:21.220 --> 00:26:32.380 And today that could mean debt, job loss, housing instability, the hidden poverty from people at the church who look like they're stable, but they're not. 00:26:32.380 --> 00:26:35.299 And then there are health and medical burdens. 00:26:35.299 --> 00:26:39.640 Among the Galatians at this time, there's no such thing as medical technology. 00:26:39.640 --> 00:26:44.099 If you got really sick, you hope for the best, brace for the worst. 00:26:44.099 --> 00:26:46.839 But they did not have doctors like we have today. 00:26:46.839 --> 00:26:53.579 They did not have the technological advancements in medicine that we often benefit from. 00:26:53.579 --> 00:27:09.720 And even then, there are people in church communities who struggle with chronic illnesses, serious diagnosis, physical, emotional, mental exhaustion, and from being the primary giver of a family member who is in decline. 00:27:09.720 --> 00:27:16.140 So much has changed over time, and yet so much has remained the same. 00:27:16.140 --> 00:27:23.380 But we'll create the culture where our church can have a community that can carry each other's burdens. 00:27:23.380 --> 00:27:25.099 I think there are three things. 00:27:25.099 --> 00:27:29.339 First, people need to feel safe. 00:27:29.339 --> 00:27:36.140 Before burdens can be carried by the wider church community, they must be known. 00:27:36.140 --> 00:27:42.579 And before people can disclose, they must feel like the community is safe. 00:27:42.579 --> 00:27:49.420 Community in the sense that the community's response is presence as opposed to judgment or gossip. 00:27:49.420 --> 00:27:56.779 This kind of culture is not built in one day, but over time through consistency and through intentionality. 00:27:56.779 --> 00:28:00.500 Second, we need to develop awareness. 00:28:00.500 --> 00:28:12.359 We are so preoccupied with ourselves, our problems, our needs, that we often don't ever develop awareness of the needs of the people around us. 00:28:12.359 --> 00:28:19.180 We cannot carry each other's burdens if we never get close enough to be aware of the need. 00:28:19.180 --> 00:28:28.180 And if we're going to learn, church, to be a community that carries one another's burdens, then we need to come close. 00:28:28.180 --> 00:28:39.660 And the kind of closeness where a person in the community is carrying something heavy but does not need to say anything explicitly, you just know. 00:28:39.660 --> 00:28:43.539 Now this is where the beauty of small groups comes into play. 00:28:43.539 --> 00:28:44.740 Sunday gatherings are great. 00:28:44.740 --> 00:28:55.920 I'm thankful that so many people come and worship together with us, but they do not provide the closeness that is required to develop a sense of awareness. 00:28:55.920 --> 00:29:06.799 People can attend Sunday services for decades without anyone in the community knowing the crushing weight and burden they carry alone. 00:29:06.799 --> 00:29:21.019 Small groups, as they meet regularly, break bread together, pray together, create the environment and the conditions where you can begin to notice and be aware of what people are carrying in their lives. 00:29:21.019 --> 00:29:23.380 It's a natural place. 00:29:23.380 --> 00:29:31.880 When you eat together, you begin to share things that you would never otherwise share on a Sunday morning. 00:29:31.880 --> 00:29:36.940 And third, there has to be willingness to remain, to stay. 00:29:36.940 --> 00:29:40.380 Carrying one another's burdens is not a one-time act. 00:29:40.380 --> 00:29:46.180 The person who shows up for one conversation but then disappears is not carrying or sharing the burden. 00:29:46.180 --> 00:29:54.440 You see, carrying each other's burden requires the willingness that we stay through the process of someone's difficulty. 00:29:54.440 --> 00:30:00.500 This could mean weeks, could mean months, could mean years. 00:30:00.500 --> 00:30:14.259 The sustained presence when a person is suffering and going through a difficult time is precious because it costs the most sacred resource, our time. 00:30:14.259 --> 00:30:19.240 But this is what it means to bear, to carry one another's burdens. 00:30:19.240 --> 00:30:30.920 There has to be a willingness to remain, to stay present in the hard spaces with the person who is struggling, who has sinned, who has fallen. 00:30:30.920 --> 00:30:35.099 We are called to be this kind of church. 00:30:35.099 --> 00:30:42.059 And the last thing that we want to look at here is guarding against pride. 00:30:42.059 --> 00:30:43.339 Listen to what Paul says here. 00:30:43.339 --> 00:30:48.059 If anyone thinks they are something, when they are not, they deceive themselves. 00:30:48.059 --> 00:30:52.859 A person who thinks they are something will not restore gently. 00:30:52.859 --> 00:30:58.660 They will restore from a place where they're judging this person. 00:30:58.660 --> 00:31:09.420 A person who thinks they are something will not carry the burdens of another because that would require that you get close to that person. 00:31:09.420 --> 00:31:18.559 A proud person keeps their distance from anyone that might tarnish their reputation. 00:31:18.559 --> 00:31:20.539 But Paul offers a corrective here. 00:31:20.539 --> 00:31:22.000 Listen to his words. 00:31:22.000 --> 00:31:25.859 Each one should test their own actions, verse 4. 00:31:25.859 --> 00:31:30.460 Paul does not say test your actions against other people's actions. 00:31:30.460 --> 00:31:32.579 He says test them against your own. 00:31:32.579 --> 00:31:38.180 You see the standard here is not, am I doing better than the person who has sinned? 00:31:38.180 --> 00:31:46.140 Oh, this is like falling apart. 00:31:46.140 --> 00:31:47.420 Sorry guys. 00:31:47.420 --> 00:31:48.420 It's not testing. 00:31:48.420 --> 00:31:54.740 I'm just going to use this. 00:31:54.740 --> 00:32:00.660 It's not testing and saying, hey, am I doing better than this other person who has fallen or who has sinned? 00:32:00.660 --> 00:32:14.720 The benchmark and the standard, if you will, is am I living faithfully before God with the gifts, with the opportunities, with the responsibilities, with the space, the time that God has given to me? 00:32:14.720 --> 00:32:21.660 And after testing your own work, you can then take pride in it without comparing yourself to anyone else. 00:32:21.660 --> 00:32:24.000 What is Paul saying here? 00:32:24.000 --> 00:32:29.599 This pride that Paul is talking about is not the same kind of pride that he's referring to earlier. 00:32:29.599 --> 00:32:32.400 It's not an arrogance kind of proud. 00:32:32.400 --> 00:32:34.279 It is the pride of satisfaction. 00:32:34.279 --> 00:32:38.539 You know when it's a job well done, you're like, oh, you bask in your work. 00:32:38.539 --> 00:32:44.779 It's that kind of satisfaction of genuine faithfulness. 00:32:44.779 --> 00:32:55.839 It is the satisfaction of the servant in Matthew 25 where he hears, the servant hears the words, well done, good and faithful servant. 00:32:55.839 --> 00:32:58.940 So how do we overcome pride? 00:32:58.940 --> 00:32:59.940 Two ways, I think. 00:32:59.940 --> 00:33:04.859 I mean, here in the text, how we can overcome pride in our lives. 00:33:04.859 --> 00:33:07.500 First it's through honest evaluation. 00:33:07.500 --> 00:33:16.859 One of the ways to fighting pride in our lives and our hearts is the rigorous and consistent practice of self-examination. 00:33:16.859 --> 00:33:23.779 This is not a, oh, I wonder how I'm doing here today or this past week kind of assessment. 00:33:23.779 --> 00:33:34.940 It is more of bringing our actions, our motives, our thoughts, our attitudes, our posture before God and asking Him to examine us. 00:33:34.940 --> 00:33:40.940 The psalmist in Psalm 139 says this when he writes, "God, see what is in my heart. 00:33:40.940 --> 00:33:42.299 Know what is there. 00:33:42.299 --> 00:33:43.859 Test me. 00:33:43.859 --> 00:34:07.940 Know what I'm thinking and see if there's anything in my life that you don't like." If we regularly examine our own hearts before God's character and standard, we will find more and more often that there is no place for pride in our lives because the comparison now is not with someone else, but it is with God's holiness and perfection. 00:34:07.940 --> 00:34:13.940 And when we compare ourselves with God, we fall short every single time. 00:34:13.940 --> 00:34:22.880 And it creates a sense of humility in our hearts rather than puffing up our minds or our hearts in pride. 00:34:22.880 --> 00:34:28.380 We can ask questions like, why am I doing what I'm doing? 00:34:28.380 --> 00:34:37.059 Is my actions here a place for love or is it a place to be needed and recognized? 00:34:37.059 --> 00:34:46.920 When I see someone who has sinned, is my first response to judge them or is it compassion? 00:34:46.920 --> 00:34:54.699 These kinds of questions when asked honestly over time are the means by which God uses to humble us. 00:34:54.699 --> 00:35:01.380 Second, so first it's through honest evaluation, second it's through communal watchfulness. 00:35:01.380 --> 00:35:05.500 The command in verse 1, "to watch ourselves," is not an individual exercise. 00:35:05.500 --> 00:35:11.239 Like if you read that verse in Galatians 6.1, you might actually come to the conclusion, the rival, that, "Hey, it's me. 00:35:11.239 --> 00:35:12.619 It's actually not just you. 00:35:12.619 --> 00:35:19.300 It's actually the community." It's a communal exercise, not an individual one necessarily. 00:35:19.300 --> 00:35:30.420 The church community that is honest about their struggle, their temptation, their failures is a church that creates an environment where pride is difficult to maintain. 00:35:30.420 --> 00:35:43.340 The person who is genuinely known in community cannot maintain the performance of, "Hey, I'm better than you." Because the people in their lives that they're doing life with know them too well. 00:35:43.340 --> 00:35:51.780 That person is protected by the community that keeps them accountable but also humble. 00:35:51.780 --> 00:35:55.219 So I have two invitations for us here this morning. 00:35:55.219 --> 00:36:02.099 If you have been carrying something in your life alone, a burden for a long time, I want you to know two things here. 00:36:02.099 --> 00:36:08.179 First, the fact that you're carrying a burden does not mean that you have failed. 00:36:08.179 --> 00:36:13.300 Being overwhelmed in life is not some sort of spiritual failure. 00:36:13.300 --> 00:36:18.940 It is a sign that you were not designed to carry your burdens alone. 00:36:18.940 --> 00:36:27.300 Secondly, the community that you belong to here is designed for such a time as this. 00:36:27.300 --> 00:36:39.139 There is someone in this room here this morning who is able and willing to carry this particular burden that you carry with you. 00:36:39.139 --> 00:36:44.019 But they may not ever know this morning that you are carrying it. 00:36:44.019 --> 00:36:50.420 You friend have to take a step in sharing it with them. 00:36:50.420 --> 00:37:06.539 Secondly, if you have a sense that someone in our church community is carrying something that you could help carry, I want you to ask that you don't leave this morning rushing out through the doors back here. 00:37:06.539 --> 00:37:09.900 I don't want you to leave without doing something about that. 00:37:09.900 --> 00:37:19.300 Not, "Oh, I'll do it later," because we all know that when you say that, it never gets done. 00:37:19.300 --> 00:37:21.940 But be specific. 00:37:21.940 --> 00:37:29.940 A phone call, a message that says, "Hey," filling the name, "I've been thinking about you lately. 00:37:29.940 --> 00:37:32.099 Do you want to meet up? 00:37:32.099 --> 00:37:34.420 Grab tea or coffee. 00:37:34.420 --> 00:37:43.500 Can I come over and be present with you?" See, carrying someone's weight doesn't have to be anything big or extraordinary. 00:37:43.500 --> 00:37:49.400 It requires ordinary actions like your presence. 00:37:49.400 --> 00:37:58.900 And presence costs both time and availability, both of which everyone in this room has. 00:37:58.900 --> 00:38:04.659 So church, what if carrying each other's burden was not the exception? 00:38:04.659 --> 00:38:08.139 It only happens when something dramatic happens. 00:38:08.139 --> 00:38:10.239 What is the norm? 00:38:10.239 --> 00:38:20.739 What if people here at Crucible knew as a default that when life gets hard and heavy, that they don't have to go through it alone? 00:38:20.739 --> 00:38:33.179 Not because the community is made up of special and exceptional people here, but ordinary people who have made a decision as a community to carry one another's burdens. 00:38:33.179 --> 00:38:39.179 Paul makes it clear, as we carry each other's burdens, we will fulfill the law of Christ. 00:38:39.179 --> 00:38:41.800 And the law of Christ is love. 00:38:41.800 --> 00:38:49.539 And love in its most concrete and costly form is this, that we carry each other's burdens. 00:38:49.539 --> 00:38:53.219 This is the kind of community that we are called to be here. 00:38:53.219 --> 00:39:01.380 And quite honestly, it is the most tangible, visible, and most convincing kind of evidence for Christ. 00:39:01.380 --> 00:39:19.420 When people watch the church, they see this church carrying each other's burdens, caring for each other in such a deep way that the rest of the world really honestly doesn't do, shows that Jesus Christ is real. 00:39:19.420 --> 00:39:22.219 So will we do that together as a church? 00:39:22.219 --> 00:39:27.300 Will we try and attempt to exercise and practice this in our lives? 00:39:27.300 --> 00:39:29.579 Don't leave this morning without doing something about this. 00:39:29.579 --> 00:39:30.579 Let's pray. 00:39:30.579 --> 00:39:36.820 God, I thank you for Galatians 6 and I thank you for this passage, this journey that we are on, on community. 00:39:36.820 --> 00:39:42.940 And what kind of community you are calling the church, your people to be. 00:39:42.940 --> 00:39:52.699 And this morning we focus on Galatians 6 on this one attribute of carrying each other, each other's burdens, this burden bearing act and exercise. 00:39:52.699 --> 00:39:53.980 And it's a hard one. 00:39:53.980 --> 00:40:02.739 It's a hard call, it's a hard invitation because many of us quite honestly have so many things that take us away from this. 00:40:02.739 --> 00:40:23.420 But Lord God, I pray that if we are going to be a church that loves, well, a church that loves the way that you love, that this is one part of it, the most costly form of it, is bearing each other's burdens. 00:40:23.420 --> 00:40:29.800 So church, I just want to give you a moment to respond to God. 00:40:29.800 --> 00:40:46.420 Maybe there is a person or persons that God has placed in your heart to reach out to after service and the invitation to be present with them in whatever form that takes. 00:40:46.420 --> 00:41:00.820 Would you take a moment now just to respond to God? 00:41:00.820 --> 00:41:15.659 Father, I thank you for not only the great commission, but I thank you for the great commandments. 00:41:15.659 --> 00:41:19.300 Love God with all your heart, soul, strength, mind. 00:41:19.300 --> 00:41:22.260 And the second is equally as great as the first. 00:41:22.260 --> 00:41:25.659 Love your neighbor as yourself. 00:41:25.659 --> 00:41:27.860 Teach us how to do this. 00:41:27.860 --> 00:41:31.179 And so doing, bearing one another's burdens. 00:41:31.179 --> 00:41:34.380 For we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. 00:41:34.380 --> 00:41:35.139 Amen.