Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Walking together is something many of us have been told throughout our lives is how we make it through life.

Some have said it takes a village to raise a child.

Some say we need good healthy friendships around us if we are to be able to continue in life.

Yet, many of us struggle with this aspect because we tend to have a sense of envy or jealousy in us or feel it from others.

Too many of us are like the lyrics of this Green Day song called Boulevard of Broken Dreams.

In it they sing,

I walk a lonely road

The only one that I have ever known

Don’t know where it goes

But it’s home to me, and I walk alone

I walk this empty street

On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams.

Or maybe we are more like the Whitesnake song Here I Go Again.

Where they sing,

I don't know where I'm going

But, I sure know where I've been

Hanging on the promises in songs of yesterday

And I've made up my mind

I ain't wasting no more time

Though I keep searching for an answer

I never seem to find what I'm looking for

Oh Lord, I pray you give me strength to carry on

Cause I know what it means

To walk along the lonely street of dreams

Here I go again on my own

Going down the only road I've ever known

Like a drifter I was born to walk alone

And I've made up my mind

I ain't wasting no more time

The theme in each of these is that they are alone.

They have no one to guide them or help them.

They have no help and are going through life alone.

But this is not how it should be.

We Walk Together if we are brothers and sisters in Christ.

We are none of us any better or worse than another.

We are in this together and we need one another.

Like a sports team or a ranch rodeo team.

In football the quarterback is not going to do well without the linemen or backs or receivers.

He needs all of them to do well.

Or a team in a ranch rodeo.

I have been in several ranch rodeos as have many of you.

I was almost always the man dubbed the mugger.

I have always been big and because of that I had to mug.

That was fine because I knew that was my job.

We would have a guy that was above average handy with a rope, he roped most always.

But if the yearling or cow went another direction and passed before another, the roper would allow that guy to rope her.

He knew winning was more important than him getting to rope.

Now, there are some who it did not matter what happened they would run in front of the other guy to rope because in their mind they were the best and that other guy was just there for other jobs.

Usually when that happened we would not do so hot and there would be anger in the team at each other.

That is not what a team needs to win but teamwork and help to one another and not showboating.

This is what Paul is telling us in this section of Scripture.

He tells us that when we are in step with the Spirit we will be in step with each other and that will help us to stay in step with ourselves.

We see this in Galatians 5:25-6:5

We are shown what it means to be a team player in this section.

We see the means of how we are in these first few verses when we see that we can be team players when we are...

In Step With The Spirit 5:25-6:1

If we live by the Spirit let us walk/keep in step with the Spirit.

Let us not become conceited.

Let us not provoke or envy one another.

Let us help a brother or sister caught in any transgression.

All who are spiritual.

Here is the kicker.

“All who are spiritual.”

This is to every believer walking because every believer has the same Spirit inside them.

You all who are saved have the Holy Spirit of God in you.

If you are in step with Him you will be spiritual.

If you are in step with Him you will not be conceited and have envy or anger or any other thing at others.

This word conceited means “one who talks big, who is boastful and vainglorious.”

(TDNT, 662).

Vainglory means that you are “empty of glory” that you sense an emptiness inside and are desperately trying to fill it with affirmation and recognition from other people” (Christ Has Set Us Free (The Gospel Coalition) (p.

125).

Crossway.)

This means that you are always trying to be better than another so you are always nitpicking and trying to find something wrong with them.

John Stott said once, The correct attitude to other people is not ‘I’m better than you and I’ll prove it’ or ‘You’re better than I and I resent it,’ but ‘You are a person of importance in your own right (because God made you in His own image and Christ died for you) and it is my joy and privilege to serve you.”

When we are allowing the Spirit to lead us and guide us and we are in step with Him, we will not see others as problems or an enemy but another beloved image bearer if they are not in Christ or as a brother or sister if they are in Christ.

We will not become conceited and try and fill that deep pit that is inside us because we are not walking with the Spirit.

We all desire to have meaning and worth in the world.

We all want to be cared for and to do good and have recognition.

But when we are walking in step with the Spirit we have the best recognition there is from our savior who died for us and rose again and is now sitting at the right hand of God interceding for us.

When we are in step with the Spirit we will be spiritual and not carnal, of the world.

The world will not be able to influence us into hate of another.

No, because the Spirit will take hold of us and say “What are you doing you fool?”

So when we see a brother or sister failing in a habit of habitual sin we do not lord it over them but we go to them and seek to help them.

We do this gently and with care and compassion because guess what, it could be us that fails and falls next.

We are not perfect and therefore we must not try and act like we are a perfect person because there was only one perfect person and He is the only one who can lord anything over us but He did not He came and served us and died for us.

Since He did that, we must be willing to do no less for others.

You may be asking how do I walk by the Spirit?

That is a great question that is easily answered.

We walk in the Spirit by checking to see if what we do is in love, patience, joy, kindness, goodness, desiring peace, from faith, being gentle, and through self-control.

These are the fruit of the Spirit that Paul mentions just before this section.

When we exert self-control we are checking ourselves to make sure we are doing what we do out of the other fruit of the Spirit.

When we seek to do this and act in this way we will begin to be...

In Step With Each Other 6:2

Bear one another’s burdens, and fulfill the law of Christ.

When we bear other’s burdens we are not stepping in to show them we are better and if they lived like us they would not have this struggle.

No, we do not do it that way because we can fall and fail just as much as anyone.

No, when we bear another’s burden we are helping another who is in a struggle very much like what we are in ourselves.

If you think you are not in a struggle, you are deceived and will fall soon and a brother or sister will have to come along and help restore you.

It has been said that we are either going into a storm, in a storm, or just coming out of a storm.

None of us are exempt from struggle and strife.