The Gospel of Freedom Changes our Relationships
Galatians: Getting the Gospel Right • Sermon • Submitted
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Galatians 6:1-5 “1 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. 2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. 3 For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4 But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. 5 For each will have to bear his own load.”
So, as you know, a number of months ago we moved into a “new” place.
Well, new for us, anyway. And actually part of it is brand new.
But the other part of the house has been around for a little while.
I wasn’t there when the house was built, obviously, but I can assume that when the guy built this house, it had the appearance of a new house.
I’m sure the cupboards were free of scratches, the linoleum was shiny and nice,
The floors were stained, varnished, and polished. The house was ready to be lived in.
And for many years, it fulfilled its purpose of being a shelter and a place of rest for grandpa, Wilbur and Lucille and family, our family, various renters,
And it fulfilled its purpose well. It didn’t complain. Sometimes it needed to be repaired here and there and “corrected”.
It really served well
But as it served, it began to wear out. The cupboards became scratched, the floor began to be scuffed and scraped. The walls had holes where pictures were hung, marks, dents, and such.
And after 60 years or so, the house just didn’t have that nice new feel to it anymore. It was kind of tired.
So when Heidi and I were considering moving in, we not only considered adding on something new, we thought about how we could restore what was already there.
One major project was the floors.
We went out and rented big sanders, bought the sandpaper to go with it.
We bought polyurethane and applicators.
And we began the work of restoration
We tore away at the old finish that was worn and scratched and scuffed and as best as we could with our nonexistent experience,
we exposed the bright beautiful wood underneath.
and then we took the polyurethane and put 3 or 4 shiny coats on top of this bright wood to protect it from getting scratched again.
And some of the rooms were completely transformed, especially those rooms that had that old dark finish on the floors
We know that sometimes we need to restore objects:
Houses
Sometimes we like to restore old cars…sometimes the result of restoration is more beautiful than the original!
But you know, people need restoration too. Even people end up with scuffs and scratches.
Even people get worn out and tired and lose the beauty and shininess that they had when they first began to follow Jesus.
Some of you might remember how it felt when you first began to follow Jesus and felt His presence in your life.
Things felt new, brighter, happier. You knew something had changed and it just felt like a new beginning.
But perhaps over time that has changed.
Things just don’t feel that way anymore.
You feel tired. Life doesn’t seem so bright any more.
You don’t feel so close to Jesus. The Christian life seems more like a chore than a privilege and a joy. It’s just something that’s expected.
You come to church and other church activities because…well, it’s expected and what would folks say if I didn’t.
And during the week, Jesus could hardly be farther from you mind.
It seems like you could use some restoration.
Why would people need to be restored?
Tiredness
For some people, they have served their purpose well. They have stayed the course and done what they were created to do.
But in the course of time, they find themselves worn out and scuffed, feeling abused and used.
Last summer, as you know, we went to a retreat center. There were some other couples there, and all of them bore the marks of pain and weariness.
As we talked with them and heard their stories, it was fairly evident that they needed to be restored.
We felt like we needed some restoration work done ourselves
Sin
That is what is on Paul’s mind in our passage today.
sometimes it’s not that we are necessarily feeling worn out from serving our purpose and being faithful to what God has called us to do
Sometimes, if we are honest, we find that we have been “overtaken” by a sin or a fault.
But whether it’s tiredness or sin, in both cases we need some restoration work done on us.
Because both have a way of marring the image of our Creator.
Both have a way of marring the newness of our original design.
Now, unlike restoring a floor or a car, it’s hard to write a “how to” manual about restoring people.
You can’t just pop on Youtube and type in “How to Restore People”. You won’t find one of those yellow and black books in the bookstore entitled “Restoring People for Dummies”.
Why?
Because people are wonderfully complex, just like our Creator God.
Each situation is unique. Every personality is different.
I can’t restore an adult in the same way that I would restore a child.
I can’t restore an American in the same way that I would restore an African.
Each person requires a different approach
But Paul does give us some guiding principles here in this passage which help us to understand the work of restoration.
It must be done by those who are Spiritual
Who has the responsibility for doing the work of restoration?
If someone is caught in a fault, a sin? If someone is tired and worn out, who has the responsibility for undertaking this restoration work?
You might look at me and say, “Well, that’s your job, preacher man!”
But that’s not what it says here. It says “You who are spiritual”.
And who is that? Are you a spiritual person?
And you say, “I don’t know. I try to be spiritual”
But I’m not talking about trying to be spiritual
I’m asking, is the fruit of the Spirit growing in your life?
That’s what we are talking about
A spiritual person is one who is keeping in step with the Spirit and in whom the fruit of the Spirit is growing
And that should be all of us
And this is so key. This is so important. If you set about to do the work of restoration, you must be spiritual.
Why? Because what we see on the outside, our works, our choices, are at the very core, a spiritual matter.
The abundant life that comes from belief in Jesus and walking in the Spirit is first and foremost a spiritual life.
And the death that comes from rejecting Jesus and walking according to the flesh is first and foremost a spiritual death
And when we set about to help restore someone, we have to delve into spiritual matters.
Listen to what it says in 1 Cor. 2:14-16 “14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 16 “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.”
When helping to restore someone, it is easy to slip into the “how to” mode.
Well, here’s what you need to do
If you would just put this practice into place, things would be different for you
And those things can be helpful. But if you aren’t striving to understand things from the spiritual point of view, they aren’t going to help in the long run.
If putting new practices into place is the only approach, then, in fact, you are taking a law-based approach, rather than a spiritual approach.
But being a spiritual person gives you the ability to understand what really is going on. “You have the mind of Christ”.
So restoration must be done spiritually by those who are spiritual.
Ask the Holy Spirit to give you eyes to see what is happening on the spiritual level
Ask people what their walk with Jesus is like. Ask them about their relationship with Christ. Ask them about how they are being led by the Holy Spirit.
It must be done gently
Restoration must be done gently. verse 1
And I believe that dealing gently with someone is a direct result of dealing spiritually.
If we have the mind of Christ, and we think and act like Christ, then when did Christ not deal gently with someone.
Yes, He got pretty harsh with the religious leaders sometimes, but that was because of their stubbornness and hypocrisy.
But when dealing with those who were open to being helped, he was always gentle
A law-based approach is rarely gentle. A law-based approach does not strive to understand the spiritual issues.
It only sees what is being done. It doesn’t strive to find out why this is being done or why this person is in this condition.
And a law-based approach demands instant change and conformity to a standard.
This is not a gentle approach.
A gentle approach is one that does not have a time-table in mind.
A gentle approach is one that strives to understand the heart of a person
When you are restoring a person gently, you are well aware that even if you have the best of intentions, if you are careless, you could scar that person so deeply that they will carry those scars for a long time afterward
When we were restoring our floor and I was using the big drum sander with the 30 grit sandpaper (or whatever it was), I had to be very gentle.
I could have caused scars on that floor which would have never come out.
And a person’s heart is very fragile. Easily scarred
So when restoring a person, do it gently
Don’t come accusing and demanding
Come striving to understand, asking questions that direct a person’s thoughts
It must be done watchfully
Keep watch on yourself, Paul says, lest you too be tempted
Why must it be done watchfully? How could I be tempted in the work of restoration?
Temptation to take responsibility for other people’s poor decisions or bad choices, or to feel inadequate because you can’t take away their pain
One of my best friends out east worked as a Christian counselor for years but now is taking an extended break. He’s not sure if he will go back to counseling or not, even though he spent a lot of time and money training to be a counselor
Why? Because the work of restoration can be heavy.
It is serious work
But the there can be temptation to feel that whatever happens to this person is your responsibility alone and that it’s up to you to “save the day”.
When, really, you are a tool in the Master’s hands. It’s up to you to be faithful and let Him do the work of restoration
You can be tempted to take up offense on behalf of that person without knowing the full story. “
“Why that so and so! How dare he treat you like that?”
Oh, this has happened to me. I’ve taken up offense on behalf of someone who has come to me and then found out later that he wasn’t actually telling me the truth or the whole truth anyway
In Moz, I used to have coffee regularly with a young man who was working with another organization
And he told me story after story of the horrible way in which he was being treated by his boss, a Christian Mozambican man whom I also knew
And I began to feel sorry for him and “how could he treat you like this?” I took up offense on his behalf
But I didn’t know the whole story. I later found out that this young man was doing horrible damage with his mouth and spreading slander about his boss
And I was very ashamed over what I had believed about this very upstanding and fine Mozambican man
Very shortly afterward, the young man left Mozambique and I never heard from him again.
And when you are restoring someone you can be tempted. What kind of temptation?
You can be tempted to take responsibility for the other person’s decisions or bad choices
And you can bear that weight, feeling so bad that you weren’t able to stop him from continuing in whatever sin has overtaken him
You can be tempted to fall into the same sin that the other person is dealing with
Be very careful. don’t be tempted to take up offense on behalf of the person that you are restoring
Secondly, restoration must be done watchfully because of what Paul says about sin in verse 1:
If anyone is caught in any transgression.
Sin can so easily catch us and before we know it, we are entangled
Remember what the LORD said to Cain in Genesis 4:7 “if you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you not well, sin is crouching at the door. It’s desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”
It also kind of echoes what Jesus told His disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Watch and pray lest you fall into temptation.”
So many people find themselves caught, overtaken by sin. They aren’t sure how they got there. They didn’t set about to be entangled by sin, but there they are
Maybe you can indentify with that. I certainly can.
And they need spiritual help to get out.
And it’s up to us, “those who are spiritual” to do this work
But When you are restoring someone, do it watchfully.
Satan is not interested in seeing people restored. And he will do his best to derail you. Sidetrack you. Entrap you.
Be watchful. Prayerful.
Finally, it must be done humbly
If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself
The work of restoration can not be done with a spirit of pride or arrogance. It must be done humbly.
Humility doesn’t mean that you don’t address the sin or the root issue, but you do it with the full knowledge and understanding that you are prone to the same sin.
One thing that I have discovered about myself is that the things that annoy me the most about people are actually the things that I struggle with the most in my own life.
We can’t try to restore someone with the attitude of “I can’t believe that you would do something like this. What were you thinking anyway”
I come to you, not because I am anything special, or because I’ve gotten it figured out, but because I want to help carry your load.
Bear one another’s burden, and so fulfill the law of Christ
i’m coming to you to help you because we are in this together
And if I do manage to help you, I’m not going to boast about it (verse 4).
Galatians 6:4-5 “4 But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. 5 For each will have to bear his own load.”
If I boast, that means I, myself, have been overtaken by sin. The sin of pride
Rather, I’m going to continue to consider my own life and what the Holy Spirit is teaching me
I’m going to bear my own load by being personally responsive to the correction of the Holy Spirit.