In the Struggle Together

11/19/11

Scripture:

Today we are concluding our reading from the Book of Galatians.  I’ll be reading to you the sixth chapter.  Paul’s been teaching his churches about what the gospel is about and how it’s not about following the rules.  It’s not about trying to measure up by being obedient.  It’s about having faith in Jesus Christ and his Spirit living in you.  And so here in chapter 6 Paul concludes with these words:  

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.  ⁶ One who is taught the word must share all good things with the one who teaches.  ⁷ Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.  ⁸ 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.  ⁹ And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.  ¹⁰ So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.  ¹¹ See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand.  ¹² It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised, and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ.  ¹³ For even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh.  ¹⁴ But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.  ¹⁵ For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.  ¹⁶ And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.  ¹⁷ From now on let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.  ¹⁸ The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen.  

Today at 3 o'clock I will not be watching the St. Louis Rams football game.  I'm going to the concert—hope to see you there.  But if you’re home today and you’re a football fan, 3 o'clock today the Rams are going to play the Seattle Seahawks.  They are 2 and 7 and I imagine that the 10 minutes-15 minutes before the players take the field, their coach, Steve Spagnuolo, is going to have some words for them—words to inspire them, to challenge them, to hopefully lead them onto the field and into victory.  And as I think about that I think about the closing remarks of our letter that we’re reading today from Paul, the coach so to speak—words for his team, the churches of Galatia.  He’s been writing and giving them this speech and he’s wrapping it up today, and he’s giving them some final words.  And as we think about these final words, I couldn't help but think about Coach Spagnuolo and about some things that maybe would parallel between coaching and preaching.  So join with me as we look at our text this morning and we think about what it means to be in the struggle together.  

Play Like a Team

The first point I want you to note is I think Paul would say to the churches to play like a team.  In Galatians chapter 6 it says, “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.  Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”  I want us to talk about what it means to play like a team as a church by looking at this verse, but we need to look at it in context.  

In this letter Paul has told us that all human beings have something in common.  It’s called the sinful nature or the ‘flesh’.  And he says in this letter quite eloquently that every person because they are born a sinful person has a nature in them to go wrong, to do wrong, and to live for our self and not for God.  He also says in this letter that all authentic Christians have something in common, too.  Not only do they have the indwelling sinful nature in their heart, they have the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit of God.  That is, if you and I are a Christian, that the Spirit of God lives within us when we come to faith, and Paul assumed that in chapter 3 verse 2 when he said, “Let me ask you only this:  Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?”  His assumption was that his audience had received the Spirit of God and the Spirit lived within them.  And then in chapter 5, the text that Mike preached last week, it says, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.”  And so Paul’s telling us the Spirit within us will help us not to give into those desires that are wrong.  But again, then he jumps right into this verse:  “If anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.”  I want you to know something.  Paul is saying here that God living in you isn’t enough.  God living within you, the Spirit of God living within, you is not enough to help you in your spiritual life.  You need other believers.  

Now some of you might be thinking wait a minute...God isn’t enough?  That’s kind of crazy.  I mean if God's living in my heart, can’t God give me everything that I need to make the right choices and to be the right person?  And you’re telling me God's not enough?  Well, let me ask you to consider creation.  You know the story...God made the world, God made the first person.  His name was Adam, right?  And God said it’s not good for man to be alone.  Then God didn’t go on to say I’ll be man’s companion, he went on to fashion a woman and said I will make a helper suitable for him.  So God is saying there is a need in the man that I am willfully not going to meet.  I’m going to create a person to meet that need for him, and thus we have the first marriage and human life begins.  And I think there's something similar here in the text of Galatians.  I think God is teaching us through the inspired word of Galatians that you and I, as Christians, there’s a real potential that we might fall into a sin.  We might cheat on our spouse.  We might steal.  We might be dishonest.  We might become unforgiving and bitter towards people.  But the reality is, you and I, we might fall into a sin and it’s the responsibility of the church community to help us get back on track.  We can’t do it alone.  The implication is we need the community to keep each other on course.  

Now there are some implications here, friends, I want you to think about with me.  When you say yes to Jesus, you say yes to the church.  When you become a Christian, you lose the right to say ‘well, that’s none of your business, pastor,’ if you’re doing something wrong.  Or ‘that’s none of your business—I don’t care if you sit beside me in church.’   The reality is you and I become a part of a community and we are accountable to one another.  

So here’s what I want you to do.  Let’s have a little bit of interaction time, alright?  I want you to turn to your neighbor and say, ‘you need me.’  So go. “You need me.”   Alright, now I want you to turn back to your neighbor again and say ‘I need you.’  “I need you.”  And then on the count of three I want us to say ‘we are family.’  On the count of three...you’ve got to better than the 8 o'clockers; they started saying it as soon as I said it, so they were eager.  On the count of three, we are family.  One, two three.  “We are family!”   Very good, you follow orders well.  

Now why is this important?  Why do we need to get it into our head that we are a community and we are accountable to each other?  Because the consequences of sin are serious.  Last week when Pastor Mike was preaching, he read this verse to you and I know you remembered it.  But in case you didn’t, it’s up on the screen.  I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God (Galatians 5:21b).  He’s talking about people that are living by the flesh, the people that are doing wrong.  If that’s the pattern of your life you are in jeopardy, and wouldn't you want someone to step in and try to help you out?  That’s what we do.  Think about it this way.  If I went to get some tomato seeds and I wanted to plant 12 tomato plants—is this a good time of year to do that?  No, why not?  It’ll freeze, right, it won’t last very long.  But, what if I have a greenhouse, can I do it then?  You know why, because the greenhouse is the environment for growth.  Out in that cold harsh world that tomato plant would wither and die, but in that warm greenhouse that plant can thrive and grow because its got the right environment for that.  

Now I want you to think about that picture for a minute, because the church is the greenhouse.  The community of faith is the greenhouse and when we’re in fellowship with one another, this is where we grow.  You know, this scripture passage is about accountability, right?  If you notice someone making a mistake, you go to them, you correct them with gentleness.  This is an accountability passage and there are several in the New Testament, some written by Paul and some taught by Jesus that were written down by the gospel writers.  In some cases the stories have a happy ending.  You have someone doing wrong and they get confronted by their follow church members and they get disciplined, and they learn from their mistakes and they get back on track.  But then there are other stories where things don’t turn out well.  You go to the person and say, “I'm concerned about you, you’re being unfaithful to your spouse.” And the guy says, “Thank you, brother, for telling me; I'm going to repent.”   No, he says, “That's none of your business.  Go away from me.” What do you do?  Well, sometimes the church has to tell people after repeated attempts of getting them to change that we can’t count you a part of our number anymore.  It’s called church discipline.  It’s something in the New Testament.  And I want you to realize, when Paul writes about that in the New Testament he uses the language ‘handing someone over to Satan.’  I think it’s very interesting that the idea of asking someone...you’re no longer welcome in the church community because you’re refusing to live a God-honoring life...it’s putting them out in the world with the devil.  That’s the idea of the greenhouse.  It’s safer inside.  It’s conducive in here, out there is where we go to be disciplined.  

So the idea here is that you and I are to be close and connected and aware when someone stumbles whether it’s a pastor, a council member, a family member or just a person that you serve in the church with.  You and I are to love your neighbor as yourself.  Now what that means...love is not permissiveness.  It is not love to fail to dissuade another believer from sin anymore than its love to fail to take matches away from a baby.  You do it because you don’t want them to be harmed, so true fellowship in the church is us loving each other and holding each other accountable to live in a way that pleases God.  

You know, this week is the week of Thanksgiving and that’s what the Pilgrims did well.  They entered into a covenant together.  The Mayflower Compact was a covenant agreement to hold each other by a certain standard, and that is exactly what the church is to be about.  So let me ask you a question—who are you accountable to at Eden Church?  Who here are you free to let them speak truth into your life, even if it’s what you don’t want to hear?  If the answer is no one because nobody can tell you what to do, then you’re an accident waiting to happen.  And I just want you to realize that you and I need each other.  The question may come up then well, when do we not need each other anymore?  When you have a rose up here with your name on it, when you’ve died and gone to heaven, then you no longer need the accountability of the church community.  But until then, you and I need each other to hold each other on the right course in our walk with the Lord.  So as a coach, Paul would say play like a team. 

Keep Your Head in the Game

The second thing I think Paul would say is keep your head in the game.  Think about the choices that you’re making.  He gives it to us here in this passage of scripture from verses 7-9.  “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.”  Notice the language there of sowing and reaping, and he’s talking here in the text about sowing to your flesh or to your sin nature and sowing to the Spirit.  We live here in the midst of the farming belt of America and so we all ride by fields and we all understand sowing and reaping.  A couple things to be mindful of:  You reap in a different season than you sow.  You don’t plant your corn one day and the next day go out and get back.  Sometimes it’s months before you get what the return is.  You reap more than you sowed.  You may put out something small but you get back something larger from that, and also you will always reap what you sow.  You can’t plant corn and get back tomatoes.  And so Paul is telling us here to be mindful, to be very mindful of our choices, to keep your head in the game.  What are you indulging?  Your sinful nature and its desires, or the Spirit of God living within you?

There was a man named John Smith.  He was a loyal carpenter who worked for a very successful building contractor.  One day his boss called him into the office and said, “John, I'm going to put you in charge of this next house that we build.  I want you to order all the materials and oversee the whole job from the ground up.”  John accepted the assignment with great enthusiasm and excitement, and so for 10 days before ground was broken John studied the blueprints.  He checked every measurement, every specification, and suddenly he had a thought.  “If I'm really in charge, why can’t I cut a few corners, use less expensive materials, and put the extra money in my pocket?  Who would know the difference?  Once the house is painted, it will look just great.”  So John set about his scheme.  He ordered second-grade lumber, but his reports indicated that it was top grade.  He ordered inexpensive concrete for the foundation.  He put in cheap wiring.  He cut every corner he could yet he reported the purchase of much better materials.  When the home was completed and fully painted, he asked the contractor to come and see it.  “John,” the contractor said, “what a magnificent job you’ve done!  You know, you’ve been such a good and faithful carpenter all these years that I've decided to show you my gratitude by giving you this house as a gift.”  You know, we don’t want to cut corners because we’re going to pay for it in the end.  And so one of the things we can do as a community is hold each other accountable to sow what we have of our moments, of our experiences, into things that will benefit us and not harm us.  Keep your head in the game.  Your choices really do matter.

Stick to the Fundamentals

Thirdly, last verse of the letter, coaches always remind their players to stick to the fundamentals, and Paul closes with words of a blessing.  “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your Spirit, brothers.  Amen.”  He ended the letter with what he wrote the letter about, what he fought in the letter for, and that is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Friends, you and I have a relationship with God not because we’ve earned it, not because we deserved it, not because we went through confirmation or because we said a prayer.  We have it because of the grace of Jesus Christ.  He died for us.  He causes our hearts to open to him so that we have faith and he keeps us on the journey of life together by His grace.  And then at the very end of our life, when it’s our time to leave this world behind and depart, it’s the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ that carries us safely home.  That’s the fundamentals of who we are at Eden Church.  We’re a family.  What is our...rooted in Christ, right?  Growing in grace because grace is what starts our community as the church of Jesus Christ, and it’s where we need to stay.  

And so I just want to encourage you.  Play like a team because we’re in this together.  See each other as a blessing and not a burden.  I want to encourage you to keep your head in the game, to realize that the small choices you make in life will come back to bless you or to haunt you.  And finally, I want you to stick to the fundamentals.  It’s all about grace.  Let’s be amazed by it.  Let’s let the grace of God lead us into worship, lead us into holiness, lead us into faithful living and sacrifice for Jesus because His grace has been so freely given to me and to you.  Let’s pray together as we close in prayer.

Lord God, I thank you so much for just the wisdom that you have and that you’ve communicated to us through Galatians.  I thank you that we can reflect today on the blessing of your Spirit living within us and really the power of God there to say ‘no’ to sin and to say ‘yes’ to the blessings of a holy life.  Lord, I thank you that even that’s not enough.  We can’t hide in the secret of our own life and deal with our own private shame.  You call us together to accountability and to holiness and love and encouragement, and Lord, we’re on our way there.  We’ve got room to grow, but you’re with us and it’s your grace that sustains us, and we thank you for that.  Lord, I pray that this message of sowing and reaping, that this message of holding one another accountable, this constant blessing of knowing that it’s the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that’s with us—may that sustain us as this message sticks with us in the days and weeks ahead.  Build us up in our faith and enable us, Lord, to be a blessing to others.  For we ask it in Jesus’ name.  Amen.