Shownotes
What do you do when faith feels like a burden or rules threaten to replace real transformation? Galatians 6 confronts the tension between religious performance and the risky love required for true restoration within Christ’s body.
Eric Harding explains how a community led by the Spirit can replace strict rules and self-importance with humility, honesty, and helpful actions, based on Paul's urgent message to the Galatian churches. With insights from Greek words and culture, this message tells every believer to return to the cross. The cross is the only thing strong enough to hold our failures and hopes.
Scriptures Referenced: Galatians 6:1-18 (NIV), Matthew 18:15-18, Matthew 5:41, Matthew 7, 2 Corinthians 5:17, 2 Corinthians 12:9, Romans 16:22
Key Insights
- Restorative Community: Spirit-led restoration requires humility, not harshness. The biblical word for “restore” evokes a physician resetting a broken bone.
- Burden-Bearing and Personal Responsibility: Paul distinguishes communal support from individual accountability by using two different Greek words for “burden.”
- Sowing to the Spirit: Every choice plants seeds. Real transformation is measured not by rituals but by becoming a new creation in Christ.
https://springhousemidweek.captivate.fm/episode/foundations-galatians-6
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Smyrna TN 37167
CCLI License 2070006
Transcripts
Thank you, Jonathan. No,
Speaker:thank you. And yes, Jonathan, thank you so much for
Speaker:your leadership, for your vision, for getting us here
Speaker:this evening. I want to start out, welcome
Speaker:everybody. I want to start out to
Speaker:say, and I was reminded today, that what we're doing here
Speaker:and what we do in our own time with the word of the Lord is
Speaker:a process. I was reminded of that today when I
Speaker:found myself putting a little bit of extra pressure on myself, not
Speaker:only for preparation but just life in general. So I was
Speaker:reminded it was, you know, it's a process. Give yourself
Speaker:some grace, but also, you know, when you do need it, Make
Speaker:sure that you're looking over your shoulder, making sure that you're watching your heart, making
Speaker:sure that you're, you know, walking in obedience and, and,
Speaker:and, and that. So just thank you for that word, for the brother that brought
Speaker:me that word today. It was, it was timely. Um,
Speaker:so I, I'm excited, um, to help
Speaker:close out what has been a really rich walk through, through
Speaker:Galatians. Uh, I'm going to start with some prayer. Amen.
Speaker:So, Holy Spirit, we thank you. We know you are
Speaker:here. We thank you, Father, for, for the worship that we've
Speaker:already had today. And we pray that we can continue to worship you, Father
Speaker:God. We pray for your presence to continue to be in this house.
Speaker:Father, we pray for your words to fly from
Speaker:me. We pray, Father, for those words that are intended for your
Speaker:people, for them to pierce our hearts and our minds. Amen. For them
Speaker:to stick and to change us in ways that help us love you more and
Speaker:help us love those around us more, Father. We pray for any words that are
Speaker:not intended for your purpose, Father, for those to fall dead to the floor.
Speaker:We thank you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Speaker:Make sure I got my slides right. I do. Okay. Quick
Speaker:recap. So we've, we've been walking through this for, for
Speaker:5 weeks now, so you generally know what's happening here in Galatians.
Speaker:But if not, the Galatian churches are facing a crisis. You know,
Speaker:they've got false teachers, Judaizers that have
Speaker:infiltrated this community. They've told the young believers that
Speaker:faith in Christ alone is not enough. They
Speaker:need to also adopt Jewish laws, specifically circumcision,
Speaker:to be truly right with God. Now, they've, they've brought
Speaker:these people by way of this thinking back into bondage.
Speaker:They've had— they've received the grace of God. They've, they've been saved by the grace
Speaker:of God. Paul gave them the word of God. They were born again,
Speaker:and now they're kind of being led astray and told that's not enough.
Speaker:They had to be circumcised. They had to keep the feast days and all kinds
Speaker:of different rules and regulations. And so Paul is writing here
Speaker:to address and correct that doctrine.
Speaker:Paul's response throughout the letter has at times been fiery.
Speaker:It's been urgent. It's been deeply theological. We've seen him
Speaker:use some pretty strong rebukes, like earlier in Galatians, you know, oh, you
Speaker:foolish Galatians. He's used some sharp, sharp logic.
Speaker:He's had passionate defenses of justification, of
Speaker:grace alone by faith alone. And he's really boiled it
Speaker:down to, you know, circum— you know, circumcision is
Speaker:not as important as the cross of Jesus Christ. As we
Speaker:reach this, this chapter, this final part of
Speaker:Galatians in this particular epistle, you know,
Speaker:Paul is ready to land the plane. First 5 chapters,
Speaker:he's heavily emphasized right belief, and here in
Speaker:chapter 6, he takes a pivot to right practice. What I
Speaker:mean by right practice is walking by the Spirit and
Speaker:living a life that's energized by active love and
Speaker:faith. He addresses a crucial question. You know, if
Speaker:we are saved by grace and free from the law, then how
Speaker:should we live? So Paul understands that true
Speaker:spiritual freedom in Christ is never an excuse for
Speaker:selfishness or moral apathy. Instead, freedom is an
Speaker:invitation to really live radical Spirit led love.
Speaker:And I stumbled on Spirit led love about 10 times. I tried to say it
Speaker:10 times fast. I stumbled every time, but I'm— Glad it came out
Speaker:that time. Um, in this final chapter, he, he moves from a, you
Speaker:know, a theological debate down to everyday relationships.
Speaker:He's really trying to show us here what the gospel means when the
Speaker:rubber hits the road. Um, if you did, there are some handouts. I
Speaker:didn't print quite enough, um, but if you do need them, there
Speaker:might be some extra pieces of paper floating around the room.
Speaker:The back end of that, um, there's a few takeaways. For this
Speaker:evening, and I hope there's more than just a few, but, um,
Speaker:3 divisions of this chapter. So the first division, the first
Speaker:verses 1 through 5, we're really going to talk about being in community. And
Speaker:that's gonna— we'll see some verses about how do we treat a brother or
Speaker:sister who falls. Uh, we'll see also about
Speaker:how do we share each other's burdens and loads, and, and also
Speaker:maintaining, you know, how do we maintain a personal integrity before God.
Speaker:The second division, chapters or verses 6 through 10, is really going to get into
Speaker:our Christian walk, a spiritual reality of sowing and reaping.
Speaker:You've probably heard that before. And there's also an encouragement here of how
Speaker:not to grow weary when we're doing good. The
Speaker:conclusion to Paul's, Paul's letter here, verses
Speaker:11 through 18, we'll get into some reflection. It is
Speaker:Paul's handwritten conclusion. He strips away human
Speaker:pride. He points exclusively to the cross, and
Speaker:he really contrasts, you know, external
Speaker:religious rituals with the reality of being a
Speaker:new creation.
Speaker:This final chapter reminds us that Christianity is not
Speaker:just a set of doctrines to memorize. Like
Speaker:Pastor Wayne said last week, and I won't try to
Speaker:mimic what he did with the 2 legs, if you were here last week.
Speaker:I'm not, I'm not going to do that.
Speaker:But the first thing was turning
Speaker:away, right? It was turning away. And then the second
Speaker:piece, it's, it's about being transformed and living
Speaker:out that transformation in community. So it challenges us
Speaker:to stop measuring ourselves by religious checklists, to care
Speaker:deeply for the wounded around us, and to boast about nothing except for the cross
Speaker:of Christ. Amen. So we're gonna, we're gonna
Speaker:jump in now, and I hope I didn't— I probably already got— yeah, I got
Speaker:off a little bit. Um, verse 1.
Speaker:And let me preface too, I did— I'm gonna spend a whole lot of time
Speaker:on verse 1. So there are 18 verses to, uh,
Speaker:Galatians 6. Uh, don't think that I'm gonna take 20 minutes
Speaker:on every single verse, uh, but, uh, I couldn't
Speaker:quite move off of verse 1. Um, so just,
Speaker:just a little preface there. Um, all right, so let's jump in.
Speaker:Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you
Speaker:who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently.
Speaker:But watch yourselves, or you may also be tempted.
Speaker:So if you've been in church for any amount of time or active in ministry,
Speaker:you've probably seen someone fall away from, from the faith. Now,
Speaker:people fall away for all kinds of reasons. You may—
Speaker:maybe they got into an argument in the church, or, or maybe because,
Speaker:um, maybe their marriage got in the way, or maybe there's something going on with
Speaker:their kids, or they just had a disagreement. But they've went
Speaker:back, they've went back into the world, and they've, and they've been there
Speaker:ever since. What Paul is trying to teach here is that
Speaker:if we know of a brother or a sister who has been taken by a
Speaker:fault, a transgression, a sin, That it is our
Speaker:responsibility as believers to restore
Speaker:such a person back into the kingdom of God.
Speaker:Now, we are not to— a little small—
Speaker:we are not to act like the Holy Spirit,
Speaker:and we are not to take place of the Holy Spirit's work and
Speaker:ministry in a person's life. Amen. Paul the
Speaker:Apostle is writing here because literally a lot of believers had
Speaker:become self-righteous, thinking that they, they
Speaker:themselves would never fall. Now
Speaker:I see— I hear the giggles. We're going to get to that in a minute,
Speaker:the giggles. You see, our,
Speaker:our, our attitudes too can become that way.
Speaker:Good. We can have a false sense of security in our own
Speaker:self-righteousness instead of having faith in the trust, you know, in the righteousness of
Speaker:Jesus Christ. Last week, Pastor Wayne also, he
Speaker:shared a story from John chapter 8 about the woman caught in
Speaker:adultery. I'm not going to repeat that story,
Speaker:but it was in my notes to help illustrate this, this point as well.
Speaker:At the end, when Jesus turns to the woman and says, go, you know, you
Speaker:are forgiven, go and sin no more, He was telling her,
Speaker:don't go back to your old life. A child of God is
Speaker:never, ever to go back to its old life.
Speaker:A child of God that's been set free by Jesus Christ, a
Speaker:child that has been— could or has been or can be used for his
Speaker:glory. One of the things we forget as believers
Speaker:that, you know, every one of us has fallen short in some
Speaker:way of pleasing God. I know that there are
Speaker:areas in my life that I've fallen short. I'm probably not
Speaker:lived up to what I wanted to do to please him. If I dwell
Speaker:on that, I can get discouraged, as I mentioned to you earlier.
Speaker:There are other people that think that they will never fall. They look at people's
Speaker:lives and they seem to set themselves up as judges,
Speaker:and they say, well, I would never do that. Very looking, looking
Speaker:down the nose, if you will. Now, if you— this is where the giggle part
Speaker:comes in— if you have ever encountered somebody like that, you also
Speaker:find that when you go to share something with a person, they can have a
Speaker:very haughty spirit. They can have a very
Speaker:self-righteous attitude, and, um, you could
Speaker:kind of even put— feel put down by them.
Speaker:Now, there are, there are different problems that we all face,
Speaker:uh, and, and pressures in this world. A lot of times when
Speaker:somebody is maybe committing a sin, it could be our
Speaker:temptation to, if we're committing the same sin, to think that ours is
Speaker:small and theirs is big. But in the end, sin is
Speaker:sin. It's— but it is very easy to
Speaker:fall into that trap of being a judge and not
Speaker:really judging ourselves. And we'll hear more from Paul in
Speaker:regards to that a little bit later. I feel that Paul here is teaching that,
Speaker:you know, our responsibility is to help restore people back into the
Speaker:church. But think of how many people, um,
Speaker:maybe, you know, in your personal life that have left the church. They've been offended
Speaker:in, in some way, um, by maybe how a situation was
Speaker:treated or handled, and, and now they've, they've become
Speaker:a little bit bitter by it. Um, one of the things that
Speaker:Jesus taught, and, and Paul is kind of hitting on here is
Speaker:that we have a responsibility if we know that if somebody
Speaker:is living in sin in the church and someone's caught up in a fault,
Speaker:we know personally about it, that it is our duty according to
Speaker:Matthew chapter 18, uh, verses 15 to 18. And
Speaker:we'll step through that here in, in just a second, but he outlines a
Speaker:process there for us. It starts
Speaker:with, you know, well, the, the first thing is that's
Speaker:supposed to happen, we're supposed to go talk to him or her
Speaker:about the sin. That doesn't always happen. Usually the
Speaker:problem is something else, and it's the G word. It's the
Speaker:gossip piece. We spread gossip about that, about those
Speaker:people's sin, and we destroy them. We make them lose face in
Speaker:the church sometimes. We don't really honor the weaknesses
Speaker:or the struggles that they're walking through. That's what
Speaker:Jesus said, not what I said, and I'm going to step through it
Speaker:now. So let's, let's step into chapter 18 of
Speaker:Matthew. Hopefully this comes through. No, it didn't, did it?
Speaker:Oh, there it is right there. Okay. Um,
Speaker:if your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault
Speaker:just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you've won them
Speaker:over. But if they will not listen, take one of—
Speaker:one or two others along. So that every matter may be
Speaker:established by the testimony of 2 or 3 witnesses.
Speaker:If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church. If they
Speaker:still refuse to— if they refuse to listen even to the church,
Speaker:treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector. Truly I
Speaker:tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven,
Speaker:and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Now
Speaker:notice that the, the person, you know, if the person has an
Speaker:attitude of submission, you go to that person and you say,
Speaker:you know, look, I've known you for a while. I've seen you in
Speaker:the church. I've seen what God's doing through your life.
Speaker:But I've— God has, you know, maybe revealed something to me
Speaker:and I need to talk to you about it. Um, you've hopefully
Speaker:prayed about it and determined is now the right time for me to
Speaker:go talk to that person. the Lord has released
Speaker:you to go do that.
Speaker:Um, you talk to him and you go to them and you say, yes. You
Speaker:know, maybe the person says, yes, I am living in sin and I'm ready to
Speaker:repent. Scripture says you've just gained a brother.
Speaker:But if that person says, you know, and sometimes this could be the
Speaker:reaction, this is not, you know, none of your business.
Speaker:Um, and you know for a fact that the person is living in sin,
Speaker:that he or she is living in sin in the church,
Speaker:then it's your responsibility as servants of the Lord is to,
Speaker:as he says in the second part, second step here in
Speaker:verse 16, but if they will not listen, take one or two
Speaker:others along so that every matter may be established by
Speaker:testimony of 2 or 3 witnesses. So
Speaker:then, you know, literally, what do you do? You take a couple of
Speaker:people that maybe know of the same problem. Not
Speaker:everybody. You don't take an entourage, but you take 2 people
Speaker:and you go and you talk to the person. And hopefully, if that person repents,
Speaker:then you've gained a brother. But if he doesn't, then there comes step 3.
Speaker:You take it to the church. If that
Speaker:person still doesn't listen and has no interest at all in repenting,
Speaker:Then according to Scripture, you treat him like a Gentile, a pagan, or,
Speaker:or a tax collector. Now, thankfully, this does not happen very
Speaker:often. I felt it was appropriate to remind us what Scripture says.
Speaker:It's important. We should know this as we become— as we are
Speaker:part of the body of Christ, that if we go to somebody and
Speaker:talk about sin, if God's shown it to us, you know, it's,
Speaker:it's our opportunity to restore them, not destroy them.
Speaker:But try to have them repent and restore them back into
Speaker:fellowship. Yet unfortunately, people can get
Speaker:destroyed by an approach, maybe the way things are
Speaker:handled. Um, so people do leave bitterly. And, and so
Speaker:Paul is saying, is speaking to those believers that have
Speaker:been taken away by legalism, and he's trying to pull them
Speaker:back in. He's trying to restore them. He's not He's not
Speaker:trying to push them away. He's trying to pull them back
Speaker:into fellowship. And the word
Speaker:Paul uses here in Greek is very illustrative.
Speaker:We'll listen to— look at verse 1 just one more
Speaker:time. He says, brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin,
Speaker:you who live by the Spirit should restore
Speaker:that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you may
Speaker:also be tempted. And
Speaker:notice that he says that if you, if you find that they have fallen,
Speaker:that we have to be spiritual and not carnal in
Speaker:order to actually restore that person. You are to use the
Speaker:discernment of the Holy Spirit. You're to use meekness,
Speaker:love, joy. You're to
Speaker:use the fruits of the Holy Spirit. And the, the interesting word that was
Speaker:Used is, is the word restore in, in Greek is actually a physician's
Speaker:term. The term here is, is meant if somebody breaks a
Speaker:limb or breaks an arm, that you're to reset that,
Speaker:that break. That's what it literally means in, in Greek.
Speaker:You're to take it and, and set it back in place. And so that's the
Speaker:word restoration here. We're not to destroy, we're to restore
Speaker:that person back into a place of healing. And
Speaker:Paul is passing on some, some additional wisdom at the end where he's, you know,
Speaker:it's wise and important to understand that, you know, the church is,
Speaker:is a restoration. We're here for restoration and community. When
Speaker:we gather here on Wednesdays and Sundays, this is a hospital
Speaker:where people can come with a whole lot of needs. It's not
Speaker:just the pastoral staff and the elders that
Speaker:have the responsibility to the congregation. You know, we're all taking and communing
Speaker:together. So every one of us, you know,
Speaker:is to reach out to someone in need. You know, God had given— God has
Speaker:given us wisdom and power, and
Speaker:that's to help people in their times of struggle.
Speaker:God has given us capacity to take the break and restore
Speaker:it back, and we can either restore people back
Speaker:into fellowship or we can push them away. By our
Speaker:attitudes. And that's very important for us to, to
Speaker:understand as we walk in the Spirit. It is our duty, you
Speaker:know, to become physicians and to go to our brothers and sisters
Speaker:and to take the breaks to help restore them back. And
Speaker:Paul is trying to end with some additional wisdom here when he says,
Speaker:because if you don't, then who's going to come help you when you fall?
Speaker:So if we can think about that, Who's going to try to restore
Speaker:us if we're not doing the restoration work of the Lord as well?
Speaker:So we have a great, great responsibility to each other.
Speaker:Verse 2. I told you verse 1 was going to take a minute,
Speaker:but we're around the block now. But verse
Speaker:2, carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will
Speaker:fulfill the law of Christ. So
Speaker:we can ask ourselves, do you bear people's
Speaker:burdens, or are you only concerned about your own burdens?
Speaker:When was the last time God spoke to your heart and you— and you saw
Speaker:a need and it became a burden, you know, in your life?
Speaker:And what Paul is declaring here by using the word burden—
Speaker:in Greek, it's a military term. And it's used to
Speaker:describe when someone is carrying an overweight pack,
Speaker:or you see them struggling in a great way, and you go over and you
Speaker:help them carry that pack. And there's a lot of
Speaker:us, a lot of brothers and sisters in the house that, that may be overloaded
Speaker:in their lives. And we, as
Speaker:brothers and sisters to them, we need to help kind of carry their
Speaker:packs from time to time. That's what Paul is declaring by the
Speaker:Holy Spirit. We're on the same team. We need to help
Speaker:each other along in the kingdom of God. And there are
Speaker:definitely certain areas where I feel like I might be winning in life,
Speaker:and then there's other areas where I need help, and maybe you need my help.
Speaker:And the point is, we're on the same team and we should be helping each
Speaker:other. It's wise to
Speaker:understand what Paul declares here He says that if we
Speaker:do help with another's burden,
Speaker:that we are fulfilling the law of Christ. And what's the law
Speaker:of Christ? It's love. I really care
Speaker:about you, and you really care about me. In the, in the
Speaker:body of Christ, we should not just come to listen,
Speaker:but to apply what is being taught. I know that I need to,
Speaker:to do what I need to do in terms of preparing my heart That
Speaker:when I, when I come, that I can listen to
Speaker:the Lord. And if somebody puts somebody in my path,
Speaker:that I should be able to help them.
Speaker:That's what a body of believers looks like. That's the Church of Christ,
Speaker:not just the Church of Springhouse. These are
Speaker:scriptural things. They're practical things
Speaker:that we need to live by. If you
Speaker:have your Bible, if you, if you flipped over to Matthew
Speaker:5:41 in the Sermon on the Mount, just for
Speaker:reference, Jesus is talking about kingdom living.
Speaker:And he says, if somebody comes up to you and they says they
Speaker:want you to carry their pack for a mile, Jesus is saying carry it for
Speaker:2. Now you have to understand Roman
Speaker:culture at the time. A Roman soldier could literally walk up to you at any
Speaker:time walking down the street, take out the sword, tap you on the
Speaker:shoulder, and say, carry this pack.
Speaker:What Jesus is saying here is that, you know, it's not enough just to carry
Speaker:it 1 mile. Since you are a Christian, show
Speaker:them some Christian love. Take the pack and carry it too,
Speaker:and maybe along the way you could share the love of Christ with them.
Speaker:Go out of your way to carry somebody's pack, not begrudgingly or unwillingly,
Speaker:but willingly, because you love God and because you're
Speaker:doing it unto the Lord. And maybe
Speaker:that person, by your submission to him or her, may
Speaker:come to know the love of Christ. So we really need to
Speaker:become servants of the Lord, to serve one another. We
Speaker:need to help each other in our times of weakness, weakness.
Speaker:and really defend each other in the kingdom of God. Come on.
Speaker:Cool. Um, verse 3, if anyone thinks they are something when they are
Speaker:not, they deceive themselves. I told you
Speaker:Paul gets pretty practical here in, in, uh, chapter
Speaker:6. So Paul brings this stiff jab.
Speaker:We just, we just read about carrying burdens.
Speaker:So what causes us not to practice this? It's
Speaker:pride. We see ourselves as self-reliant,
Speaker:not needing anybody else's help to carry our load, even
Speaker:when it gets too heavy for us. Or perhaps we're simply too
Speaker:proud to do the work of carrying another's load.
Speaker:The word deceive here in Greek means to delude the mind.
Speaker:The thought of deluding my own mind into thinking that,
Speaker:that doesn't lead me to believe that that's the kind of person that would make
Speaker:or keep a whole lot of friends, or maybe for me to
Speaker:even be a good husband or a good father. I would have
Speaker:thought by now, though, that through my life experiences and somewhat
Speaker:successfully raising a couple of kids, that I would have had things figured out.
Speaker:Um, humbly say, and, uh, news alert,
Speaker:that's not the case. Um, I'd be lying to
Speaker:myself and operating out of a place of arrogance if I never sought the
Speaker:counsel of my parents, if I never sought the counsel of those around
Speaker:me to kind of help me in this journey. If I were
Speaker:to deceive myself in that way, I would absolutely— that would
Speaker:absolutely result in me giving my kids some bad advice.
Speaker:And it would impact their lives. And that's
Speaker:definitely not the legacy that I want to leave for them.
Speaker:Verse 4. And please let me know if I get off up here. I think
Speaker:I'm still on. Awesome. Cool. Awesome. Verse 4.
Speaker:Each one should test their own actions, then they can take pride
Speaker:in themselves alone without comparing themselves to someone else.
Speaker:So did you hear what he said there? He says you
Speaker:don't have to go around showing off your work to anybody else.
Speaker:Look at it yourself, assess it yourself, take it before the Lord. He's the
Speaker:one that's going to reward you. There's no need to seek
Speaker:verification from people. Paul says that
Speaker:you have to look at your life and examine your actions as
Speaker:we walk in this world. World. We realize that, you know, we
Speaker:hear this phrase, people are people, you know, we're broken.
Speaker:And it is very easy to play the role— play a role, I guess I
Speaker:should say— while we're in front of everybody else. What
Speaker:Paul says is you need to get to know yourself, know yourself
Speaker:better than anybody else. And in today's culture and world,
Speaker:we call that self-awareness. Now, the best person that knows
Speaker:me besides me It's not my wife, although she knows me very well,
Speaker:and it's not my kids, but it's the Lord. You know,
Speaker:he knows me best. He made me in his own image. And Paul is breaking
Speaker:it down here when he says, look, every man should examine his own
Speaker:work. We should ask ourselves, what kind of work am I building for the
Speaker:kingdom? Is it built upon sand or is it built upon
Speaker:the rock? And there might even be some of us here
Speaker:tonight that are building upon sand and we don't realize it. In Matthew
Speaker:Chapter 7, you know, he talks about building a
Speaker:house on sand. And you could put all the fancy windows you want in the
Speaker:house, you can slap a beautiful wooden door on the front, you can have a
Speaker:magnificent deck in the back and a beautiful pool, and it doesn't
Speaker:matter how many millions of dollars you spend
Speaker:on that house, when the
Speaker:floods and the winds begin, if it's not built upon the rock, It's
Speaker:going to fall. It was never established upon the foundation,
Speaker:which is Jesus Christ the rock. And so what this verse is saying is you
Speaker:must examine what you're building to ensure it's not being
Speaker:built on a false foundation. Your house, your life, it can look
Speaker:beautiful, but if it's not solid in Jesus, then you're going to have problems.
Speaker:We have to build upon the rock. We can use
Speaker:this, this This, uh, to examine, you know, how we're building up our
Speaker:children. Our children are watching our lives.
Speaker:If we've bent our knee to the lordship of Jesus and we're truly
Speaker:walking with him with our eyes fixated on him, then they
Speaker:will be a generation of godly children. And in that, the generation
Speaker:will continue from generation to generation to generation
Speaker:as we build that solid foundation on Jesus Christ.
Speaker:By the love of God. Love is the base of the
Speaker:foundation in the kingdom of God. And so Paul is saying that's,
Speaker:that's where it's at.
Speaker:Verse 5, for each one should carry their
Speaker:own load. Now the King James translation says,
Speaker:for every man shall bear his own burden. Now he
Speaker:just told us in verse 2, Yeah. If
Speaker:you were paying attention, which I hope you were. I got a couple of people
Speaker:that are, so awesome. That we're to bear other people's
Speaker:burdens, and now he's telling us we're to bear our own. So is he
Speaker:contradicting himself? No, he's, he's not.
Speaker:Spoiler alert. There are 2 Greek words at play
Speaker:here. Baros, which was used in verse 2, is meant
Speaker:for a heavy, crushing, or burdensome weight.
Speaker:Phortion used here in verse 5 is the, the word
Speaker:burden here is literally speaking of an
Speaker:individual, individual duty or a personal
Speaker:task. He says that for every man shall bear,
Speaker:which means in Greek to carry his own, um, or to
Speaker:carry or lift up his own service to the Lord or
Speaker:his own task. Walking by faith in the Spirit
Speaker:means taking responsibility. We take
Speaker:responsibility for ourselves and we take
Speaker:responsibility to help others. Walking in the
Speaker:flesh does not take responsibility.
Speaker:Walking in the flesh demands from others. Walking in
Speaker:the flesh judges others. It condemns others in order to gain
Speaker:control, like the competing Jewish authorities
Speaker:were doing earlier in this chapter. And they are— that they were— that's what they
Speaker:were modeling. Walking in the flesh assigns blame, and walking in the
Speaker:Spirit assumes responsibility. So Paul insists that each
Speaker:one of us is accountable for our own obedience to the Lord, for how
Speaker:we treat others. We should worry about our, our own obedience
Speaker:and let the Spirit take care of leading others. It's the Spirit's
Speaker:job to convict, not ours. We can gently
Speaker:lead them, we could help them, but we are not
Speaker:in command. The Spirit could command but
Speaker:doesn't. Spirit gives us the ability to choose.
Speaker:Verse 6,
Speaker:nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word
Speaker:should share all good things with their instructor.
Speaker:The principle is that those who benefit spiritually from faithful teaching
Speaker:should recognize and support themselves— support those that devote
Speaker:themselves to instruction and ministry.
Speaker:This is not merely about money. It
Speaker:reflects gratitude and partnership in the gospel. Paul
Speaker:is saying that you have a responsibility to your pastor.
Speaker:If the pastor is spiritually feeding you the word of God, then it's your responsibility
Speaker:to in turn give back for a physical or financial need that that
Speaker:person has. Now, before you think that we're supposed to turn
Speaker:everything over, that's not what this is. That's not what is intended
Speaker:here. Martin Luther commented on the phrase in all
Speaker:good things in this passage. They are not to be
Speaker:understood to mean that people are to give all that they
Speaker:have to their ministers, but that they should support them liberally and
Speaker:give them enough to live well. So Paul is not
Speaker:pleading to be fed here. He's teaching us,
Speaker:them and us, systematically how to do it.
Speaker:And then when you read over in 1 Corinthians chapter 16, the first
Speaker:4 verses there, he gives the— he gives some instruction there
Speaker:about the people, about weekly giving. And there's a reference
Speaker:there in verse 1, back, back to this verse. And he
Speaker:says, now about the collection for the Lord's people. Do what I told
Speaker:the Galatian churches to do. And in this epistle, Paul
Speaker:doesn't spend a whole lot of time on it. It's just this one verse here.
Speaker:All right, so we're going to look at verses 7 and 8 together.
Speaker:Do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked.
Speaker:A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please
Speaker:their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction.
Speaker:Whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap
Speaker:eternal life. So Paul is saying
Speaker:that your harvest directly corresponds to
Speaker:what was planted. You cannot plant corn and
Speaker:expect to harvest wheat. In the law of reaping, when you sow—
Speaker:and I can say by personal experience that
Speaker:even though through the power of the Holy Spirit through forgiveness, through
Speaker:cleansing, that there are things in my life that
Speaker:I can still see that I've done in the past that still today reaping
Speaker:what I sowed in the past. It's a natural law.
Speaker:It's scriptural. God will forgive you for the sin,
Speaker:but you have to reap the consequences. And we need to
Speaker:understand that. And Paul here is declaring that as a believer, as a
Speaker:child of God, Well, he's saying, you know,
Speaker:am I sowing to the flesh or am I sowing to the Spirit?
Speaker:And you may ask yourself, how can I not sow to the flesh?
Speaker:I'm glad you asked.
Speaker:Earlier we talked about taking responsibility. So you have to take account for
Speaker:your life and you have to take responsibility. One,
Speaker:one example You know, what kind of movies or TV
Speaker:do you watch? Is what you're watching feeding your flesh, feeding
Speaker:the very things you struggle with? And
Speaker:what you have to do is you have to starve your flesh to death so
Speaker:that the Spirit can rule over your life. Paul is very
Speaker:interested in this because there were all kinds of people just running around wanting to
Speaker:have fun and not suffer the consequences
Speaker:of sin and of sin in their life. And you have to. It's a law
Speaker:that God set up. It's important not to look,
Speaker:you know, in this in a, in a temporal basis, but to look from an
Speaker:eternal perspective when we're injecting ourselves in the kingdom.
Speaker:You can look what God wants to do for you, look what he's already
Speaker:done for you, and all you have to do is be a
Speaker:recipient of his grace. All you have to do in
Speaker:order to— or In God's love
Speaker:for you and to use you, all he wants
Speaker:is your, is your heart. So we,
Speaker:taking that responsibility, need to take the word into our
Speaker:hearts and into our minds so that we can become doers of God's word
Speaker:and we can take this practically and pass this on to others.
Speaker:Verse 9. Let us not become weary
Speaker:in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest
Speaker:if we do not give up. Paul is trying to
Speaker:give some encouragement here. You can still get
Speaker:tired if you're doing the work of the Lord. There may be times
Speaker:where you have said to yourself, I don't know how much more I can do,
Speaker:and it's perfectly acceptable to take that to the Lord and say that as well.
Speaker:But know this, that Everything you're doing for the kingdom is not wasted
Speaker:time. Everything you put in, you are accruing interest in the
Speaker:kingdom's bank. You are investing in the kingdom, in the
Speaker:bank of heaven. You're storing up, and one of these days those dividends
Speaker:will all apply so tremendously when we get there.
Speaker:God's going to say, well done, good and faithful servant. You
Speaker:have been faithful with a few things, and I will put you in charge of
Speaker:many things. Come and share in your master's
Speaker:happiness. Verse 10. Therefore, as we have
Speaker:opportunity, let us do good to all people,
Speaker:especially to those who belong to the family of
Speaker:believers. What Paul is saying here is that if you
Speaker:see a brother or sister with a physical need, we have
Speaker:an opportunity. Let us do good. The word
Speaker:opportunity here in Greek, Kairos, means the
Speaker:right, critical, or opportune moment to take
Speaker:action. It means to set the proper time to help
Speaker:someone, to feed them, to clothe them, to protect
Speaker:them, whatever their need is, especially if they
Speaker:are in the body of Christ. And we don't— we all know we
Speaker:don't even have to go outside of the church.
Speaker:There are needs right here. There are people that need you and
Speaker:you and you and you. Paul is
Speaker:saying that we need to be sensitive to one another. This is what it needs—
Speaker:what it means to be a Christian. See people's need. Don't be too
Speaker:busy. Don't brush by. Don't look the other way,
Speaker:but to take time to be— this is
Speaker:a Christian community, a Christian country, and a Christian people.
Speaker:We have the opportunity to start putting into practice what we preach, what we read,
Speaker:what we hear. by extending our hands and our resources to help others.
Speaker:All right, so Paul is beginning to enter his
Speaker:conclusion now, his final pieces of advice.
Speaker:In verse 11, he says, see what large letters I use
Speaker:as I write to you in my— with my own hand. Now, this is the
Speaker:only place here in Galatians where he talks about his own hand, his writing in
Speaker:his own hand. He does use similar statements in other
Speaker:epistles as well, other letters. Trained scribes were used
Speaker:during these times. We see that evidence in the case of Paul. If you look
Speaker:at Romans 16:22, we see who we believe to
Speaker:be his scribe at the time, Tertius, step up. And
Speaker:Tertius at the time put his own personal greeting on the letter to
Speaker:Rome. Paul likely did this for a
Speaker:multitude of reasons, which could have included.
Speaker:Um, he wanted to prove authenticity. There was
Speaker:false letters circulating at the time. He also could have done it to
Speaker:extend warmth, to extend his personal
Speaker:pastoral authority, even though he was separated, um,
Speaker:away from them at the time. He was separated by, by distance.
Speaker:Could have been kind of like an author signing a book. Or it was to,
Speaker:to have to, to provide physical proof of, of his solidarity and his
Speaker:suffering. Paul writes here in Galatians, you—
Speaker:the words, see what large letters, he is drawing attention to
Speaker:his physical reality. Traditionally, it's believed that
Speaker:he used large letters to maybe point back to an eyesight problem,
Speaker:or maybe some think he used large letters due to hand injuries that he
Speaker:had received during beatings in Philippi. We don't
Speaker:really know, and that's okay. If Scripture doesn't say it,
Speaker:we don't need to insert it. Either way, we are— it was
Speaker:reminding the recipients of the personal cost and the physical
Speaker:suffering that he was enduring for the sake of the gospel.
Speaker:Verses 12 and 13. Those who want to impress
Speaker:people by means of flesh are trying to compel you to be circumcised.
Speaker:The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of
Speaker:Christ. Not even those who are circumcised keep the
Speaker:law. Yet they want you to be circumcised, that they may
Speaker:boast about your circumcision in the flesh. You
Speaker:see, the, the Judaizers were coming around and telling
Speaker:these guys to be circumcised, to, um, to
Speaker:keep the Sabbath, to keep the new moons, and all of those things.
Speaker:They were putting the yoke of bondage back in these people's lives. Martin
Speaker:Luther commented on this. He says, Mark the Apostle
Speaker:Mark what the apostle is saying. Those who are
Speaker:circumcised do not fulfill the law. No self-righteous
Speaker:person ever does. To work, pray, or suffer apart
Speaker:from Christ is to work, pray, and suffer in vain.
Speaker:For whatsoever is not of faith is sin.
Speaker:It does a person no good to be circumcised, to fast, to pray,
Speaker:or to do anything if in his heart he despises Christ.
Speaker:And so the, the cross of Jesus Christ is much,
Speaker:much greater than the legalism that of, of these particular men.
Speaker:Verse 14, may I never boast except in the cross
Speaker:of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been
Speaker:crucified to me and I to the world. The King James
Speaker:Version uses a little bit different language on the front end of this verse. It
Speaker:says, but God forbid He expresses the same
Speaker:sentiment in Romans 6:5, where he says, we glory in
Speaker:tribulations. 2 Corinthians 12:9, he talks about,
Speaker:therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my
Speaker:weaknesses. Now, according to these expressions,
Speaker:the glory of a Christian consists of tribulations, reproaches, and
Speaker:weaknesses.
Speaker:That's what I was hoping I was going to get, a second or an amen
Speaker:on that. The cross is not just the source of our
Speaker:foundation, of our salvation. It becomes the source of our identity,
Speaker:our value, and our glory. Because Christ was crucified for
Speaker:us, we no longer seek our worth, our status, or our praise from
Speaker:the world, but from what he accomplished on the cross.
Speaker:Human achievements and rituals pale in comparison to Christ's
Speaker:sacrifice.
Speaker:I know he's talked a lot about circumcision here. We got it. We got another
Speaker:one. Neither circumcision or uncircumcision means anything.
Speaker:What counts is the new creation. Paul says clearly that
Speaker:neither one of these things matter. Our minds would tell us that there
Speaker:has to be some advantage, right? But that's
Speaker:just simply not true here, according to Paul. We are a new people.
Speaker:Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:17, Therefore, if
Speaker:anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come.
Speaker:The old is gone and the new is here. And, and here it is again,
Speaker:a child of God is brand new. We learn from the Word that there is
Speaker:nothing under the sun that can make us righteous
Speaker:before God except being a new creation in Jesus Christ.
Speaker:And in the face of the legalizers, he's saying, you know,
Speaker:external rules do not save. Spiritual transformation does.
Speaker:Verse 16, peace and mercy to all who follow this
Speaker:rule, the Israel of God. Paul
Speaker:gives a blessing on those who walk in God's truth.
Speaker:There is a, there is a rule for a Christian life. It's revealed
Speaker:in God by God's word. We just don't make it up as we
Speaker:go. We are to measure ourselves according to this rule.
Speaker:As we spoke about a little bit earlier, we have to take responsibility.
Speaker:Just as Paul was willing to pronounce a curse on those who,
Speaker:who were pushing and taught the false doctrines— we saw that in Galatians, the
Speaker:first chapter of Galatians— he was also willing to give a blessing
Speaker:to those who walk according to this rule.
Speaker:These are those These are those who are the true Israel of God.
Speaker:That's the descendants of Abraham. So Paul is trying to unite the
Speaker:believing Jews and Gentiles.
Speaker:Verse 17, from now on, let no one cause me
Speaker:trouble, for I bear on my own— I bear on my body
Speaker:marks of Jesus. In, in all,
Speaker:Paul was whipped 5 times 39 times. That's
Speaker:one shy of a death sentence. He was beaten with rods 3 times.
Speaker:Paul declares here before he gives his conclusion that from now on he
Speaker:doesn't want to be bothered by anybody else
Speaker:because of the mark of the seal of persecution in his life, that he
Speaker:stood by Jesus Christ. Some think
Speaker:the, the phrase, let no one cause me trouble,
Speaker:was Paul's way to say to the Christians in Galatia, don't be a
Speaker:trouble to me. by continuing to play around with these false
Speaker:doctrines. I've suffered enough. And then
Speaker:he finishes with this: The grace of the Lord
Speaker:Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and
Speaker:sisters. Amen. This was the apostle's
Speaker:farewell. He ends this epistle exactly the same
Speaker:way as he began it, by wishing grace upon these—
Speaker:upon, upon the Galatians. Paul could wish
Speaker:nothing greater for them. If this were so, they
Speaker:would walk in grace. If this were— if this were
Speaker:so, they would walk in a grace posture, a
Speaker:relationship with God instead of that legal
Speaker:performance-based relationship that was
Speaker:endangering them. But let's pray.
Speaker:Father, I pray that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ would
Speaker:be over our life. Father, we thank you for the presence of
Speaker:your Holy Spirit tonight.. As we started, Father, we pray
Speaker:that your words would penetrate. We pray that you would
Speaker:change us in ways that help us understand you more. Father,
Speaker:we trust your process of refining us each and every day. We
Speaker:pray that you would continue to give us strength in
Speaker:obedience, in discipline, Father, to press into you, to see
Speaker:you fully with our hearts and our minds, Father. We bless
Speaker:this house. We bless these people, Father. We thank you
Speaker:so very much. In Jesus' Holy name we pray. And they
Speaker:all said, amen. Thank you.
