Together: Serve

Galatians 5:13–26 NIV

13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. 16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

Pray.

In cross-cultural psychology, an individualistic culture is a community that prioritizes the individual over the collective group. Individualistic cultures emphasize attributes like uniqueness or individuality; personal goals; independence, self-reliance, self-sufficiency; and privacy.

1. Celebration of diversity: Individualistic culture exists on the premise that each person is unique, so those living in individualistic communities are much more likely to be aware of and openly support diversity of thought, background, experience, appearance, and so on.

2. Encouragement of self-expression: Since individualistic cultures encourage individuals to have a strong self-concept of meaningfulness and importance, they encourage people to express their emotions, beliefs, and ideas.

3. Focus on personal development: Individualistic culture holds that each person can (and should) grow and improve throughout their life, resulting in a community that encourages and reinforces individual personal achievements and development. Individuals in these cultures tend to be more self-reliant and confident in their ability to support themselves without external validation.

3 Cons of Individualistic Culture 1. Decrease in unity: When communities include a series of self-focused individuals, it can sharply affect the unity and cohesiveness of the group. Each individual might tend toward emphasizing their cultural differences, which results in overall disharmony.

2. Lower empathy: People in individualistic cultures are by nature more self-interested, which means they might feel less empathy and sympathy for others in the community and might be less likely to help or support them.

3. Reduced sense of support: People in individualistic communities might feel more isolated and alone with the support of only themselves and their immediate family. These citizens lack the deep and complex web of support and connectedness that can be present in more collective communities.

We are as connected as we have ever been with technology and yet we are as isolated as ever as well. Think about how we drive.... asleep in the left lane, or breaking traffic laws because of convenience, texting while driving....no concern for others.

We are called to serve one another, and yet our empathy, genuinely only extends to our immediate family.

What does this mean within the church?

Do we mean working at a soup kitchen or homeless shelter? Serving on a church committee, team, or board? Does it mean teaching Sunday school or a Bible study or leading a small group? Does it mean serving others in the church, outside the church, on a daily basis or on an annual mission trip? What does it mean?

So Paul is speaking to these churches in Galatia and he is clearly concerned with some detractors. The rhetoric or argument is strong and bold in chapter 5…including some graphic challenges of dissenters and imagery of work of the flesh…the sin that drives others away from spirit-filled life. Paul is speaking into a developing problem with new Christian understanding of the law, the role of circumcision and other things.

For our time together, we will drill down into verses 13-15.

We are called to be free

Galatians 5:13 (NIV)

13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free.

5:1 --- “It is for freedom that Christ has set you free.”

4:6 “Because you are his sons (and daughters), God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’ So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.”

Free from the power of sin, free to work and prosper, free from the law. Meaning, as we will further develop, these early believers are free from the constraint of the law. The need to constantly be trying to reach some mark that they cannot quite reach. There are no works that earn us righteousness….that is done in Christ. It is in our uniting with Christ that what was intended by the law now is written on our hearts.

Free to do what?

Galatians 5:13 (NIV)

13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh;

The word here for indulge is (aphorme)

In early greek this was a military term, original meaning which was a base of operations or a starting point of an expedition.

Paul is saying, don’t let your freedom become the starting point, the pretext to lead into whatever you want to do with your life. And this is where it speaks into our very experience….we are masters of self-gratification. The lists here in Paul do not simply take these sweeps across the gross sin that we can point fingers at, he takes a sweep at all of us.

Later he speaks of sexual immorality, impurity, idolatry, then hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, disensions, factions, envy, etc. etc.

You good on the first few? Check out the next round:

o Don’t use this freedom to enter back into the same slavery

Free to love

Galatians 5:13–14 NIV

13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Serve one another humbly in love is a weak translation: The greek here is “Enslave yourselves to one another,” or be slaves of one another. Not slaves to sin, not slaves, to this religious rat race, but slaves to one another.

Rather than a self-seeking and sinful use of freedom, he is urging a self-sacrificial and sanctified use of it.

Paul is saying this, you want others to see Christ in your community, then practice love. Practice service to one another.

Indulge of a life in the flesh, or a life in the spirit.

The choice then is to see ourselves stationed at this base of operations. The starting point of an expedition and choose the right journey. And choose it each and everyday.

Love Embraced is Love extended: what does this look like?

The starting place is always humility. Romans 12:3, Let no man think of himself more highly than he ought to think. Thomas a Kempis: This is the highest and most profitable lesson…to have no opinion of ourselves, and to think always well and highly of others is a great wisdom and perfection.

Friends, back off your busy schedule. Cut something out that is not pointing you towards this. And be ready to be interrupted:

Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

“We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God. God will be constantly crossing our paths and canceling our plans by sending us people with claims and petitions. We may pass them by, preoccupied with our important tasks, as the priest passed by the man who had fallen among thieves, perhaps—reading the bible. When we do that we pass by the visible sign of the Cross raised athwart our path to show us that, not our way, but God’s way must be done. It is a strange fact that Christians and even ministers frequently consider their work so important and urgent that they will allow nothing to disturb them. They think they are doing God a service in this, but actually they are disdaining God’s “crooked yet straight path.” They do not want a life that is crossed and balked.

But it is part of the discipline of humility that we must not spare our hand where it can perform a service and that we do not assume that our schedule is our own to manage, but allow it to be arranged by God.”

Service looks different for all of us:

· Moms

· Parents serving family

· If you are single, then it is different

· Retired, then it is different

We are all called to be enslaved to one another.

This church does it so well.

staff meals

sunday school serving each other

Let me challenge:

not just your friends

To those serving and leading: 5% of volunteers doing 80% of the work…

· We need more of our folks to step up

· 5% are you leaving room for others to lead? Are you pouring into others so that they will be ready for the next step of leadership?

The starting place is in freedom—knowing you are free. Then it is in the decision to pour out to others.