New Creation, New Community

Welcome

Good morning Jones Road! It is so good to see each and every one of you this morning. We are glad you are here. Whether this is your first time or you have been coming here for years — welcome home.

If you are a guest this morning we are especially glad you chose to spend your Sunday with us. There is a connect card in the seat back in front of you — we would love for you to fill that out and drop it in the offering box or hand it to one of our greeters on your way out. We would love to follow up with you this week.

Before we worship together let me take just a moment to go over a few announcements.

Announcements

First — This Wednesday, June 3rd is our Grow Group. We meet at 6:30 in the Commons Area. Come be a part of what God is doing through our church in this community.

Second — Kidz Korner Set Sail Discipleship is starting Wednesday June 10th from 6:30 to 7:30pm. We need volunteers. There is a sign up sheet in the Commons Area — please prayerfully consider serving our kids.

Third — Our Baby Bottle Fundraiser for The Nest is still underway. Bottles are available in the Common Area and we will be collecting through Father's Day, June 21st. Pick one up on your way out and bring it back full.

Fourth — Food Giveaway is this Thursday, June 4th at 12 noon. Come out and serve your neighbors.

If you would like to give to the ministry of Jones Road Baptist Church you can do so by placing your gift in the offering plate, giving online at our website, or by scanning the QR code in your bulletin. Your generosity makes this ministry possible and we are grateful for every gift.

Alright — let's stand together. Before we worship I want to read out of Psalm 100 for our Call to Worship.

CALL TO WORSHIP — Psalm 100

Listen to these words:

King James Version Psalm 100

1  Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, aall ye lands.

2  Serve the LORD with gladness:

Come before his presence with singing.

3  Know ye that the LORD he is God:

It is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves;

We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

4  Enter into his gates with thanksgiving,

And into his courts with praise:

Be thankful unto him, and bless his name.

5  For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting;

And his truth endureth to all generations.

Church — we are his people.

We are the sheep of his pasture.

And this morning we enter his courts with thanksgiving.

His steadfast love endures forever.

Let's worship him now.

Introduction

If you have your Bibles, go ahead and grab those and turn with me to Galatians chapter 6.

Next week, I will not be here. Elder Simmie is going to start us out in our series in the Psalms which is going to be awesome.

I will be in Orlando at the Southern Baptist Convention representing our church. So, please be in prayer for me and for the convention.

We have made it. We are now at the end of this magnificent book of Galatians. Don’t you just love Galatians?

Don’t be sad that this is the last week. We aren’t taking Galatians out of your Bibles so you can always go back to it when you need it.

My prayer is that this book has been a blessing to you as it has been for me.

Hopefully, you see this by now but this book is all about the freedom we have in Christ.

This is what Paul has been arguing for this entire letter.

You are free.

Free from the law as a means of justification. Free from the flesh. Free from the performance treadmill that religion so often puts us on.

And last week we finished chapter 5.

We saw that this freedom can go one of two directions.

You can use it to serve yourself — to bite, to devour, to consume. Or you can use it to love the person next to you.

We saw the works of the flesh — and that list wasn't just the obvious sins.

Strife. Jealousy. Divisions. Church sins.

Sins that wear a tie on Sunday morning.

And then we saw the fruit of the Spirit.

And we said that fruit is not something you manufacture.

You don't work up patience. You don't grind out kindness.

You abide in Christ and the Spirit produces it in you. Naturally.

The way a healthy tree produces fruit.

And we closed with this — if we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. And if you remember, the word Paul uses for “keep in step,” carries the idea of walking in unison with your brothers and sisters.

And this morning, to finish out this letter, Paul is going to show us what keeping in step actually looks like.

Not in the abstract. Not in theory.

But on the ground. In the church.

With real people who fail and struggle and get tired.

This is the last chapter of Galatians. And I think Paul saves some of his most practical words for right here at the end.

So here is the one big idea I want you to take home this morning.

Because of the cross, you are a new creation. And new creations don't live alone — they live together.

Religious works is not what matters. The good things you do is not what counts.

What counts is New Creation.

This is what Paul will say in verse 15. And that is really what I want you to really get this morning.

None of this matters unless you have been made new. Until you have been changed by the gospel of Christ.

And that is what the Judaizers were missing.

All they cared about was external religion without heart change.

We have been made new so that we can live as a community.

You cannot live as a Christian unless you are living in community with other Christians. This is Paul’s point.

So this morning, we will have two points from this last chapter in Galatians. Two points about how and why we should be living in community together.

Let’s get into it.

This will be the first point this morning,

Point I: What new creation community looks like (1-10)

In verses 1-10, Paul gives us three pictures of what a New Creation community looks like. And there is nothing in this world quite like it.

The church is totally unique. There is no organization or group like it.

The first picture of what a New Creation Community looks like:

A New Creation Community Is a Restoring Community

Verse 1,

Galatians 6:1 “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.”

This is the first aspect of a New Creation community. We restore one another.

Why?

Because all of us, myself included, are prone to the flesh. We are prone to those works of the flesh back Paul talked about in chapter 5 verse 19-21.

And all of us fall into sin.

But if we have a community around us, we can be restored.

In verse 1, that word “restore” is the same word used in Ezra for rebuilding the walls and it is the same word used in Matthew 4 when James and John were mending their nets.

Think about what it means to mend a net. You are not throwing the net away. You are putting it back into the shape it was meant to be.

Isn’t that good? Doesn’t that give you hope?

Yes, we will fall into sin, but there is grace. There is an opportunity to be restored.

Yes, we will fall. But there is grace. There is an opportunity to be restored.

But notice how Paul says to do it.

In a spirit of gentleness.

Paul is not just telling us to restore — he is telling us how.

Restoration without gentleness is not restoration.

It is just confrontation. It is just criticism dressed up as concern.

True restoration is careful. It is patient. It is skilled — the way a doctor sets a broken bone. You do not slam a broken bone back into place.

You set it. Carefully. With precision. With care.

That is how we treat one another when we fall.

And then Paul adds this warning. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.

This is so important.

The moment you think you are above the person you are restoring — you have already lost the spirit of gentleness.

You have stepped into pride. And pride is just the flesh wearing a religious costume.

The restorer is not above the restored. We know that. We know that we are just as capable of the sin that we are calling our brothers to repent of.

Church, we are all in this together. We are all prone to falling. And we all need each other.

That is what a New Creation community does. It restores. Gently. Humbly. Together.

Verse 2,

Galatians 6:2 “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”

We are called as a community to bear one another’s burdens.

Why?

Because we cannot bear them alone. They are too much for us to carry by ourselves.

If I could just be transparent with you for a minute — the last four weeks have been some of the hardest weeks of my life.

And you know what got me through it?

This community. Every day, for weeks, our elders so lovingly prayed for me, checked in on me, loved me well.

If it were not for them, I would not have made it through.

But I am not the only one who needs this. Every single person in this room needs someone to help carry their burdens. Because if nobody does — you will be crushed under the weight of them.

That is what Paul is getting at here.

And notice — this is not a suggestion. This is not a nice idea for close friends. Paul says when you bear the burdens of your brothers and sisters, you are fulfilling the law of Christ.

What is the law of Christ?

Paul already told us back in chapter 5 verse 14. "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

This is not the law of Moses. This is not a checklist. This is the law that Jesus himself embodied when he got underneath our weight and carried it to the cross.

When you show up for someone in their hardest season — when you call, when you pray, when you sit with them in the darkness — you are doing what Jesus did. You are fulfilling his law.

And here is what I want you to see. Verses 1 and 2 are the same movement. Restoration is burden-bearing. When someone falls, you get underneath them and lift. When someone is crushed, you get underneath them and lift. It is the same posture. The same humility. The same love.

The Judaizers were so obsessed with law-keeping that they completely missed this. All their religious performance — and they couldn't be bothered to carry their brother's weight.

We are called to something better than that.

We are called to love.

The first picture of a New Creation Community is that we bear another’s burdens.

That we restore each other in gentleness when we fall into sin.

A New Creation Community is a Restoring Community because we love each other.

And this is the second picture,

A New Creation Community is a Community Honest About Itself

Verse 3,

Galatians 6:3 “For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.”

Pride and self-deception are the enemies of the New Creation Community.

Why?

Because you cannot genuinely bear one another's burdens if you have a false view of yourself.

You cannot stoop to lift someone else if you are too busy congratulating yourself on how well you are standing.

Pride makes you look at the person next to you and either look down on them or envy them.

There is no middle ground.

Either you feel superior or you feel threatened.

And both of those destroy community.

Galatians 6:4 “But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor.”

Galatians 6:5 “For each will have to bear his own load.”

Now here is something I want you to see. Because on the surface this looks like a contradiction.

Back in verse 2 Paul said bear one another's burdens. Now in verse 5 he says each one will have to bear his own load.

Which is it Paul?

Both. And the Greek helps us see why.

In verse 2 the word for burden is βάρη.

It is a heavy, crushing weight.

The kind that would break you if you carried it alone. A cancer diagnosis. A marriage falling apart. A season of grief so heavy you cannot get out of bed in the morning.

That is a βάρη.

Nobody can carry that alone.

And Paul says — get underneath it together.

But in verse 5 the word is completely different.

It is φορτίον. A knapsack. A soldier's pack.

Your own personal responsibilities. Your own walk with God. Your own sin. Your own work.

That load belongs to you.

Paul is not contradicting himself. He is guarding against two opposite failures at the same time.

On one side — pride that won't stoop to help someone crushed under a heavy weight.

And on the other side — immaturity that dumps every personal responsibility onto the community and expects everyone else to carry what belongs to you.

A New Creation community does both.

It runs toward the person who is crushed. And it expects every member to carry their own knapsack.

This requires honesty.

Honest about when you need help. Honest about when you are capable of carrying your own weight. Honest about your own sin and your own work before God.

Verse 6,

Galatians 6:6 “Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches.”

This is honesty made concrete.

Paul is saying — honor the people who pour into you. Support them. Take care of them.

This is not just about money, though it includes that.

This is about acknowledging your need. Acknowledging that you depend on others in this community. That you are not self-sufficient. That you need to be taught.

Pride says I have nothing to learn.

Honesty says I need someone to teach me — and I am going to honor them for it.

That is what a New Creation community looks like.

Honest about ourselves. Honest about our need. Honest about our responsibilities.

No pretending. No posturing. No pride.

A New Creation Community is a honest community. A community that is honest about its own need, as well as honest about the need of others.

We have to be honest about our sin and honest about our needs…

Because we all come from this culture where we are conditioned to just act like we are okay even when we are not.

But the church of Jesus Christ knows better. We know we need each other. We know we are not okay on our own. And we are honest enough to say so.

The third picture Paul gives us for the New Creation community is this,

A New Creation Community is a Community that Never Quits

Verse 7,

Galatians 6:7 “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.”

Sowing is slow work.

When you plant a tree, it takes a long time until it produces fruit, right?

It is the same with community.

It takes a long time for you to see what your investment in people produces. And most of that work happens underground where you cannot see it.

Verse 8,

Galatians 6:8 “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.”

Paul is saying that you will sow somewhere.

Either in the flesh or the Spirit.

So don’t be surprised by the fruit that you see.

But verse 9 is Paul’s pastoral for this section.

He says,

"And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up."

Don't grow weary in doing good.

Don't grow weary in pouring into this community.

Don't grow weary in loving your neighbor.

And Paul gives us the reason we shouldn't quit.

For in due season, we will reap if we do not give up.

I know it can be tempting to give up on people you are pouring into. To give up on people you are praying for and trying to help. To give up on a relationship that has cost you more than you ever expected.

But don't do it.

Remember — when you are planting a garden, most of the growth happens underground where you cannot see it. The seed is not dead. It is just not ready yet.

And here is what I want you to hold onto. The harvest is not dependent on you. You are responsible for the sowing. God is responsible for the reaping. You do the work. He brings the fruit. And he does not miss a single seed that has been planted in faith.

The harvest is coming.

Don't quit before it gets here.

Paul concludes this section with verse 10.

He says,

Galatians 6:10 “So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.”

The church is not just an organization you attend.

It is a household. A family.

You have obligations to your household that you don't have to strangers. Paul is giving the church a particular identity here — and with that identity comes particular responsibility to one another.

Here me church,

We are called to be in community.

You see our Core Values on the front of your bulletin. Worship, Community, Mission.

We got Worship down. And we talk about and do Mission all of the time.

[Slow]

But we are weak on Community.

Some of you just aren’t interested in being in community and I get that.

Being in Community means being vulnerable and involved in other people’s lives.

But this is what we are called to.

We are called, as a New Creation Community, to bear one another’s burdens, to restore each other when we sin, to be honest with ourselves about our own weaknesses.

We are called to do good to everyone but especially the household of faith.

This means that you have to be known. You have to show up. You have to love those in this community of faith.

And you cannot be known when you show up 3 minutes into the service and leave right after the last Amen.

Let me just encourage you for a moment to just get to know the people in our body so that you can love them and you in turn can also be loved.

Come earlier on Sunday mornings. Be a part of our Wednesday night groups. If you cannot be a part of Wednesday night, get together on a different night of the week.

We have to fight for this.

And praise be to God that Paul doesn’t just give us these pictures of New Creation Community. He also tells us how any of this is possible.

This will be the second point in your notes,

Point II: The Cross Makes It Possible and It Will Cost You Everything (6:11–18)

The Judaizers were also building a community.

A community built and run on the flesh.

A community built on social pressure, visible religion, external markers, fear of what people think.

They want a church that looks respectable by the world's standards.

And they will compromise the cross to get it.

But Paul exposes something devastating about them in verse 13.

They don't even keep the law themselves.

Think about that for a second.

They are demanding that you be circumcised. They are telling you that you need to follow the law to be right with God. They are disrupting entire churches over this.

And they aren't even keeping it themselves.

This was never about obedience. It was never about honoring God.

It was about appearance. It was about building a community that felt safe and respectable. It was about avoiding the scandal of the cross.

And they were willing to distort the gospel to do it.

Any church can only have one of two foundations.

Either the flesh or the Spirit.

Either the approval of the world or the cross of Christ.

This is what Paul showed us back in chapter 5 with the works of the flesh versus the fruit of the Spirit.

And now Paul is going to tell us exactly where he stands and we stand.

And this is my prayer for our church…

Verse 14,

Galatians 6:14 “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.”

Paul says that he will not boast in the flesh like those Judaizers. He will not boast in external religion, Or in being a church that felt safe or respectable.

[Slow]

But he will boast only in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

When Paul says, “Far be it from me,” he is using one of the strongest expressions of repulsion in the New Testament.

The idea of boasting in anything except the cross of Christ should make you sick.

Think about what the cross did…

Paul says through the cross, the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.

For the Galatians, this meant the world of circumcision and uncircumcision.

The world where your standing before God and before other people depended on what you could show on the outside.

The world of religious performance and social approval and fear of persecution.

Paul says, that world is dead because of the cross of Christ.

But here’s the thing church, that is the same world we live in, isn’t it?

We just have different versions of it. Different markers. Different ways of seeking approval. Different things we boast in.

Your neighborhood. Your income. Your church attendance. Your theology. Your reputation.

The cross killed all of it.

And when that world dies — when you stop needing the approval of that world — you are finally free to do everything Paul described in verses 1 through 10.

You can restore someone gently because you are not worried about your own reputation.

You can bear someone's burden honestly because you are not performing for an audience.

You can keep sowing when you are tired because you are not doing it for anyone's approval —

[Slow]

you are doing it because the cross has made you new.

Because of the cross, none of that stuff of the world matters anymore!

Verse 15,

Galatians 6:15 “For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.”

Those things that you think are important don’t count for anything.

What counts is New Creation.

And because of the cross, you are a New Creation.

Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

Are you in Christ?

Have you experienced the New Creation that only he can bring about?

The New Creation that is not about how religious you are or how good you can be but about who you belong to.

And new creations don't live alone.

They live together. They bear each other's burdens. They restore each other gently. They keep sowing when they are tired.

Because that is what new creation people do.

We are now coming to Paul’s close of the letter.

And right here, he gives a blessing to the New Creation Community.

He says,

Galatians 6:16 “And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.”

The blessing is on those who walk by the rule of new creation, meaning those who are in Christ, not those who are trying hard enough.

Paul is not saying earn it. He is saying this is what life in the new creation looks like. Peace and mercy flowing to the people of the cross.

And know this,

If you are in the New Creation, you are the Israel of God.

Not because you are circumcised like the Judaizers would say.

But because the blood of Jesus has bought you through his death and resurrection.

Verse 17,

Galatians 6:17 “From now on let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.”

That word "marks" is the Greek word stigmata.

It is the word for the brand marks of a slave. Or a soldier. A mark that tells you who this person belongs to and who they serve.

Paul is saying — look at my body.

Look at the scars. The beatings. The stonings. The shipwrecks. The imprisonments.

This is what it cost me to build the kind of community I have been describing to you this morning.

The agitators wanted to mark bodies with circumcision — the sign of the old covenant. The sign of the old world.

Paul's body is already marked.

But not with circumcision.

With the marks of Jesus.

And here is what I want you to hear this morning.

New creation community will cost you something.

It will cost you your reputation. It will cost you your comfort. It will cost you your time and your energy and sometimes your sleep.

Restoring someone gently costs you something. Bearing someone's burden costs you something. Sowing when you are tired and cannot see the harvest costs you something.

But Paul says it is worth every scar.

I know living in community is hard but believe me… believe Paul.

It is worth it.

Paul know closes the letter to the Galatians,

Galatians 6:18 “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen.”

Paul opened the letter with Grace and he is now closing it with Grace.

Everything in between these bookends, the theology, the arguments, the rebukes, the ethics, it is all held inside of Grace.

And then that one word at the very end — brothers.

After "O foolish Galatians." After accusing them of deserting the gospel. After the sharpest letter he ever wrote.

He still calls them brothers.

That is the gospel in one word.

You cannot earn your way out of this family. You cannot perform your way in either.

You are brothers and sisters because of what Christ did — not because of what you did.

And that is the final picture of new creation community.

Not a community of people who have it all together—because we don’t.

We are a broken people.

But we are a community of brothers and sisters held together by one thing… Grace.

That is Jones Road Baptist Church.

Conclusion

Jones Road, this is the kind of church we are called to be.

A New Creation Community.

Not a Community marked by the flesh… trying to build up ourselves through conceit.

But a church devoted to one another. A church devoted to the gospel of Christ.

Jones Road is a church that runs toward people when they fall. Jones Road is a church that is honest enough to say we need each other. Jones Road is a church that doesn't quit on people even when it's hard.

And how can we do this?

Because the world has been crucified to us… And us to the world.

The old world is dead.

We are now in Christ.

And through his grace, we will be a community that is marked—not by how religious we are—but by how we love.

Response

Let’s stand and pray about it.

This morning we have seen what it means to be a New Creation Community.

We have seen that because of the cross, we are made new. And new creation people don't live alone — they live together.

And I want to give you a moment to respond to that this morning.

Maybe you are someone who has been living isolated. You show up on Sunday and you leave. You are not known. You are not in community. And the Spirit is convicting you this morning that you were not made to do this alone. Today is the day to take a step. Come earlier. Stay later. Come to our Wednesday night group. Get to know the people in this household of faith.

Maybe you are someone who is weary. You have been pouring into someone for a long time and you cannot see any fruit. You have been sowing and sowing and you are about to quit. Paul's word to you this morning is — don't. The harvest is coming. The seed is not dead. It is just not ready yet. Don't quit before it gets here.

Or maybe you are someone who has never been made new. You have been trying to earn your way to God through your own performance and your own religious effort. You have been trying to prove yourself in one way or another — trying to show God and everyone else that you are good enough. And you are exhausted. Today is the day to stop striving. The cross has already done what you could never do. Trust Christ alone. Be made new.

Whatever it is — I and our elders are here. We would love to pray with you. We would love to talk.

Let me pray and we will worship together.