Correction

Parents, Have you ever said, “This hurts me more than it hurts you.”

A young mom, took her 3 year old daughter clothes shopping.

She thought it’d be a good mother-daughter bonding moment.

And it was.

They went to the store together, and the mother loaded up her arms in new clothes for her daughter to try on.

She even let her daughter pick out different outfits.

Her daughter loved it.

They went to the dressing room, and tried on all the outfits in front of a long mirror.

While the little girl loved all the outfits, her mom said she could only get one of them.

This made the decision harder.

She laid them out in the dressing room.

And agonized over which outfit to pick.

She finally picked out a pink skirt with criss-cross straps.

The little girl was so excited for her new dress.

While they were in line she told her mom that this was her new dancing dress and that she would wear it forever.

They made it home and the little girl quickly put on her new dress.

She twirled in circles till she was dizzy.

She’d go to her dad and ask if he liked her pretty dancing dress.

It took some work for the mom to get her to take off the dress for bed, because she wanted to sleep in it.

The next day she started off wearing her pink dancing dress.

She was upstairs in her room for a while and was very quiet.

The little girl came down the stairs and strangely she wasn’t wearing her dress anymore.

The mom asked why she wasn’t wearing the dress.

The 3 year old girl raised her shoulders in an “I don’t know fashion”, and then there was a very distinct smell.

It was that unique chemical metallic smell of nail polish.

The mom went into her daughter’s bedroom to discover what looked like a crime scene, but instead of red blood, it was red nail polish.

It was on books.

It was on the walls.

It was crusty on the carpet.

It was on the pink dancing dress with the criss cross straps.

The mom was furious.

Part of the girls punishment was that she had to throw her pink dancing dress in the trash because it was ruined.

The day before, the girls eyes were big and shiny as she spun in circles with that dress.

Now her lip quivered and her eyes wept.

The mom loved seeing joy in her little girls face, now there were only tears.

She hated seeing her daughter being heartbroken.

But this was an important lesson to learn.

As her little girl threw the dress in the trash, the mom said those words, “This hurts me more than it hurts you.”

Correcting people is hard.

Correcting those you love is even harder.

Because you know it brings pain.

Paul’s letter to the Galatians is a painful letter.

It hurts him to write these words.

He’s known as a bold man, but here in the middle of Galatians, he’s a heartbroken man.

And with tears in his eyes, he corrects them, essentially saying, “This hurts me more than it hurts you.”

Let’s look at his very personal message in .

Read .

Some kind of change has happened in their relationship.

Paul and the Galatians aren’t buddy buddy anymore.

Our first point asks the question, What do we have?

Paul is writing to a real church.

They are real Christians.

They have been converted.

They have the Spirit.

But real Christians can fall into real problems.

And that has happened to the Galatians.

So he takes them back to their starting point.

He takes them back with a command.

“Brothers, I entreat you, become as I am ...”

I’m sure you are aware of Paul and his background.

He was a Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee of Pharisees.

He was under the law, and obedient to Jewish tradition -

Thinking that in order to win God’s favor, he needed to do something.

That meant:

Observing the right holidays.

Eating the right food.

And wearing the right clothes.

But in Christ, when he was converted, he discovered this amazing freedom.

You don’t win God’s favor.

You don’t try to get onto God’s good side.

That’s what Jesus has done.

Jesus has already done this.

What Paul discovered is that we are saved by faith, and specifically faith in Jesus Christ.

I am not good enough.

I can’t be good enough.

I will never be good enough.

But Jesus is more than good enough.

He died for my sin.

And His righteousness, His obedience, His goodness, is counted towards my account.

So I can’t be good enough, but Jesus’ goodness makes me good enough.

And that’s what our faith is.

Trusting Jesus with what I can’t do.

Paul’s big goal is for people to know this about Jesus.

To help people identify freedom in Christ.

To free them from the impossible trap of trying to be perfect.

And he will do whatever it takes for that to happen.

When Paul first came to the Galatians, who are Gentiles, he put aside his Jewishness, and became a Gentile to win them to Christ.

And now in a strange case of irony, these Galatian Gentiles have now started living like Jews in order to win God’s favor.

Things are backwards.

There’s nothing wrong with being Jewish.

But there is something wrong with thinking that you must live like a Jew to make God happy.

In fact there is something wrong with thinking that you must do anything to make God happy so that you can be saved.

It could be ritualism.

Good deeds.

Baptism.

If there is anything that we can do to some how earn God’s favor, it robs Jesus of His glory.

It’s taking what belongs to Him, and giving it to yourself.

It’s an attempt to one up God.

You ever met a one upper?

This is the person who every time you tell a story, this person tries to outdo your story.

“I have a 2 car garage.”

“Oh yea, I have a 3 car garage.

“I have a 3.5 GPA.”

“Oh yea, I have a 3.75 GPA.”

That is a one upper.

Salvation is all of Christ.

The one upper, says, “It was mostly Christ, and a little me. I had a hand in it too you know.”

If you think you had even 1% of a part in your salvation, that’s 1% that belongs to Christ.

And you have just robbed Christ of His glory.

So Paul says, “become as I am ...”

And that is not a suggestion.

It’s not a tip.

It’s a command.

Become as I am.

Lay down any claim to self righteousness.

And live in the freedom and grace of Jesus Christ.

Become as I am - It is all Jesus.

This is not optional.

We must remember what we have if we are going to understand the church.

The church is made up of lots of individuals.

We come in all sorts of shapes and sizes.

We each have our own likes and dislikes.

Some people like spicy food.

Others like sweet food.

Some like seasoned food.

Others want no seasoning.

Some like their meat rare.

Others want it well done.

Some like their music loud.

Others like their music quiet.

Some have lots of money.

Others need money.

There is variety, there is diversity here.

And we will never be on the same page for these things.

We won’t.

And if we try to find unity in any of these things, we will always be fragmented.

The only way for the church to function rightly is if we remember what we have.

And what we have is Christ.

He is our qualifier.

When Christ is not our qualifier, then the church breaks down.

Have you ever heard someone say they are leaving a church because they don’t feel connected?

What has happened?

It’s 1 of 3 things.

The church might be making something other than Christ more important.

This can come in the form of entertainment, music, even age.

Maybe it’s clothing.

Maybe it’s social skills.

In other words, you need to look like me to be one of us.

And when you don’t fit in, then you are pushed aside.

Second, it could be the person leaving has made something other than Christ more important.

For example, maybe the person thinks the people at the church aren’t cool enough.

The music isn’t good enough.

The sound isn’t clear enough.

There aren’t enough people their age.

There aren’t enough social activities and ice cream socials for them.

So they feel disconnected and leave.

Or third, both parties have forgotten that Christ is who this is all about.

And there is a power struggle over the extras.

If there is going to be peace and unity within a church, Jesus, and His glorification must be the center of our life.

He must be who we have in common.

He must be the glue that binds us together.

The church must remember what we have in Christ.

And that is grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

When we share Christ in common, together we are coheirs with Him, and then we must Treasure what we have.

Let me say this another way, because we love Christ, we make much of the church, we treasure the church.

Paul looks back on his relationship with the Galatians.

Verse 13 says that their original meeting was because of a bodily ailment.

Paul was sick and in need of help.

Some think that Paul might have had glaucoma or some kind of eye disease.

He had some kind of eye trouble.

He didn’t often do his own writing.

He wrote most of the letters in the New Testament, but it wasn’t with his own hand.

Most of the time he would dictate his letters to the churches, and someone else would write down his words.

Maybe he had someone else write his words because it was hard for him to see what he was writing.

Galatians was different, because he wrote it with his own hand.

At least he signed it with his own hand.

At the end of the letter, he says he wrote in large letters, possibly showing that he had to write big, or he couldn’t see what he was writing.

He had eye troubles.

Either way, Paul was sick and went to the Galatians, and they cared for him.

They didn’t look down on his sickness.

They didn’t shun him.

Paul teaches us a valuable lesson here, you are the means for the Gospel going out.

Let me say that another way, God uses people to spread the Gospel.

God could have written the Gospel in the clouds, or sent everyone on earth a single text message that says, “Jesus died for sins.”

But He didn’t.

The method that God uses for spreading the Gospel is you.

You’re it.

You are His strategy to spread the Gospel.

People are to believe, but in order for people to believe, they need to have heard something first.

talks about how God elects people and how He sovereignly chooses to save some.

says, “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”

Then we get to , and

You are the strategy for the Good News to go out.

Now if you are the strategy, how often do you think it’s not strategically wise to share the Gospel.

How often have you been in a situation where you knew the person you were with needed the Gospel, but you thought to yourself, “Now isn’t the time to share it.”

I’ll be honest, I’ve been there.

I’ve got braces.

Once a month, I sit down in a dentist’s chair.

They’ve got these torture devices on that little tray just ready to make my gums bleed.

They’ve got that little metal stick with two hooks on it.

They claim it’s to scrape tarter off our teeth, but I’ve seen how it works.

It’s like good cop/bad cop.

One side is good cop.

Then you get them mad, and they flip it over, and the other side is bad cop and hurts as it scrapes against your gums..

You are sitting there, and you know the person needs the Gospel.

But if you say something wrong, they’re gonna flip it over and give you the mean side of that little tool.

So you say, “I’ll keep my mouth shut, I won’t say anything.”

Maybe you ladies are getting your hair done.

The hair stylist has those scissors in her hand, snipping here, snipping there.

And the opportunity to share the Gospel comes up.

But what if you say something wrong?

What if you offend her?

She might make your hair look like mine, and just cut all your hair off.

So you keep your mouth shut.

We know that there is power in the Gospel.

says that it is through the hearing of the Gospel that people are changed.

Do you believe that?

We say yes on paper, but when you’re in the dentist chair or in the salon mums the word.

Paul though, was not ashamed of the Gospel.

In he says that the Gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.”

So there he is in Galatia, sick and dependent upon them for help and what does he do?

He preaches the Gospel to them.

And they heard the Gospel and they changed.

It’s funny, we are so afraid of what will happen if someone doesn’t like what they hear, that we forget, but what will happen if they like what they hear?

In verse 13 it says that when they first heard Paul preach they received him as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus.

Their friendship was now centered on Christ.

Paul was sick.

Sick people aren’t fun to be around.

I’m not saying I don’t like people who are sick, it’s just a little harder to be around someone who is sick.

Paul was sick, and the Galatians didn’t push him aside, instead they loved him.

He says that they would have done anything for him.

I said he might have had glaucoma, and in verse 15 he says that they would have gouged out their own eyes to help him.

Their view of Paul wasn’t that he was a blind sick man.

But that He was a servant of Christ, and angel of God, sent to give them the Gospel.

Because of that, they treasured Him.

When you view others through the lens of Christ you treasure them.

How do you view others in this room?

Externally, it might be hard to love some.

We each carry our own baggage and oddities.

But when we see each other as servants of Christ, gifted by the Spirit and placed here for a reason, then we can’t focus on those strange externals.

Instead, we see each other as gifts from God for His church.

Our love for each other is a love based on our love of God.

When you love Jesus, you love the saints, you love the church.

How do we get a church that is more loving?

By loving Christ more.

There’s no short cuts here.

A lot of people want to love, they want relationships, they want closeness, but they don’t love through Christ.

Therefore, when someone wrongs us, disappoints us, fails us, then we get bitter.

You see this in marriage.

A husband and a wife are having trouble loving each other.

Years of anger and resentment have built up till the two don’t want to do it anymore.

The solution is to love Christ.

Our love for each other must go through Christ.

Knowing that we are sinners and He died for us.

Ephesians calls for husbands to love how?

Like Christ loved the church.

That means despite our behavior.

Ephesians tells wives to submit like the church does to Christ.

That is despite their husband’s failures.

The more you look at Christ, and how He is building the church, the more you will appreciate the church and those in it.

Those that are around you are actually here for your benefit.

We treasure Christ.

We treasure the saints, that is the church.

The church is a treasure, and if it’s a treasure then we must fight for what we have.

Something happened to the Galatians relationship to Paul.

He went from being viewed as an angel from God, someone they would have gouged out their own eyes for, to an enemy.

It’s amazing how quickly relationships change.

We see this within the church.

We see this within marriage.

We see this within friendships.

There are times you would do anything for another believer.

And then over time, the relationship cools off.

Those that you thought were so wonderful, now have become irritating.

What happened to the Galatians and Paul?

You see it in verse 16, “Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth?”

What happened? They got tired of hearing the truth and only wanted to hear positive things.

The Judaizers came in and started flattering them.

Verse 17 says, “They make much of you, but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them.”

Let’s be real for a moment, we are not perfect, none of us are.

None of you are.

God is working in us.

We are being sanctified.

We are changing.

But none of you are finished products.

We still sin, we still have areas to grow in, we still have more to learn.

If God were done working in you, then you wouldn’t need pastors, elders, teachers or the gifts of the Spirit.

You still need to be taught, corrected and disciplined.

In fact, being disciplined by God is proof that God loves you.

, “The Lord disciples the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”

And sometimes it’s hard to hear the truth.

Sometimes we don’t want to learn the truth from ourselves.

You know what I think one of the greatest dangers facing the church is? It’s a church that refuses truth and only wants fluff.

says, “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”

That’s what was going on in Galatia.

They wanted their ears tickled by the Judaizers.

They wanted to only hear positive, cute sayings.

And that’s happening in churches today.

People hear truth, they are offended by it and they leave.

Throughout the Bible there is this warning of flattery.

It’s nice to be told what you want to hear, but what you want to hear isn’t always that helpful.

Remember American Idol.

What made the early episodes of every season so fun to watch, were all these poor people who’d never been told the truth.

They’d been told their whole life that they were amazing singers.

Then they’d stand in front of the three judges, Simon, Randy and Paula, and sing their little hearts out.

Only to hear Simon say that their singing was the worst thing they’d ever heard.

Then the singer would argue back, “But my mom says I have a beautiful voice.”

What had happened?

They’d been lied to their whole lives.

Not in a vindictive deceitful way.

But in a flattering way.

People were too afraid to say the truth, and in the process they were embarrassed on national television.

The Bible speaks of flattery as a danger upon a person’s soul.

Proverbs describes it as:

A net and a trap.

Something that brings people to ruin and creates victims.

Flattery and hearing only nice things that have no truth behind them lead people to damnation.

Remember American Idol.

What made the early episodes of every season so fun to watch were the auditions.

There were all these poor people who’d never been told the truth, they stink!

They’d been told their whole life that they were amazing singers.

Then they’d stand in front of the three judges, Simon, Randy and Paula, and sing their little hearts out.

Only to watch Simon put his fingers in his ears, interrupt them and say that their singing was the worst thing he’d ever heard.

Then the singer would argue back, “But my mom says I have a beautiful voice.”

What had happened?

They’d been flattered.

They’d been lied to their whole lives.

Not in a vindictive deceitful way.

But in a flattering way.

People were too afraid to say the truth, and in the process these singers were embarrassed on national television.

This same scene is happening to people all over the world and in churches.

They are told that good people go to heaven, and that they are good.

But I’ve got sad news for you, if you think American Idol judges are hard on their naive contestants, it’s going to be even worse for those naive people who stand before God.

Because the Bible makes it clear … there are no good people.

Just saying that we get a little on edge.

But it’s true.

says there is no one good, not even one.

The American Idol Contestant says, “But my mom said I sing good”, and the average person says, “But my friends and family all say I’m a good person.”

The American Idol Contestant needed someone to give them a hard truth.

“You are no good.”

That’s not mean.

What if they said, “What you really need are lessons.”

That would be good advice.

The average person needs to hear truth.

“There is no one good.”

“You have sinned.”

Then give them hope.

“But there is someone good, Jesus Christ.”

And He came to this earth because you are not good.

He died on the cross because you are not good.

You must have faith in Him, because there’s nothing to have faith in yourself with.

There is a need for people to speak truth and there is a need for people to hear truth.

And not just in regards to salvation, but even within the church.

Many of greatest problems within the church are because hard truth isn’t told.

describes church discipline.

What’s the process?

It begins with the two hurt parties going to each other.

In other passages church discipline involves going to people and confronting sin.

It’s hearing hard truth.

We, you need to be aggressive in hearing truth, even when it’s not what you want to hear.

If there is something you can be praying for at Southwest, it’s for us to speak truth.

That in each element of this church we speak the truth.

Sermons be about truth.

Christian’s University to speak truth.

In counseling situations to speak truth.

In our relationships with each other to speak truth.

We must fight for what we have, which is a wonderful church.

We fight for it by speaking truth to one another.

Speaking the truth to one another isn’t going around being a jerk to one another.

It’s a desire to see each other grow up in Christ.

So we exhort, encourage, and build up, spurring one another on to better Christlikeness.

We treasure what we have, therefore we fight for what we have.

Relationships change.

When a relationship changes, our culture says you run away.

You change churches.

You change friends.

There is a change in Paul’s relationship with the Galatians, but he doesn’t run.

He fights for what he has.

If you are ever seeing a change in a relationship here at church, fight for what you have.

Go to that person.

says, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

Fight for what you have.

The last thing we see is that we are to be agonizing for what we have.

Paul loves the Galatians.

He’s not happy with them, but he does love them.

He calls them his little children.

And in his parental love for the Galatians, he says that he is in the anguish of childbirth for them.

The words anguish of childbirth are really one word in the Greek.

They are the same words used to describe the curse of pain during childbirth back in .

Paul obviously isn’t a woman, and he’s obviously not giving birth to a person, let alone an entire church.

So what is the anguish of childbirth?

It’s that Christ would be formed in them.

Paul’s agony is the sanctification, maturity and growth of the Galatian Christians.

His all consuming thought is that they would become more and more like Christ.

And this desire was so strong that he compared it to the pain of childbirth.

Paul is groaning in his desire for people to grow in Christ.

What do you groan over?

When you think of others, what do you groan about?

I am convicted here, because many times my groaning isn’t out of love or worry for those that I share Christ with.

Many times my groaning is from being irritated.

You ever do that?

You find yourself annoyed with others more than loving them.

The groans of annoyance are a perverted and misguided groan of that desire for Christlikeness.

The next time you find yourself irritated, bugged, annoyed, and rolling your eyes at another person or believer, recognize that this is a corrupted desire.

Instead, your desire should be to see people conformed to Christ.

If there is a sin, you confront them.

If there is immaturity, you encourage them.

We can’t let this point escape us, because it is our desire for each other.

Our desire should be to see others become like Christ, and everything we are doing is for that purpose.

Why do we do what we do?

So that others will grow.

That’s why we have spiritual gifts, so that others will grow.

Why do we say hard things to others?

Not to condemn or mock them, but so they will grow.

Why do we serve others?

Not to pat ourselves on the back, but so they will grow.

This takes effort, but I know you can do it.

We are commanded in the great commission to go and make disciples.

So we make disciples.

Groaning, not out of irritation.

Groaning in our efforts to obey our marching orders from our Lord.

We must rise above the cultures expectation of the church.

The culture around us, expects church to be a neutral safe place, where people are spoken bland words of kindness, and where the soul is never confronted.

Sometimes we even expect that of each other.

When the reality is that our main goal is to see others made Christlike.

This is not easy.

Sometimes we will find ourselves in situations where we say, “This hurts me, more than it hurts you.”

And to do that:

Individually, you must remember what you have - Christ.

We must treasure what we have, the church.

Then never take it for granted.

We must fight for our fellowship.

Never wasting an opportunity to speak truth.

And then agonize in our love for each other, desiring each of us to be more like Christ.

This is not easy.

Sometimes we will find ourselves in situations where we say, “This hurts me, more than it hurts you.”