Serve One Another
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Introduction
Introduction
Junior Church Dismissed
Great night at our couple’s refresher last night. Thanks for everyone the helped get that together and to those that came out. It was a lot of fun.
Thankful for the work getting done in our foyer. Thankful for everyone that was able to make it out to help with the deconstruction of our foyer. Now, we are about to take the steps to begin the remodel.
We will get emails out with times in the evening you can come by and help out or if your available during the day please speak with Roger and he can get you set up. We are Monday-Thursday and I’m sure there is no shortage of work. Do contact us before you come to make sure we have something your comfortable doing.
We are closing out our series “better together” today with a message that I pray is an encouragement to you. It’s my desire to have todays message strengthen your faith, challenge your heart, and encourage you as well.
We are going to be in chapter 5 of Galatians this morning.
Galatians is a letter written by the Apostle Paul to the churches in an area he calls Galatia. This is no modern day Turkey.
The book of Galatians is an amazing study and one I’ve preached through before. What I love so much about it is it’s unwavering stance on the gospel and the vehement rebuke of those that would preach a false gospel. People that would tell others “you can be saved and have a relationship with God if your a good person or if you get Baptized.”
Paul pulled no punches when it came to the gospel. He went so far as to tell the believers that if he came back and said something they should curse him.
That’s how important the message of the gospel was to Paul and how important it should be to us. The effects of the gospel are eternal and have an impact on how we live.
Our understanding and application of the gospel in our individual lives will affect our relationships and those around us. Especially those we come together with to become the church.
That’s what I want us to see today. Now your asking me “Pastor, what does that have to do with being better together and serving one another?”
When we understand the gospel and apply it in our lives, we will find ourselves living a life of service to others making us all, better together.
Let’s dive in.
Follow along as I read please
1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
2 Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.
3 For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.
4 Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.
5 For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.
6 For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.
7 Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?
8 This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you.
9 A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.
10 I have confidence in you through the Lord, that ye will be none otherwise minded: but he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be.
11 And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? then is the offence of the cross ceased.
12 I would they were even cut off which trouble you.
13 For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
PRAY
As I preach today I’m going to ask you some questions that I hope to help you answer but won’t answer for you...
First, where is your faith? We all have faith…the question is what have we placed our faith in....Where is yours?
I believe that when our faith is in the gospel there is Liberty. Notice the Foundation of our Liberty.
Seco
I. The Foundation of our Liberty
I. The Foundation of our Liberty
Verse 1 lays the foundation of where our Liberty comes from, it’s through Christ. But to fully understand what this Liberty is and why it is important we must first see the bonds of the law.
A. The Bonds of the Law
A. The Bonds of the Law
What law am I speaking of? The law given to the Old Testament Jews. That law came to the people of Israel through their leader Moses at the time.
He delivered over 600 commands to them. Commands like “don’t eat pork” so no bacon. Don’t eat shellfish…no shrimp…don’t wear mixed clothing…100% cotton only....Work only 6 days and rest completely on the 7th. Don’t cause another person to work either.
Make animal sacrifices for this that and the other.
That was the law given to the Israelites from God. And if they didn’t keep all of them, it was a sin against God.
That’s the law we have the Liberty from. The law could not save. The law was meant to show the need of a Savior.
See what Paul wrote in
24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
Our schoolmaster…our teacher.
It’s purpose was to show the Jews and anyone who noticed the culture that they could never live up to the expectations of the law. But Jesus could. Jesus did. And because He did and paid the penalty that we would have had to pay, we can be saved.
That’s the gospel. That’s the good news. Paul clearly defines this in
1 cor 15:1
1 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
When you know what the gospel is I think the next obvious question is…What’s it’s point? What does it do? How does it affect me?
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
It’s the power of God unto salvation. It’s by the gospel that we have salvation.
What is salvation? You guys are full of great questions this morning.
Salvation is the term we use to describe whats obtained by our faith in the gospel. To be saved it means to be free from the burden of the question “what comes after this life.” It is to know we have access to God the Father because of Jesus.
It is know there is a God that loves me no matter how good or bad I think I am. There is a God that has a desire to bless me and love me. There is God that desires good things for me.
Paul said that when we place ourselves under the law, we are fallen from Grace and Christ is no effect for us.
When we try to keep one law we must keep all the laws. When we believe in Jesus though, we will see the Freedom of faith.
B. The Freedom of Faith
B. The Freedom of Faith
B. The Freedom of Faith
B. The Freedom of Faith
5 For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.
6 For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.
5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
The hope of Righteousness by faith.
I spoke on this a week or two ago but for those that weren’t here, there is something you need to know about that word hope.
Biblical hope is not the same as the hope we think of today. biblical hope is a more sure hope. It’s not like flipping a regular coin and hoping it lands on heads. It’s like flipping a double sided coin, a coin that has heads on both sides, and hoping it lands on heads.
We wait
This statement by Paul is referring to the biblical sure hope we have in Christ for righteousness. Now, does that mean we should be self righteous?
Self Righteous defined is having or characterized by a certainty, especially an unfounded one, that one is totally correct or morally superior.
A self righteous person believes they are always right and superior to others. As believers in Christ we are not to be self righteous. We are to see our righteousness in Christ.
And righteousness in Christ does not come with a condescending attitude or a holier than thou mentality.
God speaks of our righteousness in Isaiah
6 But we are all as an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; And we all do fade as a leaf; And our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
A filthy rag. Now…when you think of a filthy rag you may think of an old dish towel or a towel you just cleaned up a spilled drink with....
That’s not what God was talking about...
The filthy rag Isaiah is refering to in his context is the one that Lepers would carry around with them.
A Leper is a person that has the skin disease of Leprosy. leprosy was a disease that could lead to boils and loss of limb.
A leper in the Old testament was one that was considered unclean by the rest of Jewish society and could not interact with others.
They would walk around with a rag and that rag would be used to clean the puss that would flow from their boils that would pop.
In order to keep others from being infected by their disease they would have to hold this rag over their mouths and nose as they walked around and shout “unclean…unclean” so others would stay away.
That rag…that puss filled…spit on…blood ridden rag…is what our righteousness us...
But the righteousness of Christ is perfect and pure. When we have our faith in Christ we are covered by His righteousness.
And when we are covered by His righteousness we will find ourselves not as people who believe we are better than others or treat others like we are better, we will see the freedom we have in his righteousness and be willing and desirous of serving others.
Think about it. Without Christ God basically views all that you do and are as a filthy rag…With Christ, God only sees His Son’s perfect blood that was shed for us. We are clothed in his righteousness by faith.
The law and Christ represent two different means of obtaining salvation or really living life.
The law is mans way of working to be considered holy and faith is God’s way of making you holy.
So where is your faith? Is it in yourself and how great you are? Maybe it’s in yourself and how good you hope you are. Maybe your sitting back thinking…I’m good enough…or maybe even to the point of I think I’m good enough....
If that’s you…your faith is in yourself. I challenge you to ask your self these two questions…1. Have I ever failed? 2. Have I ever been wrong?
If you’ve failed…maybe you’ll fail again. Maybe you’ll fail at working for your salvation....If you’ve been wrong…maybe you’ll be wrong again and never have salvation.
The foundation of Liberty is Christ and we are free from the Law to live a life that is god honoring by the grace of God.
Paul wrote to the Galatian believers to inform that within their midst they had the foes of liberty
II. The Foes of Liberty
II. The Foes of Liberty
Look with me at v 7-12
Gal 5:7-
7 Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?
8 This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you.
9 A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.
10 I have confidence in you through the Lord, that ye will be none otherwise minded: but he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be.
11 And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? then is the offence of the cross ceased.
12 I would they were even cut off which trouble you.
Notice a Diluted truth
A. A Diluted Truth
A. A Diluted Truth
Paul said “A little leaven” Leaven is what makes bread rise.
It doesn’t take much to make a loaf of bread rise. Any bakers out there? Is the bible right?
A little Leaven. Paul said A little untruth will ruin the whole truth.
ever had someone not tell you the whole truth about somethign?
Maybe you’ve asked a child “what happened” and they tell you their brohter hit them? This happen at your house?
Doesn’t at mine....my children are perfect angels...
yes, their brohter did hit them but what you weren’t told was that they had pinched, hit, and kicked their sibling before getting hit.
See…a little untruth can affect the whole truth.
If I came before you and said salvation is obtained by faith in Christ AND baptism....AND tithing....AND anything....I’ve just inserted a little untruth but it affects the whole truth.
A little untruth about the gospel…a little untruth about Christ and all that He is…will lead to a damaging belief.
B. A Damaging Belief
B. A Damaging Belief
Look back at verses 10-12
10 I have confidence in you through the Lord, that ye will be none otherwise minded: but he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be.
11 And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? then is the offence of the cross ceased.
12 I would they were even cut off which trouble you.
Paul had the confidence through Christ that they would not be turned away from the truth they knew. He encouraged them in their faith and told them the damage that would come with turning from what they know is right.
He lets them know this by giving them an example of what will happen to the those that trouble them with the false gospel. He tells them that they will face judgement.
The people who were trying to get the Galatian believers to go back under the law were known as Judiazers. The judiazers would persecute Paul because of what he preached.
He then tells them the ones that preach the law should be cut off from them. Why?
Why would Paul write these things? Because of how terrible the consequences are for a person to lead anyone into a false sense of security about their salvation and relationship with God.
The eternal damage of a false gospel leads to hell. The earthly damage of a false gospel leads to brokenness. Pursuing the acceptance and love of God through works will have you constantly checking your scales.
You can go throughout your life on a ladder. Up here is God and you want to be close to Him so you begin to do good things.
You attend church..take a step. You change the way you dress…take a step.
You give some money in the offering…you take a step. You go to work Monday and your boss makes you angry and you say something about him behind his back, you take two steps down.
You see on Facebook a friend just won the lottery and now your jealous and coveting what they have. Another step down.
You prayed and read a devotion book, two steps up....
You listened to music you shouldn’t have…one step down...
Before long your on the ladder doing the legalistic Christian two step.
When you understand the Gospel you realize....there is no ladder.
There is the hand of God holding us and that’s it.
When you understand this, when you grasp the gospel, when you realize that salvation is not by works and neither is your relationship with God based on some unrealistic standard sat by men, you are liberated and free to live out your Christianity in a God honoring way that doesn’t result in guilt and shame.
Christ took on your guilt and shame when he died on the cross.
This truth opens a whole new world to us and allows us to see the frontiers of our Liberty.
III. The Frontiers of our Liberty
III. The Frontiers of our Liberty
13 For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Space may have been seen as the final frontier for mankind but for the Christian…the final frontier is service.
We have a Right to Serve.
A. The Right to Serve
A. The Right to Serve
We’ve been called to Liberty and Freedom in the gospel not to live a life that is self centered and only focused on us. We have been given the Right to Serve.
The difference between a privilege and a right is that a privilege can be taken away but a right is innate to use as human beings.
In our Country we have the right to vote…but not everyone chooses to.
You have the same Freedom in the Gospel. You have the right to live for Christ but no one is going to make you. Dad’s, no one is going to make you set the example for your children.
I have a daughter on home and a question I use to help motivate me to be a better father and husband is this: “If my son in law acted like I did toward my daughter or my grandkids…would I support him?”
Dad’s, we have the right to lead our home. We have the right to set the example…let’s step it up. If you want to know how you can do that, I’d encourage you to get involved in the men’s group on Wednesday nights at 7 that’s going through a study called Kingdom man from Tony Evan’s.
Back to the message.
Ladies, teens, kids, we all have the right to serve like Christ did…but will you.
Jesus said
28 Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.
When we are serving like Jesus we will see the Results of serving
B. The Result of Serving
B. The Result of Serving
14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
The result of serving like Jesus is loving like Jesus.
Now what if everyone had this attitude? Marriages would be less about what they are doing for me or how they make me better and more about how I can be a help and a blessing to them.
Parenting would be less about how my children can be exactly what I want them to be and more about I can raise them into who God has made them to be.
Friendships wouldn’t be about what others can do for me and more about what I can do for them.
Now you say, “But Pastor, we don’t live in a perfect world. If we are only focused on living for others, whois going to take care of our wants and needs?”
Great question. Let me start by saying…Jesus didn’t live in a perfect world either. He did nothing but good and was hated for it.
He even tells us in
18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
He then speaks to the persecution faced and says
21 But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me.
John 15
So we see we are not called to be nice just when people are nice to us.
Now to directly answer your question: Who will care for me? God.
Our ability to live this out goes back to my first question though…Where is your faith? God or yourself?
Conclusion
Conclusion
The last question I’d like you to consider is this: Is my faith leading me to serve others?
You could be here this morning and the idea of having faith like that is foreign to you. That’s ok.
Wouldn’t you like to know that type of faith though? Woudln’t you like to enjoy the freedom that comes from knowing Jesus and knowing that your saved? Woudln’t it be great to not have to worry about where you stand with God or anyone else?
That’s real easy to do.
Decide today that Jesus is your savior. Make the choice to beleive that Jesus died on the Cross for your sins, was buried in a tomb, and three days later rose again. That’s the gospel.
That’s the gospel Pual preached, that’s the gospel I preach, it’s the only gospel anyone should preach.
The Bible says in
that God loves you so much He sent Jesus to die for your sins. In that same verse Jesus said that whosoever believes on him will not perish but have everlasting life.
Eternal life in Heaven with Jesus is based upon your belief in Jesus’ death burial and resurrection paying for your sins.
It’s that simple. Believe on Jesus…have a relationship with Him.
Christians, What would Jesus say about how you live out your faith? Is it a selfless faith or a self centered faith? Is it about you or about Him?
We all get caught on the ladder sometimes, we all get off balance. Let today be the nudge you needed to get off the ladder and into the Hand.
Take this moment and go to God in prayer. Commit to Him this morning “Lord, I’m going to serve someone this week. Lord, I’m done living for self…I’m ready to live for you”
Take a moment and ask the Lord to reveal how you could better serve Him. Seek His will for your life and don’t say no. Decide to make the sacrifice others won’t make to have the result others won’t have.
If you made the decision to trust in Jesus this morning I want to invite you to confirm that with prayer. The words of the prayer mean nothing if you don’t believe in your heart that Jesus is the Son of God who died for your sins and was raised from the dead.
If you want to make the decision to trust Jesus as your savior this morning please pray after me
“Dear Jesus, I know I’m a sinner, I believe you came to die on the cross and rose from the dead. I put my faith right now in you and ask you to come into my life and change me from the inside out. Amen.”
PRAY
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