Promoting deliberate MINISTRY to the world alternative

Video-Good Samaritan Modern

Promoting deliberate MINISTRY to the world

Galatians 5:7-14

Pray 

The text for today comes from Galatians 5. We will be looking at verses 7-14. 

You may be wondering about the video. 

It’s interesting that Paul uses the same phrase here in Luke 10 where Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan. 

Im not sure if Paul knew that story, but it doesn’t matter because it all goes back to the same place.  It’s all combating the same idea. Jesus story just really helps to us to see the picture of what loving our neighbor should really look like. 

Hopefully the more modern look at an old story helps to picture it also. Bullying seems to be something that is a buzz word in our culture right now. For the bully to be helped by the one bullied speaks volumes when asking who is my neighbor.

Now you may be asking, what in the world does this have to do with missions. Aren’t you the missions pastor. Isn’t that your thing?  Well we will get there but first I want to lay a foundation for one of our main driving forces for doing missions. 

Bro. David picked out this passage for the vision statement. When I first began to dig in to the verses, I thought maybe he had sort of missed the mark. Bro David, I doubted you. 

But the more I dug, the more I discovered just how rich this passage is and how applicable it is to the topic at hand. 

Exposite Galatians 5:7-14

Verse 7-10

They were doing so well until they fell right back in to sin again. Do you feel that tension? They were making so much ground. So you almost want to say, what was the sin? They started drinking heavy again? Went back to saying inappropriate things? Partying it up? 

Nope, the key is in verse 11. It’s circumcision. 

Wait what? Where did that come from? 

The great sin they are returning to is circumcision? Are you serious. What does that even mean? 

They were almost out of rule based religion. They were so close and someone came by and sucked them right back in. 

Circumcision is short for a life of obeying rules to earn Gods love. 

This is the same junk that Jesus was having to go against also. Rules. On top of rules on top of rules. 

Paul says that lifestyle will be the end of you. And it needs to be. 

Then he makes an interesting turn in verse 14. 

He says, “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Jesus’ affirms the same in Luke 10. 

So where does this phrase come from? It is found in Leviticus 19. In the middle of the law, there is a section that basically spells out the 10 commandments in more detail. Jesus and Paul are pulling from that. 

Here’s what we see

-love for God 

-love for neighbor 

Jesus says the entire law hinges on those two things. 

Ironically both concepts can go wonky. 

Love for God and his law can turn in to legalism. 

Love for neighbor can turn in to liberalism. 

That’s the crux of verse 13-14

“For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.””

He’s saying don’t go too liberal. The answer is in the middle. 

The love for God points us to love our neighbor. 

Loving our neighbor flows from loving God. 

Which gets us to missions. 

What happens to missions in a church that looses the gospel for rule based religion?

We become totally inward focused. Every seen a church that was totally inward focused? I can guarantee that church reeks of rule based religion or legalism. They have lost the gospel. 

Here’s what happens when a church becomes inward. 

They begin sizing people up to determine if they are worthy of their ministry. 

It’s interesting to me what is happening today as far as the state of the American church. Even in the SBC, we have been doing some very serious mission work for over a century, yet they tell me that our churches are dying every day. Now some of this is just simply Romans 1 playing out. Sinners are going to sin. People are just suppressing the knowledge of God and when they do that, they don’t want to have anything to do with him. 

But there’s another side to this. We got really legalistic. You don’t think so? Let’s take a ride and see some churches. It’s possible in the process of all this, we, the SBC churches, lost the gospel in our legalism and we chose to only do ministry to an exotic place on the other side of the world where heathen live. It only requires us send some money. Never having actually done ministry and overlooking people all around us. 

They share the gospel only in easy manners

Supporting World missions becomes a easy cope out for doing the ministry yourself. 

They will not send out their best people. 

This is the one that really becomes the tell tell sign. Not only do they not want to go, but they don’t want their best people going either. We can’t lose the preacher, he’s too good at preaching. Can’t lose the music guy, he’s too hard to replace. Let’s send Johnny. He doesn’t have any experience. There’s not even a need to replace him. 

The slope

We only focus on rules, not love -> we pick and choose which rules are sin -> we pick which people are obeying our rules -> we lose the gospel -> we lose the drive to share the gospel -> we send money to a far off place so we don’t have to share the gospel -> we never do precious ministry around us -> we lose the ground around us and wonder where it went. 

So how do we avoid becoming that church? Should we stop doing missions? No no no. That’s not the point.

Well remember the video at the front? Remember that story? Jesus uses that story to say some very crucial words. In order to not lose the gospel, we must love the lord our god and love our neighbor as ourself. 

Here at west heights, we are calling that love god and serve people. 

Be a church of integrity. I’m not calling for us to be hedonist that just want to live in all out sin without any order. We just cannot get so locked in to rules based religion that we lose the gospel, and therefore lose our ministry. 

So what can we do? 

Three things 

We refuse to size people up to see if they are worth our ministry. We share the gospel, even when it’s tough. We send out our best people to the mission field, to ministry, and to plant new churches.