Our Duty to the Body of Christ

Text: Galatians 6:1-10

Introduction:

In today’s world we are very private. We like to keep our business to ourselves and we are very comfortable without anyone interfering with our personal business. When someone does decide to attempt to get themselves involved in our business we call them nosey and tell them to mind their own business. I believe this privatizing of our world is not such a good thing. Most of you probably remember times when people sat on the front porch and talked to people as they walked by. You probably remember a time when you knew most of your neighbors and what was going on in their lives. Today, very rarely do you see people welcomed into other people’s homes, or people sitting on their porch or the concept of being a neighbor.

As the church we are a community of believers. We are referred to as the body of Christ or the family of God. We learn that if the church as a whole is going to thrive than we must work together to make her thrive. Sometimes it is like we are doing our own thing. We are all going in different directions, and sometimes we forget to take time out for one another.

Not only have we become privatized as the church, but also the emphasis has shifted from others onto ourselves. You hear it all the time. If people are not getting something out of the church they are attending they will go somewhere else that gives them what they want. You hear people saying that the service “did not do anything for them.” Most of the time the people they expect the church to be designed to make them feel good and provide entertainment for them do not provide anything for anyone else. They want to be waited on and served, they want a good show, but they don’t want to be the one’s to exert any energy to provide anything for others. One of the foundational truths that we learn as we become Christians is that we should be willing to put others above ourselves and that we are blessed by having a focus on serving one another above ourselves.

I believe that this selfishness that dominates society has bled into the church and is one of the greatest problems that we have to deal with and don’t think the church doesn’t have these problems. Often times our focus is on what we can get and not on what we can give to others. I hope that your time here today is not just spent seeing what others can give you, but also going out of your way to see what you can give to other people. It is time we as the church saw the church as the body of Christ and stopped trying to work independently, but committed to work together for the same cause. We need to get out of our mindset that our lives are our business and no one else’s. We have become so private that we do not let anyone into our personal lives, and therefore we cannot really minister to one another.

There is a difference between a duty and a privilege or option. There are some things which we as Christians have a choice in whether we do it or not. Some things, however are a duty, meaning we don’t have a choice in the matter. I really believe the Scriptures make it clear that each of us who makes up the church, who calls themselves “Christian” has a duty to their brothers and sisters in Christ. Duty is defined as: “an act or a course of action that is required of one by position, social custom, law, or religion.”

I. Serve One Another

One of the main ideas I want to emphasize this morning is that we should have a genuine concern for one another as the body of Christ and as a community of believers. One of the saddest things about the church today is the focus on self. Many times people are concerned with what they can get and what they can do for themselves rather than looking at what others may need and how they can serve one another. One of the greatest strengths of the early church was their commitment to one another. They were committed to meeting one another’s needs. They were committed to serving one another. I think it is important for us to note that if we are going to be a Christian we must be willing to serve one another. It is a duty, not a suggestion.

I Peter 4:10

The Scriptures do tell us that every Christian has unique talents and abilities and that they are to use them for themselves to make it through in life. No, it says they are to use those gifts for the serving of one another.

a. Serving May Require Personal Sacrifices

Serving may mean that we have to give up our own wants sometimes. It means that we will put other’s needs above ourselves. Perhaps there are some sacrifices that you may have to make to be a servant. Sometimes you may feel that you have some things that you need to get done, but somebody else needs your help as well, perhaps you will have to sacrifice your plans for others. Perhaps serving may mean that you sacrifice time, energy, money, or things you want to do. Sometimes we may be tired and drained, maybe discouraged and not feeling like doing anything.

Galatians 6:9-10

Serving one another selflessly may require sacrifices, but I don’t know why when we hear the thought or notion that we may have to make sacrifices we cringe. It is a joy to be able to serve one another even though sometimes it is not convenient. There were many times it may have been inconvenient for Jesus to have the servant’s heart that he did. Serving doesn’t always come easy, sometimes it is difficult, however I have found that there is no sacrifice I can make that I am not rewarded for by seeing the joy of being a servant. The unselfishness found in a servant is a duty we have towards one another. Either you are a servant or you are not. We cannot be a Christian though and not be a servant to one another. Perhaps a total mindset is changed in order to put others before ourselves and in order to be willing to sacrifice for others.

b. Serving May Require Discomfort

Honestly serving isn’t always pretty is it. Serving isn’t always what we want to do. And being a servant may get us into situations, which we find uncomfortable and not ideal. This is exactly what Jesus was showing when he got down on his hands and knees and washed the dirty feet of his disciples. He said that he did not come to be served, but rather to serve. Shouldn’t we have the same mindset? Serving may require some humility because sometimes it is uncomfortable and unappealing. Sometimes there may be things we could do for others that require us to get into situations we feel we are above, however, sometimes we need to be willing to get down on our hands and knees and get a little dirty so we can serve one another. We love our comfort and are sometimes unwilling to do anything which may makes us uncomfortable. Well, God never called us to be comfortable though did he?

A lot of people refuse to serve anyone because they are lazy and self-centered. We need to take on a servant’s heart. There are many ways to put this into practice and to begin to serve one another, many of those things anyone can do. You do not have to be the most knowledgeable fella to serve and you don’t have to be able to teach or anything like that, you just need to have a heart that wants to help others. Perhaps someone that can’t may need their lawn mowed, perhaps someone may be blessed by a meal that you make and take to someone, perhaps someone that has a talent to fix things can help someone repair some things that are broke. The list goes on, but the point is that we have a duty to serve one another.

II. Encourage One Another

I have heard soldiers say in battle that when they are fighting they would rather wound a soldier than kill one. This is not because they are nice, but rather because if they kill a soldier it takes one person out of the battle, but if they simply wound him it will take three people out of battle because it will take two people to remove the wounded soldier from the lines.

Sometimes I believe the Devil works like that. We have a lot of wounded people that make up the church. We have people who are wounded because of their past sins and they are overwhelmed with the guilt of those sins. We have people who are wounded because of sins they are struggling against currently, that cause them to feel a false sense that they are useless in the kingdom. We have people who are wounded by other people, perhaps by Christian brothers or sisters who have hurt them maybe even unaware. We have people who are wounded by relationships that have failed. We have a lot of wounded people here today; we all have our wounds and our battle scars. Often times the problem that exists is that sometimes those scars and wounds come from our own side.

As Stonewall Jackson and his staff were returning to camp during the battle of Chancellorsville on May 2, 1863, they were mistaken for a Union cavalry force by a Confederate North Carolina regiment who shouted, "Halt, who goes there?," but fired before evaluating the reply. Jackson was hit by three bullets, two in the left arm and one in the right hand. Jackson later died from comlications of an amputed arm and pnemonia. All because he was wounded by his own men.

Not only do wounds sometimes come from our own side, but also sometimes we do nothing to help heal those wounds, sometimes we pour salt in the wounds and know just how to kick a guy when they are down. We expect them to get back up, we don’t think their wounds are all that serious, so we fail to ever help the healing process. We often times feel that if we stop to help a wounded brother or sister that it will make us vulnerable, and perhaps it does, but we need to be willing to help one another. One of the greatest ways for us to help one another is through a steady diet of encouragement. The word encouragement means to provide someone with courage. I want to make a distinction that is important. Sometimes we have a hard time distinguishing between flattery and encouragement. A flattery may be a compliment, perhaps about something you have done or maybe about the way you look. Encouragement is spurring someone on to do more for the kingdom. The way I see things is that we have a lot of flattery and complimenting, but little encouraging of one another.

I Thessalonians 5:11

You will notice that this idea of encouraging one another is not just something that is a suggestion of something we might do if we have the time, but is a duty of each and every Christian. I have learned it is a lot easier to be a discourager than it is to be an encourager. It takes less thought and effort to tear someone down than it does to build someone up. We have a duty to one another to provide encouragement and that encouragement is vital to each person. There is no one that does not need it.

Hebrews 3:13

We see plainly the necessity of people being encouraged. I believe that the danger spoken of here of being hardened by sin’s deceitfulness refers not just to the one who may not receive encouragement from others, but also from the one who may not provide it. Not being an encourager allows our hearts to be hardened.

III. Bearing Burdens for One Another

Perhaps this relates to serving one another, but we need to be willing to bear one another’s burdens.

Galatians 6:2

In this life we are going to face some great burdens. We are going to face some difficult times, and to our fault sometimes we seclude ourselves from everyone while we attempt to handle our burdens ourselves. However, we should realize that we have a church family that should be willing to help bear the burdens. That means when our brothers or sisters are hurting we hurt with them, that means that we help them through struggles that they might be having. Are you helping others to carry their burdens? Or are you just leaving them to fend for themselves. Bearing burdens means you might pray for something that is burdening someone else, it might mean that you will go out of your way to help them with that particular problem. That is probably why the Scriptures call us to weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice.

There are many people who need their burdens carried in the church, and it would not be hard to find someone to help. Many of us will help in any way we can if we are asked to do it, but I would suggest we take it a step further and we look for opportunities and ways we can bear someone else’s burdens.

There is another side that I need to mention briefly. Sometimes we are the one’s that need a burden carried and lifted from us, and we need to be willing to let other people help us carry them at times. That is not always easy because we have the sense in our minds that we do not want to bother anyone or be an inconvenience to someone else, but we may need to accept the help of others at times instead of being proud, stoic, and overly private.

We really need to get out of our mindset that we do not let anyone into our personal lives, I believe that attitude is killing the church. We need to sometimes get into other people’s lives and bear their burdens and sometimes we need to let others into our lives and let them help us bear our burdens.

That is the beauty of the church being the family of God. We are not left to fend for ourselves. On top of having a God that cares for us and offers to remove our burdens, we have a church family that not only cares, but one we know will be there for us whenever we need them to bear our burdens. So how exactly do we bear someone’s burdens? The best answer I can give is that we take it upon ourselves, so that physically and emotionally we see it as our personal burden just as much as it is someone else’s. Therefore we seek to resolve the problem or heal the wound ourselves.

IV. Pray for One Another

We also have a duty to pray for one another. Many times we get phone calls or hear of someone sick and we never actually pray for that person and I know that I am guilty of that. I spend a lot of time thinking about the sick and what I can do to help them, but less time praying for God to interact. Let us hold to our word. When someone asks us to pray for them or for something going on in their lives, let us really pray for them.

James 5:16

We have the duty to pray fro each other regularly when we have needs. A lot of times when we come to church we mention the needs of other people, but seldom take our duty to pray for our brothers and sisters very seriously. We have the duty to pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ. I think that our prayers are something that we often take for granted. I believe that if we would actually take prayer seriously we could change the world. The truth of the matter is prayer is not an option for Christians it is one of our duties that we have. Prayer is a very powerful thing. We should be devoted to prayer when we have brothers or sisters in Christ who are sick and struggling with illness, when they are wrestling with decisions, when they are struggling with sin or a spiritual problem, or whatever else may be going on in their life.

There is no greater comfort that to know people are praying for you. I know many who have battled difficult times and they have found great strength from the knowledge that countless people all around the world are praying for them, perhaps people that don’t even know them, all they know is they are their brother or sister in Christ.

In Acts 12, when Peter was in prison the church met together and was earnestly praying to God on his behalf. Let us really pray for one another. I mean really spend time in prayer for each other. One of my favorite Bible character is a little spoken of guy in the New Testament. We don’t know much about him, but Paul does reveal a little bit about his character in the book of Colossians.

Colossians 4:12-13

Literally it says that he was agonizing in prayer for them. Do you ever have times where someone else’s problems and burdens are so real to you that you hit the deck and agonize in prayer for that person? I believe the world and the church would change if we had a few people like Epaphras, who took seriously the duty to pray for one another.

V. Accountability to One Another

Here is the area that we have the toughest time with. We may just let someone serve us and bear our burdens, but the idea that we have any form of accountability to each other is too much to handle. We like to say that we are only accountable to God, and we are indeed accountable to God, but I also believe on some level we are accountable to each other for our lives as well. We often can quote verses like, “do not judge lest ye be judged” or “let he who is without sin cast the first stone”. Let us get this out in the open, when I speak of being accountable to one another I am not saying that we do it because we are judgmental, nosey or better than anyone else, but rather we hold one another accountable for their lifestyle because we sincerely love one another and want other people to be in a right relationship with God.

Galatians 6:1

A lot of times we think of others sin as their own business. We don’t worry too much about it because it doesn’t affect us. If you are in the church though you loose the right to not have anyone care. You should be concerned about the way in which other live because people’s sin affects the whole church. Remember, it was Achan’s sin that held up the whole nation of Israel from defeating the small armies at Ai. You may have the attitude that you are going to mind your own business, and stay out of other people’s lives, but we are called to hold people to account for their lifestyle. God takes sin seriously; especially sin within the church, and as brothers and sisters in Christ we need to hold each other accountable to a high standard of living. Moreover, I do not believe that is acting in love. If I refuse to help others and hold them accountable for how they act, I am essentially saying I do not care where they spend eternity. Sometimes we see accountability as being unloving, but I would say it is the opposite.

The reality is that all people in the church have their problems, they have their own struggles and ultimately that is between them and God and we will have to answer to God for those things. However, we are a team. We can help one another along. We can confide in one another about things we are dealing with. We can hold each other to a high standard. It is okay to let people know that sin is not okay, that vulgar talk is not acceptable, that some particular thing they are doing needs to be repented of. I hope someone would love me enough to tell me if I cross the line. Last week, we talked about how a lot of evil exists because people are not accountable to anyone on any level. I believe a sense of accountability to one another will deter a lifestyle of sin. On the other hand if we know that we will never have to talk about our issues and that no one will bring them up or hold us accountable we are more likely to do them and to progress in our sin. Paul help the church at Corinth accountable for their immorality in I Corinthians 5. Paul confronted Peter with his wrong actions in Galatians, when he refused to eat with the Gentiles. Why? Because it does matter what we do and how we act. If God is going to bring every deed into judgment, even every idle word, shouldn’t we as the body of Christ hold one another accountable for what we do so that we may be saved? Paul said when it is done it needs to be done gently and in love, bu