A Belivers Role/Lord's Supper

Turn to Galatians chapter 6 Quick announcements ( 2 weeks left for our study of Galatians ) Whats next.. First we will be doing a 4 week study of King Josiah.. I love King Josiah I have always wanted to study more about him, and I am sure that after our study you will walk away with a greater love for how God used him, and what we can learn from his life. October 31st this year falls on a Sunday, and I am sure you know what October 31st is.. Its reformation day ( That Sunday I have a special message on the reformation and his impact on the local church today ) After that we are going to start our study on the book of John on Sunday mornings. I am very excited for that, I love the gospels, but John’s gospel hits different on so many things, and I look forward to unpacking that book with you all as well. Lot’s of exciting things happening here at Agape, and these upcoming studies can be a great time to invite those in your life that may not be apart of the church home. But today we are going to be talking about a believers role, which is the title of this message…

What comes to mind to you when you think about the believers role? If you are a Christian here today what is your thoughts when it comes to that question? A believers role in and outside the local church is actually many things. But Paul in Galatians today is going to help us unpack what some of the role is for a believer.

Galatians 6:1–10 ESV

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. 2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. 3 For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 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. 5 For each will have to bear his own load. 6 Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches. 7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. 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. 9 And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. 10 So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

In the back we have provided a outline for you this morning and on it has the main point which says, “A believers Role is to help others and grow to become more like Christ”

A believers role is to help struggling believers

Part of the role for being a Christian is to help other believers when they are struggling. Its not our jobs to kick people when they are down. However this does not mean that we should ignore when a brother or sister in Christ is sinning against God, and man.

The text this morning though is asking believers, specifically those who are spiritual ( who are walking by the Spirit, which which we have talked about during our study, those who are following Christ, and being filled with the Holy Spirit. ) Those individuals are to restore those who have fallen into sin.

But like I mentioned just a few moments ago, we are to restore fallen brothers and sisters in Christ in such a way that we do so with a spirit of gentleness.

( so gentleness as we discussed a couple of weeks ago is a fruit of the Spirit, which makes since that Paul would ask a Spiritual person to restore someone, because they would have this fruit of gentleness. )

I love the words of Charles Spurgeon and how he says we should handle these situations

“What then? Turn him out of the church? Have done with him? No. Pick him up. Help him to run better than he did before. Set his bones for him if they have been broken. Put him in his proper place again. When a brother falls into sin, it is too often the habit to push him down—to cast him out and forget him.

dBut spiritually minded persons must not do so. We must seek the restoration of the brother. Is there not more joy over the sheep that was lost than those that did not go astray? Do we not have the best reason to deal tenderly with wanderers, since we might need the same generous offices for ourselves?

A Christian should always look for ways to help a fallen brother or sister in Christ… The words of Spurgeon ring so true for the church as a whole today, we are quick to cast out those who sin, but our goal should be restoration.

Because that is what God is doing in us, he is restoring us, and making us more like his son, but often in the process that is a messy thing, and through the mess sometimes we or others can go astray.

Jesus himself left the 99 to go after the 1 are we diligent to help restore those who are far from the Lord who need restoration, because if we are going to be a church that grows with Christ we must seek to restore those who have fallen away from Christ.

Spurgeon would go on to say… “Looking out for yourself, lest you also be tempted.” Paul seems to take it for granted that we probably should, if we were tempted as the other brother was.”

I have had the opportunity to talk with many people throughout the years, especially when it comes to some sort of accountability, and what often happens is the struggles that the other person has can become a struggle for you even though you were not struggling with the issue.

In addition to helping someone, to restoring someone watch yourself that you to dont fall into that sin.

But dont let the temptation of falling into sin, take you away from restoring those who have fallen away from the Lord. Because part of a believers role is to help restore struggling believers, and we do so by guarding our own hearts, and pointing those who are struggling back to Jesus, and his word. Thats always the goal of helping struggling believers pointing them back to the savior, and the love he has for them. A believers role is to help struggling believers.

A believers role is to bear one another's burdens

Every single person including believers have burdens, sometimes those burdens are too heavy for one person to carry. ( this burden if you examine the originally greek, means extra heavy load ) and to bear something means to carry something with endurance.

And when you help someone carry this load you are fulfilling the law of Christ. The law of Christ is John 13:34 “34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”

Think about this Christian, Jesus Christ bared a burden that we could not bear. By taking on our sin, he became sin, dying for us on the cross, a burden he did not deserve. He carried for us, and because of that we should carry others burdens. Jesus is our ultimate example, and as our example he shows us that carrying someone else's burdens fulfills the law.

But because sin likes to creep into our lives we often dont serve people in the right way.

This happens in a few different ways, one is because we think we dont have to. Maybe because of our standing in the workplace, or something else, we think someone else should bear that burden not me, saying I above serving someone in this capacity. If we know our bibles we know that Jesus didn’t think this way he served others. He washed feet, and like i just said a moment ago he died for sinners.

We sometimes think to highly ourselves, and that gets in the way of serving the Lord and others, another thing we do is we play the comparison game. Or we can think to low of ourselves and all these things prevent us from bear ones burdens.

But notice what the text says we are also suppose to bear your own load. bearing the weight on what God has called you to.

So all this together means what?

Often we try to pass off things that we could do ourselves, looking for a quick fix burdening someone that shouldn’t be burdened, rather than doing yourself. See the definition of bearing ones burdens is helping carry some one else's burdens that they cant carry.

Again I am going to quote Spurgeon by saying, “Let the first application of this passage be to yourself, and do not be eager to apply it to your neighbor, from whom you want to draw something. You have begun by violating the spirit of the text, not only by not bearing your brother’s burden, but also by thrusting upon him your own burden without taking his in exchange. I say this because I have often found that men naturally draw this inference: “We are to help one another. Therefore, please help me.”

The proper inference would be, “We are to help one another. Where is the man whom I am to help?” Is not that the most logical conclusion from the text? Yet such is the selfishness of our nature that we begin right away to say, “This text is a cow; I will milk it.” Not, “This text gives me something to do, and I will do it,” but, “This text gives me a chance of getting something, and I am going to get it.” If you talk like that, it proves that you are out of gear with the text and have not entered into the spirit of it at all.”

What me must do is think about how can serve others, while making sure we deal with own burdens.

If your an unbeliever the biggest burden you have is your sin. That sin you have is a weight you can’t carry only Christ can, and you give that burden to him by repenting of your sin, and coming to Christ by faith alone.

I said this earlier but everyone has their own burdens, some we need help carrying but others we dont, but the best way to deal with any burden is to go to Christ and rest in him.

resting in him gives hope to us even when we can’t carry those burdens or have others who can. three verses come to mind when i think about this.

I love what the Psalmist says in Psalm 55:22 “Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.”

another is 1 Peter 5:7 “casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.”

finally we can do this because of Matthew 11:30 “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.””

when the weight of the world seems like to much run to Jesus!

Another thing is…

A believers role is to grow as a disciple of Christ

One way to grow as a disciple is to listen to good teachers. Teachers who preach and teach the word, and as a result these teachers should be paid for this is what the bible says.

In addition to having good teachers we must also watch our own lives. Paul doesn’t want the people of Galatia or us to take verse 7 lightly. Galatians 6:7 “7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.”

Imagine going into something with the expectation that big things will happen, but in the process you do very little and expect a huge result.

You want it easy yet expect big results. This is the mindset of so many people. But the word of God says Do not be deceived. You deceive yourself if you think you can become more like Christ without sowing good fruit.

Because you do reap what you sow. You either reap good things or reap bad things.

Lets start with the bad. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption. This corruption the text is referring to is like decaying food. When you continually put bad things in your body your health declines. When you put good things in your body your body health increases.

We live in a world full of more than just garbage food, we live in a world that has things that distract us from the Lord, and not only do we and the Galatian church partake of these things we do so much where we become more like the world and less like Christ.

How can we expect to grow as disciples when we are constantly partaking in the things of this world.

Lets go to the other side. But the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. Christian if you do things you are suppose to do you will grow as a disciple of Christ.

Meaning you are sold out to living for the Lord in every aspect of life, which ties into the things we have already said about helping those who suffer, bearing one anothers burdens giving to the church, and not sowing bad fruit.

If you want to be more like Christ live for him in every aspect of your life, and dont give up, because doing good for the Lord can become tedious but working for the Lord now will have its reward in all of eternity. Dont give up grow as a disciple of Christ in all ways. Knowing the prize at the finish line.

Verse 10 sums it all up. With the transition so then, what we just learned needs to be brought to action. Paul says we have the opportunity to do good. ( the result of what we have learned in Galatians should spur us to go and do good to one another. ) Especially when it comes to serving and helping other believers. Because Yes, Christians help other people, but most importantly they help believers.

This text causes you to think about many things. ( A believers role though is to help others and grow to become more like Christ ) What response do you need to make today, are you helping those who have real needs. Are you you growing or fading. Because we do reap what we sow, God knows all things, and because he does he can’t be fooled. Dont play the Christian game, and expect Christian results. Look to grow in your faith, and help others in need.

For the unbeliever the burden of not knowing Christ personally is a heavy one. Its a burden thats so overwhelming because sin is a heavy. Sin is something no ordinary man can carry. You can’t pick up your own sin, or see if your neighbor can help you pick it up for you, the weight of each one of our sin’s in this room couldnt be lifted up by the whole town of Blanchard or let alone the whole world.

There is one man, who can lift that burden though, he is the God-Man Christ. Who had not experienced the burden of sin because he lived a perfect life, who took his sinless self to the Cross, and died on the cross. Why? Because his death is the only way you can have eternal life. The bible is clear that if you sin against God which everyone has you must day for that sin, and the penalty for sin is death. But what is amazing is that Christ died on the cross to pay the debt you owe. That is if you repent of your sin, and trust in Christ alone for salvation. Then the burden of sin not being paid for will be lifted.

How do you need to respond today?

Today is a special day where we get to respond to the Lord together as a church taking the Lord’s supper.

The Lords supper is one of two ordinances the Local church has the other is Baptism.

Luke 22:19 “19 And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.””

Its a reminder of the work of Christ on the cross, how his body and blood were shed for believers.

The Lords supper is an act of unity in the Body. Now before we take of this I want to be clear this is for believers only. So if there are any children or unbelievers who have not came to know the Lord yet this is not for them you, but can be a moment that we teach them about Christ.

Listen to the words of 1 Corinthians 11:27-32 “27 Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. 30 That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. 31 But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. 32 But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.”

You can also take the Lord’s supper in a unworthy manner if you are living with some sort of unrepented sin. The Lord takes this moment very seriously, and so should we, and that being said let us take a moment to pray in silence for ourselves and our own standing with God, and I will close with pray in a moment.

The bread and the wine symbolize the body and blood of Jesus and I want to pray for each one before we take it.

Pray for body.

1 Corinthians 11:24 “24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.””

Pray for the blood

1 Corinthians 11:25 “25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.””

1 Corinthians 11:26 “26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”