Restoration and Examination

Good morning and welcome to another week here at the Bridge. I am so glad that we could be here this morning. Over the last several weeks we have been going through the 6th chapter of Galatians. We skipped the first couple of verses and there was some intentionality in that. It was important for us to establish the fact that we must be reminded that we serve God first. If we aren’t careful we will reap what we sow and that can be either the promise of heaven or the pains of this world. We also talked about how important it is that we recognize that we are the new creation. That living a life that is not focused on God is not where we are to be. It is in the light of these ideas that we come back to the first section of this chapter.

Galatians 6:1–5 NIV

1 Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. 2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. 3 If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. 4 Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, 5 for each one should carry their own load.

We Sometimes Fail

I know shocker right. We fail. In all honesty this is one of the biggest challenges we face in the church. We present ourselves in a light that we are pursuing God and that we have a moral high ground. We have high standards and we should, because God expects us to pursue him. However, that doesn’t mean we need to have standards that loses sight of the Grace of God.

This is where the church needs to start within our own house and do a better job of helping those when they fail.

Yes, we fall short. Yes, we aren’t perfect. Yes, we need to look to be more than we currently are. Let’s be honest we want these failures to be rare but we can’t deny that they don’t happen.

While I was studying this passage one of the interesting aspects that I learned was the way we translate the greek word for Sin in this passage. One rough way to translate it is as

“A False step, or a lose of footing”

When i read these words I immediately when to climbing a mountain. If you have ever climbed a mountain there will be a time that you will lose your footing. I can think of multiple times that I lost my footing growing up climbing and hiking in Adirondacks. On many of these trails if you lose your footing it is going to hurt. Scraps, bumps, and bruises will be in your future. It hurts. Likewise when we sin and fall short of God it hurts us spiritually.

Let me ask you a question.

When someone is hurt climbing the mountain do you just keep on hiking?

I sure hope not. To be honest if you do remind me to never go hiking with you.

No we stop and we help.

We stop and Help

As Christians we have a responsibility to help each other in times of sin. We are supposed to stop and help our brother or sister in getting back up so that they can keep climbing the hill.

If I am honest this is where we often as a church fail miserably. We don’t do a good job of this.

How many people do you know have a story like this.

I Used to go to church till someone did...

Or

I used to go to church but I was hurt by someone when they said...

The truth is that the church has not always had the best track record when it comes to helping someone get back up. We often sit in a seat of judgement on the people who trip and we never let them forget it.

That is not what we are commanded to do as Christians.

Galatians 6:1–2 NIV

1 Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. 2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

We Restore Gently

We are called to restore each other gently and we are called to help carry each others burdens.

In case you are wondering this isn’t advice from Paul. This is a command from Christ. This is one of the most basic ways we can fulfill the Law of Christ which is to Love God with all we are, and to Love our Neighbor.

What though does it mean to restore each other Gently?

Gentleness is mentioned just a few verses earlier in 5:25 as a fruit of the Spirit. A sign of the Spirit working in our lives.

Gentleness in this situation can’t be defined easily. The hallmark of restoring someone Gently is that it is tailored to each unique situation.

Gentleness is the recognition that each person in their failure is unique. Thus the medicine for the problem needs to be tailored to each situation.

Sometimes people need tough love and directness. Sometimes they need the kid gloves and to be walked with hand in hand through a situation. The Gentleness comes from our ability to discern the Spirit and how we can best help people through their failure.

Restoration is team work

This approach encourages us to work together with the person who has fallen short to carry the burden. The truth is that if it isn’t team work it is doomed to fail.

Go back to that mountain for a moment. Can you imagine hiking a trail and having to carry someone the whole time up the mountain. Eventually your strength will give out. Even the strongest of us can’t climb the whole mountain with someone on our backs. WE can’t drag them where they don’t want to go.

The Team work comes in the hand that is reaching out to pull someone forward as they climb the hill to make it easier. It is the person giving a boost up the rock face when they can’t quite reach the hand hold above them. It is the grace and humility to recognize that we are in this together so let’s help each other and carry the burdens together.

Danger!

This is the part where I always get worried. WE can sit here and be in agreement about all the things that have been said. Yet, for some reason the red flags of Danger are flashing in my mind. I think I know why because they were flashing in Paul’s words when it comes to how we are to treat the person who falls short.

Galatians 6:4–5 NIV

4 Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, 5 for each one should carry their own load.

Danger!

Now when I first read this passage I read verse Five and was like wait a minute that contradicts what we read in verse two about carrying each others loads.

I spent some time thinking about that and I came to realize that it isn’t a contradiction it is a reminder of how we are supposed to approach anyone who is struggling.

We are to approach with humility and self examination.

There are two key lines in this passage that remind us of the importance of humility and self examination.

Test your actions and Carry your Load

Paul reminds us that we are to examine our own actions any time that we work with people as we try to restore them. He is calling us to look at our own lives before, while, and after we are helping people.

The question must be asked why is this so important?

It is a reminder that we can’t be tempted to think of ourselves better than others because of their short comings or failures.

We can’t be so bold to place ourselves above others when we seek to help them up.

Augustine once said

“There is no surer test of the Spiritual person than this treatment of another’s sin” —Augustine

The signs of a strong spiritual person is they never look at another’s sins and think that they are better or superior when helping people. They recognize that the grace of God is bigger than that and that we all are recipients of God’s grace and that with out it we would be nothing.

It is a call to remember that we are to love one another.

Earlier I shared that this passage is mostly talking about how we are to treat our fellow brother an sister in Christ. It is important though to remember that this attitude and approach needs to begin there. It will help us to avoid the situations we talked about int he beginning of hurt in the church. However, with most things that Paul shares with us they have application to the world and to non-believers as well.

Imagine for a moment how the world would view Christians if we would spend more time loving on people than attacking them. Be honest there are many of us who may never realize that we are causing hurt because of the way that we approach people. This doesn’t mean we don’t have strong statements of faith and doctrine but it is a position that when we approach every encounter with any person we do so with humility, grace, and Love.

Love the Sinner Hate The Sin

How many of you have heard this before. I will be honest it isn’t a wrong statement. Yet, there is a part of me that feels it isn’t quite right.

In light of what we have just read it makes me think about this idea a little more.

Am I so focused on their Sin that i treat them differently?

Am I so busy hating their sin that I might inadvertently Hate them?

Am I so busy hating their Sin that I forget my Sins?

I love Mark Lowry’s Response to this line.

“Love the Sinner, hate the sin? How about: Love the Sinner, hate your own sin! I don’t have time to hate your sin. There are too many of you! Hating my sin is a full-time job. How about you hate your sin, I’ll Hate my sine and let’s just love each other!”

Isn’t that true. Let’s work on ourselves. Let’s each do better as individuals. Let’s get together though as a community and support and love each other. Let’s come together under the grace of God and let the Spirit move and transform us into the new creation, so that we can live a life that is in honor of Him.

IF we can start doing that more. Wow Look out. The Worlds going to change.

Let’s Pray.