Burden Bearing Love - Galatians 6:1-10
00:54
Speaker 1
Lots of people say it in different ways. This is one of the ways I kind of say it in a quick, concise way. It's all about who Jesus is and what He's accomplished on our behalf in His life, His death, and His resurrection. Recently, Pastor Jason has been summarizing the gospel as Heaven's King has come down, and you can have it. So you've heard him say that. J.I. Packer he probably wins the award for the shortest definition. He says, "God saves sinners." That's J.I. Packer's gospel, and so here in Galatians in verses three and four, Paul says it like this: "It's God's grace poured out instead of His judgment. He says it's to live at peace with God instead of in an enemy against Him. He says it's God's own Son giving Himself up for our sins to deliver us from this present."
01:48
Speaker 1
Evil age, and so all of this is done by the will of God and to His eternal glory. And so I would just say, if that's you this morning, if you believe this good news, then all of these things are yours in Christ. His peace, this grace, this rescue from sin, this freedom from this rebellious world, the willing of working of God in your life for His glory and your good. All these things are yours. And Paul would say in Galatians that changes everything. If those things are true of you, it should change everything in your life. Chapters one and three, it changes my relationship with God. I'm no longer a slave. Now I'm a son. Chapters two through four, it changes my relationship with the law. Not this external force to be obeyed, but instead God writes His law on my heart and gives me a new heart and a new mind. It changes how I look at myself.
02:46
Speaker 1
It changes how I deal with my sin. I'm now crucified with Christ, and the life I now live is through Him. Chapter five. It changes how I walk and talk and act and how I love. God's spirit is inside me, and the fruit of the spirit His love, His joy, His peace, His patience. All these things are flowing out in our lives. And then finally, chapter six. This is where we're going to be at today. This gospel. It changes how we relate to one another. As members of the household of faith, and so that's what we're going to look at today, starting in verse one. Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in the spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he's something when he's nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work.
03:45
Speaker 1
And then his reason to boast will be in himself alone, and not his neighbor, for each one will have to bear his own load. Let the one who has taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches. Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that he will also reap. For the one who sows to his flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are the household of faith. Dear Heavenly Father, God, we pray this morning that as we open the Scriptures together and set under the truth of Your Word, God, that You would be here with us, working.
04:42
Speaker 1
In the hearts and the souls of men, God, encouraging us with the truth of Your Word, challenging us, God, helping us to do well in these things. God, we know that there may be sins that need to be repented of, or maybe burdens that need to be borne up, maybe seeds that need to be sown. God, not to the flesh, but to whatever we need to hear this morning, God, we pray that you would be our teacher, God, and your name we pray. Amen. So you'll notice both in verses one and verse ten, Paul uses kind of a familial language. He starts off by addressing us as brothers and sisters, and then he ends by addressing us as members of the household of God, as if to remind us that we're part of the same faith family.
05:39
Speaker 1
All right, and God, our Father, He really cares how His children treat one another. So I have a pretty big family. I have six kids at my house, and I can tell you a few things as a father of six. First of all, most of what I want for my children could be summed up in one phrase:
05:59
Speaker 2
Love one another.
06:00
Speaker 1
As a matter of fact, I am a hundred percent certain that's the phrase that Whitney and I say most of all in our house. Someone won't share what they have. We say, "Come on, guys, can't you love one another?" Or, someone says something ugly and unkind. Hey, come on, kids, just love one another. Or, the same could be said of grumbling or lacking forgiveness or serving one another. It all comes down to love. And so, I don't think it's strange that God, our Father, is often found saying the same things to His own children. First John 4:11 said, "Beloved, if God has loved us."
06:37
Speaker 1
We also ought to love one another, John thirteen thirty four. A new commandment I give you: you love one another, just as I have loved you. You are also to love one another. Galatians five fourteen. One chapter back, for those, for the whole law is fulfilled in one word: you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And so it's clear that that's what good parents and what a good father would want for their children. But as you all know, man. Loving others can be hard, right? Because here's what's true: people can be annoying, right? And people can be irritating, and people can be hurtful, and they can argue, and they can bicker, and they can upset, and they can offend. And so, this is kind of a good rule of thumb: the more sinners you pack under one roof, the harder it is to love one another, right? And so, that's just a reality. So sometimes.
07:34
Speaker 1
When things kind of get out of hand in the castor household, we have family meetings. You guys ever have those? It's like everyone, everything's off course, and you're like, "All right, enough's enough. Everybody to the couch, right?" And so we have those moments, and when we have those moments, everybody sits down, and we go over everything again. Hey, just in case you forgot how we do life in this house, here it is, right? Here are the rules. Here are the consequences. Here are the expectations. Here's what we expect in the caster household, right? And I think today's passage has that same kind of feel to it. While we all know that God has called us to love one another, sometimes we forget what that practically looks like. Sometimes we forget what the inner workings of that ought to be in the household of God. And so today we get both a clear reminder of what our Father expects, and also.
08:30
Speaker 1
A stern warning against things he will not allow, and you'll notice our text has this interesting flow. It's got all these beautiful reminders of what a faith family should look like, but then it's also got these serious warnings against what we must be on guard against. So he says, restore gently, but keep a watch on yourself. Bear burdens humbly, but test yourself. So generously, but be careful what kind of harvest you end up with. And so it's like God is shuffling both the blessedness of being in God's family and these warnings. He shuffles them together and says, if you're going to love one another well, you got to get both sides of this deal right. And so that's what we're going to look at today.
09:25
Speaker 1
The household of God. How do we deal with the sins of one another? Verse one says this: Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in the spirit of gentleness. So here in verse one, Paul addresses a brother who has committed a trespass. He's been ensnared by something. He's fallen into some kind of sinful disobedience and is trapped by his own sin. You'll notice Paul doesn't tell us exactly what this sin is. If you look back at chapter five verse nineteen, you can see a long list of different kinds of sins that people can get caught up in. So he doesn't tell us what sin it is, and he doesn't tell us how he got caught up in this sin. Instead, the emphasis is on the spirit-filled brother's response.
10:22
Speaker 1
Not how the brother got into the problem of sin, but how we should respond to him. And here's why. Let's say you and I go on a hunting trip to Colorado. And you and I get separated, and you just hear this blood curdling scream. You hear me? And you run around the corner, and I'm stuck in a bear trap. Both feet right in the middle of it. And I'm stuck in this thing, and it's bad. It probably does matter how I got in there. And that's probably a story you're going to want to hear. And there's a big difference between if I jumped in that thing on purpose and if I accidentally stepped into it. That does matter. But you know what I want in that moment? I want you to get me out of the trap. We can talk about the other stuff later. And I want you to do it, please, gently. Because it's painful. And so, the same thing. Paul is kind of making that.
11:17
Speaker 1
Same point. Although it does matter how people get snared or caught up in sin. Paul is saying, as far as it depends on you, you who are spiritual, having the same spirit of the living God, you restore that brother gently. And so that's what Paul is focusing on: the spiritual brother's gentle response. The word that Paul uses here for restore means to mend or to set right, to put back how it ought to be. It's actually the same word for mending nets and setting broken bones. And so with that second definition, when you're doing something like that, we know dealing with sin can be painful. Like when people are caught up in those things,
12:10
Speaker 1
There's real sorrow behind it. There's real pain in it, and so we ought to be concerned with how do we put this back with a spirit of gentleness. And so Dr. Fergus and I earlier were looking at this passage and we're talking about this part. He said, "Well, says there's two ways that I can set someone's broken bone. He's like, I can give them a leather strap to bite down on, and then I can not tell them when I'm going to do it. I'm going to count to three." Like that, and he says, "Or I can do it with some sympathy and some sedation, right?" And really, what he's saying is, like, you can achieve the same thing in a couple different ways, but the heart behind it matters, right? Like, if you're the dude with the broken bone, the heart behind how you get put back right, it really matters, and so that's what Paul is saying here. When we see our brother or sister caught in sin, it matters.
13:08
Speaker 1
How we help go about restoring them. Now, there's also a danger here. Don't misunderstand the passage. Even though we ought to have gentleness towards our brother who's caught in sin, we're not gentle towards sin. So that's true for us as believers. We take sin seriously. We would say that sin ought to be put to death. Sin needs to be confessed and repented of. Sin needs to be crucified. Sin comes with consequences. Killing sin, or it will kill you. But at the same time, when dealing with the pain of sin, when dealing with the brokenness that comes with sin, when dealing with the sorrow of sin, have the spirit of God, and be gentle with how we handle sin. You want a reference point? Think about how gentle God is with you.
14:04
Speaker 1
How kind he is with you, how patient he is with you, as he helps you set things right in your own life, and then use that same gentleness on your brother. So that's the beautiful name in the family of God. God has given us the ability to help others out of sin that they are ensnared in. But now comes the warning along with it at the end of the verse. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. If they got caught in the thing, if they fell into sin, you could as well. Now, this might not be a very nice illustration, but it's a good illustration, so I'm going to use it. I remember in high school many years ago, an ice storm had come through, and they didn't close school down. Joseph Espinosa and I got to the commons area early, and we were just sitting there like there's these big glass windows, and we were just sitting there watching people fall on the ice.
15:02
Speaker 1
And so, there's this one spot in particular that is super slick, and nobody's making it through there. We're just watching for 20 minutes, and we're dying laughing. So someone walks up and they bust it hard, and then someone else. Sometimes what happens is someone falls, and then people rush to help them. They run over, and then they fall. Then their friends. There's like five or six people down on the ground at the same time. Anyways, the point is, none of those people thought they were going to fall. They're rushing in to help others, but they weren't being cautious and careful. In the same way, Paul is saying, "Hey, it's a beautiful thing to rush to help your brother. That's a lovely thing to want to get involved in someone's brokenness." But he's saying, "Yes/No" ONLY if answering a specific question. But keep in mind that the original text may have errors such as 'um', 'uh', 'like', 'you know' etc. So please clean up the transcript above.
15:58
Speaker 1
Don't walk into a hard, broken, ugly, painful, tempting situation where other people have fallen hard with no concern. Because the truth is, you have the same enemy they do. You have your own sinful desires. You're capable of all sorts of ugly things, and you can fall just as hard and just as fast as they did. So when we restore one another in a spirit of gentleness, we also do so carefully and cautiously, keeping an eye on our own sinful heart. The last thing you'd want is a pile of bodies, a bunch of brothers who have all fallen into the same snare of sin. Look next at verse two. Verse two says, 'Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.'
16:54
Speaker 1
Earlier this week, I had someone ask me, "Hey, how do you pick a sermon?" You know, so Jason, he's going through whole books, and you're just told you're a preacher. So how do you figure that out? And sometimes it's from something I've been studying. Sometimes there's like a sermon I've done with kids that I really love, and so I'm like, "Hey, I want to tweak that and rework that for adults." But sometimes, God has used His Word in my life in a cool way, and it's like my heart bookmarks it, right? So it's like, hey, that is awesome. That's beautiful. I want to share that with my church family, and every time I get to preach, whenever it is, like I'm saving that for you guys, right? I might fill the pulpits at other places, but this is for my family, right? And so that's what happened with this passage. So, a dear brother of mine, he's carrying a heavy burden.
17:48
Speaker 1
And it's one of those things that's like, so some burdens are for a season, and some of them, they're not going to go away, right? You're just walking in this heavy and hard thing indefinitely, right? And that's the kind of burden he has. I hate it for him. Like I hate it for anyone. They're the best people, right? And so they're the best people, and they're going through the hardest thing, and I'm sitting there and we're praying together about this thing, and I put my hand on his shoulder and I prayed this verse and I said, 'Man, God, I know this heavy. I know this is crushing him, and if you can just even give me a little bit of it, so he doesn't have to hold it anymore, right? If you can just move this thing around, and it was the coolest thing. Like in that moment.
18:45
Speaker 1
I felt something happen, and he felt like it was like God answered it as I said it, right? And so like his life didn't change, the problem didn't go away, but behind the scenes, underneath this heavy mess that he was carrying, an amazing work of God's grace happened, where God was moving burdens around, and He was rightly burdening my heart for my brother, and He was rightly lifting a burden off him, right. And so it's like this beautiful thing that God was doing. And then about two weeks later, man, like I went through one of the hardest things I've had to walk through, and I'm still walking through in my own family. And the same dude, he prayed for me, and God did it again, right? And now it was in the reverse way. So I've got this crushing thing, and God's moving, and He's lightning, and so it's this beautiful.
19:42
Speaker 1
The thing that God does, and so it's no wonder that that proverb says, "A brother is born for adversity." So, God is good and He's kind, but life can be hard and heavy. You all have burdens of your own, and you know things that other people are walking through. There are heavy, painful, real burdens that people carry day by day. Burdens of sickness, burdens of sin. Burdens of depression and addiction. There are marriages that are hurting and falling apart. Rebellious children can be a heavy thing. Burdens that come from abuse or cruelty. They're burdens of our own sins and those who sin against us. There's the grief and loss of death. There are all sorts of heavy things that your brothers and sisters are carrying around every day.
20:39
Speaker 1
How loving! How awesome of God to be the kind of person that not only bears those things with us, but surrounds us with other people who do the same. That's a beautiful thing about this family of faith. God bears our burdens, and He surrounds us with others who will help do the same. That's something. And I want our church to get this right. Because this is one of the most needful things, just in practical daily living, to help others out with the hard things that they're going through. When you see it, you immediately know it's beautiful. When you see others bearing burdens, when you're the one who people are lifting the burden off, you feel that it's the most beautiful thing. Your heart soars. It's a gift of God's grace where He allows brothers and sisters.
21:37
Speaker 1
To enter into and share the sufferings of of one another, and like it it is an amazing thing that that I get to see happen all the time. It happens here up here at our office. So Laura, she's she's our counselor, and she's here on staff. And like I'll walk, but my office is kind of right by hers, and so I'll walk by, and like I'll see people who come in for counseling. And like guys, you can like you can tell it's not easy stuff. Like it's heavy. Like their their face is red. They're they're sitting there not blinking. They're wringing their hands, right? They're anxious. It's like you can just tell something's crushing them, right? And so they they go in, and then an hour later they come out, and it's like the coolest thing. Some sometimes they're smiling, sometimes they're laughing. like like you can tell they're.
22:32
Speaker 1
They're like their steps a little lighter, and they're a little bit more bold, and they're a little more confident. It's not like their hard thing just went away or disappeared altogether. It's still there, but what happened in that room? God was at work. He was being merciful and kind. His word was opened up, and truth was shared, and people were carried to the throne of grace and pleaded for in prayer. And God was using one of His children to love and serve and bear up the burdens of one of His other children. And so it's truly an awesome thing. Like I just want to say to you, it's not just for counselors and pastors. It's something that all God's children can do. It's a gift of grace that He's given to everyone who's a part of the family. And it's something that we need.
23:28
Speaker 1
There are things in this life that you weren't meant to carry alone, and and so that is what Paul's getting at here. On on top of this, Paul adds that it fulfills the law of Christ. The the law of Christ is how we love one another, is what that's talking about. And so you can even think about Jesus' whole life and ministry. Everywhere he goes, like he's bearing burdens, right? Like day by day by day, he he goes to the pool of Bethesda, and there's this despairing, hopeless, crippled guy that's been there for 38 years. Why is Jesus there? To bear burden, to to lift that up off of him. He he goes to the well to meet a lonely, adulterous Samaritan woman who has no idea what true love looks like, and he's there to carry her burden. He he walks up to a man born blind.
24:18
Speaker 1
And just like everyone else, this guy has always wondered why he was born that way. Jesus is there to lift his burden. He goes to a house of a man whose twelve-year-old daughter has just died, and he's there to lift that burden. He crosses the sea to find a demon-possessed man, naked, filthy, wounded, and tormented, wondering what Jesus would ever want with someone like him, and he's there to bear his burden. Or he goes to the cross where Isaiah says, 'Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.' And so all these things are serious burdens. They're all hard, they're all messy, they're all painful. And where is he? He's walking into the heart of them, into the heaviest part, and he's shouldering the heaviest things that were crushing people. So I would just say, that's who you follow.
25:15
Speaker 1
He's the one you call Lord. That's whose family you're part of. His spirit is inside of you, and so wouldn't it make sense then that we would share in that part, and share in that ministry, and share in that work? By the way, Jesus has already lifted your biggest burden off of you forever. Your greatest problem is your problem of sin.
25:45
Speaker 1
Your your problem of death, the wrath of God, and His judgment—Jesus bore all that on the cross of Calvary. He He lifted it up off of you forever. And so, if that's true, shouldn't that lighten my soul a little bit and free up some room for maybe since He took the heaviest thing off me, like like that's gone forever in all eternity? Maybe shouldn't I have some space to carry some other heavy stuff for some other people?
26:16
Speaker 1
Here's how Philippians two five through seven says it: have a mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking on the form of a servant. We're called to bear one another's burdens in a Christlike way. And then comes the next warning in verses three through seven, starting in three: for if anyone thinks he is something.
26:47
Speaker 1
When he's nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work. Then his reason to boast will be in himself alone, and not in his neighbor. For each one will bear his own load. And so, whether you're dealing with the sins of others in verse one, or trying to help bear the burdens of others in verse two, you have to be careful that you don't think more highly of yourself than you ought. Or start comparing yourself to the broken people you're trying to serve. And so it could look like this: you're rushing over to help a brother with sin. And like, oh, poor guy. And as you're helping him, you're like, man, I would never do something so stupid. I'm here to help you, right? Like, I would never do something so wicked. God, I'm glad I'm not like this dude. As you're trying to serve and love, you're actually puffing up your.
27:46
Speaker 1
Pride, this vainglory for yourself. You're feeling pretty good because you're not so torn up as that guy, right? Or maybe you go to help assist your bear burden, and you're like, oh, I'm so sorry. I'm here to help, and inside you're thinking, that's not that heavy. Geez, get it together. My life's harder than that. I got my own problem to. And so it's like in going to love and serve someone, you could actually suffer from the pride of. And so Paul says, "Hey, don't deceive yourself. You're not as awesome as you think you are, right? That's what he's saying. You have all sorts of broken problems and issues and ways that you have fallen and you have failed. So don't try to draw vain glory for yourself by setting yourself against your brother. Instead of doing that, Paul says, test yourself. Okay, if I'm going to have any scrutiny."
28:45
Speaker 1
It ought to be for me, right? If I'm going to be setting myself against someone, I should look at my own self and carefully examine what's going on in my own heart rather than my brother's. And so it's really the same warning Jesus gives with the parable of the speck and the plank. This is an awesome parable, and you've got one wounded brother who's got like the tiniest little sliver of wood in their eye. And then the brother that's got a two by four sticking out of his eye wants he thinks he should be the doctor. He's like, oh my gosh, I can help that person. And Jesus is saying, hey buddy, I appreciate your heart. It's great that you want to help, but how about you get the log out of your eye? How about you deal with the major serious broken ugly things in you before you go try to help others with their broken issues? And so it's that same kind of principle.
29:42
Speaker 1
There are lots of sins that I will come across in my life—the sins of my friends, the sins of my family, the sins of my children—but I shouldn't ever forget. For me, my biggest problem is my own sin. Always. It really is. The thing that's gonna cause me the most grief and do me the most harm is what's going on in my own broken heart. And so, Paul says, test yourselves. Ask yourself some hard questions. There are people who are afraid to do that. They don't want to be alone with their own brook. They run from it. Paul's like, no. Ask yourself hard questions and examine yourself. I should say, Daniel, is there anything in your heart or your life that's ugly and unfit for a child of God? Is there any lust? Is there any greed? Is there any anger?
30:37
Speaker 1
Is there any unforgiveness? I should take a close look at those things. Is there any pride? Is there any works righteousness? Do you think you're better than other people, for one reason or another? Are you doing right things but doing them for wrong reasons to be seen or thought well of? Are you doing good things but you're doing them begrudgingly? Are you smiling on the outside but grumbling on the inside? Test your heart, examine yourself, and if there's any sin that needs to be dealt with, if there's any, right? If there's any logs in your eye, by all means, remove them, pull them out. And then Paul says this: for each one will have to bear his own load. That might be a little confusing because in verse two he just said carry one another's burdens. And now here in verse five he says, but you'll have to carry your own load. And so he's actually using two different words because he's talking about two different things.
31:36
Speaker 1
Burdens and loads are different. There's some hard and heavy and crushing things like God intends us to shoulder these together, like we come alongside each other, we help carry these things, we bear one another's burdens. But that doesn't remove or take away my own personal responsibility to carry my load, right? And so that's what he's saying. Here's an example of that. A brother falls into sin. How can I bear his burden? Well, I can weep with him. I can grieve with him, I can come alongside of him, I can share scriptures with him, I can show him what true repentance looks like, I can pray over him regularly. But I can't repent for him. I can't make his heart turn. I can't remove the consequences of the sins that God has put in place. Those might be hard things that he has to walk in for a long time. Or someone comes in for marriage counseling.
32:34
Speaker 1
You could open up to Ephesians five and say your marriage is a beautiful picture of Christ in the church. You could meet with them week after week. You can even send them on a beautiful couples trip. Go, enjoy this trip. It's on us. We love you. We want things to go well. But you can't love and pursue their spouse for them. Like, you can't make deep down apologies and changes on their behalf. You can't make intimacy happen for them. Those are things that they have to bear. You could share the gospel with someone. You could speak words of life, but you can't believe for him. And so, brotherly love and affection and bearing burdens is good. Needful. Necessary in the household of God. We all need more of that. But also, it doesn't take away our own personal responsibility before God to carry what He's given us. Look next at verses seven and eight.
33:32
Speaker 1
Along with this, Paul says, 'Each man is responsible for what we sow.' Starting in verse seven, 'Do not be deceived. God is not mocked; for whatever one sows, he will also reap. 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.'
33:56
Speaker 1
I'll be the first to admit I'm not a farmer. I've never done any kind of farm work. I grew up in northwest Oklahoma, but if you want an expert at that, you'll have to wait for Jason to get back. I think I can follow what Paul's saying here. It's pretty simple. He's saying what a person plants in their garden is going to grow there. That's what he's saying. Whatever you plant is going to grow into something. Sunflower seeds are going to grow into sunflowers. Daffodils are going to grow, or the seeds are going to grow into daffodils. Acorns are going to make oak trees. There's a direct correlation between what you go about sowing and what it grows into. And he says the same's true spiritually. God's not mocked. What you go about sowing, what you go about scattering, is going to produce something in your life. So don't be surprised.
34:52
Speaker 1
If you go around regularly sowing to the flood flesh, and corruption grows up. That's the first thing he says. Don't be surprised if that happens. I don't know if you've ever experienced this. You're going about your day, and then all of a sudden, something truly ugly comes out of you. Like maybe a real vengeful cruel anger, just like explodes out of you. An outburst of rage, or maybe like a carnal lust, or a twisted perversion comes out of you, or a mouthful of lies, or cutting words, or unloving gossip. Like something that is as soon as you see, you're like, oh my gosh, that was horrible. Where did that come from? We have moments like that.
35:40
Speaker 1
Sometimes you'd say, "Well, maybe it was a weak moment or a bad day, or maybe there was an attack from the enemy, or it was this perfect storm of terrible circumstances." But sometimes, if we're honest, maybe these ugly things grew up out of us because we planted it there, and we watered it day after day after day, and then here it is. And it's uglier than we realize that it would be. And so here's some examples of that, like in the area of lust, out in public, a beautiful person catches your eye, look, second glance, third glance, that's planting seeds. Lingering on a picture or watching a video or entertaining ugly thoughts, fantasizing about lust. Maybe these seem small to you at first, but like your actions.
36:34
Speaker 1
Actually, planting something—you're actually doing some gardening. And so he said, "Don't be surprised if an ugly adultery grows up. Like if that's what you're sowing to. What about the area of anger? Maybe at first you're annoyed. We all have that. Then you're replaying the offense over and over. Let me rewind. What did they say again? How did they say it? Right? And then every time you see the person or think of the person, the scowl comes across your face. Then you're sharing your frustrations and venting to other people, like, "Hey, a little bit of soil and water, like, man, a murderous, angry heart can sprout up really quick, right?" And so that's what he's getting at here. There are all sorts of ugly things that can grow up out of the garden of the flesh. Just look back at Galatians five nineteen through twenty one.
37:30
Speaker 1
This gives you a picture of how ugly it can be. Now, the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalry, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. And so is that what you want growing up out of you? Is that the kind of garden you want to be in? It's not a beautiful place to live, and so that's option number one. When I'm like, I know what I want, I know what I need, I know what will satisfy my heart, I know what will gratify my desires, and I slow, I begin to sow to the flesh. I'm producing these corruptible and ugly things, and you don't end up.
38:27
Speaker 1
A garden at all, but really in some dark, foul world of death and decay, where corruption grows out of you. So there's that option versus option two, sowing to the spirit. And notice the capital S, spirit, right? Sowing to the spirit of the living God. So not living and laboring for my own sinful desires and sowing to those, but instead living in such a way where I'm keeping step with God. Who's saying, "What do you want? What are your desires?" Right, and so here's what sowing to the Spirit would look like: a real relationship with the living God, where you care, like you care what He wants, and you care what He says. A relationship by faith, where you're saying, "God, would you help me look away from myself? I want to trust You," right? A real relationship that has obedience in it. God, I'm going to listen when You speak, and I care what You have to say.
39:26
Speaker 1
And I want to walk in your ways. Repentance, like I'm going to come to you with my failures and my faults and my flaws, and not only wanting grace and forgiveness for my mess ups. I want my heart to change. I want you to be in charge here. The relationship where you abide, God, you're where I want to be. You're where I want to remain. Hold me fast. Keep me close. Give me a new heart. New desires. What has grown in that garden? Instead of sowing to my own flesh, if I'm sowing to the Spirit, what fruit comes from that? Love, God's love. Joy, God's joy. Peace, God's peace. Patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, kindness, self-control. All of which belongs to God, and through our union with Him comes springing out or growing out of.
40:25
Speaker 1
His people, so it's a beautiful, fruitful garden of God's own making, where it's all the beauty and the goodness and the glory of all that God is. A paradise, a place where their corrupted desires do not grow; those are put to death. But His altogether lovely desires grow into full bloom and beauty. What would that look like? Paul summarizes it in verse eight. Those who sow to the Spirit will reap a harvest of eternal life. He summarizes all the works of the flesh and the word corruption, death, decay. He summarizes all that God has for you is life eternal, harvest of life. In light of that, what are you going to sow to? Look at verses nine and ten.
41:18
Speaker 1
Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. So, two final thoughts. First, he says, 'Don't grow weary.' How many of you feel that in your soul? You're like, 'Oh my God, yes, yes.' I feel that. There's not a week that goes by that we don't need to be reminded of that. And that's because nothing we talked about today is easy. None of it's easy. Helping others out of sin, that's hard. Baring the burdens of others is heavy. Testing my own heart and examining my own sinful brokenness can be painful and difficult. Not falling into the pride of comparison is hard. Fighting against the desires of the flesh is hard. Faithful obedience and abiding are hard.
42:17
Speaker 1
Saying, 'Not my will be done, God, but yours be done.' That could be hard, and so Paul, he gets all that. He understands. He says, 'Do not give up,' and he says, 'But set your eyes on the harvest.' Where remember, remember where you're headed. Remember what is coming. We see dimly. The Bible says we only know in part, but if we only knew. What one day we will know, like if we only knew the full glorious reality of what's coming for those who are in Christ, I imagine I can't even imagine the kind of scattering that would be done right here and right now. And so Paul says, pray for that. Pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into the harvest. Pray for God to send out you and.
43:15
Speaker 1
Keep your eyes fixed on the prize. Set your eyes on the harvest, both the joyful harvest that is to come, and then the small ones along the way. Have your eyes open. Be ready for what verse ten Paul says: opportunity. As we go from this place, like our eyes are open. We're seeking the Lord. We're looking for places that we can do good for people and serve. And as we do that, God's going to show up and do something truly beautiful in and amongst His people. Let's pray, King Jesus. Thank you so much for my church family. God, I pray that you would help us get this right. God, help us to be a people who care about those who have fallen into sin. We know that sin wants nothing good for us; that it's.
44:15
Speaker 1
It's got horrible plans, and it ends in death. But let us be people who are merciful and who are regularly trying to pull others out of that and back to where life is. God, help us to be a church filled with people who are known for bearing one another's burdens. That when we see people who are hurting or struggling, we wouldn't want to run the other way from the heaviness or the pain or the work of that, but we would come in to help them. God, that we be ready to fulfill the law of Christ, loving our brothers or sisters. God, I pray that you would fill us with your Spirit and give us a heart that's ready to sow good things. God, to walk with you and to trust in you and to look to you and to lean on you, trusting that a glorious harvest is coming. God, give us these things, put them in our heart as we go from here. In your name we pray. Amen. Let's stand together and worship.