Before A Church Disciplines

BEFORE A CHURCH DISCIPLINES

(Gal. 6:1-10)

I. THE PURPOSE IS RESTORATION (v. 1)

A. The Sinning Saint

1. Sin has come in quickly. He doesn’t know what

hit him. His sin was not premeditated.

2. Maybe he made a rash decision.

3. Maybe he reacted to a situation without

thinking it out first.

4. Maybe he hadn’t spent time to draw closer to

God and wasn’t spiritually ready to handle the

temptation to sin.

B. The Supporting Saint

1. This type of person lives their life in close

communion with God. In short, they are led by His

Holy Spirit.

2. Because they are Spirit-led, they exude the

fruit of the Spirit, one of which is meekness.

3. Now would be a good time to examine your own

life. Let’s read Galatians 5:16-25.

4. Now be honest. Which list closer describes

your life? Even better, if you gave both list to

someone you work with, play with, or go to school

with, how would they classify you?

5. This person doesn’t seek to tear the other down

in order to build himself up. He dearly desires

for that person to come back to Christ.

C. The Self-Righteous Saint

1. This person can’t wait for situations like this

to arise. They live for other people’s failures.

2. They think the have all the answers, but they

don’t realize that they have fooled themselves

into thinking they are always right.

II. THE PATH IS ROUGH (v. 2)

A. The Load

1. Sometimes sin can quickly overtake and

overwhelm a Christian. They can’t get out on

their own. They need help.

2. We must have a willingness:

a. To get involved

b. To help them spiritually by prayer and

physically by intervention.

3. Prayer is essential, but prayer coupled with

action is even more important. Burden-bearing is

hard and often seems thankless.

B. The Law

1. Turn to Matthew 11:28-30. Paul takes what

Christ does for us and tells us to do the same for

others.

2. Truthfully, sin weakens a person physically,

emotional and especially, spiritually. Jesus

helps us when we are at our weak times, and so

should we help our fallen brother and sisters in

Christ by yoking them up to us so we can lead them

back onto the right path.

III. THE PREPARATION IS REQUIRED (v. 3-8)

A. The Pride (v. 3)

B. The Proving (v. 4-5)

C. The Pronouncement (v. 6-8)

IV. THE PRODUCT IS RIGHT (v. 9-10)

A. Overcoming Weariness

1. One can easily grow tired of working with and

trying to restore a fallen Christian. To be

honest, they try the patience more than anything

else.

2. Paul gives us encouragement by reminding us

that the law of the harvest holds many blessings.

Therefore, we should work hard, knowing that God

will bless our efforts.

B. Overabundant Works

1. We should always seek to do good. (Random acts

of kindness)

2. We should pay special attention to how we treat

our fellow Christians.