Freedom’s Restoration (Galatians 6:1-5)
Tell me: If you were caught for drunken driving, and the headlines in the Advocate or the Observer said, “So-and-so Arrested for Drunken Driving,” would you go to church the next Sunday?
Most people would say, “No,” because they’d be too embarrassed to face their Christian friends.
But why not go to church the next Sunday. After all, church is a place to find healing. Fred Smith, who likes to ask this question of people, says it’s stupid not to go to church after you’ve messed up. “It’s sort of like a man who’s hit by an automobile, and he’s got blood all over the place, and his bones are broken, and they try to take him to the hospital, and he says: ‘Wait. I’m a mess. Let me go home and get cleaned up. Let me get these bones set, let me heal, and then I’ll go to the hospital.’” (Steven Brown, “A Calvinist Talks About His Friend, John Wesley,” Preaching Today, Issue No. 58; www.PreachingToday.com)
The problem is too many churches, instead of being places of healing for broken people, are places of judgment and condemnation; or worse, they are places where the brokenness is ignored and everybody pretends everything is alright.
The question I want us to ask this morning is: How can we become a place of healing for broken people? How can Bethel Church become a restorative place for people who have messed up? How can any Church become a place where people caught in sin get set free?
Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Galatians 6, Galatians 6, where we find out how.
Galatians 6:1 Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. (NIV)
If we want to become a place of healing for broken people, then 1st of all, we must RESTORE THE SINNER, NOT IGNORE THEIR SIN. We must care enough to MEND A BROKEN LIFE or SET A PERSON STRAIGHT before they completely destroy themselves.
The word for “restore” was used by doctors in Bible times to describe setting a broken bone, making it straight again, restoring it to its former condition.
The word was also used by fisherman to describe the mending of nets. In Matthew 4 and Mark 1, we see fisherman on the shore of the Sea of Galilee mending their nets. It’s the same word used here in Galatians 6. Their nets had torn and become useless, so they took the time to sew their nets back together again. They were restoring their nets, making them useful again.
And that’s exactly what the sinning Believer needs! Sin has ripped away at their life and made them useless. They don’t need somebody to tear away at them some more. They need somebody to come along side and mend them. They need somebody to help make them useful again for God’s service.
God calls us to restore the sinner, not blame him. Someone once wrote: Blame never affirms; it assaults. Blame never restores; it wounds. Blame never solves; it complicates. Blame never unites; it separates. Blame never smiles; it frowns. Blame never forgives; it rejects. Blame never forgets; it remembers. Blame never builds; it destroys.
So don’t play the blame game, because nobody wins in that game. Restore the sinner; don’t blame him.
And don’t gossip about him either. Don’t talk behind his back. Don’t talk ABOUT him. Instead; talk TO Him. “Restore the sinner,” God says.
DON’T IGNORE THE SIN. Don’t pretend nothing is wrong. That doesn’t help anybody either. Ignoring a broken bone only makes it worse, not better! So it is when we ignore sin in a person’s life. It doesn’t make it better; it makes it worse!
To be certain, we’re not to blame sinners, and we’re not to gossip about them. But we cannot close our eyes to their sin, which is causing them so much pain.
Instead, we must care enough about people to address the sin in their lives, personally and privately, not behind their backs, not talking ABOUT them, but talking TO them.
Jesus himself said, in Matthew 18:15, “If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you.”
I remember when a friend of mine did this for me years ago. We were in seminary at the time, and I was complaining about the treatment I got from the Field Education Department. I wanted to get Field Education credit for teaching a Sunday School class AFTER the semester began, but the rules required that I sign up BEFORE the semester began. I asked for special consideration, because I didn’t know I was going to teach that class until it was too late to sign up for the credit. Even so, the Field Education Department refused to grant me the credit, and I was complaining to a fellow student (Tim Sherman).
Do you know that student stopped me mid-sentence and said, “Phil, you’re bitter, aren’t you?” It hit me pretty hard, but he was absolutely right. I had gotten bent out of shape over a petty little thing, and it was beginning to affect my view of the school. Eventually, it would have affected my view of life and ministry as well.
I’m glad my friend cared enough to address the bitterness he saw creeping into my life. Then I could deal with it. Then I could confess it to God and turn from it before it ruined me. You see, that’s what a TRUE friend does.
In 1953, Sir Edmund Hillary climbed to the summit of Mount Everest, the first man ever to do that. Every body has heard of Sir Edmund Hillary, but the man who helped him climb Mount Everest, nobody ever hears his name – Tenzig Norgay.
On the way back down the mountain, Hillary fell and was almost lost. He would have been lost without Tenzig Norgay, who literally pulled him back up the cable and saved his life. Edmund Hillary lived to tell a great story because of the help of an unknown man. When someone asked Norgay why he didn’t brag about it, he said, “We mountain climbers help each other.” (Calvin Miller, “From Entertainment to Servanthood,” Preaching Today, Tape No. 132)
That’s a great picture of what the church is all about. As we climb the summit to be all that God created us to be, sometimes we fall. But when we do, there are those who will lift us back up again, help us regain our footing and continue on.
If we want to become a place of healing for broken people, then we must restore the sinner.
Only, we must be careful to RESTORE THE SINNER SPIRITUALLY. WE MUST MEND BROKEN LIVES IN DEPENDENCE UPON THE SPIRIT OF GOD, NOT IN OUR OWN STRENGTH AND ABILITY.
Notice, verse 1 says, “YOU WHO ARE SPIRITUAL should restore” the one “caught in a sin.” In the context, that means only those who are living by, being led by, and walking by the Holy Spirit of God (Galatians 5:16-26).
The ministry of restoration is not a job for those who are depending on their own flesh, their own ingenuity, or their own abilities. No. The ministry of restoration is spiritual work that demands spiritual resources way beyond anything we have as human beings.
When Sandy was life-flighted to the hospital in February after a heart attack, they didn’t ask a maintenance man to oversee her care. They didn’t even ask the hospital CEO. No. They asked a heart doctor – a cardiologist – to oversee her care, because he had the skills and abilities to take care of her heart.
So it is in matters of the spiritual heart. None of us, no matter how skilled we think we are, have the ability to care for the souls of people. Only the Spirit of God has that ability, and we need to let Him oversee the care of spiritually broken and wounded people.
We need to depend on the Spirit of God to lead us in the process and to actually bring about the healing.
One day, Big Ed goes to a revival service and listens to the preacher. After a while, the preacher asks anyone with needs to come forward to be prayed over. Big Ed gets in line. When it’s his turn, the preacher says, “Big Ed, what do you want me to pray about?”
Big Ed says, “Preacher, I need you to pray for my hearing.”
So the preacher puts one finger in Big Ed’s ear and the other hand on top of his head and shouts, hollers, and prays a while.
After a few minutes, he removes his hands and says, “Big Ed, how’s your hearing now?”
Big Ed says, “I don’t know preacher, it’s not until next Wednesday at the Dupage County Courthouse.” (Marshall Shelley, www.PreachingToday.com)
There are times when we don’t even know what to pray for. We think we know what a person needs, but we could be way off base. That’s why we need the Holy Spirit to guide us. That’s why we must depend upon God’s Spirit, not our own human wisdom and ingenuity.
Brennan Manning talks about the time when the brilliant ethicist, John Kavanaugh, went to work for three months at “the house of the dying” in Calcutta. He was seeking a clear answer as to how best to spend the rest of his life. On the first morning there, he met Mother Teresa. She asked, “And what can I do for you?”
Kavanaugh asked her to pray for him. “What do you want me to pray for?” she asked.
He voiced the request that he had borne thousands of miles from the United States: “Pray that I have clarity.”
She said firmly, “No, I will not do that.”
When he asked her why, she said, “Clarity is the last thing you are clinging to and must let go of.”
When Kavanaugh commented that she always seemed to have the clarity he longed for, she laughed and said, “I have never had clarity; what I have always had is trust. So I will pray that you trust God.” (Brennan Manning, Ruthless Trust, HarperCollins, 2000; www.PreachingToday.com)
When we’re trying to heal broken and hurting people, we don’t need more clarity; we don’t need more of our own skill and intelligence, no; we need to trust the Spirit of God to work in and through us.
If we want to become a place of healing for broken people, then we must restore the sinner spiritually – i.e., in absolute dependence upon the Spirit of God.
More than that, we must RESTORE THE SINNER GENTLY. WE MUST MEND BROKEN LIVES WITH AS MUCH TENDERNESS AS POSSIBLE, AS FRIENDS, NOT AS ENEMIES.
Verse 1 says, “You who are spiritual should restore him GENTLY.”
In everyday Greek, the word translated “gently” speaks of a “mild and gentle friendliness” (TDNT). In 1 Corinthians 4, Paul contrasts it with using the whip. He asks the Corinthian believers, who were wrestling with many sins, “Shall I come to you with a whip, or in love and with a gentle spirit?” (1 Corinthians 4:21).
When we angrily denounce sin in our brothers and sisters, trying to whip them into shape, it usually only drives them away. James makes it very clear: “Man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires” (James 1:20). No. “It is God’s kindness that leads you towards repentance,” Romans 2:4 says. As we exhibit the gentleness and kindness of Christ, then and only then can we help people turn away from their sins.
How many of you appreciate a gentle dentist, who is sensitive to your pain? I know I do, and apparently so do some Japanese scientists. They have actually created a special robot to help dentists in training learn how to be more sensitive to the pain of their patients. If the dental trainee tugs too hard on a tooth or hits a nerve, the robot actually reacts to the pain. In fact, the five-foot-three robot has been programmed to say, “It hurts,” and to frown when it feels uncomfortable.
“Because it’s so real, dental trainees can see patients’ feelings and will be able to develop good skills as they treat it not as an object, but as a human being.” So says Tatsuo Matsuzaki, an official at the Kokoro Company where the robots are made. He continues, “The point is that we can share people’s pain without hurting people. Treatment technique is important, but it’s also important to feel what it’s like to be a patient.” (David Slagle, Decatur, Georgia; source: Yahoo News Online, “Humanoid Robot Teaches Dentists to Feel People’s Pain,” 11-28-07, www.PreachingToday.com)
As it is in the medical world, so it is in the spiritual. If we’re going to become a place of spiritual healing, then it’s important to feel what it’s like to be someone in need; it’s important to be sensitive to the pain of those who have failed.
If we’re going to be a place of healing for broken people, then 1st of all, we must restore the sinner spiritually; 2nd, we must restore the sinner gently.
And 3rd, we must RESTORE THE SINNER HUMBLY. WE MUST MEND BROKEN LIVES WITH AN UNDER-STANDING OF OUR OWN PROPENSITY TO SIN. & WE MUST BE CAREFUL THAT WE OURSELVES DON’T GIVE INTO TEMPTATION.
Verse 1 says, “Watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.” None of us are above falling into sin. None of us are above failure of any kind.
And if we think we are, then watch it, because pride goes before a fall every time!
Galatians 6:3 If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. (NIV)
A strong, young man at a construction site was bragging that he could outdo anyone there. He made a special case of making fun of one of the older workmen.
After several minutes, the older worker had had enough.
“Why don’t you put your money where your mouth is?” he said. “I’ll bet a week’s wages that I can haul something in a wheelbarrow over to that building that you won’t be able to wheel back.”
“You’re on, old man,” the young worker replied.
The old man reached out and grabbed the wheelbarrow by the handles. Then he turned to the young man and said, “All right. Get in.” (John Beukema, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, www.PreachingToday.com)
That young man’s pride blinded him to his own stupidity. And that’s what pride does every time! Pride blinds us to our own faults. It blinds us to potential pitfalls, and if we’re not careful, we will fall into them every time.
That’s why the work of restoration is not for the proud. It’s not for those who think they are better than that poor “schmuck” who has fallen into sin. Instead, God says…
Galatians 6:4-5 Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else, for each one should carry his own load. (NIV)
When we restore a sinning believer there is no room for comparison. Tere is only room for humility and self-examination.
There is a story floating around about a statement Bill Gates (of Microsoft) supposedly made at a COMDEX computer expo some time ago. He said, “If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25 cars that got 1,000 miles per gallon.”
General Motors responded to Gates by releasing the statement, “Yes, but would you want your car to crash twice a day?” (www.PreachingToday.com)
In many ways, it doesn’t make sense to compare ourselves with others,
only to pay attention to what God has called us to do.
The work of restoration demands that we avoid all comparisons, because all of us are equal before the cross; all of us fail at times; & all of us need a Savior.
You see, “Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.”
We don’t need a proud man trying to fix a broken man. He’ll do more damage than good. No. Only those who are keenly aware of their own shortcomings are equipped to help others with theirs.
If we’re going to be a place of healing for broken people, then 1st of all, we must restore the sinner spiritually; 2nd, we must restore the sinner gently; 3rd, we must restore the sinner humbly.
And finally, we must RESTORE THE SINNER LOVINGLY. WE MUST MEND BROKEN LIVES WITH ALL THE LOVE AND COMPASSION OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.
Galatians 6:2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. (NIV)
The “law of Christ” is the law of love. Jesus said in John 13, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another” (John 13:34).
When He saw sin in our lives, He loved us from an old rugged cross. He did not come to condemn us. He came to save us from our sins by taking them away through His death, burial and resurrection. All we have to do is acknowledge our sin and trust Him save us from our sins.
That’s how Jesus loved us, and that’s how He wants us to love each other – not with condemnation and shame, but with compassion enough to carry one another’s burdens.
You see, those who pride themselves in keeping the rules only add to people’s burdens. They weigh people down with “shoulds” and “shouldn’ts.” They pile on the rules and regulations that only make people feel the weight of their sin even more. Jesus said of such people, “They tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them” (Matthew 23:4).
Legalists only add to people’s burdens. On the other hand, love lifts and bears the burden.
In what the news called “The Miracle at Quecreek,” nine miners trapped for three days 240 feet underground in a water-filled mine shaft “decided early on they were either going to live or die as a group.”
The 55 degree (Fahrenheit) water threatened to kill them slowly by hypothermia, so according to one news report, “When one would get cold, the other eight would huddle around the person and warm that person, and when another person got cold, the favor was returned.”
“Everybody had strong moments,” miner Harry B. Mayhugh told reporters after being released from Somerset Hospital in Somerset. “But any certain time maybe one guy got down, and then the rest pulled together. And then that guy would get back up, and maybe someone else would feel a little weaker, but it was a team effort. That’s the only way it could have been.” (Team-work Helped Miners Survive Underground, CNN.com, July 28, 2002; www.PreachingToday.com)
And that’s the way it should be in the church. When one guy gets down, the rest pull together to lift him up. Then that guy can help the next one who gets down.
One day a student asked anthropologist Margaret Mead for the earliest sign of civilization in a given culture. He expected the answer to be a clay pot or perhaps a fish hook or grinding stone. Her answer was "a healed femur." Mead explained that no healed femurs are found where the law of the jungle, survival of the fittest, reigns. A healed femur shows that someone cared. Someone had to do that injured person’s hunting and gathering until the leg healed. The evidence of compassion is the first sign of civilization. (R. Wayne Willis, Louisville, Kentucky. Leadership, Vol. 16, no. 4)
Let it be the first and last sign of Bethel Evangelical Free Church. May she be known as a church where people care. May she be known as a place of healing for broken people, because we restore them spiritually, gently, humbly, and lovingly.
I like the way William J. Crockett put it some time ago in his poem called “A People Place.”
If this is not a place where my questions can be asked,
Where do I go to seek?
If this is not a place where my feelings can be heard,
Where do I go to speak?
If this is not a place where tears are understood,
Where do I go to cry?
If this is not a place where my spirits can take wing,
Where do I go to fly? (William J Crockett)
