Dance Lessons: Bearing Burdens
Galatians 6:1-5
Pastor Jefferson M. Williams
Chenoa Baptist Church
6-21-2020
[Slide] Sitting on a Pillar
Simeon the Stylite was a Syrian that was born around 390 AD, and died on September 2, 459 AD. Simeon lived near the city of Aleppo.
At 16 years old, he entered the monastery and wanted to make sure that he went to heaven so he punished his body terribly, starving himself and beating his back bloody.
That wasn’t enough and he decided he had to separate himself from sin and consecrate himself to God. So he built a pillar about six feet high and sat on it for the next six years.
So people came to visit him and seek wisdom, or see if he was crazy, that he decided to build a new pillar 60 feet high and three feet in diameter, with a cross bar to keep him falling off in his sleep. He sat on that pillar for the next 30 years till his death.
I guess you could say he was a pillar of his community. [Dad joke]
I guess that’s one way to avoid dealing with other people but most of us don’t have the luxury of sitting on a pillar away from others our whole lives!
Created for Community
Did you feel the buzz when you walked in here today? This is the first time we’ve meet together since March 8! For 14 weeks, we’ve been a virtual community, watching the sermons and sharing them with others.
While that was necessary in this pandemic, we all knew something was missing. Church isn’t something you go to, it’s a way of life. More than that, it’s a family. That’s why we have been missing it so much. We were created for community!
R. Kent Hughes writes:
“Church is a family where we, as Christians, find our identity and security, receive nurture and nourishment, get encouragement and support, benefit from teaching and training, modeling and mentoring, discipline and discipleship.”
But church can also be messy and we have to learn how to relate to our fellow family members with love and grace.
Because most of us don’t have a 60 foot pillar to sit on to avoid others, Paul is going to give the Galatians, and us, directions on how we are relate to each other in a way that is soul sustaining.
Vainglory
Last week, we studied the last verses of chapter 5, in which Paul wrote:
“Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.” (Galatians 5:24-26)
He encouraged the Galatian Christians to be led by or to walk in or keep in step with the Holy Spirit.
As we allow the Spirit to grow in us the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self control, our relationships with our families, our co-workers, our neighbors, people that are different from us, people that disagree with us, and people that don’t look like us, will be living laboratories for the love of God to be expressed in practical ways.
Paul will give us two examples, one negative and one positive, of how this plays out in community. Last week, we considered the first negative example in verse 26.
This is the opposite of walking in the Spirit.
The word conceited is an interesting term. It literally means “to boast where it's is nothing to boast about.” Older translations use the phrase “vain glory.” It’s the idea of empty pride.
I heard a story about Muhammad Ali. The flight attendant asked him to buckle his seat belt and he replied, “Superman don’t need no seat belt.”
To which the flight attendant responded without missing a beat, “Superman don’t need no airplane! Buckle your seat belt please!” Which the champion quietly did.
This was the attitude of the Judaizers. Remember that they were racists. They considered themselves better than the Gentiles because they were Jews.
Paul writes that this conceit was playing out in two different ways - “provoking and envying each other.”
Provoking is a term that means to challenge someone. It can be used for athletic competitions that compare speed or strength. This is about superiority, showing who was better.
Envying, which was one of the “deeds of the flesh,” is more about inferiority. When we feel insecure about our gifts and talents, we can envy others.
We need to be confident in our position in Christ. We are loved and accepted because of Jesus. We don’t have to puff ourselves but can view ourselves with objectivity:
“For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.” (Rom 12:3)
We are to neither look down on others or feel inferior to others. Both of these postures of heart are rooted in our desire to gain glory for ourselves, to feel like we matter. We are to rest in God’s extravagant love and boldly proclaim his love to others.
In today’s verses, Paul will give us four ways that we can allow the Holy Spirit to guide us as we live in the community of our faith family.
This will be very different than the way the world operates. But, remember, we dance to a different rhythm than the world and…
[Slide] Those who dance are thought crazy by those who cannot hear the music.
Turn with me in your copy of God’s Word to Galatians 6 and we will be looking at the first five verses this morning.
Prayer.
[Slide] Burden Bearing
Paul’s main point in these five verses are found in verse two. Let’s read this verse together:
[Slide] “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” (Gal 5:2)
There are a few important points to consider before we move into the heart of the text.
[Slide] The word “burdens” here means a “heavy load that is hard to lift and difficult to carry.”
The first time we planned a baptism here at CBC, I came into the auditorium to move the panels so we could fill up the tub. After a couple of times trying lift these panels, which I estimate weight about 1,000 pounds each, I finally gave up. I wasn’t going to be able to lift these on my own.
This text assumes we all have burdens.
John Piper defines a burden as “anything that can crush the joy of our faith.”
These burdens could be
Financial - a single mom of three who loses her job or a divorce that forces you into bankruptcy.
Relational - a couple dealing with infidelity or infertility or a young man of color living his whole life being treated differently simply because of skin color.
Loss - a family that loses a child to addiction or loses everything in a house fire.
Emotional - adult children dealing with aging parents or a teenager admitting that she was abused.
Spiritual - trying to deal with that sin that you just can’t seem to forget and still feel shame over.
Or how about Makenna Batson, who is autistic and was walking back home after getting some candy from the store in Chillicothe when a group of teenagers bullied her and hit her, filming the whole incident. How about that for crushing her joy.
I remember saying in a sermon once, “You are either going into a storm, presently in a storm, or just coming out of a storm.” A lady approached me after the service and said that I must “live a pretty dramatic life.” She said that her life was storm free.
This is a pretty common response among some Christians. They don’t wear a mask for COVID-19. They wear a mask to pretend that they are okay when they obviously aren’t.
Other Christians may admit that they have burdens but then quickly say, “But I got this. No need to worry about me.”
Others will tell you that Jesus is their burden-bearer. And that is absolutely true.
David writes in Psalm 55:
“Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; He will never let the righteous be shaken.” (Psalm 55:22)
Peter writes:
“He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” (I Peter 2:24)
Jesus invites us to depend on Him to carry our burdens:
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matt 11:28-30)
But God does not expect us to bear our burdens alone.
In Exodus 18, Moses is overwhelmed. He is judging the people’s disputes from morning until evening. His father-in-law Jethro visits and immediately sees the problem and offers a very wise solution:
“What you are doing is not good. You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone. Listen now to me and I will give you some advice, and may God be with you. You must be the people’s representative before God and bring their disputes to him. Teach them his decrees and instructions, and show them the way they are to live and how they are to behave. But select capable men from all the people—men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain—and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. Have them serve as judges for the people at all times, but have them bring every difficult case to you; the simple cases they can decide themselves. That will make your load lighter, because they will share it with you. If you do this and God so commands, you will be able to stand the strain, and all these people will go home satisfied.” (Exodus 18:17-23)
Paul knew the power of a person that could help carrying burdens:
For when we came into Macedonia, we had no rest, but we were harassed at every turn—conflicts on the outside, fears within. 6 But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus, 7 and not only by his coming but also by the comfort you had given him. He told us about your longing for me, your deep sorrow, your ardent concern for me, so that my joy was greater than ever. (2 Cor 7:5-7)
After Kimmy died, I was sitting in the school library ministering to devastated students when Jim Wolfe, the pastor of First Baptist Church of Pontiac, asked me to come out in the hall with him.
He said he had been watching me all morning pouring out comfort to these hurting teenagers and he knew that my heart was broken as well. He hugged me and prayed over me and the Holy Spirit seemed to envelope us. It was a beautiful example of of Jim being the Body of Christ to me.
The great blues theologian Bill Withers summed this up beautifully:
Lean on me, when you're not strong
And I'll be your friend
I'll help you carry on
For it won't be long
'Til I'm gonna need
Somebody to lean on
[Slide] Patrick Hutchison is a person trainer and was at a protest in England when he saw the man on the ground. He was being beaten. He obviously was not there to protest peacefully. He made his way through the crowd and picked the man up and put him over his shoulder and carried him to safety. When asked why he did it when that man was probably not on “his side,” Patrick said, “At some point, we just have to show our love to our fellow human beings, whether they agree with us or not.”
Paul makes a very interesting statement in verse two. If we carry each others burdens, then we will fulfill the law of Christ.
What is the law of Christ?
In Galatians 3:5, Paul writes that we receive the Holy Spirit through faith
In Galatians 5:22, Paul identifies the first fruit of the Holy Spirit is love
In Galatians 6:2, love is said to fulfill the law of Christ.
Jesus said it this way:
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35)
David Platt has said that the surest sign of the Holy Spirit’s work in a community is love.
Can I challenge you this coming week? Let’s ask God to open our eyes to the burdens that people around us are carrying and then take a risk and reach out and say, “Let me help you carry that!”
[Slide] Restore Gently
If we go back to verse one, Paul is going to give us a practical example of how burden bearing plays out in the community of faith:
[Slide] “Brothers, 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.” (Gal 6:1)
Before we answer four questions concerning this verse, let me make some observations.
* We are not called to do this with non Christians. I’m always amazed at Christ Followers that want to badger non Christians about their sin. We need to always remember that cows don’t lay eggs. We are not called to be the sin police in non Christians lives.
* we need to make sure that we keep Jesus’ words in the forefront of our minds:
“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” (Matthew 7:3-5)
[Slide]What’s the problem?
Someone we know is “caught in a sin.” This doesn’t mean a pattern of sinfulness. This is the idea of being “overtaken” by a sin. It literally means to “step aside.” The Galatians were running well but now one of them has been tripped up by sin. ?
James, the half brother of Jesus wrote that “we all stumble in many ways.” (James 3:2)
The Apostle John wrote:
“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” (I John 1:8)
2. What’s the process?
In many churches, when someone is caught in a sin, the first inclination is to ignore it. Most people don’t want to make waves and are afraid of confrontation, so they simply sweep it under the rug.
After I got saved in college, I started dating a girl that was bad news. All of my friends saw it but me. After the relationship was over, I asked one of my friends why he didn’t confront me. He said that he was scared I would get mad at him. I told him that he could have saved me a lot of drama if he had of taken Galatians 6 seriously.
Unfortunately, the second response is even worse than ignoring it. This is where the sin is known but is gossiped
about behind the person’s back. Of course, we couch this gossip in the form of prayer requests.
Neither of these options fulfill the law of Christ.
The goal is restoration. That Greek word can mean setting a fractured bone or mending a torn net. We want to restore them to usefulness in the body of Christ.
3. Who is to do this?
Paul calls those “who live by the Spirit” to do this ministry of restoration. He is not pointing to a small group of super spiritual Christians in Galatia. These are people that are being led by the Spirit and would be described as spiritually mature.
The “you” here is plural and implies that it’s best to do this with at least one other person, or a group of people like during an intervention.
4. How is this to be done?
Paul writes this must be done with a spirit of gentleness and an attitude of self examination.
If you remember from a few weeks ago, gentleness is one of the fruits of the Spirit. Gentleness isn’t wimpy - it’s compassion, firmness, love and care. ?
Dane Ortland, writing for the 9Marks journal, gives us four reasons to be gentle:
Gentleness surprises people
Gentleness woos people
Gentleness dignifies people
Gentleness gives people a living picture of Jesus Himself.
Let me add one more. We should be gentle because that’s how we want people to confront us when we are caught in a sin, right?
We have to make the choice - restoration or revenge, healing or hurting.
It’s been said that Christians are the only ones who shoot their wounded.
Paul also gives a warning to “watch yourself, or you may also be tempted.”
This could be understood two different ways and both are probably in view here.
The phrase “watch yourself” is where we get our English word “scope.” It means to scope something out, to fix our eyes on the bullseye.
Paul warned the Christians at Corinth:
“So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!” (I Cor 10:12)
We may be tempted by the same temptation that the person we are trying to help is but more likely we will be tempted to become conceited and feel superior to that person.
Jesus, as always, is our example and leader. In John 8, the Pharisees bring a woman caught in the very act of adultery. I’ve always wondered exactly how they caught her and where was the man? None of that mattered. It was a set up to try to trap Jesus.
Warren Wiesrbe wrote:
“Nothing reveals the wickedness of legalists better than the way they treat others who have sinned.”
While the woman cowered in front of them all, Jesus did a very curious thing. He stooped down and starting writing in the dirt. Scripture doesn’t say what He was writing but some commentators believe that He was writing out the sins of the accusers that stood holding rocks waiting to stone her.
He finally straightened up and said, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” (John 8:7)
Knowing they had checkmated, each man dropped his rock and left, beginning with the oldest to the youngest.
[
Slide] The woman is now alone with Jesus. She is totally guilty and deserves to be punished.
He asks her, “Where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
With a quivering voice se responds, “No one sir.”
Then, the only Person in the universe that could have actually thrown the stone at her, smiled and looked her in the eyes and restored her torn soul:
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” (John 8:11)
A pastor I follow on Twitter, posted this recently about the “cancel culture” of social media:
“This is the church. We will rebuke you when you are wrong. We will forgive you when you repent. But we will not cancel you when you are down ...for Christ will not cancel us. “Cancel culture” is not kingdom culture. We don’t just applaud the righteous, we restore the fallen.”
When we restore others like this we are showing that we are being led by the Spirit.
Is there someone you know that needs this ministry from you? Approach it with a deep sense of humility and self-examination and remember James words:
“My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins.” (James 5:19-20)
An old story tells of a man who fell into a pit:
A very caring person looked into the pit and said, “I feel so bad for you. It looks lonely in that pit.”
A legalistic person looked into the pit and said, “Yep. That’s seems about right. Getting what you deserve, probably. I’m glad I’m not a pit person like you.”
A gossip looked into the pit and then ran away to tell everyone all about it.
A person prone to self pity looked into the pit and said, “What are you complaining about? You should see my pit!”
A counselor sat down next to the pit and said, “Tell me about your parents.”
A word of faith pastor looked down into the pit and proclaimed, “The pit is simply an illusion. You need to speak in faith your way out of the pit.”
Then Jesus came along and without a word, extended his hand, and lifted the man out of the pit.
And that man could probably sing the words of Psalm 40:
"I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.” (Psalm 40:1)
[Slide] Self Deception
Paul carries this theme of self examination over into verses 3-5:
“If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves.” (Gal 6:3-)
None of us are so together that we don’t need help from time to time. But pride can deceive us into thinking that we are too self important to care about others.
C.S. Lewis wrote about pride:
“There is no fault which makes a man more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves. And the more we have it in our ourselves, the more we despise it in others.”
In the movie Toy Story, a toy joins Andy’s collection that is a perfect example of thinking that you are something when you are nothing.
[Slide] Buzz Lightyear believes he is the actual superhero and that he has lasers and can fly. He’s arrogant and causes chaos in the community of toys until he learns the truth, that he can’t fly but that he can “fall with grace.”
It’s only when he is able to see himself for who he is, a toy like the rest, that he can become true member of Andy’s family.
John Calvin translates it this way:
“Since all men are nothing, he who wishes to appear as something and prides himself that he is something, deceived himself.”
In one of the classes I teach at Moody, the students have to write a paper about the things that tempt them in ministry. The number one temptation, especially for the younger students, is the overwhelming desire to be known, to have a “platform,” to write books, speak at conferences, have millions of social media followers.
I continually have to remind them that being known is overrated. Our job is to simply be faithful and make Jesus famous.
Count Nicolaus Zinzendorf, who traded in a life of royalty for the mission field, famously said this:
“Remember, you must never use your position to lord it over the heathen. Instead, you must humble yourself and earn their respect through your own quiet faith and the power of the Holy Spirit. The missionary must seek nothing for himself, no seat of honor or hope of fame. Like the cabhorse in London, each of you must wear blinkers that blind you to every danger and to every snare and conceit. You must be content to suffer, to die, and to be forgotten.”
[Slide] We All Have a Backpack to Carry
[Slide] “Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, for each one should carry his own load.” (Gal 6:3-5)
The idea of testing your own actions is a Greek term that means to “prove that a metal is pure.”
When I compare myself to the guy down the street, I might come away feeling pretty good about myself. But that’s not our standard.
Our standard is Jesus and until we reach heaven, we will fall woefully short. Rather than bum us out, this leads us to humility and a grace toward others who don’t make the grade either.
Then Paul contradicts himself. Don’t you know that the Bible is full of contradictions? Well, he said he verse two that we should carry each other burdens and now in verse five he says that each one should carry his own load. Which is it?
There is no contradiction here. The word burden means something so heavy that someone can’t carry it alone. The word “load” is a word picture for a backpack, something that we each carry ourselves.
This is the everyday life issues that we are responsible for carrying. Sometimes though, some of us take on other people’s backpacks. This is called codependency. We are not meant to carry four backpacks. No wonder you are tired!
But in this context, Paul is pointing to our standing before Jesus at the judgment. Each one of us will be judged individually.
The writer of Hebrews makes this clear:
“Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.” (Hebrews 9:27-28)
My job as a pastor is to get you ready for that day. Remember we do not worship an elephant or a donkey. We follow the Lion who is the Lamb!
Mark Clifton, a pastor I greatly respect, reminded fellow pastors this week:
“…if EVERY political policy / social change you desired immediately became a reality - it would not cause a single lost soul to gain heaven. And don’t think Satan isn’t keenly aware of that.”
It is important that we as Christians stand against systemic racism and injustice, the ultimate answer to the these questions is Jesus!
I love this picture! This African American evangelist was preaching a tent revival in Indiana when Andy came to the front and fell into his arms and surrendered his life to Christ. He was a Neo Nazi and a racist to his core. But Jesus….
We have to keep our eyes focused on Jesus and the fact that every single person that has ever lived will live forever, either a place the Bible calls heaven or a place the the Bible calls hell.
When you stand before God and He says why would I let you in, what are you going to say? No one can answer for you.
Simply point to Jesus and say, “I’m with Him! He paid my way in.”
Satan might try to jump in and say, “God, do you know what’s in that backpack? Do you know all the sins they committed? You should judge them now! One good lightening zap should do it.”
God will then remind satan and you that on the cross your judgment was moved from the future to the past. And you can tell satan to shut his mouth!
[Slide] How do you say thank you?
Ray Pritchard tells the story of how taking verse 2 of Galatians serious saved John Abruzzo’s life. This is how Ray tells the story:
“At 8:45 a.m. on Tuesday, September 11, he was working on the 69th floor of the south tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. That’s when the first hijacked plane hit the north tower. Seeing the flames and debris filling the sky, everyone scrambled to evacuate the building. Everyone, that is, except John Abruzzo.
A quadriplegic since a diving accident 17 years ago, there was no way he could make it down 69 flights of stairs by himself.
Eight men and one woman stayed behind to help him. Easing his 6’ 4”, 250-pound frame into a special sleigh-like device that itself weighed 150 pounds, they began to take him to safety. It wasn’t an easy trip.
After they had descended a few stories, the south tower shuddered when the second hijacked plane hit it. Soon the stairwell was filled with hot smoke and panicked workers racing to escape the doomed building.
When they got to the 20th floor, after an hour, they heard a roar outside. It was the sound of the north tower collapsing. The lights in the stairwell went out. When they reached the lobby, it looked like a deserted war zone: broken windows, smoke, debris, doors on their hinges, furniture overturned. And no one in sight.
As they exited the building, a fireman urged them to run for their lives. They followed the crowds to a high school three blocks away. Ten minutes after they left the south tower, it too collapsed.”
Reflecting back on that day, continues to be overwhelmed by his friends act of courage. He said, “I still don’t know what to say. How do you say thank you enough?”
Jesus bore the greatest burden in history when He died on the cross, in our place, for our sins. He didn’t wait until we we could be good enough to deserve it.
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)
This week, let’s keep our eyes open for opportunities to bear burdens, to restore the fallen, and to share with people the greatest news ever!
