West Greeley Baptist Church
August 5th 2001
Pastor Mark Hensley
Galatians 6: 1-3
“A friend in need”
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. 2Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. 3If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.” Galatians 6: 1-3
Introduction: Lisa 42, nurse and single mom, Georgia My church acted like I was a leper when my husband left me. I’m sure I was no angel, but they made me feel like I could have somehow forced him to stay just by being “good enough.”
Now that I think back on it I suspect they just didn’t want to deal with me as a divorced mom. And they didn’t want to deal with the reality that someone in their midst could fail at marriage. In other words, I was a reminder that their pat answers about life might not work so well after all.
Transition: Christians have been described as the only people who shoot their wounded! Lisa needed friends, people who would have stepped in when the whole world stepped out. Needed friendship was not offered. Aloof, and critical glares replaced what should have been a hand up. She was kept at arms length, when she needed people to put their arms around her.
Today the Apostle Paul will remind us that believers should be in the restoration business, because they have been restored! We must be aware of temptation, less we too stumble and fall. A proper perspective of who we are will help us keep our head when everyone around us is losing theirs!
I. Restoration
II. Compassion
III. Perspective
I. Restoration “Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently”
The word “Caught” describes one who inadvertently slipped or stumbled, rather than one who deliberately jumps in the gutter. “You who are spiritual should restore him gently” is in reference to a mature and committed Christian. One in whom the fruits of the spirit (love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, abides)
The word restore has an incredible meaning: "Restore" is in the continuous present in the original language, suggesting patience in the process. It is used, among other things, of a doctor in setting a broken bone. A doctor would not go in and throw the bone together, but he would with patience restore and correct the break.
You see restoration is a two-fold process. Were to be aware of those who are caught in a predicament. And secondly it takes mature and devoted believers to patiently assist those who have been wounded.
Why mature devoted believers? Let me be crystal clear, it’s because far two many “Good Samaritans” offer assistance when in reality they want to know the details of our sin, so they can broadcast it!
Gossip is the most deadly microbe. It has neither legs nor wings. It is composed entirely of tales, and most of them have stings. Morris Mandel in Bits & Pieces, June, 1990, p. 22.
Can you hear the anguish in Lisa’s words? Lisa 42, nurse and single mom, Georgia My church acted like I was a leper when my husband left me. I am sure that Lisa’s distress made it’s way through the community, after all it’s been said that nothing moves quite as fast a s a Baptist grape vine!
Were to hold each other to high standard. Christians are to take sin seriously! Does God approve of divorce? No! In fact the scripture teaches that God hates divorce! Gods desire is one woman, one man for life. Lisa’s husband left her. It takes two to make a house a home! In 1st Corinthians 7:15 Paul writes:
15But if the unbeliever leaves, let him do so. A believing man or woman is not bound in such circumstances; God has called us to live in peace. 1st Corinthians 7:15
Throughout the 7th chapter of 1st Corinthians Paul pleads for marital harmony. However when one’s spouse abandons them such an occurrence should call out restoration support and love.
My church acted like I was a leper when my husband left me.
How do we get into the restitution business? Paul clearly teaches that restitution follows a pattern. ”Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently.
Restoration is a ministry for the spiritual. To feel for those who are hurting to see them through the eyes of Christ! To be so concerned for them that you can’t bear the thought of them suffering when God’s mighty hand is waiting to help them up and out!
You see so many who sit near us Sunday in and Sunday out will come to a difficult fork in the road, where they will need you. What they more often than naught will need a hand up not a hand out! Paul helps us to see that were more like the Lord when we care, and unlike him when we don’t.
People need people. Laurie was about three when one night she requested my aid in getting undressed. I was downstairs and she was upstairs, and ... well. "You know how to undress yourself," I reminded. "Yes," she explained, ’but sometimes people need people anyway, even if they do know how to do things by themselves." William C. Schultz, Bits & Pieces, December 1990.
Everyone at some time in there life will need restoration. Restoration is best administered through compassion!
II. Compassion: 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. 2Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
In helping those who are struggling we need to be careful that we not be tempted. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Lisa’s dilemma was a difficult marriage and being abandoned by the one who vowed to be there, through the years. In context Paul is referring to the temptations that all believers would face through out time. It’s one thing to show compassion in aiding a fellow believer it’s quite another when we find our self identifying with a person, to the extent that we find ourselves tempted to fall.
To illustrate the above point, I don’t think it is necessary to jump in the garbage can to see if there is garbage in there or to pull someone out of the garbage can. But you might stand outside the garbage can and say, "Hey, there. There’s garbage in there. Why don’t you come on out here where it is clean?" In other words, we should be careful not to show the same fault as the one we seek to correct.
Someone has said, "The devil will take you farther than you want to go and keep you longer than you want to stay."
Paul’s words offer comfort and caution to anyone who would seek to help those who have been caught up in sin. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted
It was F.B. Meyer, I believe, who once said that when we see a brother or sister in sin, there are two things we do not know: First, we do not know how hard he or she tried not to sin. And second, we do not know the power of the forces that assailed him or her. We also do not know what we would have done in the same circumstances. Stephen Brown, Christianity Today, April 5, 1993, p. 17.
My hope is that if Lisa moved to Greeley Colorado she would find in this band of believers people who believe in restoration! After all who of us can claim superiority? Christ has liberated us!
I would hope Lisa, would find a compassionate people here. People who would offer friendship and assurance that in Christ there is always a beginning again!
I pray she would find a people who desire to walk with the Lord, and serve him. People who take sin seriously! People who take it to the only one who can vanquish it…the Lord Jesus Christ!
”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. 2Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
The word "carry” means to lift, take up. Burden’s - heavy loads or weights, pressing physically. Law of Christ - the law of love.
Two hunters came across a bear so big that they dropped their rifles and ran for cover. One man climbed a tree while the other hid in a nearby cave. The bear was in no hurry to eat, so he sat down between the tree and the cave to reflect upon his good fortune. Suddenly, and for no apparent reason, the hunter in the cave came rushing out, almost ran into the waiting bear, hesitated, and then dashed back in again. The same thing happened a second time. When he emerged for the third time, his companion in the tree frantically called out, "Woody, are you crazy? Stay in the cave till he leaves!" "Can’t," panted Woody, "there’s another bear in there." Source Unknown
Sometimes we feel everywhere we turn were in trouble! It’s at those times in life that God expects us to help one another!
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. 2Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. 3
Circled on the calendar of our lives are days when we all will need:
Restoration
Compassion, and
III. Perspective 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. 2Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. 3If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.” Galatians 6: 1-3
"If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.”
What is Paul getting at? We have learned today that all of us at some time in our lives will need restoration. Some spiritually mature believer who will help us to see that the course of action were pursuing leads to a spiritual dead end! When such is aide is offered with compassion and tenderness how it helps us!
We should realize that “He who would not fall should not walk in slippery places”. Simply put restoration is serious business that can lead us perilously close to temptation. Were to be on guard!
Paul now sums up what it means to be a friend in need. 3If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.”
As one writer put it: If one is ever too high to stoop down for one person whom he calls low, he deceives himself.
People in the spiritual restoration business are humble! They have a proper perspective of themselves! They refuse to look down on others. Why because they know themselves all to well. Pressure exact, focused on any one of us and we too could slip!
They that know God will be humble," John Flavel has said, ’ and they that know themselves cannot be proud." quoted in MBI’s Today In The Word, November, 1989, p.20.
Winston Churchill was once asked, "Doesn’t it thrill you to know that every time you make a speech, the hall is packed to overflowing?" "It’s quite flattering," replied Sir Winston. "But whenever I feel that way, I always remember that if instead of making a political speech I was being hanged, the crowd would be twice as big." Norman McGowan, My Years With Winston Churchill, Souvenir Press, London
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. 2Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. 3If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.” Galatians 6: 1-3
Appeal: Restoration/ Are you trapped by sin?
Confess it to the one who will cleanse!
Compassion/ Need a friend? Been going it
alone? Ask God to bring some one into
your life to be that friend!
Perspective/ Are you humble? Helpful?
See yourself as a redeemed person that God
wants to put into the restoration business!
