Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Our dear heavenly Father, you know the worst impulses of our heart, and you know the best impulses of our heart.
You know where we are weak, but you also know our potential.
And I pray this morning that the best part of us, where you have done your best work, you would call out of us, and we would be your partner in restoring others who've lost their way in life.
Please grant us the ambition to be more helpful than critical.
And then could Christ be glorified in Christ's name, amen.
The apostle. We're studying Paul's letter to the Galatians.
And Paul lived in the roman world, and the roman world, in a lot of ways, was like us, but in other ways, it was very unlike us.
The Romans took pride in humiliating people.
It actually.
It actually made them feel stronger by humiliating other people.
And one of their primary ways of humiliating people was public beatings.
They had what they called the fasces, and they were wooden rods, about this long, and they would take you to the city square, tie you to the whipping post, and beat the heck out of you with those rods.
It was humiliating, and the whole point was humiliation.
But it isn't just the Romans who developed a great skill for using humiliation.
It seems like an innate flaw in humanity itself, the idea that somehow or another, I can control the situation or I can get my own way by humiliating someone else.
And sadly, the church has been infected with this very same ugliness.
The church has been infected with the idea that if someone does wrong, it's all of our job to make them feel terrible about it.
[00:03:42] Speaker B: Church.
[00:03:51] Speaker A: And the church became a place where it wasn't even safe to be a human being.
It was too risky to even be a human being, because if you made a mistake, it was more than likely that somebody was going to find out about it and they were going to gossip about you to about 20 other people, and you'd be in the ugly.
I was even called before the deacons when I was a boy. Ah, it's ridiculous.
And this was never God's intention.
This was never God's intention.
In the Book of Galatians, the very first book written in the New Testament, Paul said, we have to be different than the culture around us.
And he said this, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual restore him in a spirit of gentleness, keeping watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted, bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
In the very first book in the New Testament, Paul says, we can't be like the culture around us. When people make mistakes, it isn't our job to humiliate them. It's our job to restore them.
And this fits the bigger picture of the book.
Do you remember in the very first chapter, we learned the U Angelion, the gospel, who Jesus was and what he did.
In the second chapter, we learned that we are justified by faith in who Christ is and what he did, not by our own works.
In the third chapter, we learned that faith is full confidence in God.
In the fourth chapter, we learned that we are sons, not slaves. We are children, not slaves.
And last week, Sarah did an awesome job of reminding us that God has sent his spirit into our lives to help us live like children and not like slaves.
And now this week, Paul says in chapter six, the very way God has treated you, you need to treat other people.
[00:07:01] Speaker B: Church.
[00:07:03] Speaker A: When Christ found us, he didn't find us pristine people.
In fact, he found us taken in faults.
When Christ found you, you had issues, you had challenges, you had behaviors that even made you feel bad.
But when he found you, he didn't shame you, he didn't humiliate you.
He didn't make you grovel in front of everyone.
He did just the opposite. Listen to what he did.
He restored you with the spirit of gentleness. It's grace.
And it's not just once that he's done that over and over and over again in our lives. Christ has met us when we are at our worst, not for the purpose of humiliating us, but for the purpose of restoring us, getting us back on track.
So Galatians doesn't just say that God is gracious and he justifies us by faith. He says, when you have a sense that you have been justified by faith, you have to become God's partner in restoring others.
Here's what I think he's saying.
If God shows you the transgression of someone else, he intends you to help get that person back on track.
If you see somebody make a mistake or you find out that somebody made a mistake, God brought that to your attention because perhaps he wants you to be his partner in helping that person get back on track.
Now, I want to say these verses are not written to be the law that the police follow.
Look, you rob your neighbor's house, you got to get arrested, and you got to.
This law isn't. Well, they robbed my house. I have to restore them with the spirit of gentleness. This is, this is, this is not a, this is not a policy for police. But guess what? It is a policy for how you ought to treat your wife.
It is a policy for how you ought to treat your husband.
It is a great parenting policy.
Ah, parents, can I speak to you for just a minute? Ah. I raised five kids and I made as many mistakes as a parent can make. So I'm gonna save you. I'm gonna save you from one.
Your goal is not to punish your children. Your goal is to restore your children church.
Your goal is not to humiliate your kids because they did something you didn't like. Your goal is to help them get on a healthy pathway in life church.
This is a policy for good people and how God expects us to treat the other people that he's placed in our lives.
So this word that's translated transgression, it's a word that we took out of common vocabulary and gave a religious meaning to.
It literally means a false step to step off the pathway.
If you see somebody in life and they've stepped off the healthy pathway, help them get back on the pathway.
If theyve made a blunder or a sin, help them get back on the pathway.
The word thats translated caught.
I did some research on it this week, and it has the idea of to be caught by surprise.
Doesnt sin sometimes surprise us?
Aren't we sometimes surprised that a situation came up so quickly and we responded so poorly?
This is a gentle way of looking at other people.
If I look at a person and say they're a jerk, they always do this. You can't ever count on them. Look at this again.
I'm going to treat them in a different way. If I look at someone and say, ah, they got surprised by life, this really wasn't their first pick.
If they could have had, if they only had a little time to think this through, you see, I'm going to have a more gentle spirit with them.
So Paul is saying to us from the very beginning, when you see somebody make a mistake, start with a gentle spirit that says, if they could have had the right advice at the right moment, if they could have had a little time to think this through, if they would have had a moment to pray, they probably would have made a different choice.
I'm starting from the very beginning to have a gentle approach to them.
And then he says, you who are spiritual, well, how do I know what he means by you who are spiritual? He already told us in chapter five, if we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. And remember the fruit of the Spirit is, I've already been told that a person who lives in a healthy relationship to the Holy Spirit. They treat people around them differently. And you who have a relationship to the Holy Spirit, he is giving you the capacity to treat people around you differently.
The word restore means to put back an order to make adequate. Again, we help them get back into a healthy relationship with God and other people, and we do it with a spirit of gentleness.
And gentleness was one of the fruits of the spirit in chapter five. Do you remember?
So then my angry, harsh, and cruel spirit may be more wicked than the transgression I see in someone else.
[00:14:52] Speaker B: Church.
[00:14:54] Speaker A: I've been around religious people who are angry.
They're harsh, and because they don't do a list of things that they've said are important, they don't think their anger and their harshness and their cruelty and their mean spirit to people is as bad as other people's sins.
And in fact, often the sins of the heart are much worse than the sins of the flesh.
Can you hear me?
Paul is saying to us, all right, you saw somebody do something in the roman culture that they shouldn't have done, and you made it your job to humiliate them.
You made it your job to tell everybody what a terrible person they were.
You made it your job to make it hard for them to relate to other christians in the future.
Is it possible that the way you just treated them more wicked than what you think they did, that was so bad?
Can you hear me, church?
It's possible that sometimes the way we treat people is worse than the fault that we think they have.
The goal is not to humiliate. The goal is to restore, all right, the person who is living the justified life, the person who is living as a child and not a slave, the person who is living in a healthy relationship to the Holy Spirit. Those are the people that God is counting on to help him restore other people.
And then he says, and, oh, by the way, set my mic.
Well, it's gone somewhere.
Sorry, church. I'm barely confident with this mic.
And then he says, and by the way, you ought not just to be looking at the people around you. You ought to be doing self evaluation once in a while.
Restore them with the spirit of gentleness. Listen, taking heed to yourself, because you also can be tempted.
This word that's translated, taking heed, it's the word we get the word scope from.
Scoping yourself, putting your own self under the microphone. I mean, the microscope.
I got this mic thing messing me up.
All right, self evaluation is hard, so I'm going to give you some ideas. Today about self evaluation, because Paul actually tells us how to do it. Now, Paul is saying, I'm asking you not just to be looking at everybody around you and say, oh, what are they doing? Or, what are they not doing? And now I'm asking you to take your focus off the people around you, and I'm asking you to take a good, hard look in the mirror and do some self evaluation.
I think that's fair. Jesus said before, you want to take the the splinter out of your brother's eye, take the log out of your own eye. All right, now, how do I do self evaluation when I see the failures of others?
I should do a self check instead of wasting energy in being critical.
Okay? I see somebody make a mistake, and I get to choose how I'm going to respond to it. I can take my time and energy, and I can be critical about them, or I can take my time and energy, and I can say, how are you doing, Haas?
Where are you?
What is your relationship to God?
Do you have unconfessed sin that you need to talk to God about?
Two, I should turn to the Holy Spirit and pray to be a better man instead of gossiping.
If I have to talk to somebody about what I saw or what I know, the very first person I should talk to is the Holy Spirit, not the person you want to pick up the phone and tell church.
In self evaluation, I say, dear God, you've caused me to see this or know it. And now I'm praying that your spirit would use this to make me think about being a better person myself.
Three, when I see somebody else make a mistake, I should remember the misery of my own failures.
[00:20:49] Speaker B: Church.
[00:20:51] Speaker A: Don'T your failures make you feel bad enough without somebody piling on?
Don't you have enough memories that make you miserable that you don't need somebody to pile on?
Good morning.
How about this?
I should pray. As Christ taught us to pray, lead us not into temptation.
Dear God, that could be me.
What that person is going through right now, I could go through the misery they feel right now. I could feel that misery.
The unpleasantness they're going through right now, I could feel that unpleasantness.
Please lead me not into temptation, but rescue me from the evil.
I should be more ready to closely examine my own failures than I am to examine the failures of others.
Would you hear that, church? If I'm going to live the christian life described in Galatians, I should be more diligent in examining myself than I am in nitpicking others.
John Calvin wrote this as we acknowledge that we are liable to sin, we more willingly grant that forgiveness to others, which in our turn, we will expect to be extended to us.
This is what Calvin said. You think you're going to get it perfect the rest of the way?
You're not.
You're going to make mistakes.
You're going to mess up.
And with the measure you measure, it will be measured to you.
All right, families, listen to me.
We teach each other how to treat us when we make mistakes every day. I teach my wife how to treat me when I make a mistake.
How do I do that? By how I treat her when she makes a mistake.
Church we teach each other, we teach our kids how to treat us when we make mistakes. By how we treat our kids when they make mistakes.
[00:23:26] Speaker B: Church.
[00:23:28] Speaker A: And that's exactly what Paul is saying here. Paul is saying, restore them with the spirit of gentleness.
And look at yourself, because you're gonna have moments when you're gonna want someone to restore you with the spirit of gentleness.
I smell the smoke and I hear the thinking going in your head right now.
Yeah, but I'm not as bad as them. And I have to forgive them for more than they have to forgive me.
That's a one sided story. We might get a different story from them if they were telling it.
[00:24:10] Speaker B: Church.
[00:24:13] Speaker A: And then Paul said, for if anyone thinks he's something when he's nothing, he deceives himself.
Paul was ready for our objection. I'm not as bad as they are.
I have more to forgive them for. Ah, we've been through this before. And Paul says, if that's what you're thinking, you deceive yourself.
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 will have to bear his own load.
Paul continues to teach us how to do self evaluation. In these verses, he's offering more insights. And his first insight into self evaluation is, don't overestimate yourself by comparing you at your best to others at their worst.
He says, oh, you think you're really something, don't you? Well, that's because you're comparing yourself at your best to them at their worst.
If they compared themselves at their best to you at your worst, what would that look like?
All right, so Paul says, if you think you're doing more than your fair share, you need to do a little self evaluation.
You're probably comparing yourself at your best to them at their worst, and that's self deception.
[00:26:02] Speaker B: Church.
[00:26:06] Speaker A: And then he said, test your works.
How do I do that? Here's three.
What am I accomplishing in my life?
What am I, am I building relationships like I should be that make my life significantly helpful to others?
What am I accomplishing? Why am I doing this?
The things that you would say are your accomplishments in life.
What is your motive for doing it? Why do you want to do it?
And then the third is, what do I hope to gain, church?
What do you hope to gain by the way you are relating to the people around you right now?
What do you hope to gain by the way you're treating people around you?
When you do an honest test of your own efforts, what does that tell you about yourself?
All right, so basically, it falls into two categories.
Let's do the ugly one first, get rid of it.
Often we want a quid pro quo life. That means this. For that. It sounds something like this in our thinking.
Ah, I'm doing this, this, and this for you.
And I have expectations that you'll do this, this, and this for me.
[00:27:54] Speaker B: Huh, church?
[00:27:58] Speaker A: Well, then we do this, this, and this, and then they don't do this, this, and this.
And then our motive gets revealed, because now I'm ticked off.
Huh?
See, I have to do self evaluation. I have to start paying attention to what I'm doing and why I'm doing it. On the other hand, if I test myself and I'm willing to do more and say I'll be ahead in this game, this is not about me breaking even. This is about, I want. This is the kind of person I want to be, no matter what everybody else does.
Now I start seeing something else in my life.
Are you with me? This is what Paul is pushing us to do in living this christian life.
04:00 a.m. i only appearing to be doing well because I'm comparing myself to someone who's doing worse.
Look what he says.
Put your works to the test, each one of you.
And then when you put your works to the test, then you will have reason to boast in what is authentic and good about you, and you won't be hitchhiking on the environment. What's good is happening around you.
The justified life requires self examination.
Verse six.
This is.
This is why the church writes me a paycheck every two weeks.
Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches.
And if you look at that, you might say, that doesn't feel like it fits in the argument Paul is making.
But if you look at the bigger picture, Paul is giving an example.
He's giving an example. He's saying, evaluate yourself and how are you doing?
Put yourself to the test.
How are you doing in treating others?
And then he said, here's an example. How are you doing in treating the ones who are teaching you the scriptures?
Put yourself to the test on that.
I've had people go out of here really, really grouchy on occasions they weren't very happy with.
All right. On the other hand, I've had people go out here and say, thank you. It was a beautiful service. I'm so glad I came today.
This is part of the bigger argument that Paul is making.
Seven, do not be deceived. God is not mocked for whatever one sows, that 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, the life of the age.
Here's Paul's more advice on self examination. Are you generous?
Are you generous?
Or do you feel like if I give a buck away, it's a buck I'll never get again?
Church, can I tell you, the Bible has a lot to say about generosity.
And here's one of the things it says about generosity.
It is a thermometer of the soul.
Do you hear this?
If you can't be generous, you don't have a healthy soul.
In self evaluation, how do I say, do I have a healthy soul? Well, one of the ways I say is, am I generous?
Or do I feel like anytime I'm generous, I've lost something and somebody else gained and I lost.
Okay, I'm telling you, that is spiritually immature.
I want to remind you what our Lord Jesus Christ himself said. These are the words of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Give and it will be given unto you good measure, pressed down, shaken together and overflowing?
That's what Jesus said.
A healthy soul believes that and says, anytime I'm generous, I've invested in God and he's going to pay me good dividends?
An unhealthy soul says, mine, mine.
Two.
Do I deceive myself about my lack of generosity?
Do I deceive myself? And I say, well, I don't really, I don't have anything to be generous with. Generosity is for people who are more rich than I am?
Or do I deceive myself and say, you know, I was pretty generous a couple of years ago when we started supporting the orphanage.
Okay, don't deceive yourself. Evaluate yourself.
Let the Holy Spirit work in you in the kind of way that he keeps calling out the best instead of deceiving yourself and saying, I'm all right.
Then Paul says, God is not mocked.
This is a very interesting word. This is the only time it's ever used in the New Testament, and it's literally an ugly word. It means to turn up the nose, to sneer, to treat with contempt.
All right, what context does Paul say? God is not mocked. He says it in the context of self evaluation.
He says it in the context of what do I learn about myself when God asked me to be generous, when I am examining my own life and I come to a touchy topic like generosity. I know generosity is like getting electric shock for some of you. All right, listen.
Paul says in that context, you can't turn up your nose at Goddesse, the God who asks you to be generous. He's the one who's blessing your socks off right now, church, the God who asks you to be generous, every good thing you have in your life came from him, and he will not be sneered at.
He will not have you turn up your nose at him and say, hey, I'll take everything good you'll give me, but not very much is going to pass beyond my hand.
It's mocking God, it's sneering at God. It's saying, I deserve what you give me. The people you ask me to help, they don't deserve it.
Do you hear this?
It is a thermometer to the soul. And Paul says, when you're doing self evaluation, take a good hard look at this and don't deceive yourself.
Then he gives two examples.
What are you filling the soil of your life with?
It's a farming image. Ah.
What are you doing with you have, what are you doing with what you have right now that's going to produce a crop next year, the year after. The year after?
If you compare, ah, if you compare your own luxury and your own self satisfaction, and if you keep on that pathway, what will that produce in your life in two years?
On the other hand, if you can be generous and you can let some things go and you can sow to the spirit, what will that, what will be the results of that two, three, five years from now?
Here's what I can tell you. The more generous you become, the more generous you want to be. The less generous you become, the less generous you want to be.
Because we are sowing that into ourselves.
We are planting these biblical ideas into our lives, or we're not planting these biblical ideas into our lives. And what you're going to be five years from now, you're planting into yourself right now.
If you're planting into yourself right now selfishness, you will be more selfish in five years than you are right now.
If you're planting into yourself generosity, you will be more generous five years than you are right now.
Do you hear this? God isn't mocked. You can't sneer at God. This is a, this is an, an unbreakable deal.
All right, I gotta hurry. I'm sorry.
Verse nine.
Now Paul goes a step farther and goes, some of you know what I'm talking about. Cause you're living this kind of life.
You're sowing to the spirit, you're helping people. You're showing generosity, you're restoring people. And as you do that, you know that over time, you get tempted by something else.
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, especially those who are the household of faith.
Now I want to talk to some of you have been christians a long time. You have been a Christian a long time.
You have been engaged with God. You have helped people. Some people have appreciated it. Some people haven't.
You've sowed to the spirit.
You're recognizing that God is doing good things in you.
And now we have to confront another step in our spiritual development, where we start thinking, I've done my fair share. It's time for somebody else to pick this up.
[00:40:22] Speaker B: Church.
[00:40:24] Speaker A: I've grown weary with well doing.
I've given this church five once in a lifetime offerings, and I hope I don't have to do it again.
Okay.
It's easy to make a big sacrifice once church.
It's relatively easy.
But what about when you do it twice?
What about when you do it three times?
What about when you do it four times?
It's easy to help somebody get back on track if they've only made one mistake.
But what if there's somebody in your life who's broken and they keep making mistakes and you get Tireder and tireder of dealing with the same old thing again and again?
[00:41:23] Speaker B: Church.
[00:41:25] Speaker A: Paul says, let me talk to you. It's a temptation, but it's a temptation you have to turn away from. Don't be weary with doing well. It is a warning.
Doing good to others is a lifelong project.
I can't refuse to help today because I helped yesterday.
Do you see?
And we're all broken in ways that cause repetitive behavior.
Look, your bad behavior falls into predictable categories. We're just not randomly bad people. We are categorically bad people. We're bad in these categories, but not so bad in this category. And so Paul says, in living out this life, you're going to have to at some point confront that. This is not about what I did yesterday. This is about what God is asking me to do today.
[00:42:34] Speaker B: Church.
[00:42:36] Speaker A: Do not lose enthusiasm for doing what God is calling you to do.
Do not lose your enthusiasm to be on God's team, to show up, to do your best, to give your best, to be your best, because there's a promise.
Once again, God isn't saying, I'm going to drag all of this out of you. Listen to what he says. I promise you, if you do this, it will pay off at the right time.
The word that's translated due season is literally your own time.
God has a timetable to bless all of us, and it isn't the same. And this is what he says. Stay in the game with me. Don't lose your enthusiasm. I've already chosen a time for you, for all of this to pay off.
When we wanted to build this building, we memorized a bible verse together. We said it all the time. Do not throw away your confident trust in the Lord.
Patient perseverance is what you need now so that you will continue to do his will, because in the right time, you will reap.
Church, there is a time that your heavenly father has already chosen to bless you. There are seasons of blessings that he's picked for you. And he says, don't lose your enthusiasm for doing good. There is a coming season of blessing. You have to have faith, as much faith to serve as you have to be saved. You were saved by faith to begin with, and now we serve by faith. In a day to day way, Paul grew a grand conclusion.
If I'm going to live the justified life that Galatians talks about, as we have opportunity, we must work the good for all.
We have to help. Everybody can help.
Can you hear that, church?
We have to help everybody. We can help. The reason we're helping those people in North Carolina is because God says help people.
Can you hear me, church? And I'd much rather be sending the help than being there needing the help. It is more blessed to give than to receive amenity. I'd rather be putting it in the offering than having to go someplace and pick up the stuff because I can't get it any other way.
As God gives you opportunity, work the good to all. Listen, listen. But especially to the house of faith.
We have to help everybody, but we especially have to help each other. Now do you see how this comes back together?
Because you are called by God to help each other. If you see a brother or a sister make a mistake, restore them with a spirit of gentleness, because that's exactly what Christ asks us to do as his partners in life. And don't ever get weary of helping somebody get back on track.
Don't ever get weary of being the person who says yes to God. I will help because there is a promised time in which all of this will pay off.
And now you understand the book of Galatians.
Our dear heavenly Father, our hope is in you.
We acknowledge that without you, we can't do many of these things.
But with you, everything is possible.
By myself, I can't restore a person by myself. I can't properly evaluate myself by myself. I can't invest in life, in what I should invest in. But you said I didn't have to do it myself, that you've sent your spirit into our hearts, and it is the fruit of your spirit that makes us competent to do all of this.
And so, Father, I pray that we would be a church that restores.
I pray that broken souls can be healed in this place.
I pray that people who are off track can get back on track in this place.
I pray people who have been deceived can learn the truth in this place.
And I pray that all of it would result in people seeing how wonderful you are and putting more faith and more confidence in you. In Jesus name, amen.
