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Bear One Another’s Burdens

Sunday, July 23, 2023
Pastor Jojo Ma

Weekly Bulletin | Worship Lyrics

Galatians 6:1-5

 

1 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. 2 Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. 3 For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4 But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. 5 For each will have to bear his own load.

“I’m into spirituality but not religion.”

Today’s “spirituality” is all about me, it’s about how I connect with the divine, it’s private, it’s emotion-focused, it’s whatever makes me feel closer to God. And these notions of the spiritual have not escaped the evangelical church.

True spirituality flows from God the Holy Spirit, the 3rd Person of the trinity. And He – the Holy Spirit – uses the ordinary means of grace to grow us in Christ and mature us in faith.

True spirituality, life in the Spirit, is “other-centered”. Your redeemed life is for the sake of others, for the loving of others, for the serving of others.

So the spiritual life is meant to be shared, shared in community, shared by one anothering.

I.          Gently Restore [v1]
II.        Bear One Another’s Burdens [v2]
III.       Think of Yourself Less [v3]
IV.       Bear Your Own Load [vv4-5]

I.         Gently Restore [v1]
1 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.

A particular sin becomes a pattern of sin and this person is caught in it, and he needs outside help, he needs someone to gently restore him.

What Paul wants is for local churches to be filled with members who truly love one another, enough to gently restore, kindly confront, lovingly speak the truth, and help the “caught in transgression” to repent and walk in the light.

1 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.

II.        Bear One Another’s Burdens [v2]
2 Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

Ps 55:22 Cast your burden on the LORD, and He will sustain you; He will never permit the righteous to be moved.

1 Pet 5:7 casting all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you.

“Christians are supposed to be God’s bellhops, always ready to pick-up someone else’s baggage.”

Tim Keller: “Though the whole Old Testament law could be summed up in the command to love, it is Christ’s life and death that becomes the supreme embodiment of what this love should be. When we look at his life and attitude and all his dealings, we have, in a sense, ‘a law’, a breathtaking model of the kind of life we should live.”

III.      Think of Yourself Less [v3]
3 For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

Tim Keller, The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness: “The thing we would remember from meeting a truly gospel-humble person is how much they seemed to be totally interested in us. Because the essence of gospel-humility is not thinking more of myself or thinking less of myself, it is thinking of myself less...The truly gospel-humble person is a self-forgetful person.”

Spiritual people don’t spend a lot of time thinking about themselves, they know the freedom of self-forgetfulness, they are “others-centered”, they consider others more than themselves, they are truly loving people and have been humbled by the gospel.

And this is how the gospel re-orients our hearts and desires and actions. We see the love of Christ and he becomes the “law” of our lives and we become more and more selfless and giving and gospel-humble.

We must die to self-importance.

3 For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

IV.       Bear Your Own Load [vv4-5]
4-5 But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load.

Don’t compare yourself to others. Just be faithful in what God has afforded you and seek to live obediently. Don’t try to be another Christian.

“Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else.” [NLT]

I.          Gently Restore [v1]
II.        Bear One Another’s Burdens [v2]
III.       Think of Yourself Less [v3]
IV.       Bear Your Own Load [vv4-5]

*Is there a pattern of sin you see in a Christian that needs gentle restoration?
*Are you willing to show gospel-humility and receive the correction of others?
*Here at CrossLife, whose burdens can you help carry?
*Have you experienced the freedom of self-forgetfulness?
*Are you being faithful and obedient in the “load” (giftings, calling, service) God has given you?