Farming for Jesus

ReCAST Church of Mattawan

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Welcome to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan, where you can grow in faith, community, and service.

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We're currently studying Galatians in a series called Off the Chain, Finding Freedom in Galatians.

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Here's Pastor Don Filsack. It's been a while since I spelled out what

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I would call the growth map or the growth plan here at Recast Church. Many of you know that our name,

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Recast, is an acronym for our core values. So what you don't see on the wall is reproducing, and I joke about that and say

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I don't want to be misunderstood by putting that on the front wall. I wouldn't want that to be the first thing that you saw when you walked into Recast was reproducing, but it is the notion that our desire is to be a congregation that starts other churches, and we're constantly kind of keeping our ear to the ground for who

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God is going to lead up from within our congregation to plant another church eventually. So that's in the back of our minds, but it's reproducing, community, authenticity, simplicity, and truth.

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And of those all, I think we probably all have a fair, you know, you can define the words, but the one that I think is the most misunderstood as far as a core value of a church is simplicity, and in simplicity is this notion that we don't provide a large number of programs for people to choose from, but we primarily have three areas, three arenas that we desire everybody to be growing in, and we really believe that if you're growing in these three areas, then you're doing well in your relationship with God.

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That is that you're growing in faith, you're growing in community, and you're growing in service. Now some people have come to me and said, you know, you're a young church, we've been around for three years, and so eventually when you grow up and become an older church, you'll have all of these programs, right?

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So you're probably not big enough or old enough to have a Wednesday night service and a Sunday night service and all these kinds of things, and that's really not our intention to ever get there.

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It's that we grow in faith, we grow in community, and we grow in service. And growing in faith is simply taking in God's word, believing it, and going out and living according to that.

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And that's why I preach from the Bible every Sunday, that we might take in God's word and then believe it and go live it and go do it.

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And you can grow in faith on your own, right? So hopefully any time you take in God's word, whether that's listening to the radio or listening to a

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Christian speaker, reading a good book, or reading the Bible on your own, you have the potential to grow in your faith.

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But we believe that we need community in order to be connected with God in the way that he desires us.

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He's made us to be in community and he's brought us together, and we're going to talk about that in our text this morning. So growing in community happens primarily here at Recast through our small group ministry.

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I recognize that many of you here are not connected to small groups, and I want to make abundantly clear that as the leadership of the church, the elders, the leaders, that is the primary way that we have for you to grow in community here at the church.

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We're not coming up with a bunch of extra programs for you. We're not saying that that's the only way that it's possible to grow in community is through a small group, but that's what we have as far as programs are concerned here at Recast.

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So it's our heart's desire that everybody connect in authentic relationships with others through the small group ministry.

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And then lastly is growing in service. And it's this notion, have any of you ever heard the phrase the body of Christ?

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You've probably heard me say it if you've been around for a while, the body of Christ, that is the church. And that is an analogy, an illustration that Paul gives us in the

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New Testament for this notion of service and community. It's actually the notion of serving one another that comes out of that model, that image that he's given us of the body of Christ.

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In other words, some of us are like a hand, some of us are like the nose of the body, some of us are like the ears, some like the eyes, some like the feet.

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All of us fit together and working in our areas of service make this thing work and we grow up together in that.

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So each one of you has a way to serve in the body and that's growing in service. So regardless,

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I recognize that there's all different kinds of stages that you might be at in your Christian walk, in your journey with Jesus Christ.

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Some of you are very new in your walk, some of you are literally here trying to figure out who he is and you're at that stage.

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You can still grow in faith, grow in community, and grow in service. If you've been here, you're here and you might have been a

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Christian for years, for decades, and you can still grow in faith, grow in community, and grow in service.

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And so that's what I'm encouraging all of us to do, is to contemplate and consider how are we growing in faith, growing in community, and growing in service here at Recast and Are You Plugged In?

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This morning, in an exercise of faith, we're going to take in God's word. We're going to be looking at Galatians 6, verses 1 through 10.

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And throughout the book of Galatians, we've seen Paul make it abundantly clear time and time again that salvation from our sins, from our corruption, from our sinful brokenness only comes through faith in Jesus Christ.

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It's by trusting his work on the cross that we are made into a right relationship with God. And on that basis alone, it is not by works, it is not by coming to church, it is not by giving to the church, it's not by being kind to your neighbors or anything like that.

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It really is strictly salvation comes to us by trusting the work that Jesus Christ did on the cross for our sins to forgive us and to put us in a right relationship with God.

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And then our continued growth, as we're talking about growing in faith, growing in community, growing in service, the way we grow is by God giving us the spirit of God alive in us to fuel our desire to bring honor and glory to him.

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Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self -control. And I'm going to say that several times.

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Those are known as the fruit of the spirit and Paul talked about those last week and we walked through what those mean.

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And that is the reality of the way that we are supposed to be growing. Now it's obvious that things had turned pretty ugly in Galatia.

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Galatia is the area, the Roman province that this letter was written to. The Apostle Paul had traveled all throughout, was traveling throughout the

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Roman Empire, came across this district called Galatia, proclaimed the gospel in multiple cities in that area and those who believed formed churches.

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And that's who he's in turn writing to. But what happened is as Paul moved on to plant other churches, some false teachers came in behind him after he left, came into the churches, and began to teach false doctrine.

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Ultimately, the main false doctrine was that you need the law in order to be saved and in order to continue to grow in Christ.

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So what you really need, said these false teachers, what you need is, yeah, okay, you've accepted Jesus as your

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Savior, now you need to follow a list of rules. And then they proclaimed those rules and started giving out these rules and saying, as long as you're following these rules, then

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God loves you and he likes you. But that kind of flew in the face of the cross, right?

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Because what you really need for Christ to love you is to throw yourself at the mercy of Jesus at the foot of the cross.

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And instead, they were saying, no, what you need is you need works, good deeds. And so fights and squabbles, can you imagine how that might look in a church like Recast?

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Like, let's just divide down the middle of the aisle and one side says, we're going to follow these false teachers and everybody needs to keep the law and here's rules and regulations that we need to follow.

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And the other side is following Paul and saying, you know what, I don't really, we don't have to have the law, we have grace and Jesus Christ, his sacrifice has covered our sins.

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How might those, can you imagine some squabbles forming? Can you imagine some difficulty when some are following these teachers and some are following these teachers and it would get pretty dicey, right?

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Anybody can picture that in your mind, that that might get a little crazy? Paul even warned them that if they were not, that they were going to end up destroying each other.

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He used the phrase of wild animals tearing at flesh for the way that the Galatians were treating one another within the church, like that's kind of ugly, right?

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So it's into that context that Paul is going to help them flesh out the fruit of the Spirit. He's going to help them to show what that looks like in practicality in their relationships within their church that's squabbling.

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And if you're leading your, if you're yielding your life to the Spirit, if you're walking by the Spirit as Paul talked about last week, then a byproduct of that connection with the

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Spirit, a connection that comes through focusing on the gospel of Jesus Christ through the cross, through meditating and working through scripture and allowing that to saturate our hearts and our minds by prayer throughout the day of dependence upon him, that's how we stay connected, how we abide in Christ, how we walk by the

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Spirit is by staying connected to him. And if that connection is alive in you, then love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self -control will be exhibited in the way we interact with others.

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How many of you know that that fruit of the Spirit is primarily about relationships with others?

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Think about that list. It's about relationships. It's about the way we interact with one another primarily.

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Sure, a couple of them you can kind of think of internally, like peace or, you know, but the majority of them are practiced out in our relationships with one another.

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And Paul's going to say those have a dramatic impact in our lives as we go forward in this text. I want to point out,

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Recast, that we are a church. Now one of the benefits of where we meet right now is we don't meet in a church building, so it kind of highlights and emphasizes the fact that the church is not the building, right?

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I mean, we meet in a storefront, right? If we move out of here, this might end up being like a

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Jimmy John's, right? This is not a church building, are you getting what I'm saying? We're in a plaza, okay?

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So it highlights for us that, look around, we are a church. And then you've got to ask yourself, then, what is a church?

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And that is a people that God has brought together for the glory and the supremacy of His name, that He might be honored and glorified in this community by bringing together a bunch of people from different walks of life.

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I've said this many times in the past, I think it's been a while since I've said it, but I just have loved these past three years of getting an opportunity to see

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God bring people together here at Recast Church. People that, if you didn't come here and we didn't meet each other, now we might run into each other at Meyers sometime, we might be down the cereal aisle, and you're looking for the

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Fruity Pebbles and I'm looking for the Lucky Charms, and I might scoop my way around you and say, hey, excuse me for a second, and grab the

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Lucky Charms because they're awesome. And that would be the extent of our interaction, right? Maybe just a courteous nod or an excuse me or something like that.

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But God has brought us together for the glory of Jesus Christ. And so people who might not naturally get along, people who might not naturally have gravitated towards one another, people who might not even know each other, have now been brought together under the umbrella of the body of Christ, inside the household of faith, where we now take care of one another, where we look out for one another, where we do good to one another, as the text is going to tell us.

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We are brought together and bound together by our common love for Jesus Christ.

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God is concerned for the way that we treat each other, and if we are walking by the Spirit, then we have the power in our lives to actually bless one another, to do good to one another, as the text is going to tell us.

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And Paul, through the inspiration of the Spirit, is going to tell us, in no uncertain terms, to do good to everyone.

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So I want you to open your Bibles to Galatians 6, if you're not already there, Galatians 6, 1 -10. If you take the

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Bible that's in the seat back in front of you out, an easy way to find it is turn to page 835, so turn to 835 in that Bible and follow along as I read from Scripture.

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And if you don't own a Bible, I encourage you to please take that one with you. We desire for everybody to have a copy of the

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Word of God. This is the English Standard Version, nothing magic about it, you can follow along in your own, follow along as I read the very words of God to us this morning.

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Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.

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Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

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For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor.

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For each will have to bear his own load. One who is taught the Word must share all good things with the one who teaches.

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Do not be deceived, God is not mocked. For whatever one sows, that will he also reap.

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For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption. But the one who sows to the

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Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good.

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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, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

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Let's pray. Father, I rejoice in the way that you have brought us together as a church.

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Father, it is awesome to just have a front row seat, to see the work that you're doing in people's lives, the way that you're bringing us together in fellowship, and even to see the way that within the body we are serving one another.

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And I rejoice that Recast is a place where I've seen people caring for other people, people bearing up with one another, people rebuking one another, people encouraging one another, people challenging one another.

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And Father, I ask for more of that. And even as we come together in worship, I rejoice that you are bringing us together as a people for your glory and for your name.

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That we might be a people who worship throughout the week and in the way that we live our lives and alone and in our quiet time and reading the

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Bible, but that we get an opportunity to gather together in your name with your people and be sharpened and encouraged, and to see that we're a part of something so much bigger than just the things you're doing in our lives.

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So Father, I ask that you would be honored and glorified by our praise and worship this morning, and it's in Jesus' name that I pray. As we dive in, reminder that we're in Galatians 6, 1 through 10.

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If you weren't here when we read that earlier, page 835, and I'd encourage you to have that open in front of you. I think it's to your benefit to be able to follow along in the text as I kind of walk through it.

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And then also a benefit to me to make sure that I know that you're checking up on me to make sure what I say is right.

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The churches throughout Galatia were in turmoil. So we've gotten there so far in the text. We knew that there was all of this false teaching that had come in and all this stuff is going on.

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And so Paul addresses the believers there using the familiar biblical term, brother, for siblings in Christ.

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And I don't think it's a stretch that some of your translations will actually have underneath it, brothers and sisters.

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I think that Paul clearly has the mindset that he's speaking to the church in Galatia. So it's not like you can check out if you're women and just kind of go, well, he's talking to brothers, so it's not talking to me in this text.

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I think that he is concerned for all of the church in this spot in the text and is very much addressing all of them.

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And that was a generic term for just that relationship. And we know that later on, he's going to call us the household of faith.

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In the Bible, often familial terms are used for our relationships within the church, right?

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We are brothers and sisters in Christ. God is our father, those types of metaphors that stands.

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And so that's what he's doing. He's concerned for the way that they might treat someone who's caught in sin. And you can see that right off the bat.

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Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.

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It may very well be that Paul was actually contemplating considering what this battle across the aisle looked like, if you will.

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I had mentioned in my introduction that it's kind of like there was one side of the church that was following false teaching, another side that probably was staying strong and arguing back and forth.

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They were biting and devouring each other, the text told us last week. There was this infighting within the churches in Galatia.

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And now if you think about it, he's sending a letter to try to correct that, right? Isn't that part of the reason why the book of Galatians was written, the letter to the

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Galatians, is to try to correct this battle that's going on. Now if this battle gets corrected by the letter that he sends, does it make sense to you that there might need to be some reconciled relationships within that church?

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That there might need to be some sins confessed? That there might need to be some apologies for restoration to happen?

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That there might be some sense in which some have transgressed, some have sinned against others, and need that correction?

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And so I think that in a very practical sense we see why, you can ask yourself at any given point when you're reading a text from scripture, why is it there?

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Why is Paul talking about restoring a person who's fallen into transgression, or has been caught in transgression, that makes sense here in the text, because of what we've seen going on so far, and I think he's just saying we need to do so in a

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God -honoring way. Here's what needs to happen for reconciliation to move forward. Notice the way that Paul addresses these sinners.

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He speaks of those caught in any transgression. Now Greek is a very picturesque word, Greek, Hebrew in the

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Old Testament, Greek in the New Testament, and a lot of times there are word pictures associated with a given verb or a given noun, and the word that's used for sin here is transgress, transgression, or to trespass.

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We translate it both ways and it really works, like if you've quoted the Lord's Prayer before, forgive us our trespasses, we forgive those who have trespassed against us, so you use different translations there.

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But that's the notion of this word. Now there's another Greek word for sin, there's multiple ones actually, but the other one that we think of is an archery term.

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It's to miss the mark, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That word fall short is a word for sin that's an archery term, it's like you put an arrow, you knock an arrow to the string, pull back, you're aiming for a target, and you miss.

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But the notion behind that Greek word for sin is that you never even get the arrow to the target.

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It's not like you miss left, you miss right, you overshoot, no, you just consistently fall short.

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Every arrow you shoot that is aimed in your life at the righteousness of God falls short.

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Well that's one Greek word, that's not the word that we're looking at here, so why did I tell you that? I don't know, just for interest's sake

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I guess. This word is transgress, again a picture word. The image that the word transgression in Greek evokes is that there is a path that you are on that is the right path.

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Now I think we can kind of understand that from scripture, that there is right living and wrong living. There's a right way to live your life, sowing to the spirit as we're going to see, the right way, and then there's a wrong way, sowing to the flesh, or walking in the flesh as he told us last week, or walking in the spirit.

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So you're walking on this path, you know that to go to the left or to go to the right is to trespass, to go on somebody else's property if you will, but you willfully just kind of go there.

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Well hey, I wonder what's over here? And the next thing you know you're caught in transgression, you are off the path.

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Another image might just be more simple for us, there's a line drawn in the sand, God says don't cross the line, and you're like, hey I wonder what this does?

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Anybody been there? Like that's the word transgress, you crossed a line, you trespassed, you walked past the line of where God wanted you to be.

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So is that image in your mind of what this word transgress means? Paul is not saying, and I want you to notice this,

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Paul is not saying if someone comes to you and admits that they transgressed, if somebody admits that they have committed a trespass, then restore them.

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Look at the text, is that what he says here? If they come and they confess it to you, and I think we've often got in the church and maybe in just American culture in general, this notion, we bought in the notion that if somebody comes and comes clean with you, then that's better than if they were caught.

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And if they were caught, then they probably didn't really repent, they're really not sorry for it, but if they came forward and told you about it, then that's better.

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Would you agree that that's probably a pretty common thought in our culture? You've seen that, you've experienced that, maybe you even feel that way to some degree in your life, but I want to point out a story from the

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Old Testament that kind of, I think illustrates this caught in transgression, if you will. There was a king of Israel, an awesome king of Israel, his name was

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King David. David was called a man after God's own heart, he wrote many songs to God, he had many victories in his life, but I think maybe there was one failure that stands out in the story of David, those of you who know the story, it probably is already in your mind.

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One of his military captains is out to war, fighting a battle, and David sees his wife and says,

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I need that, and takes his wife for himself, okay, and commits adultery with her. Then in an elaborate cover -up, eventually that elaborate cover -up leads to him murdering his own captain out on the military field.

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Now he thinks he's sewn things up pretty well, he thinks he's covered his bases, he's covered his tracks, nobody's going to know, of course, right, because he did a good job covering it up, but God reveals this sin to a prophet, and sends that prophet to David, and through an elaborate story, he basically tells this story, it's a crazy story if you read it,

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I mean you talk about drama, the soap operas have nothing on this. Okay, a prophet shows up at David's doorstep and says, you know, there's a man in your kingdom who had all the sheep that he wanted, but he had some neighbors come over, had some friends come over from out of town for dinner, and he went to his neighbor's house and stole the only lamb he had, and cooked it up for supper, okay, that's a story in the

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Bible. And David says, I mean, he's just irate, he's enraged, he's like, how could a man with all of these sheep take the one that didn't belong to him, and how dare him?

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He deserves to die. And then the prophet says what in the big reveal?

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You're the man, you are the one who did this. Now you might say, okay, David didn't come clean, right, and if we apply our standard to it,

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David couldn't repent, right, because he got caught, so of course he's not, no, he repents significantly.

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You can read Psalm 51 in context of that failure, that moral failure that he, I mean, he committed adultery and he murdered someone.

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And in that context, it says, created me a clean heart, O God, renew a steadfast, renew a right spirit within me.

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Against you and you alone have I sinned, God, and he grovels in the dust and the ashes and repents and says,

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I have sinned greatly against you. Can repentance happen when you're caught?

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Yeah, absolutely, as a matter of fact, I think that probably if we're honest with ourselves, sometimes it has taken us getting caught in order to lead us to repentance, right?

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Sometimes God uses, raise your hand if God has ever used somebody else in your life to point out a sin that you were blind to that now you've repented of and you've walked away from it.

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Glory to God, that's how he uses us, and that's what he's talking about here in this text, about being willing to be used to correct others and to help them as they are caught in transgression as these things transpire in their lives.

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I don't think it's a stretch to say that this hypothetical person that Paul is referring to in verse one is repentant because of knowing the other teachings of Paul, following along his life and the way that he interacted with sinners and people throughout the churches, throughout the letters that he wrote,

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Paul has really no room for gentleness with those who are not repentant. So if a person is caught in sin and says, yes, so what,

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I'm going to go do it again tomorrow, well, he doesn't have a lot of room for that. If there's no repentance, if there's no sense, and I'm not talking about just crying about it or something like that, if there's no sense of like, that is sin, that is ugly,

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I don't want that in my life and would you pray with me that God might remove this from me and I'm praying and I'm going to, I'll take some steps to try to push this sin out of my life.

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Are you getting what I'm saying? But we have an illustration of this, for example. So Paul writes in 1

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Corinthians 5 to a church that he started in the city of Corinth, another letter that he wrote. And in that letter, he says, there is a man in your church,

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Corinth, who is having an affair with his stepmom. Okay, that's going down in Corinth, okay, that's going on in a church.

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And what does Paul say to them? He says, that man should already be removed from you. You should have already kicked him out because, and here's the key, because he is boasting about it.

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He's bragging about his sin and saying, yeah, you guys should all try it too. It's good.

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And he's bragging about it and Paul says, really the context is, and the centrality there is the non -repentance of it.

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And I believe that Paul still had gentleness and restoration in mind in that context.

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His desire is still that that man might repent. But kicking him out of the church was a picture, was an extreme measure to bring about repentance that he might be given over to Satan, the text says, that his flesh might be destroyed but that he might be redeemed in the end.

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And I think what that really means is just in this notion of discipline, that somebody might be given over to the world, that they miss the fellowship that they have here, that they miss the spirit that they experience within the church.

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And that there is a sense in which when somebody is removed, there's a desire to get back in. And I've actually seen and heard testimonies of people who that very step of being removed from a church was the decisive factor that brought them back to repentance and brought them back into the kingdom.

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Where we might have a struggle with that, it might be hard for us to wrap our mind around the way that that works.

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But what we have here is like a person who's caught stealing from their business and when confronted by their sin, they are genuinely remorseful, repentant, and they're open to restoration and making restitution.

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Who's supposed to do the correcting here? Those who are spiritual. Who are these people?

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Is it like Paul stopped addressing all of the Galatians and started addressing just a component within the church?

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Okay, you who are spiritual restore such a one. You see that here in the text with a spirit of gentleness.

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I don't think Paul is subdividing the church into, hey, here's a group that's non -spiritual and here's a group that's spiritual and these people need to do the correcting.

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I don't think for a second that that's what he means in this text. I think he is reminding them, speaking to all the

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Galatians, obviously with a mindset that they have given their lives over to Christ, that they're genuinely in Christ, that they are spiritual.

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And I think that's a reminder that we all need. If we are professing with our mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and we're claiming him as our

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Lord and Savior, then we are spiritual. And the spirit of God is alive in us.

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That's what I think Paul categorically defines as being spiritual, as having the spirit of God alive in your heart.

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And if you are in Christ, you have the spirit there. You are under this category of those who are spiritual.

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And we, therefore, all have a responsibility to one another to be engaging in each other's lives as Paul is going to talk about here in a minute, bearing one another's burdens, entering into authentic community together, real relationships with each other, saying hard things when we need to say hard things, and saying kind and gentle things when they need to, and saying everything in the spirit of love, right?

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So gentleness and humility is to be the attitude during restoration by you who are spiritual.

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How many of you know that when someone else is caught in sin, that's a very dangerous time for all the rest of us regarding pride?

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If you're in the process of, if you become aware of somebody else's sin, you're the one who catches them, or they confess to you because you're in relationship with them and they're in your small group and they come, you feel close to them and they come to you and they share some crud from their lives, that's a dangerous place for the one who's hearing the confession.

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Are you hearing what I'm saying? I think Paul is driving at that. How many of you have recognized a tendency towards pride in times like that?

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I wouldn't do that. God thank you that I'm not like that sinner, right?

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Because our sin has a tendency to be downplayed in the light of those who do serious sins.

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Paul says, beware of dealing with the sins of others, that that is a time when temptation will be ready to own you.

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The time of, just be cautious and be careful. He says it this way, keep watch on yourself lest you too be tempted in the process of trying to restore others.

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So a quick note, I want to just talk about how does that gel with our bylaws. Some of you read our bylaws here at Recast Church.

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We recently just did a revision. If you're members here, you should, you have to have read the bylaws at least to agree with them.

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But one portion of the bylaws actually talks about church discipline, a process that we've carefully and cautiously drawn out from the very beginning of Recast based on scripture.

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Uncomfortable subject, would you guys agree with me on that? Church discipline? All the way to the point of, you know, as Recast, a church that would actually come to the point of removing somebody from membership for unrepentance, you can walk through that and see that it is a biblical principle.

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It is found in scripture. We do that because we believe that it is what God has revealed in the pages of scripture.

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You can read it for yourself and see that you don't come to the same conclusions that the church ought to do this thing.

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That is extremely counter -cultural and makes us all uncomfortable, right?

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Nobody's comfortable with that. If you are, I'm concerned for you and I'd like to talk with you if you just like, yeah, church discipline, yeah, let's just get the guns blazing.

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That's not really, that's not really, I think, what Paul is getting at here. How does that, so how does that gel?

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Well, Paul who wrote this also commanded the Corinthians to kick out that dude who was sleeping with his step -mom and boasting about it.

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But I want to be clear that even that move on Paul's part was done in a humble spirit.

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It was done with humility and gentleness with restoration and view. As a matter of fact, in the second letter to the

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Corinthians, he actually encourages the Corinthians to accept those who have sinned back into their fellowship.

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Now some scholars, you know, some scholars say yes, this is the man, others say it's not. I kind of side on the ones after doing a little research that this is the very man that's referred to in 1

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Corinthians is in essence being restored in 2 Corinthians. So he's done the sin, he's boasted about it, he's been removed from the church, and then we actually see a model of him being brought back and restored in 2

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Corinthians 1. So some time passed between the writing of these two letters. He's been given some time and been led to repentance, and because of his repentance he's being encouraged to come back into the fellowship.

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So Paul was for restoration, but he was also for church discipline. Are you getting what I'm saying there? So when someone is caught in sin on a personal level, you're sitting out there right now on a personal level, how are you to respond when somebody comes to you in relationship and says,

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I've sinned, I've just messed up, or worse yet, you catch them in that, you know, and that's really in context what's going on.

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Gentle and humble correction is really the first step in our bylaws. That's where it begins.

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It begins with just a one -on -one individual going to another person and just saying, hey, you know, let's enter into life together, let's bear one another's burdens, let's talk through this and bring to light what has gone wrong.

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I appreciate the accountability and the relationship that I have here. I'm grateful that Recast from the beginning has had a plurality of leadership, that we meet together, we hold each other accountable, we step into each other's lives.

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And some people have a really skewed view of accountability, as if accountability is a bunch of guys getting together, a bunch of girls getting together, and admitting that they're sinners and patting each other on the back and going,

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I know you're a sinner because I'm a sinner too, and we're all good with that. And that is not biblical accountability.

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Biblical accountability is bringing people back to the Word of God and us agreeing that sin is grievous and gross and disgusting and black and dark, and we need to band together to push it out wherever we see it in our own lives.

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And then also be committed to one another to help each other along and bear one another's burdens in this life where sin would seek to own us.

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You see what I'm saying? So I'm grateful for those types of relationships that I have.

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I need that, and I think I'm convinced that we all need that. So what do we do? A gentle, humble correction, bringing people back to the

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Word of God, but not a gentle and humble blind eye. I think that's often in the church, in our culture, the way that we gravitate, right?

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Somebody shares something deep and dark, it's something that's hard on their heart, or even it might just be a trivial sin or just something small.

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There's no such thing as trivial sin, I shouldn't say. Now I'm going to get quoted on that. All sin matters, but I'm just saying that somebody comes to you and just says, you know,

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I lied the other day or something like that. To work through that, we can tend to turn a blind eye to something like that, right?

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It's kind of like, oh yeah, we all do that. So that's not what we're talking about. Not ignoring the sin, but also not a harsh and stern reprimand.

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Not just going for the jugular, but actually providing an opportunity for repentance and grace and for the Word of God to meet a person where they're at.

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On that topic, I might be producing more questions than I'm giving answers right now regarding church discipline and things like that.

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And if you're curious about that, I'd encourage you to get a copy of our bylaws. I think, are they available? They're available right on the other side of the wall.

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You can read that for yourself. You can come and talk with me or one of the elders about that, because it is such an easily misunderstood thing in the church.

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But it is something that is done primarily about restoration and love and humility in an attempt to live with one another and to bear up under the burdens together.

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We do respond that way, correcting, trying to bring about restoration in humility and gentleness, because walking by the

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Spirit leads us into attitudes that bear one another's burdens, as Paul talks about in the text. Working together in community to grow in this sin -cursed world.

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And bearing one another's burdens, it says in the text, fulfills the law of Christ. Now, what is the law of Christ?

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I believe in context it refers back to verse 14 of the last chapter, where we looked at this phrase, loving your neighbor as yourself.

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And I think if you think about how that works in context of correction within the church, it might make more sense to you, because the basic kernel of love your neighbor as yourself is to always think in any and every context, how would

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I want to be treated in this circumstance, in this situation? Now, have any of you ever sinned and felt so stupid, somebody finds out that you've sinned, you've done something wrong, and it just feels so stupid, so dumb, that you're just like,

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I don't even want to talk about this, this is just awkward, can we just move on past this? Have any of you ever been there before?

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It's like, oh, I am, okay, can we all just say I'm an idiot, and then we can just move on from here? Oh, yeah, thanks, thanks.

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So we can just get done with this? Yeah, I did, I opened myself up for that one. Are you getting what

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I'm saying? Like, have you been there, have you felt that way, where it's just been like, okay, my crud is out, my laundry is out to dry, and everybody sees it, okay?

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It's just ugly, and it's bad. So how would you want others to treat you when you're in that situation?

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How would you want them to treat you? And then that is the law of Christ, that is the love your neighbor as yourself, and do things in that way, with love at the center.

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In verse 3, Paul goes on to offer a Greek proverb, if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

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And I think we've all recognized the kernel of truth in that. Notice that Paul's attention has not been primarily on the sinner in this scenario.

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So we have a person who has been caught in trespass, and then we have you who are spiritual that's restoring this one, and who's he been issuing the warnings to?

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He's been issuing the warnings over here, to those who are restoring the individual. Like, a part of me wants to say, wait a minute,

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Paul, shouldn't you be warning the one who's caught in transgression? Shouldn't your focus be over here? This person sinned, and all your cautions are for the group who's restoring them.

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But what's the point? That when we are in the process of restoring others, we are opening ourselves up?

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I mean, there's a significant sense in which we need to be extremely cautious because of the reality that pride would seek to own us.

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He offered a stern warning last week to those who are caught in transgression, right? To those who are walking in the flesh, who are ultimately, as we're going to see here in a minute, sowing seeds of the flesh.

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This list of evil things that he talked about last week in verse 19, will crop up in your lives, and he even went so far as to say, those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

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Would you say he reserved a pretty stern warning for those over here in this camp? We saw that last week. And this week, he moves forward to say it's a dangerous place to be numbered among the spiritual in the church because the temptation is always there to think more highly of ourselves than we ought.

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And deception about ourselves, thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought, is often coupled with deception about God.

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And when those two things come together, when we don't think correctly about God and we don't think correctly about ourselves, that becomes a really nasty mess in our lives, doesn't it?

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It's like a noxious mixture of poison that corrupts us. If we don't believe correctly about God, and we don't believe correctly about ourselves, that's like the unholy marriage of complete self -centered religious self -religion, if you will.

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And I would dare say that the razor cuts the same way for all of us, that our tendency is to think too highly of ourselves.

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That's the primary error when we are thinking about ourselves, that we think too highly.

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And then when we think about God, we think too little of Him. I think that's genuinely the way that we all respond at some level, the direction that the sin goes.

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And I would say most sin, most false doctrine, most misery is born out of the deception of thinking either too highly of ourselves or too little of God or a combination of those things.

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Now, some might be sitting here and saying, well, isn't our culture a culture of low self -esteem? Isn't that primarily the problem?

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I mean, you can tune into the radio, you can tune into the TV this morning, and you can hear all kinds of preaching about how you're a butterfly, you're a snowflake, you're just a little special person who

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God just loves you, and He needs you to do His work. And without you, the kingdom wouldn't go forward.

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You just need better self -esteem, right? Have you encountered that movement of high self -esteem?

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Because the faulty thinking is that your primary problem is you don't think highly enough of yourself, right?

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And if you think that the primary problem is low self -esteem, then we're going to try to correct your low self -esteem by making you think good thoughts about yourself.

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And I'm convinced that the same problem stems from the same root of thinking too highly of ourselves. So if you have a low self -esteem, you still think too much of yourself.

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You spend your time focused on, what a horrible person I am. Oh, I'll just never accomplish anything.

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I'm weak, I'm worthless, I'm this, I'm that. And that's a lie about yourself, and you're still focused on yourself.

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If you focus on the cross, you will find the mixture that's necessary for understanding yourself correctly.

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I am bad enough that Jesus died on the cross for my sins, that the Son of God Himself had to take on my sin.

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That's how bad I am. And yet, He loved me so much,

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He did it. Do you see how I can think correctly of myself in light of the cross? Without the cross,

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I wander out into high self -esteem, low self -esteem. I'm all over the map, but when

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I understand the cross, it puts me in the center of who I am in Christ. I am loved beyond measure because the

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Lord of the universe came in human flesh and died on the cross for my sins. How much am I loved?

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How much am I valued? Awesome. Am I worth all that? No. Are you getting what

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I'm saying? That brings things into tension, doesn't it? Believing correct thinking, having correct thinking about ourselves matters.

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And for that reason, Paul encourages each one of us to test our own work because we can totally deceive ourselves into thinking we're working correctly, that we're doing things for the right motives, that we are ministering out of pure motives or thinking that we're doing a good job.

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The word test means to examine, and he's encouraging us to carefully, in verse 4, consider the ministry we are engaged in, and we are all to be engaged in ministry as those who are spiritual.

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The second half of verse 4 sounds strange to us. Let's read it. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself and not in his neighbor.

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Is that a little confusing? Like, what? Reason to boast in himself, not in his neighbor? It can be confusing, but what

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Paul is getting at is letting the analysis of our ministry stay here. So when you're analyzing and you're thinking through the work that God has called you to and how are you accomplishing it and how is it going, let that stay in here.

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Let that be between you and God, in other words. Not suddenly branching out into boasting about our work in light of our neighbors or to our neighbors.

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You get what I'm saying? I mean, we can easily get into a pattern of boasting or comparison. And I think he's saying, keep it in yourself.

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Let that analysis happen in here and lock it up tight. Whether you are thinking highly of your ministry or lowly of your ministry, whichever way, just don't be out boasting and comparing.

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So many relationships in the church are broken down by this type of comparison game.

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Why does he get that ministry and I get this ministry? Why do I have to work this hard and she doesn't have to work that hard?

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Why, and you can just come up with all different kinds of comparisons that we might, you'd probably do a better job than me, and all the comparisons in the comparison game that will destroy relationships within the church if we allow it to take place in our hearts.

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Beginning to take the analysis outside of here and taking the analysis to others of our own work, of our own stuff.

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So in reality, each one of us has a role to play in the church and that is what's meant by the term load in verse 5.

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One of the other elders brought to my attention that there's an apparent discrepancy in this text that needs to be explained.

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I mean, if you think about it, in verse 2, what did he say? Bear one another's burdens.

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And then what does he say in verse 5? Go ahead and look at the text. For each will have to bear his own load.

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Does that seem contradictory a little bit, being honest? Bear each other's burdens, but each one has to carry his own load.

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How are we going to do that? Try that. Well, here's the thing, it's unfortunate that we have these words in common throughout this text and so we can easily misunderstand that in verse 2 he's talking about something very different.

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He's talking in context of verse 1, the sins that others commit and entering into real life with each other is what is meant by bearing one another's burdens in verse 2.

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About entering real life with one another and engaging one another in the difficult work. Not turning a blind eye, how many of you know that's easier?

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It's easier to turn a blind eye on other people's suffering, other people's difficulty, other people's sin and just kind of slide away from them and not engage in the hard work of repentance and love and genuinely caring for one another.

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But now he's moved on, talking about ministry and analyzing our own ministry and our own calling and he says each one's going to have to bear their own load.

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Each one, in other words, has their own ministry, has their own calling. God has gifted each one of us with a specific function in the church and we should both respect and encourage the calling that we see in other people while being sure to accomplish our own calling to the best of our abilities unto

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God. As you come into the process of analyzing, of doing this exam internally and saying where am

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I at, what have I been called to do, what is the ministry that I've been called to do, how am I discharging that, am

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I actually doing the ministry that I'm called to do, remember that you have a part in the body of Christ.

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You have a load to bear. You have something unique to offer to this congregation that nobody else has to offer.

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It's being who God made you to be. Nobody else can bear that for you. Now we can support one another in our roles, we can encourage one another in our roles, but where the rubber meets the road is that each one of us have our own responsibility to bear to serve one another in the body of Christ.

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And that's why Paul has no notion in his mind of somebody who can slip into a church service, take it in, say

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I'm growing, and then walk out. There's the necessity of community.

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It is a prerequisite to growing in the Christian life. You are not growing, you are being stunted.

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You are failing to grow the way that God wants you to grow if you are not in community, if you are not connected.

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Can you grow? Yeah, but your spiritual life is going to be somewhat deformed because you are not engaging others in community.

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We need each other. And we each have a function, we each have a load to bear.

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Now Paul shifts gears in verse 6, but just slightly, because one of the problems in the church in Galatia was that those who were teaching sound doctrine were being overrun by false teachers.

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We talked about that earlier. So these false teachers have come in, and it seems likely to me after some cultural research that those false teachers who came in were likely charging the common going rate for public speaking in that era.

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Traveling philosophers would come, and it was kind of like, if you can imagine, beyond just setting out a hat and saying, hey, stand here on the street corner, it was actually charged to come into the hall and listen to the lecture.

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So that's the picture, I think, of what we have going on in Galatia, is that these false teachers were coming in and literally charging people to come in and hear their lectures, and they were charging pretty hefty fees.

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According to Roman documents and things like that, it was pretty clear that they made off pretty well in this kind of thing.

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So it makes sense that Paul feels the need to encourage the churches to respect those teaching and share generously with them.

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I think he's talking about, obviously, who does he want them paying attention to? The ones who are teaching true doctrine, not the false teachers.

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So he's saying make sure you share generously with those who are teaching among you. Notice that he doesn't tell the teachers to charge for their ministry.

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He maintains that giving should be out of generosity and goodness, not out of compulsion or requirement.

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So that's one of the reasons that we've got a box back there. It's a giving out of your heart to God, not that we charge, and the last thing that I would want is somebody to put money in there because they thought it was a good show.

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As if what we're doing here is a service rendered and you are paying for the service, like going to a movie or whatever.

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You might go to see a play and put some money in because, hey, I've got to buy this ticket because that's the cost of doing business.

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Our desire is that what you give, you give out of gratitude for what God has done in your life.

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Full stop. That it's done out of a generous heart, not out of compulsion.

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And now Paul offers the central proverb of this section. I really... Kyle Douglas, our associate pastor, or actually executive pastor, told me

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I ought to wear a straw hat for the rest of the sermon from this point forward. It's a farming analogy about sowing seeds.

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So a farmer down with his bag of grain down here, just spreading out some seeds. And that's what he's going to do.

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He's going to give us a farming analogy. He's kind of stuck to farming throughout the end of Galatians, talking about fruit.

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He's thinking in terms of a harvest there that we talked about last week. But here he's talking about sowing seeds.

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Now, you might have in your mind, when we think about farming, if you know anything about farming, then you know that what we do today might be very different than what they used to do.

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We plow nice straight rows, and then a machine runs along and plants, at intervals, seeds in those furrows, and then they cover it over.

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I'm getting beyond myself now. You might want to ask some of these corn huskers over here how that works.

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But anyways, they plant stuff in rows, right? And then a machine comes and brings it in and harvests it and stuff.

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Yeah, I'm working here. What they did in ancient times is they would till the soil so that it was broken up, and then they would just literally walk along with a basket and spread seed, and spread seed, and spread seed.

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And they're trying, obviously, without as much attention to detail, without as much attention. So you get the parable of the soils, where Jesus is talking about the dispersing of seed, and some seeds fall in rocky soil, some fall in the good soil that's already been tilled, some are falling on the rocks in the pathway.

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Have you ever wondered why that is? Didn't they know better? That's because that's the way that they farmed.

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And so then they would come through and rake it over and hope stuff grew. And that's the picture that we have. And now the image is that we've got two fields in our lives.

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We have a field of the spirit, and we have a field of the flesh. And we are taking seed, and we are dispersing it in one of those two fields.

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And that's the image that we have in front of us. And Paul, in this analogy of farming, is going to show concern for our minds here.

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He says, Do not be deceived. God is not mocked.

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For whatever one sows, whatever seed somebody spreads, that he will also reap.

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So there's the seed in your life, and God will not be mocked. I think it's interesting that Paul is concerned about the mind here.

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He's concerned about deception. And I think we've got to understand that in the Christian life, we have to have balance between mind and heart.

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There are some who would say, The most authentic communication comes from the heart. And if you're not feeling it, then you are not really there.

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And then others would say, Well, I just live up here in my brain. I don't feel much, but boy, am I connected with God. And I think it's very important that we understand that there's a balance in that.

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It is not all heart, and it is not all head, but it's a combination of those two in our walk in the

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Christian life. And here, Paul is literally saying, I'm concerned for your mind. I'm concerned that you might be deceived about something.

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And I, Don Felsick, the pastor of Recast Church, I'm saying, I'm concerned that some of us might be deceived.

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Deceived about what? What lie is Paul afraid that they might believe? That God can be tricked.

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That God can be fooled. That God can be mocked. All of those are related words in Greek.

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Tricked, fooled, mocked. Now, wait a minute. Though you might think, I would never think that God could be fooled.

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I can't fool God. I mean, pull yourself back from the situation. Look at it clearly. One of you would maybe admit that God is omniscient.

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He knows all knowing, right? So are you going to fool Him? Anybody here willing to raise your hand and say,

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I think I could fool God? Thank you for not raising your hand. So, I mean, in what way is this practical?

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Like, okay, we know that we're not going to mock God. We're not going to really fool Him or trick Him. But if we're honest with ourselves, we do this on a semi -regular basis.

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We try to fool Him. We try to trick Him. We try to, in essence, mock

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Him. Every time we sin and expect it to turn out okay, we are mocking

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God. We think we're fooling Him. Every time we put junk and trash into our mind and expect to get the fruit of the

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Spirit out, we're making a mockery of God. Have you ever thought about that?

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I mean, somebody comes and says, you know, I just don't have love and joy and peace in my life. I just don't have faithfulness in here, and I just want some faithfulness.

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Well, what's your diet? What are we pouring in, right? Where are we sowing seeds to?

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Where is all that going in our lives? Every time we plop in front of a sitcom and believe that it won't affect us,

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I'm stronger than that. It's just entertainment, right? That won't get in. Well, trying to fool

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God. Every time we lose our temper with our family and think, oh, they'll get over it. They'll be able to process this.

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They'll be okay. Every time we sin in secret and think that it's all good because nobody knows, really, somebody knows, right?

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He's there. He knows. We try to trick God. We try to fool God. We try, in essence, to mock

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God. But my brothers and sisters, do not be deceived.

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God is not mocked. When we sow to the flesh, the seed will grow.

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When we sow to the spirit, the seeds will grow. And I want to give a little illustration here about seed just to make sure that you understand that it's not the seed itself.

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It's not necessarily the activity that's sown. Now, if you're sinning, if this seed, if this kernel is sin, outright rebellion, if it's adultery, it always goes in the field of the flesh, right?

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You can't sow adultery to the spirit, okay? This is logical. But in these gray areas, let me give you an illustration.

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So say that you, in a fit of goodness, desire to go and volunteer at the

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Matawan Food Pantry down here. So an opportunity to help people in your community, just volunteer some hours.

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So you take that seed, and let's say by your attitude, by your pride, by just thinking more highly of yourself than you are, you sow that into the flesh.

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So you put it in this field over here. What is that going to produce in you?

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Pride, arrogance, an aloofness. Are you seeing how that seed, is that a bad seed in and of itself?

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Is it bad to volunteer at the food pantry? No, that's a good thing. I'd encourage you to do it. But are you sowing that here?

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Or what happens if you sow that seed into the spirit? Sow it to the spirit, as the text says.

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It's going to produce within you, it says actually in the text, eternal life. We'll talk about that.

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I believe that eternal life is an image of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self -control.

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Sowing our deeds, our behaviors, our words, our actions into the spirit yields a crop of good qualities and characteristics in our lives.

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I think this concept of eternal life is easily misunderstood. We misunderstand this growth from the spirit because of the very narrow hope that many of us have been given.

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Many of us who have been raised in the church have always thought primarily of the phrase eternal life as something out there in the future for us.

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One day, when I die, in the sweet by and by, then

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I will have eternal life. Eternal life is out there. But for those who are in Christ, eternal life has begun for you.

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Yes, you're going to shed this flesh. I'm not talking about not dying. We are all going to die physically.

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That's the initial curse on humanity. But eternal life has begun for us.

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Eternal life is now. Eternal life is a reality for everyone who is alive in the spirit through faith in the death and resurrection of our

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Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And eternal life looks like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self -control in our community here and now and in our hearts flowing out of us.

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Eternal life is a category of a type of life we can live here and now. Granted, there is a reality that it will be brought to fulfillment.

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This is like four tastes. This is like the hors d 'oeuvres. This is like the appetizers for the kingdom.

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But I think we all have experienced those to some degree and that life is available now for those who would sow to the spirit.

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Those who are connected to the spirit, those who are abiding in Jesus, those who are yielding to the spirit or walking to the spirit are now called to action to sow to the spirit.

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Every action, every behavior, every word is a seed. And the question that I want us all to ask is, is it being sown to the spirit or is it being sown to the flesh?

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And Paul doesn't sugarcoat this business of sowing to the spirit. He's not like, oh, it's easy and it's just...

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Look at verse nine, and let us not grow weary of doing good. He acknowledges right at the onset that this is hard work and that there's the potential for us to grow weary in this business of sowing to the flesh.

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He says, hang in there, don't give up, for the hope of the harvest that will come in due time, at the right time.

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I believe that the harvest will be ultimately at the end, that there will be a harvest that will be a glorious thing to behold.

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And those who are in Christ will see this awesome and amazing harvest. Not limited to, but including, seeing the way that your life has impacted the life of others.

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I think that's part of that harvest that will be there. But God is gracious.

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Often, as I said before, give us foretaste of that now. He gives us a chance to taste the fruit of that harvest.

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Every time we have deep fellowship together, have you had that experience where you've been together with friends in Christ and you've laughed until you almost cried?

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This uncontrollable laughter. Have you been there where it's just a rejoicing and a joyful time together and you go, man,

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I'd like to be back there. I love that. We experience that portion of that harvest every time we see the grace of God in our children's lives or in our parents' lives or in our neighbor's lives or friends.

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Every time we see a life transformed by the grace of God, which we have the privilege of seeing here at Recast time and time again, just the joy of seeing new life, somebody plucked from darkness and brought into light.

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But even without those more tangible rewards, He is still faithful to give us a taste of the blessings.

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Even if life is swirling, some of you might be going, it's been a while since I saw spiritual growth in my kids. It's been a while since I've reaped those kinds of benefits.

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It's been a while since I felt that kind of joy because life has been kicking me down.

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Some of you are there. So what is it for you? And I can still say that God is faithful if you are sowing to the

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Spirit to allow at least a taste of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self -control, those characters, that character being brought up in you as you yield to the

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Spirit and sow to the Spirit. Recast, don't grow weary of doing good. I know some of you,

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I've known some of you for years. Some of you I've gotten to know just recently, some of you have been faithfully serving here at Recast.

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You've been wearing many hats. And I think there's an appropriate time for you to contemplate and consider if the load that you're carrying is too much.

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Some of you, in all honesty, might be suffering from a Messiah complex. You might think that you're the answer and that if you don't do it, nobody else will.

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And maybe the challenge for some of you is to step back from some things and see God work, right? But the reality is all of us have a load to bear.

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All of us have a responsibility in the church and some of you are carrying heavy loads. And let me encourage you, do not grow weary.

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For in due season, we will reap and how glorious that harvest will be. And so in conclusion, consider carefully with me for a minute how often you have the opportunity to do good.

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Look at verse 10. So then as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

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As we have opportunity, how many opportunities do you have in a given day to do good? A lot, like all the time, right?

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Then let's set our goal at doing good that often. Let us do good, as Paul says, to everyone.

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Well, I think there might be an exception to that. That jerk that cut me off in traffic last week,

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I'm not sure if I'm supposed to do good to him, but others I'm supposed to do good, right? No, that includes that person.

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And it doesn't include pulling up beside them in sign language or anything like that, okay?

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Or yelling at them or anything. Maybe even giving them a little buffer, okay? Giving them a little room on the highway, right?

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How about doing good to the waitress at your favorite restaurant? It says do good to everyone. Do good to those in your own household.

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Do good to your own household. Did you get that? Do good to your boss. Some of you, that's a pretty lofty goal to set, right?

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How about do good to your neighbor? Do good to your employees, if you have them, or those who directly report to you.

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Do good to your community. But then he concludes with this statement. So then as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

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Especially do good to those in your church, he says. I love that Paul shows us that we ought to have special deference for those in our church family.

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I want you to all look around you. I want you to literally look around. I want you to make eye contact with others around.

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We are the church. We are the household of faith. And if we cannot sow to the

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Spirit through the relationships here in this room, then how much harder is it going to be for us to sow seeds to the

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Spirit out there, where we do not have Christ in common. So I think Paul is intentionally saying start here.

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Start here with doing good for one another. And I rejoice, Recast, because I don't think this is, this is not a heavy message coming from me.

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I see it. I get an opportunity to see you doing good for others. But I want to spur you on to do more, more of that kindness, more of that carrying your load, more engagement in each other's lives.

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Let me summarize this passage. Let me give you the flow just in one paragraph, and then we're going to conclude.

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We are to walk together in humility, to bear our burdens together.

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That is, just enter into a real relationship with each other. Discharging our ministry without boasting or comparison, because every one of us has a role to play.

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We are to share with each other, sowing to the Spirit and not to the flesh. And don't give up on that type of service in community, because a harvest is waiting.

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A harvest in our midst, as well as an ultimate harvest at the end of this age.

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Jesus brought us forgiveness and unity at the cross. He basically began the household of faith through His sacrifice.

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And if you've joined in the household of faith through trust in Jesus Christ, then I'd encourage you to get up during the song, as Rob and Linda come forward to play the song, join together in remembering the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

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There's a table set up in the back for us to take a cup of juice and remember His blood that was shed for us, to take a cracker and remember

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His body that was broken for us. Remember that sacrifice that had provided unity, that we might go and do good to everyone, and especially those within the household of faith.

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Let's pray. Father, I thank You for Your sacrifice, for sending

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Your son Jesus to die for us. Father, that is the centerpiece of this doing good.

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If the message sounds just like you've just got to pull yourself up and do good to others, then we've missed it.

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It is first and foremost by Your sacrifice that we trust in that, that the Spirit comes in and ignites our lives with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, and all of these things.

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And then out of that flows a sowing seed to the Spirit to continue the cycle of that growth in us.

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Father, I thank You again for the sacrifice of Jesus, and I ask that we would remember it in truth, and that we would go out from this place moved to do good for others, because we have received such good from You.