GRACE UNCOVERED 18

Galatians 5:25 - 6:5

"The Ying and the Yang"

READ SLIDE #1

July 27, 2008 - Kevin Hale - EPC

Why is it we do not experience the community of grace that we desire?

Open with an illustration.  Take a pen and hide it while I turn around.  I would have to hunt for it right?  Now hide it from yourself.

We deceive ourselves and that is like hiding THE TRUTH from ourselves.

Now if we are totally honest we can say "Yes, I have deceived myself before."  1) How we deceive/lie our self. 2) What it costs us.

What does it cost you to lie to yourself about speeding?

We actually hurt ourselves more than help us when we lie to ourselves and justify what we do. (My parents do not understand me... Yes they do you have deceived yourself.)

When we do this we jeopardize our community with each other.  What does it cost us to lie to ourselves or deceive ourselves?

Remember chapter divisions are not inspired as Scripture.

Galatians 5:  ²⁵If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. ²⁶Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another

¹Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. ²Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. ³For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. ⁴But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. ⁵For each one shall bear his own load. (do not compare yourself)

⁶Let him who is taught the word share in all good things with him who teaches.

⁷Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. ⁸For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. ⁹And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. ¹⁰Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.

PRAY, if necessary, at this time.

What is a life of grace?  We have entered to a LIFE with God and we need to experience it.  What is a life rooted in GRACE?

Life with God is a result of faith and it is not just a change of mind but a deep experiential relationship with God.

"If" there in verse 25 is "this is the case".

This life in the Spirit changes the way we relate to one another.

Now in the middle of this Paul says it is possible to deceive yourself  and miss out on the life Jesus wants us to experience. 

It is possible for believers to function "outside " the Spirit's control.  Ill. 1 Timothy 1:18-20 ¹⁸This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, ¹⁹having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck, ²⁰of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.

James 4 James 4

¹Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? ²You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. ^£Yet you do not have because you do not ask. ³You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. ^4£Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. ⁵Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, "The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously"?

⁶But He gives more grace. Therefore He says:

    "God resists the proud,

    But gives grace to the humble."^£

READ SLIDE #2 - Even in the VW family of cars there are the good and the bad.

Now the very common self deception is that kind that you simply tell yourself something that you know is not true so you can do what you know you should not do. (Guys trying to get girls ie. Dennis Shannon).

Ill.  Ignoring the speed limits thinking no now is there anyway.  Or the student that says I do not need to study because it good to take a break from it.

The addict telling himself "I am managing this well".  It could the girlfriend rationalizing having sex with her boyfriend will be the thing that makes him marry her.

How do we get there?  It comes by telling ourselves things that we know are not true.

Paul takes it deeper into the spiritual side.

³For if anyone (we are all prone to this. If anyone is caught up 6:1, we are all capable...)(he is talking about me and maybe you so listen...) thinks himself to be something, (subjective opinion about a matter...not necessarily fact but your take on it or you sense about it 5:26 not conceited means valuing something more than it should be) when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 

When someone thinks he something when he is not he deceives himself.  Paul is saying NOT... to lead your own mind purposely astray.  Disregarding what you know to be true and thinking the way you want to think. 

Spiritual deception is here the unwillingness to embrace all that the gospel tells me that is true about me and what Jesus is doing in and through me by the Spirit.

Now notice the two sides of this coin of self deception as it pertains to our community together.  If I think I am something when I am nothing or... when I still have spiritual needs thinking I have arrived rather than still on the journey.

• 1. If I think or act like I have my act together I will not get under the burden of other and minister to them in their place of need.

You will compare yourself to other and what do you do then?  You always see yourself higher than they are and make you feel better about yourself.  Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican.  One prays to himself...  that Pharisee will never get under the burden of that publican. Even in his prayer he is stating that he is better than the other.  Many in differing careers do this today in the church.

That is self deception... thinking of myself better than other it is then beneath me to get under their burden.

The Good Samaritan is an example.  He was beset or mugged not his own doing.  The Samaritan does it because he does not think is all of that stuff.

My dad attended the first D2 calls I taught...he took notes and listened and enjoyed learning.  He did not think he was too good or too much of a giant to submit and spend his time with us and be taught by me.

He was able to get under the burdens of others and serve them and minister to them.

Now here is the kicker in reverse.  If you think you are something when you are not are not you will not let anyone get under your burden and let them address your sin and share your struggles.

I am of Paul and others said I am of Apollo get off it he says.  When you know it is all grace then you are able to bear the burden of others and allow then bear your burdens.  If I do not understand I am a product of grace then I am not about to let you in and see me as I really am and share my burdens.

• 2. It would be beneath me to get under your load and the other side is it would be stooping too low to share with you my weakness and inadequacies.

That would not be strong to let you know that have doubts and fears I have to maintain a high appearance to get respect and leadership.  No, you think more of yourself than you ought and grace clears this up.

I am trying to be all of that and if I shared with you that I did not have it all together and that I struggle with sin then you might think that I am not all of that and I think I am so I cannot let you get under my burdens.

Ill.  Do not let the people get close to you.  Every friend will leave you.  He was right and wrong I found out 20 years later.

I always connect with the people I serve.  Many do not like it when they see I am human but it is all grace folks.

I live in that fact.  How did you arrive at the life that you are living now?  Jesus but maybe you add to it after awhile and then you deceive yourself rather than being devoted to each other.

So many say I just cannot get connected to this community.  Sometimes they blame the community and I think that Paul here is gently in their face saying you are deceived.

You think you can isolate yourself or take without giving of yourself first.  You are deceived Paul is saying.  You cannot do this life on your own not isolation.

Life with Christ is in the context of the body or what now is called the community of faith.  Do you know the gifts of the Spirit?  Anyone have all of them?

The gifts of the spirit were given for the common good of the body.  The community of the Spirit.  If you do not have them all operating in your life then the Spirit intend to do things in the body that you cannot do for yourself.   They are gifted and together you can experience all of the holiness and grace of the Spirit.

John 4 says that Jesus had the Spirit without limits and no one else does.

So I will not get under the burdens of others and will not let them get under mine so I am not devoted to the body.

READ SLIDE #3

• A. Stop comparing yourself to others. Grow up to look like Jesus not others. Measure yourself to Jesus and you will not think you are something when you are nothing.

⁴But let each one examine his own work (flesh or Spirit), and then he will have rejoicing (boast but not selfishily but celebrating Christ in us. ) in himself alone, and not in another. ⁵For each one shall bear his own load. (do not compare yourself to others)

READ SLIDE #4

• B. Realize that anything good in your life came from Christ. Gal 2:20.

²⁰I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Paul taught that you have nothing that was not a gift from God so stop boasting.

READ SLIDE #5

•C.  Commit to meaningful Spiritual friendships. 

I can experience the Spirit through me and them so I cannot do it on my own.  Saints - One time in Thess it is singular all other time plural.

Ill. I went to the pastors and asked if they would get under a burden I had and it dealt with how to pray.

Jesus Luke 22: to Peter you will deny me but it is POk I prayed for you.  He is getting under Peter's burden.

 

Matt. 26: at the garden burdened unto death and asked Peter to get under His burden for Him. 

Why do you not come and connect and get under our burdens here?  Paul might say it is because you think you something when you are not.

Rivers of living water flow through us to other and they to you.

We need each other to experience the fullness of the fruit of the Spirit and it will not happen if we think we are something when in fact are nothing except for the fact of the grace of God.

We will never get under one another's loads.

Do not be self deceived any longer but see our selves truthfully and see ourselves as Jesus sees us.

Go be with Him and walk in the Spirit and you WILL NOT DO THE WORKS OF THE FLESH.  Be real and know the GRACE of God has made you worthy of any celebration.