Our Responsibilities As Christ Followers
2018-06-17
Pastor Jonathan Falwell
Key Verse:
Gal. 6:9
And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart
Today, on Father’s Day, we focus on dads. We celebrate their impact and importance on all of us. While that’s important, it is far more important that we recognize the responsibility we all have to be the kinds of positive role models and leaders that the Bible calls us to be.
Galatians 6:1-10 (NLT)
Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. 2 Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. 3 If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important. 4 Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else. 5 For we are each responsible for our own conduct. 6 Those who are taught the word of God should provide for their teachers, sharing all good things with them. 7 Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. 8 Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. 9 So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. 10 Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith.
1. We are responsible to and for one another
– vs 1a Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path.
– We have a duty to hold each other accountable for our actions
– We have a duty to be active participants in restoration NOT destruction
– We have a duty to be active participants in evangelism
– We have a duty to be active participants in discipleship
2. We are responsible to God
– vs 1b And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself.
– We have a duty to seek and foster personal spiritual growth
– We have a duty to recognize our own sin and actively seek to fight our sinful nature
3. We are responsible to care
– vs 2 Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. 3 If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important.
– This is the opposite of pride and arrogance
– This is the opposite of “what’s in it for me”
– It is the idea of “coming alongside”
– burden (baros – a heavy weight or stone)
4. We are responsible to do what’s right
– vs 5 For we are each responsible for our own conduct.
– This does not contradict verse 2. Paul is describing a different type of load
– Burden here is the word far-TEE-on – the obligation Christ lays on us
– vss 7-8 Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. 8 Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit.
– it does matter what we do and how we do it
– Pastor RG Lee’s sermon, PAYDAY SOMEDAY
R.G. Lee said, “:Sin will take you farther than you want to go, Sin will keep you longer than you want to stay, Sin will cost you more than you want to pay.”
5. We are responsible to NOT QUIT
– vss 9-10 So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. 10 Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith.
– “At just the right time…”
– Greek word, “ki-ROS – the perfect time”
– Maybe not our time, but His time, which is always far better