Bulletins - First Baptist Church of Huntersville West Virginia

Joy To The World (Unspeakable Joy)
O Come, All Ye Faithful
What Child Is This (Greensleeves)
At the end of chapter 5 Paul implores us to walk by the Spirit and not the flesh.
He also gives us 2 lists… the first are those characteristics of those who walk in the flesh and the second shows us what if looks like for the Holy Spirit to produce fruit in us.
The final verse of chapter 5 - Galatians 5:26 “26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.” - this leads us to todays passage…
Galatians 6:1–5 CSB
1 Brothers and sisters, if someone is overtaken in any wrongdoing, you who are spiritual, restore such a person with a gentle spirit, watching out for yourselves so that you also won’t be tempted. 2 Carry one another’s burdens; in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. 3 For if anyone considers himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4 Let each person examine his own work, and then he can take pride in himself alone, and not compare himself with someone else. 5 For each person will have to carry his own load.
In chapter 6 Paul applies the freedom we as Christians have in Christ to our relationships…
If we walk in the Spirit we are free from selfishness and thus free to love others unselfishly.
Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, and self-control… not only are these signs of the Spirits work in us but they all demonstrate unselfishness.
As believers we need to respond to people differently.
In this passage Paul uses a hypothetical case of a believer who has fallen into sin.
If we walk in the Spirit we will seek to restore the sinner.
Let’s be clear, we cannot save someone only Jesus can do that but we can help them along the way.
The word “overtaken” or “caught” implies the person did not premeditate sinning.
This is important because how we deal with those willingly and purposely choosing to sin is different than how we deal with someone who made a genuine error.
The word “restore” means too mend, as a net or to set a broken bone.
The Spirit leads us to help rebuild what sin broke.
We must restore the brother (or sister) gently.
Remember “restore” is like setting a broken bone… you don’t treat a broken bone roughly.
Think about it, doctors don’t use sledgehammers but scalpels - precision and care are essential.
We are to treat the sin without destroying the sinner.
Responding harshly or in a legalistic manner only makes things worse.
Stay alert to avoid temptation.
It is possible the sin a person is in may become appealing to us
Or we get so involved in helping we become desensitized to the sin and could fall ourselves.
Most likely Paul is warning us not to let pride sneak in… if we start comparing ourselves and adopt the attitude that says, “you fell and I didn’t)… we call this “holier than thou”
We are called to help carry one another’s burdens.
Every person, every believer has burdens.
They may differ in size and shape and will vary in kind but we will all have them.
God does not intend for us to carry these burdens by ourselves…
Self-sufficiency is a myth and a sign for pride.
We must submit our thoughts, attitudes and actions to the will of God.
In other words… you better check yourself.
My dad used to say, “Boy don’t get too big for your britches.” - we cannot think more highly of ourselves but we must examine ourselves.
The standard we use to test or examine ourselves against is found in Christ
We are to bring ourselves before God.
In his book, Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis says the Christian life isn’t about tweaking our habits but surrendering control: “Christ says, ‘Give me all. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want you.”
Walking in the Spirit means full submission, not partial cooperation.
No one who honestly brings his or her life before God will look to compare to others
This should lead to confession not competition - all in humility and not in pride.
- - Galatians 6:1–5CSB
Jesus Is Lord Of All

If we walk in the Spirit we are free from selfishness and thus free to love others unselfishly.

If we walk in the Spirit we will seek to restore the sinner.

We must restore the brother (or sister) gently.

Stay alert to avoid temptation.

We are called to help carry one another’s burdens.

We must submit our thoughts, attitudes and actions to the will of God.

Galatians 6:1–5CSB