In this sermon, the speaker addresses the theme of doing good and helping others. He emphasizes the importance of not giving up or becoming weary in doing good, as it can be tiring at times. The speaker encourages the audience to remember that God's grace sustains them and that they should not think of themselves as better than others. He also references the book of Galatians, where Paul warns against falling into legalism and encourages walking in the spirit to avoid negative behaviors.

We need the person of the Holy Spirit who lives within us controlling us. We also need the Holy Spirit controlling us for another important matter in the local church, much more delicate, which is rarely talked about, and I want to bring it up today to you. Most of Paul's letters begin with greetings, couple personal notes, and then doctrine. Paul's letters usually begin with doctrine, a doctrinal statement, he's teaching on something. If you read Romans, you read Galatians, you read Ephesians, Ephesians is divided, it was pointed out to me by a friend the other day, with three chapters of doctrine, who Christ is, how great God is, the election of God, the power of God, the eternity of God, the faithfulness of God, and then right starting after chapter three, there comes practical application. So the Bible is divided in the New Testament, if you look at the letters, there's the doctrinal, what we need to know about God, believe about God, that's your foundation, but if you're not careful, it can become just intellectual, it can just get cerebral, and you know all these facts about God, but there's no proper action in the arena of life, right? In the book of Galatians, Paul is talking about a number of things, mostly against legalism, the idea that you have to do something in order to get saved, rather than just simple faith in the sacrifice of Christ, and then he gets to some practical application, he talks about walking in the spirit, because if you don't walk controlled by the spirit, he says, here's what's gonna break out in your life, murder, wrath, adultery, fornication, gossip, slander, selfishness, stealing, all these things are potentially in all of us, different strokes for different folks, but it's in us, that old nature that wants to reassert itself, but Christ now lives in me, Christ lives in us, so the old Jim Cymbala is gone, how many say amen? Now, that old Jim Cymbala has to be mortified every day, because he's gonna wanna reassert himself and do his thing, but Paul says, for me to live is Christ, Christ governing my life, Christ living through me, amen? And then he comes to an even more practical application when he talks about when the spirit is controlling you, he produces fruit, when the flesh is controlling me, he produces works, and the works of the flesh are a nasty list, but the fruit of the spirit, nothing you could produce, the spirit produces it, love, joy, peace, meekness, kindness, and then he says this, the church has to love each other and be ready to help people who slip and fall, because Christians slip and fall, and the only ones who can help them are the believers who are led by the spirit. Now, the TNIV really has helped us, because this verse usually says, you that are spiritual, with a small s, as if, like you hear people talk in the street, I don't believe in Christ, I'm not a go-to-church, but I'm very spiritual, whatever that means. But they correct this by putting it this way, brothers and sisters, to all of us, Galatians 6, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the spirit should restore that person gently, but watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other's burdens, because we all have them, and in this way, you will fulfill the law of Christ, not the law of Moses, we don't, we're Christians, we don't fulfill the law of Moses, we fulfill the law of Christ, and that law is love, and love is lifting burdens off of people that you love. If any of you think you are something, in other words, you think you're superior because someone else has fallen and you don't have time for them, if any one of you think you are something when you are nothing, you deceive yourselves, literally, in the Greek, it means, you're the only one who's being deceived, you deceive yourself when you think you're somebody better than another Christian. If you think you're better than any other Christian, you forgot that you're nothing, too. And all of us are held by God's grace every single day of our lives, can we say amen to that? So, you think you are something when you are nothing, that's a good verse to remember every day, nada, nothing. You deceive yourselves. Then later on, verse nine, so let us not become weary in doing good. For at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. If you're loving people and you're helping people, the tendency, as we said last week, is to get discouraged or wear out and give up. But no, don't be weary in doing good. For at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we don't give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, you can't force it, but opportunities will come, let us do good to all people. Everyone can do that, just do good to someone today. Just do good, say something good, do something good. Slip somebody some money, do something good. Especially to those who belong to the family of believers. In other words, be good to everyone, do good to everyone. Do good to the bus driver, do good to the police officer, do good to the school teacher, do good to everyone, but especially to those who are in the household of faith. So now the Bible tells us here that Christians get slipped up. They get tempted suddenly and they're weak in some area. If anyone is taken in a fault, how does it look in the TNIV again? Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, that doesn't mean caught like I caught you, but it means it hits them and they trip and they go off the straight and narrow road. So now we know that in the early church, they understood that Christians mess up, Christians slip up. So anyone who's mature will never say this. Man, how could that have happened to you? I thought you loved Jesus. We all can be tripped up, but the only one who can restore us, and that word is a word in the Greek that means used as mending nets that have a hole in it or setting a bone that's been broken. That's the image I wanna leave with you. When a bone is broken, you need somebody to come and set it and make it right again. You who are led by the Spirit, you who are controlled by the Spirit of God, which is the Spirit of love, you go and restore, you set that bone. And you do it privately and you do it gently. Notice the emphasis on the Spirit you do it in. You don't go, man, I know you messed up bad, but I have come to mend your bones, but I'm shocked at how you did it, you know? No, that will not help anybody. You go gently and meekly because there but for the grace of God goes you or me. And you mend the bone gently. Only people who can do this really are those who are led by the Spirit. They have the skill, the love, the humility, the gentleness to restore a brother or sister. And that reminds me, brothers and sisters, of how we need to be sensitive to one another because we all mess up. James, the half-brother of our Lord says, be careful, all of you that want to be teachers and leaders because we all stumble in so many ways. We stumble with our tongue, we mess up. There's a lot of wounded Christians and they've shot themselves. I know a lot of people have been hurt by others. God will mend that. But some of the worst hurt you get is when you get caught unaware. The enemy fires an arrow and you didn't have that shield of faith up and the next thing you know, you're hurt. You've been caught, you've been trapped, you've been surprised. Now, when someone's like that, you don't throw them in the garbage and you don't look down on them. You restore them gently, led by the Holy Spirit. But the Bible says that when you do it, you got to be careful because there's something else about sin, someone falling into sin, where you can get tempted yourself even trying to help them. So the Bible says, do it gently, but keep an eye on yourself. That word in the Greek is the word that when you're running a race and you're looking at the finish line, you stare at that and just keep an eye on yourself. We're supposed to keep looking at the finish line. We're supposed to keep looking unto Jesus, but as we look at Jesus, we need periodic times where we look at ourselves and say, soul, what are you doing? What are you getting into here? When we restore someone, we do it gently and we do it with carefulness because we know that we're all susceptible to temptation. Are we not? There are no angelic beings in the meeting tonight. We're all made of flesh and blood. How many know that you need God every day of your life to keep you like Christ? Let's put our hands together and just thank God for that, that we can acknowledge that. The Bible tells us that this is very much needed in the church, the ministry of spiritual restoration, of bone setting. There aren't a whole lot of people like that that are good at bone setting. Most people, we find it easier to judge people, or it's very bad what happens when a brother is taken or a sister trips up because the temptation is, you and I think we're superior to them. There's a great temptation in that that the Bible warns about. Keep your eye on yourself. Do it gently. And bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. In other words, from time to time, we all have burdens that get too heavy for us. And you should say, yeah, but Christ said he would carry our burdens. That's true. But some of us get trapped and we get our eyes off of the Lord. The thing gets so heavy, we think we can't take it anymore. I'm talking real talk now, right? Real talk is people slip up and they need, not judges, they need bone setters. They need doctors. Anybody can criticize, anyone can destroy. Anybody can do that. But the spiritual person can set the bone and the spiritual person can come along and say, I see this is too much for you. Brothers and sisters, I was just thinking and I broke down crying on a trip of all the things people go through and many times we don't even care what they're going through. We get so wrapped up with our lives and what we're facing is that we forget people are hurting right next to us. They slipped up, the devil got the best of them. So, so, like we didn't know it could happen. If anyone's caught in a sin, you that are led by the Spirit, you go restore them, but do it gently and keep an eye on yourself and bear one another's burdens for that fulfills the law of Christ. What's the law of Christ? Is love. You see someone you love struggling with anything, you run to help them. I can't take someone I love even struggling to get on his little coat last night. Levi, he couldn't get his little coat on. I raced, I gotta help him get his coat on. I saw him getting all discombobulated. What made me go? When you love someone, you wanna help them with whatever they're going through. Come on, can we say amen? People carry burdens, they get too much. I know, I've been there. I was just remembering a time in my life when a lot was going on here and a lot was going on with my daughter and I was trying to do a lot of things and my wife wasn't feeling so well and if the phone rang in the house, I started to cry. That's how bad my nerves got. If the phone rang, I didn't say who I knew was he calling. When the phone rang, I would start to just tear up and cry and go, like that. It can get too much for you. Come on, anybody ever been there? Life can get hard, there's a lot of burdens to it. This is the way it is where the rubber meets the road. It's one thing to sit in church, it's another thing to face the battles of life. We many times say, just trust the Lord but Paul is saying, yeah, tell them to trust the Lord but also lift the burden up yourself. Come underneath it, pray. By the way, how do you restore someone who's caught in a sin? You gotta make sure you recognize that's a sin, don't you? Okay, now confess it and let's pray, I'll pray with you. Let's do it gently, quietly. I'm never gonna tell another soul. I'll die with what I know, no one will ever know. And then, okay, okay, and now, no, don't be in condemnation. Did you confess your sin? I know you did, come on, you rejoice because the blood of Jesus Christ has washed it away because those are the battles. Wait, those are the battles people fight. They won't identify the sin so you gotta help them to do that gently. Say, no, don't dance with yourself, that's wrong. Let me show you in the Word what you did is wrong. This is why your life is fractured now. You did what was wrong. Okay, you know it's wrong. Okay, let's ask God to forgive you. Okay, you did that, don't look down, look up now. Start to rejoice. God has forgiven you. The minute you say, I'm sorry, God, forgive me, it's washed away, it's like you never even committed it. Come on, do I get an amen here? So, that's the way you restore. How do you lift up a burden? The Holy Spirit has to help us with that. Holy Spirit has to help us lift up burdens because some people are just so much, got so much on them. Do you know what some people are going through right now in life? Maybe it's going good for you, but can't you remember when it wasn't going so good for you? You gotta have mercy on people. You gotta have mercy on people. I don't know why this story so affected me. I started weeping in a hotel room. Jephthah, a judge in the Old Testament, he was born out of wedlock. His mother was a prostitute. His father had four children, and then this one, because he was illegitimate. As he grew up, his siblings said, get out of here, you're not really one of us. You're a son of a whore. A son of a whore. How do you think that made the guy feel? And the whole town mocked him. So, he went out and he hung out with all lots of losers. The Bible says, a bunch of rowdy guys, right? Well, what would you do if that's what your brothers and sisters said to you? I'm not justifying what he did. I'm saying life has some hard places in it. And then, when they were being attacked by an enemy, they had to go to Jephthah and say, yo, Jephthah, would you help us and protect us? The same people who had made fun of him when he was growing up and said, oh, your mother's a hooker. Life has got some weird things in it, right? And then, the guy, God helped him and God came to him. In the Old Testament, there's some very strange stories in there, how God worked with people. And you know what he did? He said, God, if you'll give me this victory. He's so stupid, Jephthah. He said, if you'll help me and give me victory, the first person who walks out of the house, I'll sacrifice them as a sacrifice to you. And guess who walks out? His daughter. His daughter. And she, that's una santa. I don't know where they got her. She says, no, daddy, if you told God that's what you do, then you let it be done, but let me go for a few months with my friends out in the woods and just cry and mourn because I'm gonna die without ever having children. I mean, I feel bad for her. He's, he's messed up. He's a judge and he did great things. What kind of thing is that? But see, those are the crazy things we can do. And this is one of God's great men of faith listed in Hebrews 11. So the best of us is capable. Haven't you ever made a stupid decision? Come on, I'll put up both my hands and one leg. I wish I could put both legs up at once. How many have made some stupid things? Stupid, done stupid things, said stupid things, and thought we were right. And when someone tried to help us, we said, get out of my grill. I'm gonna do what I'm gonna do, right? And God had mercy. Oh, how many say God had mercy on us? And we're all here tonight. And God says, will you help the other person who has a burden, who slipped, who has a heavy load? And while you're doing it, don't quit doing it because it wears you out to do good. That's why he says, don't be weary in well-doing because helping people, lifting burdens, it gets tiring sometimes. I just remember as an off-the-wall college student, I would be out late on Saturday night with my friends and all of that, and I realized, oh, I gotta get up early in the morning to pick up that lady's roach-infested apartment. Man, there were roaches everywhere. And then they would bring some of the clothes of the kids. I'm telling the truth now, real talk. And the roaches would get in my car. And I was afraid somebody would go on and say, what's up with you, Jim? You got a little roach here in the back seat or something? And I'd say, how am I gonna get up? Because we get tired doing good. For ourselves, we never get tired. But for doing good, you can get tired. So I wanna be controlled by the Spirit so that I won't get tired. The Spirit will keep us going. How many say amen? The Spirit will keep us going. And the Spirit, and the Spirit will help us lift people's burdens. Brothers and sisters, you have no idea who's sitting next to you. Don't go by their outside. Because they'll fool you. Because I fooled you. Because I've walked out on this platform over the years, and you thought I was together, and you thought, well, he'll preach something and God will help him to bless me. And maybe I did, maybe I didn't. But I was hurting. I was hurting. I had burdens weighing me down. You that are spiritual, let's fulfill the law of Christ. Love people and lift burdens off of people. You know what a lot of religious people do? They like to put more burdens on folks. More burdens. Criticize them even more. I wanna be a burden lifter. How many are with me? Say amen. And how many wanna set broken bones? How many wanna set broken bones? Now, you gotta be careful how you do that or you'll break more bones. You that are guided by the Spirit, restore someone. That's how a church works. Not judging one another. Looking out for each other's back. Bringing healing to one another. And not knowing race. Black people, white people, Korean people, Latino people, Indian people, we all have burdens. We all break bones. We all mess up. What's the big thing? Be colorblind. And do the work of the Lord. Can we close our eyes? Number one, if anyone is here and you got a broken bone, you messed up tonight. The enemy's coming in like a flood with condemnation. Number two, anybody here just so weighed down by burdens. I got deacons and pastors, deaconesses, they're coming up on these steps right now. You don't even know how God is gonna use them to pray for you. They're gonna love you. The prayer band is gonna stand behind you and stand next to you. Number three, if you're just getting tired of doing good. You're trying to do what God wants you to do but you're running out of gas. Those three categories. Your bone is broken, you slipped, you took a fall. So get up in the name of the Lord. Get up in the name of the Lord. Number two, you got burdens. Just, you need someone to pray with you that God will lift them and will help lift them. We're gonna see a lifting of burdens. Number three, you're just tired. It's tired, you need a fresh infusion of God's grace in your life. All right, now, because I don't wanna know which is which is which. You get up out of your seat and come up here and say, I'd love someone to gently, wisely pray for me. Anybody here? Just come on up.