This sermon emphasizes the importance of not separating our beliefs and convictions from our actions, especially when it comes to helping others in need. It challenges the listeners to actively engage in restoring those caught in sin, to carry each other's burdens, and to avoid arrogance by focusing on personal growth rather than comparing oneself to others.

So happy Mother's Day and I don't know this morning when when the choir came and and saying it it kind of blew my mind because I wasn't ready for it this morning and some of you know about I don't know five or six years ago I went to Uganda for the first time and I went to I went to where these kids lived like first I went to their homes and I saw the living conditions that really blew my mind and it was the first time I'd been in a situation like that and but then I went to the church and the choir was singing you know they had the choir all dressed up I'm like wow how'd they get so dressed up and so clean and they began to worship and and I I'll never forget the prayer that this girl prayed she got up and she grabbed the microphone and and she just opened our service with prayer and she said she said father thank you thank you that we are alive because so many of our friends have died and I remember that was so shocking to me you know growing up in America and and never really thinking that way or really dealing with death in that way but some of the things that they had seen and gone through was really blowing my mind I started talking to different people and it was it was an interesting trip to me because all of my life I could I could watch those infomercials and I could see people who were starving in Africa or people who are dying of AIDS and I could watch it and I would feel bad about it but somehow I was able to get over it like I I'd have my I could somehow separate my feelings and my knowledge from my actions somehow in my mind I was totally fine with it too I didn't feel guilty I could just flip the channel to something else and know that there were difficult situations in the world but I somehow justified being able to just continue on with life and it's kind of like if you ever saw that movie Hotel Rwanda and I don't think you guys saw that great movie but in the middle of the movie there these cameramen they film what's going on there and all the people that are dying and the guy from Rwanda gets so excited he's just thrilled that the cameraman got it on film because now all of America is going to see and then the cameraman makes a statement though to the Rwandan who is so excited he goes you don't get it I don't know why you're so excited because this is what's going to happen they'll air it in in America and people will you know look at it say all those poor Africans feel bad for them and then go right back to eating their dinner I thought man that's such a great statement because that's so me I can go on a missions trip I can you know see and know all the things that are going on but after a few moments I can go right back to life as usual and somehow I can separate my actions from my beliefs and my convictions and there was just something about that trip when I first went to Africa I there's a first time in my life I couldn't separate it and I go you know what I can't just keep living the way that I'm living knowing that they're living the way they're living and how many people are suffering I was like something has to be done like there needs to be a change there needs to be a change of lifestyle I can't separate my actions from what I know what I feel what I'm convicted about and not to say that I don't still do that sometime but I remember just coming back to the church and saying you know you guys this is what I saw this is how people are living we got to do something and that's when the church started changing its focus from just looking at us and our needs and thinking about others and and that's you know ever since that time we've built orphanages we've built we've built churches we've built schools we you know we've sponsored hundreds literally thousands of kids have been sponsored by this church since that time and it's been cool to see us just saying you know what we don't want to separate our convictions and our knowledge from our actions we want to do something rather than fooling ourselves by just acquiring more and more knowledge and I guess I bring that all up because this week's been really interesting to me because I've been working on my message and and I understand the passage that I'm teaching but after watching the news this week about what's going on in Myanmar you know in Burma the the cyclone that hit and I'm I'm looking at this and I'm going okay how are Christians supposed to respond to this do we respond by having a church service and ignoring it and singing some songs and and and teaching another passage of scripture or you know how how does God view this situation because in Myanmar right now they say between 60 to a hundred thousand people have died already okay that would be like if all of Simi Valley were wiped out okay imagine the ripple effect of a hundred thousand people Simi Valley being wiped out everyone in Moorpark that's related to us and Thousand Oaks and all the surrounding areas and all of the US would know about it would be huge and so I'm looking at these articles and I'm watching these looking at these pictures and these videos from the area and they're saying okay about a hundred thousand people have died so far but they're saying that there's about a million people over a million people who have lost their homes and so they're all just living on the streets you know just kind of laying there at night and not only that but they're saying they're estimating that in the next few weeks about half a million people will die because of the disease and the unclean drinking water and the lack of provisions and everything else and I'm going okay half a million people like see that the thing is I used to be able to just look at that and go ah that's crazy and then go on with life and then move on and I'm going man is that how do we do that like I I still struggle with it because I mean I know the message of the cross I've always known the message of the gospel I understand that God where the Creator Almighty God who spoke the world into existence he didn't just come and and give us a little gift he didn't just come and show us a little token of love no he has his son he gives everything and has his son take the form of a man and have him and he hasn't die on a cross to pay for all of our sins and and and Jesus Jesus himself says look no one's taking my life for me I'm laying it down of my own accord because I have a story to lay it down I have a story to take it up again and I have decided that I'm going to give my life to you so again Jesus is not just giving us a little token of love but instead he's saying you know I'm gonna give everything to you I'm gonna leave I'm not gonna consider equality with God here in heaven something that I need to hold on to but instead I'll humble myself I'll make myself nothing I'll take the form of a servant and I'll be nailed to a cross okay so that is Christianity that is the good news that God is on his throne and that God is a loving God is an amazing God and he's given us everything and so now when I become a Christian that means I decide to follow Christ that means I try to become like Jesus Christ I I am his ambassador my actions should reflect the God that I belong to my actions should reflect my Savior and yet for so many years I was able to say okay you know what that's what Jesus did that's what you know God did for me here are some people in need and I feel bad for them but not really do anything versus okay what would the Christian response be and in the same way I'm looking at the situation in Burma and I'm going okay what would God the Creator want his followers you know the Christians the ones who are trying to emulate Jesus Christ what would he want them to do in this situation and and so all week I just struggle because I'm going I don't think he would want us just to have service and sing some songs and and move on and and you know maybe address a situation and I and I struggle with it because I go oh man but Lord it's Mother's Day you know should I just come and give a happy mother message you know and that's what they're coming for and and and yet that the reality of what we do and who we are is like Jesus coming down to rescue we're supposed to be ambassadors of his that are willing to give everything not leftovers not you know if everything's taken care of for me then I'll give him a little you know a token gift but I'm supposed to be giving of my life and I'm not saying I've got it figured out and I'm not saying that I'm doing all of this to perfection I'm just saying I I don't rest like I normally do you know I I don't I can't just block things out of my mind anymore and I have to think okay what do we as a church do you understand that that's the vision behind the amphitheater is you know why are we looking to build this amphitheater you know why are we making more space for more people because Sunday mornings we've been packed for gosh I don't even know how long probably seven or eight years that we haven't been able to grow on Sunday mornings and and people are turned away and obviously people aren't as excited about you know Sunday night or or Saturday night we've tried all these different alternatives and you guys is only godly ones in the church that'll do this you know and so this idea of okay we know you know because we don't just have a passion for the rest of the world we have passion for Simi Valley and I gotta love the people in Simi Valley and their friends and neighbors we still have to reach and so we can't just say let's care for the rest of the world and forget about Simi Valley we still need to reach them and they come on Sunday mornings and you guys have helped out by making space on Sunday mornings and and it's this whole idea of how can we reach more people without spending a lot of money and our best solution we've tried to satellite things we've tried planting churches which we're doing and I believe successfully but it's a point where we go you know what we need to build a bigger building but we don't want to spend the money because that's a lot of money to build a building that big that would see three or four thousand people and so the idea was well let's build this amphitheater let's build this outdoor amphitheater and we'll just sit outside I mean maybe by sitting outside for an hour a week we would be mindful of the millions of people that live outside and don't have a home to retreat to and wouldn't that be a better picture of Jesus if we weather some of the elements for even an hour a week to remind us of what how the rest of the world lives and to sacrifice for that sake wouldn't that be a better picture of Jesus and so that's the process we're going through and just to give you an update on that things look pretty good actually we resubmitted a couple of weeks ago the county has 30 days to respond but from the inside information we're getting it's looking pretty good but we need to keep praying praying like crazy because they haven't made their final decision and so let's keep praying in that direction at the same time on June 15th we have made a commitment to buy the property and chances are we will not know yet from the county because they can I mean to say 30 days but they can do whatever they want you know and the truth is we probably won't get a decision by then and so we have to come up with this money and we went and looked for a loan and sought out a loan and we can get a loan for five million dollars that's not the problem the problem is the elders again are going man we just got out of debt you know do we want to jump back into debt and we're thinking you know what what we struggle with is we know we could come up with five million dollars right I mean could could three four thousand people come up with with five million dollars yes they could I mean in fact you know just our the stimulus package that's coming you know when the elders brought up they said you know even if we just give those over where you know where each family is going to get you know fifteen hundred two thousand dollars just that would get us to like the three million dollar mark and so it wouldn't take a whole lot to actually pay for this thing I mean obviously it's a whole lot of five million dollars but the thought is is could we do that and can we at least pray for that and seek that and and just to ask you you know we're not begging for money we never have we're not going to start now I just want you to pray about that in fact if you notice even the offerings were not passing the plate in front of you eventually we're going to have boxes at the exits and and you can put it in there because we want you to give cheerfully and joyfully and want to be something you do rather than something you're guilted into or feel ashamed and say throw a couple bucks in there God says he doesn't want that he doesn't want giving out of compulsion but it's something that you pre meditated and thought through and said you don't actually want to give to this project and so just begin praying for that because we're a month away from that date and we're going okay it's been a crazy year it's been an absolutely insane year and maybe God will lead some of you to say you know what I really want to be a part of this project and and to give a lump sum for that what was I gonna say I'm totally scattered now what you got some ideas suggestions what do you guys want me to talk about oh I know yeah yeah yeah what no I don't know I'm confused here's what I do want to do going back to the thing I go on tangents ever notice but this this whole thing with what's going on in Burma or you want to call it Myanmar where it's actually Myanmar is a technical name I guess there is no Burma anymore but it was the artist formerly known as Burma and and so I I'd like us to spend some time praying because here's the struggle to because as elders we have this huge responsibility where we have all this money right and the Lord has just blown our minds this year with as we cared for the poor he's taken care of all our needs and even enabled us to pay off our debt and just been an amazing amazing year where we've given away half of everything that comes in leaves the church and and it's been our best year financially ever we don't get it it's just it just happened that way and and yet we're looking at this building and going this seems like the best way to do it is if we can come up with this money but then you hear about these tragedies around the world and you go well maybe we can you know give more to them and then we'll still have enough money you know so just just pray for us as we are really seeking after God and saying Lord we these are your resources these are your people we just want to do the right thing with it please pray for the elders as we make some decisions in the next couple of weeks but I thought right now it would be good for us just to not think about ourselves for maybe two minutes and and just focus all of our attention on the people that are in Myanmar for you know a million people that are homeless tonight and sleeping out in the mud and not only that but they're grieving because they've all lost family members and loved ones and I just thought it'd be good if we took a couple of minutes and maybe if you could get in groups of like five or six people and don't worry you don't all have to pray you know if you feel uncomfortable praying don't pray I we just want like one or two people in each group just to just to just to volunteer and say you know I'll pray for the people in Myanmar so if you guys get in groups of five or six and someone just volunteer to lead in prayer for those people father we just we lift up these people in Myanmar right now sometimes we come to a point like this and we just don't even know what to pray and we've never experienced anything like that the despair the pain the weeping the wailing the death every day God I honestly don't know what to pray right now I just ask that you would use us Lord somehow in this situation to figure out what we can do and and how we can come alongside of them and God I just pray that that would be the desire of our hearts to God just to figure out a way to represent you well in the midst of this crisis in Jesus name I pray amen just so you know I did contact Dave Phillips over at Children's Hunger Fund to find out okay what what exactly is being done and right then when I called him he actually had a pastor from Myanmar in his office and they're working out and figuring out how we're going to get aid over there through the local church and so hopefully we'll have some more direction next week and for now I would just say just pray for the elders as we figure out how to allot the funds that you guys have already given and try to figure out what I mean there's so many things going on in the world that you can give to you know and so it's difficult to just pray through and try to prioritize when there's people in so much need but if you guys remember we were we were teaching through Galatians five and I do want to get into the word tonight I do want to share this passage because I I think it is pertinent and I do think it's very important that we understand this if you remember we were teaching through the book book of Galatians and we got through chapter 5 and then we took like a month break where we spoke about community and we talked about this need to love one another and this idea that this is the this is the great command to love your neighbor as yourself and we just start doing that in our neighborhoods with the other believers with the people in our community to reach the community and now we get back into Galatians 6 and the reason why we did that and even breaking it right there is you really needed that backdrop to understand chapter 6 because Galatians 6 explains that by you caring for the other people in the church and other people in your neighborhood it doesn't just mean physical needs sometimes when we talk about community we're saying hey this person's in need they need a refrigerator okay who's got a refrigerator let's give it to them you know this person is a single mom she needs help taking care of her lawn who's going to do that okay great you know these people overseas they need some vitamins need some clothes let's take care of that it's it goes beyond that though and the Bible says it's not just when you see your brother or sister in physical need but here in chapter 6 it explains how you and I have a responsibility to each other when we see each other in spiritual need when we see other people in sin and I know this is good this kind of flies in the face of the way most people do church but I feel like we've completely missed the boat on this one Galatians 6 verse 1 it says this is his brothers if someone is caught in a sin you who are spiritual should restore him gently but watch yourself for you also may be tempted carry each other's burdens and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ why I say we missed it is because the Bible commands us okay when it says if someone's caught in a sin says you are spiritual should restore him gently in the Greek it's actually a command it's an imperative that means if you see someone in sin if you really are a godly person you'll actually go and help that person with their sin in fact you are commanded to go and help that person with their sin and and I say we missed it because typically we believe that no if I confront someone on their sin I'm judging them and the Bible says don't judge them you guys the Bible teaches that if someone's in sin we're supposed to go and actually help them and restore them in their sin to actually help solve the problem in fact you actually what judging him means judging him is when you don't do anything judging is is when you form an opinion and you don't care enough to actually help restore that person judging is the person who sits back and says yeah that person's a hypocrite and establishes that in his mind but doesn't actually do anything to help that person that's judging because you're you're placing a judgment you're not actually helping the individual and here it's saying that if someone's caught in a sin that we have responsibility and that's to restore him gently and the word restore is the word they would use when a net is ripped open you know his idea of mending it back together or if a bone was broken and you maybe had to break it again and get it you know and then and then fix it it's actually the word that was used if if your your arm came out of socket like came out of joints I don't know if any of you ever dislocated a shoulder and let me just bring back those memories and and you know and what do you do when it's just dangling there someone's got to grab it and yank it back in back into its socket and I say that because I don't want you to misunderstand this word gently okay you don't quite do that yet the word gently here means humbly it's literally the word of humbly because there are times when you confront someone on their sin and it's got to be difficult it's got to be hard but it is our responsibility to go and talk to these people you see the legal list is going to just condemn that person and judge that person and even gossip about that person and talk about that person's sin but the Bible says that we have a responsibility to actually help that person and it's no secret that in churches there's plenty of gossip that goes on and we talk about each other's sin and and that's so wrong what the Bible says is that we're supposed to actually go to that individual directly and help them with it and I just want to challenge you to something because you will hear gossip if you're alive you'll hear people that gossip right and talk negatively about someone else I just challenge you when you hear something negative said about someone else and it's from a Christian that you ask that person the question what have you done to help her in that area just ask that simple question oh okay that's what she's doing what have you done to help her because that's our responsibility those of us who are spiritual those who are walking with God since we're what have we done to restore because that's our responsibility and and to ask that question then to ask a second question to say okay how does your telling me help him or help her houses helping the security because it were if we are judges then then yeah then let's talk let's gossip let's be judgmental over these people but if we're really caring and spiritual then we'll actually go to those people and help them and only speak the things are helpful I'm telling you if they're just a few of you that are willing to speak up when people gossip and ask those two questions of how are you helping them and how does this help them I'm telling you if we're willing to ask those two questions the gospel stop I mean imagine imagine you going to someone with gossip and then asking you the question hey how do you help that person with that sin and then for them to ask you hey and how did this help that person with their sin because because we got it we got to come alongside this person that's that's our brother you see you have a responsibility to me as a Christian brother that if you see a sin in my life you don't just let me go see we we we have this thing because we don't want to care for someone we don't want to get in their lives you don't really want to help them restore their lives so so we kind of say well I'm just gonna you know the most loving thing to do is not to judge them and just leave them alone because that's not what the Bible says the most loving thing is to go will come alongside of them and say look I'm not gonna let you ruin your life I'm not gonna let you just go down this path because it's interesting this this idea of someone being caught in a sin the word here for being caught in a sin is actually a passive verb it's kind of interesting because it's the idea that this isn't an individual that has premeditated his sin and thought through you know how we do that sometimes let's just be honest there's times there have been those times in our lives when we did something wicked and we actually thought about it ahead of time we knew we were gonna lie and we did it anyways we knew it was wrong we knew God didn't want this we may even had a week to think about it and we decided to sin against God it was premeditated but then there were other times when and it seems to be what this is referring to where we almost get caught in a sin in the sense that we weren't looking for it just kind of fell in our lap it was right in our face the temptation hit us at the moment and we kind of jumped in and and it's still our fault we still made the choice I'm not I'm not making any excuses here you know because the Bible says we are never tempted beyond what we can handle according to 1st Corinthians 10 13 never every time we sin it's our fault we got to get that through our heads every time you sin it's your fault you can't blame it on someone you can't blame it on the situation it's your fault God says that he will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we can handle but with the temptation there's always a way of escape but there are those times in our lives when you know what I'm talking about you really want to follow God you're really seeking after God a temptation hits you and you fall into it and and the way sin happens is you get more and more entangled in it and the Bible says when you see your brother or your sister get caught in a sin like that if you're spiritual according to verse you know chapter 5 where it says you're keeping in step with the spirit you're living by the fruit of the Spirit love joy peace patience the Holy Spirit is in your life then you who are spiritual should see that person that brother or sister and care to restore them that means help fix this area in their life that's broken help bring it back into submission and and the Bible says but watch yourself or you too may be tempted and what he's referring to there is is going back to that word gently or the word humbly it's this temptation to become proud and you'll see that in verses 3 & 4 but it's it's watch yourself because you can become proud in this process you can be tempted in verse 2 he says carry each other's burdens and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ see again we're commanded here it says carry each other's burdens see it's one of these things where I don't know if you remember the video we showed about a month or so ago and Josh Walker was on there and he was talking about how we have to stop looking at people's problems and saying well that's her problem and I'm gonna help her with it no instead we need to go you know what that's our problem because we're a family we're a body and so you know what your sin is our problem my sin is our problem and we need to look at it that way and say you know what we got to carry each other's burdens because aren't there times aren't there times in life when you really are trying to walk with God you want to do the right thing and and yet temptation is so so intense there are times when you're really trying to live the way God wants you to and it's like you start hearing these voices in your head you start getting tempted and everything you're tempted by is right there in your face and everything inside of you is screaming out just go just do it just sin just lie just deal just you know whatever it is just do it just look just and the Bible says you know what that's a burden there's a there's this heavy burden and we need to somehow help one another in this area we're not meant to do this on our own and this word for burden is it's the word heaviness it's this idea of something that's extremely heavy but then he goes on what you know before I go on let me just ask you this so knowing what this verse says can you think of someone in your life who's a Christian who's caught up in sin right now the answer is yes right I mean if you have any friends then you you you you know of people that have been caught up in sin or Christians right now that are caught up in their sin and this is what I I don't want to see happen is are you just gonna walk away from that and separate your actions from your convictions and your knowledge like are you actually gonna leave here tonight and say you know I'm gonna help restore that person I'm gonna go talk to that person I'm gonna make their sin my sin and say let's walk through this thing together not a judgmental way but in a loving way in a caring way not in an arrogant way but it's to say you know what I've got issues too and I need your help with those things and we're supposed to carry and deal with our sins see we've made sin like this private thing where we don't share it with anyone else and it's my issue and if someone talks to me about it and they're judging me that's not that's not Bible's intention the Bible says you know you carry one another's burdens and thus fulfill the law of Christ the law of Christ which is to love one another it's the most loving thing you can do the most loving thing you can do for someone is not feed them when they're hungry that is loving it's when they're the most loving thing is when they're walking away from the Lord you actually bring them back to repentance and bring them back to the grace of God that's that's the greatest act of love you can show someone then in verse 3 no no you know what let me go back again okay here's here's the thing too I got to just say this and we'll move on here's the excuse I hear a lot is how can I help someone else when I have so many issues myself right haven't you thought that I've got so much sin in my own life how am I going to help someone else with their sin okay so what are you gonna wait for you know wait till you don't sin anymore and people go well you know what it's not just me it's also my family my own kids I got enough to deal with with my own kids okay so so we're all gonna wait until our kids don't sin anymore and we don't sin anymore then we'll help other people with their sins you understand how it just breaks down because the truth is the Bible saying you know what no you just seek to help other people you'd be amazed at how much your own issues clear up if you take your mind off of yourself and you start helping other people and they start helping you that's the way the body of Christ supposed to work now we really will go to verse 3 and we're gonna we're not gonna get through the whole passage because I rambled about a bunch of stuff but I did that at every service so you think I'd figure it out by 5 o'clock but I didn't verse 3 if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing I love this verse if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing he deceives himself does anyone here do you guys know of someone like that yeah isn't it we all know of someone like that but it's never us it's none of us but we all know him if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing he deceives himself each one should test his own actions then he can take pride in himself without comparing himself to anyone else this verse is just saying you know for those who are arrogant and are going around pointing out everyone else's flaws he says why don't you test your own actions and not test your own actions comparing them to someone else because we can all that play that game and every time I do marital counseling that's the whole game you play well yeah but you should have seen what she did and we just compare compare compare to justify our actions and he