Pastor
Steve Geiger Seventh
Sunday after Pentecost
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Galatians 6:1-10,14-16
1 Brothers, if someone is caught in a
sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or
you also may be tempted. 2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will
fulfill the law of Christ. 3 If anyone thinks he is something when he is
nothing, he deceives himself. 4 Each one should test his own actions. Then he
can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else, 5 for
each one should carry his own load.
6 Anyone who receives instruction in the word
must share all good things with his instructor.
7 Do not be deceived: God cannot be
mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8 The one who sows to please his sinful
nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the
Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. 9 Let us not become weary in
doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
10 Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially
to those who belong to the family of believers.
14 May I never boast except in the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and
I to the world. 15 Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what
counts is a new creation. 16 Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule, even
to the Israel of God.
You
Harvest What You Plant Galatians
6:1-10, 14-16
1.
Pride in self brings destruction
2.
Pride in Christ brings crucifixion
Read
the package very carefully. I’ll do
that the next time I go shopping for seeds.
Shopping
for seeds. You’ve seen, haven’t you,
those carousels of seed. You spin them
around and look carefully to find the variety of spinach or lettuce or carrots
that you want. I was looking for green
beans. What do I see but Blue Lake
Stringless Garden Beans. I bought
them. I planted them.
But
this bizarre thing began to happen maybe a month, a month-and-a-half ago. It was like the beans were sending out
runners. Tough little cords, and
suddenly I knew what I had done. I had
bought not bush beans, but pole beans.
The beans in my garden needed poles to climb. I didn’t have poles. I
didn’t want pole beans.
But
sure enough, as I looked at the seed packet, what did I discover but “Early
Maturing Pole Bean” in the bottom right-hand corner. I had planted the wrong thing.
I will harvest exactly what I planted.
What
are you planting in the garden of your life?
Are you putting into the ground seeds called pride?
When
we think of sinful pride, we may think first of boasting. After winning a soccer game, instead of
humbly congratulating your opponent, you get in their face and say, “Hah,
hah. We won. You lost. We’re the
greatest. You’re the worst.” Pride—when you bring attention to yourself
and give yourself praise, praise that goes beyond what is right . . .
especially, giving yourself the praise and glory that belong to God. Who made you. Who has given you everything you have.
Have
you ever boasted? Or have you ever
walked into a room and expected everyone to be looking at you? Have you ever been jealous when someone else
got the praise? Have you ever looked
down on someone, maybe made fun of them, because they weren’t as good looking,
intelligent, popular as you? Have you
ever imagined that you are in charge of your life, that you have control, that
you will make of yourself what you want?
That’s pride. I think we
recognize that as pride.
But
have you ever recognized as pride your attitude toward someone who has sinned?
How
do you feel when someone close to you sins, maybe even against you? What comes into your mind? “How could they do that? I hope they pay. Uggh, they make me so mad.
What makes them think they have the right to ruin the lives of so many
people around them? I don’t want to
deal with this. It’s their problem.”
Has
it ever happened that someone sinned and their sin hurt you and the first
emotions that came to mind were emotions of frustration and anger and being
ticked off because this was going to make your life more difficult . . .
emotions of “How could you?”
Instead
of seeing someone who has sinned as lying in the middle of a street, beaten and
bloodied, in need of assistance and compassion, we are tempted to look at
someone who has sinned as lying in the middle of the street, beaten and
bloodied, but they are there because of their own foolishness, and they should
get what they deserve, and I’m not going to take my time to go out of my way to
try to help.
“If
a person is caught in a sin.” The idea
here is that even in the life of a Christian, sin can overtake us. It chases us down. Our sinful flesh is constantly working to catch us. A Christian doesn’t wake up in the morning
and say, “I want to sin as much as I can today.” But has it ever happened where you woke up in the morning with
great intentions, but found yourself by the end of the day having skipped
worship without excuse for another week in a row? Or you hung out with friends and ended up doing something that
you know is wrong. Or you got
drunk. Or maybe you got in a huge
argument with a family member. Or maybe
you talked with a family member, expressing not confident trust in the Lord,
but sharing all your worries and concerns and allowing no place for the
promises of God. Maybe you were lazy,
doing what your flesh wanted instead of caring for your family or showing love
to a neighbor or doing needed work.
None of these sins started big.
But if you look back over time, you discover that you have been caught
in a sin. You are regularly doing
something you realize is wrong. Has sin
ever snuck up on you and caught you?
It
can catch us. But what often is our
attitude when we see it catching someone else, especially as we see it catch a
fellow Christian? Do you ever think, as
I also am tempted to feel, “I just don’t want to deal with it. This is going to take time. They got themselves into trouble—they’ll
have to get themselves out.”
To
be frustrated and to back away when a fellow Christian is caught in a sin is
pride. Being reluctant to go to them
and gently ask if something is wrong, to discover if they accidentally have
been caught in a sin . . . to be reluctant is pride. To see someone close sin and to have as your first emotion anger
and frustration is pride. God opposes
the proud.
Pride. How can that be pride? To be angry and frustrated when another gets
caught in sin is pride because those emotions are based on the assumption that
I would never have gotten caught in a sin like this. Not me. I wouldn’t fall
like that. Oh? You, I are so strong, are we?
Though
maybe you have been brave and overcome your frustration and you decided, “I
need to talk to this person.” So you
do. But the words you say . . . well,
perhaps in your rebuke you say something like, “Don’t you see that you’re
destroying yourself? How can you do
this to your kids? You have to know
that God does not approve of what you’re doing? How many times have I told you?
How can you keep doing the same thing?”
Those words are not strangers to our lips. But are these words words which show humility--“I can understand
how this happened; I know how weak my own flesh is?” Not humility, but pride.
Talking down. Sure I never would
have done that.
Tempted
to pride when we hear of another sinning.
When we approach the person who is sinning.
How
God wants us to care about others who are sinning. But we will not be able to do it when pride controls our
hearts. Understand that to plant the
seeds of pride is to harvest destruction.
To look at sinners as people we could never be is to mock God. It is God who tells us to love our fellow
Christians. It is God who tells us to
go after them individually if we see them straying. But we imagine that we can do what’s easy, and let them go, or
just get frustrated with them, though God tells us different . . . we imagine
that we can get away with that, but God can’t be mocked. Well, we can mock him, ignore him, set to
the side his will, but there will be consequences. He warns us that one day we can find in our garden not bush
beans, but tangled pole beans. Not
eternal life, but eternal destruction.
Pride. Pride is caring more about me than about
others. There was a group of people in
Galatia who cared more about themselves.
They were willing to do anything to keep for themselves peace, to make
themselves seem powerful and honored.
They were even willing to disobey God.
To back away from God’s truth to avoid persecution. To make people act the way they wanted just
so they could boast of their own power.
We
can be very selfish and proud. Pride
goes before destruction.
But
before you conclude it’s too late, listen to Paul: “May I never boast except in
the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
His boast, not in himself, but in someone who did something for him. Something of value. So much has no lasting value: our time,
earthly accomplishments, our reputation . . . things we can value more than the
souls of those who are struggling.
Those things mean nothing. What
is valuable is a new creation.
New
creation? 2 Corinthians 5:17-18: “If anyone
is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to
himself through Christ.”
The
devil lies to you when he gets you to be proud and frustrated and bitter at the
sin of someone else. He brings
destruction. Jesus loves you as he
reminds you of his reaction when those close sinned against him. How many times did the people around Jesus
let him down? “You will deny me three
times.” “Never Lord.” Pride.
Before destruction. How did Jesus
respond? “How could you? How many times did I tell you?” First, Jesus willingly died for all of
Peter’s sin. He reconciled Peter. Made him his friend again. Then on Easter Sunday he went to Peter
specially and allowed him to see that the Lord he had denied had still won and
still loved him.
The
Lord we have denied still won and still has loved you. God made you his friend again through
Jesus. He knows all the times you’ve
grown frustrated, weary at the sin of someone you know well. But the seeds of destruction we have planted
were harvested by Jesus. The pole beans
we planted without poles . . . he experienced the suffering of that tangled
mess, because he loved you. He just
loved you.
Then,
as the Holy Spirit persuaded you of these simple, beautiful truths, you were
brought into Christ. Made a part of
him. A new creation. Given new life. A fresh start. And that’s
all that matters. The Lord Jesus has
forgiven you. He’s your hero. May we never boast except in the cross of
our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me and I
to the world (Galatians 6:14).
We
don’t often think of the world being crucified, or I being crucified to the
world. Crucifixion is death. Death is separation. Through Jesus you’ve died to the world. You’ve broken your previous relationship
with all things earthly. No longer are
you under the power of things physical.
No longer must you honor the pride of your flesh. No longer must you listen to the world which
says, “Don’t get involved with that person who’s caught in a sin—it will just
mean extra work for you.” So. I don’t live for physical pleasure. I don’t live needing the joys of this
world. I’ve been crucified to this
world. I live only for the Lord. And I see a soul. And I who am spiritual long to restore this sinner gently,
watching myself, praying that I not be tempted to sin in the process.
Not
pride. Not “how could you.” Humility, knowing I’ve done the same, even
worse. But Jesus was patient with me. I can’t wait to be patient with you.
Patience,
you know, takes time. When you’ve been
patient for years and it seems that nothing is changing, you can wonder whether
it’s worth it. The devil, your flesh,
will work to persuade that while it was OK for you to do good for the last
forty-five or five years, today is the day to stop. Because it hasn’t been working.
How many times doesn’t it seem that doing God’s will brings no results?
This
past week I had the privilege of attending summer school, instruction about the
miracle of God-made-man in Christ, of faith, of the Means by which God brings
his grace into our hearts. The
gentleman at the front of the class, a gifted, humble servant. Professor Rich Gurgel, a seminary professor
and the brother of our Synod’s president.
He told us that when his computer has been unused for a certain number
of minutes and the screen saver kicks on, moving slowly from one side of his
screen to the other are three words: “Not in vain.”
One
would think that a seminary professor would never wonder whether all his work
is for nothing. But he is a sinner,
just like all of us, and we can grow tired doing what is right. That’s why the Lord encourages us. The words Professor Gurgel has flying across
his screen are from 1 Corinthians 15.
The resurrection chapter. All
seeming to be lost when Christ died.
But death has been conquered.
The very worst has been reversed.
What now can harm us? What now
can be a reason for growing weary?
Death itself has been swallowed up in victory. Therefore, my brothers, let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of
the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain (1
Corinthians 15:58).
Not
in vain. Or, in Paul’s words to the
Galatians, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we
will reap a harvest as we are not giving up.
Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people,
especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”
Keep
on doing what is right. Boast in Christ,
who has been patient with you. Be
humble yourself, gently correcting those who are straying.
Plant
not a tangled web of pride and pole beans.
In thanks for salvation, plant to please the Lord. You will harvest eternal life.
Amen.