Galatians #14 - Galatians 6:7-10 - One word for each verse

 

I sometimes can't believe I get to help in such ways in a local church.  The picture above is my opportunity to walk with this church and this man, an associate pastor of the church for 24 years, to receive his ministry license from the denomination.  Many autonomous churches don't realize the freedom and the opportunity they have to train, evaluate and launch people into ministry under the authority of the local church.  More of this should be happening in the local church.  We gave Robert his ministry license certificate; a new Bible with a commitment to continue to teach and preach with clarity, conviction, and a call to Jesus; a basin and towel with at commitment to continue to serve the flock with his very example; and a shepherd's staff with the commitment to continue to tend the flock with leading them to green pastures and still waters of God.

We are nearing the end of our study of Galatians.  We started the first Sunday of October and we will end the last Sunday of February.  15 sermons or 15 weeks of diving deep into this letter to the 1st century Gentile Christians of Galatia.  There is so much to learn from going through a book of the Bible, chapter by chapter and verse by verse.  Patterns come together and also teaching points that carry from sermon to sermon.  You can develop talking points that hopefully will stick with us when we come back to the book in the future or when it is referenced.  An example is: a man, Paul, with a message, the Gospel, and a manner, life being in Christ.  Or another is Paul's soap box message that our salvation is in Christ alone, nothing added or nothing taken away.  

Some passages just lay out so logically.  Verse 7 gives us 3 facts; verse 8 gives us the context of those facts; verse 9 gives us the dilemma of the context; and verse 10 gives us the application to avoid the dilemma.

Verse 7 -

We can be deceived by others, ourselves and Satan.

God is God and can not be mocked.

A man reaps what he sows is a God given universal law.

Verse 8 -

We apply this God given universal law to the sinful nature and the Spirit.

Following the sinful nature leads to destruction from within us.

Following the Spirit leads to eternal life given from above.

Verse 9 -

As saved by God's good work of Jesus on the cross and the resurrection from the grave, we do good works but we can get weary.

We can get so weary that we can give up doing good works.

How do we not become weary and give up on doing good works for God?

Verse 10 -

We looking for what is fitting and we act.  What is fitting and favorable will change over time and the stage of life we are in.

We act without showing favoritism.  "All" means all.

We put an emphasis on the church family.

I always have a couple of highlights in a sermon and one was the training ground or test dummies or guinea pigs of the church family.  We are to love one another and practice all the other "one anothers" so that it becomes our mode of operation when "doing good to all people."  Another is how strong the Bible is against favoritism, prejudice, and putting oneself over another.  Paul points this out to Peter in Galatians 2.  James gives a great teaching in James 2:1-9.  Paul instructs Timothy to not cherry pick God's instructions and to not show favoritism.  Jesus directs us to the back of the line and to serve all from that position in Mark 9:35.  

I am going to miss being in the book of Galatians but as I have been referring back to 1st and 2nd Peter since going through those books starting back in June of 2022, I think I will be doing the same with this book also.  I have the opportunity to preach this sermon in Florida and then in Colorado on consecutive Sundays which will be a first for me.  

Adam