The biblical call to Christians is not simply to help ‘others’, but to engage in mutual ministry of ‘one another’. Bearing one another’s burdens, confessing our sins to one another, and praying for one another are the vital components of authentic spiritual fellowship. This practice is a clear outworking of sowing to the Spirit, and it is through cultivating these supportive relationships, empowered by the fruit of the Spirit, that we can see God work and bring revival to His church.

Automatically Generated Transcript

[00:00:00] We’ve been back in the Gospel of Matthew and as we started almost a couple of years ago to go through the Gospel of Matthew and we got to the Beatitudes and if you really want to know the truth, although we found some really good things from those passages, I myself did not really have a grasp on how to take the Beatitudes in the New Testament and there’s certain obvious truths there that we got into but we gave it a rest for a while partly because I really needed to feel, to know, to learn what the real heart of those statements that Jesus made in the Sermon on the Mount.

[00:00:50] And how they applied and we’re going back there because I’ve seen, I’ve been given some help from the Lord to understand actually the past, part of a pastor is to do some digging and learning and you can’t actually give any more than what you found yourself. And we come now to chapter 7 and chapter 7 immediately starts in a severe note, judge not that you be not judged. For with a judgment you pronounce, you will be judged and with a measure you use, you will be measured to you. It’s a rather harsh statement and once again I find myself swallowing hard and where is the truth that God wants to bring to us? There’s the obvious one of course, there’s the obvious one of course, right there in front of us.

[00:01:44] But in the digging around I found you often helped from one passage if you bring to bear other passages speaking on the same topic. And there’s another verse that the other Sunday night I was using to bring the message from the book of Galatians, we’ll go to that next. And this particular passage, not right from the start, but it’s a passage that talks about, go on down a little bit from there, verse 6. And here was what the message on a Sunday night a couple of weeks back. Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches. And then it goes on, in another severe note, similar to that, Matthew chapter 7, verse 1. Do not be deceived, God is not mocked. For whatever one sows, that will he also reap.

[00:02:42] For one who sows to his own flesh, and in the New Testament, the flesh refers to our sinful human nature, not just the meat underneath your skin, but refers to humanity and its sinfulness. And the spirit, you’ll notice the passage uses a capital S because it’s the spirit of God being referred to. One sows to his own flesh, will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the spirit will from the spirit reap eternal life. Now there’s a very obvious spiritual principle here that’s very needful for us to understand. And so a couple of weeks back in the evening, I just left out verse 6 and started at the verse 7, do not be deceived. Because I didn’t know, I couldn’t see the connection from verse 6 to verse 7.

[00:03:38] And why is verse 6 is talking about people who teach the word of God, that’s the role I’m in, and the people who are on the receiving end, which by and large, all of us are on the receiving end someplace or other, and in church, that’s you. What’s that got to do with verse 7 and 8? Don’t be deceived. And I just couldn’t see the connection, to be honest with you. So I didn’t start that sermon a couple of Sunday nights back. I started at verse 7, left out verse 6. But I’ve been contemplating it and wondering about it. My immediate reaction was, this is the final chapter of the book of Galatians, and sometimes when the Apostle Paul would be writing, he’s got a lot of things to touch, and then he finishes up by all the little extra things he wanted to say as well.

[00:04:31] So maybe this is not really connected anyway, it’s just one of those extra things Paul wanted to get in before he closed the letter. That’s not a very satisfactory explanation, frankly, because the Word of God is in the hands of the Spirit of God. And though there may be other reasons for Paul to have had to include it, God has his purposes for verse 6 there, just to proceed verse 7 and 8 and 9. But I didn’t know what they were. And I’ve been researching and praying and wondering. And suddenly it dawned on me that when it talks about teaching the Word of God and it talks about being taught, actually there’s a sense in which I’m always someone that is being taught. I have to be, or else I end up with nothing really serious to say.

[00:05:26] And the real test of whether you perform what the Lord has given you to do is not so much how flowery you make the sermon, or how much you can bring a good joke in to make them laugh, or how well it looks like you’re doing your task. What counts is how much does the Word of God land home. There is no other measure that really matters. And if you’re going to be a person who teaches the Word of God, you actually have to be the one underneath, the ones who are being taught. And I’ve been going through a little bit of a, not a crisis, but a development, I guess, of needing to know that the Lord can teach me what’s there before I can give it to you. And that’s suddenly how I saw that first verse, to be taught is first, and to teach follows on. And then something happened.

[00:06:30] And I saw the connection between that verse and then the ones that follow. And the connection really has to do with, let me introduce this. I did look up a few commentaries to find some ways to introduce this. So I’m going to refer to something that I hope is, you don’t mind my bringing in a little storyline from Peanuts. Please don’t go home and say, the preacher only gave us peanuts today. But there’s a little storyline, you know, about Peanuts, and Peanuts is, they’re busy, and the other character in it is Lucy. And Lucy in, well, Peanuts is the name of the cartoon, but Lucy asks Charlie Brown, and why are there, why do we have, why are we here, why are we here on planet Earth, she asks Charlie Brown. And he pauses and thinks for a while and then answers and he says, to make people happy.

[00:07:39] It’s a pretty good answer for Charlie Brown. But then she thinks a bit more and she says, why are the other people happy? Why are the other people here? Why are the others here? And Peanuts doesn’t seem to have an answer to that. There is a need that we have to have an emphasis on others and not just ourselves. And Christianity has it at its heart. So we have to keep our eyes on the needs of others, not just our role. And it’s interesting that back in history with the Salvation Army, which is the group that is known most in our society in Western countries to be busy helping people and looking after others, that the founder of that group, General Booth, was sick at one time and he had an appointment that he could get out of bed to go to. So he sent them a telegram and all it said was others.

[00:08:49] I don’t know whether he realised that, you know, that when you give a short message, the shorter it is, the more possible to get misunderstood. I think it’s also true if you give a too long one, it doesn’t get all read. And isn’t understood. But others could have been taken by them. Someone else needs to do what I was going to do today. It’s all in your lap. I’m not coming. That could have been how people took him to mean. Thankfully, those that knew him well knew the emphasis of the Salvation Army is that we Christians are here for the helping of others. that our, however, is not how the Bible completely talks. It does mention a lot about the need to have an eye for the needs of others. But the term that keeps turning up was right there in Galatians chapter 6. It’s just that I started too late in the passage.

[00:09:51] Let’s look at chapter 6 and go back please to where we got, I think it’s verse 2. It’s good. Start this front. Brothers, if anyone is caught in a transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Our attitude in restoring someone who might have gone off the track is important. Keep watch of yourself lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens. And although it’s not standing out in extra printing or anything, there’s some beautiful lesson in that command. Bear one another’s burdens. I, seeing that, was suddenly reminded of a time when God underlined those words one another’s to me. The context of it was actually Michelle was doing her doctorate and it was a doctorate of ministry where you do a lot of courses and then at the end you have to write up a thesis of a project that you had. And she had

[00:11:03] a project in mind of doing, because of people that she knew, to have something for pastors’ wives to help them from what often happens to pastors’ wives that they get turned off the ministry because of how difficult it is. And to get a forum going for pastors’ wives which we held in our house that would go for a couple of years, the purpose of which was for Michelle to be able to help a number of the young pastors I was teaching at the college when you had a fair stack of young pastors’ wives, to teach them or to help them not to get discouraged and drag their husbands out of the ministry. And so she started this forum and in the beginning of it part of her task was to write up how she did it, what was the methodology of how to do it and she chose a methodology that would involve getting everybody to discuss and to contribute

[00:12:03] their points of view. But she would have to do the first teaching before they caught on to how to do it. Then gradually the others, if she taught them well, would gain confidence and speak up more and eventually share their questions and their problems and then something else would happen or something else did happen. I have to confess a tremendous curiosity about her project in the house and one of the evenings this was happening I’d go walking by catch a few words or two and listen in to what was happening. How are these women getting? They came from all sorts of places and most of them are pastor’s wives right now all around Queensland. And I would listen in. It started off with Michelle doing all the work, the teaching. And then the amount of sharing began to increase and I discovered reading the book of Ephesians

[00:12:58] that this is a natural and spiritual process. That as you minister to people, something happens and they catch on to ministry themselves. And that’s what happened in Michelle’s forum. It started with her doing all the talking but gradually I got to hear, there’s other voices coming in. It finished up with all of them talking to each other. The book of Ephesians talks about ministering to one another. In fact, we discovered in the scriptures for her to write up in her thesis that she had to do. All these passages that use the term, not just others, like General Booth, sent a telegram saying, but passages that talk about one another. And in fact, there’s a fair bit of literature written up about the scriptures about the one another’s passages. And here’s the first one. And bear one another’s burdens.

[00:14:06] And so that’s what happened in that forum. And some of the problems that came out, the burdens, because they were pastors’ wives, they had children. Sometimes there’s a difficulty for a pastor’s wife who has children with needs, but there’s all sorts of other things that they’re doing as well. Anybody in Christian work who’s serving, like into Sunday school right now, people are serving the needs of other people’s families. Anybody involved like that does discover that there’s a cost that you pay because you don’t have your time free to look after your own burdens. But the passage says, bear one another’s burdens. We discover, looking through all these one another passages, I thought, what a good sermon plan to go through some of them at least. Let’s do this and let me illustrate for you. Go to James 5.16.

[00:15:13] Therefore, confess your sins to one another. So pray and get other people to help you with your needs. And pray for one another. You might not notice that as a one another passage, but it is. Pray for one another. There’s something about the meaning of one another, it’s the mutual backwards and forwards about the burden of one being shared but also sharing the burden of the other who’s bearing the burden of the first person. I had a joy this morning in that room over there where the prayer meeting was going on. In fact, we hardly had enough chair space around the table. It’s been growing. And the way it was handled, just had people praying, it just went around the table. I don’t know whether we were directed so to do, it’s just what happened. Each person praying and they were praying for one another’s burdens,

[00:16:10] not the one another’s in the room, but you lot, our church as a whole and those who are missionaries overseas. Praying for one another. And there is a part of Christian fellowship where you have some connection, maybe with a special person or one person that you’re close to or live near or someone who you understand, someone in like circumstances and you share with each other. It’s something that happens naturally amongst Christians that you find someone who’s on the same wavelength and you can set up a one-another connection whereby you share. Look, this week, I’ve got a terrible week. I was going to tell you an illustration but you’ll know who it is. But the person says I’ve got classes coming up and there’s a difficult person who really gave me a problem. Last time, being a teacher is difficult.

[00:17:09] But then you share each other’s burden. There is a fantastic answer to loneliness when you developed some ability just to share one another’s burdens. And likewise, you can find you’ll miss your opportunity if you don’t. I wonder whether in the church here you have someone that you can make a special one another. Or do you come for the joy of the worship? That’s what we’re worthy of being joyful about. Do you come for friendship? Or to come to be on the scene? We all have our… They’re not wrong reasons but they’re extra reasons. But I’m asking you do you have a one another in the church? Say you’re saying to yourself at this moment, you don’t. Then my next question is, whose fault is that? Do you know what our normal human reaction is? It’s their fault. They’re an unfriendly crowd.

[00:18:15] I found it fascinating hearing some people talk about our church. And some people tell me, and I get complimented by the church as if I didn’t. No, it’s not my doing. But our church does a terrific thing when after a service people talk to each other. But also there are people who make good Christian friends. It’s something that you don’t have in a church where it’s just formal or where there’s some lack of breaking down of the walls of separation of pride. I’ve been in a church, you’ve probably heard me talk about it before, where I used to give the sermon up the front and the elders would sit behind me with big suits on. I never had the suits on, but they did. And then with service over, I’d walk down to the foyer. They’d walk behind me and stand around. The people would all disappear

[00:19:15] out of that church in five minutes. Well, maybe not every time and not every person, but that’s how the overall appearance. And something happened in that church, happened through the singing group that took off. And this fellowship grew in the singing group and somehow, I don’t know exactly what caused it to happen, but suddenly, if I walked down to the door, everybody just stayed inside. They didn’t leave. They liked to hang around. There’s a one another that needs to happen. And I believe it to be, as we pray toward, I pray, Lord, people here in this church have an eye for their God to bring a revival to Australia, but we want to start with us. And I think something is happening in our church and you can sense that the Spirit of God is at work. But if we have a revival, I want to tell you one thing

[00:20:18] that will be a cause of it, will be when we pick up on this passage and we confess our sins to one another and we pray for one another. The prayer of the righteous person has great power in what it does. Confess your sins to one another. Do you have a one another that you can do that with? I have a good friend I had from being a teenager, still do. He lives in Brisbane and if I were to be meeting up with him, this would happen. We would, we have a connection. But right back then when we were teenagers, young men, we had an agreement that if he had a besetting sin that got him down, he had to tell me. And when we turned up at a prayer meeting, sometimes he’d go, many had failed. But we had a commitment to share each other’s burdens of trying to become spiritual. Something very wonderful happens when you have

[00:21:26] a one another relationship. And I’ve been asking God to bring about a continuance of a movement of revival. Partly that’s because my ministry has been revivalistic in every place we’ve been. There’s been, that happened. And when I went to Wheaton College, they knew that I’d been down there in the First Baptist Church in Dallas and we had a movement of the Spirit in which they added 3,000 members. Started in a prayer meeting. And so at Wheaton, they had a little chapel and they got me to be in charge of it. I didn’t know what to do. But we prayed for revival. They had the prayer meeting set up for that. Nothing miraculous happened while I was there. But several years later, I got the news of revival that hit the big assembly of 2,000 students who wouldn’t stop crying and praying. I wasn’t there to know exactly what caused it.

[00:22:32] But they had a revival. It’s not in Australian Christian culture to believe revivals are very possible because we’ve had so few of it, so little of it. But in North America, they’ve had a history of there being times where churches or places prayed for revival and it comes. So they, in the time of non-revival, they pray for the next one to come. Why can’t we do that? Why should we not believe that God could bless? He is already blessing our church. There’s no other way to account for the fact of what’s been happening in our church except that God is at work. But there’s no reason why we should go on and be disbelieving about it. Let’s pray and pray that God will work. But one of the mechanisms that this morning I’m suggesting to us that will sponsor such is if we get ourselves into a praying for one another thing with one or more,

[00:23:40] I don’t know, people that you can share your sins with and share your hopes with and share, how shall I say, your touch with God. The prayer of a righteous person has great power in its working. And if we take that up, it might be one of the things that will sponsor the answer to our prayers. That’s one one or another. Let’s go to the next one, please. James 5 and 16 is, that’s what we’ve done. Matthew 2, 16. No, it’s Mark. Mark 2, 16. If you want the preacher to have good eyesight, then don’t have so many strong spotlights only on him. Mark 2, 16. And the scribes and the Pharisees, this is just a negative example, the scribes and the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners? Now what you’re getting at here

[00:24:53] is the fact of criticism coming from the ones whose road to righteousness is not the same one as Jesus. What Jesus was an example of and this is something very important to me because it was an area of weakness in my life. I was very used to being in Christian circles, grown up in a family, it was in the ministry, in the Bible colleges, what is more? But what that meant was I had very little experience with outsiders and I wasn’t very well adjusted and I first arrived at the first school that I taught at as a teacher and I witnessed to the deputy principal on the first day, gave him both barrels of the gospel which was very silly timing really. He went and told the rest of the staff we got this religious fella on the staff and from that day on they had a men’s staff room and a women’s staff room and I walked in and the men

[00:25:58] wouldn’t talk to me. My stupidity because I didn’t know how to relate to normal people, not normal is the wrong word but people in society. Actually they got they got my lunch and put it on the bench at the back because there wasn’t quite enough chairs The next thing they did is they put my lunch down in the women’s staff room for the greatest slight they could think of and that’s where I would go and have lunch. And so I had to start a task of learning how to relate to people more. I’ve actually been doing that task all my life and while here in our church here, I had a challenge. Some of you have heard me say this before, repeat it quickly, by a pastor in Chicago who wrote a book called Just Walk Across the Room. He was a pretty knowledgeable man because I watch other people,

[00:27:02] they have no problem walking across the room but it actually used to be the hardest thing for me to do when I didn’t know the people on the other side and I had all these insecurities as to whether I could relate to them. So I picked it up from his book that I had to learn how to walk across the room and that meant reach out to people I normally don’t talk to or take initiatives where you might look stupid or get into trouble and I’ve been doing it ever since and you’d be staggered at the amount of opportunities to witness to people I’ve had that started because I held my breath, I kept my face straight so they wouldn’t know I was nervous. Probably we worked backwards and walked across the room in one scene or another and sometimes I did goof it up but other times there came a beautiful opportunity

[00:27:59] to speak for the Christ. But the picture you’ve got here is the Pharisees are criticising Jesus because he’s really walking across the room, he’s going to somebody else’s party, I don’t know, it’s Matthew’s house but he’s eating with tax collectors and sinners. Now if that happens to you, just ignore it because Jesus sets an example. Don’t be bound socially by what other people think you should do but take the gospel with you if you do which Jesus always was able to do. Let’s keep going but what you’ll discover about this is that in our being around with others you won’t always get understood but just ignore it. The next verse I had for us and this is my going through how to stir up a one another ministry is in Galatians 5 and 22 to 23. Thank you, you’re doing really well helping me here.

[00:29:12] The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. The one that I had to learn in that school where I was, was the one first of the list, love. Because if you’re so caught up with your personality you know that you don’t relate to people you’re not able to get a one another thing with people what you’re missing is love because the thing that will break it down is when people see you have the fruit of the spirit including love. And it’s the one thing about Jesus that you do see. The joy, the peace, the patience, kindness they’re all there as well. But I think it’s the gentleness and the love. Against such there is no law. And it’s when we are motivated by love and reach out to people

[00:30:21] they don’t mind, this is what I’ve discovered they don’t mind you don’t exactly have. I mean I get lots of training at home from Michelle because she’s a natural extrovert and she does naturally relate to everybody she always did right back in when I first met her the whole person who probably knew most of the people in the church was Michelle. And with me I’m the opposite. but the spirit can produce the love and I had a bit of a a beautiful thing happen the other day a friend of mine not from the church but who came to see me told me how he observed the change in me and just the thing I’m talking about. So there is a way you can walk across the room. There is a way that you can have a one another ministry even if your personality is not used to doing that and you keep all quiet to yourself is by asking the Holy Spirit

[00:31:25] to give you the love to give you the joy to give you the fruits that he can bring and he will make it happen for you. So this is not a sermon to tell you something to do that some of you may think that’s not what I’m able to do or I’m not used to doing. Ask the Holy Spirit to do that through you. we’ll keep on going because I’ve got a bit of a list and I’m not watching the clock I can see what it says but I won’t tell you but let’s keep on going and let’s go to 1 Thessalonians 5 11 to 12 therefore encourage one another you know it’s a staggering thing that in Christian circles one of the things you don’t get enough of is encouragement build one another up keep doing it you put in that just as you are doing because who is writing to the Thessalonians apparently they were already doing this just keep going

[00:32:35] we ask you brothers to respect those who labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you so there’s a one another that happens and that last little bit that’s added on is what’s leading me back to we’ll go back to the Galatians chapter 6 passage where I could suddenly see the connection let the one who’s taught the word share all good things now how I’m applying that I’ve got to get the good things to be able to share them and that’s actually what I do in the sermons is I’m busy most of my time is either at home half time at home and half time down in my office or somewhere else sometimes I go out to find a cafe and just sit there and take my Bible it doesn’t really matter where but I’m looking for some good thing I know I’m turning the verse around but to teach the word I can’t teach you

[00:33:46] until the Lord gives me some good thing and when I get it it blesses me when I see something in the word of God there is such enrichment in the scriptures such a beautiful blessing when you suddenly see a truth and I get a good thing I come along here I know I get told my family are all very good about how to give sermons and talks and what and they tell me how mine are not really structured very well. They’re probably right and I have been willing to humble myself to put in better introductions and hence you had peanuts this morning. And to do some things according to their knowledge which I don’t usually bother with. But the one thing I do know to do, it’s a spiritual thing, is to find a good thing in the Word of God. That is a part of the blessing on the church.

[00:34:50] Because if you’re a real Christian, your heart knows when Jesus talks to you. Your heart knows when the Word of God is open. Now it goes on, do not be deceived, God is not mocked. Whatever one sows, that will he also reap. That will a person also reap. For the one who sows to his flesh. Now what it’s actually saying is you can be a religious person and be converted but you’re walking mostly in the flesh. But of the flesh you’re going to reap corruption. Things just won’t go as you wanted them to just because you’ve willed a certain result. The way to get the result of the blessing of God is to sow to the Spirit. And when you take the time to do what the Bible says that’s necessary to be a person who’s filled with the Spirit, then from that Spirit the whole business of the life eternal issues.

[00:35:58] I think the passage is talking about, you know, in the first instance getting properly converted to Christ and having the Holy Spirit and because you’ve got the Spirit. I mean, the thing you get when you become a Christian is that you are someone that has eternal life. The first one of the most important uses of the word eternal life and it’s associated with a word that means grace. The first grace that God gives is eternal life. The word for grace could be said gift. The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. And if you’re uncertain that you really have got eternal life, chase it down until you get that doubt resolved. because that’s the chief thing. Don’t be deceived. God’s not mocked. Whatever one sows with your good business, your wonderful education,

[00:36:56] your happy increase in the social scene, it means nothing, unless it’s got a spiritual element in it. That will be what you’ll also reap. The one who sows to his flesh, which means just the human things, will reap corruption. The one who sows to the spirit will from the spirit reap life eternal. And we will have a movement of the spirit which is only capable by God’s spirit doing something. You can’t whip it up. I’ve been saying in recent occasions that the whole church growth movement sometimes gets it wrong because they measure church growth by how many the numbers are. It can be an indicator. But some churches, I’ve got a lot of people, but it’s very shallow Christianity. Very limited work of the spirit. All done by mechanisms, smoke machines. Good music, just for good music’s sake.

[00:38:01] Having all the seats wonderful. Those things are not bad things, but they’re just human things. But what makes for the real growth of the church is the word of God, the power of prayer. And I want to offer this morning, it is when we acknowledge the one another commandment, not just helping other people, not just others, as I think General Booth really meant, that the people should have their concentration on helping the outside world. It’s a good thing to be done. But the Bible mentions one another. And when you read the passages as we are, it’s us in the spirit finding some way to be in on the one another connection. I have a couple of others, but I won’t bring them in now. I think you’ve got the point. And a couple of other passages. Let’s aim at looking at one another ministry. And not only just helping people

[00:39:09] as you see a need, but being open to them helping you as well. But sometimes to find someone like I do with my friend, who now it’s 60 years later, if I have something that I need to confess, I would go to his house. Or he would tell me. He’s very good at telling people where they’re wrong. But he’s a good friend to have. He’s one of the most genuine Christians I know. I don’t agree with all of his theology, but I do agree with how he lives the Christian life. And anyway, I want to leave you with the one another as the vehicle that we can use to see God work in revival in our church. Let’s pray. Oh, Father, thank you for Jesus and for his teaching or how accurately he understood human nature. Help us to be people who take on board this call for one another, to bear one another’s burdens. and Lord,

[00:40:34] we pray for all the different one another’s there are that you’ll help us to take them on board and to know how they apply. Thank you for help. Lord, you give help to different personalities that need different things. We pray for every person listening to my voice that you’ll show them your way that they can be involved in the blessing of God through them. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen. Amen. Amen.