SERMON: BEAR-ABLE
TEXT:Ga 6:17 From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. INTRODUCTION: Bear or bearing has many meanings in the English language. It can mean a big omnivorous animal, or directions, or steel marbles to keep machines running smooth. It can also mean to carry or uphold. I?m not interested in the animal called bear, unless I run into one, that is! How might we run into one? If we lose our bearings! Get lost in the forest around town! So how do we make sure we don?t get lost? We help each other, we bear each others weaknesses in reading maps, and if need be, bear each other?s bad attitudes! And sometimes we bear away the problems from a person so they will not have to carry tham at all! Church, when we keep each other from the Bear called Satan, we do it by first knowing where he is and attacking and we do it by Following Christ?s Map - the Bible, in this we keep our bearings on the straight and narrow road! But we all have our different weaknesses and God made it so we would need each other to bear our weaknesses and bear with each others annoyances! Sometimes, also like Him, we are to bear our brothers sins away! When all this is in place then the final use of the word fits. For then the machine of God?s Body runs smoothly! Then you know you are running with strong bearings! It is important that none of us, nor the church, loses any of its bearings!! TRANSITIONAL-STATEMENT: Enough with the word play - If we want to fulfill the law of Christ, we need to bear the marks of the Lord Jesus, this means we continue His mission, exactly as He did! Lets Bear Up!! - - - - - 1.BURDENS - - - - Ex 27:7 And the staves shall be put into the rings, and the staves shall be upon the two sides of the altar, to bear it. This talks of how they supported the Tent of meeting in the O.T. This is how they kept it up, how they bore its weight. So what does it have do with us? - - - Ro 15:1 ¶ We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves2 Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification. 3 For even Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me. - - - -Ought to bear. This word bear properly means to lift up, to bear away, to remove. But here it is used in a larger sense; to bear with, to be indulgent to, to endure patiently, not to contend with. Pleased not himself. The meaning may be expressed in the following - He bore with patience the ignorance, blindness, erroneous views, and ambitious projects of his disciples. He evinced kindness to them when in error; and was not harsh, censorious, or unkind, when they were filled with vain projects of ambition, or perverted his words, or were dull of apprehension. So, says the apostle, we ought to do in relation to our brethren. In other words Christ did stuff that was lousy, thats bearing, holding up someone, putting up with someone. But you must limit your bearing of others weakness to the point of grace, not compromise. Put up with immaturities and foolishness and mistakes, but not with continual or blatant destructive behavior. So the same way they supported the Tent of meeting in the O.T. How they kept it up, how they bore its weight. This is what we are to do!! This is another way we bear His marks, His cross. He Makes it Bearable! Have you kept your bearings? Are you willing to Bear Up? - - - -2.SINS - - - - - Ga 6:1 ¶ Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. 2 Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. - - - - Considering thyself, etc. 1ST point? The person is wiling to listen! Remember how liable you are yourself to err; Are You? and how much kindness and indulgence should therefore be shown to others. You are to act as if you felt it possible that you might also be overtaken with a fault; and you should act as you would wish that others should do towards you. Who are the spiritual? Those that put themselves in the fallen persons shoes completely, to the point of bearing there shame alongside them! - - - - Mt 7:12 ¶ Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.- - - - Golden rule appies to mercy especially! Bear ye one another's burdens. Bear with each other; help each other in the Divine life. The sense is, that every man has peculiar temptations and easily besetting sins, which constitute a heavy burden. We should aid each other in regard to these, and help one another to overcome them. But this will not be if we keep them hidden. We need the Holy Spirit to bring us to confession and then the victory of true repentance! -ILL: Swamp Bombs: To bring up dead bodies..! -This is an old way of finding victims. God is dropping bombs in the muck of our swamps. We need to rid the dead things in us and clean the waters . . . And so fulfil the law of Christ. The peculiar law of Christ, requiring us to love one another. This was the distinguishing law of the Redeemer; and we can in no way better fulfill it than by aiding each other in the Divine life. The law of Christ would not allow us to reproach the offender, or to taunt him, or to rejoice in his fall. We should help him to take up his load of infirmities, and sustain him by our counsels, our exhortations, and our prayers. Christians, conscious of their infirmities, have a right to the sympathy and the prayers of their brethren. They should not be eased off to a cold and heartless world; a world rejoicing over their fall, and ready to brand them as hypocrites. They should be pressed to the warm bosom of brotherly kindness; and prayer should be made to ascend without ceasing around an erring and a fallen brother. - - - - Ga 6:17 From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. - - - -Is this the case in regard to all who bear the Christian name? God Makes it Bearable! Have you kept your bearings? Are you willing to Bear Up? - - - -3.ONE- - - - Ga 6:17 From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. - - - Bearing is to take on the same reproach, sentence, shame as the other. We are not to ?bear false witness?, on the contrary we bear the slander as though it were against us! How awful it is when we shoot our wounded! Friendly fire: In the Gulf War, the only american casualties were by their own men/weopons. Gulf War casualties. . . Friendly fire is the most sensless way to die! And is probably the most common death for Christians!! How terrible is it when Christians use the wrong edge of the sword on each other!! We have access to God?s Word/sword, it is 2 edged - life and death. How terrible is it when Christians use the wrong edge of the sword - Period! Understand that we have the potential as children of God to be the most powerful blessing on this planet! Also understand we have the most potential to be the most powerful agent of destruction on this planet! Another reason the Devil is so against us, because a wounded or selfish Christian is more destructive than devil could ever be!!! So when your wounded by the devil, the world, by God or another Christian - Rejoice, please! - - - - Acts 5:41 And they departed from the (beatings &) presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. ! - - - -Rejoice that you bear in your Body the Marks of the Cross!! The Marks of the Lord Jesus! He was wounded by all of the above in multiple. Will you Bear up? Each other? The Cross? - - - - 1Co 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. - - - - Notice the Temptation / Struggle is Not taken away, but what your able to bear. To continue in the righteous-making struggle! No wonder James says - - -Jas 1:2 ¶ My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; 3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. 4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. - - - - We?re not to finish our work here, we?re to go, move and grow until heaven. Alpha & Omega: Jesus is the beginning and the end, the author of our faith and its completer. We know when we became Christians, and we know the End - Heaven! We know the Alpha and the Omega. Life is all the letters in between that complete the alphabet and make us more into His image. Exciting or what?! - - - - Col 1:24 Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church: - - - - Note here, 1. That Almighty God has decreed such a measure of sufferings to his church, whereof Christ, as the head, underwent a considerable part and proportion, when he was here upon earth, in his poverty, in his labours, in his sufferings, both in life, and at his death. Note, 2. That there is yet a remainder of sufferings, assigned over by Christ unto his members, which must be filled up by them, whreof St. Paul had a great share, and every believer must have some share; for, as long as Christ has a member upon the earth, there will be something for that member to suffer. Note, 3. That those sufferings which Christ's members suffer, are the sufferings of Christ; the sufferings of the members are the sufferings of the Head, being undergone for the sake of the Head. Christ, in his natural body considered, can suffer no more; but in his mystical body, in his members, he daily suffers, and will suffer, till the measure of sufferings is filled up which God hath determined. We think of all the prohpecies that are needed to be fulfilled before Christ returns - Gospel around world - Great falling away - Antichrist etc.. Forgotten one - You want the Kingdom to Come!? Suffer!! Fill it Up the rest that are appointed!! In the midst of the struggles of God?s Potter?s wheel, God molds over and over into perfection, while we go on the greatest treasure hunt for God?s Blessing and soul winning new relaionships that last forever! Wow! ?Lord give us the grace to bear up each other and this world!!? Amen!? - - - - 1Pe 4:8 And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. - - - - When we bear burdens, we need each other to bear each other! Love others, and let others love you. Take the faith building, cammanded risk and let others love you, or you cannot love them. You steal from God?s body and lose many blessings. We need to be burden bearers and we need to be burdens! Transparency = Truth & Growth! - - - - 1Pe 2:24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. - - - - Are you living righteous? Are you healed? Are you continuing what He did for you? He erased your sin by removing them. Will you to so with one another? With your neighbor? Have you kept your bearings? Are you willing to Bear Up? - - - -- 4.AWAY - - - - Le 16:21 And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness: - - - - This is an O.T. analogy that comes close to Christ?s work. The goat was then to be sent away immediately by the hand of a fit person pitched upon for the purpose, into a wilderness, a land not inhabited; and God allowed them to make this construction of it, that the sending away of the goat was the sending away of their sins, by a free and full remission: He shall bear upon him all their iniquities. The losing of the goat was a sign to them that their sins could be sought for, and not found. - - - - Ro 3:25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; - - - - Christ did this for us! Is that awsome! But we too are to continue His mission and suffering! - - - - 2Co 1:6 And whether we be afflicted, [it is] for your consolation and salvation, which is effective in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: - - - - - When we see that our suffering is so effective to God?s Work it makes it worthwhile and easy to rejoice! We are to bear each others burdens away, for good. Through prayer andforgivenss/ love. Wow, what a blessing! This is different than the bearing of the Tent or lifting/holding one another up. This is a carrying away! Will you be that fit man? Let God make you so! We all need this, and all need to do this! - - - -Ga 6:17 From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. - - - - Have you kept your bearings? Are you willing to Bear Up? God Makes It Beareable!
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