Priority: Bearing One Another’s Burdens
I once heard a story of a woman who was eager to see great miraculous moves of the Holy Spirit in her church and so she approached her pastor and said “We need to see more signs and wonders. We just haven’t seen enough signs and wonders.”
And her pastor said, “Over there sits a lady who has been evicted from her apartment with her children. I would consider it a sign and wonder if you would take them into your house to live for three months…”.
Now…I don’t think that pastor was being a smart alec… I actually think he’s on to something.
And while the Bible certainly shows us examples of the Holy Spirit doing crazy things… strange miracles… mind blowing audio visual manifestations…. it would surprise some Christians to discover that that is actually not the main focus and thrust of what the Bible teaches we should expect from a church where the Spirit is powerfully at work.
In the book of Galatians, Paul aims to show his readers the marks of a Spirit-filled church… In fact in Galatians 5 Paul talks about the fruit of the Holy Spirit… and the first manifestation of the Spirit’s activity in a church is not sensational signs and wonders…it’s love.
And a few verses later he shows us that it’s love worked out in mutual care in the local church. Mutual Care is our 7th out of 8 biblical priorities for Main Street church that we are covering this summer…
And to prime the pump let’s start with a working definition of Mutual Care:
“Our commitment to pursue a life together in sacrificial faith-sustaining care for each other in loving relationships at every level of youth and age, joy and sorrow, comfort and crisis, health and brokenness.” - Pastor Ryan
.Ryan just read Galatians 6:2 but I’m going to put it back up because this is our anchor text…where the Apostle Paul writes that we are to…
Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
(Galatians 6:2)
And I’m trusting the Holy Spirit will use this one, God-breathed sentence to speak deeply to our hearts as a church family this morning…
This verse actually assumes something very important that Christians really need to grasp and lay hold of.. and it’s this…
The Christian life is hard
Paul automatically assumes that people in the church will have burdens… Now that word for burden in the original language Paul was writing in simply means a load which is very heavy and very difficult to carry. And such burdens come in all kinds of diverse forms…
Could be physical or mental illness… or financial crisis… or relational difficulties… or temptation…. Or persecution….past trauma… Or the loss of deeply held plans and dreams…. or intense loneliness or grief… and much more…
The point is that Paul expects this. He assumes that this is the normal Christian experience…
Now… for some of you this is elementary… but it isn’t for all Christians. I’m reminded of what the apostle Peter writes when he says,
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you…as though something strange were happening to you.
(1 Peter 4:12)
Sometimes Christians and Churches give the impression that it’s spiritual to appear as if they have no burdens… we come to church with big smiles on our faces and try to project this wonderfully blessed life where it’s one victory after another…if life is a song, it should always be in the major key…and we think that somehow it’s a sign of spiritual maturity to act as if we’ve gotten to this level where we are above defeat…above discouragement…above depression…
And we act like something is unusual…or as the apostle Peter says “strange”… if we find ourselves in hard and dark places. And so I fear that a lot of Christians in churches are faking it all over America right now….
And perhaps our 21st century American culture that has a low tolerance level for anything hard or uncomfortable…. has encouraged that kind of attitude… we have Christian radio stations that sell themselves as “positive and encouraging”… because who wants to listen to a station that is negative and depressing? I get it.. I used to be in Christian radio… I understand…
And sometimes churches can be, dare I say… shallow and overly happy clappy…desperately avoiding the dark contours of life… where there is little to no recognition of life’s “minor key”…Most churches overflow with worship songs that are very heavy on triumph and victory and gladness… while leaving no space for sorrow, grief, and lament…for even acknowledging the burdens… it’s hard to think of many modern, singable worship songs that go to those harder places…
And so I think churches can unintentionally leave the believer who is crushed by their burdens…who isn’t feeling what everyone else seems to be feeling… to wonder if something is wrong with them…or maybe church isn’t for them and that the Bible doesn’t speak to the hard places of life…
But on the contrary…. the Bible actually is very honest and gives a very different message…Bible is full of believers who had immensely heavy loads and burdens and troubles in life… Job was the godliest…most faith filled man of his time and suffered immensely…
Jeremiah was known as the weeping prophet…
And even the great apostle Paul, who on the one hand wrote so much about joy and triumph in Christ, also knew what it was like to experience crushing burdens…
For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—
(2 Corinthians 5:4)
How many of you are starting to groan more the older you get?….as Indiana Jones said “It’s not the years…it’s the mileage…” Life is hard…God created the world perfect but our sin and selfishness messed it up so now we are in a sin-cursed world with many burdens…
For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted at every turn—fighting without and fear within.
(2 Corinthians 7:5)
Man I bet some of you can relate to this… you’re physically tired…you constantly feel the weight of affliction… striving and battling with things outside of you…and inside dealing with fear and anxiety… in the next verse Paul describes himself as downcast…depressed. He’s physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually worn out… ever feel that way? Maybe you feel that way now?
But the good news is that the Bible gets it…the Bible gets you…
Did you know that the only Holy-Spirit inspired worship playlist out there is not on your Spotify playlist but in your Bible?…in the book of Psalms?… and did you know that roughly 1/3 of those hymns are songs of lament… dealing with the crushing burdens of life with absolute raw honesty?
[1] How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
[2] How long must I take counsel in my soul
and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
(Psalm 13:1–2)
Ever heard that sung in a worship service?
…in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying; my soul refuses to be comforted. When I remember God, I moan; when I meditate, my spirit faints…I am so troubled that I cannot speak.
(Psalm 77:2–4)
That one may not be a hit on the positive and encouraging radio station…
But friends we should follow the example given us in the scriptures which gives us permission to likewise be real, raw, and honest about our own struggles. Yes the Bible also gives us hope and reasons to trust God through the hardships of life… but the Bible is transparent that there are no guarantees of ease and comfort before heaven… indeed Jesus promised His disciples “In this world you will have trouble…”
Now… many Christians acknowledge their burdens…but would rather go it alone…or may say that all they need is God…. And there are indeed passages where we are encouraged to take our burdens to the Lord…But to have an exclusive “me and God only” attitude ignores another assumption that Paul makes in our passage and that is that not only is the Christian life hard and full of burdens but
The Christian life is meant to be lived in community
Now…this can be a hard one for some people… because there is in American culture a spirit of independence and self-sufficiency… along with a high value for our own privacy and the privacy of others.
But the Bible has a different vision. Paul says,
Bear one another’s burdens…
(Galatians 6:2)
In particular notice those words “one another.” Those two words together are all over the NT…here’s just a sampling…
Live in harmony with one another (Romans 12:16)
Welcome one another (Romans 15:7)
Instruct one another (Romans 15:14)
Greet one another (Romans 16:16)
Comfort one another (2 Corinthians 13:11)
Serve one another (Galatians 5:14)
Be kind to one another (Ephesians 4:32)
Forgiving one another (Ephesians 4:32)
Submit to one another (Ephesians 5:21)
Teach one another (Colossians 3:16)
Admonish one another (Colossians 3:16)
Encourage one another (1 Thessalonians 4:18)
Stir up one another to love and good works (Hebrews 10:24)
Confess your sins to one another (James 5:16)
Pray for one another (James 5:16)
Show hospitality to one another (1 Peter 4:9)
And there’s many more… but the point is that you and I were created for community.
If you go back to the earliest pages of the Bible…when God created a perfect world. He creates the first Man, Adam… and up to this point every aspect of God’s creation has been declared by God to be good…
But then God says,
“It is not good that the man should be alone…”
(Genesis 2:18).
And so God makes a companion for him to help him…
And isn’t it interesting that even in a perfect world…even when he had fellowship with God Himself… STILL… the man needed human community….
That’s astounding… and it challenges the idea of the solo Christian who thinks “all I need is me, my Bible, and Jesus…and I’m good.” And the scriptures are saying, “actually…it’s NOT good…”. If man needed community in a perfect world, how much more do we need one another now? It is not a sign of advanced spiritual maturity to say I’ve got these burdens and I can handle them all on my own… nowhere does the Bible talk that way…
God designed us not to be independent but interdependent…and while sin brought alienation and hostility between Man and God…and Man and fellow Man…
The gospel declares that through faith in Jesus, Man can be reconciled to God again…AND reconciled to others who have likewise trusted in Him.
In fact, the Bible calls this new community of reconciled believers “family.” As brothers and sisters adopted into God’s household… related not through blood but through God’s Spirit who indwells all of God’s people…
In other words when you became a Christian you didn’t just sign up for a ticket to heaven… you joined a family! Every Christian in this room is kin to one another. We are more bound to each other than to any blood relative we have who doesn’t know the Lord.
Jesus drives this home in Mark 3, where…
…a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you.” …And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.” (Mark 3:32–35)
And understanding that, it makes sense that after Paul tells us to bear one another’s burdens, he then says, just a few verses later….
So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.
(Galatians 6:10)
It’s not that we aren’t to care for people who aren’t Christians… but it’s a recognition that we have a special responsibility, obligation, and privilege to press into the lives of our true brothers and sisters to love and serve them.
And so the Bible never portrays the Christian life as a “just me and God” kind of thing… it’s always about “we and God…”. Christianity may be personal…but it isn’t private… it isn’t independent.
It’s popular for people to say, “You are enough”, but the Bible’s message is that “You are NOT enough!” And that’s ok. Because you weren’t designed to be.
And you intuitively know this… you particularly feel it when you are under the weight of life’s most crushing burdens….therefore, it’s not surprising at all that…
Christians are to be mutual burden bearers
This principle of God’s people needing one another and demonstrating mutual care in our burdens is a consistent theme in the scriptures…
Sometimes a burden can be something good in and of itself…like ministry. Moses found himself as leader and shepherd for the entire nation of Israel… now THAT is a heavy burden… it was the world’s first mega church… and Moses thought he and God would just do this alone but Moses’ wise father in law comes to him and says,
“What you’re doing is not good…You will certainly wear out…because the task is too heavy for you. You can’t do it alone.”
(Exodus 18:17–18)
Moses was crashing and burning… and Jethro helps him work out a plan for a wise division of labor to carry that load with Moses. I think that’s an important warning that even good things…even responsibilities assigned to us by God require wisdom and very often a team of other people carrying that burden together…
Other times a burden can be a challenge or a trial so intense and distressing that that you are mentally, emotionally, and spiritually pushed to the very brink.
I think of David who was on the run…mistreated and persecuted by murderous King Saul… it was a crushing burden… and… I love this..we are told that,
…David received the news that Saul was on the way to…search for him and kill him. Jonathan went to find David and encouraged him to stay strong in his faith in God.
(1 Samuel 23:15–16)
In other words Jonathan provided spiritual comfort, hope, encouragement, and care for David… he bore David’s burden with David…
Burdens can include the pain and frustration of our own sin. Going back to our passage in Galatians 6 Paul writes…
Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness…Bear one another’s burdens… (Galatians 6:1-2)
We should be concerned when our brothers and sisters are caught up in sin that’s hurting them and undermining their walk and witness. And as family members we have the right and responsibility to press into the life of a wandering Christian… not to harshly condemn or beat them up… but to gently “restore” them… to enter into their struggle and help them untangle themselves from the trap of sin. This too is a part of the ministry of mutual care… we care about the well being of the individual and also for the church as a whole… elsewhere Paul likens the church to a body with interconnected, interdependent parts…
God has so composed the body…that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.
(1 Corinthians 12:24–26)
Whether it’s carrying out the ministries we’re called to… or dealing with the weight of trials and tribulations…or the constant battle against sin… We cannot successfully live the Christian life alone…
David’s son Solomon wisely writes that,
Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
(Ecclesiastes 4:9–12)
One is bad…two is great… three is even better… the bigger the community of mutual care is, the more strength and help we find as we serve, care for, and bear one another’s burdens.
One more Bible example. Going back to the scripture I read earlier
about Paul’s heavy burdens in Macedonia…where he had no rest… afflicted at every turn… external conflict… and internal anxiety… depressed and full of grief…
For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted at every turn—fighting without and fear within.
(2 Corinthians 7:5)
How did he get through that time without collapsing in the fetal position and just forever giving up? Look what Paul says next…
But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus…
(2 Corinthians 7:6)
One of the main means that God uses to alleviate our burdens is human relationships … friendships in the family of God… as brothers and sisters come alongside one another in their burdens and sorrows…
So let’s get practical… What does this mean for us here at Main Street? What does it mean for you to be a burden bearer? How do you do that?
I love how Tim Keller put it… he said imagine someone you know is underneath a huge crushing weight. Now imagine…. what you would have to do to bear that burden? Well you’d have to get almost in their shoes, right? You’d have to get pretty much next to them, right? To understand them…
Just think about that word “understand” and it essentially means to “stand under”… and if you’re going to bear another’s burden it’s essential that you listen to them so that you understand as much as you can what they’re going through and feeling….AND…here’s the key “They need to know that…They need to know that you care”
That’s one way to bear someone’s burden…
And you get this right? Many of you have been in a situation where you were going through something hard…carrying a heavy burden… whether that was sickness or a financial burden or relational turmoil and someone comes along and you open your heart to them and you feel heard and seen by them… and they speak words of encouragement to you that help you to feel understood and that they “get you.”
And if you’ve ever something experienced that…what happened? You felt better didn’t you? Like your load was a little lighter… and here’s the amazing thing… the sickness was still there…the debt remained… the problem wasn’t solved… none of those challenges have changed but somehow you feel like you can make it a little further down the road with that burden… why? Because someone came along and stood under that weight with you…
That’s part of what it means to bear someone’s burden…
But here’s the other thing that Keller says…and I like this… you’ve got to let some of that weight the other person is bearing become yours which means you’re going to suffer a little bit.
17th century preacher Jonathan Edwards talks about helping someone with a financial burden… and this is so good…he says,
…if our neighbor’s difficulties and necessities be much greater than our own, and we see that he is not likely to be otherwise relieved, we should be willing to suffer with him, and to take part of his burden on ourselves; how else is that rule of bearing one another’s burdens fulfilled? If we… never… relieve others’ burdens, except when we can do it without burdening ourselves, then how do we bear our neighbor’s burdens, when we bear no burden at all?
If you give a measure of your time, your money, your attention, your emotional energy to someone in need you’re going to suffer a bit, right? You may not be able to financially afford to do something for yourself because you’re giving to someone else. You’re going to have less time in your day if you give up an hour or two to weep with someone who is weeping.
You’re going to have less strength after being physically and emotionally drained if you get under that burden with that person to help them bear it, right?
Again Keller says,
“If you're not engaged in people's lives with a degree of suffering, you're not bearing their burdens.” - Tim Keller
And friends this call to bear one another’s burdens is not a suggestion…it’s a command. I’m reminded of the Bible story of Cain and Abel where Cain callously asked God “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
And the Bible’s answer is “yes!” You do not exist for yourself. Part of your mission as a Christian is to look after your brothers and sisters in Christ…and if you’re a part of this church… it starts with the people here at Main Street. It starts with you building bridges and relationships with people in this room… not just coming from 90 minutes…running away… and not connecting with anyone here…
You’re never going to know the burdens of your brothers and sisters…and they are never going to know yours…unless you work hard to get to know people here…
Spend a few moments after the church service to make a meaningful connection with someone…. Have them over to your house…meet them for coffee…break out of your clique and get wild and crazy and talk to someone new here…
Join one of our Gospel Community Groups or Small Groups that meets during the week…. (If you don’t know what they are ask me or one of our leaders here and we’ll get you connected)… teenagers join our youth group that launches in September where there are deliberate times the kinds break up into smaller groups with leaders for opportunities to share and bear burdens…
And so church life isn’t merely for you to be spiritually fed and get whatever you think a church should give you… Instead, being part of a local church means committing to being involved in the ministry of mutual care for your spiritual brothers and sisters in Christ.
I love how Philip Ryken describes the Bible’s vision for the church…
Many times people in the church suffer…losses too heavy to bear alone. …Together, everyone helps to carry the load. Some do it through prayer. Others offer warm hugs and speak kind words of comfort and sympathy. Still others help in practical ways, by cleaning the house, bringing a meal to share, or sharing an appropriate Christian book. This ought to happen every time a member of the church is in difficulty, whether physical, emotional, or spiritual. If…we see someone else struggling under the weight of trouble, we need to put our own shoulder to the task. Christians always rally around to help.
Now that leads to one final sermon point and then we’re done…
Christians are to live out the essence of the law
Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
(Galatians 6:2)
One of the aims of Paul’s letter is to correct some false teaching that the Galatians were beginning to embrace… that they needed Christ plus good works through religious law keeping to be saved. And Paul wants to make it clear that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
But just because we’re saved by faith and not works does not exempt us from service to God and others…and so Paul is essentially saying,
If you really care about the law, THIS is what the law is really all about. It’s not about you checking off a bunch of religious boxes and jumping through religious hoops to airbrush your spiritual resume and look awesome as you try to earn your way into heaven… it’s all about love… loving God and loving your neighbor…
And one of the ways that neighbor love is expressed is through the people of the church bearing one another’s burdens. And Paul says when you’re doing that, that fulfills the law of Christ. That is an evidence that a church is filled with the Spirit of Christ… It’s hard to think of a spectacular sign and wonder greater or more powerful than a church marked by sacrificial, loving… mutual care.
And there are few things you could do to image Christ more than bear another’s burdens because that is exactly what Christ did for you.
We… in our defiance before God, chose sin over God… and we believed the lie that our way…following our selfish desires… is better and more life giving than being in relationship with God…
But the thing that promised us life and happiness became the thing that kills and chokes away life. And yet in a twisted frenzy…apart from God… we find ourselves still craving the thing that is killing us… becoming enslaved to sin… that sin becoming a crushing weight and burden…
I love John Bunyan’s classic book, Pilgrims Progress…where the character named Christian is walking with a massively heavy burden on his back that represented his sin and his guilt. It was a burden he himself could not relieve no matter what he did…
That’s Man’s predicament… and worse, the Bible teaches that the weight of sin will eventually crush us into the dust, because the wages of sin is death…ultimately experienced in a place called Hell…where the sinner will forever experience God’s justice for his treason against God… eternally burdened and crushed by God’s own wrath…
But God who is infinitely compassionate and overflowing with love, sent His own Son Jesus into the world to rescue us from His own wrath. And Jesus came to a people who found themselves crushed by their sin burden…unable to relieve it themselves.. and He said,
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
(Matthew 11:28–30)
And how would Jesus relieve that burden? By bearing it Himself on the cross.
Isaiah 53:4–6
[4] Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
[5] But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
[6] All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all. (ESV)
This is why Jesus died. The sin of sinners placed on and punished in Him…. So now all who turn away from trusting in themselves to carry their own burden, and instead come to the cross…laying their burden with Jesus… trusting His sufficient sacrifice to pay for their sins, will find themselves forgiven and free!
I love how Bunyan describes the salvation experience where he writes,
“I saw in my dream that Christian was walking up a highway, fenced on either side with a wall called Salvation…Christian ran along it with great difficulty, because of the heavy load on his back. He ran until he came to a small hill, and on the hill stood a cross. At the bottom, just below the cross, there was a sepulcher.
And… just as Christian came up to the cross, the burden fell from his shoulders. It tumbled off his back, rolled down the hill, fell into the …sepulcher, and I saw it no more.
Then Christian was glad and overjoyed. He said with a merry heart, ‘He has given me rest by His sorrow, and life by His death.’ He stood still awhile in wonder, for it surprised him that the sight of the cross should relieve him of his burden.” - Pilgrim’s Progress
If you’re not a Christian, I am so glad you’re here…and I want you to know that the best way you can apply this message to your life is to first take your burden of sin and guilt to Jesus… turn to Him in faith… and He will take that burden away and set you free…
And for those of you who are walking in that freedom… the application for you is to heed the words of the apostle Paul who says in Galatians 5,
For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Galatians 5:13–14)
And so…on that basis…brothers and sisters at Main Street Church….
Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. (Galatians 6:2)
Response
As we move into a time of response and application I’m going to invite our band now to come forward and play instrumentally and here are a few questions to consider as you go before the Lord.
Have I let Christ bear my burden of sin, guilt, and shame?
Am I heeding the call to be burden-bearer in our church?
How can I grow here?
Will I consider joining a GC or Small Group?
Will I take the brave step to share my burdens?
That’s not exhaustive…it’s just few ideas to prime the pump… and I or Pastor Ryan or any of our elders would love to explore this more with you anytime… so don’t hesitate to reach out.
But for now the band will play for a moment to give you a chance to reflect and pray about what you’ve heard… then we’ll begin singing together… and after that next song is done parents will have an opportunity to get their kids… but for now let’s enter into a time of prayerful response….
