January 15, 2023 Sermon - Boundaries: Burdens and Loads
Freedom in Christ. I don't know how you respond to just those three words, but those words bring me joy.
They bring me joy because they remind me of my experience of coming to faith, leaving behind a way of living and thinking about life that felt meaningless and pointless.
This little phrase reminds me of the promises I received and sermons I heard and scripture passages and books that talked about freedom in Christ as the future for any and all new believers who would embrace Jesus with their whole selves.
I heard about it, began to believe it could be true, and then began to walk in that truth, in freedom in Christ, all the while still very much struggling with trauma from my childhood and struggling on a daily basis with sin.
So I love these three words. Freedom in Christ. This scripture in particular puts a very fine point to the idea on freedom in Christ: “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free”. Galatians 5:1
It's odd, beautiful, and circular. God really wants us to be free - free of all that would weigh us down; free from all that would rob us of hope;
free from everything the world has to offer that would lie to us, that would tempt us, that would keep us from committing our lives to follow Jesus.
Now we know that there is a lot of suffering and hardship in life, which is just part of existing.
And on top of that, there are burdens and loads we can carry that can weigh us down. What burdens am I talking about?
Paul wants the truth of the gospel to affect the way Christians live. Part of that truth is what the Bible says about sin.
We’re not always fully aware when we are struggling with sin. It takes growing self-awareness and pretty consistent reflection to grow in our understanding of the impact of sin in our lives.
One definition of Self-awareness is this: "Self-awareness is the ability to focus on yourself and how your actions, thoughts, or emotions do or don't align with your internal standards”
Reflecting on our actions and attitudes, particularly when we feel the things have gone not so well in a conversation, or an interaction with another person - that kind of reflection, when done pretty regularly, can lead to us speaking and behaving more and more, the way we want to be speaking of behaving.
But generally, like I said, we’re not really aware when we become stuck in sin, or we might say, as apostle Paul, did, while referring to himself, when we are slaves to sin, or behaving as if we were slaves to sin.
But, as we already said, God wants us free. God wants us to live in what the scripture calls “the glorious liberty of the children of God” KJV Romans 8:21
And that liberty or freedom is for us, yes, but more importantly that freedom is intended to enable us to live fruitful lives. Jesus says in John 15:16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.
That’s awesome. When we pray and ask God for things, things that align with His will and purposes, He will give us those things in order to bring glory to His name, things that will enable us to bear fruit for His Kingdom.
That’s amazing. That’s what God wants for us.
The Burden of Sin.
But as the apostle Paul, in Romans 7, says:
14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
So we have this sinful nature, this thing every human has in common with every other human, this burden that can put up a barrier, a wall between the life we are leading and the life that God wants us to lead.
That’s a limitation that God wants us to be free from.
Paul continues:
21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?
So it’s clear Paul brings this argument to the point of desperation. This conflict that confines him and limits him and makes him a prisoner of the law of sin requires a deliverer, someone who will rescue him and us from this great dilemma that he and often we feel so deeply.
And Paul’s solution is our solution:
25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Jesus is our chain breaker. As we sing so often He is our Way Maker.
The negative boundary line between us and God, that separates us from Him, is overcome in Jesus. Jesus Who willingly laid down His life on the cross for our freedom, for our redemption, purchased by His blood on the cross.
Do you trust in Jesus today? He is your healer and deliverer. He is your way. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
Now there’s another kind of burden, another kind of load that we can experience, and sometimes we can experience it in the church.
The Burden of Human Rules and Expectations
That is the burden of rules and regulations and expectations, almost always unspoken.
The basic error behind these rules is the notion that we have to “look the part”.
We have to appear to be, on the outside, what we want to be on the inside.
And I guess the hope is that our internal life will catch up with the image we project.
This can be very subtle. It can be expectations about the clothes we wear to church. “Make sure you dress to the nines and look your best when you go to church”. “Make sure you present an image of having all your stuff together”.
And I get it. When I started going to church at the age of 17, I quickly noticed that most of the people around me at church dressed up.
So I bought the best suit I could afford when I was a broke student and wore that same suit every Sunday for years.
One of the things that the clothing standard said to me was that church was a formal gathering, it was an official enterprise, not any different really a business meeting, at least in the way we would all present ourselves.
So dressing up is often an expectation of going to church.
But you’ll notice that in this church, we don’t give any attention to that. It’s not that we’re better in any way.
It’s that we want all of us to put our energies toward loving God and following Jesus and becoming like Jesus in our attitudes, behaviours and character, which is what the Bible constantly points us to.
The way we dress is just one small area though. More significant is the pressure we can feel to NOT be our genuine selves when we gather as the people of God.
I love our weekly Bible studies - we have 3 of them now.
In our online studies, and particularly in our Men’s study, folks are really quite open and honest about their struggles with addiction, their past behaviours that they are trying to move on from or have moved on from.
People there are open about their feelings of loneliness, their joy but also their confusion about the Bible; as well as their joys and triumphs and growing understanding of God and themselves.
It’s really beautiful to be a part of, and there’s this real sense of people growing together, learning to trust each other, encouraging one another to follow Jesus, to embrace His forgiveness when we mess up.
So there’s the burden of sin that has the potential to put a wall up between ourselves and God.
There’s the burden of social expectations within the body of Christ that can limit us and cause us to focus our energies on external matters instead of matters of the heart.
And then there’s the burden of Jesus +, of layering things on top of faith in Jesus. We know that in Jesus there is fullness of life, we know that in trusting Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross for us we are saved, we are set free.
But it’s also been a thing within the church to sometimes add stuff to simply having faith in Jesus.
Jesus+ is always a problem.
Jesus+ good works, with good works as something needed to give us right standing with God. That is a burden and a problem we can foist on each other. Good works are the outflow of a life that first trusts in God, not a requirement for being saved.
Jesus+ is always a problem.
Jesus+ speaking in tongues. I was discipled early on in a moderate Pentecostal environment that taught, gently but with conviction, that all true believers speak in tongues, and that speaking tongues is the thing that authenticates a person’s salvation.
In reality tongues are a spiritual gift given to some people by the Gift GIver, God, and Scripture itself limits the use of tongues and encourages the pursuit of gifts that build up others in the body of Christ.
So no, we dare not add anything to faith in Christ. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
Jesus+ is always a problem.
Jesus+ the correct theology of how we are saved...are we ‘regenerated’ first by God, does the Holy Spirit move in us to bring us to the point of trusting in Jesus, does God save only His elect, intending most of humanity to not be saved?
Jesus+ is always a problem.
And in our passage today, Galatians 5:5-12 Paul was dealing with a particularly serious problem in the early church, where certain leaders were trying to infiltrate the gospel with a works requirement.
They were adding a condition to the freedom that Christ had won for us.
In a nutshell, they were teaching that people had to be circumcised in order to be in right standing with God.
So people that had been saved through faith in Christ were being told that faith wasn’t enough. On top of faith, they had to follow the law as it related to circumcision.
Paul drives home the objection by stating that if you were going to insist on people conforming to one aspect of the law, as certain ones were doing in the church, that they were obligated to obey the whole law.
Paul argues that if the Galatian Christians submit to this line of thinking, they will be making themselves liable to obey every other detail of the law as well.
The implication there being that, if you’re going to be legalistic, you better go all the way and not be selective.
Let’s look at the remainder of this chapter. Through Paul God gives us some excellent direction as to how to enjoy the freedom we have.
13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
There are two sides to Christian freedom. We have been set free from slavery to the law, but we are called to serve God and one another.
Christian freedom is not a call to irresponsibility or to self indulgence, but to a new set of responsibilities.
So, although we have been set free from whatever enslaved us before, (whether the law, or paganism, or any other “ism“), we are not free to sin and live as we please.
If we do, our freedom is not approved by God.
The difference is that we no longer do what God wants simply because the law says we must; the positive change in our conduct arises from the Spirit of God with us who now governs our actions.
With our freedom, with the breaking of the things that formerly bound us, we are called to serve each other in humility. Paul emphasises the keeping of a single command: love your neighbour as yourself. This is the golden rule expressed very concisely.
Matthew 7:12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
So this “law of love“ is not dredged up as an act of will, in obedience to the law. Rather, it flows from within, as it is only God‘s grace that it enables us to love our neighbor, as ourselves or, even more, to love our enemy.
Paul continues:
16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever[c] you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Here Paul encourages us to walk by the Spirit, to live with the holy guidance of the Holy Spirit who indwells us and leads us.
To walk by the Spirit means to cultivate a listening ear to God’s direction in our lives, which will always, always without exception be aligned with the teachings of the Bible.
The focus here is to not be consumed with rule-following, but rather to be filled with Spirit of God who leads us into all truth.
Paul then makes it explicitly clear what he means by us living in a way that does not gratify the desires of the flesh:
19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
All of these things grieve the heart of God, and they operate outside of the boundaries that God has called his people to live within.
They are the opposite of following Christ and all of these things, when practiced by force of habit and when not repented of, create for us a dire spiritual problem.
And any and all of these behaviours should, for the Christ follower, create a great deal of discomfort and should leave us very ill at ease, because they very much work against the love of God, and they belong far from the lives of practising Christians.
And then Paul wraps up this section by talking about what spiritual fruit looks like in our lives:
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control.
Far from the burden of sin, far from the burden of social expectations, far from layering things on top of simple trust in Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins, We have this statement that tells us what freedom in Christ looks like and feels like.
These are the attitudes, behaviours and character qualities that God wants us to grow in, that are in fact the outcome, the produce as it were, of the Spirit of God dwelling in us through faith in Jesus.
May we learn to live free. Even as we struggle with the world, the flesh and the devil, may we catch a vision of freedom in Christ - of life that is not tangled up in things that rob us of peace while promising us the world.
May we cleave to Jesus, may we refresh our commitment to following Jesus even at this early point in 2023.
And may Jesus find us present, ready and willing as God accomplishes in each of us all that He intends this year. Amen. Pastor Arleen will lead us in communion.
