Hi, this is Dave Olson. I'm the senior leader of
Heartland Church located in Ankeny, IA.
I hope the following message challenges, encourages and
ultimately changes you. Thanks for joining us.
Go ahead and turn with me to Galatians Chapter 5, verse 25.
We could really go back in this passage.
You could just keep digging back.
There's such a great passage, but I want to, I want to read
Galatians 525 and then get into the first few verses of chapter
6. Believe the Lord has a word for
us this morning. So verse 25, Paul says this.
He said if we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step
with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited,
provoking one another, envying one another.
And then in the original text, there was no break into the next
chapter. He goes right into it and he
says, brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you
who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.
And so there's this theme that Paul begins to touch on.
Now, a couple of weeks ago we were talking about what it means
to be spiritual. You know, we, we use that term
being a spiritual man or a spiritual woman, but we got to
define our terms that that's not just some euphemism for someone
who's flighty or, you know, it's there.
There's a solid biblical theology behind this.
And Paul tells us in this passage, one of the primary
markers and one of the primary responsibilities for those who
are spiritual, what he refers to as spiritual.
So he begins in verse 25 of the previous chapter.
He says if we live by the Spirit, let's keep in step with
the Spirit. So living by the Spirit simply
means that we are drawing our vitality, our life.
The source of our spiritual life is from the Spirit.
And he says, if you do that and if you're a believer, that's
what you got to do. You know, there are people that
say, well, the supernatural is not for today, that that ended
with the apostles, when the Christian life ended with the
apostles because the entire Christian life is supernatural.
The only reason you and I can walk with Jesus is the
supernatural inhabitation of the spirit of the living God.
I knew an old biker that got saved and he had a ministry to
to troubled boys and he he wasn't real deep theologically,
but he was solid. He used to say when I got saved,
Jesus came and sat on my heart and looked out through my
eyeballs. That's good theology.
He lives through US. And so he said, if you live by
the Spirit, if we're drawing our life from him, then keep in step
with him. Let's learn to keep in step with
the Spirit. Let's learn to follow his lead.
When he turns, we turn and that's a learning to be
sensitive to the Spirit. And so then he goes on and he
says he, he says verse 26, let us not become conceited,
provoking one another, envying one another.
So he juxtaposes living by the spirit, keep in step with the
spirit over against what is proof we're not doing that?
He said, let us not become conceited, provoking one
another, envying one another. And so if we're really walking
in the spirit, we don't live for ourselves.
We don't come against one other people.
We live for other people. And then he says in verse six,
one brothers. I looked that word up.
We're going to do a little bit of Greek word studies this
morning. That word literally means to
come from the womb means you guys, you came from the same
Mama. You know, we talked about my
brother from another mother. Well, this is a brother from the
same mother brother and we have as believers, we have the same
mother, the church. Our father is God, but we come
from the mother of the church and that makes us brothers.
We be brethren. So he says brothers, He's
appealing to them. If anyone is caught in any
transgression, listen to how he says that.
If anyone is caught in any transgression, it's pretty wide
open invitation. Then he says this, you who are
spiritual should restore him. And then he tells us how we're
to restore him in a spirit of gentleness.
So what Paul is saying is that one of the primary markers, one
of the primary characteristics of a spiritual man or woman, one
of the primary responsibilities of someone who is spiritual is
the restoration of those who have been caught in a
transgression. Now we talked a couple of weeks
ago how this idea of what spiritual is, you know, we're
trinitarian being made by a trinitarian God made in his
image. We are trinitarian in our
expression. He is Father, Son and Spirit.
We are spirit, soul and body. In first Corinthians chapter 3,
Paul says he rebukes the Corinthians.
He says you are still carnal, you are mere infants.
So infancy in the our walk with God, we are still living the
primary component of our nature, that which leads us is still our
body, our fleshly desires. And then he's then he talks
about those who are soulish and he says the soulish man, the,
the NIV calls it or the King James Version says the natural
man. The NIV says the man without the
spirit, which is a bad translation.
By the way, that's not what Paul saying.
He's saying the man who is led by his soul or the man who is
led by his own understanding, his mind, will and emotions.
He's led by his emotions. He's led by his own
understanding. He's very willful.
That man is a mere adolescent and he can't receive the things
of God. And then he talks about the
spiritual man. So what is he saying?
He's saying the man who the the primary element of his nature
that is leading him, he is a spiritual man.
He's led by his spirit, not by his mind or by his flesh.
And the mark of a spiritual man, one of the primary examples of
that is that we, those who are spiritual, if anyone is caught
in any transgression, then let those who are spiritual run to
them and restore them. We need to be aware, one of the
marks of spirituality is that we're looking for those who need
rescued. We're looking for those who got
caught in a transgression, and we've all been there and we look
and we go and we rescue that. We go and we restore them, and
we do it with a spirit of gentleness.
That is the mark of Christian maturity.
It's not how good you can sing or how good you can preach.
There's a lot of people that have strong gifts, but it's the
fruit of the Spirit that Paul is looking for here.
Gifts are simply received. You can give a little child a
gift or you can give an adult a gift and all they do is receive
it. But fruit is grown.
It has to be matured before it can be enjoyed by those around
the tree. And the fruit of the Spirit, by
the way, is not for your the fruit you produce is not for
you, it's for others. It's for those that live with
you to enjoy and those that are around you.
And so that is the mark of maturity.
I have seen brand new Christians used in spiritual gifts.
I had a buddy in Teen Challenge. Guy got radically saved, but he
was carnal as all get up, but he could operate spiritual gifts.
It was amazing from day one man he would he would be able to
operate in spiritual gifts struggled for many, many years
because he didn't have the character.
He was very broken, had come from a very broken family and
God's still doing the work in him all these years later.
But the the mark of maturity is that the fruit of the Spirit.
And so Paul tells us here, you who are spiritual restore those
who have been caught in a transgression.
There's an interesting passage in Romans chapter 15, verse one.
It says this, You who are strong bear the failings of the weak.
You can put it this way, that the mark or the measure of your
spiritual strength is how much weakness you can put up with in
others. We could just have an altar call
right now. The measure of our spiritual
strength is how much weakness we can put up with in others.
In other words, it's not the man that can climb the mountain.
You know, I got up, I was up the first to the top of the
mountain. It's the guy who can climb the
mountain with a brother on his back.
He's carrying the one who can't carry himself right now.
That's what God's looking for. It's the measure of our
relationship with others. And Paul tells us in this
passage very clearly, you who are spiritual, if you want to be
spiritual, then put lenses of restoration and always keep an
eye out for those who need rescued for to come alongside
those and begin to help restore them.
So what does Paul mean by this? Well, let's look here.
He says, brothers, if anyone is caught that word caught is an
interesting word. It's pro lambano.
It's to take or seize in advance.
Pro. It's a compound where Pro is in
advance. Lambano is to seize.
It's to grab. But it also has a figurative
meaning of to eat before others have a chance.
Isn't that interesting? Yeah, we're all thinking of that
one relative at Thanksgiving. You you hide the good stuff from
because they're going to sneak out and take it early.
Pro Lambano, that's where you from now on.
So next at this Thanksgiving, say hey pro lambano.
They won't know what you're talking about.
The figurative idea is that food is seized beforehand.
In this context, it is the enemy eating the captive before they
have a chance to move into their assignment.
It's like the enemy. It's so it's to eat in advance.
And the idea is that there's, there's the laying of a, of a
strategy for a long time. Roger Helly, some of you heard
Roger when he was here. Roger mentored me in ministry
early on and I, I just love the man.
But he used to tell us and I'll never forget it.
He would say, listen, the enemy will lay plans for years to take
you down in one night. He will work and lay a strategy
all towards that one night. And so we've got to be on our
guard and we've got to rescue those who have been caught.
I love, I love that Paul doesn't say those that dove into sin.
He understands that there is a there is a strategy of the enemy
externally. We have our own woundedness, our
own propensity internally. And then there's the strategy of
the enemy externally. And Paul compassionately says,
listen, those who have been caught in a transcription
restore those with a spirit of gentleness.
And so we need to understand that the enemy is laying traps
and when we see or a brother or a sister be captured, that we
want to go in and we want to restore.
We want to have those lenses on. The gospel is not merely for the
unsaved. The good news of the gospel of
the Kingdom, the goodness of God, the only reason, the
Kingdom, the goodness. OK, there.
Here's the phrase. The good news of the gospel of
the OR the OR the gospel of the Kingdom.
That's what I'm looking for. OK, let's tear this apart.
Etymologically, Gospel is good news, Kingdom is Kingdom.
King's dominion. The good news of the King's
dominion. The only reason that's good news
is because the king who rules is good.
If God is not good, the gospel is not good.
It's really bad because this all seeing eye watching you doesn't
like you if he's not good. But the fact is he is good and
we want to exude his nature in the gospel.
And the gospel is not just until we get saved the gospel, we will
never outgrow our need for the good news.
And we want to be those who carry the good news both for
those who have not met Christ and those who already know him.
Paul, Jesus said, with the measure you use, it will be
measured to you. Press down, shaken together and
running over. Let's talk about put it in
there, press it down, shake it, press some more until it's
running over. In other words, the attitude
with which you deal with others will be the attitude with which
you are dealt with, but only increased because you will reap
what you sow. You put in one seed and you get
out a whole cob of corn. And so we want to be sure that
what we're sowing is what we would want to reap.
And so we have that attitude of restoration.
Now listen what he says here. He he goes on, he says,
brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are
spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.
And then he adds this, keep watch on yourself lest you to be
tempted. In other words, realize your own
propensity that you need to be guarded because but for the
grace of God, there go us. And when we lose sight of that,
we become vulnerable and we end up being the one that needs
restored. And so there's this humility
that is worked within our spirit when we realize the frailty of
our flesh that we have compassion to be the one who
restores others. That's what God is looking for.
Verse 2 bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law
of Christ. Bear one another's burdens.
It's telling the first service I'll I'll never forget this.
It was many years ago now, but when when my wife and I lost our
son, he was four years old and for the first year.
I was working at Teen Challenge at the time.
And that first year it was really just living in a fog.
I didn't realize how much I was living in a fog, but about the
year anniversary, I sat down in staff meeting and I was waiting
for the other staff to get there.
And as they were coming in, the Lord spoke to me very clearly
and it shocked me. He said, Dave, it's time to pick
up your burden. And it wasn't a rebuke, it was
just information. David's time.
I felt the affirmation of the Lord, but I was not aware until
that very moment that everybody in that room had been carrying
me, that I was not pulling my weight because I was not
capable. And that's what the body of
Christ is about, that when we can't carry ourself, others
around us carry us. And every one of us go through
times where we need others to lift the load for us.
And that's part of being a believer.
That's part of the, the, the, the, the beauty.
Because Christianity is a team sport.
It's not a solo flight. Good luck with that one.
We all need at times people to carry our burdens and then other
times we carry other people's burdens.
And again, the measure of your spiritual strength, the measure
of your spirituality is the ability to carry the burden of
someone else and not complain. And I, I just remember feeling
so grateful because I, I suddenly became aware, man,
these guys have been carrying me.
They knew I wasn't pulling my weight in this organization.
And no one said a word. They just did it.
And I knew the Lord said it's time.
And I stepped back in. I'm so grateful that I had a
body of people around me that were willing to do that.
And that's what Heartland needs to be.
We need to be those people who will step in and carry the load
when others can't. We carry one another's burden
until we're healed up and we can move on.
Now here Paul says, he says restore him.
This, this word. Restore is such a beautiful
word. I was.
I was really blessed as I began to look into it.
The Greek word is cartartizo. Cartartizo.
It's to correct. It's conceived of as restoring.
Someone listen to this by furnishing a part which is
missing or putting together what is torn or broken.
That's that's the idea of restoration.
Oh, there's something missing in their life.
So what he's saying is a brother or a sister got caught in a
transgression. And So what we come, we come
with a with gentleness and humility, we say they need
restored. What does that mean?
We're going to provide what was missing because something was
missing that ended them up in the place they're in or
something was broken that needs to be restored.
And we come and we're going to furnish what was missing.
And we're going to fix that's what was broken.
We're going to mend what was torn.
But there's more. It's like a Ginsu knife.
There's more. Some of you are like, what is
that? You're too young.
You won't know. OK.
How many of you understood what I said?
Look at that. Look at that.
OK. I feel affirmed.
It is also translated with this phrase in two different verses.
Fully qualified in second Timothy 317 in regards to the
man of God being complete, fully qualified for every good work
and is translated as with the same phrase in 2nd Corinthians
319. It is translated fully trained
and Luke 640 and so we have this to to provide that which is
missing, to bind up that which has been broken or torn, but
also to fully qualify them, fully train them so they can
fulfill their destiny. So the idea of restoration is
what is broken, replaced is the restoration of what is broken,
replace what is missing, or to complete training for
qualification. All of this is included in this
word. So the idea is that when someone
falls, when they have, when they hit a situation where they find
themselves needing rescued, we don't condemn.
We rush around them and we begin to help them.
We provide what is needed. We fix what is broken, and we
also give the training because they're not disqualified.
We give them the training so they can still fulfill the call
on their life, but what we do is we take responsibility.
We step in and carry their burden until they can on their
own. It's a beautiful word.
I don't know about you, but I could have church in that word
right there. I just kind of lay down and
meditate on that one. That is beautiful and that is
the gospel. That's what Jesus did with us.
Freely you have received, freely give.
It's beautiful, I remember. Years ago, I'd pastored this
church for probably a year and my brother, the one I always
refer to as my bald headed brother Christopher, was working
at Teen Challenge down in Chattanooga and he calls me on a
Sunday afternoon. He's weeping.
On the other end of the phone he said, Dave, God just told me
that Heartland will be a healing place for pastors.
When he said it, it hit me. I knew it was the Lord.
Go forward a few years and life Hetland shared a word with me
the first time Leif Hetland was ever here, Leif said.
He said the Lord had told him that there are 12 eagle's nests
in the United States. And there's some things the Lord
has talked to him about in regards to, he said.
But he said I knew where a few of them were, but I didn't know
where all of them were, he said. But when I landed in Des Moines,
I knew that this church was one of the eagle's nests.
But there was something unique about this one, he said.
It was an eagle's nest for eagles with broken wings that
God would use this place to restore people.
It was just a more beautiful way of saying what Christopher said.
A year later, Paul, or two years later, Paul Udall came, first
time he's ever here. He was preaching on a Saturday
night and then he called me up here and he prayed over me.
And he was then he was going to have us pray over the elders and
the elders are going to pray over the people.
It was a powerful service. But while he's praying over me,
he says heartland is an eagle's nest for eagles with broken
wings. And I thought, oh, that's nice.
Life told him. So the next morning we're
driving to church and I said, so life told you about that word he
said, what word? I said that one about the
eagle's nest with eagles, you know, for eagles with broken
wings. He said, no.
He said, the Lord, I saw it when I laid hands on you.
I saw that in the Spirit and I, you know, but drove off the road
that Hallelujah. What I didn't know is that some
20 years earlier there was a pastor who was pastoring this
church when they were meeting over where Carl Chevrolet meets
that got up 1 morning on a Sunday morning and said the Lord
has told me that this church will be a healing place for
pastors. Isn't that amazing?
I've got a picture on my office wall, beautiful watercolor
water, you know, watercolor painting.
And it's of these huge pine trees in Alaska with some
mountain range behind it and this eagle soaring over the pine
trees. It was given to me as a gift by
a minister. Before he moved back to Alaska,
he had been an overseer of a Pentecostal denomination up in
Africa. His whole family lived up there,
and they went through some really, really hard times.
And he began to secretly drink and became an alcoholic, ended
up leaving ministry and was just in a depressed, backslidden
state, just had lost his way. And we were in the middle of a
move of God. This, I think this was about
2007, might have been in 2008. His son heard about Heartland
and said, dad, we need to go check this out.
And they came on a Saturday night and his dad got touched.
I mean, he got hit and God began to do a work in him 11 morning
on a Sunday morning during that move of God.
He was sitting outside the nursery, which was right out
here are the women's bathroom used to be our nursery and the
men's bathroom was both Anyway, yeah, he was sitting outside the
the women's bathroom or sitting outside the nursery and someone
came and gave their little baby to the nursery worker and a baby
was crying. They're saying we're trying to
wean it from the bottle. But the baby was really crying.
The next day. He is in his truck at work.
He's in a parking lot. And he said the Spirit of God
filled his cab. And he said he just began to
weep. And he said all of a sudden he
felt this, this tight embrace around him, a squeeze.
And he remembered when he was a little boy, his grandfather
would hold him when he was he had drank, it sounded like he
drank a bottle till he was a little older and his grandfather
would just hold him because they were trying to break him of the
Bible, wean him from the bottle, not Bible.
And so he said, and he was sitting in his truck and he felt
this embrace. He said, Lord, what is this?
And the Lord said, I'm embracing you, I'm weaning you from the
bottle. He was an alcoholic.
God completely delivered him. Now he's back in Alaska serving
Jesus up there. And before he left, he gave me
this picture of this eagle soaring over the pine trees in
Alaska. And on the bottom is a little
title. It's called the mended wing.
That little that pictures very valuable to me.
God has called us to be a House of healing and restoration.
But what it will require is spiritual men and women that can
bear the failings of the weak people that can come and be
mended back into wholeness. And he says do so with a spirit
of gentleness that we have this humility that we see, we
recognize our own frailty and we have mercy towards those who
have fallen and we're willing to step in and restore them with a
spirit of gentleness. Now listen to what Paul says
here. For if anyone thinks he is
something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
That's a pretty bold statement following what we just read.
That's a correction to the rest of us.
Number of years ago, there was a church we were providing
oversight for and one of the young men leaders in the church
in fallen into some sin and he had confessed it and they were
trying to restore him and someone in the church made some
comments about it. Didn't like it, felt like he was
getting his comeuppance. And the pastor called me and I
told him I said listen, once a man or a woman has confessed
their sin, they're no longer on trial.
Now the rest of us are now we're on trial and God is looking and
monitoring. Will we pass the test in those
moments, we all have an opportunity to step into that
space and be spiritual and minister the gospel, the good
news, the restoration to provide that which is missing, to mend
that which is torn and provide the training so they can get
where they need to be. So Paul, he's says if anyone
thinks he's something when he has nothing, he deceives
himself. But let each one test his own
work and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone
and not in his neighbor. What does he mean by that?
It's a weird phrase. What he's saying is that your
assessment of yourself needs to be based on yourself and not in
comparison with a brother who is struggling.
We don't compare ourselves with someone's weakest moment.
That's what he started. He said, man, that you're going
to deceive yourself. We need to, we need to assess
ourself and our walk with God and where we're at and our level
of maturity alone. We don't compare ourselves with
our our strong moment with their weak moment or vice versa.
Paul said if you compare yourself with yourself, you show
you're not wise. We need to assess ourself by the
word of God and allow the Lord to grow us up.
But he said we've got to be careful not comparing ourself
and the context is with someone who is struggling for then he
says verse 5 for each one will have to bear his own load.
Few verses earlier he said carry bear one another's burdens.
Now he says each one's going to have to carry their own load.
You see, that's the end zone. That's, that's the, that's the
goal here, that the one who stumbles and needs rescued, that
the body of Christ goes around them and they pick them up.
They, they, they carry them for a season until they can walk on
their own. And then they carry their own
load. And you know what?
Then they're going to have an opportunity to carry someone
else's load. And in fact, God is so amazing
that he will take our failures and fold them in.
And you've heard it said he'll take your mess and make it your
message. The the things you've gone
through. He will then utilize to bring
his message to the world that your credentials are actually
the restoration of your failure. Your your qualification for
ministry is that you've been delivered from something If you
had it all together. You're not the person that I'm
going to come to when I'm down and I'm struggling.
I want to know someone that's been there and got out.
I need some encouragement. And so it's a beautiful thing.
There's there's this beautiful verse in Ephesians chapter 1.
I need a Kleenex, this beautiful verse in Ephesians chapter 1.
And it says that God conforms all things to the purpose of his
will. It doesn't say he performs.
He doesn't perform it, He conforms it.
God is doing things. And there's times where we are
in step with the Spirit, and then there's times when we're
not. And we've all been there.
We've all succumbed to the trap of the enemy.
And all of a sudden we were the meal and we got robbed of our
destiny momentarily. And hopefully there was
believers around you that could come and support you and carry
you until you could walk on your own.
But the brilliant thing about God is that that detour is not
our destiny. It's not a permanent address.
Because what God does is he takes that and he conforms it
into his will. I've had this theological
conversation with the Lord. I still don't know yet, but you
know, I worked for Teen Challenge for 14 years.
I worked with drug addicts and Alcoholics and the reason my
qualification that my my great pedigree for that was I'd been
an alcoholic. I was homeless.
So I was 1 beggar telling the other beggar where to find the
bread. This is my only qualification.
And I've often thought, Lord, was it your will from the
foundations of the earth when you were forming me in my
mother's womb. David will work for Teen
Challenge for 14 years. I kind of doubt it.
I think the reason is because I was, I'm going to coin a word
this morning, my knuckleheadedness got me off in
the ditch. So God said, you know what,
we're going to use this. Let's just conform this into our
under my will. And I'm going to use him.
I'm going to deliver him, and then I'm going to help him give
away what I taught him and his deliverance.
And he folded it in his will. And God does that again and
again and again and again. That's the gospel and it's a
beautiful thing. And every one of us, we need to
have this spirit of restoration. And the spiritual ones in the
room are always scanning the crowd, looking for who needs the
encouragement, who has been caught this week, who needs
something mended, who needs something furnished that they're
missing today. Because we know what we're taken
care of. We're mature enough now, we're
spiritual. We can for the most part, take
care of our own needs until a crisis hits.
But let's, let's look for those who can't right now because
they're in a crisis. And that's what the body of
Christ is to be. So you who are spiritual,
restore such a one gently. Thanks for listening to our
podcast. If you'd like to help more
people hear this message, you can get the word out by
subscribing and sharing it on social media.
If you'd like to support the ministries of Heartland Church,
you can do so at Heartland Church online.com/give.