Bearing One Another's Burdens

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. Lord God, this day, we here at Thrive, we want to be known for your love, your truth, your grace, your joy, your peace. As we discussed last week, the fruit of the Spirit, Lord, and how you are producing that in our lives, we want to see that come out in all our interactions, especially, Lord God, as we serve one another, and as we are there to bear with one another, Lord. So bless us, Lord, as we study this word from Galatians. We pray for your Spirit to really touch our hearts, to teach us, Lord. Be the teacher this morning, not me. You be the one that's teaching us individually and corporately what we are to be together. And Lord God, we pray for just Southwest Florida in general, as school begins in Lee County, and as FGCU students are coming back, and as a lot of changes are taking place this fall, and people getting back away from the vacation mode into more of the regular mode of, you know, for nine months, Lord, what we look forward to. We pray, Lord, that you would also instill a change in us, Lord, that we are drawing closer to you. We pray, Lord, for your churches across this area that they see, Lord, many ways to minister to the children and the families, and that we too do so, Lord. Bless every church, Lord, because there's only one church, Lord, really, your church, in many different expressions, that preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we just thank you, Lord, that we have partners in the ministry across this whole area to do so. And, Lord, beyond Southwest Florida, we're looking at your kingdom and your will to be done across this world that is so broken and so confused. And so we just ask, Lord, that your healing, your kingdom, your ministry of truth and grace would break forth in you, that this would grow, Lord. It would grow in amazing ways this day and through us, Lord, here as well. So bless our time together in the word today. In your precious name, dear Jesus, we pray. Amen. So, yes, week nine, we're almost done with the book of Galatians. We're not even looking at a large section of it today. Unlike other times, we've got a longer section of the book. I just couldn't get beyond just these few verses because there's just, like, way too much in it. And as I think I've said, maybe, if I can remember what I've even taught on before here, we could have probably spent an entire year in this book to just take it verse by verse at a time and expound it. But I think that's just maybe a little overkill. So I'm sure there are many other things that could be shared and taught and learned from this passage. That's what I love about the scriptures, though. Every time I come back to them, God's word inspires and teaches, and there's so much more going on than I could ever even share. So you can keep learning and growing from this. We're going to just look at Galatians chapter 6, verses 1 through 5. And you can follow along with this on the Bible app. It's called the You Version of the Bible, and there's notes for this sermon there. Or open up your Bibles to Galatians 6 or whatever you've got, and we're going to read this. Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something when he is 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, for each one will have to bear his own load. I was thinking about this passage, and this is kind of a rhetorical question, but I think it's true for so many of us. Have you ever had a friend or a neighbor or maybe a family member or a co-worker that you've seen kind of stuck, that is trapped in some pretty destructive, self-centered habits or issues, and they seem to be stuck in this, and they can't seem to get out of it? Well, they don't really even want to, and you see it. What did you do? How did you handle it? Did you just kind of like say, oh, I'm going to be praying for them, but that's it, you know? Or did you try to drop a few hints, you know, like, do you know what I mean? Not come directly about it, but you kind of go, I'm kind of concerned, and how are you doing? You know, or something like that. Or did you talk to someone else and hope they would take care of it? Or did you maybe say, hey, I need to talk to them about this, and boom, write an email and send it off? Or text? I don't know. Or did you actually sit down after some prayerful consideration and talk with them, and how did that go? This is tough. This is tough. Nothing, I think, can be more difficult in life than dealing with conflict in interpersonal relationships, and especially when someone is in kind of that stuck, caught, destructive or dysfunctio...