Father, we thank You for the truth of that song. It comforts our hearts and our minds when times are difficult.

But You’ve called us to Yourself and You will not cast us out. So Lord, we come today worshiping the name that is above every name, the name that stands alone. There is no other. The name of Jesus. And Lord, I pray that You would be honored by the praise of our lips and the songs that we live to You. And Lord, I pray that You would also be honored by the Word as we proclaim it to ourselves today. I pray that Your Spirit would speak to us, help us to put aside any distractions. Father, it’s been an unusual week this past week and there’s probably many things on our mind today. Father, just pray right now that You would allow us to focus on Your Word, that You would speak to us, that Your Word would be applied to each of us. To each and every heart where it needs to be applied. I pray those things in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Well, it’s good to see everyone able to venture out today. We will continue our survey of Galatians that we’ve been focusing on in the month of January. We’ll be in chapter 6 this week and next week, Lord willing. Today we’ll focus on verses 1 through 5 and next week’s 6 through 10. Paul has said many things in the first five chapters. So he gets to the end and he’s kind of tying some things together. Elder Chase has preached to us about some of those things in his survey that he’s done of the book of Galatians so far. He’s talked about the gospel of grace, which is the pure gospel. The gospel of grace alone through faith alone and Christ alone to the glory of God alone. That’s the gospel we must believe ourselves. And that’s the gospel we must proclaim to everyone. He’s also preached about love in war. Love yourself. Love yourself less and your neighbor more. He talked about the fact that believers are free in Christ and what this freedom should mean in our lives. How we should be warring against our flesh. And I think both of these sermons serve as a good foundation for our passage today. We won’t have the words overhead, so if you want to turn on your device or there should be a Bible in front of you, please do that. Galatians chapter 6, starting in verse 1. 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 will have to bear his own load. I read a story about two brothers who were walking one day, younger brother, older brother. The younger brother got really tired, so he asked his older brother to pick him up and carry him. And so his older brother scoops him up in his arms to take him home. And as they walked by, a neighbor laughed and said, wow, he must be heavy. To which the older boy replied, he’s not heavy, he’s my brother. And that’s a cute story, but the reality is the younger boy weighed exactly the same, no matter if he was his brother or not.

But yet, because he has family, the load seemed lighter. Think about everything your parents gave up for you when you were born. Think of all the money spent on food and clothing and your other needs, the extra hours working to make ends meet, the sleepless nights to take care of you when you were sick, the sacrifices to take you to all those practices for the things you wanted to do, and then to actually attend those sporting events, recitals, concerts, and school plays. Then all the sleepless nights when you became a teenager. Some of us have experienced that. Some of you haven’t yet. Driving? Yikes. I’ll just tell you. When your kid’s out on their own, that’s a scary time as a parent. So all the worry and concern that goes along with you becoming an adult yourself, that’s what parents bear. And think of all the other countless sacrifices that they’ve made for you that are just part of raising a child. So if you think about it, you sounded like a burden for your parents, didn’t you? And me as well. But if you ask your parents, they would probably say you’re not a burden at all. You were not a burden at all. It is a burden to raise a child, but because of their great love for you, your parents didn’t see it that way.

Many of you here today are parents that would say that about raising your kids as well. It’s a labor of love because the family is an important part of God’s design. The same is true in the spiritual sense. Those who are born again, who are in Christ, are part of a big family. We call each other brothers and sisters in the church, but do we really treat each other like family? In our passage today, Paul has some things to say about bearing burdens, both for ourself and our spiritual family.

And let’s see the first thing that he says is to restore the broken. Verse one. Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watching. Keep watching on yourself lest you too be tempted. Paul says the person he has in mind here could be anyone. It could be a young believer. It could be a more mature believer. He doesn’t really say. But we understand it’s not just young believers who find themselves caught up in a sin where all can be caught up in a sin. And the word caught here means to be surprised or to be overtaken. Think of it like an animal who has wandered into a trap and he’s surprised at his predicament. He certainly wasn’t expecting. And I’m walking along, boom, I’m caught. So the person Paul has in mind here has unexpectedly found themselves ensnared in a sin. And Paul says this can be any transgression. We consider sometimes sins big or small. Paul doesn’t qualify. So we can safely say this teaching applies to any sin.

So when we recognize a brother or sister who’s caught up in a sin as Paul describes here, how might we respond? One way is simply ignoring it. Ignore it. It’s easier to do nothing, to say nothing, than to talk to the person about their sin. We might think, I don’t want to get involved. Or someone else is going to address that with them.

Another possible response is gossip. We don’t go talk to the person about it. We go to other people and talk about it. Can you believe what they’re doing? How can they not see that as wrong? Doing that only serves to tear down that fellow believer. And I would call both of these unloving responses. And sadly, we have to admit, these are probably common responses too often in churches today. What is the process Paul describes here for restoring a sinning brother or sister? First, he says it is for someone who is spiritual. You who are spiritual should restore him. So we have to ask, who are the spiritual? Certainly, Paul would have in mind, I think, what he told us in chapter 5. Those who walk in the Spirit. Those who are led by the Spirit. Who exhibit the fruits of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Most of us can probably quote those. We’ve heard that verse so many times. I think he also might have in mind someone who has some level of maturity. Let’s consider Hebrews 5.14. But solid food is for the mature. For those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice, distinguish good from evil. How do we get good at anything in life? If you want to be good at a sport or good at playing the piano or some instrument, how do you get good at anything in life? It’s by constant practice. The amount of time we put into practicing something determines how good we become at it. And we don’t usually enjoy the practicing, but we like the results it produces. Likewise, every believer is not automatically becoming more spiritual. Becoming spiritually mature is a process. It’s a lifelong process. It’s the process we call sanctification as the Spirit of God works in us. We should understand that spiritual maturity is the goal of every believer. Every believer is to be becoming more mature, to be more conformed to the image of Christ. But practice is required. You have to practice those spiritual disciplines. Paul says the one doing the restoration here in, uh, verse one should be someone who is spiritual, who is practicing the spiritual disciplines. Those that help us become more Christ-like, studying the Word, obeying His teaching, praying, being in community with other believers. You hear us say those things many times from this pulpit. These are the things that shape us more fully into the image of Christ. And we would also, we would say those who are by faith warring against their flesh. Thinking back to Elder Chase’s sermon last week about our freedom in Christ allows us to war against our flesh.

This type of person would not ignore their brother’s sin or gossip about it with others. They would seek to restore. And that word for restore here means to correct, as in restoring someone by putting together what is torn or broken. Think of it like resetting a broken bone. I broke this bone, or this, torn badly when I was a kid. You fall 8, 10 feet out of a tree, things happen. And it was broken so badly that I actually had a dip, like the bone was pointing down. And so some of you are going, ooh, and some of you are going, wow, cool. But it was obviously broken. It was broken so bad, I grew up in Boaz, the ER doctor wouldn’t touch it. He thought for sure I’m going to have to have surgery on it. So they sent us to Huntsville.

And the ER doctor in Huntsville who probably had more experience was able to reset that bone without surgery, thank God.

He reset that bone so it returned to its proper place, it was straight again, and restored proper function. I could use my hand again like it was meant to be used. Likewise, the spiritual person desires to help the fellow believer restore all that is broken in their life. Their desire is to bring biblical correction and bring that person back in alignment with the teaching of scripture. Just like that broken bone, that broken bone.

Paul goes on next to make an important point about the proper attitude for this restoration process. You who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. So we must not be harsh. We must not have a self-righteous attitude. Paul says the right attitude is gentleness. It’s humility. It’s genuine concern. To do so is to have the attitude of our Lord. He said about himself that he is gentle and lowly in Matthew 11, 29. Restoration necessarily involves confrontation. You’ve got to go talk to that person. That’s uncomfortable to bring it up. And perhaps stern words of rebuke are needed for that sin.

But the confrontation and the rebuke must always be done with gentleness. Gentleness must override that whole process. And then Paul goes on next to give us a warning. Keep watch on yourself lest you too be tempted. Even the spiritual must keep watch over themselves because they are not immune to temptation, to falling into a sin. So while we seek to help our fellow believer, we must also be watchful over our own life. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10, 12, Therefore let anyone that thinks he stands take heed lest… Therefore let anyone who thinks he stands take heed lest… lest he fall. There’s a warning.

Do not be foolish enough to think you cannot be tempted in an area of your life. To do that is really to exhibit a measure of pride, to act as if you were above falling for that temptation. I don’t need to worry about that. I got that. You know, that’s not a problem. I’m not even going to worry about that one. That is not an humble attitude. And that’s what we must have. We must be humble and we need to be watchful over all areas of our life.

As you think about this verse, you can certainly see there’s opportunities for this verse to be misused. Paul is not advocating going around all the time looking for sin in others and seeking an opportunity to confront them about it. He’s instead encouraging us to see each other like a family, to regard each other as important and to lovingly seek to help fellow believers in their spiritual walk as we try to strive, to become more spiritually mature ourselves.

Practicing restoration in this way can be messy. If we use the wrong approach or we go about it with the wrong attitude, we must have discernment. I believe that’s why Paul says it’s for the spiritual. You need to have some measure of discernment in that. And also let me add that if you’re the brother, I’m the brother or sister who’s in need of the restoration, the one who is caught up in a sin, we need to have a teachable spirit. None of us are above the need for correction. So the correction needs to be given in the right spirit and it needs to be received in the right spirit.

And next, let’s see what Paul says in verse 2 about the call to relieve the burden. Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. Paul continues this thought in verse 1 by generalizing his teaching in verse 2. Restoring a believer who has sinned, is an example of how we should respond to a struggling brother. The broader teaching in verse 2 is that we are obligated to bear each other’s burdens in the family of Christ. It’s stated as a command. Bear one another’s burdens. That word bear means to carry or to pick up. Like the example I used earlier of the older boy scooping up his younger brother to carry him. But the sense of the word that Paul uses here is to keep on bearing. So you scoop him up for potentially a long distance or a long period of time. Carrying him from the end of the driveway is different than carrying him from say the end of the street because the distance and the time commitment is longer. Our attitude should be, brother, I’m bearing with you in this for the long haul, whatever it takes. And I think we can all be guilty of not following through on that second part. I can pray for you consistently in something for a while or seek to help you lighten your load for something you’re going through for a while. But the longer that burden continues for you, the more likely I am to forget. Forget to pray. Forget to look for ways to help you out. I get distracted with other things in my own life and I forget the needs of my brother. So Paul is encouraging us not to do that. No, don’t do that. Bear for as long as it takes.

And also, although we can say this teaching would apply to any burden, the type of burden Paul has here is a specific burden. A specific kind of burden. What he seems to have in view here are oppressively difficult burdens that linger for a while. Those burdens that are hard, wearisome, stressful, crushing. Those that can cause great physical, mental, or emotional strain. Even spiritual strain because in the midst of the affliction you may want to doubt the sweet promises of God’s Word. It’s often during the moments that you’re in a tough spot that you want to say, hey, is that really true, Lord? Is that verse really true? Does that really apply to me?

All Christians have very difficult burdens at some point in their life. The burdens vary in size and shape because circumstances are different and so we don’t all face the exact same ones even if they seem very similar.

We need to notice also there’s no mention here in this verse of judging how this burden might have come about. The person under the burden may be at fault. They may not be at fault. Regardless of how the burden came about, the command is to help the brother through it for as long as necessary. That’s the overriding teaching here. Help the brother out for as long as necessary. Scripture promises difficulties in life. Some false teaching you might hear today would tell you that you should never have any burdens. In fact, if you have any difficulty at all, you’re the problem. You don’t believe the right things or you don’t have enough faith.

But that’s not the teaching of Scripture. We are all promised difficulties as believers in this life. But we can take comfort in the fact that Scripture also promises God has a purpose for everything we’re going through. We may not understand it, but we can rest in the fact that God has a purpose for everything we’re going through.

Physical ailments, chronic sickness, the death of a loved one, a wayward child, a failing marriage, financial difficulty, or some moral failure. We can think of a host of other things. These are heavy burdens that God doesn’t intend for us to carry all on our own. In fact, trying to carry them all on our own can be a sign of pride. Acting as if I don’t need anyone else. I don’t need any help. And I have to confess, my wife would tell you, I have a hard time taking help sometimes. Because I’m like, I don’t want to burden anybody. I want to take care of it myself. But that’s not the teaching of Scripture. We need each other.

And we see in 2 Corinthians that even Paul and Timothy needed their brother Titus when they were under a heavy burden. 2 Corinthians 7, verses 5 and 6. For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest. But we were afflicted at every turn, fighting without, fear within. But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus. You can hear the weight of those words there. They were tired, afflicted, fearful. But notice they’re not removed from their difficult situation. We get it, but God. It’s God who comforts the downcast. How did he do it? He did it by sending, by sending Titus into their situation. Often I want to pray, Lord, take them out of that situation. Take them out of that situation. Just make it go away. But God has a greater purpose sometimes. And it doesn’t go away. And sometimes those things linger.

Paul and Timothy were encouraged in the midst of their difficulty by the presence of Titus and the good news he brought with him. So we need the body of Christ at all times, but certainly in the most difficult.

And we need the body of Christ at all times. Paul tells us this burden bearing fulfills the law of Christ. How does this fulfill the law of Christ? Elder Chase talked about that last week in the passage he used, Galatians 5.14. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. We might rephrase this as the whole law is fulfilled by love. This echoes the teaching of Jesus. He tells us in Matthew, Matthew 22, verses 37 through 40. And he said to them, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets. Jesus said the whole law and the prophets depend on the commandment to love God first and then love people. And Jesus perfectly modeled that love for us in the pages of Scripture. Bearing another’s burden as an act of belief, love is Christ-like love. It’s to be like Jesus who is the ultimate burden bearer. Who has ever borne a burden greater than our Savior did for us?

For believers, he bore on the cross in our place that oppressively heavy burden of the curse of the law so we might have eternal life. It was an act of love by our Savior. So we follow his example and lovingly bear it. One another’s burdens too.

Let’s next see the need we might have to repent of boasting in verse 3. If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. What does Paul mean? I think this is illustrated by the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. Jesus tells us in Luke 18, verse 10 to 14, two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee standing by himself prayed thus, God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get. But the tax collector standing far off would not even lift up his eyes to heaven but beat his breast saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.

We see here the pride of the Pharisee by the words he uses. I thank you that I am not like other men. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get. He’s focused on himself and he thinks of himself as a spiritual person, as being justified before God. To use Paul’s words here from verse three in our passage, he thinks he’s something. But Jesus’ estimation of him was much different. The Pharisee showed no repentance and therefore went away unjustified. His prayer merited him nothing because there was nothing of real substance in it.

Pride puffs us up. It can make us intolerant of shortcomings we see in others and make us think we are someone above those sorts of failures, someone above those sins we see in others. Paul says here in verse three that, this person is deceived. Pride deceives us into turning a low opinion of others into a sinful view of ourself and that’s what the Pharisee did. And if we have that prideful attitude, Paul knows we’re not likely to restore a brother caught up in a sin or look to help bear another’s burdens as he instructed in verses one and two because our focus would be not on our brother, but on ourself. Exhibiting such a prideful attitude is to choose to follow the flesh over the spirit. So what is the remedy for such a prideful attitude? Paul gives us that in verse four.

But let each one test his own work and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor.

Paul declares that any comparison with others must stop in this verse. Rather, each one should test his own work. In other words, examine your own life and the works it’s producing, not those of your neighbor. Testing implies there’s a standard of measurement. We understand that. Anytime you take a test, if it’s in school or in your job or some other kind of test, there’s always the set of expected results.

What is the standard for the believer? Is it our neighbor that Paul talks about here in verse four? Or even our sinning brother from verse one or someone carrying a heavy burden as he talks about in verse two? What is the standard? The standard is Christ. It’s a perfect standard. It’s the highest standard modeled to us by Jesus in the pages of his word. The standard is the one who never sinned. The one who is very God of very God and yet he describes himself as gentle and lowly. When we compare ourselves against that standard, not our neighbor, not our brothers, we compare ourselves against that standard, how can we be anything but humble in our life? And likewise, we must be as gentle and humble with our fellow believers. Paul encourages us to test ourself, but it must be against the right standard. And I don’t think Paul means this testing of our work is a rare thing. Regular examination of ourselves against the right standard is healthy for us as believers. We should be constantly

letting the spirit tell us, refine us. And when we do that, we’re going to inevitably see that we fall short. We fall way short. The standard is perfection. The standard is no sin. We all fall short of that. And so when we find that to be true, we follow 1 John 1, 9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Measuring ourselves against the biblical standard should naturally lead us to confession and repentance, which brings necessary cleansing. We need that cleansing. And in the context of this passage here, here in chapter 6, this means we must confess and repent of any pride that we might find in our heart.

But I want us to see one more thing here. Paul does say that when we test our work, even if we’re using the right standard, we can find a reason to boast. So what kind of boasting is not sinful? 2 Corinthians 10, 17. Let the one, who boasts, boast in the Lord. Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord. Boasting is not sinful when our eyes are on our Lord. When we boast in Him and who He is and all that He has accomplished when we review all the pages of Scripture. When we boast in all that He is accomplishing in us by the power of His Spirit. Our boast is not in our own merits, but in the grace of God working in us to produce works worthy of boasting. So when we test our own works by the right standard and we find sin there, we repent. And when we find something good there, we give God the praise and the glory for His goodness working in us to produce those good things.

And lastly, I want us to see the need to regard your backpack. It’ll make sense in a minute.

Verse 5. For each will have to bear his own load.

In verse 2, Paul talks about bearing one another’s burdens. But in here he talks about bearing your own load. So Paul, are you contradicting yourself here in a few short verses? If we look closer at the passage, we see there’s no contradiction. In verse 2, Paul is talking about those crushing burdens that we deal with from time to time. Those that are usually heavier than we can bear in ourselves or by ourselves. Here in verse 5, he uses a different word. That is translated load. Here he is talking about a non-physical burden. One that is small and light enough for everyone to carry. Like a soldier who carries his backpack. Every soldier is responsible for carrying what is necessary to meet his own needs. No one carries it for him. So we might think of this as our daily load. The normal course of life things that we all deal with. Working, paying bills, taking care of family, taking care of property, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Whatever normal life looks for you and your family. We must be responsible to carry our own normal load of life. And we must not be lazy in that. That is not to say that there won’t be difficulties associated even with the daily life, even with our daily life from time to time. So we need our spiritual family even in those times. But we must have a sense of responsibility for carrying our own load.

There’s also another sense in which we might understand verse 5 and many commentaries. I think Calvin said this was the true sense of the words that Paul gives us here. And that’s in bearing the light burden Jesus assigns to his followers that we read in Matthew 11, 30. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. There are certain responsibilities as disciples of Christ that each of us must bear and they cannot be shared with others. Jesus assures us that we must bear the burden of light. He assures us this burden is light that we can carry it. So we might also think of it like that backpack too. He’s borne the heavy burden, that oppressively heavy burden that none of us could bear. And he asked us to carry a backpack.

What Paul seems to have in view here is eternity. There will be a day for every believer when we will stand before Christ in judgment to give an account of how we might, how we’ve done with our backpack and to give an account of the works of our life. There’s no judgment here of condemnation. It’s a judgment of works. We read this in two passages in Corinthians. 2 Corinthians 5, 10. It says, For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in his body, whether good or evil. And then in 1 Corinthians 3, 13 through 15, each one’s work will become manifest for that day we’ll disclose it because it will be revealed by fire and the fire will test what’s going to happen to us. And that’s the sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. So friends, as believers, there’s a judgment day. When we stand before Christ and we will do that standing alone and we will do that without any comparison to anyone else. Our works will be tested by fire. And anything worthless will burn up. We will be rewarded for that which remains. I think we might think of that in terms of the works of the flesh that Paul gives us here in chapter 5 and then the works of the Spirit. Those works of the flesh, those things that we do, we choose to do apart from the guidance of the Spirit when we do works that our flesh desires. Those are the things that burn up.

So as we reflect on this passage, Paul has made it clear that we all bear burdens in life. He’s made it clear that there are burdens we carry alone. The normal course of life things and our responsibility to be a faithful disciple of Christ.

And either sense you understand verse 5, we must not be lazy in either of those. We must be growing spiritually so that we can more effectively war against our flesh. And to win in that fight, we must be confident and constantly practicing, constantly practicing, constantly practicing so we’re becoming more mature, more spiritual as Paul put it. Practicing the disciplines that conform us more fully to the image of Christ. Again, studying God’s Word, applying it, preferably applying it to our daily lives. Being in community with each other, with each other, being together in our times of worship when the times of the Word is preached on Sundays and when it’s taught on Wednesdays. And also I think not neglecting times where we’re just hanging out with each other. It’s good just to hang out as the body of Christ because I think it’s in those times that we really get to know each other. I love the fact that we hang out after service most Sundays and we just talk. We’re just catching up with each other. What’s going on in your life? What are you dealing with? I would hope that when you face something difficult in your life that you would have people that you could reach out to. Hey, I know Elder Chase is great. I know well enough. I’ll call him up. Hey, I’m dealing with this. Hey, I’ll call up Pastor Chad. We need to have a familiarity with each other because again, we’re family. I think God has put us all here not by coincidence. We’re here because He wants our families here that we have here today. And so I think we’re here

as part of Jesus building His church and Providence Fellowship. And all of those things I just described prepares us. It helps us in our command to do the second part of that which is bear one another’s burdens. When we consider each other a spiritual family then I will consider your well-being as important as my own. If you’re struggling with a sin or with a burden then I am burdened as well. And I will be generally concerned. My desire will be to gently and humbly help you with that however I can for as long as it takes. In the passage we saw today, we saw earlier when Paul and Timothy were afflicted in Macedonia, it was God who was doing the comforting. The passage makes that clear. It’s God who comforts. But He did that through faithful Titus by sending Titus into their situation. So in a similar way, Providence Fellowship, I believe God is asking us to be a Titus, to be a faithful friend, to be a person God can use to help our spiritual brothers and sisters when one of our friends is struggling. Whether it be with a sin or a heavy burden, or in whatever way that might come up, we should view this as important and I think as a privilege. And it’s something we should gladly do, gladly bear for the sake of our brother. We need to see each other as a family. And lastly, Paul says in Philippians 2, if we have this mindset, if we have this mindset we’ve been talking about here in our passage, then that’s the mindset of Christ. So friends, let’s endeavor to have the mind of Christ when it comes to bearing burdens. Both are on and of our family, your spiritual family. Here at Providence, maybe folks you know at work, the body of Christ.

Let’s pray.

Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that in it we see we see theology but we also see practical application of that theology. We see how you want us to relate to each other. Yes, Paul has made it clear we have our own burdens to bear. That we must ourselves be becoming more spiritually mature and practicing those things that lead to maturity in Christ. But also having the mindset of seeing our brothers and sisters as important and gladly bearing each other’s burdens. Lord, if there’s anything in my heart or heart here collectively, Lord, that would keep us from doing that, if it’s pride or selfishness or whatever else we might can say, Lord, help us to lay down those things and lay those things aside so that we can be the family that you called us to be here in your word.

Lord, we know we can do that in Christ by the work of your spirit in us. So let’s endeavor help us endeavor to walk by the spirit and not by the flesh. I pray these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.