Paul’s Letter to the Gauls (Galatians) – Chapter 6

Now then, I am so wary of this being done by someone in the church and turning into something legal that I tell you, without hesitation, that when we have such a person in our fellowship. Someone goes and says to them, ” Would you please seek some counsel?” I always ask that it be done outside the fellowship of the church, and by a real professional, because this person has problems so deep-seated that all the love and care won’t help them. And there are a lot of folk like that. Fortunately, at this moment, we are armed with people who are so well trained and so experienced that it can be done in the church, and those people are very independent of the church. They don’t treat them as someone who…they don’t say to them, “Now you go get and submit to elders.” It’s not as though this were a church matter. They deal with them on a personal matter. Am I making any sense at all? I would never have a deeply damaged person counseled within the church in fear that somebody is going to make it a church matter and put them under some kind of that…that’s never happened in my ministry that I know of. But I am so anti-law that I don’t ever want to see it happen, even in the slightest. I’ve always recommended a professional outside counselor. I don’t have to do that anymore because of some incredibly well-trained people.

Now, I’m going to tell you something. You’re going to lose your image of me totally. I am not ashamed of the fact that I am becoming a Christian. I am not ashamed of the fact that I am weak. I am learning how to deal with the fact that I make lots of mistakes, and that in the very position that I am in, I hurt people, which just almost kills me. In fact, it is a problem for me. I so hate to hurt another Christian that I sought help on this very matter. Now, you would think that a person would not seek help on such a matter, would you? You would think that you’d really need to be so sensitive to hurting other people. But I take it so hard, and it goes so deep that a very wise brother, by the way, no one that any of you know, pointed out to me that I needed some help in this matter. Let’s see, honey, how long ago was it? Two or three months ago? Do you remember? I don’t have any recollection. I went to one of the best Christian counselors in America, one of these guys who, except for the fact that he was a friend, you know, these $80 an hour type. By the way, that’s the cheapest money you’ll ever spend.

I spent about seven hours with that brother while he took me apart and put me back together again, and made me face things that I have never faced in my life. Then I came home, sat down with four other brothers, and reported to them in detail. This is a personal choice of mine. This is not something we preach or do. I chose to do this. I sat down with those brothers and talked to them in detail about some things this brother had found in me that I wasn’t aware of. And let me stop here parenthetically. All of our major problems – your major problem, my major problem – we’re never in touch with it. I heard a Christian counselor make a very wise statement. He said, “When we finally find out what a person’s real problem is, I make them repeat it over and over and over again because usually they cannot keep it in their mind for over two or three seconds. They are totally blind to it, utterly cut off from it. Until this hour, I have sat down and struggled to articulate the root of this problem in my life.

One thing I’d like you to notice as I go along is that I’m talking to 120 people, and I am not hiding anything. I have nothing to hide. I’m a Christian. I’m a sinner saved by grace. I’m a needy person. That’s why God gave me grace instead of putting me under the law. He figured I was just about like this. Say it and say it and say it and say it again. There’s only one way I can tell who’s really got a heart for the Lord and who hasn’t. It’s not how much you pray. It’s not how much you witness. It’s not how much you read your Bible. It’s not how loud you shout in a meeting or how good you look. But I can tell you’re in trouble spiritually when you will not seek help, when you are too proud to go to someone else and seek help. Friend, you are in trouble. You’re hiding. Call it anything you want to say, you don’t believe in that. That’s not scriptural. Do anything you wish to do, but I’m telling you, you’re in trouble spiritually because you’re afraid of light.

Maybe you can’t do what I did. Perhaps you have to do something else, but there’s not a man or woman in this room, but there comes a point in your life and mine when we need someone else to help us see those things we cannot see. Bear your own burden too. Find out and discover one of the most important things. By the way, this all has to do with grace. All of this has to do with grace. What is the discovery of grace? That you’re weak. Law says you are strong. Grace says you are weak. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s not sinful. It’s just weak, and the church is a place for caring and for healing. Verses three and four essentially say, “Don’t think you can pull these things off on your own.” You’re deceiving yourself. Look at yourself. See what’s going on in your life. Don’t be so boastful. Or, another way to put it: you need to be a little humble in this area, saint. You know, and all my life I’ve been accused of a lot of things. You can’t imagine, but I have never, never had the accusation laid at my feet that I am humble. That’s one condemnation I have never had to live with. Well, I’m going to tell you, I don’t see humility till I see a brother or a sister recognizing he’s weak and willing to reach out for help, without excuse and without hesitation.

Hidden in chapter six is the ministry of the church in caring. I’ve lost my verse, but somewhere in here there is, well, I’ll skip that one. Man, I’m making this a lot more personal than I thought I was going to. Maybe I should stop. Am I disturbing you? I am disturbing you. Okay. Am I upsetting you? Am I undermining your faith here? Yeah. We have visitors coming to us from different parts of America. They’ve read all my books and all these other books. I think they expect to meet a monk who sits over in his corner and prays…a (Watchman) Nee who mysteriously appears in the room. This was Nee’s style. Sits down. You meet in front of him. You ask him a question. He gives you a profound spiritual answer. You’re awestruck. Your life has changed. You look up, and he’s gone. That was the image Nee projected.

Every time anybody comes to visit us, they always say the same thing. You people are so normal-looking, and generally, some people are turned off by that. Now, other than the fact that they are grossly ugly, did you catch a sense of normality with these brothers who were standing up here a few minutes ago? Did you, or am I fooling myself? Did you hear the theological vocabulary? Did you hear an affected speech? Did you hear one theme being beaten to death as though they had had something drilled into their heads? I listened. I heard six, seven, eight, nine men. Every one of them is different. Every one of them has something different to say. And brothers who really do spend a lot of time disagreeing with one another. Amen. Brothers. Amen. Amen. Well, I am not a profoundly transformed human being, but I will tell you what I am. I’m ordinary. I was picked from the same peapod you were. And perhaps you don’t know it yet, but you’re needy. You’re a very needy saint if you came out of the same peapod I came out of.

Verses 7, 8, and 9 are where I am right now. No, it’s verse 8. No, it’s not. It’s verse 9. Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we shall reap if we do not grow weary. I’ve never been one of those people who had a verse, but this one walked up and attached itself to me about three weeks ago, and this verse and I have been living together ever since. The verse moved in with me and has become part of my life. Sleeps with me, eats with me, sits by me, we talk to one another, we argue. Sometimes the verse talks, sometimes I talk, sometimes I sit there, and I argue. And every once in a while, I get a little discouraged looking at this verse, and my prayer is, “Lord, amen.”

You know, I said this the first time when I was 30 years old. I think you’ll find it in Our Mission (now entitled Climb the Highest Mountain) that I have never feared particularly…Well, I fear falling in sin, yes, but I don’t fear any one cataclysmic disaster like a church split destroying me. But since I recognized how big this job was, how much stress it would cause, and how much damage it could do, I knew that time would wear me down. And in the last few years, I’ve seen some of the finest men I’ve ever known throw in the towel. A woman whom I have known and respected just gave it up. Her last words to me were, “Gene, I don’t see any hope for the church being restored, and I’m quitting.” She was exactly my age. I’m going to read this verse, and I want to say this to you sisters, and I don’t know why I’m saying this to you sisters in Memphis. I don’t know a more loving group of women in this world, caring for other people’s needs, and you have been that way since the day I met you. It has only grown and deepened in Christ; it is beautiful and an aroma. It is an encouragement to me.

Listen, y’all, all of you, you are my letter, and you keep me on my feet. You exist, and that keeps me going. You’re very real people, and you fuss with one another, and you fight with one another. You don’t mind telling one another how you feel, and you don’t mind telling me what your problems are, and you exist, and you’re not ugly, and you’ve never been in a split. You’ve never had a split, and you’ve never been…you never did that in your whole life, not once. And I’m proud, and when I go before the Lord, you’re going to be what I bring.

You get discouraged sometimes, don’t you? I do too. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet it is not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God. And he closes here in this beautiful ending; he closes again by saying, “…let me not boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world,” which means literally the world cannot find you, and you cannot find the world. This wonderful instrument of God, death, has separated us. Everything down here…everything down here…has already passed. Everything down here has already passed. I have been crucified with Christ. I have been crucified to the world and the world to me. Everything down here is already over. That’s why you have no business going around with the law. It’s over. You’re over. I’m over. It’s done with. The life I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God, and the word I want to pick out of that and close with is the word “now.”

Now, a hallmark of Christians is that they are always praying for something in the future. Lord, open our eyes and show us these things. I hate that prayer. And now, Lord, may you be merciful and show us these things. Baloney. My spirit already knows these things. I heard it, and it is now. Dear Christian friend, will you stop living in the future with your prayers and expectations? And will you also understand that everything down here has already passed, and that you live in the eternal now? Stop saying, “Lord give us; Lord let us; Lord show us; Lord, reveal to us,” and take now, “Lord, I am crucified with you. Lord, I am raised from the dead. Lord, I am in you. The life now at this moment being lived is Christ.”