Sermon

Restoring gently Galatians 6 1-6

Omega Church NZ

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  1. You've tuned into a mega. Church.

  2. We are people hungry to encounter God through worship

  3. and His Word being witnesses to the world around us.

  4. We pray this teaching blesses you and trust God will reveal

  5. Himself to you in a new way today.

  6. And if you need prayer for healing or breakthrough?

  7. Want to find out more about Omega?

  8. Get to our website or Facebook page through the links below.

  9. The word I've got is very powerful.

  10. Basically, you know when you study it, you cannot be the

  11. same. It has to.

  12. It will change us. Basically, it will change us.

  13. So let's look into Galatians chapter 6 and verse one.

    Galatians 6 chapter mention

  14. Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual

  15. should restore him gently, but watch yourself or you also may

  16. be tempted. And that verse was very, very

  17. powerful because as I was meditating on it, it was just

  18. coming alive. So it is talking about if

  19. someone is caught in a sin, now it is what?

  20. How is someone caught in a sin? It is like, you know, imagine

  21. you are running away from the tiger or a lion, but lion is

  22. faster, it catches you. Similarly, you are aware of the

  23. sin and you are running, trying to run away from the sin.

  24. You do not want to be caught by the sin.

  25. You are running away from it, but it is faster, it catches

  26. you. It can also mean somebody who is

  27. caught red handed. You know the word used there

  28. caught in a sin is basically caught in a sin red handed.

  29. And that kind of a thing, thing you find in where is it?

  30. John chapter 8 verses 3 to 5. In that scripture we see the

    John 8:3–5

  31. teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman

  32. caught in adultery. They made her stand before the

  33. group and said to Jesus, teacher, this woman was caught

  34. in the act of adultery in the law, Moses in in the law of

  35. Moses. Moses commanded us to stone such

  36. women. Now what do you say?

  37. You know this. You have to imagine when you

  38. read that portion again in the next verse, it says they kept on

  39. asking him, the kept on pestering him.

  40. What is your response? What is your response like?

  41. Let us imagine some leaders of Sadducees and Pharisees.

  42. They bring a lady, say this lady is caught in the very act.

  43. We found her red handed and Moses, the law of Moses says we

  44. should stone her. But what do you say?

  45. They want to test him and see if he says yes, we have to do it.

  46. Then He is being very ruthless, but he says no, He is

  47. contradicting the law of Moses. They wanted to find fault with

  48. him. That was the main purpose.

  49. But what did? And imagine like Jesus was

  50. sitting there and he put his head down and he was writing on

  51. the ground with his finger. He was writing on the ground

  52. with his finger. And many people have preached.

  53. There are thousands of sermons about what must be Jesus writing

  54. on the ground. You know, it is a big question

  55. mark. So every preacher will try to

  56. understand what was he writing. So I did my part little bit.

  57. So I see that initially there was a time I preached saying he

  58. wrote on a stone because it was in the temple precincts.

  59. I thought it must be floor is already there with stones and he

  60. was writing on the stone. But this time when I was reading

  61. the scripture, my attention came cord that he was writing on the

  62. ground. So ground is soil, basically it

  63. is soil, it is mud there, dust there.

  64. He is writing into the dust. Remember this, Jesus is Yahweh,

  65. the one who wrote with his finger the law of God and gave 2

  66. stone tablets to Moses. That Yahweh is now in the flesh

  67. and here he has come as a saviour.

  68. He wrote once with the finger so that the whole world can be held

  69. accountable when they sin. The 10 commandments is the basis

  70. of every countries law system you can have even Russia.

  71. They can tell there are no morals when there is no God.

  72. ACC country has no morals and still they enforce moral law.

  73. Why? What is the basis?

  74. Recently I heard a story of a man and a woman.

  75. Man was a Christian, now he doesn't believe in Crash anymore

  76. and the woman is atheist. And they didn't want to marry in

  77. the church, they had a civil marriage.

  78. And then now that man was in touch with another lady texting,

  79. and this lady caught him and she was insisting that what you are

  80. doing is not right and started beating him every day or once or

  81. twice in a week. My question is, you don't

  82. believe in God, then what do you, how do you enforce A moral

  83. law? What is the basis for your moral

  84. law? You cannot tell somebody, you

  85. cannot tell lie because that comes from the book of Exodus.

  86. You cannot tell somebody, you cannot commit adultery because

  87. that comes from the law. So that Yahweh has written with

  88. his own finger on the stone tablet and gave it to Moses, and

  89. that has become the moral law for the whole world, every

  90. country. But now that Yahweh is in the

  91. flesh, in the beating was the Word, and the Word was God, and

  92. the Word was God, and Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

  93. And now He is bedding down and writing on the dust.

  94. What was He writing on the dust? It is a message of mercy,

  95. because we see that in the book of Jeremiah, chapter 17, verse

    Jeremiah 17:13

  96. 13. The Lord, the hope of Israel,

  97. all who abandoned you will be put to shame.

  98. All who turn away will be written in the dust.

  99. But they abandoned the Lord, the fountain of living water.

  100. When you abandon God, your name will be written on the dust.

  101. That means you will be erased, forgotten.

  102. If you write on the stone, it will not be forgotten.

  103. In the town where I am, there are some hills around.

  104. People will go and write something on it.

  105. You take some chalk or some kind of a lime, whatever.

  106. Somebody will write the word love, somebody will write some

  107. his girlfriend's name, or you know, something like that.

  108. But after years and years, it still stays.

  109. It is never erased. It stays on what?

  110. Because written on the stone. I tell you, God to convict us,

  111. writes the law on the stone. But when he wants to deal with

  112. you, he wants to deal with you in mercy.

  113. So write it on the ground. He is a God of mercy.

  114. Not he did not come to judge. He came to say that's why he

  115. bent down and started writing on the dust.

  116. So even though he's caught, things can happen in the church

  117. also in the family. We are like a big family.

  118. We are like a big family. Church is a big family.

  119. So someone is caught in a sin. Is it possible to for someone to

  120. commit sin? Yeah, it's possible.

  121. If you are a man, if you are a woman, you share in the flesh

  122. and blood. It is possible to commit sin

  123. because we have two natures. We already saw in chapter 5,

  124. sometimes the old nature, the sinful nature takes over and we

  125. commit sin. So here he is giving you a an

  126. example how to deal with sin in the in the church.

  127. So he says if someone is caught in a sin, someone is caught in a

  128. sin, how to deal with it? You who are spiritual should

  129. restore him gently. What is the qualification?

  130. One must be spiritual. What did he say about it in

  131. chapter 5 was 16, he says So I say live by the Spirit and you

  132. will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

  133. You have to learn to live by the Spirit.

  134. If you are not living by the Spirit, we cannot correct

  135. somebody. We must be first, right before

  136. we can go and tell somebody, hey, you are doing wrong with

  137. Jesus himself gives another example.

  138. In the summer of the mortgages, before you look at the speck in

  139. your brother's eye, remove the log from your own eye.

  140. What is he trying to say? What is he trying to say?

  141. Let's just dramatize it a little bit.

  142. Let's say I have this book in my eye.

  143. The whole Bible is there inside my eye and I am looking at

  144. somebody and say, hey, this small speck in your eye, can I

  145. remove it? What will you say?

  146. First take off that Bible from your face before you can spot,

  147. spot the small speck in my eye. You cannot see the small mistake

  148. in somebody when we have a big mistake in our own life.

  149. So it disqualifies us basically to correct somebody.

  150. But we are all fallen vessels. We all need some kind of an

  151. input and in the body there has to be a place for correction and

  152. there has to be a place for receiving correction.

  153. Otherwise we will not grow together.

  154. It is not about criticism, it is not about putting down somebody,

  155. but we have to do it gently. So the word restore in the

  156. Greek, the word restore is Qatar, Qatar tizo.

  157. Qatar Tizo, It is the Greek word.

  158. It means two different things. Restoring is like a broken bone

  159. being set. Let's say if my hand is broken

  160. here, does the whole body feel the pain?

  161. Only hand feels the pain. Why there is no response in the

  162. church when you have one person who is unhappy, one person who

  163. is hurt, It is like a broken bone and the whole body suffers.

  164. Whole body suffers. I can break my leg, but I cannot

  165. say ah, just my leg, I am happy. Who who let me sing and dance.

  166. You can't do that because a broken bone will make you aware

  167. that you are in pain. So the body is like the church

  168. is like a small family and a body and that pain will be

  169. there. But is it easy or a pleasant

  170. experience to set the bone these days?

  171. You know it is most of the we have got systematized hospitals.

  172. You go there into emergency, they will take an X-ray and see

  173. where it is broken and put it and put the caste.

  174. But in the olden days it was not.

  175. So you go to the person who sets the bone.

  176. You know he sits in a shop and you go to him.

  177. He will pull and push until he knows that it is sitting in the

  178. right place. It is a painful experience.

  179. No anesthesia, no anesthetics were given.

  180. And then he will put some ointment and then put some

  181. splinters and then bandage it so it does not move until it heals.

  182. A very painful experience. So in the church, when there is

  183. hurt, it is a painful experience for the church, Not for one

  184. person, it's for everybody because that one person will

  185. talk to somebody. You know, Ramana, don't believe

  186. him. He stands there and preaches,

  187. but he's not a Goodman. He said this to me.

  188. So it goes on and there's a lot of things going on in the

  189. church. So what is he trying to say?

  190. Paul is when we have a similar situation.

  191. Now second uses mending the Nets.

  192. The same word restore is used for mending the Nets.

  193. Suppose you are a fisherman and you got a huge net, you go cast

  194. it and then bring in the fish. But if there is a some place

  195. where is cut, there is a big hole, what will happen?

  196. Fish will escape from it. So what the fisherman does after

  197. the job of fishing is done is you look for any that is torn

  198. areas and mend it. That is the word restore,

  199. Katarziso. So we have to restore in love

  200. and we have to do it spiritual should do it gently.

  201. It has to be done gently. But no correction is gentle.

  202. No correction is gentle. If somebody wants to tell me

  203. your message is not good, how am I going to say you are done?

  204. You has an excellent observation, will try to change

  205. it. Thank you very much.

  206. Am I going to do that? I am going to.

  207. Why is this man saying that to me?

  208. You know, there will be some kind of unpleasantness with

  209. correction. Always.

  210. It is there. There is no person who can say I

  211. am so on the top of the world because you are correcting me.

  212. It's not that easy. But Paul says we have to do it

  213. gently. And yeah, coming back to the

  214. story of Jesus, he bend down and was writing and then they kept

  215. on asking, what do you say? Somebody else in this corner?

  216. What do you say from that corner?

  217. What do you say Jesus? Jesus was ultimately said, stood

  218. up and straightened up and everybody is now going to He

  219. wanted to, they wanted to he. He lifted up his head,

  220. straightened up and said he who has no sin through the first

  221. stone, whoever has no sin through the first stone.

  222. And then I started bringing down, writing down on the ground

  223. again in the soil. Probably he was writing about

  224. the verse in Hosea chapter 6 where it says I desire mercy,

    Hosea 6 chapter mention

  225. not sacrifice. He may be writing down on the

  226. ground. I desire mercy, not sacrifice.

  227. Or he might be writing the very command, very commandment that

  228. she broke. Do not commit adultery.

  229. But then he must be talking about.

  230. Do not bear false witness. Do not tell lies.

  231. Whatever commandments they must be breaking, he must be writing

  232. down on the ground. Probably it's just only guess

  233. work, but people can look on the ground.

  234. What is his finger is doing? And one by one they left, until

  235. only the lady was left before standing before Jesus.

  236. So where are your accusers? Has no one accused you?

  237. No one to do the first tone? Say no, my Lord, neither I want

  238. to condemn you. Go in peace and do not sin.

  239. Forgiveness comes with a chance not to sin again, not to do it

  240. again. It's not a license to keep on

  241. doing wrong. Saying sorry.

  242. Yesterday I felt sorry, I said sorry.

  243. Today again I do same thing and say sorry.

  244. For 10 years I said the same thing and say sorry.

  245. That sorry has no value. We had to change.

  246. There has to be a change if somebody is living in sin.

  247. And one of the main problems in the church is holiness is not

  248. important for many people. They just come to church and

  249. they want to do everything possible in the church.

  250. They want to be in this choir, they want to be in the service,

  251. they want to be in cleaning roster.

  252. They want to be in taking care of the car park or whatever is a

  253. large church helping in the car park.

  254. And they want to do Bible study, they want to do prayer, lead the

  255. prayer, you know. But nobody thinks of holiness.

  256. If that particular ingredient called holiness is missing,

  257. whatever you do carries no value.

  258. Holiness is more important. God will have look at you with

  259. favor when you pursue holiness and do something for Him.

  260. And that is what is missing in the church.

  261. When I say church, not just Omega, it is all over the world,

  262. whole of the church. People want to live in sin and

  263. still want to do the ministry. Pastors are caught in sexual

  264. sins and they still want to preach and healers.

  265. People who do healing ministry, they are caught in the sin and

  266. they still stand on the pulpit and are praying for healing to

  267. happen. So if we do that, how can we

  268. bring God's Kingdom into the world?

  269. It is not about how big a church is.

  270. I know some churches are in India, 80,000 people, 100,000

  271. people go to each service, 100,000 people and you have

  272. volunteers. The volunteers, you will have

  273. about 4000 or 10,000 volunteers to facilitate everything.

  274. And on top of it, some of the churches where they have 40,000

  275. or 80,000 people, they give you lunch after your service and it

  276. is a huge mass event. It does not require holiness to

  277. run a thing like that. Does it require holiness?

  278. But God cares for 10 people who are holy and worship Him.

  279. He is present in their midst, not among the 100,000 who are

  280. not pursuing holiness. So that is very important.

  281. What is ministry? Definition of ministry in our

  282. own mind, That's very important. But every time I pray about

  283. Omega, God strengthens me. The last week also I prayed God,

  284. what is happening? Show me what is happening and I

  285. see a very you know, when you see a train here, you've got 54

  286. coaches, 4 coaches taking people in the morning, come back in the

  287. evening, one train goes, one train comes in Christchurch.

  288. But in India, not like that. Every 5-10 minutes you've got a

  289. big train, 20 coaches, it's like 1 kilometer.

  290. So in the prayer I see a big train came and just stood there.

  291. I said, Lord, this is just your mercy.

  292. I don't see anything now. At the moment I hardly treat

  293. 2040 people, but you are showing me this big train and I know you

  294. will do it because you are able to do it.

  295. You are capable, you have a plan, you have purpose.

  296. Your timing may not be, may be different, but you will do it

  297. because you're telling me you're going to do it.

  298. So I praise you. I receive it by faith.

  299. So that is how we have to live our life.

  300. Next, let's keep on going. Whenever he talks, whenever

  301. Jesus talks about the ground, he talks about the human heart.

  302. The ground he talks about human heart.

  303. Was he doing that in the parallel of sower at the seat?

  304. There was a man who went sowing the seat and it fell among rocky

  305. soil and it fell into, There is no depth there, but quickly the

  306. spring, I mean the seeds sprouts and then it dies because there

  307. is no ground underneath. There is rock and you have got a

  308. bushes, town bushes and then you have got well prepared soil,

  309. four kinds of and they all have a different kind of outcome.

  310. So the soil is very, very important.

  311. When Jesus writes on the ground, He is writing on somebody's

  312. heart. He is writing on somebody's

  313. heart and we should be able to say yes, Jesus, I am yielding

  314. myself to you. Put that finger right on my

  315. heart. And when he puts his finger,

  316. your life will not be the same. Life will not be the same.

  317. It is going to completely change how I plead in his presence so

  318. many times. I see you read the Book of

  319. Revelation where John, when he sees this risen Lord Jesus

  320. Christ head and head, what does no eyes like blazing fire fires

  321. better than my big day son. I fell down like one who is dead

  322. and he reached out his right hand and put it on me and lifted

  323. me up. I said, God, can you please do

  324. that for me? Touch me now, touch me now, lift

  325. me up. And when you have hunger, God

  326. knows how to meet that hunger, because the one who created the

  327. bread also is the one who created the hunger.

  328. And when you have hunger and He knows how to give you the bread,

  329. he will not leave you without being, without satisfying you,

  330. because he is God, the Lord, the merciful, compassionate one

  331. covenant keeping God. He will not let you go just like

  332. that. And then we have this.

  333. So the mending process is also is a painful process, but we

  334. have to do it gently so that people can be restored.

  335. It's not easy job, a difficult job.

  336. And then it in verse 2, he says carry each other's burdens.

  337. And in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

  338. How do we have to live a lifestyle of carrying each

  339. other's burdens? So there is a comic strips in in

  340. newspapers you have got a three or four pictures and then they

  341. will very funny, sometimes very witty, sometimes very

  342. intelligent ways of communicating.

  343. SO1 character is asking another character what is the purpose of

  344. my life? So the other one answers to

  345. serve others. So the the second character says

  346. to the first one, what are the others supposed to do?

  347. What is their purpose of life? Basically you are trying to put

  348. the blame on, OK, if my purpose is to serve others, their

  349. purpose also serve me. But the Bible says serve each

  350. other, serve each other. You know one of the things that

  351. you cannot do is scratch your own back.

  352. You need someone else to scratch your back when you feel itchy.

  353. So you, you help somebody and somebody else will help you.

  354. That's why you have a back. Cool.

  355. So if anyone thinks he's something when he's nothing, he

  356. deceives himself. Now this is a very important

  357. one. This is self importance.

  358. We evaluate ourselves more than what we are sometimes, and so

  359. many times we also undervalue ourselves.

  360. Or I am nothing, I do not know anything, I am not good, I

  361. cannot do it. You cannot be living like that

  362. undervaluing yourself, or you cannot be living overvaluing

  363. yourself. You cannot say I am the best

  364. because we do not know. Only God knows us as we are, so

  365. it is better to have a good look at ourselves and say, God, show

  366. me who am I? One of the things I want to tell

  367. you, one secret thing I want to tell you, I do pray for everyone

  368. of you and God shows sometimes who the particular person is,

  369. but I don't tell them. I don't come and say God showed

  370. me you are like this. I don't do that.

  371. It's not right for me to do it also, but we, the pastor has to

  372. pray. And when the time comes, because

  373. God has shown me something that helps me to serve, that helps me

  374. to serve the person because that is how you know what is their

  375. need. Because God has shown you you

  376. can minister. God has not shown you cannot

  377. minister. It is good.

  378. It is good that we must be having this heart of right

  379. perspective of ourselves. It is very important.

  380. So verse 3 many problems come because of that.

  381. If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives

  382. himself. Problems come because of this in

  383. the in the in the fellowship, somebody thinks I am better than

  384. so. And so this comparison is what

  385. the what is going to bring problem.

  386. Comparing yourself with somebody is the main root cause and Paul

  387. says what is the best way to address it and how to fix the

  388. problem was 4. Each one should test his own

  389. actions. Then he can take pride in

  390. himself without comparing himself to somebody else.

  391. You don't compare yourself to somebody and feel good about it.

  392. You must feel good in yourself. You, your reference should be

  393. yourself, not someone else. So many times you know God has

  394. made us all not equal. Somebody short, somebody is

  395. tall. Somebody is more strong,

  396. somebody is weak. Why this is not to make us feel

  397. ah, that person is short. When when I stand beside Alex, I

  398. may had oh, he is taller than me.

  399. I had to feel It's not about it. God accepts us all equal.

  400. There's no favoritism with God. So we should also have that kind

  401. of a mindset. But the moment I say I am tall,

  402. I am creating problem because somebody taller than me will

  403. come, then I'll have to say I am short, isn't it?

  404. So that's the reason why God has created us all, not equal, not

  405. the same. He didn't put in the same mould.

  406. Everybody looks same, all black, all white, all tall.

  407. No, it's not like that. This is to give us a perspective

  408. how he looks at each one of us. He looks at each one of us as

  409. unique, bearing his image, and that is what we should adopt as

  410. a guide to appreciate the other person.

  411. So Paul gives these two things in verse three and four.

  412. He says don't think of yourself more than what you should think

  413. and let each one test his own actions.

  414. Then he can take pride in himself without comparing

  415. himself to somebody else. The word their pride take pride

  416. in himself can be used positively or negatively taking

  417. pride. But the word Greek word used

  418. there is different kind of a word.

  419. This cow ke ma kokema is boasting, always positive in the

  420. Lord, negative and based on self.

  421. When you look at things from God's perspective, that boasting

  422. will be good because God is agreeing with you.

  423. But when it is self-centered, when you want to make yourself

  424. the centre of everything, then that becomes selfish and sinful.

  425. So if you know rightly who you are, it is good.

  426. Rejoice in it. There's another English word

  427. called exaltation. Exalt.

  428. Exalt is you celebrate something because it is good.

  429. You celebrate your kindness. You celebrate your goodness.

  430. You celebrate your generosity. You celebrate your being mindful

  431. of other people. That is good because that is for

  432. the glory of God. Cool.

  433. So now I don't know why I don't finish one, one thought at a

  434. time, coming back to again the soil and the rock.

  435. You know, Jesus is very, very when he talks, you know, he

  436. talks something that you can never do better than that.

  437. So he talks about the long Sermon on the Mount, chapter 5-6

  438. and seven of Matthew. But Chapter 7 ends with what?

  439. A man who listens to me and obeys and builds his life on my

  440. teaching. He's like a man who built his

  441. house on the rock, but a man who listens to me and doesn't build

  442. his life on my teaching. He's like a man who built his

  443. house on the sand. So when Jesus puts down putting

  444. his head down and writing on the sand, he is writing your end

  445. already, because our life is not based on the rock.

  446. So what is Jesus writing about you?

  447. That's my question. I do not want you to answer it

  448. today, right now, but when you go home, sit comfortably and

  449. imagine Jesus is just sitting in front of you or standing in

  450. front of you, whatever is comfortable to you, and ask Him

  451. the same question. What are you writing, bending

  452. down about me? You know scripture.

  453. You have different ways of learning scripture.

  454. One of the things is visualization.

  455. You enter into the scripture, you enter the scripture, place

  456. yourself in that place of that Lady who was accused by a mob of

  457. people. She she's caught red handed,

  458. stand in her place. So what do you write on the

  459. ground? Stand in the place of the

  460. accusers. Who are we accusing pointing

  461. finger and what is just saying to the mob they had to leave

  462. because they saw him writing something on the ground about

  463. them? So you can be a mop one day, you

  464. can be in the place of the lady another day.

  465. But I want us to know what he thinks about us.

  466. And that is not up to me to tell you.

  467. It's up to you to know what he's saying about you.

  468. If he says well done, my faithful servant, rejoice,

  469. exult, you can feel proud about it because that certification

  470. has to come from Jesus. Well done my son, well done my

  471. daughter. And when he says that to you,

  472. you have everything to rejoice in the whole world.

  473. He can dance about it, sing about it and tell you can share

  474. your testimony. This is what Jesus told me.

  475. But if he is writing on the sand, he is writing on the

  476. ground and he's going to be erased, it is going to be end of

  477. our life. So let's just focus on that.

  478. I was thinking about it a lot. You know, some, some scripture

  479. gets into my mind. I don't leave it like that.

  480. One was the whole day. Only one was 6.

  481. Chapter 6 was one. It took me whole day of

  482. meditating. I said, God, how am I going to

  483. please tomorrow? You know, I need to study the

  484. rest of the book as well. So that is how it is.

  485. You have to give yourself to understand the Word and then the

  486. Spirit that is behind the Word is the Holy Spirit and He comes

  487. into you as you meditate upon the Word.

  488. Am I making sense here? You make a way where there is no

  489. way. When you meditate upon the

  490. Scripture, when you study the Scripture, allow the Scripture

  491. to speak to your Spirit. Then everything that has to be

  492. blown away will be blown away like a wind blows away that dry

  493. leaves and bares the ground. Let the Word of God blow away

  494. what has to be blown away, and let your inner self be made bare

  495. so that you can see yourself in His light through the eyes of

  496. Jesus. Look at yourself through the

  497. eyes of Jesus. Things will change, your life

  498. will change, you will not do the same thing again and again.

  499. Now to make things little more dramatic or more to communicate

  500. more in a way you won't forget the sermon.

  501. You know, this is every preacher's dream is to preach

  502. and people should remember it forever.

  503. That's every preacher's dream. But I wonder it doesn't happen

  504. that easily because if I ask you what you heard last Sunday and

  505. you even ask me what I preach sometimes I will be oh what did

  506. I preach? You know our minds are very

  507. having a very short span of memory sometimes, but sometimes

  508. people are very good. Once I went to Auckland for into

  509. a fellowship and said few things, 3 or 5 minutes but one

  510. man came to me. The last time you came you said

  511. this. Wow, you still remember it.

  512. So some people can remember it. Now imagine a household, family

  513. and there are different things in the house.

  514. There is a flower vase. Now you put flower in it, put

  515. some water in it, so flower does not fade away quickly, but it

  516. does not move from there. It sits on the table or any

  517. place you choose and you got a pitcher.

  518. No one uses pitcher anymore. This is a old time story.

  519. So it is a pot and the pot you carry every day to bring fetch

  520. the water from wherever it is well bore well or whatever you

  521. are bringing the water. And one day that pot fell from

  522. the hand of the person was using it and broke into pieces.

  523. So was was watching it and jumped up and said, Hooray,

  524. that's the end of your life. You made a big mistake.

  525. You're never going to recover from it.

  526. It was just celebrating the fall of the pot.

  527. But the owner, what does he think of the walls and what does

  528. he think of the picture? Owner has sympathy, compassion

  529. for the pot that is broken into pieces because it served them

  530. every day. Every day the pitcher was

  531. useful. That pot was useful to bring the

  532. water and it feels for the broken pot.

  533. The walls did not break. It's sitting there.

  534. So which will have more value? Pitcher.

  535. So in in the fellowship, sometimes somebody may fall,

  536. somebody can make a mistake, but how do we react to that fall?

  537. We need to have the gentleness, that compassion, that mercy.

  538. That is what is going to bring beauty and harmony to that, to

  539. restore that broken part. Nothing else will do.

  540. And I will give you one more example of Peter the apostle.

  541. What did he do? Three times?

  542. Not once. He denied.

  543. And the denial is the highest degree of denial.

  544. And Jesus was arrested. He was being questioned and he

  545. was taken inside the courts, Kaifa's house.

  546. And this servant girl looks at him at the door.

  547. Hey, I know you. You are one of them.

  548. No, no, no, I am. I am not his disciple.

  549. I don't belong to him. He goes inside and there is a

  550. fire, and he is standing there in the light of the fire.

  551. The lady says definitely you are one of his disciples.

  552. What are you talking? I don't know him at all.

  553. One more time, one more says, your accent gives away.

  554. You are a Galilean and you have come all the way from there, for

  555. you are his follower. I don't know him, who he is, I

  556. don't know what you're talking about.

  557. He cursed himself with a curse and he said, I don't know Jesus.

  558. And from there, far away, Jesus looked at Peter and it went

  559. straight into the heart because he already warned him.

  560. You're going to deny me three times before the rooster crows

  561. two times. Life is finished there for

  562. Peter. All practical purposes, if Peter

  563. is living in a church today, he, his whole fate is finished.

  564. He will never be used again in the church.

  565. He will never be used again in the church because you made a

  566. big blunder. You deny the master.

  567. You cannot be useful in any way. Sometimes, you know, it happens

  568. in the church, somebody make a mistake and the police catches

  569. them on the road driving, speeding, that they get a

  570. speeding ticket and they tell somebody, oh, I got a speeding

  571. ticket. And every you know, you got a

  572. speeding ticket, you know he got a speeding ticket.

  573. And everywhere talks about speeding ticket.

  574. Anybody can get a spring ticket if you are not careful,

  575. particularly with a 40 kilometer 1, you go at 5552, you get a

  576. spring ticket. So we need to be gentle.

  577. But suppose let's there one mistake, that one mistake one

  578. man made and then he was criticized so much he criticized

  579. and he started doing more bad things.

  580. Today he told a lie. He's caught.

  581. And tomorrow he tells a lie and he does something more.

  582. He steals because he was not having the value or he were not

  583. valued. And then he kept on committing

  584. sin. One day he landed in the jail.

  585. How did he end in end up in the jail?

  586. Because people did not allow him to change his lifestyle and they

  587. kept on putting him down for the mistake he made.

  588. Simple thing, maybe a small lie, but it drove him to the jail one

  589. day in the future because he was not accepted.

  590. So maybe not do that kind of too much of criticism so that he

  591. will not end up into that kind of a thing.

  592. So what did Jesus do for restoring Peter after his

  593. resurrection? Actually Peter says to the rest

  594. of them, I want to go fishing. Basically what is he saying is I

  595. want to quit my life, I don't want to follow Jesus anymore, I

  596. want to go back to my fishing. Jesus said you are a fisherman,

  597. I will make you fishes. Are men not fish?

  598. But he says I am going back to fishing.

  599. Why he does not want to follow Jesus anymore?

  600. He has denied him three times. He has got no hope of regaining

  601. his life back again, so he wants to go back.

  602. It is basically emotional suicide for Peter.

  603. And Jesus is standing on the shore.

  604. Yes. Have you got any fish?

  605. No, we worked all night. OK, cast your net on this side.

  606. They get 153 fish. And then when they came on the

  607. show, he already had kept some fish and bread on fire.

  608. So bring the fish that you caught.

  609. In case you think this is not real, you eat this also bring

  610. what you caught, it is real. So he spoke to him tenderly and

  611. they restored him gently, saying, Do you love me, Peter,

  612. More than these? This net, this fish, other

  613. people? Do you love me more than this,

  614. Lord? You know I have denied it three

  615. times, but you also know I love you.

  616. Take care of my sheep, Peter. Yes, Sir.

  617. Do you love me more than this? Again a second Time.

  618. Lord, you know I love you. I cannot prove it anymore

  619. because I had denied you 3 times.

  620. There is no way I can prove it to you that I love you.

  621. I have failed miserably, but I know I love you.

  622. Take care of my sheep 1/3 time. Peter, do you love me more than

  623. this? Follow me when you are restored.

  624. So the point here is, he made him food, He cooked for him

  625. breakfast. He has drawn him close and

  626. restored him gently and gives him responsibility again.

  627. That is restoration. You have to give the job to

  628. somebody again. There's a sign that you're

  629. trusting them again. You don't give them the job.

  630. You're not not trusting them. There's no restoration

  631. happening. And then calls him back into

  632. ministry. He gives him the ministry back

  633. and tells him, feed my sheep. Peter had fallen into a serious

  634. sin. Jesus restores him with

  635. gentleness, humility, love and responsibility.

  636. Exactly what Galatians 61 to 6 is telling us to do.

  637. I hope you will not forget the sermon now.

  638. I only hope. What does Galatians 61 to six

  639. talk about? Restoration?

  640. How to do it gently. Who can do it?

  641. One who is spiritual, and the word spiritual is elsewhere

  642. talked about in Hebrews. It says someone who is not a

  643. child feeding on the milk, but one who is mature to handle

  644. things. So spiritual growth is

  645. important. One who is spiritual only can

  646. correct somebody. A newborn Christian may not be

  647. able to go and correct somebody who is already in a high

  648. position of rank or service or whatever it is.

  649. So we have to know how to correct, whom to correct, how to

  650. do it. Gentleness, mercy, love,

  651. tenderness. Restoration is a hard job, not

  652. easy job. But the question now want to

  653. finish it is, are we able to face Jesus again and say, here

  654. am I, I bring the broken parts of my life.

  655. I missed it, but I wanted to restore it.

  656. I want that nail, Pierre's hand, to put on that broken pot again

  657. and bring the pieces to him. And he wants to restore it to

  658. the original glory. To the original glory.

  659. Shall we bow our heads in prayer?

  660. Father, we thank you again for your word.

  661. Thank you, Jesus, for your word. I pray now, Father, that the

  662. Spirit of compassion, the Spirit of mercy, Spirit of love will

  663. touch everyone of our hearts. I did not choose this passage.

  664. It's just coming in the way as we finish chapter 5.

  665. We went to chapter 6. But Lord, we believe that you

  666. are speaking to us through this world to bring restoration into

  667. our hearts and into others. And we believe, Father, that you

  668. are doing something in this church as well.

  669. Holy Spirit, I pray that you use this word to heal the hearts of

  670. everyone, heal the heart of everyone, heal the heart of

  671. everyone. Everybody who is in pain, who is

  672. in shame, who is in criticize, who belittled or put down.

  673. My Father, I pray that you lift up their face now and tell them

  674. that you love them and restore them to the glory of your name,

  675. that they will love understanding in this church in

  676. the fellowship to the glory of your name.

  677. Rasta Sarani maharano Kara sanda bashiro RA mahaseke Sandandarano

  678. rono kori bashe makarose bandrano hasta corono

  679. Rohanamanda sestak reni Risha rabhasta corono Rohasta koroni.

  680. The Lord says if you forgive, also forget.

  681. That is part of restoration is to forget.

  682. We cannot keep on digging what happened 10 years ago or 20

  683. years ago. We have to let it go.

  684. That is how healing comes. Father, I pray put that nail

  685. patience of your son right now on the hearts of everyone of us.

  686. I need it and everybody here needs it.

  687. So I pray touch us and heal us the glory of your name.

  688. Thank you again for your word in Jesus mighty name.

  689. We have asked and everybody says Amen, Amen.

  690. Thanks for joining us at Omega. If you need prayer for healing

  691. or breakthrough, or simply to find out more, please head to

  692. our website or Facebook page in the links below.