Loadsharing

So we're going to wrap it up today in in in 25 or 30 minutes.

I was trying to show you Stevens preached from last week.

If it can just go up on the stage, up on the board.

And it's a beautiful. It's one of the best preachers I

think I've ever heard in my life.

And I think you opened the scripture so beautifully,

Steven, and he, he bracketed this, the text of this

incredible conflict between the vices and the virtues of what

happens in the world and, and this fruit of the spirit that

we're trying to produce. But I want to take it.

I want to zoom out just one slide further and, and actually

show you that actually, if you, if you take it further, it's

you, my brothers. And the next verse as well,

please, and you'll see my brothers and you'll see the last

verse is my brothers. So what actually happens is that

Stephen did this incredible thing about all these vices and

virtues that are fighting each other.

But if you take the bracket further out, you will see it's

relational. God is trying to build a

community that looks different to the world.

And, and what we do, especially if you've been to a Christian

School, you have, you have a whole lot of classes about the

fruit of the spirit. And the fruit of the spirit is

Lovejoy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness,

self-control. We can all sing the songs and we

go through these things of how to apply to ourselves and it

becomes a law in itself. But the law is not meant to be

for me to become peaceful and full of joy.

It's actually to apply it into a community context.

And so we are deeply individualistic, deeply.

And we think when we read the Bible, we're reading it in an

individualistic capacity, but the brackets of the whole

scripture is that we can actually get a community to go

together. And, and there's this

circumcision issue, which is an external thing.

Last week I saw more black guys on the stage than white guys.

First time I've ever seen that in three CI and the amazing

young black guy leading worship. And about six or eight months

ago when he led worship, he sang an Afrikaans song.

And I thought that was really, really, really amazing because

he did it to honor the majority of this auditorium, which is

Afrikaans. But actually, he doesn't need to

sing an Afrikaans song for you to accept him.

He's accepted in Christ. And so we have all these things

in Galatians. The issue is circumcision.

But if we're not careful, we can take that little sign to

anything. You must dress to please me, and

you must sing to please me. And it's OK to have black

worship leaders as long as every time you sing a set of songs,

there's one Afrikaans song. That way we'll accept you.

Now that's rubbish. We will accept you because of

Christ. And, and we just have to be

careful that we don't put these sort of little things upon

people in order to make it a little bit more palatable to

work together. The, the, the, it would be

difficult for some people to walk in, one, to see a woman

leading a meeting, two, to see a black woman leading a meeting.

It, it, it's quite difficult. But her and I are completely

equal in Christ. That's the book of Galatians and

the and the and the and the wow factor is that you and I can

come from such unbelievably different backgrounds and yet

form a community where we exercise peace and joy and love

and patience and kindness and gentleness and self-control.

Not to the phrase that says suit suk suit suk suit is a worldly

phrase where you where you gather around people that are

similar to you. There is no power in suit Suk

suit. It's very easy for me to get on

with an A type personality who loves rugby, enjoys talking and

tell stories. Very easy for me to do that.

It's not that easy for me to get on with an introverted guy who

is shy by nature. And actually the blessing is

when him and I start working together, the pulpit should

actually thrive and people should be fed.

And then you throw some more people and you throw Christian

in from the Congo and you throw Eugene and you grew up in the in

Kamati put. And as we start understanding

each other, we start to build a community of brotherhood.

And so not only is the theology bracketed but conceited, but

it's actually, if you take it one further, we are brothers and

sisters in Christ. And that's vitally important as

we understand this. Are you with me?

And so we've looked at a whole lot of different words through

this time. You can just put the words up

there and have tried to understand them.

So righteousness, what is that? Is that by behavior, the law?

The law is the whole of the Old Testament, thousands and

thousands of laws. Abraham, we are credited with

Abraham. We've got a sinful nature.

So, so it's like I try and do one thing, but I do another

thing in the book of Galatians that I read, it's called the

flesh in in the book that Stephen is called the sinful

nature. So it's the things I try and do.

I don't do the things I don't do.

It's just like there's this wrestle inside of me.

There's Moses and, and a lot of the church preaches Moses.

We've got to live under the law. We've got to become obedient,

but we preach Abraham, the circumcision.

The circumcision is an external thing.

And you have to be very, very careful that we don't have

external factors that accept us into the church.

I don't like the way he dressed. I don't like the way he wears a

hat. I don't like the external things

are not important. And, and, and we see people who

behave like hooligans during the week and then on Sunday they put

on a jacket and a tie. It is steeped inside of our

culture. On Sundays, they put on a jacket

and a tie to somehow appease God, be more acceptable, be nice

to Jesus. And I've said this, one of the

biggest fights was for some of you to come in short pants.

And I know it's still a fight, but it is not external

acceptance that brings us into the body of Christ.

It's Jesus. Are you with me?

And he just goes over and over again, say, Rudy, why do you

keep doing this? I'm going to keep doing it until

we are completely free. Amen.

And then we start honoring one another, and then we start

serving one another, not inviting you to your house, that

you can invite me back. And we have parties between Moy

Cliff and Boardwalk. It's, it's got to have some kind

of framework. I can't have a young black guy

leading worship thinking I must sing an Afrikaans song to at

least. No, He must do that to honor

you, but you must not expect that of him in order to be

accepted. And so we live with this honor

and yet acceptance, honor and acceptance, acceptance and

honor. Amen.

And it's not easy. It's easier just to walk out and

go and join the church that's like you.

And then we don't have to battle with these things.

And then, and then the Bible says the angels look down upon

the earth and they aren't marveled at the manifold wisdom

of God. Manifold means multi colored,

multi talented, multi different backgrounds, multi everything as

God brings them together. The angels look and think flip

God, you are amazing. You're amazing.

I've just I've just I mean I was sitting at the at the door

today. I was standing at the door and a

young girl that I actually I'm not baptized.

I am. What's the word dedicated her?

I knew her mom and dad. I dedicated her, she came up to

Pretoria. She is from the English of

English of English families, and she met an Afrikaans guard

called Chicken. You believe it?

We should actually get old rubbie vessels to come up and

sing. And, you know, today they

invited his parents for the first time.

So they're sitting in this auditorium and I just want to

weep. I said, I'm so touched at this

unity. I'm so touched by the diversity.

I'm so touched by the honor across my comfort zone.

That's the book of that's the book of Galatians.

It's it's an honor. And yet there's some of your

conformities that are stuck inside of you that are fighting

with the thinking, I'm disobeying God, or I'm

disobeying my parents, or I'm disobeying my upbringing.

But that is true freedom in Christ.

And we have to disobey anything that does not exist in Scripture

so that we can come into absolute freedom.

Amen. And holiness, God wants

holiness. People say to me, you're

preaching so radically that we're not going to be holy.

No, God wants a holy church. He doesn't want sin.

He wants sin to stop. But the way we get to holiness

is not by abiding of the law. The way we get to holy holiness

is by the Holy Spirit coming inside of us.

And so there's the cross and there's the grace, and there's

circumcision, there's the law, and there's all of these things

in the book of Galatians. So let's have a look from where

Stephen finished last week, verse 26.

It says, let us not become conceited, provoking and envying

each other. He's just finished with the

fruits of the Spirit. And the first thing he says, let

us not become conceited, provoking and envying each

other. Provocation is strong people

poking weak people. I will never provoke somebody

who's stronger than me. I only provoke when I know that

I can win. So why don't you stand, Simon?

I promise you. I promise you in front of all

these people, I will never provoke you.

I might smack you from behind with a baseball bat, but it'll

be a low blow from the back. You don't provoke because you

know you're going to get beaten up.

So, so say, listen. Inside of the church, you've got

strong people and you've got weak people.

Don't pick on the weak guys. Don't provoke them because we're

actually meant to be in a place, you know, The church is actually

not the survival of the fittest or the survival of the

strongest. The church is actually the

survival of the weakest. It says is a bruised reader will

not break in. A smoldering Wicker will not

snuff out. And so when you come into the

church, it shouldn't be pushing you at your weak place like a

push, push, push, push, push and pull something reactions.

No, don't provoke each other and don't envy each other.

And so there's some really successful people in this

church, but don't look at their success and think, I wish I had

it. You haven't got it.

So don't envy them because provocation and envy breaks the

fruit of the Spirit. And So what we should actually

do is celebrate the fact that some people in our church have

been blessed. A man has joined the church.

He said, you know, when I'd walked out this, he said before

I got to my car, I counted six and a half million rands worth

of vehicles. I say praise God.

Praise God, some of you have just been blessed.

Everything you touch turns to gold.

And actually, it's so nice to have you in the church and I'm

not going to envy you. I don't want your car, but I

can't celebrate the fact that you're going to don't provoke an

envy. Just enjoy each people don't

think, oh, I wish I had that. Or why did it go so well for

him? And how come it hasn't gone so

well for me? We sort of, we sort of find

peace, find peace with each other, Lovejoy, peace, patience,

kindness. We're not going to break it with

sort of flesh. And the church is no different

to the world because there's this sort of this fleshliness.

No, we're going to, we're going to enjoy each other.

And when I, when I see a guy drive out and he's brand new,

there's a 4.6 million Rand GT, I've seen it.

I see a drive out and think, wow, wow, God, look what it says

here, brothers say brothers. If someone is caught in a sin,

he's talking to Christians so you can preach Lovejoy, peace,

patience, kindness, gentle and self-control.

They will never ever sin. It's like this auditorium full

of holy people. We, we are trying to be holy.

But if you get caught in sin, that's the same word as trapped.

If someone is caught in sin, you who are spiritual, as you're

trying to be holy, you who are spiritual should restore him

gently. So this is the standard.

This is how we're going to live in three CI Lovejoy, peace,

patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control.

This is what we're going to reject.

Sexual immorality, debauchery, evil thoughts.

We're going to reject that. And this is how we're going to

live. Amen.

And the first thing is like, if anyone gets caught in the sun,

don't be harsh with them. Restore them gently.

I want to be part of a church that when somebody is sinned,

there's not harshness, there's gentleness.

And the picture is just of a bone breaking.

And when a bone is broken, you don't go in and say, how's the

bone doing? I mean, no, they'll send you for

ACT scan. And then if there's not enough

evidence, they'll send you for an MRI scan.

If there's not enough evidence, they'll send you back then and

then and then they will sit. There's a doctor sitting in this

auditorium and there are two doctors sitting in this

auditorium that operate with robots now.

And the doctor said this to me. He said when I used to operate

in the past, if a 42 year old guy had a knee injury when I

operated, I took his knee back to a 42 year old knee back to

health. He said now with the robot, I

take his knee back to a 18 year old knee.

And, and I think that's what he's saying.

He's saying, listen, if somebody's broken their bone

sexually, don't smash them. Don't mock them.

Don't sit and say, hey, we're trying to build this holy

society called the church. But inside the church, the

sinners, he says, listen, just take them and gently put their

bone back together. Not to a 42 year old, back to an

18 year old where the arm and the knee and the joints work

properly together. Hey, man.

And so this is a very high standard that that Paul is

setting, but he's implementing it extremely gently.

And when we set these high standards, you think, oh, it's

another burden to bear, but that's not opposing.

He says Jesus bore the burden. Amen.

But watch yourself or you also may be tempted.

So don't think because your spiritual a guy who's in porno

when you get involved to try and gently just be careful because

you can also get hooked. Carry each other's burdens and

in this way you'll fulfill the law of Christ.

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

themselves. So don't think too much of

yourself, guys, when you sit here when a girl gets up, black

girl gets up and leads, Don't think too much of yourself or a

young guy gets up and leads and stumbles across his words.

Don't think too much of yourself.

You're not that clever. Don't think because you've been

serving God for 65 years that you're more qualified than the

guy who got saved 3 weeks ago. We all hear by the grace of God,

each one should test his own actions.

Then he can take pride in himself without comparing

himself to somebody else. For each one should carry his

own load. So it's very interesting.

I must carry your burden. Why don't you stand hilly?

The Bible says I must help you carry your burden, but I must

carry my own load. So on my back I've got a load.

In that load is a wife, four children, a mother, a

business, a sister, a niece. He's got cancer.

And I got a bit of a load. And so have you.

But the Bible says you must carry your own load.

Because what we do is, is I take this over and say, Healy, would

you mind carrying this on me? Because it's not.

You need to carry the load. Many people come to church, say,

hey, will you? Will you carry my load?

I said, no, I'm not called to carry load.

You must carry your own load. You must find faith for your

rent and you must find faith for your children, and you must find

faith for the life that God has given to you.

And you must find faith. Let's find faith for it.

Otherwise you come here and say, the church is not meeting my

need. No, I'm not meant to meet you.

You meant you're meant to go with God with your load and and

you've got a wife and I'm looking at one of my friends now

his wife has gone into a different set of antibiotics

because her blood levels are are not that's his load.

He must carry it. Otherwise I'll come here every

Sunday. I'll tell you about my niece and

I'll tell you about my sister and I'll tell you about my mom

and I'll tell you about my business.

That's I must carry it. And then I see Hilton when I

walk out the auditorium and I say, hey, Haley, how you doing?

He says I'm doing well raw. I'm actually changing my jobs

now and, and and I'm I'm not quite sure what this is.

I said, hey, can I help you with your burden, Hilly?

Can we pray together? You want to share that with me?

Can I for the next two weeks, can I just help you as you

transition? And so you've got loads and

burdens. Don't make your load somebody

else's burden you with me. Carry it.

Get faithful. You can sit Hilly.

And I saw there was a time when when Hilton's son made some

choices and it and it wasn't just his load.

He's got a load. He has to provide for his son

and to pay for his education. He has to get him qualified.

He has to pay for his university or find loans to pay for his

university. But then there was a time that

his son's choices were affecting him.

Becomes a burden. I can come and help you, Healy.

Let me help you. Does it make sense?

Look at the next verse says anyone who receives instruction

in the word must say all good things with these instructor.

There's too much Internet. You listen to too many guys

online. Just stay here for a length of

time. I'll teach you the whole Bible

and then make sure Stephen can have a holiday in your house and

belita. That's what it says exactly what

it says, exactly what it says it says.

Share the load, including the load of Stevens holidays,

exactly what it says. So it's actually there's there's

some load. Yeah, there's some.

And actually since Stephen and Kathy away, they're working

hard. Yeah.

I'm very fortunate that my dad has left his family a house.

And so I don't need your house. I go to my dad's house.

So. So that's I don't need to be a

burden to you for a holiday because.

Inside of my load is a package that helps me have a holiday.

But but Stephen doesn't have that and and nor does Clint.

So so help help bless him. And there's some guys up there

who've got fancy houses and the coast and there's some guys down

here who need holidays. So just say share the load,

share the burden, share the blessing.

No provoking, no envying. He's got no dad.

Never had a dad. Dads provide opportunities.

Dads bust their guts to try and pay off your university fees.

He's got a degree. He's got it on his degree.

She runs our finances in the church.

Well, hey, Max, can we pay off your student loan?

And so this is a weighty piece of scripture.

It's like a Lovejoy. Peace, patience, kindness,

gentleness, self-control. But I'm not under the law, but I

am under a burden, and the burden is primarily you.

Yeah. And he says, don't think more

highly of yourself than you ought.

Not that clever. Don't boast in anything but the

cross. You know that incredible

scripture when I surveyed the wondrous cross on which the

Prince of Glory died, My richest guy in our count, but lost.

And poor contempt. A poor contempt, a poor content

on all my pride, a poor content on all my pride.

Friends, people come from all over the country to look at this

building. They come from all over the

country. And they asked this question,

how did you raise the money for this facility in the middle of

COVID? And I said, I want to tell you

this, for three weeks I did the best leadership job I've ever

done in my whole life to raise the money.

And I trusted God for 15,000,000 Rand.

And I don't know if you know this, but the first offering we

took up for this building was 50,000 Rand.

And in all my pride, in all my leadership ability, in all my

ability to motivate people, I could raise 50,000 Rand when I

surveyed the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died.

My riches gain, our comfort, loss and poor contempt.

Poor contempt on all my pride. I had an absolute inability to

access any form of financing in my human ability and therefore I

cannot stand up here and boast because everything we have is by

the grace of God. And friends, if you think

differently, you need to repent because everything you've got is

also by the grace of God, also by the grace of God.

Because some of your kids write them a trick and they smash 8A's

and and we take them for dinner and we celebrate and we buy them

cars and we reward them for their intelligence.

That was a gift from God because I know some kids that work their

backsides off and they get 6 DS from a trick, but they've put in

exactly the same amount of effort.

No provoking, no envying, no provoking, no envying.

I know some men that have worked like Trojans and they've got

tiny little businesses. I know some people that have

started businesses by the favor of God.

They have multiplied exponentially into the most

unbelievable places. Poor contempt on all my pride.

Amen. And so we stand here by

absolute, absolute grace, by grace alone in Christ alone,

through faith alone in Scripture alone.

Nothing else. Do not be deceived.

God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.

The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature

will reap destruction. And sometimes I get people who

come up here and they're destructed.

They're completely destructed. The reality is, friends, there

is a long term reality to our faith.

There is long term reality to faith.

The one who sows to please the Spirit from the Spirit will reap

eternal life. Let us not become wary and doing

good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not

give up. Therefore, as we have

opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially those who

belong to the family of believers.

Let's be kind to the people around you ongoingly.

You see what large letters I use as I write to you with my own

hand. Those who want to make a good

impression outwardly are trying to compel you to be circumcised.

The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for

the cross of Christ. Not even those who are

circumcised obey the law, yet they want you to become

circumcised, that they may boast about your flesh.

May I never boast, may I never boast.

May Stephen never boast. May no worship leader ever boast

except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I want to say to you, Sir and ma'am, you are nothing outside

of Christ. You are nothing outside of

Christ. You might be educated, you might

be rich, you might be strong, you might be successful, but you

are nothing outside of Christ. And for those of you who are

broken and bankrupt and caught in pornography, you have every

chance in Christ. He can restore you.

How gently in this community, I don't know if you know, I don't

know if it's that guitar, but there's a guy here who loves

guitars and he said last week on stage, he said it was like porn.

It was like guitar porn. He says the best guitars, the

best guitars in the world were being played.

That guy, that guy was about to lose his marriage and his wife

made a decision to pursue her husband.

She made a decision one day to pursue her husband and to break

the ice cold that existed between them.

And then by faith, he went into a business.

And in that business, in the corner of a storeroom was one of

the most valuable guitars in this country.

And his new partner said to him, why don't you have that guitar?

And now, friends, when we stand here, he can't stand on the

stage and boast about his fancy guitar or his fancy life or his

opportunity to lead worship because he was this far away

from losing it all. And then his wife, by the Spirit

of God, made a choice. Where's Louie?

That I met in the Louie Where you that I prayed for the other

day? Was it Louie Where you Louie?

Why don't you come down here? Come here quickly.

Come and tell us what happened 2 weeks ago.

People say why are you doing this?

Because I want to tell you this. Your culture in Pretoria is a

private culture that says I will do nothing publicly and I will

live my life privately and I will struggle privately and I

will hide anything because I'm too embarrassed and in ever to

be ashamed. But this is not a shameful

place. This is a place of grace.

I'll stand here by grace. That's what happened, Lee.

Now it's difficult for me to stand there.

I was about to lose my wife and I gave my life to the Lord.

And yeah, I got baptized, not for the reason to make my

marriage work again, but to get back on track with Jesus.

And then on the Monday I went to my wife, well I moved out for

about 3 months and she said move back on the Friday.

So that's it's an absolute blessing from God.

So, but yeah, if you want to ask me if God exists, I need to tell

you three things. I got baptized the Sunday

morning. I'm an attorney the Monday.

That's a miracle in. Itself the Monday I had my

brothers ride the accident fun climb.

I settled it for 10.1 million. The Monday evening I went to my

wife and she said and moved back Friday.

So there are three blessings in two days.

God does it. 1st Meg's come here if you don't mind.

Let's let's stand there with a bit of space.

Stand between us. That's a guy who led the

worship. There's a girl who did the

meeting. This is a guy who preached.

That's a guy that I met at the front door.

When I surveyed the wondrous cross on which the Prince of

Glory died. My riches gained account, but

loss and poor contempt on all my pride.

I can't envy your guitar because God blessed you with it.

I can't provoke you in law because you'll sought me out in

court. You can't envy me because I'm in

thy a son. It's a gift.

God gave it to me. God gave me the gift of being in

and till thy son. But I can't provoke her because

she never had a dad. And so we become friends.

I carry my load and I help her with her burden.

She carries her load. She helps me with my burden.

You carry your load. We share the burden.

And all of a sudden God starts to build a New Testament church.

And this is how it ends. The last verse of Galatians.

This is how it ends. Keep, keep standing here.

This is how the last verse of Galatians ends.

The grace of our capital L, Capital J Capital C Be with your

spirit. It should be brothers and

sisters. Amen.

It says we study Galatians. We're not under the law, but God

wants holiness. We're completely free, but we

still struggle. Moses is finished, but Abraham

is with us. Righteousness is possible, but

sin is knocking at the door. Life is tough.

It's heavy, but I must carry it and get faith.

We have got gifts, we must share them.

We met a couple on the side of the cricket field 5 three years

ago. I'm leaving tomorrow.

I'm going down to watch the World Cup for a month with my

wife. Expensive to go to Cape Town.

I don't have a house in Cape Town, but the person that we met

on the side of the field on a on a school outing at Saint Albans

College. Because God is wherever you are.

If you're at cross from time, God is there.

Otherwise we'll sit here and say cross from time men though.

Menlo, Afees, Afees, Vata, Cliff, no friends.

Just carry your load. If your load is Afees, carry

your load. If your load is Menlo, carry

your load. But don't don't lose what I'm

saying. If your load is Hussies, carry

it. If your load is Eduplex, carry

it. If your load is Watercliff,

carry it. So my load is Saint Albans.

I pray you know, you know my load is Hilton.

I pray I went to Hilton. My load is Hilton.

I carry Hilton in my heart. I carry the faith of Hilton in

my heart. And when I said, ah, there he

goes again. Yes, there I go again.

It's my load. I'm not asking you to share it.

I must carry it. But the priest from that school

came up to have a canoe race and he phoned me and last night he's

in my house until late at night talking about the faith of the

school. It's my load.

And Vardakliff is your load and Constantine is your load, and

Menlo Park is your load. Carry it and Saint Albans is my

load. I pray for the headmaster, I

pray for the teacher. Some of them are coming to

church now. And the lady and my husband that

we met there called my wife and said, hey, I heard you're going

to Cape Town for a month. We've got a house in Cape Town.

Would you use that? Rory will never, ever accept it.

No, but but we, but we need to because we're building

community. And so there's somebody who's

sitting here that we met on the side of the field that I'm going

to stay in their house. That's going to save me a lot of

money so that I can watch my son so that I can fulfill the load

that God has placed upon me. Amen.

You have a load. You have a load.

You have a load. You've also got burdens and as

we share them, our burdens see our loads see our burdens carry,

our load help each other carry. God starts to build a church.

English like Afrikaans, like beautiful black lady, an

arrogant man who's learnt to pull content on all my pride

because I know without Jesus we can do nothing, we can't boast

or brag. And now I say to you, go in the

grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, brothers and sisters, as we have

a go of trying to build a church that looks like the church in

Galatians, Amen.