The Only Thing That Counts

Gal 5:5-6

An old man told a story recently about growing up in Nazi Germany during WWII. He was a good church going kid whose church had a railroad right behind it. Most of the time the trains were not a problem during worship…until the Germans started transporting the Jews to the death camps. The first time it happened, they were in services and heard the train whistle in the distance. Just another Sunday. As it came past the building, suddenly they heard the cries and screams of the desperate Jews calling for help as the train slowly went by. They wept for these people. Week after week the same gruesome story played out. To cope with the cries of the Jews, whenever they heard the train whistle in the distance they would begin singing hymns, singing louder and louder until the train came by and they sang at the top of their voices hoping to drown out the pleading of the people in the death trains. If they heard the cries they would try to sing even louder.

The old man said, “Even today, I can still hear the train whistle. I can still hear them crying out for help. God forgive all of us who called ourselves Christians, yet did nothing to intervene.”

READ vs. 5-6

PRAYER

I. The Only Thing That Counts

A. Value in the kingdom of God

1. Our society puts a lot of emphasis on value.

a) How valuable is a person to society?

b) How valuable is an item in worth?

c) How valuable is an employee?

2. the Kingdom of heaven turns the value system upside down.

a) The Jews thought they were more valuable than the Gentiles because they kept the law of God.

b) They were even more valuable than gentile Christians because they kept the Christian law AND the Jewish law.

c) Paul reminds them that in the kingdom we are ALL worthless without the grace of Jesus

d) But that we can eagerly await righteousness because Christ made us all priceless

e) Not long ago a man bought a painting at a garage sale for a couple of dollars. It was worthless, except the painting was done over a painting by Picasso. Because of the Picasso underneath, that painting became priceless.

f) It’s the same with Christians. In us we have God and because of that we become priceless.

B. Faith

1. Paul has been contrasting the difference between faith and Grace and the law.

2. Again, he stresses the law and circumcision along with anything besides faith in the grace of God has no value.

3. We must have faith

a) Trust in God’s grace.

b) Faith isn’t a dormant thing that just sits there. Faith works. That’s what Jas 2 is all about.

c) If you have faith in God, your faith is going to be working.

d) It’s the same here. Faith is going to be working.

C. Expressing itself through love

1. Faith for Christians is going to express itself through agape love.

2. There is a saying that goes, “people don’t care what you believe until they believe you care.”

3. Faith expressing itself through love is that caring.

4. The South Pole could be called the healthiest place on earth, because there's no pollution, no dust, and very few people. The air is as fresh and clean as it must have been everywhere before man began pouring industrial wastes into the atmosphere. Furthermore, it's one of the few locations where man is not bombarded by germs. Not only is it too cold for them to be active, but there's nothing for them to live on. And since winds start at the South Pole and move northward, they tend to keep away any contaminants from that region. Now, you'd think people would be eager to live in such a germ-free environment, but they're not. With temperatures that drop to 100 degrees below zero, it's just too cold!

5. Some churches bear a striking resemblance to that kind of atmosphere. The truth of God is preached. Error has no chance to survive. Scriptures are meticulously quoted by the chapters. But there is no corresponding obedience or love, and the spiritual temperature is sub- zero. Unloved and untouched, many people leave.

II. Running The Race vs 7-12

A. We must run the race

1. Paul uses an analogy of running a race.

2. That is really what the Christian life is all about. We are running a marathon.

3. We can’t keep a sprint going for long. It’s too hard.

4. We need to steadily grow in our faith and build endurance to go the long haul.

5.

B. Someone cuts in on the runners

1. He tells them they were on pace. They were running a good race but something terrible happened. Someone must have cut in on them.

2. During the Olympics, Antonio Ono was the hands on favorite to win a gold medal in speed skating. Everything was going fine until another skater cut in on him forcing him to back away. He came in second.

3. The Galatians had gotten off track because someone had been teaching them things that were simply not true. Because of that, they had lost their focus.

C. Sin can destroy the whole congregation

1. Paul uses a cooking analogy to talk about how sin can destroy an whole congregation.

2. A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough

3. When we allow sin to go unchallenged is can have a devastating effect on a congregation.

4. Church splits almost always could have been averted if elders or church members dealt with sinful attitudes when they developed rather than allowing things to fester.

5. sinful lifestyles in the church often leave the wrong message to the rest of the congregation that it doesn’t matter how you live, just come to church.

6. Remember what Paul told the Corinthian church in 1 Cor 5.

a) Even worldly people wouldn’t accept that sinful lifestyle.

b) How would they view the church of God when it’s members are living in such a sinful way and the church lends a blind eye to their actions?

c) People still expect Christians to live differently than the world and when we don’t and nothing is said or done, the world just smiles and re-enforces their notion that God doesn’t really matter in people’s lives.

III. Concl.

A. The only thing that counts

1. Faith -

a) living as we should.

b) Living trusting in God’s saving in grace.

2. Expressed -

a) Our faith needs to be active.

b) Not words only,

c) but lifestyle; we need to run the race and stay focused.

3. In love

a) We need to be firm with those who are actively living or teaching things that go against God’s teaching.

b) But, even dealing with those who are wrong, we need to handle them in ways that show we care about their souls.