He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother

Rom 15:1-7

You probably heard about the plane crash last week in Indianapolis. 4 people took off in a nice plane flying out of the city for a great vacation when problems began to happen. The plane lost power and crashed into a residential pond. Several neighbors saw the accident and quick ran to the pond, dove in and rescued the occupants of the plane.

Now they could have said, “oh those poor people, sure wish someone would do something about them” and watch them drown. They could have said, “oh those stupid people, don’t they know that planes are for flying, boats go on the water” and let them drown. They could have come up with lots of reasons not to help those in the plane, but they didn’t. They jumped in and helped them to the safety of the shore. They probably ruined their clothes and wallets, but they were more concerned with the salvation of the injured people than their own personal property.

They lived our text in a physical manner. I’m going to show you how to live it out in a spiritual manner.

PRAYER

I. Bear With The Failings of The Weak

A. No instant elders

1. Last week we talked about not judging each other over disputable matters. This week we’re going to learn about accepting each other and helping each other.

2. This should be a no brainer lesson, but we tend to forget these basic ideas from time to time and it’s good to be reminded of them.

3. In the downstairs class we got on the subject of a fatal flaw in most churches. We talked about how we work hard to lead someone to Christ and baptize them, and then we forget about them.

4. Somehow in our collective minds we seem to thing that once they are saved they instantly know everything.

5. Kind of like instant potatoes. Just add water.

6. Salvation is the birth of a Christian, not the graduation of a Christian.

B. Bear with the failings

1. What that means, is that these new Christians are going to make mistakes, they are going to struggle with sins we have long conquered, they are going to charge ahead with a new found zeal and not know where they are going.

2. In other words, they aren’t going to be perfect like us!

3. Oh yeah, we’re not perfect either except by the grace of God.

4. God calls the strong to bear with the failing of the weak

a) It’s realizing they aren’t going to do everything perfectly.

b) It’s the idea of giving them the ability to grow in their faith without our running them into the ground.

c) It’s knowing they are going to do and say things that Christians shouldn’t do or say.

d) But just like children, they have to be taught those things patiently and with love.

II. Not to please ourselves

A. After reminding the strong to be patient with the weak he then says they aren’t about pleasing themselves.

1. Here’s were I want to camp for a bit.

2. This is where the church fails.

3. Not just Rochester, but most every established church.

4. We get it in our mind that it’s about us, because we have put in the sweat equity.

a) It was us who built the building.

b) We are the ones who have done all the work for the last x amount of years.

c) We have paid the dues and now we need to be rewarded by shaping things to make us happy.

d) We deserve it!

e) And many of you are inwardly agreeing with what I have just said.

f) And many of you are wrong in that attitude.

B. Who needs the building up the most?

1. Mature Christians are just that mature.

a) You are here whenever the doors are open.

b) You are here for the workdays.

c) You are the backbone of the church and it’s functions.

d) I don’t visit our mature Christians near as much as new Christians because your faith doesn’t need the constant bolstering a newer Christian needs.

e) You will be faithful to God in life and death.

f) Strong Christians are strong because of the time and effort they have done to be in that place.

2. Weak Christians are in the danger zone

a) The weaker Christian is growing but they are in a very dangerous place.

b) They know enough to need God, but not enough to stay faithful when their faith is tested.

c) They need the constant encouragement, they need the extra attention.

d) They will fall away from Christ easier during trials than a stronger Christian will.

e) That’s why we need to make sure their needs are met first.

f) They are who Paul is talking about in verse 2 READ

C. Helping the weaker

1. Warning, I’m about to say some things some of you won’t like to hear.

2. The faith of most of our teens is weak.

3. If we have a worship style that doesn’t connect to them and they don’t see the relevance of worshipping God, they will quit once they are on their own.

4. We need to make sure we sing the type of songs that touches their heart as well as ours.

5. We need to make sure they are taken care of spiritually.

6. Our best teachers need to be teaching the young people.

7. Our resources need to be focused on meeting the needs of weaker Christians.

8. We have to give them every chance to grow into a stronger Christian.

9. I’m not saying we should abandon the things that stronger Christians need to grow even stronger, I’m saying we need to focus on our weakest Christians first and do whatever we can do to help them grow EVEN if it means putting my desires second to theirs.

10. We tend to think the weaker Christian simply needs to get their act together and do things like the stronger Christian does.

11. That’s the goal, but that’s not where they are at yet, and we have an obligation to help them in every way we possibly can to reach that goal.

D. Accept one another

1. The first goal of all Christians is to be right with God.

2. The second goal is to be unified in that effort.

3. verse 5 tells us to work together to glorify God with one heart and mouth.

a) When a church all has Christ foremost in their lives, unity will not be an issue.

b) We need to have the same desire to praise God above all else.

4. Paul really puts the pressure on with the last part of verse 7. AS CHRIST ACCEPTED YOU.

5. Christ gave up living in Heaven with God.

6. He put his needs secondary to ours.

7. Christ lowered himself to live as a human and then sacrifice himself.

8. All this was done because he accepted us with our failings and faults.

9. We need to do the same for others.

10. It doesn’t matter if you are the weaker or the stronger. If we all accept each other as Christ accepted us, God will be glorified and we will be unified.