[0:00] Has there ever been anything that you thought that you would just be naturally good at it? Maybe you're overconfident. You go to the carnival, and because you played basketball when you were younger, you think you can put that basketball into that hoop that's that small, and the ball is this big.
[0:14] Or maybe you saw a recipe, and you said, I can get that. And then when you were done, you didn't nail it, right? It was just not the same thing. If I could tell you in here today that parenting is one of those things like that for me, I thought it would come very naturally and easily.
[0:29] I should have known all these cute babies would bring many guests here today, but I didn't expect to make this confession before some people I didn't know, is that parenting for me or caring for others is harder for me than I thought when I imagined it in a hypothetical sense.
[0:45] I like hanging out with kids. Parenting should be easy. There's no correlation, all right, between the two of those things. Just hanging out or spending time and sending them back, you know, that's what grandparents do, all right?
[0:56] I was ready for grandparenting. I wasn't ready for parenting. And here's the issue that I really have to address in my life. I'm going to encourage you to do the same. It's this.
[1:07] I struggle bearing the burdens of others in a spirit of meekness. I struggle bearing the burdens of others in a spirit of weakness.
[1:18] The verse that we've read already several times is about being a helper of joy. I want to encourage you to determine that you're going to be a helper of joy.
[1:28] That phrase, which comes out at the end of the first chapter of 2 Corinthians, it comes as Paul was writing the Corinth. His relationship with that church was challenging. If you would ask him, how's it going with Corinth, he would say, it's complicated, all right?
[1:41] His relationship with that church had been complicated. At one point, he says, I was minded to come to you, but I'm not going to. In chapter 123, he gives an explanation in case they don't wonder, why haven't you come and seen us yet?
[1:54] Why haven't you come? And he says, I want to spare you by not coming. See, they questioned his everything. They questioned his apostleship. They made fun of his physical weaknesses.
[2:05] They questioned his integrity when he changed his plans. And so he is lovingly sending letters to them, and he's praying for them and giving them time to change before he makes that visit.
[2:19] He says, I suffered not to come. Very much like if I was to tell my kids down, they live down in the basement, and I would say, hey, you're supposed to clean your room, but now I'm at the top of the stairs.
[2:29] And I say, I'm coming down in a little bit, all right? I'm giving them a little bit more time to do the thing that they should have done before I go in there.
[2:40] And in knowing that he's coming to them in this regard, he gives an answer that says, I'm coming to you not as one that has dominion over your faith, but as helpers of your joy.
[2:52] He's sharing his heart with them. He said, I just, I care about you. I care about your joy. I don't just care about your poor behavior and the way it makes us all look, but I really care about your heart and your joy.
[3:05] So it speaks about faith and it speaks about joy and it speaks about faith interchangeably because in life with a Christian, if you're going to have joy, you're going to stand in faith. And so he's acting here based on his affections and not just his authority to go into the situation and to tell them what they should do.
[3:23] And the verse 24, it says, having dominion over faith and being helpers. The contrast isn't between the word faith and joy, but it's between the two different ideas of coming in with dominion and being a helper.
[3:34] You know, all of us live under authority. As you get older, you think that you're going to have less people that you answer to, but you become aware of the fact that you have more people that you give an answer to in your life.
[3:47] And as parents, we have an ambassadorial authority, meaning that the authority is not independent of us, but it's given to us by God and for his purposes. One of the books that we gave here, Shepherding Child's Heart, Paul Tripp says, You stand as a physical, visible representative of the authority of God in the lives of your children.
[4:08] God makes his authority visible by sending parents of authority to represent his authority in the lives of children who need authority. That we are representatives of the authority of God, our care for them.
[4:22] And one of the things that ought to be represented is our care for their joy. You know, no kid's ever studied like, no kid's ever studied and said at a young age, I'm going to do a keto plan or I'm going to do this plan.
[4:34] No kid's ever done a sleep study and said, you know, it'd be better to go to bed at 10 instead of 9. So they don't have any ideas about diet or any ideas about a sleep plan when they're little, when they know that you're wrong about what they should eat.
[4:47] And you're wrong about what time they should go to bed because it's just a matter of authority to them. They know at a young age that they would prefer to choose. And they know that you represent the authority in their life.
[5:01] But with this authority comes a responsibility. I don't want you to miss it in the life of Paul as he's working among the churches. Philippians chapter 1 verse 25, it says, and having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith.
[5:19] He's giving his statement of what he hopes to happen from his involvement with the influence he's been giving, with the authority he's been given. He wants to see a result that their joy of faith would go farther.
[5:33] To the point that when he's not going to go somewhere and he's going to send Timothy, his statement about Timothy is that there's no one who will naturally care for your state like he would.
[5:44] The same way that I would care for you, I can trust that Timothy is going to. So every one of us ought to be in this ministry of being a helper of joy. For Paul it was costly.
[5:55] Beaten, shipwrecked, and robbed, and all these things. But he says in 2 Corinthians 2 about not being able to go to them. He says, if I make you sorry, then who is a he that will make me glad?
[6:06] He sees a connection between them walking in joy and his joy. No greater joy than see that my children walk in truth. Paul is saying that I'm giving my life for the furtherance of your faith.
[6:19] I'm giving my life for the furtherance of your joy here. And so parents, we have an application quite ready for us. Season 6, 4, and you fathers, provoke not your children the wrath, but bring them up and nurture and admonition of the Lord.
[6:34] If we're going to properly nurture the children in our home, we are going to help them find joy. And you might be thinking, this too?
[6:45] I have to give them shoes, a house, and an education. Now you want me to be responsible for something that is that serious. And not just for your children, but your responsibility for other people.
[6:57] So even though your responsibility may be greater than others than you have imagined, our resources are more than sufficient for this. So that takes us to Galatians. How do we help become somebody, be a helper of their joy?
[7:12] And this passage speaks about bearing one another's burdens. You heard it this morning, as you often know on Sunday morning, Pastor Bo, in our call to worship, he says, All that are spiritually weary and seek rest, all that mourn and long for comfort, all who sin and need a Savior, all who struggle and desire victory.
[7:28] And he says that at the very beginning, as we pray that God's Word will provide rest and comfort and victory in your life. It is a privilege and responsibility that we have.
[7:41] If you see someone weighed down by some burden, you should quickly do something to help them. This is the law of Christ. Galatians 5, 6, The law that we saw before that showed us that we were in need of a Savior, that we were sinners, was a schoolmaster.
[8:02] But now we're under the law of Christ, and His yoke is easy, and this is how we live out our Christian life. And so this includes this caring for the burdens of others. This includes the little burden bearers in our home.
[8:16] All right? I'm coining a phrase for our children. This includes the little burden bearers in our home. Our children are not burdens, but they often carry burdens with them.
[8:30] And if we're going to help them with their joy, then we need to help them know what it is. Not be like the Pharisees that add to them on their shoulders of greater, but to help them. Our call to worship, we say this place here should be filled with people that are helpers of joy.
[8:46] We talk about ushers and deacons and musicians. But I pray that every one of you will sign up for this ministry that say that I want to be a helper of joy. It's a ministry we should all desire.
[8:57] If we're going to be helpers of joy, then it would follow that our joy in Jesus is of essential foundation to this ministry. Here is a ministry that will bring you more satisfaction than if you became a millionaire ten times over.
[9:12] Develop the extranorium skill for detecting the burdens of others and devote yourself daily to making them lighter. Greg, that was in the video for visiting with us, works in children's ministry, children's ministry director.
[9:26] He often likes to talk about a TED Talk. He says, this is my TED Talk. Thank you for coming. And what a TED Talk is, is usually a person who has some kind of social experiment. They might have done something for a long period of time.
[9:37] They had studied something. Well, in that regard, let me tell you this. As a person who's had the personal experience of being a pastor now of the church here for the last couple years, that helping others carry their burdens to Jesus has brought an incredible joy when carried properly.
[9:55] And that's true for all of us.
[10:11] I have no shame in admitting that to you because that's just the nature of bearing burdens. When we carry them properly, then they bring great joy to us and that we can help other people. But when we carry them in our own flesh, it creates a bitterness and a resentment to us.
[10:28] All right. Carson, I want you to come up here for a second. All right. And he should have known it's parent education day that one of my kids would be involved in the service. And since Thatcher is in the back here.
[10:40] And hey, Thatcher, would you put that picture of Noah's Ark up there? I'm just kidding. There's no picture of Noah's Ark. He says that I do that to him all the time, that I make up pictures that aren't in the slide rotation for him to go up there.
[10:51] And we're going to talk about fishing here for a moment. Have a seat. You got VIP seat right here. Good seat. All right. Here in a moment, we're going to talk about fishing for a moment. I had poster boards until we went fishing yesterday.
[11:03] And I realized this is the more appropriate object lesson for it. But, you know, if I was to talk about fishing in here, and I don't know a whole lot about it. You'd think I would.
[11:13] I did a lot of it growing up, but I don't know a whole lot about it. But if I was to talk about all the different things that I need for fishing, you would name the rod and reel and the baits and the hooks and all the different things that are there.
[11:24] And I'm not coordinated enough to talk and play with hooks, so I'm going to step away from that. But I would say, what is essential? What is essentially needed if I'm going to help my kids learn how to fish?
[11:36] And it's not going to be any of those things in the bag. It's not going to be any of the equipment that I have. If I want my kids to learn to fish, then I just need to love to fish. All right? That's all there is to it. When Stephen and I hopped in the truck yesterday and we were headed to go fishing, me and him knew exactly the first thing you do when you go fishing.
[11:53] You stop at the gas station and you get snacks and you get sunflower seeds. See, there's all kinds of things that we learned about fishing that have nothing to do with the rod and reel and the hook. There's just everything to do with that moment that we got to have with his pappy or my dad or whoever it was that gathered that said, we just love this together.
[12:12] Because there's a place in which there was happiness and around what was happening. And so if you want to help people learn the fish, you must learn to love the fish yourself. Which is, in our lives, if we're going to be truly helpful in the lives of our children, then we must be truly holy.
[12:29] And you may say, don't check out on me here, okay? You say that's not obtainable, but it is because of Jesus Christ. Galatians 6.1 says, Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such as one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.
[12:46] This holiness is a dedication unto the Lord. When we speak about being which are spiritual, we're not thinking about thinking of some kind of title that would be something that you would give to yourself that would make you elite and above everybody else.
[13:02] When we say spiritual, we're just saying that we want to be led by the spirit. That we are people that are led by the spirit. That's what we have here in the word spiritual. And so if a man thinketh something of himself and he's not, he's deceiving himself.
[13:16] So the opposite of being spirit-led would be a person that would be prideful, which is led by the flesh. And that's what those five verses is contrasting. Either you're going to be spirit-led, spiritual, and if so, you can help other people that are bearing burdens.
[13:30] And if you aren't, then you're going to be in pride. And so the spiritual person will help bear burdens, not in their own strength, but by pointing to Christ where there is healing. In the same manner, we see the Holy Spirit bring people to Christ.
[13:43] As a spirit-led person, we will do the same. The work of the Holy Spirit in our lives brings us and points us to Jesus for everything that we ever need. When we know that we need a Savior, we're pointing to Jesus.
[13:56] When we know that we're not enough, we find that he is all-sufficient. And so this produces a joy in our lives. That salvation, that joy of our salvation, it works in our lives. And it's a requirement.
[14:08] For a pastor in Hebrews 13, 17, it says that they may do it with joy, that they'd watch over other people. And the same with parents. If we're going to do our God-given responsibilities as unto the Lord, we should joyfully submit ourselves to God and do this in a way that would honor him.
[14:23] And so if I'm going to be a helper of other people's joys, then I must allow the great comforter, the Holy Spirit, to lead me, or I will become a tangled mess as well. Galatians 5, 16, This I say then, walk in the Spirit and you shall fulfill the lust of the flesh.
[14:40] And so the problem is when I fish is that I often find that I get everything tangled up. And yesterday, Thatcher rightfully said to me, he said, here you go, Carson, you can take this one here.
[14:55] Carson likes the open-faced one, all right. I like the rhino one over here. A little, yeah, this little Zepco one here. And you can just stay right there. And so with, when the problem with fishing that you know is you have this plan that you're just going to sit there and it's going to be relaxing.
[15:11] And Thatcher said, Dad, fishing, it can be stressful, is what he told me. And I told him, and it was a real confession. I had a little altar there on the side of the road.
[15:21] And I said this, If I'm doing it right, son, it shouldn't be stressful to you. If I'm doing this right, it shouldn't be stressful. Because we didn't have a fish.
[15:32] You're wondering why you didn't get called for a fish ride last night? No fish were harmed in the Cornwell Co-Field Fishing Adventure, all right. They do not know that we were there, all right. Nobody, no fish were harmed.
[15:42] We didn't have fish last night. We weren't fishing for our livelihood. We didn't have to fish. It was supposed to be an enjoyable time. But the line gets caught up. And I have to decide if I'm going to be somebody led by emotion, or am I going to be somebody led by the Spirit.
[15:57] And if I can't get my line unhooked, then I'm going to be no help to my son who wants to fish over here. And so here's Carson. And I got a couple pictures here. Let's show. I didn't get him.
[16:08] I got an Oliver here, all right. So here's Oliver, all right. And so I go and I stand by the bank, all right. Oliver just keeps walking. I'm not sure. At one point, Stephen, he has his line stuck in a tree on the bank as he's casting towards me, all right.
[16:22] And you just never know what the kid's going to do. So here's Oliver doing some fishing. Maybe he thinks he's trout fishing out there. And then this next picture here. So we do that. But we do a lot of this, okay.
[16:32] We do a whole lot of this, don't we, Carson, when we fish? This is a whole lot of the time that we spend in is mending these nets. So we spend a little bit of time fishing. We spend a whole lot of time working on these.
[16:45] So if you wouldn't mind just putting those in the back, okay. And you can go sit down. And so a lot of time fishing is spent just working here on these nets.
[16:56] And so I want to talk to you briefly here about the nature of burdens. We often think of sickness, loss of a loved one, loneliness, job loss, or some other type of discouragement. Come over here, Carson, before you leave, okay.
[17:07] And these are all certainly areas in which we should care for a person. I love my son. And there will be times, you know, all right, what do you need, okay, for this? All right. And I should pick on somebody else's kids here.
[17:19] But there's going to be times, sickness, loss of a loved one, loneliness, job loss, first speeding ticket, first whatever that's going on, and that he's going to have a burden. And I know that I have a responsibility to get involved in it.
[17:32] It's just real clear. That's mine. I should do it. You can sit down. But there's another kind that we have that's in verse number one. It says, if a man be overtaken in a fault, you which are spiritual, restore him.
[17:44] So if we're going to find burdens, we're going to see them as anything that robs us of the joy of our faith. It could be a trial that threatens to make us doubt God's goodness, or it could be a sin that threatens to drag us into guilt and shame.
[17:59] It's anything during fishing that keeps us from fishing. It's just a burden. It's just something that has stopped everything. And so sometimes it's just the trial that we're facing that he's going to face, and other times it's going to be the threat of sin in his life that's as a burden.
[18:16] And as his dad, I have the responsibility to help him bear these burdens. In the same passage here, it says every man must bear his own burden. And some of you say, I'd like that option better.
[18:27] All right? Let's just skip from this one down to the other one. But it's not a contradiction. In life, there's going to be burdens that will have to be carried by him. There's going to be general burdens and obligations that he will have.
[18:38] Someday Carson will stand before the Lord without me. Before him, he will carry these burdens. But we also see here in this passage that there's burdens that we carry that are significant, and they need us to help other people.
[18:51] And so it's not spirituality but pride that makes a person want to go it alone. We're told in James 5, 16, Confess your faults one to another. Pray for one another that you may be healed. The fictual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
[19:03] It is saying, I have a burden that is on me that I need help with. I'm confessing. Burdens represent any difficulty or problem a person has trouble coping with.
[19:14] In this context, this reference suggests a burden is an attempt, a sinning believer, to fall back into the trespass for which they have been delivered. A persistent, oppressing temptation is one of the heaviest burdens a Christian can have.
[19:29] So when I stand on the bank and I'm fishing, I have a responsibility to my kid to make sure he is not entangled. And whatever burdens come into his life, I'm supposed to help him with. Whatever trials come, and the trials that are going to come between the time that Carson's just a little bit shorter than me and then a little bit taller than me in his life, many times it's going to come, and they're going to be the temptations of sin.
[19:52] And a person that is burdened needs our help. They need us to help restore them. Matthew chapter number 4, verse 21, if you're wondering where the fishing comes in. Matthew 4, 21, it talks about mending of their nets.
[20:06] That's the same thing that we're seeing in Galatians chapter number 6, where it is restoring one of those. It's mending somebody else's net. We bear each other's burdens also involves helping people realize their sin and get it repaired.
[20:21] My little burden bearers, my little kids, and the things that weigh upon them, they need a dad who is led of the Spirit. They need a dad who, when he is burdened with sin, knows how to take it to the Lord and be not filled with emotion and be led by the Spirit so that when I am stuck in the tree, I know how to undo it so that when his line is stuck in the tree, I can show him as well.
[20:48] Be a helper of joy and come alongside them. So even the church there in Corinth that was skeptical, he came to them and he said, I care for your joy.
[20:58] First, let's look at chapter number 4 and verse number 9. It says, but as touching brotherly love, you need not that I write unto you for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.
[21:09] Here we can come alongside, it says, helpers of joy. It's a partnership that I should help my son, my children, those that I'm discipling, that I'm helping anybody that has a burden that I can help.
[21:22] I should help them know God's Word for themselves to be taught of God. You've heard it said, people say that you need to, your kids don't just need a friend, right? They don't need you to be their friend.
[21:33] And that's probably one of the things that has hurt many children as a parent has negated the responsibilities of parents and they've just been their friend. But I would say that children need us to be more than friends but not less than friends.
[21:47] If you're a good friend, you're somebody that helps bear somebody's burden. You would be a helper of joy. I can't remove all the obstacles in my child's life, but I can point them to Jesus who's already overcome everything for them.
[22:00] I can't satisfy their every longing, but I can point them to Jesus who is the bread of life. I cannot provide an environment that overcomes temptation, but I can point them to Jesus who's overcome sin, death, and the grave.
[22:11] And I cannot turn them from burden to joyful, but I can point them to Jesus who can. You know, as our musicians come and play, and I'm going to ask you just a few questions and ask you to resolve in your heart to make some decisions in here today, is that little children need people that know what to do when the burden is upon them, the burdens of these lives.
[22:34] They need an example of people that are spiritual, that can help them mend their nets. But what happens is when we're not spiritual, we're not being led of the Spirit, and we do it in our own flesh, we compare ourselves to other people, and we just try to do it, then we get bitter, we get resentful, and we see them as a burden instead of people that have a burden.
[22:55] But this doesn't just apply to our children. This applies to our family and to our friends. You're looking at people, and you just feel like their involvement in your life, you just see them as a burden. Well, the reason they became a burden to you is because you tried to address their problem in a way that wasn't led by the Spirit, that was just in your own strength.
[23:15] But if we would say, Father, if you will help me as somebody who's constantly making a mess in my own life, and if the Holy Spirit can lead me to detangle that, would you use me as well to help bring some restoring to my children and those that are around me?
[23:31] So I want you to resolve the day in here, church, family, that we are going to be helpers of joy. It is a great ministry. So many people like it. So many people want it.
[23:42] They express it in so many different ways, but the world lacks the joy that is there. And in the spirit of meekness, we will help lift others' burdens by pointing them to Jesus.
[23:53] And when you're tempted to run from your responsibility, you will remain steadfast, knowing that there is great joy in following the law of Christ. For believers in here today, this is my prayer.
[24:05] Romans 15, 13 is this. Now that the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost.
[24:18] Hey, dads in here, if we want to be somebody that helps our kids with joy, then we have to be spirit-led. We have to be joyful people. I can't teach my kids to love fishing if I don't love fishing.
[24:30] I can't teach my kids to overcome sin in their lives if I don't know how to overcome sin in their life. I can't teach my kids to be joyful if I'm not joyful. Make it the highest of priorities in your life.
[24:42] They may be filled with all joy. May God use us to promote joy in this community and this world this week as we make people's burdens lighter by pointing them to Jesus, helping them identify the sin that is holding them or help them recognize the trial that they have.
[24:58] They are not alone. I want to pray for the believers in here. Would you pray with me? With your heads bowed and every eye closed, I pray first for the believer in here, that Father, that the God of hope will fill us with joy and peace in believing, that we may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost.
[25:16] Just parenting, caring for other people, life, Lord, and our own strength just robs us of all joy. So Father, I pray for my brothers and sisters in here today.
[25:29] I pray that they will make a decision, that they will have their nets mended, Lord, that they will be restored, that they will live a life, Lord, that says the Spirit can lead them. And then in doing so, Lord, they will become a helper of joy.
[25:43] Brother and sister, believer in Christ, I encourage you to continue praying there in your seat. And let me do what we do as a church. And let me offer hope and joy to anyone in here today that does not know Christ.
[25:57] There's an old hymn that many of you would know. It would say this, Would you be free from the burden of sin? There is power in the blood. Power in the blood. Would you or evil a victory to win?
[26:10] There is wonderful power in the blood. Our burdens that we have in life that make us realize that we are hungry and thirsty for something that this world doesn't know.
[26:22] You may recognize that. My dad taught me that the world would not satisfy, but he didn't teach me to follow Jesus. He showed me by chasing it to his death.
[26:34] There is nothing in this world that is going to provide the satisfaction that you can only find in a loving God. And I want to invite you today to find your joy. I want to help you find the joy that you know that is lacking in a life apart from Christ.
[26:50] I want to introduce you to Jesus that reconciles you to the relationship with the Father. So I want to encourage you here today. If you don't know Jesus Christ, don't leave the day until we speak.
[27:02] Don't leave the day until you stop by the Next Steps table in the back, get a meeting planned and scheduled, and speak about what's available. Well, let me encourage you to make that decision right now.
[27:14] Maybe you need help with your joy. Maybe your relationship you know has never been made reconciled to the Father. Pray right there in your seat that he would forgive you of your sins, that he would accept your confession where you pray to him and you ask him to forgive you of your sins and do that today.
[27:32] And let us know so we can rejoice with you. Heavenly Father, Father, I pray for all in attendance today. Those believers, Lord, that may be fighting for joy, I pray that they will find it and they will help other people throughout this week.
[27:46] Pray for those in here that have never known Jesus Christ, that today would be the day of salvation. And Father, I want to thank you. Thank you for allowing us to help other people find joy.
[27:59] Lord, it's incredible that you would use us in this manner. Lord, I pray for every parent in here today. Lord, may they never look upon their kids as burdens when their kids are burdened, but may they see their responsibility to help them carry those burdens to you.
[28:15] In Jesus' name I pray, amen.