A Burden Bearer

Sunday Sermon
January 17, 2010
Rhema Community Church

Sermonic Skeleton:

Sermonic Pericope: ESV Galatians 6:2-5 Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. 3 For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4 But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. 5 For each will have to bear his own load.

Sermonic Theme: Christian Ethics (Accountability)

Sermonic Subject: Christian Service (Responsibility)

Sermonic Tension: Christians have burdens. (Must Jesus bear the cross alone and all the world go free? No there’s a cross for everyone and there’s a cross for me.) Written by Thomas Shepherd & George N. Allen

Sermonic Sentence: God will give you no more than you can bear.

Sermonic Objective: God wants us to be for others what Christ Jesus has been for us.
NLT Matthew 25:40 And the King will tell them, 'I assure you, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!' NIV Ephesians 4:32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Sermonic Help: CHRISTIAN ETHICS, a practical science that investigates the personal and social rules or laws of human conduct. It is the discipline that deals with what is good and bad, with moral duty and obligation. Christian ethics is a system of right and wrong based on principles drawn from the Bible. The foundation of ethics for the believer is found in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). Many in today’s diverse theological world argue that everything is relative. Discussions of conflicting ethical choices are seldom rooted in objective ethical norms, rights or wrongs that are right or wrong in every situation. Instead, actions are based on changing human understanding of what would be the most loving thing to do in the situation in which one is found. This “situation ethics” and ethical relativism that suggests that any action, including murder or adultery, could be righteous in a given situation is a total denial of Christian ethics. Ultimately, for the Christian, ethics must be based on the absolute nature and character of God. Our “choosing” and “doing” must be based on our understanding of His character as revealed to us in His Word.

Sermonic Title: “A BURDEN BEARER”

Sermonic Structure:

I. A Burden Bearer is Spiritually Mature (V.2)

II. A Burden Bearer has a Servants Mentality (V.3)

III. A Burden Bearer has a Standard for Ministry (V.4)

IV. A Burden Bearer is Strengthened by God & his own Muscles (V.5)