by: John Wilbanks

 One memorable hymn from my childhood was Count Your Blessings. Its simple message was to be thankful for what God has done for us. While that encouragement may be simple, it seems that it’s not always common.

Winston Churchill told the story of a young British boy who went to the pier and accidentally fell into the ocean. Unfortunately, he could not swim and would certainly drown. A quick- thinking soldier who worked on the pier saw the situation and at his own peril dove in and saved the boy. He took the boy home but no one was there. A few days later, the boy’s parents came to the pier to find the soldier. When they introduced themselves, he interrupted them and said, “I don’t want a reward, it is enough to know that I was able to save your son. They replied, ‘We are not her to give you anything. We want to know where our son’s hat is. What have you done with it?” Incredulous, the soldier replied, I saved your son’s life and all you want is to find his hat?”

As crazy as that story of ultimate ingratitude may seem, these parents are not alone. Remember the Israelites complaining about having to eat manna every day, How about ten leper’s being healed by Jesus and only one returning to thank and praise him? On and on it goes.

Read Colossians 3:12-17 and see Paul’s instructions about the traits we are to “put on” as Christ-followers. Nowhere do we see ingratitude, entitlement, selfishness or judgment.

Instead we find compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forgiveness and most of all love. When we put on these characteristics, the peace of Christ rules in our hearts and we can all use some of that in these challenging times! In verses 15-17, we are told to “be thankful”, worship with “thankfulness to God in our hearts” and to do everything in the name of Jesus “giving thanks to God.” Like the Colossians, our hearts need to be filled with thanks for God’s inexpressible grace and love. So today let us, all in the words of that old hymn, count our blessings and name them one by one.

During my sermon on Galatians 5:16-26, we didn’t have time to dive into each aspect of the fruit of the Spirit individually, so I thought it would be helpful to do that here. We will go through Paul’s list one by one which means we are starting with love.

Most commentators agree that love is placed because it is first in importance and it is also the one aspect of the fruit of the Spirit that all the others fall under. For example, you cannot truly have Christlike love without being filled with joy, patience, kindness, etc. Paul himself said just a few verses earlier, “For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Galatians 5:14). Some commentators have even gone so far as to suggest that Paul lists love as the fruit of the Spirit, and then all the others are simply ways in which Christlike love is displayed.

In any case, it’s important to see what love is as defined by Scripture and I can’t think of many better places to go than 1 John 4:7-12 (emphasis mine):

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.”

What it seems John is pointing out is that we cannot know how to love others if we do not first understand how God has loved us. Furthermore, we are not capable of giving Christlike love, if we have not received Christlike love. Almost everyone you talk to in the world today would say that the world could use more love, but most people would also disagree on what that love is supposed to look like. As Christians, our love for others cannot be defined by culture, emotions, or the wisdom of this age - it must be defined by Jesus Christ as revealed in the Scriptures.

As I shared in my sermon, not only are we called to display Christlike love, we are empowered to do so by the Holy Spirit living in us. So you can love even the most unlovable people because Christ loved you when you were unlovable. You can be willing to lay down your life for even your enemies because Christ did that for you (Romans 5:8). The determining factor in loving those around us has nothing to do with the surrounding circumstances, our feelings about that person, our desire to love, etc. The determining factor is that you have been loved first by Jesus Christ - therefore, you are called and empowered to love those around you.

Just in case you need reminding of a biblical definition of love, read 1 Corinthians 13:4-7:

“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

Ask yourself if you have been displaying that kind of love to those around you. Where do you need the work of the Holy Spirit to help you produce the fruit of love?

If you were trying to show someone how to find their identity, what would you tell them? I’m not talking about their legal name, SS number, or place of birth. I’m talking about helping someone figure out why they were put on this earth. How can you help someone discover their purpose?

Many people today would probably say something like “look deep within yourself,” or “do the work to discover your true self, not what others want you to be.” That kind of advice is based on the assumption that we are the masters of our own destiny. It works off the belief that we get to decide who we want to be and why we are here on this earth. For Christians, we know that our lives are not our own anymore. Paul says it this way:

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Galatians 2:20

So the truth is, if you’re in Christ, this life isn’t your life anymore - it’s His. This means that to find your purpose, you shouldn’t be looking more deeply at yourself, you should be looking more deeply at Christ. We spend so much time on things like personality tests to discover who we really are so that we can live a life of purpose. But you have died to yourself and now have a new life in Christ. That doesn’t mean that you no longer have a personality, or dreams, or a purpose. It means you aren’t the one who decides your purpose anymore - Jesus is.

This should actually sound like really good news to us because it means that I don’t have to trust myself and my ability to realize my identity and purpose. Instead, I can run to the One “who loved me and gave Himself for me” to show me how He desires His life to shine through me. In the meantime, I have full confidence and assurance that He will never let me down and everything He works in my life will be for my good and His glory.

If your goal is to “find your true self,” you’ll end up without hope and purpose. but if your goal is to find Christ and know Him, you will have found where true life really lies. Put down the personality test for a moment and look into the perfect mirror of Scripture. Stop trusting your own heart and pursue the One who gave you a new one. Rejoice in the crucifixion of Christ because that’s where you died to self so that you may be One in Christ. What greater purpose could you ask for?

Yesterday, I preached week 2 of our sermon series called “The Freedom of Grace.” In part, we looked at Galatians 2:11-14 where Paul calls Peter out for his hypocrisy. Peter was sharing meals with the Gentiles until the Jews showed up and Peter pulled away. Paul recognized that Peter’s actions were inconsistent with the Gospel and had led many astray, so he called him out publicly.

Paul’s exact words in verse 11 are, “…I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned.” Paul didn’t call Peter out because he was offended (though he may have been), or because he wanted to prove a point, or because he was trying to get the heat off himself and onto Peter. Paul called him out because he saw that Peter was not living in a manner worthy of the Gospel (see Philippians 1:27). This is such a timely message for us in our culture of outrage.

Somewhere along the line, we have gotten this false notion that we are called to condemn others for their actions if we think they are in the wrong. But if someone is in sin, they are already condemned.

Side note: we are not talking about eternal condemnation (see Romans 8:1). We are talking about a believer who is not walking in fellowship with God because of unrepentant sin in their life.

Our calling is not to condemn but to rebuke and exhort in love with the ultimate goal of that person’s repentance and restoration. Paul will later say in his letter to the Galatians: “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.” (Galatians 6:1) Are you picking up on the humility and gentleness that are required when calling a brother or sister out in their sin? Obviously, boldness is also a necessary component here, but I believe it looks a lot different than the outrage we often see around us.

The goal of our arguments often seems to be to prove that we are right rather than to see the Truth win out and Grace upheld. We feel accomplished if someone has realized their error and feels guilty about it and then we often leave them adrift in a sea of shame without actually pointing them back to the forgiving and restorative Grace of Jesus. In our efforts to ‘defend the truth’ we often hurt the testimony of Jesus because we are displaying ungodly anger and disunity with our fellow believers.

On the flip side of that, there are those who never address sin in the lives of their fellow believers for different reasons. That approach can be dangerous as well because left unchecked, it leads to all sorts of distortions of the Gospel. In both extremes, the Gospel is compromised which is why this is so important. We must be willing to speak the truth in love. Paul lays out the kind of Gospel unity that happens when we are willing to do this:

“Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”
Ephesians 4:15-16

Let us seek to continue building the body of Christ in love so that the Gospel can continue going forward.

I don’t know about you, but I have personally never made a New Year’s Resolution that I have been able to completely stick to. Actually, at this moment, I cannot even remember a single resolution that I’ve ever made. Part of that is because I don’t like doing things just because everyone else is doing them. The other reason is that I’ve always believed that true change comes far less in the big moments than the little moments. Let me explain.

New Year’s Resolutions are often about big things in your life that you want to change: diet, exercise, attitude, job, family, etc. We are thinking big picture with our resolutions when our lives are actually lived in small moments most often. For example, when you wake up in the morning, what’s the first thing you do? Check Facebook? Hit the snooze? Grab coffee? Scramble to get to work on time? How about how you spend your time when you get home from work? Are you focused on your family or just trying to make dinner, get the kids to bed, and prepare for another day? We usually aren’t taking these “small moment decisions” into account with our New Year’s Resolutions.

I am in no way saying we shouldn’t make them. I believe we should often look at the big picture of our lives and adjust the things that are lacking. I’m just suggesting that maybe the reason many of us struggle with sticking to them so much is that we are more focused on big moments that are few and far between than on the little moments that we spend most of our lives in. The apostle Paul put it this way:

“And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
- Colossians 3:17

Those little moments that you take for granted because they happen everyday are actually moments that you can live for the glory of God. So make big resolutions and spend some time reflecting on the big picture of your life, and then strive to fulfill those resolutions in the small moments of your life. Better yet, don’t wait until each new year to strive for change. His mercies don’t wait until January 1st to renew - they are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23).

Happy New Year to you all, and may God bless and keep you and your family this year.