Galatians 6:1 “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 also be tempted.”

Can you imagine being part of a church with no “Ministry of Music?”

Or, no ministry of “Preaching?”

Or, no ministry to Children?

The good news is we usually do not have to do so because almost every church has these ministries in place.

We surely do!

But, can you imagine being part of a church with no “Ministry of Restoration?”

Very few, and I mean very few churches have any such ministry in place.

Sadly, this ministry is missing in nearly all churches and it is certainly one of the most important of all of the ministries God has called the Local Church to undertake.

Do you think Christians fall into sin from time to time? You bet we do; and, God knows that also. HE has designed the Local Church to be HIS agency on earth to do the work of restoring sinning Christians and leading them back to a godly lifestyle.

In the New Testament, we see Peter, Barnabas, and even Paul as examples of Christians who get caught up in sin.

Of course, we sin also – and, all of our Brothers and Sisters in Christ do as well. The problem is that Christians are terrible at carrying out this much-needed ministry of reconciliation to one another!

Why is that so? Several reasons come to mind…

We fear how people will respond to our attempts to lead them to repentance and restoration.

Our culture – even “Church” culture – has brainwashed us into believing that how someone else lives is “none of our business.”

Notice that our verse in Galatians 6 commands us to make how other Christians live to be part of “our business.”

Another reason (painful as it is to admit) that Christians do not get involved in restoring sinning Christians is that we simply do not love others enough to go to the trouble and risk the relationship we have with them.

One more obvious reason we do not do this is that we do not fear God enough to obey HIS command to do so!

As a Pastor, let me add one more. Pastors (including me) often fall prey to the idea that the people in our church will not support our effort; and, in fact we have seen times when churches turn against anyone in the church – including the pastor and leaders – who attempt to carry out this biblical mandate.

Still, the fact is that sinning Christians need someone to love them enough to take the risk of encouraging them to repent and return to a God-honoring lifestyle.

All of us get into sin from time to time, and when we do we really need someone to love us this much.

DO NOT MISS THIS… when a Brother or Sister in the LORD is caught up in sin, our work is to restore them to fellowship rather than remove them from fellowship. Sadly, they may reject our efforts and end up out of the fellowship; but, that must never be the purpose or focus of our efforts.

There are two great problems in churches in relation to this doctrine: first, there are Christians who need to be restored, and there are Christians who need to be involved in leading others to restoration.

Again, it is heart-breakingly true that very little of this is undertaken within churches and therefore few sinning Christians are restored.

As the LORD allows, this coming Sunday, (10/25) and next Sunday, (11/1) I will preach sermons on this subject. We will look at several related verses and seek to understand why God has commanded us to do this – and how it can be a life-changing blessing to Christians who are caught up in sin.

Please pray that the LORD will bless these services!

As Tom Rains often says, “I hope to see you Sunday with a smile on your face, your Bible in your hand, and your family and friends by your side!”