Most of you have probably heard of the Lord of The Rings books—six books published in three volumes in 1954: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King…One of the best-selling books ever written—over 150 million copies sold worldwide. Even adapted into a trilogy of films released 20 years ago—which too ended up being three of the highest grossing films of all-time.

LOTR is an epic, high fantasy novel by English author and scholar J.R.R. Tolkien who was friends with another famous English author/writer, C.S. Lewis, that many of you are familiar with. Tolkien was a Christian and incidentally was responsible for converting his good friend Lewis to Christianity one night after a long discussion during an evening stroll.

And Tolkien’s Christian faith had a huge influence on his writings including in the Lord of the Rings and its storyline, paralleling and mirroring biblical redemption motifs and the struggle/battle between the forces of good and evil.

The book is set in a place called “Middle-earth,” intended to be Earth at some distant time in the past. The title, LOTR, refers to the story’s main antagonist, the Dark Lord Sauron, who in an earlier age created the One Ring to rule the other Rings of Power given to Men, Dwarves, and Elves, in his campaign to conquer all of Middle-earth.

From homely beginnings in the Shire, a hobbit land reminiscent of the English countryside, the story ranges across Middle-earth, following the quest to destroy the One Ring mainly through the eyes of the hobbits Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin. And Frodo is the one responsible to carry the ring throughout the quest of the group of men, elves, dwarves, and hobbits—the fellowship of the ring—since he is the one who found it.

But it’s an incredible burden to carry because it yields cosmic power. And there’s constant temptation to put it on in order to tap into its power, but if you give in, there’s no going back and it ends up corrupting you completely and even if you had noble intentions to destroy it, it ends up destroying you.

And it’s been eating at Frodo slowly, moment by moment, day by day, crushing him, weighing him down, since he first found it and began this mission to destroy it. And there’s this scene at the end of the final installment in the trilogy—the Return of the King—where Frodo and Sam are lying on the slopes of Mount Doom, the place where the Dark Lord Sauron forged the ring and the only place it can be destroyed.

They’re so close to getting inside the mountain and casting it in the fire. And Frodo falls down, exhausted, broken, and near dead from the long and perilous journey, but more than anything from the crushing weight of the burden of carrying this ring. Sam is his best-friend—and gardener apparently, and he sees Frodo down, beaten, and near death. And in trying to encourage him and give him hope to not give up, he starts reminding him of home. “Do you remember the Shire, Mr. Frodo? It’ll be spring soon, and the orchards will be in blossom. And the birds will be nesting in the hazel thicket. And they’ll be sowing the summer barley in the lower fields. Eating the first of the strawberries with cream. Do you remember the taste of strawberries?”

Frodo replies, “No, Sam. I can’t recall the taste of food, nor the sound of water, nor the touch of grass. Instead I’m…naked in the dark. There’s nothing. No veil between me and the wheel of fire! I can see him…with my waking eyes!” And Sam sees his friend about to give in and give up and he says one of the most memorable lines of the film before the epic music begins playing: “Then let us be rid of it! Once and for all! Come on, Mr. Frodo. I can’t carry it for you… but I can carry you! Come on!” And he picks him up and carries Frodo inside the mountain.

And that right there is the posture of true Christianity. That’s the way of love which is what real and true Christian freedom looks like, freedom to love others. That’s what it means to walk by the Spirit. You can’t necessarily carry the burdens of others around you, but you can carry them while they do—by helping them—being there for them—through life’s heavy hardships, difficult days, and trying times.

And that’s the main message this morning taken straight out of this last section in Galatians. As Christians, we are to walk by the Spirit which is evidenced by showing the fruit of the Spirit in our lives:love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, all rooted in love and what greater way to demonstrate that you love others than by your willingness to carry the ordinary burdens of everyday life, with them.