Christ from the Beginning

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Don Filcek, Off the Chain: Finding Freedom in Galatians; Galatians 1:1-5 Christ from the Beginning

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Welcome to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan where you can grow in faith community and service
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We're currently studying Galatians in a series called off the chain finding freedom in Galatians.
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Here's Pastor Don Filsack Well, good morning.
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Welcome to Recast Church I love to hear the conversations going on, but we're gonna we're gonna go ahead and formally get started here
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So if you can find your seats, that would be great. I'm Don Filsack I'm the lead pastor here, and I'm glad that you've joined with us for worship this morning
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Be sure to check out the worship folder that you received when you walked in I am very grateful for the time and energy that goes into printing that so that I don't have to stand up here and give
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A lot of announcements every Sunday morning, so I don't I don't have to start with 15 minutes of announcements But you're able to just read those so I'd encourage you to take advantage of that and then also you received a connection card when you walked in Check that out
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I'm the last thing you received when you walked in was an offering envelope We don't pass an offering plate here, but there is a black box back here
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If you would choose to give you can follow the instructions that are on the front of that if not We would just ask that if you'd be willing to recycle that there's another white basket back there.
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That's labeled recycling They're labeled well, so it sounds kind of confusing it makes sense when you're standing there But if you just drop that envelope in the recycling one if you're not going to use it to give this morning
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Then we can just reuse it next week and that helps us out Our fiscal year here goes from June to July so we are actually just entered into a new financial
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Period here another year and so I'm going to ask Zach Lloyd who has been really handling our finances from the from the start we obviously it's our desire to be as just completely transparent with the funds and Where the money goes and we are just so grateful for God's blessing on us from these three years
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We've met our expenses every single month has just been amazing to see God provide for us and over an abundance
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And so we're very grateful for that Zach. Oh, I don't want to steal your thunder So you want to come up and give us a report?
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This morning we're going to be starting a sermon series called off the chain finding freedom in the book of Galatians and This book has been somewhat controversial over the history of the church.
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You can go ahead and turn to Galatians I see some of you kind of looking down at your Bibles now That's on page 832 that's in the
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Bible in the seat back in front of you We'll be reading that here in a little bit, but let me give some introductory comments We'll read the text and then we'll then we'll sing some songs together.
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I'm worshiping God, but it's been controversial in church history When I talk about church history
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There was a time in in history around the 1400s and prior to that where the entire church was the
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Catholic Church Now I recognize some of you have attended a Catholic Church some of you were raised in a Catholic Church, and I certainly don't want to bash the
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Catholic Church, but During that time in history some things happened that really led
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Christianity to on a little bit of a sidetrack where Christianity was primarily to be a Christian meant that you you you approach
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God in a certain way with a significant level of Fear involved in it with a bunch of hoops to jump through a list of do's and don'ts and that was the primary
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Way for centuries that people in the church were relating to God and God raised up a man named
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Martin Luther Not Martin Luther King not Martin Luther King jr. Those guys were named after this dude
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But Martin Luther in the 1500s in Germany an awesome guy who was a monk in the
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Catholic Church He was in it. He was totally invested and He was a monk in a monastery studying through books of the
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Bible, and he was like wait a minute What like I find grace in here
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There is grace in here. There is a sense in which all my relationship with God is meant to be based on His love for me not because I have done this this and this and this for him, but just Unmerited favor, that's what grace means.
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I didn't deserve it. I didn't purchase it. I didn't I didn't get it for myself I didn't obtain it.
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He's just lavished grace on me and so Martin Luther referred to the book of Galatians this book that we're going to be studying over the next couple of months few months
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He called it my Katie von Bora Does anybody want to guess who Katie von Bora was?
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his wife In essence saying I am married to the book of Galatians Now that's gonna make sense as we study through this book and you understand
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This is a man who was raised in an environment where everything relating to God was based on laws rules regulations
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Crossing all your t's dotting all your eyes and then he comes to Galatians and he finds life in the book of Galatians He found water for his soul.
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He found refreshment Like a man who is lost in the desert and totally just parched coming upon a lemonade stand
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It's like wow. Okay. This is like my birthday here and he called Galatians his wife.
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He said this is like it's like I'm married to this book It says something about his relationship with his wife. I don't know how she took that I'm sure she was
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I'm sure she was complimented by that But it's gonna totally make sense why Martin Luther loved the book of Galatians as we go through it you see as we dig into this book, we're gonna find in it the heart of the gospel and the heart of the good news gospel is just a
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Fandangled word that means good news and the heart of the good news is that we've been set free By the forgiveness and grace of Jesus Christ Set free
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Does this sound good to you guys? There's the concept of being set free from bondage to sin from being chained to something anything how many of you like the idea of just being like chained to a wall
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I'm not able to get someplace it doesn't sound good to me to be chained to something and being set free sounds awesome and It's set free from the power of sin, but also being set free from the bondage to rules and regulations
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We all have a tendency to slide into one of two opposite errors in our relationship to God, I Think that you can look at your upbringing
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You can look at the way that you've approached God look at your personal walk with him and the way that you've related to him And either we can tend to slide into this notion that God is the
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Big Daddy in the sky Who is just forgiving and gracious and ready to just hug everybody and bring everybody in and man?
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He'll just just forgive it all it's all gonna be okay in the end We're all gonna get there and all roads lead to the same place
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You know He's just just compassion But God is not a pushover and as we read scripture
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How many of you know when you read enough scripture to know? There's some passages that kind of you got to deal with that might push that notion that he's just a pushover to the side
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Have you encountered that yet in scripture? Is he just a pushover? No But the opposite problem is that some of us have approached
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God solely based on fear Solely based on this notion and so we've tried our best to keep his laws
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We've tried to cross all of our T's and dot all of our I's and we see God is a cosmic killjoy Who's looking for a chink in the armor so he can smite us and destroy us?
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Which is kind of silly if you think about that notion because how many of you know that if he wants you gone you're gone Like I mean he doesn't need to look for a chink in the armor.
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It's already there boom. He's done with me I'm done. I just drop right or cease to exist
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But we still entertain these notions that and I mean, yeah I don't not gonna ask for a show of hands
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But I want you to wrestle with this in your mind before we even get further into this like where were you raised?
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How was your upbringing? What what things have happened in your life? And where do you see yourself on this spectrum of over here?
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God is just all grace and all love or over here. God is looking for a chance to smite people
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He's looking he's just a killjoy. And where are you at on that? spectrum Because as we come in Galatians is going to come into the fray here in this spectrum and going to attempt to correct us with truth
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By the Spirit and that's my prayer as we as I've been preparing and working through this This preparation for the book of Galatians that that God would speak into our situation would challenge us
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From where we are now that we would be changed by the end of this series that we would come in and counter
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The truth in the book of Galatians through the power of the Spirit and that's what has the power to transform us
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That this word which is true would change the way that we think and It's gonna be a crazy ride.
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I think because grace Grace is a crazy radical thing
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It is a powerful crazy thing Something that I'm convinced that many of us and even me as a pastor
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I'm not sure that I fully get my mind wrapped around how awesome how
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Expansive God's grace is towards those who are his towards me towards you if you are in Christ And and to just just to tell you the confusion that can something sometimes what we're gonna try to clarify is how free is free
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How free are you and That's a scary question because we we're like well
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I don't want to be too free because if I'm too free I know my own tendency is to go over into sin right and I don't want to let you be too free because if you're too free
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I know you're gonna go over into sin too, and so there's this thing that we're gonna wrestle with But if you are in Christ you are honestly truly and completely set free
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So does grace open itself up to abuse Absolutely But as we go through this book, we're gonna grow in our understanding of the way that we walk forward in this freedom that has been given to us and it is not a
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Life based on laws and rules and regulations, but it is freedom to truly love
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God in relationship with him We sing a song here from time to time and this song is probably gonna end up being
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Repeated over and over again during this series and it's one that I think has been misunderstood But as we sing the song and we sing the lyrics more like falling in love
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How many of you heard that song you we've sang it here some of you have maybe have been a little confused by that and what
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I'm the reason we even sing that song here because there's a little bit of a controversial song because the words falling in love have a little bit of a
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Mushy gushy notion in our culture. Don't they like it's just like oops. I slipped and I fell in love Just walking along and there she was it.
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Oh and that's our culture's mindset of it, but I Want us to if I can take some liberty and reinterpret that notion of falling in love
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I fell in love with my wife Linda, right and it was a commitment and it's a relationship and it's an ongoing thing
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That is I'm constantly every day I should be falling in love with her more and more every day, right?
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And if I were to just approach her and say, you know what formally speaking you're single. I'm single Let's get married and let's just I mean we could we could have a family and we could have a house and maybe maybe get a dog or a cat and something we could just live a life and just I could see this working and I just approached it and here would you sign this contract and agree to marry me?
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Here you go it's more like falling in love than just a creed and That's what we're singing when we sing this song is that if you take this spectrum
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The pivot point to grace or law is not in the middle It's not in the center.
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We're not trying to balance in our lives law and grace The pivot point where this thing balances is more towards grace more like falling in love
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More like relationship. Are you getting that and that's what Galatians is going to point to is that we have in so many areas of our
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Lives we get used to balance in the middle and grace and law are not balanced in the middle in the Christian life
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It is not about keeping your laws and your rules all balanced over here and grace all balanced over here
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It is more like falling in love than just merely mental ascent to a list of doctrines and rules and regulations and things that you're supposed to believe
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I'm getting it. So that's where we're going in the book of Galatians Let's go ahead and open if you're not there already page 832 in the
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Bible in the seat back in front of you I think most of you already there We're just gonna read the introductory comments to this letter.
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And I think even just in this five verses There's a lot of things that Paul is going to just draw right out and he's gonna let us know where he's going with this
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So think about these things if you don't own a Bible, by the way, please take that one with you It's our desire that everybody owns a copy of the
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Word of God Let's dive in Paul an Apostle not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the
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Father Who raised him from the dead and all the brothers who are with me to the churches of Galatia?
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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ Who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age according to the will of our
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God and Father? To whom be the glory forever and ever
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Amen Let's pray father.
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I ask that your spirit Who is present here and actually resides in those who are your children father that he would?
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That we would hear his voice this morning Through your word and that you would illuminate and set light to your word in our hearts father
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I recognize that there are people that are sitting here this morning that are hurting and they need a word of encouragement
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And then there are people here who are sinning and rebelling against you and they need a word of conviction and then there are those maybe here who do not even know you and They need a word that brings light to the gospel that they might believe and that their eyes might be open and father
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I pray That by your spirit You would bring power and authority through your word to speak right to people where they are at Father that as we come to worship, and we sing these songs we would sing out of hearts redeemed by Jesus Christ That we would stand as though we are standing before your throne as we sing these songs and that these words would not just merely go
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Through our eyes and out our mouth But that they would lodge in there in a way that we are genuinely recognizing
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These are words to our great and awesome God and we give you praise and honor this morning in Jesus name.
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Amen Well, thanks a lot to the band for leading us in worship.
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I appreciate that I know we just took a break, but at any time during the message if you need to get up the restrooms are back here
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There's some more donut holes there and some more juice and coffee if you need to or just get up in the back and you know
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Do your calisthenics or whatever it takes to keep? Focused on the Word of God and that's kind of our that's obviously our goal
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But we're coming off of a those of you who have been here at recast I know some of you this is your first week But we're coming off of a series in the book of Esther and so for those of you that are here consistently
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This could be a little bit of whiplash because it's like we've been going through this book That was basically ancient ancient ancient history and it was written like history and now all of a sudden whiplash up we're in a
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New Testament letter and It's very very important when you're studying scripture that you know what you're studying
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Are you studying a poem in the Psalms? Are you studying a letter in the New Testament? Are you studying Old Testament history or law or the genre if I can use that word the the style that it's written in?
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Helps us to interpret it and so obviously in like poetry you're gonna expect more figurative language and things like that in history
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You're gonna expect less flowery language and more just facts and things like that So I think that it's valuable for us to understand what we're reading here is a letter and it's a letter that's written by the
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Apostle Paul true to a group of churches in a district of Rome called
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Galatia which is on the south side of modern -day, Turkey and They are churches that he started
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He was the church planner who went into these communities and into these cities and actually started the churches and I'm gonna give you a
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Little brief history on how that all went down so that we can kind of understand this letter that's written to them How many of you think it would be valuable to understand?
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What how those churches formed and what their relationship was like with Paul in order to understand a letter that's written to them, right?
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There's value in understanding that relationship and how they interacted So we take we're gonna just take in this morning.
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Just the opening of this letter Just the introductory formalities the introductory comments But even in the midst of what might seem like formalities
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Paul begins to frame up the rest of the content of this letter by telling Us right away by how he greets them and what he has to say to them just from the get -go
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Now the very first word that occurs in this letter is the name Paul So Paul is the very first is the very first word
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Paul an apostle and he goes on and unlike our letters today I'd be valuable for us to understand what a letter looked like in ancient
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Greece That was the most common way to start a letter you started by saying who you were now how many of you have ever received a letter and Maybe the envelope was
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Nondistinct or whatever and and you had to scan down you you immediately before you read anything scan down to the bottom to see Who am I reading this from?
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Have you ever done that before like I want to know who who's saying these things? I mean you read it all the way through and then get down to the bottom.
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It's like I got to read that again Context matters so in one sense it kind of made sense like in Greek culture like I don't know why we put it at the end because it would be nice to know up front right at the beginning who it is that's speaking and So that's what they did in those ancient times
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The greeting first they actually addressed it up at the beginning then also who they were writing to and he's going to mention that he's writing to the
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Galatians But it kind of it makes sense that they started with that with Paul It's interesting to note that one of the commentaries that I was reading one of the scholars is a
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Professor at a school over in Chicago that I was reading I actually read his entire commentary And then I'm actually reading through it again chunk by chunk as I'm going through this and just a very valuable commentary, but he said that as a
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Sitting scholar at a prominent seminary over in Chicago. He said he he would often receive letters from prospective students that were written in Pauline fashion
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And he said it was so aggravating and annoying when somebody would do that I was like do you understand you live in a culture here, and now why are you writing like Paul?
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This isn't ancient Greece get over yourself He said he would receive letters like this They'd be like Don Felsick pastor of recast
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Church and servant of the Lord Jesus Christ in Matawan to consumers energy Grace and peace to you from God our father
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You know I'm saying you're not gonna. We're not learning here how to write a letter, right? That's not the point of why letters are in the
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Bible We're here for the content, and so I just thought that was funny to in his commentary
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He actually had received so many letters from prospective students people who wanted to study under him that were written that way that actually aggravated him well um
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The format doesn't necessarily translate to us, but the content does and so it's important for us to get down to that Some of us went through the book of Acts together
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And those of you who were here during some of that series or even just part of that series or all of that series
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We felt like we kind of got to know the Apostle Paul fairly Well, did you feel like over the course of the book of Acts you got to know
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Paul a little bit as we were going? Obviously it's a lot about his life, but just a quick reminder
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Who Paul was Paul was a man who had opposed Jesus Christ, so it's important for us to understand who's writing this letter
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He literally persecuted and killed Christians one of the prominent
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Foremost leaders are early church leaders named Stephen was stoned to death by the
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Jews And it says Paul stood by and guarded their cloaks now Why did he have to guard their cloaks because they needed good range of motion in their shoulders while they were throwing rocks to kill?
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Stephen so he's there guarding their cloaks Ascending to the murder of a follower of Jesus Christ That's what's going that so that's
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Paul Paul who traveled it wasn't satisfied with persecuting Christians that he happened to run into at work traveled from city to city
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Aggressively seeking to destroy the Church of Jesus Christ and in one of those trips We remember this is radical
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Conversion experience he was traveling to the city of Damascus still there modern -day Syria today traveling there to actually arrest
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Christians and bring them back to Jerusalem Extradite them and basically put them to death
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Imprisoned them and by the way to be put in prison during that time and that era was almost a death sentence anyways
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You didn't survive well in a dungeon type environment this wasn't like they didn't have cable TV or courtyard time or anything like that so He was he was a bad guy, and he thought that Christianity was a blight on Judaism.
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He was obviously a Jew But on one on that particular trip that radical change he was blinded on the road on the way to Damascus says he was almost there right around noontime a light shone brighter than the noonday
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Sun out shone the Sun and he encountered Jesus Christ Jesus Christ came to him and Spoke with him and at that point.
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He was changed his world was Maybe your world would be turned upside down if you met
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Jesus on the road, okay? He encountered Jesus Christ his world was completely flipped upside down.
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He was radically converted and the man who was passionately Aggressively persecuting the church now becomes a man who is passionately and aggressively building the
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Church of Christ He received both a conversion and a call to ministry and at this point
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Jesus actually saves him and gives marching orders to him so that in verse 1 here in our text when it says
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Paul an apostle Not from men nor through man now.
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We see the word apostle there, which is a generic in a generic sense means ambassador Representative and he says
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I didn't become an ambassador because men called me there was no ordaining body There was nobody that came to me.
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He says I became an apostle not from men nor through man, and he's speaking honestly He's not representing any faction or any council
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He was not commissioned in any ultimate sense by any ordaining body. He received his call straight from Jesus Christ It's that kind of valuable for that to be communicated.
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We're gonna see that there's a reason why It's gonna improve. It's gonna prove to be important later in the book of Galatians Because it becomes clear later in this letter that some in Galatia were questioning
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Paul's authority So he's been removed now. He's no longer in Galatia He's removed from them.
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He started these churches and now he's miles away hundreds of miles away Across the entire
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Mediterranean Sea from them in a town called Antioch, and he's there Writing back to them because he's caught word that some are questioning his authority back there
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Basically saying on whose authority did this Paul come and proclaim this grace to you these these
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That you don't really have to live by the law anymore and things like that So Paul immediately responds saying that his authority came straight from Jesus Christ You want to know where my authority came from?
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It comes from Jesus Pretty high authority. Would you say pretty direct? Yeah As a matter of fact the way that he states this in verse 1 highlights that Jesus by the way is not just a man
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He says I wasn't called by a man. I Was called by Jesus Christ Do you see the theology that was already in Paul before?
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I mean we get into like all of these like was Jesus God and all of that Paul was convinced that Jesus was
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God as a matter of fact on the equation. He says he wasn't called by man He was called by Jesus Christ and God the Father Like he categorizes them together
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You got Jesus Christ and God the Father on this side of the equation and man on the other not man Jesus and God called me.
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Are you seeing that? I mean a pretty high pretty high understanding of who Jesus Christ is and To highlight the power and authority of God in a somewhat sarcastic way if you look at the text
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Paul says oh and in case you were wondering which God called me It's that one who did the whole resurrection thing
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Okay, that's the God that I'm talking about the God the Father who raised him from the dead that that God That's the one that called me that well
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The one that has power and authority for redemption and for bringing you to wholeness and rightness With God the one who the one who has formulated this whole gospel thing the whole good news by which you're saved
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That's the God that called me him the one who raised Jesus from the dead Again, he's just pouring it on thick that he has the authority
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But Paul was not alone in sending this letter and it's likely that he's writing from Antioch again the church that had sent him out and then he went on this missions trip and I'll have a map up here in just a second and So the church in Antioch also one of the
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Galatians to know that they supported Paul in writing this and so he says in verse Two and all the brothers who are with me. This is coming from them, too.
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They're endorsing this letter They are they've read it and they're they're signing off on it as well. They agree with these things so it might be good for us at the start of this letter to understand the history of the churches in Galatia like I Mentioned because that's who the letter is addressed to right here in verse two at the very end to the churches in Galatia the text says
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So Paul and Barnabas were friends who? Ministered together at a church in a town called Antioch and if you pull the map up there, that would be helpful
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So actually that's not super helpful because I put that in white. I Thought I put it in black, but the heading there is supposed to be
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Galatia Okay, and then over here at least you can see the box there. That's that's where Antioch is
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That's where Paul and Barnabas were ministers in that city They had moved up there and they were hanging out and they were working in Antioch up there at a prayer meeting
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They're all together praying and singing praises to God and they had a calling of the Holy Spirit on their lives to go out to missionary work the text in the book of Acts does not
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Explicitly state how what that call look like did did God speak through a prophet?
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Did they hear an audible voice that said set aside for me Paul and Barnabas? We don't know exactly what the dynamic of that call was but the church confirmed it said yes
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We believe you're called Paul and Barnabas. We're called. This is all by the way in Acts 13 through 14 So if you're taking notes write that down and I encourage you to maybe read that Section at least at some point while we're going through the book of Galatians Maybe you take off a little chunk and read it every a little bit every week or whatever read it once every once a week or something
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But it would be valuable because you're actually seeing the the forging the founding of the churches of Galatia in Acts 13 through 14
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But so they travel across the island of Cyprus you see the island there We're looking at Israel up here over here on the right -hand side and part of Syria on the
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Mediterranean Sea there They took a boat and they headed over to Cyprus that island Crossed it by foot or by horse or whatever sharing the gospel along the way planning churches when they get over to the west side of Cyprus they actually lead a
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Roman since I mean a Roman proconsul the ruler of all of Cyprus comes to faith in Christ through their ministry there in Acts 13 they head north and shoot up north and then you can highlight the next city they end up going to Antioch and while they're there
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Catch up with my notes here because I'm looking at the map While they're in Antioch. They have a great response among the non -jewish audience there now there are both
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Jews and Gentiles their Gentile just a generic word that means not a Jew in that era and The Gentiles respond positively to the good news there the
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Jews not so much Okay, and so when we think of this letter going out to Galatia We are talking about it going to primarily non -jewish readers
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Okay, so it's primarily and that's helpful to understand who is our audience primarily non -jews but the
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Jews ran them out of town in Antioch and then they go to the next town which is called Iconium and While they're there in Iconium they again share the gospel.
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They stayed quite a while there So this was a this was a little bit longer layover here. And again, the crowd was stirred up against them
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There were death threats against them, but there was a response and a church was planted there, but but many Pushed them back.
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And so then they had to flee for their lives because there's literally a threat. Somebody's gonna kill you We've heard it on the streets.
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They're planning their plotting So then they move down south a little bit to Lystra while they're there at Lystra They are up proclaiming the gospel in a large gathering place
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And there's a man on the front row who has basically been crippled from birth
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Okay, he was born that way. He's never walked and Paul heals him and now we're talking about a
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Primarily pagan idol worship and gathering and they see this man stand up and they're like this dude can't walk and now he's walking
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This is amazing. These guys are gods and they basically say we're gonna worship
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Paul in Barnabas We're gonna we're gonna go go get the ox go get the priest Paul must be
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Hermes representative for Zeus and Barnabas they think is Zeus because Barnabas is older looks a little wiser and It's kind of quiet and that's their that's their mindset towards Zeus And so they're like well one is
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Zeus and one is Hermes go get the go get some oxen With garlands wrapped around them and we're gonna sacrifice to these two
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Well, how do you think Paul and Barnabas? They're gonna be respond are gonna respond to being worshipped. They freak out Like no, don't do this.
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No way. You can't sacrifice. We're just men like you I don't know how they convinced the crowd that they weren't men But they eventually get there because the crowd literally turns against them says
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Jews came and caught up with them Seems like some eerie timing but some
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Jews come down from Antioch and Iconium band together and stir up the crowds against Paul and Barnabas and they go from being worshipped one minute
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To being stoned of the next I don't mean stoned. I mean stone okay, and So they they get they get they get hit hard and in Paul It says was stoned and drug outside of the city for dead
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Like how many of you know if you are hit with rocks so hard and so many they think you're dead
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How many think you'd be a little bit injured like you'd have some issues some problems They leave him for dead
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It says that those who believed in these towns came outside of the city around his body gathered around him and he stood up Walked back into town and left the next day for a town called
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Derby, and he took a 60 -mile journey the next day I believe a miracle happened there the text if you read it in the book of Acts Leaves it kind of speculative like they presumed he was dead drug him outside of the city
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Whatever this whatever the situation I see a miracle in there because how many of you how many of you would be up for a 60 -mile journey the day after you?
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Just got stoned and left for dead Like I'm not thinking that you'd even be able to make that journey if there wasn't something miraculous that happened here in this text
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They go to Derby. The Derby is the only town in this district of Galatia where there's no
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Backlash at all Derby responds to the gospel like crazy like they're just like they embrace it. They love it
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Paul and Barnabas then in turn how many of you would do this? What are you looking for an alternate route back home?
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They go back through these towns after all this junk has happened to you They actually go back town by town by town and visit and encourage and try to build up and strengthen the churches that they've left there
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Gutsy wouldn't you say and where they've just been like stone kid like attempted to be killed threatened all of that stuff
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So Paul sacrificed I say all this because I want to I want to make sure that you understand Paul sacrificed a lot to bring the gospel to Galatia Personal suffering personal loss and he loved these people so much that he risked personal peril to see them
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Hear the good news to see the Church of Christ established and to hear the good news that Jesus Christ died for them
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The churches in Galatia were brought into existence at huge cost to Paul And I think that it helps us to understand some of the very harsh words that Paul is going to have for them next week
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And the following week and as we go through this book, he's kind of harsh towards them But you need to understand what intense love
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Paul had for them and how this was founded He had sacrificed for them and I think it pained
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Paul on a personal level greatly To see what he had started with such power starting to falter and he's beginning to catch word that things are not going well
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By the way, he went through that map and ended up back in Antioch And that's where he is at when he's writing this letter
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So he's back in the place where he started He goes back there and he begins to hear word back from them that things are not going well there
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So I hope that brief history lesson helps set the stage for the book That's that's the these are the churches that this letter is addressed to and in verse 3 we find the common
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Greek greeting If you look at it there, it says grace to you and peace That is the way that a
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Greek person would meet you on the street. That's what they would say now What do we usually say? Hey, how's it going?
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You having a good day? I don't know I don't know what you say when you greet somebody walking along the street that you know What's happening?
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What's up? You know, whatever that was there. What's up? Okay, grace and peace. Okay, that was that was just their common greeting and any
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Greek letter is going to start with that But here
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Paul adds From God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that was not a common greeting
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He's gonna add a little bit to it It was not enough to Paul to just offer the generic grace and the generic peace of his culture
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He wanted to be sure that they understood that the grace and peace he wanted for them was not merely some kind of wishful thinking
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Not just some mere, you know, like trifling kind of cultural statement like have a good day.
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Have a good one But in this phrase Paul is calling the Galatians and us
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To focus our attention on the one true location where grace and peace flows from Jesus Christ and the
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Father And he wants us to draw our attention. Where does grace come from? Where does true peace come from from God?
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Any grace that we truly have comes from God and Jesus Christ and any peace that we truly have comes from the
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Father and the Son You experience that in your life true peace abiding peace lasting peace comes through Jesus Christ true grace comes through Jesus Christ true forgiveness comes from him and there's so much beauty here at the end of Verse 3 there are three words at the end of verse 3 and it is not just merely
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Jesus's first middle and last name Okay, some people Lord the Lord Jesus Christ.
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That's not his first middle and last name There's more that's going on here to say that phrase
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To say the phrase Lord Jesus Christ is to proclaim the gospel if you understand those words
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It's like a sentence Lord Jesus Christ when translated and understood in what it means
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He is Lord he is King he is master he is sovereign he is highest among Lords King over all men
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That's what it means to call him Lord a significant statement that I think all of us if you if you if you want into the plan of God you have to at some point say
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He's Lord He's King. He's master and I Bow my knee to the
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Son of God and say you're it and I'm not That has to happen in your life if you're in with God Has it happened in your life?
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Think it think that through That's a portion of the gospel that he is Lord But his name is
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Jesus Jesus translates into he who saves There's a sentence in his name he who saves and the word
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Christ is a title It's the Greek word for Messiah That means the anointed one that Jesus is being identified as the promise of Abraham The promise of Isaac the promise of Jacob the promise of King David He's the long -awaited
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Messiah The one whom John the Baptist foretold and proclaimed the way and said make way for the
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Lord The very title Paul uses here of Jesus Christ Means the anointed chosen one of God the king who saves
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He Elevates and exalts Jesus Christ just even in his title There is power in that awesome title and yet I fear that so many in our culture only ever hear that word in movies on TV and in as curse words and I don't think we really quite understand
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And I mean if I confess if I confess before you that there are times when I think I've become Callous to hearing the
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Lord's name in vain because you've listened How many of you would admit you've seen a movie where they've used the Lord's name in vain?
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Well, let me back up and say how many of you've seen a movie Okay How many of you notice it like it grates on you and it's it's aggravating to hear right?
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I'm not convinced it aggravates us enough Because what it is, it's profaning the most holy thing the greatest and most highly exalted of all things
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The gospel the good news of Jesus Christ is wrapped up in those words those names And I Before I get too carried away
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I mean, I'm sure you hear co -workers and people as some of you hear your people at work using it all the time. I Don't think they know what they're doing.
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I Don't think they understand Maybe maybe that would be an inroad to say do you know what those words mean?
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Do you know that Jesus means the one who saves do you know that Christ is? this promise
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That was started in ancient history that's carried forward to today and that is going to go forward into eternity future
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I don't know what kind of relationship you have with your co -workers. That might be awkward. That might be awesome But maybe you could use that as an opportunity, but I know we hear that word we hear it
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We hear the name of Jesus profaned often and regularly in our culture. I don't at my workplace, by the way
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I'm grateful for that. I've I don't I don't regularly hear that. You know, that's that's good I hear the name of Jesus a lot at my workplace, but not profane.
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So I'm grateful Paul goes on though here to remind the
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Galatians that this very King the very Messiah Jesus himself is the very one who gave himself for our sins
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He is the one who suffered on the cross is what Paul what Paul is saying here But I want to point out that there are many who believe that Jesus died on the cross
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But that is not the full gospel That's not it The phrase for our sins that you see here in the text.
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So look at the beginning of verse 4 who gave himself Many people are okay with that statement, but gave himself for our sins that Those words for our sins those three words are key
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To our understanding of the gospel. I'm convinced that there are millions of people alive who believe that Jesus died on a cross
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But they have yet to acknowledge that it was their sin That it was our sin that held him there
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It was our sin that caused that great sacrifice to be made And so there's a pride that keeps many from acknowledging their own evil before a holy and righteous
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God It's a pride that says I'm not that bad of course, of course
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Of course Jesus had to die for prostitutes and drug dealers and pimps and my sins are nothing compared to those things, right?
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And in this we find a mystery of the way of Jesus he spent time with prostitutes with drug dealers and pimps and people like that because they had hit rock bottom and they were
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Acknowledging their sins before him and knew that they needed a remedy and in that is a great paradox a great flipping on its head
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Because those who know they are sinners throw themselves on the mercy of Jesus and are forgiven
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And it's often those who work so hard that they think they don't need a remedy. They don't need a physician
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They don't need a doctor and they're the ones that are often furthest from the truth often Furthest from the gospel because they think they are self -righteous and they've earned the favor of God And that's a very scary and dangerous place to be and that is
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I think The greatest lie of the evil one I think it's probably the most successful plan that he's hatched since the foundation of time is this
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Religiosity that says I can appease God by my own behavior When it took a sacrifice the greatest of sacrifices to bring us
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Change like we just sang from the inside out The outside in doesn't cut it We need change we need a heart transplant if you will not just band -aids on the outside You know
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I'm saying Salvation is ultimately pictured by Paul here in an interesting way
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You see it at in the middle of verse 4 who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age
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In reality Paul understands correctly that we live in a time between perfections.
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This world is not what it once was But it is not what it will one day be
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We're caught in a in a time in between where there was the Garden of Eden and things were good and made right and made very good and It's now broken
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It's moving towards a time when it'll be restored and made whole and complete a new heaven and a new earth with righteousness ruling
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We exist right now right here in a time an era of brokenness Here's a couple downers for you.
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I apologize, but it's just reality We live in a place where a beautiful sunrise gives way to a violent tropical storm where a beautiful mountain vista is the place where raging avalanches bury villages and We're the closest of friends where the closer we get to a person the more ammunition they have to destroy us
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To ruin us to betray us. I feel like a
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Debbie Downer right now But I'm guessing that I don't have to give you those illustrations because I'm guessing you have your own
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Because we all as humans know something in common everybody in this room knows already what it means to be broken
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Everybody has had somebody break you Everybody has had somebody else's words hurt you harm you crush you do something bad to you.
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Maybe physically But I would dare say that we also know the other side of the equation as well
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We know what it means to be the person who breaks others We know what it means to harm others.
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We know what it means to say words that hurt and cut and abuse right
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We know what that reality looks like. We live in a fallen time an evil age as Paul puts it
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Where evil and good are hard to separate in our lives Would you admit that that you can get in some conundrums that I as a pastor have a hard time getting you out of Do you understand what
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I'm saying? I mean, I don't know and I mean scripture sometimes I'm like I'm looking at your situation
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I'm looking at this and I'm having a hard time figuring this out Because I'm gonna know sin can get so deep and so messed up and so ingrained in our lives that it's kind of like I can't
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Remove this without damaging something good anymore Like we have now two bad choices in front of us and we're gonna have to choose one of them and neither one is super good
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Just look at our politics Right. I mean just any sorry But you know
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I'm saying I mean you you know I think it gets so messed up and convoluted and difficult to to suss out in our relationships that it sometimes it's just like it's
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Mind -boggling. It's like there's evil in here and there's good in here and I can't get the two apart anymore so intertwined in us
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I Look forward to an age when that's not the case when it is no longer an evil age
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But is an age of righteousness and correct relationships and where we genuinely love each other the way that we were made to We are not what we were made to be yet I'm excited about that.
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That's that's hope for me. And so look at the beauty of this wrap -up in verse 4
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Jesus gave himself for our sins to deliver us From this present evil age
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By implication into a new age. He will usher in on the new earth According to the will of our
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God and Father it says Who is the author and creator of salvation?
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Whose will was enacted to save us? Whose will was enacted that Jesus might give himself for our sins?
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Whose will was enacted that we might be delivered God our
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Father his will He has done it from first to last salvation was his idea his plan.
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He's working it out all according to the text tells us according to his will
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The way that he is rolling the way that he is getting things done And therefore
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Paul cannot contain himself anymore Here in verse 5 because the proper response to a proper understanding of the will of God in our salvation is to glorify him forever and ever and ever and ever and ever
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That is the proper response to understanding God's will his grace When we talk about his will and salvation
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We're talking about him giving us something we didn't earn him giving us something we didn't deserve
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It's all even from the beginning to the end of this book is going to be grace. Paul can't stop it
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Every reference in here is going to be focused towards grace getting what we don't deserve according to his will
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And so he can't contain himself and and Paul doesn't just say hey Galatians you ought to praise God He just does it in the letter right in the letter.
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He's like to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen He just just says it all glory belongs to God the
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Father for eternity and That is meant to be our business here on earth as those who are redeemed by Jesus Christ Our business is to be glorifying
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God and that is not coming together on a Sunday morning and singing some songs
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Glorifying God worshiping. God is something that we should be doing all of our lives Whether it's at work whether it's exercising whether it's interacting with our kids or our spouse or co -workers or whatever all to the glory of God It's meant to be our business here, but it will be fully our business on the new earth
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It's what we're being saved to do is to be delivered from this world into the next Where I'm convinced that finally when we get there, we will get it.
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I Think we struggle with it now Where we finally will realize that glorifying
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God is not about being in church 24 -7 It's not primarily about reading our Bibles or praying or doing churchy things
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But glorifying God can look like an early -morning run when I'm caught up in the glory of his creation
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That can be glorifying God Or it's it can be a slice of fresh cherry pie
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When I'm genuinely moved to thank him for inventing the taste of whipped cream Not worshiping the pie
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Not worshiping the one who baked the pie But worshiping the one who invented pie and taste buds and cherries and whipped cream
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Do you see what I'm saying? I mean to think at that level and to say glory to God in these things
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He's given us this material world not as a stumbling block But as an opportunity to worship him and glorify him and I think sometimes we get it convoluted
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Don't we we get messed up in our heads because things get so intertwined with sin that it's hard to suss out
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And so it's like will there be baseball in heaven and who will win? Like I mean, what does competition look like in heaven?
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What's the new earth look like it? I'm gonna get like it's a kind of God It gets confusing and so sometimes what
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Christians have done is they've just scrapped the world I said, well the world doesn't matter anymore. It only matters if I'm praying
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Evangelizing and reading my Bibles. That's all that's all that matter matters. By the way Bibles I pluralize that because everybody owns more than one but um
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Are you getting what I'm saying in this That we get convoluted and misunderstand what it means to glorify God All glory to him forever and ever and ever does not just mean that we just sit with our face down in the ground
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I think there'll be seasons of that on the new earth where there'll be times where it's just like it's gonna go
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I'm on my way to Jerusalem today. I'm gonna hang out with Jesus I'm gonna be on my knees for a while if anybody wants to come and get me.
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I'll be there, you know Maybe 10 15 years. I'll be back Okay It'll be seasons like that and that'll be an opportunity
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I mean think about that an opportunity to go worship Jesus like him here. He's there Go see him
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But I think they'll also be times of gardening. There'll be times of building stuff Getting together with family and friends for you know, a thousand years or so hanging out
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Maybe you won't get tired of each other. I know some of you are like I can't handle ten days with my relatives It'll be different.
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It'll be different Time to learn musical instruments and create stuff and invent stuff and travel and visit and over I mean we have thought so small of heaven.
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It hasn't lit up any of our imagination It hasn't hasn't hasn't even scratched the surface and in reality
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We can't conceive of what it's like because sin is so corrupting It's so in here that I mean me like there are things that I like and I'm not sure if I should like them
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You know what? I mean? It's like will that be there? I don't know if that's gonna be there or not. I Mean, I'm not talking about saying
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I'm just talking about some gray areas, right? Obviously, there'll be no sin there but that glorifying
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God is our eternal hope That's what we're driving for. That's what all of this is moving towards.
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That's what history is moving towards. That's what grace is for and Then in this opening
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Notice that Paul cannot keep from pointing them all to Jesus Christ He is the one who
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Paul wants to elevate in their minds He wants them to leave this opening this introduction to the letter thinking on meditating on considering Jesus Christ And as we get into the meat of this letter
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We're gonna find that they have exchanged the gospel of grace for a list of rules and regulations they have torn the heart and therefore the joy out of the gospel and By doing that they've corrupted into something that Paul is later going to declare is no longer gospel
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What does gospel mean? Good news. No longer good news folks
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You've you've pushed aside the good news and now you've exchanged What was once good for rules and regulations and weights that that pull people down and they can't even lift their head to glorify
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God Because they've got this millstone around their neck of rules and regulations that you made for them
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Well, you made for yourself Instead of acknowledging the chain is broken and I can lift my face before my
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Heavenly Father Stand in his presence and joy and worship him and I'm set free
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With a life by the Spirit who guides me Spirit's gonna be key throughout this book
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It's not loss. It's the Spirit leading and guiding So right from the get -go here at this introduction
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Paul says let's get back to Jesus grace and peace comes from him and the Father He gave himself for our sins.
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He is delivering us from this evil age He was raised up to new life and our hope is to glorify him forever and ever in eternity
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And this is merely the introduction to this letter And there's some radical things coming up for us some things that I'm sure will say it will shake some of us to the core
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Of our understanding of who God is how he works how we're supposed to interact with him.
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I Expect that some of you if you hang in there for the series will get an opportunity to disagree with me at some point
53:55
Because grace is crazy radical And I'm convinced that many who think that they are living by grace are really living by laws and calling it grace
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And I I think it's gonna take some serious honest introspection to say what drives me what motivates me
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Is it checklists is it making sure that I read my Bible today because I'm not sure if God loves me if I didn't read my
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Bible today Or is it grace and understanding that God wants those things for you.
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Yes, you should You should read your Bible, but you should read your Bible because you love God And you recognize who's great love for you, and it's like I mean
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Getting together with your spouse should not be like a checklist like I feel guilty I didn't spend time with my wife today
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Should be like I want to spend time with my wife today. Are you getting a different? Is there a difference in there you see that and so I think there's gonna be some potential for us to Get our worlds rocked in this
54:55
Which is which would be a good thing? And so at the outset let me set the stage by pointing us all to Jesus Just like Paul's intention was here in the opening we're gonna take communion together and Jesus gave himself for our sins and That is the cornerstone that is the foundation of our faith, and if you're here with us this morning, and you have not yet Believed that Jesus gave his life for your sins you have not acknowledged him as Lord You have not asked him to save you then
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I'd ask you to just skip communion let the let the juice and the cracker go by But equally if there's something in your life that keeps you from being united with other followers of Christ And that's one thing we're declaring when we take this
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Cracker and this juice is that we're united together And if there's something in your heart that is and it's not necessarily like in this room
55:41
But if there's another believer out there that you have harmed or you've maligned or you push to the side
55:47
I'd encourage you to skip communion until you can go and make that right and in all honesty I would welcome anybody to stand up and leave if they need
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God is convicting you and saying I need to go make things right with an individual right now by all means
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That would be really awkward for you to do that. I know but Maybe maybe that's what God would have you to do is that during the communion time to actually get up and go and say
56:09
I? Got it. I got a road trip. I got a phone call to make I need to go make things right with somebody and I'd Encourage you to do that before you take communion either here or anywhere again
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Go and reconcile with that person if there's if there's harm if there's pain between you and you know that As we take the cracker and the juice we are remembering that Jesus gave up his body for us and his blood for us
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And he did that to purchase us his people So let's remember the cross as it is the cross is the great equalizer and as we come to communion
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We stand on the same plane all of us stand at the foot of foot of the cross in exactly the same
56:49
Fashion the same place the same way we are sinners We are beggars an image that I like to use is a broken mirror we were meant to reflect the glory of God and we are broken shattered and little shards and pieces of a mirror and Jesus is putting us together
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One piece at a time that we might better more accurately reflect him And that's where we all are every single one of us.
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And so in humility we come with Glory and praise on our lips that one day we will be restored
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We are being rescued and delivered from this evil age where we are poor Poor reflectors
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And we're being restored and eventually we will be redeemed and delivered into an age where we will reflect
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Jesus in perfection. I long for that day as we take communion, we're just it's kind of like a foretaste of that just kind of like a little reminder that That's where we're going, but it took the cross
57:50
To get us there Let's pray Father I rejoice in your great grace.
57:57
I am so undeserving of it Nothing I could have done would have grabbed your attention
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But certainly the cross of Jesus Christ did it for us So I praise you for the awesome sacrifice of your son the the plan that you orchestrated from eternity past I can't even conceive of that and in this plan of The Lamb of God slain from the foundations of the world it's a mystery to me and Yet it is salvation to me and it is deliverance to me and it is hope
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That one day I will be on your new earth with you and with with those who are in you
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And we will worship you as you are Understanding fully the grace there knowing we didn't deserve it, but it is just the lavish gift of our great
58:49
God on us Father as we come to communion, I ask that You would help us to reflect truly
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Accurately on the sacrifice of your son for us. Thank you for his body broken for us
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I thank you for his blood that was shed for us that we might have wholeness. He stood in the gap He stood in a place where we deserve for punishment