Well, what is up church? Hope that you guys are
doing well. I wanna welcome you here today. I
wanna welcome those of you online from wherever
you're watching from. If you're out in Baghdad,
welcome. If you're in Paulden, welcome. If you're
with Cheryl out in Missouri with the watch party
she has going there, welcome, welcome. We're
so glad that you guys are here. Yeah, give it
up for our online fam as well. Those of you in
the building, welcome to you as well. Let me
ask you this. How many of you have ever needed
correcting before? You need some correcting?
Yeah. Okay, if your hand's not up, you're lying
in church right now. I'm just telling you, right?
We all need correcting. Man, I remember when
I first got to this church, the way that it works
when somebody says, hey, we wanna do a memorial
or a wedding at Heights, those requests get distributed
between different pastors. And so we get assigned
these requests. And so I got assigned this request
for a memorial. And I don't know the gentleman
that had passed away. I don't know if he went
to Heights. I don't know if the family. had gone
to heights, but I'd been on a phone call with
the family, knowing a little bit about them,
but not a lot of details. And so I get to the
day of the memorial, and I was doing the memorial
on this exact stage, and I'd read the obituary,
I'd given a message. I got about three fourths
of the way through this and they had this wonderful
slideshow prepared and they were showing this
slideshow of all the pictures of this man's life
and just his accomplishments and the things that
he had done and I kind of stepped off to the
side of the stage to let the slideshow play and
I was in the back and someone came up to the
front of the stage and they kind of motioned
me over and I go over to the stage and I put
my head down and he goes, hey, I just want to
let you know you've been pronouncing his name
wrong the entire time. Listen, we all need correcting,
right? We all need correcting. Most of the New
Testament is letters written by Paul, and the
reason that Paul is writing these letters is
for the purpose of correction a lot of times
when it comes to these churches. Sometimes it's
encouragement, sometimes it's correction, but
the letter to the church in Galatia is a letter
that is in response to some of the things that
they're doing. This church is doing these things
and because they're doing these things, they
got some stuff going on. He wrote this letter
to them and we're gonna look at this letter for
the next 10 weeks. We're gonna walk through every
verse of this letter and we're gonna go through
what Paul said to the church at Galatia and see
what we as a church nowadays here in this culture
can learn from what Paul told them. And I love
this letter because Paul is direct in this letter.
See, I think that how direct you are is correlated
to how bothered you are. I think the more bothered
you are, the more direct you are. You know what
I mean? Parents in here, if your house is getting
messy and you're like kind of a little bothered
at your children, you're like, hey, we should
really pick this stuff up. But then it gets really
messy and you're really bothered by it and you're
like, hey, you pick this up now. You get a little
bit more direct with how bothered you are. And
Paul is writing this letter. And usually if you
know Paul's letters, he starts it with like greetings.
He's like, hey, what's good? How's your mom doing?
How's your friends? Greetings to this person.
And there's some fluff there, but on this one,
he goes straight into it because he's very bothered
by what is going on in this church. And so we
see Galatians chapter one, verse one, Paul says
this, Paul an apostle sent not from men nor by
a man. but by Jesus Christ and God the Father
who raised him from the dead. Paul is starting
his letter to them with the authority with which
he speaks. This is the authority with which I'm
speaking to you. You know why? Because you and
I as human have this thing in us that go, wait,
who are you to tell me what to do? Who the heck
are you? Why am I gonna listen to you? And he's
going, okay, listen, these are not my words.
I'm telling you the authority with which I speak.
In my house, this is how this works. If my daughters
are in a room and one of my daughters goes in
and says, hey, it's time for dinner, let's go
eat. My other daughters are gonna look at her
and go, maybe. But if she goes in and goes, hey,
hey, mom said it's time for dinner. That carries
some weight. That carries some weight. What Paul
is doing is he's writing this letter is he's
saying, hey, this carries some weight. These
are not my words, these are Jesus's words. Listen
to me church, do not follow a pastor that only
wants you to follow his words. Make sure he's
following Jesus' words. Do not follow a church
that wants you to follow anything but Jesus'
words. Okay, we at Heights, we have a thing that
we say this is, we are putting a stake in the
ground for and that is we are for Jesus. That
is going to be our marker. We are going to say
we are for Jesus. And if we drift from that,
that will always be the things that we come back
to. And listen to me, I have been at churches
that have drifted away from having Jesus as the
main thing. And if for you, if you find yourself
in a church like that, that is your cue to leave.
If Jesus is not the main thing, if there's something
else, if there's a different agenda or a different
thing being spoken, they say, hey, follow me.
Instead of follow Jesus, there's a big problem.
And what Paul is saying to them is he's saying,
these words are not mine, these are Jesus's words
to you. Jesus is with the authority with which
I am writing, however, it's not just Jesus behind
me here. In verse two, he says, all the brothers
and sisters with me to the churches in Galatia.
As if the authority from Jesus wasn't enough,
Paul is saying, the homies, they all agree too.
Everyone is with me, man. The homies agree with
me. You guys got some issues and we're writing
this to confront what is going on in the church.
And he says this, verse three, grace and peace
to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ. Grace and peace. Listen, I don't know
who this is for, but some of you came in today
looking for peace in your life. Your life is
chaos. And you walked into this doors today going,
man, I just need some peace in my life. But you
have not clung to grace yet. And you need to
understand that grace always precedes peace.
Because without grace, it is not possible to
experience true peace. And when you try to find
peace without grace, what you end up doing is
you end up in a cycle. Because it's not possible
without grace. And this is where we get caught
up with trying everything in search of the thing
that's only truly found in one thing. And we'll
go, I'm gonna try this and I'm gonna try that.
And if I just went with this person or if I just
have this drink, I'm gonna have peace for a second.
And we search for everything. And I'm telling
you right now, if you don't find your peace out
of grace, you will always be in search of peace.
because the temporary peace you get will never
stick because grace always precedes peace and
as peace is found through the grace that we have
been given. It says in verse four, it says it
comes through grace and peace from our Lord Jesus
Christ who gave himself for our sins to rescue
us from the present evil age according to the
will of our God and Father to whom be the glory
forever and ever, amen. All right, that's the
thing. If you're in search of the thing, here's
the thing, it's the gospel. It's the good news.
That's what he's telling us right here is the
good news. But sometimes, you and I, sometimes
this church in Galatian, we're like spiritual
dogs and everything around us is a squirrel.
You know what I'm saying? Right, you're like,
I'm following Jesus, squirrel. Oh, this is good,
I'm on the right path, squirrel. All right, and
that's us when it comes to our spiritual life.
Right, when I was growing up, I had this dog,
this dog was named Star. And before you judge
me, I was five years old when I named her, okay?
Chill out, all right? But Star was awesome and
she loved to chase a ball, more than anything
in the whole world, but only if you kicked it.
You couldn't throw it. She would drop it, she'd
like back up and stare at you. And if you like
went to pick it up, she'd like, go grab it. She's
like, nah, it's not how we play this, bro. And
she'd drop it and she'd scoot back and then you
kick it and she would run. She was trained on
this thing and she's like, I'm gonna go get this.
And she would do it for hours and hours and hours.
But sometimes if I kicked the ball and it were
to cross the path of another ball that were sitting
there, or if for somebody else were to throw
a ball that were to cross that same path, man,
she would be determined on one thing, but then
all of a sudden she would abandon course and
go to something completely different. See, sometimes
as believers, what we do is we're following God
and then all of a sudden we start diverting and
we start following something else. Our attention
goes to something else. And the reason Paul is
writing this letter is because the churches in
Galatia were doing exactly that. And he follows
this up by saying this in verse six, I'm astonished.
This is blowing me away. I'm astonished that
you are so quickly deserting the one who called
you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning
to a different gospel. See what is happening
in the church in Galatia is that they had some
false teachers come in. Some people that were
teaching in their church And they're saying that
faith in Jesus was not enough. They had to do
other things. Jesus is great. Yeah, we have faith
in Jesus, but you gotta add something else to
it. Listen to me, church, you need to understand
this equation. Jesus plus nothing equals everything.
Jesus plus nothing equals everything. All right,
and if you get that mixed up and it's Jesus plus
anything else, that's fake news. That's not real.
There's nothing real about that. Jesus plus nothing
equals everything. If it's plus anything else,
that is not the gospel. What he's saying is you
guys gotta understand this. This is not okay
that these teachers are coming in and trying
to add to this. You're believing something else.
You're believing another gospel. Then he says
in verse seven, which really is no gospel at
all. It's not real. Evidently, some people are
throwing you into confusion. and they're trying
to pervert the gospel of Christ. The culture
around these Galatians is influencing them to
believe something other than the real thing.
You know what our culture does? Our culture influences.
Our culture influences. You don't believe me?
How many of you remember Saturday morning cartoons?
Saturday morning cartoons, come on now, right?
Right? Right? The kids nowadays, they don't understand.
They're like, we got Disney Plus. We can watch
it whenever I want. No, no, no. Saturday morning
cartoons, baby. That's when you'd have to get
up, right? You'd get that comfortable spot. You'd
settle and you'd go get your favorite bowl of
sugar and milk. You know what I'm talking about,
right? Right? Unless you were in my house, my
parents lied to me and they told me that granola
was cereal. I was like, that's not cereal. That's
granola. Right? I had to go next door. My grandparents
live next door. They were my dealers. I'd go
over there and get the good stuff. Right? They'd
pour me a nice bowl of Frosted Flakes. I'm like,
now we're talking. Let's go, baby. Right? And
you settle in and you start watching the cartoons
and the cartoons were awesome. They were good.
And then in between the cartoons would come on
these commercials and man, you wanted them. You
remember this, right? You remember this, right?
You remember those, right? Because if pillow
fights aren't good enough, let's fill your hands
with some air and just beat the snot out of each
other. It was awesome. And you're like, man,
I want that. Right? What about these? What about
these? This would come up and you're like, yeah,
baby. I am literally going to walk on the moon.
Like it is going to be incredible. I wanted them
so bad. Some of you had those and you are lucky.
All right, I'm just saying, I'm jealous still.
Man, what about this one? What about this? You
remember that? Skip it, skip it. Come on now,
the song's already playing in your head. You
know what I'm talking about, right? I wanted
one, they were so awesome. All right, then there
were these. You remember these things? Trying
to keep these things alive? You kidding me right
now? All right, some of you that couldn't keep
those alive, you grew up now and you kill every
plant you have too. All right, you were training
for now where you just kill all the plants. You
know what I'm saying? Like these things, if you're
on vacation, you're like, man, you gotta keep
this thing alive for me while you leave. I was
never into this next one, but some of you were.
You remember these? What child in their right
mind would look, that thing will steal your soul.
Like I'm nervous for that girl right now. Like
somebody go save her. Look at that thing. That
thing's creepy. Right? And then this last one,
man, this was all of our retirement plan, if
we're honest. All right, you know what I'm saying?
Like, but only if you didn't remove the tag,
right? Cause if you remove the tag, it was worthless.
Guess what? It's all worthless, right? You know,
it's worthless. But listen, you wanted those
so bad because when the commercial came up, the
culture was saying, you need this. And it would
influence you because what our culture does is
our culture influences us and our culture influences
our view of the gospel as well. We start hearing
things in our culture and it starts influencing
the way that we think about the gospel. We hear
things like this, people are just basically good.
You and I were just basically good. But the Bible
says that you and I are sinners separated from
God forever. It says there's none righteous.
No, not one. It said for all of sin and falling
short of the glory of God. It says that you and
I are broken and apart from God and what it does
is it removes the offense of sin in our life
because what culture starts influencing us and
going, yeah, yeah, you're just basically good.
All right, we hear things like this and it starts
influencing us. We hear things like, you know,
Jesus, man, Jesus was just a good teacher. Jesus
was not just a good teacher. Jesus was the savior
of the world. And when we reduce Jesus to just
being a self -help Jesus instead of the savior
of the world, what we've done is we've diverted
from the gospel because the culture has influenced
our way of thinking. We had this opportunity
in our life to be around people, to be around
a culture, to be around an influence, but it
starts to influence us when we hear things like
this, just be a good person. And the problem
is that when we allow ourselves to just be a
good person, to earn God, instead of being a
good person that flows out of already being purchased
by God, we have a problem. Yes, be a good person.
Don't hear me wrong. You're like, oh, pastor
said I can go be a jerk. I didn't say that. But
when we believe that our works have anything
to do to get to God, we've missed it. We believe
in our culture, the things that we hear, and
we hear things like this. Hey, just live your
truth. Your truth is different than my truth.
It's different than their truth. Just live your
truth. And that's not true because there's only
one truth. That's the definition of truth. There's
only one. Jesus is truth. And we let our culture
start to influence us. And the problem is this.
It comes from allowing a voice other than God
to have a louder voice of influence than God.
And when a voice other than God in our life has
a louder influence on us than God, we find ourselves
in a problem. For some of you. that loudest voice
of influence is your news source of choice. It's
a political talk show of choice. It's the thing
that's always on and you're listening to all
the time and that is the loudest voice in your
life and you have it, but it's speaking truth
to you. And you walk around and you don't know
why, you're always anxious, you're always scared,
you're always dealing with this. Listen, when
was the last time you heard news tell you, hey,
a great, positive, amazing thing tonight at 10
p .m.? Yeah, right? Right? It's like 10 o 'clock
tonight. Listen, we're all burning. The whole
world's dying. And we walk around scared. We
walk around with this anxiety. Well, the loudest
voice that you're hearing is filling your life
with things that are leading you away from God.
For some of you, it's social media. And your
social media, man, is this first thing you go
to. It's the last thing you go to. And you're
always scrolling and you're going through it.
And it's just for entertainment. There's nothing
to it. But man, what are you filling yourself
with? What are you filling yourself with? What
are you comparing yourself to? Because man, every
time we look at that, we go, man, but I wish
I was them. I wish I had that. And did you know
that statistics show that increased social media
use is directly correlated to a higher level
of depression and anxiety, to a higher level
of body image issues, to a higher level of even
self harm and even suicide, are directly correlated
to social media use. All right, for some of you,
the loudest voice in your life is just the music
that you listen to over and over. And you're
like, I don't listen to the words, I just listen
to the beat. That's all it is. Just listen to
the music. But what you're doing is you're allowing
those words to influence you and becoming a voice
of influence in your life. And you start living
in a different way. You start acting in a different
way. You start viewing things in a different
way because of the influence that they have on
you. All right, for a lot of you, the loudest
voice in your life is your friends. All right,
I just got my friends and they gotta talk to
me. I gotta listen to them. Listen, the problem
is that you're taking advice from people that
are dumber than you. You're like, how did I get
in this place? Well, cause you listened to them.
That's how you got there. And when we allow our
friends to be the voice of authority in our life
and we go, okay, yeah, I'm gonna do that. A lot
of times what they're doing is just co -signing
on your bad decisions. But we surround ourselves
with these people and a lot of times they become
the loudest voice in our life. Now check it out,
though. Here's the thing. It doesn't necessarily
mean that we remove those things, but it means
that we have to be anchored through those things.
It doesn't mean we remove it. It means we're
anchored through it. We have to be anchored.
Think about a boat, man. If a boat is drifting—
And a boat is in water. It is in its environment
that is going to shift it. Sometimes if it is
too dangerous, yes, it needs to be removed from
that water. It needs to be taken out. Just like
if those things can become too dangerous in your
life, they need to be removed. But for the most
part, what it needs to happen is it needs to
be anchored so that its environment around it
does not affect it. We cannot remove ourselves
from all environments. And since environments
are influencing us, therefore we need to be anchored
through it so then the environment moves and
it shifts and the culture tries to persuade us.
We say, no, this is my anchor. If you're taking
notes, write this down. We have to be anchored
in our relationship with Jesus. Anchored in your
relationship with Jesus. Because if when the
world starts influencing, and the culture starts
influencing, and you say, okay, yes, I see that,
I feel that, but I'm anchored in a relationship
with Jesus, you're not gonna move. It says in
Romans 12, too, do not be conformed to the pattern
of this world. Do not be influenced by the things
around you, but instead be transformed, how?
By the renewing of your mind. Then you will be
able to test and approve what God's will is,
His good, pleasing, and perfect will. About a
year ago, I realized that my routines were not
allowing me to be anchored in my relationship
with Jesus. And what I mean is that every morning
when I woke up, the very first thing I'm doing
is I'm checking social media. How many notifications
do I have? Do I have any new followers? What
do I gotta check out? What changed in the world
since I left? And that was the first thing I
looked at. And it's not a bad thing, but I realized
that it was the first thing, therefore it was
the loudest voice of influence in my life, and
I just had to switch this to where the first
thing that I do every morning is that I get into
God's word. I'm gonna get to it. Again, I'm not
telling you it's bad. I'm gonna get to the social
media, but it's not the first thing. The first
thing I'm doing is I'm saying this is the most
important voice, and this is what I'm gonna listen
to first. Then I'll get to the other things.
All right, you gotta be in your word. If you
wanna have a relationship with God that's actually
anchoring you, then you gotta have a relationship
that's active, which means you gotta read the
word of God. Which means you got to pray and
talk to God more than just before your meals
or before bed. What if you invited God into every
place of your life and it was a continued conversation
because you say, you're the voice that I care
about most, therefore my relationship with you
matters and it's not just a scheduled conversation,
but it's an invitation to the rest of my life.
We have to be anchored in our relationship with
Jesus. Next is this, we have to be anchored in
community. We need people around us. that are
going to push us towards Jesus. Let me ask you,
what do the voices of your community sound like?
Are they tearing you down and pulling you away
from Jesus? Are they saying, hey, I'm gonna build
you up, I want you to trust Jesus? Or are they
saying, hey, you do you boo, you got this, it's
all about you, I believe in you. That's the worst
advice you can get. Don't believe in you, believe
in Jesus because you're gonna lead yourself to
destruction every time, but Jesus is gonna lead
you to the right place. What if we have a community
around us that says, listen, I love you and I
care about you. That's why I'm not gonna say
just believe in yourself. I'm gonna say, listen,
I'm gonna walk with you as we believe in Jesus
together. That's why we believe in life groups
here. That's why we believe in joining a serve
team so that you can be around other believers
and other Christians that are gonna point you
towards Jesus. They're gonna say, man, I want
you to come alongside of you. I wanna help you.
We have to be anchored in a community that helps
us to not drift. and be influenced by our culture.
Next is this, is we have to be anchored in your
identity. Is your identity in Christ or is your
identity in everything else? Because if your
identity is in what you do, if it's in your job,
if it's in your finances, if it's in your marriage,
if it's in your kids, if it's in anything like
that, what happens is all those things can change,
but Jesus can never. And we have this problem
a lot of times where even those of us who are
Christians or believers, if someone asks you,
hey, who are you? You start by telling them what
you do, not who you are. Who are you? Well, I
do this for a job. That's not who you are. It's
not what you do. You need to realize who you
are and who you are. If you are in Christ, your
identity is in Christ. But if your identity is
in Christ and you say, this is who I am, it first
comes by realizing whose you are. Who you are
comes out of whose you are. And when you know
that you are bought with a price by Jesus, and
you go, listen, I am his, therefore I know my
identity is in him. And when that is your anchor,
when you are anchored in that, man, you are gonna
be influenced by the culture, but it's not gonna
pull you away because you know who you are. And
we have to be anchored in that. Because here's
the thing, the devil, the devil wants to pull
you away and the devil has no new tactics. We
got the end of the story. I'm gonna tell you
right now, guess what? I've read the end of the
book. Jesus wins. He wins. We got the end of
the story. And you know what? The devil does
too. He knows it. And he's got no new tactics.
He knows that Jesus wins. But what if he can
just get you a little bit off course? What if
he can get you just a little bit off course?
I coach baseball and I've done that for many,
many years. And one time, just one time, I lined
a baseball field. And what that means is you
start at home plate and you do a line all the
way to the foul pole on either side. And those
are the lines that determine whether a ball is
foul or fair. And I started off and man, I thought
I was doing a great job, just saying. I thought
I was just crushing it. And I was like one degree
off. And I was like, no, I'm fine, I'm fine.
By the time I got 325 feet away, I'd missed the
foul pole by 15 feet. All right, I'm saying it
was brutal. They had to paint the grass green
over my white line so they could repaint the
white line. See, what happens in our life is
if you're just, if the devil can just get you
one degree off, if the devil can just get you
two degrees off and say, yes, you're following
Jesus, what if I just turn you a little bit?
And what if just these few things are okay? And
what if you could just add a little bit to the
gospel, then by the time you get to the end,
you've missed it completely. And he said, I just
wanna pervert it a little bit. And what he's
doing is this Galatian church, he's got in there
and he started saying, hey, what if I could just
turn you a little bit? 99 % of the time, it is
not a denial. of Jesus is needed for salvation.
It's a denial that he is all that is needed for
salvation. We start adding things to it, just
like this church in Galatia is adding things
to it that are not necessary and going, okay,
listen, it's Jesus plus something else, but Jesus
plus anything equals fake news. That's not real.
Remember my very first youth pastor job, I got
hired my very first full -time job and I went
into the church and. When I got there, they had
five students and within two weeks I made them
all mad and they left. So I went from five students
to zero. It was an incredible ministry model.
It's wonderful. But the reason I made them mad
is that these five students, they really loved
just sitting down and digging deep into the word
of God. And it was amazing that they did that,
but they thought that it was just for them, those
five. And that's it, just to dig deep. And I
said, okay, no, no, no guys, we're gonna be welcoming
to everyone. This isn't just for you, it's for
other people too. We're gonna allow everyone
into this. And they didn't like that. So they
left and a couple of weeks later they said, hey,
can I have a meeting with you? We got some questions
for you. And I said, yeah, sure. So they sat
down with me and they started asking me questions.
They said, hey, listen, we need to know what
translation of the Bible do you use? And I told
them and they said, that's not the right one.
Only this one is the right one. And I was like,
well, I disagree. I can show you manuscript evidence
to why both of them. And they go, no, no, no.
Let me ask you this. When you were baptized,
you were baptized, right? I said, yeah, were
you baptized in the name of Jesus? I said, yeah,
I was baptized in the name of. God, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit. I got all of them, man.
I nailed all of them. Like, well, if you weren't
baptized in the name of Jesus, then it's not
real. It doesn't count. I was like, oh, well,
I disagree again. And they're like, okay, well,
let me ask you this. Are you out doing street
witnessing? Because if you're not out street
witnessing at least once a week, you're ashamed
of the gospel. And I was like, well, I don't
think I'm ashamed of the gospel, actually. I
don't quite think that's true. And they go, hey,
listen, we don't think that you're a Christian.
We don't think that you're gonna go to heaven.
And I said, guys, you missed it. You started
adding things to the gospel. You started taking
things and going, yes, Jesus is good plus this.
Jesus is great plus this. It's not plus anything.
Jesus is all that matters. Jesus is the only
thing that matters. Jesus is what we have to
get back to because the gospel is already perfect.
The gospel is this, is that Jesus came to this
earth for a purpose. You and I have separated
ourself from God because of our sin. and Jesus
came to this earth and lived the perfect life
that you and I cannot live because in order to
satisfy the payment for sin, the payment has
to be perfect. Therefore, it requires a perfect
person and Jesus coming as the perfect person
stood in your place on a cross and he willingly
went to a cross and paid the price that you were
supposed to pay. but he did not stay on the cross.
He went in a tomb and he beat sin and he beat
death by raising from that tomb. And if we put
our faith and our trust in him and say, I trust
what you did for me, that right there is what
it takes for us to have a relationship with God.
That's it. That's the gospel. That's the good
news. We do not have to add anything to that.
And that's good news for us. That's good news
for us. The gospel is already perfect. And what
this church at Galatia is doing here is they're
saying, no, no, no, we gotta add some other things.
And Paul's saying you don't need to add anything.
Don't get distracted by the culture that's trying
to tell you these things. In fact, if anyone
tells you that, don't believe it. He says this
in verse eight. But even if we or an angel from
heaven even should preach a gospel other than
the one we preach to you, let them be under God's
curse. Okay, now this is weird. An angel from
heaven? Why would an angel from heaven preach
something other than God? Why would they try
to add to the gospel? And this might be touchy
for some people, but here's some examples of
that. One of the biggest cults in the United
States was a man who said that the angel Moroni
came to him and told him to write a second testament,
something else to add to the gospel known as
the Book of Mormon. Another example of this is
the religion called Islam, where Muhammad said
that the angel Gabriel came to him and said,
hey, I need you to write the Quran. And you're
gonna write this and this is gonna be a second
part that is added to the gospel. And this is
where this came from. All right, now listen,
I'm not here to ruffle feathers, I'm not here
to get you angry about this, but you need to
understand that there is one way and the one
way is Jesus. And so these are adding to that.
And I'm not saying that we hate Mormons or we
hate people that are Muslim, we don't do that.
Listen, we love them and we want them to know
Jesus more than anything because that is the
way, that is the one way. And even if an angel
from heaven were to come and preach to you, and
you need to understand, if an angel from heaven
says something contrary to what the word of God
says, they're not an angel from heaven. They're
not working for Him if they're saying something
different than Him. And you need to identify
and understand this is it. And what Paul is saying
to this church, he's saying, you guys are being
influenced by something else. And even if an
angel from heaven were to say something else,
you need to understand we do not add to this.
This is it. This is the one. And what he's saying
here is he's saying, hey listen, this is what
matters. Verse nine, as we've already said, so
I'll say it again. He's like, if you didn't get
it the first time, you gotta get this. If anybody
is preaching to you a gospel other than what
you accepted, let them be under God's curse.
See, God creates, but Satan counterfeits. God
creates and he creates beautiful and he creates
perfect and Satan, all he can do is counterfeit
it. I don't know if you noticed this about me.
I hope you have actually, but your boy likes
shoes. I'm just saying. Like I got some fresh
kicks on right now. I know you've noticed that,
I'm just saying. But something that you might
know, or might not know, I'm on a pastor's budget.
And what that means is I gotta save up birthday
money, I gotta save up Christmas money, I gotta
save up all the money to be able to buy these.
A couple years ago that I was in Israel, and
we were on Israel, we were touring Israel, and
it felt like, if I'm honest, it felt like we
were touring all of Israel's bathrooms. All right,
that's pretty much all we did. Like we just kept
stopping. Like people wouldn't have to go, and
then they'd announce, they're like, hey, there's
a restroom coming up, and everyone's like, I
gotta go so bad. It happened every time. But
every time we stopped, I didn't have to go because
I was 30 years younger than most of the people
on the trip. So I'm just kidding, I love you
guys. Okay, that was a joke. But man, we would
stop at these bathrooms and I remember one time
we stopped there and across the way there was
a market. And I went over to this market and
right away I saw this fresh pair of Jordans sitting
there and I was like, man, I want those. All
right, they looked good. And right under it,
the price said $20. And I was like, those look
real good. Those are in a pastor's budget. You
know what I'm saying? Like that's where we're
at. And so they looked good. And I go over until
I picked them up and I actually saw them and
I realized that they were absolutely garbage
quality. They looked good from the outside, but
man, when you saw them, they were garbage quality.
Here's the thing. When we look at the things
that Satan counterfeits, we look at those things
and they're enticing, but they will always let
you down. They will always let you down because
God creates and Satan counterfeits. And a lot
of times we start chasing a counterfeit instead
of realizing that the real thing is only in Jesus.
It's nothing else. It's Jesus alone. Paul finishes
this section by saying this in verse 10. Am I
now trying to win the approval of human beings
or of God? Am I trying to please people if I
were? Still trying to please people, I would
not be a servant of Christ. He said, I'm gonna
shoot you straight with the truth. I'm gonna
give you the truth. I'm gonna give you the real
thing right now. Because I could just cosign
on what you're saying and yeah, you're good with
that. But it's not real. I had a man last night
that came up to me after the service and he was
extremely upset that I would say anything about
the Quran. Extremely upset that it wasn't true,
that I would say that it's not true. And I just
told him, sir, Jesus said, I am the way, the
truth and the life. No one comes to the Father
except through me. And I will stand on that truth.
There is not all different roads that lead to
the top of the mountain. I'm not here to please
people. That should not be our goal to just be
like, no, no, no, we're gonna tiptoe and make
sure we please people. We're gonna love people.
We're gonna care for people. But man, we're gonna
stand on the truth. Just like Paul said to the
Galatians, man, I could just let you keep going,
but I'm not living for you. I'm living for God.
Let me ask you, who? are you living for? Who
are you living for? Because religiosity, doing
all the religious things, you know what that's
for? That's for other people. It's for you to
prove to them how good you are. It's not for
God because he's saying, listen, it's not about
adding anything. It's about Jesus. Who are you
living for? Jesus plus nothing equals everything.
Listen to me, come back to Jesus. Get back to
Jesus, make Him the only thing. Some of you in
here, you've never heard the good news, you've
never heard the gospel. You never accepted the
fact that Jesus died in your place. And today
needs to be the day that you go and, hey, listen,
I understand that it is all about Jesus and I'm
willing to surrender my life to say I give up
and I put my faith and trust in Jesus. Some of
you have done that, you've put your faith and
trust in Jesus, but man, the world, your life,
the culture, the influences, just got you one
degree off. Maybe just one little smidge off.
And we have an opportunity to refocus, to get
back to what matters. When you came in today,
you were given this cup. And what communion is,
is communion is an opportunity. to reflect, to
remember, and to focus on what God has done for
you. But it's also a time for us to reflect on
what place Jesus has in our life. Is he the loudest
voice of influence in your life? Are you allowing
culture to move you off one degree or is Jesus
remaining in the place he needs to be? I want
you to take a few minutes and just reflect. as
Jesus was in the upper room with the disciples
before he went to the cross, before he went to
pay the price for all of humanity. He took some
bread and he broke it and he passed it to his
disciples and he said, hey, this represents my
body that is broken for you. He says, eat this
in remembrance of me. It says that in the same
way, Jesus took the cup and as he passed it around,
he said, this is my blood that is poured out
on your behalf. Drink this in remembrance of
me. God, we come before you with gratitude, with
gratitude that you are the only way, God, that
it does not rest on our shoulders because that
is way too heavy of a burden. We cannot handle
it, Lord, we need you. God, we thank you that
you sent your son, Jesus, for us. God, I pray
that we would live in a way that shines the light
of you, Jesus, that does not place burdens on
ourself or on other people that don't need to
be there, God, that we would eliminate anything
that is plus, that is Jesus plus nothing in our
life, God. God, I pray for each one of us in
here that need to refocus, that need to refocus
on what matters, that need to allow your voice
to be the loudest voice of influence in our life.
I pray for those in here that need to give their
life to you, that need to surrender to you for
the first time. God, we praise you. We thank
you. We're so grateful for you. And we pray all
of this in Jesus' name. Amen.