WEBVTT 00:00:00.729 --> 00:00:04.009 Well, what is up church? Hope that you guys are 00:00:04.009 --> 00:00:07.269 doing well. I wanna welcome you here today. I 00:00:07.269 --> 00:00:09.169 wanna welcome those of you online from wherever 00:00:09.169 --> 00:00:11.910 you're watching from. If you're out in Baghdad, 00:00:12.089 --> 00:00:14.289 welcome. If you're in Paulden, welcome. If you're 00:00:14.289 --> 00:00:17.149 with Cheryl out in Missouri with the watch party 00:00:17.149 --> 00:00:19.809 she has going there, welcome, welcome. We're 00:00:19.809 --> 00:00:22.070 so glad that you guys are here. Yeah, give it 00:00:22.070 --> 00:00:25.170 up for our online fam as well. Those of you in 00:00:25.170 --> 00:00:27.829 the building, welcome to you as well. Let me 00:00:27.829 --> 00:00:30.600 ask you this. How many of you have ever needed 00:00:30.600 --> 00:00:32.759 correcting before? You need some correcting? 00:00:33.299 --> 00:00:35.700 Yeah. Okay, if your hand's not up, you're lying 00:00:35.700 --> 00:00:38.219 in church right now. I'm just telling you, right? 00:00:38.259 --> 00:00:40.500 We all need correcting. Man, I remember when 00:00:40.500 --> 00:00:42.880 I first got to this church, the way that it works 00:00:42.880 --> 00:00:45.939 when somebody says, hey, we wanna do a memorial 00:00:45.939 --> 00:00:49.700 or a wedding at Heights, those requests get distributed 00:00:49.700 --> 00:00:52.000 between different pastors. And so we get assigned 00:00:52.000 --> 00:00:54.899 these requests. And so I got assigned this request 00:00:54.899 --> 00:00:57.939 for a memorial. And I don't know the gentleman 00:00:57.939 --> 00:00:59.439 that had passed away. I don't know if he went 00:00:59.439 --> 00:01:01.600 to Heights. I don't know if the family. had gone 00:01:01.600 --> 00:01:03.880 to heights, but I'd been on a phone call with 00:01:03.880 --> 00:01:06.099 the family, knowing a little bit about them, 00:01:06.239 --> 00:01:09.680 but not a lot of details. And so I get to the 00:01:09.680 --> 00:01:11.359 day of the memorial, and I was doing the memorial 00:01:11.359 --> 00:01:14.760 on this exact stage, and I'd read the obituary, 00:01:15.079 --> 00:01:18.140 I'd given a message. I got about three fourths 00:01:18.140 --> 00:01:19.599 of the way through this and they had this wonderful 00:01:19.599 --> 00:01:21.579 slideshow prepared and they were showing this 00:01:21.579 --> 00:01:24.060 slideshow of all the pictures of this man's life 00:01:24.060 --> 00:01:26.120 and just his accomplishments and the things that 00:01:26.120 --> 00:01:27.819 he had done and I kind of stepped off to the 00:01:27.819 --> 00:01:30.319 side of the stage to let the slideshow play and 00:01:30.319 --> 00:01:32.700 I was in the back and someone came up to the 00:01:32.700 --> 00:01:34.400 front of the stage and they kind of motioned 00:01:34.400 --> 00:01:37.079 me over and I go over to the stage and I put 00:01:37.079 --> 00:01:38.480 my head down and he goes, hey, I just want to 00:01:38.480 --> 00:01:41.099 let you know you've been pronouncing his name 00:01:41.099 --> 00:01:45.989 wrong the entire time. Listen, we all need correcting, 00:01:46.290 --> 00:01:49.430 right? We all need correcting. Most of the New 00:01:49.430 --> 00:01:51.590 Testament is letters written by Paul, and the 00:01:51.590 --> 00:01:53.629 reason that Paul is writing these letters is 00:01:53.629 --> 00:01:56.090 for the purpose of correction a lot of times 00:01:56.090 --> 00:01:58.760 when it comes to these churches. Sometimes it's 00:01:58.760 --> 00:02:00.260 encouragement, sometimes it's correction, but 00:02:00.260 --> 00:02:03.579 the letter to the church in Galatia is a letter 00:02:03.579 --> 00:02:05.780 that is in response to some of the things that 00:02:05.780 --> 00:02:07.620 they're doing. This church is doing these things 00:02:07.620 --> 00:02:08.900 and because they're doing these things, they 00:02:08.900 --> 00:02:11.159 got some stuff going on. He wrote this letter 00:02:11.159 --> 00:02:13.219 to them and we're gonna look at this letter for 00:02:13.219 --> 00:02:15.780 the next 10 weeks. We're gonna walk through every 00:02:15.780 --> 00:02:17.699 verse of this letter and we're gonna go through 00:02:17.699 --> 00:02:19.879 what Paul said to the church at Galatia and see 00:02:19.879 --> 00:02:22.979 what we as a church nowadays here in this culture 00:02:22.979 --> 00:02:26.030 can learn from what Paul told them. And I love 00:02:26.030 --> 00:02:29.069 this letter because Paul is direct in this letter. 00:02:29.590 --> 00:02:32.129 See, I think that how direct you are is correlated 00:02:32.129 --> 00:02:35.090 to how bothered you are. I think the more bothered 00:02:35.090 --> 00:02:36.810 you are, the more direct you are. You know what 00:02:36.810 --> 00:02:38.930 I mean? Parents in here, if your house is getting 00:02:38.930 --> 00:02:41.129 messy and you're like kind of a little bothered 00:02:41.129 --> 00:02:42.889 at your children, you're like, hey, we should 00:02:42.889 --> 00:02:45.930 really pick this stuff up. But then it gets really 00:02:45.930 --> 00:02:47.490 messy and you're really bothered by it and you're 00:02:47.490 --> 00:02:50.180 like, hey, you pick this up now. You get a little 00:02:50.180 --> 00:02:53.259 bit more direct with how bothered you are. And 00:02:53.259 --> 00:02:55.560 Paul is writing this letter. And usually if you 00:02:55.560 --> 00:02:57.620 know Paul's letters, he starts it with like greetings. 00:02:57.639 --> 00:02:59.879 He's like, hey, what's good? How's your mom doing? 00:03:00.580 --> 00:03:03.020 How's your friends? Greetings to this person. 00:03:03.360 --> 00:03:05.240 And there's some fluff there, but on this one, 00:03:05.240 --> 00:03:08.620 he goes straight into it because he's very bothered 00:03:08.620 --> 00:03:11.180 by what is going on in this church. And so we 00:03:11.180 --> 00:03:13.300 see Galatians chapter one, verse one, Paul says 00:03:13.300 --> 00:03:17.479 this, Paul an apostle sent not from men nor by 00:03:17.479 --> 00:03:21.060 a man. but by Jesus Christ and God the Father 00:03:21.060 --> 00:03:24.500 who raised him from the dead. Paul is starting 00:03:24.500 --> 00:03:27.280 his letter to them with the authority with which 00:03:27.280 --> 00:03:30.360 he speaks. This is the authority with which I'm 00:03:30.360 --> 00:03:32.879 speaking to you. You know why? Because you and 00:03:32.879 --> 00:03:35.139 I as human have this thing in us that go, wait, 00:03:35.139 --> 00:03:37.620 who are you to tell me what to do? Who the heck 00:03:37.620 --> 00:03:40.180 are you? Why am I gonna listen to you? And he's 00:03:40.180 --> 00:03:41.979 going, okay, listen, these are not my words. 00:03:42.360 --> 00:03:44.900 I'm telling you the authority with which I speak. 00:03:45.210 --> 00:03:47.430 In my house, this is how this works. If my daughters 00:03:47.430 --> 00:03:49.129 are in a room and one of my daughters goes in 00:03:49.129 --> 00:03:51.330 and says, hey, it's time for dinner, let's go 00:03:51.330 --> 00:03:53.129 eat. My other daughters are gonna look at her 00:03:53.129 --> 00:03:58.189 and go, maybe. But if she goes in and goes, hey, 00:03:58.909 --> 00:04:01.949 hey, mom said it's time for dinner. That carries 00:04:01.949 --> 00:04:04.689 some weight. That carries some weight. What Paul 00:04:04.689 --> 00:04:06.310 is doing is he's writing this letter is he's 00:04:06.310 --> 00:04:08.009 saying, hey, this carries some weight. These 00:04:08.009 --> 00:04:12.780 are not my words, these are Jesus's words. Listen 00:04:12.780 --> 00:04:15.439 to me church, do not follow a pastor that only 00:04:15.439 --> 00:04:18.980 wants you to follow his words. Make sure he's 00:04:18.980 --> 00:04:21.560 following Jesus' words. Do not follow a church 00:04:21.560 --> 00:04:23.620 that wants you to follow anything but Jesus' 00:04:24.240 --> 00:04:27.459 words. Okay, we at Heights, we have a thing that 00:04:27.459 --> 00:04:30.319 we say this is, we are putting a stake in the 00:04:30.319 --> 00:04:33.579 ground for and that is we are for Jesus. That 00:04:33.579 --> 00:04:35.100 is going to be our marker. We are going to say 00:04:35.100 --> 00:04:37.240 we are for Jesus. And if we drift from that, 00:04:37.240 --> 00:04:39.100 that will always be the things that we come back 00:04:39.100 --> 00:04:41.120 to. And listen to me, I have been at churches 00:04:41.120 --> 00:04:43.639 that have drifted away from having Jesus as the 00:04:43.639 --> 00:04:45.939 main thing. And if for you, if you find yourself 00:04:45.939 --> 00:04:47.899 in a church like that, that is your cue to leave. 00:04:48.620 --> 00:04:51.220 If Jesus is not the main thing, if there's something 00:04:51.220 --> 00:04:53.660 else, if there's a different agenda or a different 00:04:53.660 --> 00:04:56.199 thing being spoken, they say, hey, follow me. 00:04:56.379 --> 00:04:58.459 Instead of follow Jesus, there's a big problem. 00:04:58.620 --> 00:05:00.620 And what Paul is saying to them is he's saying, 00:05:00.740 --> 00:05:03.959 these words are not mine, these are Jesus's words 00:05:03.959 --> 00:05:07.579 to you. Jesus is with the authority with which 00:05:07.579 --> 00:05:11.180 I am writing, however, it's not just Jesus behind 00:05:11.180 --> 00:05:13.800 me here. In verse two, he says, all the brothers 00:05:13.800 --> 00:05:16.699 and sisters with me to the churches in Galatia. 00:05:16.939 --> 00:05:20.139 As if the authority from Jesus wasn't enough, 00:05:20.259 --> 00:05:23.420 Paul is saying, the homies, they all agree too. 00:05:24.250 --> 00:05:26.649 Everyone is with me, man. The homies agree with 00:05:26.649 --> 00:05:28.829 me. You guys got some issues and we're writing 00:05:28.829 --> 00:05:32.470 this to confront what is going on in the church. 00:05:33.350 --> 00:05:36.990 And he says this, verse three, grace and peace 00:05:36.990 --> 00:05:40.170 to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus 00:05:40.170 --> 00:05:43.910 Christ. Grace and peace. Listen, I don't know 00:05:43.910 --> 00:05:46.490 who this is for, but some of you came in today 00:05:46.490 --> 00:05:49.560 looking for peace in your life. Your life is 00:05:49.560 --> 00:05:51.620 chaos. And you walked into this doors today going, 00:05:51.740 --> 00:05:54.339 man, I just need some peace in my life. But you 00:05:54.339 --> 00:05:57.459 have not clung to grace yet. And you need to 00:05:57.459 --> 00:06:00.800 understand that grace always precedes peace. 00:06:01.279 --> 00:06:04.100 Because without grace, it is not possible to 00:06:04.100 --> 00:06:08.199 experience true peace. And when you try to find 00:06:08.199 --> 00:06:11.579 peace without grace, what you end up doing is 00:06:11.579 --> 00:06:14.819 you end up in a cycle. Because it's not possible 00:06:14.819 --> 00:06:16.579 without grace. And this is where we get caught 00:06:16.579 --> 00:06:19.819 up with trying everything in search of the thing 00:06:19.819 --> 00:06:24.399 that's only truly found in one thing. And we'll 00:06:24.399 --> 00:06:26.019 go, I'm gonna try this and I'm gonna try that. 00:06:26.079 --> 00:06:27.959 And if I just went with this person or if I just 00:06:27.959 --> 00:06:29.759 have this drink, I'm gonna have peace for a second. 00:06:29.759 --> 00:06:31.560 And we search for everything. And I'm telling 00:06:31.560 --> 00:06:33.720 you right now, if you don't find your peace out 00:06:33.720 --> 00:06:37.160 of grace, you will always be in search of peace. 00:06:38.049 --> 00:06:40.029 because the temporary peace you get will never 00:06:40.029 --> 00:06:42.810 stick because grace always precedes peace and 00:06:42.810 --> 00:06:45.689 as peace is found through the grace that we have 00:06:45.689 --> 00:06:50.470 been given. It says in verse four, it says it 00:06:50.470 --> 00:06:52.490 comes through grace and peace from our Lord Jesus 00:06:52.490 --> 00:06:56.449 Christ who gave himself for our sins to rescue 00:06:56.449 --> 00:06:59.350 us from the present evil age according to the 00:06:59.350 --> 00:07:02.230 will of our God and Father to whom be the glory 00:07:02.230 --> 00:07:05.250 forever and ever, amen. All right, that's the 00:07:05.250 --> 00:07:07.089 thing. If you're in search of the thing, here's 00:07:07.089 --> 00:07:09.709 the thing, it's the gospel. It's the good news. 00:07:09.769 --> 00:07:11.269 That's what he's telling us right here is the 00:07:11.269 --> 00:07:14.029 good news. But sometimes, you and I, sometimes 00:07:14.029 --> 00:07:16.350 this church in Galatian, we're like spiritual 00:07:16.350 --> 00:07:18.730 dogs and everything around us is a squirrel. 00:07:19.050 --> 00:07:20.569 You know what I'm saying? Right, you're like, 00:07:20.610 --> 00:07:24.170 I'm following Jesus, squirrel. Oh, this is good, 00:07:24.170 --> 00:07:26.810 I'm on the right path, squirrel. All right, and 00:07:26.810 --> 00:07:28.709 that's us when it comes to our spiritual life. 00:07:28.829 --> 00:07:30.290 Right, when I was growing up, I had this dog, 00:07:30.769 --> 00:07:33.860 this dog was named Star. And before you judge 00:07:33.860 --> 00:07:35.980 me, I was five years old when I named her, okay? 00:07:36.139 --> 00:07:39.139 Chill out, all right? But Star was awesome and 00:07:39.139 --> 00:07:41.279 she loved to chase a ball, more than anything 00:07:41.279 --> 00:07:43.439 in the whole world, but only if you kicked it. 00:07:43.439 --> 00:07:45.500 You couldn't throw it. She would drop it, she'd 00:07:45.500 --> 00:07:47.519 like back up and stare at you. And if you like 00:07:47.519 --> 00:07:49.019 went to pick it up, she'd like, go grab it. She's 00:07:49.019 --> 00:07:51.560 like, nah, it's not how we play this, bro. And 00:07:51.560 --> 00:07:53.160 she'd drop it and she'd scoot back and then you 00:07:53.160 --> 00:07:56.019 kick it and she would run. She was trained on 00:07:56.019 --> 00:07:57.379 this thing and she's like, I'm gonna go get this. 00:07:57.420 --> 00:07:59.180 And she would do it for hours and hours and hours. 00:07:59.540 --> 00:08:01.980 But sometimes if I kicked the ball and it were 00:08:01.980 --> 00:08:04.279 to cross the path of another ball that were sitting 00:08:04.279 --> 00:08:07.060 there, or if for somebody else were to throw 00:08:07.060 --> 00:08:08.879 a ball that were to cross that same path, man, 00:08:08.879 --> 00:08:10.980 she would be determined on one thing, but then 00:08:10.980 --> 00:08:13.360 all of a sudden she would abandon course and 00:08:13.360 --> 00:08:17.240 go to something completely different. See, sometimes 00:08:17.240 --> 00:08:19.420 as believers, what we do is we're following God 00:08:19.420 --> 00:08:21.420 and then all of a sudden we start diverting and 00:08:21.420 --> 00:08:24.649 we start following something else. Our attention 00:08:24.649 --> 00:08:28.029 goes to something else. And the reason Paul is 00:08:28.029 --> 00:08:30.129 writing this letter is because the churches in 00:08:30.129 --> 00:08:32.149 Galatia were doing exactly that. And he follows 00:08:32.149 --> 00:08:35.789 this up by saying this in verse six, I'm astonished. 00:08:36.129 --> 00:08:37.970 This is blowing me away. I'm astonished that 00:08:37.970 --> 00:08:40.710 you are so quickly deserting the one who called 00:08:40.710 --> 00:08:43.769 you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning 00:08:43.769 --> 00:08:47.629 to a different gospel. See what is happening 00:08:47.629 --> 00:08:49.629 in the church in Galatia is that they had some 00:08:49.629 --> 00:08:51.990 false teachers come in. Some people that were 00:08:51.990 --> 00:08:54.580 teaching in their church And they're saying that 00:08:54.580 --> 00:08:58.240 faith in Jesus was not enough. They had to do 00:08:58.240 --> 00:09:00.919 other things. Jesus is great. Yeah, we have faith 00:09:00.919 --> 00:09:04.220 in Jesus, but you gotta add something else to 00:09:04.220 --> 00:09:06.419 it. Listen to me, church, you need to understand 00:09:06.419 --> 00:09:10.759 this equation. Jesus plus nothing equals everything. 00:09:12.080 --> 00:09:15.879 Jesus plus nothing equals everything. All right, 00:09:15.879 --> 00:09:17.960 and if you get that mixed up and it's Jesus plus 00:09:17.960 --> 00:09:20.940 anything else, that's fake news. That's not real. 00:09:22.129 --> 00:09:24.509 There's nothing real about that. Jesus plus nothing 00:09:24.509 --> 00:09:27.710 equals everything. If it's plus anything else, 00:09:27.710 --> 00:09:32.549 that is not the gospel. What he's saying is you 00:09:32.549 --> 00:09:34.529 guys gotta understand this. This is not okay 00:09:34.529 --> 00:09:35.970 that these teachers are coming in and trying 00:09:35.970 --> 00:09:39.769 to add to this. You're believing something else. 00:09:39.809 --> 00:09:41.629 You're believing another gospel. Then he says 00:09:41.629 --> 00:09:44.669 in verse seven, which really is no gospel at 00:09:44.669 --> 00:09:48.590 all. It's not real. Evidently, some people are 00:09:48.590 --> 00:09:51.429 throwing you into confusion. and they're trying 00:09:51.429 --> 00:09:55.710 to pervert the gospel of Christ. The culture 00:09:55.710 --> 00:09:58.789 around these Galatians is influencing them to 00:09:58.789 --> 00:10:01.429 believe something other than the real thing. 00:10:02.490 --> 00:10:04.809 You know what our culture does? Our culture influences. 00:10:06.090 --> 00:10:07.769 Our culture influences. You don't believe me? 00:10:08.470 --> 00:10:11.049 How many of you remember Saturday morning cartoons? 00:10:11.509 --> 00:10:13.710 Saturday morning cartoons, come on now, right? 00:10:14.169 --> 00:10:16.250 Right? Right? The kids nowadays, they don't understand. 00:10:16.350 --> 00:10:18.070 They're like, we got Disney Plus. We can watch 00:10:18.070 --> 00:10:21.000 it whenever I want. No, no, no. Saturday morning 00:10:21.000 --> 00:10:22.500 cartoons, baby. That's when you'd have to get 00:10:22.500 --> 00:10:24.559 up, right? You'd get that comfortable spot. You'd 00:10:24.559 --> 00:10:26.419 settle and you'd go get your favorite bowl of 00:10:26.419 --> 00:10:28.019 sugar and milk. You know what I'm talking about, 00:10:28.039 --> 00:10:31.399 right? Right? Unless you were in my house, my 00:10:31.399 --> 00:10:33.860 parents lied to me and they told me that granola 00:10:33.860 --> 00:10:36.559 was cereal. I was like, that's not cereal. That's 00:10:36.559 --> 00:10:39.120 granola. Right? I had to go next door. My grandparents 00:10:39.120 --> 00:10:40.779 live next door. They were my dealers. I'd go 00:10:40.779 --> 00:10:43.799 over there and get the good stuff. Right? They'd 00:10:43.799 --> 00:10:45.399 pour me a nice bowl of Frosted Flakes. I'm like, 00:10:45.419 --> 00:10:48.490 now we're talking. Let's go, baby. Right? And 00:10:48.490 --> 00:10:50.230 you settle in and you start watching the cartoons 00:10:50.230 --> 00:10:52.750 and the cartoons were awesome. They were good. 00:10:53.549 --> 00:10:56.309 And then in between the cartoons would come on 00:10:56.309 --> 00:10:59.149 these commercials and man, you wanted them. You 00:10:59.149 --> 00:11:01.710 remember this, right? You remember this, right? 00:11:01.730 --> 00:11:04.850 You remember those, right? Because if pillow 00:11:04.850 --> 00:11:06.710 fights aren't good enough, let's fill your hands 00:11:06.710 --> 00:11:08.669 with some air and just beat the snot out of each 00:11:08.669 --> 00:11:10.730 other. It was awesome. And you're like, man, 00:11:10.730 --> 00:11:12.889 I want that. Right? What about these? What about 00:11:12.889 --> 00:11:14.629 these? This would come up and you're like, yeah, 00:11:14.710 --> 00:11:18.059 baby. I am literally going to walk on the moon. 00:11:18.179 --> 00:11:20.460 Like it is going to be incredible. I wanted them 00:11:20.460 --> 00:11:23.340 so bad. Some of you had those and you are lucky. 00:11:23.480 --> 00:11:25.480 All right, I'm just saying, I'm jealous still. 00:11:26.700 --> 00:11:29.279 Man, what about this one? What about this? You 00:11:29.279 --> 00:11:32.860 remember that? Skip it, skip it. Come on now, 00:11:32.879 --> 00:11:34.340 the song's already playing in your head. You 00:11:34.340 --> 00:11:37.360 know what I'm talking about, right? I wanted 00:11:37.360 --> 00:11:39.519 one, they were so awesome. All right, then there 00:11:39.519 --> 00:11:41.500 were these. You remember these things? Trying 00:11:41.500 --> 00:11:44.679 to keep these things alive? You kidding me right 00:11:44.679 --> 00:11:46.679 now? All right, some of you that couldn't keep 00:11:46.679 --> 00:11:49.080 those alive, you grew up now and you kill every 00:11:49.080 --> 00:11:51.320 plant you have too. All right, you were training 00:11:51.320 --> 00:11:54.419 for now where you just kill all the plants. You 00:11:54.419 --> 00:11:55.779 know what I'm saying? Like these things, if you're 00:11:55.779 --> 00:11:57.720 on vacation, you're like, man, you gotta keep 00:11:57.720 --> 00:12:01.879 this thing alive for me while you leave. I was 00:12:01.879 --> 00:12:03.580 never into this next one, but some of you were. 00:12:03.779 --> 00:12:09.620 You remember these? What child in their right 00:12:09.620 --> 00:12:11.659 mind would look, that thing will steal your soul. 00:12:11.820 --> 00:12:13.679 Like I'm nervous for that girl right now. Like 00:12:13.679 --> 00:12:16.440 somebody go save her. Look at that thing. That 00:12:16.440 --> 00:12:20.620 thing's creepy. Right? And then this last one, 00:12:20.700 --> 00:12:22.240 man, this was all of our retirement plan, if 00:12:22.240 --> 00:12:24.940 we're honest. All right, you know what I'm saying? 00:12:26.299 --> 00:12:28.059 Like, but only if you didn't remove the tag, 00:12:28.139 --> 00:12:30.539 right? Cause if you remove the tag, it was worthless. 00:12:31.179 --> 00:12:34.019 Guess what? It's all worthless, right? You know, 00:12:34.019 --> 00:12:36.529 it's worthless. But listen, you wanted those 00:12:36.529 --> 00:12:38.769 so bad because when the commercial came up, the 00:12:38.769 --> 00:12:41.710 culture was saying, you need this. And it would 00:12:41.710 --> 00:12:43.450 influence you because what our culture does is 00:12:43.450 --> 00:12:46.590 our culture influences us and our culture influences 00:12:46.590 --> 00:12:50.830 our view of the gospel as well. We start hearing 00:12:50.830 --> 00:12:53.350 things in our culture and it starts influencing 00:12:53.350 --> 00:12:55.370 the way that we think about the gospel. We hear 00:12:55.370 --> 00:12:58.429 things like this, people are just basically good. 00:12:59.330 --> 00:13:02.019 You and I were just basically good. But the Bible 00:13:02.019 --> 00:13:04.000 says that you and I are sinners separated from 00:13:04.000 --> 00:13:05.639 God forever. It says there's none righteous. 00:13:05.799 --> 00:13:07.720 No, not one. It said for all of sin and falling 00:13:07.720 --> 00:13:09.779 short of the glory of God. It says that you and 00:13:09.779 --> 00:13:11.960 I are broken and apart from God and what it does 00:13:11.960 --> 00:13:14.039 is it removes the offense of sin in our life 00:13:14.039 --> 00:13:16.080 because what culture starts influencing us and 00:13:16.080 --> 00:13:18.240 going, yeah, yeah, you're just basically good. 00:13:19.059 --> 00:13:20.480 All right, we hear things like this and it starts 00:13:20.480 --> 00:13:21.899 influencing us. We hear things like, you know, 00:13:21.919 --> 00:13:24.639 Jesus, man, Jesus was just a good teacher. Jesus 00:13:24.639 --> 00:13:26.519 was not just a good teacher. Jesus was the savior 00:13:26.519 --> 00:13:30.059 of the world. And when we reduce Jesus to just 00:13:30.059 --> 00:13:33.200 being a self -help Jesus instead of the savior 00:13:33.200 --> 00:13:35.179 of the world, what we've done is we've diverted 00:13:35.179 --> 00:13:37.220 from the gospel because the culture has influenced 00:13:37.220 --> 00:13:40.320 our way of thinking. We had this opportunity 00:13:40.320 --> 00:13:42.360 in our life to be around people, to be around 00:13:42.360 --> 00:13:44.139 a culture, to be around an influence, but it 00:13:44.139 --> 00:13:46.100 starts to influence us when we hear things like 00:13:46.100 --> 00:13:50.929 this, just be a good person. And the problem 00:13:50.929 --> 00:13:53.309 is that when we allow ourselves to just be a 00:13:53.309 --> 00:13:55.610 good person, to earn God, instead of being a 00:13:55.610 --> 00:13:59.210 good person that flows out of already being purchased 00:13:59.210 --> 00:14:02.750 by God, we have a problem. Yes, be a good person. 00:14:02.769 --> 00:14:04.190 Don't hear me wrong. You're like, oh, pastor 00:14:04.190 --> 00:14:07.789 said I can go be a jerk. I didn't say that. But 00:14:07.789 --> 00:14:09.590 when we believe that our works have anything 00:14:09.590 --> 00:14:13.009 to do to get to God, we've missed it. We believe 00:14:13.009 --> 00:14:14.549 in our culture, the things that we hear, and 00:14:14.549 --> 00:14:17.289 we hear things like this. Hey, just live your 00:14:17.289 --> 00:14:20.179 truth. Your truth is different than my truth. 00:14:20.179 --> 00:14:21.600 It's different than their truth. Just live your 00:14:21.600 --> 00:14:23.120 truth. And that's not true because there's only 00:14:23.120 --> 00:14:26.779 one truth. That's the definition of truth. There's 00:14:26.779 --> 00:14:31.639 only one. Jesus is truth. And we let our culture 00:14:31.639 --> 00:14:33.879 start to influence us. And the problem is this. 00:14:34.440 --> 00:14:36.679 It comes from allowing a voice other than God 00:14:36.679 --> 00:14:39.019 to have a louder voice of influence than God. 00:14:40.159 --> 00:14:42.120 And when a voice other than God in our life has 00:14:42.120 --> 00:14:45.220 a louder influence on us than God, we find ourselves 00:14:45.220 --> 00:14:47.419 in a problem. For some of you. that loudest voice 00:14:47.419 --> 00:14:51.580 of influence is your news source of choice. It's 00:14:51.580 --> 00:14:54.179 a political talk show of choice. It's the thing 00:14:54.179 --> 00:14:55.740 that's always on and you're listening to all 00:14:55.740 --> 00:14:57.399 the time and that is the loudest voice in your 00:14:57.399 --> 00:14:58.899 life and you have it, but it's speaking truth 00:14:58.899 --> 00:15:01.759 to you. And you walk around and you don't know 00:15:01.759 --> 00:15:03.779 why, you're always anxious, you're always scared, 00:15:03.840 --> 00:15:05.240 you're always dealing with this. Listen, when 00:15:05.240 --> 00:15:07.179 was the last time you heard news tell you, hey, 00:15:07.480 --> 00:15:10.059 a great, positive, amazing thing tonight at 10 00:15:10.059 --> 00:15:13.970 p .m.? Yeah, right? Right? It's like 10 o 'clock 00:15:13.970 --> 00:15:15.649 tonight. Listen, we're all burning. The whole 00:15:15.649 --> 00:15:18.389 world's dying. And we walk around scared. We 00:15:18.389 --> 00:15:20.289 walk around with this anxiety. Well, the loudest 00:15:20.289 --> 00:15:21.909 voice that you're hearing is filling your life 00:15:21.909 --> 00:15:24.289 with things that are leading you away from God. 00:15:25.389 --> 00:15:28.049 For some of you, it's social media. And your 00:15:28.049 --> 00:15:29.690 social media, man, is this first thing you go 00:15:29.690 --> 00:15:31.230 to. It's the last thing you go to. And you're 00:15:31.230 --> 00:15:32.529 always scrolling and you're going through it. 00:15:32.529 --> 00:15:33.990 And it's just for entertainment. There's nothing 00:15:33.990 --> 00:15:35.690 to it. But man, what are you filling yourself 00:15:35.690 --> 00:15:37.980 with? What are you filling yourself with? What 00:15:37.980 --> 00:15:40.039 are you comparing yourself to? Because man, every 00:15:40.039 --> 00:15:41.799 time we look at that, we go, man, but I wish 00:15:41.799 --> 00:15:45.759 I was them. I wish I had that. And did you know 00:15:45.759 --> 00:15:50.080 that statistics show that increased social media 00:15:50.080 --> 00:15:53.019 use is directly correlated to a higher level 00:15:53.019 --> 00:15:56.519 of depression and anxiety, to a higher level 00:15:56.519 --> 00:16:00.279 of body image issues, to a higher level of even 00:16:00.279 --> 00:16:03.559 self harm and even suicide, are directly correlated 00:16:03.559 --> 00:16:06.070 to social media use. All right, for some of you, 00:16:06.169 --> 00:16:09.610 the loudest voice in your life is just the music 00:16:09.610 --> 00:16:11.070 that you listen to over and over. And you're 00:16:11.070 --> 00:16:12.929 like, I don't listen to the words, I just listen 00:16:12.929 --> 00:16:14.710 to the beat. That's all it is. Just listen to 00:16:14.710 --> 00:16:17.129 the music. But what you're doing is you're allowing 00:16:17.129 --> 00:16:19.210 those words to influence you and becoming a voice 00:16:19.210 --> 00:16:21.570 of influence in your life. And you start living 00:16:21.570 --> 00:16:23.210 in a different way. You start acting in a different 00:16:23.210 --> 00:16:25.210 way. You start viewing things in a different 00:16:25.210 --> 00:16:27.429 way because of the influence that they have on 00:16:27.429 --> 00:16:30.049 you. All right, for a lot of you, the loudest 00:16:30.049 --> 00:16:32.590 voice in your life is your friends. All right, 00:16:32.590 --> 00:16:34.309 I just got my friends and they gotta talk to 00:16:34.309 --> 00:16:36.269 me. I gotta listen to them. Listen, the problem 00:16:36.269 --> 00:16:37.950 is that you're taking advice from people that 00:16:37.950 --> 00:16:41.690 are dumber than you. You're like, how did I get 00:16:41.690 --> 00:16:44.190 in this place? Well, cause you listened to them. 00:16:44.190 --> 00:16:47.730 That's how you got there. And when we allow our 00:16:47.730 --> 00:16:50.090 friends to be the voice of authority in our life 00:16:50.090 --> 00:16:51.950 and we go, okay, yeah, I'm gonna do that. A lot 00:16:51.950 --> 00:16:53.649 of times what they're doing is just co -signing 00:16:53.649 --> 00:16:56.970 on your bad decisions. But we surround ourselves 00:16:56.970 --> 00:16:58.750 with these people and a lot of times they become 00:16:58.750 --> 00:17:03.840 the loudest voice in our life. Now check it out, 00:17:03.840 --> 00:17:06.279 though. Here's the thing. It doesn't necessarily 00:17:06.279 --> 00:17:08.319 mean that we remove those things, but it means 00:17:08.319 --> 00:17:11.200 that we have to be anchored through those things. 00:17:12.640 --> 00:17:14.140 It doesn't mean we remove it. It means we're 00:17:14.140 --> 00:17:16.740 anchored through it. We have to be anchored. 00:17:16.779 --> 00:17:19.039 Think about a boat, man. If a boat is drifting— 00:17:19.079 --> 00:17:22.140 And a boat is in water. It is in its environment 00:17:22.140 --> 00:17:24.579 that is going to shift it. Sometimes if it is 00:17:24.579 --> 00:17:26.740 too dangerous, yes, it needs to be removed from 00:17:26.740 --> 00:17:28.880 that water. It needs to be taken out. Just like 00:17:28.880 --> 00:17:30.700 if those things can become too dangerous in your 00:17:30.700 --> 00:17:32.400 life, they need to be removed. But for the most 00:17:32.400 --> 00:17:35.259 part, what it needs to happen is it needs to 00:17:35.259 --> 00:17:38.559 be anchored so that its environment around it 00:17:38.559 --> 00:17:42.289 does not affect it. We cannot remove ourselves 00:17:42.289 --> 00:17:44.750 from all environments. And since environments 00:17:44.750 --> 00:17:48.130 are influencing us, therefore we need to be anchored 00:17:48.130 --> 00:17:50.230 through it so then the environment moves and 00:17:50.230 --> 00:17:53.269 it shifts and the culture tries to persuade us. 00:17:53.269 --> 00:17:55.849 We say, no, this is my anchor. If you're taking 00:17:55.849 --> 00:17:57.710 notes, write this down. We have to be anchored 00:17:57.710 --> 00:18:01.769 in our relationship with Jesus. Anchored in your 00:18:01.769 --> 00:18:04.740 relationship with Jesus. Because if when the 00:18:04.740 --> 00:18:06.519 world starts influencing, and the culture starts 00:18:06.519 --> 00:18:08.500 influencing, and you say, okay, yes, I see that, 00:18:08.519 --> 00:18:10.519 I feel that, but I'm anchored in a relationship 00:18:10.519 --> 00:18:13.880 with Jesus, you're not gonna move. It says in 00:18:13.880 --> 00:18:18.240 Romans 12, too, do not be conformed to the pattern 00:18:18.240 --> 00:18:20.200 of this world. Do not be influenced by the things 00:18:20.200 --> 00:18:23.700 around you, but instead be transformed, how? 00:18:23.799 --> 00:18:26.420 By the renewing of your mind. Then you will be 00:18:26.420 --> 00:18:29.059 able to test and approve what God's will is, 00:18:29.200 --> 00:18:33.130 His good, pleasing, and perfect will. About a 00:18:33.130 --> 00:18:36.210 year ago, I realized that my routines were not 00:18:36.210 --> 00:18:39.170 allowing me to be anchored in my relationship 00:18:39.170 --> 00:18:41.970 with Jesus. And what I mean is that every morning 00:18:41.970 --> 00:18:43.609 when I woke up, the very first thing I'm doing 00:18:43.609 --> 00:18:46.069 is I'm checking social media. How many notifications 00:18:46.069 --> 00:18:47.930 do I have? Do I have any new followers? What 00:18:47.930 --> 00:18:49.970 do I gotta check out? What changed in the world 00:18:49.970 --> 00:18:52.369 since I left? And that was the first thing I 00:18:52.369 --> 00:18:55.369 looked at. And it's not a bad thing, but I realized 00:18:55.369 --> 00:18:56.910 that it was the first thing, therefore it was 00:18:56.910 --> 00:18:58.470 the loudest voice of influence in my life, and 00:18:58.470 --> 00:19:00.210 I just had to switch this to where the first 00:19:00.210 --> 00:19:02.170 thing that I do every morning is that I get into 00:19:02.170 --> 00:19:04.650 God's word. I'm gonna get to it. Again, I'm not 00:19:04.650 --> 00:19:06.250 telling you it's bad. I'm gonna get to the social 00:19:06.250 --> 00:19:08.710 media, but it's not the first thing. The first 00:19:08.710 --> 00:19:10.150 thing I'm doing is I'm saying this is the most 00:19:10.150 --> 00:19:11.589 important voice, and this is what I'm gonna listen 00:19:11.589 --> 00:19:14.029 to first. Then I'll get to the other things. 00:19:15.109 --> 00:19:16.849 All right, you gotta be in your word. If you 00:19:16.849 --> 00:19:18.630 wanna have a relationship with God that's actually 00:19:18.630 --> 00:19:20.430 anchoring you, then you gotta have a relationship 00:19:20.430 --> 00:19:22.289 that's active, which means you gotta read the 00:19:22.289 --> 00:19:25.019 word of God. Which means you got to pray and 00:19:25.019 --> 00:19:27.640 talk to God more than just before your meals 00:19:27.640 --> 00:19:30.819 or before bed. What if you invited God into every 00:19:30.819 --> 00:19:33.220 place of your life and it was a continued conversation 00:19:33.220 --> 00:19:35.400 because you say, you're the voice that I care 00:19:35.400 --> 00:19:37.380 about most, therefore my relationship with you 00:19:37.380 --> 00:19:40.180 matters and it's not just a scheduled conversation, 00:19:40.220 --> 00:19:43.099 but it's an invitation to the rest of my life. 00:19:44.099 --> 00:19:45.720 We have to be anchored in our relationship with 00:19:45.720 --> 00:19:48.819 Jesus. Next is this, we have to be anchored in 00:19:48.819 --> 00:19:52.750 community. We need people around us. that are 00:19:52.750 --> 00:19:55.349 going to push us towards Jesus. Let me ask you, 00:19:55.569 --> 00:19:57.890 what do the voices of your community sound like? 00:19:58.829 --> 00:20:01.789 Are they tearing you down and pulling you away 00:20:01.789 --> 00:20:04.990 from Jesus? Are they saying, hey, I'm gonna build 00:20:04.990 --> 00:20:06.690 you up, I want you to trust Jesus? Or are they 00:20:06.690 --> 00:20:09.230 saying, hey, you do you boo, you got this, it's 00:20:09.230 --> 00:20:12.450 all about you, I believe in you. That's the worst 00:20:12.450 --> 00:20:14.150 advice you can get. Don't believe in you, believe 00:20:14.150 --> 00:20:16.190 in Jesus because you're gonna lead yourself to 00:20:16.190 --> 00:20:17.849 destruction every time, but Jesus is gonna lead 00:20:17.849 --> 00:20:20.579 you to the right place. What if we have a community 00:20:20.579 --> 00:20:22.720 around us that says, listen, I love you and I 00:20:22.720 --> 00:20:24.119 care about you. That's why I'm not gonna say 00:20:24.119 --> 00:20:25.720 just believe in yourself. I'm gonna say, listen, 00:20:25.720 --> 00:20:28.180 I'm gonna walk with you as we believe in Jesus 00:20:28.180 --> 00:20:30.859 together. That's why we believe in life groups 00:20:30.859 --> 00:20:32.559 here. That's why we believe in joining a serve 00:20:32.559 --> 00:20:34.839 team so that you can be around other believers 00:20:34.839 --> 00:20:36.440 and other Christians that are gonna point you 00:20:36.440 --> 00:20:39.859 towards Jesus. They're gonna say, man, I want 00:20:39.859 --> 00:20:43.339 you to come alongside of you. I wanna help you. 00:20:43.339 --> 00:20:45.720 We have to be anchored in a community that helps 00:20:45.720 --> 00:20:49.740 us to not drift. and be influenced by our culture. 00:20:50.980 --> 00:20:53.640 Next is this, is we have to be anchored in your 00:20:53.640 --> 00:20:58.740 identity. Is your identity in Christ or is your 00:20:58.740 --> 00:21:01.339 identity in everything else? Because if your 00:21:01.339 --> 00:21:04.000 identity is in what you do, if it's in your job, 00:21:04.059 --> 00:21:06.480 if it's in your finances, if it's in your marriage, 00:21:06.539 --> 00:21:08.940 if it's in your kids, if it's in anything like 00:21:08.940 --> 00:21:10.920 that, what happens is all those things can change, 00:21:10.960 --> 00:21:14.380 but Jesus can never. And we have this problem 00:21:14.380 --> 00:21:16.200 a lot of times where even those of us who are 00:21:16.200 --> 00:21:18.259 Christians or believers, if someone asks you, 00:21:18.460 --> 00:21:20.779 hey, who are you? You start by telling them what 00:21:20.779 --> 00:21:24.059 you do, not who you are. Who are you? Well, I 00:21:24.059 --> 00:21:26.839 do this for a job. That's not who you are. It's 00:21:26.839 --> 00:21:28.819 not what you do. You need to realize who you 00:21:28.819 --> 00:21:31.640 are and who you are. If you are in Christ, your 00:21:31.640 --> 00:21:34.859 identity is in Christ. But if your identity is 00:21:34.859 --> 00:21:37.339 in Christ and you say, this is who I am, it first 00:21:37.339 --> 00:21:41.059 comes by realizing whose you are. Who you are 00:21:41.059 --> 00:21:42.640 comes out of whose you are. And when you know 00:21:42.640 --> 00:21:44.759 that you are bought with a price by Jesus, and 00:21:44.759 --> 00:21:47.420 you go, listen, I am his, therefore I know my 00:21:47.420 --> 00:21:51.259 identity is in him. And when that is your anchor, 00:21:51.279 --> 00:21:53.259 when you are anchored in that, man, you are gonna 00:21:53.259 --> 00:21:55.000 be influenced by the culture, but it's not gonna 00:21:55.000 --> 00:21:58.579 pull you away because you know who you are. And 00:21:58.579 --> 00:22:01.059 we have to be anchored in that. Because here's 00:22:01.059 --> 00:22:03.640 the thing, the devil, the devil wants to pull 00:22:03.640 --> 00:22:07.299 you away and the devil has no new tactics. We 00:22:07.299 --> 00:22:08.619 got the end of the story. I'm gonna tell you 00:22:08.619 --> 00:22:10.299 right now, guess what? I've read the end of the 00:22:10.299 --> 00:22:14.039 book. Jesus wins. He wins. We got the end of 00:22:14.039 --> 00:22:16.259 the story. And you know what? The devil does 00:22:16.259 --> 00:22:20.299 too. He knows it. And he's got no new tactics. 00:22:20.359 --> 00:22:23.400 He knows that Jesus wins. But what if he can 00:22:23.400 --> 00:22:27.019 just get you a little bit off course? What if 00:22:27.019 --> 00:22:29.480 he can get you just a little bit off course? 00:22:30.299 --> 00:22:32.200 I coach baseball and I've done that for many, 00:22:32.400 --> 00:22:36.200 many years. And one time, just one time, I lined 00:22:36.200 --> 00:22:38.180 a baseball field. And what that means is you 00:22:38.180 --> 00:22:40.609 start at home plate and you do a line all the 00:22:40.609 --> 00:22:42.549 way to the foul pole on either side. And those 00:22:42.549 --> 00:22:44.670 are the lines that determine whether a ball is 00:22:44.670 --> 00:22:47.150 foul or fair. And I started off and man, I thought 00:22:47.150 --> 00:22:49.750 I was doing a great job, just saying. I thought 00:22:49.750 --> 00:22:52.509 I was just crushing it. And I was like one degree 00:22:52.509 --> 00:22:54.410 off. And I was like, no, I'm fine, I'm fine. 00:22:54.829 --> 00:22:57.410 By the time I got 325 feet away, I'd missed the 00:22:57.410 --> 00:22:59.750 foul pole by 15 feet. All right, I'm saying it 00:22:59.750 --> 00:23:01.869 was brutal. They had to paint the grass green 00:23:01.869 --> 00:23:04.609 over my white line so they could repaint the 00:23:04.609 --> 00:23:07.119 white line. See, what happens in our life is 00:23:07.119 --> 00:23:08.839 if you're just, if the devil can just get you 00:23:08.839 --> 00:23:10.480 one degree off, if the devil can just get you 00:23:10.480 --> 00:23:12.140 two degrees off and say, yes, you're following 00:23:12.140 --> 00:23:14.400 Jesus, what if I just turn you a little bit? 00:23:14.579 --> 00:23:16.619 And what if just these few things are okay? And 00:23:16.619 --> 00:23:17.900 what if you could just add a little bit to the 00:23:17.900 --> 00:23:19.259 gospel, then by the time you get to the end, 00:23:19.259 --> 00:23:23.099 you've missed it completely. And he said, I just 00:23:23.099 --> 00:23:24.519 wanna pervert it a little bit. And what he's 00:23:24.519 --> 00:23:26.460 doing is this Galatian church, he's got in there 00:23:26.460 --> 00:23:28.720 and he started saying, hey, what if I could just 00:23:28.720 --> 00:23:33.240 turn you a little bit? 99 % of the time, it is 00:23:33.240 --> 00:23:37.380 not a denial. of Jesus is needed for salvation. 00:23:37.980 --> 00:23:41.259 It's a denial that he is all that is needed for 00:23:41.259 --> 00:23:44.740 salvation. We start adding things to it, just 00:23:44.740 --> 00:23:46.779 like this church in Galatia is adding things 00:23:46.779 --> 00:23:48.900 to it that are not necessary and going, okay, 00:23:48.980 --> 00:23:52.119 listen, it's Jesus plus something else, but Jesus 00:23:52.119 --> 00:23:54.640 plus anything equals fake news. That's not real. 00:23:56.180 --> 00:23:58.259 Remember my very first youth pastor job, I got 00:23:58.259 --> 00:24:00.940 hired my very first full -time job and I went 00:24:00.940 --> 00:24:03.269 into the church and. When I got there, they had 00:24:03.269 --> 00:24:05.289 five students and within two weeks I made them 00:24:05.289 --> 00:24:07.250 all mad and they left. So I went from five students 00:24:07.250 --> 00:24:10.009 to zero. It was an incredible ministry model. 00:24:10.450 --> 00:24:13.410 It's wonderful. But the reason I made them mad 00:24:13.410 --> 00:24:15.210 is that these five students, they really loved 00:24:15.210 --> 00:24:17.009 just sitting down and digging deep into the word 00:24:17.009 --> 00:24:18.730 of God. And it was amazing that they did that, 00:24:18.730 --> 00:24:21.289 but they thought that it was just for them, those 00:24:21.289 --> 00:24:24.250 five. And that's it, just to dig deep. And I 00:24:24.250 --> 00:24:26.589 said, okay, no, no, no guys, we're gonna be welcoming 00:24:26.589 --> 00:24:28.730 to everyone. This isn't just for you, it's for 00:24:28.730 --> 00:24:30.650 other people too. We're gonna allow everyone 00:24:30.650 --> 00:24:33.519 into this. And they didn't like that. So they 00:24:33.519 --> 00:24:35.140 left and a couple of weeks later they said, hey, 00:24:35.160 --> 00:24:36.779 can I have a meeting with you? We got some questions 00:24:36.779 --> 00:24:38.940 for you. And I said, yeah, sure. So they sat 00:24:38.940 --> 00:24:40.960 down with me and they started asking me questions. 00:24:41.099 --> 00:24:42.480 They said, hey, listen, we need to know what 00:24:42.480 --> 00:24:45.519 translation of the Bible do you use? And I told 00:24:45.519 --> 00:24:46.640 them and they said, that's not the right one. 00:24:46.720 --> 00:24:48.900 Only this one is the right one. And I was like, 00:24:48.900 --> 00:24:50.980 well, I disagree. I can show you manuscript evidence 00:24:50.980 --> 00:24:52.700 to why both of them. And they go, no, no, no. 00:24:52.900 --> 00:24:54.720 Let me ask you this. When you were baptized, 00:24:54.799 --> 00:24:56.559 you were baptized, right? I said, yeah, were 00:24:56.559 --> 00:24:59.660 you baptized in the name of Jesus? I said, yeah, 00:24:59.660 --> 00:25:02.220 I was baptized in the name of. God, the Son, 00:25:02.220 --> 00:25:03.759 and the Holy Spirit. I got all of them, man. 00:25:04.079 --> 00:25:06.240 I nailed all of them. Like, well, if you weren't 00:25:06.240 --> 00:25:07.880 baptized in the name of Jesus, then it's not 00:25:07.880 --> 00:25:10.740 real. It doesn't count. I was like, oh, well, 00:25:10.740 --> 00:25:12.240 I disagree again. And they're like, okay, well, 00:25:12.240 --> 00:25:13.759 let me ask you this. Are you out doing street 00:25:13.759 --> 00:25:15.400 witnessing? Because if you're not out street 00:25:15.400 --> 00:25:16.980 witnessing at least once a week, you're ashamed 00:25:16.980 --> 00:25:19.680 of the gospel. And I was like, well, I don't 00:25:19.680 --> 00:25:21.220 think I'm ashamed of the gospel, actually. I 00:25:21.220 --> 00:25:24.480 don't quite think that's true. And they go, hey, 00:25:24.480 --> 00:25:26.279 listen, we don't think that you're a Christian. 00:25:26.339 --> 00:25:27.720 We don't think that you're gonna go to heaven. 00:25:28.619 --> 00:25:31.079 And I said, guys, you missed it. You started 00:25:31.079 --> 00:25:33.359 adding things to the gospel. You started taking 00:25:33.359 --> 00:25:36.140 things and going, yes, Jesus is good plus this. 00:25:36.539 --> 00:25:40.259 Jesus is great plus this. It's not plus anything. 00:25:40.420 --> 00:25:42.819 Jesus is all that matters. Jesus is the only 00:25:42.819 --> 00:25:44.920 thing that matters. Jesus is what we have to 00:25:44.920 --> 00:25:47.599 get back to because the gospel is already perfect. 00:25:47.880 --> 00:25:50.339 The gospel is this, is that Jesus came to this 00:25:50.339 --> 00:25:53.259 earth for a purpose. You and I have separated 00:25:53.259 --> 00:25:55.980 ourself from God because of our sin. and Jesus 00:25:55.980 --> 00:25:58.740 came to this earth and lived the perfect life 00:25:58.740 --> 00:26:01.920 that you and I cannot live because in order to 00:26:01.920 --> 00:26:04.519 satisfy the payment for sin, the payment has 00:26:04.519 --> 00:26:07.079 to be perfect. Therefore, it requires a perfect 00:26:07.079 --> 00:26:09.700 person and Jesus coming as the perfect person 00:26:09.700 --> 00:26:12.460 stood in your place on a cross and he willingly 00:26:12.460 --> 00:26:15.299 went to a cross and paid the price that you were 00:26:15.299 --> 00:26:17.980 supposed to pay. but he did not stay on the cross. 00:26:18.019 --> 00:26:21.039 He went in a tomb and he beat sin and he beat 00:26:21.039 --> 00:26:24.220 death by raising from that tomb. And if we put 00:26:24.220 --> 00:26:26.559 our faith and our trust in him and say, I trust 00:26:26.559 --> 00:26:29.059 what you did for me, that right there is what 00:26:29.059 --> 00:26:31.680 it takes for us to have a relationship with God. 00:26:32.400 --> 00:26:34.839 That's it. That's the gospel. That's the good 00:26:34.839 --> 00:26:39.920 news. We do not have to add anything to that. 00:26:40.039 --> 00:26:43.259 And that's good news for us. That's good news 00:26:43.259 --> 00:26:45.380 for us. The gospel is already perfect. And what 00:26:45.380 --> 00:26:47.200 this church at Galatia is doing here is they're 00:26:47.200 --> 00:26:49.160 saying, no, no, no, we gotta add some other things. 00:26:49.539 --> 00:26:51.140 And Paul's saying you don't need to add anything. 00:26:51.200 --> 00:26:53.059 Don't get distracted by the culture that's trying 00:26:53.059 --> 00:26:55.240 to tell you these things. In fact, if anyone 00:26:55.240 --> 00:26:57.519 tells you that, don't believe it. He says this 00:26:57.519 --> 00:27:01.460 in verse eight. But even if we or an angel from 00:27:01.460 --> 00:27:04.480 heaven even should preach a gospel other than 00:27:04.480 --> 00:27:07.700 the one we preach to you, let them be under God's 00:27:07.700 --> 00:27:11.240 curse. Okay, now this is weird. An angel from 00:27:11.240 --> 00:27:12.839 heaven? Why would an angel from heaven preach 00:27:12.839 --> 00:27:14.700 something other than God? Why would they try 00:27:14.700 --> 00:27:16.519 to add to the gospel? And this might be touchy 00:27:16.519 --> 00:27:18.400 for some people, but here's some examples of 00:27:18.400 --> 00:27:20.460 that. One of the biggest cults in the United 00:27:20.460 --> 00:27:24.740 States was a man who said that the angel Moroni 00:27:24.740 --> 00:27:27.500 came to him and told him to write a second testament, 00:27:27.599 --> 00:27:29.819 something else to add to the gospel known as 00:27:29.819 --> 00:27:33.660 the Book of Mormon. Another example of this is 00:27:33.660 --> 00:27:36.420 the religion called Islam, where Muhammad said 00:27:36.420 --> 00:27:38.220 that the angel Gabriel came to him and said, 00:27:38.299 --> 00:27:40.720 hey, I need you to write the Quran. And you're 00:27:40.720 --> 00:27:42.380 gonna write this and this is gonna be a second 00:27:42.380 --> 00:27:46.240 part that is added to the gospel. And this is 00:27:46.240 --> 00:27:48.210 where this came from. All right, now listen, 00:27:48.269 --> 00:27:50.170 I'm not here to ruffle feathers, I'm not here 00:27:50.170 --> 00:27:51.890 to get you angry about this, but you need to 00:27:51.890 --> 00:27:54.069 understand that there is one way and the one 00:27:54.069 --> 00:27:56.789 way is Jesus. And so these are adding to that. 00:27:56.809 --> 00:27:58.710 And I'm not saying that we hate Mormons or we 00:27:58.710 --> 00:28:00.490 hate people that are Muslim, we don't do that. 00:28:00.549 --> 00:28:02.609 Listen, we love them and we want them to know 00:28:02.609 --> 00:28:04.609 Jesus more than anything because that is the 00:28:04.609 --> 00:28:06.329 way, that is the one way. And even if an angel 00:28:06.329 --> 00:28:08.170 from heaven were to come and preach to you, and 00:28:08.170 --> 00:28:09.890 you need to understand, if an angel from heaven 00:28:09.890 --> 00:28:12.089 says something contrary to what the word of God 00:28:12.089 --> 00:28:14.799 says, they're not an angel from heaven. They're 00:28:14.799 --> 00:28:16.319 not working for Him if they're saying something 00:28:16.319 --> 00:28:19.079 different than Him. And you need to identify 00:28:19.079 --> 00:28:20.859 and understand this is it. And what Paul is saying 00:28:20.859 --> 00:28:22.299 to this church, he's saying, you guys are being 00:28:22.299 --> 00:28:24.500 influenced by something else. And even if an 00:28:24.500 --> 00:28:26.099 angel from heaven were to say something else, 00:28:26.200 --> 00:28:27.920 you need to understand we do not add to this. 00:28:27.920 --> 00:28:32.400 This is it. This is the one. And what he's saying 00:28:32.400 --> 00:28:34.240 here is he's saying, hey listen, this is what 00:28:34.240 --> 00:28:39.460 matters. Verse nine, as we've already said, so 00:28:39.460 --> 00:28:40.859 I'll say it again. He's like, if you didn't get 00:28:40.859 --> 00:28:43.369 it the first time, you gotta get this. If anybody 00:28:43.369 --> 00:28:45.750 is preaching to you a gospel other than what 00:28:45.750 --> 00:28:48.990 you accepted, let them be under God's curse. 00:28:51.569 --> 00:28:57.289 See, God creates, but Satan counterfeits. God 00:28:57.289 --> 00:28:58.990 creates and he creates beautiful and he creates 00:28:58.990 --> 00:29:00.950 perfect and Satan, all he can do is counterfeit 00:29:00.950 --> 00:29:04.130 it. I don't know if you noticed this about me. 00:29:04.150 --> 00:29:06.990 I hope you have actually, but your boy likes 00:29:06.990 --> 00:29:10.130 shoes. I'm just saying. Like I got some fresh 00:29:10.130 --> 00:29:12.900 kicks on right now. I know you've noticed that, 00:29:12.980 --> 00:29:15.480 I'm just saying. But something that you might 00:29:15.480 --> 00:29:19.200 know, or might not know, I'm on a pastor's budget. 00:29:20.759 --> 00:29:22.380 And what that means is I gotta save up birthday 00:29:22.380 --> 00:29:23.859 money, I gotta save up Christmas money, I gotta 00:29:23.859 --> 00:29:25.559 save up all the money to be able to buy these. 00:29:26.299 --> 00:29:28.539 A couple years ago that I was in Israel, and 00:29:28.539 --> 00:29:30.259 we were on Israel, we were touring Israel, and 00:29:30.259 --> 00:29:31.900 it felt like, if I'm honest, it felt like we 00:29:31.900 --> 00:29:33.759 were touring all of Israel's bathrooms. All right, 00:29:33.759 --> 00:29:35.519 that's pretty much all we did. Like we just kept 00:29:35.519 --> 00:29:37.680 stopping. Like people wouldn't have to go, and 00:29:37.680 --> 00:29:38.940 then they'd announce, they're like, hey, there's 00:29:38.940 --> 00:29:40.259 a restroom coming up, and everyone's like, I 00:29:40.259 --> 00:29:43.170 gotta go so bad. It happened every time. But 00:29:43.170 --> 00:29:44.549 every time we stopped, I didn't have to go because 00:29:44.549 --> 00:29:46.109 I was 30 years younger than most of the people 00:29:46.109 --> 00:29:49.710 on the trip. So I'm just kidding, I love you 00:29:49.710 --> 00:29:53.069 guys. Okay, that was a joke. But man, we would 00:29:53.069 --> 00:29:54.450 stop at these bathrooms and I remember one time 00:29:54.450 --> 00:29:57.349 we stopped there and across the way there was 00:29:57.349 --> 00:29:59.990 a market. And I went over to this market and 00:29:59.990 --> 00:30:02.250 right away I saw this fresh pair of Jordans sitting 00:30:02.250 --> 00:30:04.170 there and I was like, man, I want those. All 00:30:04.170 --> 00:30:06.190 right, they looked good. And right under it, 00:30:06.190 --> 00:30:09.089 the price said $20. And I was like, those look 00:30:09.089 --> 00:30:10.730 real good. Those are in a pastor's budget. You 00:30:10.730 --> 00:30:12.250 know what I'm saying? Like that's where we're 00:30:12.250 --> 00:30:14.930 at. And so they looked good. And I go over until 00:30:14.930 --> 00:30:16.670 I picked them up and I actually saw them and 00:30:16.670 --> 00:30:20.049 I realized that they were absolutely garbage 00:30:20.049 --> 00:30:23.150 quality. They looked good from the outside, but 00:30:23.150 --> 00:30:24.789 man, when you saw them, they were garbage quality. 00:30:25.230 --> 00:30:27.589 Here's the thing. When we look at the things 00:30:27.589 --> 00:30:30.309 that Satan counterfeits, we look at those things 00:30:30.309 --> 00:30:33.930 and they're enticing, but they will always let 00:30:33.930 --> 00:30:36.779 you down. They will always let you down because 00:30:36.779 --> 00:30:38.819 God creates and Satan counterfeits. And a lot 00:30:38.819 --> 00:30:40.500 of times we start chasing a counterfeit instead 00:30:40.500 --> 00:30:44.180 of realizing that the real thing is only in Jesus. 00:30:45.160 --> 00:30:50.319 It's nothing else. It's Jesus alone. Paul finishes 00:30:50.319 --> 00:30:54.980 this section by saying this in verse 10. Am I 00:30:54.980 --> 00:30:57.339 now trying to win the approval of human beings 00:30:57.339 --> 00:31:02.740 or of God? Am I trying to please people if I 00:31:02.740 --> 00:31:05.900 were? Still trying to please people, I would 00:31:05.900 --> 00:31:08.140 not be a servant of Christ. He said, I'm gonna 00:31:08.140 --> 00:31:09.859 shoot you straight with the truth. I'm gonna 00:31:09.859 --> 00:31:11.480 give you the truth. I'm gonna give you the real 00:31:11.480 --> 00:31:14.700 thing right now. Because I could just cosign 00:31:14.700 --> 00:31:16.240 on what you're saying and yeah, you're good with 00:31:16.240 --> 00:31:21.519 that. But it's not real. I had a man last night 00:31:21.519 --> 00:31:23.180 that came up to me after the service and he was 00:31:23.180 --> 00:31:24.900 extremely upset that I would say anything about 00:31:24.900 --> 00:31:27.680 the Quran. Extremely upset that it wasn't true, 00:31:27.819 --> 00:31:30.799 that I would say that it's not true. And I just 00:31:30.799 --> 00:31:33.579 told him, sir, Jesus said, I am the way, the 00:31:33.579 --> 00:31:35.599 truth and the life. No one comes to the Father 00:31:35.599 --> 00:31:38.079 except through me. And I will stand on that truth. 00:31:39.440 --> 00:31:41.160 There is not all different roads that lead to 00:31:41.160 --> 00:31:42.880 the top of the mountain. I'm not here to please 00:31:42.880 --> 00:31:46.119 people. That should not be our goal to just be 00:31:46.119 --> 00:31:47.480 like, no, no, no, we're gonna tiptoe and make 00:31:47.480 --> 00:31:49.039 sure we please people. We're gonna love people. 00:31:49.039 --> 00:31:51.559 We're gonna care for people. But man, we're gonna 00:31:51.559 --> 00:31:54.180 stand on the truth. Just like Paul said to the 00:31:54.180 --> 00:31:55.880 Galatians, man, I could just let you keep going, 00:31:56.000 --> 00:31:58.660 but I'm not living for you. I'm living for God. 00:31:59.240 --> 00:32:04.839 Let me ask you, who? are you living for? Who 00:32:04.839 --> 00:32:07.640 are you living for? Because religiosity, doing 00:32:07.640 --> 00:32:09.880 all the religious things, you know what that's 00:32:09.880 --> 00:32:12.859 for? That's for other people. It's for you to 00:32:12.859 --> 00:32:15.819 prove to them how good you are. It's not for 00:32:15.819 --> 00:32:19.099 God because he's saying, listen, it's not about 00:32:19.099 --> 00:32:22.319 adding anything. It's about Jesus. Who are you 00:32:22.319 --> 00:32:28.839 living for? Jesus plus nothing equals everything. 00:32:30.310 --> 00:32:36.210 Listen to me, come back to Jesus. Get back to 00:32:36.210 --> 00:32:39.849 Jesus, make Him the only thing. Some of you in 00:32:39.849 --> 00:32:42.329 here, you've never heard the good news, you've 00:32:42.329 --> 00:32:44.549 never heard the gospel. You never accepted the 00:32:44.549 --> 00:32:47.150 fact that Jesus died in your place. And today 00:32:47.150 --> 00:32:48.970 needs to be the day that you go and, hey, listen, 00:32:48.990 --> 00:32:51.049 I understand that it is all about Jesus and I'm 00:32:51.049 --> 00:32:52.990 willing to surrender my life to say I give up 00:32:52.990 --> 00:32:57.609 and I put my faith and trust in Jesus. Some of 00:32:57.609 --> 00:32:59.109 you have done that, you've put your faith and 00:32:59.109 --> 00:33:03.089 trust in Jesus, but man, the world, your life, 00:33:03.150 --> 00:33:06.450 the culture, the influences, just got you one 00:33:06.450 --> 00:33:09.970 degree off. Maybe just one little smidge off. 00:33:10.930 --> 00:33:13.910 And we have an opportunity to refocus, to get 00:33:13.910 --> 00:33:16.769 back to what matters. When you came in today, 00:33:16.789 --> 00:33:20.690 you were given this cup. And what communion is, 00:33:20.750 --> 00:33:25.079 is communion is an opportunity. to reflect, to 00:33:25.079 --> 00:33:27.740 remember, and to focus on what God has done for 00:33:27.740 --> 00:33:33.079 you. But it's also a time for us to reflect on 00:33:33.079 --> 00:33:37.099 what place Jesus has in our life. Is he the loudest 00:33:37.099 --> 00:33:39.599 voice of influence in your life? Are you allowing 00:33:39.599 --> 00:33:41.759 culture to move you off one degree or is Jesus 00:33:41.759 --> 00:33:45.200 remaining in the place he needs to be? I want 00:33:45.200 --> 00:34:45.110 you to take a few minutes and just reflect. as 00:34:45.110 --> 00:34:47.110 Jesus was in the upper room with the disciples 00:34:47.110 --> 00:34:50.789 before he went to the cross, before he went to 00:34:50.789 --> 00:34:54.030 pay the price for all of humanity. He took some 00:34:54.030 --> 00:34:55.929 bread and he broke it and he passed it to his 00:34:55.929 --> 00:34:58.429 disciples and he said, hey, this represents my 00:34:58.429 --> 00:35:02.010 body that is broken for you. He says, eat this 00:35:02.010 --> 00:35:20.679 in remembrance of me. It says that in the same 00:35:20.679 --> 00:35:25.500 way, Jesus took the cup and as he passed it around, 00:35:25.519 --> 00:35:29.260 he said, this is my blood that is poured out 00:35:29.260 --> 00:35:32.480 on your behalf. Drink this in remembrance of 00:35:32.480 --> 00:35:42.500 me. God, we come before you with gratitude, with 00:35:42.500 --> 00:35:44.880 gratitude that you are the only way, God, that 00:35:44.880 --> 00:35:47.099 it does not rest on our shoulders because that 00:35:47.099 --> 00:35:50.690 is way too heavy of a burden. We cannot handle 00:35:50.690 --> 00:35:55.170 it, Lord, we need you. God, we thank you that 00:35:55.170 --> 00:35:59.469 you sent your son, Jesus, for us. God, I pray 00:35:59.469 --> 00:36:03.650 that we would live in a way that shines the light 00:36:03.650 --> 00:36:07.130 of you, Jesus, that does not place burdens on 00:36:07.130 --> 00:36:08.989 ourself or on other people that don't need to 00:36:08.989 --> 00:36:10.809 be there, God, that we would eliminate anything 00:36:10.809 --> 00:36:14.429 that is plus, that is Jesus plus nothing in our 00:36:14.429 --> 00:36:20.139 life, God. God, I pray for each one of us in 00:36:20.139 --> 00:36:24.300 here that need to refocus, that need to refocus 00:36:24.300 --> 00:36:27.679 on what matters, that need to allow your voice 00:36:27.679 --> 00:36:29.880 to be the loudest voice of influence in our life. 00:36:32.320 --> 00:36:34.139 I pray for those in here that need to give their 00:36:34.139 --> 00:36:36.019 life to you, that need to surrender to you for 00:36:36.019 --> 00:36:42.400 the first time. God, we praise you. We thank 00:36:42.400 --> 00:36:45.800 you. We're so grateful for you. And we pray all 00:36:45.800 --> 00:36:48.199 of this in Jesus' name. Amen.