Galatians: Live Free |Real vs. Fake (Downtown)

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Transcript

June 24 and 25, 2017

Galatians: Live Free | Real vs. Fake (Downtown) Petie Kinder | Galatians 1

My name’s Petie. I’m the campus pastor here, thrilled to be with you guys. If this is your first time, welcome. Before we jump into are teaching today, I got a little challenge I’ve got to put in front of you guys. This is an opportunity for us to really be the hands and feet of Jesus to some kids in our city that desperately need it. Every year, there are thousands of kids in our city that don’t have the resources that they need to start school off on the right foot, so this year we’re partnering with IPS School #43 and #48 to provide resources -- basic school supplies -- for kids that are in need. We have 1,000 backpacks across all of our campuses today. We’ve got a couple hundred here at the Downtown campus. When you go down the stairs on your way out, you turn right and there are a bunch of backpacks right there. The goal is grab a backpack. There’s a card on it that tells you exactly what to get -- it’s about $20 to $25 worth of school supplies -- and then you bring it back on July 16 or July 23. This is just a way for us to ensure that every kid gets to start the school year off with dignity, gets to start it off on the right foot with the resources they need. So we’ve got to let our walking do the talking here. We say we love the city; let’s prove it. Here’s the deal. There better not be a single backpack left by the time we leave this building. In fact, my challenge is this. I just heard from somebody, “Hey, we may not have enough backpacks for the 11 a.m. service.” I’m challenging 10 a.m. specifically. Do not let 11:30 have a single backpack. Make me get up there and tell them poor souls, “Wake up earlier.” Get the backpacks, fill them up, and bring them back on July 16 or July 23. It’ll be fun. Grab your Bibles, get to Galatians chapter 1 if you have a Bible. If you have a phone with a Bible on it, you can use that as well. If you don’t have either of those, no sweat. We’ll have the verses on the screen for you. We’re starting a brand new series today through the book of Galatians. The way I want to frame it up for you, as you turn to Galatians 1, is about talking about this concept that all of us

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Galatians: Live Free | Real vs. Fake (Downtown) June 24 and 25, 2017

are unfortunately very familiar with, thanks to the current political season we’re in right now. That is the concept of fake news. If there’s one phrase that will define, in history, the past year or so in our country, it will probably be the phrase “covfefe” or fake news. It will be one of those two. But fake news is like, I mean, when you think about it it’s crazy. It’s crazy how polarized our country is right now. Everybody is saying that everybody else is operating off of fake news. I like using fake news as like a joke. Basically, anytime someone says something that I don’t like, I just declare it fake news. If my wife’s like, “Hey, did you eat all the Oreos so the kids now have none?” “Fake news. I did not. Fake news. I did, but I don’t like the way you phrased that to me.” But we need to really think about it. Fake news. That’s so scary. Just play this out for a second. Someone, and this is a guarantee because the sides are so polarized right now and the truth is probably somewhere in the middle, but someone is walking around right now with a perspective and a worldview that is rooted in a lie. That’s scary. That is scary to think that you might be forming opinions on issues and voting and viewing certain people groups based on fake news that’s a complete lie. Now the reason I’m bringing this up is not because we’re going to get into politics, it’s because what we’re getting to in Galatians is Paul dealing with some Christians that were buying into some fake news about Christianity. He’s very, very passionate about them rejecting this fake news. What’s interesting is that as we get into it, we’re going to see that the fake news that they were being tempted to buy into is the exact same kind of fake news that is sold about Christianity today. It’s the same kind of fake news that gets pushed around churches and gets pushed around our society today. Here’s why I’m so passionate about this. Because if you’re here today and you would not consider yourself a follower of Jesus, we are thrilled to have you. This is always a place where you can come and feel welcomed and loved no matter what you believe. But if you would not consider yourself a follower of Jesus, I’m so passionate about this for you today and for the next six weeks as we go through this series, because I am so convinced that you have been sold fake news when it comes to Christianity. I’m so convinced. I very rarely talk to anyone that doesn’t follow Jesus, and when I hear what they think about Christianity, I’m always like, “Man, that’s not it. That’s not who Jesus is and what He’s all about.” Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.



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My goal for you in this series is very simple. I just want you to be able to see who Jesus is very clearly. That’s all. I just want you to see who He is and what He’s all about very clearly. Then you can decide what to do with Him, and we’re going to love you no matter what. For believers in the room, for those of you who call yourselves Christians and you would say you’re a follower of Jesus, I’m absolutely passionate about this for you because the more I’m in ministry and the more I work with people, the more I come to see that so many people who follow Jesus have fallen for fake news when it comes to your own faith. So many of us are living Christian lives that are so removed of the life and the power that God intended for us to experience. They’re not what I would say freedom is supposed to be. That’s really the subtitle for this series. It is Galatians: Live Free. I love that phrase because when you think about Christianity, you think about religion. The phrase “live free” does not come to mind. What really comes to mind is live restricted. I can’t help but think of Chris Farley in Tommy Boy, like “fat guy in a little coat.” Christianity is like the little coat that like, “I can’t move my arms. Oh, I just want to break free of this.” So you don’t think of religion as something that’s freeing, but what I can’t wait for you to see today, and throughout this entire series, is what I have come to experience, what many of you in this room have come to experience, what millions of people for the past 2,000 years have experienced. It is that the greatest and truest expression and experience of freedom is found when you follow Jesus. I’m so convicted of that; I can’t wait for you to see it as well. Galatians chapter 1. Let’s start with verse 1. We’re just going to go verse by verse for a little bit. We’re going to kind of unpack it verse by verse and see what Paul was saying, and then we’re going to get to some fake news. Y’all ready? All right, let’s go. Verse 1. Here we go. He says, “This letter is from Paul, an apostle.” It says, “I was not appointed by any group of people or any human authority, but by Jesus Christ himself and by God the Father, who raised Jesus from the dead. All the brothers and sisters here join me in sending this letter to the churches of Galatia.” Galatia is, for frame of reference, modern-day Turkey, so he’s writing to a group of Christians that are living in what would be modern-day Turkey. “May God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace. Jesus gave His life for Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.



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our sins, just as God our Father planned, in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live. All glory to God forever and ever! Amen.” Now pause. If you’re a Christian and you’ve read the Bible before, you probably just did what all Christians do when they read the first four or five verses of Paul’s letter. That is you just kind of skim by it. It sounds like spiritual mumbo jumbo. It’s like the Hallmark card beginning. Skip it; get to the good stuff. If you aren’t a Christian and you’ve not read the Bible, that probably sounded like spiritual mumbo jumbo and a spiritual-sounding Hallmark card, and let’s get past it and get to the good stuff. The key to understanding what Paul wants us to hear is actually found in these verses. We’re going to revisit it. But the key to this entire message is found in those first five verses, so I want you to kind of fold it and stick it in your pocket. We’ll come back to it. Verse 6. It says, “I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who called you to Himself through the loving mercy of Christ. You are following a different way that pretends to be the Good News, but is not the Good News at all.” Fake news. “You are being fooled by those who deliberately twist the truth concerning Christ.” Now this is fascinating because the greatest religious movement in all of history, Christianity, is within its first 30 years of existence and already, in the first 30 years of this incredible movement, there are people that are trying to get in there and sell some fake news. They’re trying to twist the original message of Jesus into something that it was never meant to be for their own purposes, their own agenda, their own power. There are a lot of reasons that go into it. There are some people that are selling some fake news, and Paul is irate about this. He is so mad. In fact, look at the language he uses in the very next verse. This is crazy. It says, “Let God’s curse fall on anyone, including us or even an angel from heaven, who preaches a different kind of Good News than the one we preached to you. I say again what we have said before: If anyone preaches any other Good News than the one you welcomed, let that person be cursed.” My man’s cursing angels. He’s like, “I don’t care if the heavens parted and an angel drops down Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.



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with a little pretty halo, and they got the little fat angels around them shooting arrows at people. I don’t care if they’re singing Kumbaya, My Lord. If they come preaching a different message than what I first told you, you reject them. Get them out of here. Let them be cursed.” He’s ready to go, like Floyd Mayweather/Conor McGregor or something. He’s fighting. These are fighting words. You can hear the anger in him about this. I love this next verse. He says, “Obviously I’m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant.” I love this about Paul because Paul’s agenda was very clear. Paul wanted to keep the message of Jesus as pure and untainted as possible. He’s very, very passionate about it. He’s like, “Hey, I’m not in this to please people.” What we know about Paul is that Paul was a tentmaker as his trade so that he wouldn’t have to financially depend on his churches, so he’s not in it for money. He’s not in it for power either because what Paul would do is Paul would go to a town and start churches and then raise up leaders. Then he’d back off and let them lead. Then he’d go to another town and start another church and raise up leaders, and then back off and let them lead. Paul wasn’t in this for money; he wasn’t in this for power. He was in this to keep the message of Jesus as pure and true to the original source as possible. He actually spends the rest of chapter 1 explaining the great lengths to which he went to make that happen. He says, “Hey, I didn’t learn this message from any other people; I learned it straight from the mouth of Jesus, and I went to great lengths to make sure that nobody messed with it. There’s no spin. There’s no bias. Nobody messed with it. It is literally the message that you heard from Jesus -- from His mouth, to me, to you.” Very, very pure is what Paul’s going for here. He says, “I just wish you would reject this fake news.” He’s saying that to the church in Galatia, and I believe he’s saying it to us today. So what was the fake news? What was it that had him so riled up? I’d like to position it to you in the form of two headlines. They’re like a 140 characters or less. You might see them on your Twitter feed. You might see them on your Facebook feed. You might see them on the ticker on CNN, or whatever news station you watch you might see them come across. Two bits of fake news that Paul was attacking and that are absolutely alive today. The first one is this. The first bit of fake news is: You deserve to be at the top! You deserve good Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.



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standing with God. You deserve to be in His good graces. This is something that Paul really had to deal with because Paul was working with a lot of recovering Jews who just felt really entitled to be on God’s good side, and for a reason. When you read the Bible, the Old Testament is all about how God dealt with the nation of Israel, with the Jewish people. He really tells His story of redemption through one specific group of people, so they were used to being God’s chosen crew because they were Jewish. When you get to the New Testament, God kind of opens up and He says it’s for anyone, and the Jewish people really, really struggled with that. You see it all over the New Testament. They just couldn’t wrap their heads around the fact that they weren’t the entitled chosen people. They felt like because of their heritage they deserved to be on top. Now today it’s not really like a Jewish thing for us, but it is a church thing. It is a church thing. I meet people all the time who, when I ask this very simple question of “tell me why and how you came to follow Jesus,” the first thing that will come out of some people’s mouths is, “Well, my family always grew up going to church.” That’s kind of like the main reason. That’s a great fact. That has nothing to do with the question. Or they say, “Well, my grandpa was a pastor.” Again, great fact; it has very little to do with the reason why you chose to follow Jesus. So many of us have bought into this lie that just because your family attended church; just because you grew up in church; just because your grandma, your grandpa, your great-grandma, like everybody’s been following Jesus, that just kind of like ushers you in and you just deserve to be here and you deserve to be on God’s good side. Or actually, better yet, what most people buy into is that you deserve to be at the top because you haven’t done any of the really bad stuff. We always say all sins are the same, but we’ve always historically treated some stuff as way worse than others, so we think, “Well, I haven’t done any of the really bad stuff and I’ve been in church and I’ve read my Bible and I’ve prayed and I’ve tithed and I’ve served, and so I’ve paid my dues. I deserve to be on top.” What’s crazy is this is actually even outside the church. If you’re here and you wouldn’t consider yourself a Christian, you know exactly what I’m about to say. You know because you’ve said this to yourself before. If you’ve ever thought through your own religious beliefs and you’ve thought about coming to church, you’ve probably had this thought in the back of your head of like, “Well, if God exists, and that’s a big if; if God exists, then surely I’m on his good side. I’m not that bad of a person. I’m not like Hitler. I’m not like out murdering people all the time. If God exists, why would He waste His time punishing me for all of eternity. I’m a Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.



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decent person. I’m sure that I am on His good side if He exists.” And if you didn’t think that, you’d just spend more time worrying about it. If you really thought if God existed and you wouldn’t be on His good side, you’d spend more time thinking about it. Most of us just think that at the end of this thing we deserve to be at the top, but the Bible actually specifically says all over it that that’s fake news. That’s not real. I could give you a ton of verses about it, but I’ll give you just a few from Romans chapter 3. Starting in verse 9, it says this. “Well then, should we conclude that we Jews are better than others? No, not at all, for we have already shown that all people, whether Jews or Gentiles, are under the power of sin.” All people. “As the Scriptures say, ‘No one is righteous -- not even one. No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one.’” Welcome to church. Beautiful sunny morning. No one does good. Later on, in verse 23 in the same chapter, it says, “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.” Every single one of us. Nobody deserves to be at the top. Nobody. We’ve all screwed this thing up. We’re all on the same level here. Here’s the thing. When you buy into fake news, there is a consequence. There is a consequence, and the consequence is this subtle arrogance that just creeps into your life and really creeps into our culture, our country. Because here’s the deal. If you feel like you deserve to be at the top, because of your family, because of the things you’ve done, because of things you haven’t done; if you feel like you deserve to be in good standing with God, you are by definition comparing yourself to somebody. You are justifying that in your mind by saying, “Well, I’m not as bad as them,” and that puts you in a seat of arrogance. Arrogance is very, very dangerous. Very dangerous. Think back to some of the worst things that Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.



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have happened in human history. Do they not have their root in one person or one people group thinking they’re superior to another? Arrogance always leads to distance and separation. Distance and separation always lead to misunderstandings and vilifying people. When you misunderstand and you vilify, it almost always leads to violence and oppression historically. There’s a consequence to buying into this fake news. But it is fake news according to the Bible. No one deserves to be at the top, so if you’re buying into that, you can throw that news away. You can un-follow that person on Twitter. You can completely throw that newspaper out the window. It is fake, fake news. There’s another bit of fake news that Paul was dealing with, and this is actually the more prevalent one that he was dealing with. It’s this concept not that you deserve to be at the top, but that you can earn your way to the top! You can earn your way to the top. You see, Paul was dealing with all these people that had just become Christians, and all these Jews were coming in and saying, “Hey, that’s great that you follow Jesus, but now you also need to do what we do. You need to get circumcised,” (and all the men are like, “Oh no”) and like, “You need to do all these customs, all these religious things that we do, and then you’ll be saved. Then God will love you. You’ve got to do some things. You’ve got to earn your way in.” Again, this is very similar to what we deal with -- very, very similar. How many of us feel like, “You know what? At the end of the day, the reason I come to church, the reason I read my Bible, the reason I pray, the reason I serve, the reason I give, the reason I do the things I do is because that’s what you’re supposed to do and that’s how you know that God loves you. That’s how you know you’re in -- because you do those things and keep doing them.” It’s kind of like a religious duty, a moral obligation that if you don’t, you can’t imagine what God would think of you. In fact, when you mess up, when you slip and fall and you maybe do some things you shouldn’t do, you are just like devastated with shame, and guilt is just hanging over you. You feel like you’ve got to get this good streak of good behavior again before you’re back on God’s good side. That whole concept that you can earn your way into God’s love is absolutely fake news. Again, I could give you hundreds of verses that back it up, but I’ll give you one that’s seven easy, simple, Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.



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short but powerful words. Romans 6:23. It says this. “For the wages of sin is death.” “For the wages of sin is death.” For the punishment of your sin is death. I love how it just says the one -- the punishment of sin. We know that means more than one, but I’m tempted to think that it’s just like a singular; like, if you only had one sin, which that’s crazy because you’ve got like 1,000 yesterday, but if you had one -- let’s say you’re like the unicorn and you’ve got the one sin and that’s it -- your punishment would be death. That’s what you would deserve. And you can’t dig yourself out of that hole. There’s not enough good you could do to compensate for that. You can keep trying. You can keep striving. You can keep going and going and going. At the end of the day, that one sin, there is a punishment for it and it is death. It is eternal separation from God according to His word. You can’t earn your way to the top. You can’t earn your way into good standing with God. That’s fake news. And there is a consequence to it. Oh my gosh, there’s a consequence to it -- so many of you experience it every day -- and it’s spiritual exhaustion. It’s spiritual exhaustion. You keep going and you keep trying, and it’s never enough. You’re just exhausted by trying to please God. Now, you probably wouldn’t come out and say it like that, but let me tell you how you know whether or not you’ve fallen into this fake news. If you’re doing all the right things but you feel nothing, it’s a good indicator that you’re working to try to please God, trying to earn your way to the top; like, you’re reading your Bible, you’re praying, you’re going to church, you’re serving and all that, and then when we get up here and we sing these powerful worship songs where we’re just like passionately saying how good God is, and you’re just kind of like, “Meh, meh,” there’s something wrong inside. You’re spiritually exhausted. It’s because you were never meant to live like that. I’m telling you, when you operate and function in such a way where you think you can earn your way into God’s good graces and you can work your way into His good favor, it will leave you so exhausted and it will rob you of all the joy and all the life that comes from following Jesus. For all the logical thinkers in the room, you know exactly what I’m about to say, because if you Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.



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take those two conclusions, two bits of fake news (you deserve to be at the top and you can earn your way to the top) -- if that’s fake, the logical conclusion is a very depressing one, and it’s the real news. It’s not fake news; it’s the real news. If that’s fake news, the real news is very, very depressing. It is simply this: It is impossible to make it to the top. It’s impossible. Again, welcome to church. It’s impossible. If you can’t earn it and you don’t deserve it, how are you going to get there? It’s impossible. You can’t make it to the top, and that’s why I love that Paul doesn’t use the word fake news or real news when he unpacks this. You see, Jesus didn’t come to give you fake news. Jesus didn’t come to give you real news. Jesus came to give you good news, and good news is way better than the real news. So we need to back up just a little bit. Like I said, you’ve got to pull that verse out of your pocket again in Galatians chapter 1. Back up to the very beginning. Go back up to verse 4 for a second because he puts the good news right in there; real short, real sweet, real to the point. He says this in verse 4. “Jesus gave His life for our sins, just as God our Father planned, in order to rescue us from the evil world in which we live.” The way we say it around here when we talk about the good news, which that’s what the word ‘Gospel’ means -- ‘Gospel’ means ‘good news’ -- when we talk about the good news, we say it like this: That Jesus came and lived the life that you could never live and He died the death that you should’ve died. He came and He lived, whereas you and I have screwed this thing up. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We’ve all screwed it up. We’re all done, right? Jesus came and He said, “You know what? I’ll be tempted in every way.” According to the book of Hebrews, He was tempted in every way you and I are tempted, so no matter what you’ve gone through, He’s gone through it. Yet, He was without sin. He lived the perfect life you could never live, and then He basically gave you that homework sheet without His name on it and said, “Hey, write your name on it and turn it in. It’s good. You can have it. I’ll live the perfect life and I’ll act like it’s yours. You can just turn that in; write your name on it; count it as good. I’ll live the life you could never live, and that punishment -- you know, for the wages of sin is death? I’ll take that for you. I’ll stretch out My arms and I’ll die on Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.





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a cross in the name of love for you. I’ll die the death that you should have died so that you can be set free. And all you have to do is trust. All you’ve got to do is accept it.” I love the way Paul phrases it in Ephesians chapter 2. He says this: “God saved you by His grace when you,” -- not acted, not obeyed -- when you “believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.” If the fake news is that you deserve to be at the top or you can earn your way to the top, and the real news is that it’s impossible to make it to the top, the good news is that the top is at the bottom, and the door is wide open. The top is at the bottom. Jesus has brought right standing with God to the lowest rung on the ladder. It is as low as you can possibly get. The top is now at the bottom. All you have to do is receive it. It’s a free gift. All you’ve got to do is say, “God, when it comes to my eternal salvation, I got nothing. I’m trusting that what Jesus did is enough.” When it comes to your sin problem, when it comes to all that stuff you messed up, all this is is you saying, “God, I got nothing. I’m trusting in Jesus. I’m going to receive this free gift. I’m going to believe in it,” and then you’re saved. The top’s at the bottom. It’s the lowest rung. And the door is open for everyone. It doesn’t matter your skin color. It doesn’t matter the money in your bank account. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done, who you’ve done it with, how many times you’ve done it. God’s grace can cover you. It’s for everyone. There is no distinction. I’m telling you, oh my gosh. Do you want to talk about freedom for a second? Oh, come on now. You want to talk about freedom? Okay. If the tops at the bottom and the door’s wide open for everybody, you are officially freed from arrogance. Because guess what. You don’t have to compare yourself to anyone anymore. You don’t compare yourself. You don’t have to look at somebody as morally inferior or morally superior because guess what. The ground is level at the foot of the cross. We are all the same. We are all like one or two decisions away from ruining our lives at any point. All of us. So whoever you’ve vilified as the worst of the worst person, guess what. At the end of the day, you are not that different than them. You are not. Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.





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You are freed from arrogance. You don’t have to worry about comparing yourself anymore. You’re freed from that. And guess what. Not only freed from that, you’re freed for something. If you’re freed from comparing yourself to people and you’re freed from spiritual arrogance and you don’t have to worry about -- you know you don’t deserve to be at the top -- if you’re freed from that, you are now free to love people like never before. Oh my gosh, you are free to love without condition, so much so that Jesus says you can even love your enemies. You can love people that hate you because, again, you look at them and you go, “Well, they’re not that different than me. I’m no better than they are. I don’t deserve this. They don’t deserve it. We’re all in the same boat. I can love my enemies.” You want to talk about freedom. You’re free to love like never before. You’re free to love the way that God has loved you. Do you want to talk about freedom from exhaustion for a second? If the tops at the bottom and the door’s wide open for everybody, you are now officially freed from having to try to impress God. You’re free from it. You’re free. The audition’s over. You’re in. He loves you. There’s nothing you can ever do to make Him love you less. There’s nothing you can ever do to make Him love you more. There’s nothing you can ever do to make Him stop loving you. The audition is completely over. You don’t have to worry about it anymore. You are freed from spiritual exhaustion. And now you are free to obey from a very different place. You are free to live for God from a very different place. You see, when you follow Jesus, you are now free. It is no longer we have to; it is we get to. It is no longer “I have to come to church and I have to read my Bible and I have to serve and I have to give my tithe and I have to…” No, it’s I get to, because even when I mess up, I’m forgiven. Not if I mess up, but when. When I mess up, I’m forgiven. So I’m not trying to impress anybody. I’m just trying to live out of an overflowing gratitude for God. I remember when I was 17 years old. I had just given my life to Christ. I had just become a Christian. There’s a sermon that was preached that I remember like it was yesterday. Some of you have been in church for awhile, and you know you don’t remember sermons past like Tuesday. It doesn’t matter how good that thing is. I’m just getting real with you, man. I worked on this thing all week long and I know by Tuesday Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.





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Galatians: Live Free | Real vs. Fake (Downtown) June 24 and 25, 2017

y’all are going… Call it like it is. But I remember this one. Fifteen years later I still remember it. His name was Mike Breaux. He’s one of my favorite preachers. He was the lead pastor at the church that I came to know Christ at in Lexington, Kentucky, God’s country. He preached this message where he said, “Your life should be a living, breathing, walking, talking thank-you note to God for all that He’s done for you.” That’s sunk so deep into my heart. I can remember where I was sitting in the auditorium. I can remember it all. We get to. I want my life to reflect an overflowing gratitude for the fact that I don’t have to earn it anymore, that Jesus has died for me and I’m loved beyond belief, and there’s nothing I can do to change it. I want my life to be an overflowing gratitude and now I’m free to do that. That’s what freedom looks like. I’m praying that for us. I’m praying that our church would become so free in those ways over the next six weeks. I think the thing that Paul really wanted for the church in Galatia and the thing I really want for us is for us to become so enamored with the good news, we’re so focused on it, that we can detect fake news from a mile away. We can smell it coming. It’s like, “No, that’s not Jesus.” The way I’d like to phrase it for us is my challenge is that maybe over the next six weeks we might just become gospel obsessed. We’re gospel obsessed. So much so that nothing could take us away from it; nothing can sneak in and spiritually enslave us again. We’re able to live free for Him, free to love, free to obey because we know our eternity’s secure. He’s right here with us. We’re free. Let’s become gospel obsessed over that. Rewind to five minutes ago. When I started talking about the top’s at the bottom; the door’s wide open; the gospel, it’s for everyone, and all that, I can see it in some of your eyes. That’s all right. Some of y’all are like, “Yawn. Man, Bru Burger sounds great today.” I get it. Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.





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Galatians: Live Free | Real vs. Fake (Downtown) June 24 and 25, 2017

I also just think it is funny from time to time from a preaching perspective that oftentimes -- I’ve been preaching for awhile so I’ve gotten used to it -- I think people think that preachers can’t see them sometimes. Like when you’re live with an audience, people are like, “Well, he can’t see me.” No, I can see you. I can see you real good. I’ll never forget the first time I preached at our Northwest campus. There was a guy, third row, that was just gone, I mean snoring. I wanted to stop the whole thing in front of like 2,000 people and just be like, “Sir! Sir! Would you mind waking up?” but I didn’t. I can just tell when I preach the stuff sometimes, and I’ve been in your shoes where I’ve received it. I mean, we sit together and we listen from our lead pastor Aaron Brockett all the time. Sometimes when we get to the gospel, we get to the foundation of our faith. It’s not that we think it’s fake news; it’s not that we think it’s real news; it’s not even that we think it’s good news. It just becomes kind of old news. It’s just like, “Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard that stuff.” That’s great for the first-timers. You know, we clap for the first-timers in the room, and so that’s a great message for the first-timers, but you kind of check yourself out a little bit. Man, that is so not what God wants for you, and that’s not even how Christianity is supposed to work, because the gospel is everything. It is not the starter course; it is everything. In fact, one of my favorite authors, J. D. Greear, says it like this. He says, “The gospel… is not just the diving board off of which we jump into the pool of Christianity; it is the pool itself. It is not only the way we begin in Christ; it is the way we grow in Christ. As Tim Keller says, the gospel is not just the ABCs of Christianity, but it is the A-Z. All of the Christian life flows from the good news of what Jesus has done. That’s why growth in Christ is never going beyond the gospel, but going deeper into the gospel. The purest waters from the spring of life are found by digging deeper, not wider, into the gospel well.” --Plumb Line #1: The Gospel is Not Just the Diving Board; It’s the Pool I’m praying that in the next six weeks we can dig deeper into the gospel than ever before. I believe that in doing so, some people are going to be set free. Next Sunday, we’re doing baptisms here. We do baptisms the first Sunday of every month. I know that some of you, over the past couple months, have maybe made a decision to give your life to Christ. I believe that God’s powerful enough that even right here in the room right now someone may not need five more weeks of this. You may have heard this and you’re like, “All Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.





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Galatians: Live Free | Real vs. Fake (Downtown) June 24 and 25, 2017

right, I’m in. Let’s do this. I want to become a Christian.” We want to talk to you. I’m going to be down front after service is over with our prayer teams. We’d love to pray with you. We had one guy in our 8:30 service who came forward, and he said he wanted to get baptized and so we’re going to dunk him next week. If that’s you, we’re going to be here for you. I believe that in this series, not just people who are coming for the first time, who’ve never become Christians, I believe that even people who’ve been here for years and years and years, I believe God can set us free to live the life that He wants us to live. That’s my prayer for us. We’re going to take communion here in just a second. We’re going to spend some time just celebrating Jesus. We’re going to take a little piece of bread and a little cup of juice, and then, in your own time, you get to take that to remember Jesus and thank Him for what He’s done. Then we’ll close out our service with some worship. Let’s pray together. Let’s pray for the people in the room that are, I believe, being called to make some big decisions over the next five or six weeks. Let’s pray that together. Jesus, thank You that You brought the top to the bottom. Thank You that You opened that door wide open for everyone so that a sinful, wretched person like me could walk through it. God, thank You that the ground is level at the foot of the cross. God, we’re amazed by Your grace. Thank You that today, for those of us who believe in You, our sins were removed as far as the east is from the west, according to Your word. God, I just pray right now that You would make us into a church that is just all-consumed with Your good news, so much so that we can’t get it off our lips. We just can’t stop talking about it. We can’t stop obsessing over it because it’s just so good, but God we need You to do that in our hearts. God, I pray for anybody in the room right now that’s thinking about giving their lives to You. God, I pray that you’d give them the nudge they need to go all in and to begin following You. God, I pray for anybody in the room that’s just sceptical right now, that You might work through their scepticism in the weeks to come. God, I pray for the believer in the room that is not experiencing life to the full right now, that You might begin to set them free by the power of Your good news. Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.





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Galatians: Live Free | Real vs. Fake (Downtown) June 24 and 25, 2017

God, we love you, and we ask all this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.





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