Speaker 1: Galatians today, galatians chapter 2, and we're in a series entitled Paradigm Shift.
Speaker 1: Paradigm Shift and here's the big idea of this series is, when you see and experience authentic Christianity, you will find it compelling, life-giving and soul-anchoring.
Speaker 1: Now to get the message this morning, a question for you guys who in the room has ever been to Washington DC?
Speaker 1: Washington DC, okay, like like, I've been to Washington DC.
Speaker 1: I mean that place is super cool.
Speaker 1: They got all kinds of cool stuff in Washington DC.
Speaker 1: You got a, you know.
Speaker 1: You got the Washington Monument.
Speaker 1: You know, in fact, somebody that's been to Washington DC, tell me one of your favorite things about Washington DC Cherry blossoms.
Speaker 1: They're so pretty, cherry blossoms.
Speaker 1: Yep, those are nice.
Speaker 1: Yep, the Capitol Building Somebody said that at 9 am.
Speaker 1: Sir, the Capitol Building is sweet, it's like super massive.
Speaker 1: You get all these pictures.
Speaker 1: They got all statues in there.
Speaker 1: It's really cool.
Speaker 1: Somebody else?
Speaker 1: Anybody else?
Speaker 1: Natural History Museum that's right, teacher over here.
Speaker 1: Museums, museums are cool.
Speaker 1: I love museums.
Speaker 1: I love the White House.
Speaker 1: You get to go to the White House.
Speaker 1: The other thing I like I like the Lincoln Memorial.
Speaker 1: Honest Abe, he's just said you know, and you walk down down the steps of Lincoln Memorial and you see something.
Speaker 1: This is where Martin Luther King Jr gave his.
Speaker 1: I have a dream speech indicating that you can stand right there.
Speaker 1: It's like, oh wow, this is where it happened.
Speaker 1: It's pretty cool.
Speaker 1: They have just all kinds of cool stuff in Washington DC.
Speaker 1: I'm kind of a history nerd, so I just love it.
Speaker 1: It's great.
Speaker 1: Another thing they have there is they have a monument that's dedicated to the Marines.
Speaker 1: A monument dedicated to the Marines.
Speaker 1: I think we have a picture of it.
Speaker 1: In fact, are there any Marines in the room this morning?
Speaker 1: Let's go, yeah, let's go.
Speaker 1: What's a Marine?
Speaker 1: Always a Marine.
Speaker 1: Love it.
Speaker 1: And this is this massive monument there in Washington DC, and you ever see something you're like.
Speaker 1: Well, I wonder what this commemorates.
Speaker 1: What's this all about?
Speaker 1: So, thank God we live in 2024, so we can pull out our smartphones and check out Google, you know.
Speaker 1: So I looked it up.
Speaker 1: What's this all about?
Speaker 1: And it goes back to World War II and the American soldiers.
Speaker 1: They were behind enemy lines and there's a group of guys depicted right here and they made this very risky, very courageous climb to the top of a mountain that was overlooking the battlefield.
Speaker 1: As they made the climb to the top.
Speaker 1: They risked their lives and their futures and their dreams and their hopes to get to the top of the mountain so they could wave the flag of freedom and their dreams and their hopes to get to the top the mountain so they could wave the flag of freedom.
Speaker 1: And that's exactly what they did.
Speaker 1: And when they waved the flag of freedom, all the people, the American soldiers that were down below, looked up and saw that flag of freedom waving and they knew that they, that we, had won the battle, that it was ours, and they risked a lot to do it, but they did it.
Speaker 1: There's a monument in Washington DC to commemorate it.
Speaker 1: The reason I tell you that story is because we're in a place in Galatians, chapter 2 today, where Paul is on a journey.
Speaker 1: He goes on a journey to wave the flag of freedom that we have in the gospel, to wave the flag of freedom, of truth, to wave the flag of freedom that we have in Christ.
Speaker 1: Today we're going to see the process of how it unfolds in Galatians, chapter 2, and we're going to pick it up in verse number 1.
Speaker 1: If you're ready for the word this morning, would you say amen?
Speaker 1: Galatians 2, verse 1, it says this.
Speaker 1: It says.
Speaker 1: Then, after 14 years, paul had been in Arabia 14 years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas.
Speaker 1: Everybody say the word Barnabas together, ready.
Speaker 1: Okay, here's the thing.
Speaker 1: Barnabas was one of Paul's buddies.
Speaker 1: Right, you got any close buddies?
Speaker 1: Barnabas was one of Paul's buddies.
Speaker 1: Barnabas was known as being an encourager.
Speaker 1: In fact, his name actually means son of encouragement.
Speaker 1: This is Barnabas here when we see him in the New Testament.
Speaker 1: What we often see Barnabas doing is encouraging people, helping people take steps of growth in their faith, because growth happens one step at a time.
Speaker 1: Barnabas is somebody that he cared more about how people were doing than what people were doing.
Speaker 1: This is Barnabas.
Speaker 1: So he's with Barnabas and he also is taking Titus along.
Speaker 1: Also, this guy, titus he would eventually be a pastor on the island of Crete.
Speaker 1: If you read in the New Testament, there's a book of the Scripture.
Speaker 1: It's called Titus.
Speaker 1: That book was written to this guy right here.
Speaker 1: That's mentioned in Galatians, chapter 2, verse 1.
Speaker 1: So Paul has his buddy Barnabas, he also has Titus and they're going to Jerusalem.
Speaker 1: Why are they going to Jerusalem?
Speaker 1: Are they going on a weekend trip?
Speaker 1: They need to get away.
Speaker 1: What's happening?
Speaker 1: Well, verse 2 tells us why they did that they need to get away.
Speaker 1: What's happening?
Speaker 1: Well, verse 2 tells us why they did that.
Speaker 1: Because they went up according to a revelation and presented to them Everybody say the word them together, ready them.
Speaker 1: Who's that?
Speaker 1: These are the church leaders at Jerusalem.
Speaker 1: Church leaders at Jerusalem.
Speaker 1: This is Peter, james, john.
Speaker 1: So they presented to them the gospel, the death, the burial, the resurrection of Jesus Christ that I, paul says that I preach among the Gentiles, the non-Jews, but privately to those recognized as leaders.
Speaker 1: So he has a private meeting with these guys.
Speaker 1: I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running in vain.
Speaker 1: So I want to talk to these guys about this gospel that I was preaching, to be sure I'm not running in vain.
Speaker 1: And verse 3 says but not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek.
Speaker 1: Now, if you just came in here and you haven't been here the last couple weeks, you're like whoa, where did this come from?
Speaker 1: Paul is preaching the gospel, the death, the burial, the resurrection of Jesus, that Jesus plus nothing equals everything.
Speaker 1: But there are these people that were saying, yes, you need Jesus, but you also need your rules, you also need these traditions.
Speaker 1: You also need circumcision, because this equals something.
Speaker 1: And Paul here says Titus is with me, titus was a follower of Jesus, titus had the fruit of a follower of Jesus in his life and he says Titus doesn't feel compelled to be circumcised.
Speaker 1: I mean, these guys coming up to Titus like, hey, you need to be circumcised.
Speaker 1: Titus is like bro.
Speaker 1: Coming up to Titus like, hey, you need to be circumcised.
Speaker 1: Titus is like bro, you ain't touching me, dude.
Speaker 1: My standing with God is not based on that.
Speaker 1: My standing with God is based on faith in Christ.
Speaker 1: And the reason why Paul brings this up in this meeting with these guys is because this had been a problem.
Speaker 1: Verse 4 tells us the problem this had been.
Speaker 1: It says this matter.
Speaker 1: What's the matter?
Speaker 1: This matter of circumcision, this matter of Titus being circumcised.
Speaker 1: This matter arose because some false brothers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom that we have in Christ Jesus.
Speaker 1: In order to what's that word?
Speaker 1: In order to enslave us.
Speaker 1: Enslave us.
Speaker 1: Paul says, hey, there were these guys.
Speaker 1: They kind of like infiltrated their way into the church.
Speaker 1: They weren't actually followers of Jesus, these were Judaizers and they were trying to enslave us by saying you have to keep all of these rules to get God's favor, to get God's acceptance.
Speaker 1: Jesus is not enough.
Speaker 1: They were adding something to salvation.
Speaker 1: So what did Paul do?
Speaker 1: No-transcript I love how he says it.
Speaker 1: It wasn't even like a moment.
Speaker 1: There was no give for us.
Speaker 1: Why did they not give up so the truth of the gospel would be preserved for you, because this gospel is so precious, this gospel is so dear.
Speaker 1: We're holding so tightly to this.
Speaker 1: We want to preserve this so you can understand it, so you can understand that it's Jesus alone that gives you a future.
Speaker 1: It's Jesus alone that gives you hope.
Speaker 1: You don't need these other things.
Speaker 1: And Paul stood so strongly on this.
Speaker 1: In fact, later on in Galatians, which we'll talk about, paul got in a dude's face Like he went face to face with the guy and was like no man, you're off.
Speaker 1: He was passionate about this.
Speaker 1: He stood for this truth.
Speaker 1: In verse 6, it says now, from those recognized as important.
Speaker 1: What they once were makes no difference to me.
Speaker 1: God does not show favoritism.
Speaker 1: They added nothing to me.
Speaker 1: Here's what he's speaking of.
Speaker 1: Here he says those recognized as important.
Speaker 1: He's speaking of these church leaders Peter, james and John.
Speaker 1: Now, he recognized their authority as church leaders.
Speaker 1: He respected them.
Speaker 1: That's why he traveled to Jerusalem to meet with them.
Speaker 1: But what he's saying is God doesn't show what's the underlying word.
Speaker 1: God doesn't show what's the word.
Speaker 1: The word is God doesn't show favoritism.
Speaker 1: So because Peter, james and John have this role of leadership in the church, this doesn't mean they have some special status with God.
Speaker 1: Paul says I didn't need their validation on my apostleship, and the reason why is because God doesn't show favoritism.
Speaker 1: God isn't like ah, man, nate's up there with a microphone for 30 minutes on a Sunday morning.
Speaker 1: Ah, he's my favorite.
Speaker 1: God's not like oh, they're a growth group leader.
Speaker 1: Woo, I'm impressed.
Speaker 1: No, our standing with God is not based on our role in the church, our position in the church.
Speaker 1: It's based on the fact that we've turned from our sin and put our faith and trust in the person of Jesus.
Speaker 1: You know it's funny because sometimes people, you know they found out I'm a pastor.
Speaker 1: First of all, I wish you all could be with me.
Speaker 1: When people are like hey, what do you do, what's your?
Speaker 1: And I always say I always say first thing.
Speaker 1: I say guess, what do you think?
Speaker 1: Now, the most popular thing I get because we live in this area, be like you're in the military thing I get, because we live in this area, be like you're in the military.
Speaker 1: You know I'm not in the military.
Speaker 1: Then I'm like I'm a pastor and then I just sit there and let the pause do its work.
Speaker 1: And sometimes people they like don't know what to say.
Speaker 1: Sometimes people, sometimes people are like you're too normal to be a pastor.
Speaker 1: I'm like I think that's a compliment, I'm not really sure.
Speaker 1: Sometimes people are like, oh, you're a pastor.
Speaker 1: And then they like turn on their spiritual, religious lingo and I'm like why weren't you talking like this two minutes ago?
Speaker 1: I'm a real person, you know.
Speaker 1: Sometimes people think that because I'm a pastor, I have this like special connection with God that they don't have.
Speaker 1: Like, if you've trusted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, your follower of Jesus, you have the same Holy Spirit that I have.
Speaker 1: Here's why this is important.
Speaker 1: Okay, here's what you really need to know Is that someone's role in a church doesn't determine your standing with God.
Speaker 1: Your relationship with Christ determines your standing with God.
Speaker 1: Right, so, like your role in the church, it doesn't determine standing with God.
Speaker 1: Your relationship with Christ determines your standing with God.
Speaker 1: In fact, position in the church is not about status, it's about service.
Speaker 1: So if you have a leadership position here at FCC in any role growth group leader, ministry leader so if you have a leadership position here at FCC in any role growth group leader, ministry leader, ministry coordinator, community group leader, whatever role that might be, kingdom kids teacher that doesn't give you rights and privileges and perks.
Speaker 1: It gives you and me a greater responsibility to serve people.
Speaker 1: That's what it does.
Speaker 1: That's what leadership is.
Speaker 1: Leadership is serving people.
Speaker 1: That's what it does.
Speaker 1: That's what leadership is.
Speaker 1: Leadership is serving people.
Speaker 1: And Paul says, hey, I respect these guys.
Speaker 1: I mean, he went all the way to Jerusalem to talk to them.
Speaker 1: I respect these guys, but they're not God's favorites.
Speaker 1: God doesn't show favoritism.
Speaker 1: And then in verse 7, he says this is what the result of our meeting looked like.
Speaker 1: In verse 7, he says, on the contrary, they Peter, james, john saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel for the uncircumcised, for the Gentiles, just as Peter was for the circumcised for the Jews Verse 8,.
Speaker 1: Since the one at work in Peter for an apostleship to the circumcised was also at work in me for the Gentiles.
Speaker 1: The Holy Spirit is at work in Peter's life, the Holy Spirit's at work in Paul's life.
Speaker 1: They're just taking the gospel to different places, to different groups of people.
Speaker 1: Verse 9, here's how we know it was these guys.
Speaker 1: When James Cephas Cephas is another name for Peter, we could look back in John 1 and show that.
Speaker 1: But James Cephas James Cephas is another name for Peter.
Speaker 1: We could look back in John 1 and show that.
Speaker 1: But James, cephas and John, they'll recognize these pillars.
Speaker 1: Jesus said these guys would be pillars, acknowledge the grace that had been given to me.
Speaker 1: They gave the right hand of fellowship to me and to Barnabas, agreeing that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.
Speaker 1: James Cephas, peter, john Say Paul, you guys are doing the right thing, y'all are doing the right thing.
Speaker 1: You guys just keep preaching Jesus plus does equals everything.
Speaker 1: You guys are good.
Speaker 1: Now, this, this is really massive.
Speaker 1: Because, well, we're going to see this next week.
Speaker 1: Peter, james and John they had felt some pressure from some of these people too of saying it's Jesus plus something else.
Speaker 1: And verse 9, james, stephen and John are like no, no, it's Jesus plus nothing equals everything.
Speaker 1: Now we say here tonight or this morning when we hear this, we're like this isn't really a big deal.
Speaker 1: This is like a huge deal here, guys, because this is like cultural pressure.
Speaker 1: This is pressure from their people, this is pressure from their family.
Speaker 1: They're feeling all of this weight and for them to say it's Jesus plus nothing equals everything.
Speaker 1: Keep preaching the gospel of grace.
Speaker 1: You're doing the right thing.
Speaker 1: This was massive, this was huge, this was freeing and liberating in a religious world that was suffocating and just ugh.
Speaker 1: And in verse 10, it says this these guys, they asked only that we would remember the poor, which I made every effort to do.
Speaker 1: They say, hey, don't forget about the poor.
Speaker 1: And here's what we see about the gospel and the process of this here in this text.
Speaker 1: I want us to walk through this.
Speaker 1: First of all, we see something.
Speaker 1: We see that the truth was affirmed in community.
Speaker 1: Did you guys see this?
Speaker 1: So Titus, paul, barnabas, they go all the way to Jerusalem.
Speaker 1: Now, this is a good little trip, like they're not going right down the road half a block to Arco, am Pam to pick up a Slurpee.
Speaker 1: It's a good trek.
Speaker 1: They're going all the way down there.
Speaker 1: Why would they do that?
Speaker 1: Why is Paul going to do that?
Speaker 1: Because he values community.
Speaker 1: He goes in this group of guys and says this is what I'm preaching, I'm letting you know, and it goes with Titus and Barnabas.
Speaker 1: You know what Paul could have said?
Speaker 1: Paul could have said I'm doing this Christian journey thing on my own, it's going to be me.
Speaker 1: Anything on my own, it's going to be me.
Speaker 1: Jesus.
Speaker 1: After all, people, they've hurt me.
Speaker 1: I don't really need community, I don't need people.
Speaker 1: I mean, I've tried this and it just ah, they've let me down and it just ah, they've let me down.
Speaker 1: But Paul understood something.
Speaker 1: He understood the need for community and the need for godly community.
Speaker 1: Now can we just be honest this morning?
Speaker 1: Having community and having friendship is kind of hard in 2024, isn't it?
Speaker 1: For a number of reasons, it's super hard to have community and have friendships and have these relationships.
Speaker 1: It's so hard to do and sometimes we're like I don't even know if I want to do this, I don't even know how to do this, so we settle for the alternative, which is loneliness.
Speaker 1: In fact, the Surgeon General of the United States, who is his name, is Vivek Murthy.
Speaker 1: He's responsible for all of public health in the US.
Speaker 1: That's a job I would never want.
Speaker 1: That's his responsibility.
Speaker 1: This is what he says about loneliness.
Speaker 1: He says during my years caring for patients.
Speaker 1: The most common pathology was not heart disease or diabetes, it was loneliness.
Speaker 1: So pathology like the most common cause and effect of other effects in people's life was loneliness.
Speaker 1: So it's pretty interesting.
Speaker 1: Was loneliness Someone else?
Speaker 1: It's pretty interesting.
Speaker 1: There's a lady up here on the screen.
Speaker 1: Any of you guys know who this lady is?
Speaker 1: Curious anybody, all right.
Speaker 1: So anybody want to guess what country this lady's from?
Speaker 1: England, pamela, the English woman got it.
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 1: She's from England, that's right.
Speaker 1: Pamela, with the British accent, teach us all how to talk like you, please.
Speaker 1: You got the coolest accent England.
Speaker 1: This lady's name is Tacey Crouch and in 2018, she was appointed to a position, a position that England had never had in its entire history.
Speaker 1: It was like groundbreaking.
Speaker 1: People were like why are they doing this?
Speaker 1: This was the position Cabinet Minister of Loneliness.
Speaker 1: So this is the assignment this lady was given to tackle the epidemic of loneliness in Great Britain, because it was having massively negative effects on the people of loneliness in Great Britain.
Speaker 1: Because it was having massively negative effects on the people of Britain, they appointed a minister of loneliness.
Speaker 1: Around this time, the LA Times they were talking about this and then an article that came out by a medical professional medical expert and in the article it says this.
Speaker 1: It says loneliness is not just a mental condition, is not just a mental condition.
Speaker 1: Extended feelings of loneliness can lead to high blood pressure, heart disease, chronic inflammation and even dementia.
Speaker 1: It strikes people regardless of age, gender or situation in life.
Speaker 1: Loneliness can kill.
Speaker 1: It's proven to be worse.
Speaker 1: Now, this one's mind-blowing right here.
Speaker 1: This last line is mind-blowing.
Speaker 1: It's proven to be worse for health than smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
Speaker 1: What?
Speaker 1: And there are multiple studies that show this.
Speaker 1: Here's the idea.
Speaker 1: Science is finally catching up with what God says.
Speaker 1: God says that we were made for community.
Speaker 1: We were made in the image of God.
Speaker 1: God's a community the Father, the Son, the Spirit and because we were made in his image, we were made to have relationships with people.
Speaker 1: God designed us to be relational beings.
Speaker 1: Now there's three types of relationships that every single one of us need Now, and I've shared this before, but I think sometimes we don't need to learn new things, we need to be reminded of things we already know.
Speaker 1: So there's three types of relationships every single one of us need.
Speaker 1: Ready, no.
Speaker 1: So there's three types of relationships.
Speaker 1: Every single one of us need One.
Speaker 1: We need a spiritual mentor that's ahead of us and we see this here in the text Peter, james and John.
Speaker 1: They're ahead of Paul and these guys.
Speaker 1: We need a spiritual mentor ahead of us.
Speaker 1: This is somebody that has a strong relationship with God.
Speaker 1: This is somebody that you can go and talk to and you can seek biblical advice about.
Speaker 1: Maybe you're at a fork in the road.
Speaker 1: You're like should I go this way?
Speaker 1: Should I go this way?
Speaker 1: I don't really know.
Speaker 1: Spiritual mentor Maybe you're at a place in your life where you're just having some like real struggles about things and you're wrestling with things.
Speaker 1: Spiritual mentor you need a spiritual mentor that's ahead of you, somebody that you can talk to.
Speaker 1: You don't have to be besties with them, but somebody you can reach out to.
Speaker 1: You also need spiritual friends beside you.
Speaker 1: Spiritual mentor ahead.
Speaker 1: Spiritual friends beside this is somebody you can just hang out with, somebody you can share your heart with, somebody that sharpens you spiritually.
Speaker 1: Like Proverbs 17 says.
Speaker 1: You need a friend that, honestly, they can just talk you off a ledge.
Speaker 1: When you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you're about to do something you probably shouldn't do.
Speaker 1: They'd be like bro, like come on, dude.
Speaker 1: You need somebody that can kind of like kick you in the rear end when you need to kick in the rear end.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Am I the only one that needs that sometimes?
Speaker 1: Right, you need somebody that can give you some clarity when, like, life seems to be in a fog.
Speaker 1: You need spiritual friends beside you, and these don't happen accidentally, like sometimes we think that I just need to find this friend, when really what we need to do is forge these types of friendships.
Speaker 1: Did you get that?
Speaker 1: Sometimes I need to find this friend, and maybe that's part of it.
Speaker 1: But a lot of these friendships are actually forged.
Speaker 1: They take us, investing in them, us making deposits of our time, of our energy, of a.
Speaker 1: Let me just pull out my phone and send him a text message and say hey, dude, I'm thinking about you, praying for you, hope you have a good day, like something like that simple right.
Speaker 1: Like hey, let's go hang out and do this over here, invite somebody over.
Speaker 1: That's how friendships are formed, and if there's a friendship where all we're doing is taking and asking and asking and asking, that's not actually a friendship.
Speaker 1: A friendship is two people investing in each other.
Speaker 1: The relationships that we need is we need a spiritual mentor ahead of us.
Speaker 1: We need spiritual friends beside us and we need a younger Christ follower behind us.
Speaker 1: We need all three.
Speaker 1: This is somebody that you can encourage, somebody that you can pray for.
Speaker 1: This might be somebody that you serve with in your ministry team.
Speaker 1: This might be somebody in your kids' class where you serve in.
Speaker 1: This might be somebody in your growth group or your community group.
Speaker 1: But this is somebody that maybe is behind you, maybe they're a little younger in the faith and there's somebody that you talk to them, you pray for them, you get to know them.
Speaker 1: Maybe you invite them to your growth group, maybe you invite them to your house.
Speaker 1: I don't know, but somebody that you're pouring into a little bit, that you're developing a relationship with.
Speaker 1: And for us to have community, we need a spiritual mentor ahead of us, we need spiritual friends beside us and we need a younger Christ follower behind us.
Speaker 1: And when we can have these groups of people, what can happen is we can experience Christianity and community the way that God designed us to have.
Speaker 1: So here's my question who is the spiritual mentor ahead of you, who are the spiritual friends beside you and who is the younger Christ follower behind you, something we do here.
Speaker 1: We have growth groups and community groups and they're no secret.
Speaker 1: We talk about them regularly.
Speaker 1: We're starting a bunch of new ones in May.
Speaker 1: We have these not because, well, you don't have anything better to do, so we want you know your schedule isn't busy enough, so we want to.
Speaker 1: No, y'all are super busy.
Speaker 1: This is why we have these.
Speaker 1: We have these so you can develop friendships and relationships with people.
Speaker 1: That's why Are you going to meet your best friend in a community group?
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that.
Speaker 1: What we want you to do is to have environments where you're developing relationships with people, because you were not meant to do life alone.
Speaker 1: The gospel here was confirmed.
Speaker 1: It was affirmed in community Number two.
Speaker 1: It was communicated through confusion.
Speaker 1: Jesse, verse number five here it says this we didn't give up and submit to these people for even a moment.
Speaker 1: So there's this confusion about what's this all about?
Speaker 1: Paul's like, no, no, like we stood for truth, we stood for the gospel.
Speaker 1: Now, here's a crazy thing, guys.
Speaker 1: We live in a world where there is so many philosophies and messaging and you name it out there.
Speaker 1: It's like all around us.
Speaker 1: I mean, man, we got music, we got TV shows, we got media, we got everywhere.
Speaker 1: We're like inundated with information, we're information overload and what can happen is we can have this, we can get this philosophy of the current culture of secularism in our world, of this deification of self and this deification and this ultimate authority of our feelings and, before we know it, we can be confused on what truth is.
Speaker 1: This is why Paul writes in Colossians 2, verse 8, he says Be careful that no one takes you.
Speaker 1: What's that word?
Speaker 1: That no one takes you captive?
Speaker 1: Capt, that word that no one takes you captive.
Speaker 1: Captive, how do they take you captive?
Speaker 1: They take you captive by handcuffing you and breaking into your house.
Speaker 1: No, they take you captive by pointing a gun to your head.
Speaker 1: No, they take you captive by philosophy and empty deceit on human tradition based on the elements of the world rather than Christ.
Speaker 1: A classic example of this classic example is Joseph Goebbels.
Speaker 1: He was the chief minister of propaganda of Nazi Germany in World War II, in the 30s and 40s, and in a telling, a telling moment of honesty and transparency, this is what he said.
Speaker 1: He said if you repeat a lie often enough, it creates the illusion of truth.
Speaker 1: If you repeat a lie often enough, it creates the illusion of truth.
Speaker 1: So you know what the Nazis would do they would fly over a town, they would fly low and they would drop all these pamphlets and papers, of all these things promoting this philosophy, promoting this anti-Semitism.
Speaker 1: And what would happen is people would pick them up and read them.
Speaker 1: And they literally, strategically and intentionally did this time after time after time after time after time after time again.
Speaker 1: And guess what happened?
Speaker 1: It worked.
Speaker 1: Now, in 2024, we're way more sophisticated than that.
Speaker 1: Nobody's like flying a plane down and like don't do that.
Speaker 1: We got TikTokers, we got news networks, we got hashtags, we got YouTubers, and we're hearing information again and again and again and again and again and again, and before we know it, before we even realize it, like we're taking captive by things, and we think, and what can happen is we can call evil good and good evil.
Speaker 1: That's how we're Nazi Germany, and what can happen, before we know it is, we think, is we think that this is what's good and right and pure, when this is actually not good and right and pure.
Speaker 1: And it's like how did we get here?
Speaker 1: This is how Repetition, reinforcement, we're told the same thing again and again and again and again.
Speaker 1: And guys like our eyes got to be open because this is happening all around us all the time.
Speaker 1: Like all around us and here, in this culture in the first century.
Speaker 1: The religious culture of that day is like Judaism is circumcisions, all these things, again and again and again it's being poured down their throat and Paul's like no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1: Like I'm communicating the truth through confusion.
Speaker 1: It is Jesus, it is the gospel, it is the word of God and that alone.
Speaker 1: And we have to be people that are willing to communicate truth and not just communicate but live in truth when everybody's confused, to our families, the people under our roof, the people around us, and stand for truth in a loving, caring way.
Speaker 1: And when we do this, what will happen?
Speaker 1: Number three our final thought this morning is that the truth will be spread through our serving.
Speaker 1: The truth will be spread through our serving.
Speaker 1: Did you notice in those verses?
Speaker 1: There it says Peter was for the circumcised, since the one at work in Peter for an apostleship to the circumcised was also at work in me for the Gentiles right Verse 7, they were entrusted with the gospel for the uncircumcised.
Speaker 1: So here it is Same gospel.
Speaker 1: These guys were both passionate.
Speaker 1: These guys both had a calling on their lives One Jews, one Gentiles we would say Jews over here, we would say Gentiles over here Different people, same calling or different callings, but the same heart to make Jesus known to others.
Speaker 1: And this is what happened.
Speaker 1: Because they did this, jesus was made known to others through their serving and Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire and throughout the Jewish people.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because these people, these guys, they just did what God called them to do.
Speaker 1: You know, it's really a beautiful thing when we just serve to make Jesus known to other people.
Speaker 1: I was thinking this past week Edgar was talking about it and I was thinking about it about how, in 1 Corinthians, chapter 12, paul called the church a body like a body, and how.
Speaker 1: You know, think about a body.
Speaker 1: Right, you got the elbows, you got the pinkies, you got the eyes, you got the ears, you got the big toe.
Speaker 1: You know, none of us think our big toe, we don't think much about it until we stub our big toe.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean.
Speaker 1: Then the world stops and we're on the ground crying and saying things you probably wouldn't say out loud in a church service like this.
Speaker 1: But every part of the body matters and when the church is healthy.
Speaker 1: The church is like a body that every one of us matter, and what happens is it's beautiful when we're using our gifts in different ways and we're encouraging each other and building people up, because Jesus is being made known and people are growing in their relationship with God.
Speaker 1: And this is why every single person in this room, in the balcony, you all matter to this church, like we are a part of something so much bigger than ourselves.
Speaker 1: When you serve on a serve team, it matters.
Speaker 1: When you volunteer, it matters.
Speaker 1: And here's why it makes a difference Because the church is not built on the gifts and talents of a few, but on the sacrifices of many.
Speaker 1: The church is not built on the gifts and talents of a few, but on the sacrifices of many people.
Speaker 1: When you serve, when you sacrifice, when you give, when you invest, it matters, because that's how the gospel goes forward and that's how the church goes forward and that's how more people come to know Jesus.
Speaker 1: It's not by just a couple of people saying I'm willing to give, I'm willing to serve.
Speaker 1: No, like this is a team effort.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean.
Speaker 1: Like sometimes I think we imagine that the church is like a football game.
Speaker 1: We stand up in the stands and we watch 22 guys work hard and sacrifice, while 50,000 of us are standing up sitting back watching them serve or whatever.
Speaker 1: No, you know what?
Speaker 1: The church is not a spectator sport.
Speaker 1: The church is not a hobby.
Speaker 1: This would be a really lame hobby, guys, I'd say I'm a pastor Like.
Speaker 1: We are to be ambassadors of the kingdom of God.
Speaker 1: We are to be an embassy of the kingdom.
Speaker 1: We are to be people that say God, you've gifted me, you've given me passions, and I just want to serve to make you known to others.
Speaker 1: And what happens is when the people of God embrace God's vision for the local church, we embrace God's plan, we embrace God's way.
Speaker 1: What happens is incredible things and the gospel goes forward and Jesus is made known and lives are changed and families are strengthened and communities are healed and God's work goes forward.
Speaker 1: And this is how it happens through people like me and people like you.
Speaker 1: We ain't got ourselves together.
Speaker 1: We got issues.
Speaker 1: Maybe we got some problems we're dealing with over here.
Speaker 1: That's okay.
Speaker 1: Our eyes are on Jesus and we're going to be a part of the body and do what he's called us to do, will somebody say, amen, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: It's not us being like, yeah, all right, I'll go to church one time a month.
Speaker 1: Maybe I got to get a couple church services in because, you know, baseball season just started and I got to watch a bunch of baseball games on Sundays.
Speaker 1: So you know, no, it's buy-in.
Speaker 1: It's like buy-in to say, like, what has God called us to do?
Speaker 1: And when we do this, when we buy into God's plan for the church, and when we do this, when we buy into God's plan for the church and we say, man, I'm just gonna serve, I'm gonna be faithful, I'm gonna give, I'm gonna be in a group, I'm gonna be a part of this.
Speaker 1: This is what's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: It's so beautiful.
Speaker 1: We're gonna look back at what God's done and how God's used us and we're gonna say, wow, we get to be a part of this.
Speaker 1: Wow, we see baptisms next week.
Speaker 1: We'll have a bunch of baptisms next week.
Speaker 1: We get to be a part of that.
Speaker 1: We're going to hear I think we'll show a video next Sunday or Sunday about people and how their lives are being changed through growth groups.
Speaker 1: It's like, wow, we get to be a part of that are being changed through growth groups.
Speaker 1: It's like, wow, we get to be a part of that and if you, right where you are in your life, will just say I'm gonna be a part of this, I wanna serve, and so many of you do and so many of you have Guys, we're gonna look back in a couple years and we're gonna be like, wow, look what God's done.
Speaker 1: Hey guys, as a church right now, we look back just a couple of years ago and we're like, wow, look what God's done here in the last couple of years.
Speaker 1: But here's the truth is, we're just getting started and the best is yet to come.
Speaker 1: And the truth is spread through people serving others and living out their passions to make Jesus known to others.
Speaker 1: Let me pray for you this morning.