CONVICTION OR CONFUSION

We trace how Paul writes from the finished side of the cross, not the striving side of religion, and why identity must come before effort. We show how Romans and Galatians read differently when you keep context, sequence, and audience in view.

• three voices and roles: John as forerunner, Jesus as source, Paul as translator into union
• reading Paul to the already-in-Christ rather than outsiders
• Romans 1–11 as identity foundation leading to the “therefore” of chapter 12
• no condemnation as a permanent reality, not a threat on hold
• Paul’s patience with moral failure versus his severity toward legalism
• correction without threatening belonging or inclusion
• union with Christ over try-harder religion
• repentance as clarity, obedience as natural, rest replacing striving
• stripping tradition to recover original context and order

Chapters

• 0:00 Three Voices, Three Purposes
• 3:20 Why Paul Speaks “This Side Of The Cross”
• 7:40 Audience Matters: Family Instructions
• 11:10 Rethinking Romans And Its Order
• 16:20 Identity Before Effort, Not Threats
• 19:40 Galatians Shock: Bewitched By Legalism
• 24:10 No Condemnation Means None
• 27:20 Union With Christ, Not Try-Harder
• 31:10 Correcting Behavior Without Losing Belonging
• 35:30 Inclusion, Identity, And Real Repentance
• 39:00 Clearing Misreadings: Paul And Jesus
• 45:00 Return To The Original, Not Tradition

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

But last week's sermon was called The Same Bible, but different voices. And we talked about how John and Jesus and Paul sounded very different. And we talked about the reason they sounded different is because they all three had a different work that they were doing during a different time period, and their purpose and their role, if you want to call it that, was different. John came and he spoke as a forerunner, as a witness, pointing to what was going to come. He would look and you know, and he would say, you know, things like he would he would lower himself. He would say, I have to go down for the ones that's coming. So he just kind of set everything up, you know, and then Jesus came along, and Jesus spoke as the source himself, using invitation, using authority to reveal life with God, what it was supposed to be like from the inside out. He didn't focus on the outward thing. He focused on what it meant to live that life from the inside out. And then we we jumped into Paul. And Paul, I look at it later as Paul spoke as like a translator. He was explaining what life was like beyond the cross, on this side of the cross. It already happened. Jesus already went to the cross. And now Paul comes along and says, because of Jesus going to the cross, we're on this side of the cross that's already occurred. Now I'm going to instruct you on what happens now. That's why we can't read Paul pre-cross. We misunderstand Paul every time we read him pre-cross. It don't make sense. Because he was teaching in a different time and talking about something totally different. So he was explaining, uh, talking about that life and explaining what it means for real people, especially moving us from rule keeping into union. What does it mean to be in union with Christ? The example I used last week, it made sense to me. It says, John lit the runway. Jesus landed the plane, and Paul explains what it means now that the plane has landed. So all three of them had a role and a purpose in what they were doing. And when we start mixing all three of them into one sermon, it don't make sense. Because they all three have a different purpose. And that's what the church has done a lot. We've taken the voices of John and Jesus and Paul and we've tried to mingle them together. And then we walk out and say, why didn't that make sense? Because it's not supposed to make sense, because we've got to teach it in context of what their voice was really saying during that time. That's when it begins to build on each other and really begins to make sense. So today I want to go just a step further and really zoom in on Paul. We quote Paul all the time, especially in this church. Just about everything we teach is teaches on Paul. Why? Because we're teaching on this side of the cross. We're not going back teaching a lot of Old Testament stuff. That's not doing away with the Old Testament. That's not saying it's not important. It's just saying we move beyond that. So we're teaching on this side of the cross. And so we we teach on him all the time, and uh we we quote him all the time. We study his verses out, his uh messages. And yet many believers still live an anxious life, unsure sometimes, uh sometimes still striving, still afraid of God, still wondering what's next. Could it be that we're reading Paul's words through the wrong lens? Could it be that we're taking John and Jesus and Paul, and again, we're trying to put them together, and that's what's causing confusion? Sometimes we call it conviction. You see, it's out of little message, conviction or confusion. We call it conviction because it makes us feel good. But could it be confusion? Because we're mixing things and trying to intermingle things that were not meant to be brought together like that. Each one had its place and had its purpose. And when we read it like that, it begins to be like a puzzle and it just starts fitting together the way it should. So I want to slow down right here and just ask a different question that before we really jump into some verses and look at them. Uh, it's something that I think we should be asking all the time. And I've said this many times, but we should always be asking this question. Who was Paul actually talking to? Now, if we're reading John, we should say, who was John talking to? If you're reading your Bible and it's written in red, you should say, Who was Jesus talking to? It's important to know the audience. Who was he talking to? Why was he saying this? That's context. Because context does matter and it changes things, it changes everything. So Paul was not writing to pagans trying to decide if Christianity was true or not. Okay? He wasn't preaching altar call sermons, trying to get people to come up to an altar and kneel down and say a prayer. He wasn't doing that. He was writing letters, personal pastoral letters, to churches. The majority of, not all of it, but the majority of his writing was pastoral letters to the churches. And let's even use a couple of words that he used. To those loved by God. That was one thing he said. To the saints. Something else that he said, to the people already in Christ. That was some of the wording that he used. See, that matters. Because when you read instructions meant for family, as if they're warnings for outsiders, it can sometimes take on a different meaning than what it actually was intended to mean. We've got to understand who he was speaking to and what was his purpose for speaking to them. Paul wasn't explaining, this is going to mess with you a little bit now, but it's okay. Paul wasn't explaining how to get saved. Nowhere in the Bible. Paul was not explaining how to get saved. And when we actually read Scripture in context, this becomes undeniable rather than controversial. If I say that in most places to most Christians, that's going to be a very controversial statement. But when we take it, break it down, read it in context, understand who was talking, who he was talking to, and the time frame that he was talking, it becomes undeniable what he was saying. Not a controversy anymore. You don't have to be controversial anymore. This is one of the biggest places, I believe, that we miss Paul. He's rarely explaining how to enter salvation. Now, does he talk about that? Yes, he does, but we're going to break that down in a minute. That wasn't his theme. That wasn't his main purpose in it. He is almost always explaining how to live once you already have Christ. Think about it. Where was he preaching at? On this side of the cross. What was he saying? It's finished. So he wasn't preaching how to get to him. He was preaching that you already have him. He's already completed the work. Now let me give you instructions on how to live it out. So he wasn't preaching how to get to him, he was preaching how to live in him, in union with him. That's a different message. That's a totally different language that he's coming with. Most people treat Romans like it's a threat. I started going to this, I'm not. I'm going to do a whole nother sermon on it sometime, but the Romans Road. Because we teach that. I can remember learning about the Romans Road in Sunday school when I was probably eight or nine years old. We all know that. The Romans Road is taught as what? How to get into heaven. So I'm not going to get on that today, but just we're going to go there. We're going to go there in a couple of weeks, probably. But Romans is treated like a threat manual because of the way it's framed and the way it's taught is often taught out of order. We say he's a God of order, but then we take scripture and we teach it out of order. And then we can't understand why there's so much confusion and so much misunderstanding. He is a God of order. So I feel like number one, we need to take his word and we need to read it in the proper order. We can't bring all these verses in just because they sound good, mix them together and make them say something that God never said. And the church does that. I've done that for years. I may still be doing it some. Because we got certain verses and we think we know what that verse means. And if, you know, Barry's doing something wrong, I'm going to find a verse that I can throw to Barry to make him know what he's doing is wrong. And that verse ain't even really saying that. But we've put that meaning on to it. We've attributed that certain meaning to it, and that's the way we teach it now. But if we go back and actually take that verse and strip it down, strip the religion off of it, and say, what was he really saying here? It may strip away some of our religion and some of our tradition, but I don't care about that. I want to get back to truth. Tradition and religion will always bow to truth. And that's what we're trying to get to. We're not trying to just do away with it, what granny and granddaddy taught you. We're not just saying that they was wrong, and we're not saying that. We're just saying, okay, let's filter through some of this stuff and get down to the basic truth of what was being said. Romans, when you look at it as a whole, is a carefully, carefully built argument that Paul is making. It's not a list of warnings. Paul starts by describing human brokenness. He talks about sin. He talks about injustice. He talks about hypocrisy. But many people stop right there. You got to see this. I've done it. I've done it. I've heard other people preaching it. I've heard them do it. They stop right there. And they only emphasize those specific things: sin, injustice, wrath, hypocrisy. Those are the things that they zoom in on. And they never read the rest of the story. They just stop with that and say, because of this, you need Christ. And if you don't find him, you're going to burn in hell. And they don't read the rest of it. They don't put the whole puzzle together. And I believe it's important that we do that. Listen to some of the things Paul says. Everyone is guilty. God's judgment is coming. No one is righteous. Now we could take those right there and we can find other verses that sound like they totally contradict everything Paul just said. I mean, the Bible says we're all righteous. Paul says none are righteous. So if I'm not a believer, I could actually take it and say, oh, look, that's that's a contradiction in the Bible right there. Why should I even believe that? That's the understanding you get out of it if you don't take the time to read the whole story and understand everything that's going on. If we hear this without the full story, it sounds like a threat. You're guilty, you're not righteous, and judgment is coming to you. That sounds like a pretty good threat to me. But you've got to see what Paul is doing. He spins the first 11 chapters of Romans. Not just the first 11 verses in chapter 1, but the first 11 chapters, and we ain't got time to go through it. But this is the theme of the first 11 chapters. You're justified, you're included, you're free, you're secure. That's the theme of the first 11 chapters. Then and only then, when he gets to chapter 12, he says, therefore. That's the way chapter 12 was started. Therefore. What was he saying right there? That word, therefore, matters. Therefore means because everything I just told you, because of everything that I just said. Therefore. Now hear me out. We stop on all the other stuff a lot of times, and we never get to the other part of it. You can't read Romans 12 as a checklist if you don't ground it in chapters 1 through 11. And what a lot of people is doing is going to chapter 12, doing a deep dive teaching on chapter 12, but they're never grounding it in what he said in verses 1 in chapters 1 through 11. They're skipping everything he said before therefore. And it matters. If you're going to start reading and putting people down in chapter 12, you've got to understand what the therefore means. He said everything. This only matters when you understand this. You're one, you're loved, you're this, you're that, you're identity. When you understand identity in all those other chapters, now you will understand what's going on here. We just skip all the way to chapter 12 and start teaching it as a standalone chapter. And it don't make sense. And it brings fear and it brings condemnation and it brings guilt. Paul's commands never created identity. They flow from the place of identity. That's why I said chapters 1 through 11, that's what's establishing our identity and telling us who we are. So everything that happens in 12 flows from my identity that I learned in those other chapters. When we reverse that order, when we try to read chapter 12 first and don't base it on anything else, we don't get holiness. We get anxiety, we get fear, we get condemnation. I'm telling you, I love this because there's a lot of things that I've seen over the years that I just didn't know how to explain. I felt it when I read it, I said, that it resonated with me, but I really didn't know how to explain it. I just know that it just didn't, what I was reading and what I've always read just didn't feel right. I just couldn't agree with it. When people said you're this and you're this and God's going to do this, and it just, I was always like, that's just not the God I worship. But I didn't know how to explain that. I love that God's taking this thing and he's breaking it down and he's showing us this is what I mean by. You can't just take this and read it, especially when there's a therefore right there. You gotta go back and say, what did he say before that? What was said prior to that? When we when we look at Paul and some of the harshest words, because if you go back and read some of Paul's writings, he spoke some very harsh language. I'm not talking about cussing, I'm talking about just coming down on people. He spoke some harsh language, but it isn't aimed at people who were failing morally, it's aimed at people who think their rule keeping makes them superior. I'm gonna show you that right here. This is one thing that surprises people, but it's easy to see if we read the whole story. When Paul talks about sexual sin, and he talks about immorality and he talks about weakness, his tone is patient. Now you can go back and read it yourself. His tone is very patient, very pastoral, very correct, very forgiving. But when he approached people who was trying to re-reintroduce law, and he he approached people who was focused on nothing but performance or earning or striving, his tone changes dramatically. And you can see it in the scripture. Go with me to Galatians 3. I want to read verse 1 through 3 with you because this is a good good point right here where Paul was doing this. Look what he says. He says, Oh, foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified. This only I want to want to learn from you. Did you receive the Spirit by the works or the of the law or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? I didn't say that in the tone that I really truly believe Paul said it in. I believe he got he got on. I really do. I believe he got on here. He didn't like the fact that they were trying to that they already knew who they were, and now was going back. And we always say that. But I don't believe you could. Come here for a limited amount of time and really hear what we're teaching and be comfortable hearing something different. That's just me. I'm biased on that. I believe that. Because it's not the same message. It's not better. Mine's not better. I'm not saying I'm better than any other pastor. I'm just saying it's a different message. And it's hard. I've tried to go to other churches sometimes back years ago when we were in first community. I'm not not leaving first. I wasn't leaving first community. I was just visiting other churches. I couldn't do it. I couldn't hardly sit through the service. I mean, it just got me when certain things were being taught. And I didn't believe it. But I was looking around at other people and they're, amen. Come on, brother, preach it. He just told you you're gonna burn in hell forever, and you're saying, preach it. Really? It's amazing, it's crazy sometimes the things that we amen and hallelujah. But this verse right here is really important. Paul is shocked. Think about that. He's really shocked at these people because the Galatians have moved away from clarity, where they had a clearer mind of who they were and who Christ was, and they moved back into a place of confusion. They had already begun in grace, received the Spirit by faith, and then allowed teachers, pastors, men of the Bible to come in and convince them that law keeping completed what Christ had already started. This word in verse one, that word bewitched, we've turned that word around. That word bewitched actually means misled or spiritually distracted. Misled or spiritually distracted. That's all it means. It don't mean demon-possessed. It just basically means deceived. You've been deceived. Paul isn't worried that they stopped believing in Jesus. He's alarmed that they were adding conditions to what Jesus already completed. Now, how do we know that? Because you gotta notice something here important. He doesn't say you've fallen from sin, he says you've fallen from grace. That matters. The words matter. Not because they were behaving badly, but because they were trying to earn what Christ had already gave them. Paul sees legalism as dangerous, not because it's strict, but because it quietly denies the finished work of Christ. Anytime we add legalism in there and try to add it on to what Christ already finished, is taking us back to something different than what he's already done. That's what these people were in Galatia was doing. And Paul came in and he said, No, no, no, we gotta set this straight. Paul was not using fear to motivate growth. This is where we often project our own teaching style onto Paul. And we try to make Paul say something that Paul really never said. But we want him to say. So we teach him that way. I put a verse, I was reading through some of the verses yesterday, and I put a couple of verses in chat GPT until it said, tell me how Paul would teach this today in today's church. You don't want to hear it. You think he'd done the Galatians bad? He'd make you mad. And I believe that. I believe he would come in and say, you are missing it. You are truly missing what I'm what I've said. So this is where, you know, again, we always project what we want to say onto it. Paul does not threaten believers with hell to keep them obedient. He never done that. In fact, he goes out of his way to remove fear as the motivator. He never tries to scare them. Romans 8, verse 1. Most of us know this verse, but I wanted you to see it. There is therefore now no condemnation. We can stop right here a minute because you need to hear that part. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. This verse does not say less condemnation, not temporary relief. It says none. There is no condemnation. Yet we often preach that verse as if one mistake puts us back under that threat. And that's not what he was saying. Again, this is an example where we teach what we want Paul to say instead of reflecting on what Paul actually said. Paul didn't write that to create comfort until you mess up. Feel good right here until you mess up, and then boom, you're gone, you're out. He wrote it to establish a permanent reality. You're in a place, you are in Christ, and because you are in Christ, there is now no condemnation. Period. Live like it now. That's what he's saying. What he's teaching these people. Fear doesn't produce transformation, it produces compliance. You can scare people into doing what you want them to do. They may not like it, they may cry the whole time, but they will do exactly what you tell them to do out of fear. And adults do the same thing. You're gonna do what they tell you to do in your job if they threaten to fire you, if you don't. So fear is used to manipulate and to cause people to do things that maybe they know they shouldn't do. Paul trusted identity to do what fear never could. That's why he told him the first 11 chapters of Romans, he says, I'm gonna tell you in these first 11 chapters, I want you to understand who you truly are in Christ. Because if you can understand who you are, understand your identity, then when we get to verse chapter 12, you ain't gonna have a problem with this. These things that I'm gonna say in chapter 12 is not gonna bother you. They're not gonna cause you to fall into fear and condemnation. Why? Because you already know who you are. But just to be sure, I'm gonna tell you again in chapter 8 that if you are in Christ, there is now no condemnation. It's just reinforcing that to you. Before you get to the chapter 12 part, Paul always is always coming from a place of union. He's never coming from a place of effort. Listen to how he talks about Christian life in Galatians 2 and verse 20. I no longer live. Catch that. I no longer live. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live. I love this. We can stop right here and teach a whole sermon on this. Because he did not say Christ only has been crucified. He said, I have been crucified with Christ. Union. Together. It wasn't just Christ that went to the cross. I went with him. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. This is such a powerful verse right here. It's such a powerful thing that Paul was teaching. I no longer live. Christ lives in me. That is not, listen, this is not right here, this is not try-harder language that he's talking about. This is union language. This is saying we are one. We're in union with him, we're together with him. I have been crucified with him. That's a hard thing for people to understand. But it says it. And when you break it down and really start to look at what he's saying here, again, it's undeniable what he's saying. Union is Paul's way of saying the goal isn't trying harder. I looked this up because I wanted to understand, because some people will take that word union, and then they'll take uh lost the other word. Anyway, union, I looked it up because I wanted to see exactly. I wanted to be able to say, okay, this is what union is. Because some people may hear it, but they say, I really don't know what he's talking about. I have no idea what union is when he's talking about that. Union is Paul's way of saying the goal isn't trying harder, it's already belonging. I'm not trying to get to Christ, I'm united with him in his death, burial, and resurrection. I'm already one united union with him. That was the theme of what Paul was trying to say here. Union is identity before effort. I understand who I am before I focus on all this other stuff. That's why he taught it in chapters 1 through 11 first. He said, you've got to see who you are first, and then we'll get into some of this hard stuff. But you can't get into the hard stuff and overlook your identity. You can, but you're going to be confused and fearful and condemning. So that's why he was saying, don't do that. Understand identity first. So union is identity before effort, relationship before rules, transformation by proximity. I'm unified with him. I'm together with him. I'm not distanced and separated from him. See, I can't truly understand transformation if I think I'm separated. That's why I love that. It's transformation by proximity. I'm one with him rather than performance. I don't perform my way into Christ. I'm already in him, not because of what I've done, but because of what he done. And he chose me. Paul never tells believers to crucify themselves daily. I know there's verse, we can go to that verse and we can debate it, but listen to what I'm saying here and what Paul's teaching. He never tells people to crucify themselves daily to earn union with Christ. He never says that. He tells them they already died. They have already been crucified with Christ. Now live from that. That's what he was saying to them. When we preach effort instead of union with Christ, we don't get maturity, we get burnout. We get striving, we get effort, we get performance. Paul assumes belonging. Everything he was teaching, again, I love this phrasing. You'll probably hear me say this a million times this new year. Paul was teaching from this side of the cross, from the it is finished side. Okay? He wasn't teaching leading up to it. That was John and Jesus that was teaching that. Paul spoke on this side of the cross. So he was teaching union. Why? Because he understood what the cross was for. He understood why Jesus went to the cross and what it meant. So now he says, therefore, because this already happened, this is who you are now. Live from this place. So Paul was assuming all through his teaching, he assumes belonging, even when correcting behavior. Even when he had to write letters to these churches or go visit these churches, even when he had to go correct behavior, he was already assuming you belong. He was never trying to get them back into the good graces of God. He was just saying you still belong. There's just some things that we got to recognize. See, this part really matters right here. Paul corrects behavior without threatening belonging. The church will look at behavior and say you no longer belong. Because of your behavior. Paul never told that. He said you belong even if you're behaving crazy. You still belong. We just got to fix some of this stuff. He never kicked you out and said you don't belong because of what was going on and what you were doing. How do we know this? We just go back to the context of what he said. Even when the churches were messy, if you read back through, the churches got messy during this time. They were divided, they were immoral, they were immature. And all through all that junk, because the churches still do that today, they still get divided, there's still immorality in it, there's still immaturity in it. There's a lot of things going on in the churches today. But even through all that, Paul still called them saints, he called them holy, and he called the church God's dwelling place. Even when bad stuff was going on, he corrects from the place of inclusion. Think about that. He wasn't trying to move them to a place of inclusion. He was saying you're already included. So I'm going to teach you and I'm going to correct you from the place of inclusion. That's why his letters don't sound like fix this or God's going to leave you. He never taught that. His letters don't portray that. They sound more like this doesn't align with who you already are. He was writing letters of correction and saying, This is not you. Get back to who you really are. And then he would tell them who they really are, even in the midst of their bad behavior. Could you imagine if we done that? Even in the midst of somebody being strung out on drugs, we told them who they really are. Even in the midst of them going out there, partying and drinking and carrying on, we sit them down and we tell them who they really are. Instead of telling them how bad their behavior is. Could you imagine how much more we could include people if we just told them their truth, the truth of their identity, instead of the how bad their behavior is? So again, when he talked to them, he was pretty much saying, that's not who you are. Pick yourself up. Turn around. Get back to who you are. Get back to who you already are in Christ. See, that's a that's a very, very different voice. That's the voice I want to have from this church. That in the midst of no matter what they're going through, we can speak life into them. We can speak to their identity, even in the midst of their behavior. We can speak to identity. That's a different voice. I want to have a different voice. I want this church to have a different voice. And we do. It's got to get bigger, it's got to get louder. And sometimes I try want to push it out there. And God says, Slow down. Slow down. You push it out there right now, everybody's going to reject you. You push it out here too hard, people's going to call you this, call you that. Slow down. Let me mature it. When I get it to a place of maturity, it'll be heard. So why does this matter so much? I'm getting ready to end right here. Why does it matter? Because when Paul is misheard and misunderstood, grace really turns into pressure. Repentance turns into terror or fear, and obedience turns into fear management. But when Paul is heard correctly and read correctly in context, repentance becomes clarity. People don't have to question what repentance is. Obedience becomes natural. And rest replaces striving. It's amazing what changes, just listening to the true voice that he's speaking with. Paul wasn't trying to scare believers into holiness. He was waking people up to who they already are in Christ. Let me leave something with you. Let me ask you something first. Let me ask you this honestly. You ain't got to say it out loud, but just think about it. What if some of what we call conviction was actually just confusion about belonging? What if sometimes we feel convicted and other people feel convicted simply because they just truly didn't understand that they already belong? And our goal is not to convict them more, not to condemn them more, not to kick them while they're down, not to tell them they're going to burn forever, but it's to tell them who they are. And to tell them that, listen, I'm not condoning your behavior, but aside from your behavior, you still belong. What he did on the Cross for me, he did for you too. What he did for you, he did for the next guy. And aside from behavior, we just feel like you need to know this. That's being inclusive. Exclusive is saying you don't fit in here until you get everything right. Nowhere in the Bible was Jesus nor Paul or any other disciple exclusive. They taught to be inclusive. What if the gospel really is finished? We ask that as a rhetorical question, but we believe it. I believe it. I hope everybody in here believes it. But you'd be surprised at the ones that don't. So that's why I ask, what if the gospel really is finished? And the work now is learning how to live in that place. Not learning how to get there, but realizing you're already there and now learning how to live out of it. Here's something I want you to take with you today. If you remember nothing else, remember this. Paul is never threatening believers with loss. He's never, anywhere in his writings, he's never telling anybody or threatening anybody that you're going to lose out because of what you're doing. Never. Can you imagine if people had an option? And you you you help them understand that they can live their life without any fear. Fear of what?

unknown: 41:54

Fear.

SPEAKER_00: 41:56

Fear of burning forever for eternity. Fear of standing before God and Him looking at you saying, You know, I never knew you. Which always amazes me. You created me, but you don't know me. Never this one of those things never made sense to me again. You created me. You you you made me after your own likeness. I'm one with you, but then you're gonna tell me you don't know me. I just never could imagine a God that would actually do that. How can you not know me? And I know there's a lot of debating. People would say, well, this is what it really means. We can debate it all day. I'm just going back to the basics of it. Because I believe a lot of the debating is what confuses people. Let's just get down to what did the Bible really say. So Paul's never threatening people with loss, he's teaching them how to live without fear. And this is not cheap grace. Don't care what people say, it's not cheap grace, it's mature grace. It's not rebellion, it's growth. He's growing us, he's teaching us more things. It's not, we're not living in rebellion. And it's not denying scripture. It's finally hearing Paul the way he was meant to be heard. And I said this the other day, last Sunday, and I want to say it again, I don't want to get deep into it, but I want people to understand when we're talking about these verses on Paul, why do we teach so much on Paul again because he's teaching on this side of the cross? And I believe in the finished work of Christ. And Paul has given us instructions because of what Christ has done. This is now who we are. That's what he's teaching in a nutshell. And the reason we teach that is because we believe in the finished work of Christ. We're not going to teach that you have to do this and this and this to try to get here. We're already there. And because of that, a lot of people will say, well, you're putting Paul over Jesus. No, we're not. We're saying, we're listening to Paul because of Jesus. Because Paul, every word he speaks is because of. He's never trying to override what Jesus said. But that's the message that so many people, when you start teaching on Paul, or some people call it Pauline theology, that you everything is based on Paul, that you're just leaving out Jesus. No, everything Paul teaches is based on it. You're not, we're not overriding Jesus. We're realizing that because of him, I am who I am today. Because of him, I no longer have to strive and work and do all this stuff to try to reach a place that he's already brought me to. And Paul's just giving us instructions on how to live that way. John didn't do that. But that wasn't John's message. John's message was to let you know there was somebody coming. There's somebody different coming. John done exactly what he was supposed to do. But his message was different than Paul's. And if we try to inflate the two, we got confusion. They're not the same. Jesus' message was different than Paul's. Now it's the same message again, Paul's teaching Jesus, but he's teaching because of what he'd done now, lived this out. You're in him. You're one with him. He loves you. He finished it. You were crucified with him. And because of that, there is now no condemnation. It's powerful what Paul was teaching. If we read it in the context of what Paul was actually teaching, and not try to filter it down and make him say, make Paul say something that he never said. So I believe we gotta strip away some of the stuff that we've been taught and just go back to the basics. I've said this all the time, and I and some people get offended when I say it, and that's okay. There's too much technology today to be ignorant. There's no reason to be ignorant today. Ignorant just means I don't know. There's no reason to not know exactly what Paul was saying. You can take one scripture. I could study, we we could preach on one scripture for the next year. There's so much information out there that you can research and study and just dive down into. People long ago they didn't have that opportunity. All they had was the Bible. And pass down tradition. Sitting on a porch talking with granddaddy and saying, Granddaddy, what do you think about this? And you know where granddaddy got it from? Somebody that taught him. I'm not saying he was wrong. He he it was it was truth to him. That's what he knew. But now we've got the opportunity to just really dive in and really pull some stuff out of these scriptures. I get people, I had a guy I made a comment online one day. Somebody said something online about they was watching a video of one of our messages, and somebody, oh, I was wearing a hat that day, and somebody said something about me wearing a hat. I was joking, but they said, Oh, you had a hat on in the pulpit. Shame on you. And then somebody else came on and said, Yeah, did he have a Bible with him? I got the Bible right in here, but it offended them that I didn't have my Bible up here with me. Number one, I can't even see the words of that Bible anymore. It's too small. But guess what? I got a Bible right here in my iPad. I can go to any scripture quicker than I can flip to it in the Bible. I still got a Bible. I promise, I still got a Bible. If y'all want me to, we can put it up here on a table the way they do in some churches. That way you know we got one. But we're not doing away with the Bible because I'm reading from an iPad. And we're not doing away from with Jesus because we're teaching Paul. It's just people don't understand it. So they say, oh, that's new, that's different. Yes, it's different. Because we got so far away from the original that it looks new now. And it's not. It's going back to the original. And that's what we're gonna do. That's what we're gonna continue to do. And I'm telling you, more people, more people's gonna get to a point of wanting to come hear it. It's gonna happen. I get frustrated too a lot of times, but it's gonna happen. But we gotta we gotta slow down. We gotta keep teaching what we're teaching, keep doing what we're doing, and just let God do his thing.