SPEAKER_00 0:06

Thank you for joining us for a sermon from Sojourn North. By 2004, I was 30 years old, and I had been doing ministry for about a decade since college, traveling around playing some music, doing some youth events and different things like that. But for the first time, I had been asked to do a wedding. So I was 30 years old and I didn't know what was legal speak for language for weddings and different things. That didn't even make sense, but I'm going to keep going. I didn't know how to legally do a wedding. I didn't want to be able to say, uh, I now pronounce you husband and wife, and then find out 10 minutes later, like it doesn't count because you didn't do it right. And so I contacted my church back in North Carolina, the ones that sent me here to Louisville for school, uh, for seminary, and they said, Well, you just have to be ordained. And I was like, Oh, okay, what does that take? And for that, it was a Reformed Baptist church. It was a little different than Southern Baptists and other churches, but they said, Here's a packet of questions that you need to be able to answer. And what you'll do is you'll sit across the room from us. There'll be eight ordained pastors, and you'll be sitting here and you'll have an unmarked Bible, and we're gonna grill you with questions for two to three hours. And I was like, Oh, that sounds pleasant. That's great. And so I was reading like systematic theology, and I was like, I was excited about it. It's like this is gonna happen. As the day grew nearer, I traveled back and I was just really anxious for many reasons, because I knew these guys, they were sharp, and it's like, what if they asked me a question about eschatology, and I don't have a firm end times view because I'm like, it could be many things, and they said, Chad, sorry. What if I forgot what Leviticus 12 says? Oh man. I don't know what Leviticus 12 says right now without looking it up. And what if, because I I'd been doing ministry with youth, and I had had a grace awakening growing up in a legalistic church, and from this foundation of grace, I knew my philosophy of ministry was to reach to the brokenhearted, to show them the grace of God, his love, his heart. And I thought, what if I sit in there and I share that this is my philosophy of ministry, and these eight ordained pastors say, uh, no, we don't see that, Chad. We don't see that. We don't see the gospel being applied like that. And there was a lot of uncertainty. I will fast forward just to let you know it all worked out well, and it was a very honoring time. But have you felt like that before? Where you've been living life and it's like, I just don't know if what I'm doing is enough. I don't know if in parenting or my job or in relationships with friendships in my Christian life, I gotta add something, I gotta do something. I gotta, I just don't know. Will I be accepted? Will I belong? And ultimately what we continue to come back to is a really this idea of belonging. Can we believe, not just here cognitively, that's an important part, but can we grow in believing that we belong? And that's a lifetime journey. My meeting with those pastors, I was reminded of it because this week in Galatians chapter 2, as we continue our journey through Galatians, Paul has a meeting that's very important. He has a revelation from God to go a few hundred miles from Antioch all the way to Jerusalem. He takes Barnabas and Titus with him and he meets with the pillars of the church: James, Peter, and John. And he's uncertain. He even says in the passage, I wanted to make sure that I wasn't running in vain. I hadn't run in vain and that I wasn't running in vain. I love that line. Because it's like, oh, he was uncertain. The Apostle Paul, it puts him as a human and not as some untouchable guru up here. I love that. And that was, it brought me encouragement. Because as we've been talking about the gospel with Galatians, it's like you can't add anything to it. You can't do this, you can't do it. It's received from God. And so when these Jewish leaders came in and said, hey, you can become a Christian if you're a Gentile, but you must become Jewish. Therefore, you must obey this and this and this. You must be circumcised, obey this. And Paul's like, no, no, no. And that's where we hit our passage today. We're in Galatians chapter 2. We're looking at verses 1 through 10. If you wish, I'd invite you to stand for the reading of God's word. It's in your bulletin. And it's also uh it's in your phone, too, if you knew that. So it's the Apostle Paul. He says, Then after 14 years, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along also. I went up according to a revelation and presented to them the gospel I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to those recognized as leaders. I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running in vain. But not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. This matter arose because some false brothers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus in order to enslave us. But we did not give up on, I'm sorry, but we did not give up and submit to these people for even a moment, so that the truth of the gospel would be preserved for you. Now, from those recognized as important, what they once were makes no difference to me. God does not show favoritism. They added nothing to me. On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel for the uncircumcised, just as 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. When James, Cephas, and John, those recognized as pillars, acknowledged the grace that had been given to me, they gave me the right hand of fellowship to me and Barnabas, agreeing that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. They asked only that we would remember the poor, which I had made every effort to do. This is the word of the Lord. Maybe seated. Last week we spent time examining Paul's life, and one of the things that we want to continue to come back to is can we find ourselves in the story that Paul is living? In the story that's true for the Galatian church. And we've talked about how we will are, we will drift at times. We are prone to drift. Why? Because we're human. And that's why God gives us the blessing of community, the blessing of his word, the blessing of the Holy Spirit to guide us back to the calling he has for us. But we want to look at two, I'm sorry, three quick points. I just glanced at the clock and we haven't moved it forward. So I get to preach an extra hour today. This is awesome. Get to really keep going. When the gospel is tested, when the gospel is clarified, when the gospel is lived. That's our three points for today. So first, when the gospel is tested, so the scene again, Paul travels this long ways. It would have taken him, quickest would have been 10 days, 15 days to get there, and that's if they're going 10, 15 miles a day or more. So it's a long ways from Antioch, and that's where they're first called Christians, and so it's a vibrant work that's going on. And so it's so interesting, and we're going to hit this again. It's after 14 years after his conversion, or 17 years, depending on how you count that up, different views on that, but it's a long time before he goes and sits before these. You remember he already went to see Cephas slash Peter for some days back after his conversion, after three years. But there's a long time, there's a lot of formation in Paul's life. And so he makes this long journey, and the question is simple, but it's explosive. And here's the question: Is the gospel enough? Is faith in Jesus enough? Or must there be more? So this is huge. At this point, Paul's concerned that the gospel, the gospel he had received would be distorted. And I love Paul's argument. I love logic. Uh, it goes back to me getting a math degree. I don't have an affection for math, but I love when things work out. I love when things come to completion. Um, and I love logic. And I loved this week looking at Paul's argument through a logical lens in a new light. And it's like, oh man, this is so good. So I'm gonna let you track with me, okay? So he says, verse 2, I went up according to a revelation. So Paul's specifically pointing out, he's like, they didn't invite me to come. Jesus told me to go. And that might cause you to say, why is that important? What's the big deal? Well, it came from God. And now this is why it's a big deal. Already stated, we've already looked at this. The gospel comes from God. It's not invented by humans. His good news, gospel from God. Secondly, already stated, he continues, my calling was from God. Jesus appeared to me. I was blinded, the scales later would fall from my eyes. It came directly from God, not from humans. He continues, my influence and acceptance by the pillars. It didn't matter what they were, it didn't matter there. They just recognized that the gospel was given to me by God, that my calling was given by God. And finally, it wasn't them who invited me, it was God who told me to go. Everything is from God, so it can't be messed with. And so many of our challenges and problems in life are because we mess with the message. And so many of us, we don't do it in a way that's like, I want to mess this up. A lot of times we don't even think rationally about it. We just are drawn and we drift. So many of the cults in the world and so much of legalism within churches, it's like we've got to add because you know what? And I heard this growing up a lot because my dad was a minister, and I've told you that's why I told everyone I knew I would never be a minister because I saw all the junk my dad had to deal with. And lo and behold, I became a minister. And um, but it was it was so interesting because this was some, this isn't exaggeration either. Maybe it will be. I'll tell you if it's exaggeration after I say it or not. They would say, make sure you keep your people busy so that they won't fall into sin. Keep them busy doing stuff. It's like, okay, okay. Even as a kid, I'd heard that and I was like, I don't think that's right. They also would say, you gotta give them rules. Tell them God's mad. Because if they don't have, they didn't say this, but this is uh implicit. If they don't have enough guilt and shame, they won't stay on the path. It's like, yeah, I don't think that's right, but that's how I lived for so long. And those voices can still echo, amazingly enough. But when we think about all that happened in Paul's life, my calling, he says, my affirmation, my ministry, my influence, God's gospel, our very salvation. Our salvation isn't based on what others can do, it's not based on what I can do. That's Ephesians 2.8, 9. It's by grace you're saved through faith. It's a gift. I love the honesty of Paul as the passage goes on. I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running in vain. It led me down a rabbit trail this week with Paul's life, and I was just, I was amazed again at how we sometimes in our tradition and other traditions do it as well, but we we can put different people on pedestals and see them as just something that's not attainable. Now, once again, I want to explain what I'm thinking here. So if you look at Paul's life, if you talk to Paul, he wouldn't say, Yeah, you got to be as spiritual as me. He'd say, No, what he might say, and he does literally in his passage, in his in his letters, he's like, follow me as I follow Christ. But he's saying it's a journey. His honesty. I loved, and I went back to 2 Corinthians this week because he pours out his heart. His honesty, he writes about, out of much distress and anguish of heart and with many tears. I want to slow down with that. This is the Apostle Paul, out of much distress. The Apostle Paul, following Jesus with all he had, willing to die for Jesus. He had much distress. He had anguish of heart. He had many tears. He speaks at times of having no rest in his spirit. He describes fighting without and fears within. In this passage today, he says, I want to make sure I wanted to make sure that I'm not running in vain. Now, this is important because truthfully, unless we see what's going on and there's some sort of awareness in our souls, we can't even have the gospel be applied to it. God desires to meet you where you are, not where you should be or where you think you should be. He wants to meet you where you are. Do you feel this today? You say, I came today out of much distress and anguish of heart and with many tears. If you did, my heart is for you. You're in good company though, because Paul was like that at times. Did you have no rest in your spirit this morning? It's okay. Paul was like that. Jesus in the garden did not have a restful spirit. Fighting without, is there conflict in your life? I hate conflict. The bummer is, as a as a pastor and as someone who is a peacemaker, I get called into conflict a lot. I hate it. But you know what it does? It makes me cling to Jesus more. If you like conflict, you're probably not the person who should go into uh conflict. So do you have fears within? You're in a good place. Now, do we want to stay where we live in that neighborhood? This is what I've been thinking about a lot lately. My house has changed over the years in my soul. So let's say my first house was one of survival, and man, I had the windows locked, I had tiny uh tiny windows so someone couldn't break and call crawl through. This is all metaphorical, okay? I had doors locked, I had alarms set, I was listening for every noise, hyper-vigilant, because of the environment I grew up in. And then I moved to another neighborhood, and that was a neighborhood where I was sort of looking and saying, like, oh, this makes sense. But I felt a lot of shame because it's like, why couldn't I be strong enough to not be bothered by that stuff? I probably stayed in that house for a couple decades. The truth is though, I would still go back to the first house neighborhood and walk around and be like, oh, I don't think I want to live here. Then I went to a third house, and this is a recent house. It was the house of non-judgmental observation. And in this house, I started looking at my story and being like, oh, wow, this makes sense. I would still go back and visit the first neighborhood. I still do sometimes, the neighborhood of survival. And I'm like, oh, let's stop and observe what's going on. Do I feel like out of much distress I'm showing up right now? Do I have anguish of heart? Physically, do I have tears? Morning is good. I mean, it's it's good for the soul. I don't want to live there. There are other houses, and I'll stop the illustration. If you want more on the illustration, I wrote a lot on it this week. It was fun. But the truth is, we never arrive. You remember saying that all the time. We never arrive. The witty thing I say, it's not about arriving, it's about abiding. It's like, yeah, we return, we come back. We don't deny fear and weakness. We embrace it. For my power is perfected in weakness. Jesus' words to Paul when he cried out that his thorn would be taken away. At this point, before we move on, I just wanted to say we started our first class, four-week class on Wednesday night. And it was wonderful. It was wonderful. We got three more Wednesday nights. If you didn't come, you can still come. You don't even have to sign up. If you need child care, don't bring your children, but we'll have a stipend for you. We can help you reimburse what you get for a sitter. But come, if you can come once, come. If you can't come at all, I'm going to send out an email this week that has a link to recordings and material. Because what we're trying to do is what Paul does. What we see is we want to slow down enough to be able to say what's going on here. When he says, I want to be sure I was not running and had not been running in vain, he had to be slow enough to see, like, oh, this is what I'm concerned about. Because if they say the gospel's different, then there's going to be a schism because I'm here and this is what I believe the gospel is. That's just what it is. I was very honest on, I mean, I try to always be honest. I don't try to deceive you on purpose. Um I really opened up about my journey from the last seven months because I I just feel renewed. And it's it's beautiful. And it it's like, man, this is this is good. So I won't talk so much about myself in the next class. I'm going to talk about Bon Hoffer, sorry, and um the Apostle Paul and this movement of being able to slow and notice and turn and entrust. Simple movement, really hard to do in our souls. But that's a constant movement. I do it over and over again every day. This is Paul, and I before we we're gonna hit the last two points pretty quickly, but he's standing before the pillars, and I love that he mentions James first, because this isn't James the apostle. James was the brother of John, the other James, and then there's other Jameses. There's a lot of Jameses around, but James the brother of John was the first apostle to be martyred, so he's already been killed at this point. The James mentioned here, along with Peter and John, who are part of Jesus' inner circle of those three, it was Peter, James, and John. So James has been killed. This James, history tells us it's the half-brother of Jesus, the one who didn't even believe and follow Jesus because he doubted it that how could this guy I grew up with be the Messiah? And here he is now, after the resurrection, being a leader in the church. He doesn't start, Paul does, and I don't, in my holy imagination, it's like, why'd you put James first? It was because it didn't matter who they were, what they were, what Paul was. It matters in the sense of like, look at the grace of God. He's a trophy of grace. But the one who doubted now becomes a leader in Jerusalem. Paul, the one who chased down, imprisoned, and just put his approval on the killing of Christians, he's now the Apostle Paul. So the gospel is tested. What happens when the gospel is clarified? Well, let's see. Verse 9. When James, Cephas, and John, those recognized as pillars, acknowledged the grace that had been given to me, they gave me the right hand of fellowship to me and to Barnabas. Now, why is this important? Because they didn't say, okay, and I love this thought of Titus standing here, and Paul's intentionality in bringing Barnabas, who was the encourager, had a great reputation. People loved him. And so here's Paul, he's saying, I'm not going to do this alone. Here's Barnabas. And here's Titus, who, if you read his letters, he adores Titus. Titus is just someone who follows the Lord faithfully. And he's building churches as well. We see that through his life. And so Paul says, Here's my brother. He's not circumcised. He's not becoming a Jew. Look at what God's doing in his life. And I imagine the testimony was this: as you see him, are you going to add something to what he already is? The work of God has saved him, sealed him, empowered him through his calling. And these guys over here are going to say, now he needs to be circumcised. And of course, James, Cephas, slash Peter, and John, they don't compel him. It's like, no. The gospel's the gospel. Can't add to it. Can't add to it. I thought this this week. Why is Paul so confident? Because he's been chosen by Jesus. His life has been changed. And I can we throw up the diagram from last week. So many of you came to me and said, Chad, this diagram is the best diagram I've ever seen. I someone asked if they could get it as a tattoo. I said, yes, but I can't do it because I don't do tattoos. But approximate timeline of Paul's life. We looked at it last week. It's approximate, different views. The main point was the arrows. The first arrow, he's formed under the Torah as a Pharisee. He's a stud. Conversion. Damascus Road. And what I grew up believing is that he, right from conversion, started writing letters. He just got his pen out. Galatians, okay, Galatians, you're messing up. Not happening. Three years. Plus 14, or the three is included in the 14. Those are transformations. He's going to start preaching during that time. He's doing all this stuff. But he doesn't get affirmed by the pillars officially till that 4550 AD. Isn't that cool? Was he perfect when he finally got affirmed?

unknown 25:40

No.

SPEAKER_00 25:40

What does that even mean? There's no such thing as a perfect human other than Jesus. And even that concept is like, what is perfect? And is that the standard? But Paul, I wondered in my imagination this week too, he was so right, quote unquote, in that red arrow of his life. He was so right, he thought, that he was willing to imprison, persecute, and approve of the death of Christians. And then boom, he's wrong. Jesus appears. I wonder, and this isn't in the text at all, but I wondered in my heart, was there some wrestling where he's like, what if I'm wrong again? I don't know. I know that's a very human response. I've had that before. Thank you. I don't want y'all to look at it too long because you'll be mesmerized by it. Here's a personal application for you. Paul knew his calling. He said, We were affirmed that we were going to go be apostles for the Gentiles, and they were going to be apostles to preach mainly to the Jewish nation. And of course they did both, but that was their main focus. What about you? What if Paul came and said, I've got to be exactly like James and Peter and John? He didn't do that. He's like, this is my calling from God. And I wondered this week, some of us may be exhausted from trying to carry someone else's calling. Are you? Are you waiting for someone's approval before you live life? Is it good to have approval and affirmation? Yeah, it's essential, actually, before we take steps sometimes. But if you're waiting for someone to just come out of the woodwork and say, this, this, and this, it's like, no, live your life. Some of you may be feeling unseen, and it's like, this is what I'm called. I just don't feel seen. Some of you may be tempted to compete spiritually, but the word is this. I don't have to be you to belong. I belong as I am. You belong as you are. And from that foundation, we can live life. So the gospel's tested. The gospel always passes the test. And so when it's clarified, the gospel is lived. And so, final point, verse 10. They only asked what we would, that we would remember the poor, which I had made every effort to do. That's not a small footnote. It's not something just to be skipped over to get to verse 11. This is the gospel lived. And it's fascinating to me. What does the gospel do in our lives? Well, everything. It shows us first the heart of God. If you struggle with God's heart and believing it, look at Jesus, because Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God. If you see how Jesus reacts to people, how he deals with people, how he embraces people, how he speaks lovingly but truthfully to people, you see the very heart of God because Jesus is God. So we see God's heart. And I say, check, what else? The gospel tells us what's necessary for salvation. It's not anything you can do, it's the finished work of the cross, the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He took on him the weight of the sin of the world, was the perfect sacrifice. And because of that, we now have access to God. He places on us his righteousness. So hard stop. That tells us right there. The gospel also tells us what life God invites us to. Life with God. You want to do an interesting word study this week? Look up what it means to walk with God all the way back to the garden. Look at Enoch. Look at what is this? Walking. Think about Jesus walking with the disciples. It's fascinating because it's doing life together. So when we think about the gospel, how it affects, when we see God's heart, what is God's heart for? It's for the needy. He says, make sure you take care of the widows and the orphans. As we love God more with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, he transforms our heart continually. Now we have a new heart. It's transplanted, it's made alive when we come to know Christ, but it's continually transformed. And so our heart becomes more like God's heart. And so we don't forget the poor. We see where there's need. And as we see where there's need, by God's grace we move towards the need. I think about walking in here during the week. On Wednesday, we have an AA group that meets. Someone has walked towards the need. It's beautiful. People are communing together. This is what we do. The gospel is a great equalizer. It brings the lofty down, it raises the lowly up, and we are on the same footing before the cross. And so we don't forget the poor, we don't forget the needy. We remember that we are poor, we are needy ourselves spiritually. So here's your sentence to carry for this week. The gospel is not ours to improve, only to receive, protect, and live. The gospel is not ours to improve. If you want to put a fat parenthetical notation in there, you could say, because we can improve it. How can you improve something from God? Like it doesn't even make sense. We protect it, we guard it. As Paul guards it. And we live. And that life is to be lived. So we come to the table today, and we remember that in Christ, at this table, there are no outsiders or insiders. There's not Gentile believers over here and then Jewish believers over here, and then it's like, no, all that's been done away with. We are one body of brothers and sisters in Christ. We are all people who've been welcomed by grace. That's why we come. So as you come to the table, I want you to just reflect if you can. Where do you feel pressure to prove yourself before God? To add something? Where might you be tempted to add something to grace to say, Oh, I should have done this? But to receive, from that foundation, we live. And where might the freedom of the gospel invite you to love someone this week? Freely, without forcing them to do anything. Because Jesus invites, we invite. Jesus loves, we love. So as we come to the table, remember the gospel is to be received. We can protect it. And we live it. If you're new here, if you're a Christian, you've committed your life to Christ, you receive this grace, you've been welcomed by this grace. That our tradition here is you can grab some bread and some juice and take it back to your seat and just hold it and reflect on the song that's being sung. You can sing along if you wish. But then I'll come back up everyone after everyone has the elements and we'll partake in it all together at the same time as a family. And be reminded. God loves you. Let's pray together. Thank you for the beauty of the gospel, Lord. Lord, I thank you for the honesty of Paul and the beauty of just knowing that we are not alone in our suffering or our doubts or our fears. And you meet us in the middle of all those things. You're with us. When we're on the mountaintop or the valleys, you are with us. You hold us and you say, I have not forgotten you. I'm with you and I'm for you. Persevere. As we come to the table today, I pray that you would comfort hearts, that you would bring invitations, that you would bring challenges to some of us where we need to be challenged, where we've drifted, and just you're inviting us back in ways that are loving but firm. So in your mercy and grace, do your work and may we be able to surrender and submit to it. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen.