SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Pastor Nova.
SPEAKER_00: Good morning, everybody.
SPEAKER_00: You look great today.
SPEAKER_00: You sound good, as Pastor Nova said, who's ready for some turkey this week?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe some ham.
SPEAKER_00: You know, in in light of the Thanksgiving season, I feel the need for a Thanksgiving dance joke or two.
SPEAKER_00: Happy you guys think that'd be a good way to start today.
SPEAKER_00: So whether you do or not, that's how we're starting, so just get on board.
SPEAKER_00: And so here's the first.
SPEAKER_00: Why did the turkey why did why why did they let the turkey join the band?
SPEAKER_00: He brought his own drumsticks.
SPEAKER_00: That's pretty good.
SPEAKER_00: Alright, where are all my drumstick people at?
SPEAKER_00: Who likes the drumstick?
SPEAKER_00: That's right, that's right, that's what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_00: Uh here's the second one.
SPEAKER_00: What sound, what sound, speaking of the sound of Christmas, what sound does a lipping turkey make?
SPEAKER_00: What sound does a lipping turkey make?
SPEAKER_00: Wobble wobble.
SPEAKER_00: Do you like me modeling that for you, by the way?
SPEAKER_00: Is that helpful?
SPEAKER_00: Uh last but not least, everybody say thank you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: How does a turkey travel?
SPEAKER_00: What kind of train?
SPEAKER_00: The gravy train! That's what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_00: We're all my gravy people who likes to put gravy on everything.
SPEAKER_00: It just all of it needs a touch of gravy.
SPEAKER_00: I feel the anointing of the Spirit of the Lord in the house this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not talking about just on the turkey and dressing, just put it on everything.
SPEAKER_00: Especially if it's been made with bacon grease.
SPEAKER_00: It's better.
SPEAKER_00: Everything's better with bacon.
SPEAKER_00: Can I get an amen in the house this morning?
SPEAKER_00: So over the last month, we've been looking at the church that Jesus promised that he would build.
SPEAKER_00: In Matthew chapter 16, Jesus said, I'm gonna build my church, and the gates of hell will not be able to stop it.
SPEAKER_00: And for 2,000 years, Jesus has been building his church.
SPEAKER_00: Church, it's why we are here today.
SPEAKER_00: He's been building his church among every tribe, every nation, and every tongue.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible gives us some pictures, it gives us some images of the church that Jesus is building to kind of help us understand what our identity and our purpose is as followers of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Some of those images we've looked at.
SPEAKER_00: We've looked at the church as a colony of heaven, we've looked at the church as the bride of Christ, we've looked at the church as the temple of the Holy Spirit, we've looked at the church as the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Today I want to look at the greatest threat the Bible tells us to the church.
SPEAKER_00: What is the single greatest threat to the forward movement, the forward progression of the church is what we're gonna look at today.
SPEAKER_00: And ironically, the greatest threat to the church isn't without, but within.
SPEAKER_00: Today I'm gonna attempt to walk a very, very, very fine line.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible is clear, we're saved by not by works, saved by faith through grace, not by works, so that no man can boast.
SPEAKER_00: Aren't you glad this morning works don't earn it?
SPEAKER_00: But the Bible also says faith without is dead.
SPEAKER_00: So how do we walk that line between faith and works so that we may grow up into the full measure of the fullness of God?
SPEAKER_00: Listen, I want all God's got for me.
SPEAKER_00: How about you?
SPEAKER_00: And so there's some fine lines sometimes that we've got to learn to walk.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna try to help us walk that line free from legalism.
SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna look in the book of Galatians.
SPEAKER_00: So if you have your Bibles, your iPhones, your iPads, whatever device that you may have this morning with your Bible on it, grab that and turn with me to the book of Galatians.
SPEAKER_00: Galatians chapter one.
SPEAKER_00: Galatians is Paul's blistering attack on a spirit of legalism.
SPEAKER_00: Many theologians have called it the Magna Carta of the Christian faith.
SPEAKER_00: It's the first epistle written somewhere around 49 A.D., and it is Paul's opus against legalism.
SPEAKER_00: Stand with me where you are this morning, all across the house.
SPEAKER_00: Galatians chapter 1, and we're gonna move around just a little bit, so stay with me this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Galatians chapter 1, starting in verse 6, Paul says to this to the church, churches in Galatia, I'm astonished that you have so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel.
SPEAKER_00: I'm astonished, Paul says, that you're so quickly deserting the grace of Christ and turning to a different gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 7, which is really no gospel at all.
SPEAKER_00: Evidently, some people, some people, he's talking about legalists here, he's he said, some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Go to Galatians chapter 2 now.
SPEAKER_00: Galatians chapter 2, verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: Paul continues this thread.
SPEAKER_00: Galatians 2, 4.
SPEAKER_00: He's speaking of the confusion that has been sown into the church of Galatia over the issue of legalism.
SPEAKER_00: He said this matter arose because some false believers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom that we have in Christ Jesus to make us slaves.
SPEAKER_00: Go down to verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 2, verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: When Sephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned.
SPEAKER_00: Siphys's Peter.
SPEAKER_00: For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles, but when they arrived, he began to draw back and separated himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcisioned group.
SPEAKER_00: That's the legalistic group.
SPEAKER_00: That's the others, that's the some people that Paul has already addressed.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: So that by their hypocrisy, by their legalism, even Barnabas was led astray.
SPEAKER_00: The greatest threat to the church isn't things without, it's things within.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what Paul is dealing with throughout the book of Galatians, and it really is peppered all across the epistles.
SPEAKER_00: Church, this is God's word, and the title of my message this morning is simply this no additives needed.
SPEAKER_00: No additives needed.
SPEAKER_00: Say that after me this morning.
SPEAKER_00: No additives needed.
SPEAKER_00: Turn to your neighbor and say no additives needed.
SPEAKER_00: Turn to your other neighbor and say no additives needed.
SPEAKER_00: Turn around to the person behind you and say no additives needed.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody else thankful this morning?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is all we need.
SPEAKER_00: Give me Jesus, and you can take everything else.
SPEAKER_00: No additives are needed.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we thank you for your word this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Your word is a lamp unto our feet and a light into our path.
SPEAKER_00: It shows us the way to go and how to arrive there safely.
SPEAKER_00: I pray this morning that we would not just be hearers of your word, but doers of it in Jesus' mighty name.
SPEAKER_00: And everybody said, Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You may be seated.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Caleb.
SPEAKER_00: I have had the privilege of traveling a little bit internationally through doing missions work over the years.
SPEAKER_00: But one of the places that I long to go and have yet to go to is Italy.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone want to go to Italy?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if you don't want to go to Italy, I need to check your pulse.
SPEAKER_00: I talk with people who have gone there and come back, and there's there's three commonalities in what they say about going to Italy.
SPEAKER_00: They're in awe of the beauty of the place.
SPEAKER_00: It's just absolutely beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: From Venice in the north to the Amafi Coast in the south.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I would like to see all of that.
SPEAKER_00: Can I get an amen in the house?
SPEAKER_00: They also talk of the history of the place.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the history is thousands of years old, and they're in awe of the history.
SPEAKER_00: So it's beautiful and it's it's historical.
SPEAKER_00: And the third commonality that people always talk about, they're in awe of the wonder of the food.
SPEAKER_00: They talk about bowls of pasta.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: One of the interesting things they they they comment about the pasta and and the pizza and and and all of the food is that they can eat a bowl of pasta from there and not feel the need to go take a nap afterwards.
SPEAKER_00: Like if you eat a bowl of pasta here in the States, I want to go pass out afterwards.
SPEAKER_00: There's something about it, but there you can eat a bowl of pasta and be invigorated and ready for the day.
SPEAKER_00: Here, you've got to go take a nap.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever wondered what's the difference?
SPEAKER_00: What's the difference in the food and how it affects you from one place to the other place?
SPEAKER_00: And the difference is the ingredients.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever read the ingredients on a box or package of flour here in the United States?
SPEAKER_00: It looks like a periodic table.
SPEAKER_00: It looks like a list of things that I'm unsure that I need to consume.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's one thing after another thing, a little more and more.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's it's crazy all the things that they they put in our flour.
SPEAKER_00: It's bleached, it's enriched, it's fortified, it's modified, it's bona fide, and I feel petrified.
SPEAKER_00: Conversely, have you looked at the list of ingredients on a package of flour from Italy?
SPEAKER_00: I I have an illustration for you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the difference.
SPEAKER_00: We've got bleaching agents, we got preservatives, we got conditioners, we got something that I can't pronounce, and then we got stabilizers.
SPEAKER_00: And then you look at the package of flour from Italy, and it's one thing.
SPEAKER_00: It's flour or wheat, it's not 14 bazillion ingredients, it's it's one ingredient.
SPEAKER_00: And I imagine the Italians saying, We didn't ruin it for you, you're welcome.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the point: the more stuff you add to something, the more stuff you add to something, the harder it is to digest.
SPEAKER_00: Not only is it harder to digest, but the more things we add to it, the less nutritious it is.
SPEAKER_00: Can I tell you that's what Paul's saying in the book of Galatians?
SPEAKER_00: Paul is saying in the book of Galatians that that's the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: No additives are needed.
SPEAKER_00: It's just Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It's Jesus in the beginning, it's Jesus in the middle, it's Jesus at the end.
SPEAKER_00: In the book of Galatians, Paul is addressing what has happened in the church of Galatia, where where some legalistic people have infiltrated their ranks and they've added one thing after another thing after another thing after another thing.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, don't forget this thing.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, where what about that thing?
SPEAKER_00: You need to add this.
SPEAKER_00: And what they have done, they've made the gospel difficult to digest and they've stripped it of all of its nutritional value.
SPEAKER_00: Let me show you.
SPEAKER_00: So sometime around 30 A.D., the spring of 30 A.D., the 120 were gathered in the upper room on the day of Pentecost, and the Holy Spirit came and blew across those 120 disciples gathered there, and the church of Jesus Christ was born.
SPEAKER_00: And over the course of about the next 10 years, the church stayed pretty localized in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria.
SPEAKER_00: It really didn't get much beyond about 50 miles from Jerusalem for almost a decade.
SPEAKER_00: And you get to about 40 AD and you find Peter in Joppa in Acts chapter 10.
SPEAKER_00: And Joppah is about a hundred miles north of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: So around 40 A.D., the gospel begins to spread out of a purely Jewish context.
SPEAKER_00: And it begins to inch forward little bit by little bit.
SPEAKER_00: And by the time that we get to about 45 A.D., the church has reached as far north as Antioch of Syria, which is 391 miles north of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: And it's here in Antioch that the church, the gospel of Jesus begins to move beyond a primarily Jewish context into a Gentile context.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, that's most of us here this morning.
SPEAKER_00: So the gospel in about 15 years has finally reached Antioch, and the Bible tells us that at Antioch, that something miraculous begins to happen.
SPEAKER_00: That some of the disciples, some of the apostles make the radical decision to intentionally and overtly reach into the Gentile communities with the gospel message of Jesus to reach them.
SPEAKER_00: And they do.
SPEAKER_00: And the church of Antioch begins to blossom.
SPEAKER_00: It begins to grow.
SPEAKER_00: It begins to reach into every nook and cranny of that community.
SPEAKER_00: And Antioch is an incredible city.
SPEAKER_00: It's incredibly diverse.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll tell you just a little snippet about Antioch that'll help you understand its significance in that day.
SPEAKER_00: It was one of maybe the only cities in ancient times that had street lights.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's pretty amazing.
SPEAKER_00: 2,000 years ago, they had they had streetlights.
SPEAKER_00: It was this beautiful city.
SPEAKER_00: And so it was a commercial hub.
SPEAKER_00: People from all different walks of life had descended and lived and grown up in Antioch.
SPEAKER_00: And so the disciples began to reach into every one of these cultures and these communities and this diverse environment with the love of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And people are getting saved.
SPEAKER_00: They're preaching the message of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden, God's confirming the message with signs and wonders.
SPEAKER_00: People are getting healed.
SPEAKER_00: People are getting set free.
SPEAKER_00: People are voluntarily giving themselves over to the to the walk and to the work of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And these formerly pagan people have radically fallen in love with God and one another.
SPEAKER_00: All social distinctions erased in this environment.
SPEAKER_00: Can I pause here for just a second?
SPEAKER_00: Church, you know this is our mission.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission as followers of Jesus, as the church of Jesus Christ, is to reach into every culture, into every community, into every context, to every nook and cranny of our community with the love of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Let me say it this way: no person is off limits.
SPEAKER_00: That's our mission, church.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we've been called to do.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we've been saved and set free.
SPEAKER_00: And this has always been God's desire.
SPEAKER_00: God's desire has always been to find a people who would become a kingdom of priests that would represent Him to the world.
SPEAKER_00: We find this in Exodus chapter 19.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus reiterates it in Matthew chapter 28 when he says, Go and make disciples of all nations.
SPEAKER_00: And then in Acts chapter 1, he reiterates it again, if I can slow down and say that correctly.
SPEAKER_00: He says, You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: And Peter, in 1 Peter chapter 2, says that we are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, that we might declare the praises of God.
SPEAKER_00: Church, our call, our commission on our lives as followers of Jesus, our mission is to reach the world with the love of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Can I just this isn't even my message, but I just want to give you a little pointer about that?
SPEAKER_00: How do I do that, Pastor?
SPEAKER_00: Let me do this.
SPEAKER_00: Stop compartmentalizing your life.
SPEAKER_00: There is no physical life and spiritual life.
SPEAKER_00: It's all spiritual.
SPEAKER_00: And when I see all of life is spiritual, I see myself as an ambassador of Jesus on assignment at work, at school, at play, and everything that I do, I'm to represent the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
SPEAKER_00: When I do that, I fulfill my mission.
SPEAKER_00: All right, let's go back to the story.
SPEAKER_00: That was free of charge this morning.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to pay any extra for that today.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 19, we find more about the church of Antioch, as I was saying.
SPEAKER_00: All social distinctions were erased.
SPEAKER_00: They were all one in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, somebody.
SPEAKER_00: So they began to eat together.
SPEAKER_00: They began to work together.
SPEAKER_00: They began to greet one another with a holy kiss.
SPEAKER_00: We almost stop right there.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not suggesting that.
SPEAKER_00: In some cultures, that's okay.
SPEAKER_00: That's not our culture, though.
SPEAKER_00: They began to raise their children together.
SPEAKER_00: They began to care for one another.
SPEAKER_00: They began to marry one another.
SPEAKER_00: They began to bury one another.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I cannot overemphasize the radical transformation that these people went through when they received the message of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Before they were superstitious and they were self-centered and they were unhappy and they were immoral.
SPEAKER_00: But because of the radical love of Jesus, they began to love one another deeply and serve one another gladly, all in the joy of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the church is supposed to be.
SPEAKER_00: And you would think that would be enough.
SPEAKER_00: About how all of these social distinctions among believers begin to dissolve.
SPEAKER_00: And a group of people there become infuriated about how Jews and Gentiles are living together in harmony.
SPEAKER_00: The Apostle Peter is the first one to investigate what's going on in the church in Antioch, and he gets there and he is blown away at the love of Jesus that is on display.
SPEAKER_00: And he himself joins in with this beautiful, harmonious display of the love of God among the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Another delegation from Jerusalem is sent by the pastor of the Jerusalem church, the Apostle James.
SPEAKER_00: And they get there and they go crazy.
SPEAKER_00: They begin to criticize Peter for sitting down and eating at the table with the Gentile.
SPEAKER_00: They begin to criticize all their Jewish brothers and sisters for obliterating the law that they have lived with all of their life.
SPEAKER_00: This circumcision party, these Judaizers, these legalists are there to rebuild a wall of separation that Christ has destroyed.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what they believe.
SPEAKER_00: I've got this for you.
SPEAKER_00: So what was the message of the circumcision party?
SPEAKER_00: Here's their message: that Jerusalem is the center of God's work.
SPEAKER_00: The 12 apostles are the only true authority.
SPEAKER_00: So they can only define what the gospel really is.
SPEAKER_00: The true gospel is faith in Jesus coupled with obeying the law of Moses.
SPEAKER_00: Church, no additives needed.
SPEAKER_00: To be part of the church, a person must be circumcised.
SPEAKER_00: And then they begin to invalidate the work of the apostle Paul by saying he wasn't one of the original apostles.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't come from Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Paul was commissioned from the church of Antioch, not the church of Jerusalem, so his authority is invalidated.
SPEAKER_00: They suggest that Paul modified his gospel to make it more acceptable to the Gentiles, and he adapts his gospel to his environment.
SPEAKER_00: That Paul essentially is a people pleaser, peddling an inferior faith.
SPEAKER_00: And then all of a sudden, this this circumcision group begins throwing a church that is beautiful, that is, that is godly, that is reaching in to every culture and community in their context, and they throw it into confusion by weaving legalism into their message.
SPEAKER_00: They say you have to be circumcised, you have to observe the Sabbath, you've got to keep all of the law.
SPEAKER_00: Church, no additives needed.
SPEAKER_00: They convince Barnabas, you know what, I've made a mistake.
SPEAKER_00: I've got to revert to a legalistic mindset.
SPEAKER_00: Peter begins to withdraw himself from Gentile context and Gentile tables and Gentile conversations, all because of a faith that's built on Jesus plus a bunch of other stuff.
SPEAKER_00: Church, that was their struggle.
SPEAKER_00: And I would argue that for the last 2,000 years, the primary struggle of the church is our tendency to want to add a lot of other stuff to it.
SPEAKER_00: We want to add all kinds of things to the gospel as a way of justifying the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: But I am here to tell you today it's Jesus first, it's Jesus last, it's Jesus in the beginning, it's Jesus in the middle, it's Jesus at the end, take the world, give me it's Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: No additives are needed, it's just Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But this is our struggle, and I think I think this is our struggle for a couple of reasons.
SPEAKER_00: I think we struggle with adding things to the gospel because it is the human tendency, it is our fleshly nature to want to justify ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody else like to justify your behavior?
SPEAKER_00: Anyone else want to justify your actions?
SPEAKER_00: Anyone else want to justify your words?
SPEAKER_00: That we have this innate fleshly need to make ourselves feel like we've earned it, thus deserve it.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what the Judaizers are doing.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the circumcision group are doing.
SPEAKER_00: They they've lived their whole lives with a faith that is God plus something, that I've got to do this and I've got to do that, and I've got to not go there, and I've got to not go and do this, I'm not gonna hang out with those people, and I've got I've got to do all these things.
SPEAKER_00: And and when we do that, and when we build a faith on that, what we're practically saying is I've built a faith where I can justify myself.
SPEAKER_00: Can I tell you just very candidly this morning, your faith isn't about rules, it's about relationship.
SPEAKER_00: We may love checking boxes of rules that say we've earned it, but boxes of rules don't earn your eternity.
SPEAKER_00: A relationship with Jesus does.
SPEAKER_00: I think sometimes we like to add things to the gospel, not with a A negative motivation.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we overcomplicate it because we've seen all the things that have made a difference in our lives and we want to impart that to somebody else.
SPEAKER_00: It's not always a bad motivation.
SPEAKER_00: It's not always nefarious and it's nature.
SPEAKER_00: But if the longer you walk with the Lord, you walk with the Lord for 10 years or 20 years or 30 years or 40 years, there's been a lot of things through your journey that have made a big difference in your faith.
SPEAKER_00: And so when you encounter someone that's new in the faith, what you want to do is go back and give them all of your highlights, give them all of your best reels and say, you need to do this, this, this, this, and this, and then.
SPEAKER_00: The problem is when we do that, we negate the journey.
SPEAKER_00: We didn't get where we are today overnight.
SPEAKER_00: It took years to do that.
SPEAKER_00: It took years of a journey.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of lessons learned, not all of them positive.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, somebody.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody else made a mistake before?
SPEAKER_00: Don't be more holier than thou.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, there's no room for legalists in the house this morning.
SPEAKER_00: We all make mistakes along the way and we learn from them.
SPEAKER_00: And so somebody comes to faith and and we give them a laundry list of things they need to stop doing and start doing.
SPEAKER_00: And what we do when we did that is that we create a faith of rules rather than relationship.
SPEAKER_00: My senior year of high school, I had several, several of my friends come to faith in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And they were a part of different churches all throughout our community.
SPEAKER_00: And I was grieved as they would come to me and say, I gave my life to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And then I met with some people at the church, and and they said, I need to stop doing X, Y, and Z, and I need to start doing this.
SPEAKER_00: And I mean, they loaded them down with a set of rules.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what they did?
SPEAKER_00: They stole the joy of the relationship.
SPEAKER_00: Let me make something very, very clear.
SPEAKER_00: It's not that there's not things that we don't need to stop doing, and there are other things that we need to start doing.
SPEAKER_00: But when we make that the focus rather than Jesus, we destroy it all.
SPEAKER_00: What we need to do is model a contagious love relationship with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: What we need to model is a relationship that is so vibrant and that is so healthy that it's something that somebody else wants in their life.
SPEAKER_00: Let's get the relationship right, then the rules will take care of themselves.
SPEAKER_00: See, we focus way too much on behavior modification rather than heart transformation.
SPEAKER_00: And when we focus on behavior modification, the heart never gets transformed.
SPEAKER_00: But when we focus on heart transformation, you know what follows?
SPEAKER_00: Behavior modification.
SPEAKER_00: We're getting the cart before the horse and we're destroying people's faith in the process.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what these people were doing, and they were destroying the church.
SPEAKER_00: Paul hears about what's going on and absolutely loses his mind.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody ever lost your mind?
SPEAKER_00: Anybody like lost your mind this week?
SPEAKER_00: About half of y'all are honest.
SPEAKER_00: If you lie, you I'm telling you.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, we we all have have those moments, and this was a moment for Paul.
SPEAKER_00: He absolutely loses his mind over this circumcision party, this delegation that have crowned themselves as the ones with the true gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And they've gone to these gentile believers that have gloriously and wonderfully been saved through the work of Jesus and the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And they say, Oh, yeah, that's good, but you also need to be circumcised, you also need to follow all 613 laws.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul loses his mind and comes in so much so that he publicly absolutely comes against the apostle Peter and says, This is wrong.
SPEAKER_00: In the context of him basically just undressing Peter in front of everybody, Barnabas is over on the other side watching it unfold and says, Um, yeah, Paul's right.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want what he just got.
SPEAKER_00: Barnabas is corrected and he comes back to it, and then we have the book of Galatians.
SPEAKER_00: And this is Paul's written response to everything that is going on.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, before we go back to Galatians, it's real easy to overlook in your Bible reading plan.
SPEAKER_00: But this is something Paul addresses in every letter that he writes.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because this group retraces his steps over every one of his missionary journeys to undo the work that he's done.
SPEAKER_00: You can chart it throughout the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: He deals with it in every epistle because this group literally retraced his steps, followed his journey, and began to preach the message of legalism to every church that he's planted.
SPEAKER_00: This is why I believe it's the greatest threat to the church, because it was the greatest threat to the early church.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to Paul's response in Galatians 2.
SPEAKER_00: Galatians 2, verse 16.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, No that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: No additives are needed, church.
SPEAKER_00: So we too have put our faith in Christ that we may be justified by what?
SPEAKER_00: By what?
SPEAKER_00: Come on, somebody, by what?
SPEAKER_00: And in Christ, not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law, no one, just know this, your works never earn it.
SPEAKER_00: No one, no one will be justified.
SPEAKER_00: No additives, no additives are needed.
SPEAKER_00: Galatians chapter 3, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you?
SPEAKER_00: Before your very eyes, Jesus was clearly portrayed as crucified.
SPEAKER_00: I would like to learn just one thing from you.
SPEAKER_00: Did you receive the Spirit?
SPEAKER_00: Did you receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit by the works of the law?
SPEAKER_00: Or just by believing what you heard?
SPEAKER_00: Explain that to me.
SPEAKER_00: Why did you receive verse three?
SPEAKER_00: Are you so foolish?
SPEAKER_00: After beginning by means of the spirit, are now trying to finish by means of the flesh?
SPEAKER_00: Have you experienced so much in vain?
SPEAKER_00: If it if it really wasn't vain, so again I ask, does God give you his spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law or by believing what you heard?
SPEAKER_00: No additives are needed.
SPEAKER_00: It's just Jesus, church.
SPEAKER_00: So also Abraham believed God.
SPEAKER_00: As Pastor Noah talked about just a moment ago, and it was credited to him as righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: Understand then that those who are have faith are children of Abraham.
SPEAKER_00: Jump down to verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse.
SPEAKER_00: As it is written, cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the law.
SPEAKER_00: Clearly, no one who lies on the law is justified before God.
SPEAKER_00: But the righteous will live by faith.
SPEAKER_00: It's by faith.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: No additives are needed.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing extra.
SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact, the more you try to add to it, the more it dilutes it, the more it limits its nutritional value.
SPEAKER_00: See, church, the gospel of the kingdom is a gospel of liberty.
SPEAKER_00: It sets people free from the bondage of flesh and the law.
SPEAKER_00: So our way, church, what the Bible invites us to is to walk in love by faith in step with the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: That's our call.
SPEAKER_00: To walk by love, walk in love by faith in step with the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to say that after me this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Our way.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, come on, say it like you mean it.
SPEAKER_00: Our way is to walk in love.
SPEAKER_00: By faith in step with the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Let's say that again.
SPEAKER_00: Our way is to walk in love by faith in step with the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: One more time.
SPEAKER_00: Our way, I want you to say it from your diaphragm this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Our way is to walk in love by faith in step with the spirit of God.
SPEAKER_00: Years ago, youth pastor made it his ambition to reach his local pizza delivery guy.
SPEAKER_00: Every Wednesday night they order pizza from the same place for their youth service.
SPEAKER_00: And the same guy delivered it week in and week out.
SPEAKER_00: And he made it his aim.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna reach this guy for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: God obviously come from a pretty rough, difficult background.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe drug addiction.
SPEAKER_00: Sometime or another it had a hold on his life.
SPEAKER_00: He his clothes were tattered.
SPEAKER_00: Most of the time, pizza grease all over them.
SPEAKER_00: He was missing most of his teeth, and his hair was always disheveled in every kind of way possible.
SPEAKER_00: But he knew this was a child of God that deserved to spend eternity with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So week in and week out, he began, hey, once you come to church, once you come to church, and you can sit with me and my wife, and we would, we're just trying to find and make new friends in our community.
SPEAKER_00: Come hang out with us.
SPEAKER_00: And after a lot of persistence, the guy finally relented and said, Okay, I'm coming.
SPEAKER_00: I'm coming this coming Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: So the youth pastor excitedly waited for him in the foyer, looking for him.
SPEAKER_00: He got there extra early just in case the guy decided to get there a little bit earlier than normal.
SPEAKER_00: And so he he started 30 minutes out from service time, and he's waiting, and time passes, 15 minutes out, nothing, 10 minutes out, nothing, five minutes out, nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Service has started.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, No, I'm gonna wait a little bit longer.
SPEAKER_00: 20 minutes into service, the guy still hasn't shown up.
SPEAKER_00: And the youth pastor's like, I I don't I know I need to be in the sanctuary with pastor, but I really feel like God's called me to reach this guy.
SPEAKER_00: So he does something crazy.
SPEAKER_00: He leaves church, jumps in his car, and drives to the pizza place.
SPEAKER_00: Finds the guy at the counter in the pizza place.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, Man, I was looking for you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you're okay.
SPEAKER_00: We sure missed you.
SPEAKER_00: I was really looking forward to seeing you.
SPEAKER_00: And the guy said, Well, actually, I did come.
SPEAKER_00: I was walking up to the front door, and there was a man in a suit at the front door who stopped me.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I was dressed in my pizza uniform because I got a shift right after service.
SPEAKER_00: And the guy said, Son, don't you have anything else to wear?
SPEAKER_00: We wear God's best into God's house.
SPEAKER_00: The guy turned around and left.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because somebody was trying to add to a faith that don't need any additives.
SPEAKER_00: At that moment, that youth pastor made the decision.
SPEAKER_00: If I'm ever a lead pastor, if I ever get in a place where I get to decide some things about that church, the only clothing requirement there will be is that you just wear something.
SPEAKER_00: Can I tell you, church, that's the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: That's the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a bunch of extra stuff.
SPEAKER_00: It's not not you've got to, I'm I'm just, I'm gonna even free you.
SPEAKER_00: It's not that you've got to spend 30 minutes praying every morning.
SPEAKER_00: It's not that you've got to spend an hour in your Bible every day.
SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact, if you make that a rule, it'll steal the joy of your relationship.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying don't do those things.
SPEAKER_00: Are you hearing what I'm trying to communicate this morning?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, we need to be in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, we need to read God's word, but we do it not because we have to, but because we get to.
SPEAKER_00: We do it because we're in love with our Savior.
SPEAKER_00: Church, I I want CLC, I want our faith, our our community of faith to be a place where everybody is welcome, regardless of what.
SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact, my invitation is the same invitation that Jesus had.
SPEAKER_00: Come as you are, you don't have to have it all figured out, you don't have to have it all perfected, you don't have to no come broken and bruised and tattered, and this is the place you get put back together again.
SPEAKER_00: Come with your addictions, you don't have to clean yourself up.
SPEAKER_00: Come with your sin, come with your failure, come with your mistakes, come with your background that's a mess.
SPEAKER_00: Just come to the cross of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: No additives are needed.
SPEAKER_00: It's just Jesus is what we need.
SPEAKER_00: Do you hear my heart this morning, church?
SPEAKER_00: Will you stand with me where you are this morning?
SPEAKER_00: I want to ask my prayer team to join me to my left and to my right as the worship team comes out and joins me on stage.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna have a moment of ministry here at the end of service today.
SPEAKER_00: And I've just got a couple of questions in conclusion for you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: My first question is this What have you added to your faith that you need to lay down?
SPEAKER_00: What rule has taken the joy of the Lord from your life?
SPEAKER_00: What rule are you attempting to embody that is sucking the life of Christ out of you?
SPEAKER_00: What have you added that needs to be laid down?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's a performance mentality.
SPEAKER_00: Church, we can have such a performance mentality where we've got to say all the right things and do all the right things.
SPEAKER_00: And by doing those things, we earn favor from the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Can I tell you there's nothing that you can do any more than anything that you've ever done to earn God's favor?
SPEAKER_00: He gives it freely.
SPEAKER_00: You're not the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: It's the Holy Spirit's job to fix them.
SPEAKER_00: Your job is to love them as Christ loved you.
SPEAKER_00: You're taking responsibility for things that are not your responsibility in the process, you're stealing joy from your faith journey.
SPEAKER_00: Let God be God and you be you.
SPEAKER_00: And watch Him do what you can never do.
SPEAKER_00: He alone can save, He alone can heal, He alone can redeem, He alone can set free, He alone is Christ alone, church.
SPEAKER_00: Worship team's gonna lead us this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And if you if you need to lay some things down this morning, I want to invite you to come and partner with one of our prayer team members, that they would help free you from a performance mentality, from an ad something, from a mentality where you've tried to add things to your faith.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: I believe that Jesus, the Spirit of God, is moving increasingly on the earth, looking for a people that'll just give their heart to him and then let him be God in their life.
SPEAKER_00: Just throw your hands up wherever you are this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And if I if this is resonating with your heart, I'm gonna ask you to get out of your seat right now and move to one of our prayer team members because they wanna pray with you.
SPEAKER_00: They wanna agree with you, they wanna be the hands of Jesus over your life and release his healing, release his freedom, release his joy.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, if you need joy, your faith has become joyless.
SPEAKER_00: I'm believing this morning, it's going to become joyful.
SPEAKER_00: And I wanna get you to get out of your seat.
SPEAKER_00: Come agree with one of our party team members.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, team leaders.