SPEAKER_00: Today we see one of the most decisive moments in the entire early church.
SPEAKER_00: The question on the table is simple, but it cuts to the core.
SPEAKER_00: What actually saves you?
SPEAKER_00: And Peter stands up and says it with clarity that leaves no room for confusion.
SPEAKER_00: We believe that we are saved through the grace of our Lord Jesus, not through the law, not through human effort, not through carrying a religious burden that no one has ever been able to carry.
SPEAKER_00: Grace.
SPEAKER_00: And notice how he frames it.
SPEAKER_00: Why are you putting God to the test by placing on the shoulders of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear?
SPEAKER_00: This is a devastating line.
SPEAKER_00: If you're honest enough to let it land, because there's a subtle temptation in every serious believer, especially those who care deeply about the faith, to slowly turn Christianity into a system of pressure.
SPEAKER_00: Do more, try harder, be better, fix yourself, prove yourself.
SPEAKER_00: It starts to feel very heavy and very draining.
SPEAKER_00: Not because God is asking too much, but because we are trying to carry something we were never meant to carry alone.
SPEAKER_00: Peter's saying, if salvation is grace, then stop rebuilding a system that depends on your strength.
SPEAKER_00: Now here's where you have to, now here is where you have to be very precise because Jesus immediately says this in the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: He says, if you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love.
SPEAKER_00: So which is it?
SPEAKER_00: Grace or commandments?
SPEAKER_00: This is where people get it wrong in both directions.
SPEAKER_00: Some hear grace and think it means nothing is required.
SPEAKER_00: Others hear commandments and turn the whole thing into moral pleasure, moral pressure.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus holds both together, but in the right order.
SPEAKER_00: As the Father loves me, so I also love you.
SPEAKER_00: Remain in my love.
SPEAKER_00: We need to start there.
SPEAKER_00: You are loved first, not after you fix yourself, not after you've proven yourself, not after you get everything together first.
SPEAKER_00: Then, if you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love.
SPEAKER_00: Obedience is not how you earn love, it's how you stay within it.
SPEAKER_00: That's a completely different posture.
SPEAKER_00: This is not a performance, this is a relationship.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is not saying, obey me so that I will love you.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, I already love you.
SPEAKER_00: Now live in a way that keeps you connected to my love.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says something almost too beautiful to ignore.
SPEAKER_00: I have told you this so that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete.
SPEAKER_00: Not partial, not occasional, but complete.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the uncomfortable truth.
SPEAKER_00: Most people do not associate obedience with joy.
SPEAKER_00: They associate with restriction, with limitation, with loss.
SPEAKER_00: And that tells you something important.
SPEAKER_00: It means we're still thinking like servants, not sons and daughters.
SPEAKER_00: A servant obeys out of fear or obligation.
SPEAKER_00: A son or daughter obeys because he or she trusts the one who loves them.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus obeys the Father completely, and he is the most alive, the most free, the most joyful person who has ever lived.
SPEAKER_00: This is not a coincidence.
SPEAKER_00: So here's a question that exposes everything today.
SPEAKER_00: Are you trying to live the Christian life as a burden to carry or as a love to remain in?
SPEAKER_00: Because if it's a burden, you will eventually burn out or start cutting corners.
SPEAKER_00: But if it is love, real love, then obedience stops feeling like pressure and starts becoming clarity.
SPEAKER_00: You begin to see that his commandments are not there to limit your life, but to protect it, to direct it, to keep you within the very love you're looking for.
SPEAKER_00: Grace is not opposed to effort, it's opposed to earning.
SPEAKER_00: And once you stop trying to earn that love, once you stop trying to earn what has already been given to you, something shifts.
SPEAKER_00: The weight lifts.
SPEAKER_00: So, my brothers and sisters, for the first time you begin to understand what Jesus is actually wants for you.
SPEAKER_00: Not obedience, just complete trust and live in that joy that He wants to give you.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.