Back in the time when the Bellaggio Hotel was a much younger hotel in Las Vegas, there was a great film called Oceans Eleven that was a remake of another great, much older film. It had George Clooney and Brad Pitt in it, among others. And if you haven't seen it, you might want to skip the next minute because I don't want to ruin it. Even though it's an old movie, you should totally go watch it because it's great. If you don't care, or you already have watched it, well then here we go. I've stalled long enough. Oceans 11 is about a casino heist. It's the Bellagio in Las Vegas, Nevada, and this unlikely squad of people with a variety of talents who are funny when they work together. They all come up with a plan to take the place down and get the money out of the vault and get away and it's one last job. We got to do one last job. It was really fun. And at the end, they've got all the money and they gather right out front of the casino at the big cool fountains that are there in front of the Bellagio right there on Las Vegas Boulevard. One of my favorite things about Las Vegas. And as they're out there, they're asking themselves and asking each other the obvious question, which is what do you do now? We don't really have money problems anymore. It worked. This money sort of liberated us all from the situations we were in before. And now we've got this wide open road in front of us. Which way do we want to go? What do we want to do? And it's fun to hear them break it down and slowly walk away from the thing. And likewise, as we're getting to the end of Galatians, I feel like we're getting a similar question here, though with less casino robbing. The idea or the trajectory of Galatians, and indeed the trajectory of pretty much the whole Bible, is from slavery to freedom, from you used to be in this state of servitude and obligation, impossible obligation even, but by the redeeming work of God, by the power of the Spirit, through the work of Christ on the cross and in the resurrection, you ain't there anymore if you're in Christ. All of the burden, all of the stuff, all of the obligation, all of the impossible social standing before God, all of it's resolved. All of the guilt and the ick and even death is resolved. So what are you gonna do next? And in a way, here at the end of Galatians, it's like we're gathering out in front of the Bellagio and making a decision on that. Looky there. That is my wonderful wife, and she brought me a pipe and hot coffee, and there's whipped cream on top of it. I bet there's chocolate in it. You're great. I love you. Thank you. I meant that. I didn't just say that for your benefit. She's wonderful. Just a few chapters ago, or as we call it around here, a few hundred episodes ago, we were talking about slavery. Well, I mean, we're talking about people being told that in order to be Christians and do that right, you gotta go back under the law and get back in the behavior mines again. Get out your pick and start chipping away. Even if it doesn't make any sense, swing the pick of not making any senseiness in order to earn not your freedom, but your continued right standing in the mine. I don't the first metaphor today was a lot better. But you get the point. We're talking about effectively slavery, eternal servitude to something that you can never get right. And there was also talk of a physical mark on the body to demonstrate that you are branded into that role of slavery spiritually forever. And Paul comes in in the first few chapters of Galatians. Like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It has a little bit of a feel of like Jesus flipping over tables in the temple. No, we're not doing any of this. This is all stupid. And then by the time you get to chapter three, well, it kind of the big counter proposal starts at the end of chapter two, right? It's where he says, I've been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I don't set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing. And then after chapter two, we're into the meat of Paul's argument, and then we're into the land, the plane here where we're at in Galatians 5, headed toward Galatians 6. But this is where Paul starts to pivot to the idea of you guys are actually you're good. You're outside the Bellagio, you're by the fountains. You should lean into that and not go back. So his first big swing is to say, you're made right with God by the work of Christ, plus nothing, not all of these other enslaving obligations that you do to try to impress God. That doesn't work. That isn't real. But then the second half of his point is it's not just the initial impressing of God that we're talking about here, the how you flip from being a slave to free, how you flip from being not right with God to right with God, to use very Christian language to flip from being not saved by the grace of God to saved by the grace of God. Paul tackles that early, but then he quickly pivots on to what happens with the rest of your life. And this is where he says it's life by the Spirit, the actual Holy Spirit. God is present with you, even indwells you. And this changes the equation entirely. And that is what opens up all the options in Oceans 11. It's a giant stack of money that they stole that opens up all the options. Don't worry about it, by the way, because the Andy Garcia character was a very bad man. So I guess I mean stealing from then is probably just don't think about the stealing part. Rather, think about the now we are free part at the end and we can go do whatever we want. And as we get toward the end of Galatians, we discover that some people have taken their freedom now that they are no longer under the cruel slave master tutor that is the law and they are now in Christ by the work of Christ. Some people are taking that freedom to live life by the Spirit. Some people are leaning into that and they're like, huh, without the burden of the law, I'm actually more free to do things that are redemptive and honoring to God, and that are demonstrative of the values of the kingdom, and that advance the household that I have been adopted into as a son or a daughter, an agent and heir of the king and his kingdom. Huh, there's a tremendous opportunity in that. There's really no law whatsoever that says I can't just go do stuff now and be stuff now as a son, a daughter, child, an agent, an heir of the kingdom. Unfortunately, there are other people in view here toward the end of Galatians who have been given this gift of freedom and are leaning there against the railing of the metaphorical spiritual Bellagio fountains, and they're like, I'm going to use my freedom to act like I'm not free and just continue to chip away in that mind mixed metaphor. We're just going to roll with it. So, in the last chapter and change, really, once we pivot into the fruit of the spirit, Paul is wrapping up his point by saying, Look, don't do the stuff that is the old way in terms of how you treat people. Don't do the gossip and the dissension and following every stupid festival that your pagan neighbors do that involves weird sex stuff and drunkenness. Don't do that. Quit chewing each other up and being dumb, stupid, petty gossips. Yeah, I know everybody does it, but we don't do it because we have the spirit. And the fruit of the spirit looks way different. It is all reflective of a life of freedom in Christ and opportunity to participate in this thing that gave us life in a meaningful, tangible way. And against that, there is no law. For the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things, there is no law. Sometimes that little tag on right there at the end of Galatians 5 23 that I just read sort of gets treated like the punctuation at the end of the fruit of the spirit, like the long ending of the Lord's Prayer. For thine is the power and the kingdom and the glory forever. Amen. Okay, I mean that's cool. That's beautiful. But when you get to that part when you're praying the Lord's Prayer, if that's something you pray or you go to a church where they do that, it can kind of feel like the end, is what you're saying with that phrase. Likewise, it kind of feels like you're saying the end sometimes, and you just reel off the fruit of the spirit. But the against such things, there is no law, is the world is wide open to you standing in front of the Bellagio Fountains moment. There's no rule that says don't reflect the love and joy and peace and patience of God. Don't go creatively figure out how to exhibit that and live in the spirit and walk by the spirit and trust the spirit. It's a different category than naughty, nice rule, not rule. Allowed, but only on weekends. Not allowed right now. You can't, it's just a totally different way of thinking. And it seems like Paul is really driving home that point as he lists off this beautiful list of stuff that everybody loves and that everybody wants. And then he's like, nobody's stopping ya. It's yours if you want it. The spirit has made it available. Right standing with God on the front end has been made possible by Christ and what he did, he defeated death. The spirit is in your midst. If you're Christians, nobody's stopping ya. So I love the way this feels like an invitation, even lightly, kind of a little bit of a tongue-in-cheek tease here against such things. There is no law. Yeah. Paul, you're right. This is a totally different category, and I've been invited to walk by the Spirit, to life by the Spirit. Okay, that's intimidating because it feels different than the categories I know and most things I do. But all right, Paul, you're making your point. And I look forward to you making what's left of the points you have to make in Galatians, because I would like to hear a bit more before we wrap up this letter. And we'll keep pressing in that direction. Maniana. I'm Matt. This is the 10 Minute Bible Hour Podcast. Seriously, if you haven't seen Oceans 11, you should probably go do that. Let's do this again soon.