Galatians 2

WELCOME

Pastor Chris Paavola:

Buddy. Good morning, man. Y’all were singing loud louder than I expected. You can tell when the spirit of God is moving in a church when it’s loud, the Sunday of daylight savings. I’ll just say that much. But no, I said that at 9 32. It was loud. It was legit loud. And I just love hearing you guys sing and praise. So thank you guys for being here, and thank you for everyone who’s tuning in online and watching. Good to be with you guys as well, even though 11 o’clock is too late for you on daylight savings. I understand that as well. Anyway, good to be with you guys. We are continuing our series Galatians, where we are going through the book of Galatians and we’re discovering God’s truth chapter by chapter verse by verse. So there’s six chapters in Galatians. We’re taking six weeks and we’re just walking through it each week, and that’s what we’re doing.

And sometimes we can come to church or we can open a Bible and we go there for an answer about something specific or I want to hear what God has to say about this particular topic, and there’s a time and a place for that for sure. Absolutely. I’m not saying you shouldn’t do that, but it’s different to just go, okay, Lord, what do you want to say? And to just open the book and just let him speak. You don’t set the agenda. He sets the agenda. You don’t lead the conversation, whatever he says, and you submit to that. And there’s a maturity that takes and a little bit of willpower, but I think it’s a worthwhile exercise. And when we do it, eventually we find ourselves into areas and conversations we otherwise normally wouldn’t go. And man, we didn’t think we needed something, but then we do need it.

And we’re like, wow. So there’s a blessing also in this little exercise. Now, last week when we did this, I did this back in the day as a youth pastor, and you guys were like, I like doing that. So just because we’re such a focus on the word of God, if you brought your Bible today, I invite you to grab it and hold it in your hands. If you don’t have one, I invite you to, can you borrow that one? You can have that one, yeah. Yeah. You can grab the black book in front of you. And here’s what we’re going to say. You’re just going to repeat after me nice and easy, and this is a great way before you open it to just make sure that your heart’s in the right place. So, repeat after me.

BIBLE PRAYER

Pastor Chris Paavola: This is my Bible.

Response: This is my Bible.

Pastor Chris Paavola: Lord, help me believe it.

Response: Lord, help me believe it.

Pastor Chris Paavola: Use it to teach me, correct me. Encourage me and change me. Open my heart, open my minds to hear what you have to say in Jesus’ name. And y’all say it nice and loud. Amen.

Response: Amen.

Pastor Chris Paavola: There you go. See, now you’re primed and ready to go. I love it. And what we’re going to do is we’re going to throw the verse on the screen and I’m going to kind of sketch and doodle and show you how I take notes in my Bible. Please don’t do this in the black Bibles. That would be for other people, but this is for if you brought your own Bible, I encourage you to write and take notes. It’s a way of processing it and it’s a way of memorizing it and just helping it take root in your heart.

And so yeah, I know it’s the Bible and you’re like, I don’t want to write it, Matt, mark it up. You can get another one. Okay. This is a great way. This is a great way to process it.

GALATIANS 2

Now, to bring you up to speed, to refresh your memory, this is chapter two, back in verse one, he talked about a lot. He talked about what the gospel is and all that kind of stuff. But there’s a key verse from chapter one that I want to call out because he’s going to do it again or he’s going to reference this idea again. It’s this verse 10 of chapter one where he says, “for am I now seeking the approval of man or of God, or am I trying to please man, if I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.”

And here he is talking about no favoritism and I think favor. I-T-I-S-M. Thank you. No favoritism. Thank you high schooler. So no favoritism, right? Y’all say no favoritism. So it’s this idea that what’s going on that we should not show favoritism to people and the church, it’s not like one person’s more important than another. Rich and poor have this in common. The Lord is maker of them both. Later on in Galatians, Paul will talk about there’s neither slave nor free Jew nor Greeks, male nor female, we’re all one in Christ. There’s not this idea that one person should get more preferential treatment than another person based on their higher status. And so no favoritism. And that theme, that idea is going to show back up as we read through verse two. So just keep that in your head. Now, the other thing that we’re going to keep in mind before we plow through chapter two is, and this came up last week as we talk about how Christ is the fulfillment of the law, and God does not accept us based on how many good things we do.

It’s just all on the works of Christ. And some of you guys asked me later on, and I should probably talk about it, it comes up again in chapter two. Here, it’s just this idea of the law. Some of you guys ask me afterwards of, wait a minute, what laws do I and I have to follow, like can I eat shrimp? Can I eat pork? Can I mix fabrics or all of these weird obscure laws in the Bible? Which ones do we and don’t we follow? And how does that all at all relate? Can I get a tattoo? That’s the one the kids always ask. So there are three, and this is a little reductionistic. This is a little simplistic, but I think it’s a helpful way of understanding what we’re talking about when we talk about God’s law. Really, there are three kinds of law.

The first is ceremonial laws. These are laws that have to do with how to conduct worship in the Jewish temple, how to wash your hands, how to kill a cow, how to dispose of the ashes, all of that kind of stuff. The laws and regulations of worship. Those are ceremonial laws. Then there are also in the Torah, there are cultural laws. These are the laws that distinguish the people of Israel from the other nations. This is what makes them distinct. And so that’s a Jewish star. So these are the things that make them distinct from the other nations. This is the kind of stuff where don’t get a tattoo, don’t mix fabrics. Don’t shave your head circumcised. All of these laws distinguish God’s people set them apart, make them unique from the other nations around them. And then the third kind of law is the moral laws don’t kill, don’t steal, don’t commit adultery.

Now, Jesus is the fulfillment. He met every requirement of the sacrifices and the obligations to the temple. So he fulfilled all of the ceremonial laws. Jesus, in fulfilling all of the cultural laws, abolish them. These are no longer the things that we do to distinguish ourselves because now God has crisis enabled the church to be made to come to all nations. There’s no longer a need to disassociate ourselves from the other nations around us. So these two laws are abolished because Christ has fulfilled them. The third law, Christ fulfilled this one as well. We still follow the moral law. Just because Jesus died and rose from the grave doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t commit adultery. Doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t beat up somebody. I didn’t mean to point at you specifically. I don’t think you’re beating up people.

The laws that still pertain to us are the ones that have to do with how we associate with one another and how we associate with God, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, strength, love your neighbor as yourself. So when he’s talking about the law today, he’s referring to the ceremonial and the cultural laws, and that’s something for us to keep in mind as we go through this. Otherwise, it gets really confusing. Why would the law not matter? I hope that’s helpful. It just gives us a framework to read Chapter two here. So here we go, right in Verse 1, after 14 years, so 14 years after his conversion, when Jesus spoke with him, “I went up again to Jerusalem.” So he hadn’t been back in a long time. “I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas and Titus”, and I always circle the names in my Bible. It’s that way. It’s a quick reference of when I’m scanning, I’m trying to find who’s what and everything. Why does this matter? Barnabas is a Jew.

Titus is a Gentile. He’s going back to Jerusalem, who lives in Jerusalem. Yeah, it’s not a trick question. The Jews live in Jerusalem, so he’s intentionally bringing a Jew and a Gentile back to Jerusalem saying, look, the gospel is for all nations. I’ve got Barnabas with me and Titus, and he’s walking back to Jerusalem to show the unity of the gospel. Because what Paul wants to make clear is that the cross of Christ unites all of our differences. Even Jew with Gentile and later on, male with female, young and old, rich and poor, black, white, Asian, European, African, we’re all one in Christ. Now, here’s the key distinction, though. He’s not saying that there’s suddenly uniformity, it’s unity, not uniformity beneath the cross of Jesus and the cross of Jesus reconciles all of our differences, all of them. And so it’s not that it doesn’t overlook them, it’s just that this is a great uniter. The cross is a great uniter of all people. And so we’re not looking at uniformity in the church. We’re looking at unity. And there’s no better way to demonstrate that than to let the cross unite a really diverse group of people. And that’s why we will continue to be a church as diverse as the city we serve because of this principle and this idea right here.

So, Verse 2, “I went up because of a revelation from God and set before them though privately, before those who seemed influential.” There’s that kind of idea. These influential people, y’all say no favoritism again favor “the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles in order to make sure I was not running hard or running or had not run in vain.” In other words, I’m going to Jerusalem not to get special endorsement from Peter, James and John and all the apostles. I’m already an apostle. I’m going to Jerusalem to verify that what I’m preaching out here in minor Asia among the Gentiles, the non-Jewish people, matches up what Paul and company are preaching in Jerusalem with all the Jews. That’s all I’m trying to do, not to get their endorsement, not to get their favoritism. Verse 3 “But even Titus who was with me was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek,” Verse 4 “Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in.”

This is in Jerusalem, “who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus so that they might bring us back into slavery, to, and here he is referring to slavery,” to the Jewish laws. Again, it is like a bondage. You cannot believe there’s over 600 laws that they had to follow to live life, insane regulations on their lives. Now up in Galatia, if you remember, a bunch of Jewish people started following Jesus. They were called Judaizers. And then when they started following Jesus, they said, Hey, we got to follow all these Jewish laws. They were trying to make Jewish again, these Gentiles. And Paul’s like, no, this is different. These are Jews who are trying to infiltrate the church in Jerusalem like moles, espionage like FBI, undercover agents. They’re trying to get in there to discover what the Christians are doing and to sabotage it, but they find them out because they’re easy to identify because they won’t break the ceremonial laws. Verse 5 “To them we did not yield in submission even for a moment so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you” and that he’s writing to Galatia. Then Verse 6, “And from those who seemed to be influential, there it is again. What they were makes no difference to me, God shows no partiality.

Those I say who seemed influential added nothing to me” Y’all say no favoritism. We do it all the time. There’s something about us that loves to elevate a certain group of people and bring down a certain group of people and to create some sense of hierarchy. And we like to associate with people who are important. It’s this idle worship that we’ve got in us and we get around, think about a celebrity. You’ve been around where you got fanboy or fangirl. All of a sudden you got around them and you were just like, because you thought that they could add value to you. You thought that somehow by associating with them, other people would think you’re more important. That’s why we do that. There’s no other reason they’re not. Taylor Swift is not that special. Brett Favre or who, I don’t even know why I said Brett Favre because I’m looking at Adam. Brett Favre does not make you a more important person to me. That’s the point Paul is making and fanboy and fangirl is in all of us. So last fall I bought tickets to the Texas, Michigan football game. I’m a huge Texas fan. Ever since college down in Austin Hook, I have been a huge Longhorn fan, good years and lean years. I just love the Longhorns and the first time they’ve ever played and over a century ever played, Michigan was happening. And I’m like, I got to go. And so I splurged on these tickets and please don’t ask me how much I spent on them, but I bought front row tickets right on the goal line of the Texas, Michigan game. I told Ashley it was my Christmas present, and she’s like, so is my Christmas present going to cost this much too? So that was kind of a thing.

But anyway, so we’re sitting there and we get super, super early because you got to, right? So we get there super, super early and as I’m standing there at my seats, I look over and as close as this podium is to me, there’s game right there. There’s Nick Saban. I could spit on him, and there’s Pat McAfee and Kirk Tre, they’re all sitting right there. And I’m like, oh my gosh. And I’m like, that’s Ashley’s like, I don’t get it. They’re just people. It means nothing to me. Then. So she was like looking at, and I’m like, can you take a picture? And she’s like, why? And I’m like, that’s the goat. That’s the greatest college football coach of all time. He’s right there. So I’m doing this. And then Ashley’s rolling her eyes taking a photo and like, okay, I got it.

But then Matthew McConaughey walks by if you don’t know who he is, that’s who he is. He’s a huge Texas fan as well. And he goes to every Texas game and he comes walking by and suddenly fan girl came out and she’s like, oh my goodness, it’s Matthew right there. Will you take my picture with him? And so she’s standing right there and then she’s smiling with Matthew McConaughey and I’m taking her picture and I’m like, you’re doing the same thing I was just doing and why is he so important to you? And it’s like getting insecure. I’m like, why does he matter this much to you? Here’s the stupid picture. And he walked away. But it’s in all of us. Why do I get so excited about Nick Saban or why did she, you could take the picture down, thank you about Matthew McConaughey. It’s because there’s something about being around them that suddenly will make us feel better about ourselves or make us feel more important to the people around us. Now I can go, well, I hung out with Nick Saban. We think that somehow that makes me more important to you. Why else would it matter? Why else would it matter? And that’s what Paul is saying here from those who seem to be influential, what they were makes no difference to me. God shows no partiality. Those I say who seemed influential added nothing to me.

And this is what he’s trying to make this point. I’m going there to make sure we’re preaching the same thing, not to fanboy not to get something from them. And then Verse 7 “On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised,” that’s the Gentiles, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised, that’s the Jews  Verse 8“for he who worked through the Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised also worked through me for mine to the Gentiles.” Verse 9 “and when James and Cephas and John, ”so these are three names, James, Cephas and John, they’re like the three leaders of the early church in Jerusalem. They seem to be pillars. There’s that phrase, no favoritism again seem to be pillars. When they “perceive the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me.”

We don’t really know what this right hand of fellowship thing means. We can kind of allude like, okay, it’s like a handshake or an endorsement or yeah, we’re in agreement with one another. Verse 10“so that we should go to the Gentiles and to the circumcised only asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.” Now we get into the juicy stuff in chapter two verse eleven. This is when the favoritism rears its ugly head. But when CFUs, by the way, Cephas and Peter saying, guy, he is just flipping back and forth from the Hebrew, from the Jewish to the Greek name when Peter came to Antioch. So Jerusalem’s down here and then you go up and they’re just a little bit, north is the city of Antioch, and this is a really important church and city in the early church, it seems like there’s this group of leaders and the structure there, we went.

So, Peter and Titus and Barnabas and Paul all go to worship in Antioch from Jerusalem.  Verse 11 “When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned.” Whoa, what happened? Well, he’s about to tell us what’s the opposite of speaking to somebody to his face behind the back. Okay, keep that in mind for before certain men came from James. So, there’s Verse 12 “James, he was eating with the Gentiles, but when they came, he drew back and separated himself feeling fearing the circumcision party.” So he’s referring here to these two kinds of laws, guys, ceremonial and cultural laws. That’s what he’s referring to. He’s afraid that he’s going to be judged by these other Jewish guys because of he’s breaking ceremonial and cultural laws. So they’re sitting there having dinner, get Titus and Barnabas, Gentile and Jew. There’s Peter and a bunch of Gentiles from Antioch and they’re all hanging out and Jews, they’re all eating together.

And then these guys from James, like are they pastors in training? We don’t know. They show up. This delegation shows up and Peter pushes the chair away from the table, kind of walks away and acts like he wasn’t hanging out with them. And then what’s wild is that everybody else does. And the rest of the Jews, the rest of them acted hypocritically along with him. Even Barnabas, my guy Barnabas, who’s been planting churches with me for two years all across Asia, Asia minor, even Verse 13 “Barnabas joined with them and joined in and was led astray by their hypocrisy.” Now that word hypocrisy, I think it’s an important word to call out. You know what the word hypocrisy, what’s the opposite of hypocrisy?

Integrity. Here’s why. When you have integrity, you have an integrated life. That’s where they share the same root word. You have an integrated life, meaning you have a set of values and morals, who you are, and it’s integrated into every aspect of your life. That’s integrity. You have integrity when your values and morals are integrated in every part of your life. Who you are in here matches who you are in school matches. Who you are at work matches, who you are at home matches who you are with the boys on poker night or in the softball league. You’re the same person. Integrity means that you have an integrated value system, character, code of conduct everywhere. That’s integrity. And Paul’s mad because Peter lacks integrity. Here he is being a hypocrite, two-faced, one person with one group of people, another person, another mask with another group of people. And this is why he’s so upset.

Verse 14  “And when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all”, and this is the big question right here. This is the guy that everyone debates. “If you though a Jew live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force Gentiles to live like Jews?” The question is, is Paul in the right to call out Peter in front of all these guys? A lot of ink has been spilled on this. And this brings up the question of conflict resolution. And in the church, what does this look like? What does conflict resolution, that was terrible. What does conflict resolution look like in the church? Because conflict is inevitable. Unfortunately, the head of the church, Jesus describes conflict resolution in Matthew 18. “Here’s how my followers are to resolve conflict in my church, in my gathering.” Here’s how. Okay, if someone offends you, the first thing to do is talk to them one-on-one, talk to them, have a conversation.

Put on your big boy pants and your big girl pants and have that confrontation and say, this is how I am offended. I’m offended because I feel this way because of X, Y, Z, what you did. And on the flip side, if somebody comes to you and says, here’s how you offended me. Your responsibility in the church and service to Jesus is to honor that and have that conversation, have that conflict resolution. Now you can. If you are offended, you can decide it’s not worth it. You can absolutely say, I’m not even going to deal with this. I’m going to move on. I don’t need something from them to move on and be healthy. I can move on. Scripture says in Proverbs, it is to a man’s honor to overlook an offense. And it also says how good it is when brothers dwell together in unity and kind are the wounds of a friend. So both things can be true. And if you’re sitting there going, it is just way more important to me to just move on. I don’t need anything from them. I’m healed. I’m whole as I am. I don’t need reconciliation from them. I can just move on and let by God to be God. Okay, fine. But if not, talk to them.

And if you have an offense with somebody and you decide not to talk to them and you talk to someone else about them, you know what they call that? What? Gossip, right? It’s gossip. And there are a few things Scripture speaks vehemently and ardently against like gossip. Because gossip destroys healthy churches. It is poison, it is toxic, and it must be rooted out, called out and stopped. How do you know if you’re gossiping? Here’s the definition. Gossip is speaking negatively about someone or something in the church to another person who is neither part of the problem nor the solution. I’m going to repeat that again. I’ll say it slowly. So you can write it on your message notes or write it in the margin of your Bible. This is huge. Gossip is speaking to someone, or sorry, gossip is speaking negatively about someone or something to a person who is neither part of the problem nor the solution.

And it is destructive to a healthy church. And it may not end the church and have the big collapse, but it sure as heck can slow it down. And that’s why Jesus speaks so passionately against gossip. That’s why scripture speaks so passionately against gossip. It’s awful. And gossip in the church usually sounds like this. It’s not in here, right? It’s out in that lobby or out in that parking lot or on the phone. Can you believe what they did? You see? Why are they? Or one way we’ll hide it is, I’m really struggling with this, so I’d like to share a prayer request with you about someone else. And then we hide gossip under a prayer request. Stop it. We will be a healthy church in the name of Jesus. This will be a healthy church, and it is open season every season for you to speak with me. If I offend you, do not go running to another person complaining about the pastor. Talk to me.

And the same thing applies for another leader. If another leader does something and you don’t like it, go talk to them. Don’t let Satan get a foothold in God’s church, period. It’s just non-negotiable, man. So if I’ve offended you, open invitation, talk to me. And if someone, the people in the room have offended you, open invitation, talk to them. And if someone’s talking to you about somebody else, the first thing you should say is, have you talked to them? Have you talked to them about it? I have a pastor friend of mine and he says, you can tell your church is healthy, but how many people come talk to the pastor?

It’s when you guys stop coming to me that I know gossip is happening. Open invitation. See Paola st mark.net. Please fill my calendar. It’s why I’m a pastor. We will be a healthy church, my friends. Somebody say, amen. Amen. Now here’s how then conflict. Well, what happens if we don’t agree? We’ve got one person, one person talking to each other and they’re fighting. Well, what if they can’t agree? Well, then Jesus takes it the next step one to one to one. Bring in a mediator, bring in this case, somebody in leadership at the church and mediate. Let them kind of guide the conversation. This week I had a mediating conversation, meeting between two people. It was beautiful. They were in conflict. I sat there and I helped talk through it this week in that office right there. And that was healthy. It’s hard. It takes maturity, but it’s time to grow up.

And then after that, if there’s still no reconciliation, you go to the larger body. And that could be whatever. In our church, we have a council who is elected, people elected by you to serve, to manage and oversee the business affairs of the church. And then we have a group of elders who oversee the spiritual affairs of the church. I am accountable to both the council and the elders. That’s the model of church that we have. And it’s healthy. And it’s healthy. When it works, it becomes unhealthy when we usurp some of this or go around or don’t follow this. And we have to be healthy, my friends, there’s too much at stake. People are dying out there apart from Jesus anyway, and they’re watching us. That’s the other thing. They’re watching us. It’s the illustration I had a while back of it’s people judge Jesus based on the conduct of Christians all the time they’re watching us. It’s like evaluating a car by evaluating the driver, but they are. And when they see fighting and backstabbing and they hear gossiping, that’s not Jesus.

Alright, so then here’s this little interesting thing. Verse 15. Oh yeah, yeah, let me put a bow on this. So the question really becomes, did Paul follow Matthew 18? Did he go one to one with Peter and then one to one to one with Peter? And then a couple things. A lot of ink has been spilled about this. We don’t know what Paul talked about with Peter prior to this. We don’t know what Peter, James and John talked about prior to this about the Gentiles and the Jews can now worship together. We don’t know. We don’t know. But in this moment, one thing that’s a little bit different in this scene that’s happening that he’s talking about right here in this scene, one thing that’s a little bit different is as Paul’s sitting there watching this, he’s watching a room full of people walk away from Titus and the other Gentiles, and Paul sees somebody being marginalized, somebody being oppressed, and he gives voice to the voiceless in that moment.

And he’s like, hold on all of you. And notice he speaks to all of them, all of you, what you’re doing to the Jews, like Titus, my friend here is wrong. And so it’s a public sin with a public correction one. But he’s in a position of leadership. Notice like when Peter walks away, it causes Barnabas and the others to sin. Leaders were held to a higher standard. You lead your home, you lead your family, you lead a workplace, whatever we’re held to a higher standard. But then when he sees it happening, he calls it out, he nips it in the bud as it’s happening right there in that moment, he’s giving voice to a voiceless person. There’s a person being marginalized in their group, and he’s like, Nope, nope. Because the cross of Jesus has united, the Jew and the Gentile, these ceremonial laws and these cultural laws are fulfilled.

Verse 15, in your Bible, is there a little quotation mark? Verse 15, does it continue? Raise your hand if you got a quotation mark that continues there. Okay, notice this one doesn’t. Greek doesn’t have quotation marks. Parchment was way too much money and ink was really expensive. So they would say things like he said, and then I said, and what follows is what? He said, we don’t know. This is bad writing. We don’t know where the conversation stops. So is verse 15, Paul’s still talking to Peter. We don’t know in the ESV, they say, no, your guess is as good as mine. Anyway, Verse 15 “we ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners.” Verse 16 “Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ.” The reason I think he’s still talking is we ourselves are Jews.

He’s writing to the Galatians who are not Jews. So my hunch is this is still the conversation he’s having with Peter. “So we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law. Because by works of the law”, right? So works of the law through faith, Christ works to the law because “no one will be justified.” This is all the gospel. So this gospel right here, this is like the gospel 1 0 1 right here. You’re not justified by God, by what you do. You don’t have a better standing with God because of what you do. You don’t have a worse standing with God because of what you failed to do or what the bad things you did. Doesn’t matter. It’s Gospel 1 0 1. So he repeats it. Verse 17, could you put marks here? 17 I don’t know if  Verse 17 “in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners.

Is Christ then a servant, a sin? Certainly not!” Verse 18 “For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor.” Verse 19 “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live to God.” And then here, my friends, in Verse 20, this is one of the most famous verses in Galatians and in the New Testament. And if there’s a verse in my Bible I want to memorize, I put a little key next to it, or sometimes I’ll put a little heart next to it to say, this is something I need to memorize. This is gold. This is just pure gold. Verse 20 “For I have been crucified” with all of my pride, all of my ego, all of my ambition to be great, all of my desire to be around famous people and rich people and successful people. All of my desire to be over others, all of my desire to build my kingdom, my name, my glory, my renown, all of it has been crucified “with Christ.” It is nailed to a cross dangling and bloody and dead. My ego, my id, my super ego, my pride, all of it is dead.

“It’s no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me”, the risen Christ who lives in me “and the life I now live in the flesh. I live by faith and the son of God who loved me and gave himself”, and this is a reference to verse four, chapter one, verse four. He loves that phrase again and again. He gave himself, Paul is really overwhelmed by Christ, voluntary sacrifice. He that gave himself language a lot in his letters. And it’s very interesting, the life I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Verse 21 “I do not nullify the grace of God for of righteousness were through the law then Christ died for no purpose.” Let’s look at that guys. We let God own the conversation this morning. We didn’t come with this agenda of like, Hey, speak on this topic. Talk about this thing or this thing that was really important to us. We didn’t. We came and was open and said, okay, speak. And he spoke. Spoke about some very specific things Today. He spoke about gossip. These are not things that we would normally talk about, but he spoke about it. He spoke about the gospel. And there’s nothing I can do to make God love me more or less. It’s only by faith in Christ that I’m accepted.

He talked about conflict resolution. These are good and healthy things for our growing church, that we grow deeper as we grow wider. All because you had the maturity to just let God speak. I hope you’ve been blessed by it. Will you pray with me?

CLOSING PRAYER

Heavenly Father, thank you for this chance to come together. And this word just lays heavy on my heart the ways that we’ve fallen short. Lord, I confess that we have treated your word flippantly and with the stain, and it’s just this rich treasure that’s waiting for us. And so forgive us of that. Forgive us also, Lord, for any time that we’ve gossiped, spoken negatively about someone or something in your church, to another person who is neither part of the problem nor the solution.

I don’t know what it is, God, that why we love speaking negatively about others. I think part of it is we love cutting others down because it makes us feel better about ourselves. We’re over them. It elevates us not by growing, but by cutting them down. And it’s sick. So forgive us of gossip. And Lord Jesus, in your name, I proclaim in this church that you would root out gossip, slander, malicious, talk for the sake of unity, that we may be one even as you are one. And then for conflict resolution, God help us to have the maturity that we need to talk with those who have offended us or who we’ve offended bring about the unity that your cross creates that in spite of our differences, whether it’s our race, our class, our culture, or our conflict, that your cross demonstrates its power to reconcile all things.

And I thank you, Lord, that you are the mediator. You are the mediator. When we go to a one-on-one conversation, it’s not just the two of us talking. It’s your presence. You are the first mediator long before we go to a human mediator. You are there guiding the conversation in your church. You are present, and Christ is our mediator, not just in our relationship with you, God making us right and mediating between you and I in the ways that we’ve fallen short, that Christ is present mediating between us. How awesome is this? So Christ, come mediate your church. We thank you for the mediation that you’ve done in our behalf, to declare us righteous before the God we have offended.

And you can hear mediating in the language of a mediator, even in the prayer. He taught us to pray as he said, our Father, who whites in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.