The Church of Eleven22 - Where Do You Boast?: Be Free - Wk 13

Episode Date: June 30, 2024

Where do you boast: In your works? Your accomplishments? In the world? Religious resumé? - The Church of Eleven22® is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Eleven22 is led by Pastor Joby Martin and based in Jacksonville, Florida, with multiple campuses throughout Jacksonville and the surrounding areas. To find out more about how God is moving at Eleven22, go to CoE22.com

Kind of feel like we should just bring the band up, give an author call, and call it tonight. What you think? Hey, if you got your Bibles, we're going to be in Galatians chapter 6. We're going to begin in verse 11. I know we have it done, verses 1 through 10. We're going to swing back around and do those next week. And we are wrapping up Paul's letter. Again, we're going to do Galatians 1 through 10 next week.

But we're going to study the final words that Paul has to say to the Galatians. And what he's going to focus on is what he's been focused on from the very beginning. Paul is going to bring it back to the cross. He started with the cross. He's going to end with the cross. He began with grace. He's going to end with grace. This is what he's talking about.

Seven times in the book of Galatians. It's not a big book. The whole letter to the Galatians is this big. Now I use the ELP version. You know what that means the extra large print. So in y'all's Bible, it's like this big. And seven times in these few pages, he fixes our eyes on the cross because that is all that Paul wants to preach. And it's, in his last few sentences here, it's a really, it's a, it's a summation of all that he's

been saying. He was to remind the Galatians that we are justified by faith alone, not by law, nor by works, particularly the mosaic law, and particularly circumcision. That doesn't save you. Therefore, what he's saying is, throw off the works of the flesh that will cause you to live under the burden and the bondage of the slavery of flesh, and instead walk in the freedom that comes with knowing that you are a son, whether you're a boy or a girl, when you put your faith in Jesus, you were adopted as a son.

The reason that matters is because in the first century, only a son could receive the inheritance, and so it's elevating everybody. It's not diminishing anybody. So what he says is whether you're a Greek or a Jew, whether you're a slave person or a free person, regardless of your background, whether you're male or faithful. female, all of us at the cross are adopted as co-heirs with Christ because of what he did on the cross. So quit going back to legalism, to look at Jesus on the cross and say, what you did wasn't enough. Let me add to what you're doing, but received as a free gift of grace what he did

for you. And if you'll remember, he's ticked. This is the first letter that he writes, and he doesn't even start up. Most of his letters start out with really nice things. Philippians, love you, miss ya, mean it, loose translation. Here, he's like, who has perplexed you? If you believe another gospel, may you be damned to hell. And in fact, those who are causing you problems, I wish they would castrate themselves. These are the kind of things that he says. So those of you that send me emails that say, my language is a little aggressive, see the book of Galatians, okay? Now we get to the end. Verse 11 says this, see with what large letters, I, Paul, am writing to you with my own hands. So the way it would work is that Paul would

dictate his letters. That Paul had like a secretary with him and he would speak the words. The person would write it down. But at the end, he thinks this is a big deal who's like, give me that pen. He grabs it himself and he wants the church to know that he is writing down the end of this letter. Now, here's what's very important. Even though the apostle Paul is humanly, physically writing this letter, what Paul is writing is the Word of God. That around here, I mean, you believe whatever you want to believe. Around here at the Church of 1122, we believe in the inerent, infallible, sufficient Bible, which is the Word of God.

I'm a Bible guy, okay, from beginning to end, cover to cover. Like, I think the maps work and the leather's genuine. I'm all in on the Bible. And what theologians will say is that God superintuitive. the humans that were writing the words to make sure it was his word that came through for his people, his church. So this is the Word of God. It's the reason that we study the Word of God.

If you'll notice every week we don't show up and I'm like, hey, here's three more ideas I had. I'm not that smart. We know that. You don't know need to amen that one, okay? We all know. So what we do is we just walk through the Word of God, word by word, verse by word. by verse, even if we're studying a topic, which is fine, even there we have a passage of

scripture that we exeat, that we just dig into, because I know this, that I can expose you to the Word of God, but only the Spirit of God can expose His Word to you. And so the real preacher around here is the Holy Spirit, not me, I just get to be the one talking most of the time, but he is the one that is going to take these words and sink him deep down into your soul. Because if you could see the way God sees, then you would do what God says. Me too, man. And so this is what we're rooted in. So the reason we would spend 14 weeks on this ancient letter from a guy named Paul to a group of people in Galatia is because this is actually your creator, sovereign, king, and savior that not just has a word about us, but to us. In fact,

the reason we studied the Bible this way is because 2 Timothy 316 says this. The Apostle Paul is writing to young Timothy, and he says, all scripture is breathed out by God. I love that phrase. The Greek word is theos noostas. This Bible is living and active. You know what else is theos nuis? You. Then when God formed the very first man, he, feas noostas.

He breathed the breath of God into the very first human being. And that Adam opened his eyes and he was alive. This is not just a historical account. It is a historical account, but there's a lot more to it than that. It's alive. This word, if you will let it, sometimes even if you don't let it, it'll just do it to you and you didn't want it to. But it will begin to divide things in your life.

It'll get into places in your life that no TED talk can do. Because it's the living, active word of God. And all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable. All scripture is profit. for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training and righteousness, that the man, the person of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. In fact, the Apostle Peter writes about what Paul was writing. In 2 Peter 119, Peter says this about Scripture.

He says, and we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed to which you will do well to pay attention to as a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. So sometimes if people disagree with the Bible, they'd be like, well, that's your interpretation. No, you're just the Lord of your own life and what to do what you won't. Just be honest, okay? For no prophecy has ever been produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. So even when Paul says, give me that pin, Even in that moment, as he's going to write these large letters, it's the very spirit of God

that is carrying the Apostle Paul along to write God's word to God's people. In fact, two chapters later in second Peter, chapter 3, verse 15, beginning of 15, Peter says this about Paul. This might help you a little bit. It says, and count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him. Like Paul didn't make this up. God gave him this wisdom, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. Now, you're going to love this next sentence that Peter writes.

There are some things in them that are hard to understand. You ever been studying in the Bible? And be like, that's hard to understand. The Apostle Peter, the first pope, same thing. He's reading Romans about it. This is complicated. Okay, no problem. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction.

as they do other scriptures. So in the life of Paul and Peter, within a decade of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, they are talking about these things. Peter is saying these things that the Apostle Paul is writing down is Scripture, the Word of God. Please, please, please, don't take the scriptures for granted. I mean, how blessed are we that we live in a time right now.

You can download the Bible in every church. translation you can imagine and languages you don't even know what the letters mean and carry it around in your pocket and pull it up and look at it whenever you want. Men and women have died given their lives that we could have a Bible in a language and a translation that we could understand. Jesus says abide in my word and I will abide in you. Please don't take that for granted. Please, I'm telling you, man, you leave your Costa's here. You'll be back in two seconds.

We have so many of your leather brown Bibles with your name on it. please don't let this thing just like curl up in your car but curl up with it in your bed and like king david says that he he he meditates upon the word day and night i've told you before man i wish i could make you love what i love i can't i try to make you love all the things i love you love i love you love you want it's not you know you can't help it try to get gretchen love sweet tea she won't know what's wrong with that woman but i love this word i want you to love this word that's why we teach out of this word. So Paul, these letters, he's about to write down. He's like, pay attention. It's the original extra large print Bible. That's what he's writing. See with what large letters

I, Paul, am writing to you with my own hand. Now, why is he writing large letters? Oh, there's a lot of theories there. It could be like an all caps text. That's what it could be. It's like, the scribe has been writing in this, you know, calligraphy kind of cursive thing. He's like, get that crayon to mean. He's like, you better, right? He's yelling the end. That could be it. Also, it may be, this is, a lot of theologians think that when Paul talks about this physical ailment, remember earlier in Galatians, he says, the only reason I got to preach to you is because it had a physical ailment. Some people thought he got malaria when he was in the low country preaching because there's a bunch of mosquitoes there. Malaria can attack the ocular nerve and that he

had bad eyes. Therefore, he went up to Galatia to go up to like the high country. so that it wouldn't be that bad and he could recover. And at one point he's like, you guys welcomed me so well. Remember, you would gouge out your eyes and give me an eye transplant if that were a thing. And so the thing that Paul talks about in 2nd Corinthians, chapter 12, when he says that he's been given a thorn in the flesh, some people think that it was his eyesight. And I'm so glad that he didn't tell us what it was. Because if he did tell us the specific thing, all of us dumb Christians would get so obsessed

with that one single category, there'd be a whole whole thing. division in the Bible bookstore about the thorn of the flesh. So here's what he says about it. He says, so, this is in 2nd Corinthians 12. I'm just going to read it, so trust me. So, this is what Paul says, about a thorn in the flesh, about an ailment, about a problem in his life. So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations,

here's what he means. He's like, man, the way he says is, I know a guy that's been called up to the third heavens. I think he's talking about himself. He's like, this guy. Like, God has revealed some things to me. And in order that I not be conceded, a thorn was given me in the flesh. Then he describes what the thorn is.

Ready for this? A messenger of Satan to harass me. You don't want to talk about the sovereignty of God? Do you mean God's giving out demons to preachers? Put that in your theological pipe and smoke it. You understand what I'm saying? Paul believes in the sovereignty of God, to the point where he understands that the most painful thing in his life, that a demon is

oppressing him, God is still using that very thing for God's grace in Paul's life. He keeps going. To keep me from becoming conceited three times I pleaded with the Lord about this. Now, I don't think this means like one to two, three. I don't think it's what it means. I think it means like three seasons of Paul's life, Paul fast and praise and begs God to change his situation and to change his circumstances. You ever been there?

Yeah. Get a prodigal kid. This is the kind of thing I'm talking about. That's somebody that you love like crazy, get sick. This is the kind of season of prayer I'm talking about, right? You ever have God not do what you want him to do? It could be confusing, no doubt. But here's what Paul says about this season of his life.

Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you. For my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly in my weakness. Listen, who boasts about their weakness? Nobody that I know boasts about their weakness. Paul says, because God's grace is sufficient for me and that God's power is made perfect in my weakness, therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness so that the power of Christ

may rest upon me for the sake of Christ, then I am content with weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for when I am weak, I am strong. Talk about being free. This whole thing is about being free. Paul is the freest man's ever lived. Paul's like, listen, man, when people insult me, it just reminds me of. God's grace towards me. Man, I wish I could be that guy.

I get insulted a lot. I just want to fight. I just want to fight. Paul, Paul's like, I've been fought for. I'm fine. Am I still trying to win the approval of man or of God? I don't have to fight with you. Jesus fought for me and won me at the cross.

Who am I going to fight with? I mean, listen, I can preach it. I can preach a heck out of it. See, I don't even boast of my weakness. I talk about how good preacher is. terrible. And this man is absolutely and completely free. So maybe he's not writing the letter because you can't see that good. Maybe I don't know. But at this point, he thinks it's so important. He says, give me that pen. And he writes it in big letters. It could be for urgency. It could be

because you can't see that good. But here's what he says in large letters. It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised. Remember, kind of the context So what's happening in Galatia is that Paul on a missionary journey preaches the gospel in Galatian. A bunch of people get saved, a bunch of little house churches pop up. They receive the gospel with gladness. They receive him and the message of Jesus with gladness at first. And then a group of legalists, every mental legalist, a church person, they move in and they basically say what Jesus did on the cross was not enough. You have to be good enough.

You've got to believe in Jesus and obey, and then you will be saved. and Paul's like, who told you that? That is not the gospel at all. The gospel is you believe in Jesus and you are saved and then that will change how good you are, not the other way around. And so he says, those people, they're just trying to make a good showing in the flesh

who would force you to be circumcised and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. You see, they were trying to believe in Jesus and add on their laws. verse 13 for even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law here's i don't know if you've met a legalist by the way nobody thinks there are one by the way i was thinking about this no one thinks they're a legalist and you see what a legalist does is a legalist says that everything is

important a liberal says nothing is important and he's saying listen the people that are telling you if you don't obey the law, you can't be saved, these people aren't obeying the law either. They're just picking one of the laws that their parents obeyed on their behalf when they were eight days old. And so that's the one they're picking out. But earlier in Galatians, he says, if you want to be saved by your works, then you have to obey all 613 laws. And listen, this is very, very, very common in the church. Oftentimes what happens is religious people, people that believe in a workspace righteousness, they will highlight some laws,

but negate all the other ones. So like when I was growing up in the South in a Southern Baptist Church, here were the laws. We don't drink, smoke, or chew, or go with girls who do. That's what, that's, we had four laws. You know how many sermons on gluttony I heard? Zero.

Gossip? That was a whole point, that was a whole time and small group called prayer request. Better pray for Tammy. She's living in sin. with Billy. So we didn't hear sermons on that. So you've got to be really, really careful when you begin to highlight certain sins as damnable,

but the sins that you actually struggle with and are tempted by, somehow God's okay with that and just pat you on the head. That's not the real sins I died for. You see, that's the problem with legalism. And so he says, for even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law. The reality is that none of us can keep. the law. None of us can keep the law. I mean, if you ever, you know, like Christians love to fight to get the Ten Commandments put up in places, they don't even know where it is in the Bible. It's Ex-Zis 20,

but you know the point of the Ten Commandments is that you are a lawbreaker? The point of the Ten Commandments is not to keep the law, it's that you can't. Have you thought about them lately? The first one is worship God alone. Have you ever treated something temporary as if it was the most important thing in your life? Mm-hmm. The second one is no idol. Have you ever made something that was a gift from God, treated it as more important than God? The third one is don't use the Lord's name in vain. Anybody ever done that one? You do it to our parking attendants at the end of the service.

The fourth one is don't keep the Sabbath. Come on, seriously, Chick-fil-A is the only people that still do this. And, you know, when you drive by on a Sunday, and you're like, look, no line. You're like, oh, Sabbath Christians, right? The fifth ones, obey your parents. if you've ever been 16 or two, you've already broken this one. The six ones don't murder. That's about the time where you're like, ha ha, nailed it.

Never killed anybody. Didn't Jesus with that pesky sermon on the mount. You remember that one? If you've ever hated your brother in your heart, you ever gotten mad at somebody, then you broke that one. Seventh one is thou shalt not commit adultery. And if you're like, ha ha, I've been faithful to my wife. And Jesus ups that one.

If you've ever lusted in your heart after another person, you've committed adultery. If you've ever commodified the body of somebody else for your own game. See, how are we doing so far? Anybody want to stand up and go nailing it? No, that would be pride. And the Bible says God opposes the proud. He'd strike you down right now. It's the worst of all.

Eight is don't lie. You ever lie? Do you cook a box this week that says, I have read the instruction. and agree. Liar. You don't read those things. Don't steal. Don't covet.

You ever watch HGTV? Yeah. That's it, man. I'm old for ten. And I'm a professional Christian. You see, the point of the law is not that if we could just be good enough, then we can make ourselves acceptable before the Lord. The point of the law is, I need a savior to do for me

what I cannot do for myself. This is why seven times. in the book of Galatians, he's going to point us to the cross. So you pick any kind of legalism to get after and nobody's pulling it off. Nobody's pulling them all off. He says, for even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh. You see, the Judaizers, the legalists, the religious people, this happens a lot. They're trying to use you for their gain.

Like they're giving out badges on whoever can get the most circumcisions in a week, right? They're bragging about those kind of things. Listen, I hope you can hear my heart here. Myself and the pastors and staff and elders and deacon, like the 1122, we're just trying to serve you with the gospel. We're not trying to use you for anything.

And if we boast in anything, the only thing we can boast in is what Jesus is doing. I mean, sometimes people are like, why you post all those baptisms online? Because God saved all those people. Have you noticed what the shirt says? It does not say, I got baptized at Jobi's church. That would be wrong.

Can you imagine if I was like, y'all see what I did? Oh my gosh, man. No, no, no. It says Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. That's it. And a part of the re... So many of you have so many wonderful ministry ideas for us. Thank you so much for all of those ideas.

We're not doing it. We're not doing it. You should do them. Do it, man. If you want to do them, do them. Do a single thing and do people over 30 and two cats. Do a thing, man. Do whatever ministry you want to start.

Do a nine-finger ministry for those people. Whatever you want to do. If you were here last week. Okay. Let me tell you what we're going to do. For you, is we're just going to try to be a movement for you and all your one mores to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ? That's what we do.

This isn't like the YMCA where we do a bunch of programs. And we don't even, like when I urge you to join a disciple group, it's not because we have some kind of goal or quota on getting a certain amount of people in disciple group. That is not what it is whatsoever. In fact, never am I going to say, like, this is something you have to do. You can do whatever you want to do. If you look at our discipleship journey, which I asked you to download and go through last week, there's no beginning.

There's no step one. Did you notice that? Because I'm not trying to tell you what your next step of obedience is. I'm just trying to work with a whole bunch of people here to offer to you what your next step is. And I want you to hear from the good shepherd, because only the Holy Spirit can tell you what it is. And then you be obedient. And then we are here to serve you. You're not here to serve me.

But these Judaizers, they were trying to use these people. What we're trying to do is we're just trying to serve you by helping you take your next step of obedience, which is to make disciples. These Judaizers were saying, okay, if you obey, then you'll be accepted. Paul's like, that's not the gospel. It's not the gospel. The gospel says, because I'm accepted in Christ, I will obey.

And when I fail, I fall on the same grace that brought me to you. and then one of my favorite verses in the whole Bible. Now, if you're paying attention, that's like 38 favorite verses. But I don't care, okay? He says this, but because he's coming right on the heels of those people who are trying to use you, those people who are trying to go back to headquarters and brag on how many people they got to obey the law. But far be it from me. The King James says, I don't know what it says.

It says something about God in there, but God's not a little thing. I can't remember what it says. But far be it from me. It's like a hard verse to translate. He's like, if I do anything in my whole life, I'm not going to do the thing that I'm about to say to do, okay? Like, God help me. That's what it says in the new thing.

God help me if, that's what it says. Like, whatever I'm going to do, I don't want to do this thing. But far be it from me to boast. See, the Judaizers are boasting in their flesh, literally. And he's saying, far be it for me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by which the world has been crucified to be and out of the world. I mean, what a verse, man. Here's what he's saying. The cross is the most important thing in all of the scriptures. The cross is central to everything. And when the Bible says the cross, it's kind of shorthand

for the life, death, resurrection, and return of Jesus. He's like, the cross is the most important. What Jesus came to do completely outweighs even what Jesus told you to do. Do you ever think about that? You see where legalists comes in, where the law comes in, where the flesh comes in is we oftentimes spend all of our time saying, are you doing the things that he told you to do? You won't have the power to do that if you don't first and foremost understand what he did for you.

I didn't make that up. Tim Keller said that. God rest the soul. Remember Matthew 16? This is where Jesus takes the boys on a camping trip to Sin City, Sassaria, Philippa. And he says, who do people say that I am?

They're like, religious leader. He goes, who do you say that I am? Peter says that, right? Peter's always going to talk first and most. You talk enough eventually. You say some good stuff? He nails it. Peter says, you are the Christ,

the son of the living God. Jesus is like, you nailed it. That's going to be the foundation of the church. that declaration that I am the Christ, the son of the living God. In other words, the gospel is the foundation of this ecclese of this movement, this thing we call church. And the gates of hell will not prevail against it. So then he says, let me tell you what this foundation is.

For the next few verses, Jesus says, I'm going to be arrested, tried, beaten, crucified, dead, buried, and then resurrected. For those of you knew the Bible study, that's called the gospel. And you know what Peter does? the Bible says Peter rebukes Jesus because Peter doesn't think the gospel should be the foundation Peter thinks what they do should be the foundation it's a lot of churches and so he says Jesus come over not on my watch you ain't going to die on my watch and what does Jesus say Jesus says get behind me Peter he says get behind me Satan anytime you subvert the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ

and don't keep it central not only in your life but also your theology and doctrine and your church, then you are being a disciple not of Jesus, but of Satan. This is what works based righteousness is. So he says, far be it for me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and out of the Lord. I'm going to come back to that verse. So let me ask you this. He says, far be it from me to boast. Okay, let me get in your business just a little bit. Is boasting far from you or close to you? To boast, it's actually the military term? That's what boasting means. I didn't know this.

I also learned this from Tim Keller. You know that scene in Braveheart where William Wallace comes out, and he says, I see before me, an army of Scots. You know that thing? And he ends with, they can take away our lives, but they can't take away our freedom. That was the boast to say what we are about to do is worth the fight. That's it. In Jeremiah, the Bible will say, I will not boast in sword or shield, but I would boast in the Lord. The boast is, where do I find my confidence?

It kind of makes sense. So if boasting about you is close to you, it's because you and I are putting our confidence in ourselves. Now, nobody thinks they say boast. They just think they're telling the truth. I just say awesome things, and I'm awesome, and so I don't know what to tell you, okay? Let me ask you a few questions.

Why do you feel the need to talk about you so much? Why do you feel the need to post about you so much? Like, it's boasting, isn't it? Man, I get it. I get to do cool stuff. I want to take a picture of it and show it to you so you'll think I'm even cooler. Look at this other person I hung out with. Here's my food that you can't have.

You know what I mean? Can I tell you my favorite one that I need you to stop doing? Just toes at the beach and be like, my quiet time's better than yours. That one? That's a weird boast right there when Jesus said you should do your quiet time in a closet. Don't tell anybody. He'd be like, oh my God, I'm just reading Matthew 6 right now about going into my closet and not telling anybody. And I'll be live on Instagram here in a few minutes so you can learn what he's teaching me.

That might not be what he's talking about, okay? Man, why? Why? Why do you feel like we got to one-up the next guy in your story? Or instead of talking about you, you just use your children, but what you're really talking about is you. Listen, our generation invented the selfie as the phone rings. That's so good. We worked on that all right.

I mean, literally, it's called the self-ly. And Philippians, too, tells us that Christ was selfless. Do you know that 429 people in our world have died of what they call selfie deaths in 49 different countries? Darwin wasn't wrong about everything. That's what I'm going to tell you. But just to get that perfect shot, they just leaned too far in front of the train. I ran about this way too much today.

I went down this rabbit hole. Literally the first one they recorded was in India. And it's really sad. This person is trying to like get the right on the pit on a train. And boom, he's gone. That's run over by a grace train, but it wasn't a grace train. It was just a train train and it just knocked his head off. So think about this.

Do you boast in your accomplishments, in your degrees, in your status, in your wealth, in who you know, in your kids? The answer is, yeah, we have a tendency to. many of us do how about this I used to ask our teenagers when I did student ministry a hundred years ago

I'd ask them this all the time if you got arrested for being a Christian and I investigated your life could I find enough evidence to convict you because there's a bunch of like secret disciples I told you before I'd roll up to like

Fletcher high school to see one of our kids and like hey man you've seen Tom and be like why are you here old man like oh he's in my youth group Tom goes to church Yeah, he's one of our leaders. That's cool. And then I'd go see Tom, like, hey man, I asked that girl about you, and he's like, I've been trying to disciple her for a long time. Have you? She doesn't even know that you're a believer. I think you're a liar. That's what I think you are,

okay? So let's talk about that for a little while. Now, what I want to encourage you to, I don't want you to do this for anyone else. That's what will make you a legalist. But I dare you to go through all of your social media posts over, I don't know, the last seven days, What would it scream the most important thing in your life is? And if Jesus or the Bible or your Lord and Savior or what you say is first in your life doesn't show up anywhere in your public presentation of yourself, then I think you're quick to boast in you.

Because you want everybody to see you. Now again, please don't scroll through everybody else to judge them. That's not why we're talking about here. So if I were to investigate your life, would you find enough external evidence to convict you of loving Jesus? Or he says, but far be it for me to boast in himself, except what he will boast in is the cross. Do you boast in the cross? Is the cross of Jesus Christ more important to you than anything else? In order to boast in it, first and foremost, you've got to know that you need it. To boast in the cross is to admit I'm a sinner in need of his Savior, I ain't got this. We live in a world that

just says, come on man, I got this. And the cross screams, I ain't got this. I need someone to do for me what I cannot do for myself. Do you boast in the cross? He says, far be it for me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let me ask you this, is he your Lord? do you know him as Lord and Savior when Jesus tells you what to do have you surrendered your life to his Lordship especially when you don't like it you know how easy it is

to submit when somebody gives you like if you had a dietician they're like this week it's nothing but donuts to be like I submit oh man Lordship is when God I want to do this but you say that and I know that you love me and I know that you know better than me. So you are my Lord and with the help of the spirit in me I'm going to try to do what you have told me to do,

not what I want to do. Is he your Lord? He says, far be it for me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by which the world has been crucified to me. Ask yourself that question. Has the world been crucified to you? Or are you indistinguishable from this world? I'm not saying you got to be weird and wear prairie dresses and make your own butter and be Amish. I love to pick on the Amish and people get so offended on behalf of the Amish. You know why I pick on the Amish? Because they can't email me. That's it.

That's the only reason. That's it. That's it, man. No, I know. You're going to be like, I know an Amish guy. Cool. Praise God for Zeb or whatever his name is. All right.

I'm sure he's great. Has this world been crucified to you? Remember at the end of John 21 when Jesus is reinstating Peter? Because Peter's all wrapped around the axle of his mistakes and he thinks he's done. And so Jesus brings him back to breakfast and ask him three times, do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me? And he's like, oh, you know I love you. He's like, feed my sheep, feed my lambs, tend my sheep.

And then he says this, he gives him some terrible news, which is the greatest news of all time. You're going to die. Bad. Follow me. Do you know what Peter's next remark is instead of like, oh, thank you for your grace? He sees John walk by and he's like, well, Well, what about him? You know what Jesus says?

What about him? What I'm going to do with him has nothing to do with you. This message, if right now you're thinking, I should send this to my father-in-law. You're going to miss the whole point, man. Has the world been crucified to you? Or are you indistinguishable from the world? I mean, like, do you do the world the way the world does the world? Do you love the patterns of it?

this world. Do you love stuff, just like the world loves stuff? Do you love sex and satisfaction the way the world does? Do you love yourself the way the world tells you to? Jesus says to follow him is to crucify that. I mean, that means a brutal death that we have to crucify our flesh in this world. You see, Jesus is not an add-on or an accessory to your life. He either is your life or you don't know when. Now, I'm not saying you get it right, man. I get it wrong all the time. But the grace that saves me when I stumble and fall is the grace that I fall on.

And he's a good dad and he knew what he was getting when he adopts me. And by that same grace, he picks me back up, dust me off and go follow me. Let's keep going. But he's not an accessory. Verse 15, for neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. Hey, your secondary issue at the church is not the most important thing in the world. The gospel is the most important. So please help me keep it all about the gospel around here.

He says, here's what Paul's saying, dude, whether you're circumcised or uncircumcised, it don't matter at all. Like when you get to heaven, God's not going to check. You don't let me think? Okay, come on, go. It's not how it works. It's not about an external surgery from the Old Testament. It's about has your life been changed by Jesus Christ? because the law is placed on the outside and it can't save you or change you that we've got to be

saved from the inside by grace through faith. That's what he's saying. And the result of this is that you are a new creation. The way he says that in 2nd Corinthians 517 is therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away and behold, the new has come. In other words, you don't have to do the things you used to do. That's not the person you used to be. The old you is dead.

You were crucified with Christ. And now you get to live a brand new life because you're not just an old person that's trying to do better. You're somebody that used to be dead is now alive. The gospel is not making bad people better. It's not making lawbreakers, lawkeepers. It's making a brand new creation in Christ. See, C.S. Lewis says it this way in mere Christianity. He says, he's speaking like from God's perspective.

He says, give me all of you. I don't want so much of your time and so much of your talents and so much of your money and so much of your work. I want you, all of you. I have not come to torment or frustrate the natural man or woman, but to kill it, no half measures will do. I don't want to only prune a branch here and a branch there. Rather, I want the whole tree out. Hand it over to me.

The whole outfit, all of your desires, all of your wants and wishes and dreams, turn them all over to me. Give yourself to me and I will make of you a new self in my image. Give yourself to me, and in exchange, I will give you myself. My will shall become your will. My heart shall become your heart. As somebody who has made this trade, it's the greatest exchange you'll ever make in your entire life for all of eternity. And so he goes on to say, and as for all who walk by this rule, what rule, not the law rule, but the grace rule.

the rule that you have been transformed into a new creation by grace through faith in what God has done through the gospel, that rule. And for all who walk by this rule, ready for this, peace and mercy be upon them. And upon the Israel of God. He's talking to a bunch of people that grew up Jewish and think they get an automatic pass because of who their grandparents were. And he's like, nope. there are no there's no groupons in the heaven it's a single file line and it is have you been created have you been a new creation by submitting and surrendering your life to jesus once you agree that every single one of us are on a peace quest the word the hebrew word is

shalom it doesn't just mean like a peaceful easy feeling it's not like an eagle song it's like shalom i'm right with god i'm whole like i can breathe in and breathe out and say it as well. And he's like, well, that is offered through the person of Jesus Christ. Grace is getting what we don't deserve. It's a free gift of salvation. But he says grace and mercy. Mercy is not getting what we do deserve. That God would love us enough to withhold judgment and peace is found in the person of Jesus Christ. Please hear this. Peace is not found in stuff. It's not. It's not found in substances. It may feel like it for a second, but you're being duped.

It's not found in status because it's still you. It's not found in circumstances. Some of you think if she'll just come home, then everything will be okay. It won't. You won't have peace. It's found in the sovereign Savior. His name is Jesus. I mean, Dr. Carter did such a good job reminding us of this.

In Matthew 11, when Jesus says, come to me, all who labor and their heavy. be laid in it, I will give you rest. And he goes on to say rest for your soul. That's the kind of peace that transcends understanding. And so when we live by this rule, the rule that we are justified because of God's grace towards us when we put our faith in him, then you can count on two things, peace and mercy. Then I love this. From now on that no one calls me trouble. I want to quote this all the time, man. You know what he's saying? Ain't nobody got time for this. That's what he's saying. He's like, why are you troubling me, man? You people that are trying to teach a false doctrine to this church I love and you dummies at my church that believe this false doctrine and you people

are trying to accuse me. From now on, let no one cause me trouble for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus. So he says, I'm done with this. You want to sign a bodily mark to show that you're in covenant with God. Basically, he's saying, I got receipts in the Greco-Roman world that would put marks on somebody to determine who they belong to, whether it be a brand or a tattoo. If you want to see a good illustration of this, watch Yellowstone. Pray a lot before you watch it and afterwards, but watch it, and that's what they do, they brand them. So you know what the marks that he's talking about in 2nd, Corinthians is 1121 to 31. Here's what Paul says, but whatever anyone else dares to boast of, I am speaking as a fool.

I also dare to boast of that. He's like, oh, you want to talk about the good things that you've done? Here, let's compare. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they offspring of Abraham?

So am I. Are they servants of Christ? I'm a better one. I'm talking like a madman. He's like, I'm being sarcastic. This was to get all the people to not email him. Like, I can't leave it so mean. For far greater labors, for more imprisonments with countless beatings than often near death.

Five times I received at the hands of the Jews, the 40 lashes less one. three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stone, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I was adrift at sea, on frequent journeys in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, dangers from my own people, that's he's talking about these people, danger from the Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger of false brothers, in toil and hardship through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure, and apart from other things, there is this daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.

Oh, you have no idea how big that is. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant? If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus, he who is blessed forever knows that I am not lying. He says, you want to talk about commitment? I've got the marks to prove it.

Cool. You got circumcision. he were eight days old and then he pulls off his shirt not to show his muscles but to show his scars and he says I bear the brands of Jesus and then his final words of this book I didn't know how much I love Galatians Martin Luther said if Galatians was a woman I'd marry it I mean I love the Bible that's kind of that might be too far I don't know but so here's how he closes it you ready here's how he closes it he says the the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Remember how he started? He said, Paul, an apostle, not for man, but grace be to you. That's how he started it. He says, now here's how he's gonna end it. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, be with your spirit brothers. Amen.

You know what amen means? Let it be so. Everything that I have just said for six chapters, for these four pages in the Bible, may everything, what Paul is saying to the glaciers, May all of that come to pass. And so he started with grace to you and peace from God. And now after explaining the gospel, he ends with the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,

be with your spirit. Do you see the difference? The image I get is, you know, like you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink, that kind of thing. It's like he prepares this beautiful meal of the grace of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And he walks up to a starving church because they're trying to earn salvation and he lays this beautiful free gift of this nutritious delicious meal before them and at the beginning he goes grace to you but by the end he's

saying I want you to taste and see that the gospel of Jesus is good and I need this grace to get on the inside of you and I needed to get deeper than your stomach I need that's great the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ to be with your spirit to be with your soul and change everything about everything about everything. I hope that this grace changes your life forever. He's saying, I've told you everything that you need, and I can't make you drink this grace,

but I pray that you will. The reason that we show that Billy Graham clip before I preached was not just to fire me up, which it did. But it's because of an encounter I had, this verse, Galatian 614, became one of my favorite verses in the whole book. Bible. Some of you've heard this before, but years ago, I was on a mission trip in Jamaica with 1122, and I got a phone call there, and there were some folks that live here in Jacksonville and Mayo,

some doctors at Mayo, and Dr. Graham used to get his checkups and stuff here, and he'd become really good friends with his family, and they called me and be like, Pastor, we need you to pray about something. Would you like to eat dinner with Billy Graham? And I'm like, sometimes you don't have to pray about oh yeah and um in case you don't know who dr billy graham is he preached the gospel for over 65 years to 210 million people live in 185 countries and 2.2 million people receive the good news of the gospel of jesus christ through his preaching and maybe as big of that as that and he did it all while living a life above reproach and integrity so he is a hero of the faith i mean when he was living if you asked me if i could meet anybody who would it be it would be

billy graham so when i found out that we were having dinner with dr billy graham i was pumped so i went and read a biography of him just to kind of catch up on things and when he was younger he got to meet somebody like yogi bear or something he was pumped about it so when i walked into this house to meet him I mean, first of all, you see him, you're like, oh, my God, you know. And he was super, he was very, very up in age. He was in a wheelchair. There was two people that were traveling with him. And I was like, oh, my.

And so I go to him, I'm like, oh, Dr. Billy Graham, you know how you were pumped to meet whoever it was? DiMaggio or some baseball player from New York. And I was like, that's what this is like for me. And he goes, oh, pastor, why don't you tell me a little bit about you? And I looked over at Gretchen. I was like, he got me pastor. Oh my gosh. And Gretchen's like, he can't remember me your name.

And I'm like, woman, why do you always have to be the voice of reason in my life? So we end up, we end up getting to spend like three and a half, almost four hours with him at this house. And when I say eat a dinner, it's not like, you know, sometimes people invite you. Like, come have dinner with somebody. And it's like a hundred people and there's the famous person sitting up on stage. It wasn't this. It was just me, the guy that owned the home, his wife, their daughter, the two people. that traveled with him, Greta and myself, and he was right there.

Dr. Graham was at the head of the table, and I was right here. And much like my encounter with John Piper, I was just trying to like just touch him a little bit with my knee, and maybe it would like, you know, spirit of God, the anointing would come on me. And so we sit down for dinner and he says, so pastor, tell me a little about your church. And I'm like, well, we had just done a beach baptism. And I think that year we baptized, I think it was 175 people. And I was like, you know, in the ocean. I mean, this year, you know, 1614, so it's been going good.

And I was like, well, we just going pretty good. We just baptized 175 people. And he physically shook. He was like, I've never heard of such a thing. That's what he said. And I thought, I think you have. I think you have. Because I read that in 1975 in Seoul Korea, you have.

like 1.2 million people show up to hear you preach over five days and in one event 75,000 people got saved at one time so I don't think you're super impressed was what's happening down at the Walmart church here in Jacksonville you understand but that's not how he wrote all I could think about was Matthew 25 in the parable of the talents and the two-talent guy never compared himself to the five-talent guy or the one-talent guy and Billy Graham never compared his ministry to my ministry he was just pumped about people getting saved?

He said, I've never heard of such a thing. And after a little while, he looks over at Gretchen and he says, So ma'am, I understand you're a worship leader. And she, ah, it's just a huge. You have to understand my wife is a flaming introvert. I mean, she does not like the attention, but Gretchen was one of our worship leaders for like the first 10 years of 1122. He's like, some man, I understand that you're a worship leader.

Yes, sir, I am. And he goes, would you sing? me a song. She looks at me and I was like, woman, when Billy says sing, you better sing. You better do it. Come on. And he couldn't, he couldn't hear good, man. He couldn't hear good. So she gets up from her chair. She walks over here and she kneels down like right next to his ear and she begins to sing. I can't remember what song. I think it was like, pull me a little close. I don't know what it was. She's singing this song, this worship song that we sing. And Dr. Graham at the table closes his eyes and just lifts up a hand. And my man just worshiping. Just worship.

And she looks at me, and y'all don't know this, but when it's going real good, like the spirit's moving, the lead pastor will get her like, come on, keep it going. The buses can wait, you know what I'm saying? So she looks at me, and I was like, baby, let's just keep going. So she just over and over and over. And then when she gets done, he looks at her with so much grace, and he just says, I believe that's the most beautiful song I've ever heard. And I'm like, baby, he's heard some people.

I mean, you can sing. But he's so gracious, right? Right? So gracious. After a little while I asked him if he would pray for our ministry. I said, Dr. Graham, we planted this church and we were right at the beginning of it. So we pray for our, will you pray for our ministry? That's what I said. And he grabbed my hand and grabbed her hand. And he said, dear God, please protect this man from himself. And I thought, have you been talking to Gretchen? What are y'all? He never mentioned church or ministry. He prayed that I would make disciples and love my wife.

When he said, amen, he said, you take care of him. her and you make disciples and God will build his church. That's good, isn't it? That's good. And then, so here's why I'm telling you all this. So right there at the end, I go, all right, Dr. Graham, if you could preach one more crusade. They don't call them that anymore. I don't know what they call them, but that's what he called them back in the day.

I said, if you could preach one more sermon, if you could preach one more crusade, what would it be? And without hesitating, he goes, oh, that would be Galatian 614. And I just went, mm, mm, mm, mm. I didn't even know what Galatian 614 said at that point, man. I ain't got the whole thing memorized yet. I'm trying. I had no idea. And I'm just mooing.

Mm. Mm. That's how white people say amen. Like, we don't know how to do it good. So we just like, mm, mm. Meanwhile, he don't see good. And I grab my phone. I pull it over here like this.

Mm, so good. That's so, praise hands. And I look up Galatian 614. thing. But think about this. 60-something years, 65 years of public preaching ministry, 185 countries. He's preached to more human beings than any other human on the planet, all with character and integrity preaching the gospel.

From his preaching ministry, more human beings have heard about and come to Christ than anybody else on the planet. If anybody could just want to take a little bit of credit and brag about, you know, I did pretty good. And he's like 90-something years old. And the first thing on his mind is, but far be it for me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and I told. And on February 21st, 2018, Dr. Billy Graham breathed his last. and with his next breath, he heard well done, good and faithful, sir. These are his words. Before he died, he said this. Well, actually a long time before he died. He said, someday you will read or hear that Billy Graham is dead. Don't you believe a word of it.

I shall be more alive then than I am now. I will just have changed my address. I will have gone into the presence of God. And when I hear well done, good and faithful servant, it will not be because of what I have done, but because I believe what Jesus has done for me. That is the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, at the end of every Billy Graham sermon, he gave an invitation, a public invitation for people to respond to the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so I would like to give you that same invitation. We've read through the entire book of Galatians, and it leads to this point.

Do you know him as your Lord and Savior? It's not about you doing good things to clean yourself up before God. It's about Jesus doing the ultimate thing on the cross when he died on the cross and says, it is finished. If you believe that that counted for you, and if you confess him as your Lord, and the Bible says that you will be saved in that very moment and that one day you too will stand before the sovereign king of the universe and you will hear well done good and faithful servant not even because of the things that you have done but because you received the free grace gift of what

God had done through his son Jesus Christ on your behalf you say what do I do here's what you do you just receive it you admit it you say hey I'm I need a savior I'm a savior I'm a sinner I need a savior. And I believe when Jesus died on the cross, somehow it counted for me. And then you just tell him that and the Bible promises of any prayer ever prayed, this is the one that gets answered 100% of the time for all who would call in the name of the Lord would be saved. Would you bow your heads? Would you close your eyes? And if you were ready in this very moment to put your fate in Jesus Christ, not what you do, but you believe when he died on the cross, somehow that counted for you.

And in this moment, you were ready to confess him as your Lord and Savior for the first time. Will you lift your hand as high as you can? Will you just say, Father, here I am. I surrender my life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And you just cry out to Him. Praise God. I see it.

Praise God. You just call on the name of the Lord. And in this moment, by what Christ has done for you, you are saved. Sins washed away, adopted into his family. your current circumstances might not change in this moment, but your eternity will. Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, God, we love you and we praise you because you first loved us, and God, I thank you for the gospel, the good news of the gospel.

God, I thank you that you carried Paul along to write Galatians and that you would preserve it, that we would be here to hear it right now. And God, I thank you, and I praise you that you don't just have grace for us, but you give grace in us to our spirit. and it changes everything about everything about everything. And we pray this in the good, strong name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. Church, will you please stand as we respond?

We're going to sing, we're going to bring, and we're going to pray. Let's respond.