Amen. Yeah, we can celebrate, celebrate that again, man. It's good to be with you guys, uh, here at Lincoln Road and at all of our campuses. If I haven't had the opportunity to meet you, my name's Gray. I get to hang out over at the club, the, the Hunt Club that is, and, uh, and not to make anybody feel guilty about last night.

Um, but, um, hey man, we are continuing our series in the book of Galatians, which is actually, it's actually a letter, uh, written by the Apostle Paul. And, uh, man, over the past two weeks, Craig and Blake have done such a great job of, of setting the stage. And Paul is writing to these Christians who have, who have kind of deviated from, from the original Gospel. And, and they, they begin to, and I love what Craig said last week. He's like, you know, Jesus plus, you know, anything or equals salvation or, or nothing equals salvation.

So Jesus plus nothing like Jesus plus, that's it. Like, it's just Jesus equals salvation. And then the other side of that, and this is an equation I added, is, is Jesus plus anything equals nothing like Jesus. Plus, you know, uh, coming to church or Jesus plus what, what the guys were talking about and struggling with in Galatia was the, the good works, or specifically circumcision, Jesus plus circumcision equals salvation. He is like, no, no, no, it is just Jesus.

And, and he's writing to these people in Galatia, and they're, they're struggling with this, but he keeps using over and over and over again. He uses this word Gospel. And that's where I wanna start this morning. I don't want to insult your spiritual intelligence in, in any way, but, but I don't know if you know this, but, but Gospel, particularly in the south, is only, you know, you hear the word Gospel, you think about church, you hear the word Gospel, you think about Jesus. Uh, but, but that was not the original intent of, of the word.

In fact, you know, in that day and time, the first century, the Gospel, uh, or a Gospel rather just literally translates good announcement. And it was something that, that people would use to, to send out, to, to give, you know, to let people know that something great has, has happened. Like in, in the Roman Empire, if someone in the royal family had, uh, there's a new baby, you know, they would send out a Gospel, and the Gospel would just be this, this good announcement of, of the birth of, of a new child. And then I got to thinking about that, you know, we translate good announcement, we say good news. But like, I wonder with that word Gospel.

And that's why Paul was like, Hey guys, it really is good news. Like, you can't, you can't deviate from it. But, but I, but I wonder about that word. Uh, you, you guys that are, was it Gen Z? You know, you, you, you know, you've got your own really unique and special vernacular vocabulary and you know, and all these, these words that you use.

And I feel like Gospel, like we could bring Gospel back. Like we could, you know, we, we, it doesn't have to just be about church, you know, I mean, you, you young, you young folks. I mean, I, I, I've got, I've got my cheat sheet here for Gen Z vernacular. Uh, I mean, you could say like, like for Paul writing to the Galatians, he, you can shorten it 'cause you, you guys shorten all your words, right? And, uh, yeah, so we'll, we, we'll say the Goss, okay?

You, you know, uh, you know, Paul could be right. He's like, Hey guys, this GOs is suss. Like, I, you know, or, or, or if they got it right. Hey, this goss is legit, no cap. Um, like, uh, let me, lemme see.

I got another one. Uh, I don't even, I don't think this works. I think this may get a little weird, man, this Goss's Riz or Jesus' r you know, uh, and if you're like, what are we talking about? Welcome to the club, right? Welcome to the club.

I, I, I was also told to use Skippity. Uh, I'm not even sure, like I, I maybe have just gotten fired. I don't know. Um, I'm not sure what that means, but the Gospel meant good, good news. And, and here, here, here's the, here's the tension for me this morning.

And as we get into, into the text is, in my own spiritual journey, I tend to often live like the Gospel that is Jesus lived perfect life, died, resurrected, so that I could spend eternity in heaven. That the Gospel is good news for saving for eternity, which is huge, right? Not downplaying that at all, but not so good for right now. Like, like I, like, I, I get that the Gospel is, is good for eternity, but, and this is like in my everyday living. Like I, I know like, man, I am saved by the grace of God and it's good news, and I'm gonna spend eternity and in a place called heaven with my, with my heavenly Father.

But, but hey, God, what about Tuesday? W what about in my, my family? Like, how, how is that, how is that impacting me? Like it's, I, I, I feel like it, it is good for saving, but it's not always good for living, or it doesn't seem to, to be as impactful for living. And let me give you some, some context to kind of get you in my head space, which is dangerous.

But, but oftentimes I can look at someone else's life and I go, man, my relationship isn't like that with God. You, you ever heard someone talk about their relationship and they're like, man, I think I got something wrong. Or, or the transformation that you see in other people's lives in their, in their family, you're like, man, God. Like where, like, I, I'm, I'm missing something somewhere. Like I know, I know eternity is sealed in heaven, but, but, but what about like, right now?

Like, I, I, I'm missing something. There, there, there's, There's like a kink in our connection. I know, I know we just had a hurricane, but, uh, um, um, you know, prior to that, you know, we, we had a pretty good drought and, you know, if you wanted to keep your yard alive, uh, you had to, you had to water it. And, um, I don't know if you guys have ever used a cheap water hose. Uh, I, I'm convinced this is one of the two things that people will be doing in hell.

One of them, one of them using a cheap water hose. And the second one is matching Tupperware lids. Um, like trying to find it. Like, I, like that's the devil's like, good luck. Oftentimes I feel like my relationship with God is like using a cheap water hose.

Like you, you get it connected and, and you turn the water on and, and you spread it out and, and you get to the end and, and be, and unless it's like 105 degrees, it's going to kink and, and you get to the end and you're ready to use it. And it's just a trickle. And we know this when go, alright, well walk back down the line and get all the kinks out so that the, the water will flow like it's supposed to. And, and when I look at other people's lives, that, and not even like in a, in a bad comparison kind of way, but just like, man, I would love to have what they have. I would love to have a relationship the way they, they have a relationship with their heavenly Father.

I would, I would love to deepen my relationship and, and, and their, their connection. There seems to be no kinks in it. Like it, it's flowing like Niagara Falls and I'm sitting over here with a trickle. What, what's the difference? Like, what are the kinks that are keeping me from having a deeper relationship with my heavenly Father from experiencing the transformation that he so desires in my heart, in my life, and on my Monday and on my Tuesday and on my Thursday?

Good news, if that's you, it's not a new struggle. The Apostle Paul is, is going to write to the Galatians and what we're gonna read today, and he's gonna address what I, what I think is exactly that. So if you have your Bibles, don't you turn to Galatians chapter three, And we're gonna pick up and I, we're just gonna read really just a handful of verses this morning. We're gonna start in verse one. And, uh, as we kinda read through it, uh, unpack it a little bit and then we'll settle in, uh, chapter three verse one.

He says, you foolish Galatians, some translations say, um, they say, uh, O EU Galatians, and, and here, here's the translation for us in the South, bless your heart. Like you guys come on. And he says, you know, bless your heart, EU Galatians, who has bewitched you. And I remember, I love the example that, that Craig used last week about being the, you know, buying the Es. You know, we've had that experience.

We thought we had found like some, some shoes at a consignment shop, and we thought, man, we had hit, you know, the mother load. And turns out they were fake, you know? And, uh, and they were supposed to be real, but I gonna tell you where that was us at. But nonetheless, so he is like, Hey, you, who, who, who has bewitched you? Who has duped you, who has hoodwinked you?

He said, you foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you before your very eyes. Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. And what he's saying is, is is, guys, we laid out what Jesus did for you. Like we, we painted a, a vivid picture, a picture that was, that was visceral, that as we talked about what Christ did and how he died on the cross for your sins, that, that you could feel it in the bones, you could feel the whip on your back. You could feel the nails going through your hands.

We, we just, we portrayed it as, as clearly as graphically as possible. I I think about if, if you guys remember back the, the very first time you saw the passion of the Christ, and you were just like, oh gosh, like that, that's graphic. And this is what the apostle Paul says, like, we, we, we have, we have laid this out for you as best and as clearly as we can. Before your very eyes, Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. He said, I would like to learn just one thing from you.

Did you receive the spirit? And when he's talking about the spirit, he's talking about stepping into relationship with Christ and, and having the Holy Spirit living in you. He said, did you receive the spirit by the works of the law? Now, let, let's unpack this. We've actually used this word a lot the past several weeks in this series.

When, when he's talking about the law, he's talking about you ready for this? The 607 commands in the Old Testament. Now that that 607 commands breaks down and about 365 are negative in light, whatever the math is on that 242 are, are positive. These are the commands that God gave his people. This was, this was the law.

And here's what's really cool that, that all that, all of that law, this is just a little extra for you. All of that law really falls into, into three different categories. There was the, the civil laws. These are the laws that God gave, uh, his people, the nation of Israel. So they were laws for specific people and the spec, uh, specific time of, of history, alright?

Then there were the, the ceremonial laws. These, these were the laws for that same group of people and how they're supposed to approach God and how they're supposed to worship God. Then, then there were the moral laws. These, the best example of this would be the 10 Commandments. These laws were given to all people for all time.

Now, here's what's really cool is that as Jesus comes on the scene, we no longer need the civil laws. The civil laws are made to set the people apart. We're set apart because Christ lives in us. We no longer need the ceremonial laws on, on, we gotta do this and do that before we approach God. But in Christ, we can approach the grace.

I mean, we can approach the throne of grace with, with confidence. And when it comes to the moral law, though, we do want to keep those, because you know what, when you look at the 10 Commandments, it's pretty, it's a pretty good idea not to, to steal murder and, you know, uh, cheat on your wife like that. Those are, those are usually across all cultures. Hey, thumbs up. Let's not, let's not do those.

Okay? And so, but here's the cool thing that we're even gonna talk about is even in the moral law, when we have a relationship with Christ, it's not how well we keep it. That is the ultimate like explanation for our salvation. It's how well Jesus kept it. And so in every one of those Jesus answers or redeems brings into fruition.

So he says, Hey, listen, before your very eyes, Christ was uh, crucified, I would like to learn just one thing from you. Did you receive the spirit? Uh, did you become a Christ follower by the works of the law? And so he's talking about all 607 of these. He's like, did you become a Christian by, by keeping every single one of those or by believing what you heard?

And they would've said, well, no, we believe what you told us. Like we, we've, we've done the law thing. We've been doing it for thousands of years. Our ancestors been doing, we know, man, 607 laws is, is tough. I'm doing well to keep the 10.

And then he introduces our tension that the Gospel seems good for saving, but not so much for living. Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the spirit, after stepping into a relationship, understanding that it was nothing that you did by beginning by means of the spirit. Are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh? Are you now trying to to live out your faith?

Think about that. If you're a Christ follower, man, you got saved in your, you're like, man, the grace of God is so good. It's only by his grace. I'm saved. You believed it, you lived it.

But then as life began to go along, you started white knuckling all things in your life. Like, I can, I can give enough energy, I can give enough effort, I can give enough money, I can show up enough times, and you continue to struggle. And that's where they were. They were like, uh, Paul was like, Hey man, you believe the Gospel was good enough for setting you? Why do you think that you, your faith is gonna be complete.

You're gonna live out your faith by your effort. But you know better than that? And what, what we call that, this is a hundred dollars word for you if you wanna sound spiritual in front of some of your friends. What he's talking about is, is, is that the gospels also is good enough to save us. But it's also good to bring about sanctification in us, this ongoing process of God making us more and more like Jesus.

But they had deserted that like I do sometimes. And so here, here's Paul's solution. If you pick up in verse 10, for all who rely on the works of the law or under a curse as it is written, cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the law. In other words, he's like, Hey, if you're gonna live under the law, you gotta keep it all. And if you don't keep it all, if, if you fail at one, it's as if you've broken everything.

So that, that we call that a curse. Alright? Verse 11, clearly no one relies on what clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God. And then he says this, because the righteous will live by faith. He uses this word justified.

If you have your, if, if you're reading in your bibles or on your phone or pad, you can highlight, underline that word justified. You ever had to justify yourself. You know, like you, you got in trouble. And um, and, and you know that you, you're coming up with all your excuses of why it's not as bad as it seems like it is. You know, uh, parents, you know, we, we, we ask our kids to justify themselves often, don't we?

Now we don't come in, you know, they walk in and we don't go justify yourself. Like, we don't do that. This is what we say. What were you thinking? You know, you ever said that?

Moms and dads? Anybody? Yeah. Or just me? Three of us.

Uh, awesome. I know the hunk club here. We say you like, Hey, come on man. Like, really? Like, and, and what we're, what we're conveying is like how, how, how do we end up here?

Justifies give, give me your reason. Give me excuse. And what's funny, moms and dads, you know this. And we say, what were you thinking? We don't really want them to answer, do we?

No, no. Like kids, students don't answer. Like, we don't care. 'Cause clearly you weren't right. We just needed to get it out.

But he says, you're not gonna be justified by the law like that. You can't keep the law well enough to show up into heaven and go, Hey, God, I pull, pull up a seat because I kept everything. He's like, nah, you didn't, you can't. Later on, uh, the Apostle Paul, in another letter, he says this, Romans chapter three, he says, for all of sin and fall short of the glory of God, that's terrible news. Verse 24, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ.

We don't have to justify ourselves as we place our faith in Christ. You know, the, the a hundred dollars version of that word is justification. And it simply means this one that you've been made right with God. And, and that that's God giving you something. That's God giving you Jesus's righteousness.

But there's a swap that happens. The second thing it means is that you've been forgiven by God. That means that, that God is taking away your sin. And to give you a word, picture, he's taking that sin and he hangs it on Jesus as Jesus hangs on the cross. So, so he we're made right with God, we made everything is perfect.

Our relationship is right, then we're forgiven, and as we're forgiven, we're given a place into God's family. And the last thing it means is that, that we, we experience transformation through his grace. We're transformed by his grace. Now here's the, here's, here's like where the rubber meets the road. We believe the first two that, that, that we, we have a right relationship with God and that we're forgiven and we have a place in his family.

We believe those as Christ followers. We believe those in theory, Just not in practice. And that's why we don't get to experience the transformation by His grace. That's why we find ourselves looking at other people's relationship with God and going, man, what is the kink that is keeping me from, from a deeper relationship with God? What is the kink that is keeping me from the transformation?

And it's because we don't embrace and live in day to day the fact that we have been justified, made right, forgiven a seat at the table within the family. And when we live from that place, again, not just up here, but in day to day, we begin to experience transformation. You can say it this way, that, that that justification makes a way for us to experience transformation, makes a way for us to experience a, a deeper relationship with God. Let me show you what that looks like. See, if we really believe that we've been made right in God's eyes and that we've been forgiven and that we're a part of the family, that means that when we sin, we don't or we run to God not from him.

Think about that. For some of you, there have been seasons in your life when you have stayed out of church because if I've, if I've heard this statement, I've heard it a thousand times, gray, I can't come to church. If I come in that church, that thing will burn down. And they're Christians and, and they're saying that because they haven't fully embraced, they're not living in the reality of their justification. And so when they find themselves in this sin loop, instead of running to their heavenly Father who can break that loop, they, they hide.

But if we're willing to run to our heavenly Father, then the, the, the the next step in that process is, is that we're willing to be honest. Now, listen, if we can't be honest with God, we can't be honest with anybody, but I can be honest with a God that says, you have been made right? I can be honest with a God that says, you've already been forgiven. I can be honest with a God that says, you're in my family and there's nothing you can do about it. There was nothing that got you in.

There's nothing that can get you out. You did nothing to get you in. And you can do nothing to get you out. Just to clarify. So I can run to God knowing, and I don't have to be fearful that I, that I don't have to live under his shame.

I can be honest with God. And here's what happens when, when we're honest with God Is we stop trimming all the branches and we start getting in the roots. We start getting to the why. 'Cause we're honest. We give God access to that part of our life.

And then like the natural consequence of running to our heavenly Father, of being honest with him, is that we experience transformation. We experience a change of heart. And, and the, the behaviors and the things, the behaviors that we want to do and the behaviors that we don't wanna do, all of that begins to happen a lot easier because we're not forcing it from the outside, but we're sitting with our heavenly Father and he's working it from the inside out. It's a heart change. It's the process of sanctification.

And we experience that day in and day out. But man, it is so easy because we live in a world, we live in a world where you earn everything. We live in a world where it's all about you pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. You don't work, you don't eat all that stuff. And so when we begin to struggle, man, it, it's so easy us to, for to to slip back over here and start going, man, look, look, look how awesome I am.

Look what I've done, or look what I'm trying to do to earn God's approval, to earn his acceptance. And we start living in a false Gospel. And the apostle Paul would say, Hey man, you began with God's grace. Why are you trying to finish in your flesh? You know, that doesn't work that that's what brought you to me in the first place, right?

Because you realize that you couldn't do enough to fill the void inside of you. And so we come to our Heavenly Father. I, I was thinking in preparing, I was reminded of an old hymn as we ex talking about experiencing transformation in heart change says, turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full on his wonderful face. So I, I would translate that into embracing the reality of your justification, not just in theory, but in practice.

And the things of earth will go strangely, will grow strangely dim and the light of his glory and grace. And the reality is, is when we do that, if it's struggles that we have, those things become less attractive. As our relationship deepens and we experience change, we experience a deeper relationship. I'm gonna leave you with this. One author says it this way, and I wanna tell you, some of you that are Christians, and you've been a Christ follower for a long time, this is going to eat you up.

It's gonna make you uncomfortable. He says, grace, I mean, excuse me, God has shown all of his cards. In essence, this is what God says to us as, as we place our faith in Christ, as we are justified. This is what God says to us. What if I tell them who they now are sons and daughters heirs to the throne.

What if I take away any element of fear? What if I tell them I always love them, that I love them right Now, as much as I love my only son? What if I tell them there are no, there are no logs of past offenses of how little they pray or how often they've let me down on? What if I tell them they are actually righteous right now? What if I tell them that if I'm their savior, they're going to heaven no matter what it is a done deal. What if I tell them they have a new nature, that they are saints who sin not saved sinners?

What if I tell them I actually live in them now, my love, my power and my nature are at their disposal. What if I tell them they don't have to put on mask, That they don't need to pretend we're close? What if they knew that when they mess up, I'll never retaliate. Listen to this. What if they knew?

What if they were convinced Bad circumstances aren't my way of evening the score. What if they knew the basis of our friendship isn't how little they sin, but how much they allow me to love them? What if I tell them there is no secret agenda, no trap door. What if I tell them it isn't about their self effort, but about allowing me to live my life through them? What if I tell them they are truly and permanently justified?

Guys, that is good news. That's the Gospel. That's A great, that, that, that sounds like a free pass. I mean, I got, I gotta earn it. You can't, you can't.

So Christ follower, as we, as we close, as we respond, I want, I wanna ask you this as I read that you live in that daily even, let me, I'll even simplify all of that with three questions. Do I measure my closeness to God by how little I'm sinning or by my trust that to the exact extent the Father loves Jesus, Jesus loves me. Do I see myself primarily as a saved sinner or a saint who still sins, who still struggles with sin? Do I read the Bible as you ought? You should.

Why can't you? Why don't you? Or as you can, this is who you are now. It changes the way we live our lives and it's something that we have to choose daily, maybe even moment by moment. And I am made right with God.

I am forgiven. I'm a part of his family. And I'm telling you, if you will daily operate from there, you'll see transformation. You, you'll get the kinks out of your cheap water hose. And listen this morning, if you're not a Christ follower, This is what's available to you.

You can get out of the rat race, but it's what's available by placing your faith in Christ. So our team's gonna come and they're gonna lead us. And I'll challenge you if you need to come to the cross and just confess maybe where you have convinced yourself that you can earn what only God can give or come and take communion and remember what was given. But I want you to respond to the goodness of God. I want you to respond to the Gospel.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you that we do have good news. And God, I just pray that you would in all of our hearts, show us the, the depth of your love, the depth of your grace. And for those that already call you, father God, help us to live there. And God, for those who, who have yet to do that, God, to help them to see that clearly, move them closer to you.

And we pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.