[00:00:00] Well, good morning, everyone. As I do every week, I want to begin with a word of welcome. I welcome those of you who are in this room with me. I want to welcome those of you who are on any of our campuses. And I want to welcome those of you who are with us online. It is great to have you. Hey, today is a special day. There's about three days a year that we kind of set apart as celebration day. And this is a celebration day today. We graduate the spring class of. And they started 11 weeks ago. And this afternoon at four o'clock on the Tempe campus, we're going to have a big party and there's going to be baptisms. And it's going to be an incredible, incredible event. I'm telling you that, to tell you this, if you haven't gone through rooted or maybe it's been a long time since you've gone through rooted, you've got to know that in our understanding of how we do church rooted is like bootcamp. It's like spiritual bootcamp. If we believe in spiritual formation, And that there is a process of how we. And, uh, and it's [00:01:00] really, really important. And you can imagine being a soldier and skipping bootcamp, cause it sounded hard or something I don't know, uh, would not prepare you well for the battle to come. So, uh, if you are, if you're not, if you've not yet gone through rooted, we're going to start another one of these courses. Um, the summer series starts on May 1st and again on all of our campuses on our online. There you get involved with this thing and it will change your life. So, anyway, I'm excited about today. So here's the deal we're going to be in Galatians, which we've been studying for the past month or so, but we can't get to Galatians today until we go through the book of acts. So I need you to find in your Bible, find the book of acts. And so Matthew, mark, Luke, John, and then acts it's the early church's history. And so we're going to be in chapter 10. So if you'll just. And find that and why you're doing that. Let me just while you're processing that, let me ask you a couple of questions. Okay. They're going to sound like they're not related, but you're going to [00:02:00] see they're incredibly related in just a moment. So question number one. Can you remember a time when you you're confident you heard from. I, you cannot tell me. I didn't. I heard from God, I didn't know how you heard from God. Maybe you heard a voice I've never heard God's voice. I can't say I'm not seeing it. It happened. It's never happened to me, but I can guarantee you. I have felt that I've heard from God and various ways that God can communicate through his spirit through just this leading all of the different, his word through people, all of that. Can you remember a time I'm positive? I heard from God. Question number one, question number two. Uh, is there things about God that are so basic to your faith, so core to your faith that God himself would have a hard time convincing you otherwise understand what I'm asking. In other words, has somebody told you something about God you are so sure is true. And yet it might [00:03:00] not be true, but it's so basic. And so core to who you are. It's so embedded in you. It would be really, really hard for you to ever change your mind on that, which leads me now to this thought. Could God change your mind about that? Could you have learned something about God? That's just false. It's just not true, but you've heard it all your life. You believed it all your life and God himself wanted to change your mind. How could he get through. To get you to understand you got it wrong now against that backdrop. I want to show you literally a couple of people's story is going to come from acts chapter 10. Now, I don't know if you've caught onto this yet, but we're studying the book of Galatians, but the book of Galatians didn't just happen in. It w so what we're doing is we're going through the book of acts to help us understand what was happening that caused Paul, the write, what he wrote in the book of Galatians. And when you understand what's happening, the scripture becomes so much more alive. You, I get it, I get it. I never understood that. Now I get it. So you cannot [00:04:00] understand what we're going to study in Galatians two, until you understand what happened in acts 10. So let's just take a moment and go through that. Now, before we start, I got to explain something to you, and this is really, really. A core belief of the Jewish people of that day, that every Jewish person was raised on, that everyone got deep down into their psyche was that you, as a Jewish person are special, you're a part of the chosen nation. You are a part of the chosen race. You mean more to God than anybody else. You got to get your brain around that from the time you were just literally weed, they started telling you, you are better than everybody else. You are literally superior because God loves you more than anybody else. And we love God more than anyone else. God is ours as a people. And, uh, you, you, you just need to understand, uh, you won the lottery because you're a part of our, our tribe. [00:05:00] Okay. And anyone who's not of us is less than us. They came up with a name. They called them Gentiles, which let's just say, unclean, unholy, not as good as not, not, not like us. And they were taught to avoid those people who were not part of them. Now, again, I don't know how hard that is for you to wrap your brain. But you've got to understand. That's just the way it was. They were special and they knew they were special and they loved being special. So let's do this. Let's go to acts chapter 10 and I'm going to read part of this and then I'm going to go and just tell you what happened for the sake of time, because I don't want us to get lost just in acts 10, but let me just explain what happens. Okay. So we're going to take this in a couple of chunks, acts chapter 10, beginning at verse one. Now at Cesarea. Okay. Stop where Cesarea in Israel, right above the modern day of city of [00:06:00] Televiv. North of Televiv is an ancient port city called Cesarea Cesarea Maritima Cesarea by the sea. This is what the scene is happening. It's in this plate, it is the port that the Romans used to come in and out of Israel at the time. All right. Now at Cesarea there was a man named Cornelia. Uh, Centurion of what was known as the Italian regiment. He is a Gentile. He is an outsider. He is a Roman. All right. He and his family, this is what's going to throw us. We're devout and God fearing. That's not supposed to happen. He's not one of us. Why are they believing in our God? Okay. But he was devout and God-fearing, he gave generously to those in need and he prayed to God regularly. He was a weird. He was odd. All right. Now, one day about three in the afternoon, he had a vision God's going to speak to him. He distinctly saw an angel of God who [00:07:00] came to him and said, Cornelius, Cornelius, stared at him in fear. What is it? Lord that you're talking to me. Cornelia. Yeah. All right. Now the angel answered this. Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a Memorial offering before God Cornelius. I just need you to know God like that gifts you gave to help him. So even the LAA thing, we just watched that you cared enough. Cornelius. I got saw that he saw that and he listened when you pray. Crudeness know, you gotta understand. Cornelius has like his little paradigms being rocked here. Now now send men to Joppa. Okay. Now here's the deal. It's the modern day Televiv north is support city of Cesarea Joppa, just south of Tel Aviv, but televi wasn't there at the time. So send [00:08:00] men to Joppa and bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter. He is staying with Simon. The Tanner, whose house is by the sea. When the angel spoke to him, had gone Cornelius. Called two of us servants and a devout soldier who was one of his attendance. So two servants and a soldier. He told them everything that had happened and he sent them to Joppa. All right, this is easy enough to follow. They're going to go down the coast. They're going to go find this guy named Peter, and they're going to have a conversation. Now let's jump into what's happening down in Joppa. Alright, so it says this now about noon. The following day, they're not hopping on a bus. They're not taking a short flight. They got to walk. So about noon the following day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up to the roof to pray. Now he became hungry and he wanted something to eat. I'd say we're fixing lunch. You can the smell or something who knows. And while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance.[00:09:00] He. Okay. He's like, I'm seeing something here. He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. It contained all kinds of four footed animals as well as reptiles and birds and pubes going well. That's just weird. Okay. And then a voice told him, get up Peter, kill and eat. Okay. Now you might just be reading this just going big deal. She came down. Animals killing eat. No, no, no, no, no. Surely not. Lord. Peter said, you gotta be kidding me now. Listen, listen, I have never eaten anything. Impure or unclean. This is a good Jewish boy who grew up with kosher laws. You don't eat those things. Those things are filthy. Those things are dirty. There are unholy. They are unclean. You avoid them at all. Okay. The voice spoke to him a second time. Do not call anything [00:10:00] impure that God has made clean. This deep core conviction that Peter was raised with. We don't eat that because we're special. And now this vision and this voice is telling me, God is telling me you got it wrong, Peter, you can eat that. And then Peter's gone, but God there's pins in there. And God says, that's right, son. Enjoy your bacon. Okay, because of this vision would have never happened. We would not enjoy bacon. God is good. Can I get an amen from the people? God is good. So do not call anything impure that God has made clean. This happened three times and immediately the sheet was taken back into heaven. So guys be Peter for a second and he's like going, okay, I'm so confused. Now, when you understand something, Cornelius gets a vision from God and says, Hey, I want you to go find this guy. Cornelius, who could, yes, sir. Right at this moment, I will. Peter gets a vision. He argues with God, you're wrong. God, you're wrong. That cannot be true. [00:11:00] Everything I've ever heard, timeless a little it's just wrong and I'm not doing it. Peter, when I'm telling you that you got it wrong, you've got to listen to me. You got it wrong. These are now clean. You can eat these things and Peter's going, I'm not doing it if God himself tried to change your mind about your thing. You're so sure you got. Could he get through to you? Could he communicate to you? So Peter's like wigging out here now. Uh, if we keep going, I got to speed up here and he gets to the next section, Peter sitting there wondering about all this. He's like, well, what is happening here? And then all of a sudden somebody's knocking on the door and you can just read this. I'm not going to read it. They're knocking on the door. And Peter is processing all of this while these guys were showing up, he's trying to figure this thing out. And then God says, Hey, Peter, those, some guys down there that I've sent to you and want you to listen to what they have to say. So you look at verse 20, so get up and go downstairs. I hesitate to go with them. I have sent [00:12:00] them to you now. Now you've got to understand. Okay. So God has sent some people I'm sure they're good Jewish boys that are going to ask me to go do something. He opens the door and he sees this Roman soldier and these Roman soldiers assistants. And he's like, What are you doing here? And then they tell the, Hey, we worked for this guy, Cornelius. He lives up in Cesarea and he had this vision from God and he's God told him to come get you. And so we have Peter, I have no idea why, but God wants you to go up to Cesarea. Now Peter's got to be going, not with you, not with you. You are unclean unholy, but he's having this thing going. I just sheet, what did the sheet. What was his vision? What was God trying to tell me? And I want you to see verse 23. Now. I wish I had time to show you everything. I just don't verse 23. Then Peter invited them in, into the house to be his guests. You got to understand this is huge theater. You're getting it [00:13:00] because normally they'd say you do not cross my threshold. You are unholy. You stay out. We're pure inside here. And Peter's like going, I don't know what's happening. Word stuff on. Got told me you were common. Why don't you come on in? So they came on in, they're going to stay the night. You'll see that they're gonna stay the night and they're gonna have dinner together, have lunch and dinner, and they're going to get up and have breakfast, bacon and eggs, who knows. And then they're going to go on their journey. So the journey picks up in the next section, but I want you to look down at verse. Let's just start again. I don't have time to walk. We started out with verse 24, Peter and them, Peter grabs a couple of his friends, his Jewish friends go, Hey, something were really weird. I don't know man would come with me and they all start heading off the following day. It says they get to Cesarea Cornelius, who knew they were coming because God told them, go get them. He'll come. And so he got some of his family, some insurance over and said, Hey, this could be awesome. And then the P Peter, and they'll get to the door. [00:14:00] And I want you to see as Peter entered the house. Now you can just read that line and you just go blow by that line. You've got to understand, as Peter entered the house of Cornelius, this filthy outsider, this Gentile, this non-Jewish man, he went in his house. Peter's making progress. All right. And then Cornelius falls flat on his face and in front of Peter and Peter goes, dude, get up. I'm just a man like you, which is huge because Peter was not taught that this is coming from God. We're the same men get up, Peter should in his Jewishing. Oh yeah. That's where you belong. You pig. You belong on the ground. You're not one of me, but he doesn't he'll get up. And so he gets up and then. They're talking. And Peter looks at the crowd. It, Peter looks at, it goes into the room. He looks at the here's of crowd and he's like, what are you all doing here? And Peter, what he could have said is, you know what, [00:15:00] it's really weird for me to do. You know what? I've waited all my life to tell you, God does not like you. And I don't like you either. You all, you, all, your food is horrible. I can't believe you. I can't believe you do what you do. I can't believe you live where you live. He had all of these things he could say to them, but he just looks at them and I want you to see what he said. Verse 28. He said to them, Hey guys, and listen carefully. You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate or visit a Gentile. But, but God has shown me. That, I don't know, man. I'm supposed to not call anyone impure or unclean. You guys really messing with me right now. And I, I want to tell you how gross you are to God, but I feel like God filled me not to say that, that you're not all that bad. And so then Cornelius goes, well, Peter, what did you come to tell us? [00:16:00] And Peter's going, like, what? Yeah, that's it. You're going to deliver a message. Okay. This is every preacher's nightmare, by the way. Uh, I have no notes, you know, and Peter goes, what? Yeah. She said, just tell us. And Peter goes, okay, well, let me start with this really weird thing that happened to me that yesterday, um, you know, the roof and you guys showed up and is that it? Well, no, it's about a bigger story than that. It's about Jesus and how he came and lived and how he died. And he rose from the dead. And so he lays all this. I was going to have time to read, but I want to show you verse 34, verse 34 says then Peter began to speak. He said the statement. I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism, but accepts from every nation. The one who fears him and does what is right. Peter's going my whole life right now is turning upside down because I've always been told it's just about. And now I'm starting to realize God [00:17:00] goes, no, it's about everybody. And everybody's included here. Okay. Now, as he goes on, he talks about Jesus. And then I will show you down to verse 43. I know I'm going fast, but I got to, Peter says this statement. And I think Peter, as he's saying the statement, can't even believe he's saying what he's saying, but he's being inspired by the holy spirit to make a statement. This is what he says in verse 43, all the prophets testify about him, about Jesus, all the profits. Pointed to him, all the prophets testify about him, that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. Now again, you can read that and just go. Yeah, that's cool. No, Peter's going okay. I'm just telling you, I just saw that all the old Testament pointed all the history, everything was about the fulfillment to be happening in Christ. And I just get it now. He sees it. So clearly I want you to see the last verse of chapter 10. Then they asked, [00:18:00] oh, by the way, before that happens, I go back up. So Peter's like going, I don't know guys, if this really sounds weird to you about this whole Jesus thing, but Hey, if you want to, you could receive him if, cause he'd like come into your heart and they go, we're in, we're in. And Jesus comes in the spirit of God. These guys literally get baptized in the spirit and Peter's going, oh, Okay. And, and Peter's got going. Okay. I can't, it's weirdest thing that ever happened in my life. And then it says this, then they asked Peter to stay with them for a few days where w where we stay in holiday Inn. No, he's staying here in my house, Peter. I never slept overnight in the house of a Gentile. Okay. Got it. Got it. Got it. Got it. I'm so it's it's good. It's okay. I was, I was raised on some really bad theology and you're trying to straighten me out here so I know you're not going to condemn me. So yeah. I'm going to say and words out that bacon served in the morning and you got to [00:19:00] understand he's like never had bacon, but that's what they serve in Cornelius's house. All right. Now let's just. If this happened to you, here's the question I want you to wrestle with. If this happened to you, how long would you reasonably expect this experience and the lesson given to have impacted your life? How long should it have impacted Peter's life? This was mindblowing. How long would it stick with you? And the answer is till the day you die. Cause you heard from God. I'll never go back. I'll never go back. I'll never go back. Now. Let me drop on you. The big idea, and this will make more sense. I'll just drop it on you right now, because I want to explain something to you that he got to understand. We all got to understand this ready. Here's a big idea. What we believe, determines how we behave, what we believe when you believe about [00:20:00] God is going to determine how you. And I'm just telling you, going to unpack that thing for days. It's true. All right. Now does jumbo here and we have the background. Let's jump up to the book of Galatians because in Galatians what's going to happen. And by the way, we started Galatians, like I said, about five weeks ago now, maybe. And we're just taking our time through this. We're just enjoying what it's saying, but you got to understand that, uh, uh, the theme of the book of Galatians and it's the title of this series is called set free to live. The theme of this book is that you, you were, you were born to be free. Don't become a slave. That's the theme of the book. You keep seeing this over and over. All right. So you were set free to live free and find Galatians chapter two. We're going to finish the second part of this today, and we're gonna begin with verse 11 and this will go quick. I just need you to understand there's going to be a heavyweight fight. I mean, this is seriously, this is MMA [00:21:00] material. I mean, this. Uh, between Peter and Paul. Now, now let me just slow it down. Let me make sure, okay. We got to get a setting here so we can understand this. What's been happening up to this point in time in the book of Galatians real quick summary, Paul and his associate Barnabas went off into Gentile Ville called Glacia and planted churches in these cities in glacier. And they taught them about the grace of God and how free you are to live. God loves you. And he got them all shut up and then he left them. He goes back. And then word gets to him that these churches that he started got infiltrated by people who were telling them what Paul told them was wrong. That you don't get to lift three, are you kidding? And they said, basically, you got a bunch of rules to keep it out. A bunch of laws, you better follow. You've got customs, you better observe. And they were called Judaizers because their big argument was before you can become, [00:22:00] actually become a Christian. You cannot become a Christian until you first become. And when you become a Jew and you submit yourself to Jewish customs, the biggest of which Kayla talked about last week, the biggest of which is there's one thing that says all of us, Jewish people apart from everybody else. And it's circumcision now, you know what? I have no idea why God chose this, but that was the sign. If you were circumcised, you were part of this group. So, Hey, if you want to be a Christian, you got to get. And you got to do this and you gotta do this and you gotta do this, but nothing was more objectionable than getting circumcised guys. Can I get an amen. These are adult men that you got to get circumcised. What we're going. Yeah, that's the only way. And Paul then starts writing to these churches going do what? Listen to this. This is ridiculous. You do not have to become a Jew to become a believer. These guys start trying to turn the churches against Paul going, who [00:23:00] is this guy? This guy's a punk. Why didn't you even listen? He's not even a real apostle, which none of that's true. So Paul, isn't writing back and in this, he's going to say, I want to tell you how deeply I believe in the grace of God. And he tells us about a battle between him and Peter. And you're going to see it real quick. Won't take long. It says this in verse 11. Okay, that's good. Catch up. Alright. With CFUs, as who see virus, Peter, Peter is known as CFUs. He's known as Peter. He's known assignment. I'm sorry. He's just got all these names. CFUs, Peter. All right. When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned. That is, that is incendiary. That is incredibly strong language. I stood him down to his face because what he said was wrong. Now you ought to be leaning in right now, going what he say and what in the world that he say, what was, what got him all worked like, Paul, what do you mean now? Let me [00:24:00] back up. Who's who's Peter. Peter is like the number one, apostle, the lead apostle at the day, Paul's going to become it, but Peter is the guy. All right. He's like the, like the leader of the leaders and. He, he he's like heavyweight champion of the world. All right. Push the analogy. Um, and by the way, uh, make sure you see this in, uh, last, uh, two weeks ago, we talked about how, how, uh, say these names. Paul went up to Jerusalem to see Peter remember that, and they have this, they got to know each other. And now we got Peter going to Antioch. To see Paul. Now let me just put this on a map. This is not hard. Can we bring up a map? You'll see this. Okay. So see Jerusalem. That's where Peter's from. And James James is the head of the church in Jerusalem. Peter's ahead of the apostles. Antioch is up the coast. It would be in modern day, Syria. All right. And by the way, Cesarea would be about what the E is in Phoenicia. That'd be. [00:25:00] By eyesight, I'm guessing. Okay. So just get an idea. So Antioch is where Paul is now. So here's what's happening. Paul has turned Antioch into his headquarters to reach the Gentile world because Peter was to reach the Jewish world and the apostles. Remember that, and that he's going to take on all of Europe. He's you get all this, you get Israel, I'm going for all of. And half of Asia. Okay. That's my vision. So Antioch becomes this really important city and the church is booming. It's rocking in Antioch. And in fact, it says in acts 1126, the Christians were first called Christians in Antioch. They go, who are those guys? I don't know the Christ father Christ, Christian. I don't know. It's Paul's base of operations and Peter and the church in Jerusalem hear about what's going on up there. And he goes, I'm going to go check this thing out. So they comes up there. All right. And what happened up there? What in the world happened? All right. [00:26:00] Galatians two, 12 and 13. Now watch this, watch this for before certain men came from James as Jerusalem, he used to eat with the Gentiles who did Peter. He used to eat with the Gentiles, but when they. He began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles, because he was afraid of those who belong to the circumcision group and that the other Jews joined him in this. So that by their hypocrisy, even Barnabas was led astray. Now I can, this might be going by you so fast. It's not hard to understand. So here's what happens to Peter and he's up in Antioch and he's hanging out with Barnabas and other Jewish people and they have the sweet thing going. This church has happened is United there's Jewish non-Jewish because they get it. God shows no favoritism. We got all that. We're all good. And they're having meals together. They're breaking bread. They're having communion together. It's beautiful. And then these guys show up from Jerusalem. They say they were sent by James in acts 15. James goes, they were not, but they show up and they go, [00:27:00] Hey, we're from the Jerusalem council. We're kind of from the headquarters of the whole deal, you know? And Jay and Peter goes, oh no, what we're doing here? Oh, no, it's not going to go over. And did you catch it? They were from the group of the circumcision. What were they? They were Judaizers. They were the same kind of people who were bothering the people in glacier and they show up and they go and jam. Peter goes, yeah. And he starts backing up, backing away from his friends, Gentile friends in Antioch. Barnabas is going, oh, these guys, I mean, this is a peer pressure, big time. Okay. This is like, so they back up and they're getting farther and farther away. And Paul is watching this and he's going, you've got to be kidding now. Here's what I need you to understand and say it very simply. They changed their tune. They're we're all good. You're all fine before, but now I'm going to change my tune. We shouldn't be doing [00:28:00] this. This is wrong. And. We've got to get out of this thing. So what we're dealing with here is a simple thing called hypocrisy, but easy to understand these Christian leaders. Okay. Then there's no hiding this. Paul's flat out calling it out. So let me ask you a question. So let's just think for a moment of the Gentile believers in Antioch, who had been fine with Peter and Barnabas and they'd all the Jews are all good. It's all good because God shows no favoritism. God made that really clear to Peter. And so he was good. And then all of a sudden, They started pulling away. Let me ask you a question. Has anyone ever, has anyone ever dish you disrespected you, but because they felt better than you. We haven't been on the receiving end of that humiliation. When somebody goes, I don't wanna hang out with you. I mean, behind, besides, you know, junior high girls beyond that, but you just go, no, you're, you're not one of us. You're not as cool as us. And so Peter and them were like, you know, we don't want to be with you anymore. Is he don't ever be embarrassed to be seen with. [00:29:00] And I'm know I'm not the only person. So yes. Some of you flip that, have you ever been embarrassed to be seen with somebody because your friends would notice like, oh gosh, I hope you don't think, I hope you don't really believe that. I mean, we're, we're so different. Yeah. I just, you know, do you ever change your tune? All right. What is hypocrisy? The poxy comes to us from the Greek. Uh, it's the idea of you put a mask on, so you put a face on over here when you're with these people, and then you take that off and you put this face on when you're with these people. Well, you turn your back and you just do whatever. It's just whatever, face to whatever crowd you need. When in your life do you outgrow hypocrisy? Pretending to be one thing here, knowing you're something else there. When does it get old? When does it get behind you and show you what happens next in Galatians two? Paul says when I saw that they were not [00:30:00] acting in line with the truth of the gospel, which is there is no favoritism and we're all on the same playing field. I said to CFUs in front of them all, you are a Jew yet you live like a Gentile when no one's around, you're fine. Being with these people. And how is it then that you're going to try to now force Gentiles to follow phone Jewish. Peter, what are you doing? We now watches this. They had a little bite of sarcasm. We who are Jews by birth, the superior ones and not Gentiles. We know now a watch that a person is not justified by the works of the law, Peter you to the core, who you are, know that all this rule keeping is a waste of time. That all this stuff you were taught you to the core of who you are. No, this is not of God. This is not what God had him. Um, but, okay. So we who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles know that a person is not [00:31:00] justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ, that's the gospel. That's the truth. So we too have put our faith in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law, no one will be just. But have been seeking to be justified in Christ. We Jews find ourselves also among the sinners. Doesn't that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not. In other words, is this like somehow picking Christ down, taking God down if we're like all seen together and we're all on the same level playing field, this is somehow dishonored Christ. Puggles absolutely not this empowers. It is so incredibly good. Well, why did Paul called Peter out? And here's the answer because what he did, he did publicly in front of every one of these people, you backed off, you, you literally showed your card. You, you played your [00:32:00] hypocrisy. If what you just did catches on, there will always be two. Here's a believers, the really spiritual ones who are the Jewish believers, and then the rest of us who were just the Gentile. And Paul was so passionate about getting people who didn't know God to know God. He knew that if this hierarchy gets set in, this message will get destroyed. If you start thinking you're better than it will destroy everything. And we're all sinners, that's this point, Peter, you are a sinner. I'm a sinner. You know what I know. It's why in the world are you acting different in front of the sinners? Like you're a better. You're less than as sooner you're he calls him out right now. Looking for, I guess he first 60, I'm going to read it again. You cannot miss this. This is core to the book of Galatians. If you don't get this, you will never get it. All right. We know that a person is not justified by the works of the law. Keeping rules is not the plan of. [00:33:00] Having all these restrictions placed upon you by somebody who says you got to do this to please, God is not God's plan for your life, but how are we saved by faith in Jesus Christ? So we too have put our faith in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law. Why? Because by the works of the law, no one will be justified. It doesn't work. And I'm just telling you for every cult that has ever been founded, it starts with, well, here's what God really wants from you. It's different than what you read in the Bible. Here's the rules you gotta keep to please God. And they start adding all this stuff. And the enslaved people, they come to believe this is what God wants. And it's like, it's not in the Bible. This is not the gospel yet, but it's the gospel explained more. And Paul's like going, oh, this is not only in [00:34:00] Christ in Christ alone. And then again, I, I, I gotta hurry. Don't ever, ever, ever, ever go back. Don't ever, when you've experienced the freedom in Christ ever go back to having people put over you all kinds of rules that are not in the Bible. That is not the gospel. All right. Now I gotta show you this verses 19 to 21, and then I'm going to close out for, through the law. Paul said this for, through the law. I died to the law. What does that mean? This killed me. I did all these killed my spirit. It killed my soul. It will always kill your soul. It will always suck the life out of you. I died to that. That thing took my life, but I died to that so that I might live for God. Now look, look, look, look, I have been crucified with. And I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body. I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. You see what he's saying? [00:35:00] I I'm dead. I'm not dead because the law killed me. I'm dead because I identify with what Jesus did now. Listen, listen, we've seen this. It's not about me. This whole story of the gospel. It's not about what I did is not. Hey. You're so good. No, that's what keeps saying is he's so good. It's focused on him. So Paul goes, I'm dead. I'm good. I live now in Christ. My identity is in Christ. I don't have an identity outside of Christ. Everything is in Christ. And when you see me, I want you to see Christ. And if righteousness on your own could save you. If keeping a bunch of rules could save you. Christ's death meant nothing is for nothing. He didn't need to die. You could have done it yourself. You couldn't do it. That's why he did it for you. That's the gospel. Now, let me, let me close that. Let me just, I'm just going to close a couple of applications cause I'm out of time. You come back next week. We'll pick it up. All right. Um, so here, here's the [00:36:00] question we all got to ask ourselves. You do an I do. Am I living a consistent life? Are you living a consistent life? Are you, um, one. Here and another way there are you, like, do people not recognize you when you go to church? Like, who are you? Uh, you know, like you change when you like get in the car to go to church. I just have to ask the question because what Peter was doing was changing his story, changed his tune, changing his act based on who he was around. You got to ask the question, do I do that? Do you have one standard for one group and another, because if you do I say this all the love in me, but hypocrisy is knocking at your door, trying to get you to become somebody you're not and play a game. That'll kill you. Are you different when others are around you? What are you talking about? Let me, let me try and make this concrete. I'll just give you a couple of things. Do you find yourself comfortable [00:37:00] with off-color jokes? As long as you're. I would never say that to my house. I would never say that at church, but at work it's cool. This off color, I know it's off color. Do you find yourself if you're in a crowd and you know, most of them I'll just pick this or racist. The funniest, racist joke, man. I'm not racist myself, but which every racist always says before they say something racist or not racist, just get a clue. Okay. I'm not, I'm not racist, but, but you know that they're going to appreciate the racism in the joke. So, because I'm to think it's funny. And so you tell her, you wouldn't tell that joke in another setting, you and tell that you wouldn't tell that in front of your, your friends who are. Ethnicity. You'd never do that. And they weren't there, but we used to, I could tell it, do you find yourself ever doing something like that? Do you find yourself ever subtly looking down on another group of people? I'm so glad I'm not one of them. I'm so [00:38:00] glad I got my issues, but I don't that those are not my issues. You put on a little superior thing going like, I'm so glad I don't have their lifestyle because I can't even. Do you ever fall prey to the tendency that the temptation to develop a public life and a private life. This is who I am in public. This is who I am in private. Is there inconsistency between your public and your private life? And by the way, just for the record, let me confess this. That's the number one reason preachers lose their kids, just so you know, they lose her kids. They go, I don't want anything to do with that because I see you when you're. Is there a difference between your home, if you ever find yourself wanting to fit in to this crowd. So you do those things and then later you want to fit into that crowd. So you do those things, even though those things are really different. Do you find yourself playing to the crowd? Now, [00:39:00] let me go to the second takeaway. If we're going to live to please people, we will not live to please. And guys, I just pound on that for a second. If your goal is to keep people happy, you've got to understand you're going to compromise your faith in Christ. If I got to play to your audience, I'm not playing to him. If I got to keep you happy, I am probably not going to make him happy. I have to decide between those two, which is more important. And again, I just want to say this. What happens is people come along. But all kinds of extra rules on our lives and all kinds of things we have to do. And they, you find yourself wanting to please him. Oh, I don't want to ruffle. I don't want to say you're wrong. I don't want to not conform every cult that was ever found a folks came along and said, this is not enough. You need more. Paul's going Jesus alone. That's [00:40:00] all. Jesus alone. Uh, here's one statement. When, when you are ready to die to yourself, you are ready to live for Jesus until then you are not, I know a shocking statement. That's right in our church, we take Luke 9 23. Jesus said, if you want to follow me, you have to die to yourself. It can no longer be about. You can't find your life in him until you die in him for him, which is by the way, what baptism symbolizes. All right. Last thing, what we believe, determines how we behave. So if you stop to just paid attention to what you were doing and ask yourself the question, why am I doing this? Why am I doing this? I guarantee you you'll figure out what's behind your behavior. You're trying to please someone. Somebody is on your [00:41:00] mind and you think that behavior is what they expect from you. So when you find yourself conflicted, stop and go, who am I playing to here? What am I doing this? Why do I think that's important and you'll learn a lot. Let's pray, uh, do come back next week. We will pick it up and I'd love. I love this book. I love what it teaches. We'll just keep going as father. Thank you for your word. Thanks for, uh, just time to be in it. God, thanks for refreshing our spirits with us truth that it's not about us. It's never been about us and never meant to be about us. You gave us the lot of show, wish that we were not good enough not to convince us. We were good enough to not have. Got help us to realize you, if you showed a problem and you gave a solution, it's as simple as that. And the solution is you, you and you alone. It's not about us, not about our performance. We're to die to ourselves, to live in you. And we pray that we get this and all God's people on all God's campuses and all his online [00:42:00] community said, amen, bless you guys. Come back.