Well, hi. Okay, so before I forget, before I forget, there's something really, really sweet happening today that we have to celebrate, okay? So our Pauldin location drove to Baghdad. To be with the Baghdad location. And it gets better. The Baghdad location cooked breakfast for the Pauldin location. And they are doing church together out there. Welcome. We love you. Some of you are like, I didn't know that. We can go to other locations. Yes, you can. Yes, you can. You can
go and hang out. But yeah, we love you. We're glad you're there. We're glad you're doing that together. Those of you online, so fun. I actually have been online ever since I left. I thought I would be here and then this weird social anxiety thing hit and that's a whole nother conversation for a different day. But I've got to sit on the online family for my entire time. Why? Because this is my church. I get to be a part. It's a family. I'm like you, like I need to be fed.
And so. Online, we love you. We're glad you're there. Miss Patty, hello, hello, hello. It's good to see you. Okay, so I just gotta slow down for a minute before I take off and just say, you guys, thank you. Thank you for a gift, okay? Thank you for being a church family. Thank you for being a church family that goes, hey, we really value. And there are so many things I could tell you about sabbatical. I'm sure they'll
bleed out over the next months. We'll talk about some today, but I just wanna say thank you to our elders, that our elders have a vision of, yes, we want. pastors, and we want them to do what they do, but we don't want to just use them and see them roll on somewhere else. We want to see them use their gifts in this family and have longevity for the family and build something together for the kingdom, right? And so thank you to the elders. Thank you to especially Pastor
Todd. Todd took on the mantle of, he picked up extra weeks. He picked up extra weeks, but on top of that, he also helped organize the other communicators. And if you know anything about Pastor Bob, he takes a lot of organizing. I'm just kidding. Pastor Bob's amazing. I thought Pastor Bob's message, you guys, was one of the best. I've heard him speak a lot. We did youth
together for a lot of years. I thought what he spoke here was one of the best I've ever heard him do in a just mature sense, in a beautiful way. And Pastor Ben picked up extra ones. And it's just beautiful. It's beautiful to see the church staff family that picked up extra roles that were all of a sudden there. It's hard when you have three people. So myself, Kathy Peaches out, Austin Turner's out on sabbatical. And so
three of us gone at the same time. That's a lot to pick up and to see the staff family do that. And so I just want to say massive thank you to our church family, to you, but also to the layers that go along with that. sabbatical, people have asked me, well, how was sabbatical? You guys, I need about four weeks to tell you how sabbatical was. Like, there's just so much and it's from the beautiful to the painful and everything in
between. And we'll talk about that more, but I just don't want us to miss something real quick, okay? You realize what a gift this is. Where we can come into a space with other people who, have seen Jesus in the way he should be and stepped into relationship with him, right? And then to be in a space together where we get to encourage one another, that we get to step in and go, man, not only do I see you, but I get to see God in you. I mean, how beautiful that we get to take
this time and be together. And hopefully what happens is, as we open God's word and whatever, you walk out of here and you get to see God in a whole different way. You get to see an aspect of him that might be new, that he wants to do. Do you know this, right? Like right now, God wants to do a work in you. Like that might not
sound like much. The God of heaven who is keeping everything going, including the earth spinning, sees you right here, right now, knows that you are here right now, sees the very things going on inside of you. And he goes, I want to be in the middle of that and have a conversation with you right now. That's unfathomable, y 'all. And beautiful. And not in my notes. And so we're going to be here a really long time if I keep going on tangents. So we've been in a collection,
right? And the collection being Galatians and walking through the book. We do this often in the summer if you've been around. We walk through a book intentionally. And today I got 29 verses. Okay, so just to put it in perspective, I have roughly about 30 minutes and 29 verses. There's no way I'm doing this on time, right? Or we're shifting something. But it can be really disorienting
to read sections and break them up. And so today, one of the practices of my sabbatical has been really anchoring in and enjoying reading the Bible with no verse numbers, right? Like I have a Bible that has no verse numbers, that has no breaks with subheadings. And what I found is that it... It puts the whole thing together in a way that by having verse numbers and stuff, I catch my brain like stopping or breaking down.
And so when you think about the early church, the early church would have received this letter. And the way this letter would have been given to the early church is there was a copy and somebody read that copy to the church. So I'm gonna ask you to do something. I'm gonna ask you to not read along. Like avoid opening your Bible to try and track along for a minute, which you're like, you're a speaker telling us, a pastor telling us to not open our Bibles. Yeah, that's what
I'm telling you, right? And what I want you to do is just let the word of God be in its entirety. It's chapter three and let it wash over you and just see what the Holy Spirit does and what he shows you as we go through it, okay? And so if you would, would you welcome Pastor Noah, who's gonna read it to us. A reading from Galatians 3. You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes, Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one
thing from you. Did you receive the spirit by the works of the law or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh? Have you experienced so much in vain if it really was in vain? So again, I ask, does God give you his spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law or by believing what you heard? So also Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.
Understand then that those who have faith are children of Abraham. Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham. All nations will be blessed through you. So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse as it is written, cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything
written in the book of the law. Clearly, no one who relies on the law is justified before God because the righteous will live by faith. The law is not based on faith. On the contrary, it says the person who does these things will live by them. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who is hung on a
pole. He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit. Brothers and sisters, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case. The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say, and to seeds, meaning many people, but to and to your seed,
meaning one person who is Christ. What I mean is this, the law introduced 430 years later does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise. But God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise. Why then was the law given at all? It was added because of the transgressions until the seed
to whom the promise referred had come. The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator. A mediator, however, implies more than one party, but God is one. Is the law therefore opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not. For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. But scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin so that what was promised being given through faith in Jesus Christ might
be given to those who believe. Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. So in Christ Jesus, you are all children of God through faith. For all of you who are baptized into Christ have
clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. Let me ask you, where does your value come from? Where does your worth come from? What makes you relevant? How does... Your life matter. My sabbatical started in a way that I didn't expect. I was so excited to have this
time. I was so intentional that I wasn't gonna waste any of it. And I intentionally began sabbatical going, okay, day one, here we go. And I woke up day one. And I felt like doing nothing. Nothing sounded good. No food sounded good. No activity sounded good. And so I was like, okay, that's an anomaly. I'm just tired. Like day two, nothing. Day three, nothing. And so you can imagine, I was a pleasure to be around. My wife was like,
I'm so glad you're home, right? And so as this continued, I realized that What was gonna be true was for me to be here at Watson Lake on Easter with the church family, that was not going to be healthy for you or for me. And so what I realized was is I planned, I kind of left it open. I didn't put anything on calendar really and just went, God, as this thing goes and you lead, I'm gonna put something on. And so I knew kind of in the back of my head, my parents are
in Montana. I wanna go to Montana and visit my parents. And so I also knew that God was leading me to have times of silence and solitude, which I realized, you know, we're really not that quiet. I found that I'm by myself in silence and I'm singing and whistling and all kinds of stuff. I was like, oh, I don't do real well with this, right? But so I go to Montana. and Easter morning hits, right? And so I'm excited. There's a church up there. If you're familiar with Fresh Life
Church, Levi Lusko, I was excited. I've wanted to go forever, and Montana's a long ways away, so never had. And I show up Easter Sunday at their main location, and I'm just excited to be there. I'm like a kid in a candy store, right? And I get in their main room, and I don't know how many it holds. I'm just guessing, but roughly
like 450 people. And if you know the influence of that church within the nationwide Christian circles and even beyond, I watched Levi come into a room of 425 people and you would have thought he was talking to the entire world, which I realize there's a camera, I get that part. But deep in my soul, this question bubbles up. John, would you give your all if it was 425 in a room on Easter? Would you be satisfied? And I was like, oh, that doesn't taste very good.
Let's keep that one out of the way, right? And so I planned because kind of being a church nerd, I was like, okay, they've got another location 25 minutes away. It's a new building. I'm going to go to that location later in the morning. And so I go to the second location and I get there on time and I get to their building and it's new. And I go in and the room holds about 125. And it's a remote location, right? So it's
on screen. And I slide into my seat. And being the introvert I am, I pick the one on the end next to the window. The row in front of me is empty. The row I'm in is empty. And the row behind me is empty. I am literally alone on Easter Sunday. And wouldn't you know, sitting there, watching clouds roll over the mountains on this side and church inside the room, all of a sudden my phone starts pinging. And it's people from the Heights family. And guess what they're doing? Easter's
amazing. And you're not here. True story, direct quote. This is the best Easter ever. And I would love to tell you what happened was I respond and my responses were what? I truly believe in my head, right? Like that's what we've been working towards. It's not dependent on a person that the church family and the gifts that God's given that no matter who's where and what God's gonna move and God's gonna work. And I wrote that back. That's so great to hear. I'm so excited for you.
But in the moment of my lips saying something, my heart is betraying me. My soul is betraying me. Because inside what's happening, I'm going, God, am I still valuable? If I'm sitting next to a window by myself on Easter Sunday, and I'm not using my gifts in the kingdom, and no one can see me and no one knows, God, do I still matter? Am I irrelevant? To the kingdom? Am I
not needed? And so as I'm sitting there and there's this turmoil happening inside, I think there's something that throughout sabbatical, I was reading another book and I've kind of come to grips with this phrasing that I found. It's in a book by Tyler Stanton. But it's this, that the story you live in The story you live in is the story you'll live out. The story you live in is the story you will live out. Hey, here's what I mean, just in a simple sense. That if you believe,
if you believe. That the way that you become successful is that you grind, you open the right doors, you do the work, you put in the time, you sacrifice everything, right? And you're going to attain that. Then guess what? You're going to live out. If that's the story you believe that success is dependent on you, then guess what's going to happen? You are going to live like success is what? Dependent on you. And you're going to sacrifice everything on the altar of
what? Of success. Why? Because the story you're inside of, the story you're living inside of is one where where it's dependent on you, right? The story, the story that you live in is what's going to come out. What you truly believe is what you are going to live out. And that's the same, that concept of the story and which story you're living in is what Paul is getting at in Galatians chapter three, when he starts with, you foolish Galatians, right? Nice warm start.
I should have come back. You foolish. No, I'm just kidding. But he starts with, he starts with, because he wants their attention. He wants them to know how serious this is. How serious the story you are living in, that is going to determine what you do with your life. And so he begins super strong. Who, who, who has bewitched you?
That who is singular. Why does that matter? Because what it's believed to be pointing to and what commentaries and people that are interpreting the Bible, what they will point back to is that this is actually what Paul is referencing is Satan himself. Maybe just pausing for a second, you realize, right, that you have an enemy today? There's an enemy of your soul today, right here, right now. The fact that you are in church today, the fact that you are sitting here today, the
enemy is not happy about. You're in a war. Did you know that? Okay. A lot of heads nodding. This is where it's important. The story you live in is a story I'll live out. The story you live in is there is an enemy that's after your soul. And so you sitting here, he's doubling down on you. The more steps you take to live by faith in the person of Jesus, the more the enemy is coming. And what does he say here? He is trying
to bewitch you. Isn't that fascinating? Bewitched is this word that is to be put under a spell. Think about the enemy for a second, right? You go back to the beginning of Genesis. How did he start? He changes the story. He changes the story of what God's been writing and telling them. And they believe this false story, and therefore what they live out is a different story. And it has massive consequences even to you and me sitting here today. Why? Because we are born
outside of the Garden of Eden. We weren't supposed to be born outside of the Garden of Eden. But the enemy changed the story. So what is he saying here? Hey, church in Galatia, the enemy has bewitched you, is what he's saying. Before your eyes, the rest of verse one, before your very eyes, Jesus was clearly portrayed as crucified. What is he saying? The story that you got, because Paul knows how they stepped into faith with Jesus, is he goes, you were given a very clear truth
about Jesus being crucified. You were given a clear truth that he is the Messiah, the promised one that showed up. He has rescued you. He has saved you. He has redeemed you by the cross and the empty tomb, right? Like this is true of you. is your story. And so he goes, okay, that's how you started. Who's pulled you sideways? Verse two, I would like to learn just one thing from
you. Did you receive, did you receive, did you acquire, did you come into possession of the spirit by the work of the law or by believing what you heard? Did you inherit the spirit of God? Did you inherit the Spirit by something you did to impress God? Did you get the gift of the Holy Spirit because you just happened to do the right thing? And God goes, oh, here you go. That's what he's getting at. Or, or.
Is it what you believe? It's interesting, part of my sabbatical, and this will probably flesh out in weeks and months and years to come, but part of my sabbatical, you can sum up the Bible in one word, at least for me coming out of it, trust. Every story in the Bible is about trust. Everything it points to is about trust. Will you trust God and what he says? Will you trust God and the story he is writing? Okay, you realize you don't have a typewriter? Or some of you are
like, what's a typewriter? Okay, you don't have a pen in your hand. You don't have a keyboard. You're not the author. So when we talk about which story you're living in, God is the author of the story that we are talking about, right? Like that we're diving into. God's the author. which means that if I'm going to live in his story, then it's by trust in that story. It's trust in what he says. It's trust in what, so it's me, it's me giving. And so in this context,
right? Paul's going, hey, did you do something or did you get it by trusting? Verse three, he kind of doubles down as he goes through this. Are you so foolish? After beginning, after beginning by means of the spirit, you are now trying to finish by the means of the flesh. What is the flesh? It's what you inherited being human. What did you inherit? Well, what you have is opposed to God, right? Like you are born opposed to God. How do I know that? I got to hang out with my
grandbaby an awful lot. And you know what? It is the best season. You know why? Because you get to enjoy cuddles. You get to enjoy laughter. You get to enjoy all that. And then you go, here you go. Go do the work, right? And you get to fall asleep, it's great. What I know hanging out with my grandson is when he doesn't get his way, you better believe he's gonna let you know. And he will let you know, and he will let you know until what? Until you do what he wants you
to do. That's what we're all born with. It's cute in an eight month old, not so cute when we get old. Right? When we're still crying like a baby because we're not getting our way. And what he's saying here, that's the flesh, right? That we're born with this. I'm born opposed to what God wants. I'm born where it's like, I can do this. I can pull myself up. I can just be what I need to be, right? And God will honor me. And what he's saying here is, wait, how did
you start? How did you start? This might be a bad picture. I don't know. We'll do it anyways. The idea of start and finish reminds me of a race. And when it comes to running a marathon, right? Which I am more than happy to cheer my kids on doing. That's my marathon activity. You know what I mean? Like they can go do it. I'll cheer you on. I'll sit with my grandson. But when it comes to a marathon, if you start running and then as you're running, you notice people
are getting ahead of you. And so you decide, I'm not gonna run anymore. I'm gonna get in a Formula One car and finish this race. For those of you that don't know, Formula One is by far one of the fastest ways to travel on this planet without leaving the planet, right? So what would happen? They would not allow you to run in the race anymore, right? So flip it because this is actually more true. When you said yes to Jesus, when your trust is in Jesus, you are put into
a Formula One car, right? Like you are given the Holy Spirit. This is like, and you begin a Formula One race, right? Like you are going in the power of the Spirit. And all of a sudden you decide, I don't feel like driving a Formula One car. I'm gonna start running. Are you gonna win the race? No, not a chance. In fact, in fact, you wouldn't even be allowed. If you pull up to a marathon in a Formula One car, they're gonna
be like, you're at the wrong race. Or vice versa, if you show up to a Formula One race and you're like, I'm just gonna run, they won't even allow you on the track. Why? Because those are two different events. Do you realize that those are two different stories that he's talking about? He's not comparing things that are alike. It's like comparing a marathon runner to a Formula One car. They're not even alike. And what he's saying is when you stepped in, when you began,
you began by trust. And if you think somehow, some way that, yes, I can come. And when I come to Jesus and I'm so needy and I'm in like, if you think that's how you come to Jesus, right? Like, like we all come the same way where we recognize we need a savior. And then somehow you started that way. And now all of a sudden you're like, but I'm going to switch to. I'm gonna do the work. I'm gonna switch to, I'm gonna gain something more. Paul's going, it's not even
comparable, you guys. It's not even the same activity. So which then he goes on to say in verse six, or sorry, verse four. Have you experienced so much in vain because they were going through suffering? Was it in vain that you went through suffering? If now you can. Carry on by yourself. So verse five. So again, I ask, does God give you his spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law or by believing what you heard? Does God work miracles among you? I love
that this is where he goes. You ever seen a miracle? You ever been a part or heard a story of someone's miracle that God did? How foolish would it be to be like that person? They just did the right thing. And because they did the right thing, God gave them the miracle. That's not how it works. And that's what he's getting at. He goes, you've seen it, Galatian church. You've seen God move and work. And how did that happen? It
was by belief. It was by trust in that God, that savior, the trust that the Holy Spirit was working, that the Holy Spirit was gonna do what the Holy Spirit does, right? Like it was in trust in that. And now here you are trying to switch to get something else. Well, what were they trying to get? Verse six says this. So also Abraham believed and it was credited to him as righteousness.
So he now brings Abraham into it, right? Father Abraham, if you go back to the Old Testament, right, like you go back to the beginning, Father Abraham had many sons, had many sons, did Father Abraham, don't leave me hanging, and I am, and so are, man, we, you know why this makes me happy? You hear how many old school church people are singing right now? Yeah? That means there's a lot of you that have no clue what I'm even talking about. And that's amazing. That's amazing, right?
And because here's the thing, right? Abraham, Abraham was the father of the faith for the Jews. And so what happens in this context is it says, so Abraham, the father of the faith, he believed, he trusted God. What was he trusting? God's story. What was God's story? Hey, Abraham, through you and your lineage, I'm gonna bring a savior that will bless the entire world. And what does it say that Abraham hung on to? He hung on to what?
God's word, God's promise. He trusted that. And what came out of that is it says that it was credited. It was added to Abraham, a right standing with God. By faith, Abraham was made right with God, which is then why in verse seven, it says, understand then that those who have faith are children of Abraham. Now to us, we might be going like, John, why are we talking about children of Abraham? What does this have to do with anything, right? Well, remember, it's written to a church
in a real place at a real time. These are real people. And they were in a church in an area of Galatia. And in Galatia, what happened, there was a group of people known as the Judaizers. And the Judaizers were Jewish Christians, meaning they had the heritage of being Jewish and they had come to know Jesus. They were Jewish Christians. And what the Judaizers were doing is they were trying to say to everybody else, the laws that
we're still keeping, you need to keep. And so just because of the context and who's in the room and who's listening, one of those would have been circumcision. That's all I'm going to say about it, right? Can you imagine I come back from sabbatical and I'm like, guys, I got a great idea. But they also had things they were eating. And so you had to eat those things. And here's what the promise was. Hey, Gentiles who aren't Jewish, who earlier were separated and
outsiders. They were saying, hey, if you want to become the true sons of Abraham, if you want to get a better Christianity, if you want a closer standing with God, if you want to be on the real inside track, then you need to do these things to become a true child of Abraham. Which is why Paul's writing and going, listen to his words. They're so straightforward. He goes, those who have faith are children of Abraham. Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles.
He would make right the Gentiles by faith, by trust in what he has said and in what he has done and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham. All nations will be blessed through you. So those who rely on faith, those who rely on trust are blessed, are what? What's that word? Blessed, blessed. Who's blessed? Those that rely by trust. Right? By belief, by faith, they are blessed along with Abraham, not separate from Abraham. They're blessed with Abraham, the man of faith.
So you have this one side where he's going, hey, if you are living your life, if the story that you are in is that you are blessed by God simply because you put your trust in God, he goes, you're just like Abraham. But then there's another group of people he brings up. For all who rely, verse 10, for all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse. As it is written, cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the law. So now he goes,
okay, there's two stories. One story is you believe and you receive, you acquire. Right? I believe this to be true. I believe what God has written. I believe what God has done. I believe what Jesus has accomplished. I believe that. And what I've done is I've received. The other story is this, that I work really hard. And when I work really hard, therefore I get more. If I do this, then I get that. Can I just use words from scripture? Those of you. that are living your story, living
out your story. And the living out of your story is I gotta do more so that I get more. I gotta do more so that I maybe get that from God. According to Paul, that is cursed. It's cursed. It can't work. It can't work. Why is this important, you guys? There are good things we do that we twist. You know what? I really wanna see a miracle of God. So what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna pray and
I'm gonna fast. So something that should be a spiritual discipline to draw us closer to the relationship that we have with God, where we hear his voice and we draw near to him, what have we done? We've gone, if I do this and I do this, then, then I deserve a miracle. That's working under the law and God says that's cursed. Let's take a generic, or not generic, but maybe something easier to understand, right? Okay, God is my provider. My head goes, God is my provider.
I know that, God's our provider, right? Like we know that here, but the story I'm living out is over here, I'm in turmoil. I'm striving everything I can. So over here, I know God's my provider, right? And head knowledge. But what's actually playing out in my life is I actually haven't believed is the story I'm inside of. And I haven't believed that this God is my provider. And I haven't believed this God is good. And I haven't
believed that this God will show up for me. And I haven't believed that my needs will be met by him because I got to go meet those needs. You see how it works, right? Like it's so subtle. That what I've done is I've shifted the story. Instead of God being my provider, now I'm my provider and I'm doing the work and I'm striving and I'm trying to, right? Like think about it in the sense of, this one's a sensitive one. But sometimes when we long for healing, right?
Like we know God is our healer, but if I just have enough faith. You see what happened? We preached a different gospel. We're in another story, a story where if I have enough faith, then what? Then God will somehow do that. It's so subtle. It's so subtle. And what Paul carries on with then. As he said, clearly, verse 11, clearly no one who relies on the law is justified
before God. No one who relies on the law, if you are here and you think you got to do something, and if you do just that, then you'll get that. You just need to understand that no one who lives that way, he says, clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God. You're not made right because the righteous will live by faith. The law is not based on faith. The law is not based on faith. When you live in a way that you have to do something to, You get something
from God. What he's saying is that's not faith. That's work. The law is not based on faith. On the contrary, it says the person who does these things will live by them. Christ redeemed us. Christ Jesus redeemed. He bought back. What did he buy back? The false story that you got to do something for God to like you. What did he buy back? That you got to do something to get something. He bought it back. He redeemed it.
How? By going to a cross, by dying, by taking it to a tomb and leaving the false story in the tomb and being raised to life. And what was he raised with? The story that God always intended. That what? That God has made a way when there wasn't a way. That God has provided for you. It gets even, he flushes out even more that he's redeemed us from the curse of the law. He's redeemed us from having to live by this. I got a due to get for it is written, cursed is everyone who
is hung on a pole. He redeemed us in order that the blessing, in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus. So that, here's the why. So that by faith, by faith, how? By trust. In what? What Jesus has done. How do you know what Jesus has done? God told you what Jesus has done. By faith, by trust, by trust, we might receive, we might acquire what? The promise of the spirit. You
guys hold up right here. right now with all of the thoughts in your head and all of the things that you think you don't measure up in, that when you came to Jesus and your trust was placed in him, he in turn, he in turn did what? Allowed you to acquire. The Holy Spirit himself, now the Holy Spirit, let's put it in context. How did Jesus perform the miracles that Jesus did? Through the power of the Holy Spirit. The same spirit that was in Jesus has been placed into
you. And so the Holy Spirit now inside of you, you have the same spirit, the same power right here, right now. How? Not by anything you did. But by simply going, I believe this to be true. He goes on to talk about the law and you can read that later, but basically it's this comparison, right? Of, well, maybe the law took the promise and he goes, that's not true. The law can't take the promise. And he gets down to this idea that
the law is a guardian. Now, I don't know what you think about the law, what comes to mind when you think about the law. I know in my life, the law was a good guardian. How do I know that? I can't even keep the 10 commandments, let alone the 613. I just fail. I just fail right out the gate. Don't have any other God. I put things in the place of God all the time. I know what my flesh is. I know what I inherited. I know
that then within me, there's nothing good. The only good is the spirit of Jesus and what he is doing to renew. So in this context, what he's getting at is the guardian came along and it was temporary. What was the guardian? That you would see that this due to get, it's exhausting and it doesn't work. To bring you back to the person of Jesus, it says, before the coming of the faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come
would be revealed. So the law was our guardian. Until Christ came that we might be justified, made right, by what? By faith, by trust. Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. Don't miss this. So, so, here's where it's all been building to. So in Christ Jesus, you are all children of God through what? Through trust, through faith. Okay, okay. Here and now, God, because some of you came in and you're like, I don't even know if God sees me. I don't even
know if I'm known. Are you kidding? God not only sees you, but he knows you. The Bible talks about he knows you so intimately that he knows the hairs on your head or lack thereof. He knows the ones that have fallen out. They won't grow back. He knows you so intimately that he knows your very thoughts that you've had. That he sees you so deeply. That while your lips may be sitting in church betraying what your soul is actually saying, that he knows you so deeply that he wants
to have a conversation in your soul today. And he wants to remind you, what does he want to remind you of? That you are a child of God. That you're his kid. Okay, let's God -size this, right? Because we get lost in this. Go outside the universe, that God. Right, like outside the unknown universe, that God. The God who is all powerful, who is all knowing, who is all present, that God, the creator God, that God is your father is what he calls himself. And we can look at it, church.
You can look at it and you can put your earthly lens on, right? And what I mean by your earthly lens, we all got earthly dads, right? I don't know what your lineage is, your heritage is of your family. And it can be really easy to hear that God is my father and it can be really easy to get lost in that. I was reading a book over sabbatical and one of the phrases that I've fallen in love with is that he is the perfect father.
He's the perfect father. Everything you can imagine a father should be, everything you could want a father should be, and even more, God the father is to you. I think I'm a pretty good dad. I try to be. I love my kids. I do anything for my kids. I try to tell them as often as I can how loved they are, how nothing will change that. They'll always be my kids. I don't even compare to your father in heaven. I'm not even a shadow. And he looks at you today and he goes, I love you.
I love you enough that I would step onto the planet. I mean, you think how degrading for the King of Kings to become human. We're not that impressive, you guys. To live in the midst of a broken and in his context, an oppressed people. He was born into slavery. He was born into mistreatment. Why? Why? So that he could go to a cross. To take all of those thoughts about shame and guilt that you let be your story. Your story is not shame and guilt. Your story is you are a free
child of God because of Jesus. The stories we tell ourselves that were not enough or was somehow not measuring up or that is not your story. Who you are, it's identity. Who you are, you are a child of God and that cannot change. That is who you are. And you, you are loved by God exactly as you are right now. You guys sitting in a church, On Easter Sunday alone, while y 'all were partying, I'm just gonna say, right? Like while you were
all were losing your minds. I'm so thankful that God loved me enough to have a real conversation with my soul. I'm so thankful that my heavenly father loved me enough to sit with me in that row. It's a whisper. On your way in, you should receive one of these. I got two questions for you. First one is this, how did you receive it? How did you receive what you have in your hand? I don't mean how did you receive the cup? I don't mean who gave you that. I mean what this represents.
Your salvation, your freedom, your rescue, your standing with God, your gift of salvation. How did you receive it? How did you acquire your gift of salvation? Because that is your true story. That it was by faith. It was by trust. The second question is this. And it's more of a conversation. than a question for you to ask the Holy Spirit in a moment of reflection, Holy Spirit, how am I not living in the story you have given me? What am I living out? Reveal to
me. My prayer going to Montana was search me and know me and reveal what's not of you. I don't know if I'll ever pray that again, if I'm honest, because it's pretty dark, pretty sideways. But Holy Spirit, would you show us, would you show me where am I not living the story you've put me in? So the next moment's yours, then we'll
take it all together. I left that church on Easter Sunday and the place I was staying at, if I walked one direction, it took me to the mountains, like just massive majestic mountain in front of me. And I left the church beating myself up pretty good. I wasn't kind to myself. Didn't know how it had gone sideways. My soul felt shredded. And as I'm walking along, All by myself. It was in between seasons. It's not ski season, but it's not boat season. And so there was nobody
around. And out of nowhere on this mountain, this cloud comes down. And anywhere in scripture, the cloud is represented to the presence, very presence of God. And it was just enough that it caught my attention. And so my focus was there. My thoughts were there. And out of nowhere, I just felt this internal voice go. John, I walked with Moses and I'll walk with you. I'm here. And it was a complete recentering of my soul
for me. God loved me enough to put me in a little church on Easter Sunday to lead me to a mountain to tell me I'm here. I believe that communion is our recentering. It's our recentering to the story that is true. The story that we said yes to, that we get so sideways on. And you think about those early disciples, right? They're gathered around the table and chaos is about to break loose for them. Turmoil is about to overtake them, confusion. And what does Jesus go? Hey,
here's your anchor. Take this bread and remind yourself that it's my body and it's given, given. You didn't earn it. You didn't do anything for it. I came and I laid it down. Why? Because I
love you. Do this in remembrance of me. He took the cup of wine, cup of redemption, and he reminded them that forgiveness, because he would take all of the sin of every human being, both past, present, and future, of every single human being, and he would put it on himself, and his blood would be sufficient to pay the price that when we sit here and we partake of the cup, That we're reminded you are, you are, you are. It's not in question. You are forgiven. No more guilt,
no more shame, no more pain. It's gone. Because you're forgiven. And he handed him a cup. He said, take drink, do this in remembrance of me. God, we thank you this morning. Thank you for being so good. You are so, so good to us. God, we don't deserve it in any way, shape, or form that you would look our way. But God, it's not even that you just look our way. Look our way. You showed up. And you have made a way where there seemed to be no way. You held your promises
when you didn't have to. You provided miracles and worked miracles on our behalf when you didn't have to. And so God, we just say thank you. Thank you for being so, so good to us. Thank you for being a way maker today. God, as we continue to worship, as we continue to raise our voices, would your spirit work in this place? Would you continue to have conversation with us? Would we leave here changed because we met with the living God? And so we just say, thank you. Thank
you for loving us first. And everybody said, amen.