Fear Self-Righteousness

We don't feel we need Jesus.

We're trying to put our hope in something else out of the camp.

We don't feel we need him.

We don't feel he can rescue.

We don't feel he can help.

And we're trying to put our hope in something else.

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Let's pray together.

Lord, there's no one who has better news than us.

No one who has better hope than us.

No one who has better reasons to keep going than us.

There's not been a single moment that we have experienced life all on our own, apart from you, abandoned by you.

Even through the deepest valley, you have not let us go by ourselves.

This morning, let this land on us in a fresh way.

That we have renewed trust of you, not because you haven't been untrustworthy, but because we've been short-sighted, forgetful.

May you receive fresh praise, fresh adoration from our hearts.

Amen.

Please be seated.

My name is Blake Hardcastle, and I'm the spiritual formation pastor here at Grand Parkway.

Part of what this means is I usually give oversight to our Sunday morning and midweek Bible communities and missions and some other things.

This morning, part of what that means is I'll be delivering the sermon.

Neil is sick, and so you don't want him here.

He's got the flu.

He texted me the day after Christmas.

I got the flu, which probably means Christmas probably wasn't super awesome.

What's this mean?

Means I'm quarantined for 24 hours.

Oh, and I'm on bed rest for a bunch more.

Okay.

So you have me.

And I'm delighted about that because Neil or I or someone else, we're not the fulcrum that makes this thing work or not.

In fact, the only thing we need is the very thing we have, which is God's word.

And this morning, we're looking at a text of Galatians.

It will be three verses, and we're kind of kind of launch from these and kind of do some fact-checking.

What's Paul saying?

What's Paul saying?

He uses these three and he expounds them in the rest of the book.

So it may feel a little like we're, hey, we're moving around a little bit.

No, we're in these three.

We just need some background data.

Now I also want to say that this morning uh I'm gonna talk mostly about fear.

And usually fear is something that works against us, it undermines us, it doesn't help, it usually makes things worse.

Leave some examples.

So um I learned around age eight that I am pretty fearful of heights.

Who's part of that tribe?

Any height fearers?

Yeah.

Hey, you're all good people.

Yeah.

And I learned this because my dad took me to a place called the Marvel Cave.

Marvel Cave is this attraction at Silvadar City.

If you don't know what that is, it's kind of like um Walt Disney World for Rednecks, is what Silvadar City is.

And so anybody been there, you can testify.

Yes, thank you.

And so Marvel Cave works like this.

It's this big opening, and the the top lower shaft area is 94 feet.

I'm not really good at math, I just know that's really tall.

And I'm not sure you've been in a cave recently or ever, but caves are kind of a constant temperature and a constant humidity, which is a lot.

And so the steel structure, which, you know, I'm not against engineers.

I I think they're doing a very fine job, uh, is all wet and slick, even the handrails are slick, and I really don't trust me, is what it is.

And so we walk down, and that's when it just hits me.

Uh, the adrenaline's spiking, I'm fearful, and I probably would have walked out, except there's like 20 people behind me because we're on a cave tour.

And so we I'd somehow fumbled down this thing terrified.

And and since then, I'm still pretty scared of heights, and and I'll endure a roller coaster mainly because the sensation when it's all over is so incredible.

That I lived.

I survived.

Uh, it's kind of like a resurrection, it's it's amazing.

Um, I got some other fears.

Um, fear afraid of snakes.

Are you also afraid of snakes?

Yeah, y'all's good people.

You guys who love heights, listen, hooray for you.

Jesus loves us exactly the same as you.

You don't get any more love from him.

And quite frankly, we could use some help with the lights in our houses.

So that spiritual gift you could employ for our edification.

Sometimes if we fear people, and and this is made a little more common where, and part of what we're fearing is we're we're afraid we're not going to get approval from them, or we're not gonna get acceptance from them, or recognition from them.

And so we might shift and alter how we present ourselves to make sure that keeps coming, or make sure we get it in the first place.

And that really undermines us because you now are an imposter of your true self.

This morning, the text will expose us to what Paul's gonna unload is is this practice of self-righteousness.

And I'm gonna say he's gonna argue that self-righteousness is something we should be afraid of.

And not necessarily like, I'm afraid you're gonna be self-righteous and I'm afraid of you.

We need to be on guard of our own selves.

Afraid that we are gonna be, without even knowing it, thinking and acting self-righteously.

And not necessarily self-righteously like, here's me and here's you.

It's actually self-righteous in the worst way, which is I don't need God.

I'm sufficient in myself.

Let's unpack this together and walk through Paul's argument.

We'll start in verse 6.

So Paul writes to them, he says, I'm astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you into the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel.

And he's gonna write some of the strongest language in the whole New Testament in this passage.

He's mad.

He's not like, whoa, I'm so caught off guard.

No, he's furious.

Because what he has been used by God to build, which is an emerging community of believers, little house churches, is now being undermined and undercut with something that actually is not the true gospel.

That's what he calls different gospel.

What does he refer to?

What does he mean by this?

He says they've been deserters, deserting is the same kind of word that they would use for someone in uh in an army who kind of snuck over to the enemy's side and told all the secrets so that the enemy could get an advantage.

So changing one's allegiance.

He said, You were called in the grace of Christ.

He said, I'm reminding you, you responded that God did something very significant in your life, so but now you're rejecting that.

You're in fact, what you used to call good, you're saying that's not sufficient.

Now, how are they doing this?

Let's go to chapter 2.

This is kind of the footnotes of what is Paul talking about here.

Verse 11, chapter 2, he said, When Cephas, this is Peter the apostle, Cephas is the Greek translation of his name, when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face.

Oh, that's pretty strong.

We got, I didn't quietly say something in the background, I didn't, you know, passive aggressive, I got right up in his face, ready to throw hands.

I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned.

What was happening, Paul?

For before certain men came from James, what's referring to as James is James the apostle, who's a leader of the church in Jerusalem.

And we mean by certain men, he doesn't mean that James said, Hey, you go and you go say this stuff for me.

What he means is people who came from Jerusalem, who were claiming kind of to be from James, really just from James area where James is presiding, and they are trying to re exert the old Jewish rituals, the old Jewish practices to make one right with God.

Before these guys came from James, Peter, he was eating with the Gentiles.

He was equal with them.

Yes, we're both accepted by God.

Yes, we're gonna share a meal, which isn't just for food.

It's actually saying I accept you, you accept me, I approve of you, you approve of me.

It says, eating with them, but when they came, he drew back and separated himself from them.

Why, Paul?

Paul says, fearing the circumcision party.

So he tells us the people who are doing this, people who want to re-exert, hey, you know what?

Um, it's good that people are believing.

This is great, but just believing is not enough.

You need to believe, and you also have to follow all the old rituals like circumcision and the dietary laws and the food laws and the ceremonial cleaning.

You gotta do all that stuff.

And Paul said, so Peter started acting this way, and I got right in his face and told him he was wrong.

Because he didn't act this way before they came, when those guys came, and it gets worse.

Look at verse 13.

And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him.

They followed Peter right in this.

So this is hypocritical.

And the saddest part, even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.

Even Barnabas.

Barnabas, one of the few who first believed that God was doing something in Paul, the one who was the accuser, the persecutor, the destroyer of the early church, now was gonna be the one who be its primary thinker, primary voice, primary missionary.

Even Barnabas was led astray.

Said, all right, Gentiles, you guys stay over there?

Don't get too near me.

No, we are not gonna shake hands because now you're gonna make me ceremonially unclean.

Now, if you follow all the rituals, okay.

But as long as you stay a Gentile, no.

What is this hypocrisy he's referring to?

Let's take a peek at Ephesians chapter 2.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

Chapter 2, verse 13 and following.

Paul writes, but now in Christ Jesus, you who are once far off, Gentiles, have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

For he himself is our peace.

Who's our?

The Jews and Gentiles.

He now is our peace.

In his body, by his own blood.

He has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility.

So previously, God has said, look, I'm gonna use your example, set you apart.

The people of God do things the way God has prescribed, at the time he says so, and what that's gonna look like is you're not gonna mix in the Gentiles, ancient Israel.

But now in Christ said, now that's over.

In fact, that was to show you you you couldn't fulfill these laws.

Here's the one who's fulfilled them perfectly, and so these guys are in, and you co-equal.

He said, Verse 15, by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, why?

That he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, making peace.

He might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing hostility.

Paul says, You hypocrites.

You would preach the gospel enough that these Gentiles would respond and believe in faith, but then she would re-exert this separation.

That's hypocrisy.

Why is this really a problem?

Let's go back to our first part of our text, verse 7.

Paul says, talk about different gospel.

Not that there is another one.

So there isn't a different gospel.

So there's one gospel, and everything else is a dangerous imposter.

Every other gospel other than the one true gospel, every other source of good news rather than the true good news is dangerous.

So now that there is another one, but we are but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

And in fact, they're replaying the same trouble that the Judaizers had done, then Peter followed them in Antioch.

So this is the same old thing.

And he's so upset by this.

Verse 8.

He writes, but even if we, so Paul and his companions, the ones who initiated this church through God's power in Galatia, even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary than the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.

He's saying, No matter the source, no matter how matter how authoritative, no matter how respected, no matter how influential, if they change the gospel, do not believe them.

In fact, they should be condemned and doomed by God.

It couldn't be any stronger.

But Blake, he was so influential in my life as a young person.

But Blake, she was really there for me when I was really in need.

But Blake, it's such a good ministry.

They do so many good things.

God uses them in amazing ways.

But Blake, these books are so helpful.

That's all great.

But when they preach a different gospel, do not listen to them.

This is what Paul says.

Why?

Why not listen to them?

But the danger is a different gospel does not save you.

In fact, it does something very tragic.

It makes you think you're okay when you're really in great peril.

It makes you think you're right with God when really you couldn't be in more doom.

That's the ironic tragedy of a false gospel.

There's no sense of I need to get right with God, I think I'm okay.

And really you couldn't be in more trouble.

And Paul doesn't want this emerging church, people who would think they're saved, think they're regenerate, and really not be.

And go to the grave condemned and doomed.

That's why this is so serious to Paul.

Now, Paul's gospel in chapter 2, verses 2 through 10, I'll summarize this.

He tells the Galatians, look, uh, just so you know, I have my gospel checked out.

I had this appearing by the Lord Jesus Himself teaching me, and after 14 years, I went down with Barnabas, and we went to Jerusalem, and I met with James and John and Peter, right?

The pillars apostolically of the early church.

Who happened to be the ones at the Mount of Transfiguration, happened to be the ones in the garden, you know, the inner circle.

I met with these guys.

I explained to them what we were teaching, what the gospel we were saying, what was happening, that God was using us among the uncircumcised, among the Gentiles.

The same way he was using Peter among the Jews.

And they were responding in true faith, forsaking idolatry.

And these guys, they approved of it.

In fact, we had Titus with us.

Titus, he's just a regular old Gentile.

Not circumcised, not followed any Jewish rules ever, his whole life, just believed in Jesus.

And they didn't say, All right, now this fellow, you know how to get him straightened out.

Now take this off the menu, take this off the body, change this about what you're doing.

So they didn't do any of that.

And there were even some Jews, Jews of the Judaizing party saying, Hey, what about this?

And we didn't, we didn't give it to them one minute.

Galatians, so that we could preserve this for you.

He said, in fact, Peter, James, and John gave me the right hand of fellowship.

They are approving of what we are doing.

So don't go changing now, appealing to Peter, appealing to somebody who came from Jerusalem.

Paul's gospel essentially is this.

What is this thing he had checked out?

Essentially is this that God is the loving ruler of the world.

He made all that there is, and his purpose of making man is that mankind would rule the world under him.

Now, in at least one way, every person who's ever lived has rejected God as the ruler.

And they do it by trying to rule life their own way, trying to be the ruler of their life, trying to be the rule of the world.

And it always fails.

And God will not let this rebellion go on forever.

He has to punish every sin that man commits.

Otherwise, he can't remain holy.

The punishment is death and judgment.

Now, this thing we celebrated 40 days ago, Christmas, is God sending his son Jesus into the world.

Jesus is the only one who ever perfectly lived under God's rule.

He's the only one who perfectly never rejected God as the ruler and set himself up as ruler.

And in fact, that perfect living died in our place.

God now can credit that to you.

He raised Jesus to life again as the ruler of the world.

So Jesus conquered death, he right now brings life, and at some point he's going to come again and return to judge.

And so the call to Paul's gospel is very simple.

He said, look, there's two kinds of people.

When Jesus returns, they're going to be around.

Those who submit to God as the ruler of their world, of the ruler of their life, and those who do not.

Those who say, Yes, you are the king, and those who say, No, I'm still king.

And Paul's concern in Galatians is that people could be living as if they're king and have no clue they were doing it.

In fact, this is what he's accusing the Jews of.

You want to take these rituals, these ceremonial washing, food, and circumcision, and you want to add this to the gospel.

Let me pause here and ask this question.

Why would the Jewish believers keep practicing the separation?

Why would they want to do this?

I mean, to our ears, it seems like this is wrong.

I'm assuming most of your Gentiles are like, hey, this is this is wrong.

Let me offer this.

Here's why I think the Jews were so compelled to do this.

They like being Jewish.

They liked it a lot.

Let me give an example.

There's some things about me that I like a lot.

And I think everyone else would be better off if they were this way too.

Let me give you an example.

So I think the way my um, so I grew up in Missouri, uh, my most of my family is there.

I think the way my family in Missouri celebrates 4th of July is the way it should be celebrated, which is like this.

You go purchase or make your own explosives, and you go to my cousin's property, which is like on the border of Missouri and Arkansas.

There's like no law, no rules at all.

And um and you just blow stuff up forever.

And at 10 years old, I thought I had permanent damage in my hand because I was, you know, lighting stuff, chucking it everywhere.

Some of those things go off quick and go off in your hand.

And you're like, okay, well, my hand's numb forever, but I can't tell anybody because I'll get in trouble.

So I'm just gonna be in pain.

And that came back.

I'm fine.

This is how I grew up doing 4th July.

Now my wife grew up very differently.

She grew up 4th July for her was you drive to kind of the center of a city and you find your spot and you roll out your blanket, and you get your cooler, and you get your red licorice and your soda, and you you wait for the sun to go down, and then at some point, everyone watches this big arsenal that's very far away.

And it's it's fun for a little while, but at the end, but during it's just kind of boring.

Now, about five years ago, we we tethered her whole family in the summertime to Missouri.

We went late, end of July, and my dad said, Well, you know, you missed 4th July.

Yeah, I know.

Well, we can just do it again.

But really?

Sure.

So we bought a bunch of fireworks on July 26th that year.

We have 4th July at my cousin's house.

And my kids thought it was this is one of the greatest days of their life.

That you know, they figured out really quickly.

Hey, one bottle rocket, that's that's pretty fun in the beginning.

But you just put the whole pack there, light one, and they the fire spreads it, it lights all goes everywhere, and it's going great.

Things are blowing up, my wife's a little scared, all my aunts are lined up, and and then my uncle, Uncle Tom, has this older, like this big cube of dust on it.

He goes, Oh, this this has been in my garage for a couple years.

But uh, yeah, I thought, let's shoot it off today.

Oh, okay, all right.

And still got a wick, all right, still attached, all right.

Let's put it on the plywood on the launching station.

You know, the kids are out there and they light it and they run, and and this thing's pretty good.

I mean, it's pretty honking, and boom, he's big.

Balls of fire and loud noise, and you know it's a good one.

And and then the the trajectory of the of the balls of fire starts getting a little lower and a little lower, and now it's kind of arcing over a truck and towards the front of the road and and towards this pine tree in the front of my cousin's house.

And and I I probably forgot to tell you, did I tell you there's a drought that year?

Did I tell you that?

Didn't tell you that.

So it hits this pine tree, it's about eight feet tall, dried house can be.

I don't know what you know about pine wood, but it's an amazing fire starter.

So this thing immediately goes, you know, it's all these dried needles and on the tree and it's in blaze.

And my kids are pretty freaked out.

Like, that's it.

Fourth of July's over.

All the fun's over.

My cousin whips out a hose and we hose it all down and smoking and black, and my uncles get their pocket knights out, and they do a big CSI crime scene investigation.

And they find out that, oh, this big hunk and firework that Tom had in his garage, part of the bottom blew out, and that knocked it over.

It was not the kids' fault at all.

Fourth lies back on.

And so it's amazing.

They they burned down a tree, endangered people and property, and no trouble.

In fact, they got to do it all over again.

I think it's I think it's great.

I think I'm a little excited about it right now.

Just talking about it.

I think the Jews liked being Jewish.

They liked the Seder meal, they liked the sounds of it, they like the smell of the bread, they liked reciting the Torah.

And when all those things were fulfilled in Jesus, aren't we throwing away good stuff?

Let me give one illustration to drive home a little more.

Let's assume, for sake of argument, that you currently are a physician.

In fact, you're a surgeon.

So part of what that means is you did a biology undergrad, you did well enough on the MCAT, you matched with a med school, you completed med school, completed a residency, maybe a fellowship, certainly a specialty, and now you're in your early 40s and you're pretty competent, and you're making a hospital a lot of money, and your name's on the surgery board a bunch.

And so you go to the board to check what's on the docket this week.

And looking at the board also is a really young person.

And you look over and and they're they're wearing like doctor stuff.

They got the long coat.

And so you're like, hey, do I know you?

Oh no, I'm new here.

I'm Dr.

So-and-so.

Doctor So-and-so.

Are you uh I thought you were a med student?

No, I'm not a med student.

No, I'm I've I've completed all that.

Oh, well, uh, how old are you?

Oh, I'm really young.

I'm 21.

21.

Are you like some genius?

Did you like finish college at nine?

Oh no, I'm I'm actually kind of average.

I how are you here?

Oh.

Yeah, they they've changed the way they do medicine now since when you were in school.

Yeah, and they got rid of all the extra unnecessary stuff, and uh it's just a 22-month intensive program now.

Do you think this person's a doctor?

Are you letting them anywhere near a patient?

No.

This is how the Jews felt.

These Gentiles are getting this too easy.

How can they just believe, believe that Jesus died in their place?

That can't be what it is.

Surely they must do all the steps, right?

This is how the Jews felt.

And what they missed.

Oh, yeah, all the steps gotta get done.

Absolutely.

And they were all done in Jesus for these Gentiles.

And oh, by the way, they were all done in Jesus for you two Jews, because you were just screwing them up all along.

You never did ever fulfill any of them.

And so to them, it felt like this is too easy.

They're getting off.

They're not really doing this, can't be real.

They can't really be converted, can they?

So, why would the Judaizers do this?

They don't like being Jewish.

And they failed to see that the same thing that was saving the Gentiles is the same thing that was to save them.

What their error is they were adding to the gospel the Jewish rites and rituals.

And this is the big danger.

What Paul Tribb calls this is they were having a sense of righteousness coming from this.

He writes, false gospels are always seductive.

Because they always tell you that you are more righteous than you are and have more power than you possess.

That's the essence of a false gospel.

It makes you feel better about you.

And your need of God is diminished.

Let me give you a couple of examples.

Because I want you to see that it is very subtle how this happens.

I want you to think about what is it that makes you feel powerful?

Or the opposite.

What is it that you don't have or being with held that makes you feel powerless?

These often are a way to identify am I adding something to the gospel?

And my hope is divided?

And I'm actually living by a different gospel.

Here's some examples.

We can make our salvation experience an add-on to the gospel.

We do it this way.

Maybe you were someone, when you came to faith in Christ, you really did what the gospel of Luke says, and you counted the cost of following Jesus.

Examined, was he really resurrected?

Let me see the arguments for and the arguments against.

Let me read the gospels.

Let me be convinced by the gospel writer.

And when you came to faith in Christ, you were, yes, I will flee all idolatry and whatever the cost, I will, my trajectory is to Jesus.

And then maybe you see one who, for their first time at church, they hear the gospel, a little minute and a half thing that a guy like me recites.

And without thinking very much, they're just in a puddle of tears.

It's just a swell of emotion.

And they say, Yes, I want to believe, I want to be saved.

And maybe you're thinking, Well, not yet.

Did you think about that?

Did you count the cost?

That's in the Bible, you know.

Did you count the cost?

Did you read things?

At least one article?

I mean, did you did you because we can't we can't be sure you're not gonna backtrack later, can we?

Maybe it was the opposite for you.

Maybe when you came to faith in Christ, when it happened an hour earlier, Jesus.

Totally unconvinced.

And then when you came a believer, you said, I don't know what has happened or how it happened.

But the things I rejected before, I now embrace.

The things I thought were false before, I know are true.

He has made me believe this.

And you were so overwhelmed by this that the most natural response was deep humility resulting in joy and tears, and tears and emotion.

And then you see one who just has taken her time, thinking things through, and you think, this person can't get saved.

They have no deep sense of conviction and repentance.

See, we can make even our salvation experience an extra standard.

When Jesus is a true, better resurrection in life, your earthly experience of new birth will be completely eclipsed when you see him face to face.

Here's some other ones.

Maybe it's school.

Maybe you are getting or have gotten good grades.

And you say, Oh yeah, look, it was real simple.

I studied and worked hard, and I got high marks.

And then you have no or very little compassion or sympathy for those who get bad grades, and you're like, Yeah, you did 70% of the work and you got a 70.

And this is English class, but math applies everywhere.

I don't know what you thought was gonna happen.

And you feel good about yourself.

When really Jesus is a true and better wisdom, true and better knowledge.

He cannot be fully known or fully ever learned.

He created all there is and right now upholds it with his power.

You see, the person who feels powerful with high marks, high grades, high achievement, and the person who feels powerless when they don't happen or withheld, both of them are experiencing adding something to the gospel.

Both of them are leaning too much on something else as a source of life.

Maybe it's kids, maybe you have children and you've gotten compliments about them.

Oh, they're really well behaved, they're very polite, they're a joy in the classroom, like, oh, I'm so relieved.

That's maybe, maybe I am a good parent.

Maybe they're not good at home, but they're good outside the home.

Okay, I'll take it.

That's enough for me.

Maybe you have older kids and they have jobs and they pay their own cell phone bill and they've done the great thing they can do, and they've given you grandchildren.

You feel just blessed, I'm blessed.

Thank you, Lord.

And maybe you feel powerful when your kids are praised, but you've forgotten God is the true and better parent.

He gives grace to your children, he can actually change their heart.

Not just modify behavior, not just keep them safe on a car ride, he can actually change their heart and affect their soul.

But you feel powerful when the kids are praised, or you feel powerless when they're criticized.

And both are an example of leaning too much on something as a source of life that could never provide life.

And if we add that to the gospel, I feel good about what Jesus and my kids, or I feel good about Jesus, but not my kids, now we're mixing in a false gospel.

Two more.

What about job and work?

Maybe you're climbing the ladder of a field, uh, and salary has begun to not just meet needs, but meet a lot of wants.

And okay, there's some margin to feel good about this.

When Jesus is the true and better provision, he doesn't just last from month to month or quarterly projection to quarterly projection.

His provision is eternal, and not just eternal, it's exactly what you need at exactly the time you need it.

And yet, when one feels powerful with promotion or powerless when it's withheld, it may be that they're leaning too much on something else as a source of life.

It was never intended to give.

And they're adding it to the true gospel.

Let me give you one more.

What about health and beauty?

So maybe health, maybe you've uh lost weight and you're in good shape, or you got in good shape again, and you feel physically empowered, or maybe beauty, maybe you you pass by the mirror.

You don't hate what you see, you kind of like what you see.

Other people have told you they like what you see.

Jesus is a true and better beauty.

He takes rebellion and grotesque sin of a heart and he washes it in his precious blood.

He makes it clean and acceptable and beautiful.

He takes tears and gives strength.

He takes a burned up ash pile and brings new life and beauty from it.

And maybe you feel powerful when you look in the mirror, or maybe you feel powerless when you look in the mirror.

Both of those can be leaning too much on something that was never designed to give life, never designed to be that meaningful, and you're adding it to the gospel.

Where God must not like me because I don't like myself, or God must like me because I like myself.

And in some sneaky way, we're repeating the error of the Judaizers in Galatians.

We're repeating the error of the Galatians and following them.

In each of these cases and many more, we can live in our own self-made righteousness.

One more quote from Paul Tripp about Jesus and our righteousness.

He says, We have no righteousness, no right standing.

God is not happy with us one bit that does not belong to Christ.

Oh, by the way, God's elated with us in view of Christ.

No power that's not given by Christ, and no hope that doesn't depend on Christ.

So Blake, how do I know if I'm self-righteous or not?

I I can't think through all this.

Here's one really good clue prayerlessness.

If you are prayerless, it may be, it likely is, you have some sense of self-righteousness.

We don't need Jesus when we're trying, or I'll say we don't feel we need Jesus when we're trying to put our hope in something else other than Him.

We don't feel we need Him, we don't feel He can rescue, we don't feel He can help when we're trying to put our hope in something else.

And we're so adept, we can take anything in this world and twist it into a false mimic of the true Savior.

Now, the God who made you knows that you drift kind of in and out of uh feeling like you need him and then feeling like you're doing okay.

And you sway between believing he can help and and doubting he ever will.

And he invites you to come near.

Come here.

In fact, it may be that this morning Neil's illness and all the rest is so that you would hear this from him.

Clyde's gonna come up and and and play a little bit, and there's gonna be a series of questions on the screen, and we're just gonna give some space before we close for you to continue this conversation, or maybe get it down to a point just between you and Christ.

Say, okay, here's my heart.

Go ahead and expose it.

God, what do you want me to hear from this?

What do you want me to see from this?

One of the greatest things he could do this morning is to help you see an area of self-righteousness.

Because it's super easy to repent and then move in faith to say, oh, this thing I've added to the gospel?

Okay, let me stop trusting in that and trust only in you, Jesus.

Let's pause now for a few minutes.

Gracious Father, we ask that you would protect us from taking good things you give us and making them our saviors.

And you protect us by exposing it.

Expose it early, expose it often.

Protect us from making a lifelong, month, quarter, year-long investment of our hope in something that was never designed to save.

And may we find in rejecting this false Savior true relief in you.

We pray you'd make the gospel not just clear to us, but clear through us.

As others see and maybe begin to savor Jesus because of how you're changing.

May the prayer of need be frequent on our lips, and may you correct our vision that we will see our constant need of you and have a firm belief that you will come through.

You will meet every promise you've made.

Amen.

I want to alert you to two things this morning.

Uh, the first is uh a young woman named Rebecca Grinstaff, who's a student in our ministry here.

She's a sophomore.

She often sings over on this side of the platform.

She right now is in East Asia with a group of other teenagers who are on an evangelistic outreach trip.

And I want you to pray two things for her the next seven days while she's there.

One is that they would have gospel conversation opportunities with people.

And they would begin to relay in half-hour, hour-long, week-long relationships the hope in Jesus.

The second is that they would have boldness to share.

They'd have boldness to share again, approach again.

The second thing I want to alert you to is as I want to uh show you a quick kind of flyover video.

You've seen some photos of the proposed new building that will go out in this vacant area over here.

I want to take a peek at this flyover.

This is the song for the hurting.

This is the song that you can feel.

We wouldn't bring anything before you that a group hadn't already examined and and uh shined up.

But I do want to say that buildings are tools.

Buildings are not the savior.

Buildings are instruments God puts in our hands.

Buildings are like tables.

And maybe you experienced you had a bunch more people at your house than you normally do, and you had to get some other chairs or not, regular chairs or some little clunky table.

Uh, this is a table big enough for all of us.

This room's not big enough for us anymore.

So I want you to uh be prayerful about how God might be, uh we feel like God's leading us as a body to pursue this.

What might be asking you to do as part of that?

Uh the last thing, two other things, if uh there's a connection card and a seat pocket in front of you.

If you're newer here, um you're like, I'm I'm ready to be known, I'm ready to be pursued, I'm ready to be connected to this body.

Fill that out and there's boxes at each of the exits.

You can just fill out a little bit of information and we'll follow up and connect with you.

That's also where if this is your Sunday to practice uh biblical giving, biblical stewardship, that's where you practice that.

And if you have any other end of the year giving you like to do, I want you to know that can happen there.

But also if you're under 30, that can happen online.

You don't know what a checkbook is.

Um so why don't you stand with us, with me, and let me let me close this as our custom, which is to close with a blessing.

So hold out your hands like this.

The God who made you knows that you drift in and out of feeling you need him.

And he's not put off by that kind of inconsistency.

He's provided Jesus to be your righteousness, your power, and your hope.

So depart now to the one true God who wants time with you.

Amen.