Paradigm Shift // When You Start Drifting in Your Faith // Guest Speaker Edgar Ramos

That's right.

I'll invite you to open up to Galatians, chapter number three, as we continue our paradigm shift series.

I'm excited that today I get to preach, because y'all know what today is.

Today is Cinco de Mayo and you guys get to hear the Mexican guy preach right, that's how we do it at this church.

But Galatians, chapter number three we're going to be looking at verses one through eight this morning.

Keep your thumb there.

If you've got a paper Bible, keep that Bible app open.

We're going to be looking at just about every verse in that passage today.

But before we get into that, I remember a time that I went to college.

I actually went to the same Bible college as Pastor Nate and Kelsey.

It's in the middle of the Mojave Desert, it's in Lancaster, california, and it is just an endless expanse, a void of sand, of tan and beige everywhere as far as the eye can see.

But there was a benefit to it.

Everything was kind of spread apart, so that meant that the speed limit for a lot of those just residential roads was like 60, 70 miles an hour, so you could go anywhere fast really, and the thing was, though, anywhere fast really.

And the thing was, though, I did not take a car to college.

My parents wanted me to stay on campus, but of course I wanted to go elsewhere with people, so I was what you call a moocher, okay.

So I had friends who had cars and we'd go over to Little Caesars.

We'd absolutely destroy the chicken at Popeye's when they had the special deal on Tuesdays.

We'd just absolutely crush it right.

But when I remember one time in particular, we were driving on the way back, it was on East Lancaster Boulevard.

I have a picture of it right here, as you can see endless expanse of nothingness, beautiful scenery, right, my friend.

I was sitting in the shotgun seat.

My friend was in the driver's seat, driving, and he said Edgar, hey, look over here, and I look over from scrolling from my phone.

I put my phone down, look over, and he let go of the wheel and he was flooring it, like I said, 60, 70 miles an hour, and he was like woohoo.

And I was just like I was, if you know me, I was absolutely mortified.

I was like I was in shock.

I couldn't say anything, I just had my mouth agape.

And before you know it though, because his hands were off the wheel, he started drifting just a little bit over to the left.

And you know, when you start drifting a little over past the lane, because you get the right in the car, right, and we started feeling it.

And when he started feeling that and when he saw his tires were already in the left lane, you know what he did he grabbed the wheel and he course corrected.

Luckily he didn't twist it over too much on the right, he twisted it just enough so that we were on the right lane again and he was like wasn't that cool?

I was like, no, no way.

Well, what happened there?

What happened there?

Well, he started drifting over into a lane where he shouldn't have been and I dread to think of what could have happened.

What could have happened had he not put his hands back on the wheel.

He could have drifted over and maybe he just went into the sand and we would have had a laugh.

Maybe that could have happened.

Or maybe because of the speed we were going, at the angle we were going I've seen it before and I've seen it there in Lancaster Cars flip over into the sand because of the change of texture on the wheels.

I probably possibly couldn't have been here today if he hadn't put his hands back on the wheel.

Well, you know, that unconscious drift, that unpurposeful drift, I think it happens to all of us spiritually.

Really, it's that drift that's the theme of the book of Galatians is the fact that these Galatians, these people who are living in the region of Galatia in Asia Minor, were experiencing this.

They were on the straight and narrow.

Paul had just come and preached the truth to them, but they drifted further and further away from God, slowly but constantly.

And you know, it happens to all of us, it happens to me, it happens to pastors, it happens to leaders, it happens to regular people who come to church.

It happens to pastors, it happens to leaders, it happens to regular people who come to church, it happens to seasoned Christians and happens to newer Christians, it even happens to apostles, people who met Jesus face to face.

That drift.

So the question is not if you're going to drift.

The question, then, is what will you do when you drift?

Because that's really what matters.

My friend, what he did was he put his hands back on the wheel and he course corrected, and I'm here today because of it.

But the question is what will you do when you drift?

And this is all that this passage is talking about.

Right here in Galatians, chapter number three, paul opens up pretty strongly.

Just a little warning for you he opens up very passionately as we jump into it.

But let's take a look at what happens and why we drift.

Well, first of all, we see this we drift when we have been influenced.

We drift when we have been influenced.

Take a look at verse one of Galatians 3.

Bible opens up right here.

You foolish Galatians.

He's very, he's not missing his words here.

The word foolish, right there in the Greek originally means a person who is without thoughts.

Right?

You don't open up calling someone a bonehead unless you know exactly what you're talking about.

Right?

He's very passionate about it, right?

You foolish Galatians, who has cast a spell on you before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?

That second part of the verse, right there, paul was talking about how he was there personally, teaching them, showing them about Jesus and his death on the cross.

And, as a result, he spoke with such clarity that it was almost like they were at the foot of the cross, seeing Jesus there.

It was almost like his words were so clear and so powerful that it was like you were standing at the foot of the cross, but they drifted away from that.

Why?

Well, we see that they're highlighted.

Who has cast a spell on you and who, indeed, as we've followed in this series and as we're going to continue to learn about as we travel through Galatians, there was a certain group of people who came from a church in Jerusalem who wanted to push an agenda there, at this church in Asia Minor in Galatia.

They wanted to try to push the agenda of you have to become Jewish first, then you can become a Christian, then you can receive forgiveness.

You've got to get circumcised, you've got to obey the law, you've got to go through all these ceremonies, you've got to observe these certain holy days and then, and then God will grant you forgiveness.

This was what these people were trying to push and, because of culture at the time and because of their early roots of Christianity coming from Judaism, or maybe because of just of their constant voices, these people were starting to drift away from the truth.

But it could happen to anybody.

It really could.

We've got to understand this that no one is above influence.

You can be influenced, I can be influenced, and no one is above it.

We all are able to be influenced in one direction or another.

How do I know that?

Well, you know who got influenced there at that church Jesus, the Apostle Peter.

The Apostle Peter, who was face-to-face with Jesus, who received direct instruction from Jesus Christ himself when he was on earth, was influenced by these people trying to push their agenda.

Before these people came, as we learned last week, peter was, as Pastor Nate said, eating the bacon.

He was eating with non-Jewish people.

He completely thought it was fine, but as soon as these people came and started trying to push their agenda, he was like you know what, maybe they have a point and he distanced himself from eating with non-Jewish people to where Paul had to withstand him to the face.

If the Apostle Peter could be influenced, so can I Barnabas, a man who was like this with the Apostle Paul, who went on missionary journeys guy, who was like his best friend.

He got influenced by these people too.

But you know what?

I don't blame him, because when you hear a voice trying to push you, trying to push something, trying to convince you of something, it's easy to be influenced, and in today's day and age more than ever, I really think so, because there are so many voices.

There are so many voices trying to push their version of the truth In today's day and age, not even talking about in a Christian sense, but there's voices saying I have the truth.

No, you have to follow exactly this.

This is right.

This is wrong.

There's some people that even say that having an absolute truth isn't even a thing right.

And in the Christian circles, you know, there's so many books, podcasts, reels, videos on Facebook, tiktoks all these different types of guys who are trying to push what they believe the Bible is saying.

Well, how do you know?

How do you know which is right and which is wrong?

Like, honestly, I don't blame them.

There's so many different voices out there.

Who do you choose to listen to?

Well, the Bible makes it clear.

The Bible says in John, chapter 10, jesus has an answer for us.

John 10 · chapter mention

In John, chapter 10, jesus has an answer for us my sheep hear my voice, I know them and they follow me.

John 10 · chapter mention

Jesus gives a metaphor of a shepherd and sheep right here.

Imagine it like this there's a shepherd and he knows his sheep, his sheep that he's raised ever since they were little lambs, right?

They're little tiny ones, right, and they know the voice of the shepherd.

When he calls out to them from the pasture.

They come running forward.

Well, the shepherd's brother comes, he tries calling out, they don't know his voice.

The shepherd's neighbor, the guy down the street.

He comes, he tries calling him out, they don't know the voice.

But when they hear the shepherd's voice, that's when they decide to follow him.

So we have to apply the same principle to ourselves.

Jesus says that, as sheep, we can hear his voice and we can follow him.

But then again we come to the same problem how do we know the voice of Jesus?

There's so many people out there that claim that they have their truth.

So many churches, so many denominations.

Just around my house, where I live, there's five different churches of five different denominations.

How do you know which one to pick?

How do you know which one has a version of the truth?

Well, we listen to Jesus's voice.

What's Jesus's voice?

The Bible.

The Bible is Jesus's voice.

The Bible is God's word.

Jesus is God and the Bible is his word.

If we want to know the truth, bible is his word.

If we want to know the truth, if we want to know the voice of Jesus, we have to know the Bible.

Simply put, there's people who claim to speak on God's behalf.

There's people who preach their version of the word.

But no matter what preacher may come, even on this stage, we hold it to the standard of the Bible.

The Bible is the truth and we look to it for our source of truth.

The Bible is the most purchased book and the most printed book in all of humanity, all of the course of human history.

But for the sake of completion for people who have read it, cover to cover, statistically Harry Potter has it beat, sorry to say right, no, honestly.

There's people who treat the Bible as the thing that the preacher preaches from on Sundays.

But if we want to know what the truth is, we have to immerse ourselves in it, and when we immerse ourselves in God's word and the truth, we're going to be able to tell fact from fiction.

I'm just curious how many of you guys have jobs that you handle money directly, like cash money?

Maybe you're a cashier, maybe you're a bank teller.

How many guys like that?

I just want to see real quick Some of you guys.

Well, it's interesting when you handle money so much, when you handle the real stuff.

When a counterfeit bill comes, you know it.

You know it right.

Paper money has that clothy feel, right, it's added a certain weight and there's a lot of different ways to tell from it.

You hold it up to the light.

You see Ben Franklin's little smirk right there.

You get a little marker right.

But when you have counterfeit money, what's this little monopoly money doing here?

Right, they can't exactly get the right texture, the right weight, the right way.

That Ben Franklin's smiling right.

When you know real money and when you handle real money so much fake money it just pops out.

It's like no, this isn't going to work.

Well, when you handle truth, when you know God's word, when you immerse yourself in the Bible, you know what's going to go on in your head when somebody's trying to push their agenda on.

You Ain't going to work.

But we have to immerse ourselves in it.

If we want to liberate ourselves from the voices, from the confusion, from all the different ways trying to pull us, and we want to know what is the truth, we've got to get into God's Word, because the truth of God's Word will set you free.

The truth of God's Word will set you free In a world of confusion, in a world of there's so many different influences out there trying to get us.

We've got to course correct.

We've got to put our hands on the wheel and get right back on the track of God's word.

So the Galatians they were influenced and, as a result, they drifted.

What else do we see?

We see that we drift when we think what we do do matters more than who we are.

We drift when we think what we do matters more than who we are.

This is a big one and this is going to transform your life if you really grasp it.

Galatians 3, beginning in verse 2, paul opens up.

I only want to hear this from you Now.

Imagine this, imagine just so you kind of get the paradigm form, the perspective from it.

Have you ever been lectured by your parents and they say let me just ask you one thing, let me just ask you this one thing.

This is kind of along the lines that Paul is going right here he's going.

I only want to learn this from you Did you receive the spirit by works of the law or by believing what you heard?

This is a rhetorical question, because the recipients of this letter know exactly what Paul is referring to here.

He says did you receive the Spirit by doing good deeds or did you do it by believing?

Paul made it very clear when he visited Galatia.

It's by believing, when you put your faith in Jesus, something great happens.

Not only do you receive forgiveness, acceptance, the love of God when you place your faith in Jesus, you receive the Holy Spirit of God living in you.

You receive so many blessings when you put your faith in Jesus.

And it's exactly that, putting your faith in Jesus.

It's not by your works, it's not by your good deeds, it's not by I have to go to church this many times to get my punch card filled out and then God is going to give me my forgiveness.

It's not like that.

It's by simple faith in Jesus whereby we receive these blessings.

Verse three are you so foolish?

After beginning by the spirit, are you now finishing by the flesh?

He's saying you started off with simple belief and now you're trying to add onto it that, okay, I started with belief, but now I've got to measure up and then God's gonna love me.

No, it's not like that.

Did you experience so much for nothing, if in fact, it was for nothing?

So then, does God give you the spirit and work miracles among you by doing works of the law, or is it by believing what you heard?

We see this contrast, this dichotomy of believing versus works of the law.

These people who came from the church, the outsiders, they were trying to push that you had to do works of the law, you had to do these certain good deeds, you had to get circumcised, you had to obey the rules of ceremonies and observe certain holy days, but Paul was not going to have any of that.

He said it's by simple belief.

And this is such a difficult pill to swallow, especially as seasoned Christians, even though you might have started off your faith journey by simply placing your childlike faith in Jesus.

As we grow, I notice there's a tendency to try to put more emphasis on what we do as opposed to who we are and what God says about us.

Because if we're not careful, christianity can become a checklist, can become a set of things that we just do, and then we receive the pat on the back right, and then God really accepts me, I'm living a life that God really accepts of me.

But you know it's tough to swallow because that is the way that this whole world works.

We're trained up even from childhood to believe that way Because, right, you want to do good in school.

What do you do?

You put in the efforts?

You hit in the books, right, you go and you try your best on every test.

You got to put in the time.

You got to put in the energy ever since you're a little kid, and then you get the good grades.

Your teacher likes you.

You get the honor roll from the principal.

Your parents pat you on the back.

We're conditioning ourselves to.

We have to do good and then we get the acceptance, even when we're adults.

Right, if you want to get that promotion to work, what do you?

Got to do?

You got to clock in early.

You got to be there late.

You got to work overtime.

You got to mingle with the co-workers.

You got to be on good terms with your boss.

We're conditioning ourselves to do these things and not to say getting a promotion or getting good grades is a wrong thing.

But I'm just saying with God it does not work that way.

It doesn't Because as humans, we think I've got to do, do, do, do, do so that I can get good favor.

But with God, god doesn't love you because of what you do.

God loves you because of what he has done.

God doesn't love you because of what you do, your actions, your good deeds, your good works.

God doesn't love you because of that.

God loves you because of what he has done on our behalf.

He loves us with initiative.

He loves us with, like children, because of what he has done for us, how he died for us and he offers us eternal life.

A lot of people treat God like an employer and they feel like they're employees.

I got to go to church, I got to clock in on Sundays, I got to sit here for an hour, hour and a half and then I've done my time.

I do certain things.

I read my Bible, I pray, I do all these things and then God's going to accept of my life, god's going to like me, god's going to love me, and that is just so so burdening.

I can see why somebody would want to walk away from that.

If that's how we view God.

If we look to God like I have to do all these things and then God's going to love me, god's going to forgive me, god's going to approve of me, then yeah, that stinks, but God doesn't love us like employees.

God loves us as children.

We are God's children if we have placed our faith in him.

Now I got to say I got to clear up a common misconception.

And again, like we said in the last point, we go to God's word for the truth, not according to my opinion, but according to what God has said.

So what does God say on who God's children are?

Take a look at John 1.

John 1 says but to all who did receive him, speaking of Jesus, so if you've received Jesus, he gave them the right to be children of God to all those who believe in his name.

There's a common misconception out there that everybody is God's child.

That's not the truth.

The truth, according to God's word, is that if you have placed your faith in Jesus, you are God's child, you are a child of the King.

And when we put our faith in Jesus, we receive the spirit, and the Bible describes it as the spirit of adoption, where we can call out Abba, which means Papa, father to God.

When we receive Jesus, when we put our faith and trust in the finished work of Jesus on the cross of his death, his burial and his resurrection, we get into the fold, we get adopted into the family, we are loved, we are blessed, we receive the spirit and we gain the title child of God.

God brings us into the fold, god brings us into his loving arms.

We are his child, not his employee arms.

We are his child, not his employee.

And a child and a love that you have towards your own child is much more exponentially greater than the love that you have towards an employee.

And how do I know that?

Because I lived it out.

When I was in high school I went through a really difficult time in my life.

I was best friends with a guy ever since elementary and we got into a really big fight over a girl Dumbest thing over a girl.

But things got really nasty and over the internet he started saying a lot of nasty stuff about me.

He said he wanted me dead.

He said he didn't care if I lived or died anymore.

And we had a really close group of friends and one by one all of them kind of took his side and they started saying similar things to me, about me and to me, and I felt like I had nowhere to turn.

I felt like I hit rock bottom there.

At that moment I felt like I didn't want to be here anymore.

I felt suicidal.

So the next day at school I decided I wanted to go talk to my guidance counselor there at Armio.

So I went first period up in the main office there at Armio and I talked to the guidance counselor at the time and I kind of gave him the whole spiel and he said well, edgar, we're going to help you out, but first thing we're going to do is we're going to call your parents and to me I don't know how your relationship with your parents are, but I felt a pit drop in my stomach.

I didn't want them to know about this, because I had never presented something like this seriously to them and I know they're like an older generation.

I thought they were just going to be like dismissive.

I thought that they were going to think I was dumb, I was stupid, because I felt this way.

I felt this way that I didn't want to be here anymore and I felt like they were just going to be like ah, it's because you're not working hard enough.

Oh, it's because I thought they were going to be like that.

I felt guilt, I felt shame, I felt dumb and I didn't want my parents to know about it.

So I felt I felt really bad.

Well, the guidance counselor said no, we have to let your parents know, like legally we have to.

So he gave my dad a call.

I remember he picked up the phone, dialed the number, gave him a call and kind of went through the whole thing.

The whole conversation was like three minutes and then he said, okay, well, we're going to talk to Edgar when he gets home.

And he hung up the phone.

Well, I went through everything else.

The guidance counselor said there was conflict remediation, all that stuff.

But I was dreading coming home that day from school.

I remember I walked through the front door of my house and both my parents were sitting there on the living room sofa, which was unusual because most of the time they had work and they wouldn't come home till four or five.

But here they were at 3.30 and I felt tense.

And then my dad opened his mouth and said Edgar, we're here for you, we want to hear you, we support you, we love you.

This is a really tough thing you're going through, but we're here for you.

And you know, honestly, all the tension, all the guilt, all the shame, all the feeling that I was going to get judged, just washed away why?

Because of the love of a father, of the love of a father, the love of a parent has towards their child.

I felt it that day and you know God loves you that same way if you're his child, all the guilt, all the shame, all the I have to measure up all that.

We can drop it like a weight because God loves you, because God loves you as his child, and we don't have to earn God's love.

We don't have to measure up a certain standard and then God's going to love us.

No, god loves you as a father loves his child in the most perfect, in the most loving way.

You have that if you believe in Jesus, if you are a child of the King, you have that God's love.

So we don't measure up.

We don't do good deeds, we don't go to church, we don't read our Bibles, we don't pray to receive God's love.

No, no, no, no, no.

We live for Jesus.

We go to church, we read our Bibles, we pray all these great things because we have God's love, because we understand the love of the Father is so great, so deep, so rich.

I just want to show everybody else the love that I have through Jesus.

Right, I just want to go and show the world and that's why we live for him.

That's why we do these things, that's why we're here, that's why we do it.

The thing to understand is this that God just wants you More than your actions, more than your service, more than our good deeds.

God just wants you More than your actions, more than your service, more than our good deeds.

God just wants you.

My parents that day.

They didn't care about my grades, they didn't care about how silly I felt or whatever.

They just cared about me.

And that love was evident.

And the love he has for you is evident as well.

God just wants you.

So we live for Jesus, not to earn God's love, but because we have been loved by God.

The Galatians they forgot this.

They thought they had to measure up.

They thought that, oh yeah, well, god loves me, but now I have to do these certain things and then he's gonna love me even more, I'm going to be accepted even more.

We can't earn God's love like that, because God already loves us so, so much.

So we see that we drift when we lose sight of the truth, and we can course correct by diving straight into God's word.

We drift when we think that what we do matters more than who we are.

We drift when we think that our good actions outweigh the fact that we're a child of the king.

We can, course, correct by realizing that we already have God's love and God loves us so so much.

But finally we drift when we lose sight of the gospel.

We drift when we lose sight of the gospel.

Galatians 3.8 says now the scripture saw in advance that God would justify the Gentiles again meaning non-Jewish people by faith and proclaim the gospel ahead of time to Abraham, saying all the nations will be blessed through you.

So the reason that the Galatians drifted so much ultimately is because they lost sight of the simple truth of the gospel.

Now Paul brings forth an example from the Old Testament in this way Abraham was a guy who lived 2,000 years before Jesus.

He was ultimately the man who, through the entire Jewish race would come from.

Through him was Isaac, jacob and then the 12 tribes of Israel.

And God gave Abraham a promise 2,000 years before Jesus.

He said all the nations will be blessed through you.

And Paul is trying to say here that ultimately, the ultimate fulfillment of that is the person of Jesus Christ.

Through Jesus's death, burial and resurrection, he grants, he offers eternal life to all who believe, every single person, from every nation.

Doesn't matter if you're Jewish or not.

He offers it to everyone through belief in his death, burial and resurrection.

And he says that this is the gospel burial and resurrection and he says that this is the gospel.

But the Galatians forgot this.

They thought that they had to do extra.

They thought that there had to be more to this, like just believe.

There has to be something else.

I can do.

I've got to do more things than that, but it's just simple.

It's the simple truth of the gospel.

Nothing added to it, nothing taken away from it.

It's the simple truth of it.

But here's the thing there's a lot of misconceptions of what the gospel is today.

We have to define our terms if we want to be clear on it, like if we want to be on the same team, if we want to pull for the same thing, we've got to know what the gospel is, and there's just a lot of confusion out there.

Right?

The word gospel itself means good news, so simple as that.

It means the good news.

But the good news of what?

What's it talking about?

Some people think the gospel is you get to go to heaven when you die and you know what If you place your faith in Jesus.

That is correct.

We have a home in heaven.

But that is not the entire gospel.

Some people think the gospel is that God loves you and God gives you a new title and he gives you a new identity.

That is true, but that is not the entire gospel.

So then, what is the gospel?

How do we define it?

Well, just like we said in the first point, let's go straight into God's word, because you're not going to hear my opinion today.

You're going to hear what God has to say in his truth about what the gospel is.

1 Corinthians 15 says this.

I want to make clear for you, brothers.

So what is the gospel?

He's going to define it right here, in these next two verses.

So the simple truth of the gospel is this this is the gospel, this is the good news.

So we all can be on the same page.

The gospel is the death, the burial and the resurrection of Jesus.

Can we say that all together here?

The gospel is the death, the burial and the resurrection of Jesus.

So this is it.

This is the gospel the fact that Jesus bled and died on the death, the burial and the resurrection of Jesus.

So this is it.

This is the gospel the fact that Jesus bled and died on the cross as a payment for our sins, that he was buried, showing that he was actually dead, and the fact that he resurrected.

He came back from the dead, showing he conquered death.

He was who he says he was, all his words were true and now he offers eternal life to all who believe in him.

This is the simple truth of the gospel.

But it doesn't.

These aren't just like the three spiritual laws.

These aren't just the things that we have to accept to enter into Christianity.

This isn't like when you open up iTunes and you have to do the terms and conditions and you just check it and then you forget about it.

This isn't like that.

This isn't like that.

The gospel doesn't just save us.

It shapes us, it strengthens us and it guides us.

Some people think the gospel is just the thing that you have to do and you have to put your faith in to become a Christian.

They think of it as the diving board to get into the swimming pool.

Right, you just go onto the diving board, you jump off and then you can forget about it.

Right?

That's not how the gospel is.

The gospel isn't the diving board.

The gospel is the swimming pool.

That's what we are in our entire Christian lives.

That is the depth that is the richness of God, is that simple truth of the death, the burial and the resurrection that informs the rest of our Christian lives.

Jesus bled and died on a cross for me so that I could receive forgiveness.

So now I can forgive other people.

Jesus came with initiative.

He didn't have to.

He could have stayed up in heaven, but instead he loved me anyway and he came down from heaven to live and die for me.

Well, now I can be a loving person as well.

Jesus resurrected from the grave.

The grave could not hold him, death did not conquer him, and I put my faith and my trust in a guy that did that.

Well, the Bible says I am more than a conqueror through him.

And when we inform the rest of our lives through the lens of the gospel, it's going to transform us.

It's going to transform our Christianity.

From a checklist list of items that we do we come to church every Sunday, we read the Bible, we pray, we do all these things it's going to transform my Bible or our lives.

From that to I'm just living out the gospel.

I'm just living out the fact that Jesus bled and died on a cross and he loves me so much.

Well, now I'm gonna go and live that out and share that with other people the fact that Jesus rose from the grave.

Well, now I can live a transformed, courageous, fear-free life through him, through Jesus, through the gospel.

And if we want to recenter ourselves, if we want to course correct, if we want to get our hands on the wheel and course correct, we've got to keep our eyes on Jesus.

Hebrews chapter 12 says keeping our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, for the joy that lay before him.

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

He endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

And here's the gospel again.

There it is again he was on the cross, he lived through the shame, he died and now he's resurrected, sitting at the right hand of the throne of God.

I don't serve a dead Jesus, I serve a living Jesus who's at the right hand of the throne of God.

I don't serve a dead Jesus, I serve a living Jesus who's at the right hand of God.

And that gospel the simple facts of the death, the burial and the resurrection that informs my entire Christian life.

When we keep our eyes on Jesus, when we keep our eyes on the gospel and we let that inform our lives.

That's going to give us that hand on the wheel, course correct that we all need when we start drifting, when we feel distant from God, when we feel like there's been a time in my life where I know I've been closer to God than I am right now.

By keeping our eyes on Jesus.

That's putting your hand on the wheel.

That's getting you out of the left lane.

Just to close off today, I want to tell you guys at the time that last year, last summer, I went to a family vacation with my family to the Dominican Republic.

Now, this was pretty big because it was our first all-family vacation since like 2007, because my sister, as soon as she got married, she went and she did her own things.

Right, we all came together as family, but we never went on a vacation ever again after that.

Well, last summer she had the idea actually, let's all go to the Dominican Republic to celebrate my mom's 60th birthday.

So let's go and do it.

The only problem was I am admittedly not that great of a swimmer, okay.

Only problem was I am admittedly not that great of a swimmer, okay, going to an island nation with a lot of beaches I'm just not that great.

I don't know what it is.

Maybe I used to say when I was super skinny that like, oh, I don't have body fat.

I can't say that anymore, guys, I'm sorry, but no, honestly, what I think it is is just the fact that I don't like getting my inner ears wet, like the feeling of water into your ear, and to go swimming effectively you've got to put your head under the water.

So I don't know, am I weird for that?

I don't know, whatever, right, but the point is I don't like getting in the water too much.

But there was one day when we went to a nature preserve in the Dominican Republic called Isla Sanoa.

I've got a picture of it right here Really beautiful waters, really beautiful sands, nice, it's in the Caribbean.

Picture of it right here Really beautiful waters, really beautiful sands, nice, it's in the Caribbean, right.

So the water was warm and I, you know, honestly, I was ready to get in.

I wanted to get in and because I didn't want to go in too deep, you know what I did.

I did that.

I call it like the Spider-Man crawl when you go up to your, like your neck in water and like you're just going like that, just enjoying the water, right, I don't know what y'all call it, but that's what I call it.

But the thing was, the current was really strong that day.

It was, and what happened to me?

Unconsciously, without me even realizing it, when I would like step up to jump, the current would pull me back and before I knew it, I was up to my neck in water, on my tiptoes.

I was trying to get up and I realized like if I was going to go further back, it was like going to be bad.

There was no lifeguards on duty.

I was pretty far back from the rest of the pack, like I needed to do something now.

So you know what I did I locked my eyes on that white sand and I started doggy paddling.

I started doggy paddling right, I was on a mission to get out of that deep water.

So, even though Tyler was calling me out on the right and like trying to get my attention for like a picture or something my nephews were off doing, like they were trying to get my attention no, forget it, I'm about saving my life right now.

Okay.

So I started doggy paddling and I'm not going to say how long it took.

Okay, that's between me and the Lord.

But I started doggy pants until finally I was on the land dripping wet, all heavy because of the water and man.

I'm glad I'm here alive to tell you guys that story right.

But you know, it really is a picture of how our Christian lives can be.

Picture of how our Christian lives can be right.

Because if we're not careful before we know it we can be apart from God, we can be further away from God than we ever really wanted to be If we're just not careful.

That's just the natural draw of our world.

We just naturally kind of drift when we get our hands off the wheel.

But if we keep our eyes on Jesus, if we keep our eyes on the prize and we recenter ourselves, if we look to his word, if we realize the depth of his love, if we keep our eyes on his gospel, we're going to make it.

It's going to keep us from drifting.

We're going to be on that straight and narrow, just keeping swimming towards God.

But we've got to keep our eyes on Jesus.

When we drift, when we feel it, we keep our eyes on Jesus.

So today I just want to give you guys three really quick things to take home today.

First of all is this I challenge you to read God's word daily this week.

Like I said, if we want to know the truth, if we want to clear ourselves of confusion, we've got to dive headfirst into the truth.

The Bible is today more available than any other time in all of human history.

If you have a phone, if you've got a smart device, you can download the YouVersion Bible app today and start a plan.

It's super simple, it's really intuitive.

There's a plan tab on the Bible app, and it brings up a lot of topics, a lot of different things that you might be dealing with, and it's really like Netflix you pick a plan and you just start it.

The important thing, though, is that you just do it, you just get into it.

It is that you just do it, you just get into it.

It's not as intimidating as you think it would be to just pick a plan and start reading it, but the important thing is that you get it in, that you get the truth in.

Secondly, remind yourself that you don't have to earn God's love.

Especially if you're a seasoned Christian, you can fall into the trap of thinking that what you do matters more than who you are.

When you catch yourself like that.

Just remind yourself I don't have to earn God's love, I have it.

I have it, and let that motivate you to go and live your Christian life.

And then, last of all, is this I challenge you to read one or all of the gospel accounts this week Matthew, mark, luke and John.

And what I mean when I say gospel right here is again the death, the burial and the resurrection of Jesus.

God's word is so powerful, and if maybe you've been a Christian a long time, I challenge you to read these passages with a new perspective, with fresh eyes.

Look at the words of Jesus, look at his actions as he was on the cross, as he was buried, the panic of the disciples and as he resurrected, the words that he had to his disciples and the actions that he demonstrated.

Let that inform your life.

So I challenge you, read one or all of these if you've got the time this week.

I really think that just keeping your eyes on the gospel is going to benefit you.

But no matter what we do this week, let's just do this one thing Keep your eyes on Jesus.

Keep your eyes on Jesus, and we're going to make it.

Let's pray, heavenly Father.

God, we thank you for today.