No Turning Back | Galatians 4:8-20 | Pastor Jake Brown

Our scripture passage for today's teaching is Galatians four verses eight through twenty.

Again, Galatians four eight through twenty.

Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.

But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?

You observe days and months and seasons and years.

I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.

Brothers, I entreat you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are.

You did me no wrong.

You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first, and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus.

What then has become of your blessedness?

For I testify to you that if possible, you would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me.

Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth?

They make much of you, but for no good purpose.

They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them.

It is always good to be made much of for a good purpose, and not only when I am present with you, my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth, until Christ is formed in you.

I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.

This is the word of God.

I think if I asked each one of you that individually, I'd get as many different answers as are in here.

Some of you would say it's explaining and applying the Bible, which I hope so.

Some of you may just say it's a lecture, you know, no different than a TED talk.

I think it's a lot more than that.

Certainly not just a running commentary, though some of our churches we can do that.

I mean, I may be subject to that as well.

So much of preaching is standing before you as a sinner saved by grace, and trying to just give you a sense of that grace and call you to the truth that God has already proclaimed in his word.

In this passage today, Galatians 4, verses 8 to 20, Paul is writing to the churches of Galatia.

Galatians 4:8–20

And if when I say Paul, you have some like professor in your mind, or like it that just is a name for you, it's kind of a concept more so.

I think this passage humanizes Paul.

Because this passage is a plea.

Which so many sermons are just that.

And as Paul pleas to his fellow Christians, his brothers and sisters, these churches that he loves, my hope is to explain this to you, yes, but in the application today, I really want to make the same plea to you.

Some parts may apply to you more directly than others, some may help you to talk to other people.

But if the tone of this sermon seems serious or urgent or less funny than normal or whatever, y'all, I think we have reached a point in Galatians where Paul is almost to his knees.

He uses words like anguish.

It's easy to read this and be like, oh, here it comes, you know.

Bishop Paul right now tells these people, he's not even there.

Who is he to tell them what to do?

Well, let's not forget that he's also inspired by the Holy Spirit when it's sacred scripture.

So we have two authors: the human author and the divine author over the whole Bible.

And certainly sermons are not inspired the way that God's word is, but that's why we go to God's word.

We trust that he has a better word for us than anything I could tell you or other pastors could tell you.

Today it's pretty simple.

If you grew up in church, or if you didn't grow up in church, but you grew up in the South, you've probably heard the song I have decided to follow Jesus.

Just repeats the same words over and over.

And then it says, No turning back, no turning back.

Paul kind of turns that song and says, You have decided to follow Jesus.

No turning back.

We'll see this in three reminders, three calls, three pleas.

Don't turn back.

Become like Paul.

And Christ is in you.

Don't turn back.

Become like Paul.

Christ is in you.

We'll start by looking at verses 8 through 11.

Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.

To give us some context, Paul through Galatians has been appealing to these churches to maintain the gospel, to not add to it, to not return to the law.

We've talked about the law and the promise and how that fits with Abraham, how that fits with the Old Testament.

Last week, Sean, our brother, did a great job talking about being sons of God when we used to be slaves.

And as he's just told them that, hey, you're no longer a slave but a son, now he's kind of reminding them again.

Formerly, before you became children of God, when you did not know God.

Now, if you're here and you're not a Christian, you may just be offended for me to say you don't know God.

But if you don't know him in Christ, you don't know him.

You don't yet know him.

But we'd love to introduce you to him.

We want you to know him at this church.

My heart is for you to know him.

The reason I do what I do is because I want people who don't yet know God to know him in Christ.

There's not a Christian in here whose story isn't that formerly I didn't know God.

That's our story.

All of us.

None of us was born a Christian.

We had to be born again.

When we did not know God, we were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.

What is that?

That's an idol.

It's a false God.

And it comes in a lot of different forms.

Some of you are like, I've never had like little idols.

That was never my story.

We all have idols, even if we don't have little statues.

For some of us it's power.

For some of us it's lust.

For some of us it's money.

It could be any number of things.

It can be good things that we elevate too highly.

When we don't know God, we are enslaved to those things.

And that is strong language.

If you've not been with us, some of you are like, this is my first time.

This church is really serious.

It's the way the passage is, y'all.

And it does carry just right there when he says it, you are enslaved to those things that by nature are not God's.

You're bound to them, you are shackled to them.

Verse 9 comes with some good, good news.

But now, have you noticed that Paul a lot when he wants to switch you to some good news, he uses that three little transition word, but now that you have come to know God, if he stopped right there and just said, But now that you have come to know God and kept going, that would already be good enough news?

Hey, you didn't know him, you were enslaved, now you've come to know God.

There's a big transition.

He makes it even better, though, because he says, or rather, to be known by God.

When you come to know God, you learn that the better thing is that he knows you.

That word know, it's a Greek word here in the New Testament, but it's referential to an Old Testament word for know.

And it's more than just head knowledge.

Yes, God does know all the hairs on your head, and some of you are like, I don't have that much hair, that's not that hard.

Um, but he knows all these things about you.

Those private moments that you think no one sees.

He does know that stuff.

Yes, there is a knowledge of you.

But this word referring to the Hebrew word yada is more intimate.

He knows you well.

He knows your heart.

He knows you inside and out.

If you're hearing you're like, why is the word yada?

You've heard that before because people say yada, yada, yada.

Some of you are big Seinfeld fans, there you go.

I'll just put lay that out there for you.

But next time you hear that, you can say, I know, I know, I know, yada, yada, yada, I know, I know, I know.

That's why I remember that word from my Hebrew class.

Because our professor always said it that way.

Yada, I know, I know, I know.

God knows his people.

Brothers and sisters in here, if you have turned away from your sin, you've trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, while that first part is your former story, now not only do you get to know God, he knows you in a deep love for you.

It's not that he knows you and just polices you.

I think sometimes we think of God that way.

It's like he's got a spotlight.

He's like waiting on us to do wrong, and when we feel like we've done wrong, we're like, we can't go to God with it because he's just gonna shame us.

Like, that's not God.

That's some inner projection of ourselves.

That may be a bad relationship you have with a parent or a former relationship.

That's not God.

God loves his people.

He wants to welcome you, he wants to cleanse you from sin.

He wants what is good for you.

He knows his people.

And coming off that truth, Paul poses this question how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world?

Whose slaves you want to be once more?

Weak and worthless, pretty, pretty rough thing.

Like if you call somebody that, that's pretty demeaning.

And that's what he's saying about these principles of the world that's trying to add to the gospel, just trying to be saved by our own works, it's worthless.

It's nothing.

Have any of you ever heard the John Piper seashells thing?

He talks about don't waste your life.

This is worth you looking up and hearing it from him.

There's a Passion Day conference from like the year 2000, so it's a nice grainy video on YouTube.

And John Piper already looked old, even though he's older now.

Um he's standing in front of all these college students, and it was windy, and he loses most of his notes, and you can tell because he just kind of starts riffing.

And he tells people though, he says, You get one life, don't waste it.

And he talks about this couple, I think he reads it from a reader's digest, and talks about this couple who retires and they spend their days collecting seashells.

He actually just says, collecting shells, because that's the way John Piper says it very emphatically.

And he says, Some of you might think that sounds nice, but that's a waste of life.

He says, Imagine standing before God one day and saying, Look at my shells.

Now, there's nothing wrong.

Some of you are like, you got your seashell bracelet on from the summer and you're like trying to cover it up.

I'm not here to shame you for that.

What I want to elevate from John Piper's stuff is sometimes we do that as though we are one day going to impress God.

Look, God, I came to be part of a new church.

I helped set up chairs.

Very thankful for the people who set up chairs.

That's not gonna get us extra things in heaven.

We don't gain our salvation by our own works.

And that can be so much of an affront to us that we need to hear it again and again in our culture.

Because so much else that we hear is you're gonna reap what you sow, you gotta work hard to get something.

And the gospel is so opposite.

It says, God has given you something in spite of you, and now you get to live and work in light of the truth that you're known by Him.

Don't go back to that weak and worthless stuff.

Don't do it.

Paul asked the question, how can you be turning back?

No turning back.

He gives examples there in verse 10 that may step on some toes.

You observe days and months and seasons and years.

He's likely calling back to just the Old Testament calendar that would have been used as they're adding on laws and adding on circumcision to needing to be saved.

There are people rushing to say, we got to keep these rules.

We got to keep all the rules.

And some of us, you're you're like, you don't want that at all.

You're like, I don't want any rules, it's just grace in my life, and this doesn't relate to you.

But for a lot of people in here, I bet there's an appeal to rules.

It would be so nice because if you do these five things, you're gonna be good.

Some of you would eat that up.

You're like, yes, please just give me a checklist.

Because it's so hard to just figure it out day-to-day and deal with real people in the real world.

Y'all, we don't just go back to the rules, we go forward in Christ.

It's something wrong with our sinful flesh that we're more attracted to rules that shackle us than we are to freedom in Christ.

You're free! We have as free people.

Paul is so concerned here.

He says in verse 11, I am afraid.

Start with that.

The Apostle Paul feels fear.

He's afraid he may have labored over these churches in Galatia in vain.

That means he's afraid they did not actually receive the gospel.

He's afraid his work there didn't matter.

Do you hear that plea from him?

How can you turn back?

I'm afraid I've labored over you in vain.

Don't turn back.

In the next section, we're gonna see him say, Become like me.

Become like Paul.

I originally had this point, it's become like me, but I'll admit I was a little too self-conscious to be like, Become like me.

So we're all gonna become like Paul instead, okay?

Verse 12, brothers, I entreat you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are.

What does he mean there?

First, he says, Become as I am.

He's calling these people who are falling back into the law, and he's saying, Be free like me.

And when he says, I've become as you are, he's writing to people who were Gentiles formerly.

Why are they adding on the law now?

He said, I've already become like you.

I've already let those laws go.

Let's press on.

He then begins to transition here and he gets very relational.

He says, You did me no wrong.

He's now referring back to when he went to these churches.

Maybe you missed that in the story.

Paul is part of starting these churches.

I think in the very first week of uh us looking at Galatians, we went and looked at the book of Acts, and he's there preaching the gospel to them.

And he says, You did me no wrong.

He's saying you received me warmly when I was there.

Why would that matter?

Verse 13, you know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first.

I know, like in our in our day and age, the first thing I thought when I read that verse, and you may have thought it too is what was his ailment?

Not the point.

Not even what he's trying to get to.

Uh so I read all these conjectures.

There are pages in these commentaries about what his ailment might have been.

Y'all, I'm just telling you, it doesn't matter.

He doesn't, he doesn't tell us we don't know.

He had some kind of sickness that kept him in Galatia and apparently gave him opportunity to preach the gospel.

When was the last time you were sick and said, This is an opportunity for me to share the gospel?

I know that you're running back and you're like, was I mean to the receptionist at my last doctor's appointment?

Was I nice to those nurses?

I know a lot of you in here are because I know your character and I know you love the Lord.

But it is a heart check for us to make sure that we are keeping those ideas in mind wherever we go.

So Paul says, I had this bodily ailment, but you kept me, you took care of me, you did me no wrong.

Verse 14, and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me.

So obviously, whatever he had was a bit of a burden to them.

Some of your translations may say, You didn't spit at me.

The word there does seem to indicate some kind of spitting going on.

I don't know what that's about.

But they didn't do that.

They took care of them.

He was new to them, he was preaching the gospel to them for the first time.

Can you imagine that for a second?

You've not heard the gospel.

Here comes an apostle and the power of the Holy Spirit, and you think you're gonna have this like really dynamic thing, right?

Like we're thinking Billy Graham Crusade, somebody's standing up front, thousands of people are coming down front, we're having spontaneous baptisms, like, right?

We're like the Bible.

No, Paul shows up and he's like, I'm real sick, can you take care of me?

Oh, by the way, Jesus is Lord.

You need to follow him.

Don't worry about this other stuff.

I think it helps us to reorient to what was actually going on in the Bible.

I hear a lot of people, even in church planning, they're like, we gotta get back to like Acts 2, where it's it's Pentecost.

There's thousands of people coming.

I'm like, you know, sometimes the apostles went to places and they just threw rocks at them until they left.

Some of you know that even as we were planting this church, we were having interest meetings, and I was quick to say, hey, all this might not work.

We might try to plant in South Huntsville and we might get run out of town.

Who's up for that?

And some of you are like, me, so praise the Lord for you, because there's no just guarantee that it's gonna be like Pentecost.

Now, God can still save people by the thousands.

That could still happen.

I'm still praying for it.

I want to see a big turn of the people right here in Huntsville.

But Paul came sick, and the Galatians did not scorn him.

It says, but they received him as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus.

They received him as Jesus Himself, treated him like Christ.

That doesn't mean they worshiped him, it means they loved him, they cared for him.

And Paul is reminding them of this.

Why?

Verse 15, what then has become of your blessedness?

He says, Hey, I was sick and a burden, you had every opportunity to reject me, and you didn't.

Now, these Judaizers are coming and telling you Paul's not a real apostle.

Remember, he spent a lot of Galatians defending his apostleship.

He's saying, Hey, what became of your blessedness?

You were so quick to receive the gospel, to be kind to me, and now you're just as quick to just leave it behind?

For I testify to you that if possible, you would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me.

Just a little aside, all those commentaries that have like the ailment thing.

They're like, maybe Paul had an eye problem.

I'm like, I think you're reading too much into this.

Like the point there is they would have done anything for him.

They would have done anything for him.

Imagine somebody so close to you relationally.

If they're sick, you take care of them.

Some of you have taken care of loved ones.

Some of you know what that's like.

You don't think about yourself, you lay your life down, do whatever it takes to take care of them.

That's how they treated Paul.

What happened to that?

Why are they now so quick to listen to these Judaizers saying, Don't listen to Paul, reject his gospel?

Paul's longing for them is, hey, become like me, be free, don't listen to these people.

And in verse 16, he asks such a hard question.

Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth?

I think I've referenced already in Galatians once, and if I haven't, I should have, uh, the Christian rapper, theologian, the great preacher Shylin.

Um he says, Today the only heresy is saying that there's heresy.

If you're willing to tell somebody, no, what you just said about Jesus isn't right, you're seen as divisive.

Now, y'all heard our welcome and you hear it every week.

Our heart wants to be a plea to follow the Lord.

We cannot force people, we will not try to force people to follow Jesus or to believe the gospel as we believe it in the Bible.

But there is a longing, there is a deep, genuine plea to know the truth.

Especially as I stand preaching, if I say something to you that is straight out of the book, that is not just my opinion running next to it, and you find yourself offended or angry, I've told some of you before, I will sleep fine at night.

Because sometimes we do become the enemy by telling the truth.

Paul is Writing to them, telling the truth in love.

It's a deep love.

I can't help but think he has individuals in his mind.

You know, I don't know if you've noticed when I preach, I try to look at your faces.

It's because it would be great if I looked back here and with some great speaker that you could put on TV or whatever.

You can tell already that I'm looking over you when I do that, right?

Y'all, this is God's word for us.

It's for Chris and it's for Katie Joe.

Adam in the back.

Trying to call on people if I know won't be mad at me later.

Y'all, it's for individuals.

When I or when other preachers hear prepare sermons, we're praying for you and thinking of you as we do this.

Because we know God's word is relevant for us today, has a message for us today, and applies hard truth to us.

It goes against our culture and society.

It certainly goes against the lies of Satan.

It goes against our own flesh sometimes.

How often do you read something in scripture and go, oh, that just doesn't feel right?

I think it's okay to say that and to admit that, to have that feeling.

But admit it and say, okay, but is that what it says?

Because if it is, then I need to bring that feeling to the Word.

I need to bring it to God and say, okay, Lord, help me with what is here.

Paul spoke truth to these people whom he loved, these people who treated him so well, and he asked them this question Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth?

I couldn't help but think of Pilate questioning Jesus, saying to him, What is truth?

Jesus has already said in the book of John, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

Truth has become a person standing before Pilate as he asked that question.

The less mature version of me started thinking of the matrix.

What is real?

So often in these days, it's we're skewed by YouTube or podcasts or social media.

Have you ever talked to a friend and said, like, can you believe what's going on?

And your friend's like, I don't know what you're talking about.

And you're like, well, it's all over Instagram.

Y'all, if all the people in your life don't know what's happening, you might be a little disconnected from our neighbors.

It might not be the person who's less informed and less connected to their phone that has the issue.

I just want to throw that out there.

I say that at somebody that I used to be more that way.

Used to keep up with all the stuff back when it was still called Twitter.

I'm off of that, been off of that for a while now.

But y'all, sometimes you need to unplug.

Look people in the eye, find out what's actually going on in those around us.

To find out what's true and what's real.

You're not just being fed an algorithm.

God's word is eternal.

It's fixed in the heavens.

We have stability in unstable times.

We can know truth.

Become like Paul.

Walk in the truth.

Walk in freedom.

In verses 17 through 20, Paul gives us a great truth that Christ is in you.

Verse 17, they make much of you, but for no good purpose.

Now, I'll just pause there because maybe your translation is more helpful.

You'll I like the ESV a lot.

The people who translated it though are way smarter than me, and they're probably right on the exact words here.

But looking at other translations helped me with this verse because they make much of you didn't make a lot of sense.

Other translations say they eagerly seek you.

This one particularly helped me.

They are zealous to win you over.

That means they have enthusiasm, they have passion, and y'all zeal can be good.

Enthusiasm and passion, typically, like you find young people in the church, they've got that.

You've got old people who've got wisdom but lack zeal together, man, that's a great force, right?

But here Paul is concerned.

Again, read it.

They make much of you, they have zeal for you, but for no good purpose.

Because we can have zeal with ignorance.

Romans 10, verses 2 through 4 says, For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.

Romans 10:2–4

For being ignorant of the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness.

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

Notice what it said, the end of the law for righteousness.

The law still has its purposes.

We've talked about that in recent weeks as well.

But it's no longer to gain righteousness.

That comes through Christ.

So you may be extremely zealous in setting up your, hey, you've got to do these ten things to be Christian.

It seems like we're always adding rules, though, right?

Pharisees have their long book, they have like 300 laws that they added on.

We do the same thing, we just don't actually write them down because we we know better than that.

But you know, it's like you got to go to a particular school or do schooling a particular way or you're not a real Christian.

You gotta vote a particular way, you're not a real Christian.

You gotta eat a certain diet or you're not a real Christian.

I know some of y'all are like, oh, this is getting a little offensive.

Yeah, it is.

Because adding things to the gospel is eternally dangerous for our souls.

Do we get that?

There is freedom for people.

And you can have all kinds of opinions.

Like, y'all, I've been eating healthier than shit I've ever eaten in my life.

Guess what?

I feel better.

Maybe I should have listened to somebody, like, I don't know, my wife, for my whole marriage about eating better.

That would have been a good thing for me.

But you know what it doesn't do?

It doesn't change my salvation.

Because my salvation is only in Christ.

Even if I was eating like a five-year-old and eating garbage, the Lord was so gracious to me.

Okay?

What is it culturally that's just become your thing?

You're so passionate about it.

Like if everybody just got this society, it would be better.

If that thing you're saying isn't, if they turn to Christ, then I wonder if you're preaching the right thing.

They have zeal for these people, but it's for no purpose.

They're just trying to turn them their way.

Notice as it continues, they want to shut you out that you may make much of them.

They're trying to isolate you, they're trying to take you away from Christ's body so that you'll make much of them.

If I haven't made you upset yet, now's my time.

If you have a favorite preacher, teacher, theologian, pastor online, and they've been helpful to you, praise God.

I love to read, I listen to podcasts, there can be so many helpful things.

If you have a preacher, teacher, pastor, theologian, whomever it is online that is separating you from relationship with Christians in your real live local church is causing division between you and your pastor, that's a problem.

And for a lot of you in here, you're like, that's not my problem, but you have a sibling, or a mom or dad, or a good friend, that this is their problem.

Take them to this passage.

Help them to see.

Look, he's pleading for them here.

All somebody who's wanting clicks from you wants is more clicks.

Click on my stuff, share my stuff.

Well, it's different when you become a member of a church and you say, I'm gonna submit my life to the people around me.

I'm gonna lay myself bare before brothers and sisters so that they can tell me when I'm wrong, and they can help me to do better.

I'm gonna be glad and pray for our pastors who pray for us and labor for us.

And I say this, y'all in this church, I feel so supported and encouraged.

But I know that you talk to neighbors who maybe are gossiping about their pastors, and I encourage you to be an agent of change and positivity to say, hey, you know, let's talk, let's not talk that way about your pastor.

Let's not talk that way about other Christians.

Because as so many of you are good church members here, you do encourage one another, you do share your lives with each other, you do encourage Pastor JD and Pastor Matt, and you pray for each other.

Praise God for those things.

Help other people to see the goodness of that.

I think every church could probably be better at it, but y'all, some churches don't practice that at all, even here locally.

And I say that with a broken heart.

It's not good.

It's not how God intended it.

That becomes about people and whoever they're following, and not about Jesus.

Verse 18 says, It is always good to be made much of for a good purpose, and not only when I'm present with you.

Again, the other translations help a little bit because he's saying it's it's a good thing to be zealous for good things.

To have enthusiasm, to be passionate about, it's good.

And not only when Paul's there.

So some of the accusation seems to be, hey, Paul, you came and preached, and then you left, and now you only want us to do good attached to your name.

If you've read Paul in the New Testament, you know that Paul doesn't care at all.

He's like, you can say you follow Paul, you follow Apollos, you follow Apollos, who cares?

Who are they?

Follow Jesus.

Follow Jesus.

And that's what he's getting back to here.

Your zeal needs to be properly placed.

Paul doesn't care if he gets credit for their zeal.

Verse 19, my little children.

Y'all, that is a beautiful, comforting, intimate way for him to address these people.

Because it can sound like, oh, Paul's like wagging his finger, berating them.

Again, I see it as more of an on his knees pleaing with them.

And you can hear it in his voice almost, my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth.

Now, mom's in here, you're like, here goes a man saying he knows what childbirth feels like.

Like, that's supposed to be evocative for our mind to say, man, that's that's pretty strong.

So like he's feeling a lot of feelings about them.

And you would think, based on that, he would say, like, I'm in the anguish of childbirth, and now I'm giving birth to you.

That's how this should like follow.

It's like now I'm producing you, but that's not what he says until Christ is formed in you.

He kind of mixes his metaphor for emphasis.

His anguish, his goal, his desire, the win for Paul.

It's if these churches of Galatia, these brothers and sisters, will recognize that Christ is in them, being formed in them.

He wants to labor until Christ is formed in you.

Why prepare another sermon?

Why preach again through um through another book?

Why pray again through the members' list?

Why have another pastoral visitation?

Because I long to see Christ formed in you.

Because, brothers and sisters, by the power of the Holy Spirit in you, Christ is in you.

He's with you always to the end of the age.

We don't have to add law to the gospel.

We don't have to confuse what we've learned to appease the culture around us.

We can follow after God in his word because he knows us in Christ and he resides in us through the power of his Holy Spirit.

This is Paul's desire.

Now, if you're new to Christianity, that sounds weird.

You're like, Christ is in us, Holy Spirit's in us.

This is a weird place.

We've talked in recent weeks.

The gospel is weird, but it's good news.

Because you see, it's this is not some like sci-fi movie where we're like, Jesus is now controlling my body.

That's not what this is.

Jesus is God the Son, because God has eternally existed as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

And God the Son came to earth in bodily form, just like us, as Jesus Christ.

And he walked on this earth, and he taught, and he healed, and he ate, and he laughed, and he cried, and he lived totally without sin.

He kept the law perfectly.

And then he willingly laid down his life.

He went to the cross for us who have sinned, who have failed.

And our sins and our failures should have brought punishment from God.

There was a penalty to be paid, there was a price to be paid with blood.

And his blood was shed for you.

He was killed on the cross.

He was dead three days, and three days later he rose from the grave, physically, bodily, not walking dead zombie stuff.

Jesus got up, and people recognized him and ate with him and touched him.

He was around for 40 days, and hundreds of people saw him alive.

He has ascended to the right hand of the Father.

As he ascended, he told us, I'm with you always to the end of the age.

He had taught his disciples he was going to send the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit descended on the church.

And now all who trust in Jesus are indwelled with the Holy Spirit.

Yes, we still have the flesh of this life.

That's why we will struggle with temptation as long as we are in this life and in this body.

But the Holy Spirit in us is greater than the temptation of this world.

He is stronger, he is more powerful, he is the God who is merciful to us, and he is in you, brother and sister.

You can overcome that sin that you've just been playing with and acting like it's not a big deal.

You're playing with fire.

And you can put it to death.

God lives in you.

So if you're here and all this is new to you, you say, Well, I don't know about the Holy Spirit living in me.

The moment you turn from your sin and trust in Jesus, you are dwelled with the Holy Spirit.

He seals you for eternity, making you God's people forever.

And he will not leave you or forsake you.

This is good news.

And every Christian here has at some point turned from sin and believed these things, and now Christ is in you.

Paul ends this on what maybe a strange note, but it fits if we understand this as a plea.

Because in verse 20 he says, I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone.

For I am perplexed about you.

He's asked them all these questions, right?

He says, How can you turn back?

What happened to your blessedness?

Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth?

I'm perplexed about you.

And what is it he says he wishes for them?

He wishes he could be with them.

Folks, in the Christian life, there is a priority of presence.

One of the reasons our members agree that, hey, regularly I'm going to gather with the church.

Doesn't mean we'll always be here.

Hopefully, if you're sick and have the flu, you stay home and don't bring it here with you.

If you're on vacation, praise the Lord, take pictures, we're all going to be jealous of you.

But hopefully, the regular rhythm of your life is that you gather with the church.

Because that's what should be happening for Christians.

It's what has always been, it's what will be until Christ returns, and then we're all going to be together with Him.

That priority of presence is a Christian principle that we cannot lose.

If you refer again to pastors and theologians on YouTube or podcasts or at conferences or who wrote your favorite books, they're all very helpful, but they cannot replace the local church.

As Christ is formed in us, one of the ways that happens is the regular, steady drip and rhythm of us gathering over years and decades.

Some of you have been gathering with the church for decades.

It's evidence of grace to us to say, look, you can grow in holiness.

Look, there is hope.

You can put sins to death.

You can become more godly, and yet still know we're not perfect, but we have a perfect Savior.

I know I'm preaching to the choir, quite literally, here.

If you don't know what that phrase means, it means you're preaching to those who already know.

You're gathered on a Sunday in a gym.

You're like, we're doing presence right now.

I'm encouraging you to press on in that.

Keep doing that.

Don't be fooled by, oh, I can just listen online later.

That may be okay if you miss occasionally.

That cannot become your regular rhythm.

It is not the same thing.

It is not the same thing.

A big concern of mine these days is how attached we are to these phones and especially AI chatbots.

I heard this past week, and I heard it from a secondary source, I'm admitting to you, so I don't know if the status totally true, but it alarmed me nonetheless.

It said that this year, the research shows, and in 2025, most people used AI chatbots, not just to search for basic facts or sports statistics or anything like that.

The primary use was for relationship or counseling.

Folks, if you are so isolated and you feel alone, I'm so sorry.

Please come talk to a pastor or talk to a church member here.

Don't go to your phone for relationship and counseling.

It's all built on algorithm.

Eventually, it's going to tell you some form of what you want to hear.

Oh, that's dangerous.

It's dangerous.

That longing that we have for relationship to be known is a good thing that God has placed in you.

And it's something we may not experience perfectly in this life.

Did you know that?

Our brother Sean did a great job back in Ecclesiastes 4.

Some of y'all remember that we did Ecclesiastes.

And he talked about how community is such a good thing and we can make an idol of it.

Don't let community be just an idol that you're so frustrated you're never going to attain.

Take what the Lord has given you.

Look at the brothers and sisters around you.

You're not here by accident.

You may say, man, I wish there was somebody in this church who would disciple me.

Talk to us.

I bet we can find somebody who will.

Man, I wish I had just more time with believers.

Are you in a small group?

Are you spending time in your week to prioritize that?

It baffles me.

I'm going to speak to the men in here for a minute.

Men will say, like, oh, I just don't have time to be in a small group.

You know, I don't have time to meet with other men, whatever.

I'm going to sit down on Saturday and watch 17 straight hours of college football, though.

I would like to do that too.

I also like football.

Not throwing that stone.

But it does concern me when that's what I hear.

I don't have even, you know, 30-minute lunch to just catch up with a brother.

Like, y'all, it's prioritizing.

It's prioritizing that presence because that, that time together, is where we grow the kind of affection that we see that Paul has for the churches in Galatia.

That's where we get to where we can sit across from one another and plea and remind each other of basic truths of the gospel so that when you are having your worst day, you have a brother or sister who knows you and who says, Hey, why are you turning to that?

We follow Jesus.

There's no turning back.

We're in Christ.

You don't have to add to your salvation.

You don't need that.

Some of you have experienced that gift of community, and I pray that if you haven't, you will.

If you're in this church, I pray you'll find that with brothers or sisters here.

And I pray that as you interact with other Christians, because a lot of times we talk about people in the Huntsville area who don't yet know the Lord, and we do want to pray for them, we do want to evangelize them.

But I also know that you do interact with other church-going people.

Y'all encourage them with good things.

Blow wind in their sails.

That's it's not being divisive to speak good biblical truth to people and encourage them to practice these things in their churches.

It kind of wrecked me to uh prepare this sermon.

Don't turn back, become like Paul, Christ is in you.

It may seem simple.

Sometimes you're looking at it, you're like, this wasn't that deep, I don't understand.

His fear?

His anguish?

Him being perplexed?

Y'all have you felt that for other Christians before?

Have you have you longed so much for your brothers and sisters to just catch a glimpse of the glory of God and see their life transformed?

Not because it would make your life easier, but because you want it for their good?

I know some of you here have.

I know the pastors here have.

We pray for you, when we when we stand to preach, it's a plea to remember who we are in Christ and to live as such.

It's a call to a life that's different than the rest of this world.

But it's real and it's true.

And it comes from an affection that wants good for you.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for such a holy plea in your word.

We thank you for an example of one who so loves his brothers and sisters that he tells them the truth even if it makes him their enemy.

God, I pray that today we're reminded of the gospel so that we don't leave just feeling guilty or feeling weighed down or feeling shamed.

God, remind us that we're free in Christ.

That we don't have to add law to be saved.

God, as we follow you, we will have good works.

And we will want to obey your moral law.

But that's not what saves us.

Help us to have Christ formed in us so that we'll be more like Him, so that we will enjoy you more.

So that we will be filled with hope and peace.

So that we'll just be getting little tastes here of future glory in your presence.

We pray all these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.