Set Free to Live Free - Who Gets the Glory For Your Life? - October 26, 2025

For your life today in Galatians, we're going to be

looking at who gets the glory for your life.

If it hasn't happened already, I imagine it has.

A Christian brother or sister is going to break your heart there,

or if you're not a heartbreaking kind of person, they're going to

irritate you, disappoint you, infuriate you.

There's going to be a break in a relationship.

And we know that we're supposed to sustain Christian unity.

But I would say that it is only with the grace of Jesus that

that can begin to happen. And so as we think today about a

conflict in the churches in Galatia with Paul and how he

responded, I just want to say I'm aware that we often have in

our own hearts and our own relationships brokenness,

disappointment, anger, or heartbreak.

So we're going to go to Galatians Chapter 1, and I want

Galatians 1 · chapter mention

to recontextualize you to the social pressures that Craig

mentioned last week were happening for these people.

All right? The first thing is that in their

communities, it was the norm to worship idols.

It was the good luck charm. Everybody knew who was doing it.

And if you weren't doing it, guess what happens when there's

a flood, When there's a drought, it's your fault.

And you brought this curse on the whole community.

So there was some stress on Christians that they needed to

be doing what would appease their community.

There was also what was becoming the most popular worship was

worshiping Caesar. So now this has got political

issues. And who's going to approve you

for work permits and the equivalent of that of the day

this started to have who was going to get to rise to power?

They needed to have the approval of the community so that they

could flourish economically and politically.

Now there was what was called the Jewish pass on idol worship.

And the agreement went something like this.

All right, we get you are weird and you can't worship idols.

So instead of praying to Caesar, we're going to let you pray for

Caesar. And they had a agreement that

let everything let them not have to worship.

And so the early church was a Jewish sect from all external

observations, and they were benefiting from the Jewish past.

And there was fear. But you don't look Jewish and

you don't act Jewish. And when you go to the local

gymnasium, in the local baths and you take off your clothes,

you really men don't look Jewish.

And so you are going to get us in trouble with the government

and with our communities. And so the social pressure was

profound for our Christian brothers and sisters to conform

to get the Jewish pass. Do you get it?

There was economic pressure, there was social pressure and

there was religious pressure. So now we're going to read in

Galatians one starting with verse 10.

AM I now trying to win the approval of human beings or of

God? And, and just so you know, you

hear attitude of my voice because Paul's writing right

here is hot and heated and hurried.

It's not his pretty prose. He is giving them a bit of a

what for here. Am I now trying to win the

approval of human beings or of God?

Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please

people, I would not be a servant of Christ.

I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I

preached is not of human origin. I did not receive it from any

man, nor was I taught it. Rather, I received it by

revelation from Jesus Christ. Paul starts off with Whose good

job was he looking for? And he said, I am looking for

the good job from my Heavenly Father.

Jesus talked about the well done, good and faithful servant.

We want that. I believe that you probably

wouldn't be here this morning if you didn't want the well done,

good and faithful servant, the good job from the Lord.

But the problem is, is that we also have the social pressures.

We have familial pressures. And so I think that words from

Matthew chapter 6 matter. Let me just turn there in

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

Matthew 6, starting with verse 19.

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moths

and vermin destroy and where thieves break in and steal.

But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths

and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in

and steal. For where your treasure is,

there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body.

If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of

light. But if your eyes are unhealthy,

your whole body will be full of darkness.

If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that

darkness? No one can serve 2 masters.

Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be

devoted to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve both God and money.

We know this, but often our lives look like people who are

serving multiple masters because we actually want our parents,

our peers, and for those of you still in school, we want our

profs. Good job.

And so we become divided in our actual hearts because we're

looking for more than one approval.

When we were singing this morning, we were singing about.

I'm not called to tend to grief. And you may or may not know, but

Craig's mom passed away and her funeral was this week.

And in the mountains where she's from, we're supposed to plant

flowers next spring on the grave.

And all of a sudden, I had a panic and I looked at Craig as

we were leaving. I'm like, flowers.

How are we? Who do we get?

What? How do we come back now?

Of all the heartbreak that the last six months has had in his

mom's health, you may realize he's been traveling to take care

of her. But even when he was here, he

was being called or texted almost daily for medical

decisions. All of the things that have gone

on in the last six months. Worrying about flowers for next

spring is really a bit ridiculous.

But as we sang today about tending the grave, I realized I

was feeling guilty because I'm not going to get to do my job,

probably to put the violets that she always put for her mom's

grave. And I remembered something that

Craig said years ago. He says my call to Vancouver and

to follow Jesus may end up costing my parents more than it

has cost me. And sometimes the following

after Jesus means that there are some people that get

disappointed. Paul is writing a letter in

Galatians one to people that aren't just disappointed but

they're now maligning him. Sometimes we have that division

between are we serving 2 masters because we have more than one

division of life. When I was a first time mom, you

may or may not know, but I was like four times around.

But on the first one, I had this real, Oh my gosh, what am I

doing? Well in many areas.

But one of the tears was I really wanted to be with this

child, but then I wasn't developing a career or I'd let

it stall and go back. And I was realizing that I'm

getting my first choice of life, taking care of this baby, but

I'm grieving and mad about not getting to do my second choice.

And I was a divided person for a little bit because I had more

than one vision of how to live my life.

And so when you think about no one can serve 2 masters, think

also, whose approval do we want? What pressures come in on you?

Our lives are not at risk in the same way that the church in

Galatia may have been, but there are still social pressures that

are economic, that are around politics, that are around family

issues that come in and make us want to try and please our

peers, our professors, our parents, and their visions of

our life, while we also want God's good job.

And so Paul is making clear and very blunt in these verses who

he is serving. Y'all took my marker out.

Just give me a second. So I'm going to start to say,

when we have conflict, I think it's often around different

visions of reality, different visions of life.

And we think our brothers and sisters should have the same

understanding and should have the same ways of thinking.

And so Paul is here and he's basically correcting them and

he's saying in no uncertain terms, y'all are going the wrong

way with the gospel you were making.

Now this is a paraphrase, but they were making more rules than

God had. They were going to make people

get circumcised, follow Jewish dietary laws so that they could

be politically safe. And they were saying when Paul

said it was not necessary, that Paul didn't have the authority

to say that, that they needed to be listening to the apostles.

And so now Paul comes to tell his story.

And in his story he talks about how Jesus revealed himself to

him and then through him. So let's read in verse 11.

I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I

preached is not of human origin. I did not receive it from any

man, nor was I taught it. Rather, I received it by

revelation from Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my

previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the

Church of God and tried to destroy it.

I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age, among

my people, and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my

Father's. But when God, who set me apart

from my mother's womb and called me by His grace, was pleased to

reveal his Son and me so that I might preach him among the

Gentiles, my immediate response was not to consult any human

being. I did not go up to Jerusalem to

see those who are apostles before I was, but I went into

the into Arabia later. I returned to Damascus.

Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted

with Cephas and stayed with him 15 days.

I saw none of the other apostles, only James, the Lord's

brother. I assure you before God that

what I am writing to you is no lie.

Now, yes, Paul is giving a testimony here.

You can read in Acts, if you want, the other three tellings

of the miraculous way Jesus did reveal himself.

But let me tell you why there's a kind of speech we often get

into to justify ourselves. Paul is not so much justifying

himself we're going to see, but he is justifying the work, the

call, and the revelation of Jesus.

So I want us to look at a diagram.

There's a lot to unpack, and I'm not going to unpack it all.

But what I want you to see is that when something happens

between us, there's an event. I see or hear something.

And then before we feel and act, we tell ourselves a story.

Now, let me tell you why this matters, because we believe

we're not always conscious of this.

We believe our story's the truth.

And so when our story is coming out, we can't believe the other

person is doing this. And do you see this little tell

a lie? That's not from the diagram,

That's from my culture of origin.

When somebody was telling a story and you didn't believe it,

or maybe you believed it. But now today we might go

really, well, we'd say tell a lie like you got to prove this

is true, OK. And so they had a whole story

created that Paul was LAX on what God wanted.

And so he is being labeled and attacked.

The churches are withdrawing from his teaching.

And the reason Paul is coming in to tell a story is he's calling

out their tell a lie. Now what he is doing is that

they had a story that they really should only now listen to

the Jerusalem apostles and that he, Paul was telling something

different. So when you were in conflict,

when you were hurt, when you're angry, disappointed, whatever

your emotional volume is. So if I live through something,

my emotional volume gets loud quickly, both joyfully and

negatively. Some people, Craig will be like,

yeah, I don't think I've ever experienced quite that much

fury, or it's just his volume of options is not quite as loud as

my emotions. So when I'm saying conflict,

think however you experience that, realize that we can act

like the story we're telling ourselves is the truth.

And the way the Lord broke me of this, in some ways it doesn't.

I'm not fully saved at it is Craig and I had a really good

friend, really honourable character and all of a sudden he

became the most unreliable friend we had.

And you know, you think, OK, he's got something going on, but

we're close enough that we would know.

We knew his extended family, we knew his roommates, we knew so

much about and he was just unreliable and and we couldn't

figure out what was happening. And about a year later, it came

out that he had a life threatening chronic illness, was

worried about judgement that would go with the illness and

didn't tell anybody like he told no one.

His medical team knew. And for actually, I said it was

a year later, but it wasn't. It was a couple of years later,

no one knew. And I realized that in trying to

understand the behavior that hurt me and I didn't understand,

I had told myself a bunch of stories trying to make it make

sense. And so Paul gives them some

clarity and the thing that Paul does is he starts to tell them

all about their life. I think if we can go back to

verses 11 and 12 for just a second, all right?

He, Paul tells them that he received what he had preached by

a revelation from Jesus Christ. Do you see the veil there?

So the word here for revelation is related to apocalypse, but

we're not talking about some random zombie apocalypse.

We're talking about the revelation of God.

And in this, do you remember when Jesus died, what happened

to the veil? It was torn, and it was torn

from top to bottom. Not the easy way of bottom to

top. When Jesus died and was

resurrected, the Holy of Holies was opened up for us to have

access to God. And God chose to step in and

reveal himself in a very unique way to Paul on the road to

Damascus with the light, with the scales.

And he is saying, I received an unveiling of who Jesus was.

And when we say that we are following Jesus, very few of us

have a shining light kind of moment.

But what we all have is a way where Jesus has revealed himself

to us through Scripture, through experience, through the still

small voice. And so we want to become people

who can say that I receive the revelation of Jesus.

He is giving it to you. I hope you're receiving it.

And so why is he saying this is because in the story they're

saying he's nothing. And he's saying I am not on my

own something. But because of the revelation of

Jesus, I have something to say that you need to hear.

Now, in Galatians 113 through 17, Paul is pulling out.

We might call it a race card, but here he's pulling out his

religious card. And because we don't have the

same background, we might miss it.

But he's like I persecuted for Judaism, the Church of God, I

was advancing. He was highly educated, He was

zealous. And then when even when he says,

but when God who set me apart from my mother's womb.

Did you notice when we read this morning in Isaiah 49, he is

nodding to this passage and then he's also nodding to Jeremiah's

call. So we can't catch all the echoes

and the illusions that Paul is making or I can't.

Y'all might be able to without some of the but he is letting

them know I'm as Jewish as they come.

Don't you be calling me out for that.

I know the truth and that is what he's actually saying when

we read it. Then he goes on and says I was

pleased to and called me by his Grace was pleased to reveal his

son in me. Guess what that word reveal is?

If it's your own Bible, you're looking at circle revelation and

circle reveal, and those are both unveiled.

And I want to say that Jesus is being unveiled in you and you

may be not as clear because Paul knew I might preach him among

the Gentiles. He knew specifically because

Jesus said specifically. But you have Jesus being

unveiled in you and you're like, well, I don't know.

Well, you know enough from Scripture about telling the

truth, about loving your neighbor, forgiving your those

that wronged you, loving your enemies.

There's enough of that that you know that Jesus is being

revealed in you. And if you're having trouble

finding the revelation of Jesus in your own life, then sit down.

Sit down with Josh or Susan or Peter or Michaela with your life

group leader with me. And when Craig comes back with

him, sit down with Prince and brothers and sisters in Christ

that know you and say, where do you see Jesus revealed in me?

Because Paul could come back to the stories they were telling

themselves and he could call out, tell a lie because he knew

what was Jesus was revealing in him.

He knew his call and then he goes on.

My immediate response was not to consult any human being.

The gospel that Paul was preaching came from Jesus, not

from people. When you share what God has

done, are you a parrot? Are you a parody, or are you

sharing the word that Jesus has given you?

Because people have no not much patience for a parrot.

They scoff at the parody of sharing the faith, but they want

to know somebody has met and that Jesus is being revealed in

them. Now he goes on to tell them he

didn't go to Jerusalem, but he went to Arabia.

Guess what? That's another place where he's

going. Let me show you how Jewish I

was. I went where Elijah went.

I went where Moses went. I am not nothing.

I went for three years to meet with the Lord in the places the

prophets went. And sometimes Joshua was talking

about the retreat. We do go away because we need to

meet with the Lord. There is business that only God

can do in our hearts. And then he later returned to

Damascus, his hometown. Three years later, he went up to

Jerusalem. Now here's what's funny about

that. I would miss this.

But when he was going to Jerusalem three years later, one

of the observers said, you know, it would have been easier if he

didn't share that detail. And here's why, because they're

going, see, I knew it. I knew it.

You went. And if he just kind of glossed

over that. But when you're in conflict,

just tell the truth. I also want to point out Paul is

not in conflict with the people. He is in conflict with the

distortion of the gospel of Jesus.

So his hot and heated is because he loves the grace of Jesus and

what he wants to do in people's lives and they're trying to add

on more rules. So I ask you in the next slide,

I couldn't find a rational all the torn veil looked like horror

films with some Halloween tour. So I couldn't find an image that

worked. So I want you to imagine the

torn veil in the Holy of Holies. Jesus did that not just for

Paul, not just for the churches in Galatia, but for us.

So how is Jesus revealed in you in this week?

What is the unveiling of the power of the grace of the truth

of the gospel in your life this week?

When we're in conflict, we need to go back and re inhabit and

revisit what is the good news that Jesus has for us, for our

relationships, for our communities, for our future,

because this conflict was ultimately connected to fears

about their future and their safety because of the social

pressures. And so where is Jesus being

revealed in you? Now?

Let's look at what happened. There was some praising of God

because of me. So in verse 21, then I went to

Syria and Cilicia, I was personally unknown to the

churches of Judea that are in Christ.

They only heard the report that the man who formerly persecuted

us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy and they

praised God because of me. So really what happened is that

the gatherings, the called out ones of Judea were in Christ and

they praised God because of me. Who's praised God because of you

this week? And maybe they don't know it's

Jesus in you, but we in the original moment are not just

doing that for you to meet each other.

We're actually having the original moment.

So you, like Paul can say here is how Jesus was revealed in my

week and because of this I'm praising God or someone else was

enriched in praising God. And so I have to be honest, I

remember reading Paul's letters as a teenager and I didn't like

them. I was like, this is not somebody

I'd want to be friends with. He's right arrogant isn't he?

Who goes around saying well they're praising God because of

me. Like it's not it's not OK.

But what he is doing and the reason for the seemingly self

justification that I didn't know the I this time I'm remembering

him being appalled. The reason was not to protect

himself and it was not to self promote.

But the reason he is saying that God got the glory is because

that is what he's calling out for in the church in Galatia or

churches, and that the churches were willing to break unity for

their social, political, economic safety.

What are you willing to break Unity for?

And how do you use the stories of the work of God in your life?

Are they to make yourself look good?

Are they to make somebody else feel guilty?

That's awkward, but I think we can.

Or are the stories of your life the natural overflow in your

speech, bringing glory to Jesus because that is what a life is

in Christ is to do. So we have a bunch of crazy

pictures. Thank you, Canva, good job.

I've been watching a show, Mika a little bit with me, and my

favorite character does a good job all the time.

I like the character, I like the show, but it makes it cutesy.

But it is not wrong to long for approval.

It is natural, it is human. We are actually wired to one

approval. But where I think we struggle is

when we have more than one master whose approval we want.

And so I ask you, whose approval are you seeking?

Recognizing that when I choose God's approval, there's a cost

to other people, not just myself.

And then I say, what is the revelation of Jesus that you

have had in your life? And in that revelation, think

about it, Jesus had come to do business with Paul on the road

to Damascus, and then Jesus had business for Paul to do and

sharing the good news. And that is what Paul is about

here. I am going to protect the truth

in the gospel. And then I come back to where

are you? Angry, hurt, disappointed, some

type of conflict instead of cheap, Let's hold hands and sing

kumbaya. And I'm not above that.

As a Mama, my children started acting the fool and couldn't

work it out. They'd have to sit on the sofa

as kids and hold hands and sing kumbaya just because I had no

other strategy by then when we got there.

But they would start laughing and it actually helped a little.

So I'm not saying I'm not above hold hands sing kumbaya, because

sometimes to make a wake forward in heartbreak means I have to

sit where I don't want to sit. And this is not what you're

going to get on an Instagram app or a podcast because our society

has decided it is perfectly fine to cut off people that make me

uncomfortable. But the Gospel of Jesus has said

that if I can bring dead bodies back to life and resurrect

Jesus, I can resurrect relationships.

So when you are in conflict, hurt, disappointment, anger,

whatever your tone for the the break in the relationship is,

where is Jesus? How is he getting lifted up in

the midst of the heartbreak? And so follow the glory.

And when the glory goes to him, you can be pretty sure that is

messy and hard and uncomfortable as the working it out is.

If Jesus is getting some glory, you're right where you need to

be. Let's pray Jesus.

I thank you for Paul who knew how to be human.

He knew how to correct and confront and tell a church when

they were going the wrong way. He knew when to not share all of

his business and when to tell a bit of a testimony of what you

had done. Lord, I pray for all of us

today. We would seek first Your

Kingdom. We would live for your approval,

that we would remember all the ways you have revealed yourself

to us. And then we would allow you to

reveal yourself in our lives, in our words, in our relationships,

in our actions. And I pray that you we get the

glory for how we handle hard things.

We love you and we just ask for more grace knowing this and

doing this. That's the chasm.

Give us courage to act in Jesus name, Amen.