Freedom Cross

Morning, CCW.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, welcome to the church at Chelsea Westover.

I'm so glad to meet you.

We had some good uh visiting folks this morning in the lobby.

Glad to get to know you.

And uh once you get your Bibles out to Galatians chapter 6, we are putting a close for now to the Freedom Book of the Bible.

Galatians 6 · chapter mention

And so it has been exciting to walk through this study.

I've loved it.

I hope you have too.

And it's been a great week.

Uh you ready for this, church?

So we met together last week, covenant members, and we had uh one more meeting midweek about the infrastructure, but we can put our hands together.

We have decided to move forward.

We are gonna be building a kids' ministry building.

So, man, I'm excited about that.

It's gonna be a 5,500 square foot building that can meet way more needs than the upstairs can meet.

So we're doing uh all we can right now, and praise God.

We're packed out, and Pastor Eli is uh doing his best with the team up there, and we are gonna get through to this next stage.

But praise God, thank you, church, thank you, covenant members, and uh man, that's exciting.

We had an art camp this week that was going on, the last camp for the summer camps, and Pastor Dave and the team, and it was great seeing those kids in there working their creativity, doing things I couldn't imagine doing.

Um and so that was fun and had some great visits.

Um, our pastor emeritus and his wife is here this morning.

Pastor Danny, Miss Susan.

Pastor Dan, he just reminded me, he's preaching next week.

Commercial plug.

So, anyway, uh it's gonna be a good week.

You know, we had a good time catching up.

We had some dinner, and uh they they don't know how to slow down, is all I can say.

So, Galatians this morning.

I was looking at this and uh I found this true story of a young songwriter named Isaac back in '92.

He was 18 years old and he was a pastor's kid.

He grew up attending church every Sunday.

Um was told of him that his testimony was that he loved the Lord.

But he thought the music at his church was awful.

So slow, Isaac was fed up with it.

He went to his father, finally, the pastor, and he said, Son, if you think you can do better, why don't you write some new songs for church?

So that's exactly what Isaac did.

He wrote two new songs for that coming Sunday.

When they sang them, there was a mixed reaction.

Some people didn't like them at all, and others were inspired in a whole new way.

So Isaac kept on writing new songs.

I want you to keep Isaac in the back of your mind because we're going to come back to him before we close and find out more about his story.

Look at verse 11 and through 13 here in Galatians 6.

This Paul he says, See with what large letters I've written to you with my own hand, as many desire to make a good showing in the flesh, these would compel you to be circumcised, only that they may not suffer persecution for the cross of Christ.

For not even those who are circumcised keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh.

Let me pray, Father.

We pray for your presence here.

Apart from that, God, this is a vain meeting.

So, God, we need you.

We sang that, we worship that.

Now we need it through your word, God.

Fill us, God, full of what you have to speak to our body.

And help us as we bring a closing to this, Lord, that we would understand what you meant for us to understand years ago about freedom.

And freedom in your cross.

So, Lord, I pray you bless this time in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So Paul closes out here and he starts with a closing argument confronting the counterfeits.

One more time.

And if you could picture him on trial, he goes back and this is his closing.

And Paul, listen, he doesn't hold back.

So he digs right in and he goes right back to the source of the issue.

In verse 11, he says this that look at the letters that I have penned.

He's pointing out that up to this point he's probably been writing through dictation, speaking to somebody, they've been writing for him.

And he says, I took the pen in my own hand, and I want you to notice the large letters so it cannot be mistaken.

What is about to follow is from Paul.

And it's the only time any of his letters provides a concluding summary of a book like this.

So that's important.

And let me tell you a couple of reasons why it's important.

Number one, Paul thinks it's important.

And Paul was the greatest missionary that's ever lived.

I love Paul.

I hope that as you read his letters, that you can fall in love with this person.

So if Paul thinks it's important, that's a pretty good reason.

The second thing it's important is because what he is about to say will make or break the church at Galatia.

What he's about to say will make or break the church at Chelsea Westover.

What he's going on to say, the conclusion that he's going to make will make or break the Christianity that would follow.

So imagine again, Christianity Church is on trial, and Paul is giving a final speech on the whole reason why we should stand for our freedom.

And so Paul says in the middle of it, look at verse 13 and 14 what he says.

Here he goes.

This is the most important phrase in this whole chapter.

God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so Paul says in verse 13 and 14 avoid all forms of self-salvation.

What you need to follow is the cross.

It's not old laws from the previous, it's not old rules, it's not preferences, it's not your human inclination or anything wrapped up in this flesh.

It's not circumcision.

It's not in the Catholic Church indulgences or keeping the Sabbath.

The Pharisees criticized Jesus for not keeping the law.

Are you hearing me?

The Messiah, the Savior of the world, was there amongst them, and they were critical of his not keeping of the law.

They said, look, Jesus, this is how we do church.

To Jesus, the cornerstone of the church.

And he hits them with the grand finale.

So here's his closing argument against the counterfeits.

Letter A is this.

We see a following and fraudulence.

They were frauds.

Verse 12 said they want to make a good showing.

The word is uprisopio, which is from a compound to make a display.

Literally to make a show of themselves.

They wanted people to see who they were and how great they were.

Have you ever tried to get a child to get dressed nicely on their own?

This happened this morning.

It's perfect.

I planned this on money, but it happened this morning.

I'm telling Weston, get dressed, and you know, mama even told him exactly what to get dressed, and he came out not in that.

But if I told him on his own to go get dressed nicely, this is like abstract art to him.

Who knows what's coming out, right?

This is nice.

It's a shirt.

These are pants.

Perfect.

That's what I should wear.

And so he gets on his pants and gets on his shirt.

Not what mama said, but close.

And he comes out and he's got these shoes totally wrong, right?

Black pants, turquoise shirt, and he's got blue, gray, and yellow shoes.

And I said, Can't you just go get your black shoes that match your pants?

Or he's got two different pairs.

And he says, he started almost tear up.

He's like, There's nothing wrong with these shoes.

These are good shoes.

And I'm like, I'm not saying there's something wrong with the shoes, but I would like for something better.

And he sat there for a second looking at me, and he's trying to dry up his tears, and finally he went off.

But this is the thing I know.

Weston don't care.

Weston don't care.

Anybody got a don't care in your house?

You know what I'm talking about?

It might be your husband.

You gotta do it.

Here's the thing that boy doesn't care.

But for those trying to make a show of it, when I send Weston out, I know you're gonna look at his parents.

And so he might not care, but I know you're gonna look at who dressed him.

Right?

And so these of the Judaizers' problem, they care about the show.

They want you to see something and assume something great about them.

Judaizers wanted Christianity, hear me, to be their way.

It was about their Messiah.

And no Gentile was gonna come in and tell them any different about their way.

So if you, a Gentile, wanted to become a Christian, what you needed to do was to become a Jew.

You needed to be circumcised.

You needed to be in their box.

And their way, let me tell you, it was racist.

Their way was closed-minded and it was sinful.

They were putting God in a box.

Listen, CCW, God cannot be boxed.

Amen.

Paul said this about reaching out to people.

He said, I'm become all things to all men by all means that I may reach some.

He said, I'm willing to do anything.

I'm not in a box that says church has to look like this or that.

If I were going to be a missionary to another country, let me tell you some things that would change.

First of all, my language.

Okay?

Second, I probably wouldn't be dressed the same way because I'm going to reach a different culture.

You know what would happen thirdly?

Probably my music would have to change because the culture's music would change.

All kinds of things about me would change.

Why?

Because I want to reach those people for the gospel.

In that culture, everything with time and culture changes.

But these Judaizers say, oh no, no, no, not church.

It doesn't change.

And so there's people still today that have a hard time with church changing over time.

And what I want to know is when I come to your house, do you still have 1970 shag carpet?

If you don't, then your music has to be able to change.

If you've changed your carpet in 40 years, if everything's not as old as it used to be, then we gotta be open to some change.

I'm not saying we can't bring it out.

Look, Pastor Danny loves some old cars.

I think they're really cool.

I would have a room full of antiques.

But this is the thing.

If I want to make a difference in culture, Paul said, I am all things for all men.

That by all means, some will come to the gospel.

And what the Judaizers were doing, they were stamping their feet spiritually and saying, but it's not gonna happen this way.

Not on our watch.

And let me tell you, that's a dangerous way to be.

God's not in a box.

He's not in your box, he's not in my box, he's in this box, the B-I-B-L-E.

This is the only box that God is in.

And if you're putting him in another box that's not this book, you're bordering being used by the enemy.

Their stand was a stand in stubbornness.

This is the way the church is supposed to look.

Thank God for Paul being willing to put his body on the line for the truth.

We're gonna see that in a second, what he says.

Remember Paul's Damascus Road?

Why did it mean so much?

Because when Paul's life got changed, when he was blinded on Damascus Road, nothing ever mattered again.

When he changed, he was all in, and it was all about what Jesus, that voice he heard, he said, That's my voice.

That's the one I'm following.

Even to the point when Pastor Dave preached a few weeks ago.

Peter, one of the great disciples, he withstood him to the face.

He said, You're preaching about sitting down and eating with Gentiles, but you're getting up and leaving.

Why are you doing that?

Why?

To put up a good show.

He said, I'm not dealing with that hypocrisy.

Don't preach something and be something else.

Amen.

He said, Go eat with them, Gentiles.

Don't just preach it.

And so we have to understand the problem that they were in front of and why it was keeping them from freedom.

It's actually putting yourself in a bigger box.

There's a rather pompous Sunday school teacher who was trying to press upon a class of boys the importance of living the Christian life.

He said, Boys, why do people call me a Christian?

After a pause, one boy raised his hand.

He said, Teacher, maybe they just don't know you.

Yikes.

Verse 13 tells us that these guys were frauds of the law.

They're imposed law.

They were being frauds.

They were statisticians.

They were in love with the numbers.

So it says that they could boast.

If they got you to join the club and do what they wanted you to do, then we could get another number and we could say, look at what we've built.

Circumcision was a numbers game, proselytizing for the cult.

Now listen, a cult is anything that's gospel plus.

And they're prevalent.

They're here today.

They're in America today.

Oh my soul, Heather and I watched, I'm not even going to, but we watched a documentary.

It was scary.

Scary.

What's it called?

Pray, obey, something.

Anyway, it's terrible the stuff that these people are poisoning minds with, and it's putting them in a box.

These Judaizers were fighting for the law of Moses from God, but not even following that God.

God redirected history by sending Jesus.

And the Jews were still looking at Moses as the Messiah.

But these are our laws.

We've always done it this way.

The Savior has arrived and brought grace and changed things.

But they wanted to add numbers to their group.

You know, we live in a mega world, right?

Y'all feel that weight, the power struggle in the world today?

We are persuaded that success comes in the biggest numbers.

Success is the largest or the grandest, having the most money, the most power, building an empire.

I struggle with the term megachurch.

I'm just gonna be honest.

I struggle with this term.

Because here's what happens people ask me all the time, how's the church doing?

And the inclination is to blurt out some number.

And I'm telling you, the number has no bearing on how well our church is doing.

What has all the bearing in the world on our church is the strength of our unity, the spirit that's present, and how we're serving our community.

That's the most important thing.

But if you ask most pastors, hey, how's your church doing?

Well, we're running about this.

It doesn't matter.

What is happening in the community?

How are you bearing the gospel to people who need it?

So 330, 300, 3,000.

Doesn't matter.

What is the spirit?

What is the serving?

In order to keep things their way, they had to use these tactics.

They were fear tactics.

Right?

Circumcise or else.

So we see that letter B is a foundation in fear.

The real issue for the Judaizers themselves were they were afraid.

They were afraid of people not thinking how they thought.

Again, fear-based behavior modification.

Right?

We saw it all the way up until the Catholic Church.

They begin selling the indulgences, saying, if you will live this way or act this way and you will purchase things this way, then you can have lesser torture in hell if you'll pay for this.

Or you might get out of hell altogether.

And when you look at cults, there's all of this stuff tied in.

If you do this, then you can get to heaven.

If you'll serve me, then you can get to heaven.

If you bring enough money, and it's all this fear-based behavior stuff.

And they're telling people you can get out of hell and suffer less torment if you'll buy the blue light special.

But what they're really doing and how horrifying is that they're paying for their own walk into hell.

Believing this stuff.

How many bewitched people today are missing the relationship with Jesus?

The manipulation of the truth.

They thought if this group gets big enough, they're gonna make us do things differently in our church.

And they're gonna be different from the way that we've always done it, and they hated that idea.

And there's churches today, and I mean to tell you, they're nothing more than a social club.

And if you don't fit their mold, they'll say, Well, you can get out.

And it's the saddest thing, and all the while what they're doing is not sticking to this book.

They want to create a church of robots.

Everybody looks like everybody else and does what everybody else does.

Why fear?

I'll show you how.

Verse 12.

What it says.

As many as desire to make good show in the flesh, they would compel you to be circumcised, only that they listen, they may not suffer persecution for the cross of Christ.

They didn't want any persecution, they had a real fear.

When you are not a real follower of Jesus Christ, the cross is a fearful place.

They were cross-embarrassed or cross-ashamed.

Romans 1:16 says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ as the power of God unto salvation for the Jew first and then unto the Greek.

Romans 1:16

And so he says, Don't be ashamed, but the Judaizers were fearful of this possibility.

If we follow the Christian's way, these radicals, we may get persecuted about our faith.

Let me tell you what Matthew says about that, church.

Matthew 5, 10 through 12 says, Blessed are the persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you.

You say, I don't sound very good, Pastor.

It says, Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for your reward is great in heaven when you're persecuted.

Blessed, it says, Happy are those.

That's why the prosperity gospel doesn't work.

Because they never got an answer for persecution.

Only that money is about to be dumped in buckets over you if you do have something go wrong.

That's not truth.

Two of my three kids are working now this summer, and uh I'm proud of them.

Uh Wyatt started something this week, he's been working, and I've just kind of been watching.

But listen, I know about this about work.

Work, I'm not trying to equate it to persecution, but work can be taxing.

I may say, Amen.

Work can feel unending, amen.

It's always there, right?

And so as you work, there's more to do.

But let me tell you this, teenagers about work.

This is where the real freedom lies.

Financial freedom is found in that four-letter word.

Listen to me, teenagers, work.

Aren't you tired of saying, hearing your parents say, well, we can't really afford to give you money for that.

We can't really afford to do that.

Here's the secret: work, financial freedom is found.

Right?

Oh man, I'm telling you, I remember.

My kids hear it all the time, they're sick of hearing it.

But 11 years old, I got a newspaper route.

First week I did it, I got a$55 check, and I was in.

I said, I like that.

I want another one.

And so with that$55 check, I put roller skates on layaway at the local roller skate rink with my first paycheck.

Y'all remember layaway?

I have four payments.

And then real freedom, I had my own cool skates, and guess what?

A few years later, that roller skate rink hired me for$5 an hour, that was minimum wage, to go roller skate around with girls.

They paid me.

Now I have money and girls.

Thank God for work.

And it got even bigger.

I heard about the real big money when I was 15, the moving company.

$8 an hour in 1995.

Talk about I thought I had made it the first.

First$300 check, and I was like, what else is there?

I can spend it.

Look, I my friends were enjoying conquering the world of PlayStation, and I was enjoying financing my own trips to Myrtle Beach.

14, 15, and 16.

I went with my friends.

And look, one day I told Y the other day about work.

I said, Man, one day I was there.

I spent a hundred dollars in an arcade.

Quarter machine.

Arcade.

Why?

Because I could.

It was my money.

And I had put in the work.

I had Rita's water ice that day four or five times.

Why?

Because I had worked my money.

Listen to me though.

That's good.

That's right.

Let's work.

The byproduct of Christianity, listen to me, is work.

And I'm not trying to say it's persecution, but if you work as a Christian, persecution should, according to Scripture, follow.

Putting in work means that there may be some persecution because Jesus said, if they hated me, they're going to hate you.

Christianity is work and then persecution.

But listen to me.

If you endure that work, one day there's going to be a paycheck.

Galatians said last week, in due season, you shall reap if you don't faint.

So you keep sowing that work.

But let me tell you, the Judaizers didn't want that work.

They didn't want no piece of that work.

They said, I don't want to get out there and do all that.

Be persecuted.

This is our box.

This is how our social club looks.

And if they don't fit our mold, then they don't have to come in here.

And Paul said, That is not the freedom of the gospel.

Everybody can come in here and receive what Jesus did.

Everybody should have this.

They didn't want to associate with the cross because the cross represented work.

It represented pain.

It represented surrender.

Let me tell you, if anybody knew about that, it was Paul.

Galatians 1:13, he opens the book saying, You have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it.

Galatians 1:13

He knew.

He knew the persecution.

He was a part of it.

So who better to teach the class?

Acts 22, he said, verse 4, I persecuted the way, that was the name for Christianity, the way to death, binding and delivering them into prisons, men and women.

And Jesus, look, says to the disciples, put in that work.

Persecution, whatever, put in the work.

So maybe, and thank God we live in a society right now where you can still, right now, meet as Christians.

You can publicly, you still have the freedom of speech in most places.

You can win people as Christians.

You can basically live your Christianity in America with most freedom.

The worst thing that we're going to encounter right now is somebody maybe laughing at you.

Rejection of the offer.

And so that's that's sort of the persecution.

And I'm telling you, Paul says this, someone who understood it, listen to this.

About persecution.

He says, now you've been persecuted.

We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed.

We're perplexed, but not in despair.

We're persecuted but not forsaken.

We're struck down but not destroyed.

Listen to this verse, for our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working in us a far exceeding eternal weight of glory.

One day you're gonna reap if you don't faint.

And so you keep on, you press on, and you work for the cause of Christianity.

There was an attorney that said this.

The attorney said, The battle, sirs, is not to the strong alone, it's to the vigilant, the active, and the brave.

He said, Our brethren are already in the field.

Why stand we here idle today?

Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?

Forbid it, Almighty God, I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death.

Patrick Henry.

I believe in my Savior so much that the day comes I will go to prison.

If I have to go to prison standing on what I believe, because I believe it, it's in me.

Do you believe in that way?

And so Paul says, first of all, there's a bunch of counterfeits, and secondly, his closing appeal is this he wants to confirm again the cross.

The cross, the only boast, he says.

The cross letter A is the cause of Christianity.

He says, My only boast, my only exalt, my only rejoice, the only thing I have in this life to boast in is this cross.

You know, people today boast in a lot of things.

Do they not?

We got a society full of trophies and talents and successes, and we boast in our kids, we boast in statistics.

But Paul said, I have one singular, fixed, focused passion, and it's the cross.

So that's a weird passion.

The cross was the most torturous form of torture.

If we were there today and there was a crucifixion, most of us wouldn't be able to watch it without wincing and turning sick at the sight.

The agony.

So what does Paul mean?

Apart from the death of Christ, sinners get nothing but judgment.

Apart from the cross of Christ, there's only condemnation, church.

Therefore, everything that we enjoy as a Christian, as a person who trusts Christ, is owing to the death of Christ in the cross.

All your rejoicing should be because of the cross.

All of the boasting that we do is in the cross.

All of our blessings were purchased at the death on the cross through Jesus Christ.

So Paul makes a profound remark.

Look at what he says.

It's not just that Jesus was crucified.

He says, through the cross of Jesus Christ, there in that verse, the world has been crucified and I to the world.

Not Jesus was just crucified, but when I received that relationship, when I understood the cross, the world to me was crucified and I to the world.

He says, if you're a Christian, you no longer need the approval of the world.

You don't need the Judaizers to say you fit.

You don't need somebody at work to say that's what I was looking for.

You don't need somebody else to look at your lawn and say, now you fit with the Joneses.

Oh, you got that car.

Oh, you got that vacation.

Oh, you got this, or you got that.

You don't need the word.

He says, I was crucified from it.

And now I got fixed on one thing.

And that's my only boast.

That's what I live for.

And so your job now becomes a little more meaningful because it's more than about provisions, it's about having an impact on people so that you can give that cross to others.

It's profound.

He says, the world was crucified to me.

The world has nothing to offer.

And Paul said, and I'm crucified with Christ.

Allow me to read some beautiful poetry to you that I was looking over this week called Shadows.

It says, with every breath I take, every heartbeat, sunrise and the moonlight in the dark street, every glance, every dance, every note of a song, all a gift undeserved that I shouldn't have known.

Every moment I lie, every moment I covet.

Deserving to die, I'm earning your judgment.

Maybe you just want to listen to the poet.

Can we turn the poet on?

I think it'd be better.

He's a good poet.

You see, I was a youth pastor for 17 years, and I like all forms of ways to lift off the cross of Jesus Christ.

It's our anthem, and it's an amazing thing that this cross is recognized world over.

The cross is recognized everywhere.

In all kinds of cultures, people are tattooed with this marking of a torture device.

Why?

Why would something go throughout all of the land?

And you'll see people as lost as can be got a big cross on their back.

They're celebrating my king, and they don't even know why.

I do.

Because you can't stop the cross.

It's the cure.

Look at verse 15 through 17.

For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything but a new creation.

And as many walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be on them and upon the Israel of God.

From now on, listen to this let no one trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.

He says, I bear in my body the marks of the cross.

Do you bear in your body the marks of the church?

Does your life emanate the cross of Jesus Christ?

If you were on trial for your Christianity, would the verdict say he bears the marks?

There's fruit of a Christian in them.

It's coming out of them.

They exhibit A love.

They exhibit B, gentleness.

Exhibit C patience.

Would the jury say, overwhelmingly, the evidence of the cross is overflowing out of that person?

Do you bear the marks?

Do you bear the marks of the world?

On your checkbook.

Do you bear the marks of cultural success?

On your schedule.

Do you bear the marks of keeping up with the Jones?

Do you bear the marks of fear?

You're on trial for your Christianity.

Do you bear the marks?

Can you say, like Paul said, my only boast is this one thing.

I got one boast.

Interestingly, I found something, something old that I'd been studying through this week and remembered.

You do, whether you know it or not, bear the marks of the cross on your body, in your physical body, whether you just decide to display it or not.

And I can prove it from this video.

I want you to see that.

I would have liked to have been able to explain this to you myself, but I thought the credit was deserved for the guy who did this video.

So if y'all would show the people here about laminant.

Introduces himself to me, he says, How are you doing?

I just want to say hello.

I said it's nice to meet you.

He says, You guys winding the tour down?

Uh, where are you gonna go from here?

I said, Well, I'm on my way back home to Atlanta, Georgia.

He said, Well, what's next for you?

I said, I'm gonna be preaching the next two Sundays for my pastor back in Atlanta.

He said, Oh, cool, what are you preaching on?

I said, Well, the series is on the glory of God and the human body.

He said, That's really amazing.

I'm a molecular biologist at the university down the road.

Give me your talk.

And I was like, oh wow, I wasn't quite yet ready to unload the talk for a molecular biologist.

So I kind of stumbled through what I had, and he's kind of being kind and gracious and like, uh-huh, that's good.

And then he says, Well, what's your big left hook?

You gotta have a left hook, a big finish, right?

I said, I don't have a left hook yet.

He said, Oh, Louie.

Oh man, your left hook is laminin.

And I'm I'm totally blank on laminant.

He goes, Louis, it's a cell adhesion molecule.

Protein molecule?

Do you know about proteins?

I'm like, no.

He said, Louis, cells organize into certain molecular structures, and that determines what protein there are.

There are between 10 and 60,000 proteins in the human body.

We don't even know how many proteins are in the human body.

But one of them is a cell adhesion molecule.

It's organized into this certain structure, and that tells the cell what its job is in the body.

And this one is a cell adhesion molecule.

I'm like, alright, he said, no, Louis.

It's like the rebar of the human body.

The steel they put in the concrete, when they lay the foundations of things, it's that stuff.

It's it's holding your membranes together.

It's the glue of the human body, Louis.

It's laminate.

You gotta tell them about laminin.

And I'm like, I promise you, I'm going home and tell them about laminan, and I'm sure when I do, revival is gonna sweep across the church and probably around the world when I tell them.

He said, no, no, no, no.

You gotta see laminan.

I'm like, okay.

I see it.

He said, no, no, no.

You need to go look it up online.

You need to go Google laminan.

I don't even know how to spell laminate.

Takes his card out, he writes on the back, L-A-M-I-N-I-N.

Okay, I cannot wait to get to my computer and get on Google, click on images, type in laminate, and I'm waiting, and these little thumbnails come up on the screen, and I'm like.

Wow! That's laminant?

The cell adhesion molecule! Woo! I am so excited! I am beside myself! I cannot believe what I'm seeing! I love laminin! I'm so fired up! You should see laminant, I guess, that's the thing, right?

Okay.

Here is a scientific diagram of the laminate cell adhesion molecule that's holding your body together right now.

Okay, this is what I found right here.

Come on, that's crazy.

I emailed that guy back so fast, I'm like, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, what in the world?

He said, You want to see an actual laminin molecule?

I'm like, oh no, man.

The diagram was cool for me.

I'm happy with that.

Don't don't bother sending anything else.

I'm like, yes! He sends me this image, an electron microscopic image of an actual laminin protein molecule.

It looks just like this.

I'm like, how crazy is that?

That the stuff that holds our bodies together, that's holding the lining of your organs together, holding your skin on, is in the perfect shape of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I want to read this verse to you.

He is the image of the invisible God over all creation.

Listen to me.

Church, this is why you're here and I'm here.

For by him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, thrones, dominions, principalities, all things were created through him and for him.

And he is before all things, and in him all things consist.

He is the head of the body, the church.

This is keeping us all together.

You bear the marks, whether you show it or not, is on you.

It's a choice that you have to make.

And so every time I see this video, I say, it's in us.

I told you to hold on to Isaac.

I said in '92, an 18-year-old boy was upset about the music in his church.

But the year was 1692.

That's when Isaac Watts started writing hymns.

Eventually he wrote over 600 hymns of praise, including Joy to the World.

Before Isaac Watts began to pin these hymns, the only music in church was the singing or chanting of psalms.

They were called Psalters.

Young Isaac introduced a revolutionary but controversial style of writing.

Words that didn't come exactly word for word from the Bible.

For most of his life, his music was considered way too radical to be sung in churches.

It was too radical.

And today we're going to close our service with one of his most loved songs.

It came from our text.

I'm so thankful for Isaac Watts having a vision to be outside of the box of how church was going, to have an idea to look toward the future and say, we can do this to reach people in another generation, another way.

We can live for Jesus outside of the box that's been created before us.

He saw more.

Galatians 6 14 is where the title of this song's come from.

He says, I have only one boast.

The original title of the song was this Crucifixion to the World by the Cross of Christ.

You see, this song was considered too radical in its time.

And today, as we prepare to sing it, for you and me, I want you to bow your heads and close your eyes for a second.

Often, when I go into worship or just in my time of prayer, I will visualize, and I want you to do this if you can.

I'll visualize Jesus there on the cross.

In my quiet worship, I'll picture him lovingly nodding at me.

It's for you.