We Want the Real Thing | Todd Jones

Well, what is up church? Hope that you guys are

doing well. I wanna welcome you here today. I

wanna welcome those of you online from wherever

you're watching from. If you're out in Baghdad,

welcome. If you're in Paulden, welcome. If you're

with Cheryl out in Missouri with the watch party

she has going there, welcome, welcome. We're

so glad that you guys are here. Yeah, give it

up for our online fam as well. Those of you in

the building, welcome to you as well. Let me

ask you this. How many of you have ever needed

correcting before? You need some correcting?

Yeah. Okay, if your hand's not up, you're lying

in church right now. I'm just telling you, right?

We all need correcting. Man, I remember when

I first got to this church, the way that it works

when somebody says, hey, we wanna do a memorial

or a wedding at Heights, those requests get distributed

between different pastors. And so we get assigned

these requests. And so I got assigned this request

for a memorial. And I don't know the gentleman

that had passed away. I don't know if he went

to Heights. I don't know if the family. had gone

to heights, but I'd been on a phone call with

the family, knowing a little bit about them,

but not a lot of details. And so I get to the

day of the memorial, and I was doing the memorial

on this exact stage, and I'd read the obituary,

I'd given a message. I got about three fourths

of the way through this and they had this wonderful

slideshow prepared and they were showing this

slideshow of all the pictures of this man's life

and just his accomplishments and the things that

he had done and I kind of stepped off to the

side of the stage to let the slideshow play and

I was in the back and someone came up to the

front of the stage and they kind of motioned

me over and I go over to the stage and I put

my head down and he goes, hey, I just want to

let you know you've been pronouncing his name

wrong the entire time. Listen, we all need correcting,

right? We all need correcting. Most of the New

Testament is letters written by Paul, and the

reason that Paul is writing these letters is

for the purpose of correction a lot of times

when it comes to these churches. Sometimes it's

encouragement, sometimes it's correction, but

the letter to the church in Galatia is a letter

that is in response to some of the things that

they're doing. This church is doing these things

and because they're doing these things, they

got some stuff going on. He wrote this letter

to them and we're gonna look at this letter for

the next 10 weeks. We're gonna walk through every

verse of this letter and we're gonna go through

what Paul said to the church at Galatia and see

what we as a church nowadays here in this culture

can learn from what Paul told them. And I love

this letter because Paul is direct in this letter.

See, I think that how direct you are is correlated

to how bothered you are. I think the more bothered

you are, the more direct you are. You know what

I mean? Parents in here, if your house is getting

messy and you're like kind of a little bothered

at your children, you're like, hey, we should

really pick this stuff up. But then it gets really

messy and you're really bothered by it and you're

like, hey, you pick this up now. You get a little

bit more direct with how bothered you are. And

Paul is writing this letter. And usually if you

know Paul's letters, he starts it with like greetings.

He's like, hey, what's good? How's your mom doing?

How's your friends? Greetings to this person.

And there's some fluff there, but on this one,

he goes straight into it because he's very bothered

by what is going on in this church. And so we

see Galatians chapter one, verse one, Paul says

this, Paul an apostle sent not from men nor by

a man. but by Jesus Christ and God the Father

who raised him from the dead. Paul is starting

his letter to them with the authority with which

he speaks. This is the authority with which I'm

speaking to you. You know why? Because you and

I as human have this thing in us that go, wait,

who are you to tell me what to do? Who the heck

are you? Why am I gonna listen to you? And he's

going, okay, listen, these are not my words.

I'm telling you the authority with which I speak.

In my house, this is how this works. If my daughters

are in a room and one of my daughters goes in

and says, hey, it's time for dinner, let's go

eat. My other daughters are gonna look at her

and go, maybe. But if she goes in and goes, hey,

hey, mom said it's time for dinner. That carries

some weight. That carries some weight. What Paul

is doing is he's writing this letter is he's

saying, hey, this carries some weight. These

are not my words, these are Jesus's words. Listen

to me church, do not follow a pastor that only

wants you to follow his words. Make sure he's

following Jesus' words. Do not follow a church

that wants you to follow anything but Jesus'

words. Okay, we at Heights, we have a thing that

we say this is, we are putting a stake in the

ground for and that is we are for Jesus. That

is going to be our marker. We are going to say

we are for Jesus. And if we drift from that,

that will always be the things that we come back

to. And listen to me, I have been at churches

that have drifted away from having Jesus as the

main thing. And if for you, if you find yourself

in a church like that, that is your cue to leave.

If Jesus is not the main thing, if there's something

else, if there's a different agenda or a different

thing being spoken, they say, hey, follow me.

Instead of follow Jesus, there's a big problem.

And what Paul is saying to them is he's saying,

these words are not mine, these are Jesus's words

to you. Jesus is with the authority with which

I am writing, however, it's not just Jesus behind

me here. In verse two, he says, all the brothers

and sisters with me to the churches in Galatia.

As if the authority from Jesus wasn't enough,

Paul is saying, the homies, they all agree too.

Everyone is with me, man. The homies agree with

me. You guys got some issues and we're writing

this to confront what is going on in the church.

And he says this, verse three, grace and peace

to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus

Christ. Grace and peace. Listen, I don't know

who this is for, but some of you came in today

looking for peace in your life. Your life is

chaos. And you walked into this doors today going,

man, I just need some peace in my life. But you

have not clung to grace yet. And you need to

understand that grace always precedes peace.

Because without grace, it is not possible to

experience true peace. And when you try to find

peace without grace, what you end up doing is

you end up in a cycle. Because it's not possible

without grace. And this is where we get caught

up with trying everything in search of the thing

that's only truly found in one thing. And we'll

go, I'm gonna try this and I'm gonna try that.

And if I just went with this person or if I just

have this drink, I'm gonna have peace for a second.

And we search for everything. And I'm telling

you right now, if you don't find your peace out

of grace, you will always be in search of peace.

because the temporary peace you get will never

stick because grace always precedes peace and

as peace is found through the grace that we have

been given. It says in verse four, it says it

comes through grace and peace from our Lord Jesus

Christ who gave himself for our sins to rescue

us from the present evil age according to the

will of our God and Father to whom be the glory

forever and ever, amen. All right, that's the

thing. If you're in search of the thing, here's

the thing, it's the gospel. It's the good news.

That's what he's telling us right here is the

good news. But sometimes, you and I, sometimes

this church in Galatian, we're like spiritual

dogs and everything around us is a squirrel.

You know what I'm saying? Right, you're like,

I'm following Jesus, squirrel. Oh, this is good,

I'm on the right path, squirrel. All right, and

that's us when it comes to our spiritual life.

Right, when I was growing up, I had this dog,

this dog was named Star. And before you judge

me, I was five years old when I named her, okay?

Chill out, all right? But Star was awesome and

she loved to chase a ball, more than anything

in the whole world, but only if you kicked it.

You couldn't throw it. She would drop it, she'd

like back up and stare at you. And if you like

went to pick it up, she'd like, go grab it. She's

like, nah, it's not how we play this, bro. And

she'd drop it and she'd scoot back and then you

kick it and she would run. She was trained on

this thing and she's like, I'm gonna go get this.

And she would do it for hours and hours and hours.

But sometimes if I kicked the ball and it were

to cross the path of another ball that were sitting

there, or if for somebody else were to throw

a ball that were to cross that same path, man,

she would be determined on one thing, but then

all of a sudden she would abandon course and

go to something completely different. See, sometimes

as believers, what we do is we're following God

and then all of a sudden we start diverting and

we start following something else. Our attention

goes to something else. And the reason Paul is

writing this letter is because the churches in

Galatia were doing exactly that. And he follows

this up by saying this in verse six, I'm astonished.

This is blowing me away. I'm astonished that

you are so quickly deserting the one who called

you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning

to a different gospel. See what is happening

in the church in Galatia is that they had some

false teachers come in. Some people that were

teaching in their church And they're saying that

faith in Jesus was not enough. They had to do

other things. Jesus is great. Yeah, we have faith

in Jesus, but you gotta add something else to

it. Listen to me, church, you need to understand

this equation. Jesus plus nothing equals everything.

Jesus plus nothing equals everything. All right,

and if you get that mixed up and it's Jesus plus

anything else, that's fake news. That's not real.

There's nothing real about that. Jesus plus nothing

equals everything. If it's plus anything else,

that is not the gospel. What he's saying is you

guys gotta understand this. This is not okay

that these teachers are coming in and trying

to add to this. You're believing something else.

You're believing another gospel. Then he says

in verse seven, which really is no gospel at

all. It's not real. Evidently, some people are

throwing you into confusion. and they're trying

to pervert the gospel of Christ. The culture

around these Galatians is influencing them to

believe something other than the real thing.

You know what our culture does? Our culture influences.

Our culture influences. You don't believe me?

How many of you remember Saturday morning cartoons?

Saturday morning cartoons, come on now, right?

Right? Right? The kids nowadays, they don't understand.

They're like, we got Disney Plus. We can watch

it whenever I want. No, no, no. Saturday morning

cartoons, baby. That's when you'd have to get

up, right? You'd get that comfortable spot. You'd

settle and you'd go get your favorite bowl of

sugar and milk. You know what I'm talking about,

right? Right? Unless you were in my house, my

parents lied to me and they told me that granola

was cereal. I was like, that's not cereal. That's

granola. Right? I had to go next door. My grandparents

live next door. They were my dealers. I'd go

over there and get the good stuff. Right? They'd

pour me a nice bowl of Frosted Flakes. I'm like,

now we're talking. Let's go, baby. Right? And

you settle in and you start watching the cartoons

and the cartoons were awesome. They were good.

And then in between the cartoons would come on

these commercials and man, you wanted them. You

remember this, right? You remember this, right?

You remember those, right? Because if pillow

fights aren't good enough, let's fill your hands

with some air and just beat the snot out of each

other. It was awesome. And you're like, man,

I want that. Right? What about these? What about

these? This would come up and you're like, yeah,

baby. I am literally going to walk on the moon.

Like it is going to be incredible. I wanted them

so bad. Some of you had those and you are lucky.

All right, I'm just saying, I'm jealous still.

Man, what about this one? What about this? You

remember that? Skip it, skip it. Come on now,

the song's already playing in your head. You

know what I'm talking about, right? I wanted

one, they were so awesome. All right, then there

were these. You remember these things? Trying

to keep these things alive? You kidding me right

now? All right, some of you that couldn't keep

those alive, you grew up now and you kill every

plant you have too. All right, you were training

for now where you just kill all the plants. You

know what I'm saying? Like these things, if you're

on vacation, you're like, man, you gotta keep

this thing alive for me while you leave. I was

never into this next one, but some of you were.

You remember these? What child in their right

mind would look, that thing will steal your soul.

Like I'm nervous for that girl right now. Like

somebody go save her. Look at that thing. That

thing's creepy. Right? And then this last one,

man, this was all of our retirement plan, if

we're honest. All right, you know what I'm saying?

Like, but only if you didn't remove the tag,

right? Cause if you remove the tag, it was worthless.

Guess what? It's all worthless, right? You know,

it's worthless. But listen, you wanted those

so bad because when the commercial came up, the

culture was saying, you need this. And it would

influence you because what our culture does is

our culture influences us and our culture influences

our view of the gospel as well. We start hearing

things in our culture and it starts influencing

the way that we think about the gospel. We hear

things like this, people are just basically good.

You and I were just basically good. But the Bible

says that you and I are sinners separated from

God forever. It says there's none righteous.

No, not one. It said for all of sin and falling

short of the glory of God. It says that you and

I are broken and apart from God and what it does

is it removes the offense of sin in our life

because what culture starts influencing us and

going, yeah, yeah, you're just basically good.

All right, we hear things like this and it starts

influencing us. We hear things like, you know,

Jesus, man, Jesus was just a good teacher. Jesus

was not just a good teacher. Jesus was the savior

of the world. And when we reduce Jesus to just

being a self -help Jesus instead of the savior

of the world, what we've done is we've diverted

from the gospel because the culture has influenced

our way of thinking. We had this opportunity

in our life to be around people, to be around

a culture, to be around an influence, but it

starts to influence us when we hear things like

this, just be a good person. And the problem

is that when we allow ourselves to just be a

good person, to earn God, instead of being a

good person that flows out of already being purchased

by God, we have a problem. Yes, be a good person.

Don't hear me wrong. You're like, oh, pastor

said I can go be a jerk. I didn't say that. But

when we believe that our works have anything

to do to get to God, we've missed it. We believe

in our culture, the things that we hear, and

we hear things like this. Hey, just live your

truth. Your truth is different than my truth.

It's different than their truth. Just live your

truth. And that's not true because there's only

one truth. That's the definition of truth. There's

only one. Jesus is truth. And we let our culture

start to influence us. And the problem is this.

It comes from allowing a voice other than God

to have a louder voice of influence than God.

And when a voice other than God in our life has

a louder influence on us than God, we find ourselves

in a problem. For some of you. that loudest voice

of influence is your news source of choice. It's

a political talk show of choice. It's the thing

that's always on and you're listening to all

the time and that is the loudest voice in your

life and you have it, but it's speaking truth

to you. And you walk around and you don't know

why, you're always anxious, you're always scared,

you're always dealing with this. Listen, when

was the last time you heard news tell you, hey,

a great, positive, amazing thing tonight at 10

p .m.? Yeah, right? Right? It's like 10 o 'clock

tonight. Listen, we're all burning. The whole

world's dying. And we walk around scared. We

walk around with this anxiety. Well, the loudest

voice that you're hearing is filling your life

with things that are leading you away from God.

For some of you, it's social media. And your

social media, man, is this first thing you go

to. It's the last thing you go to. And you're

always scrolling and you're going through it.

And it's just for entertainment. There's nothing

to it. But man, what are you filling yourself

with? What are you filling yourself with? What

are you comparing yourself to? Because man, every

time we look at that, we go, man, but I wish

I was them. I wish I had that. And did you know

that statistics show that increased social media

use is directly correlated to a higher level

of depression and anxiety, to a higher level

of body image issues, to a higher level of even

self harm and even suicide, are directly correlated

to social media use. All right, for some of you,

the loudest voice in your life is just the music

that you listen to over and over. And you're

like, I don't listen to the words, I just listen

to the beat. That's all it is. Just listen to

the music. But what you're doing is you're allowing

those words to influence you and becoming a voice

of influence in your life. And you start living

in a different way. You start acting in a different

way. You start viewing things in a different

way because of the influence that they have on

you. All right, for a lot of you, the loudest

voice in your life is your friends. All right,

I just got my friends and they gotta talk to

me. I gotta listen to them. Listen, the problem

is that you're taking advice from people that

are dumber than you. You're like, how did I get

in this place? Well, cause you listened to them.

That's how you got there. And when we allow our

friends to be the voice of authority in our life

and we go, okay, yeah, I'm gonna do that. A lot

of times what they're doing is just co -signing

on your bad decisions. But we surround ourselves

with these people and a lot of times they become

the loudest voice in our life. Now check it out,

though. Here's the thing. It doesn't necessarily

mean that we remove those things, but it means

that we have to be anchored through those things.

It doesn't mean we remove it. It means we're

anchored through it. We have to be anchored.

Think about a boat, man. If a boat is drifting—

And a boat is in water. It is in its environment

that is going to shift it. Sometimes if it is

too dangerous, yes, it needs to be removed from

that water. It needs to be taken out. Just like

if those things can become too dangerous in your

life, they need to be removed. But for the most

part, what it needs to happen is it needs to

be anchored so that its environment around it

does not affect it. We cannot remove ourselves

from all environments. And since environments

are influencing us, therefore we need to be anchored

through it so then the environment moves and

it shifts and the culture tries to persuade us.

We say, no, this is my anchor. If you're taking

notes, write this down. We have to be anchored

in our relationship with Jesus. Anchored in your

relationship with Jesus. Because if when the

world starts influencing, and the culture starts

influencing, and you say, okay, yes, I see that,

I feel that, but I'm anchored in a relationship

with Jesus, you're not gonna move. It says in

Romans 12, too, do not be conformed to the pattern

of this world. Do not be influenced by the things

around you, but instead be transformed, how?

By the renewing of your mind. Then you will be

able to test and approve what God's will is,

His good, pleasing, and perfect will. About a

year ago, I realized that my routines were not

allowing me to be anchored in my relationship

with Jesus. And what I mean is that every morning

when I woke up, the very first thing I'm doing

is I'm checking social media. How many notifications

do I have? Do I have any new followers? What

do I gotta check out? What changed in the world

since I left? And that was the first thing I

looked at. And it's not a bad thing, but I realized

that it was the first thing, therefore it was

the loudest voice of influence in my life, and

I just had to switch this to where the first

thing that I do every morning is that I get into

God's word. I'm gonna get to it. Again, I'm not

telling you it's bad. I'm gonna get to the social

media, but it's not the first thing. The first

thing I'm doing is I'm saying this is the most

important voice, and this is what I'm gonna listen

to first. Then I'll get to the other things.

All right, you gotta be in your word. If you

wanna have a relationship with God that's actually

anchoring you, then you gotta have a relationship

that's active, which means you gotta read the

word of God. Which means you got to pray and

talk to God more than just before your meals

or before bed. What if you invited God into every

place of your life and it was a continued conversation

because you say, you're the voice that I care

about most, therefore my relationship with you

matters and it's not just a scheduled conversation,

but it's an invitation to the rest of my life.

We have to be anchored in our relationship with

Jesus. Next is this, we have to be anchored in

community. We need people around us. that are

going to push us towards Jesus. Let me ask you,

what do the voices of your community sound like?

Are they tearing you down and pulling you away

from Jesus? Are they saying, hey, I'm gonna build

you up, I want you to trust Jesus? Or are they

saying, hey, you do you boo, you got this, it's

all about you, I believe in you. That's the worst

advice you can get. Don't believe in you, believe

in Jesus because you're gonna lead yourself to

destruction every time, but Jesus is gonna lead

you to the right place. What if we have a community

around us that says, listen, I love you and I

care about you. That's why I'm not gonna say

just believe in yourself. I'm gonna say, listen,

I'm gonna walk with you as we believe in Jesus

together. That's why we believe in life groups

here. That's why we believe in joining a serve

team so that you can be around other believers

and other Christians that are gonna point you

towards Jesus. They're gonna say, man, I want

you to come alongside of you. I wanna help you.

We have to be anchored in a community that helps

us to not drift. and be influenced by our culture.

Next is this, is we have to be anchored in your

identity. Is your identity in Christ or is your

identity in everything else? Because if your

identity is in what you do, if it's in your job,

if it's in your finances, if it's in your marriage,

if it's in your kids, if it's in anything like

that, what happens is all those things can change,

but Jesus can never. And we have this problem

a lot of times where even those of us who are

Christians or believers, if someone asks you,

hey, who are you? You start by telling them what

you do, not who you are. Who are you? Well, I

do this for a job. That's not who you are. It's

not what you do. You need to realize who you

are and who you are. If you are in Christ, your

identity is in Christ. But if your identity is

in Christ and you say, this is who I am, it first

comes by realizing whose you are. Who you are

comes out of whose you are. And when you know

that you are bought with a price by Jesus, and

you go, listen, I am his, therefore I know my

identity is in him. And when that is your anchor,

when you are anchored in that, man, you are gonna

be influenced by the culture, but it's not gonna

pull you away because you know who you are. And

we have to be anchored in that. Because here's

the thing, the devil, the devil wants to pull

you away and the devil has no new tactics. We

got the end of the story. I'm gonna tell you

right now, guess what? I've read the end of the

book. Jesus wins. He wins. We got the end of

the story. And you know what? The devil does

too. He knows it. And he's got no new tactics.

He knows that Jesus wins. But what if he can

just get you a little bit off course? What if

he can get you just a little bit off course?

I coach baseball and I've done that for many,

many years. And one time, just one time, I lined

a baseball field. And what that means is you

start at home plate and you do a line all the

way to the foul pole on either side. And those

are the lines that determine whether a ball is

foul or fair. And I started off and man, I thought

I was doing a great job, just saying. I thought

I was just crushing it. And I was like one degree

off. And I was like, no, I'm fine, I'm fine.

By the time I got 325 feet away, I'd missed the

foul pole by 15 feet. All right, I'm saying it

was brutal. They had to paint the grass green

over my white line so they could repaint the

white line. See, what happens in our life is

if you're just, if the devil can just get you

one degree off, if the devil can just get you

two degrees off and say, yes, you're following

Jesus, what if I just turn you a little bit?

And what if just these few things are okay? And

what if you could just add a little bit to the

gospel, then by the time you get to the end,

you've missed it completely. And he said, I just

wanna pervert it a little bit. And what he's

doing is this Galatian church, he's got in there

and he started saying, hey, what if I could just

turn you a little bit? 99 % of the time, it is

not a denial. of Jesus is needed for salvation.

It's a denial that he is all that is needed for

salvation. We start adding things to it, just

like this church in Galatia is adding things

to it that are not necessary and going, okay,

listen, it's Jesus plus something else, but Jesus

plus anything equals fake news. That's not real.

Remember my very first youth pastor job, I got

hired my very first full -time job and I went

into the church and. When I got there, they had

five students and within two weeks I made them

all mad and they left. So I went from five students

to zero. It was an incredible ministry model.

It's wonderful. But the reason I made them mad

is that these five students, they really loved

just sitting down and digging deep into the word

of God. And it was amazing that they did that,

but they thought that it was just for them, those

five. And that's it, just to dig deep. And I

said, okay, no, no, no guys, we're gonna be welcoming

to everyone. This isn't just for you, it's for

other people too. We're gonna allow everyone

into this. And they didn't like that. So they

left and a couple of weeks later they said, hey,

can I have a meeting with you? We got some questions

for you. And I said, yeah, sure. So they sat

down with me and they started asking me questions.

They said, hey, listen, we need to know what

translation of the Bible do you use? And I told

them and they said, that's not the right one.

Only this one is the right one. And I was like,

well, I disagree. I can show you manuscript evidence

to why both of them. And they go, no, no, no.

Let me ask you this. When you were baptized,

you were baptized, right? I said, yeah, were

you baptized in the name of Jesus? I said, yeah,

I was baptized in the name of. God, the Son,

and the Holy Spirit. I got all of them, man.

I nailed all of them. Like, well, if you weren't

baptized in the name of Jesus, then it's not

real. It doesn't count. I was like, oh, well,

I disagree again. And they're like, okay, well,

let me ask you this. Are you out doing street

witnessing? Because if you're not out street

witnessing at least once a week, you're ashamed

of the gospel. And I was like, well, I don't

think I'm ashamed of the gospel, actually. I

don't quite think that's true. And they go, hey,

listen, we don't think that you're a Christian.

We don't think that you're gonna go to heaven.

And I said, guys, you missed it. You started

adding things to the gospel. You started taking

things and going, yes, Jesus is good plus this.

Jesus is great plus this. It's not plus anything.

Jesus is all that matters. Jesus is the only

thing that matters. Jesus is what we have to

get back to because the gospel is already perfect.

The gospel is this, is that Jesus came to this

earth for a purpose. You and I have separated

ourself from God because of our sin. and Jesus

came to this earth and lived the perfect life

that you and I cannot live because in order to

satisfy the payment for sin, the payment has

to be perfect. Therefore, it requires a perfect

person and Jesus coming as the perfect person

stood in your place on a cross and he willingly

went to a cross and paid the price that you were

supposed to pay. but he did not stay on the cross.

He went in a tomb and he beat sin and he beat

death by raising from that tomb. And if we put

our faith and our trust in him and say, I trust

what you did for me, that right there is what

it takes for us to have a relationship with God.

That's it. That's the gospel. That's the good

news. We do not have to add anything to that.

And that's good news for us. That's good news

for us. The gospel is already perfect. And what

this church at Galatia is doing here is they're

saying, no, no, no, we gotta add some other things.

And Paul's saying you don't need to add anything.

Don't get distracted by the culture that's trying

to tell you these things. In fact, if anyone

tells you that, don't believe it. He says this

in verse eight. But even if we or an angel from

heaven even should preach a gospel other than

the one we preach to you, let them be under God's

curse. Okay, now this is weird. An angel from

heaven? Why would an angel from heaven preach

something other than God? Why would they try

to add to the gospel? And this might be touchy

for some people, but here's some examples of

that. One of the biggest cults in the United

States was a man who said that the angel Moroni

came to him and told him to write a second testament,

something else to add to the gospel known as

the Book of Mormon. Another example of this is

the religion called Islam, where Muhammad said

that the angel Gabriel came to him and said,

hey, I need you to write the Quran. And you're

gonna write this and this is gonna be a second

part that is added to the gospel. And this is

where this came from. All right, now listen,

I'm not here to ruffle feathers, I'm not here

to get you angry about this, but you need to

understand that there is one way and the one

way is Jesus. And so these are adding to that.

And I'm not saying that we hate Mormons or we

hate people that are Muslim, we don't do that.

Listen, we love them and we want them to know

Jesus more than anything because that is the

way, that is the one way. And even if an angel

from heaven were to come and preach to you, and

you need to understand, if an angel from heaven

says something contrary to what the word of God

says, they're not an angel from heaven. They're

not working for Him if they're saying something

different than Him. And you need to identify

and understand this is it. And what Paul is saying

to this church, he's saying, you guys are being

influenced by something else. And even if an

angel from heaven were to say something else,

you need to understand we do not add to this.

This is it. This is the one. And what he's saying

here is he's saying, hey listen, this is what

matters. Verse nine, as we've already said, so

I'll say it again. He's like, if you didn't get

it the first time, you gotta get this. If anybody

is preaching to you a gospel other than what

you accepted, let them be under God's curse.

See, God creates, but Satan counterfeits. God

creates and he creates beautiful and he creates

perfect and Satan, all he can do is counterfeit

it. I don't know if you noticed this about me.

I hope you have actually, but your boy likes

shoes. I'm just saying. Like I got some fresh

kicks on right now. I know you've noticed that,

I'm just saying. But something that you might

know, or might not know, I'm on a pastor's budget.

And what that means is I gotta save up birthday

money, I gotta save up Christmas money, I gotta

save up all the money to be able to buy these.

A couple years ago that I was in Israel, and

we were on Israel, we were touring Israel, and

it felt like, if I'm honest, it felt like we

were touring all of Israel's bathrooms. All right,

that's pretty much all we did. Like we just kept

stopping. Like people wouldn't have to go, and

then they'd announce, they're like, hey, there's

a restroom coming up, and everyone's like, I

gotta go so bad. It happened every time. But

every time we stopped, I didn't have to go because

I was 30 years younger than most of the people

on the trip. So I'm just kidding, I love you

guys. Okay, that was a joke. But man, we would

stop at these bathrooms and I remember one time

we stopped there and across the way there was

a market. And I went over to this market and

right away I saw this fresh pair of Jordans sitting

there and I was like, man, I want those. All

right, they looked good. And right under it,

the price said $20. And I was like, those look

real good. Those are in a pastor's budget. You

know what I'm saying? Like that's where we're

at. And so they looked good. And I go over until

I picked them up and I actually saw them and

I realized that they were absolutely garbage

quality. They looked good from the outside, but

man, when you saw them, they were garbage quality.

Here's the thing. When we look at the things

that Satan counterfeits, we look at those things

and they're enticing, but they will always let

you down. They will always let you down because

God creates and Satan counterfeits. And a lot

of times we start chasing a counterfeit instead

of realizing that the real thing is only in Jesus.

It's nothing else. It's Jesus alone. Paul finishes

this section by saying this in verse 10. Am I

now trying to win the approval of human beings

or of God? Am I trying to please people if I

were? Still trying to please people, I would

not be a servant of Christ. He said, I'm gonna

shoot you straight with the truth. I'm gonna

give you the truth. I'm gonna give you the real

thing right now. Because I could just cosign

on what you're saying and yeah, you're good with

that. But it's not real. I had a man last night

that came up to me after the service and he was

extremely upset that I would say anything about

the Quran. Extremely upset that it wasn't true,

that I would say that it's not true. And I just

told him, sir, Jesus said, I am the way, the

truth and the life. No one comes to the Father

except through me. And I will stand on that truth.

There is not all different roads that lead to

the top of the mountain. I'm not here to please

people. That should not be our goal to just be

like, no, no, no, we're gonna tiptoe and make

sure we please people. We're gonna love people.

We're gonna care for people. But man, we're gonna

stand on the truth. Just like Paul said to the

Galatians, man, I could just let you keep going,

but I'm not living for you. I'm living for God.

Let me ask you, who? are you living for? Who

are you living for? Because religiosity, doing

all the religious things, you know what that's

for? That's for other people. It's for you to

prove to them how good you are. It's not for

God because he's saying, listen, it's not about

adding anything. It's about Jesus. Who are you

living for? Jesus plus nothing equals everything.

Listen to me, come back to Jesus. Get back to

Jesus, make Him the only thing. Some of you in

here, you've never heard the good news, you've

never heard the gospel. You never accepted the

fact that Jesus died in your place. And today

needs to be the day that you go and, hey, listen,

I understand that it is all about Jesus and I'm

willing to surrender my life to say I give up

and I put my faith and trust in Jesus. Some of

you have done that, you've put your faith and

trust in Jesus, but man, the world, your life,

the culture, the influences, just got you one

degree off. Maybe just one little smidge off.

And we have an opportunity to refocus, to get

back to what matters. When you came in today,

you were given this cup. And what communion is,

is communion is an opportunity. to reflect, to

remember, and to focus on what God has done for

you. But it's also a time for us to reflect on

what place Jesus has in our life. Is he the loudest

voice of influence in your life? Are you allowing

culture to move you off one degree or is Jesus

remaining in the place he needs to be? I want

you to take a few minutes and just reflect. as

Jesus was in the upper room with the disciples

before he went to the cross, before he went to

pay the price for all of humanity. He took some

bread and he broke it and he passed it to his

disciples and he said, hey, this represents my

body that is broken for you. He says, eat this

in remembrance of me. It says that in the same

way, Jesus took the cup and as he passed it around,

he said, this is my blood that is poured out

on your behalf. Drink this in remembrance of

me. God, we come before you with gratitude, with

gratitude that you are the only way, God, that

it does not rest on our shoulders because that

is way too heavy of a burden. We cannot handle

it, Lord, we need you. God, we thank you that

you sent your son, Jesus, for us. God, I pray

that we would live in a way that shines the light

of you, Jesus, that does not place burdens on

ourself or on other people that don't need to

be there, God, that we would eliminate anything

that is plus, that is Jesus plus nothing in our

life, God. God, I pray for each one of us in

here that need to refocus, that need to refocus

on what matters, that need to allow your voice

to be the loudest voice of influence in our life.

I pray for those in here that need to give their

life to you, that need to surrender to you for

the first time. God, we praise you. We thank

you. We're so grateful for you. And we pray all

of this in Jesus' name. Amen.