Freedom (Galatians 5:1-15)

Good morning.

Good morning.

We are going to be in Galatians chapter 5.

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

So please go ahead and turn there.

And we'll read through it.

All right.

If you are able, please stand for the reading of God's Word.

Galatians chapter 5, starting in verse 1.

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

For freedom Christ set us free.

Stand firm then and don't submit again to a yoke of slavery.

Take note, I, Paul, am telling you that if you get yourself circumcised, Christ will not benefit you at all.

Again I testify to every man who gets himself circumcised, he's obligated to do the entire law.

You who are trying to be justified by the law are alienated from Christ.

You have fallen from grace.

For we eagerly await through the Spirit, by faith, the hope of righteousness.

For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision accomplishes anything.

What matters is faith working through love.

You were running well.

Who prevented you from being persuaded regarding the truth?

This persuasion does not come from the one who calls you.

A little leaven leavens the whole batch of dough.

I myself am persuaded in the Lord that you will not accept any other view.

But whoever it is that is confusing you will pay the penalty.

Now, brothers and sisters, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted?

In that case, the cross offense of the cross has been abolished.

I wish those who are disturbing you might also let themselves be mutilated.

For you are called to be free, brothers and sisters, only don't use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love.

For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement: love your neighbor as yourself.

But if you divide that you bite and devour one another, watch out, or you will be consumed by one another.

Lord, I thank you so much for this morning.

I thank you for your word.

And I ask, Lord, that you would fill me with your spirit to teach your word, that you would fill the hearers with your spirit to rightly divide and discern what is of you, that you would be glorified, and ultimately as we study and as we read through your word, that we were to draw closer to you and be more and more conformed to your image.

Be glorified in your name.

Amen.

Alright, go ahead and have a seat.

So we are working our way, verse by verse, chapter by chapter, through the book of Galatians.

And we are hitting this point where normally we do all the longer you go into a book, the more the uh intro grows to try to explain everything that happened so far.

But there's so much of the main themes in this passage that I don't actually really need to do that, which is nice.

But just suffice it to say, Paul is writing to the churches in the region of Galatia.

It's not a city like Rome or Ephesus.

Galatia is an entire region, and he is writing to all of them, the big issue being a desire to add the law, seen in this passage of circumcision, to salvation by faith in Jesus, to have it a both and.

And he is combating that.

The big thread that comes through this whole passage is the concept of freedom.

And we need to be able to understand what on earth that meant for the readers of that day.

Because if you look at human history as a timeline, the US part of that, that little boop that we're in right now, defines freedom in a way that is very, very different from many other ways throughout that human history.

So for right or wrong, good or bad, I'm not gonna I can't go into that or even qualified to do that, but we see freedom and we think self-determination and autonomy.

That we can do whatever we want.

Murka.

And with that, that is not at all what our readers were experiencing.

And I'm not saying right, wrong, good, bad, I'm saying that's what it is.

And so here's a few things to be able to process through in first century Galatia, which is a part of the Roman Empire.

So, number one, clear societal difference between a free person and a slave.

They could tell who that is immediately.

You could see that.

You could see that on the street.

You knew who a slave was and who a free person is.

And a slave is somebody who is bound to serve their master and to do so, um, carte blanche in that sense.

But in order for a slave to become free, a price must be paid and a declaration of freedom given.

Here's a little bit of imagery to further the back story of this.

And we get to have a little bit of Latin.

Because who wants to?

You were like, wait, what kind of church does that just show up at?

We're doing Latin?

But here, you have Menomisio Vindicta.

And if you say it quick enough, it sounds confident, but this is the idea of what a slave would go through in order to become free.

There was a whole ceremony involved in that, to where the slave and the master would come before the city official, and there would be a rod called a vindicta.

It's a stick, okay?

You know what you want?

We have a slag.

We don't have a slag because it's a stick.

And uh he uh takes that, the the city official takes that, places that on the head of the slave, and then the master does the same thing.

The master takes him, uh takes his hand, turns the slave around, and releases him.

And he is now a free man.

Beautiful picturing that.

And the person, and but you also would know who a freed man was in that culture because they tend to shave their head and wear a cool felt hat, and that was the mark of someone who has been freed.

And so, how on earth does someone get freed?

Well, a price had to be paid, and there were two ways for that to happen.

Number one would be through what was called a peculium.

And what that is, is that a slave, if they were found faithful, they would be given charge over something of their masters, whether that's money, property, uh, goods, and so when they do a good job, they earn interest.

That interest can be applied toward the price of freedom to where eventually they earn enough in the peculium to be set free.

You start to connect dots on why on earth I'm telling you this information with that, okay.

The other way would be if somebody else paid that price.

Either way, money's got to exchange hands at that point in time for the slave to become free with the idea of manumissio vindicta.

There were such things as testamentum, which is in somebody's will or through census, but ultimately here a price had to be paid, whether that was by the person earning enough through Peculium to have made enough interest to be worthy of being set free, or for a price to be paid, which is very uncommon, of course.

You don't necessarily have the altruistic benefactor coming in and setting a slave free because they felt like it.

That was a very rare thing.

An important thing to say here, because this will come into play at the end: the freedmen was still in the Roman Empire.

They didn't get to do whatever they wanted to do.

So while they were set free, they still had to follow Roman rule.

So uh everything we know about the Roman Empire, they didn't like it when people made up their own rules.

Didn't go well, crucifixion.

So that's a little bit of history of what somebody in Galatia would know and experience in the Roman Empire, which is cool.

They would have this picture that for somebody to be set free, for freedom to happen, a price would be paid either by that slave's good work and interest paying off that debt, or somebody else paying that price.

Now, jumping into the passage, starting in verse 1, for freedom, Christ set us free.

So who set us free?

Christ.

I love it when Paul just gives us the answer right at the beginning here.

Christ set us free.

So therefore, who paid the price?

Christ did.

He took us, which was we were enslaved to sin.

He paid the price to set us free.

Stand firm then, and don't submit again to a yoke of slavery.

So Paul is telling the Galatians here, Christ set you free.

So stand firm in that freedom and don't submit again to a yoke of slavery.

You can continue.

Take note, I, Paul, I'm telling you that if you get yourself circumcised, Christ will not benefit you at all.

And you'll, in verse 3, you'll be obligated to do the entire law.

So what he's talking about in a yoke of slavery is a return to the law.

And Paul is telling them, stand firm and do not submit to this.

Now it's interesting because sometimes in scripture we tend to get two Paul's, if we don't understand this juxtaposition, because we see throughout this, we have this idea of in Galatians 2, 4 through 5, same book, the matter of circumcision arose because some false brothers infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ in order to enslave us.

But we did not give up and submit to these people for even a moment, so that the truth of the gospel would be preserved in you.

And yet we see in passages like James 3, 13 and 17 and 18, who among you is wise and understanding?

By his good conduct, he should show his works are done in the gentleness that comes from wisdom.

The wisdom above is first pure, peace loving, gentle, compliant, which sometimes is translated as yielding, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering without pretense.

The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who cultivate peace.

So we have this weird juxtaposition to where sometimes throughout scripture we see this idea that wisdom and fruit of the Spirit is gentleness and yielding and working well with that.

We saw when we went through Romans that in a lot of issues he's saying basically to give preference to the weaker brother with the stronger conviction here.

But then here in Galatians in 2, 4 through 5, and here he's saying, we didn't submit to the circumcision, the group, for even a moment.

And here he's saying, don't submit to that.

What's the difference?

This is a salvation issue.

This is a top-tier issue.

This affects salvation by faith in Jesus and their understanding of how they receive that salvation.

The challenge is that, and we'll talk about this when we get to the end, is that we tend to see this and go, I am not going to, I'm going to take a stand and not submit on that tertiary issue that I have elevated to the top.

And that is the problem that we see at the end of this passage.

But ultimately, here he's telling them with the issue of salvation, do not yield to the truth.

What is that truth?

Well, he says here, Christ set us free.

That is the quickest gospel presentation ever.

There's a lot of subtext to that, but Christ set us free.

So he continues.

Take note, I, Paul, I'm telling you, if you get yourself circumcised, Christ will not benefit you at all.

And again, I tell that every man who gets himself circumcised, he is obligated to do the entire law.

Or six, in Christ, he has neither circumcision nor uncircumcision accomplishes anything.

What matters is faith working through love.

So he's saying, take note.

Hey, pay attention.

Take note.

I, Paul, which not only is Paul the apostle, Paul who carries that authority, but Paul the ex-Pharisee, who was the best at keeping the law, carries that double weight.

And he's saying, if you get yourself circumcised, Christ will not benefit you at all.

So is Paul anti-circumcision here?

No.

In fact, we saw in Acts 16, 1 through 3, when he is doing his ministry and preaching the gospel, there was a young man, Timothy, who had a Greek parent and a Jewish parent, and he actually had Timothy circumcised in order to continue that ministry.

So it's not like Paul is anti-circumcision.

But can you imagine if you're Timothy and Paul says, if you get yourself circumcised, Christ will not benefit you at all?

And he's like, What on earth?

Clearly, that's not what he means here.

When he says the circumcision here, it is an idiom for returning to the law as an aspect of earning one's salvation.

This is the difference.

When Paul had Timothy circumcised, it was to prevent there to be a stumbling block for others to hear the gospel, the Jews in that region.

Here, the circumcision is the stumbling block being put before the gospel.

And that's the big difference.

But I, you know, the conversations behind closed doors that Timothy probably had after this was like, really, Paul?

So he is warning here about entering into the law covenant signified by circumcision.

So here's the thing with these passages: there is a lot in here.

We could do an entire 40 minutes on the covenant of circumcision through Abraham.

Later it talks about leaven.

You could do an entire 40 minutes on what that entails.

So we can't do all of that in one time and still make it to the potluck later.

So, with that in mind, uh I would recommend what we've already gone through, especially in Romans as well, but just consider that box checked that yes, I know that that's a big part of this passage.

It's just not the big thrust of what we're talking about right now.

Just suffice it to say, when we're talking about circumcision here, it is an aspect of an adherence to the law as something added to the salvation process.

That makes sense?

Cool.

So he is warning them about entering into the law of covenant signified by circumcision.

Why is this a problem?

Well, he says, every man who gets himself circumcised is obligated to do the entire law.

If you think, if your conviction is you need to do that in order to be saved, then you need to follow the whole law.

What does that mean?

Number one, if you put a stipulation before grace, it nullifies grace.

Grace is a gift.

Salvation is offered through faith in Jesus.

It's a gift from God.

And if you put a stipulation of I have to pay for it first, it's no longer a gift.

It's layaway.

And that's not the same thing.

So here he it ceases to be a gift.

Imagine here, and this is why we had that whole uh entry uh intro at the beginning.

Imagine a freed man where the master paid for them to be set free.

Not only paid for them to set free, but also adopted them, by the way, as a bonus.

And that freed man comes to his master and goes, I would like to draw up a contract, contract to pay for my freedom.

Master would be insulted and would be like, Are you kidding me?

You have freedom.

We've done this.

You had the rod put on you, the hand was released, you are free, but it would be insane for that person to come back and be like, you know, I feel like I really need to pay this off.

So I'm if I can have some work to do and bur earn up that interest and be faithful, then I'll be set free.

That would be insulting and would be ridiculous.

And that is what the Galatians are doing by returning to the law here.

So the problem, too, is you're also setting yourself up to fail because then you're obligated to do the entire law, and we can't.

That's why Jesus did, because we couldn't.

So Jesus was born as a human, fully God, fully man.

How does that work?

I don't know.

Ask Chris next week.

And with that, he lived a sinless life, fulfilling the law, and took a penalty of our sin, which is death, on himself.

He died so that we could have his payment of uh fulfilling the law upon and righteousness imputed to us.

And then he rose again, demonstrating that that was sufficient and indicating the newness of life that he has.

So, you can't do it, and that's why he says look, if you are going to go that down this route of observing the law and Jesus, you are obligated to do the entire law.

And what is the result?

Uh you who are trying to be justified by the law are alienated from Christ and have fallen from grace.

That's intense.

It is an alienation for the master to be told by his free person, I need to pay for this.

It is outside the boundaries of what has been set up.

And as a fall from grace, what does that mean?

Well, I just want to point out that in a little bit he's gonna call them brothers and sisters.

He's talking to believers.

So, but at the same time, if you put a stipulation before grace, it ceases to be grace.

That's the challenge because we also don't want easy believism when we preach the gospel.

We want to say, look, if you pray a prayer or you come forward, then you have it all, you have you've sealed the deal, and so how can I stir you up in order to make sure that you say those words and therefore you've done the spell and it all works correctly?

It doesn't, it doesn't quite work that way, so we want to put stipulations before that to say there is a price to be paid.

But the gospel is as simple as confession and belief in Jesus.

There is no and with that.

As a result of that, he'll continue to conform us to his image, but there's nothing before the gospel.

There's no extra steps there.

And that's what they're trying to do here.

Here's the contrast in verse 5.

We eagerly await through the Spirit, by faith, the hope of righteousness.

He is reframing the contract that was paid by Jesus.

We await, what do they await?

The hope of righteousness, the expectation of that righteousness which was imparted to them by Jesus.

How do they do that?

By faith through the Spirit.

None of this is earning.

None of this is their own ability.

It's an accepting of the gift.

Which you think would be easy, but is hard, and we'll get to that in a moment.

And it continues in verse 6.

For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision accomplishes anything.

What matters is faith working through love.

And that's why it's important to note here that Paul is not suddenly anti-Judaism and anti-the law in that sense as a culture.

He's saying, look, it doesn't matter in the issue of salvation, circumcision, uncircumcision does not matter.

What matters is faith.

And that faith works through love.

Now, why on earth would he add that little bit there?

Faith working through love?

We'll get to that in a moment.

Verse 7.

We get the boots on the ground here.

You were running well.

Who prevented you from being persuaded regarding the truth?

You see this idea of, guys, you were running so well.

You received the gospel, you received it with fervor, you repented, you had a relationship with the Lord, and yet here you're not running well as you were.

And he's saying, Who did this?

So this is going to be a surprise, but please accept this.

A marathon and hurdles are not the same event.

What does that mean?

If somebody's goal is to run with endurance and finish a race, and somebody misinterprets that and starts putting hurdles down in front of them in the raceway, they're gonna have a conversation.

And it will not be pleasant.

But this is a stumbling block that is put forth when they are adding the stipulation into salvation of.

You also need to be circumcised, you also need to follow the law.

Imagine this poor guy who's just trying to make it through the 26.2 or whatever it is.

Miles.

And he is, somebody is sitting there putting hurdles in front of him, and he's like, Are you kidding me?

And that's why we see in Hebrews 12, 1 through 2, this idea of we run with endurance.

We fix our eyes on Jesus, the author, and the finisher of the faith, the beginning and the end.

So it's not necessarily about you need to win the race with your effort and your ability, but you actually just need to actually run the race you were called to and keep your eyes on Jesus.

And then he continues here.

This persuasion does not come from the one who calls you.

He goes as far as to say, those who are telling you you need to have the law and Jesus, that did not come from Jesus.

The one who calls you did not tell you you need to do this.

A little leaven leavens the whole batch of dough.

As I said, we could do an entire 40 minutes on leaven as it pertains to Jewish culture and feasts and parables in the Gospels, but ultimately understand that idea of number one, leaven tends to be a symbolism of sin.

But number two, you have this idea of you put yeast into dough and it permeates the whole thing.

I happen to be married to someone who worked at a bakery for a while.

So I picked up a thing or two, and what I know is that if you have the dough and you put in the yeast, you can't tell the yeast to stay on this side of the dough.

We want the puffy on this side and we want it nice and flat on this side.

The yeast goes like, oh, this is great, and just permeates the whole thing.

And in the same way here, not only do we see that as an image of the teaching that is going through here of them introducing something that seems like a good thing, but is infiltrating everything, but you also see that idea being infiltrating through the whole region of Galatia as well, which is why Paul is writing that letter.

So, leaven, when introduced, yeast, when it is introduced, it is going to spread.

And that's what he is saying: that these people who are troubling them introduced leaven into their unleavened leavenedness.

It's a word, don't look it up.

But here's the cool thing.

Paul does not hear say, I am going to come and I'm going to burn the building down.

He says, I myself am persuaded in the Lord, you will not accept any other view.

Which is cool, because number one, it shows a confidence in the Galatians that they will hear the truth and understand, but a confidence in the work of the Holy Spirit who does this work, that the Lord will convict them on this, which is really, really cool.

He does not enter into the situation to clean house in that sense.

He reminds them of the truth, and he's persuaded, he trusts in the Lord that they will not ultimately accept this or succumb to that.

And he also trusts that whoever is confusing you in verse 10 will pay the penalty.

Dun dun dun.

So we see this whole idea in James 3:1.

James 3:1

Let not many of you become teachers, because you will receive a stricter judgment.

There is a uh accounting for the careless words we say or the false giving that we do.

So this is why you gotta be careful and you've got to be uh humble and submissive to the Lord and to repent when you say something stupid, not like we ever do that here.

So, with that in mind, though, he is saying here the Lord is going to take care of those who are troubling you.

They will pay the penalty.

Verse 11, he continues on, brothers and sisters, again, talking to believers, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted?

In that case, the offensive cross of the cross has been abolished.

Nobody freaks out in the realm of Judaism when they preach the law.

They're like, cool, that's great.

We understand that.

You're speaking our language, we receive that.

It's when they preach the cross that becomes a problem.

Paul experiences this firsthand in his missionary journeys as he's traveling through these places, and everything's fine until they number one speak about Jesus, and number two, speak about Gentiles being saved, and then it's all over.

And so here, he's saying, if I was just going to preach circumcision, I wouldn't have an issue because the offense of the cross has been abolished.

What is the offense of the cross here?

What is so offensive?

Um just keeping it in the context of this little passage, I'm jumping back to verse 5.

The hope of righteousness by faith through the Spirit.

What is so offensive here is that we cannot earn salvation.

We cannot make God happier with us by what we do.

Rather, he already loves us and has offered us that gift, and we need to submit, scary word, to that gift and receive it on his terms.

That is offensive to our own sensibilities.

It is easier to try to follow the law.

It is easier to go, I am basically a good person.

Why is that easier?

Because I can rewrite the narrative there and always come out on top.

Always.

And that's what's so offensive.

It takes uh our ability and strength and power out of the equation.

It also takes away the ability for us to create a hierarchy within ourselves, based on how cool that is, because new creation is a new creation.

So, in that case, the offense of the cross had been abolished in verse 12.

I wish those who are disturbing you might also let themselves be mutilated.

You can connect those tough.

But here's what I'll say.

We're talking about people who want to be super Jews, right?

Super Judaism, super law people.

If they, I will just say this, if they were mutilated, they would be unfit for priestly service.

And they would be also uh, therefore, uh deplatformed, for lack of a better way to say it, to be speaking into the lives of these people.

So there's a little bit of that.

You can say that Paul's being a little spicy, or you could say that he's also saying, I wish that these people just disqualify themselves and demonstrate who they are, or a little bit of both, if you want to have that that way.

So ultimately, there's his statement in that.

Now, verse 13, we get the definition of freedom here, because he's gotten this far and he said, Jesus paid the price.

You can't go back and say, I want to earn the price for my freedom.

It's already been paid, and by doing so, you're only offending the one who paid the price for you and are cheapening the grace which was given to you.

So here's what this freedom looks like.

You were called to be freed, brothers and sisters.

Again, speaking to believers, but don't use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love.

This is why I said that the Roman Empire understanding of freedom is not autonomy and self-determination.

And that's why we kind of have to separate our cultural understanding of this today from their cultural understanding back in the day.

Because for this is a joke, this is a joke, this is a joke.

Okay, big asterisk there.

If I was the manufacturer of orange shoes today, I would ask somebody to enact a law that you could no longer wear orange shoes because I can guarantee that everybody would buy orange shoes and defiantly wear them.

That's the culture we're in.

That is not how we saw things happening in the Roman Empire.

They're still subject to the laws of the land.

And here, the laws are to the Lord to serve one another in their freedom through love, not to abuse one another because they're free to do so.

So it's a duty to serve one another, not a license to benefit oneself.

We see in 1 Peter 2, 16 through 17, Peter says, Submit as free people, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but as God's slaves.

Honor everyone, love the brothers and sisters, fear God, honor the emperor, God save the queen.

So I added that part.

But just seeing if you guys are still awake.

So at that point, he's talking ultimately how they interact in that area.

But it's here he's saying, your freedom is not as a cover-up for vice, but rather to serve one another, to love one another, to do what God has called us to do, to carry on the work of the Father, because he's also adopted us as his children.

So he says, the whole law is fulfilled in one statement: love your neighbor as yourself.

If they really want to follow the law, this is Paul being, you know, playing chess while they're playing checkers here, is okay, you want to follow the law, you want to follow the extent of the law, use your freedom to love one another.

Because that's the extent of the whole law, the fulfillment of that.

And then it's verse 15, but if you bite and devour one another, watch out.

Your version might say, beware, or you will be consumed by one another.

So this is why, I believe, in verse 6, when he said circumcision or uncircumcision account, which is anything, but what matters is faith working through love.

Is that that faith will manifest in loving one another, in giving preference to one another, serving one another as the body.

There's a vertical and a horizontal aspect to that here.

So, why is he telling them not to bite and devour one another?

Because that is the byproduct of self-righteousness.

That's what happens when we attempt to achieve our own righteousness, when we attempt to receive to uh define our own justice, to do things in that way, what we do is we built we build a system with ourselves at the center and our standards, and then we attack everybody else who's not on the hill with us.

And that's the problem here is that when you have a church, multiple churches in Galatia, and you have people who are followers of Jesus, and then you have the yes, I follow Jesus, but I also observed the lot and I am circumcised.

Suddenly there is a less than.

And a you kind of gotta do this in order to be as good as we are.

God loves us a little bit more, loves you a little bit less.

So just to put this in here because it speaks contrary to everything that we hear in our world today.

If we are attacking other people who profess to follow Jesus, that should be a red flag.

It should be a red flag that does not make us more holy.

We live in a world, and it is what it is, right?

We live in a world where whatever we are, we pin on somebody else and then attack them relentlessly for that.

Because what that does is take the spotlight onto that person and go, whatever we are, and whatever we do, we call somebody else, and we say, Look at that, they're that, they're that, we're that, we're holy, they're right, they're wrong.

If everybody, and what we do at that point is we build a castle and we build a moat, and say, everybody who's in here is righteous and is a true follower of Jesus.

And everybody who is outside is probably a heretic, and if they the only way for them to be a true follower of Jesus conveniently is to come inside and join us.

That's what happens when we build our structures of our own righteousness, our own faith in that with the law, whatever that law looks like.

It's amazing how that works.

So, what does this look like?

Big picture.

Freedom has been paid for by whom?

Woo! Good job.

Paid for by Jesus.

Done deal.

Do we accept that gift?

And if we have accepted that gift, what are we lacking as it pertains to being made right with God?

Nothing.

Nothing.

If we have received that gift, Savior and Lord, which means Master, submit ourselves to Him, we lack nothing.

And I know that we're already getting those warning bells of like, but no, you still have to, and this is this, this, this is such.

Sanctification comes after the cross.

This gets to define sanctification.

I don't get to define that, by the way.

So the word of God gets to define that.

But ultimately, what we're talking about here is not putting something before the gospel so that we could, like those slaves earning their freedom, gain interest so that we would be worthy of being set free.

We serve a God who said, You're not worthy of being set free.

I'm going to pay the price through my son and set you free anyway.

Do you agree to those terms?

The result of agreeing to those terms is not resorting to or reverting to trying to earn that again, and is also not using that freedom to create a hierarchy and attack one another, but rather to love one another as scripture defines that.

All big thing without compromising the truth of the gospel.

To stand firm in that what we saw in the very, very first verse, stand firm in that and not move from that and not submit to something that would tell you that you have to do something else beyond Jesus to have salvation.

So, if I can leave you with this, our freedom achieved by Jesus is a hope for righteousness by faith through the Spirit.

It is not earned.

That freedom is not self-determination to abuse one another, but rather to serve one another, to give preference to one another, as defined in Scripture.

And as a result in that, whom the Son has set free is free indeed.

Isn't that beautiful?

So, and that's something that I hope for anybody who hears this who has not agreed to those terms of freedom, that I hope that you hear it's as simple as submission to what he says, to agreeing to his terms, receiving that, and then committing to follow him as his child.

And that involves confession and belief and obedience to what he says.

So, with that in mind, let's pray.

Lord, I thank you so much for today.

I thank you for your word.

I thank you for the salvation you have already offered us.

I thank you that the work was completed on the cross.

And I ask, Lord, that we would continue to submit to that good work, that we would continue to uh lean into you, that we would continue to stay right by your side.

I ask that you would convict us of the things that we do to try to add the Jesus and that we would try to uh the ways that we would try to add other cultural aspects, other good, even good things into this equation to try to be the Jesus plus.

Thank you that if you're in Christ, we're a new creation.

And I ask, Lord, for those anybody who hears this, that your spirit would work on their hearts to want to receive that gift, to want to be set free from the penalty of their sin, to have the newness of life that's found in you, to have the hope of righteousness by faith through your spirit.

Be glorified in your name.

Amen.