Finish By Faith - Justin McTeer

I've forgotten to pray that a few times and regretted it.

So if you've been here, if you've been with us for the last few weeks, we're in a series right now called Jesus Not Religion.

This series is kind of tied to our history as a church because the second banner that we ever put on our building was Jesus Not Religion.

Funny banner story update, by the way.

So we have a sign on our building, and then every once in a while we'll put like a temporary banner just over the top of it.

It's only gonna be up for a little while, like at Christmas time or something like that.

And so the first banner that was ever on our building said party on Sunday.

That was how we started as a church.

This is our 20th year together.

So kind of in that 20-year celebration, we're going back to some basics, some foundational stuff for us.

And we actually got a notice from the city, who, by the way, love the city of Woodstock.

We have great relationships with the city of Woodstock.

The police department, all of that, love them.

This is not a complaint.

So if you're a city of Woodstock official, you're woo-hoo.

All right, we're good.

But we got a we got a notice on our door that our our party on Sunday banner is out of ordinance with the ordinance, the banner ordinances, which I don't know by heart.

Um maybe you do.

I just thought it's really funny that our party on Sunday banner got us in a little bit of trouble again.

I think there's something really awesome about that.

So we put party on Sunday up again, and someone's like, take that down.

Um and we will comply with the law as it stands and figure that out.

But the second banner that was ever on our building said, Jesus, not religion.

And this was not just a clever catchphrase, this was not marketing.

You could actually sum up pretty large sections of the New Testament with that very phrase.

Jesus, not religion.

Jesus did not come to start a new religion, he did not come to provide an update to a previous religion.

Jesus came to change things fundamentally.

And we use the word religion loosely, and it applies to a belief system and a group of people who have a certain view of God and belief in God, and they come together to worship God underneath that umbrella, and if that's that, sure, we're a religion.

But we are fundamentally different than every religion that exists, because truthfully, at our core, we're not one.

Religion is about the things that you have to do to appease the God that you believe in.

And all religions share this in common.

And their gods demand different things, and they have to do those things in the right way, and if they do the things the right way, maybe just maybe that God will go, okay, fine, I'm not angry anymore.

No.

No.

Religion is God is on the mountaintop and you gotta climb it.

Good luck.

Our faith is that our God left the mountaintop and he came and he lived in the valley with us, and he did for us what we could not do for ourselves, and now we have a relationship with him, and he puts us on his back and he takes us up the mountaintop.

That is not a religion.

That is a relationship, that is a dependence, that is something wholly different.

Jesus did not come to start a religion.

And if you could take the book of Galatians, for example, and you could sum it up in one phrase, I think Jesus not religion would be one of the handful of phrases that you could put up on a whiteboard and go, yeah, that that sums it up well.

So what we're doing in this Jesus not religion study is studying the book of Galatians.

We've been going a chapter a week, except for last week, which was kind of a pause, and today we're right back in it.

We're right back in chapter three.

We're gonna go through the totality of chapter three, and as I was reading this to prepare, I was like, ooh, that's a lot of stuff.

How do we wade through this?

Because there's a lot of major theological issues that are foundational for our faith.

Quick side note.

I think one of the biggest and silliest tragedies in sort of modern American church era is this idea that if you're a new believer, you're not gonna be able to understand this stuff.

So we got to sort of just pick out basic concepts and we'll teach those, but we're not gonna really dive into this because I mean you're a new believer.

This was written to new believers.

Everybody at this point in time was a new believer.

And if you're new to your faith, I want you to understand that as a church, we're always gonna do our best to sort of explain things in a way that everyone can grab a hold of, but there is nothing in God's word that is over your head.

Because you were created by God to know him.

You were created by God with the capacity to know him and to know his truth.

And so when we open up scripture, I trust that the Holy Spirit can help each and every one of us at different places get what we need to get out of it.

And there's no need for churches to sort of water this down in order for us to understand it.

That is not needed at all.

This is amazing.

This is awesome.

But but I will say on the front end, there's a lot here.

And so I was I was reminded as I was preparing for this this week of some experiences that I've had in life where I look at something and I'm like, whoa, how do I even make sense of this?

And one popped to my mind, I used to work at Kohl's.

Anyone ever work in like retail clothing?

Any retail clothing, or maybe you currently do?

That's a fun experience.

I worked at Kohl's when I was in high school.

It was after I got fired from Blockbuster and before I got rehired by Blockbusters.

So, you know, in between my blockbusters, I had I had Coles.

And I was responsible for mainly folding pants.

That was my job.

I folded a lot of pants.

And I learned in folding pants, there are three types of people that try on pants at a clothing store.

There's the people who just try it on and throw it on the floor.

And I'm grateful for those people because they prepared me for what it's like to be a parent, because that is exactly what my children do.

So if you're one of those people, keep it up.

Those associates need the training.

Um there's also the people that I guess hated the pants, and so they scrunched the pants up into like a ball to wrinkle the pants so that they're completely unusable.

And if you're one of those people, stop.

Why?

Stop.

Stop doing that.

And then there's the people that actually are the sweetest, I bet there's a lot of us in this room.

You're the sweetest people, but you also create the most unnecessary work.

And those are the people that try to refold the pants, but you can't fold them the way that the store wants them folded because it's always very specific.

And then you actually go back out and put the pants back where they go, but not really folded the right way, which means that then the person has to take all the pants off and then find that pair and refold it again and then put everything back on.

You just created way more work.

Just throw them in the floor like the first group of people.

It's way easier, okay?

One time I I had a nightmare once, actually, true, and I was in high school.

I had a waking nightmare.

I woke up like, oh, I woke up and uh I was I was folding pants and I couldn't keep up with the pace.

That happened to me.

It's not my thing.

All right.

So while I was at Cole's, uh, I actually worked there when the store was opening.

I remember one day I go and I I clock in, I was 17, and they say, Oh, you're gonna help with with uh sorting through the inventory that's arriving.

So I go to this big giant storeroom in the back and I open this door, and it is just piles of boxes, not stacks of boxes, no organization whatsoever, just piles of boxes.

And I remember looking at it wide-eyed, like, what are we gonna do?

And there was this guy next to me, and I don't remember his name, I just remember he was old, which means he's probably younger than I am now.

Um I was 17, he's some 40-year-old.

Uh and he goes, hey man, he could tell I was like shell-shocked.

He goes, Look, you know how we're gonna get through this?

And I was like, how?

He goes, one box at a time.

And it worked.

One box and instead of looking at all the boxes, we looked at one box at a time, and we got through it.

And so as I was preparing for this, I had to have that thought.

And that's how we're gonna attack Galatians chapter three together, one concept at a time.

So, with that said, I'm gonna read it in its totality.

You ready?

Here we go.

And by the way, you guys aren't the Galatians, so don't be offended at the first sentence.

You foolish Galatians! Not you.

Not you guys, you're good.

Who has bewitched you?

Before your very eyes, Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.

I would like to learn just one thing from you.

Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by believing what you heard?

Are you so foolish?

After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?

Have you experienced so much in vain?

If it really was in your believing what you heard.

Oh, sorry, um, if it really was in vain.

So again I ask, does God give you his spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law or by your believing what you heard?

So also Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.

Understand then that those who have who have faith are children of Abraham.

Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith and announce the gospel in advance to Abraham.

All nations will be blessed through you.

So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it's written, cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the law.

Clearly, no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because the righteous will live by faith.

The law is not based on faith.

On the contrary, it says, the person who does these things will live by them.

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.

He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.

Brothers and sisters, let me take an example from everyday life.

Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant, we might say like a will, to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case.

The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed.

Scripture does not say, and to seeds, meaning many people, but and to your seed, meaning one person who is Christ.

What I mean is this the law, introduced 430 years later, talking about after God's promises to Abraham, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise.

For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise.

But God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.

Well, why then was the law given at all?

It was added because of transgressions until the seed to whom the promise referred had come.

The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator.

A mediator, however, implies more than one party, but God is one.

Is the law therefore opposed to the promises of God?

Absolutely not.

For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law.

But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.

Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law.

We might even say religion.

We were held in custody under the law.

Locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed.

So the law was our guardian until Christ came, that we might be justified by faith.

Now that this faith is come, we are no longer under a guardian.

So in Christ Jesus, you are all children of God through faith.

For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

There's neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female.

You are all one in Christ Jesus.

If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise.

Okay.

Awesome.

But like I said, a lot of stuff, right?

It's a lot of boxes.

Some of us are like, what is what is this?

What is that?

And some of you are like, I'm tracking with this, great, that's awesome.

But there's a lot of concepts here, but I want you to know that these are all foundational ideas for us to understand what our faith is really about and what it's not.

And if we don't understand these things, we are easily led astray, distracted.

We can waste a lot of time chasing after things or hearing teachings that are crazy, and but they they penetrate because we don't know the truth.

So we've got to understand this stuff.

So here's what we're gonna do.

We're gonna grab some boxes, so to speak.

And I'm gonna label some of these.

We're gonna look at Galatians 2, or rather 3, verses 2 and 3, one more time.

We read this, but several of these major concepts show up right away.

Here's what it says.

I would like to learn just one thing from you.

Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by believing what you heard?

Are you so foolish after beginning by means of the Spirit?

Are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?

So let's start with our first concept.

Law.

Law.

When you read the New Testament, you will often read this phrase, the law.

It's gonna be brought up a lot.

Paul especially is gonna talk a lot about the law and what the law once was and what the law is now and what the law means.

And when you read this, you have to understand what that word means to the people who it was being written to.

Okay, so sometimes when you read the word the law, it's actually referring to the Bible as the people at that time would have known it.

We would call that the Old Testament.

They didn't call it the Old Testament because it was the new thing to them.

All right, it would have been weird if they called it the Old Testament.

That wouldn't have made any sense.

So they called it sometimes the law and the prophets.

You will sometimes see Jesus use that phrase, the law and the prophets.

When they say the law and the prophets, what they're saying is all of the scriptures that we would consider to be the Old Testament.

That's how they sort of summed that up.

And sometimes that's getting it gets shortened even further to just the law.

So sometimes when you read scripture and it says the law, it means it means the scriptures, the Bible as they knew it, the Old Testament at the time.

But very often it doesn't just mean all of the scriptures, it specifically points to the law that was given to Moses, the rules, and the regulations that the people of Israel were meant to live by.

That becomes the law.

And many people in Jesus' time, in the time of Paul, were obsessed with the law in a very unique way.

In fact, there was a document that was being compiled at this exact same time that this was written during the time of Jesus.

It hadn't been sort of published yet, but it would be, and it's called the Mishnah.

And the Mishnah takes the Jewish laws from the Old Testament, but it adds to them, and it adds to them with this in mind.

How can we be extra careful not to break God's law?

It's like, well, if we don't want to break this core law, let's imagine that this is the law right here and we don't want to break it, let's make some offenses over here so that no one could ever break that law because they'd have to break all these other sort of laws stacked on top of that law first.

And that became the Mishnah.

And it got a little ridiculous.

It may have been well intended, people wanted to make sure that the law was kept, but the result of it was foolishness, and Jesus opposed this a ton.

So, for example, you can read a story of Jesus being chastised by the Pharisees because he didn't follow their hand washing rituals.

They had very specific ways they were supposed to wash their hands.

None of that, by the way, is in the Old Testament.

This was the stuff that was being added to it.

And Jesus looked at that and he's like, nah.

And they're like, you're breaking our laws and traditions.

He's like, this is not this is no.

This is something you guys came up with.

This is silly.

One time Jesus' disciples got in trouble because on the Sabbath they were walking in a grain field and they were hungry, and Jesus gave them permission to go pluck some grain off of the off of the crops that were growing.

I'm talking like just and put it in their mouth and eat.

And the Pharisees said, Your men are harvesting on the Sabbath.

The law forbade harvesting on the Sabbath.

You were supposed to rest on the Sabbath.

So in God's original law, intended to give people a day off to keep employers or or whatever from demanding that you harvest.

He says, No harvesting on the Sabbath.

But they were interpreting that like you can't even grab food on, you can't even walk and just be like, like that was, ooh, you broke God's law.

And Jesus is like, stop.

He had a theological word for that.

It was dumb.

He's like, that is dumb.

He didn't, I'm paraphrasing.

But basically, he's like, you guys don't know what you're talking about.

He even asked them, okay, question.

Was man made for the Sabbath, or was the set was the Sabbath made for man?

What he was saying was, the Sabbath was given to benefit us.

Not the other way around.

And you guys, you've gotten so off track, it's totally fine for someone to grab a crop.

You could pick an apple off of a tree and eat it on the Sabbath.

That's not harvesting.

Come on.

It got so crazy that the Mishnah even had extra things added, like if you were a Jewish midwife, you were not permitted to help bring a non-Jewish person's baby into the world unless they were in danger of death.

The idea was the non-Jewish people worship false gods, and by helping to deliver one into the world, that was contributing to idol worship.

So, in order for us not to worship idols, we can't help birth babies that might one day worship idols.

I mean, we're talking like, come on, guys.

This is what religion becomes.

Like, this is what religion almost always becomes: just a list of silly rules that do not reflect the heart of God whatsoever.

And so when Paul talks about the law, he's not discounting the Old Testament.

He's not saying we don't know.

We look, we spent almost our entire year this year studying the majority of the book of Genesis in the life of Abraham.

Like, he's not saying that the Bible isn't valuable, that the old stuff doesn't matter.

What he's saying is that the law, specifically the rules and regulations that God gave to the people of Israel, they had gotten added to and added to and added to.

But even that core law, it was vital and important, but it served a purpose, and that purpose was not what the people of Jesus' day and Paul's day had in mind.

And we're gonna get to that with our second concept.

This is our second box that we've got to work through, and that is the word flesh.

Flesh.

We've got to be very familiar with this word because it is going to show up a ton in Galatians from here on out.

So Jesus, not religion, would be an appropriate summary of the book of Galatians, but spirit not flesh would also be an appropriate summary.

We're gonna see a lot about spirit not flesh, and we'll get to spirit here in a moment.

But but flesh, it doesn't mean skin, it doesn't mean your physical flesh, it means who you are as a person apart from the redemptive work of Jesus.

Like apart from God.

If God never worked in your life, if he never began to change you from the inside out through the work of his spirit, this is just who we are, how we operate.

It's the flesh.

And look, we're all pretty familiar with the flesh.

We've all seen it.

There's plenty of of that that goes around.

So for example, um, I think there's there's certain jobs that are very familiar with people's flesh.

Like if you're a youth basketball referee, for example, you've seen a lot of flesh in your day.

All right?

That's right, Mike.

And by the way, I will be on my best behavior this season, especially when you're there.

Okay?

Particular, just don't, yeah.

Mike's a uh CYB ref, and I've coached CYB basketball for like eight years, and maybe there have been some incidents.

Maybe, but they they've been fairly minor.

I've never been banned.

I've only gotten two techs, three maybe at the most.

And eight years, that's not bad, Mike.

Blow your whistle, okay?

Um Mike's one of the good ones.

But no, if I dude, you Mike, you have you have had to have seen insane behavior at second grade basketball games.

I'm sorry.

Um but no, like that's look, let's be honest.

Certain things, especially when it's like sports plus your children, bring out a part of you that is not a beautiful part.

That's the flesh.

Sometimes things happen.

I'll tell you another job, and I had this one, that you get to see people's flesh.

Rest in peace blockbuster video.

But uh, but man, be a blockbuster employee circa$19.99 and tell someone they have a$5 late fee, and you learn who they really are.

I'll tell you that right now.

You'll see someone in front of you, they seem nice and caring and kind and compassionate.

You're like, oh, excuse me, sir, before I can rent this to you, uh, you have a$5 late fee because you didn't return the Truman show on time.

And this person, I'm talking rude, belligerent, angry, like they're offended at the idea that they could have ever returned something late.

They're that's impossible.

They would, how dare I accuse them of such vile human behavior?

Okay.

I saw some crazy stuff because the late fees.

I'll never forget this one and we'll move on fast.

But one time, this is a true story.

I was working at Blockbuster, friend working next to me, I can't remember his name, it was a long, long time ago.

Uh, but this he was one of my fellow Blockbuster employees, and just full disclosure, he was an absolute stoner.

And he owned that.

Like he wore hemp necklaces, he was all about it.

He even talked like the most stereotypical stoner voice you can imagine.

I don't think I ever talked to him, not under the influence of something, but that was, you know, and frankly, he didn't have to use his brain that much to work at Blockbuster.

So we were okay.

So one day, there's this lady that's checking out next to me at his register, and she had like a$7 late fee, which in 1999 is a big deal, okay?

And she takes a route I'd never seen someone take.

She didn't demand the manager, she didn't act angry, and she didn't accuse him of lying or accuse our entire corporation of a giant conspiracy, which happened all the time.

Um we were like, what are you gonna do?

Go to Hollywood video?

Come on, pay the late fee.

You know?

We're a blockbuster, we'll be here forever.

Uh no, she goes like full-blown hardcore flirting with this guy.

Hard, like she's trying to seduce her way out of a$7 late fee.

She was laying, I mean, I'm I'm sitting there like I couldn't believe if there had been cameras filming it, I would have believed it.

Like it was crazy.

And I'll never forget his response.

This is what happened.

She's just laying it on thick.

And he goes, ma'am, I know what you're trying to do, and it's not gonna work.

I was like, and then I watched this lady just defeated, just defeated, reach in her wallet and pull out a card, you know?

It was great.

Ma'am, I know what you're trying to do.

Guys, the book of Proverbs, men, would encourage you to memorize that phrase and use it if you ever have to, okay?

Like, just so.

Anyway, yeah, that's the flesh, right?

That's that negative stuff, that that part of us that's manipulative and and out of control and willing to do whatever, really, in order to get what we want or get out of what we don't want.

That's the flesh.

But here's the challenge with flesh.

There's bad flesh.

There's the obvious stuff.

The stuff that I've mentioned.

That we all look at and go, yeah, that is not good, that is bad.

But then there's like there's good flesh.

And this is the stuff that we commend very often.

Because it does lead to good results.

And this is the stuff that we celebrate.

Determination and grit and hard work and competitiveness and intelligence and creativity.

These are good things, but they're still flesh.

And if we live our lives relying on those things, we will be let down.

Even the good flesh will disappoint.

And so, you know, Jesus, for example, once, this is Matthew chapter 26, he's talking to his disciples, he's asked them to pray for him, but they uh they fell asleep.

Matthew 26 · chapter mention

This happens multiple times, and he sums it up in a really simple phrase.

He says, uh, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

When he mentioned their flesh there, he wasn't talking about their horrible behaviors, their their addictions, all those things.

He's just talking about their flesh, their good flesh, their determination, their desire to do the right thing fell short.

Even the good flesh disappoints.

The prophet Jeremiah puts it in even clearer terms.

Jeremiah 17, 5 and 6 says, This is what the Lord says.

Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh, and whose heart turns away from the Lord.

That person will be like a bush in the wastelands.

They will, let me go back.

Oh, this thing jumped.

Come on.

Well, you know, bush in wastelands, bad things.

Oh, there we go.

Sorry.

That person will be like a bush in the wasteland, they will not see prosperity when it comes.

They will dwell in the parched places of the desert in a salt land where no one lives.

My screen literally just said, you know what?

I'm not cooperating, and it jumped all the way to the top.

But you get the picture.

Flesh is bad.

If you rely on the flesh, if you rely on human strength, if you rely on your own intelligence, your own grit, your own determination, your own whatever, if you live according to even the good flesh, you might be successful in this world to a certain degree, but ultimately that flesh will disappoint you.

If you run on flesh, you will run on fumes.

The flesh has a way of flaming out.

It just does.

It just ends.

We all get to the end of ourselves at some point in time.

Many of us have been there, and you're like, I worked as hard as I could, I did everything the right way, I did everything, I pushed, I challenged myself, and I just fell short.

Anyone relate to that?

In other words, anyone ever have a New Year's resolution?

Like, that's why those always fail.

Did you know that 9% of New Year's resolutions are successful?

9%?

Over 60% fail in the first month, and there was a really cool study that came out like a year or two ago.

43% of people who make New Year's resolutions will admit, I don't think I'll make it till February.

We don't even expect to keep them.

Because they're not spirit-born, usually, maybe occasionally, but they're flesh-born.

It's our good flesh going, I want to be better, and I'm gonna join the gym, and I'm gonna read the books, and I'm gonna do the thing, and then January 15th, we go, nah.

You know?

Because the flesh, I just reminded some of you to cancel the gym membership you got in January.

You've been paying for that.

All right?

Cancel that, cancel Hulu.

You don't need Hulu, like cancel half of those things, okay?

No, I'm teasing.

But seriously, that's good flesh.

And even good flesh will disappoint.

You cannot live your life out of the flesh.

Which brings us to our third concept.

Spirit.

Spirit.

Now, when Jesus said to the disciples, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak, it was not a capital S in spirit.

It was a lowercase s, which means for them, like your want to is there.

We might have like school spirit or something like that.

You know, your desire, your enthusiasm is fine, but your flesh is weak.

Couldn't quite get you across the finish line.

But this is a different spirit.

This is spirit with a capital S.

And this is going to be a major theme from here on out.

And so for the rest of Galatians, we will talk a lot about the spirit.

But suffice it to say this.

2 Corinthians 1, 21 and 22.

Now it is God who makes uh who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ.

He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

Romans chapter 8, verses 14 and 16.

Romans 8:14

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.

The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again.

Rather, the spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.

We are now sons and daughters.

And by him we cry, Abba, Father.

The Spirit Himself testifies with our Spirit that we are God's children.

When you give your life to Jesus, he gives you his spirit.

He gives you the Holy Spirit.

And you now have the Spirit of God at work in your life.

And guys, I have to teach this constantly, forever, as a pastor, because if I were to try to teach you that you can live the life God is calling you to live by means of your flesh.

If it's just strategies and ideas and life hacks, I would be setting every single one of us up for failure.

Because you cannot live this life out of the flesh.

You can't do it.

I mean, Paul, he's going to write about this throughout much of the New Testament.

You can't do it.

If the law could produce righteousness, there would have been no need for Jesus to come.

No need.

We might ask that, okay, well, then what was the purpose of the law?

Why did he give the law?

Well, the law was at best flesh management, but it was never the solution for flesh.

It's like in medicine, right?

There's there's treatment and there's cures.

They're different things.

The law might have been a band-aid, a treatment for the flesh, a way to kind of mitigate the most negative aspects of the flesh.

But it can never solve the ultimate problem of the flesh.

That's why in Galatians 3 we read this earlier.

I'm going to use the message version, which is not a direct translation of the Bible, by the way.

If you ever read the message version, I think it's great.

In a lot of ways, it's a paraphrase and it can be really helpful for putting things into words that we sort of understand, but it's not a pure translation, which is why we don't use it all the time.

But I love the message.

So here's what it says.

If such is the case, is the law then anti-promise, a negation of God's will for us?

Not at all.

Its purpose was to make obvious to everyone that we are in ourselves out of right relationship with God.

And therefore to show us the futility of devising some religious system for getting by our own efforts what we can only get by what waiting in faith for God to complete his promise.

So the law was there to show us the futility of trying to earn it.

They all tried really, really hard.

They made extra laws.

Well, man, people aren't following the law.

Let's make another law and another law and another law.

And still we were figuring out how to do that.

The purpose of the law was a temporary guardian.

It was to get us to a certain place to sort of mitigate and control the worst aspects of human nature until the solution, the cure, came.

The Pharisees believed that the law was the solution to the flesh.

The law was never the solution to the flesh.

The solution to the flesh is the Spirit.

It's the Spirit of God.

Active in our lives.

And if you believe in Jesus, you have the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes we struggle to believe that because sometimes we don't feel that.

But you don't feel lots of parts of you.

Right?

How's your gallbladder feel right now?

How's your spleen?

Right?

You don't know?

But it's there.

Doing something.

And I'm gonna be honest, I don't really know what your gallbladder even does.

I know the spleen.

I do know that.

But what what does anyone raise your hand if you know what your gallbladder does?

That's not very many of us, guys.

That is a major organ in your body, and five of us know what it even does.

The American education system has failed all of us tremendously.

Jesus told us really clearly what the Spirit would do.

He said the Spirit would guide us and teach us and remind us of everything that Jesus has taught us.

That the Spirit would give us the words we need in the moments that we're not prepared for and could not be prepared for.

That the Spirit would give us gifts and abilities that are useful for us to be able to serve one another and help one another as a church, as a body.

That the Spirit would be our comforter.

That the Spirit would lead us into all truth.

You have the Holy Spirit inside of you.

You can listen to it, it can grow, you can ignore it, and it maybe its voice can become a little fainter if you do.

But it's there.

I'm telling you, if you put your faith in Jesus Christ, you have the Holy Spirit.

Can you have experiences where your spirit sort of grows in leaps and bounds and moments, and all of a sudden you unlock something in your understanding of the Spirit that you never had before?

Of course.

That can happen in all aspects of life, but you have the Holy Spirit and you need the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit is the only thing that can solve the issue of flesh.

I mean, Jesus put it really simply in John chapter 3.

John 3 · chapter mention

Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the spirit gives birth to spirit.

Now there's other concepts that I could get into, and I'll either attack this in another week, or we might film a follow-up podcast and get into some of the other boxes that we don't have time to get into because there's a few more here.

But I want to finish, and worship team, you can make your way out.

I want us to finish with this concept.

This is something that Paul said all the way back in Galatians chapter 3, verses 2 and 3.

Galatians 3:2

He said, After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?

See, the challenge that Paul had with the people at this church in Galatia is that they had the Spirit.

They had seen the Spirit move, they had seen the Spirit of God do things and start things that didn't make sense.

But at some point, and this happens all the time, they were like, oh, this is awesome, but you know what, God, we're gonna take it from here.

I have seen this happen in people's lives.

I've seen people experience the presence of God and things change, and over time, instead of relying on that spirit and leaning into that spirit, they just start trying to do it of their own strength.

And it always falls short.

It always falls short.

I've seen whole churches do this.

You know what?

I have a concept I feel like God gave me years ago at Whitewater, you know, where you get deep revelation from God.

I was in a wave pool, and I was like, man, this is how there aren't just daily crises at wave pools, I do not understand.

That is a disorganized mess and a horrible idea.

But wave pools are kind of cool.

They simulate the ocean, right?

They simulate the waves, but they're not the ocean.

They're controlled, they're predictable.

And I've seen whole churches experience a move of God that is inexplicable.

Like we had this happen years ago.

Guys, I'm on the clock, it's 1115.

Can I have five minutes?

Is that okay?

All right.

Some of you were like, nah.

But uh it's kind of one of those questions that when you ask on a stage, I'll be honest, if you all said no, I would stop right now.

We good?

I'll take it.

I'll take it.

I heard two no's.

Um overruled.

So I remember years ago, one Sunday, we had 17 people sign up to get baptized, and I had no idea why.

What I said that day was not great.

Wasn't it wasn't, I don't even remember what it was.

I mean, I'm sure it was fine for what we needed that Sunday, but it wasn't like I didn't talk about baptism.

I was like, we have 17 people signed up for baptisms.

And we were like, what do we do?

I guess we gotta baptize them.

And when do we need to do it?

Like now.

So it's the first time we ever we ever had two tanks on the stage to baptize all those people.

And then for like a year, it was like I never experienced anything like it.

We just hundreds and hundreds of baptisms.

And today we have one baptism.

Yeah, no, that's correct.

I know.

Last week we didn't have any.

And I don't I don't know how to end when we don't have a baptism.

Like when there's a baptism, it's the exclamation point, and I'm like, woo! And when there's not a baptism, I go, well, alright.

We're done.

Like that's I don't, I really have not figured out how to end a non-baptism Sunday.

We have baptisms almost every Sunday, but every once in a while there's not one.

And it's interesting, it would be it would be very possible for us to make a wave pool.

What I mean is we could sort of try to create a controlled imitation of the move of the spirit and try to make sure that we have consistent baptisms happening all the time.

Because one time the spirit moved, that's like the ocean, that's the waves.

You don't know when they're gonna come, how they're gonna come.

You can do your best to predict it, but man, the ocean does what the ocean does.

And if you're like a surfer, you just figure out how to ride that wave.

But we have a tendency as people to go, ooh, I love that.

Now let's build a wave pool and let's make it happen.

And let's try to manufacture that.

And I'm gonna be honest, there have been times where I've been tempted to do that.

Because it was really fun when 17 people signed up to get baptized.

Like, let's let's make that happen every week.

You know, let's let's build a wave pool.

Let's finish by means of the flesh.

Let's say, hey God, that was awesome what you did, and now I'm gonna make it happen my own way.

And all of us can do this every day in our lives.

That what God began in you, the work that he began in you by his spirit that you could not have controlled, because flesh gives birth to flesh, but only spirit gives birth to spirit.

That work that he began in you, you can take that and go, cool, God, I got it from here.

I'm gonna make it happen in my own strength.

I'm not gonna rely on you anymore, I'm gonna rely on myself, I'm not gonna listen to you, I'm not gonna seek you, I'm not gonna get on my knees and pray for you to guide me.

I'm just gonna figure it out.

I got this.

And if you do that, Jeremiah 17, you are gonna shrivel up and waste away because the flesh always falls short.

We are meant to finish by faith.

We finish by faith.

If you are here today, I believe it's because God has started something in you.

For some of you, that's now, for some of you, that was years and years ago.

God started something in you, a love of God began to grow inside of you.

Some of you were raised for this, and it happened when you were a child, you don't even remember making a decision, it was just the natural next step.

Some of you were living lives that were so far from God, but something changed, and he began to do something inside of you, and that is why you get up early on a Sunday and you sit in a church and you listen to a guy talk on a microphone and make mostly dumb jokes as he reads scripture.

It's because you have the spirit of God inside of you and you want to be in a place where the spirit moves.

But it's possible for all of us to say, hey, great, I'll just take it from here.

That's a temptation that we have.

That's what's happening in this church.

Paul is going, you started with the spirit, now you're going to to the flesh.

This was kind of the story of ancient Israel.

Read the story of King Hezekiah.

Israel began as a nation by the move of the Spirit.

They didn't have the strength to establish themselves as a nation, but but one day they've they've been established for a while, they've had some troubles, and Hezekiah is the king, and there's an Assyrian king who is very, very powerful, and he's threatening them.

And so Hezekiah has an idea.

He's like, I know what I'll do.

I want to be able to resist him, I'll make an alliance with Egypt.

Which, by the way, was the nation they were enslaved in.

And the prophet Isaiah, in Isaiah chapter 30, he speaks to Hezekiah and he's like, You're so foolish.

Isaiah 30 · chapter mention

You think that by relying on Egypt, you'll be safe instead of relying on the Lord?

And unfortunately for Hezekiah, Egypt does not come to the rescue.

He put his trust in man and it let him down.

Our trust is in the Lord.

Our trust is in the spirit.

The law served a purpose, but the law was never the solution for the flesh.

The only solution for the flesh is the spirit.

And so look, I'll say this really practically.

If you've got flesh issues, which I'm again, we all have flesh issues.

What's the solution?

It's not more rules, it's it's not more laws.

Now, there can be wise things we put in our lives to sort of safeguard some things that we struggle with.

There's wisdom there, that's a form of self-control, which is a fruit of the spirit.

But the answer isn't to starve your flesh, it's to feed your spirit.

It's to grow in the spirit, it's to do whatever you can so that your spirit grows.

And if that's reading God's word, man, of course it is.

Read it, study it, know it.

If that's worshiping God on a daily basis, do it.

Cry out to him, sing, sing to him, spend time with him, pray to him, be around other people who love the Lord and talk about him and talk about your faith and all the ways that he's growing you.

Do not finish in the flesh what started in the spirit.

Finish by faith.

And whatever you're struggling with right now, whatever your issues are, whatever problems you're facing, ultimately the solution to all of it is the spirit of God.

Even death.

Even death.

The scriptures say the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead now lives in you.

There is no problem in this world that the spirit is not the solution to.

And we have to, as believers, grow in the spirit.

Make sense?

Alright, that's a bunch of boxes.

Spirit, flesh, law, all that kind of stuff.

It's kind of a mess, but it's also beautiful and great.

And uh and we'll continue with more of Galatians 3, I think, when we get back together soon.

But we're gonna finish by means of faith.

We take Lord's Supper every Sunday.

And thank you, by the way, I lied to you, it was eight minutes ago that I asked for five minutes.

I'm so sorry.

But we only have one service, and so, you know, it happens.

Alright.

My bad though.

Little piece of bread, cup of juice.

There's another word, another concept, another box in Galatians 3 called promise.

What Paul essentially is helping these people understand is that we are children of a promise.

Abraham was given a promise by God.

The law came 430 years later.

We are not close to God because of the law, because the promise came first.

There's a promise right here.

We are children of a promise.

And that promise is that our God loves us, chooses us, and gives himself for us.

Jesus promised that those who believe in him are in his hands and no one can snatch them from his hand.

In fact, he actually says that we are in his hands and he is in the Father's hands.

And you're going to a church called His hands, so you're in His hands, which is in Jesus' hands, which is in the Father's hands.

That's a lot of hands.

Alright?

We are children of promise.

And it's by faith in Jesus that we receive the promise, not by our ability to follow a list of rules.

It's good to live the right way, but we don't earn this.

It's a gift and a promise.

And so what we're gonna do is take this piece of bread, which represents the body of Jesus that died for us on the cross, and we're gonna pray.

So, Father, thank you for this bread and what it represents.

This is your Son.

Jesus, this is your body.

And Spirit, we wouldn't have you in us, working through us, if not for this.

And so we thank you.

We thank you, God.

Let's take the bread.

And now the juice.

Lord, we thank you for this cup and what it represents.

This is your blood that purifies us, that washes us, that cleanses us.

And we thank you for this.

And we ask, Lord, that as we drink this, we're reminded to always be grateful for you, what you've done for us, and to trust and rely on your spirit in us, not ourselves, but even our good flesh.

And we pray this in your name, Jesus.

Amen.