A Story of Grace Pt 2

responsive reading this morning we are going to be in Psalm 5 Psalm 5 looking at the New American Standard Bible and we're going to be in Psalm 5 Psalm 5 Standard so we sound the same if you need a copy there should be one in a row around you and as you are turning to Psalm 5 if you could stand in the honor of the reading of God's Word I will read the odd verses if you will follow along with Pastor Allen and the even verses Psalm 5 for the choir director for flute accompaniment hey you don't play that do you know that's too bad for flute accompaniment a psalm of David give ear to my words O Lord consider my groaning heed the sound of my voice and the sound of my voice and the sound of my

cry for help my king and my God for to you I pray in the morning O Lord you will hear my voice in the morning I will order my prayer to you and eagerly watch for you are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness no evil dwells with you the boastful shall not stand before your eyes you hate all who do iniquity you destroy those who speak falsehood the Lord abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit the Lord abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit the Lord abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit the Lord abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit the Lord abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit the Lord abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit but as for me by your abundant loving-kindness I will enter your house

at your holy temple I will bow in reverence for you O Lord lead in me your righteousness because of my foes make your way straight before me there is nothing reliable in what they say their inward part is destruction itself their throat is an open grave they flatter with their tongue hold them guilty O God By their own devices, let them fall. In the multitude of their transgressions, thrust them out, for they are rebellious against you. But let all who take refuge in you be glad. Let them ever sing for joy, and may you shelter them, that those who love your name may exult in you.

For it is you who blesses the righteous man, O Lord. You surround him with favor as with a shield. And Father, we do thank you that you do give ear to our words, Lord. You pay attention to all of the things that we say. You even hear the things that we don't say, and you interpret them for us, Lord. And we just praise you for that. And so, Lord, as we spend time in your word this morning, I just ask that you would minister to our hearts by the power of your Holy Spirit.

Lead us and guide us in you, we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. And if you would, open up in your Bibles to the book of Galatians, chapter 2.

Galatians, chapter 2. We're going to be looking at the first 10 verses this morning. And we said that last week we moved into a little series, if you will, because Paul is going to defend the message of grace that he has been preaching. And so he does so by kind of telling his own story of grace. And so we entitled this little series, A Story of Grace. And so last week was part 1, this is part 2.

We said that from about the middle of chapter 1 through the end of chapter 2, there would be four aspects of this story of grace. He would tell us, first of all, about his message. In his message, he said that it was a message that did not come from man. It was a message that came directly from Jesus Christ. We said it wasn't a story about man. It wasn't a story about man being a hero.

It was a story about Jesus setting man free. And then the second thing that we looked at was his testimony, how God had set him free from the law, set him free from bondage, and given him a ministry, given him a mission, and given him a mission to do in preaching the gospel to the Gentiles. That was his testimony. Now, the third thing that we're going to look at in this story of grace is we are going to look at his commission, his being commissioned by the disciples, by the apostles, to go forth and preach the gospel to the Gentiles.

And so within this story of commission, there's going to be three things that we see. We're going to see a trip to Jerusalem. We're going to see a battle over grace. And we're going to see a ministry to the Gentiles. And so we pick up in chapter 2, verse 1, and this is what it says. After an interval of about 14 years, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along also.

It was because of a revelation that I went up, and I submitted to them the gospel which I preach among the Gentiles. But I did so in private to those who were of reputation, for fear that I might be running or had run in vain. But not even Titus, who was with me, though he was a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. But it was because of false brethren, secretly brought in, who had sneaked in to spy out our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus, in order to bring us into bondage.

But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you. But from those who were of high reputation, what they were makes no difference to me. God shows no partiality. Well, those who were of reputation contributed nothing to me. But on the contrary, seeing that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised,

just as Peter had been to the circumcised, for he who effectually worked for Peter in his apostleship to the circumcised, effectually worked for me also to the Gentiles. And recognizing the grace that had been given to me, James and Cephas and John, who were reputed to be pillars, gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, so that we might go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. They only asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was also eager to do. And so this story of Paul's commission begins, first of all, with him telling about a trip that he took to Jerusalem.

It says that 14 years had elapsed, and so the first question you should ask yourself is what has happened in those 14 years? Well, if you remember, we talked a little bit last week about Paul's history. It started off with him coming to know Jesus in Damascus, on his way to Damascus. And while he was on his way, that was when God opened up his eyes to the gospel by blinding him physically.

And when he got there, the scales fell from his eyes and he truly understood the gospel. It was at that point in time that he went off to to Arabia, probably outside of the area of Damascus, a wilderness time for a period of time where he was taught by Jesus exactly what the gospel meant, where God put all of the pieces together of all of the old covenant stuff that he knew and showed how Jesus fulfilled all of the old covenant. And that now, because of what Jesus had done in fulfilling the law, we can now not only be saved by grace, but live our lives according to grace. Well, after he came back, he lived in Damascus for three years where he preached the gospel.

But while he was in Damascus preaching the gospel, he, of course, gained enemies amongst the Jewish people. And so there was a threat against his life. And so he had to flee from Damascus. When he fled from Damascus, he went down to Jerusalem where he was not exactly received with a warm welcome. Because remember, the last time he'd been there, three and a half, maybe four years ago,

he was the one who was breathing out threats against the church. But because of a wonderful man named Boaz, Barnabas, who put his arm around Paul and brought him into the church, the church welcomed him. But in the same way that he was in Damascus, he preached the gospel and he became a little bit of a firebrand. Everywhere that he went, he sort of started things.

Oftentimes churches, oftentimes the message of the gospel, but that usually was accompanied by persecution. So the disciples were like, this is too much of a hotbed for you to be a part of. Why don't you go? And says he went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. And from there, we know that he went to Damascus, he went to Tarsus, his hometown. And was there for a good amount of time.

I've often wondered what he did while he was in Tarsus. We alluded to this a little bit last week. I believe that he actively waited while he was there. One of the things that good Jewish men were supposed to do is not only were they supposed to study the law, but they would also study a trade. So that if they could not make their living as a Pharisee, they could at least make their living as a Jew.

They could make their living in some way. And the trade that Paul had studied was the trade of tent making. I tend to believe that when he showed up in Tarsus, he did the same thing that we'll see him do on all of his missionary journeys. He opened up shop and he started making tents. He provided for his needs. Meanwhile, studying scriptures, pouring into his walk with the Lord.

And undoubtedly, because everywhere he went, he did the same thing, preaching the gospel to anybody that would listen. Well, during the time when he was in Tarsus, God had used Peter to take the gospel, outside of the bounds of Jerusalem, and take it to the Gentiles, specifically to the home of a guy named Cornelius. And God used Peter to extend the gospel past the Jews to the Gentiles. Well, as the gospel was continuing to spread to all of these other areas, including some Gentile areas, a church was begun in a city called Antioch.

And it was begun amongst a bunch of people who were sometimes Gentile people, but also Jewish people who actually followed the Greek culture. Not always ecumenical, but not always accepted by the Jews. And so as the gospel is going to this Gentile influenced area, they sent Barnabas. They, meaning the Jerusalem apostles, sent Barnabas up to check things out.

And when Barnabas got there and saw all of these people that had no idea about the Old Testament, they had no idea about the scriptures, because they had not been brought up in the scriptures, he said, you know who I need? I need Paul. Paul would do a fantastic job of teaching these brand new believers everything that the scripture has to say. And how Jesus has fulfilled all of it.

So Barnabas goes off to Tarsus and he finds Paul. And he brings him to Antioch. And there in Antioch, a wonderful work of God takes place amongst a mix of Hellenistic Jews, as well as Gentiles up there in Antioch. It was a beautiful time where Paul was simply preaching grace to these people. So that's what took place for those 14 years. So after 14 years, as Paul is in Antioch,

God is using him to do this powerful work up there along with Barnabas and others who are Gentiles. God's doing a great work. It says, I went up again, middle of verse 1, to Jerusalem with Barnabas and taking Titus along also. It was because of a revelation that I went up. It was revealed to him that he was supposed to go to Jerusalem. Now, I believe personally the specific revelation

that led him to go back to Jerusalem. And if you want to, in the margin of your Bible, write Acts chapter 11, because I believe that that's what this is referring to. In Acts chapter 11, a prophet named Agabus came from Jerusalem up to Antioch while Paul is there ministering along with Barnabas. And that prophet Agabus was not only working amongst the people, but God gave him a revelation.

He gave him a word of knowledge where he told the people of Antioch that there was a great famine that was going to be coming upon the church in Jerusalem. And Paul decided that what they should do is take up a collection for the church in Jerusalem and carry it down to the church in Jerusalem. And so that's exactly what he did. And he took along with him Barnabas, his coworker in the ministry, but he also took along with him Titus, a young man who would end up becoming a pastor.

But there was something interesting about Titus. He was a Greek. That means he was a Gentile. That means he was not circumcised. Now that meant something at that point in time because the Jews felt like if you were going to be a follower of God, you needed to be circumcised. So this is going to set up a battle, a battle over grace, a battle over the Gentiles,

a battle over what salvation was truly going to be preached as. And so Paul and Barnabas and Titus, they all go down to carry not only an offering, but also to speak with the Jerusalem disciples. So the next thing that we see starting in verse 2 is this battle of grace. It says, I submitted to them the gospel which I preach among the Gentiles. But I did so in private to those who were of reputation

for fear that I might be running or had run in vain. It says, When I was there, I called the disciples aside. Now he means the members of the 12 that are still left because we've lost a couple of them by martyrdom at this point in time. The disciples, the apostles that were still left, he called them aside and said, I want you to know exactly what I'm preaching because I want to know that we're all on the same page with this message of grace because this message that I'm preaching to you is not something I dreamed up in my mind.

It's something that Jesus specifically spoke to me. And I want to make sure that we're on the same page about what I'm telling people, not because I think I'm wrong, but because I want to make sure that we're all on the same page. He says, I did so in private lest I had run in vain. Now does that mean that Paul's afraid that they're going to tell him that the gospel he was preaching is wrong, therefore he'd been doing it wrong this whole time?

No. It means that as Paul was telling them about the gospel he was preaching, he wanted to make sure that the message was in unison all the way across the board so that all of the work that he was doing and all of the work that he had done in the preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles would not be nullified by legalistic teaching. He said, I wanted to present the gospel to them in the way that it was presented to me and the way that I'm presenting it to the Jewish as well as Gentile people so that I would not have wasted my time, so that all of the work that I had done would not be thwarted by legalistic men who were going to preach about law. So he said, I presented this to them in private lest I had run in vain.

And then in verse 3 it says something very interesting. It says, But not even Titus who was with me, though he was a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. Not even Titus was compelled to be circumcised. In other words, this man who had received salvation and it was now being used in the ministry of the gospel, he didn't think he needed to add anything to his salvation by the works of the law.

Now I've been thinking a lot about this this week because we live in a culture that doesn't really understand some of the things that are being spoken of here because it's just not as big of a deal. We live in a little bit of a lawless culture and a culture that doesn't always understand Jewish culture. So I thought, how can I communicate what the main issues were that they were dealing with with this aspect of circumcision? And so as I was thinking about what these two main issues were, this is what I came up with.

Number one, if circumcision was important, if circumcision was necessary, it meant that salvation is just another series of works. It meant that salvation was just another set of works that you had to do constantly. That salvation was just me trying to earn my way to God. It's wonderful that I put my faith in Jesus, but I also need to keep the works of the law.

And brothers and sisters, I need us to all understand something. I can never, I can never earn my way to God. You can never earn your way to God because it's not about being good. I bet there's a lot of good people. I bet there's a lot of good people in this room. But I have news for you. None of you is good enough. And if in order to be accepted by God, I have to now perform works,

it means that that's me trying to earn my way to God. That would nullify the cross. Because remember what Jesus said? Remember what Jesus said in the garden shortly before His crucifixion. He said, Father if there's any other way, if there's any other way, then let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but Your will be done. At that point in time,

if there was a way for us to earn our way to salvation, then God is cruel. Because Jesus was begging in His humanity for there to be any other way, for there to be any other way for man to be saved. And if salvation is nothing but a series of works, then it turns out that God is just cruel and sadistic. But he's neither of those things because there's no other way to salvation other than the blood of Jesus Christ being shed for us.

But not only was it an issue of salvation becoming just a series of works, if circumcision were necessary, then salvation would only be for a select few. Salvation would only be for a select few. I want you to understand something. Those that would become circumcised and become proselytes of the Jewish faith, if you will, they were physically making themselves members of the Jewish nation.

That would mean that the only people that can be saved are the members of the Jewish nation. Only a select group of people could be saved. And brothers and sisters, that flies in the face. Of the gospel. Because in John chapter three, verse 16, it says, for God so loved the world. That word means cosmos. It is literally the world. Everyone in it. And there is no select group of people

that are the ones that can be saved. Meanwhile, the rest of us just have to hope that one of these days we can become a member of that select group. That's what the world tells us. There's brothers and sisters, salvation is for everybody. It's for those who are laying drunk and stoned out in the gutter. It's for those who are caught up in transgender lifestyles

that need to understand the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's for those caught up in homosexual lifestyles that need the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's for those that are living heterosexual, sinful lifestyles that need the grace of God in their lives. It's for the self-righteous who need the grace of God in their lives. It's for the prideful, who need the grace of God in their lives.

It's for those who don't feel like they're good enough because they can never be good enough. And praise God, you realize that now, but the gospel is for you. It's for the rich. It's for the poor. It's for the black. It's for the white. It's for the Asian. It's for the Hispanic. It's for every nation. It's for every tribe. It's for every tongue. It's for every social class.

It's for every gender. It's for everyone. It is not for a select group of people. And I think sometimes as the church, we need to remember that because it is so easy for us to look at people who are lost in their sin and go, but salvation isn't for you. We might not say it with our words, but we do say it with our attitudes. And that's what's at stake with what Paul is talking about here

because he knows the moment that it's Jesus and that it just became salvation for the select few. And the beautiful thing about the gospel is that it's for everyone.

Let all who are weary come and you'll find rest for your soul. He said, not even Titus, who was a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. But, verse four, it was because of the false brethren secretly brought in who had sneaked in to spy out our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus, in order to bring us into bondage. Do you notice that it's interesting the language he uses here.

It was because of false brethren who secretly brought in, who had sneaked in to spy out our liberty. It speaks of the fact that the ones who were trying to push this gospel for the select few, these ones who were trying to push works-based salvation, had done so in a deceptive way. And brothers and sisters, we have to pay attention to that because false doctrine never comes in like a storm slapping you in the face where everybody goes, there it is, that's false. No, it's always sneaky.

It always comes in by stealth. It always comes in by deception. After all, Satan is the father of lies. And that's exactly what happened. But listen, when these deceptive things come in, you can always tell false doctrine because false doctrine doesn't set you free. False doctrine brings you into bondage. That word there literally means to enslave, to put you in chains,

to actually quote the entire definition of the word bondage because that's exactly what it does. And what an unfortunate thing for someone to be set free from the bondage of sin only to put themselves in bondage to the law, only to put themselves in bondage to a series of works. And now, as insecure as you were living in your sin, you're every bit as insecure living in the church. Listen, brothers and sisters, God does not want us to live in insecurity.

God does not want us to live in fear. He does not want us to live in confusion about, oh gosh, am I saved today? That is the bondage of the enemy. That is the bondage of false teaching. That is the bondage of works. He wants you to live in freedom. After all, what did Jesus say? He whom the Son has set free is free indeed.

God wants to lift that burden off of you. As a matter of fact, I would almost venture to say there are people in here this morning who are living in bondage. Maybe not necessarily the bondage of sin, although that potential is always there too. Anytime I talk to a group, of people, some of you may be living in bondage to the law and you still feel like you can't achieve.

You still feel like you can't be accepted by God. You still live with the constant insecurity. Not really being sure if you really belong to Jesus because after all, what if I haven't done enough? What if I'm still not good enough? Listen, I have news for you. You're not and you haven't. All you have to do is put your faith in Jesus. All you have to do is cry out to Jesus.

And the moment that you cry out to Jesus, he comes running and you have everything that you need in him. He says, it was all because there was false brethren who came in to spy out our freedom so that they could bring us into bondage. I love verse five, but we did not yield in subjection to them. We did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour so that the truth of God would remain with you.

So that the truth of the gospel would remain with you. I love this because he says, we didn't yield to them. We didn't give in to them. It's easy, isn't it? It's easy for us to give in to get along. And listen, don't get me wrong. There's sometimes that we need to. There's sometimes where you need to say, you know what, that's my own pet doctrine and I'm okay conceding that.

But then there's things that I would call doctrines you'd die for. And the doctrine, I would call doctrines you'd die for. The doctrine of salvation by grace alone is a doctrine that I would die for. And it's a doctrine that you should die for. It's one I'd go to war about. Because at that point in time, once you start telling me something different other than what the gospel preaches,

at that point in time, you and I have problems. Because especially if I see you preaching that to somebody else and you bringing somebody else into bondage, you and I are gonna have problems. He says, we didn't yield even one hour. And I love this because here is Paul, a leader, a man, a leader within the church and he's got this young pastor with him, this young pastor named Titus.

And it would have been easy for Paul to give in to get along and be like, you know what, just to make sure I don't offend anybody. Titus, why don't you go ahead and do this? But he said, I wouldn't do it. Titus didn't feel like he needed to do it. We didn't feel like he needed to do it. So we did not yield for even one hour. Paul took a stand. And you know what?

I think this speaks something to us as men because I feel like, in our culture today, what being a real man is continues to get put to the test and continues to get absolutely destroyed. And listen, sometimes it's because we've done it to ourselves. Like I always hear this term toxic masculinity, but can we just admit that toxic masculinity is just sin? Right?

Like the things that they talk about, it's like, yeah, that's just sin. Like we shouldn't be domineering males. We shouldn't be men who put other people down. We shouldn't be men who try to assert our dominance over other people. That's called sin. Jesus showed us what it looked like to be a man. And what it looks like to be a man is to be humble, to have the potential for power,

but withhold it because you have self-control, to be full of mercy. He showed us what that looks like, but to stand for truth. And I feel like within this statement, we did not yield and subjection for even one hour. Men, there's two things I want us to understand here, okay? Number one, real men stand on the truth. Real men stand on the truth. We stand on truth and we stand up for what's true.

And right now it's high time that we as men stop being cowards. Right now it's high time that we as men start standing up for what the truth really says. Doing so in love because if we don't do it in love, then we need to keep our mouth shut, but we need to stand up for what the truth of God is. And it's high time that we began doing that because right now we have a culture that is not run by men.

Right now we have a culture that is led by a bunch of people who want to be popular. I don't care what their gender is. They're not acting like men. And I don't care which side of the political aisle they sit on because on both sides of it, we need men to step up who will stand on what the truth of God has to say, who will stand on what the truth of the word says.

And men, it starts with us. We can't complain about the people that are in leadership if I'm not willing to make a stand myself. I can't complain about the people that are leading the church or the people that are leading the nation or the people that are leading the state if I'm not willing to take a stand. I can't make that stand in my home. I can't complain about what other men are doing in my job

if I'm not willing to make that stand myself. Real men stand on the truth. And real men need wives next to them who will support them in standing on the truth. Number two, real men set other people free. Real men set other people free because that's what we do. We set our wives free by loving them. By loving them so that they know that they have our love no matter what.

And all of a sudden, they no longer live in the insecurity about whether or not I love them, whether or not I think that they're beautiful, whether or not I'm gonna stay with them for the rest of my life. I set them free by loving them unconditionally so that they can relax and be themselves. We set our kids free by keeping them from the things of sin in the world today. We set them free from the bondage by making sure we set limits on their devices.

On their TVs, on their tablets, whatever it is. We set them free by teaching them the truth of what God has to say so that they will not find themselves caught up in the bondage of sin. And we set people free by not allowing the sins we struggle with to put other people in bondage to guilt and shame.

Men, real men set other people free and they do it through the truth of the gospel. Amen. Amen. Amen. And that's what we see these guys, Paul and Barnabas do right here. They stood for truth and they set other people free. He says, we did not yield in subjection for even one hour. And why didn't they yield in subjection for even one hour? So that the truth of the gospel would remain.

So that the truth of the gospel would remain because they didn't wanna do anything to affect that truth of the gospel in the lives of people. What a beautiful thing to see men stand up and be men. I've referenced it before. I'm sure I told the story when it happened, but I will always go back to that moment on a Monday night football game. A Monday night football game where DeMar Hamlin

in a completely unexpected event collapses on the ground and nobody knows what to do. And everybody's just waiting to see, not if he's gonna get up and play football again, but if he's gonna live. And as everybody stood there waiting to figure out what was gonna happen, they began carting him off the field after they finally stabilized him. You know what the real story is?

The real story is the NFL told those players, you've got five minutes, get warmed up, get ready to play. But you know what a couple of real men did? A couple of real men who stood on, their love for their players did? They said, no. No, these men can't go out and play right now. Somebody that they care about, one of their colleagues, one of their friends almost died.

And they can't play a game right now because we just realized that football's not just a game that men play. That sometimes real life and death things happen and that it's bigger than a game. And we don't care if we lose our jobs. We don't care if it costs us money. We don't care if it costs us a spot in the playoffs. Because by the way, for the Cincinnati Bengals,

it did cost them their position in the playoffs. We don't care what it costs us. We don't care if we get fined. We care more about these men. We care more about these people that we've been put in charge of than we care about other people's opinions of us. And all I could think was, now that is what it looks like to be a man. He says, we didn't yield in subjection for even an hour

so that the team would be able to play. He says, we didn't yield in subjection for even an hour. He says, we didn't yield in subjection for even an hour. The truth of the gospel would remain. Well, as we move into this last section, we see that he's going to be given a ministry for the Gentiles, or a ministry to the Gentiles. Verse six, it says, but from those who were of high reputation,

what they were makes no difference to me. God shows no partiality. Well, those who were of high reputation contributed nothing to me. I want to park on this phrase for just a minute. This phrase, who they were doesn't mean anything to me because God shows no partiality. Because we live in a world that cares who you are. We live in a world that shows partiality.

We live in a world that cares about status, that cares about position, that cares about titles. And Paul right here just told us something really interesting. He says, what they were makes no difference to me because God shows no partiality. God shows no partiality. And I think a statement needs to be made to the church at this point in time, that we start living above the fray

when it comes to people showing partiality. I had the opportunity to go watch the Jesus Revolution this weekend. Thursday night, man, what a great movie. Man, did I screw up. I didn't bring Kleenex with me and I just blubbered through that thing. Like my daughter, my youngest daughter leans over to me once and she says, daddy, are you just going to keep crying?

I was like, yes.

And then she leaned over and said, the people behind us were more prepared. They brought Kleenex. At one point, I thought she was going to ask them for some for me. But anyway, that's neither here nor there. But I love this story because first of all, it really truly is just, okay, I know some people have asked me what I think about it. I loved the movie. I had originally thought that perhaps

they were going to handle some things in a way that I didn't appreciate. But actually, I think she really appreciated the way that they handled just about everything in the movie. If I would have changed a couple of things, Kay Smith loved the hippies. She was the reason why they showed as much love to them as they did because she would go out and pray every day on the pier for all of these stoned out kids to come to know Jesus.

So whether she was nervous around them or not, I don't know, but she did love them. And I felt like that was one thing that didn't come out in the movie. The other thing I thought they could have brought out just a little bit stronger. Although if you really watch close, you saw it is that, dude, Chuck Smith just loved people. And he loved those kids. He really did have an issue with them in the beginning.

He genuinely, that's a quote from him to say, I think they all need to go get jobs. Like that was how he felt about them in the beginning. But once he got to know that these were kids that just needed Jesus, he truly just loved them with all of his heart. And that love continued to extend, which is why I'm telling you this story. I appreciate Chuck Smith so much.

And I don't have my, what would Chuck do bracelet or anything like that. But I do appreciate who he was. He was as a man of God. So you may have seen that they would always hold up one finger, the one way symbol for Chuck every time he, or Lonnie or him every time he'd come up and talk. Well, that's really what would happen even when I was in Bible college.

When I was in Bible college, before Chuck came and spoke, as he'd come every Friday, before he came and spoke, Brad Lambert got up in front of us all. And he said, listen, Chuck doesn't like to be clapped for. It embarrasses him. He just, he doesn't like it. If we really want to show him how welcome he is and how thankful you are for him to be here, then when he heads up on stage,

everybody just hold a finger into the air because you're pointing to Jesus because that's all he wants to glorify. So every time he'd show up, nobody clapped. We all just pointed straight up. We do that all through Bible college. Okay. So I just, I thought that that was really awesome. And you may have noticed every time he'd get ready to preach, he'd say the word of God.

And he did that every time he'd get up to talk, he'd say the word of God. But the cool thing is, here's this guy who has one of the largest churches in Southern California and now has churches bearing the name of his church all over the world, written all kinds of books, spoken in all kinds of places. And it was nothing on a Friday to see him fumbling around on a skid steer with one of the construction projects that was going on because that was what he did. He just, he worked.

He didn't care what it was. He didn't care anything about it. And everybody, I had friends that ended up going on staff with him at Costa Mesa. And they said, you can't get there before him because he was always the first guy there. And if there was trash, he'd pick it up and they're going, Chuck, you don't need to do that. We've got people to do all that kind of stuff.

And he said, how can I ask other people to do things that I'm not willing to do myself? But what got me the most about him was an instance that took place. It was one of the last semesters, last or second to last semester that I was there. And he was not going to be able to come for a few weeks because of his busy schedule, because he was not going to be able to come for a few weeks.

Because the dude just, he just worked all the time, right? And so as Brad Lambert, he had walked off the stage and Brad Lambert was giving us all the announcements. He says, just so you guys know, this is going to be the last week Chuck's going to be here for about two months because he just, he has a lot of traveling that he's got to do. He's just, he's such a busy guy.

We are so blessed to have him, the amount that we do for him to come. And over off to the side, Chuck yells at the top of his lungs. He says, it's because I love you guys so much. And the whole place just went, oh, here's this. I will say that's the only time we clap for him because we just thought that was the coolest thing we'd ever heard because you knew it was absolutely true.

He'd hang out with us as long as he possibly could to pray with us as, pray with as many of us as he possibly could, what his schedule would allow. And I thought that's a man who doesn't take himself too seriously. That's a man that doesn't care what his position, or his title is. He's just going to love the people that are in front of him. He's a man that doesn't care about partiality.

And he would be utterly embarrassed if he heard me saying all of this because he hated to have anybody say those kinds of things about him. But I thought, what a perfect illustration of what Paul just mentioned here. God shows no partiality. He doesn't care what your position is. He expects you to be a servant and he expects us to be a servant. So, three things I think that we need to learn from this.

Number one, I should never be caught up with my own status. I should never allow myself to be caught up with my own status. And you shouldn't allow yourself to be caught up with your own status. The moment you think something is beneath you is the moment you are not usable by God. And if that ever starts to happen to me, I fully expect my board or anybody sitting in this room

or anybody that's ever heard me talk, if you ever hear me say, that's not really my job, I expect you to confront me about it. Because that means, I all of a sudden have started thinking too much about my own status. But we all need to be that way. We all need to live a life that says, I don't care if I'm the CEO or the janitor, I will love people the same, no matter what.

I will treat people the same, no matter what. I will be a servant, no matter what. Number two, I should not be moved by the status of another. I should not be moved by the status of another. I shouldn't be like, well, you don't understand who they are. I don't care who they are. They put their pants on the same way that I do. And if they don't, they have a bruise on their forehead, right?

We all put them on one leg at a time. And trust me, I've tried. If you don't, it hurts. We're all just people. We should not allow ourselves to be moved by the status of others. Don't change your opinion of truth because somebody that you think is popular has changed their opinion of truth. He says, but from those, those who were of high reputation, what they were makes no difference to me.

God shows no partiality. Well, those who were of reputation, they contributed nothing to me. Let me tell you what he means by that. They didn't change my message. They didn't tell me to add anything to my message. They didn't say, these are the things you need to change about the way that you're preaching the gospel. No, as a matter of fact, on the contrary,

verse seven, seeing that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised, just as Peter had been to the uncircumcised, for he who effectually worked for Peter is the same one who effectually worked for me, recognizing that the grace of God had been given to me. James and Cephas and John, who were reputed to be pillars, gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship that we might go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. He says, listen, they did the most amazing thing. They said, we understand that the same God who entrusted Peter with the gospel to the circumcised, to the Jewish people, he's the same God who has given you the ministry of taking the gospel to the Gentiles.

Now, that doesn't mean it's two different gospels. We need to understand that. He's saying you have two different ministries. I understand that there's now a difference in your ministries. Two different ministries, one message, one God who is empowering the message. You know what the beautiful thing about the spirit of God is, is that he uses us all to do something,

to do something completely different because each of us has a different ministry. I always think about that with all of us as pastors, right? Like all of us as pastors have different ministries. My ministry is to the people of Ark City. I probably won't have success anywhere else, but here in Ark City, God seems to be blessing right now because he's called me to be a minister

here in Ark City. As soon as I try to go somewhere else, it probably won't work unless he calls me there because God calls us each to do something different. I'm called to teach the Bible. I'm called to be a teacher. I'm probably never going to be the guy that starts the revolution. I'm probably never going to be the guy that starts the revival, but maybe I'll teach the guy

who will be that guy that starts the revival because I'm not an evangelist. Greg Laurie, that dude's an evangelist, man. He can be like, you need Jesus. And everybody would be like, okay, I need Jesus, right? I can give a gospel message. One person comes forward. That's wonderful. One soul is amazing. But my job is to equip the saints. His job is to preach the gospel, right?

We all have different ministries. And you, you may not be a pastor, but God's still giving you a ministry. God, the same God who entrusted the gospel to Paul to go and preach to the Gentiles, the same God who entrusted the gospel to Peter to go and preach to the Jews has given the gospel to you to go preach at GE. He's given the gospel to you to go preach in a construction field.

He's given the gospel to you to go preach at Walmart, whatever it is. God has entrusted you with the ministry wherever you are that only you can do. And that's what he does. He says, I was given a ministry to the Gentiles. And he sent him out to do that. And he had great success with the Gentiles. Do you know what the first thing Paul did every town that he went to was?

He would first of all go preach to the Jews. He'd go to the synagogue. You know what they'd do to him every time he'd show up to the synagogue to preach to the Jews? They ran him out. Why? Because he was a God, he was a preacher to the Gentiles. And then he'd get outside of the synagogue and all these people would show up. All these people would come. He couldn't help himself

because he just loved the Jewish people so much. But what he was called to was the Gentiles. Brothers and sisters, God has a ministry for you too. He wants you to fulfill that ministry. Once you realize what that is, you'll stop struggling with the things you're not supposed to do. And you'll start doing the things you are supposed to do. It is so hard as a pastor

to watch people do that. To watch people do things that they are not gifted to do, but they are bound and determined to do. And you do the best you can to support them. Okay, well, yeah, maybe that. Let's just see what God's going to do with it, right? And then it falls apart and you're going, but maybe this other thing that you're gifted for, that you clearly are really good at,

maybe that's what you should do. And then they start doing it. It starts going great. And you're like, praise God, right? So there's that. You're doing the thing that God has called you to do. For Paul, it was a ministry to the Gentiles. And so they said, they gave him the right hand to fellowship. They said, it's the same God. It's the same message. It's different recipients,

but this is what you now need to go do. Preach that gospel message, the message of grace, and preach it to the people that God's called you to. They said, we just want you to do one thing. Could you just remember the poor? Paul said, I was so eager to do that. Now, if you remember all the way back at the beginning of our message, who did we say the poor people were?

It was the church in Jerusalem, right? And so the church in Jerusalem was like, hey, just don't forget about your boys, right? Just remember the poor. He says, hey, that's, it's in my heart to do. It's in my heart to care for those who are in the greatest of need. So they sent him off to do the work of the gospel among the Gentiles. And so we now see this commission of Paul.

He took this trip to Jerusalem. There was a major battle over grace, but God has given him a ministry to the Gentiles. And that ministry to the Gentiles, was to minister that truth of the gospel. And that truth of the gospel that he ministered to the Gentiles is what we celebrate this morning. That truth of the gospel is what we as believers in Jesus Christ get to celebrate

through the story of communion. It's the first Sunday of the month, which means that it is communion Sunday. So what we're about to do here is we're about to partake in this meal, in this, in this, in this celebration. But I want to talk to you about what it looks like to partake in this celebration in a worthy manner. Because as Paul was speaking to the Corinthian church,

he told them, hey, listen, there's some bad things going on there. You all are treating communion, you are treating your love feasts in the wrong way. And so you need to make sure that you do so in a worthy manner, because if you don't, there are consequences that go along with that. And so we should all ask ourselves the question, what's it look like? What's it look like to partake of it in a worthy manner?

Well, first of all, let's understand what it is. There's two different implements in these cups. The top cup has the juice and then the bottom cup has the cracker in it. Now on that last great night of the feast, Jesus took that cup, or excuse me, took the bread and he broke it. He said, this is my body, which is broken for you. Take and eat. So now we look at this little piece of bread,

not because it is the body of Christ, but because it represents the body of Jesus. Jesus Christ, it was broken for us. Fascinatingly enough, the bread that Jesus would have broke was that unleavened matzo bread. And if you know anything about unleavened matzo bread, you know that it is both pierced and striped. Interestingly enough, he took the bread that was pierced and striped

and he broke it just like his body was pierced and striped and broken when that spear went through his side and the blood in the water flowed. He said, this is my body, which is broken. This is broken for you. Take and eat and do this in remembrance of me. And so as we partake of the bread, we are remembering the fact that Jesus's body was broken, that it was pierced and striped for us.

And as Isaiah tells us by his stripes, we are healed. And then he took that cup and he said, this is the cup of the new covenant in my blood. Do this, take and drink and do this in remembrance of me. And so we realize that that cup is representative of, representative of the blood of Jesus Christ, the blood of Jesus Christ that we're told cleanses us from all sin, because though our sins were as scarlet, the blood of Jesus Christ has made them as white as snow.

So every time we do this, Paul tells us we are declaring the death of Jesus. We're declaring to the world that the one place of hope that we have is in Jesus Christ. So we do so with that worthy manner. So now that we understand what it is, what does it mean to do so in a worthy manner? Well, if you're here this morning and you don't know Jesus as your Lord and savior,

this won't mean anything to you. So first you need to make sure that you are a member of the body of Christ, which is as simple as putting your faith in Jesus, understanding your need for a savior and believing that that gospel message is for you to asking Jesus to forgive you of your sins. Then you're a member of the body of Christ and you can truly celebrate with us. But for those of us that are believers, we need to make sure that our hearts are right before the Lord.

And so in just a moment, I'm going to call the worship team to come up to share a last song with us while the ushers hand out the elements. But you need to make sure that as you do so that you ask God to search your heart to see if there's anything wicked in you so that you can confess those sins to the Lord, because the same blood of Jesus Christ that cleansed us from sin continually cleanses us from any of the faults that we have in our lives. So I'm going to ask the worship team to come on up and they're going to share this last song with us. And then the ushers are going to come around and they're going to hand out the elements as you receive your elements, please stand and then we will pray and partake of them together.

The hands have made the stars. I hear the rolling thunder. Thy power throughout earth's display. Sings my soul, my savior God to thee. How great. Thou is my soul, my savior.

Since him, there's can take it out of acclamation and patient and father, we come to you now and Lord, I thank you for your body that was broken for us. Lord for taking the stripes for being pierced Lord for allowing yourself to bear in your own body on the tree, the full punishment for sin. Lord, may we never forget exactly what you did for us and father, I thank you for your blood that was shed for us. Lord, your blood that is enough to cover all of our sins.

The blood of Jesus Christ that gives us hope and that gives us peace. And so Lord, I thank you for your sacrifice and Lord, may we always keep it in mind and may our lives reflect the truth of what you've done in us. Father, we thank you and we praise you. Jesus name. Amen. Let's partake. Would you bow with me once more? Lord, what a blessing it is to know that we have salvation.

Lord, what a blessing it is to know that we have been loved by a God who loved us enough to take on the form of a man, walk among us, live our lives and die our death or so that we could be set free by your grace. And Lord, I thank you for your grace that covers our sins, that teaches us, that guides us, that empowers us to be who you've created for us to be. Lord, may we live in that freedom today. Jesus name.

Amen. Be blessed.