A Story of Grace Pt 2

And if you would, open up in your Bibles to the book of Galatians, chapter 1. Excuse me, Galatians, chapter 2.

Today, we move into the second part of our series, A Story of Grace. Paul is in the process, in the book of Galatians, of defending his message of grace. And his defense of the message of grace that he's given, we said, would actually take on four parts, because he's actually going to tell his own personal story of God's grace in his life. The four parts that we said that that would take is that it would take on the form of, he would talk to us about his message, his testimony, his commission, and his defense of grace.

Last week, we covered the first two. We talked, first of all, about his message, that his message was not from man, because the gospel is not the story of man trying to reach up to God, nor is it the story of man saving himself. It is rather the story of God reaching down to man. And so, he said, I received it by revelation of Jesus Christ, because it's not man's message, it's God's message.

And then he talked to us about his testimony, how God saved him, how God got a hold of him on the road to Damascus, and delivered him from a life of not only hating Jesus, but also a life of bondage to legalism, and gave him a ministry among the Gentiles. Well, as we move into chapter two, with this second part of a story of grace, we're going to look at his commission as a disciple. And so, let's pick up in chapter two, verse one, and read those first 10 verses. This is what it says.

Then after an interval of 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 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. 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. 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, effectually worked also in me to the Gentiles, in recognizing that 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. Now, as he talks to us about his commission, there's going to be three things that we're going to see. We're going to see a trip to Jerusalem.

We're going to see a battle over grace. And then we're going to see a ministry to the Gentiles. So the first thing that we do is we look at this trip that he took to Jerusalem. He starts off by saying, after a period of time or an interval of 14 years. So hopefully you're asking the same question that I did. What took place in those 14 years? Well, if you remember from our study last week,

we said that Paul on the road to Damascus saw Jesus. Jesus dealt with him and all of the things that he was doing at that point in time. He then went on to Damascus. And while he was at Damascus, he came to a full understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ in his own life. But after his time in Damascus, he left and went into Arabia, as we were told in the book of Galatians,

basically a wilderness area. And while he was in that wilderness area, he was discipled by none other than Jesus Christ himself. He took that time to hear from Jesus all of the things that he needed to know. Undoubtedly, God revealed to him a true understanding of the Old Testament and how Jesus had fulfilled all of those things in the Old Testament. Well, after that, he returned back to Damascus.

And while he was in Damascus, he stayed there for three years. And while he was there for three years, he was preaching the gospel. But while he was there for those three years preaching the gospel, he gained enemies of the gospel. And so while he was there, there was a threat to his life, and he had to flee from Damascus by night. He then went down to Jerusalem.

And while he was there, he was at Jerusalem, again, preaching the gospel. He ended up once again gaining some enemies. And the disciples said, the best thing you can do is not be in Jerusalem right now. Why don't you go back home and see what God has for you in the future? So he said he departed to the areas of Syria and Cilicia. Basically, he went back to his hometown of Tarsus.

And while he was in Tarsus, he waited at least nine years for God to do something in his life. I've often wondered what Paul did in those nine years. But as I've said, as I mentioned last week, I think that those nine years that he spent in Damascus, or those nine years that he spent in Tarsus, he did what I call active waiting. One of the things that every good Jewish male was supposed to have, not only with his background understanding of the law, is that whatever he was going to do, he always had a trade that he would fall back on.

For Paul, the trade that he had that he fell back on was being a tent maker. And everywhere that Paul went, he would set up shop and he would make tents for people. And so I think that while he was in Tarsus, he first of all, established himself as a tent maker. He then studied more of God's word to make sure that he really knew it for himself. And I think he also was preaching the gospel to the people around him.

Well, while he was spending that time in Tarsus, God was still doing a work amongst the apostles. Peter had been used to carry the gospel to the Gentiles, a guy by the name of Cornelius in particular. And after he had carried the gospel to the Gentiles, the gospel is now going out to places it had never gone to before. It extended all the way up to a city called Antioch, and Antioch was a predominantly Gentile area.

And the Jews that were there were known as Hellenistic Jews. While Jews by birth, they lived just like the Gentile people. And so this was a really big stretch for the gospel to go to these Gentile people. Well, the apostles in Jerusalem heard what was going on. And so they sent Barnabas up to see exactly what was taking place in Antioch. And so when Barnabas arrived in Antioch,

there's all these brand new believers who are excited about Jesus, but have no understanding of God's word because they had no background knowledge. And Barnabas thought, you know who I need? I need Paul. Paul would do a fantastic job of teaching these believers the truth of the word of God, giving them a deeper understanding of the word so that they can grow in their faith.

And that's exactly what happened. Paul came to Antioch and started ministering to the Gentiles and the Hellenistic Jews that were there. While in Antioch, things were not going as well in Jerusalem. The church had begun to run out of money. And while he was in Antioch, there was a prophet whose name was Agabus. Agabus came up to Antioch and he prophesied about a coming famine,

a famine that would come on to the region of Judea where Jerusalem was. And so when he prophesied about this, Paul thought, you know what we should do? We should take a collection. We should take up a collection and take it down to the church in Jerusalem and show them that we're not two different churches. We are all one. We are all one church following the same Jesus.

And so Paul says, after an interval of about 14 years, I went down again to Jerusalem and I went down by a revelation of Jesus Christ. I believe that the revelation that he's talking about there in verse 2 is the revelation that was given through Agabus, the prophet, to say, hey, hard times are coming in Jerusalem. They might need some help. And so that's what Paul did.

And so Paul, along with Barnabas and a young man named Titus, who is a Greek. A Gentile and a young pastor all went down to Jerusalem. So that's his trip that he's taking. But while in Jerusalem, there was a little bit of a battle over the grace of God. In verse 2, 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.

So Paul travels down to Jerusalem. With this offering for the church that's there. And while he's there, he says, it says he meets privately with those who are of high reputation. That would be the remaining apostles. Guys like Peter and John and James, the brother of Jesus. He met with them. He says, guys, I want to make sure we're all on the same page here.

I want to make sure we're all on the same page on our understanding of grace, on our understanding of the gospel of grace. And so he talks to them about the gospel that he'd been preaching to the Gentiles. The gospel that he had been preaching to them. And he says, I want to make sure we're all on the same page on our understanding of grace. What he said to them was that man is a sinner and they're in need of a savior.

Jesus came to be that savior. And now in order to access that salvation yourself, all you have to do is put your faith in Jesus Christ. All you have to do is come to him, run to the father. Like we just sang the song, come to him and put your faith in him. And once you do so, you're born again. There's no other work necessary. There's no other thing necessary.

It's just Jesus. And so he says, I presented to them, the gospel that I preached among the Gentiles. Why? So that I had not been running in vain. Now we need to understand something. Paul didn't present the gospel that he'd been preaching to the Gentiles so that he could get the approval of the apostles. He didn't need the approval of the apostles because who was the one that had given him this gospel? It was Jesus. He didn't

need their approval. He wanted to make sure that they were all on the same page so that all of the work that he had been doing would not get undone by someone who was also going to preach a gospel of works. He said, I presented this to them so that I would not have run or had been running in vain. And so that's exactly what Paul does. He presents this gospel to them. But remember there

was a guy with him named Titus. Notice what it says in verse three. It says, but not even Titus who was with me, though he was a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. In other words, Titus in my presentation of the gospel to them and in their talking to us never once felt like he needed to be circumcised. Never once felt like he needed to also start following

the law of Moses. Because again, that's what's at stake in Galatia. That's what's at stake in these churches. Now I've been thinking about this a lot this week because in the culture that we live in today, we don't fully understand the Jewish culture of that point in time. And so we may not fully grasp the Jewish culture of that point in time. But we may not fully grasp the

why it's such a big deal that he fights this battle over circumcision, why he fights this battle over this act. And so I thought, what are the main issues at stake here? Why did Paul take this so seriously? And why does this apply to us today? Well, he did. There's two things, two issues with this right of circumcision that if this had been added to, if the law of Moses had

been added to the gospel of Jesus Christ, these are the issues that we would now face. Number one, it would mean that salvation is just another series of works. You see, Paul knew that once you add the law of Moses, once you add a legal act to your salvation and say that you need to put your faith in Jesus Christ, but you also need to do this, it has just turned the message of salvation into just another series of works. And you know what the problem with another series of works is? You go from bondage

to one thing to bondage to another. And you know what the problem with another series of works is? You go from bondage to another thing. You go from living in insecurity in the world to now living in insecurity in the church. Because here's the problem with works. I can never do enough of them. They will never be sufficient and I will never be good enough. You see, the problem is

not being good. As a matter of fact, I would venture to say that of the people that are sitting here this morning, a very large number of you, I would probably consider good people. I would consider you to be good human beings. That's because I don't know you very well. But I would consider you to be pretty good people. But the problem is not being good. The problem is being

good enough. And we can never be good enough. Because in a series of works, there will always be something that you haven't done enough. There will always be that feeling on the inside of you of what if I haven't done enough? What if I'm still not good enough? What if I'm still not strong enough? What if I'm still not smart enough? What if I haven't done enough to be

accepted by God? And the problem is, in a series of works, you haven't. If the gospel is nothing but works, you'll never be able to do enough. You will always live in that insecurity. And if Paul could concede that, yes, it's okay, we can add this one work to salvation, we can give in to get along, then salvation would no longer be by grace. It would be by works.

But, you know, there's a second issue at stake here. I hadn't thought about this until this time around. But there's a second issue at stake. The second issue is this. It would mean that salvation is just for a select few. You see, the rite of circumcision was not just a physical act done to the body. It was actually making yourself a part of the Jewish culture. That would mean that the only people that are

qualified for salvation are those who are Jewish. It would mean that salvation is for one group of people and one group of people only. And brothers and sisters, that is the very opposite of the heart of the gospel. As a matter of fact, what did Jesus say in John chapter 3, verse 16? For God so loved the world that whoever would believe in him would not perish but have everlasting life. And we need to understand this

as a church today that the gospel is not for a select group of people. The gospel is for everyone. Listen, the gospel doesn't have limits on who's going to be saved. It doesn't have limits on who's going to be saved. It doesn't have limits on who can come to Jesus. The gospel says everyone needs to come to Jesus. We need to understand that the gospel is for white people and the gospel is for

black people. The gospel is for Asian people. The gospel for Hispanic people. The gospel is for every tribe, nation, and tongue throughout the entire world. The gospel is for the straight man. The gospel is for the gay man. The gospel is for the one who thinks there's only two genders. The gospel is for the people that are transgender. The gospel is for everyone. The gospel is for

rich people. The gospel is for poor people. The gospel is for Republicans. The gospel is for gospel is for Democrats. The gospel is for everyone. Now, what we have to understand is the gospel may not leave you in the position that you're in right now because the gospel changes lives, but the gospel is for everyone. And the minute that we start thinking the gospel is only

for a select group of people, we have destroyed the message of the gospel because Jesus said, everyone who is weary, let him come unto me. Everyone who is thirsty, let him come unto me. And we live in a world full of very thirsty, very hungry, very weary people right now. And they all think that the gospel is only for the good people. It's only for the white people.

It's only for the Asian people. It's only for this color of people. It's only for the church people. And the gospel is for everyone because in Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free. And brothers and sisters, this is something we have to continue to take on as the church is we need to make sure we have the distinct understanding that the gospel is for everyone. It's for the drug addict laying in the gutter and it's for the

businessman who just lost his job. It's for the alcoholic that can't seem to get away from the liquor store. And it's for the self-righteous man who thinks he's got everything all together. The gospel is for everyone. And that's the beautiful thing about it is that we can all just come to Jesus. And when we come to Jesus, the beautiful thing is he doesn't leave us as we are. And he doesn't turn you into who I think you should be.

He makes you who he wants you to be. Yeah. Titus didn't yield to it. Why? Because the gospel salvation is not a series of works and salvation is not for a select group of people. It's for everyone. He says, but even Titus who was with me was not compelled to be circumcised, but notice what he says next verse four, 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 in to bondage. Did you take note of the words that were used to describe these brethren that came in? They were false brethren. They sneaked in. It was to spy out. It's because there was great deception involved. We need to understand that this gospel of works that these men were trying to spread in the church at that

point in time, it was a false doctrine. It was a false doctrine. It was a false doctrine. It was a false gospel. And what we need to understand is we have to have our eyes wide open because Satan does not come in full force and full blast and say, here I am. I'm evil. No, he comes in in a deceptive way. Why? Because he is the father of lies and all of those that follow him, all of

those that preach false doctrine are going to come in in a very deceptive sort of way. It will sound really, really good, except there will always be that one thing that's off. And he said, these false brethren, they came in in a very deceptive sort of way. And he said, these false brethren, they came in in a very deceptive sort of way. Deceptively spreading their false teaching. But do

you notice the point of the spreading of their false teaching? Because it's the point of everyone who preaches any other gospel other than what it says right here in scripture. It was to bring you into bondage, literally to enslave you. The full definition is to enslave or to put into chains. That's the idea of what false doctrine does to us. And what an unfortunate thing to think that

we would be set free from the bondage of the gospel. And so we need to understand that. Simply to be put into the bondage of legalism. Set free from the bondage of your addictions just to be in bondage to the law. And brothers and sisters, I'm well aware of the fact that every group of people that I talk to, there's probably two different people that are here,

more than that, but these two for sure. Some of you here this morning are probably in bondage to legalism. Matter of fact, you live your life never being fully sure if you've done enough for God to hear you. Never feeling like you've actually done enough to truly be accepted by God because you've created a law in your mind. You've created rules in your mind that you have to follow. And you can't follow

any of those rules. As a matter of fact, you can't keep any of those laws. And you live your life in bondage to the fear that God can never love you or accept you because you'll never be enough. Listen, I've got news for you. You'll never be enough. That's not why God accepts you. He accepts you based on what Jesus said. He accepts you because what you can't do, Jesus already did. And he does not want you to live in

bondage to that any longer. He doesn't want you to live in the bondage of whether or not you're a good enough mother. He doesn't want you to live in the bondage of whether or not you're a good enough father. He doesn't want you to live in the bondage of whether or not you've truly let go of all of those sins of the past. He doesn't want you to live in that bondage. He wants you to live in

freedom. You know, there's a second group of people here this morning. Some of y'all are in bondage to sin still. You came to Jesus as your Lord and Savior, but you have allowed your flesh to deceive you and tell you that you can follow Jesus and still live in bondage to that sin. You can still live in bondage to that addiction. You can still live in bondage to that thing. After all, it's not that

big of a deal. And Jesus wants you to know, he whom the son has set free is free indeed. Stop listening to the deception of the flesh. Stop listening to the deception of the world and live in freedom because Jesus has set you free from that bondage. These secret brethren that had come in, they came in to bring people back into bondage to the law, back into bondage to the sin. Then notice what he says in this battle of grace in verse five, he says,

but we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you. He says, we did not. Give in. This is one of those things that it would be easy for someone to give in to get along, right? Like that's kind of what our culture does, right? We're kind of, well, we can give a little bit on that. After all, it'll help us all to get along. And this would have been easy for Paul at

this point in time to say, you know what? It's really not that big of a deal. If we add a little bit of legalism to salvation, if we, if we add some works to salvation, maybe it'll just make everybody happy if we just give in to get along. But that wasn't the kind of guy Paul was because that's not what the gospel is. And that's not who Jesus is. Jesus doesn't say, well, I'll just give in to get along. No, he stands on truth. And Paul stood up

as a leader of the church, as a leader of a young pastor, as a leader of a movement and said, I will not give in to false teaching. I will stand strong on the truth. And man, I want to talk specifically to you here for just a minute. Okay. There's a lot of talk right now about what it really means to be a man in our society. There's a phrase that gets thrown out there right now. And lots of us as men get accused of it.

It's called toxic masculinity. I hate that term. You know why I hate that term? Because it's a term that we use instead of the word sin. Because what people are talking about when they talk about toxic masculinity is sin. We as men are not intended to be a bunch of Neanderthals that domineer our authority over people, hoping that we can only drink some beer and have some sex. That's not

who we're supposed to be as men, but that's what the world is calling toxic masculinity. I just call it what the Bible calls it. It's called sin. But there is an aspect of us truly being men. And fellas, again, I'm speaking to you here. It's time for us to be men like Paul's being a man right now. So what does it look like to be a man? I think it means two things. Number

one, real men take a stand on truth. And it is high time in our society that men quit being cowards and stand up on what's true. And listen, I can tell you all the things in the world right now about our leadership in our country right now and how milquetoast it is and how nobody's making a stand. I don't care which side of the pole you're on. I don't care which side of the pole you're

on. There's not many people out there taking a stand right now on what's really true where they're really willing to say, I don't care what you think about me. I don't care if I get reelected. I don't care if any of those things happen. This is what's true. And I'm going to stand on it. And we need men that are going to do that right now. And listen, if we can't find them

in the church that I've got news for you, we're not going to find them because the only source for truth is found in the word of God that hopefully churches are going to be preaching. And we as men need to stand up and stand on what the truth of God has to say. And listen, we can complain about leadership all we want to, but what are you doing in your home? We can complain about leadership all we want to you want to, but what are you doing in your workplace? We can complain about leadership all we want to,

but what are you doing in your life? Because it's really easy to talk about how nobody else in the world is being a leader. Meanwhile, I'm just being a follower, sitting back, hoping that nobody notices the stand I'm taking on truth, because after all, I wouldn't want to get canceled. But we need men who will stand up and stand on what is absolutely true. And ladies, these men need women who will

stand beside them and support them in their stand for truth. Because it takes every aspect of our lives to make this stand. Number two, real men set other people free. Real men set other people free. It's what we do in our lives. Men right now, your wife lives in bondage to something. You don't know this, but she lives in bondage oftentimes to the fear of whether or not you're going to be with

her forever. Oftentimes our wives live in the bondage of the fear of whether or not you really love them, whether or not they're good enough, whether or not they're beautiful enough, whether or not you truly love them for who they are. And when you show your wife on a daily basis that she is the most important thing in the world to you, listen, you set her free. You set her free to be the woman that God has created for her to be, because now she has a role to play in the world.

And you've set her free to be the woman that God has created for her to be, because now she has an absolute rest in the love that you have for her. Real men set their kids free from sin by putting boundaries on their lives, by saying this is the limit and you're not going to go any farther because if you do, I'm going to hold you accountable for it. Not because I hate you, but because I love you. And the only way I can keep you free from sin is to put boundaries on your lives. Real men set other people free by teaching them the truth of what God's word has

to say by carrying the gospel into the world that is around us. Real men set other people free by fighting the new drug, which is pornography. Because right now, the reason why there is a sex trade industry is because men in the world have demanded it. And after all, we live in a supply and demand society. We set other people free by living as God has called for us to live.

We set our sons free by teaching them what it looks like to really be a man. And then they're not shackled by the ideas of the world. We set our daughters free by teaching them what it looks like to follow. love a man because we've given them a godly example so that they won't be shackled by the idiots of the world. Real men set other people free. I've shared about it before and I'm going

to share about it again. If I'm repeating myself, I apologize, but I was really struck by that night on Monday Night Football a couple of months ago when the Cincinnati Bengals were playing the Buffalo Bills and a young man fell down with cardiac arrest unexpectedly. And as he fell, everybody wondered what was going to happen. We all thought it was just an injury at first and then all of a sudden they're doing CPR and you knew it was way more than an injury. And once

they finally stabilized him and got him off the field, most people don't know the real story. The real story is that the NFL told both of those teams, you have five minutes, warm up and get ready to play. That's what the NFL told them. You know what those two coaches said? No. No, these men aren't playing tonight. They just watched one of their colleagues almost die. They don't need to go play football right

now. They need to be there for each other. They need to go home and hug their families. They're not getting out to play a stupid game right now. And those two men, those two coaches said, I don't care what it costs me. I don't care what it costs the playoffs. I don't care what it costs my contract. I don't care what it costs my career. I don't care what it costs my

reputation. I don't care if I get fined by Roger Goodell. I am making a stand and saying, I love these guys. I love these men that I have been entrusted with more than I care about my reputation and more than I care about any of those other things. And I'm making a stand and God bless them for it. Because for just a small moment, when we looked at the NFL, we said,

that is what a man does. And fellas, the world needs you to be that. And you can't be that. Apart from Christ. He says, we didn't yield in subjection for even one hour. Why? So that the truth of the gospel would remain with you. Why didn't we yield in subjection? Because the truth of the gospel will continue. And we didn't want to do anything to affect the message of the freedom that we have in Christ. Well, we go on from there.

After they fought this battle over the gospel, we now move in and see Paul's ministry. To the Gentiles. He says, verse six, but from those who are of high reputation, what they were makes no difference to me. God shows no partiality. Well, those who are of reputation contributed nothing to me. I want to take this little parenthetical statement that Paul made and make it a little parenthetical statement up here this morning, because I find

what Paul said to be interesting. He says, those of high reputation, but from those who are of high reputation, I want to make it a little parenthetical statement up here this morning, and then he goes on to say, they didn't mean anything to me. The reputation doesn't move me because God is not a respecter of persons. It's such a beautiful thing that Paul feels this way, because that's the way God feels. We live in a society of status right now, don't we?

We live in a society where everybody is looking for a position. Everybody's looking to be famous. Everybody's looking for their one moment. And Paul says, a respecter of persons, because God's not a respecter of persons. The other night, I got to go watch the movie Jesus Revolution. Finally got to go see it Thursday night. By the way, great movie. I agree with about 99.6% of everything that was in that

movie. It was pretty accurate, I thought. I've had a few people ask me how accurate I thought it was. I thought it was pretty accurate. The two things I thought that really, they did not do as good a job of bringing out as they could have is number one, Kay Smith, Chuck's wife. She's the one that really had the heart for those crazy drug addicts, right? She was the one who was out on the pier praying for him every single day. And was she nervous

around him? Maybe, I don't know. But man, her heart for them was just amazing. And I didn't feel like they did a good job of bringing that out. The other thing I didn't feel like they did a good job of bringing out is Chuck's love for people and his love for all of those crazy drug addicts, right? There was a few times where you could see references to it kind of in his body language

and stuff. But anybody that was around him at all, either then or in my experience later on, he just loved people. He just loved people. And so it was a fascinating movie. But when I think about people who don't care about their reputation, I always think about Chuck Smith. One of the cool things that you may have noticed in that movie is that every time either Lonnie or Chuck would get up to teach, you guys notice what they did? Those of you

that have seen the movie, they all held up the one-way sign. That was a big thing in the movie. It's the one-way sign. And the other thing that they do is they would hold up the word of God. Well, the two things that I know from Chuck coming every Friday to teach us at Bible college is two things. Number one, every time he'd get up to teach, he'd do the same thing. He'd say, the word of God. And we all knew it was time to open your Bible,

right? But the other thing is I remember Brad Lambert, the president of the college at that point in time, right before we were waiting for Chuck to actually get there. And he said, now, listen, I want you guys to understand something. Some of you guys are new. You need to know this. He does not like for people to clap for him. It embarrasses him. And so if you really

want to show him how welcome he is here, then everybody needs to give the one-way sign. Because if Chuck wants to see anybody get glory, it's Jesus Christ. And so for two years of my life, every Friday, when he would come walking up, we'd all go. And he was always so blessed by it. It was the coolest thing in the world. But what was really awesome is that he would come and speak

to us. And his schedule was incredibly busy. Now that I'm a pastor, I'm like, dude, he really carved some time out to come talk to a bunch of stupid college kids, right? On a weekly basis to teach us the word of God. Like, it's pretty amazing that he did that. But he would come teach us in the morning. And then in the afternoon, if you were walking around campus, you needed to watch out

because he might be on a skid steer and he wasn't very good at it, right? And so you might see him out working on one of the construction sites that we had there. And I thought it was so cool to see that. But the story I want to eventually get to is this one. Towards the end of my time in Bible college, his schedule was not allowing him to come every Friday anymore. And so after he had finished teaching on a Friday, Brad Lambert got up and

shared with us. And he said, I need you guys to understand something. This is probably the last week for at least the next couple of months that Chuck's going to be able to be here. His schedule is not allowing and he's getting ready to do some traveling. He's getting ready to do some teaching. And so he's not going to be able to be here with us. We have been so

blessed to have him come teach us every Friday like this. And it's really a blessing that he could do this. And Chuck's standing over here and he interrupts Brad and just yells at the top of his lungs. It's because I love all of you guys so much. And it was the coolest moment because I knew that he meant it. That was not just something he was saying for effect. I knew that he meant it because whether it was working on campus, speaking to us

or sticking around forever to answer questions for a bunch of college kids, the guy just showed love for us. You know why? Because he knows God's not a respecter of persons. So he didn't take himself too seriously. And I think there's a couple of things from this statement that Paul makes. What they were makes no difference to me. God shows no partiality. A couple of things I think that we need to learn.

Number one, I should not be caught up with my own status. I should never be too big for anything. I should not be caught up with me. That's the life that we need to live. If you think that you're too good to serve in any way, then you're probably too good to serve in any way. Because we can't get caught up with our own status. We can't get caught up with our own status. We can't get caught up with our own status.

We can't get caught up with what everybody else thinks of us. And listen, we live in a world who constantly is worried about what everybody else is going to think of them. And you should be willing to, wherever you are, whatever you're doing, serve even the least of these. I should not be caught up with my own status. Number two, I should not be moved by the

status of another. I should not view other people differently because of what they can do, because of the position that they have. Listen, I learned a long time ago that I should not be moved by the

status of another. Because I should not be moved by the status of another. Listen, I learned a long time ago, everybody puts their pants on the same way, right? And if they don't, they have a bruise on their forehead. Because once you try to jump into it with both legs, straight over, right? Like we're all just people. I don't care how, what you're famous for. I don't care what you're good at. We're all just people. And the moment that we start thinking of ourselves as being more than people, God is so good at humbling us. God is so good at knocking us back down. But so many people have changed everything about their lives because somebody else said, this is what you should do.

This is what you should do. We should be moved by the status of other people. He goes on to say, but from those who are of high reputation, we'll leave the parenthetical statement out. Well, those who were of reputation contributed nothing to me. In other words, they didn't add anything to my message. They didn't say you need to change this about your message. As a matter of fact, rather than changing anything about my message, what did they do? But on the contrary, verse seven, seeing that I

had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised, just as, just as Peter had been to the uncircumcised for he who affectionately worked for Peter also worked in me and recognizing that 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. He says they realized something. My ministry looks different.

Then Peter's ministry. My ministry was to the Gentiles. Peter's ministry was to the Jews, but something fascinating happens. It's not two different messages. It's just two different ministries. It's two ministries, one message empowered by one God. He said they realized that on instead of them changing my message, they gave me the right hand of fellowship to continue on with my message and brothers and sisters. The coolest thing is that God uses us all in such a way.

Very different ways. The ministry that he has given to me is different than the ministry that he has given to you. The ministry that he has given to you is different than the ministry that he's given to the people around you. You can reach people that nobody else can reach. I think about this on the level of pastors sometimes and and I think about the fact that my ministry looks different than other pastors, right? Pastor Greg Laurie is an evangelist while he teaches the word of God. He he's evangelistic in nature. The one that the movie was about.

And he can stand up in front of a group of people and tell them Jesus loves you and he wants you to follow with all of your heart and people just come streaming down by the thousands and you're going, what did he do? Well, I don't know. That's the ministry God gave him. So God empowers him to be an evangelist. I'm never going to be that guy. I could give a salvation message and just hear crickets throughout the whole way. But my job is not to be an evangelist. My job is to teach to give you all the tools and equipment that you need to not only know God, but carry his message to the people that are around you.

The people that I can never minister to. I tell this to kids at the high school all the time. I can't always come into the school and do all of these things. You can though. You have that ability because you're in the high school. Your testimony will speak to somebody specifically because we've all been given a little bit of a different ministry. We've all been given a little bit of a different calling. And rather than being angry that my calling is not like somebody else's, we should embrace the calling that we have with our whole heart.

It's the most frustrating thing as a pastor to see a calling on somebody's life and see that they're gifted in these areas, but the areas that they're gifted in are not the areas they want to be gifted in. And so they're like, no, I want to do this over here. Like, well, it seemed like you're really good at this over here. It feels like this is what God's leading you. No, no, this is what I want to do. And you're like, okay, why? Okay. If you feel like that's what God wants you to do, just go ahead and do it. And then it flops and falls apart and they come back and they're like, I don't understand. I thought God called me. And I'm like, but I think you did.

And then they finally come to grips with the fact that this is what God called them to. And man, they just flourish. All because they realize that the grace of God that's given to me to stand up in front of you and teach the Bible is the same grace of God that's given to you to reach out to your coworkers, to reach out to your family, to reach out to your friends, to do whatever it is that God's called for you to do. It's the same gift. It's just that God gives it to us to do two different things.

But now Paul has been empowered by these apostles to take that message of the gospel to the Gentiles. He's given his commission for ministry. It closes like this. It says, they gave me the right hand of fellowship. They only asked verse 10 that I do one thing to remember the poor, the very thing that I also was eager to do. Interestingly enough, remember who he was bringing the offering down to? Who were the poor people at this point in time?

It was a church in Jerusalem. They were like, hey, listen, you go out and you preach to the Gentiles. Don't forget your boys, right? We're poor down here in Jerusalem. Remember us. And Paul's like, it's my heart to remember all the people that are in need. So Paul's given that right hand of fellowship. He made the trip to Jerusalem because that's what God told him to do. In Jerusalem, he fought that battle over grace and praise God, grace won. And then he was sent out to take that same message to the Gentiles that were all around him.

And it was all the same God. The same message, just different ways of doing it. Amen. Okay, I'm looking to see. Hopefully the kids are about to start working their way this way because this morning is Communion Sunday. And so we'll give it just a few minutes here for the kids to round themselves up a little bit. If we want, go ahead and bring that first wave of kids in so that they can start finding their families.

And then we'll keep getting the other way. Come on in, kiddos. Your kid's coming in. Track them down. Over there, Chloe.

There she is. She found it. Okay, hold on. I know there's like two more classes full of kids coming.

Oh, here they come. Thank you all for being patient. I want the kids to hear the little message about communion as well.

Come on in, kiddos. Find your families. I got distracted down there.

Okay. So this morning is Communion Sunday. Now, I always like to take just a few minutes to explain what we're about to do and then how important it is that we do so in a worthy manner. So as we get ready to prepare, there's inside of these little trays a couple of different elements. First of all, there's the top cup that has the juice in it, and then there's the bottom cup that has the cracker in it.

In and of themselves, worth very little. It's what they symbolize that is important to us. On that last great night of the feast, Jesus took that bread and he broke it. And he said, And the fascinating thing is, is that the bread that he would have held up was that unleavened matzah bread. And the unleavened matzah bread, first of all, was pierced. It had all kinds of holes in it.

And then also there were stripes on it. So this bread that was striped and pierced, he took and broke in the same way that his body was striped and pierced and broken with that spear in his side. And so he says, Take and eat. Because this body... This body has been broken for you. And we're reminded of the sacrifice of the breaking of Jesus' body that took place for us.

And then he took that cup and he said, This is the cup of the new covenant of my blood that is shed for you. Take and drink. And so we realize that what that juice in that cup symbolizes is the blood of Jesus Christ that was shed to cover all of our sins. That blood of Jesus Christ that, as we're told in the book of Isaiah, takes our sins that were red as scarlet and makes them as white as snow.

And so we're told that as often as we do... As often as we do... As often as we do this, we are celebrating the death of Jesus Christ. And so we're told that we're to do so in a worthy manner. Uh-oh. We missed a whole class of kids. Come on in, kids. Come on in. These ones are really going to need some parents to give them the, hey, we're here. There's one.

Okay.

So we're told that when we do so, we're to do so in a worthy manner. And that means a couple of things. Number one, it means that if you're not a believer in Jesus Christ this morning, if you've never actually made him, the Lord of your life, and this won't mean very much to you, it'll just be some juice and crackers, right? And so the key is that if you are going to partake in this meal, you need to make sure that you're a believer in Jesus Christ.

And that's as simple as putting your faith in him, admitting that you're a sinner and asking him to come in and deal with your sin, and he's faithful to do so. And then you will be born again and become a part of the family of God. But for those of us that are believers here this morning, the way that we partake of this in a worthy manner is we make sure that our heart is right before the Lord. And so I'm going to invite the worship team to come on up.

And as the worship team is playing this last song, take time to ask God to search your heart, to see if there's any sin in there, to see what you need to confess to the Lord, because we're told that that same blood of Jesus Christ that made us born again is the same blood of Jesus Christ that continually cleanses us from all sin. And so while they're playing this last song, ask God to do that work in your heart. Ask him to reveal those things to you so that you can confess the things that need dealt with. And as the ushers are handing it out, like I said, the bottom cup will have the cracker, the top cup will have the juice.

And when you receive your elements, if you'll please stand, and then we will pray and partake together. Amen.

When I hear the rolling thunder, thy power throughout the universe displays. Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee. Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee. The birds sing sweetly in the trees. When I look down to grandeur. And feel the gentle breeze. Sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee. Send him to die. Our scares can take it in.

With shouts of acclamation. And take me home. What yours shall fill mine. Then I shall bow. Father, we come to you. We come to you now. Lord, I first of all want to thank you for your body that was broken for us. Lord, what you endured for us on the cross that we can't even imagine. Not just the physical beating that you endured for us, Lord. But allowing all of the sins of all time to be poured out upon you there on the cross.

Crying out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Lord, we praise you that you allowed your body to be broken for us. Father, thank you for your blood that was shed for us. That blood that flowed from you. That now creates a clean heart in us, Lord. That washes our sin away and makes it white as snow. And Father, we just praise you for this sacrifice. I praise you for the oneness that we have in you.

For the unity that we have with each other because of the bond of Christ. And Lord, may we never take for granted the great salvation that you have given to us. Father, we thank you and we praise you for who you are. In Jesus' name. Amen. Let's partake.

And if you'd bow with me one more time. Lord, you are so good to us. Father, I thank you for your word. I thank you for the testimony of lives that have been changed. And Lord, I just ask that you would take the truth of your word and work it into us. May we live it out in our daily lives. Father, help us to find our rest in you. And Lord, we thank you and we praise you for who you are.

In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.