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Welcome to the Southside Church Podcast. Weekly content that inspires all of us to follow Jesus. Join us each week for a message from one of our fantastic communicators that provide practical ways to grow our faith, challenge ourselves, and to love others more. And now, this week's message.

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So I'm trying to try not to talk too fast or too long. Especially too long. Anyway, so for those of you who are outside the city of Atlanta, there's a community in Atlanta called Buckhead, and it's just north of the of the city. And before Buckhead, and we have a campus there, and before Buckhead Church had a building or a facility or even property, or we or even before the grocery store, we met on Sunday afternoons in a church, a Baptist church that allowed us to use their sanctuary on Sunday afternoons. And the stipulation was we paid, which was great. We were happy to do that. But the other stipulation was we had to clean up because they didn't want to hire a cleanup crew to come in after we were there and made a mess, which was was fine. So one Sunday afternoon, I was down there and I had preached here at North Point in the morning. Then I went down there that afternoon just years ago. And afterwards, a bunch of our volunteers were literally cleaning up the sanctuary, getting all of our stuff out of there. And there was a gentleman over on the left in the back, he was vacuuming because we had to vacuum. I mean, we really had to clean up. And so I walked up to him to thank him, and he looked up and said, Oh, Andy, and I said, Thank you. He said, No, no, no, no, thank you. And this was what he said. He said, This church changed my life. Um, and then he he told me his story, and this was his story. And actually, I've heard him tell the story two or three times. So this was this was the story. He said, Um, I'm not, I wasn't really a church person. He was in his mid-30s, he was a real estate developer and very, very successful, even at a young age. He said, I wasn't a church person, but I kept running into people saying, You need to go to this church in Alpharetta, North Moite Community Church. And I'm like, I'm just not a church person. He said, but my life was, you know, on the outside everything looked good, on the inside, not so much. He said, so I showed up and he said, I stood in the back and I leaned against the wall in case I needed to make an escape. And some of you understand that. In fact, you're back there in the shadows now, anyway. Just kidding. Um, or maybe not. Anyway, um, he said, so he said, and I would stand against the wall. This is the story he said, I would stand against the wall with my arms crossed, and I would watch all these hundreds of people pour in. And he said, and here's what I would think. I would think, these people are so, this is the word he used, these people are so disciplined. I don't think I'm disciplined enough to be one of them. I'm not disciplined enough to be a Christian, referencing just the way he was living his life. Um, but he kept coming back. He said, I would show up every Sunday and I would lean against the wall and I would think the same thing and I would listen to the message, then as soon as you were done, you know, you know, I was out. He said, but the tension was that over time I realized I believe this stuff. I believe that that Jesus is who Jesus claimed to be and that God is, you know, a heavenly father. I I I believed it, but here was the tension. These are my words, not what, not his. He was he was a believer. Um he wasn't a behavior, okay? Um, and don't raise your hands, some of you can identify with that. Some of you are sitting next to believers who aren't behaviors. Some of you watching, you're like, okay, that's me, you got me. I I believe in God and I believe Jesus is the Son of God, but I, you know, you wouldn't know it necessarily from the way I behave. So anyway, back to my buddy. So the thing is, as much as he wanted to be a follower of Jesus and not just a believer, he admitted, he said, the problem was he said, I couldn't do it. His words, he's like, I'm just not as disciplined looking at all of you walking in. I'm just not as disciplined as the rest of these people, if if only he knew, right? Anyway, I said, so what happened? He said, I just kept coming. And I just kept coming. And I told God, I believe, I just can't do it. But I wanted to, and I certainly needed to. So I just said, God, I here I am, I can't do it, but I I I I believe, and I if if this if something's gonna happen, you you've got to do this. I've I can't. He said, then slowly um I started changing. He said, on the inside it was little things. He said, and then I noticed my desires changed. Things that were such, you know, you know, so appealing before, just they just became less appealing. He said, then some habits changed. He said, then some friends noticed. Um and and then he said, and I'm I'm a different person than I used to be. He told me this funny story, which is kind of weird because it's about me, but I think it's funny. He said, Andy, I would get, we this was back we had CDs. Remember those? Yeah, anyway. He said, I would get the CD after this this this the Sunday, and I would listen to it in my car. And he had this convertible Porsche. He said, so I'll be driving through Buckhead with you turned up. He said, I just wanted to hear it over and over and over and over. I wanted to get it in my heart. And one day I'm sitting at a traffic light, and there's a guy next to me and his windows down, and he says, Are you listening to Andy? He says, Yeah. I'm like, well, I appreciate the marketing. That that that's that's amazing. The the point is, he he so wanted to change, and he knew he couldn't, and he just kept renewing his mind. He said, I'm a different person than I used to be. And Andy, I'll tell you this. I didn't change me. Years went by. He eventually joined our stewardship team. That's the group that looks at all the finances of our whole organization, and then eventually became an elder. Essentially, he became on joined our board, he became my boss. And then he met a girl on our staff and married her. I mean, it's I mean, a complete transformation. So here's here's why I tell you that story. If you're a believer, but you're not a behaver, I'm so glad you're here. And I'm so glad you're watching. Today we're gonna pick up where we left off last Sunday, and I know some of you missed it. That's okay. It's summertime and everybody's busy. Um and if you missed it, I really wish you would go back and watch or listen to the message. If you attend one of our Atlanta area churches, you can find it on your local um website, or excuse me, on your through the app, your local app, and hope hopefully you have your app, or you can find that on my YouTube channel if you live somewhere else in the world. But a quick, quick, quick review goes like this. If you've been led to believe that God's love and acceptance of you is contingent upon something to do with you, you have been misled. And you were probably misled by somebody who does what I do for a living. If you are have if you've been led to believe that somehow you determine whether or not God loves you, that you have that much control over God, you have been misled. What makes the good news really good is that God's love for you, God's love for you is not contingent upon, it does not depend upon, and it can't be diminished by or thwarted by. In fact, his love isn't even thwartable by you. That God's love for you, this is amazing, God's love for you is beyond your control. That you really don't have a say in the matter. He loves you and you're stuck with it. Just get used to it, right? He decided to love you. And when that reality, we spent the whole week last weekend talking about this, when that reality goes from your head to your heart, even though intellectually you may agree, when that goes from your head to your heart, it begins to change us. So that was part one. Part two, because there are just two parts, is the answer to this question. So now what? So God loves me. I have a hard time accepting that, believing that, and I want to believe that somehow it's contingent upon me, and I was raised to believe if I don't, he won't, and if I do, he will. And if I were God, I would certainly have reservations about loving me. But okay, if that's true, now what? What do I do with that? Where do we go from there? So here's what I'm gonna do today. I'm gonna tell you where to where we go from there, and then I'm gonna let the Apostle Paul tell us where we go from there. And the reason I'm going first is that his answer is something he dictated in the first century in Greek to someone who wrote it down for him. And his explanation is a little bit challenging to follow, even though you're smart, and if you give it enough time, you can figure this out. Um so I'm gonna tell you, then we're gonna read what Paul said. So here's the background, and this is so interesting, especially if you're not a Bible reader. Um, Paul planted a church or started a church in the Roman province of Galatia, modern-day Turkey. Um, and he went and he preached this amazing gospel that God has done something in the world for the world that we talk about all the time. And then he left. And when he left, sometime later, a group of Christians from Jerusalem showed up in those same little churches that he planted, and they said, Look, um, we know Paul has been here and we're here to correct some of the stuff that he, some of the things that he told you. And they introduced a version of Christianity, a perversion of Christianity, as Paul would say, a version of Christianity that required non-Jewish people to embrace and keep Torah. In other words, they said, in order to be a Christian, or they didn't use that term yet, but in order to follow Jesus, in order to get into this new covenant that Jesus came to establish, you have to first embrace the law that was given to Moses on Mount Sinai, including, gentlemen, you have to be circumcised, because that was a sign that you were in the covenant that would then prepare you for this new covenant that God had established between God and the whole human race. So their message basically, these are my words, not theirs, their message was basically this. It's not as simple as Paul makes it sound. It's good news, but it's not that good. Well, Paul found out and he was apoplectic. That's the best word. He was so angry. In fact, he says something in the letter. So he wrote a letter back to the churches in Galatia in our New Testament. It's called the Book of Galatians. We call it the book of Galatians. It's just a letter. In that letter, he has he says something so crude, I'm not even sure we should talk about it in mixed company in church. He was that angry because these people perverted the good news of the gospel. So he writes this letter, we call it the book of Galatians, and he wrote it in order to call them back to the original Jesus-centered version of our faith, or the Jesus-centered version of what we would call Christianity. And here's kind of the bottom line. And again, my words, not his, we'll get to his in a second. It's simply this God is your father, he's not an officer of the law. Now, if you're an officer of the law, no offense, but listen, listen. If if everybody in your community, wherever you work, if you're an officer of the law, if everybody in your community would apply what I'm going to talk about today, your job would be much, much safer and ultimately easier. So this isn't a dig against law officers. But Paul's message is you view God as an officer of the law. He's not, he is your heavenly father. Besides, he says, did knowing the difference between right and wrong, did knowing the law keep you from breaking the law? And they would be like, no. Did the fear of God keep you from sinning? And they're like, no, because rules don't empower you to keep the rules. Rules are rules, but they don't empower you to keep the rules. That's just the nature of rules. And to use my friend's terminology, Paul would say, you're just not that disciplined. You're just not that good. And when you know what to do and you don't do it, do you know how you feel? You feel condemned. You feel guilty and you begin to condemn yourself. And if you continue to do what you know you shouldn't do, you eventually just give up. You say, Well, I just can't do it. I mean, why even try? So then Paul goes on to say, hey, the way of Jesus, the way of Jesus is a complete reorientation away from that way of thinking. It's a completely different approach to life. It's a reorientation. It's a reorientation from I promise to I surrender. From obedience to dependence. From I will, you know, from now on I will to I can't. But you can through me. That Paul is about to insist that the Christian life is the literal actual life of Christ. That the Christian life is the life of Jesus lived through us and not by us. Because my friend was absolutely correct. We can't. We are unable. But when we embrace the approach that the apostle Paul is about to tease out for us, when we embrace this new approach, slowly, sometimes imperceptibly, Christ will produce his life, produce what Paul calls his fruit through us, through you, through your personality, through your temperament, through your season of life. Now, those are my that's my version of what Paul is about to tell us. So now we're gonna dive in. You ready? Doesn't matter. Here we go. Okay. Here's what he says. This is amazing, okay? It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. So if you don't get anything else out of this message, here's what I want you to hear. If the version of Christianity you were raised with did not feel like freedom, it wasn't the right version. If it felt more like slavery and a yoke and a burden, somebody didn't explain it to you correctly. Paul says, look, what I announced to you, Gentiles, in the province of Galatia, again, modern-day Turkey, was something that should have been liberating. He says, So come on, stand firm in that freedom. And don't let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Here's what he's contrasting. He's like, the way of Jesus feels like freedom. The other way, this perversion of the gospel, feels like slavery, an approach to faith oriented around rule keeping, rules you can't even keep, a standard you can't live up to. So you feel constantly condemned and constantly you feel like a failure. And then this, he says this. He says, You who are trying to be justified, this is just a fancy word for find a right standing with God or be good with God or get in a place where God is in a good position with you and loves you and accepts you. He says, those of you who feel like somehow you're gonna be right with God by obeying rules or keeping the law, those of you who are attempting or trying to be justified by the law, I'm doing the best I can. I'm so sorry, what do I need to do? You know, what do I need to pray? How high do I need to jump? You know, and he says, those of you who think that's the way to find peace with God, you've been alienated. You've been separated from Christ. You have fallen away from grace. Let me explain. This is so important. He says, as long as you are evaluating where you stand with God based on your behavior, it amounts to resisting God. You're accomplishing the very opposite of what you're setting out to do. It's a little bit like, and this isn't a perfect illustration, it's a little bit like the workaholic who says, I'm doing this for my family, when in actuality they're doing something to their family. I'm doing something for my family, but in the end I'm alienating myself from my kids and my spouse because of my workaholism. I mean, I'm saying it's for one thing, but I'm actually working against myself, Paul says the same way. As long as your approach to faith, as long as your approach to Christianity is, I'm going to do something in order to earn something or to position myself well with God, he's like, you have given up the very basis, the very foundation and essence of what Jesus came to create for you. He says, for, and this is a little tricky here, for in Christ, that is, if you are in the new covenant that God through Christ has provided for you, this new arrangement, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision, and this was like, this was so offensive to his Judean readers. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is any value. Now, as you're about to see, and if you read the whole book of Galatians, it becomes clear, he's using the term circumcision here to represent the entire Torah, the entire law. It's like a single word that represents all of that, the whole law, because it was the physical manifestation that you are committed to keeping Torah. He says, in Christ, in this new covenant, the law doesn't have any value. Don't leave early, including the Ten Commandments. None of the law counts. That is the old way. That's the old covenant. That was the old way of thinking, the old way of doing things. He says, circumcision doesn't have any value. If you're circumcised, that's fine. If you're not, that's fine. It's irrelevant. Along with the entire law. Those days are over. Through Jesus, there is a brand new approach. Now, this next line. If I were to just tweet this or put this on X without any context, Christians would lose their minds. And this is directly from the Apostle Paul. This is how he just did not want any perversion or watering down of the amazing grace and goodness of God. Listen to what he says. He says, the only law doesn't matter. Circumcision doesn't matter. The only thing that counts, the only singular thing that counts is faith. And we defined this last week. Faith isn't creating something or believing something so something will be true. Faith is simply accepting or embracing what is true. It's resting in what is true. And in this case, it's God's unconditional love for you and for the world. He says the only thing that counts here going forward in this new relationship between God and the human race, the only thing that matters is embracing what God has already done for you, his unconditional love for you. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself, because once you understand this and once you embrace this, it's going to, there's going to be an outgrowth. There's going to be an expression. Some things are going to be different. You're going to talk different. You're going to act different. You're going to live different. As an expression of, not in order to gain something, as an expression of accepting what God has done for you. You ready for this? The only thing that counts, don't put the next slide up yet. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through behavior, obedience, law-keeping, rule keeping. This is where you get in trouble. This is why they raced in after Paul and said, No, no, no, no, no, no. He's made it too simple. The only thing that counts, the only thing that matters is faith. I believe that what God has said about me is true. Expressing itself through love. Period. And when he says love, he doesn't mean we just love everybody the way that we says, no, no. Again, if you read Paul's literature, even if you read the book of Galatians, it becomes very clear. When Paul talks about love, he's talking specifically about the love of God as demonstrated through Christ. He's talking about this new covenant love. When Jesus said, a new command I give you, you are to love one another. That's not new. I'm not through. You are to love one another as I have loved you. This is the new covenant ethic. Not 600 commandments, not ten commandments, one simple commandment. And to which we would say, and to which many Christians would say, okay, it's not that simple. You can't, it's there's got to be more to it. Paul, that is so open-ended. I mean, that's dangerous. Like, there's no laws. You just love other people like Christ love, Paul would say. Exactly. It is that radical. It is a complete reorientation. You heard me right. And he would say, and when you get this right, when you rest in this, when you allow the love of God to go from your head to your heart, when it begins to begins to dawn on you how God loves you and how God loves the world, and the grace and the manifestation of God's grace and mercy to us, when that goes from your head to your heart, you will not only manifest the love of God, you will manifest the love of God specifically as God through Christ has manifested his love for you. You're gonna forgive because you're forgiven. You're gonna be kind because he was kind to you, you're gonna be patient because he was patient with you, and you are gonna change. From the inside out. When you get this right, then he's about to say it, when you get this right, you don't need to be afraid of where this leads because when you get this right, you will not allow your freedom. Here's what he says, you will not allow your freedom to give you an excuse to indulge the flesh. Rather, when you get this right, when you begin to understand what God through Christ has done for you, do you know what you're gonna do? You are going to express your faith through love. You're going to express your faith by serving one another humbly. There it is, in love. And so he says to them, hey, as you're kind of getting your bearings, as you're kind of getting back to what I originally taught you, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't use your freedom because the freedom isn't going away. God's not going to take it back. Don't use your freedom, your lack of law, your lack of rules, as an excuse to indulge yourself. You are to leverage your freedom for the benefit of other people because that's what God through Christ did for you. To which we're like, okay, okay, but wait, wait, wait. If we don't have any laws or rules to live by, I mean, if you're even taking the Ten Commandments and setting that aside, then how do we know what to do? Great question, he would say. Instead of measuring yourself against a list, instead of measuring yourself against a list, a list of rules or laws, whether they're in the Bible or somewhere else, he says, it's a new way of life. Here's what it looks like. So I say, walk or live by the Spirit. And as a result, you don't need to fear because you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Because you won't be led by and controlled by the things that have gotten you in trouble and been a problem in your marriage and a problem with your kids and a problem with your finances and a problem with your internal life and your thought life. He said, all those things that have a tendency to guide you and direct you, if you will surrender to this new way of thinking and living and invite the Spirit of God to prompt you and to lead you, then you will be led in a direction away from those things. You won't be led or controlled or governed by your appetites. And then he says, as if he needs to say, and by the way, you Galatians, you do know where your appetites lead if they're ungoverned, right? I mean, I understand why it's so scary to think there aren't any laws or aren't any rules, because you know what happens to lawless people and ruleless people who allow their appetites to control their lives. You know what it leads to, right? It's obvious. And even though it's obvious, he tells us, make sure we're all clear on this. He writes the acts of the flesh are obvious, but I'm gonna tell you anyway. Sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, and envy, drunkenness, orgies, and there's more. And what's his point? His point isn't make a list of these things and don't do these things. That's the opposite of his point. His point is when we are led by anything but the Spirit of God, we end up moving and gravitating in this direction. And a thousand laws won't keep you from dipping into these things because the law doesn't empower you to keep the law. You know what these things are? These are regrets. This is what destroys the things you love the most. So, of course, God would say, I'm not gonna lead you in that direction. This is what undermines marriages. This is what alienates kids from their parents. This is what caused us to hate ourselves, to condemn ourselves, to lead us to the point where we think there's no point, maybe there's not even any point in living. This is so important. This is why you've heard me say, and sometimes I get misunderstood, and I try to be clear, that when you follow Jesus through the Gospels, when Jesus deals with sin, he does not deal with sin in the sense that here is a list of sins God has given us, and I'm measuring you according to a list. That's what the Pharisees did. Jesus was clear. If it's not good for him, it's a sin. If it's not good for you, no can do. Not because there's some divine list of things, but because God loves you. He's a father. How do fathers discipline and how do fathers set standards for their children according to what's best for their children? That God didn't wasn't in heaven with a bunch of rules and thought, you know what? I need to create some creatures to keep all these rules. I need some rule followers. What am I gonna do with these rules? That God, in his love for you, again, you know, couples don't have kids, so there will be somebody to play with the toys. We bought all these toys. We need to have some children. In fact, Jesus said the people aren't the law, you know, people weren't created for the law. It's the other way around. So it's a completely different way of approaching faith and a completely different way of approaching God. And this is what Jesus came to do, and Paul understood it, and people kept trying to pollute it and dumb it down. Anything associated with the regret, anything that hurts you or the people around you, of course God is against because God loves you. And everything on that list comes pre-packaged with a consequence. And then Paul says this, and this is this is like another topic for another day, but I don't want to skip this verse, okay? Even though this may be a little confusing, I'll try to explain it simply. He says this. I warn you, this is in his letter. I warn you as I did before when I was with you physically, when I was in with you guys, I warn you as I did before, that those who live like this, all the things on that list, those who live like this, who embrace any of those things, they will not inherit the kingdom of God. Now, this is important. I I don't understand this, but for for forever it has been preached that when Paul references the kingdom of God, he's talking about heaven. He's not. This is not about whether you or not you go to heaven. If he admitted this, you won't go to heaven, he would have said, you will not go to heaven. He could have said that. When Paul talks about the kingdom of God, he's talking about being under the rule and the reign of God. Anybody who is participating in those things is clearly not living within the context of the kingdom of God on earth, and consequently they are on the outside looking in. And the reason we know he's not talking about heaven or hell or the afterlife or eternity is this term right here: inherit. So if I were to walk up to you after the service and say, look, I just gotta give you some bad news. Okay, you're not in my will. You'd be like, I didn't expect to be in your will. I'm not in your family. Or if you walked up to me and said, Andy, I gotta tell you, you're not gonna inherit anything from us, you'd be like, I don't expect to inherit anything from you. I'm not in your family. This term assumes a relationship. You know the parable of the prodigal son? The young son went and spent his what? His inheritance. And the father was looking for him. And when the when he came back, the father threw a party because he'd left home, but he didn't leave the family. And he'd used up his inheritance, but he was part of the family. This is Paul's idea that you, and this is my buddy standing in the back of the wall. You know what he was doing on the back wall before he decided to follow Jesus? He was back there on the outside looking in, thinking, ah, I wish I was that good. Those were, you know, I wish I was that disciplined. I believe, but I'm not, I'm not participating, and he, these are Paul's words. He wasn't participating in the kingdom of God. He was on the outside looking in, where Jesus says, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, not because people are in pain, but because people are experiencing the regret of being on the outside looking in, knowing that they could have or could participate in the kingdom of God in the here and now, believing but not participating and not experiencing the benefits. In fact, if you're not even a Christian, let me just say this to you. And I say this all the time, but I is in its bait. Yes, I'm trying to bait you into considering Christianity. I'll just put it out there. Look, if you had been following Jesus during the season of your greatest regret, you would have avoided that regret. If you had been participating in the kingdom of God, the kingdom of ethic, of loving yourself like God loves you and loving others like God loves you, you would have been participating in the kingdom of God and you would have avoided those regrets. And this is Paul's message. This is the new orientation. It is an orientation of freedom because following Jesus, as we say all the time, ultimately makes your life better. It leads to fewer regrets. It makes you better at life. And this is the invitation. Back to Paul. He says, so the alternative to living under the law is to walk by the Spirit, to live according to the internal cues, the internal nudges, the promptings, our conscience of the Spirit that will that will invite us into participating in the kingdom of God. And how do we know what those prompts are? How do we know it's the Spirit speaking? He's like, glad you asked. Here's how you know. Some of the most famous lines in the entire New Testament. He says, walk by the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit. This is how you'll know what's the Holy Spirit prompting you. Not the commitment of your will. What the Spirit will produce, what the Spirit will produce through you over time, not all at once, over time, as you accustom yourself and as you get used to saying yes, yes, you wake up in the morning, you say, Today, I'm not going to tell you what I'm going to do. I don't have the ability to do it. I'm not that disciplined. But I'm inviting you to lead me and guide me. He says, Here's what the Spirit will produce in you love, joy, peace, patience, kindness. I love this term. Kindness is loaning other people your strength rather than reminding them of their weakness. Goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. If you got kids, that's who you want them to marry. If you're single and want to get married, that's who you want to marry. That is the fruit of saying yes to the Spirit of God every single day and living in submission, not commitment. You're not that disciplined. Submission. And then this brilliant, I'm telling you, this next line is so brilliant, it's so liberating, it shifts the paradigm. Maybe I just geek out over it too much, but every time I read it, I think it's so brilliant. Look at this. He says, against such things. What things? These things. Love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, kindness, goodness, self-control. He says, against those things, against these things, look at this. There is no law. He says, you see, you're not living under law. Here's what he says. This is so amazing. You can't be too patient. Hey, knock it off. Too patient. There's a law against that. Too much self-control. Okay, do you not know the rules? You are not allowed to exercise that much self-control. He says, Do you see the difference? The law is like a burden. The Spirit of God is like a lift. You can't overdo any of these things. You can max them out. You can't be too kind. You can't be too faithful. You can't be too committed. There's no such thing as too much self-control. And he says, Come on. Come on, come on, come on, you Galatians, you Christians, since, he continues, since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Here's what he means. Since God's Spirit, since God's Spirit is the source of eternal life, then let it direct your life. Then he doubles down. He doubles down on this contrast. If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Led, relationship, invitation. Under the law, weight, and burden. If the reason you resist Christianity is because you don't think you can pull it off, you are exactly right. And that's okay. And when you understand what Paul is teaching, and when you understand the true nature of the Christian life, it is about being led. It is not about being goaded, pressured, or condemned. Again, it's a reorientation. From I promise to I surrender, from obedience to dependence, from I will to I can't, but you can through me. The Christian life is literally the life of Christ lived through us, not by us. But from the days of Paul until now, there's always a brand of Christianity that reinserts some law equation or something of law into the equation. And I'll tell you why. It's motivated by fear. If we remove all the rules, people are gonna run wild. Newsflash. People who know the rules run wild in spite of the rules, okay? This isn't anything new. And before you laugh and shake your wag your finger, including you, I mean, you again, most of your greatest regrets, you knew what you were doing and you knew it wasn't the right thing to do, and you did it anyway because the law doesn't empower you to keep the law. But won't people take advantage of this? Of course they will. Will people are gonna take advantage of this amazing grace? Of course they will. That's why it's amazing, and God doesn't withdraw the gift just because we abuse it. That is what makes it so amazing. But when you come to terms with God's love for you, what else can you do to follow and submit and worship? Earlier, the Apostle Paul put it this way: if you were only gonna memorize one verse of scripture or one additional verse of scripture, it would be this one. He says, Let me personalize it for you. Let me he says, let me tell you my story. I have been crucified with Christ. It's like when he died, I died. Because something new was being taking place. I've been crucified with Christ and I no longer live. I can't do this. But Christ lives in me. And if you have received Jesus as your Savior, Christ lives in you. So why not invite him to live through you every single morning, every single meeting, every single commute to work, every single conversation at home, every single conflict, every single fear, every single doubt. Men, every single time your ego starts talking. I love what Billy Phoenix said in a staff meeting. He said, Your ego is not your amigo. He's right. Men, our ego is not our friend. But the Spirit of God that lives in you is certainly your friend. If you don't have, if you don't think you have what it takes to live the Christian life, you are absolutely correct. And that's okay. None of us do. But acknowledging your inability and acknowledging our inability to pull this off, you know what it means? It means we are standing at the threshold of the kingdom of God. And we have been invited to participate in it by surrendering to the King who will lead us from where we are slowly in order to bring about change through us as we're ready for change through us, as he manifests his life through us and changes us from the inside out. So we're gonna sing a song at all of our churches. And I want you to make this song. I just hope you would make some lyrics of this song your prayer. Says this, Lord, I come and I confess, bowing here, that's the humility part. I find my rest. Because without you, I just fall apart. You're the one who guides and changes my heart. And in these lyrics. Where sin runs deep, your grace is more, where grace is found is where you are. And where you are, Lord, I am free. Holiness is not me trying to be holiness. Holiness is Christ in me. Lord, I need you. Oh, I need you. Every hour. This isn't one and done. This isn't, I became a Christian, I committed my life to Jesus, and off I go. Every hour I need you. My one defense, my righteousness, oh God, how I need you. That is the posture of the Christian life, and that's what changes us from the inside out. And it's threateningly free and liberating, but it's the only way for God to manifest Himself through Christ, through us. And it is a standing invitation every single day. If your hesitancy to get involved in Christianity is your inability to pull it off, hey, you're surrounded by people who share that same weakness, that same inability. But you are invited to follow your Savior. You're invited to follow Jesus, and his Spirit will lead you. Not when you commit, but when you surrender. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, thank you for these amazing words. Thank you for preserving them for 2,000 years. The men and women, the scribes who risked their lives to copy and to make sure they made it into the 21st century. It's remarkable. And I just pray that wherever this lands with us, you give us the wisdom to see it the way we need to see it, to receive it the way it needs to be received, and give us the courage to step into it and to invite you to do through us what we cannot do on our own. We have tried and we have failed. So collectively, we declare we need you. God, we need you. Every single hour, we need you. That holiness is Christ in us. So have your way, we pray in these next few minutes in Jesus' name. Amen.