[00:00:00] We live in a world of choices you want to stand before God convinced them how good you are. Are you going to listen to him when he explains to you how good he is, how good his son is? Are you going to trust in your work? What you did to be enough? Are you going to trust what Jesus did to be enough when you're baptized? Let me just explain what you're doing. You're reenacting the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. Scripture says that he literally took your sins and the wages of sin is death. He died. You, you, you walk into the Baptist street as the old view, the one that's always been doing it yourself. It's all on you. You die to that person. You're married and you rise against scripture, says the segment is five 17 to new life. You're a new creation. It's all. It's all new now because now you are in Christ. All right. Hey, if you were with us last weekend, uh, you know what happened here? We just, we just said, Hey, if you want to give your life to G. When I do it now and 97 [00:01:00] people on our campuses came forward and it was awesome. And what was so cool, which if you saw this last week, you, you know exactly what I'm talking about and you kind of got a glimpse of it there. Each of the baptisms, as they took place on the different campuses would identify the campus. And it was like this big church party that we had last weekend, because one of the things that. When you're a multi-site church. And again, we have five campuses. So what's happening in this room that I'm in right now is going on, you know, four other locations as well as our online community. But we tend to think this is the church. This is it. But when you got to see the baptisms taking place, the same invitation went out to all the campuses and people came forward and you just started to realize that man, God is doing something really, really cool here also, by the way, on a different subject. We had never done that because we never have the technology that would allow us to broadcast from each of our campuses. Um, but also on Tuesday night we did a live podcast, which we've never done before. And, uh, a bunch of [00:02:00] people watch that it happened to fall right in the fifth game of the. Um, but we didn't know that at the time we schedule it. And anyway, uh, if you didn't get to see that, we talked about the fourth chapter of the book of Galatians and just did a different kind of format. If you didn't get to see that hop on our YouTube channel and you can watch that and catch up and anyway, uh, good things are happening. So I just want to begin as I often do, just with a word of welcome to each and every one of you and each and every one of you and those of you. Online and are experiencing it in that venue. Uh, one to welcome you and, uh, we are, uh, we're just glad to have you, so here's, uh, here's the deal. So we started, um, a while back a series on the book of Galatians. So I want to invite you right now to open your Bible to the book of Galatians, and we're going to be in the fifth chapter. So if you'd just take a moment and find the fifth chapter of the book of Galatians, that would be awesome. And. [00:03:00] And then what, uh, what will happen is, uh, we're going to show you some verses on the screen, but it's really, really important that you bring a Bible because, uh, we, we don't know the Bible because church has stopped teaching, uh, from the Bible and that's a tragedy and we just don't want to be a part of that. So make sure you bring a Bible, but the overarching theme of the book of Galatians is that you're selling. And so we've titled the entire series set free to live free. And so we've been talking about what freedom actually looks like, and we've been discovering that. And so what I want to do is I want to kind of do a review, but I want to do it a little bit differently. I want to just show. A verse or two from each of the first four chapters that we've covered since today, we're in the fifth chapter. So let me just, uh, these will come up on the screen. You can follow along in your Bible if you want, but the cool part about the fifth chapter and six. Is, it gets the really practical stuff. [00:04:00] Okay. A lot of this so far has been him laying a foundation to make sure that you understand some stuff, because if you don't understand some of the stuff, you can't apply the scripture properly. So it's foundational the next two chapters, which we'll close out. This series on Galatians will be about practical living. But with that said, let's just kind of review. Ground that we've covered. If you're in the, again, these will come up on the screen. You don't need to follow along. You can check them if you want to. But, uh, Galatians chapter one verses six and seven says this, Paul said this, I am astonished that you are so quickly deserving the one. And I want you to catch this phrase who called you to live in the grace of. You have left the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ that's Christ, and you are turning to a different gospel, which has really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying, I mean, they are trying to.[00:05:00] The gospel of Christ. So reminder, Paul is writing to a group of churches in the region called Glacia. He planted these churches, and then they start, they, they got the message. It was about the grace of God. And then somehow it began to change. We get a glimpse into that in chapter two, chapter two, verse four says this matter arose because some false believers had infiltrated our. To spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus, and to make us slaves. So he starts to see the motive of these people. And somebody came in and perverted the gospel of grace and came up with a, kind of a different way to do that. In Galatians chapter three, verse two onto three, I would like to learn just one thing from you. Did you receive the spirit by the works of the law or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish after beginning by means of the spirit? Are you now [00:06:00] trying to finish by means of the. Now, if I'm losing you, here's all this being said, uh, grace has all about what the spirit does in your heart. It's not about what you do. It's about what God does works of the flesh or what. Keeping the law is what you do. All right. And so what was, it was being substituted. That what saves you is this stuff you do not the stuff Jesus did. And Paul is going after this full on and just attacking it in Galatians four, eight. It said this formerly when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods, but now that you know, Or rather known by God. How is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? What prince, what is he talking about? He's talking about this mindset that says that the way you get to have it as you do this, this, this, and this, and you don't do that, that, that, and that. And if you do enough, this, and you don't do [00:07:00] enough of that, then you, you pass. The in communion, the screen popped up and you saw this Galatians four, four, but when the set time had fully come, God sent his son born of a woman born under the law to redeem those under the law that we might receive. Okay. We have been set free here. All right. And, uh, and, and you're, you're your. You're not an outsider. He wants you to be an insider to his grace and he's driving this point and we get to chapter five where we are today. And I want you to see this chapter five verse one says this. It is for freedom. That Christ has set us free stand firm then, and do not let yourself be burned again by a yoke of slavery. Do not be taken prisoner again to the thought that you can earn your way into. That somehow you got it. And you're good enough. So the critical issue that we've got to wrestle with, if we haven't put this to rest, [00:08:00] yet, we got to put this to rest. Here it is. And they put it up as a question. Do we find favor with God by performing works of righteousness or by placing our faith in what Jesus did now? They sounds like I can just do both. I can put my faith in Jesus and I can work myself into. You need to understand this one or the other it's one or the other Paul's position was very, very clear. Galatians two 16 says, so we too have put our faith in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law, no, one's going to be. So I'm telling you this one way of doing it, which is I keep all these rules and do all these things. It sounds so appealing and it's totally ineffective, but we think it works. It doesn't work. It will keep you as a prisoner. Uh, if you, if you ever read the Iliad and the Odyssey, you maybe know the adventures of Ulysses and [00:09:00] Ulysses, uh, came across an island, that there were the singers, the sirens. And if you know the story, he wanted to hear the song, but the minute you hear the song you're drawn in, you're, there's an attraction. And so all these shifts have been crashed on the rocks because they literally wanted to be attracted. They wanted to hear more, but Ulysses wanted to hear it. So if you know the story they had him tied to, this is mythology. They haven't tied to the massive his ship, but then all the sailors plugged their ears with bees. So that they could go by and he couldn't get off the mass. He couldn't, but that's the way the law is. It's attractive. We liked the idea of rules. Give me the boxes to check. Give me the regulations to keep, tell me what I got to do and what do I have to obey? We are incredibly uncomfortable with the thought what you need to do is you need to trust Jesus. You need to put your faith in Jesus. You needed to let the spirit of God take over your. And live that way. And, but, [00:10:00] but no, no, I got to help him. I got to do my part. I got to show him that I'm serious, that I'm contrite and that I'm genuine. And that all sounds good, but you know what it really is. It's an insidious form of pride because what deep down we want to do, don't miss what I'm saying here is we want to deserve our way to have it. We want to earn our way to heaven. We want to deserve. We want to put God in a position where we did that. We did it all. So you got you. You're obligated to us because we, we kept your, your rules. Uh, we just, we liked the idea of that. It's pride. It's ego. God, just let me do it truthfully. We want to save ourselves. And if you, if you've ever watched, or if you like the guardian, if you ever seen the movie that. It's about the coast guard, rescuing people, if you've ever seen or been aware of like saving techniques, one of the [00:11:00] greatest dangers to a lifeguard or a coast guard rescuer is the person they're rescuing. And the reason is the person they're rescuing once to help them save them. In other words, they're out there flailing there. Their hands are going everywhere. They're flopping all over the place. And the life guard or coast guard guy, whatever it gets close, and this guy's going to do him harm. And sometimes they've literally had to knock somebody out just to save them. I just, I just need to, I need to do my part. It's the worst thing you could do it with. The best thing you could do is relax and let your rescue or rescue you. But we have a hard time with that. The truth is. We're captivated by the ideas of doing it ourselves. And by the way, when you're captivated, you get captured. When you get captured, you get imprisoned, imprisoned to the idea that God needs your help in [00:12:00] prison, to the idea that it's part him and part you, that he does his, and then you do. Uh, Ephesians two and different letter to different church. Paul was very, very clear. I need to make sure you see it Ephesians two eight through 10. Now listen carefully less. You think otherwise for it is by grace that you have been saved through faith. All right. It's about faith, but it's about. And this is not from yourselves. It is the gift of God. Not by works, not by works so that no one can boast for. We are God's handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. See grace and works are mutually exclusive. Choose one or two. You're not going to, I'm going to do a lot of grace and a lot of works. I'm going to do grace, [00:13:00] but then I'm going to make sure grace is adequate. So I'm going to add my own oil and water don't mix. Grayson works don't mix. And by the way, a gift cannot be earned. Salvation is a gift from God to you. You can't deserve you can't earn it. You can't. And if I do this, do I qualify? It's a gift. So why don't we just chill and enjoy the fact that God, in his wisdom secured our own salvation. Now let's get to the text. Okay. So Galatians five, one, it says this, and I need you to see the first four words. It is for freedom. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free stand firm then, and do not let yourselves be burned again. By a yoke of slavery. Again, it means once do not be burdened. It means it's a hassle. It's not joy, it's a pain, but [00:14:00] do not let yourself be chained to this idea that God needed your help. So the text I want to look at here, w w we're going to take two passages, just two paragraphs. It was just looking at them in comment, and then I'll wrap up. All right. So Galatians chapter five verse. Starts with these words. All right, mark. My words. Now, let me, let me explain some of your translations. Don't say it, that it says, listen up. Now. I need you to understand that Paul, that that little phrase is so loaded with passion. He's not just saying, Hey, Hey, Hey, listen, Hey, listen. He's literally emphatic listening. He's like I've had enough of this nonsense that you guys have been believing. Listen up, mark. My words. And you need to hear that intensity. If you don't hear it, you're missing what he's saying. It is intense listening to. I Paul tell you, [00:15:00] and this will make sense in a moment if you don't understand, as we read it to hang on. I, Paul tell you that if you let yourself be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again, I declared to every man who lets himself be circumcised, that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated by Christ. You have fallen away from. For through the spirit, we eagerly await by faith, the righteousness for which we hope for in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. Okay. Got to talk about circumcision again. We got to go around and around and around about this subject. All right. Here's why. Paul was over here. He was a devout Jewish man. All right. He was circumcised. [00:16:00] He was doing it all. And then he met Jesus and Jesus introduced him to grace. So he began to understand, it's not about all that. It's about this incredible thing that Jesus did for him as he was teaching. This is what he taught the churches in Malaysia. But what happened was there were people. Who wanted this and wanted this and they just tried to blend them together. So what you gotta do is get, you can trust on Jesus after you do what you're supposed to do. And the number one thing that they said, if you want to be one of us, you have to get circumcised because circumcision was the mark that you were actually Jewish and you got to become Jewish because before you can become a Christian. And so you got to do all this stuff before you can do that. And Paul hears about this. There's teaching these people, you got to get circumcised and Paul going, Hey, if you give yourself over to circumcision, everything Jesus did for you means nothing [00:17:00] because now you're doing it. You're doing it on your own. You're trying to figure out like, I'll do this. I don't need Jesus. Let, let me, let me say it to you this way. This should make some sense. There are such things that we could call boundary markers. Okay. Now listen carefully. A boundary marker would be those signs that indicate that you're inside the camp, not outside the camp, that you're one of us, not one of them that if you do these things, then we will accept you. If you don't do these things, you're not of us. And what happens is. And let me illustrate it this way. So like, if I say in some of you will, this won't mean much to, but a lot of us would go, oh yeah, I know what you're talking about. If I say hell's angels, like, what does it mean to be. Part of the hell's angels. An image comes up in your mind if, if you're familiar with the hell's angels and if you're not, let me put some images. If you're not, that'll help you. Okay. These are hell's angels. Now let me just explain a couple of boundary markers of hell's angels. [00:18:00] All right. This is what I'm talking about. If you want to join the hell's angels, don't do not do not show up to a club meeting on a moped. Okay. Mopeds don't work. If you show up and, and you have a windbreaker on not a leather jacket, you don't fit, you don't belong to us. If you get a leather jacket, you got to get some patches on it. And I'm not talking about boy scout badges. Okay. You got to wear the name and you got to identify. And then there's all these other things that go along with it that, that you associate with that group. And I'm not seeing anything derogatory about the group, but you just do beards and beer. And booze and Belize and biker babes on the back. Okay. These are things that you just associate and you go that's tattoos that have that deuce. Now, if you want to join the club, you, you, you conform to those things. [00:19:00] Here's what I need you to under. We've done exactly the same thing. This is what Paul is fighting. We have done the same thing when it comes to what it means to be a follower of Christ. We'd set boundary markers. And we basically say, if you don't do this, you don't belong. If you do this, you do belong. And then we begin to say what you have to do, and there's nothing necessarily wrong with some of the stuff you have to like, we're going to say church attendance is important. It is. You know that you need to show, you need to pray. You know, you need to read your Bible. Those are boundary Martin. Nobody who's not in is going to be doing that stuff. We're talking about giving, we're going to talk about sacrifice. We're going to talk about that kind of stuff. All right. But what we do is then we add things that are not scriptural to the list to say, if you do these things, you're not one of us. And by the way, most recently people have loved to take shots of tattoos, which I have no tattoos. Just so we're clear. All right. But there's nothing wrong with the tattoo folks. Okay. So if somebody is up here and they have a tattoo, it's real easy to go look at their tattoo. I've [00:20:00] lost all kinds of respect. It's a boundary marker. You say they don't belong in because they have that, but books, that's just the most recent one. How about playing cards? How about going dancing? How about, uh, going to certain movies? How about you? Oh, you, you, you consume alcohol. You can, you consume. Oh, you're outside. We love to do this. We love to make all these rules and say you don't belong because you violated the boundary marker. Here's what I need you to understand. Paul Paul is trying to explain guys, be careful with your boundary markers. Be careful because it's bigger than you imagine. And by the way, he goes on to say, do you understand that if you want to play this game of keeping all the rules, if you screw up on one point, you've violated. He said that and James confirmed it. Let me read you from James chapter two, verse 10. He says for whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking it all you were so good about, but you screwed up of that year [00:21:00] out. It's a horrible way to live the sphere of everyone's judging you and passing the verdict on whether you belong or you don't belong. In fact, let me tell you what Paul said. First off again, he came from this, we said, steer clear of this. Do not. I was there. I did that. It's it's the way of death. In fact, in another letter to another church, he kind of sums up. He said, basically, it goes, let me explain it to you this way. Let me read it to you. This is Philippians chapter three, verses four through 10. He says this is going to brag on himself to make the point of it's worthless. All right. If anyone else thinks he has reason to put confidence in the. I have more. You want to talk about doing it on your own? You want to talk about keeping the rules. You want to talk about boundary markers, and then he goes into it circumcised on the, on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews in regard to the law of Pharisee [00:22:00] as to zeal persecuting the church as for legalistic righteousness, thoughtless, but whatever was to my profit. I now consider. For the sake of Christ, what is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in him, watch what, not having a righteousness of my own, that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God and is by. Can he say it more clearly. We just don't get it because that sounds like too good to be true. That Christ died. It is for freedom that you've been set free. You got to make a choice folks. It's going to either be, you think you're going to go to heaven because you're good enough. Or you're going to go to heaven because you've come to be convinced that [00:23:00] Christ is good enough. Galatians five, four. He said, uh, you who are trying to be justified by the law. You who are rule keepers, you are a legalistic. You've been alienated from Christ and you have fallen from grace. You made yourself an outsider to the true kingdom of God, because the kingdom of God is not about your works. It's about what Jesus did. Let's go to the next paragraph, Galatians five, seven down to 11. I'll read it. And then we'll back up and unpack it. He says to these churches, these Christians in the churches, you were running a good race. You were doing so well. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth. That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. This one has convinced you to keep all these rules that did not come from Christ. All right. A little yeast works through the whole batch of. [00:24:00] I'm confident in the Lord that you will take no other view, the one who is throwing you into confusion, whatever that may be, we'll have to pay the penalty. And then he says brothers and sisters, because there's just some of the misinformation given about him. If I'm still preaching circumcision, why am I being persecuted still in that case, the offense of the cross has been abolished as for those agitators. I wish they would go the whole way and just emasculate them. We'll get there in just a moment, hang on. But he starts in with a different kind of cutting. All right. He says you were running a race who cut in on you. Here's what I need you to picture this. You're at a track meet. The runners are running. You are doing really, really well. You're running. You're keeping in your lane. Everything is good. And all of a sudden, somebody trips you up at CMH, you were doing great. Who was the guy that tripped you up? Who got in your way? Who literally made you stumble, who made you fall, who wiped you out? [00:25:00] And he's trying to make a point here and I don't want to drive this point. You go a little bit of, self-righteousness a little bit of legalism isn't going to hurt. Anybody is going to hurt anything. A little bit of all us drops and murals, and we'll all conform to these rules that are not biblical. This is the point. These are not biblical, but, but a little bit won't hurt us. And what he's saying is it's a little bit of use that. Uh, or literally spreads through, uh, ruins the purity of the dough. Okay. Now again, he's using the image a little goes a long way. That's all he's trying to get across. A little bit of legalism will ruin the entire church. A little bit of legalism in your life will take the joy away from your walk with Jesus a little bit. If it's up to you, it's going to destroy what Jesus did and what harm can a little do. It will spread like, wow. And pretty soon, what will happen is we'll start thinking, we're the legalism police. We're the rule infraction keepers. This is what happens. This is what [00:26:00] ruins it. Well, we'll point out when you're in violation. We'll make sure that, you know, we're talking about you because you and the fill the blanket, you got that tattoo. You got that you have long hair as a guy. You have whatever you want to put in there because we decided you don't get to do that. Even though it's not in there. I just want to save this statement and I'm going to say this strongly. I hope you hear it. All right. Okay. Look, look at me. Alright, look, look at me. You know why God set this up this way. Look because you don't have it in you to do the right thing all the time. You don't have it in you. Christ has it in him. So God made it dependent on him. Oh, but I'm really good. I'm not saying you're not, I'm saying a little violation here will ruin the entire thing. You don't have it in you. It's not, it's not, [00:27:00] it's not part of your DNA. It's not because if you break any of it, you broke all of it. So why would you depend on you when you know, you know, your own heart? Um, then he says to this, this is so strong. You cannot miss. I'm telling you read the Bible because the Bible is just kinda fun and fascinating because verse 12, I got to preach it. It's in here. Right? As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves. If you're not tracking. Circumcision is taking a knife around the four skin of a man's penis. All right there. I said it. I said in church, I hear you. You've got screaming going on in our building. I don't know what's happening on your anyway. Uh, no, some little kids just scream. Uh, these are age appropriate sermons. Okay. Just so we're [00:28:00] clear. All right. No. So, so that's circumcision. So Paul is going, look, if you think that makes you. Why don't you just cut the whole thing off. That's what he said. I didn't, I just read true to the text. One of these, take that knife and just emasculate yourself, castrate yourself. You know, what's interesting. Um, he's gone. That's not going to make you holy is it? But there was a cult kind of a worship of a goddess named, uh Savelle who, uh, had priest who that's. And it was in the region of glacier. It was very well known that these priests did this in devotion to their goddess as, and when he says that they're all going, oh, like them, and he's trying to point out, this is not going to change you. What's going to change you, but it's not going to make it good where you weren't good. All right. Uh, all right, let's move on. All right, we're done. I want to, I'm going to tell you a story. This is a true [00:29:00] story is happening. And I'm going to use a name that is going to trigger a memory in your head. And I got to make sure you don't go to what I'm not talking about. I want to tell you the story of two brothers, uh, Lee and Dennis Horton. Okay. Now, when I say Lee and Dennis Horton do not go to Willie Horton, who was the Michael do caucus. Remember that whole deal? If you were old enough, don't go to Willie Horton, the baseball player, or the white Sox. Don't go there. These two brothers. Uh, made the news last year because they were finally released from prison. Um, they were accused of robbery, murder, convicted, and sentenced to a life in prison without parole. Uh, did this picture come up yet? These are these two guys right here. I'm talking about. All right. And, uh, they were granted clemency and release because the DNA had proven they were not the ones who did it, but they a quarter of a century behind. And what's [00:30:00] fascinating is, um, something Lee wrote and I actually said it, they wrote it down when he said it, I want to read to you what Lee he's the one on the right, what he said, all right. Is I'm going to tell you honestly, the first thing that I was aware of when I walked out of the doors and I sat in the car and the car took off and we were driving and I realized. That I wasn't handcuffed. And for all the time I've been in prison. Every time I was transported anywhere I always had handcuffs on and I always had shackles on. And that moment right there, right there was the most, probably the most emotional moment. I had, even when they told me that the governor had signed the papers and they said the next day tomorrow, we'll be taking you to a place where we would be reintegrated.[00:31:00] It didn't set in until I was in that car and I didn't have those handcuffs on. And then he said, I mean, I was in awe of everything going on around me. It's like, my mind was just heightened to every small new ones and prison takes all of that away. The things that everybody else takes for granted become the best thing in the world to you. You don't have an onion just to cook your food with becomes priceless. He says, when you're in prison, those things are not available. Just having a stove and to be able to just look out of a window, just to walk down a street and just inhale the fresh air, just to see people interacting. These handcuffs took all that away from me because it represented a prison. I was. And until you come to a point to understand you, you were not made for a life in handcuffs. The Jesus died [00:32:00] to literally set you free. That he is the key that opens the lock that has you shackled to the belief that God needed your help for yourself. You know, who puts these on you? You put those on you by listening to people and not the word of God, but letting people tell you what pleases God, instead of discovering for yourself through a relationship with God, what pleases God folks, it's not about a thousand things we've made it about. It's about so much more. When you take off the handcuffs, you're saying no to legalism unnoticed. Self-righteousness. To try and to be good enough, what am I going to do now? What am I going to do? Now? My I'm free. What am I going to do with my freedom? Most of us fear that have got actually made us free. We just go sin and do all kinds of wrong. You come back two weeks from now and I'm going to show you why you won't do [00:33:00] that when Christ sets you free, but let's leave that for then. Well, what am I going to do? What am I doing with my hands now? I mean, my free, can I show you something? We already. But I didn't comment on it. Let me comment on it. Galatians five six says this, the only thing circumcision doesn't count circumcision doesn't matter. That was his point. Then he said this, the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. That's the big idea for the day. And if you didn't catch it, let me show it to you. Again. The only thing that counts Paul said is faith expressing itself. All the other stuff, all the other rules, all the other then count does no. Good. What does matter? What does good faith expressing itself through love? What does that mean? It means I've been set free, set free for what? Oh man. I'm free to serve. I'm free to give. I'm free to talk to people about [00:34:00] Jesus. I'm free to worship. I'm free to sacrifice for others. I'm free to put other people ahead of myself. I'm free to die to myself. I'm free. I'm free to do all that stuff. The only thing that counts is faith expressing, see if you pay attention, you're going to, you're going to think that Christians think a whole lot of other stuff counts and that faith expressing itself through love is not important. Paul said that's absolutely 100%. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. So, Hey, here's my question. Last question. How's your face? Expressing itself through love, because if you want to pay attention to what God's looking for from you, it's not your work. So righteousness is faith expressing itself through love. Would anybody describe you as a person whose faith expresses itself through love? That's what counts? Don't miss it now. [00:35:00] Next week is mother's day. So, Hey, dad's a up, right? Um, Every other year on mother's day, we ask Lisa my bride of 44 years to bring the message. And she's agreed to do that again. She doesn't like to do that. It's not the first thing that she gets out of bed Yahoo. Getting out of bed with me is Yahoo and okay. You know, I, I Gress anyway, uh, but she's agreed. And so she'll bring the message the next week and we're going to honor moms and it's going to be a special day. So I encourage you to be here and not miss that. And then two weeks from now, I'm going to pick the subject up, back to the book of Galatians. Uh we're we're going to talk about why being set free. Will. From living a life of sin, not lead you into a life of sin. So we'll pick that up then. All right, let me pray. And then I'm going to turn this back over to the campus. Pastors are hosts on each and every site and, uh, we'll, uh, we'll just continue in our worship. So God, thank you for, thanks for your word and God why we don't spend more time trying to understand your [00:36:00] heart is beyond me. You are an awesome God and I, that's not a cliche and that's not just a series of words that are meaning. It's absolutely true what you have done and how you've done it. It's so astounding and so amazing. God forgive us for when we try to make this about us and we make this about our rules and our laws and our regulations, and we put all kinds of boundary markers that you just Scott that, uh, because you know that those are not the things that matter. What matters is faith expressing itself through love, faith, expressing itself through love and God, if our faith is not expressing it through love, we are doing nothing. So teach us, convict us, guide us, direct us, motivate us, inspire us. How today can my faith, uh, just express itself by loving somebody in a way that will absolutely blow their mind. I've prayed, convicted father in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you guys for being here.