2) Staying the pace what is hindering you or tripping you up. 3) Serving people what does it really mean to serve one another with love

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1 Page 1 Galatians 5:1-15 Freedom to love Intro: Freedom for what.. freedom to love 3 things: 1) Setting priorities what really counts? 2) Staying the pace what is hindering you or tripping you up 3) Serving people what does it really mean to serve one another with love 1) Setting priorities (What really counts?) Historian Paul Johnson says Winston Churchill did more for humanity than any other figure of the 20 th Century. No man did more to preserve freedom and democracy and the values we hold dear in the West. But what, according to Johnson, was the key to Churchill s remarkable success as a statesman, leader, and champion of freedom? Knowing what counts. Churchill had an uncanny gift for getting priorities right. Setting priorities in our life is very important. What really counts? What is secondary in importance? The big issue that Paul is addressing in this letter is how to be right with God. How to have a relationship with God? The word that he uses is righteous or righteousness. How to be right with God. What counts? What is important? 5:2 If you are counting on circumcision to make you right with God, then Christ will be of no benefit to you. (NLT)

2 Page 2 If I held a vote this morning, I am guessing that there are not many people here that think you need to be circumcised to be made right with God. I think, among the men, I would probably get a 100% vote on that. Circumcision and the Mosaic law are not really our issue. But if we leave out the word circumcision, we get closer to the issue for many people today. 5:2 If you are counting on to make you right with God, then Christ will be of no benefit to you. (NLT) HIGNFY fill in the blank What might some of the things be that people insert in that box? Your own efforts to be good. Your 12-step programme Your religious life.. your sense of spirituality your belief in a God or spiritual power of some kind. Mindfulness.meditation.doing good things.being a good person. What do you think that you might insert into that gap? What are you counting on to make you right with God? There s a kind of repetition in verse 4: 5:4 if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God s grace. (NLT) This statement is maybe nearer to us culturally than the first. Again, let s play fill the gap game

3 Page 3 5:4 if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God s grace. (NLT) By keeping the ten commandments. By being a moral and upright person. By treating others as I would wish to be treated. By developing the spiritual aspects of my life through whatever means. What are you counting on? By what means are you trying to be right with God? Setting priorities. What really counts? What does Paul say. 5:6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. The life that pleases God is characterised by trust or faith in God and Jesus Christ, and love for others is the fruit or the result of that faith. Faith is the root.and love is the fruit. Paul is uncompromising in his stance: Only faith in Jesus Christ counts for your freedom and salvation, nothing else. We are living in a pluralistic society. Our politicians and media pundits argue over whether Britain is a Christian country. But it is increasingly the case that many gods, many ways of spirituality,

4 Page 4 are intermingled and mixed together and presented as equally valid. All roads lead to God. Find and make your own spiritual connection to God. New Age. New Atheism. Relativism. I find that when I am invited to say a prayer at an event, pray a blessing, people are okay for me to mention God, in a kind of generic sense, but much less comfortable with Jesus. Jesus as the Son of God. Jesus as part of the trinity. Jesus who claims to be the only way to God. Whether Paul is standing at the Areopagus and preaching to Greeks, or whether he is speaking before Roman political leaders, or to Jews, or Gentiles. He preaches Jesus Christ and faith in him as the only way to salvation, the only way to God. There is no other way. This is what counts. Faith in Jesus. Expressing itself in love. This is the argument of Galatians 3:2 and 3:5 and Galatians 6:15. It s the argument of Ephesians 2:9-10 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. This is what really counts, writes Paul. It is still what really counts today. Placing your faith and belief and trust in Jesus Christ. 2) Staying the pace (What is hindering you?)

5 Page 5 Saving faith is what gets us started on our journey with God. Paul likens this journey to a race - a marathon. The starting line of that race is when we commit our lives to following Jesus and place our trust in him. The finishing line is heaven and the final judgment when we die, and stand before God, and are rewarded for our faith and trust in Jesus. The prize for completing the race is eternal life itself, what the Bible refers to as the crown of life, held out for those that endure to the end. Paul uses this race metaphor and imagery a fair amount. It was well understood by his audience of the day, with their games, and races, and wreaths for the winners. So he writes towards the end of his own life: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day. (2 Timothy 4:7-8) Now Paul asks the Galatian believers: 5:7 You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth? 1984 Los Angeles Olympics 3000m women s final Zola Budd and Mary Decker Who cut in on you? The Christians were running well but then There was persuasion. Confusion. Agitation What was it that tripped them up? False doctrine. Poor teaching. Wrong beliefs and mind-sets. Wrong narratives.

6 Page 6 I see this in church in our church. People seem to be running well, progressing in faith, serving, growing in community And then something trips them up. They pick up some strange teaching from somewhere, listen to a podcast, pick up stuff off the internet, get side-tracked with a niche issue. They take offence at something or someone in the church. They develop a narrative in their head a way of thinking that is wrong, that is informed by past hurts, they believe the lies of our enemy, the devil, they accept accusations against their brothers and sisters in Christ develop negative thought patterns They return to a way of life that they followed before placing their faith in Jesus They trust in their own hard work and good works rather than grace and faith and they tire themselves out and flame out One minute they were running with the pack the next minute they have fallen behind, or fallen by the side of the track. 5:7 You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth? It s easy to go off at a sprint, to lead the pack for a while, to set the pace. But the Christian life is not a 100 m sprint, it is a marathon. We need to keep going through the middle miles, through the monotony, through the pain, through the is it worth it times, through the wall. Talking about ministry settings, I heard Bill Hybels once say to a group of leaders that most people give up in the middle years When you are starting out it is easy to be enthusiastic and full of vision and fervour and energy.

7 Page 7 When you are nearing the end, you know that the finishing line is in sight and that you have almost finished. It s often in that middle stretch, when the starting line is a long way behind you and the finishing line is nowhere in sight. When you get hit by life, and relationship issues, and conflict, and difficulties, and fatigue Mental toughness plays a part. Persistence and endurance play a part. Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, plays a part. Keeping going plays a part. Not giving up. Being careful of what and who we listen to. Being obedient to Jesus. Continuing. Celebrating milestones and progress Running with others. Not letting others trip us up. Staying the pace. What is hindering you? 3) Serving people (What does it mean to serve one another with love?) 13-15:

8 Page 8 Faith expressing itself in love. Faith is the root love is the fruit. You are called to be free. But don t use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature, rather serve one another in love The reality and mess of church community or any genuine community. The mess of congregation. (Peterson) A mess worth making. As authors Timothy Lane and Paul Tripp write: While we would like to avoid the mess and enjoy deep and intimate community, God says that it is in the very process of working through the mess that intimacy (and true community) is found. (Relationships: A Mess Worth Making) These verses in Galatians identify the key to working successfully through the mess we call church: Through love serve one another. The alternative that Paul writes about is biting and devouring each other. destroying each other. Let s look at what it is, in very practical terms, to indulge the sinful nature, and what it is to serve one another in love. Indulging the sinful nature: When we hold on to an unforgiving spirit or harbour a grudge towards another person When we fail to overlook minor offences. Proverbs 19:11 says it is wisdom to overlook an offence. Yet, because our flesh, or sinful nature, is so proud and vain, it is easily offended often by even the slightest thing.

9 Page 9 When we allow ourselves to put a negative spin on the actions of others. In 1 Cor 13, Paul writes that love believes all things When we indulge ourselves in speaking negatively about others. Do not speak evil against one another writes James. When we engage in conversation with those who are negative or when we continue in conversation when the conversation turns negative. Gossip. Critical speech. Harsh words. Insults. Sarcasm. Ridicule. When we fail to deal with our personal grievances swiftly and directly. When we are slow to deal with our personal grievances, we give opportunity not only to our sinful nature, but, as Paul writes in Ephesians, we also give the devil a foothold into our life and community. What is then the best way to keep the sinful nature at bay? It is to do the exact opposite: rather than giving into the desires to protect and promote ourselves, instead we serve one another with love. But how? We serve one another through love when We pray for one another. This is a vital and yet often overlooked way of serving one another. Pray for one another writes James. We bear with one another. I Paul urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called bearing with one another in love (Eph. 4:1-2) Deciding to overlook offences and not letting them trip us up. Keep loving one another, because love covers a multitude of sins (1Peter 4:8) We encourage one another with edifying words. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up.

10 Page 10 We esteem those who are over us in the Lord, those that lead us. We ask you brothers to respect those who labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. (1 Thess. 5:12-13) We count others more significant than ourselves. (Phil 2:1-4) The freedom we have is the freedom to love one another, not to serve ourselves. 1) Setting priorities what really counts? 2) Staying the pace what is hindering you or tripping you up 3) Serving people what does it really mean to serve one another with love Community group questions and discussion points: 1. 5:2 If you are counting on to make you right with God, then Christ will be of no benefit to you. (NLT) 5:4 if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by, you have been cut off from Christ! What are some of the things that people/we fill these gaps with?

11 Page What is the only thing that counts, according to Paul? What is it that makes us right with God? 3. 5:7 You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth? What is that has tripped up the Galatian Christians? What are some of the things that trip us up and hinder us in our race? (See also Hebrews 12:1-2) 4. The Christian life is a marathon not a 100m sprint. How do we keep going when we get weary? When we feel like giving up? How can we encourage each other and ourselves to run with perseverance the race marked out for us? How can we stay the pace? (see also 2 Timothy 4:7-8) 5. Paul said that we are free Christ has set us free. But we should not use our freedom to indulge the sinful nature, instead we should serve one another in love. What are some of the ways that you think we serve the sinful nature and how can we genuinely serve one another in love? (Geoff gave some ideas which you can look at, you may be able to add your own.) 6. For reflection and prayer, and maybe sharing in smaller groups..in response to this passage of scripture, what do you think the one thing is that you can address, change, think about, pray about in your own life.