Clarifying the Story of God

Companies will spend millions of dollars on their logo because their logo is the first thing you think about whenever you think about them. So they need to make sure that they get it done really, really well. And a few of these companies have done such a great job with their logo that they've actually hidden something within their logo that actually speaks to who they are as a company. And I noticed for the first time a few of these this week. Let's start with an easy one. Maybe you've noticed this one before, but this first one is FedEx. In between the E and the X, there's an arrow showing movement, showing we are gonna move your package from one place to the next really, really quickly. And when you see that, you can't unsee it. Now for the rest of the rest, whenever you see the FedEx logo, you're gonna be looking at the arrow. That's actually the least exciting one to me. Check out this next one. Amazon, Amazon. You know, the smiley face at the bottom, that's kind of what I assumed it was. Like you're happy whenever you get an Amazon package. That's not what it means. It starts from A and ends at Z, signifying we have everything you want from A to Z. Yeah, once you see it, you can't unsee it.

How about this one? This is gonna blow your mind. You're getting what you paid for this morning, Toyota. It spells out Toyota in that thing. Isn't that crazy? Like I thought it was crazy. There's a T, an O, a Y, O, T, A. Toyota, right in there. Once you see it, you can't unsee it. It's been there the whole time. This next one is just really deep, so get ready for this one. There's nothing there. That's just a bad logo, yeah. Okay, let's bring it home, bring it home. Dallas, Dallas Mavs. There's an M on the forehead of the horse. Yeah, it's been hidden the whole time. I never noticed that until this week. Last one, last one. Milwaukee Brewers, it's a glove, but it's more than a glove because it's an M and a B turned into a glove. Yeah, it's been hidden the whole time, but now since you've seen it, you won't be able to unsee it. And I start with that this morning because this is really what Paul is gonna do in Galatians chapter three. He's gonna hold up the scriptures

and he's gonna speak to the Jewish people and say, it's been here the whole time. Like, how did you miss this? Like, once you see the truth of the scriptures, you're not gonna be able to unsee it. Like, God's truth has been in here always and yet you've missed it. So I wanna show you something so that when you see it, it will forever change the way you read the scriptures. And he's gonna try to unlock the story of God to these Jewish believers. And my hope is that what we're gonna do this morning is unlock the story of the scriptures for you as well. So the subject for today's message is clarifying the story of God. Clarifying the story of God. Because I bet you've got a lot of questions about scripture. There's a lot to ask about the Bible. Like, is the God of the Old Testament the same as the God of the New? Like, they seem almost like two different beings at times. Is that true? And in the Old Testament, were people accepted by works of the law, but now because of Jesus, we are accepted by grace. Is that what's true? And here's another one. Why in the Old Testament could they not eat shrimp? Like, there's just a lot of things that can be confusing about the scriptures.

And whenever you don't really have a handle on the word of God, you could just be like, I don't really even wanna spend time with it because I don't understand it. That happened to me this week because our toilet broke and it just kept running and running and running. So I took a picture of it and sent it to chat GPT. I'm like, how do I fix it? And it was like, well, the toilet's the easiest thing in your home. There's a flapper and a bobber and a fill valve and a chain. And I'm like, I don't know what a flapper and a bobber is. I couldn't tell you the differences. I just am looking at this. I'm like, get this away from me. I don't understand it. So I don't wanna read this. Like, I just wanna hire somebody else. I did fix it though. It was the fill valve. So yeah, let's go. There we go, praise God, amen. Story of deliverance. I'm gonna put it up on the prayer wall. But that can be your approach to scripture. You're like, man, there's a lot of big themes, a lot of big words. I just don't understand it. So get this away from me

because you might not know the Philistines from the Philippians. You might not know if it's pronounced Malachi or if he's the Italian prophet Malachi. If you don't know, you're just like, get this away. I don't understand. So my hope today is that we're gonna clarify the big themes of scripture so you might better understand the story of God so you'd be more excited to get in the word of God. So this morning, we're gonna be in Galatians chapter three as we continue on in our sermon series. Looking at the book of Galatians, we're gonna be in verses 15 through 29. And honestly, just as a heads up, this is really perhaps the most dense section of Galatians that we will go through. It's a difficult passage. And as we're reading it, I would just challenge you, don't check out, don't give up. I'm gonna do my best to explain it all as we go on. And today at times may feel a little bit like a seminary class, but I think you're gonna learn something. And I know that this is especially difficult here because we have some Aggie grads. So I'm gonna try to speak slowly so you guys can understand it. I'm just jealous that you're six and O. I would give anything.

I understand. So just set up on the text before we get into it. Verse 15, the book of Galatians is about the law and grace. And the Jewish believers in Galatia were saying, hey, these Gentiles who've come to faith, they need to be circumcised. They need to do something in order to be accepted by God. And Paul's gonna step in and say, no, that's not how this works. That's not what scripture is all about. Scripture is not about works of the law, but rather grace through faith. And he's gonna say this over and over and over again. We're gonna see this theme again, repeated here in Galatians 3, chapter 15. Paul writes this. Brothers and sisters, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case. The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say and to seeds, meaning many people, but and to your seed, meaning one person who is Christ. What I mean is this. The law introduced 430 years later does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise. But God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.

So what Paul's doing here is he's taking Galatia back to Genesis. And he's saying, remember, for all of you who are really well-trained in scripture, remember what God did with Abraham. He made a promise to him. In Genesis 17, verse seven, it says this. I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. This is the covenant that Paul is speaking about in Galatians chapter three, where God goes to Abraham and says, I will be your God and you will be my people forever and ever. It's my promise to you and it's never changing. And the first thing we need to understand from this text is this. The covenant is permanent. The covenant is permanent. And the heart of what Paul is doing in this section of the text is he's trying to correct a false belief. And it's a false belief that these Jewish believers had in Galatia, but it's actually also probably a false belief that many of us have about the story of God. Because their false belief about the Old Testament and our false belief about the Old Testament

looks a little bit something like this. It looks like this diagram. We believe that in Genesis chapter 17, God appears to Abraham and makes a covenant with him and says, I will be your God and you will be my people. Now that covenant lasted for 430 years. Then the Israelites were enslaved in Egypt, got set free and then God appears to Moses and gives him the 10 commandments and that ushered in the Mosaic law, which seemingly is a new way to relate with God. That lasts for nearly 1500 years and then Jesus comes, dies on the cross, rises again and establishes a new covenant. But Paul is writing here to correct this, by saying this, what we just read earlier, verse 15. Brothers and sisters, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case. He's going, you guys know how this works. You know how covenants and contracts work? They can't just be changed at will. A couple of weeks ago, I was in Dublin, Ireland to watch the Minnesota Vikings lose to the Pittsburgh Steelers, which was devastating. But as a part of that trip, you look up what are the best things to do in Ireland. Like the number one thing is go tour the Guinness factory. So my friends and I, we went and toured

the Guinness museum slash factory and honestly, it was very underwhelming except the very first thing that they showed us. You walk in and right on the floor, the first thing they show you is this contract that is sealed on the floor and it looks just like this. This is a picture of it. This contract was signed in 1759 by Arthur Guinness and Mark Rainsford. said that Rainsford leased this land to Guinness for 45 euros a year, for 9,000 years. I've never seen a contract like that before. That takes a lot of faith from both people. For 9,000 years, no matter what, it was gonna be 45 euros a year that Guinness had to pay Rainsford. Now that could not be changed. Like if Guinness wasn't doing very well in business, he couldn't go to Rainsford and said, hey, I've changed my mind, I'm gonna pay you 10 euros this year. That wouldn't work. And conversely, if the business had gone really, really well, Rainsford couldn't say, hey, you owe me 90 euros instead of 45 euros this year. No, once it's been signed, it cannot be changed. This is permanent, it's been established. And what Paul is saying, if this is how we know earthly contracts to work, why do you think God works differently?

Why do you think God changed his mind on what he promised? Why do you think his covenant with you has stopped? Because looking at the text in Genesis, God meets with Abraham and says, I will be your God and you'll be my people. This will be an everlasting covenant. Now, how does Abraham enter into that covenant? A couple of chapters earlier in Genesis chapter 15, God appears to Abraham and says, hey, I will give you children. And this is how he enters in. Genesis 15, his name was Abram before it was later changed to Abraham. Abraham believed the Lord and he credited to him as righteousness. Abraham entered in through faith. So God says, my covenant with you is forever. And my covenant is this, if you believe in me, I will be your God and you will be my people, not for 9,000 years, but for forever. So Paul is stepping in and saying, why do you believe this? Let's go back to this graph, this diagram. Why do you believe this? You believe that God is like an evil landowner who's just changing rents on you all the time. Who says, okay, I know we've signed on that rent this month is gonna be through faith, but oops, 430 years later, I changed my mind, rent's going up.

You gotta follow this law and this law and this law and this law. And that's how you're accepted. And then a couple of years later, oops, changed my mind. Jesus came, rent is through faith again. Paul is saying, that's not what God has promised you. He's not just willy nilly changing his mind. What you have to understand about the story of God is that we were not a people of faith, then a people of works, and now a people of faith again. We have always only ever been a people of faith. Because when God sent the law, it did not override the covenant. He says this in verse 17, what we already read. What I mean is this. The law introduced 430 years later does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise because it's only ever been about faith. So the previous diagram is not an accurate representation of scripture, this one is. You see, the Abrahamic covenant was given to us and that's always been the foundation of our faith. But then 430 years later, God appears to Moses, gives him the Mosaic law, and that does not override the covenant, it becomes a companion to the covenant. It is not this is what you must do to be my people, but instead it is if you are my people, you will do this thing.

The law was given not to override the covenant but to be a companion to it. They were still saved by faith in the Old Testament. Then Jesus comes and establishes the new covenant, and again, that doesn't completely override the law, but the law is no longer on tablets of stone, but Ezekiel chapter 36 says that our heart has the law written on it through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is what convicts us of sin. So the law is still partially, as we will touch on in a minute, exists for us today from the Old Testament. But the foundation of our belief has always been that we are accepted by grace through faith, not by works, so that no one can boast. Because God's covenant to us was an unshakable promise, and it never changed because point number one, the covenant is permanent. Now, why did he send the law though? Like if we were always a people of faith, why did he send the law? Well, I'm so glad you asked. It says this next, verse 19. Why then was the law given at all? It was added because of the transgressions until the seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator. It was tradition that they believed that angels gave Moses the 10 commandments.

That's what he's saying here. A mediator. however, implies that more than one party, but God is one. Is the law therefore opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not. For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. But scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe. Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. So why was the law given, to summarize really everything that was just spoken, is this, point number two, the law gave perspective. The law gave perspective. The law gave divine perspective to life, and it gave internal perspective on how we were living our lives. It gave divine perspective to life, and internal perspective on how we were living our life. It gave divine perspective by doing this. Verse 24 says, the law was our guardian until Christ came. That word would be known well to the Galatians, because if you were wealthy in that day and age,

you would hire what was known as a guardian or a tutor to follow your child around. Like they would follow them from your house to school and make sure that your child was behaving well. All throughout the day, that guardian would say, do this, don't do this, or stop doing this and start doing this. Since that child didn't have the maturity, that guardian was there to help them. Similar, like whenever you have your driver's permit and you're driving alongside an adult, that adult is there to say, turn on your blinker, get in the left lane, don't cut that person off, that that person is there to make sure that you don't put yourself in harm's way. In the same way, the law was given to make sure that you and I don't put ourselves in harm's way. It's there to say, do this, don't do this, go this way, because the law wants us to live in a path of flourishing. But how can that be when the Old Testament law was just downright odd? Like multiple times, you read through the Old Testament, you're like, this just doesn't make much sense. In fact, atheists will often bring up the Old Testament law and say, why would you believe in a God that's just toying with his people? Like they're puppets saying, don't eat things like shrimp. Like, why in the world? He's just trying to control people.

I would never want to follow a God who would make laws like that. Well, like this one, Deuteronomy 14, nine and 10. Of all the creatures living in the water, you may eat any that has fins and scales, but anything that does not have fins and scales, you may not eat, for you it is unclean. What do you do with that? Like that is God saying, you can eat salmon, but not shrimp. Why? Like again, is he just toying with his people saying, I'm gonna see if you'll follow me. Why would he do that? Here's why, he loves his people. And I don't want to ruin shrimp for you, but shrimp, they're actually the garbage eaters of the sea. Like they just float around and what they eat is dead plant matter, dead animal matter, and any debris they can find. So they just stuff themselves with garbage. And then especially in ancient day and age, without refrigeration, shrimp would spoil very, very quickly and they'd frequently have parasites and toxins. So the people of God hear this from God. They don't know all that about shrimp and they're just like, okay, we're gonna try to follow the law, try to follow the law. Meanwhile, they're looking around at other people, other nations and they're getting sick and they're not because God gave them the law.

Something that they didn't know apart from God, God gave them divine perspective to say, don't eat that, it will make you sick. Why did God do that? Because he loves his people. Here's another odd one. Why did God give this one? Deuteronomy chapter two, verse 11. Do not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together. Again, what do you do with that? Atheists will be like, your God is silly. Why would he do that? Here's why. This wouldn't be known until the 20th century, centuries after this law was given, but linen actually has healing properties within it. Among other things, it is antimicrobial in nature, which can help heal wounds. It reduces infection. It prevents bacteria and fungus and it's a natural hypoallergenic. But when mixed with wool, all of those healing properties cancel out. So why would God give this to his people? because he's kind and he loves his people. He wants them to flourish. He's a guardian to his people. You see, this is who our God was, who he is, and who he always will be. He wants the people to eat things that would promote health

and to wear things that would promote health because God loves his people because he's established a covenant with them. So the law was given so that we could have his perspective on life, but it was also given so that we could have perspective on how we were living our life. Verse 19, if you have the word of God open in Galatians, says this, that the law was added because of transgressions. God gave the law because he wanted people to see the sin in their heart. He gave them this perfect law and said, follow it. And then immediately they realized that they couldn't. Over and over and over again, they fell short. It gave them perspective to see that they were sinful people. The book of James in the New Testament says that the law was given to be a mirror. It was a mirror to us. Now, what is the purpose of a mirror? The purpose of a mirror is to show off imperfections. Like I look at this mirror to see if I've got anything in my teeth. I look at this to see if my hair's messed up or if I've got a smudge on my face. Like the purpose of this mirror is to show my imperfections. Now, it would be a silly thing to look into this mirror and see that I've got something in my teeth and to use this mirror to like try to get it out,

try to floss with it, try to brush my teeth with it. Or if I saw that I had something in my hair, I would not use this to like get it out. Why? Because the purpose of this mirror isn't to drive you to the mirror, it's to drive you to something outside the mirror that can help. The mirror doesn't say, you have an imperfection, let me make you perfect. This mirror says, you have an imperfection, you gotta find someone else who can fix it. See, this is what the law was meant to do. The law was not meant to say, you are imperfect, come deeper into me. But it's saying, you gotta find somebody else. I can't do anything about your heart. You don't just have a smudge on your heart, like it's all broken. And you gotta find somebody else who can fix it. The good news is we know who that is. Later in this passage, Paul writes like this. He says this, verse 23. Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. So the law was not meant to fix us or to free us. Rather, it was sent to show us our slavery to sin. The law was sent to show us our chains, to show us our bondage so that we might be desperate

for somebody to break us out. So we wouldn't be content in our sins, we wouldn't be content in our slavery, but instead we would eagerly desire someone with the keys. And the good news is Jesus Christ left heaven to enter into earth to follow the law perfectly so that when he died on a cross, then three days later rose again, he unlocked the keys to your chain so that you could go free. And the law was given so that you would be driven to him, the man with the keys who can fix you and can free you. Now, I wanna answer one more question about the law before we move on. Maybe you're asking, aren't there still some Old Testament laws we have to follow and some we don't? Like, that's confusing to me. I think this will be helpful to you. The law came in three parts. Check out this chart. The law came through a civil law, a ceremonial law, and a moral law. If you look at all the laws in the Old Testament can be broken down into those three things. The civil law was given to the government, to the people who are leading the people of God, Israel. So laws like this, show no pity, life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. That was not for person to person,

that was for the government to enact the law. And then the other one was the ceremonial law. Now this was for worship, for purification, laws like this. The 10th day of this seventh month is the day of atonement. Hold a sacred assembly and deny yourselves and present a food offering to the Lord. So laws about like how to sacrifice animals. Those first two types of laws we no longer have to follow because we are not the people of God in the Old Testament. We do not live in Israel in the Old Testament. So we don't have to follow the civil laws, we don't have to follow the ceremonial laws because Jesus was our perfect sacrifice for us. We don't have to clean ourself up to be perfect. Jesus was perfect on our behalf. But the third one is the moral law. Laws like this, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, commit adultery or covet. Leviticus 19, 18, love your neighbor as yourself. We must still follow these laws. In fact, in the gospels, Jesus doesn't just say, yes, you should follow them, but he actually raises the call on them. In the Sermon on the Mount, he says, I tell you, you do not just commit adultery if you do the physical act of it, but if you have a lustful thought. So all of these laws were not written away, they were actually raised up.

So still today, we must look into the moral law and see our sin. The Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin, not though to drive us to shame, but to our savior. Because the gospel says that your sins have been forgiven as far as the East is from the West. So we see our sin and say, Jesus, I cannot clean myself up, but you can. And if you came in here this morning saying, I feel like I can't get to God on my own, the good news is you can't. But Jesus came so that you could get to God in spite of your sin, in spite of your broken heart. So why the law? Point number two, the law gave perspective. Let's keep reading, finishing out this passage. Verse 25 says this. Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. So in Christ Jesus, you are all children of God through faith. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ. There's neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. So Paul says, if you are in Christ, you get to take part in the promise

that was given to Abraham in Genesis chapter 17. I will be your God and you will be my people. And back in Genesis, Paul writes this, that he said that your seed would bless the world. That seed is Jesus Christ. And whenever we place our faith in him, we too are grafted into this promise because now there's no longer Jew or Gentile or slave or free or male or female. It is only in Christ or not in Christ. Verse 29 says this. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. So Paul is saying all of these promises have led up to this moment in Jesus. And this is point number three. The son was the promise fulfilled. The son was the promise fulfilled. And in verse 20, what we just read, it says, if you belong to Christ, you are heirs and Abraham's seed. Well, how do you know that you belong to Christ? How do you know if you're in? Couple of verses earlier, what we just read, verse 26. So in Christ, you are all children of God through faith. We are God's children through faith. How was Abraham a part of God's family? Genesis 15, six, what we read earlier. Abram believed the Lord and he credited it to him as righteousness.

You see, I hope you see this clearly. It has always been about faith and it will always be about faith. My hope is once you see this, you won't be able to unsee this, that every page in scripture is declaring not that you must work your way into acceptance, but you believe your way into acceptance. Right there in plain sight for all of us to see from Genesis to Galatians, it's always been about faith. And if that's true, what do you do? You guard your faith like your life depends on it. Again, a couple of weeks ago when I was in Dublin, Ireland, my friends and I, since we're just loaded, we stayed in a hostel. And if you don't know what a hostel is, it's a great idea. It's like an Airbnb with strangers. It's just a blast. And since I'm in Ireland, I had my passport and I was just like, I'm just gonna leave my passport on the bed. No, absolutely not. The entire time I was there, I kept my passport in this pocket because I also read online. I was like, is it safe in Dublin? And they said there's pickpocketers. So I didn't put it in my back pockets, I put it in this pocket. And as we've been walking down the street,

I just be there feeling it the whole time. Is it there? Is it there? Is it there? I need to make sure my passport's there because that's how I'm getting home. A couple of days, it rained while we were there. So I made sure I had this pocket in my rain jacket that was right here. I'd make sure it was zipped up all the way and I just feel it right there frequently. Is it there? Is it there? Is it there? Because this is my way home. And whenever I got to the Dublin airport and I got to whatever their version of TSA is, you know what they didn't do? They didn't look at me and say, were you good while you were here? Did you make good choices? They didn't say, you know, you don't look like you're an American. I don't think we can send you home. They didn't say, you don't have enough money to go home. All they said was, do you have your passport? And since I had my passport, since I had guarded it, since I had protected it, I could go home. Now, one day you and I are gonna die and I sure hope there's not TSA in heaven.

But if there is, I know that you're not gonna get to the gates of heaven and have some security officer say, were you good down there? You know, you don't really look like a Christian. Did you give enough to get into heaven? All they're gonna say is, do you have your faith that Jesus Christ so loved you that he left heaven to enter into earth and he lived a perfect life, fulfilling a law which you never could do, but then he became the perfect substitutionary atonement sacrifice on the cross. He died and rose again so that we could be forgiven of our sins and have a hope and a future and have a spot in heaven. I'm accepted into heaven, not because of what I've done, but because of what Jesus has done. And if you have that, if you have your faith, then friends, you're going home. Yeah. Yeah. It doesn't matter what you've done, what you look like, how much money you've given, it's all about your faith. And if that's true, what do you do? You guard it like your life depends on it. And you do not let your pursuit of a career crowd you out. You do not let the music you listen to push your faith out. You do not let select baseball shove it out. You do not let the pursuit of more money move your faith aside.

You do not let anything or anyone get in the way of your faith because your faith is the most precious thing you have. So every single morning, when you wake up, your thought is, I just gotta make sure it's there. And not just there, I wanna make sure it grows. I wanna love Jesus more today than I did yesterday because I believe that this is the path to flourishing, not just here on earth, but eternal life with Jesus. It's the most important thing I have. So I'm not gonna focus on anything else because I'm gonna protect this. Because this is the most important thing in your life and in my life because faith is our way home. It always has been, it always will be. So in summary, point number one, the covenant is permanent. Point number two, the law gave perspective. And point number three, the son was the promise fulfilled. Well, to close, let me take you back to another experience at an airport. This time it was DFW, it was about a year ago and I was flying to Knoxville, Tennessee. And it was one of those terrifying moments. I don't have a TSA pre-check or any of that stuff. And I show up to the airport, it was like an hour early, I felt good enough. And you walk in and your just heart just drops because you see the line through security. It like wraps around this corner and another corner

and another corner and another corner. And the whole time I'm like, I don't think I'm gonna make it. The longer I'm standing in line, the slower it goes. I'm doing the math in my head. I'm like, I don't think I'm gonna make it. And because of that, I just had to make sure I knew where I was going. So I stood in line and I stared at my boarding pass and I just saw, okay, my gate was E33, E33, E33. So the entire time I'm standing in the security line, I'm like E33, E33, E33. As soon as I get out of here, I'm gonna shoot out of this gate. I'm gonna put my shoes on and I'm gonna run to E33. So eventually after that long winding line, I got through security, throw my shoes on, look at the sign, see that E33 is this way, throw on my backpack and I just start sprinting to the gate. And once I get there, my heart sank again because it said El Paso, Texas. Yeah, I'm like, what happened? What do you mean? What do you mean El Paso, Texas? I'm really flustered and even kind of angry at this moment. So I go up to the gate agent and I said, sir, what happened? Did I miss my flight? I think it's boarding like right now, like right now. What happened?

Look at my ticket. And he said, oh, sir, E33 is your seat number. You're at E19, E19 is going to Knoxville. So these same people that have just watched me run by this way, I grab my backpack and run back this way. And it was one of those moments, like only you see in a movie where you're like the last person on and they close the gate behind you. And you see, I had almost missed it because I was focused on the wrong thing. I had it all in front of me, like the gate. was in front of me, the seat was in front of me, I just was focused on the wrong thing. And because I was focused on the wrong thing, I almost missed it. I almost missed the flight to where I was wanting to go. And Paul is writing this chapter to the Galatians saying, look, look, look, you've been focused on the wrong thing. It's been in front of you this whole time. You've been through faith so that none of us can boast. Don't miss your way home because you've been focused on the wrong thing. The same is true for us as a church at Harris Creek today in 2025. My urging to you is what Paul's urging was to the Galatians. Don't be focused on the wrong thing. Don't be focused on all the things you can do, all the money you can give, how faithful you can be, but instead just be in awe about how faithful he has been, about how good he has been, about how forgiving he has been, and focus on him. Don't you dare focus on you, and when you do that, you'll make your flight home. Let me pray that we would. Father, thank you so much for your word that we could study it for a lifetime and only scratch the surface about how good it is and how deep it is, and it's just an amazing thing. I can read the word of God to my four-year-old daughter, and she understands it, and you can read it as an 80-year-old and just still be in awe of all the depth of Scripture. Father, thank you for the genius of the word of God. Father, help us to love the word of God. Help us to see the right things in Scripture, that the enemy wouldn't blind us to the truth of Scripture, that the truth has been

ever since Genesis, that it's by faith that we are saved, that it's by faith that we are accepted in your sight. Father, thank you that this faith is in you. It's in the finished work of Jesus Christ. It's not a faith in my faithfulness. It's a faith in your faithfulness, that you did what I could not. You followed the law perfectly. You were the perfect sacrifice for my sin, and then you rose again in all power so that we could have a hope and a future. So, Father, may our church be known for big belief, for people who guard our faith, who protect our faith, who more than anything else want to finish this race well, believing in you more today than we did yesterday. So, Father, may we be found faithful here, and Father, thank you that you were faithful here, and thank you more than anything else that Jesus is alive and with us and for us. It's in his name we pray. Amen.