Grace Changes Everything, October 26, 2025

link in the description well good morning fellowship say good morning to the chapel and those who are joining us online around central Arkansas around the state around the country and parts around the world we're so glad that you're here with us this morning and if you have your Bible I encourage you to go to Galatians chapter 2 Galatians chapter 2 we're in this series called grace changes everything and that is so true and so powerful in our lives and I pray that you will be encouraged as we venture and journey through this book of Galatians and and we see how grace truly changes everything if we haven't had a chance to meet yet my name is Brandon Bernard I'm one of the teaching pastors here at Fellowship Bible Church we'd like to remind our church family that we're one church in multiple locations we just get ready to launch our seventh campus in North Little Rock and Alan Greenwood our campus pastor there is working with a core group of people to develop and see what God might do in that area and so we're so thankful for just our church family and what God's doing in this place called fellowship and so if you're a guest with us here today thank you thank you for being with us either online or in person and we hope and pray that God will meet you in this place and will encourage your heart today a matter of fact I would love to pray for us you know it's so good when someone prays for you and so I just want to take a moment this morning and pray for you this morning because God knows what's going on in your heart and mind he knows what you're trying to sort out right now knows what you're excited about knows what you're worried about concerned about discouraged about he knows everything that's going on in your heart and mind and so right now I just want to take a moment and just pray for you for our church family for our city let's do that right now God thank you so much for this morning Lord thank you for waking us up thank you for giving us life and breath well thank you for giving us purpose in this life not just in this life but in the life to come thank you for the joy that is ours for those of us who believe and trust in you so I just pray that this morning you would give those of us who are believers that you

would give us a deep amount of praise Lord your word says that every day I will bless your name forever and ever I will bless you for great is the Lord and greatly to be praised and so I just pray that would be the heartbeat of every follower of you this morning that we would bless your name that we would give you the praise that you so deserve that we would delight in you that we would delight in your ways and like the scripture says that you are greatly to be praised and so I pray for every man and woman who's in here today every student that's in here today God that you would help us to greatly praise you not just with our lips with our lives and Lord I want to pray for those who are here today who are experiencing difficulties hardships pain suffering loneliness or discouragement distraction in their life and I pray that you would be their peace and be their comfort be their strong tower be their refuge or the for those who feel confused you feel like life is chaotic right now would you be the calm and steady presence in their life would you help them to realize Lord that you can be their solid rock their firm foundation well for those that are here that that don't know you they're still on this journey they're trying to figure out what faith really is or trying to figure out how to make sense of life I just pray that you'd help them to realize that they are a sinner and they do stand in need of a Savior and that they cannot save themselves Lord only you can do that you're the one who paid for our sins on the cross in our place and God raised you from the dead Jesus and because you defeated death we can have life in you and so I pray this morning that you would fill hearts and lives with the good news of your grace this morning Lord we pray for those that are serving our students and our kids this morning we pray that you would strengthen them and help them we pray for our special needs friends and as they're being ministered to this morning as they minister to us as well or we just pray for blessings upon them and we pray for tonight as we can have time together with families hopefully all across our community Lord just connecting and having some fun together and we pray for a meaningful time in that way Lord we love you and we pray

that you'd be honored in this time it's in Christ's name we pray amen amen so Galatians chapter 2 finding ourselves talking about the good news of grace the good news of grace everybody likes to get good news I would think you know everybody wants good news in their life even just yesterday I opened a package a letter in the mail that was from my mortgage company and they said I'd paid too much escrow in and they gave me some money back and so it was really encouraging to me. I knew that I'd been paying too much in so it was nice to get it back and acknowledged and so good news, right? Everyone likes to be able to get good news. And so in this passage, Paul gives us the good news of grace. And it really is great news for us. It's the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ and what that means. And I love what John Stott said so many years ago. He said the best way to serve the church, so for all of you believers, all of you who call fellowship home and you're believers in Jesus Christ, listen to what he said. He said the best way to serve the church is to believe and preach the gospel. That's the best way to serve the church is to be able to believe and to preach. Now not just like get up on a stage and preach but with your life, with the conversations that you have,

that you actually believe and preach the good news of Jesus Christ because that's what gospel means. It means good news. But I would say this, to truly appreciate good news, you need to understand the bad news first. To really appreciate good news, you really need to understand the bad news first. And here's what the scripture says about us. It says that everyone has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. So we all need to be reminded of that today. That we have all sinned. There's not anybody in here who has never sinned. Even as innocent as our kids may seem, mostly in their sleep, but even as innocent as they may seem, right? We're all sinners. And we fall short of the glory of God. And that's a real problem. You know why? Because we were all created to glorify God. That's why all of us are created. Every person on the planet was created to glorify God. To display his infinite worth, if you will. And everyone falls short of that. Everyone falls short of that. And it says the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

So the payment for sin is death. But what the scripture goes on to say is that God demonstrated his love for us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. So God demonstrated, he showed his love for us and that while we were sinners, that Christ died for us. Listen, church, this is the good news of the gospel. This is why we need to preach the gospel to ourselves every single day. Because some of us have bad memories. We're forgetful. We forget what God has done for us in Christ Jesus. We forget that he paid the price through Jesus Christ for our sins on the cross. God demonstrated that love. And by the way, he goes on to say there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. How great is that? We have so many people that come in here and sit in here, listen to messages here. So many people that are dealing with condemnation in their life, they feel condemned. They feel shame, they feel guilt. It's all over them. They feel overwhelmed by it. And yet the scripture says this, there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. That's good news. It also says that nothing can separate us from the love of God.

That's good news. And it says this, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, he is ultimate, he is the ultimate authority. There's no one higher, there's no one greater, there's no one stronger, there's no one more powerful, there's no one mightier than he is. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and you believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, the scripture says this, you will be saved. That's the gospel, that Jesus Christ came to save sinners, you and me. So when we talk about the good news of grace, when we talk about the gospel of grace, this is what we're talking about. This is what we're talking about. Matter of fact, I'm going to ask you three questions at the end of the message, but I'm gonna go ahead and ask them now too. Three questions that I want you to realize that we're talking about today. First one is this, are you in need of God's grace? Are you in need of the gospel of grace? Let me go ahead and answer that for you. Yes, there's not a person in here. If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, guess what? You're still in need of God's grace. Every single moment of every single hour

of every single day. And there are some of you here who've never put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ and you're kind of wandering through life. Maybe you think things are going okay right now, but you don't realize that you're a sinner and that you need a savior. You need someone to save you and you are in need of grace. Second question, are you staying true to the gospel of grace? That would definitely be for those of you who are believers in Jesus Christ. Are you staying true? Are you being committed to the good news of grace? And then are you spreading the gospel of grace in your life? Is that what's happening? Paul's gonna give us reasons of why we need to be living this way. And so I want you to look with me in Galatians chapter two, beginning in verse one. Here's what it says. Paul says this, that after 14 years, I went up again to Jerusalem. So basically the last time he was in Jerusalem was what people would think of as the last time he was converted. Remember Paul was. On the journey, his name was Saul, and he was on the road to Damascus, and he was struck by basically a blinding light,

and he was knocked off his horse. Interesting that we have a phrase called being knocked off your high horse, remember that? Some of you don't remember that. Well, Paul was literally knocked off a horse because of a blinding light. He was persecuting the church. He was killing people in the name of God. And God met him on the road to Damascus. And he saved him. And he was in Jerusalem being cared for. And basically he said, last time I was there 14 years ago, I went up against Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. So basically Barnabas is a Jew, Titus is a Gentile. So it's almost like two Jews and a Gentile go to Jerusalem, right? Not a joke. They're going to Jerusalem for a reason. He says, I went up because of revelation that was set before him. Though privately before those who seemed influential, the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles in order to make sure that I was not running or had not run in vain. And he basically says, God sent me a revelation. God spoke to me. God told me it was time to go to Jerusalem. He says this, but even Titus who was with me was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek.

Yet because of the false brother secretly brought in who slipped in to spot our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus so that they might bring us into slavery, to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. Let me tell you, this passage is very serious. It's very serious. And if you as a believer truly understand what's being said here, at some point, maybe even today, you will get on your knees and you will throw your hands up to the sky and you will praise God for the grace that he's given to us. This was a tense moment in the life of the church. Verse six, and from those who seem to be influential, what they were makes no difference to me. God shows no partiality. Those, I say, who seemed influential, I love the way he says that, they seemed influential. They really weren't. But they seemed influential. They added nothing to me. By the way, this is not what you want on your tombstone. This person added nothing to me. He said, on the contrary, when they saw that I'd been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised, for he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised

worked also through me from mine to the Gentiles. And when James and Cephas and John, who seem to be pillars, right? Cephas is, by the way, it's Peter there. When James and Cephas and John, who seem to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me. They basically said, yes, we're on the same page. We're preaching the same gospel. It says that we should go to the Gentiles and they to be circumcised. It says only they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do. So this is a very instrumental passage in the scriptures where Paul is going up to Jerusalem and he's taking Barnabas, who's a Jew, he's taking Titus, who's a Gentile, a Greek, and he's going up because God has told him to go. Now, the whole reason he was going was not necessarily for this conversation. We don't know what the revelation was. We don't know that. People can speculate all they want to, but it just says I went up because of a revelation that was set before me. And so here's what we know, right? We see some things in Paul. The first thing is this, we see in Paul a passion for staying true to the gospel of the grace of God, right? He receives a revelation from God to go up to Jerusalem

and he says, yes, I'm going to go. He was all about staying true to the gospel of the grace of God. He was burdened by people who were distorting the gospel and he was called by God to address that. What he knew was was that there actually were people in Jerusalem that were pitting Peter and Paul against each other and basically saying these guys are preaching a different gospel. Like Paul is preaching one type of gospel good news and Peter's preaching another type of gospel good news. And so they were kind of pitting them against each other. They were creating this kind of tension. And so Paul gets to Jerusalem. He finds out, knows that this is going on. He's going to speak to it. But I want to give you a few things here that I think is interesting. I want to highlight Paul's obedience to God's calling. Because we don't know what the revelation was, but God clearly spoke to him, called him to go to Jerusalem, called him to do something, and Paul said yes. So I want to highlight his sensitivity to hearing God's voice and his sensitivity to being obedient to God's voice. And I want to ask, is fellowship. filled with men and women who are sensitive to the voice of God and are obedient to the voice of God. Because God speaks to us through his word. God speaks to us often through his word.

And do we have men and women here at Fellowship who are being cultivated in grace in such a way that says, man, I wanna hear God speak through his word and I wanna be obedient to him. Now, I know that we do. We do have men and women who are living that way. And may God make it more so. That we are sensitive to what God's saying and we wanna do what he says. That's what Paul was doing. He was staying true to the gospel, the grace of God. He was being obedient to the call that God had given him. Now, I wanna remind you of something that we spoke about a couple weeks ago. Galatians 1, six through nine says this. I'm astonished that you're so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and turning to a different gospel. Not that there is another gospel, right? There's not another one. But there are some who trouble you and they wanna distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we are an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you, let him be accursed. As we've said before, now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel that is contrary to the one that you've received, the true gospel that God sent his son Jesus Christ into the world to save sinners,

that Jesus lived a perfect sinless life. He died a cruel death on the cross in our place for our sins. God raised him from the dead. And because he defeated death, we can have life in him. He said, if anyone's preaching something different than that, let them be accursed. Accursed on them. So what we understand is that Paul is seriously taking the gospel and he's saying, listen, we've gotta stay true to what the gospel really is. Something we have to know about the apostle Paul. And I would love it to be true about you and me, that we are staying true to what the gospel really is. That it's not something else other than Jesus Christ and him crucified and raised from the dead to forgive us of our sins, to give us eternal life in him. So Paul was adamant about that. And here's what we know. The good news of grace that he's proclaiming. Here's what we know. The good news of grace is, and it will always be, Jesus plus nothing equals everything. Jesus plus nothing equals everything. Now, some of you like math, some of you don't, okay? But this equation is incredibly important. Jesus plus nothing equals everything. That's the good news of grace kind of in a nutshell, if you will. Acts 4.12 reminds us of this.

There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. So the scripture makes it abundantly clear. Fellowship, listen to this. Scripture makes it abundantly clear that all roads do not lead to heaven. All roads do not lead to heaven. Now, we live in a culture where people equate love and tolerance. And if you don't tolerate me, you don't tolerate my behavior, don't tolerate my beliefs, and you don't love me. But the reality of it is is that God has stated very clearly in his word that there is only one way to heaven. There is only one way to a relationship with God, and it's through Jesus Christ. Now, sometimes people are like, I just don't wanna offend anybody. Well, you know what? I'm okay to offend somebody if I'm truly loving them. In the sense of, it would be unloving for us to say, you know what, it doesn't matter. Believe what you wanna believe. Believe what you wanna believe. It's all gonna work out in the end. Don't worry about that. Hey, you believe what you wanna believe, and you believe in the God you wanna believe in,

and hey, it's okay. It's all gonna be okay. And if we're just nice to each other, and we're good to each other, and we kinda do some good works, and we just kinda believe whatever we wanna believe, it's all gonna be okay. It's all gonna work out in the end. That is not what the Scriptures teach, and it would be unloving for us not to tell you that. The good news of grace is that Jesus plus nothing equals everything. This is about Jesus Christ. There's nothing to add or earn, right? There's nothing to add or earn. Nothing to add to the gospel, nothing to do that makes you earn God's favor in some sort of way. Which, by the way, some people that we know have grown up in traditions, faith traditions, and some people have grown up in traditions that aren't even faith traditions, and you're like the hamster on the wheel, man. You're just going, and you're just working, and you're working, and you're working, and I guess you don't realize that you're not going anywhere. I've shared this before, you know? Hamsters are nocturnal animals. I don't know if you know this, man.

They can run up to five to six miles a night, a night. We used to have one. He's no longer with us, RIP. You know, he's no longer in our family. He died by natural causes. But I would be studying at night, on a Saturday night, I'd be, everybody'd be in bed, and I'd be studying, you know, for a sermon, praying, can I get my mind right? And I would just hear this hamster on the wheel. Just, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, just working the wheel. I confess, I would sometimes Google, is there a good way to get rid of a hamster? I mean, I confess, okay? I didn't, it wasn't, natural causes, okay? I'm telling you. But as I read about them, they could travel up to five, six miles a night. And they're on a wheel, and they're absolutely going nowhere. Nowhere. And there are people who are trying to earn their way to heaven. They're trying to do enough good works, and you're just doing it, and doing it, and doing it, and you're trying to white-knuckle it in your life, kind of get the grip and do this, and it's not the way it works. You don't have to earn your way to salvation.

You don't have to earn your way to heaven. You can't do that. And then some people are trying to add things. It's like, hey, yeah, it's Jesus, but it's Jesus and. It's Jesus and a second filling of the Holy Spirit, or it's Jesus and membership to the church, or it's Jesus and you gotta be baptized, or it's Jesus and you gotta avoid certain sins, or it's Jesus and you gotta keep certain rules. Back in this day, it was circumcision. That was a thing that Jews, it was one of the signs that they were using to say, listen, you have to be circumcised to be a believer. And so they're adding signs saying you've got to do this, so it's Jesus and circumcision, or it's Jesus and baptism, or it's Jesus and membership to the church. And Paul says, no, it's not. It's not. That's why it was so tense. That's why it was so important, and that's why he was staying true to the gospel. And praise God, he did. Praise God, he did. Because someone may tell you, well, yeah, it's Jesus, but you gotta keep this, you gotta live. Man, there's so many people that feel like they gotta clean themselves up before they come to Jesus.

Don't you realize that he's the one who cleans you up? He's the one who does that. It's his grace that does that. There's nothing you can add or earn. And we're all tempted to attach to whatever makes us feel more connected to Jesus, to other people, and what's most important to do, really experience Jesus. And even be saved. And I mentioned some of these already. We're tempted to add to grace something that makes us feel better about following Jesus. Can't do that. If you've been doing that, stop doing that. It's Jesus Christ, plus absolutely nothing. It's his grace that saves us. And they were dealing with this in the early church. Look what it says in Acts 15, beginning in verse one through 11. I think this actually happened just right after this conversation in Galatians. I think the conversation that Paul had was a private conversation with the elders in Jerusalem, with the church leaders in Jerusalem. I think this was more than that. But here's what it says in verse one. Some men came down from Judea and they were teaching the brothers, unless you're circumcised according to the custom of Moses,

you can't be saved. Can't be a believer. And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension, I love how they say that, had no small dissension, okay? You know what that means. They had no small dissension to debate with him. Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question. So being sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoenicia, Samaria, describing in detail the conversation or the conversion of Gentiles, and they brought great joy to all the brothers. And when they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them. But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, it's necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses. And the apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider the matter. And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, brothers, you know in the early days, God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear

the word of the gospel and believe, and God who knows the heart bore witness to them by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us. And he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith. Now therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke over the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? Why are you doing this? But we believe that we will all be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will. Let me tell you why that's good news. Because aside from a few Jewish people that we may actually have in the audience or who's listening, the rest of us are Gentiles. And praise God that the gospel came to the Gentiles. Right? And Paul stood up and said, listen, man, no. This is not about Jesus plus something else. The Mosaic Law or any of these things, it's Jesus alone who saves us. Acts 15, they said we're not gonna make Gentiles become Jews in every way to become followers of Jesus. Ephesians 2, 8, 9, it's a very crucial verse, it says this, for by grace you have been saved through faith. It's grace, by grace. God's sovereign love and the redeeming actions of Jesus, his grace, by his grace you are saved through faith, faith alone in Jesus Christ. And this is not your own doing, it's a gift of God.

It's not a result of works, you cannot earn it, you cannot add to it, so that no one may boast, so that somehow you can kind of brag about how you helped God out. For we are his workmanship, right, created in Christ Jesus. It's by grace that we've been saved, and that is the good news, right, the good news of grace. Jesus plus nothing equals everything. And this morning, maybe you've never put your heart, never put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, maybe you've been trying to add to it, maybe you've been trying to earn it. Listen, I wanna show you on our bulletin, we have at the very bottom, you can tear it off. Ooh, that's a clean tear. I never really do that, I do it very, very good. This morning, if you're saying, you know what, I don't know Christ, put your name on this. Let us know that you'd love to have a conversation, we'd love to do that, you can fold it, and you can put it in the giving box when you leave here today, you can stop by our Connection Center and have a conversation with us, you can email us, fill out the digital connection card, you can let us know. We'll have a pastor that will get back in touch with you, we would love to have a conversation with you this morning. There's no reason that you would have to leave here this morning not knowing about your eternal destiny.

There's no reason why you would have to leave here this morning with the guilt and the shame that you carry because of the sin that you have in your life. There's no reason why you can't leave this morning knowing that Christ died for your sins, and that he is willing, stands ready and willing to save you and forgive you and give you the peace that you so need, the grace that you so need. Let's move on to the second thing, the good news, this good news is available to all people everywhere. This good news is available to all people everywhere. It doesn't discriminate, right? It doesn't matter what someone's ethnicity is, it doesn't matter what someone's background is, it doesn't matter if you're Jew or if you're Gentile, it doesn't matter. The gospel, the good news is available to all people everywhere. Grace is for everyone ethnically. I mean, that's one of the reasons that Paul brought Titus with him. He's like, you know what, we're going to Jerusalem, I'm gonna take Barnabas and I'm gonna take Titus, the guy who's not been circumcised, I'm gonna take him with me and we're gonna have this conversation. And we're gonna show them that the gospel is for everyone. And grace brings unity, it brings unity. And God is calling all people everywhere to repent, to turn away from their sins and believe and trust in him.

Acts 17, 30 through 31 says this, the times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands, he commands all people everywhere to repent because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed. And of this, he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. Do you see this truth? This is the truth we need to know, it's a truth that we need to share with others. That God commands people everywhere to repent of their sins, to acknowledge it and to repent of it because he's fixed a day on which he's going to judge us. God is going to judge us through the man, Jesus Christ. But he gave us Jesus. He gave us assurance by raising Jesus from the dead, that gives him the authority to judge. So he's calling people everywhere to repent. And what about John 3, 16? The most famous, one of the most famous verses in all the world, right? John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but has eternal life. Now some of y'all just stopped there, but there's really some good verses right after that too. Look at this, verse 17,

for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he's not believed in the name of the only son of God. Listen, this is a beautiful verse, verse 16, but don't stop there. Keep going, 17 and 18, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him will not perish, but will have eternal life because God didn't send his son into the world to condemn the world, he sent his son to save the world. And if you believe in him, then you're saved. If you don't, then you're condemned already. God's wrath is still on you. And we're pleading with you this morning to believe and trust in Jesus because his love is so real and his peace is so real and his grace is so amazing. And for those of us who are believers, we need to remember that every day. Good news is for people everywhere. Revelation 7, 9 through 12, we call this the picture of heaven. All right, this is the family photo.

Love the family photo. Get everybody in. Here's what it says in verse 9, Revelation 7. After this, I looked and behold, a great multitude that no one can number, from every nation, from all tribes, people's language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes. Look, see, I knew that family beach photo's in white. Here it is, right here, right? White robes, with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice. Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. And all the angels were standing around the throne, around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne. They worshiped God, saying, amen. Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever, amen. The family photo, from every tribe, tongue, nation, language. The good news is for people everywhere. And you better believe that on that day, there'll be representatives from every place. And part of our joy, part of our joy fellowship, is to give in such a way and go in such a way and pray in such a way that this becomes reality. God will accomplish His purposes, with or without us,

but I sure would like to be on board with Him. That's why we pray, that's why we give, and that's why we go here at fellowship. So you see that the good news is for everyone. Now, I do want to make this statement known, because we live in a culture today where everyone wants to get along. Well, they really don't. But when you think about churches, like, hey, let's all get together. And I want us to be really clear on this. Fellowship with Christ, I love the way Tim Keller said this, fellowship with Christ is a sufficient basis for fellowship with one another, right? So fellowship with Christ is sufficient for fellowship with one another. We must never exclude someone whom God has included in His people, right? We should never exclude someone who believes in Jesus Christ and who names Him as Lord, right? But equally, listen to this, fellowship with Christ is the only basis for fellowship with one another. Churches must not maintain unity at the expense of the gospel. Do you hear that? Churches must not maintain unity at the expense of the gospel. So you need to be wise,

because there are churches that preach a different gospel. There are churches that say it's Jesus plus something else. It's Jesus plus this, Jesus plus that, you have to earn this. That is not the true gospel. And it's not about bashing other places, it's just saying this, be diligent to stay true to the gospel of Jesus Christ and what's being proclaimed. I guess the last thing I would say is go share the gospel and serve the poor. That's exactly what is said here. Paul says, man, we had a private conversation with the leaders of the Church of Jerusalem and he basically said, I wanted to make sure I wasn't running in vain. And what he meant was, it wasn't, Paul was not questioning the gospel. He wasn't like, hey, I want to check with these guys to make sure I'm saying the right things. That's not what it's about. He knew what he was preaching was the gospel. He wanted to make sure that we indeed are preaching the same gospel. And the church leaders in Jerusalem said, we are, man. Right-handed fellowship, yes, we are. All these other people who snuck in and said other things like that, that's not true. We are together, we are lockstep

that we are sharing the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. And so we're called to share the gospel and serve the poor because the leaders said, listen, do this. Keep preaching the gospel and make sure that you serve the poor. And by the way, when he was saying serve the poor, he does mean in general serving the poor, like the poor who are around us and we need to love them. We need to care for them. But he was also talking about the poor churches. A lot of the Jewish churches, quite honestly, were pretty poor. And the leaders were saying, listen, don't forget those churches. Make sure that you're caring for them. Matter of fact, you see on many occasions where Paul is bringing an offering. He's bringing an offering from other churches to the church at Jerusalem because he wanted to care for their needs. But we need to share the gospel and serve the poor. And by the way, I just wanna say this. God gifts us in different ways to reach different people with the same gospel of grace. Right? God gifts us in different ways to reach different people with the same gospel of grace. So Peter went to the Jews and Paul went to the Gentiles.

And God wants to use you and the circle that you're in, in your neighborhood, the place that you work, the school that you go to, the environments that you're in, that God has wired you to be the one to take the gospel to the places where you are. So some of you, you're gonna sit at a Thanksgiving table that I'm not gonna sit at. You're gonna sit at a Christmas table that I'm not gonna sit at. You're gonna go to a work party for Christmas that I'm not gonna go to. You're gonna have a neighborhood get together that I'm not invited to because I don't live in your neighborhood. God is putting you in places and circles to have influence with the people around you. He's gifted you in that. Your story is not my story. The only thing that's similar about our story is Jesus, that he saved us, that we were sinners and we needed him to save us. And God has done a work of grace in our heart and our life. God wants to use you in the environments that he's placed you in. He has gifted you uniquely to share, to talk, to encourage, to have conversation, to lay out the gospel. And you live in the zip code you live in for a reason. And you're in the places you're in for a reason. And God wants to use you. He wants to use all of us to reach different people

in different ways with the same gospel. And we need to go and share that. Here's what Jesus said in Luke chapter four, verse 16 through 21. He was actually quoting Isaiah. He says, and he came to Nazareth where he'd been brought up and as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day and he stood up to read. Here Jesus is in his environment. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and he found the place where it was written, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor, right, good news, the gospel. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. And he rolled up the scroll, he gave it back to the attendant and he sat down and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. As Jesus goes to the synagogue, by the way, that was the planned reading for the day. It wasn't like Jesus said, hmm, I'm gonna show them. It was actually the planned reading for the day. God's sovereign hand in that moment. Jesus steps up, he reads this, spirit of the Lord is upon me.

He's anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord. He has sent me to do this and Jesus says, by the way, this prophecy is fulfilled in your hearing today. It actually made some of them very, very mad because it was Jesus' way of saying, listen, I am the one who has come to save you. He came to bring good news, bring good news to the poor. And so when you see this, we need to go share the gospel and serve the poor. That's what God's called us to do. Our church does that in various ways, various ministries, that you need to be involved in, can be a part of, but also in your individual life. So I come to these questions I asked you at the very beginning. Are you in need of the gospel of grace? Are you in need of the gospel of grace, the collective answer? Can we, thank you, thank you. One person gets it, thank you. Yes. Listen, the song Amazing Grace is amazing for a reason. Because it's God's grace that is so amazing. And if you've been a believer for 30 years, you should lay your head on the pillow tonight.

And if God so gives you the grace to wake up tomorrow morning, you should thank him for his grace. And if you're here today and you don't know Christ at all, you should thank him that he's given you a way to have your sins forgiven and your life completely changed for all of eternity by his grace. Are you in need of it? Yes. Are you staying true to the gospel of grace? Only you can answer that question. Have you been adding to it or seeking to earn his grace? Have you been the hamster on the wheel that say, man, I'm just gonna work, gonna work, gonna work? No, no. And by the way, I'll just go ahead and say this in our Galatians series. Some people get real nervous when you start preaching about grace cause like, oh no, you're gonna preach grace, grace, grace and then people are gonna live how they wanna live. That's not biblical grace. That's not biblical grace. When you really understand true grace, it so changes you that all you wanna do is live to glorify God. That's what you wanna do. That's what real grace does. Are you staying true to that?

And are you spreading the gospel of grace? Years ago when I was growing up, I heard a song by a man named Lornell Harris. And Lornell's probably, I don't know, 79, 80 now. I never met him. He had a beautiful voice. And he sang a song called, Were It Not for Grace. Grace, and here are the lyrics. Time measured out my days, life carried me along. In my soul, I yearned to follow God, but I knew I'd never be so strong. I looked hard at this world to learn how heaven could be gained, just to end where I began, where human effort is all in vain. Were it not for grace, I can tell you where I'd be, wandering down some pointless road to nowhere with my salvation up to me. And I know how that would go, the battles I would face, forever running, but losing the race, were it not for grace. So here's all my praise expressed with all my heart, offered to a friend who took my place, we know who that friend is, and ran a course I could not start. And when he saw in full just how much his love would cost, he still went the final mile between me and heaven so I would not be lost. Were it not for grace, I can tell you where I'd be, wandering down some pointless road to nowhere

with my salvation up to me. And I know how that would go, the battles that I would face, forever running, but losing the race, were it not for grace. Let's pray together. Father God, thank you so much for your amazing grace. Lord, some of us have become numb to it. Some of us have sang about it for years. But it's not really shaping our heart every moment of every day. And Lord, I confess that's my prayer. Lord, in the tension of family strife, in the anxieties of life, I forget to preach to myself the gospel of grace. That changes everything. And so Lord, I just pray this morning that you would save some who are here. Lord, some men and women who are listening online, some men and women who are here today, Lord, would you save them by your grace? Would you draw them in a way that they may not even be able to fully explain? Lord, that you would help them to realize that they are sinners in need of a savior and only you can save. Lord, would you draw them today to yourself in a way that is explained only by you, even beyond us? And Lord, for those who are believers today, would you ignite our hearts?

Would you stir the flame in our hearts for how amazing your grace is? And that we would be committed to staying true and sharing that gospel with those around us. We love you. Jesus, it's in your amazing, grace-giving name that we pray, amen. Thanks again for listening to the word of God. We are blessed to reach you throughout the week through whatever platform you're listening on. If you're needing prayer or you want to talk to someone about your walk with Jesus, reach out to us at fellowshipar.com slash contact. Have a great week.