I Will Boast | Tyrone D Jones | No Other Gospel | Full Service

Good morning, church. My name is Naya. I'm so glad that you're in the house this morning. If it's your first time, then I just want to welcome you. I'm so glad that you're here. On the back of each chair, there's a tap disc that you can tap your phone against, and it will pull up a connect card, a digital connect card, where you can fill out some basic information so that we can just connect with you and you can get plugged into the community. If it's not your first time, but you want to take your next step, like water baptism or joining a surf team, then you can also fill out that digital connect card, or you can stop at the connect table on your way out of service. If you're watching online, then there will be a link posted in the online chat. If you're not already standing, would you just stand with me as we open with the word? I'm reading from Hebrews 4 verse 12, and it says, For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. What I've been learning from this scripture lately is that we can hear the word of God, and we can believe that it's true, and we can even agree with it, but until we come to the understanding that the word of God is alive and active, and it is doing the work in our hearts, and we allow it to pierce our soul and our spirit, then we're not going to change and be able to live an honoring life to the Lord. So I just want to encourage you that as we hear the word of God this morning, and we hear Pastor Ty preach, that we would just look at it from the lens of this scripture, that it's piercing our hearts, that it's getting into our hearts, that we would be changed, and we would live according to it. If you guys would just bow your heads and pray with me. Thank you, Jesus, so much for this morning, Lord. Thank you that we just get to gather, we get to worship you, we get to hear your word, God.

I pray that every single person in this house today knows that they are here for a purpose, that they are here for a reason, and you are going to do something great in them this morning, Jesus. I just pray for open hearts, Jesus, to you, and in your name we pray, amen. Let's stay standing as we worship together. Let's invite the Holy Spirit as we sing this song to church. I enter the atmosphere Spirit of God, you're here You have all authority I pray over my heart and mind I am healed by your strength Your blood declares that I am free In the mighty name of Jesus I pray Calling on the power of heaven I proclaim Every weapon formed against me Must break In the mighty name of Jesus I draw a permanent boundary line The enemy has no eyes So come near my family No sleep can ever run to God's plan No matter the circumstance The cross has sealed my destiny In the mighty name of Jesus I pray Calling on the power of heaven I proclaim Every weapon formed against me Must break In the mighty name of Jesus In the mighty name of Jesus I know All the power of fear and darkness ♪ Darkness must go ♪ ♪ He's every key to everything to me ♪ ♪ I'll hold in the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ I will not fear, I will not fear ♪ ♪ When the enemy comes near ♪ ♪ On the doorframe of my life ♪

♪ Is the blood of Jesus Christ ♪ ♪ I will not fear, I will not fear ♪ ♪ There's an army of angels here ♪ ♪ I'm protected on all sides ♪ ♪ By the blood of Jesus Christ ♪ ♪ I will not fear, I will not fear ♪ ♪ When the enemy comes near ♪ ♪ On the doorframe of my life ♪ ♪ Is the blood of Jesus Christ ♪ ♪ I will not fear, I will not fear ♪ ♪ There's an army of angels here ♪ ♪ I'm protected on all sides ♪ ♪ By the blood of Jesus Christ ♪ ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ I'll pray, calling on the power of heaven ♪ ♪ I'll pray, proclaim every weapon for the enemy ♪ ♪ I must pray in the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus, oh I know ♪ ♪ All the power of fear and darkness must fall ♪ ♪ Is every key to every victory, oh I know ♪ ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus, in the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus, oh thank you Lord ♪ ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus, oh thank you Lord ♪ Come on, is there any faith in the house to believe that God can do anything? Let's sing this together. ♪ When did I start to forget all of the great things you did? ♪ ♪ When did I throw away faith for the impossible? ♪ ♪ How did I start to believe that you were sufficient? ♪ ♪ And why do I talk myself out of seeing miracles? ♪

Can we tell them you are? ♪ You are more than able, yeah, you are more than able ♪ Can we believe in Jesus? ♪ You are more than able, yeah, you are more than able ♪ Come on, just declare it in your spirit, tell them you are. ♪ Yeah, you are more than able, who am I to deny what the Lord can do? ♪ ♪ Who am I to deny what the Lord can do? ♪ ♪ He can do anything, Lord ♪ ♪ You do miracles, you do miracles, you are more than able ♪ ♪ You are more than able, we believe it ♪ ♪ You are more than able ♪ ♪ You are more than able ♪ ♪ Who am I to deny what the Lord can do ♪ ♪ Well can you imagine with all of the faith in the room ♪ ♪ What the Lord can do, what the Lord can do ♪ ♪ And it's gonna happen just let the way make it through ♪ ♪ He's gonna move, yes he's gonna move ♪ ♪ Can you imagine with all of the faith in the room ♪ ♪ What the Lord can do, what the Lord can do ♪ ♪ And it's gonna happen just let the way make it through ♪ ♪ He's gonna move, yes he's gonna move ♪ ♪ Can you imagine with all of the faith in the room ♪ ♪ What the Lord can do, what the Lord can do ♪ ♪ And it's gonna happen just let the way make it through ♪ ♪ He's gonna move, sing it with you ♪ ♪ Anything is possible, anything is possible ♪ ♪ Anything is possible, anything is possible ♪ ♪ You and I, to deny what the Lord can do ♪ ♪ Anything is possible, yeah, anything is possible ♪ ♪ Anything is possible, you and I to deny what the Lord can do ♪

♪ What the Lord can do, anything is possible ♪ ♪ Anything is possible, anything is possible ♪ ♪ You and I to deny what the Lord can do ♪ ♪ You and I to deny what the Lord can do ♪ ♪ You and I to deny what the Lord can do, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ We cry out, as we believe. ♪ You are more than able, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ Come on, one voice, you are. ♪ You are more than able, you are, you are more than able ♪ ♪ You are more than able, who am I to deny what the Lord can do ♪ ♪ You are more than able, you are, you are more than able ♪ ♪ We only want you Jesus, we only want you Jesus, we only want you Jesus ♪ ♪ We only want you Jesus, we only want you Jesus, we only want you Jesus, we only want you Jesus ♪ ♪ I don't want anything but you, you're more than every dream come true ♪ ♪ And I don't come close to know you, now that I'm yours and you are mine ♪ ♪ Our love is the secret that I find, I'll spend forever in the pleasure I found ♪ ♪ Looking in your eyes, give me Jesus, give me Jesus, give me Jesus ♪ Give me Jesus You can have all this world You can have all this world More than silver, more than gold You are the treasure that I hold Now that I've tasted of your goodness Nothing else will satisfy Give me Jesus Give me Jesus You can have all this world You can have all this world Give me Jesus Give me Jesus

You can have all this world You can have all this world My name is Gigi. My life before I had a personal relationship with God was never satisfied. I was always worried about something. I felt like I was drowning in my negative thoughts. Surrounding myself with foolish people, little did I know I was becoming a fool. I was walking in destructive lifestyle involving substance use in my early twenties. I started drinking on a daily base. I was numbing my emotions, keeping everything a secret. Until one day I encountered the beauty of God. I wept like Nathaniel under the fig tree. One night I couldn't handle the pain of a broken person I was becoming. I was miserable because of the damage I have put myself through. I prayed on my knees, surrounded to Jesus. My body couldn't physically, mentally take it anymore and I felt spiritually drained. I started to live differently after that prayer. That is when I realized the Holy Spirit was in my heart. I purchased my first Bible, got rid of worldly music, changed the people who I surrounded myself with. I was living life with joy again and that was when I knew God said to follow Him. Since giving my life to Christ, I want to scream on the top of my lungs that Jesus saved my life. With a smile on my face, I will share my story. I will share my testimony with the world and how God saved me from depression, alcoholism, and drug addiction. I love my new life, that He has given me everything that I have in this life is because of Him. Today I am going public with my faith. Jesus said every disciple should be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And because of your confession of faith today, I baptize you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins. And according to Scripture, you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Come on church, we sing this together with one voice. You are my one thing I don't want anyone else And I don't need anything else You are my one thing I don't want anyone else

I don't need anything else Cause you are my one thing You are my one thing I don't want anyone else I don't need anything else You are my one thing You are my one And I don't want anyone else I don't need anything else Cause you are Give me Jesus. Give me Jesus. You can have all this world. You can have all this world. Give me Jesus. Give me Jesus. You can have all this world. You can have all this world. And I don't want anyone else. I don't need anything else. You are my one thing. You are my one thing. And I don't want anyone else. I don't need anything else. You are my one thing. You are my one thing. You are my one thing. You are my one thing. Give me Jesus. Give me Jesus. You can have all this world. You can have all this world. You can have all this world. You can have all this world. You can have all this world. You can have all this world. Well, good morning. 830 service just doesn't mingle very long. The 1130, we have to blow a whistle. Like, recess is over, sit down. I don't know about those guys, but you guys are great. Are you blessed to be in church this morning?

I will say it is always, always an honor and a privilege to gather in the house of God. It's always an honor and a privilege to worship alongside you. If you are here for the first time, I hope you feel celebrated. I hope you feel welcome. I hope you feel seen. We pretty much have a conga line of greeters all the way through our lobby just to make sure that no one comes through these doors without being greeted. So just know we love you, and you are welcome, and you are safe here. There's a couple things I do want to discuss before I dive into the message this morning. First, I do want to say that to those of you, and I actually do want to get a show. I think I do want to get a show of hands. How many today have completed some form of a fast, some form of a fast? Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. The rest of you, we just rebuke. No, I'm just kidding. First of all, can we honor those who fasted and can we celebrate that? Here's the one thing that I truly believe. A lot of people say in an organization, when the leader gets better, everybody in the organization gets better. I believe in the house of God. When someone in the congregation grows, we all grow. When there's depth, when there's more depth, when there's a more hunger for the word, we all gain it. Not that you shouldn't fast ever because the person next to you is, but at the same time, I believe it builds the faith in the room when we can join alongside someone who's been going after God in the way that we were for the past 21 days.

So thank you for participating in that. I believe the fruit is gonna be evident. For some of you guys, saying the word fruit after a 21-day fast might trigger a little things, but you go get yourself a steak or something today. And so also, I do wanna celebrate some things that are coming up in a couple of weeks on February 13th and 14th. We're gonna be having the City Youth Conference. It is probably, I believe, the eighth year that they've had the conference. It's really an opportunity. Here's the thing, I don't think it's any secret of why we need to get young people together in order to have safe fun and in order to build community. Those are great things. We love for students to have fun. We love for students to build community. But the truth is, the reason why we have City Youth Conference every year is because it gives us an opportunity to get young people from all over the region, all over the state in the room to encounter the presence of Jesus, to encounter the power of the Holy Spirit. Because I don't know about you, but I do believe that education is key with our young people. I believe that understanding job skills is important for our young people, understanding money, understanding relationships.

But there's nothing more key for our young people than encountering the presence of the Holy Spirit and being transformed. And so if you have a young person in your home, or if you're young at heart, City Youth Conference is February 13th and 14th. You can register by stopping at the Connect table or hitting the tap or going to the website. Also, for all of us, it is an opportunity to invite someone. We have new invite cards. If you have one, can you hold it up? Did you get one? Oh, I'm sorry. Some of you guys put them in your pockets and your purses and stuff already. I'm awkwardly waiting. All right. As we always say, this is not for you. This is for someone who God has placed on your heart or someone that you just encountered that you're like, man, I would love for this person to hear about Jesus. So please pass this out to someone. We're going into a new series called We Believe, where we're actually gonna be preaching through the Apostles' Creed. So if you have someone in your life who's like, I don't go to church because it all goes over my head, this is a great series to start with because we're going over the foundational beliefs

of Christianity. So that's gonna be a good opportunity. Lastly, I'm gonna get ready to pray. I'm actually, actually, go ahead and stand. Go ahead and stand. I'm gonna get ready to pray and we're gonna dive into the word. So I'll read the scripture and I'll pray, but before I pray, I do want to recognize something. Many of you have an understanding of what's been going on in Minnesota. We have some of the people from our church that are over there fighting all of that out. And last Sunday, there was a church that got, I guess you can say, invaded, and a group of disruptors went in and did their best to disrupt the service and to chant and to do all these different things. And here's what I think is important for us to know. We're gonna pray for everybody that's in Minnesota, and the truth is anybody in our nation who's dealing with any form of persecution, but I think this is important for us to know. Here at CTC, anyone and everyone is welcome. Anyone and everyone is welcome, regardless of what they believe, regardless of their background, because the truth is, if we did a background check before you were eligible to be in here, none of us would have been able to come for the first time.

No matter what you believe, you're welcome to come here, because our hope is that you'll come in with whatever belief and leave here with a belief in the saving power of Jesus. And so in order to reach people, we have to allow anyone and everyone to come into our building to worship with us. But at the same time, we reserve the right, and even legally, by the state of Arizona, we reserve the right to reject or remove anyone who's attempting to cause harm or bring disruption to our services. And so just know that if you're ever wondering what would CTC do in that situation, we welcome anyone who wants to come and worship with us, and we, in Jesus' name, remove anyone who wants to be a disruption. Lastly on that, I'm thankful, thankful, thankful for our safety team. We have an incredible, incredible safety team. Drew Henderson does a good job leading that group. And with that, just understand this. They are very responsible. They have all of the planning done. I know we are in a state where a lot of people take it upon themselves to be a part of the solution. When it comes to gun violence and whatever else, this is what you need to understand. Our team is very equipped, and they are very capable. And so if you are not scheduled on that team that day,

you just listen to the instructions like everyone else. Because if they don't. know who you are, that won't go well for you. And so, please, we trust our team, we're thankful for our team. All right, I'm gonna actually read the passage and then I'll go into a prayer. No, actually, no I won't, no I won't. I'm gonna pray first. Lord, thank you so much for today. Thank you that we're in your house with the opportunity to worship you, to lift up your name, to honor you, to glorify you. Lord, we ask today that as we pray into the remainder of this service that you continue to posture our hearts towards yourself. Lord, we're thankful that you are in our midst, we're thankful for each person that's here. Lord, as we pray for the condition of what's going on in Minnesota and churches, even around the nation, God, even those that may be closed today because of weather and the snowstorms, we ask for your peace, for your presence, for your grace, for your protection. Lord, we're thankful for our safety team, we're thankful that we can gather here week in and week out and celebrate you knowing that we're safe, knowing that we're guarded and protected. Lord, more than anything else, we need your wisdom,

we need your truth in our nation and beyond. We need your understanding when it comes to leading people from day to day and into the purposes that you've called them to do. Lord, we lift up our pastor as he preaches and ministers up north. Today, we ask that you just use him in a powerful and mighty way and get him home safely in Jesus' name, amen. All right, I'm gonna read the passage. We are in the book of Galatians. It is the end of the Galatians series, truthfully. It's hard to see it go, it's been a great series. I'm gonna be closing it out. If you'll go to Galatians chapter six, I'm gonna read verse 11 through 18. 11 through 18. If you haven't been here for some of the Galatians series, I can summarize it for you. There's an instructor on this program called Theos U that really summarized it this way. Galatians was written for these four reasons, you can summarize. Prove the gospel, to refute legalism, meaning to refute the idea that it's rules that can get you saved, to establish doctrine of Christian liberty, to have a better understanding of who we are in Christ and how we can live in that way, and to show superiority of the new covenant,

meaning to gain an understanding that it's not the law that we live by, but Jesus fulfilled the law. And so as we come to this closing in chapter six, I'm gonna read verse 11 through 18. And it says this. See with large letters I am writing to you with my own hand. It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. For even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised so they may boast in your flesh. But far be it to me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy upon them and upon the Israel of God. From now on, let no one cause me trouble for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you, with your spirit, brothers, amen. Lord, we thank you for your word. We ask that you speak to us clearly in Jesus name, amen. In 2008, a man by the name of Kevin Hart

was a little, not him. Some of you guys are thinking of a little funny black dude and he is funny and he's little and he's black. But I'm talking about a guy named Kevin Hart who played high school football in Northern California. His name was Kevin Hart. He was six foot three, 315 pounds. He was an offensive and defensive lineman. During his senior year, he was getting a lot of fanfare in his local school, in his local community. And as he started to get that attention and fanfare, it began to get exciting because it was noticeable that many athletes of his stature around the nation were being recruited by college coaches. Kevin Hart began to let the school know the schools that were recruiting him. And when it came down to what we call his signing day, which is when you make a public display of your commitment to a college where you are going to continue your college football career, they call it a signing day or your commitment ceremony. They were so excited for him to have this guy who's getting these division one offers who's actually choosing between two different schools after he narrowed down his choices, the University of California and the University of Oregon. And he was excited. They actually even had an assembly at his school

where the entire school was in the gym and the local news. And Kevin Hart sat at that table and he emotionally thanked his coaches and his parents and all of his teammates for helping him along the journey. And then he said, I'm gonna continue my college career at the University of California. Grabbed a hat, put it on that represented the University of California. Everyone applauded, hugged him. It's emotional, the news interviewed him. It was an exciting time. One of the people that was a part of the interview, after interviewing him, made a decision. As I gather this story and publicize it, I want to get a quote from his new head coach or who will be his head coach. So when he called the University of California to interview the head coach of the Cal Bears football team, he said, can you comment on the signing of Kevin Hart? And the University of California head coach responded, who? Because you see, the problem is, Kevin Hart had never been offered a scholarship from the University of California. In fact, the University of California wasn't even recruiting Kevin Hart. Kevin Hart, due to the expectations and due to the idea that he wanted to live out the life of someone who was being recruited to play Division I football, made a decision to himself,

if I can't actually have this, I'm just gonna create this and build this up in my own mind and hopefully I can sell this in a way that it's believable. Needless to say, he became a bit of a laughingstock in the community and had to come forward and express that this was a hoax. But this is what we're seeing here in this story. What are we seeing? We are seeing the publication and the celebration of a lie. The publicizing and the celebration of a lie. Going public and being excited and getting everyone else excited about something that's not even true. Now the truth is, oftentimes we publicize and celebrate lies and we don't even realize it. Some of the times where I've publicized and celebrated a lie is when there's times in my life when people say, hey, how are you, man? Great. Public and celebrated lie in that moment. Sometimes we do the same thing when it comes to relationships. Sometimes we do the same thing when it comes to, maybe our walk with Christ or our career and the truth is down to the core, what we're saying isn't even true, but we say it out loud just because it brings just that moment of satisfaction. It doesn't have to be true, but I'm gonna say it simply because the truth hurts more

than saying this lie and the truth hurts more. The truth hurts more than saying this lie and at times we even start to, like Kevin Hart in this moment, started to even convince himself of this truth because why would you continue that lie if for some reason there isn't something about you that just thinks, maybe I won't escape this lie and maybe it'll just continue and it can somehow become true. And here's the interesting thing. That is actually what we're seeing at the end of Galatians here. This is not only the end of this chapter, but this is the end of the book of Galatians and I want to talk about how these people were going around publicizing and celebrating what is a lie. Now before we dive too far, we're gonna look at verse 11 and you can put verse 11 back on the screen because I love the fact that Paul the writer is making this clear. Oh, I was gonna use the back screen the whole time. I just realized my 40-year-old eyes are not what they used to be. When I was a youth pastor, I could see that. Not anymore. And so I'll look back there with you guys. Oh, I don't wanna see that either though. I'm gonna look at my screen. The apostle Paul says this.

He says, see with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand. It is very common in this time for the writers of scripture to use a scribe or a secretary. But in this moment, the apostle Paul's like, hey, I'm the one writing this. I need you to pay attention. I'm writing this in large letters. Please lock in with me. Stay with me as I close out this letter. And he goes into verse 12 and he says, it is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised. They wanna make a good showing in the flesh to force you to be circumcised. The people that he's referring to are what they refer to as Judaizers, which means it's Jewish Christians, Jewish believers who may have been raised in the law, been raised in Jewish tradition, being raised to where it's all based on the memorization of scripture and how many laws you can follow and how you cleanse and how you do this and how you do that. And then came to an understanding of the cross and came to an understanding, even if it's just a head knowledge of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. And what these guys are doing is they're going out

and Paul's wanna make this clear to the people of Galatia, that Galatian region. He said, these guys are going around and they're spreading a mixed message because this is what they're doing. They're going and saying, great, Jesus, death, burial and resurrection, savior of all the earth, but also you need to be circumcised. It's the cross and. Remember anything that's the cross and isn't the cross. Anything that's mixed, anything that someone says, you need Jesus to be saved plus, doesn't understand the gospel. Anything, any doctrine or any theology that says that the cross is not enough is a bad and wrong and false theology. And see, what's going on though is these Judaizers are going through and doing this simply because of the idea of mixture and they want to actually keep the people that are still living by Jewish tradition, not what they call followers of the way, which is Jesus, but the people who are keeping Jewish tradition, they actually want to keep them happy. It's like, hey, I want to live this life of Christ, but at the same time, on the outside, I want the people of the Jewish tradition to still know, hey, I'm still down with you guys. Unfortunately, maybe too, but too many of us can confess that when we first started walking with Christ,

that was our same mindset. Hey, I'm following Jesus now, but hey, boys, don't worry. I'm still gonna kick it Friday night and we're still gonna do the same things. We're gonna still run around the same way. We're still gonna tell the same jokes, but also you're gonna find me in church on Sunday. Just this mixed idea of, yes, I believe in the cross, but I'm also holding on to this outside thought, this outside thought that my salvation actually depends on both. That's what these Judaizers are saying. I want to hang on to my old tradition, but I also want to pursue the cross. And they're trying to force this on people, especially the Gentiles in this region of Galatia, because it's like, hey, you're a Gentile and now you can follow Jesus. You're not even Jewish, but can we kind of make you look a little Jewish? Can we at least make you look the part of the old tradition? And what makes it worse is Paul goes on to say in verse 12, the second half of verse 12, he says, and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. They're doing this, one, to please the old law and to stay linked to tradition, but also they don't want to be persecuted. Now, when we think of persecution, we often think of people outside of the church,

outside of a walk with God, outside of their belief in God. But do you understand this? There's a such thing as, I guess what you can call friendly fire too. Do you realize in the unfortunate part that there's plenty of persecution in the church? Denomination versus denomination, religion versus religion, mindsets versus mindsets. I don't know if I was gonna make this confession, but sometimes I'm a bit of a troll on TikTok. I don't even use my real name. And I go and argue with people in comments. Anyone who turns off their lights in their church, they're going to hell. What? Arguing with them. How many baptisms did you guys have? I'm just kidding. Kind of. But anyway, it just blows my mind that people who say they serve the same God as you and us will point fingers and say that what you are doing is so ungodly and make a public display of it. Well, here's the thing. The persecution that was going on when it came to that what Paul was discussing was actually people who said they were believers in God.

How does Paul know that? How is Paul so confident to be able to say that? Because that was him. Think back to Acts chapter seven, when Stephen was martyred at the beginning of chapter eight, whose feet did they say that they all put their coats down because he was so in approval of the martyrdom of Stephen for following the way? It was a man by the name of Saul who later became Paul. Think about it. Even in Acts chapter nine, he was going down the road of Damascus because he wanted to go and bring harm and bring abuse to the next region of those who were following the way. This is a person who had the whole Torah memorized. This is a person who claims he was living by the law, but he himself was persecuting Christians. So Paul is saying it's not that they're afraid of getting persecuted by the outside world. They're afraid of getting persecuted by those who believe in the old traditional ways. And what he's saying, and the reason why he's saying that this is a bad thing, that they're avoiding this persecution, is because he's basically saying they want to be confessing believers of Jesus, but they don't want what comes with it at times. They don't want the fact

that they can lose their social status. They don't want the fact that the things of their circles can change, that they maybe not could get the same jobs that they used to get. They may not be able to have the same influence that they used to have. They want to be people pleasing to the old tradition, but still a follower of the way. And I think we have to understand something. If we're gonna be true followers of Jesus, we shouldn't look for persecution, we should expect it. And not all persecution is being threatened to be martyred or being threatened to be physically harmed, but here's the truth. A life surrendered to Jesus, it's not affirming of the sinful nature of man. So when you don't affirm the sinful nature of man, there's times you'll be persecuted for that. You'll be called a bigot. You'll be called a hater of people. We should expect at times that it's not socially celebrated in a society built around self-glorification. When we say... we give all the glory to God in a society that's designed to bring all glory to self, there's times where we'll be persecuted for that, when we don't celebrate that with others. And of course, becoming more like the world

instead of becoming more like Christ is not the life of a Christian. So the less we become like the world, the more people are gonna wonder what's wrong with us. A believer should expect persecution. Here's the interesting thing, though, as Paul goes on, which now, just now it's kind of occurring to me, this is a bit of a frustrating rant that he's going through, because verse 13, he says, even those guys don't even follow the law. He says, even those who are circumcised don't keep the law themselves. Once again, how does he know? He lived that life. He was a part of the Sanhedrin. He lived a life of someone who says, I honor the law and I'm gonna earn my way into heaven because I lived by all of the law. He knew himself that that wasn't possible, but then he later even wrote in Romans chapter three, verse nine through 12, and he says, what then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks are under sin. As it is written, none is righteous, no, not one. No one understands, no one seeks for God. All have turned aside, together they have become worthless. No one does good, not even one.

He says, they're not capable of not sinning. They're not capable of living perfectly according to law. I wasn't, they weren't, and they're still trying to force you to do something and to become a part of a lifestyle that's not even accurate for them. And the second part of verse 13, he goes on to say, but they desire to have you circumcised so they may boast in your flesh. Desire to have you circumcised so they can boast in your flesh. This is actually meant in two different ways. It's meant literally, which is crazy, which is why I went up to the kids' church today and got this little plastic knife. Because here's the wild part. The commentators say that these Judaizers were basically going around the community saying, how many people can we circumcise? How many people can we circumcise, why? Because it's basically adding to their statistics of converts. Their statistics of converts. I don't know about you, but if someone was coming, Tony, somebody's coming up to you like, hey man, do you know Jesus? You know, like, if you believe in Jesus, let's prove it, right? Flashing a knife in your face, I'm gonna show you the way to salvation.

Come on over, buddy. I can't imagine. But see, they were adding to their statistics and all of it was for what? To publicize and celebrate a lie. The more circumcisions we do, the more people that are going to heaven. False. The more circumcisions we do, the more we're reaching the lost. False. Here's the other thing. They are literally trying to boast about that, but they're also figuratively boasting to say, I'm being used by God so well. I'm being used by God so thoroughly. I'm being used by God in such a mighty way because how is it that I'm having all of these interactions if God isn't using me in this way? There's a Greek word. I'm gonna do my best. I think it's pronounced kachalmai. And it's the word boast. And when I was reading about boasting, because I think to myself, I don't know if anybody in this room has ever boasted in circumcision. I doubt it. But I think we could admit that in one way or another, we all have challenges with boasting

in one way or another. John Stott gave this quote. He said, boasting, this is the way he explained it. He said, it means to boast in, to glory in, to trust in, rejoice in, revel in, live for. The object of our boast or glory fills our horizons, engross our attention and absorbs our time and energy. In a word, our glory is our obsession. And I guess the question is, is there anything that we glorify more than the cross of Jesus? Is there anything that we'd rather bring attention to more than the cross of Jesus? Are we guilty of drawing attention to ourselves and then packaging it with the words, all glory to God? When we post what we post, when we say what we say, when we celebrate what is celebrated, when we celebrate accomplishments, when we celebrate the awards or accolades or the attention or influence we've gained, when we celebrate those things, is it so that people can look at us or is it so that people can give glory to God? Here's the truth. No one will ever know besides you and God. Why? Because when it comes to boasting, it really comes down to one thing. It's motive. Celebration is important.

I think we're actually at a point where as a society and even as a church a bit, our celebration levels are lower than they should be. There's times where we announce like, we gave $30 million to an organization. Everyone's like, great. Beautiful. I think celebration culture should be high. I think it's good to celebrate people. I think it's good for their soul and yours. But at the same time, when we're talking about celebrations, sometimes you can consider some of these factors, place, time, audience, and motive. But most importantly, when we're looking at this passage, we have to think to ourselves, is there anything that I do, whether it's in the name of Jesus or whatever else, that is actually just me boasting in myself, boasting in what I'm accomplishing? But Paul, in verse 14, makes it clear to us, it's not that we're not supposed to boast at all, but there's one boast that's always worthy. And he says in verse 14, but far be it to me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. He's saying, you can boast all you want, and I will boast day after day, but I'm gonna boast in the cross of Jesus Christ. I'm gonna boast in the king of all the earth.

I will boast, but I will boast in the one who saved me. I will boast in the one who delivered me. I will boast in the one who rescued me. In 1 Corinthians chapter one, verse 27 through 31, it says, but God chose what is, I love what Paul's describing. He's describing himself and he's describing me. You can decide if you're part of this as well. But it says, but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption. So that as it is written, let the one who boasts boast in the Lord. I love how, when Jesus saves us, he brings us to the end of ourselves. When Jesus saves us, Jesus never saves us from a high and lofty place. Jesus saves us from a place of brokenness. Jesus, how do we know that? Because we're all being saved from our sinful nature. No one in their sinful nature is doing great. No one in their sinful nature is thriving. In fact, no one, according to scripture,

who's living a life separated from God, no one who's not living in the purposes of God, whose heart isn't surrendered to him. No person can be living out with a true lasting joy, with a true understanding of love. But it's when we surrender our life to Jesus that we're finally in alignment and be made right, which is the word justification. We're made right with God because of Jesus. And so as we're looking here, Paul's making it clear that we're boasting in the cross. We can even boast in our brokenness. Why? Because that all returns the glory to God. Now, I think it's important for us to see that it's very interesting, the way that Paul is saying the cross, that we're boasting in the cross, because in this time, the cross was actually seen, especially to this audience and even in the Roman society at the time, a cross was seen to be very offensive. Think about it. A cross is where people go to die. A cross is normally, even when Jesus was crucified, he was crucified amongst criminals. In fact, Jesus took the place, when they released Barabbas, of a criminal. And the person is put to shame. They are beaten.

They're nails driven. Some are hung upside down. Some have bones broken. The cross is a very grotesque thing. And so for Paul to be saying, I will boast in the cross, and I'm gonna say this, and this is gonna have a little bit of shock value, but I think it's important for us to, I think it gives us good perspective. Paul's saying, I'm gonna boast in the cross is like someone in America saying, I'm gonna boast in a noose. That's like, can you imagine, someone's going around wearing like a diamond encrusted noose around their neck. Oh, I come into your living room, that's nice. I see you got a collection of nooses on the wall. That little uncomfortable feeling we're feeling right now, that's what they're understanding, and that's what they're thinking when they're saying, you're boasting in the cross? Paul can't say I'm boasting in the cross at dinner because everyone's gonna be like, you just made me lose my appetite. Just like the way we feel when I'm saying the word noose. Paul is saying, I'm rejoicing in the lynching. I'm rejoicing in the beating. I'm rejoicing in the rejection that he felt in the moment. I'm rejoicing in the brokenness. People are like, man, that doesn't feel good.

It doesn't sound good. But what he's doing is he's redeeming the understanding of what the cross means now. See, at the time, the cross only stood for brokenness. It only stood for shame, and it only stood for rejection. But now Paul is saying, for me, the cross means healing. The cross means redemption. The cross means salvation. The cross means joy. The cross means love. Love. The cross means restoration. The cross means salvation in heaven. The cross means I no longer have to be a slave to myself. The cross means rescue. And he's helping them understand this. And then I love how he even says at the second part of that verse, he says, by the cross of Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. What does he mean by that? He's saying at the crucifixion, at the crucifixion, Jesus paid it all. Jesus said it is finished. And by me saying yes to him, that means that I am finished. I am finished being a slave to myself. I am finished being a slave to sin.

I am finished being damned to death, hell, and the grave. I am finished with that and I am now restored and rescued. I am one with Christ. He's actually referring back to what he said in Galatians 2.20. And he says this, I have been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. A crucified life means you're dead to the world and not dead to the world in a sense that we don't wanna reach the lost and that we don't want to evangelize and that we don't wanna love on people, but dead to the world, meaning I'm dead to worldly mindsets. I'm dead to giving into worldly desires. I'm dead to glorifying the world and what the world can do for me in comparison to glorifying God and who he is in my life. When we become one, when we surrender our life to Jesus and when we live a crucified life, I love how the Bible talks about that we are regenerated, we are transformed. And Paul starts to emphasize that in verse 15 when he says, for neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. He's saying circumcised, uncircumcised, fine. And if your kids are in here today

and they don't know what circumcision means, your drive home is gonna be pretty interesting because I've said it about 100 times today, especially if you have daughters. But this is what he's saying. Get it, don't get it. But I want you to understand this. Your salvation isn't hinging on that at all. He said nothing you can do on the outside is gonna affect your salvation. I'm gonna say one more thing that probably may bother people a little bit. You can come to church all you want and that doesn't save you. You can read the Bible all you want and that doesn't save you. You can pray all you want and that doesn't save you. Are those things important? Absolutely, because what is sanctification? It's becoming more like Jesus. And I believe we are more sanctified as we worship with believers and we read his word and we respond in prayer and we worship. That's part of the sanctification process and it makes us like Jesus, but none of those things save us. We are only saved by surrendering our life to Jesus and declaring him Lord and recognizing his death, burial, and resurrection. That's the only way.

The outside things, they can't save you. The outside things can't restore you. So if we ever have this wrong impression that we're saved by our behaviors, I can tell you that's a lie. We're saved by putting our faith and belief in Jesus and as we believe, he, by way of the Holy Spirit, teaches us how to behave from the inside out, transformed from the inside out. And so he's making it clear that becoming a new creation is what we're aiming for, not who looks good on the flesh, not who looks good on paper, not who has the good job and all these different things because Paul wants to make it clear and I think we all should be clear on this. There's gonna be times where the outside things, the fancy new car, doesn't look like a fancy new car anymore and your perfect kids who are great in sports and great at grades, they're not always gonna be that way and when you first start dating someone, when you marry them, I'm just kidding. They stay the same. But what we have to understand is no matter how nice it flashes, it will come and go and it will truly not do anything for the inside of us but becoming a new creation is through Jesus and that is worthy of celebration.

That is worthy of boasting. That is worthy of understanding greater than anything else. In verse 16 says this, for as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them. And upon the Israel of God. He's saying peace to you if you live by this. Grace to you if you live by this. Grace is available to you. Matter of fact, it's grace that landed you here. It's the grace of God. that even landed you to an understanding of Jesus Christ. Not one person that you will ever meet or you ever have met made a decision that they're gonna turn to Jesus. Jesus drew them in and they responded and said yes to his free gift of salvation. And he's saying peace to you, grace to you, grace upon them, mercy upon them, upon the Israel of God. And when he says the Israel of God, he's not meaning the bloodline of Israel, but he's meaning now this new Israel that is people that are surrendered to Jesus. And at the end as he's closing, and team, you guys can come up. Verse 17, he's saying, from now on, let no one cause me trouble. For I bear on my body the marks of Jesus. I love this statement. I love this statement.

Paul's saying, he's saying all these things. He's giving an understanding of the reality of Jesus and he's giving an understanding of the fact that there's no other gods in there. It's not the gospel and, but it's the gospel only. And then he's saying, while I'm at it, and this is a phrase we used to use in the hood that I grew up on, check my stripes. Check my stripes, this is bad, because I used to run with some. I was a bad dude. But check my stripes means, do you know the fights I've been in? Do you know the crimes I've committed? Do you know how many times I've been in and out of jail? And that was, we wore that as a badge of honor in the neighborhood that I grew up in. So we would say, check my stripes. Before you question me, check my stripes. But I think a better example of that is actually a military uniform. Check my stripes. Oftentimes in the military, on your uniform, you are given a stripe for duration of service. You're given a stripe for a deployment. You're given a stripe to represent how you've grown in the organization, how you've grown in service, how you've grown in your sacrifice. Check my stripes.

And that's what Paul's saying, because at this point, Paul has been beaten. Paul has been stoned. Paul has been rejected. Paul has been kicked out of cities, and he's saying, check my stripes. Look at my body. Look what I've been through. So don't give me a hard time. I'm paying my dues. And I do think he's also giving that as an indicator to us as believers. Like, hey, if you're following this Jesus, and there's nothing about your body that shows for it, there's nothing about your mindset that shows for it, there's nothing about what you've been through that shows for it, I don't know if you're following the same Jesus as me. Paul's making it clear that, like G. Campbell, this quote by G. Campbell Morgan, he says, it's a crucified man that can preach the cross. A crucified man that can preach the cross. What does that mean? Jesus, Jesus on the cross, when he was crucified, he had marks. He had marks on him. And in fact, as we see in the New Testament, when he was resurrected, he still had those marks in him. And it's a crucified man that also has marks, marks on their relationships,

maybe marks on their influence, marks on their reputation, who are okay with saying, I'll take, if you're gonna abuse me, if you're gonna reject me, I'll celebrate that, but check my stripes. I wear these as a badge of honor. It's like we tell the story, often tell the story of Virginia's dad, Virginia's dad being rejected completely by his family, never to see them again when he surrendered his life to Jesus. You know what we call that? Stripes. People who've said, I had to leave a job because the atmosphere was so pagan and it was causing me to stumble, so I had to leave. Stripes. Or vice versa. People like Brian Kondracki who's saying, I'm gonna continuously work in a public school system and being a mentor and being a leader and being someone who can influence these young people who may have never heard the name of Jesus. You know what we call that? Stripes. Check my stripes. And lastly, and you can stand. Lastly, he comes to the end and he says, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,

be with your spirit, brothers. Amen. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, be with your spirit, brothers. He's saying, may the grace be with you because as much as he talks about the cross, he wants to remind, but still, it's not even under your own power that you say yes. It's not even by your own power that you're hearing this message. It's only by his grace that you're hearing this message. It's only by his grace that salvation has been made possible to you. Grace on you, brothers. Peace on you. Altar team, you can pray. There's certain, you can come forward. There's certain people in the room who, I wanna give you an opportunity to respond. Some of you maybe for the first time saying, I've been living in mixture and I wanna say yes to Jesus once and for all. Some have maybe turned their back and had made a decision before and life got to you and the world got to you and you begin to walk away. Today is your opportunity to say yes to him. The altar team is here. They wanna pray with you. They wanna come alongside you.

I think it's important to take this step of faith, even naturally, to say yes. to Jesus. I want to pray for each and every one of you want to make that decision. Here's the other thing, I want to give all of us an opportunity to respond. I know a lot of times the service is coming to an end and we're racing to go get our kids and we're racing to the parking lot. I promise your kids are safe and the parking lot is what it is. But can we all take a moment as we close and we take this moment in worship, we're gonna declare the name of Jesus, we're gonna talk about, we're gonna sing about the fact that we want nothing else, nothing is greater than Jesus. And so if you need prayer, I'm gonna give you the opportunity. You can respond. Even now you can respond. And for the rest of us, I want to pray that God activates something in us that reminds us that it's the cross and cross alone. A declaration that we will worship you and you alone. We will make our boast in you and you alone. So Lord, I thank you. I thank you for each and every person that's here today. I thank you, Lord, that your truth is mighty, that your truth is greater than any lies. Lord, I thank you for those here today who are making a decision to serve you for the rest of their lives. I thank you, Lord, for those that are in here today that are rededicating their life to you. Lord, I thank you that our people in this room that are making decisions that I'm no longer gonna be a slave to this. I'm no longer to be a slave to my own boasting. They're making decisions that I'm no longer gonna glorify myself, but I'm gonna glorify you. Lord, we're thankful for your death, burial, and resurrection. We're thankful, God, that by your grace we've been drawn to you. We're thankful, God, that you said yes to us before we said yes to you. So we ask today that you move in our hearts, move deep in our spirits, you move in our minds. Help us to have the mind of you. Help us to have the thoughts of you. Help us to understand, Lord, that you came from a low place to a high place, from a high place to a low place, all because you love us and all because you wanted to give us the opportunity to have salvation in you. So, Lord, I pray that you move on the hearts of the people. Move on the minds of the people. Lord, help us to live a life dedicated to you so we can carry out your great commission of making disciples, people that are far from you, finding life in Christ. In Jesus' name, amen. Come on, let's worship together. I don't need anything else. You are my worthy. You are my worthy. I don't want anyone else. I don't need anything else. You are my worthy. You are my worthy. You are my worthy. You are my worthy. Give me Jesus. Give me Jesus. You can have all this world. You can have it all. You can have it all.

Give me Jesus. Give me Jesus. You can have all this world. You can have it all. You can have it all. Give me Jesus. Give me Jesus. You can have it all. You can have it all. You can have it all.