God Is Mystery: Choosing Freedom in Christ Alone

This is a brilliant, beautiful book, but these words cannot contain a magnificent creator god, tells us much about him but cannot tell us everything about him. And if we're not careful, we'll try and resolve that tension by shrinking god down to something manageable, our version of him, to a political party or a theological position, something neat and explainable, something safe. But when we do that, we don't get more of God, we get less. [00:55:30] (44 seconds)  #WordsCantContainGod

It could be Jesus and shoring up our life with wealth and safety. It could even be Jesus and a particular political track. We're seeing that around the globe. Paul says, don't go there. Don't trade freedom for something that feels safe but actually enslaves you. So Jesus is our security, but at the same time, let's be really honest, god is not someone we can fully predict, control, or contain. We are completely secure in god, and yet god remains, in large part, a mystery. [00:54:45] (45 seconds)  #FaithOverFalseSecurity

And in the quietness of this moment, will you offer those things to God for him to do with as he pleases? And now, in its place, will you accept and embrace the mystery of God, his magnitude, his goodness, and your place in his world. So you can live in freedom and in trust as others around you hunker down into polarized beliefs? Will you live in that freedom? Let's pray together. [01:13:09] (67 seconds)  #EmbraceDivineMystery

So will we keep Jesus simple? No add ons. Jesus alone. And will we allow our image, our understanding of a creator god to expand and expand and expand? Will you embrace the mystery of God? Because it is it is for freedom that Christ has set you free. Let's be free. I want to invite you to do something as we close, and that is not come to the front. Coming to the front is great. Please don't hear me say anything otherwise. [01:11:33] (42 seconds)  #JesusAloneNoAddOns

Paul is writing to the churches in Galatia. He had swept through that area on his missionary journey. He had told them the good news about Jesus. He had told them that through his death, life and death and resurrection, they were free. He came and he shared that message. People were free from sin, free from striving, free to know god. But then once he went on, other missionaries came, people from Jerusalem, religious leaders who said, yes. Yes. Jesus and. Jesus and the law, Jesus and circumcision, Jesus himself is not enough. [00:51:22] (46 seconds)  #GospelNotAddOns

And I'm more sure than ever that I've only just scratched the surface of knowing who God is, but he has revealed himself, yes, through the bible, yes, through the holy spirit, yes, through prophecy, yes, through all of these things, but also and very much so through pain, through doubt, through the most unexpected people who I've come across, and through complexity. There is nothing simple about God except for our way to reach him, and that's Jesus. [01:10:53] (41 seconds)  #GodRevealedBeyondWords

Jesus, who is represented in this lion, was never safe and predictable while on earth. God is not safe in the sense that we can control him. He's not predictable or manageable. He's not something we can reduce to a system, but he is good, utterly, completely, perfectly good. And that means that we can trust him even when we don't fully understand him. I don't wanna leave this thought of Narnia before showing you a photo of from the movie that's Aslan and Lucy. [00:59:24] (43 seconds)  #TrustEvenInMystery

Can I just say, let's take out the word circumcision for our own purposes? Certainly, I have no need, but there's also a whole lot of other anchors. Circumcision isn't our go to. It's not the thing we're coming back to, but we have other anchors. And if that's the case, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again, I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he's obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ. [00:53:06] (36 seconds)  #RejectLegalisticAnchors