Jesus Plus Nothing [Free People] — Pastor Jason Burns

Some of us, the picture we have when we think of God is that God is nothing but an endless ladder. And the view is that God requires a lot from me, but it's like I'll never really get there. But there is a right view of God that I want you to get. That salvation, grace, the gospel message is a free gift. Can't earn it, can't do more to deserve it. All you can do is receive it. [00:26:10] (30 seconds)  #SalvationIsAGift

And I love our church, and I hope it helps you. I hope you grow in your faith here. But it's not Jesus plus our church or any church. It's just Jesus. And here's the equation. Jesus plus anything, it ruins everything. If you add anything to it, it's like having a sweet tea and not adding more sugar but adding a scoop of dirt into it. It ruins it. It perverts it. But here's what Paul wants you to get from Galatians chapter one. It's Jesus plus nothing is everything. [00:23:06] (37 seconds)  #JesusPlusNothing

But knowledge only has this way of puffing you up, not really making you more and more like Jesus. It's not Jesus plus knowledge. Nothing wrong with knowledge. It's just not what saves you. Here's another one. If you grew up in a very charismatic church, charismatic churches will teach you it's Jesus plus gifts. And let me be very clear. I and we believe in all the gifts of scripture, all the the gifts of the holy spirit. We believe in prophecy and the gift of healing. We believe in the gift of speaking in tongues. We believe in all of those gifts, but those gifts won't save you. It's not Jesus plus gifts. [00:21:44] (29 seconds)  #NotSavedByGifts

And he makes it clear, this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works so that no one can boast. Like if you could earn your salvation, you would take credit for it, but it's not about you. Then he goes on and he says this, for we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. So let me get clear about this. Good works don't save us. Good works show that we are saved. Good works don't save us. You can't do something to earn it, but you need to understand that you are saved to do some good stuff. [00:24:16] (40 seconds)  #SavedToDoGoodWorks

They give generously. May maybe God has blessed you recently, and the the results of God's grace to you is you just say, God, you blessed me so much. Of course, I want to live open handed and generously, and I want to give to bless what you're doing. That's awesome. But there are some people who who might be in a different situation, and it's like they're in need. They've got a job interview coming up. They they've they've got an opportunity that they're investing in. And and and they come to church and they feel like God is a cosmic slot machine, that I'm gonna give an extravagant offering and pull the lever because I believe that if I do this, it manipulates God to give me what I want. [00:16:58] (37 seconds)  #GiveNotToManipulate

So he essentially took the bible and rewrote it leaving out the stuff he didn't like and adding stuff he did. One of the great problems with what he did to the bible was he took out the part that declares what the gospel is, which is that we are saved not by our own efforts, not by trying harder or doing more, but we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus, period. End of sentence. He took the gospel, which is good news, and he watered it down into something that it was never intended to be. By watered it down, here's what I mean. [00:12:52] (34 seconds)  #DontWaterDownTheGospel

And John says this, he says, a lot of us, we we have a wrong picture of God. Let me say this to you. Lot of us have a wrong picture of the gospel message of Jesus. Some of us, when we think about God and what the gospel message is, the picture we think of is a it's a locked gate. And the view of God we get from this is that God can't be reached. We we just can't get to him. Some of us when we think of God, the picture that comes to our mind is a garbage can. [00:25:43] (23 seconds)  #WrongPictureOfGod

Jesus plus nothing is the gospel. Jesus plus nothing else is what saves us. Jesus plus nothing else is the story. It is the formula to save us, and I hope you get this today. Now if that's that's not the end of the story, Jesus does save us, and it's not based on what we do. Let me show it to you from one other of Paul's letters. This is the book of Philippians. [00:23:43] (22 seconds)  #JesusAloneSaves