Living in Grace: Freedom Beyond Conditions

1) "Do we focus on these things that might divide us? Or do we just focus on the things that unite us, that keep us together? And so we overlook those things when they're small and not meaningful. And so we overlook those things when they're major because we want to, like, keep it right. And Peter says this. 1 Peter, this is an extra, you know, it's 1 Peter 4.8. He says what? He says, What is that? I mean, Peter is saying that you and I, if we're going to have conditions in our relationship, the conditions should be love. That our relationships as believers in Christ ought to be defined by love, ought to be defined by grace, I mean, isn't that what God has done for us?" [18:02] (48 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2) "God did not come around and say, look, you haven't met my conditions, and you're wrong, you're wrong. Jesus didn't go around telling how terrible sinners everybody is and point everything out. He did a little bit of the church, but not with all, right? He came with this grace and this love for everyone. And while God gives us this grace and love, he makes us right with himself. We are incapable of making ourselves right. God says, look, you can't do it. I'll do it for you. So he sends his son to make us right with him by his grace, God's riches at Christ's expense, his riches of his grace and his love. He pours out unconditionally to us, gives it that way, sets our relationship up that way." [19:15] (49 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3) "And this is what's happening in the church of Galatia. In that whole area, they have been freed by the gospel, freed from all their conditions, been given the grace of God through Jesus Christ, and he has set them free from it. And yet, they get caught back up into it. And so we want to, we're going to lean into this struggle between God's grace that he gives us and living out that grace with one another. And my hope is that as God has made us right, we'll learn to live right with God by his grace." [20:20] (40 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4) "Paul recognizes that these old habits are hard to break. Maybe you've had this experience before, especially the generation of Rhodians, rotary phones, right? The dial phones, you had those, right? Have you ever been there? And maybe with push buttons, cell phones or cheater phones. But have you ever been there where you just don't know a number? And you're at the phone and you're like, I can't remember this number. But then you put your hand down. All of a sudden, your hand just starts dialing. And now the number just comes right back to you. Or you start pushing numbers and you just go, oh, yeah, this. Oh, I can't remember this number. But oh, this pattern all of a sudden appears. You have built habits. Habits, intentionally, unintentionally, into your body that work without your mind. They go in autopilot automatically." [26:09] (50 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5) "And here's Paul's response. Number two, Paul holds to the gospel's freedom for others. He holds to the gospel's freedom. He says, to them, in verse five, he says, to them, we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. So Paul says, we're not even gonna move an inch. We didn't even budge. We didn't even try to negotiate this. We stood the ground. Now, this might not seem such an important note, but this is pretty significant because people knew Paul and his ministry. And they knew that Paul had a Jewish background and Paul also did Jewish things. And at times, he appeared more Jewish." [29:07] (55 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6) "The gospel is for all. The grace is for all. I mean, Jesus came that he would come to save the whole what? World. That's everybody. Not just Americans. I mean, he gave his mandate to the church, right? Go make disciples of all nations. All people. Regardless of anything about whether they're, whatever their races, their economics, their education, their color, whatever you want to add in. It doesn't matter. All nations. And surely now where the church is much more mature than it was then. We're beyond this, aren't we? Do we still have this problem today? Yeah, we do." [33:23] (48 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7) "And Paul's like, this is the gospel that crosses barriers. I mean, where did Jesus go? Jesus was known as a drunkard, a sinner, all right? And a person who, a glutton. And he went to the marginalized. He went to the broken. He went to the rejected. He went to the sick. Now, the sick back then, if you were sick, that was God's punishment to you for your sins or your family's sins. And yet Jesus went and he touched them. Jesus crossed boundaries of race. Jesus crossed boundaries of sexuality. He talked to a woman who was in adultery. He was kicked out of the culture and the community who was in adultery. Jesus was there and laid out a well and yet Jesus goes and he talks to her. How dare he? But that's the gospel." [39:33] (44 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8) "The gospel is on move to give his grace to all who come and to wherever you live, work, and learn and play. Wherever you are. It takes what is separated and unites it together in Christ. That's what Paul writes in Ephesians. I want us all to grow up in the unity of faith. The unity of the gospel. Because if we have the gospel, the rest will take care of it. If we understand that we are totally dependent upon God's work in our life, the rest will be taken care of because we will not be prideful. We will not be conditional. We will be humbled and so thankful for grace. And no one is so meaningful that we know others need it just as we do. They're all a broken mess needing Jesus." [40:10] (53 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9) "Living right with God is one, not by our heritage or works, but by faith in Christ. It's simple. It's faith in Christ. And that faith has been not something you work to earn, as Paul says in Ephesians. It's a gift from God. It's a gift to God. It's a gift to God. Because what does Paul say? He says, we ourselves are Jews, are by birth, are not Gentile sinners, yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, not by any conditions, but through faith in Jesus Christ. So they also have believed in Jesus Christ in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law. Because works of the law, no one will be justified. It's impossible." [51:00] (37 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


10) "The church should be filled with diversity. The church should be filled with the uniqueness that is unified in Christ, not in our conditions. Our conditions. Our conditions. The little laws and practices are not equal to the scripture. In fact, the little saying I think is true that we need to learn more is that the church should be free to do everything it is to win the loss except for sin. We're free to whatever it takes to reach the loss except for sin. So if someone says, uh-uh, this is the way you got to do it. Uh, wait a minute. We're free. That empowers your uniqueness to go share the gospel in your unique way. You're not called to be Jason. You're not called to be John. You're not called to be Roberto. I like that name. You're called to be you. To be unique carriers of the gospel where you live, work, and play, and learn, and to do that in order for the grace of God to come out in us." [53:11] (68 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)