Stand Fast: Living in Grace, Not Legalism

This is the essence of the gospel of grace. You could not save yourself, so Jesus came and shed his blood for your sin. Jesus did something for you that you could never do for yourself, and that is make yourself right with God and give you eternal life. Works can't do it. Being good morally cannot achieve it. Going to church every day of the week and learning to quote scripture will not produce it. The gospel of grace says this, I was broken and lost, and Jesus came in his mercy, died for me, reached out to me by grace. [00:13:47] (35 seconds)  #SavedByGrace

It is my judgment that we should not make it difficult for those that are far from God to find God. What makes it difficult for people to find God? When we have dead religion, when we have rules without grace, when we have requirements that God is not requiring? And so James says, it is my judgment, therefore, brethren, that we would not make it difficult for those that are far from God to find God. Let me give you a great working definition of legalism. Attempting to produce internal transformation by for excuse me, enforcing external conformity. [00:24:49] (37 seconds)  #SeekersNotRules

Once you behave, once you believe, at some point, you get to belong. You're one of us. Do you know the process of converting someone into Judaism at that time in history was between two and three years. Two to three years of conformity external, agreeing with the teachings, and then at some point, you're one of us. Behave, believe, belong. But guess what grace does? Jesus comes and he flips the script. And he says, first, you get to belong. [00:29:21] (33 seconds)  #BelongFirst

This is what Paul is saying. Don't go back to bondage. Don't go back to religious legalism. Don't go back to the chains of whatever God brought you out of because there's a very real enemy that uses temptation and deception and dead religion, which I'll define today, and our tendency to trust our self sufficiency instead of the grace of God. And all those things will bring you into levels of bondage. Now the language that Paul uses when he says, stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherein Christ has set you free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. [00:03:19] (35 seconds)  #StandFirmInFreedom

I I bet I could put money on how you came to Christ. Those of you who had real conversion, you were a broken mess. You were helpless and hopeless. Something fell in on you. Your relationship broke up. The addiction got ahead of you. There's a hole in your heart. You felt dead in your spirit. You couldn't fix yourself, and someone told you about a king. Someone told you about a savior who loved you. And you came to him, and what did you receive? Grace. Unmerited favor. [00:34:16] (31 seconds)  #GraceForTheBroken

And the list was so long and thorough that I, you know, I thought the mission statement of our church was a big banner on the wall that just said, no. No fun for you. But as I came to Christ and started studying his word, I realized this. None of those things are in the Bible. And if they are, they're misapplied moments and scriptures out of the Old Testament, Leviticus, and the like that do not apply under the covenant of grace. But legalism is ridiculous. [00:21:33] (34 seconds)  #LegalismIsRidiculous

Every man is given a measure of faith. If you're in this room, you're watching, you're an unbeliever, you've been giving a measure of faith. That is the capacity to trust God for salvation. So we have the measure, and then the gospel comes, and that faith is stirred up. And we say, I believe it's real. And you put your faith and trust, but never forget this. It was grace at the front end. It was grace that drew you. It was grace that revealed the savior to you, and it was grace that saved us. Can I get an amen from the risers today? [00:14:28] (32 seconds)  #GraceInitiatesFaith

My heart for you is that you would grow in that grace. And as I was praying, I just felt the Lord leaning on my spirit that there are people that used to operate in your grace. It was a grace gift, and you stepped out of that. You've either slowed down, quit, or when you do it now, it's performance and just out of obligation. God wants to refresh the grace. Maybe it's teaching, preaching, giving, administration, entrepreneur, whatever your gift is. But do it with grace. Do it from a place of sitting at the feet of Jesus. Just the way you came is the way you continue. [00:37:04] (36 seconds)  #ServeFromGrace

And when his unmerited favor hit your life, you lived different, you thought different. It wasn't you, and you knew that. In fact, as you reflect on your conversion experience, you can remember, oh, yeah. Now I remember. I had the joy of the Lord when shame lifted off my heart, and I realized he took my shame. I had this big smile on my face. When I realized that my name is written in the lamb's book of life, and I'm gonna live forever with Jesus, couldn't help but dance a little bit. [00:34:47] (27 seconds)  #JoyOfGrace

The enemy will attack spiritual leadership in order to deceive those who are being fed by that spiritual leadership. Now let me be quick to say that there are a lot of leaders in the body of Christ, even in the last few months and years, that have disqualified themselves. They're no longer qualified to lead the body of Christ. But and, of course, the media is quick to amplify and broadcast the failures of fallen leaders. [00:06:35] (22 seconds)  #LeadersUnderAttack

Things like this that my sister could not wear pants to school because it was a sin for women to look like men. And so, of course, she's a sinner, and she would smuggle them in her backpack and change it at the bathroom at school, but god redeemed her from her life of deception. No earrings, little makeup. First, it was no makeup, and then they with little makeup. My philosophy is, hey. If the bar needs painting, man, paint the bar. [00:20:49] (30 seconds)  #FreedomFromLegalism

man, and I rebuked some folks, and it wasn't the guys with the hats on. I'd like to say it was the lord, but I think it was probably the flesh, but it was effective. Why? Because part of our mantra here is you get to come as you are, and you're gonna be loved. Bring all your stuff, all your sin. Hat, no hat. Doesn't matter to me. Tattoo, no tattoo. Glass of wine, no glass of wine. That's your call. I mean, don't bring wine into the sanctuary. Need to clarify. [00:27:39] (36 seconds)  #BringYourWholeSelf

saw something back at at our other location that God was moving. The mosh pit was full of high school students and college students, and people were coming to Christ, and all these guys were coming. A bunch of these young guys, they had their ball caps on. Some of them had them on backwards. You know? And they were coming in. Jeans were a little bit lower than I like. But, anyway, that's the different and they're worshiping God. Right? Like, yeah. God's moving. Well, I had some legalists, some pharisees in the room, some old guard boys that said, well, not in the house of god. Not on my watch. [00:26:38] (34 seconds)  #WorshipWithoutDressCode

But instead of checking with me and the pastors of the church, they begin to go through the crowd rebuking these young guys. You need to get that hat off, son, or get out of here. I said that in the last service. The guy in the front row with a hat peeled his hat off. I go, no, bro. Keep it on. You're ruining the illustration. And they started rebuking these dudes. So I experienced what I would call righteous indignation. I got ticked, [00:27:12] (27 seconds)  #StopPublicShaming

And so God will deal with you, and we're all on a different curve. But let me just tell you, we all struggle with the little Pharisee in our head that says you can earn it. If you do better, God's gonna give you favor. Only when it's motivated by grace. If it doesn't flow from grace, it's creating death. I want you to hear it. I want you to get it. So if you've been serving God for twenty years, thirty years, a decade, where where whatever, [00:32:57] (26 seconds)  #NotByEarning