Sermon Transcript:

And now please join me in welcoming pastor Floyd as he continues the Galatian service.

God bless you. It's

good to see everyone. What a great morning we've had so far. Amen. Well, now it's going to get better, because we're going to listen to the Word of God. We're going to understand a little bit more about what God expects of us and how we can relate to him. So this morning's message is called The No Fear gospel. I don't know if you've ever been afraid to share the gospel, and you think, man, I'm going to mess it up. I'm not going to be able to do it right? I don't remember a lot I said this last week, if you don't know how to share the gospel, I'll give you my information. You can text me. I got quite a few people asked me last week, and I'll show you in a in a few short verses and what exact questions to ask how you can share the gospel with your family, friends and even coworkers that you're surrounded with, and so you shouldn't have any fear, because we're not the ones sharing the gospel anyway. It's God that's speaking through us, and we allow him to do the work so, but so I want to talk about some fears that we have. You know, some of us have a fear of close quarters, right? How many fear that I don't like to be in an elevator with other people? Some of us have a fear of public speaking. Did you know it's probably one of the number one things that people don't want to do. They would rather die. They have a more fear of public speaking than death. And I'm thinking, Man, that's pretty bad, huh? Some people have a fear of flying. I used to be one of those. I really couldn't stand it. I think it was more of a control thing, right? I had to allow somebody else to control the situation. But I fly all the time. Now it's it's gotten better. A fear of change. People say, Man, I want to change. I want to do this and that. But when it comes time to actually step out and fail, out in faith and do it, they just they step back and go back to who they really used to be or want to be. Also a number of things. We could list the list on and on and on, but it's natural to have some fears in our life.

Many Christians go through life unable to handle those fears,

even though we have the risen Savior living inside of us, we have a really hard time facing those fears. Because I think a lot of times when we have Jesus as the one that we count on and can relate us, we still fall back and try to do it ourselves, don't we? We say, if I could just go to this class or talk to that counselor, or go to that church or listen to this song, then everything is going to be fine. No, what you really need to do. And I, you know, after sister prayed this morning and talked, I thought, Man, I don't even need to preach this morning after that, right? I was just like, Okay, then,

but what she was talking about is relying on Jesus for everything to face our fears. I

want to be completely transparent in this plan that God has for us. The gospel is no longer hidden. For those that are following Christ, when you open the Word of God and you have Jesus living in the side of you. You have the Holy Spirit that is the greatest teacher that we have, and he's and He speaks to us, he teaches us, and He allows us to understand what we're supposed to do. You see,

if he would do that for us, then you would have no fear when you share the Gospel. Oh, wait a minute. He has done that for us, right? He had, he has done that for us,

but sometimes we want to wait and see, to allow God to show us exactly what we're supposed to do,

and sometimes it's frustrating. You know, God doesn't give us a lot of details. When he calls us to do something, right? He just says, I want you to go do this. And you just go, man, how am I going to do that? He wants you to step out on faith and go and so then he'll give you the details later, and it's hard, because we live in a world that we can Google anything before we decide to do something. We can find out exactly what it is before we even go do it. Well, that's not how our God works. Our God wants you to have faith. He wants you to be able to face your fears. So here's some examples, some biblical examples, of people that had a fear to do what God had asked them to do. Moses. Think about Moses. Moses, a great champion. Moses, yeah, the one that wrote the first five books of our of our Old Testament, that called the Pentateuch.

God had asked him to go speak on his behalf, and this is what he said one time to God, Exodus, chapter four, verse 10, Moses said to the Lord, pardon your servant. Lord like excuse me,

I have never been eloquent, neither in the past, nor since you have spoken to me or to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.

Could you imagine God going and

what else you got for me? You think I didn't know that? You think God doesn't know what he's doing when he calls you to do something he Moses went so far to say, Listen, my brother, Aaron, now that dude can speak. Have you heard him speak?

Think

I didn't call Aaron. Is what God said to Moses. I called you.

I think so many times we we live in the regret lane of our faith walk because God has asked us to do something and we think somebody else is going to do it. Have you ever been there? Well, that that's not surely, that's not me. I wrestled with my call to ministry for five years, wondering, how is it possible that you could take a kid from the northeast side of El Paso and use for the kingdom of God?

I mean, I grew up in Logan heights. I mean, it was a gang infested neighborhood, and I was like, Why me? Why would you want to use me? Surely there are more qualified people out there to do what you've called me to do. And that's what Moses was saying, Gideon. Now, if

you don't know anything about the Old Testament, I suggest you start reading there's some amazing things in the Old Testament. Gideon was in. He was he considered himself the lowest servant of the lowest clan of people. He was like, Dude, I'm like, way down here. God. And listen, what in Judges 615 he says, Pardon me, Lord, another one. Excuse me, God. He replied, but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least of my family.

Again, I just hear God going, so what

if you want me to make you somebody? Then I want to use a nobody, right? How many here are nobodies this morning? I'm a nobody, but he wants to use us to be somebody, not because he wants you to elevate yourself, but to elevate his name to be elevated in Jesus, Jonah had a fear of wicked people. He was afraid of them. You know why? Because Jonah was asked to go preach to the people of Nineveh, and God was like, and he was told God, he's like, I'm not doing that. So he went the opposite way. And you know the story, he got swallowed up by a big fish. I said it was a whale. The Bible doesn't say it's a whale, but I mean, what are the fish could swallow a man, right? And he's in there for three days. And finally he goes, Man, okay, I'm going to pray, because I know the God that I serve will hear me. But God to do whatever. And he gets spit it back up on the to the shore of Nineveh. And then he tells God, okay, I'll go preach to these people. And Jonah says these words to his people,

repent

or you're going to die. That was his sermon. Could you imagine coming to church and pastor goes, you better get right with God, or you're dead.

Amen. Let's go. That was his sermon. He told the people he was he hated wicked people. He was afraid of them. And then hear the people turn their lives over to Christ, over to God, and and they turn their lives around, and they actually get saved, and they come to God over that sermon. And I was thinking, Man, I work a hard on my sermons. I'm like that one was like, I could do that. Repent. You're going to die.

It's true.

You see Moses, Gideon, Jonah and even Larry Floyd. We all have fears of things we don't understand. We just do it's hard.

Our scripture text this morning, we're going to see Peter how he was afraid of the Jewish elitist leaders of his time. And there are pastors all across our country

that bow to their denomination

or their peers because they're afraid of what they'll think of them

when they share the gospel if they're doing it exactly the right way, biblically,

the doctrine has to be exact. Are you a post millennials, a pre millennial, an amillennious? Do you believe in Jesus? Is coming back before? Is he going to is there a rapture? Are we going to be here to the end? And if you preach those things, and they don't believe you, we bow down to go, Well, you know, it's this and it's that, and that's what was going on in our text this morning. So I want you to, I want you to know that sometimes we're going to preach the gospel, that sometimes they think they know more than you do, even though they may not be a believer, they may have studied the scriptures, they just don't believe them. So we have to understand where we're at in our walk, in our faith walk. So we're going to read from Galatians, chapter two, verses 11 through 21 stand with me as we read from God's Word.

Say, Pastor, why do we have to stand?

And I've said this before, because we can focus. You're not sitting down, hopefully you're not on Facebook right now, unless you're watching it live. But

we want to focus on God's word. This is the most important part of the service today. What is God going to speak to me about in his word?

Well, Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned. And Cephas is another word for that was Peter's original name for before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles, but when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belong to the circumcision.

Group, the other Jews joined him in the in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy, even Barnabas was led astray.

When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas, in front of all of them, you are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile, not like a Jew. How is it then that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs? Man, could you imagine that conversation? What are you doing? Peter,

we, who are Jews by birth, are not sinful. Gentiles know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we too have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ, not by the works of the law, because the works of the law, by the works of the law, no one will be justified. But if in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners. Doesn't that mean that Christ promotes sin,

and I would just be going,

absolutely not. Paul says, If I rebuild what I rebuild what I have destroyed, then I really would be a law breaker. For through the law, I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me, the life I now live in the body I live by faith, in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I did not set aside the grace of God, for righteousness could be gained through the law. Christ died for nothing.

Father, speak to us this morning through Your Word in your name. I pray amen. You may have a seat.

My first point is, face your fears head on in the first couple verses,

I saw Paul in this text, and he really just goes right to Peter. And Peter was actually the first pope, if you know anything about Catholicism, he was the first Pope of the of the church. So he was the man. He was the pillar of the church. So in verse 11, Paul used to be in in confrontation in some of the situations that he grew up with. He know for first hand about the power that was given to him as a follower of Christ. I don't know about you, but do you know the power that's been given to you as a believer in Jesus Christ, God has entrusted you with his power.

That's a lot to chew on this morning, isn't it? Why would he choose us? He's I'm not suggesting that you get in somebody's face like Paul did with Peter, but I am suggesting this, don't send a tweet, don't send a Facebook post. Don't send an instant message. If you have a problem with somebody,

talk to them face to face.

This is a big lesson for us today, because I think so many times today, we're afraid to confront those things that are not right in our lives or in somebody else's life, and we don't want to say anything, but yet we'll say stuff when we don't say stuff through our social media. Is I went in and say, send him an actual letter in the mail, right? No, you need to face your fears head on, speak to that person. So Paul says this, I went to Peter so that I could talk to him about the damage that he was doing with the gospel, confrontation is one of the biggest fears that we deal with in our lives. Nobody likes it. I don't care what people say. It doesn't bother me. It bothers nobody likes confrontation. I have to deal with it all the time in my position and pastoring pastors, it's hard, but I'm always afraid. Am I going to say the wrong thing? Am I going to give the wrong body language. Am I going to have the wrong facial expression, you know, or how are they going to read me? I have to be very careful. It's one of those fears that we have to rely on the Holy Spirit to lead us as we have this confrontation, we have to face our fears with love as we speak to those, we must never point fingers or chastise or tell people they're wrong. And thinking that Paul, you know, he had this ego about him because of who he was, he was like the Pharisee of Pharisees confronted with Christ. Now he's like the the, you know, he wrote 13 of our letters in the in the New Testament of the 27 books that we have is that this guy was the man. And here's the man confronting

this, Peter. And it's not hearsay. It wasn't gossip. No cheese. Miss going on. This was really happening, and so Paul went to go tell Peter.

And it's easy to read into this, because you think, Well, Paul was kind of rough with him,

but if you know anything about Peter, I think that's the way he responded, because he was the same way. Peter was rough. If you know some of the Scripture texts that Peter even confronted Jesus Himself, He tells him in Luke, 1428, he says, Luke or Lord, if it's you, Peter said, tell me to come on to the water.

Water.

Here's Jesus walking on water, and here's Paul with all his nonsense. And he says, if it's really you, let me come out there too and walk on the water.

And then he says, come right.

Matthew 1616, Simon Peter answered, You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God. So he knew who Jesus was, Matthew 1618, and 19. See, he just told Jesus, you're the Son of the living God.

And Jesus tells Peter this, I tell you that you are Peter. And on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Listen, Paul knew who he was talking to. Peter was not even afraid to talk to Jesus in this rough way. And so Paul says, I'm going to use some of his same medicine, but with love. And say, Peter, listen. Man, you're doing damage to the gospel. Man,

Matthew, 1622, and 23

Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. He says, He tell he rebukes Jesus. Jesus is there washing the disciples feet, and he rebukes me. Says, Never, Lord, this is never going to happen to this one. They were they were arrested him, excuse me. And he says in verse 23 Jesus turned to Peter and said, Get behind Me, Satan,

you are a stumbling block to me. You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.

This is a reminder that Satan is real, and he's looking to stumble us in our walk with Christ. He's looking to put roadblocks in front of us. And so Jesus wasn't being crude. He just knew that the enemy, the enemy was going to do that and come into Peter's situation is that we like Jesus, we gotta be ready. We have to be prepared to give an answer. So Paul is dealing with the main pastor, the Pope, the leader of the the Free Church, the new church, the New Covenant. Peter's the pastor. And he says,

I think he had a little leniency to be tough on Paul or or Peter, excuse me, because of who Peter was.

Peter's a pillar verse 12. Here's the scenario. Peter's hanging out with the Gentiles. You know why he was hanging out with the Gentiles, right? They got better food than the Jews.

Man Peter got a taste of some bacon.

All his life. He wasn't able to eat that because they were not allowed to eat pork.

He found out what a bacon cheeseburger tastes like. Well, I'm going to hang out with them too.

They might even have pork tamales.

You know, he's hanging out with the Gentiles, but he's asking them to get circumcised so that they can be more Christ like and Paul's like, no, no. Christ already did everything on the cross. There's nothing else to follow. You don't have to do any other rituals to get near to Christ. You see, before Jesus came, all this, all these things were off limits. Look at Deuteronomy, 14 eight. So you're wondering why they why they couldn't eat pork. It was one of their commandments by God Deuteronomy, 14 eight, the pig is also unclean. Although it has a divided hoof. It does not chew the cut. You are not to eat the meat or touch their carcasses. So Peter would then act like he wasn't eating pork. When the leaders of the Jewish community would come around, he just, you know, the elitist would come and be like, Oh no, I I'm not having bacon with them. That's not me. Because he was afraid of what his peers were going to say to him. He was afraid to go, Listen, I've been called to be the pastor of the Gentiles, so whatever it takes to reach them, I'm going to do that. You see, wasn't afraid of of them.

Peter was afraid.

You see, they weren't afraid of him. Peter was afraid of them.

Be careful with your walk with Christ. We're surrounded by people all the time that think they know more about Jesus and aren't even following Christ than you do,

because maybe they see what your life is doing and you don't really look like a Christian or act like a Christian, and that's what's going on here. As Paul's like, Look, dude, you're supposed to be leading them to Christ, not leading them to ritual.

Are you hearing me this morning? So you may have come from a different denomination or a different religion or a different background, or nothing at all, and you have come to Christ, but you still think you have to do certain things in order to please Christ. And when those people come around you and start testing your faith, you act like you're not doing it.

Listen, God is watching everything we do, and he wants us to.

Understand we don't have to be afraid of the gospel. We don't have to afraid, be afraid and go, This is what God has done with me. He's changed me from the inside out. He's made me a new person.

When there those in church try to elevate their priority above the Word of God, we have a problem. We

have a huge problem. The Word of God is the word of God. Look at Mark 718, and 19. It says this. Jesus says, are you so dull? Are you so dull? Don't you see that nothing enters a person from the outside that enters can defile him, for it doesn't go into their heart, but into their stomach and then out of their body. In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean

so we can eat different things. Now we don't have to follow ritualistic laws we are we ask, Why do you think we ask God to bless our hamburgers and french fries? I don't know why he wants to bless them, because we know they're not good for us, right? But we still say a blessing,

not so much because we want the food to be blessed. But we were asking God, we're thanking them for his provision for us, and really, that's what our prayers before our meal are, is we're thanking them that he's provided for us to be able to do this. See, it isn't the food that makes you unclean, it's the things you put in your heart.

Ouch, right?

That's Paul man. Paul's just telling Peter like it is, we should never be afraid to speak the truth about God's word. It's the only thing that we have to guide us in our path to God. In verse 13, a teachable moment for all of us. We, like Peter, are leading our sphere of influence. We can lead others astray as well. Peter even leads Barnabas astray. I don't know if you know anything about the gospel, but Barnabas and Paul were missionary partners man, and they went their separate ways, and Paul went one way and Barnabas went another way. But they were still planting churches and teaching people about Christ. But because of what Peter was doing, he even led Barnabas astray,

a missionary.

This was serious.

One summer night, during a severe thunderstorm, a mother was tucking her young, small son into the bed. She was about to turn off the light when he asked in a trembling voice, mommy, will you stay with me all night?

Smiling, the mother gave him a warm, reassuring hug, and she said, tenderly, I can't, dear,

I have to sleep in Daddy's room.

There was a long pause in silence with the young boy, at last, with a shaking voice, he says, Well, what a big sissy he is.

Are you afraid to face your fears head on? What if Jesus allowed you to walk through those fears, and he came alongside you, and He guided you through that you can do that today. Secondly, have a plan for your fears. I think a lot of times we back down to our fears because we don't have any plan. So what kind of plans can we make? Paul had a plan. He was going to confront the issue in the presence of others in order for them to hear the truth. Now I am not suggesting that you get your family together and you tell them like it is.

I'm suggesting that you have a serious conversation with about who Christ is in your life, because you want them to know as well. And maybe they say they know, but you see that they're not really following Christ. And so Peter wanted to make sure other people heard the truth. That's what we really want. He says, Peter, you're a Jew in verse 14, Peter, you're a Jew. Everyone looked around and thought, really, we already knew that Peter was a Jew, right?

But Paul, being Paul, completes the thought so no one can have any doubt. He says, How do you make Gentiles follow Jewish customs?

Tell us, Peter,

there's a group of people around there. This is the leader of the of the Christian Church, the first pastor, and Paul saying, Tell me how you do that.

Why are you making Gentiles follow Jewish customs?

Wow.

I bet you had got silent

when they say you could hear a pin drop. You're

living like a Jew. You're a Jew, but you're living like a Gentile, but you make Gentiles follow Jewish customs. Come on, Peter, what's it going to be? Make up your mind. You're either following Christ or you're not.

You're not following the law anymore. Verse 15 and 16. Here's the plan that Paul reminds Peter of. Look at what it says.

We're Jewish people by birth, and we know that a person is not justified by works, but by faith in Christ. This is a Jewish person that grew up with all the customs of the Jewish law, and he's having to remind Peter, dude, you're Jew by birth.

But now you're a follower of Christ, and in Him alone are we saved, not by all of the good works that you think you want to do, but by faith in Christ. Listen, even Jewish people have to face their destiny in Christ,

and that's tough. They're going through a lot right now in the world Amen, people don't even, I don't know that there's any country in that region that likes Israel, but they're going to have to come face to face with the real Messiah as well. Paul says We, too, have to place, place our faith in Christ. We have to do it. We have to stop trusting the law in all the work that goes into trying to fulfill the law. He says, We can't trust that anymore.

Peter should know better. We, too, should know better.

We can't work our way to heaven. We can only give faith to Christ so that he allows us to even be in His presence. We follow the plan of God so we don't we won't be swayed by the things of this world. We won't be swayed by the things that people try to think that they have in store for us of what we'll do. Jeremiah 2911 through 13, says this, I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Many of you have this verse memorized. Some of you may even say this is your life verse.

Plans to prosper you, not harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future. Then will you call on me

and come and pray to Me and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart, you see it's not it's not enough to know verse 11, verse 12 and 13. Go with it. See when we call that taking scripture out of context, because we claim that all the time. Jeremiah, 2911, for God has plans for me, plans to prosper, but we forget what 12 and 13 says. Only if you seek Him with all your heart does he do those things. So be careful with how many people we can lead astray by ripping scripture out of context and going, this is what it says. We have to know what this says in its totality.

What do you do when you're afraid? Who do you turn to? Do

you have a plan? Are you just going to wing it when it happens today? Make sure your plans are God's plans in your life. Make sure that God is seeking your seeking you as you seek Him. Lastly, with Jesus, there are no fears. With Jesus, there are no fears verses 17 through 21 this is one of the verses you have to read more than once. Paul seems to be kind of talking to himself. I always say, you know, sometimes I wonder if they wrote down stuff in Paul's and they wrote it down, you know, he, he said,

When we seek Jesus, there will be times when we're among sinners, meaning that Jesus must condone sin, right?

That? Read the verse, that's what it says. Look, but if in seeking to be justified in Christ, we find ourselves also among the sinners, doesn't that mean that Christ promotes sin?

I'm glad he answers himself right there. If you talk to yourself, don't answer yourself. But I'm glad Paul did in this absolutely not. He says, Listen,

I heard this from Jim Dennison one time, and I repeat it a lot now, because it makes so much sense, the Bible can never condone what it has already condemned.

Did you hear that? You see, people are trying to condone all of these things that are antiChrist, as if it doesn't exist? The Bible's never going to condone anything that it's already condemned. And that's what Paul was trying to tell Peter. And he said, listen, just because you hang out with sinners doesn't mean that Jesus says it's okay to be a sinner. He never said that. Why do you think he went to the cross and nailed his hands to the cross and bled for him as we participated in the Lord's supper for sin.

He did it so we don't have to pay for the penalty of our sin. When we seek Jesus, there will be times that we're among sinners. There will be people who don't want to follow Christ that are around us, he says, and we mingle with sinners. That doesn't mean Jesus promotes sin.

I always scratch my head on that as well. Peter has to know what he's doing, the hypocrisy he's actually perpetrating in front of people. See, he's really saying that if you believe that you can elevate the law by simply believing in Christ, then there's no need to be good, right? If we can just say, I want faith in Christ. See, the result is we have a people now that profess Christ as Lord and Savior, just so they can go to heaven.

That's it. They don't care about the rest of their life. They do whatever they want. And they say, No, I know I'm saved.

Listen, there is nowhere in the Scripture does it promote.

To say, go ahead and continue sinning as if,

really, as if there's no heaven.

You see, you can't be secure in your faith and continue in the person that you were. It doesn't work that way. And that's what Paul was trying to tell Peter. Listen, you can't keep sinning like that when you're leading a missionary like Barnabas away from the gospel. What do you think we're doing with our lives when we say we believe in Christ, and yet we live a different way? And people see us, and they go, man, if he can live for if he says he's going to heaven, then I must be going too, because I'm not as bad as them.

They live as they desire, since they have been forgiven, but the truth is they haven't been forgiven. Because if you've been truly forgiven, you'll be remorseful for the life that you live when you sin, you'll want to come to Christ and say, God, forgive me. I am a sinner.

And even one time in the scriptures, one guy wanted to have so much faith, and he asked Jesus to help him with his unbelief. He wanted to believe, but he felt like he couldn't believe. And he says, help me with my unbelief.

Paul answers the question, saying absolutely not second. Corinthians, 517, says, Therefore, if anybody is in Christ, the old has gone and the new has come. You see, if you're in Christ, living like the former, you is inconceivable. It's not possible according to the gospel. So you can't continue to be who you are and be a believer in Christ. Everybody that Jesus confronted in the Gospel changed. They were transformed. They started living a different way.

Transformation takes place when you meet the real Jesus. You see, I think there are lots of people meeting the fake Jesus because we've made it so simple. Pray this prayer and you're good to go. It's not about praying a prayer. It's about what you put in your heart. It's about living your life for him, it's about really believing that he did do the things that he said he did. You see, if you have the real Jesus, you have nothing to fear.

It's hard to preach the gospel in this nation, in this culture, in this community, in this city, in our families, it's hard to preach the gospel, especially with our lives, especially with the way we're supposed to live in verse 18, Paul basically reminds Peter what he's doing, accepting God's grace by faith, but then returning to the Jewish customs to have a relationship with God. That's like saying, I'm going to get saved today, but I'm going to keep doing what I've been doing. People aren't going to believe it's true, because you haven't changed. You haven't been transformed. You see when we turn from all we are to our Savior back to trying to earn our salvation, we make our faith more illegitimate than it is.

We don't make it legitimate for people to see because they don't believe you, they call you a hypocrite.

Verses 19 to 21 when some of the most amazing, amazing verses we have in our in our Gospel,

Paul says, I died to that law, telling Peter, the Pope, the pastor, I died to that law. Remember when we took communion this morning, the Scripture text says, This is the new covenant,

the new law,

because we all fail when we look at the standard of a holy God. Romans, 323, says, For all have fallen short of the standard of God. Listen, we know that we're sinners. We know that we're never going to measure up or attain the status of God. We're not supposed to. We're supposed to follow God and try to be the God that he's called us to be. You see, the law cannot bring life, only Jesus brings life.

I wish it were that simple as following the 10 Commandments and saying, Hey, all you gotta do is this and you'll be saved. It doesn't work that way with Jesus. There's no more fear. Pogo Paul got Paul goes on to say powerful statement in verse 20. Look at verse 20. With me, if you don't have written up on the screen, look at it in your Bible. Galatians, chapter two, verse 20, he says, I've been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me, the life I live now, in this body I live by faith, in the Son of God

who loved me

and gave himself for me.

Do you understand what Paul is saying here? He's like this is how much I live for Christ. It's not me living anymore. Everything I do is about Jesus, and he says he's the one that did it. He gives him all the credit. He said he's the one that loved me. He's the one that gave himself for me. He's the one that said, I'll die for you, even if you're the only one that was on this earth that he came for.

See when we give up control of our lives to Him, we also get to say that I've been crucified with Christ, and Jesus lives in me, and I live for him because of what he's done. In verse 21 to end our text, he says, If you don't believe this message, then Jesus died for nothing.

I'm telling you, remember, Paul's talking to Peter, and he's saying all these things in front of this group of people, and he's like, Dude, you are not living for Christ when you do the things that you're doing. Because there are people that need a real Jesus this morning, they need to understand how to come to faith in Christ, not how to live by the law.

Listen, we're never going to measure up to what God's standard is. Get that through your head, but in your heart, you can say, God, I'm broken. Last week we talked about jars of clay and how God plants these wonderful things in our life, but we're just like jars of clay. We were breaking we're breakable. We're broken people. You see, he died for the whole world and all of its sins.

So this morning, I want to

challenge you. I'm going to come down here, hopefully the cameras will be okay with this.

And I want to, I want to kind of recite an old song,

because this is really serious.

You see, if you've been crucified with Christ, then you should be living for Him. You should have let the old person go and have the new person living through you. And that's Jesus, Christ. And so there's this song by Phillips Craig and Dean, called crucified, crucified with Christ, says, As I look back on what I was thought I was living, I'm amazed at the price I chose to pay and to think I ignored what really mattered because I thought the sacrifice would be too great. See, there's a lot of people that never come to Christ because they feel like I'm going to have to give up so much stuff.

I can't do it. I can't give up those things to come to Christ. But when I finally reached the point of giving in, I found the cross was even calling then, and even though it took dying to survive, I've never felt so much alive

as I hear the Savior call for the daily dying. I will bow beneath the weight of Calvary, let my hands surround surrender to His piercing purpose that holds me to the cross, but sets me free. I will glory in the power of the cross the things I thought were gain I now count as loss. And with his suffering, I identify and by His resurrection power, I'm alive, for I have been crucified with Christ, and yet I live. Not I but Christ that lives within me, his cross will never ask for more than I can give. For it is not my strength, but by his there's no greater sacrifice. For I am crucified with Christ, and yet I live. So

I want to ask you this morning, as we have a song of what we call an invitation. Have you been crucified with Christ? Have you let the old self die and allow the new self to live? I know it's hard.

I know that you may come from a situation where you think it's impossible for me to give up these things to follow Christ. Nothing is impossible with God. You hear me. I don't care where you're at and what you're going on, what's going on in your life, God can save you from where you're at.

I'm a living testimony to that, and so are you. You have been saved by the grace of Christ. Listen,

why do you think we go through so much effort to make sure Sunday morning we hear the gospel message so that you can make sure that your life is right with Christ. So this is an opportunity to say, Pastor, I don't know I'm not saved, but I want to be saved. I wasn't able to participate this morning, but I would like to

I want Jesus Christ to be the Lord of my life. So the way you do that is, it's simple. You just asked, you ask Jesus to be in your life. You believe that he did what he said he did, and you confess Him as your Lord, as you confess Him as your Lord, you're saying to him,

I know I need you because I can't do it myself. And so he forgives you of your sins, and he and you start a new life. Second, Corinthians, 517, the old person has gone. The new person lives on, amen. So don't be afraid. Face your fears today. I don't care who is stopping you from coming to Christ. Don't let them stop you anymore. You come to Jesus today. So during this song, if you want to come and ask Jesus to be the Lord of your life, would you come and kneel and just ask him? And in your own words, I don't want to put words into your mouth, say, God, I need you. I understand that I'm not saved, and I want to be saved. I want Jesus to be the Lord of my life. Ask Him into your heart and ask him to forgive you of your sin.

And after you do that, would you stop by the prayer room just talk to somebody so we can help you with your faith walk you see. If you come and do that, we don't know that you've done that, unless you stop and talk to us and say, Pastor, that's what I've done. And we say, God, thank you, and we'll help you walk through that part. Okay, I'm going to say a word of prayer. Go ahead and stand to your feet and these this altar is going to be open. Maybe you're here today and you have walked away from God.

That does not mean that you're not saved.

What it means if you've just disconnected from the source, you've unplugged yourself. Well, now it's time to get plugged back into the source, plug your life back in with Christ, reconnect with him so that you can live again for him, so you can say, I no longer live, but Christ lives in me, father. We, thank you for this day. We thank you for this opportunity that we have to come to you. And so this morning, God, as we give our lives to you, would you help us face our fears so that we can have Christ in us, so that we can share the Christ with those in our lives. And so, Father God, would you move in the hearts of your people in your name, I pray Amen. Amen.