This Weekend's Message: One Fulfillment

I was a confident teenager who felt like I knew how to handle things. Once, when I went to visit my grandparents, they picked me up from the airport in their 1964 Rambler station wagon. After our greeting at the terminal, we headed back to their car. I opened the back tailgate of the wagon and put my luggage in. As I lifted the tailgate to close it, we noticed the glass window was not down all the way. My grandparents told me to stop and lower the window, but of course I knew better and shut the tailgate. You know what happened, right? As I closed the tailgate the glass window shattered.

That was one of those times when instead of doing it my way, I should have listened and done it their way. This has probably happened to all of us at sometime in our life. We think we know the better way to do things or we try to do something ourselves when we should have asked for help. This week in our study of Galatians, Paul uses a familiar story from the Old Testament of someone who did it their way instead of God’s way. It is a brilliant piece of teaching from Paul as he writes his final arguments to the Galatians on the subject of being “Freely Limited.”

I hope to see you on this Father’s Day Sunday.

Gary

This Weekend's Message: One Truth

Is it good to be religious? Does God value religion?

Throughout human history people have always shown some form of religious observance. And throughout history people have always argued and debated over which religious observance is superior.

Is God looking for a specific kind of religious observance from you? If so, which kind? And how are we to determine God's preferred religion?

Dan

This Weekend's Message: One Father

This past year my best friend and his wife adopted a child. Prior to walking through this experience with him, I had never been that close to someone going through this process. I got to see just what a strong financial and emotional commitment it is for anyone to pursue adopting a child. There were many prayers, tears, and sleepless nights awaiting the arrival of their child. But now they are living in the joy of the new addition to their family. When I see my friend talk about his son or post pictures of him, I know one thing: After all that he went through to become that child's father, nothing could ever tear him away from his adopted child.

This Sunday we will be talking about adoption in a unique way. We are not the adopt-ers, but rather the adopt-ed. And God is the Father, longing to welcome the children into His family. But the Apostle Paul will warn us that it is possible to be a child of God and yet still live as if we are only household servants.

Dan

This Weekend's Message: One Path

Some of us love rules and some of us hate them. We love rules when they give us guidance and when they show us a path toward success. We hate them when they bind us and keep us away from freedom. On the one hand, we think it is good that our society has laws, that schools have standards, and that families have rules. On the other hand, we long for the freedom that could come with getting rid of all the rules.

Throughout Galatians, Paul has been making the point that it is not observance of rules and laws that makes someone a Christian. No one enters into God’s family because of strict obedience to His laws. But if this is true, then why are there so many rules, especially in the Old Testament? This Sunday we will discover what God's law is for and what it is not for. It has a specific and necessary role to play in our path to God. Without it, none of us can end up where we want to be.

Dan

Painful Grace

By Dan Franklin, Pastor of Teaching 

For most of us, it is no problem to understand why the Apostle Paul would write a scathing letter to Christians who are practicing immorality, violence, and greed. But it is a little bit harder to understand why the Apostle Paul would write a scathing letter to a church that places great importance on obedience to rules and rituals. Yet this is what we find in the book of Galatians. Paul does not write because they have rejected the moral standards that he left with him. He writes because they have rejected grace.

What in the world could cause anyone to reject grace? Why would anything seem preferable to receiving the free gift of the favor of God Himself? While we may wonder at their actions, the Galatians found something preferable to grace. They found grace to be difficult, painful. And the fact is that we also often find grace too painful. We often throw it aside and prefer to live a life in which we attempt to earn God’s favor.

There may be a number of reasons why we find grace to be painful. In the space below, I want to identify what I see as the two main reasons why we tend to abandon God’s grace in light of inferior options.

Grace reminds us that we are undeserving. Have you ever had trouble accepting a gift from someone? Most of us have. Some of us instinctively respond with a polite ‘no’ when offered help. Others of us may have trouble receiving compliments. Why would we say no to gifts and words that we clearly want?

Let’s say a friend came to my wife and me and offered to babysit our kids for free, while we enjoyed a night out. We could feel awkward accepting the offer, but if we had just watched their kids for free, we would probably have no problem accepting. The reason is that we would feel that we have earned that offer. In this case we could enjoy our evening out, feeling that we were worthy of what we were enjoying. However, if we felt that we had done nothing to deserve the free evening out, it would be hard to accept.

This Weekend's Message: One Redeemer

Nobody wants to be a slave. And yet many people, throughout human history, have found themselves in the state of slavery. And naturally, anyone who is a slave wants to find a way to stop being a slave. But most slaves have limited ability to secure their own freedom, and so their only hope is if someone else acts on their behalf. The best chance for a slave to gain his freedom is for someone to redeem him – to purchase him out of slavery. And a slave can only be redeemed at great cost to the redeemer.

On Sunday we will look at a passage in which Paul says that everyone needs to be redeemed. We are all slaves to the requirements of the law, and our only hope is to be redeemed. Thankfully, God has sent His Son as our Redeemer. This is good news and strange news. On the one hand it means that we have someone who has acted on our behalf. On the other hand it means that we must accept the fact that we are slaves. Only when we embrace the fact that we need redemption and that Jesus is our Redeemer, will we have the opportunity to be set free.

Dan

This Weekend's Message: One Method

Faith is a tricky concept. While it is often associated with religion, it is simply a word referring to belief. And we believe things everyday. We believe our parents, our spouses, our weatherpeople, and sometimes our government. We believe street signs and GPS devices and labels on food. We all believe. We all have faith. The only question is, what (and who) will we believe? This weekend as we continue our series in Galatians, we will be looking at what we believe about our our relationship with God and the tension that we experience between faith and performance. We hope to see you this Sunday!

Matt

This Weekend's Message: One Justification

In 1991 Albert Brooks and Meryl Streep starred in a movie called Defending Your Life. It was a comedy about a man who, after his death, is forced to justify the way he lived before he is permitted to move on. The movie was set in a courtroom format, and the main character was forced to review his decisions and to demonstrate that he lived a life of courage and nobility rather than fear and selfishness.

What would you say if you had to defend your life? What would you say if you had to justify all your actions?

Whether or not we realize it, we are all seeking to be justified. This is why we get defensive when someone criticizes us. This is why we over-explain ourselves to those who question us. This is why we worry about what others think of us.

This Sunday we will read a passage in which the Apostle Paul talks about the different ways we look to be justified, and then he points us to the one and only source of true justification.

Dan

This Weekend's Message: One Family

When I was growing up, my siblings and I thought that we had the strictest parents who had ever existed. When I would talk to my friends, though, most of them claimed that their parents had the inside track to that title. It simply felt like we were always being given rules. Clean up your room. Don’t put your elbows on the table. Ask to be excused before leaving the table. Apologize to your sister. I could not figure out why my parents seemed so obsessed with these rules.

Now that I am a parent I understand that a family doesn’t work unless you have a certain way of doing things. If there are no standards that unify a family, then it is not a family at all. It is just an assortment of individuals who are all going their own way.

While this probably would’ve sounded nice to me when I was a child, none of us really wants a family that is disconnected. While I grew up with certain enforced limitations, I also grew up viewing my family through the lens of freedom. With them, I could be my real self. After acting certain ways at school and around my friends, I could let my guard down with my family. After all, I knew that they would still be my family no matter what. In my family, I experienced both freedom and limitations.

This Sunday we will explore the dynamics of life in God’s family. We will come face-to-face with both the freedom and the limitations that make it so wonderful to be adopted into the family of God.

Dan

This Weekend's Message: One Voice

Most people are aware that there are many voices calling out to us in our culture today. These voices think they have the answers to life and connection with God. They might say, “If you would just jump on board with our way of thinking everything will go well with you.” But how do we know if that is true? How do we respond to these many voices? How do we know if any of these voices are the one true voice we all long for?

This week as we continue in Galatians we will take a look at “One Voice.” We will look at the only voice worthy of being followed. To do this we will look at the life of Paul. What can we learn from the story of a life that was radically transformed that will help us in our own journey towards God? How do we know that the voice we are following is the One Voice of God?

We’ll take a look at these questions as we dig deeper into what it means to be “Freely Limited.”

See you Sunday!

Pastor Gary

This Weekend's Message: One Gospel

I remember the first time that I used a GPS. I have a miserable sense of direction and I frequently get lost, so the presence of a GPS was a welcome addition for our family. I would simply tell it where I wanted to go, and it would give me step-by-step directions. If I did exactly what it said, I would get where I wanted to go.

In a feat of irony, the GPS simultaneously brought both freedom and limitations. It brought limitations because I was instructed on exactly when to turn, when to exit, how many miles to travel, and what freeways to take. But it also brought freedom. It freed me from anxiety that I would go the wrong way. It freed me from ignorance about how far I had to travel. It freed me from the consequences of consistently being late to meetings or appointments. The GPS is just one example of how freedom and limitations come in tandem more often than we think.

This Sunday, as we begin our study in Galatians, the Apostle Paul will demonstrate how this idea of being freely limited applies to the gospel of Jesus. There is freedom to be had! But that freedom will be nullified if we don’t embrace certain limitations.

Dan

Freely Limited

By Dan Franklin, Pastor of Teaching 

I remember the first time that I used a GPS. I have a miserable sense of direction and I frequently get lost, so the presence of a GPS was a welcome addition for our family. We would simply tell it where we wanted to go and it would give us step-by-step directions. If we did exactly what it said, we would get where we wanted to go.

Here is the question: Did the GPS bring freedom or did it bring limitations?

It certainly brought limitations. Instead of simply going wherever I wanted, I was instructed on exactly when to turn, when to exit, how many miles to travel, and what freeways to take. It would be hard to argue that the GPS didn’t bring with it some limitations, but it also brought freedom. It freed me from anxiety that I would go the wrong way. It freed me from ignorance about how far I had to travel. It freed me from the consequences of consistently being late to meetings or appointments. The GPS brought freedom, but it also brought limitations.

We often think that freedom and limitations are at odds, but they come in tandem more often than we might think. We experience the freedom of security when we limit how we spend our money. We experience freedom from conflict in our relationships when we limit our words and don’t speak flippantly or rudely to others. We experience freedom from addictions when we limit our use of food or alcohol or other things.

Freedom is not at odds with limitations; the two are connected.

There is no way around the limitations that are given in the Bible. While we may choose to ignore them, God clearly has given us limitations through His ethical commands and limitations when it comes to our options for how we understand truth.

The Bible teaches that there is one God (Deuteronomy 6:4), one Savior (Acts 4:12), one way to salvation (John 14:6), one path to life (Matthew 7:13-14), one true gospel message (Galatians 1:8-9), and one way to eternal life (1 John 5:11-12). On top of this, the Bible gives us commands and limitations when it comes to sex (1 Corinthians 6:18-20), marriage (Matthew 19:1-9), money (1 Timothy 6:6-10), our words (James 3:1-12), and our attitudes (Galatians 5:19-21). There is no doubt that those of us who embrace the Bible embrace significant limitations on what we do and believe.

The big question is not whether or not God gives us limitations, but rather how these limitations impact our freedom. Do they kill our freedom or do they bring us freedom?

The book of Galatians is all about freedom. The Apostle Paul writes because of his passionate desire that God’s people would experience the freedom that God bought for them through His Son, Jesus Christ. But this freedom comes through one gospel (1:10) from one divine source (1:12) about one path to justification (2:16) through one Redeemer (3:13), bringing us into one new family (3:26-29). The freedom presented in Galatians comes to us only when we embrace the limitations given to us in Scripture.

If you embrace the Bible’s limiting teachings on salvation, you will be called intolerant by those around you. If you embrace the Bible’s limiting teachings on morality, you will be called prudish and judgmental by those around you, and you will have to deny yourself a lot of things that look appealing. There is a cost to embracing the path that Jesus gives us. But this cost, with its limitations, is not the enemy of freedom.

These limitations are the path – the only path – to the freedom that Jesus brings.