Freed to Love, Part 2

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. If you have experienced the Gospel, the center of your life begins to rotate around this idea, my life for yours. A conceited person reverses that and says, your life for mine. Every single moment of every day you are living according to one of these two principles, your life for mine or my life for yours. Welcome back to Summit Life with Pastor J.D.

Greer. As always, I'm your host, Molly Vidovitch. So one of the topics that seems to be on everyone's mind these days is love. Who should we love? When and how we should love? Love is a big deal in the world right now, but we're here today to talk about a different kind of love, a love from Jesus. What does genuine Christian love actually look like and how do we live it out in a world screaming for it? We're diving into those questions in the second part of a message titled Freed to Love. Remember, if you've missed any of the previous messages, including the first half of this message, you can watch or listen to them on our website at jdgreer.com. We're looking at Galatians chapter five, starting at verse 25.

So if you want to turn there now, we'll jump back in where we left off last time. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. In other words, the Spirit has created a new reality for us in the gospel, and that reality comes with it, the power of a new creation and the power of resurrection. But in order for you to access that power, you got to walk in a way that is consistent with what the Spirit is doing. So therefore, he says, let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

That word conceited there is a very important word. What the word in Greek literally means is empty of glory. If you become a person who is empty of glory, then you are going to become a person who provokes and envies one another. Remember what Paul has explained to us. You and I were created for the glory of God. We were created so that God's love and acceptance was our glory. Well, when you and I sinned, we were stripped of the love and the acceptance of God. And when we were stripped of that love and acceptance, that glory, we felt naked and ashamed.

So we immediately turned to begin to look to replace that glory with something else. And one of the main ways that we do that is we do it by comparing ourselves to one another. And that manifests itself in two different ways in this verse. The first way here is provoking one another. Provoking is when you have a superiority complex toward others, and you just feel like you are better than them for some reason. Maybe you are smarter or you are more moral, or I guess that's how you would say that, more or you're more talented. You've got a better family, but there's something that makes you better. And so you look down on them and you provoke them.

Enving is the opposite side of the coin. When you envy others, it's because you have an inferiority complex, because when you compare yourself to others, you don't match up. And so you resent that. What the provoking and the envying, what the superiority complex and the inferiority complex have in common is that you enter into relationships from a sense of emptiness. You need glory from other people. Well, the gospel does three things, Paul says, that transforms your relationships. The first thing it does is it humbles you. It teaches you that there really is nothing about you that makes you better than somebody else. Everything you have is a gift of grace. Secondly, it completes you. You don't need glory or distinction from other people because you have the approval of the heavenly father. And then it redirects you rather than being a person who is focused on using others to meet your needs, you become a complete person who offers yourself to meet the needs of others.

All right, watch how those things show up in this litany of instructions. If you've been experienced with the gospel, you'll be humbled, you'll be complete, and you'll be redirected. Watch them show up in these next few verses here as we go through this. Brothers and sisters, if somebody is overtaken in a wrongdoing, you who are spiritual restore, that's the Greek word, katartizo, which means put a broken bone back in place, restore such a person with a gentle or humble, proud-tossed spirit, watching out for yourselves because you're made out of the same stuff they are, and you don't want to also be tempted as you get into this. How does a gospel-saturated person respond to somebody in sin?

Paul's answer, they approach them with empathy and compassion, knowing that they're made out of the same stuff that that person is. And the fact that they haven't been overcome by this particular temptation is not because they're better than them. If anything, it's because they've been spared the set of circumstances that that person was in, which leads me to the next verse. Verse two, Paul says, carry one another's burdens and this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. Now, in context, the burden that he's talking about here is the burden that comes to somebody because of their own sinful, dumb choices. And Paul says, if you get the gospel, you will voluntarily enter into the burdens of others, burdens that they brought onto themselves by their own sinfulness. You know what Christ did when he saved you.

You know how far he reached. It was a burden that you had brought on yourself. So why wouldn't you reach out to somebody even when they brought on the burden on themselves? Because when you do that, then you're going to start, you're going to start fulfilling the law of Christ. All right, well, Paul keeps developing this point.

Look at this verse three. For anybody considers himself to be something when he's nothing, he deceives himself. Now, what's he talking about?

He's still going after this issue of being conceited. He's like, do you really feel like you're something? Do you not know the gospel at all?

No, you were so, just you by yourself was so bad that the son of God had to spill his precious blood to redeem your soul from the hell that you deserved. Verse four, he keeps going, let each person examine his own work. And then he can take pride in himself alone and not compare himself with somebody else for each person will have to carry his own load.

You're like, what? I mean, doesn't that sound like he just contradicted everything he just said? It looks like that on the surface, but not when you understand the context, the context, listen, he's still going after this idea of being conceited. And he is saying it is foolish of you to feel proud that you're not struggling with something when somebody else is, because each of us have been given a different size load to carry. And the fact that somebody else is struggling with something that you're not struggling with is not because you are just inherently awesomer than they are. It's because the situation of their life and the circumstances that they were in were different. It was a different load. And you know what? Had you been under the same load, you probably would have struggled the same way that they did because all the righteousness that you have is a gift from God anyway.

But let me illustrate it this way. Sometimes in the church, you encounter people who are just especially difficult, right? Can you all say amen to that? You want to kind of look at somebody right now who you're probably thinking about around here, we call these EGR people, Extra Grace Required. You know who you are, okay? And they're the kind of people that you're like, oh, you know, and honestly, a part of you is just putting us here.

You're kind of like, you're like, yeah, I kind of wish they would move out of my social circle and get some other friends or I kind of wish they would go to another church even because then I wouldn't have to spend so much time on this. And here's what helps me to think about this. There are some issues that I've never had to deal with because, let's just use one example, kind of home I grew up in. I grew up with a mom and dad who loved each other. I always felt secure in my home. I never had to deal with abuse.

I never developed real significant trust issues because I grew up in a context of security. And so I brought that into my experience. That's the load that I had to bury and it wasn't that heavy of one in that context. And the fact that somebody else in a situation has severe trust issues might have to do with the fact that they've had a different load than I have and the fact that they're struggling with that doesn't mean they're inherently a worse person than me. It just means that they were given a heavier load than I was given to bear.

And that heavier load has nothing to do with them being worse or better. It has to do with God's grace in my life. And if God has been gracious to me, then who am I to look at them and say, you know what?

I'm just better than you. And I don't want to mess with your problem because I was absolutely nothing when Jesus entered into the hell of my life and he saved me. And if Jesus did that for me, then it just changed us how I'm going to approach somebody else. So see, here we are in these first few verses, Paul has just walked us through how the gospel reshapes how we approach broken and needy people.

The measure with which you understand the gospel is shown by how well you relate to broken and needy people. If you are conceited, you look disdainfully toward people who struggle with sin because you think that your good life came primarily from good choices you made because you were just inherently awesome. If you are conceited, you move away from people in need because you don't live in the awareness of how much need you were in when Jesus got involved with you. If you're conceited, you approach every relationship from a market standpoint where you're always asking, what am I going to get out of this? Is this person going to add value to my life or to my family's life?

Is it going to cost me too much to get involved? Conceited people are basically on a hunt for those whose lives are not a mess so that they can help us fulfill our goals for our lives. Or by the way, in a little sick twist here, sometimes conceited people like to be around people whose lives are a mess because it makes them feel good about being that person's savior. Their personal neediness is shown by how much they need to be needed.

That's why they get mad when they're not appreciated or they get depressed when they're not really needed or the center of attention. On the surface, they look like they're serving others, but they're actually using other people. Gospel people do the opposite of all these things. They approach people with humility.

You're not different than me. They approach with compassion and empathy because they realize we're made out of the same stuff and Jesus died for us both. They're eager to share each other's burdens because Jesus shared our burden.

That's what Jesus did for us and I can't experience that without it transforming how I see you. The temple, the Jewish temple, God laid out every single detail exactly the way that He wanted it. I mean the dimensions, where the furniture goes, what the furniture looked like. At the center of the temple was nothing but a gold slab and on that gold slab is where they offered sacrifices and that sacrifices gave us a picture of what God would do for us one day. Now Jewish people believe that that temple was the center of their relationship with God. They also believe it was the center of creation.

They thought that the temple sat on the original side of the Garden of Eden and they thought that it was really the center of the universe. So I want you to get this. At the center of creation, at the center of the universe, at the center of reality is nothing but a gold slab where God was going to offer His life for ours and what that means is that the center of our lives then begins to come become how am I going to offer my life for others. If you have experienced the gospel, the center of your life begins to rotate around this idea my life for yours. A conceited person reverses that and says your life for mine. Every single moment of every day you are living according to one of these two principles, your life for mine or my life for yours.

Every moment of every day you have a choice to live either the Jesus way or the self way, the conceited way which is your life for mine or the Jesus way which is my life for yours. Now finally, Paul turns to the subject of giving. Verse six, he says, let the one who has taught the word share all his good things with the teacher. Share, the word share is a common theme that runs through this chapter. There's a difference in sharing and giving.

Giving, the difference in sharing and giving is the word commitment because when you give to something, you can be like, hey, you know what? I paid my dues. I've given the money that I'm supposed to give. Now I need you to go and do the work of the ministry. But when you share in the ministry, you have taken ownership of it and you say this church's mission is my mission and I actually bear some of the burden and I'm willing to do whatever God asked of me to see that mission multiply and to see that vision accomplished.

You are committed. I've heard it described as the difference between how the pig and the chicken contribute to your breakfast. If you eat a plate of eggs and bacon for breakfast, well, the chicken made a contribution, but the pig was committed, right? The pig went all in and what Paul is saying is we don't want chickens in the church.

We want pigs because we want people who actually take the burden and they own it and they say, I'm not just trying to give an offering. This mission is my mission. We do not want to be a church where the pastors have a vision for ministry and we try to get you to fund it because let me tell you this, God is not going to hold me and your pastoral team accountable alone for reaching this community.

That is something he has given to you. You are responsible for this community. You're responsible for your families.

You are responsible for this generation of people all over the world. And yes, I am the leader of this church and me and the other pastors are trying to put forward a vision that compels us all and that we rally around, but at the end of the day, it's got to be your vision, not just mine. So I don't want you to fund the vision that God has given me. I want you to own the responsibility to multiply the gospel and the life of your family, the life of your friends in our community and around the world, because y'all it is never, it has never been about raising money. It's why the primary and the secondary goal, I'll try to be clear with those.

The secondary goal is the amount of money that we feel like we need. The primary goal is that you get involved heart and soul in the mission to multiply the gospel. Now he's going to say some really important stuff about giving in the next few verses, but for right now, I just want to jump ahead to Paul's grand conclusion. Verse 11, look at what large letters I use as I write to you now in my own handwriting. Paul had somebody else write his letters for him because evidently they say he had bad eyesight. So at the very end of this letter, Paul grabs the pen out of his hand. Think of this as the all caps moment. Paul is about to write in all caps.

He's got the crayon and he's writing really big because what he's about to say is super important to him. All right, all right. Those who want to boast in the flesh are the ones who would compel you to be circumcised. But as for me, I will never boast about anything except for the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For the circumcision and uncircumcision mean nothing. All that matters instead is a new creation. And that only come from the power of resurrection.

And that power of resurrection comes from the blood of the cross of a criminal and the empty tomb that he left the hinds. And I am not going to boast about anything. I'm not going to boast about the law. I'm not going to boast about my accomplishments. I'm not going to boast about my obedience.

I'm not going to boast about my family. All I'm going to boast about is the bloody cross of Jesus and the empty tomb, because in that is the power of new creation. And that is all that you need. It's all I can commend to you.

And it's all I want to leave you with. You see some people, he says, a lot of people in your midst, he's saying to the Galatians, they boast about how well they keep the law. Oh, they've been circumcised. Oh, they keep all these commandments. He says, big deal. Others boast in how talented or beautiful they are. Some boast in how much they know.

I don't boast in any of those things. He said, I only cling to the cross of Christ. And you may not think it's that important. In fact, it is so simple that a child can understand it and the world doesn't value it.

Jesus was dismissed as a criminal. They think it's nothing. But in that message, that that simple message of the gospel is the wisdom and the glory of God and the power of life back from the dead, the power of new creation. And that power is greater than any technique, any knowledge, any ritual. It is stronger than the strongest power in the world.

It is mightier than the mightiest fortress in the world. It is the very power of God in resurrection. Y'all, Martin Luther got this. A few weeks ago, I told you how Luther had rediscovered salvation by faith alone. And he was called to appear before the religious and the government authorities at the time. That's something that is called the Diet of Worms. And when he goes to the Diet of Worms, the religious, the church was there.

The representative of the Pope, a guy named Cardinal Cajetan, and the Emperor, the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire was there. And they bring this little monk from an obscure place before him. And they said, Luther, your writings have caused quite a stir. You've got to quit saying that salvation is by faith alone.

You've got to turn your back on this and you've got to get back to what we are teaching. And Luther is where he, he really wrestled. And he just says, he looks at him and says, I can't, I can't do this because this is what God has said.

And I got to stick with what God has said and what you have said. Well, Cardinal Cajetan kept using a phrase with Luther. He kept saying, Luther, you know how this ends. If you don't repent, we're going to burn you at the stake.

Just so you're aware of what's happening here. He said, Luther, you can get out of this. And the phrase he kept using this is with one little word, one little word. And the word in Latin was revoco.

We would translate it as I recant. He said, you say one little word, one little three syllable word, and you can walk out of here a free man and all this trouble goes away. And that's where Luther said, I can't, I can't out recant because I've got to stick with what God says. Well, immediately after this happens, Luther is going home and the Holy Roman Empire or Emperor sits out a death warrant for Luther. And that was when Luther's friends took him captive and hid him in the castle of Wartburg. The castle of Wartburg was a German fortress that was one of the most impenetrable fortresses in all of Germany at the time.

You can't really see it here. This is, I was there a few weeks ago with some of our church planters over there in Germany. And right here is the sheer rock wall face. And it's this incredible fortress. And as they take Luther into this fortress, he takes out a pen and he writes the words to a hymn that we still sing today called a mighty fortress as our God. And here's what he says.

And I want you to listen to this. He says, and though this world with devil's field will threaten to undo us, we will not fear for God has willed his grace to triumph through us. The Prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for him. His rage we can endure for lo his doom is sure one little word will fail him. He is thinking about Cardinal Cajetan saying to him, one little word makes this go away. And what he looks at him in this hymn, as he says is you can keep your one little word that will set me free because I would rather have the mighty fortress of our God than I would all the fortresses of the Roman empire and all the fortresses and all the world. That word of faith that I'm talking about one little word, that word of faith has in it the very power of God. It is the power of new creation.

It is the word that makes the center righteous. It makes the lame walk. It makes the blind see. It brings the dead back to life. It can release you from the powers of addiction. It can heal the wounds of years of abuse. It can scrape off the dead parts of your heart that had been hardened by a lifetime of selfishness. It can bring renewal to a heart that is dark and dead. It is the power of salvation to all who believe it. It gives hope to the hopeless.

It turns tragedy into triumph. It makes you more than a conqueror through him who loves us. When you believe that one little word of the gospel, one little word, it releases in you the power of the spirit so much that not even the gates of hell can withstand us.

So Martin Luther looks back at the cardinal and he says you can keep your offer of safety. I'd rather have the fortress of God's promises than the fortresses of any earthly power. That word above all earthly powers no thanks to them abideth. The spirit and the gifts are ours through him who with the sight of so let goods and kindreds go.

This mortal life also the body they may kill God's truth abideth still and he will win the battle. You see when it's all said and done, when it's all said and done that's our boast. That's what we boast in. It's what I boast. I don't commend to you a bunch of principles for how to have a better family.

I want you to have a better family. I'm not giving you 10 ways you can be successful in business. I want you to be successful in business but what I center on, what I cling to, what I boast in is the gospel. It is one simple word of faith and the gospel releases in you the power of God.

It is the mighty fortress of God's power. On Luther's deathbed after he had died his friends found him dead. They were sad because they didn't know what his last words were going to be. You think a great man like this needs some last words. Well they were looking around and in his pocket they found a little piece of paper that he scribbled just a handful of words on and the last words that he wrote what he committed to the world.

Just stop for a minute. What is a man who's probably caused more change in the world than anybody else in the last thousand years? What do you think his last words are? His last words are, we are beggars.

This is true. In other words, at the end of the day all I am is somebody empty, somebody broken, somebody without what it takes, somebody who is unrighteous, who has discovered the righteousness of God and the power of God that is given as a gift in the gospel. And what I commend is nothing else.

I don't commend my leadership or my accomplishments. I just give you Jesus. I just give you the gospel because in that gospel is the power to heal your marriage, to transform your kids, to set the captive free and to redeem your soul from sin and set you on the path of eternity. So Paul says that's my boast. Brothers and sisters, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

Amen. And then he kind of drops the mic right kind of like at this point I'm supposed to fall down on the stage and our worship leaders are supposed to come make their way over top of me but I'm not going to do that. But what it is is you ending with the gospel. A mighty fortress is our God and his power is made available not through technique, not through knowledge, not through skill, but through simple faith that he has done everything necessary to save you and everything necessary to redeem you and transform your life with the power of resurrection.

There is nothing that you can do to make God love you more and there is absolutely nothing you can do to make him love you less. Have you been transformed by embracing the freedom that he's done everything needed to save you? If you happen to tune in a little late or if you want to share this message with a friend, you can find today's broadcast and our entire study in Galatians on our website. Just go to jdgrier.com and you know the online message archive and these daily messages on your station are all available because people like you have given to support Summit Life. We just introduced a new resource yesterday on the program and I'd like to tell you a little bit more about it. So it's a brand new study called Be the Movement. It is essentially a four-part study with an introduction and a conclusion book ending it. Each part has a few pages of teaching from Pastor JD followed by a handful of questions based in scripture. There's also a prayer section with prompts to help you respond to what you've just spent time studying. You can work through the book at any pace that you'd like. We'd suggest it doing about once per week, you know, take about a month to process through the content and while it totally stands on its own for you to do it alone, it really is much better for you to work through the scripture and questions with someone else or your small group.

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