An Astonishing Trade

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info visit us at thrive-fl.org. Hey it's great to have you here today and our theme verse for this whole series is going to be from Galatians chapter 5 verse 1 and it's this, for freedom Christ has set us free therefore stand firm and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. So we're gonna be exploring that throughout this summer and I know a lot of you go like well freedom of course we know what freedom is we're Americans. I don't think we do. I really don't think the freedom that the gospel brings is a little different than what you might think it is and I am glad for the freedoms we have in this country compared to other political systems and a lot of places around the world but we're gonna explore the height and breadth and width and depth and whatever direction you want to go of that freedom that we have because of Jesus Christ and the gospel okay. So Paul stakes his whole life on the fact that the gospel and the freedom that God brings is something you can't find anywhere else. That you can't find it. That he finds you. He saves you. He rescues you. He does it all for you and that he stakes his whole life on it. He says in the beginning of this letter in a blunt way to the Galatians he says if anybody tries to share something else with you than this. Are there any kids present here? Well a little too young I think so. Let them go to H-E double hockey sticks. Okay I know I'm really being but yeah he says let him be a cursed. It just doesn't work and I mean that's just not how I would well it is probably how I talk sometimes but I mean that it is God's Word that it's actually you know the inspired Word of God that we're talking about here. It's kind of amazing but he has to be so clear about this because we confuse and mess it up all the time. We do. This is my nature. It's my nature. You know there are actually in a sense two equal and opposite errors that we can get involved in when we deal with the gospel and I think this is what we're gonna find throughout this letter. We're not gonna get it all in one sermon. I know sometimes you think man you are trying to dish it all out in one sermon. Yeah I know but we're gonna get it over time but there's two equal and opposite errors of adding to the gospel in one sense or shying away from the gospel or whatever. Two equal and opposite errors that people fall into all the time. One is that of religion and that is trying to play by the rules whatever they happen to be the methods the process the plan to gain God's favor to earn his kind of blessing and the other is irreligion that is not breaking all the rules and just trying to please myself and to gain my own favor. Religion or irreligion we fall into those things one in another and Paul says the gospel is something totally different than religion or irreligion. It's totally different. It's the power of God. He says in Romans it's the power of God to bring about salvation. So we're gonna look in that. Get ready for the ride. It's gonna be kind of a roller coaster. There's gonna be some high highs where we're gonna be celebrating the joy of the gospel and there might be some low lows where you go at your own foolishness and yeah that's me but it's gonna be a great ride through this book throughout the summer. Okay so if you've got your Bibles with you or if you've got your iPhones or apps or whatever you can go to the Bible app and get the notes for this sermon under the events or you can just follow along in Galatians chapter 1 we're gonna read 1 through 10 today that's all the farther we're gonna get and this is Paul's letter here it says to this to the churches of Galatia grace to you and peace from God our Father in the Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age according to the will of our God and Father to whom be the glory forever and ever amen I am astonished that you so are quickly are deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel not that there is another one but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ but even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you let him see what I mean be accursed they cleaned it up here okay as we have said before so now I say again if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received let him be accursed for I'm now seeking the approval of manner of God or am I trying to please man if I were still trying to please man I would not be a servant of Christ you know this letter is unique Paul's written a lot of letters in the New Testament that are in our New Testament this one's unique not just that it's to the churches of Galatia so it's kind of for a number of them but how graphic the style is how blunt he is how just in your face almost all of the other letters he writes to ...