Guard Your Joy

And you can be seated. Good morning. It is so great to have you guys here. My name is René. I'm one of the pastors here at Twin Lakes Church. I want to welcome everybody watching in venue two and online.

So I want to show you something. The other day Adrienne, who you heard earlier, showed me a great video that's sort of gone viral. It appears that a grandmother, an elderly woman, is about to go on her first plane trip. She's never been on an airplane before, and this is off in Europe somewhere in Denmark. And so her daughter decides in order to get her prepared for her first plane trip, I'm gonna take you on your first roller coaster ride ever. And here's what happened. Watch the screen. Meet Grandma Rhea. She'd never traveled on an airplane before. So before her first ever flight to beat her fear, she took to the sky on a roller coaster. She's like, "I'm gonna take you on a roller coaster ride." Take a day! Adrienne, do you want to go on a roller coaster ride?

I've never weekly met him ever again. Don't you love that? I love it! How many of you want to adopt this woman as your grandmother right now, right? Is there a grandma adoption program? You know what I love about her facial expressions? That is just pure joy, isn't it? Just pure, unadulterated joy in life. And all of us really want to live life like that, don't we? With that sense of joy, and sometimes we do experience that joy in life, especially joy in Christ, joy in what God has given to us.

But the problem we find with joy is that joy leaks. And sometimes you find that incrementally your joy in life has just vanished. And that was the case with the people to whom the letter we are studying is written. Paul says, we saw this last week, Paul says to the Galatians, what has happened to all your joy? The Galatians used to have joy. They used to live life like that grandma, but now they were somber and serious and strict religious people.

And so Paul writes them this letter that we began studying last weekend. And if you ever feel like I'm losing my joy, or I'm exhausted by life, or I'm haunted by guilt, then the book of Galatians in the Bible was really written for you. Because Galatians is all about being free. Free from guilt, free from fear, free from that nagging feeling of always trying and never quite measuring up.

Last weekend we started this series and we saw that Paul had started the churches in this area of Galatia, it's central Turkey today. Then it was called Galatia. It was a province of the Roman Empire. He started these churches, then he took off, and some false teachers almost immediately came in and started teaching the Galatians. Sure, what Paul said was fine, I guess. The gospel, it's kind of for beginners, it's kind of baby stuff. If you really want to be an advanced believer, you also need to keep all of these commands.

And they made up a few commands, but they also opened their Bibles and showed these new believers the law of Moses, not just the Ten Commandments, but all 600 or so Old Testament laws. And the Galatians started trying to obey all of these rules, and they got very religious, and as a result, their joy just evaporated. And Paul says, you guys are turning into joyless, weird, sour-faced, judgmental Christians that kind of went from this to this. The church lady. Remember this when Dana Carvey used to do this on SNL? How many of you have ever known somebody who was like one of the church ladies? Anybody here had her as a Sunday school teacher? How many of you have been the church lady in your life, because I have been and was set free from this?

And Paul's saying, "Galatians, let's try to change this back into this." And maybe you are relating to this and going, "Yeah, you know what? I've become a little bit sour, a little bit dour, a little serious. I'd like to get some of my joy back. Let's talk about it. Grab your message notes that look like this." The message for this week is titled, "Guard Your Joy." As we go verse by verse here through the book of Galatians. We did an overview, as I said, last weekend. And this weekend we start going through it section by section, verse by verse.

And today we're in Galatians 1:1–10. I love these first few verses of this epistle because the writer to the Galatians, the apostle Paul, establishes the themes that he's going to elaborate on in the rest of the letter. He starts off in verse 1 with this. Paul, an apostle, sent not from men nor by a man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead. And all the brothers and sisters with me to the churches, plural, in Galatia, all the churches in this region.

And in these next two verses, Paul lays down the basics about the gospel that brings joy. And if you just understand what he's talking about here, you really will have joy. But we really need to kind of parse these words out, word for word, because the words Paul uses here sort of have what I call the pledge of allegiance factor. You know, as a little kid, you say the pledge of allegiance all the time, a pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. But you don't really understand what these words that you say all the time, and hear all the time, really mean, not the depth of their meaning.

And that's kind of the same with the words that Paul uses here in the next few verses. We hear them a lot in church, but do we really explore, really plumb their depths? Like look at this first word. He says, "grace." And that is the theme of this whole letter. He uses this word again and again. So we better understand what grace means. Well, we could talk about this for a year's worth of sermons, but for today, let's just say it's the undeserved transforming favor of God. The undeserved transforming favor of God.

And let me explain it this way. Recently, a book called "Not by the Sword" had the best example of grace I have heard about in a long time. It was about the unusual friendship between Rabbi Michael Weiser and his wife Julie, and Larry Trapp. Larry was the grand dragon of the white knights of the Ku Klux Klan of the state of Nebraska. And eventually, this KKK white supremacist and the rabbi and his wife developed a beautiful friendship.

Now, of course, they didn't start out as friends. When Larry heard that this Jewish rabbi was moving to Lincoln, Nebraska, he organized a hate campaign. He called up all the neo-Nazis and skinheads and white supremacists and KKK people that he knew. I guess they have some sort of directory or they're all on a speed dial or something, but he called them all up and he said, "Listen, we got to get this guy out of town." And he started phoning him up and he started threatening the rabbi's life, threatening his synagogue, threatening to bomb his house.

But because he was calling the rabbi, the rabbi had Larry's phone number. And so he looked at his wife, Julie, and Rabbi Michael said, "What do you think I had to do?" And she said, "I think you got to call the police." And Rabbi Michael said, "You know what? I'm going to try something else. I'm going to call him back." And Julie said, "No, don't call him back." And Rabbi Michael said, "No, I think I'm going to call him. I got an idea." And he calls up Larry and he says, "Larry, this is the rabbi. And I've heard that you were disabled, that you're confined to a wheelchair. And I was just wondering if you ever need a ride to the grocery store, you can call me because I'd be happy to give you a lift." And Larry pauses for a second, swears at the rabbi and says, "I've got that taken care of. Thanks very much." Swears at him again, racial epithet, hangs up the phone. And his campaign is not hindered at all by the rabbi's show of grace.

But the rabbi continues. And he decided that like clockwork, at least once a week, he would call up the white supremacist and say, "Hey, this is the rabbi. I just want to tell you I love you. And is there anything we can do for you?" Because I'd be happy to do that. And every single time he just gets a swear word and the phone hangs up on him. Now this goes on for months. Until one day, the rabbi asks Larry on his weekly phone call, he says, "Hey, Larry, before you hang up, my wife and I would like to bring dinner over to you tonight." And Larry goes, "Whatever. You can do whatever you want." And hangs up the phone again.

And so that night they brought over a beautiful dinner. And as they were cooking the dinner that afternoon, the rabbi's wife Julie said, "You know, I want to do something more than bring him just dinner. I just feel motivated to bring him a beautiful ring. I've heard he likes rings. I'm going to give him a beautiful silver ring." So she went to the jewelry store, bought a beautiful man's silver ring. And they brought over the dinner that night. Larry had his arms folded. And they walked into his house. And then the rabbi and his wife said, "And we also want to bring you this ring." And what happened next? Well, here are the rabbi's own words. He says, "As we walked in, I touched Larry's hand and he burst into tears. He didn't know we were bringing the ring. He already had two swastika rings on, one on each hand. And what happened next, he took them off and he said, 'I want you to take these rings because they symbolize hatred and evil. And I just want them out of my life.' What? He said, 'My wife Julie gave him the other ring and she put it on his finger.'

Now, what was the result of all this? Well, Larry ended up denouncing everything the clan and the Nazi party stand for. He became a great friend of the Weisers, a regular attender at synagogue. Absolutely, totally changed. And you know what? That's grace. It was undeserved and it was transforming kindness and favor. And the Bible says, "Another rabbi did that for you and for me." Exactly that, actually, to use Jesus Christ's own imagery from the parable of the prodigal son. He makes a feast for you and he invites you to the banquet table and he puts a robe on your shoulders and a ring on your finger. He adopts you into his family, completely undeserved, completely transforming you by his grace and grace alone.

Now, this is such a huge subject that as a church, we actually put together a book about it. It's called Grace Immersion. About four years ago, I think we did a series through this and we have copies of this book available for you. It's like in its fourth printing now. It's in the lobby if you want to pick this up. Nobody makes any money from this. All the proceeds from this book just go right back to the general fund of this church. But if you want to explore this topic of grace more, I'd encourage you to pick up a copy of Grace Immersion out in the lobby.

But Paul doesn't stop there. He talks about grace and then he says grace and peace. And Paul always puts these two phrases together at the beginning of every single one of his epistles. In fact, I double-checked this morning. I read the beginning of every single one of Paul's letters and in every single one of them, he says grace and peace. These two phrases were sort of his trademark. This was his message. Why? Because when you really get grace, it leads to peace. Peace, the confident, serene assurance that God loves me and that God cares for me.

In fact, this is a really great way to kind of check your spirit to see if dry, duty-bound, legalistic religion is sucking the joy out of your spirituality. If you have peace with God, then it's probably not. You know, you're getting grace. But if you're starting to feel uncomfortable in your relationship with God, if you're starting to feel guilty, uneasy, cowering, inadequate, searching desperately for some way to please God more, then your joy is being sucked dry by another gospel.

You say, what are you talking about? I want you to look at this. This was originally in a church bulletin. And you might remember things like this from your own church bulletins when you were younger. But look at this quiz. Can you see this quiz? Check yourself. If people were like you, would they be in Sunday school next Sunday? Would they be on time? Would they bring a Bible? Would they have studied the lesson? Would they bring an offering? Would they attend the preaching service? And look at this next one. Would they make an effort to worship during it? I can't say that without doing Dana Carvey as the church lady. Would they bring someone with them? Would they invite a new member or visitor?

Now look at this very carefully. Give yourself 10 points for every question that you could answer. Yes. If your score is 100, you're a perfect example. If 90, you're just about right. 80, you're slipping. 70, watch your step. 60, you're an emergency case. Six successful Sundays and Sunday school continues this Sunday. Be there. Now just look at this for just a second. The very first time I ever showed this to a congregation for a sermon, a junior high kid came up to me after the sermon and pointed something out. He says, you know that quiz? He says, look at it again. There's no way to score 100. There's only nine questions. And that is classic. That's legalism right there. They tell you what you're supposed to do to measure up and then they make it impossible.

I mean, when you look at this, are you feeling peace with God? Or are you feeling pressure from the pastor? You're probably feeling pressure from the pastor. That's not grace that leads to peace. Grace and peace. And listen, that is made only possible. It's not made possible by some sort of self-esteem course. It's made possible because of what Paul says next. Grace and peace, watch this, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age. Look at that awesome phrase. Jesus gave himself for our sins to rescue us. Read that phrase with me. Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us. Man, that is beautiful.

First, it says he gave himself. That means our salvation is a gift. And second, it says to rescue us. You know, something Tim Keller points out here. He says, look at how Paul, when he's digesting the ministry of Christ, describes it as a rescue operation. Now don't miss this because in every other religion, the founders of those religions are there to teach us, to teach often very good things. But when Paul digests the point of the ministry of Christ, he doesn't even call Jesus a teacher. He says he's a rescuer. Why? When someone is in dire need of rescue, the last thing they need is to be taught. That's not going to do them any good. They need rescue.

You know, if you see a drowning woman in the ocean here, are you going to run to the shore and throw in a manual on how to swim? Here! You know, there's great instruction on page 20. That's not going to help. What she needs is rescue. That's what's implied here in this verse. We were lost and need a rescue. Somebody once said, "The gospel teaches us that we are more lost than we could ever imagine, yet more loved than we would ever dare hope." I love this. We've been rescued by Jesus and Paul says, "This was according to the will of our God and Father." God saves me by his will. He saves me because he wants to. It's a transaction. He initiated and he completes.

And here's why this is so important for your grace and for your peace. Put it this way. What would you do if cars could talk? And this morning you went outside to Adrian Moreno's car and you said, "Hey, how's it feel to be Adrian's car?" And Adrian's car said to you, "Well, you know, I'm trying very hard to be Adrian's car. One day, if I'm a good enough car, I hope to be Adrian's car, but I don't know if I can if I really can say I'm Adrian's car right now, but I hope I'm worthy of being Adrian's car one day." You'd probably say something like, "Well, for a car that can talk, you're actually surprisingly stupid because here's the way that works. Your Adrian's car already, whether or not your Adrian's car has nothing to do with you, car. You became Adrian's car when Adrian bought you. When Adrian signed, you know, the slip indicating ownership, you became his car. That's a settled issue. Adrian is the purchasing agent, not you.

He bought you and he paid the price for you already. And see, that's how it is with you and me and our salvation. God's the purchasing agent, not you. It was according to his will and his power and his grace and his mercy case closed. And he did this for his glory. God did this all to show his power and goodness in me. He does it all to show what a loving and powerful God he is, not what great people we are. And again, this brings such peace. It's kind of like this. The AT&T is coming up, the big golf tournament down in Monterey. And let's just say that you went down there to watch the AT&T and you saw some amazing golfer just tee off on a ball. And it went, you know, hundreds of yards out to the farthest green and hit the green and it rolled straight for the cup and plunked right down in there for a hole in one.

Now, would you and all the spectators watching that ball say, "What a great golf ball." Man, that golf ball did a great job at that hole in one. It's a phenomenal golf ball. That should be enshrined. It's legendary. I want that ball. No, you wouldn't say that. You wouldn't even think about the golf ball. You'd say, "What a great golfer. What a great shot that golfer hit." And see, what the Apostle Paul is saying here is that everything God does for us is not about us. It's about Him. It's not about bringing us glory. It's about bringing Him glory. God's the one who tees off on us and sends us sailing as a hole in one. And it's for people to praise Him and go, "What an amazing God He is." That He could work even through somebody like René, even through somebody like you.

Do you see what performance pressure this takes off your shoulders? Because it's not about you impressing other people. It's not about you impressing other people even with your holiness. It's just about you being you, being regenerated and changed and sanctified by God incrementally over your whole life. So the people go, "Wow, God is so good." Now, if you try to put on airs and pretend you're something more than you really are and try to pretend you're perfect, that does not glorify God. But if you're just you and you're transparent about all of your struggles and about your doubts and about your certainties, then people are going to go, "Man, that God can work through somebody like that and then God is glorified." You don't have... That means you don't have to hide anything about yourself because it's all about the golfer, not the golf ball.

Now, when you look back at these first few verses, I want us just to sit here for just a little while because Paul's about to turn a corner for really the rest of the epistle and critique the Galatians and go, "But you've abandoned this amazing gospel." But before he does that, I want us to just dwell on the beauty of the grace that he's just described. And I felt like it would be appropriate to just take a break to just worship. I asked Trent to return so we can sing a song about what Paul has just been talking about. And this is a song that historians say is the most widely known song in the English language.

It was written by a man who'd been captain of a slave transport boat. He picked up kidnapped men, women, children from places like Gory Island in Senegal and brought them from Africa to slave markets in the New World. His boats were so crowded with captured humanity that many people died on the voyage and he could have cared less. He had a reputation for being the most vile man at sea in an occupation of many heartless men. He actually took joy in leading young Christian sailors away from their faith and into immorality.

But one night during a storm when he feared for his own life, he promised God that if he survived, he'd go to church. One of those foxhole promises. Well, he did. And eventually became a Christian and even became a pastor and wrote many pamphlets, little booklets against the slave trade that he was once a part of. And never became tired of being amazed that God would use someone like him. And he eventually wrote about it in a song that he called Faith's Review and Expectation. But you know it as Amazing Grace. So let's sing a version of that song by John Newton and just feel the emotion when he wrote Amazing Grace that saved a wretch like me. Think about how God saved you too.

My chains are gone, I've been set free. My God, my Savior has ransomed me. And like a flood, His mercy reigns. Unending love, Amazing Grace. Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see. My chains are gone, I've been set free. My God, my Savior has ransomed me. And like a flood, His mercy reigns.