Grace in Louisville

[NOTE: The audio for this sermon starts late and is missing a chunk in the middle.] The natural drift of our hearts is towards the pride – and the slavery – of legalism, which is seeking acceptance and right standing before God through what we do rather than through what Christ has done. But we are not salves to such living; Christ has freed us from legalism.

As Paul reflects on how they had received the gospel and the fact that they were now rejecting it, he reveals his pastoral heart and models the truth that a leader who loves you labors for your good and God's glory, not theirs.

At just the right time, God sent Jesus to the earth to redeem those under the weight of the Law and to adopt them as sons and daughters. If this is true, and the Spirit says to all children that it is, then why would we ever return to being slaves to sin and law?

Since we are all children of God through faith in Christ, baptized in and clothed with Christ, and children of Abraham because of Christ, all reasons for division are gone.

After Paul seemed to have made the Law completely unnecessary in light of the promise made to Abraham, Paul shows us the real purpose of the Law is not to provide a means of salvation but to reveal our sin and drive us to Christ.

We are reminded in this section of Galatians 3 that God’s work of salvation is not rooted in our good works but in the unchanging character and irrevocable promises of God.

(Note: The sound quality is poor at the beginning of this recording, but improves about 3 minutes in.) In this last sermon from John 3 and 4, we see Jesus' encounter with a Gentile nobleman and are reminded that we do not follow Jesus because of what he can give us but because of who he is.

As with Nicodemus, Jesus brings the life-giving message of the gospel to all who cross his path, regardless of who they are.

Has our familiarity with John 3:16 caused us to cease marveling at God's love? This message takes a look at the first part of John 3, revealing how we are much like Nicodemus and how great God's love for us is.

In Galatains 3:10-14, Paul continues to make clear the message of salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone, saying that Jesus became a curse for us, taking the curse due to us for our sin, so that we might receive the blessings promised to Abraham and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The promises of God have always been, from Abraham to now, received by faith, which allows all nations to be children of Abraham and receive the blessings of God's promise to him.

As we finish looking at chapter 2 of Galatians, we find the wonderful truth that a Christians is a person who has been united with Christ in His life, death, and resurrection, and that we are now freed to walk by faith in that truth, allowing Jesus to live His life through us.

Merry Christmas! We took time Christmas morning to learn from the shepherds how we should respond to the announcement that the Savior, Jesus, has come.

We take a moment this Christmas season to consider the responses of Zachariah and Mary to their angelic visits and ask what our response is and should be to the miracle of Christmas.

We close out the narrative portion of Galatians by looking at an astonishing scene in the history of the early church: Paul publicly confronting Peter about his hypocrisy. What was the issue and what can we learn from it?

We continue to look at Paul's autobiography in the first part of Galatians, and we are reminded of the need to clarify the gospel and to then cooperate with others to see it spread.

In these verses of Galatians 1, Paul makes it clear that the gospel is divine, not human in origin, and in defending that truth, he helps us see that the message of salvation in Jesus gives glory to God alone, both in Paul's testimony and in the testimony of all believers in Jesus.

As we look at Galatians 1:6-10, we are reminded of the threat of forsaking the gospel and thereby deserting God. In this sermon we consider 3 dangers that can lead us down the path of forsaking the truth of the gospel.

This is the first message in a series through the New Testament book of Galatians. It is both a brief exposition of Galatians 1:1-5 and an overview of the entire book, focusing on the themes of the gospel's authority, justification by grace alone, the freedom of the gospel, and the glory of God in salvation.

Daniel Harman, leader of Cru at the University of Louisville and father of four children, two of whom are adopted, joined us on Orphan Sunday 2011 to speak about our spiritual adoption as children of God and the call of God for us to care for orphans.

In our final sermon on the "one anothers" of the New Testament, we talk about the blessing and responsibility of confessing our sins to one another and praying for one another.

Paul continues to walk us through the way Colossians 3 calls us to live with one another in light of who we are in Christ.

In our second sermon on the one anothers of the New Testament, Paul takes through Colossians 3:1-11, where we see that any good in us or in our church is only because of our union with Christ.

In this first sermon in our series through some of the "one anothers" of the New Testament, we consider Jesus' command for his disciples to "Love one another."