Crushed And Broken

Crushed and Broken

Gal. 3:20-21

Greeting-

Good Morning! Blessed be the name of the Lord!

Introduction-

If you would turn to Galatians 2:20-21, this will be our text this morning.

I am concerned by the amount of people falling away from the Christian faith. Surveys upon surveys show that Christian people believe that it is okay to not be in church, not supporting the church, not being involved in the church. There is a numbness to the things of God yet claim to have a spiritual hunger. Today’s Believers not able to explain what they believe and share what they believe.

We can blame Covid-19 for isolation and we can blame circumstances because of the tough times, but it is a spiritual problem that has to be addressed in the spirit realm.

The New Testament writing’s of Paul gives us answers to life’s tough questions if we would take the time to look.

There is a reason we have become complacent in seeking the things of God and there is a reason that we struggle in things that the Lord has already given us victory in. It is because so many are not all in! They are half in, in so many areas of their life.

So I asked that we quiet our spirit to hear from the Lord this morning- Let’s pray

Prayer- Father, today, speak to us through the Apostle Paul teachings to be able to see the heart of a man that has tried to find and please you by works and self accomplishment. Paul who shows us that we cannot please God without knowing Him and we cannot be set apart if we do not disengage from the world thought and seek after the things of “God. I pray today that we would be set free to enjoy the freedom that comes in not only knowing of Christ but living for Christ.

Text- Galatians 2:20-21 read from Bible

There are two great temptations for a believer.

To think that you can earn your salvation and earn God’s favor in your life.

To reach a little achievement and you begin to compare yourself to others rather than a Holy God. You try to use your achievements as an advantage for you and disadvantage for others.

Paul who speaks from experience tells us in Philippians 3:5- “If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more, circumcised on the eighth day, of the tribe of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, in regard to the law, a Pharisee, as for zeal, persecuting the church, as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.”

I am all that and a bag of chips!

He tells us that to go back to the law which showed him that he could not be righteous in himself would be spiritual suicide.

People today commit spiritual suicide

Though he had a burning desire to put himself right with God, he found through the law that he could not please God and the deeper in the law he went, the more he sensed that the law was only designed to show us how much we need God in our lives.

The law was to show us how helpless we are in ourselves.

Paul’s life was a model of transformation.

He was a religious zealot who persecuted Christians and thought that he was going to stand before Almighty God and be rewarded for his actions until He encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus.

Blinded on that road, it was Jesus Himself who asked Him why He persecuted Him and went after God’s people.

The law VS Christ- the law was the Ten Commandments. The first five books in the bible called the Torah- the mosaic law of Moses. It was also the 613 man-made laws set up by the Pharisees and Sadducees.

God gave ten but the religious leaders gave 613 more.

If you broke one law you were guilty.

Your animal sacrifice covered your sin but did not forgive your sin and had to be done by a priest who would intercede for the people and if sin was in his life, that priest could die in the Holy of Holies sacrificing on your behalf. He went in with a bell on his foot and if they could not hear the bell, they dragged the dead priest out.

Christ on the other hand was the sacrifice, the ultimate sacrifice. Christ came to fulfill the law. He was the promise sent by God the Father.

Paul considered being under the law and being in Christ to be incompatible.

Paul rejected the law because the Gentiles could not be included.

Paul said that through the law was death and that the laws of Moses cannot give life. It had no power.