Dodging the Distractions

Introduction

We have been in COVID-19 pandemic for about four months and many of us have gone through every type of emotion imaginable as we have tried to cope in this season.

It has forced us to exam what we do and why we do what we do. In same cases it has forced us to get back to the basics of life: cooking our own food; fellowship with family in close quarters; enjoying our local environs; going for walks; checking upon friends.

Although we are in this season of COVID-19, God is still expecting His people to build His kingdom. He has not relaxed the mission of the church. It remains the same for us as individuals and collectively as the body of Christ. Our instructions are:

Our Great Commission is Matthew 28:18-20 “18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.””

Our Great Commandment is Matthew 22:37-40 37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[c] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[d] 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

However, it’s not always easy to keep the main thing the main thing, because there are many distractions trying keeping our eyes off Jesus.

Keeping our eyes on Jesus is like driving a car sometimes.

When driving it is expected that we will take precautions to minimize distractions. We do this so that we will keep our eyes on the road and focused on getting to our destination. Laws have been passed to help us along, such as no driving while drunk; no texting and driving or having a cell phone to your ear and driving

We do this for our safety and the safety of others on the road, because distractions will hinder us from getting to our destination, our next appointment, our next assignment

Like, for us who are trying to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, we must be discerning of those things that distract us from serving Him or from allowing the Holy Spirit to work in us by faith.

There are many distractions out here in these streets, in these internets and in our past that are waiting to trip us up … to hinder us from fulfilling assignments God has for us. (Because even in COVID-19 we have divine assignments.) I call them weapons of mass distractions because on the surface they look ok, but in reality they hinder the kingdom work of God.

Scripture: Galatians 6:11-19

11 See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand!

12 Those who want to impress people by means of the flesh are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ.13 Not even those who are circumcised keep the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your circumcision in the flesh. 14 May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which[a] the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. 15 Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation. 16 Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule—to[b] the Israel of God.

17 From now on, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.

18 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen.

DODGING THE DISTRACTIONS

False Teachers

The Galatians were bewitched by false teachers know as Judaizers. They were teaching another gospel which was no gospel at all. It was a false gospel at all. Paul wrote to the confused believers in Galatia to help them see that what they were being taught was a false gospel that depended on human efforts to make a person acceptable to God, which was completely contrary to the true gospel of salvation and sanctification by grace through the power of the Holy Spirit.

In Acts chapters 11 and 15, we find that these Judaizers took issue with sharing the gospel with the uncircumcised, that is, the Gentiles (Acts 11:2-4). They taught that unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses you could not be saved (Acts 15:4). Paul had great arguments and debates with them (Acts 15:24-25). They disturbed and troubled the new Christians with their words and upset their souls (Acts 24).

Galatians 2 lets us know that hey sent spies to Galatia to disrupt the freedom and liberty that the Gentiles Christians had found in Christ in order to burden them with the bondage of the Law.

The Judaizers were rebellious empty talkers and deceivers (Titus 1:10)

False Teaching - Another Gospel

By insisting that the Gentile believers be circumcised, the Judaizers make themselves look good with the local synagogue authorities (Pharisees). They were simply recruiting more Jewish proselytes for the nation of Israel. This mitigated what they considered the scandal of the cross with its particular emphasis on salvation through Jesus Christ alone.

They watered down the Gospel of Jesus Christ in order to avoid being persecuted by the religious establishment, the Pharisees. They made a good impression before them.

Sadly they didn’t keep the law themselves, but they wanted to be able to boast that they made disciples.

We make the same mistake

Can an outward and bodily operation secure salvation of the soul or be an essential condition of salvation. No.

Yet, we the church have made similar mistakes by requiring non-believers to dress a certain way before coming in the church building when they don’t know any better.

Or making speaking in tongues a requirement of salvation or

Attaching an exaggerated importance to baptism and teaching the doctrine of baptismal regeneration. Baptism is important, as circumcision was important. The risen Christ gave baptism to the church, as God gave circumcision to Abraham. Baptism is a sign of covenant membership, as circumcision was. But both baptism and circumcision, however great and spiritual the truths they signify, both baptism and circumcision are outward and bodily acts. And it is absurd to magnify such things as essential means of salvation and then to go on to boast about the — bragging about how many baptisms we had in a year, just the Judaizers boasted about how many circumcisions they had.

Our text shows us about false teaching in the church. Some of the false teaching comes from culture saying things that sound good and we bring it into the church, but gets he us off track of keeping our eye on Christ.

Attributing to the universe the attributes of God

Power and financial success is a part of truly being blessed by God.

Dodge the Distractions By Focusing On What is the central important things: Internal View

False teachers and the world will have us focus on the outward. Circumcision and baptism are things of the “flesh” outward and visible ceremonies performed by men.

But Paul lets us know in vs 15 that neither circumcision or uncircumcision are important. Doing the outward ceremony is not important, but what’s important is the internal, the new creation in Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

The new creation involves the whole process of conversion: the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit leading to repentance and faith, the daily process of dying to self and living out our commitment, continual growth in holiness leading to eventual conformity to the image of Christ. The new creation implies a new nature with a new system of desires, affections, and habits, all worked through the supernatural ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. No spiritual gymnastics, no twelve-step program on the deepr life, no quick fix How to be a better Christian seminar can product this kind of transformation

As Paul has done throughout this letter, he repeats in these closing lines: no one is made right with Gd on the basis of external ceremonies or human efforts of any kind but only through the unilateral action o God in the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ the object of the believer’s trust and the One who Spirit liberates and empowers all those who sins are forgiven.

So we have to be sensitive and discerning about the distraction that take our focus off the internal workings of our hearts.

We have to be sensitive to the distractions that short circuit our continual growth in holiness leading to eventual conformity to the image of Christ?

These distractions will have us looking at the outward and not the inward.

Dodge the Distractions By Focusing On What is the central important things: Divine View

The other mistake the Judaizers made by concentrating on circumcision was that circumcision was not only outward and bodily ritual, but it was a human work, performed by one human being on another.

As a religious symbol, circumcision committed people to keep the law. They insisted upon obedience to the law because they believed that man’s salvation depended upon it. Their idea of the way of salvation was the the death of Christ was insufficient; we still have to merit the favor and forgiveness of God by our own good works.

So their religion was a human religion. It began with a human work and continued with more human work.

Human religion will trip us up every time. There is more human religion in our culture than we realize.

The pursuit of money and knowledge can be a religion.

Not believing there is a God is a religion: Sunday Assembly is an aetheist church in North London

“Sunday Assembly London is part of a global, secular community that celebrates life, and we welcome all who welcome all.”

Sunday Assembly is a non-religious gathering co-founded by Sanderson Jones and Pippa Evans in January 2013 in London, England. The gathering is mostly for non-religious people who want a similar communal experience to a religious church, though religious people are also welcome.

We want take The Divine view

Christ died on the Cross for us sinners, becoming a curse for us (3:13)

So the cross us some very unpalatable truths about ourselves, namely that we are sinners under the righteous curse of God’s law and we cannot save ourselves.

We cannot save ourselves

Nothing in history or in the universe cuts us down to size like the cross. All of us have inflated views of ourselves, especially in self-righteousness, until we have visited a place called Calvary. It is there at the foot of the cross that we shrink to our true size.

Yet it is in this cross that Paul boasts. The truth is that we cannot boast in ourselves and in the cross simultaneously. If we boast in ourselves and in our ability to save ourselves, we shall never boast in the cross and in the ability of Christ crucified to save us. We have to choose.

As a result , we and the world have parted company. Each has been ‘crucified’ to the other. ‘The world’ is the society of unbeliever. Previously we were desperately anxious to be in favor with the world. But not that we have seen ourselves as sinners and Christ crucified as our sin-bear, we do not care what the world thinks or says of us or does to us. As Paul says, the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.

Dodge the Distractions By Focusing On What is the central important things: cultivating the internal view and divine view

Paul tells us that peace and mercy will be upon those who walk by this rule, so we need to cultivate the internal and divine mindset.

Christianity is first inward and and spiritual and secondly a divine work of grace.

To cultivate, we can not give up immersing ourselves in the reading and studying of ourselves.Our lives identifymore with the Saviour than with the world that is opposed to Him;

bein covered by Christ’s blood shed on the cross becomes our claim to fame

I like the way how Tony Evans puts it: Throughout Galatians the contrast between the flesh and the spirit – between living by himan perspective and living by God’s perspective -- is highlighted. Paul says it impossible to live by both because they are diametrically opposed to one another. The flesh and the Spirt are at war. That’s why Galatians teaches us that the only way to obtain victory over the flesh is to walk by the Spirit. God knows we need this truth because we will continue to battle with the flesh as long as we are in these imperfect bodies. If we are to experience the liberty, freedom and victory that the true gospel offers we must adopt a spiritual, kingdom-based mindset so that we live in the power of the Spirit and not in the defeat of the flesh.