At the Movies - Part 3 (2020)

Ford V. Ferrari // Breaking Free from the Establishment

Galatians 1-2

// my prayer for this message

Set people free from thinking they are “good enough” or need to be… so they might see Jesus and believe on Him alone.

The movie we explore this week: Ford V. Ferrari.

Great movie.

But I want to start today by telling you the name of the movie is NOT the REAL THEME of the movie. The more you explore about the film, the more you realize, it’s not Ford V. Ferrari.

And it brings me right to our first FILL in the BLANK:

It’s NOT Ford V. Ferrari. It’s FORD V FORD.

It’s a movie about challenging the Establishment.

What do I mean by “the Establishment?”

I mean there’s always a system that has enjoyed some measure of success that entrenches itself into patterns of behavior that becomes canonized into the unspoken LAWS of the day.

Point 1: Establishments are INEVITABLE and EVERYWHERE.

We are living in an establishment RIDDLED country.

2020 - the year of NEW establishments, right?

You MUST wear your mask…

You MUST socially distance…

No family over for Thanksgiving! (Yeah right).

(By the way, if you need proof there is an attack on the nuclear family in this country look no further than the un-limited public protests and Biden celebrations in the street and the restrictions on your THANKSGIVING meal!)

Beyond 2020… there are establishments in our culture.

There’s the “politically correct” establishment.

Offend the wrong people or say the wrong thing and you’re cancelled.

There’s the “get all you can” establishment.

The get what’s mine attitude of American individualism and greed.

There’s the “LIVE for TODAY“ establishment.

YOLO, Carpe Diem, it’s always a new phrase that encapsulated chasing as much pleasure for as long as you can.

There’s the SPIRITUAL establishments…

FEAR can be an established state. And it is in many people’s lives. They call it anxiety. The Bible calls it fear.

HATRED/DISCORD can be an established state. “I’m not talking to you, your view is repulsive to me.”

VICTIMIZATION is a growing establishment. “YOU or society is to blame for my problems and we need to fix you and/or society to deal with it.”

The REASON I love Ford Versus Ferrari is because it’s about a guy who had the GUTS to CHALLENGE the ESTABLISHMENT.

In Ford Versus Ferrari: FORD was the establishment.

In the 1960s, Ford was a giant. A gargantuan success with locations across the world! It owned Aston Martin, Hertz rental car, Jaguar, Volvo, Land Rover, and Mazda.

Ford was a BEAST.

Ford was so established it had grown overconfident with its success.

THEN… Ferrari started winning races and people’s wallets.

So the executives at Ford come to Mr. Henry Ford 2 and convince him that it’s time to attract younger consumers with fast and flashy cars that can beat Ferrari. But to do so, would mean change. It would mean finding someone who could bring them the results their established culture could not.

That person was Carrol Shelby, a former race car driver and now designer and the last American winner of the French 24-hour car race called Le Mans.

This brings me to our first clip.

Shelby reaches out to his old friend and racing partner Ken Miles with the project - to beat Ferrari with a Ford… watch this…

INTRO CLIP #1: 39:34 -40:39

I love that scene. Ken Miles… “Those guys.”

And then Ken Miles goes on a tangent about how many lawyers Ford has and how they are too big to change and it’s basically impossible.

OKAY. That’s the MOVIE… now let’s get to the Bible:

We are in Galatians 1.

In Galatians, Paul the Apostle is doing what Carrol Shelby and Ken Miles are doing the movie. Paul is challenging the establishment!

Point 2: God SAVES people from the ESTABLISHMENT of RELIGION.

Galatians 1:11-12 (ESV) For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. 12 For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

Paul is defending himself against the establishment of Judaism that wanted to impose a severe law code on new Christians.

The Establishment in Paul’s day: JUDAIZERS: Salvation by WORKS.

“Judaizers” taught you needed to believe in Jesus AND be circumcised AND follow the law.

Paul tells them God saved me from all that…

Galatians 1:13 (ESV) For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. 14 And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.

Paul says, I KNOW the establishment because I was part of it and VERY successful within it.

Keep reading: Verse 15:

Galatians 1:15 (ESV) But when He who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by His grace, 16 was pleased to reveal His Son to me, in order that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone; 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.

Paul basically says, “Christ set me free from the ESTABLISHMENT.”

This religion of “trying harder, doing better, being a good person in my own effort” Christ broke me free from all that.

Notice the phrase: “Christ called me by HIS GRACE!”

Paul says, “Christ WOKE me!”

Christ woke him to the reality that you cannot save yourself through good works and good behavior.

Christ woke him to the fact that no man is justified before God by being a good person or being moral!

This Establishment has been around forever!

It’s what our great great great ancestors did the moment sin came into the world.

Adam and Eve sinned and saw they were naked and ran from God’s presence… and many people MISS or FORGET what they did next…

What did they do? (We so often forget this detail…)

Genesis 3:7 (NLT) At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.

See what they did?

They tried to COVER up their sin with their own efforts.

Friends, that’s exactly what we do to this day.

How many people are trying to be better people SO THEY don’t feel bad about themselves.

How many people are trying to make money, build a career, have the perfect marriage, the perfect kids, the perfect life so that they don’t feel EMPTY or ashamed???

It’s all just SEWING FIG LEAVES!

And I’m telling you - it’s a never ending battle of trying to be better because you’re never going to get enough, have enough, or do enough to save your soul?

The reason is simple: Your SOUL is ETERNAL. And you can’t fill something ETERNAL with something TEMPORAL!

You need Christ alone!

That’s what Paul says.

You need someone to CHANGE you.

If you call on Christ - He will!

But there’s another problem we see in the movie and in this passage…

POINT 3: We often DRIFT BACK into the ESTABLISHMENT of RELIGIOUS PERFORMANCE.

Okay, what’s the establishment again? Salvation by works… trying harder to be a good person and make it to heaven… This was Judaism. This is what Paul was confronting.

Now amazingly, in our text, Paul shares a story where he has to confront a certain someone who WAS in the ESTABLISHMENT, who HAD BEEN DELIVERED from the ESTABLISHMENT… and years later was DRIFTING BACK to the ESTABLISHMENT.

His name? Believe it or not… WAS PETER.

Galatians 2:11 (ESV) But when Cephas (Peter) came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.

PETER? CONDEMNED? What did Peter do that Paul had to get up in his grill?

Galatians 2:12-16 (ESV) For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. 13 And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.

EVEN PETER, the Apostle who Jesus especially taught and ministered to and empowered… THIS PETER… drifted back into a salvation by works mindset.

Paul says Peter saw people come from James - the Jerusalem (very Jewish) church… and he went all Jewish around Gentiles.

Thankfully for Peter, Paul was there to SMACK him awake!

Back to Ford V. Ferrari:

Ford keeps trying to control Carrol Shelby from the top down. They want to call the shots. They pick the driver and shut out Ken Miles from the competition.

They get their way. Ken Miles doesn’t drive in Le Mans. Ford LOSES BADLY… and Mr. Ford wants an explanation. This is perhaps the films pivotal moment.

VIDEO CLIP #2: 1:06:40-1:10:37

Ford was trying to trust Shelby AND their resources.

This was a line in a the sand. They could either trust the man they hired or they could rest on their established culture and corporate power.

What would they do?

At the end of that scene, Mr. Ford stand up at the end of that scene and for a brief moment becomes his father’s son… he reminds Shelby that Ford was built by ONE man’s idea, that Ford was once the visionary… and they will be gain.

For you and for me… we tend to DRIFT back to salvation by works every time we distance ourselves from people who aren’t like us. Just like Peter did.

We tend to create an “in crowd” group of people who’s sins we are okay with, who sin in the same way as us.

The Gospel demolishes our “in crowd” mentality.

Because the Gospel says - no matter how good you are - you are NEVER good enough. God’s standard is perfection. And ONLY by faith in Christ can you be made perfect.

Matthew 5:48 (ESV) You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

POINT 4: We truly break free from RELIGION when we get a REVELATION of what Jesus Christ has done for us.

Paul gives us the answer in his address to Peter:

Galatians 2:15-16 (ESV) We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

The ESTABLISHMENT can’t save you.

You know what you need?

You know what every person needs?

They need a personal experience with Christ.

That’s what Paul is saying RIGHT HERE.

That’s what I’m saying to you RIGHT NOW.

It’s not RELIGION… it’s REVELATION of Jesus.

You know Him and it changes you from the inside out.

// Set up the last clip.

Now… my favorite part of the movie is next.

Mr Ford is going back and forth. Trying to trust Shelby but also trust Leo Beebe. He’s actually once again put Beebe in charge of the race team.

Well, Shelby is just sick of it. So he devises a plan. Shelby LOCKS Leo Beebe in the office and takes Mr. Ford on a test drive to give him a FIRST HAND EXPERIENCE of what this car is all about. And the response of Mr Ford to the test drive is EVERYTHING…

Watch this…

VIDEO CLIP #3: 1:25.46-1:29:25

I love this moment. Mr. Ford FINALLY gets it.

This is not something you can control with corporate leverage.

This is not something that works top down.

This is something you need to let go of in order to experience.

I love those tears in Mr. Ford.

And did you see what Shelby did?

He put his career on the line. He said if Ken Miles doesn’t win Daytona he will give his entire business to Ford Motor Company.

You know what that means?

Shelby REALLY believes in what he’s doing.

So did Paul the Apostle.

You know how much this man suffered to bring people the message that Jesus ALONE saves?

He was beaten.

He was shipwrecked.

He was whipped.

He was rejected by his own people.

He was stoned several times.

He was hated and vilified and attacked and undermined.

And he said these words one time to one of the places he brought the Gospel:

Acts 20:22–24 (ESV) And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, 23 except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. 24 But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

Not a decade later from that moment, Paul had his head cut off at the request of Emperor Nero himself.

He died to share this message.

He died to tell you all… that ONLY JESUS SAVES.

Do you understand that millions of people have done the same? Millions. That’s the greatest apologetic for the Christian faith. Estimates are more were Christians killed for their faith in the last 100 years than in all of Christian history. They died willingly so that you could hear the message that in Christ, death is NEVER final.