Central Week 1

Galatians

Central Week 1

Welcome, everyone!

Hope you’re having a great week.

Today we are beginning a new series called Central.

During this series, we will be going through a book in the New Testament called Galatians.

Just curious ... has anyone here read the entire book of Galatians from front to back?

Whether you've read all of Galatians or not, this is a great opportunity to read along with us as a youth ministry, as each week in this series we will be addressing a passage from each chapter of the book.

The "book" of Galatians is actually a letter to a church that was written by the apostle Paul, and it is six chapters long.

It takes only about 20 minutes to read the whole thing in one sitting, so it's not a big task.

I encourage you to read one chapter each week and follow along with us, so we can learn together.

The goal of this series is to understand what Paul was trying to communicate to the church over 2,000 years ago, and see how it applies to us here today in our daily lives.

The first question I want to ask you is, “What is your life centered around?"

If someone were to say that to you, what would you say, there is no wrong answer— I am just curious.

Look at your day-to-day decisions, from the time you wake up in the morning to the time that you go to bed at night.

Ask yourself this question, “What is my life centered around?"

Some people might say, “I'm a Christian,” or, “I love God,” or “I’m on #TeamJesus.”

But when you look at their day-to-day lives, it just doesn’t add up.

How many of you are on social media?

Instagram? Facebook? Twitter? Snapchat?

Me too.

I like social media because I can stay connected to a lot of people and know what's going on in their lives even though I don’t see them all the time.

Let's take Instagram, for example.

Instagram is interesting because you can go to someone's profile page and see their username, profile pic and a section where they can create their own bio of themselves.

There are some people who have used the 140 characters allotted to describe themselves in their profiles as #GodFirst or #TeamJesus or #Christian.

But if you were to stroll through their pictures and videos, you would be confused, because some to the content that they decide to upload doesn't reflect a #GodFirst life.

Having #TeamJesus in your bio and posting a meme with profanity in it just doesn’t add up.

Having #ILoveGod in your bio and commenting on someone's pictures with disrespect doesn’t add up.

Having #GodFirst in your bio and posting sexy pictures of yourself or others doesn’t add up,

If someone says that his or her life is centered on God, then his or her Instagram feed should actually point to God.

Have you ever been lied to or scammed before?

Being scammed is one of the worst feelings when you realize it.

Now, when Paul wrote Galatians, he wrote to a church and addressed many topics, but the main topic I see in this passage and the main theme we will be going through in this series is the gospel.

The gospel message is simply this: God created the world and placed men and women in it to live forever, but people sinned against God and were separated from Him because of sin.

People deserve the penalty for their sin, which is death and eternal separation from God.

Jesus was born without sin, lived without sin, died and rose again as a sacrifice for all mankind to pay the penalty for man's sin.

Jesus came to earth to be a Savior, to restore man back to God.

We are all born in sin.

We are all messed up.

We were all doomed to hell.

But Jesus came, Jesus died, Jesus rose from the dead … and JESUS SAVES.

If we put our faith in God through Jesus, and believe that He has paid the penalty for our sins, then we are saved.

That's the good news of the gospel.

If you’ve responded to the gospel, then you have been born again, given a new life, and He has given you his Holy Spirit, and you will pass from this life to live with God forever.

The apostle Paul committed his life to preach the message of the gospel to everyone.

He went on a journey to different regions, places and towns, meeting with people, meeting with leaders, and establishing churches.

Paul opens his letter to the Galatians to address a crisis: there were members of the Galatian church who stopped following the true gospel and began to follow false teachers.

We're going to open up in the book of Galatians and see specifically what Paul has to say to the Galatian church.

Turn to Galatians 1:6-10.

Galatians 1:6–10 ESV

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

So in this passage, Paul is basically saying, “I can’t believe it ... I can’t believe you have turned away from the true gospel.

You're following another gospel, even though there is no such thing as another gospel.

You’re following the false version of it."

Want to know how people turn away from the truth and follow a lie?

Some will be lead to listen to someone else who says:

“Hey, I see you follow Jesus and you go to church and all that, but I have a book for you to read that will really open your eyes."

“Hey, I see you following Jesus, and you go to church and all that, but I want to forward you an article that says there is something else you must do to follow the true way."

“Hey, you're religious and all that, but I have a YouTube video to send you that will cause you to see that you're missing something."

There are many people out there who claim to be followers of Jesus, many who are false believers and will lure true believers into their false teachings.

They were completely oblivious to being scammed, and Paul saw this as a crisis.

There are Mormon churches all over the country.

If you were a naive Christian who didn’t know the gospel, then you would assume that a building with the name “Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” would be a great place to go to and learn about Jesus and the Christian faith.

However, Mormons are an example of the teachings that Paul was astonished about.

Here are some things Mormons believe:

• Mormons teach that the book of Mormon is more correct than the Bible.

• Mormons teach that Jesus and Satan are spirit brothers born of the same mother.

• Mormons teach that God literally slept with Mary to give birth to Jesus.

• Mormons teach that God used to be a man on another planet.

• Mormons teach that the gospel has been lost on earth and Mormonism is the true restoration of it.

Now if all this seems silly to you, just know that we have many people in all walks of life to share the true gospel with, but there are people who will listen to these teachings from gifted teachers and follow along right into a scam.

And I don’t think others believe that they are being scammed.

I truly believe they think they are believing in the truth.

Paul would say, "I’m astonished."

What is God telling us in these passages?

1. There are “different gospels” that are not THE gospel.

Remember, we said the gospel is good news.

The good news is that Jesus saves those who are totally lost.

When He saves them, He gets the glory and attention.

The different gospels are not the good news; they are not about salvation.

You can tell there is confusion in the message when lined up with the true gospel message.

2. Any "other gospel” brought to you by someone? Consider them accursed.

If someone comes to us with another gospel message, a book, an article, an argument, we need to consider them accursed.

Paul used a strong word to describe these people.

You don't need to be mean to them, but you shouldn't consider them wise people who understand Christianity.

What should we do?

1. Respond to the GOSPEL.

Ask yourself this question: “Have I actually responded to the gospel?”

The way you respond the gospel is you realize that God is real and He created you; you’re a sinner who’s sinned against Him; you need to be saved from your sin; and only Jesus can save you.

When Peter preached to thousands of people after Jesus was resurrected and left the mission of the church to be led by the apostles, he preached the same good news to them and said:

Acts 2:38 ESV

And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

You need to repent of sin, change your life and give Him your all.

Let Jesus change and transform you as you stay committed to him.

Allow the gospel to be the central part of your existence.

2. Center our lives around the GOSPEL.

You live your life gospel-centered.

Center your life decisions and your daily walk around the gospel.

Our lives are lived and identified by the fact that Jesus saved us, and we are living a new, Holy Spirit-led life.

This means we should have gospel-centered relationships.

We have friends in our circle of influence who are believers, and those who are not believers, we should be influencing them, not the other way around.

I we have friends around us who want us to participate in sinful decisions, then we make a gospel-centered decision not to join them.

We tell ourselves, “No, I won’t do this because I have a changed life."

3. Live the gospel.

Attending church and attending youth group is great, but Jesus didn’t die for us just to attend a building once a week.

We must live this gospel out every single day of our lives.

There are many well-meaning people who just go to church once a week, and they don’t live the gospel out.

Paul hammers this message throughout the book of Galatians, and we will see during this series that there is some depth to understanding the message of the gospel.

Living the gospel also includes us coming to God when we mess up.

Even if we mess up and commit sin, you can’t out sin the grace and mercy of Jesus.

We live the gospel by asking God to forgive our sins and stay close to Him in times of need, even after falling.

Let's close in prayer and ask God to reveal His truth in our hearts regarding the gospel message, and ask Him for help to live gospel-centered lives.

Then, we will break into small groups to have a time of further discussion.

Let’s Pray