Sunday we will return to the letter to the Galatian churches. Paul writes to them because members of the community were arguing that now that they are believers, they must adhere to Jewish law. They weren’t arguing against salvation by faith, but against faith alone. 

Paul begins by defending his Apostleship and his teaching. Then, in Galatians 2:15-21, he presents two aspects of the gospel: a person is justified by faith, not the law; life as a believer unites us to Christ, not the law. The section we move to begins his development of these two thoughts.

Paul asks a summary question: “Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” (3:3) He actually answers this question in Philippians 1:6, where he writes, “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

Here is a summary of the gospel of grace: Grace gets us in; grace keeps us in; grace finishes the work. 

Authentic Christianity is lived by faith in the finished work of Christ; looking to the Holy Spirit to finish the work he began. So join us Sunday and let’s consider what it means to live in the grace of God.

Sunday, we ended our Advent series on Jesus: King of the Poor, by focusing on the humility of God and his opposition to the proud. Jesus shows us God when he divests himself—not of his deity, but of his glory, becoming man and serving his Father. God delights in exalting the lowly, the humble; but he abhors what the world exalts. All glory be to the Father, Son, and Spirit.

This week, Brian Ryu will take us to Romans 12:1-2 where the Apostle Paul calls believers to present themselves to God as living sacrifices.  What does the Apostle Paul mean by living sacrifices, and how does Christ's entering into this world by taking on human flesh help us understanding true worship and living?  Instead of being conformed to this world, we’re called to pursue God’s design and purpose for our lives.  God's design for our lives leads to true life.  His renewal transforms how we think about and live our lives, giving us a perspective different from that of the culture around us, and making us meaningful agents of renewal in our community.

As we begin the new year, let’s consider the work of God in our lives to make us his servants in East Cobb and beyond. Join us for worship on Sunday!

Sunday we continue our series on Jesus, King of the Poor. God sent His Son to the poor, the lowly of society. Why? This past week we considered that He does this because He’s righteous and hates oppression. King David’s reaction to Nathan’s story is mild compared to God’s statement of judgment toward those who oppress! 

This Sunday we'll consider another reason God sent Jesus to the lowly; He's merciful! As Jesus walked the streets of the towns in Israel, the sick, the lame, the lepers, and the like called out to him, "Have mercy on us." The reason? They knew God is merciful and shows compassion on those who ask!

Few stories in the Scriptures illustrate this better than Jonah. You remember the story: God sent Jonah to the Assyrians to warn them of his coming judgment. Jonah runs, unwilling to warn them, so God uses a relationship with a sea-creature to change his mind. He fulfills his calling, and the Assyrians do the unthinkable, they repent. Jonah's upset and God confronts him. Jonah says something that reveals why he ran from God. He says, "O LORD, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster" (Jonah 4:2).

There it is—God is merciful. God sends Jesus because he is merciful! He sends him to the poor, the lowly, because he's merciful. Join us Sunday and let's consider the mercy of God!

Last Sunday I tried to demonstrate from Scripture that God loves the poor and sent His Son on a mission of mercy, in large part, to the poor. It’s not that God doesn’t show mercy to the wealthy, but that they don’t think they need his mercy. James says that God has chosen the poor to be rich in faith. (James 2:5) The question remains, Why? Why does God care so much for the poor?

This Sunday, I’ll offer one answer: God is righteous and hates oppression. The Scripture we’ll launch from is the story Nathan the prophet told David as it illustrates a righteous reaction to oppression. David had committed adultery with Bathsheba and then had her husband killed as part of his cover up. Nathan confronts him with a fictitious story about a rich man, with many lambs, who took the one and only beloved lamb of a poor man. The rich man served that lamb to his dinner guests with no thought of his oppression. David reacts, declaring the man should pay with his life. Nathan then says, “You are the man.” 

David’s reaction illustrates what every one of us should feel in the face of such unrighteous behavior, but for some reason we overlook such abuses of power almost every day. It also illustrates the righteous anger of God when he looks upon the dealings of men and witnesses our unrighteousness.

So come Sunday and consider with me the righteousness of God!

As we approach this Christmas season, I want us to focus our attention on the ministry and message of Jesus to the poor. In a recent article, Richard Doster says, "It seems bizarre that somehow, through some tortuous progression in thinking, our celebration of Christ’s birth has spawned Black Friday and Cyber Monday. It’s strange that our observance of Jesus’ birth — which occurred in a manger among farm animals — now accounts for 30 percent of retail sales, which makes it critical to the national economy." Americans spend over $600 billion on Black Friday alone. (byFaithonline, Nov.23,2018, The path from a lowly manger to Black Friday)

How did we get here when the ministry and message of Jesus is almost exclusively directed to the poor? Consider that as Jesus begins his earthly ministry, he enters the synagogue, opens the scroll of Isaiah, and reads, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim the good news to the poor...liberty to the captives...sight to the blind...to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." Maybe a study in the person and work of Christ will challenge our perspective all call us to deeper worship and greater faithfulness as stewards of God's Kingdom!

So come Sunday to consider Jesus, King of the poor!

This Sunday we enter the second part of Paul’s argument. The first part is that obedience to the law does not help me become a Christian. "No one is justified by works of the law,” Paul says. His second argument is that the law of God doesn’t call us back now that we’re believers. Paul says, “I died to the law.” This means that once coming to faith, our relationship to the law of God has ended because the law only governs the living. Paul says that he’s died, and therefore the law no longer has jurisdiction over him. This message raised the accusation that Paul was preaching lawless living. The concern is that if Christians aren’t called back to the law of God they will live selfish indulgent lives. 

If Christians, justified by Christ, live selfish indulgent lives, isn’t Paul nullifying the grace of God? Even worse, doesn’t this make Christ the author of sin? Paul’s answer is, “Certainly not!” The life of the believer is joined to the person of Christ. Paul says, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” The love of Christ governs the heart of the believer not the law of God. The law of God, particularly the ten commandments, still functions to show us the way to love God, but the love of God constrains us. This is why Paul says, “the life I now live…I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me."

So come Sunday and hear more about the grace of God through Jesus Christ!