Grow family here in the room watching with us online. I, I'll be real with you. I've been sucked in to a new series on Netflix. You know, one of those ones where the characters just draw you in. Right. There's suspense, like what's gonna happen next? There's drama, right? The episode ends, like, ah, I gotta go to the next one. Right? You just find yourself sucked in. You're like, where did the time go? Uh, maybe you've seen it, uh, called, uh, is It Cake? Um, ok. So there's some heavy sarcasm on the drama part. But actually I, I watched it the first episode because, like, this is so stupid, like, what? They made a show out of this and they, they kick it off if you haven't seen it and you'll get sucked in. And so they're like, come on, like, people make cakes that look like things like and then, and then challenge people to pick which one it is, like, clearly I can, I can identify, I mean, the panel, they, they won't guess. But, but I can guess. And so the first episode comes up, they bring up like, five items. They all look the same. I'm like, oh, that one's cake and I was wrong and then they go round two and I'm like, oh, I know that one clearly, clearly number four wrong again. And I find myself just repeatedly guessing poorly in this stupid show and a couple of episodes in, I'm like, why can't I get this? And then also why am I watching this and going through it? But what's so fascinating is that these, these artists, we'll call them artists. They're chefs here, but they're so good at making these cakes that the only way you can tell the difference is by cutting into them. And so I share that to start off our morning message together because here's the reality is that I think that there are certain people when it comes to Christianity, when it comes to faith, uh They get curious about what is real and what is not, especially in our culture where there is uh really a just general mistrust of power and authorities because we've seen so many people be divisive and so many leaders fall short and, and there's just this mistrust and at the same time of a mistrust, there's also a devaluing of truth. We've taken truth and made it subjective as a culture and, and instead of an objective reality that people understand and stand on. And, and now in this postmodern world, we've taken truth away from the author and put it on the audience. And now, truth is what you make it and it's based on how you feel and what you believe. And so when you take those two together, it creates what's really known now in our culture as a deconstructed society. So deconstruction was really first used in the 19 sixties by a guy named Jacques uh Derida and really launched as a part of what became the postmodern movement. And really, it was a to deconstruct is to tear down or to break into smaller pieces was really a Phil philosophical angle that now people have applied it to different areas of life. And so they, and actually at its core is not bad if you think about it, if you think about a kid growing up learning how something works. And so maybe you took apart something and you really, you open it up inside because you wanted to see how it was put together or how it works and maybe you worked on uh a car or an automobile or a uh people into computer science and things break down. It's like, I wonder how this works and you open it up and you see what's inside. Well, people now are doing that with faith. But what I wonder a little bit is that are when people cut into it, when people cut into Christianity, are they cutting into the real thing or some imitation that looks like it on the outside? But on the inside is not real it's, it's just simply cake. And so when you take a look at a deconstructed society, what we find is that people love to add to or take away from the gospel. So people like Jesus, but maybe they don't like the authority of the word of God. So they take Jesus minus authority because I don't want the Bible to tell me about my sexuality. I don't want the Bible to tell me about my identity. I don't want the Bible to tell me what I should do with my money. And so therefore I will take the Bible minus authority. He says I like him better as a nice guy that like pet slams and is sweet to Children and does some cool miracles and it's fun to have at a party, right? Some water to wine um action there. So I like, but I don't like, I don't, I don't wanna actually change anything that I'm gonna do though. You know what I mean? Like I, I don't, I, I don't like that part. And so I'll just, I'll just go Jesus minus authority. But then there's another side that then takes the Bible and they like it, but they see the power that's available to it and how you can control people with it. So then they go Jesus plus power and we see this in a couple of different ways. Maybe it's Jesus plus a, a social construction or maybe it's Jesus plus a political party or maybe it's Jesus plus this and it's not that we live in a society where, where you, you just completely are private because your faith really is a public thing. So vote your values, get out there believe what you believe. But when we attach a specific group to Jesus and the gospel, what do we do when that person or that group that does something counterintuitive to what the gospel actually represents? because when we, we marry ourselves to a certain power or group or authority, and we find ourselves in what's known as cognitive dissonance when there is a gap between what is happening and then and your experience and then your expectation and you gotta figure out what to do. And so we then, uh we have a lot of different groups who use religion as a weapon, who use religion as a way of controlling people. And so they go Jesus plus this set of rules or Jesus plus these set of expectations. And so it sounds very Christian, but when you cut into it, what you get is not the gospel, but something completely different. And so today, we are launching a brand new series called Firm Foundation. And the premise of this series is that we wanna help you find faith and freedom in a deconstructed world. And I don't want you to be afraid of the word deconstruction. The reason in Christian circles, the word deconstruction is scary is because they're afraid of what people are gonna find when they really cut into it. Are they gonna find the gospel or are they gonna find other rules and expectations we've placed on people? And so what we can do is that, uh, the reality is not being scared by the word deconstruction, but really what ends up being a result because deconstruction is a process. But then de conversion is really the result. So people end up walking away from something. But my fear is that people are walking away from something or someone that actually isn't a real version of Christianity that they're not actually walking away from the gospel. They're not walking away from Jesus, they're walking away from some imitation or some form of an experience or a person that hurt them or disagreement that they have. And so they try to add to the gospel or they try to take away from the gospel. And therefore, if one person hurt me, all is bad and now within our cancel culture, we try to write off people because of something that was said or something that was done. When what I wanna do is over the next nine weeks between now and Christmas is that we wanna cut into Christianity, we wanna take a deep dive and actually understand what is the gospel, what is, what is not the gospel, what is the foundation of our faith? And how does that impact how we treat one another as a result of how Jesus is working in our lives. And so we're gonna examine a book called Galatians. And Galatians is really seen as one of the powerhouse books of the New Testament because it was written by Paul and we see his conversion story and he, and he is super passionate. And so he's writing to a culture that is socially divided, racially divided and religiously divided. I it kinda honestly sounds 2000 years later, still could apply to our culture today. And so he's writing and he's passionate and he writes with authority and he writes with strength and sometimes they would write letters with like we're so thankful for you. We love you. You're doing great now, don't do this, but you're doing so awesome in this letter, Paul is like, stop it. Listen, right? Like what are you doing? That's basically what he's saying. And he's, and he's writing this letter to wake the church up and it's this letter that has such power behind it that ultimately shapes you really is the theme verse for the book of Galatians is found in Galatians chapter five, verse one which reads this, it says for freedom, Christ has set us free, stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. So it is for freedom that at our core, our Christianity is defined by the freedom we have in Jesus. And that the structure of this book, there's six chapters and the structure of this book kinda goes this way if you kinda want an indicator of where we're going as a church and in these messages is that chapters one and two of Galatians really talks about how the gospel is personal today. Specifically. We're gonna hear about Paul's testimony and his conversion story. And so we're gonna see that the gospel is personal, but then in chapters three and four, he gets into doctrine and into theology. And he actually says that the gospel is powerful and we're gonna see a comparison between the Gospel and the Old Testament or faith and law grace and works and all these things. And it's gonna talk about Abraham and Moses and how that fits into the story of Jesus. And then he ends in the last two chapters about sharing how the gospel is practical. And we're gonna learn more about the Holy Spirit and how to bear one another's burdens and how the Christian church should, should really work together through the spirit of, of Christ and the Holy Spirit working in our lives trying to live out this freedom to, to love and serve one another. This letter to the churches in Galatia, which is really found in kind of Asia minor is a modern day Turkey. It, it really is a letter that has so much power that it can change lives and launch movements. Martin Luther who really launched the protestant reformation actually said this about the letter of Galatians. He says the epistle to the Galatians is my epistle to which I have wedded myself. And so, uh, I sometimes talk with a lisp and first service, I almost said wetted myself and that didn't sound appropriate. So wedded myself, like clung to it. And so Martin Luther, who, who was changed by this letter so much between Galatians and then Romans clung to this and his eyes were opened because what he realized at the time is that Christianity at the moment was really controlled by power hungry people who used religion to just advance their own systems of belief and political power. And so after reading Galatians, after reading the New Testament, after reading these letters, he was, his eyes were open to the grace of God and to the freedom that comes in knowing Jesus to the point that on October 31st. So on what we know is Halloween, it's actually seen as reformation day that he posted those 99 thesis to the door and say no, there is power that all believers should have access to. And so you mirror this belief along with the printing press. And when people have access to the word and they see that the grace of God is available to everyone. It changes everything. They cut into Christianity, they cut into Chris into faith. And what he found was not a list of rules, but what he found was grace. And when it comes to grace. Author and speaker Richard Foster wrote this. He says grace is not a ticket to heaven, but the earth under our feet on the road with Christ grace saves us from life without God even more. It empowers us for life with God love that, that grace not only saves us from life without God, but then empowers us for life with Him. Now, what is grace by just typical definition and, and biblical definition standards, grace is God's unmerited favor. In other words, it is a gift given because God wants to because he can, to whom he pleases, we don't have a say in that like it's his invitation to hand out. It's his gift to give. I can't give you somebody else's gift, right? I was, I was in a restaurant and uh and I won't name the restaurant, but let's just say the customer service was not great. And I just watched this train wreck pile up at one after another and I, I thankfully got my food and was happy for it. But um, we'll just say I'm not the most motivated teenager was working the front desk and, and a guy came in, he was like, hey, hey, I've been waiting for my food and the kid finally looked up, took, took the airpod out of his ears. One. Why are you wearing airpods on shift at a register in a restaurant? And he goes, what are you talking about your food? Went out like 20 minutes ago, put his head airpods back in and turned his back to the guy. I was like, are you serious? And this guy had a couple, we'll say colorful words to say that you wouldn't normally welcome in an establishment. And, um, and, and the guy, like what you mean, somebody took my food. That was my order and he goes, I don't know. What do you want me to do about it? And turns back around and then like, I was like, this is not going well, but I almost can't leave. Like I need to see what happens. And then like 10 minutes later, a guy walks in holding up the bag. I'm like, oh, the plot thickens. And so this guy goes like this is at mine and the, and the guy goes, um he's like you stole my food. He's like, no, he gave it to me. And then now you got two angry people staring at a teenager whose back is turned with airpods and a restaurant that only had one other person working. And so clearly he wasn't the man anyway. And uh it it aggressed and he was like, the guy got so mad. He was like, that's not yours to take and he's like, I can't pass it out. You gave the wrong food. And so here's like with this, they were like getting so mad. They were like, I ordered this, you gave me, you gave that to the wrong person. Like I can't go back there and make it and almost like the teenage almost invited him to like it was just bad and really entertaining at the same time. Um Here's the thing is that when we talk about the grace of God, we talk about the meal of God, like grace is something that can only be given by the person who has it right. It's his invitation to give out. It's his meal to deliver. It's, it's there to pass out like you can't give somebody a gift on somebody else's behalf. It doesn't work like that. If you have kids, maybe you've experienced this, they wanna go to a friend's house and so they come up and be like, hey, uh so and so invited me over and like did they? No, but I wanna go. I was like, no, you can't just invite yourself over buddy at somebody else's house. It's the, it's their house, it's their invitation to give. Well, when you talk about the grace of God, it's God's gift to give. It's, it's God's gift to give whom he wants it to how he wants to. When he wants to as much as he wants, that's what it means by unmerited favor. As soon as you think that we earned it in some way, we don't deserve it. And if you, if you follow that up with saying, well, God, God, that's not fair in reality. If God was being fair. None of us deserve it. The fact that any of us receive grace is a gift. And if you go a step further, grace isn't free. Grace has a cost. And so if you're taking notes, here's our big idea for today. Grace is God's righteousness at Christ's expense. It's God's righteousness and in that sense too churchy. Think riches, think, blessing, think glory, think, like, think fame, think power, whatever you want. God's righteousness at Christ's expense. We're coming up to the holidays and you might have an office work party where you have a gift exchange and you have to, uh you have to exchange gifts or buy a gift for someone else in the office. And there's usually like a spending limit and there's always two things that I know to be true in an office gift exchange. Number one, there will always be one person that goes well beyond the spending limit. You know what I'm talking about? Like, you're like, well, it's $10 and they, they spend way more than that or maybe it's a white elephant gift exchange and someone goes well beyond and that's the gift everybody wants. Second. I also know to be true that there's always somebody in the office that forgets until the last minute, it's whatever they can get from Circle K on the way in. Right. So somebody's getting like a $200 gift card to this thing and another person is getting like a slushie, I don't know but like like the exchange like this is not fair. Well, in this case, to receive grace, what happens is that the grace is not free. It says that Christ pays the payment. And so it is the best or the worst gift exchange in the history of the world. Because what we do, what we bring to the table, the only thing we bring to the table is the sin that required God's sacrifice in the first place. And so we exchange our sinfulness, our shortcomings, all our mistakes and the penalty and the wrath that comes from that for the blessing, the forgiveness, the purpose and eternal life with God. So Jesus takes on the payment for our sin in exchange for us taking on the blessing of His righteousness and his riches and his forgiveness. And so this exchange is the exchange that defines Christianity. Grace is what separates Christianity from other religions. What we see is when you try to take away from the Bible, you, you lose grace. But when we also, when you try to add to the Bible, this is where we get a number of other religions that come into play. Well, I like the Bible, I like Jesus, but we're gonna add to it another prophet or we're gonna add to it these other rules or regulations. And what you get as a result is not Christianity and it's not faith and it is not grace. Here's one thing I want you to notice and what I like about this definition, it's not original to me. But what I like about this definition is that it actually spells out grace. So God's righteousness at Christ's expense. This is what it means to receive something that we don't deserve. And it's not that it's completely free. It's that it's completely paid for. There's a difference that Jesus paid for this, that exchange he came down. He who knew no sin became sin so that we could become the blessing of the righteousness of God. And so he gives us this grace and this grace is available to everyone. How do we know that? Because Paul is gonna share his own story and he's gonna say that if anybody doesn't deserve grace, it would be me. Now a little background to the book as we jump into this is that this letter was written around 50 ad. So we're only talking 15 to 20 years post resurrection. So this is the same generation of the people who saw Jesus ministry, his life, his death, and his resurrection. And so the message of Jesus, the message of the way we're seeing transform lives. And so Paul, his life has transformed, we're gonna hear his story in just a minute. And after that transformation starts planting churches and developing leaders. And so he plants these churches and he reaches Asia minor. So modern day Turkey and then later it just a couple years later, he writes back or a couple of months later, a couple of years later he writes back to these churches and he's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Where did you go wrong? Like, weren't you following me? Have you ever carpooled with someone or a group of people to a place? And you got that one friend? That's horrible with directions, right? And you're going, they're with me, they're with me. You got eyes in the back. You're like, they're with me, they're with me. And then, and then next thing you look up and they're just gone. And so I'm like, hey, where are you? You are following me and somewhere you just turned and you're not behind me anymore. We need to get back on the same path. And so that's what Paul is doing. He's writing to this church and it's a church where there are um social racial, there is financial, there's religious divisions and in this case, he's writing to a group of known as Jewish believers and then gentiles and so gentiles is really broad stroke of basically meaning not Jewish. And so you have Jewish believers and then you have non Jewish believers, but Jewish believers who believe in Jesus, but now they have centuries and centuries of old practices and works and laws. They said, hey, if we had to obey these things, you do too. And so they were enforcing extra rules. So there was Jesus plus. So they were saying Jesus plus circumcision, which that's an intense requirement if you get saved as an adult, right? Like that, that would be, that would be tougher for evangelism if that was still a requirement. Today, they also talked about additional dietary restrictions and other rules that they placed, that went beyond the Old Testament and then said, no, you need to follow these rules and these rules. And so it's great that Jesus saved you. It's great that you receive grace, but it's also this. And so they're trying to add something to the gospel of grace. And so let's jump into it here and let's walk through this story as we see Paul, he's, he's angry, he's angry Elf here. He's passionate. And so he starts out the letter Galatians chapter one, verse one, Paul an apostle, he's coming right out of the gate, throwing his credibility. He's, he's wearing his military uniform if you will religious. And he's saying, look at these badges like you will listen to me because an apostle actually means to be sent. But what's different about Paul and what's different about the early disciples is that they weren't sent by men. They were actually sent directly by God. It's different for today. For example, I've, I've a pastor, I've been ordained. I've been licensed now I was called by God. But then my calling was confirmed by mature believers who are already pastors who then saw me or called me as a pastor. And so my ordination or my license for ministry was based on other people who then affirmed the calling that God placed in my heart. Paul saying here, no, I, I'm an apostle, but not from men nor through man, like they didn't affirm me. This came directly from Jesus himself. This came directly from the source he says, but through Jesus Christ and God, the father who raised him from the dead. And in case you question my authority, I, I'm, I'm coming from Jesus and in case you're questioning Jesus authority, he was raised from the dead. Have you been raised from the dead? No. OK. I'm gonna go with that guy, right? And so he is affirming authority here and the God father who raised him from the dead and all the brothers who are with me. So he's not alone. He's got other Christians. And so he's writing here with his resume, with his authority, with the power of Jesus. He says to the churches of Galatia. Now he pauses and he's a little nice. He goes grace and peace from God, our father to our Lord Jesus Christ. Like if you, if you're ever about to discipline a child and then you catch yourself and you start by going, hey, I want you to know daddy loves you and then you get back to like like, oh, this is, is coming down like I'm about to rain down some discipline but hey, I'm doing this in love. OK? This is gonna hurt me more than it hurt you. Which is a lie. OK? No, I know it does hurt, right? You feel like, oh I don't wanna do it but I gotta do it. Why? Because I love you and discipline requires that, that love requires this discipline. This is what Paul is doing here. He says, I'm an apostle. And what I'm about to say is gonna hurt but grace and peace. And it comes from Jesus. And so verse four, it says, who gave himself for our sins? This is this gospel right here to deliver us from the present evil age according to the will of our God and father, to whom be the glory forever and ever amen. This message might be coming from me, but it's not about me. It's about Jesus and it's about your understanding what the gospel is and what the gospel is not. And he says this then in verse six, he says, I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you into the grace. There's that word into the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel like where, where did you go? You were with me a second ago, right? Verse seven, it says not that there is another gospel again, if you add anything to Jesus or you take anything away, what you get is not Christianity. He says, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. And he, and he continues on for time's sake. We're gonna skip down to verse 13, but he's writing about this power of the gospel. And we're gonna start to see his own example of how the grace of Christ changed him. And so in verse 13, it says he's writing here and he's saying, for you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people. So I extremely, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers, not only was I persecuting the Christians in the church, I was good at it. I was getting promoted for it. Like I wasn't just like uh Christianity, whatever. Like I wasn't agnostic. I wasn't like that sounds kind of cool, but I'm good like I was attacking like I was so far uh against it and rejecting it that I was converting people to the other side. And if they didn't, I had the power to destroy, then we get to verse 15. He says, but when he who had set me apart before I was born, I love this phrase because it shows value to human life. It shows value to God. And he's even saying, look, this was God's plan all along. I did nothing to earn this that before the beginning of time, God planned this and called me to this. He said, and call me and then how did he call me again? By his grace? It's God's riches at Christ's expense. We see this gift. He said, I didn't earn it. If anything, I did everything possible to not earn it. If you love sports and watch games, if you've ever had your team, you're like we did everything we could to try to lose that game and somehow we still won. Paul did everything possible to lose this game. But because of Jesus, he won verse 16 and he was, and God was pleased to reveal his son to me in order that I might preach him among the gentiles. Now, I did not immediately consult with anyone nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away to Arabia and returned again to Damascus. Now, this seems interesting to me and I was curious about it and I was trying to do some research on it and prayer and devotional thought on this. That after you get saved, why did Paul almost go to obscurity but not immediately to a major platform? No, he did preach pretty quickly out of it. So it wasn't that he wasn't preaching, but he didn't go to Jerusalem where all the apostles were and the other disciples went, he went to like obscurity to Damascus to Arabia and he was there actually for about three years. And you want to know why I think this happened. And this is this a little bit of my conjecture in here. But this, I just keep offering my thoughts here, my thinking behind this that I didn't really realize until recently preparing for this series. I think the reason Paul went away is to do two things. One to affirm it for himself that it's all Jesus Because if he immediately switched and immediately jumped on board with the disciples, he might or other people might say, oh he, he just wanted to join the winning team. He saw that they were gonna do better. And so he just flipped teams and so he did it for political gain, he did it for, for social gain and for power or he was tricked into this. You can't say that with him. He wasn't persuaded by the fancy words of this new movement. It was in obscurity, it was on the road to Damascus that he came to Christ. And so not only can you say he wasn't persuaded that he affirmed it for himself that when he came out of this three years later, the only explanation for his transformation was Jesus Christ himself. You could not say, yeah, but if you've ever tried to explain that someone's success was because of something. Well, yeah, of course, he's successful. He had this, well, of course, you say that you, you know that you were born here, you didn't have what I have. And so they're taking away these excuses because the only explanation for the change that was seen in Paul's life was Jesus Christ himself. Because what we're going to see is that disciples were skeptical too. That's why early on he had to be affirmed by a guy named Barnabas who vouchers and no guys, I've, I've seen it. He, this is legit. He's not faking it. So verse 18, he says, then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas, another name for Peter and then remained with him for 15 days. So he hung out with Peter for two weeks. He says, but I saw that none of the other apostles except for James, the Lord's brother. So Peter and James are also two crazy conversion stories. You got a fisherman, you got, you got the half brother of Jesus who now are both preaching this gospel. And so we're seeing this craziness here and he knows there's gonna be some skepticism. That's why I love the parentheses. In verse 20. Hey, and what I'm writing you before God, I do not lie like I swear to you like I'm telling you the truth. And then in verse 21 he says, and then I went into the regions of Syria and, and uh I can't speak words. There you go, another city. And um and I was still, I speak for a living. That's cool words. Great. Anyway, uh I still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. So I'm still unknown. I still don't have power. I still don't have credibility. I still haven't gotten the celebrity or fame, but it's not about that for me, it's about grace and it's about his message and about Jesus. And then it says in verse 23 it says they are only hearing what it said, what it said that he who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy. Oh, that is a mic drop line right there. The only thing they could say is that this guy who used to persecute the church is now preaching the same message that he once tried to destroy. And then the result they glorify God because of me, how incredible of a testimony is that and what we get from Paul's story is really three principles that really impacts us and, and that we can use when we tell our story. Because every transformation story, every story known as a testimony has the same three components and they're listed in your notes below you. First step one is, is before Christ. I was blank. What was your life before Christ? I can't fill in that blank because that's your story and your opportunity to share. Now I came to believe in Jesus at a young age and I remember I used to feel bad about my story. Right? Because you'd go to camps and you'd go to conferences and people are like, I was on the streets. I met Jesus and now I started this nonprofit that has 10 million people in it. And you're like, wow, I, but I realize that the power of the story is not me. It's Jesus. And the last time I checked, if you don't have Jesus, you're dead in your sin and if you're dead and you get brought back to life, that's a miracle, isn't it? But you don't have to sit there and say, yeah, I was, I was struggling with drugs. But then I turned five and I turned my life around like, like for me, I was blessed to, to, to pray, to receive Christ. They are in my home with my parents. But it was really then in my teenage years when I realized, oh, you know what this thing is true. And then my testimony is not about my life. It's about jesus' life and that I'm a sinner and then I struggle and that apart from him and I can do nothing as well. And then for me, it's that step two is then when I met Christ, I met Christ and, and I followed him and, and then that third step that you see then is after meeting Christ, I, and if you feel like I don't have a crazy story before Christ, I would hope that you would have an inspirational story after meeting Christ, right? If your life hasn't changed from before meeting Christ to after like, are we cutting into the cake here? Right? Like is what you're saying real like, do you really believe this? Because if you do it changes everything and your life is not defined based on your past mistakes, but it's also not defined by your past successes either. That's what I love about Paul, he's saying in here that look, I used to persecute the church, but when he comes to faith, he doesn't turn around and spout off all how awesome he is. That the only thing he spouts off is the very grace and power of God that transformed his life. And he says that's available for you too. And so that very simple formula before Christ, I was searching. I was young. I was naive. I was partying. I was empty. I don't know what that blank is for you. But I can tell you that if you go to step two, when you meet Jesus, when you receive his grace, God's riches at Christ's expense. That third step, that third action, it's so life giving and it's not that you're perfect, but rather you can walk on the road of grace and it impacts your marriage, your parenting, your relationship, your finances, it changes everything because the gospel doesn't just save you. It sustains you. So I want to share one last story with you. There's a guy named John Newton. John was born in the 17 hundreds. His mom died while his dad was away at sea. And so to follow in his dad's footsteps, he he joins the Navy, but then actually realizes that you can make money. And so he actually joins in what becomes known as the slave trade. And he spends much of his early career sailing up and down the coast of Africa, capturing people and then turn around and selling them for profit. But on one of these trips, he encounters a storm, the boat almost is destroyed to where he's clinging on to the wheel of the ship for 11 hours just crying out. Lord save me. And he comes to the other side of that and he ends up putting his faith in Jesus. He gets saved and he realizes that the trading of people is wrong. And he goes from being a slave trader to a abolitionist and a writer, but not just a writer like someone in ministry. And so he starts writing pamphlets. He starts writing songs, anything to show people that the grace of God changes everything. And his writings would go on to inspire people like William Wilberforce, who's largely responsible for the abolition of slave trade in England and in Europe. And so he's most famously known John Newton for in 1772 writing a little song that we know is Amazing Grace and those words in those verses. And those lyrics when he talks about the grace that saved a wretch like me. He was a slave trader that I once was lost, but now am found was blind. But now I see that's what's so amazing about grace is that grace is available to even people like Paul, even people like John Newton. And that if if God's grace can change them, if God's grace can meet them in a, in a boat in a storm on the sea, on the road to Damascus. For people who not only didn't believe in God were actually hurting people who did that. If God's grace can reach them, I promise you, God's grace can reach you. You can reach me. The forgiveness is possible. That meaning and purpose and joy is possible. Now that when you cut into the cake, when you, when you look at it at its core, it's not Jesus plus something, it's not Jesus minus something simply Jesus and His grace that's available for you. This is our story. This is our faith. I challenge you to receive that today. And if you've already received that, I challenge you to share that story today. Will you pray with me, dear God? Just thank you for saving us. Got all of us here myself included are sinners that fall short of the mark by God. We believe in your son Jesus as Lord and Savior. We add nothing to your word. We take nothing away. That is only through your grace. He paid the penalty for my sins on that cross and then rose again, that gave us the greatest exchange in history, our sin for your righteousness, not because we earn it, not because we deserve it because you give it. And so God, we commit our lives to you, not in order to be loved, but because we are loved. And so we receive this gift, we receive this grace that God if your grace was good enough for Paul, that if your grace was good enough for John Newton, that if your grace was good enough for these people, that it's good enough for us. There's nothing I could do to make you love me more. There's nothing I could do to make you love me less that I simply place these sins confess these before you ask for your forgiveness. And may we be changed by your grace today? And to share our story? Because every story is a great story. Every story is a story of transformation and every story is a miracle because it's based on you cheese. Help us to tell our stories this week. Here's the thing we pray. We used to.