I wanna speak this morning for a few minutes into the tension that exists between rules and values. I want to speak into this tension between rules and values and they're not opposite of each other, but rather one is an extension or goes deeper or goes further than the other. Here's what I mean, rules by themselves have a place there's agreed upon constructs that people agree to, that provides order and gives a foundation for justice, right? If there's no rules in a society, then there's no law. If there's no law, there's no justice and that societies function best when there's an agreed upon set of rules and regulations that we abide by that. If there is no law, there is no police. If there is no law, there is no agreed upon constructs that shapes the society. So rules do have a place but they, but they also have a limitation and this is where value comes into play. See values take a series of rules and it makes them more about an identity. Another way to think about it is rules are transactional, do this, don't do that, right? It's a checklist. Value is transformational it takes a list of D's and don't and makes it more about who you are and therefore you act out of who you are and it's not about behaving, it's about becoming, it's not about a checklist, it's about a calling. It's not about a transaction, it's about transformation. And so value at its core goes deeper, goes further, goes faster and is longer lasting. Another way to think about the difference between rules and values is that if you're parenting and you're raising a child and they're a toddler, you wanna, you wanna show that they're valued, but you need to start off with some rules. Don't, you don't touch that. Don't say that like uh no is a very common word, right? No, no. Can I have this? No. Can I have this? No or this? The endless response to why? Why, why, why can't I do that? Why? Why can't I have an entire bag of sour patch kids at 930 at night? No? OK. Can we get a slushie? No? Can I go here? No. And like you find yourself creatively finding new ways to say no, but you need rules in place like rules are healthy. I want you to get that. The rules are not bad. They help create some guard rails for ourselves. But as a parent, if you only give a list of rules and you never transition into the discussion about value and identity, you've missed a very important part of parenting because they can follow a list of rules and not know who they are. And when they become a teenager, when they become a college student or a young adult, and they go into the world, you can't rule them enough. Does that make sense? Like you can't say, do this, don't do this, don't do. And then they encounter a situation they've never encountered before and they don't know how to respond. And so what happens is you transition from rules into value and saying this is who you are. And if you understand who you are and who you're becoming, that impacts all your decisions and that is much more transformational and longer lasting. And so while rules are needed with a young child, you hope to move to value and speak to more about their identity and what they live, not for, but where they and who they live from because what happens is when it comes to rules, we actually crave them. We crave rules more than we do values. Why? Well, because they're tangible and we like checklists, we like to be able to say, say that I am succeeding. Does anyone make a list and even include on their to do list things that they've already done? Just so they can check the box, you know what I'm talking about, right? They like we like to check the box we do in school. You want to know, hey, teach is this on the test, give me the seven questions from this paragraph or the chapter like, don't tell me just uh I don't wanna know understanding, I wanna memorize the answer so I can pass the test and move on with my life, right? Because if a teacher walks in and says, I want you to understand the civil war that, that breeds anxiety in you versus this is what's on the test. You're like, OK, if I know this, I'm good. And so what happens in religion is that we like rules, we like tangible rules because when we have them, we can identify. So some people define their life based on following all the rules. And when you take that to an extreme, it lands itself in a place of legalism. See I'm better because I do this, this and this and some people go to the extreme opposite and they define themselves by breaking the rules. You can't contain me, right? And they go and that one is legalism. One is paganism. Both are, are centered on rules, either keeping or breaking. But what the gospel does is that the Gospel comes in, it says it's not about rules, it's about value. And so last week in, in week one, we talked about our foundation of grace and that grace can be defined as God's righteousness at Christ's expense, right? The great exchange. Grace is God's righteousness at Christ's expense. And we talked about how to share your story and we read about Paul's story or known as his testimony. That before Christ, I was this, I met Jesus when and now after meeting Jesus, here's how my life has changed. And now we come to Galatians chapter two and really our message is, is entitled a faith worth fighting for. And we're actually gonna see some church conflict. And it sounds weird to me, but it was actually comforting to know that the early church was messed up because right out of the gate, we messed things up. Yay us, right? Like they missed it and, and being in church ministry now for almost 20 years at this point. Now I realize that like church is messy ch and so to read the Bible and actually say, oh actually the first church was messy too. I'm like, ok, it's not just me, right? Your parents, you get this right. You ever, you ever been out in public? You're feeling overwhelmed, you're feeling stressed and you see a kid that's not yours meltdown and a parent trying to handle that and you think I get you, we're not alone and you also think not my kid. All right, let's move on. And if you don't have kids yet, you're judging. You are right. Wow. Look at that. And when we have kids, we are never doing that, I promise you, you will just wait, ok. Anyway, so we see some early conflicts and they're valuable and they're important And so if you're taking notes, I want you to write this down. Here's our lesson from Galatians chapter two is that we find that the gospel frees us from the pressure of rules and the power of sin. The gospel freezes from the pressure of rules and the power of sin. There's something to be swaddled in a blow blanket, right? As a baby, maybe even as an adult. Right? Let's just be real. right? If you're cuddled up in a blanket and it feels good, right? But then if you take that too far and it becomes change or chains or a cage that constricts you, right? Rules start out well intentioned, well, meaning, right? But then become this pressure cooker that comes in and closes in and closes in and closes in and he can't take it. So then you flip to the other side. Well, rules aren't gonna define me and we, and we define our lives by rebellion to that. Well, that leads you into devastating patterns of sin and idolatry. And so that's not helpful either. And so the good news is that the gospel frees you from both the pressure of rules and the power of sin. It answers both sides of the equation. So we're gonna do a little overview of Galatians chapter two. You'll take a deeper dive there in your growth groups this week that, that are in that passage here with us. But let me give you a little bit of a structure. So this, this passage really breaks down to the three components. And so I call the first one the Scrum in Jerusalem. And so being a sports guy, if you've ever followed boxing, uh it was actually coming up on the 48th anniversary. So a week from today. So it happened on October 30th, 1974 was known as the greatest boxing match in the history of the world. The rumble in the jungle, right? Foreman Ali, this great battle weight be a battle between heavyweights. Well, I'm calling the first section here the Scrum in Jerusalem because you got Paul, you're gonna see John James Peter, like the head leaders of the church are gonna get together and what becomes really one of the most important meetings in the history of the church because this one meeting is gonna set the direction in the course for the church moving forward. It's also talked about in Acts chapter 15 and we'll read briefly there and then we see one conflict in Jerusalem. Then we're gonna see another conflict directly, another heavyweight match directly between Peter and Paul. Why are they fighting? What are they talking about? And why does it matter to us? We're gonna go into it for now. It's, we'll just call it the food fight in Antioch. Ok. And then the last one is the principle or the value behind both of these arguments in what we call the Justice league and we're gonna talk about how people can come together being justified by Christ. All right. So that's where we're going today. Let's jump into the word of God and let's find this together. Galatians chapter two verses 1 to 5. Then after 14 years, who we go, we jumped 14 years from Galatians one to Galatians two. So at this point, Paul's already been ministering, he's been planting, he's writing again to the church in churches in Galatia to primarily Jewish believers who are trying to enforce extra rules on to people. And, and in this case, it seems weird to us today and in this case, it was circumcision and so circumcision really, um when you think about it now, it's not so much an issue today, but it was back then because it was a sign of the Abra Abrahamic covenant. And so if you take just the idea of circumcision out of it for just a moment, I was gonna say, cut it out. But then that seemed too anyway. Um I guess it doesn't count because I went ahead and verbalized it. This is what happens when I just think things and I say things on stage, not always good. Um And so you think about the issue itself is, is not even the issue. But if you think about the fact that Abraham was circumcised, Moses David, this was a sign of the marking of God in the most personal of ways from the beginning of birth. That was a church tradition for centuries. Now, what if you did something as a believer as a church that you did it, your parents did, your grandparents did it, that you did it for generations. And someone comes along and says, no, we don't need to do that anymore. You get pretty upset too, right? And so in this case, it goes from Jews to gentiles, everyone's getting saved and the Jews are like, wait a second, we had to do this. They should do that and they try to inflict extra laws on this. And so they were, which Paul understands is a huge deal because now you're trying to add something to the gospel. And so 14 years after doing ministry, he says I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas taking Titus along with me. Oh, this is a power move here by Paul. Why? Because Titus. Yep. Same Titus that we later get a letter with. His name is, he's a Greek and he is pastoring and he is ministering and people are getting saved. The problem though is that he's uncircumcised. And so Paul brings Titus with him to this council meeting where they're talking about, are we gonna force people to get circumcised or not like this? Are we gonna and not just that, are we gonna force force them into all of these laws? So that was just one of the laws. So there's probably other laws that they discussed and so Paul brings with him, Titus, are you telling me this guy who is pasturing, who is preaching, who is saved by grace? Who is doing all these things? Are you telling me that what he is doing is not valid strong move, Paul. Ok. He comes in with that combo, right? He comes in and he goes six times verse two, I went up because of a revelation and set before them through private. Um uh though privately, before those who seemed influential, talking about John um James and Peter, the gospel that I proclaim among the gentiles in order that to make sure that I was not running or had not run in vain. He's coming up after 14 years guy. This is not the gospel verse three, but even Titus who was with me was not forced to be circumcised even though he was a Greek yet because of false brothers secretly brought in who sleep who slipped in. I wanted to notice this phrase who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ so that we, they might bring us into slavery to them. We did not yield in submission even for a moment so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. So here we see the freedom in Christ and the truth of the gospels at stake. How did Peter respond? Were you going over to acts the same story of this? And in season acts 15 verse eight. And Peter's talking, he says, and God who knows the heart bore witness to them by giving them the Holy Spirit just as He did to us. He made no distinction between us and them having cleansed their hearts by faith. Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither their fathers nor have we been able to bear. But we believe that we will be saved through grace of the Lord Jesus just as they will. So in this council and this meeting, this is a huge deal because what is at stake is legalism and what is at stake is the freedom in Christ and the truth of the gospel. And Paul presents Titus as exhibit a and says, are you telling me that this isn't the Gospel? And he goes, no, you're right. You're right that all of us are saved by grace and grace alone. And then all of us can receive the power of the Holy Spirit when we believe Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. And so it really is about grace and not rules. And when you do that, it changes your identity then verse nine and 10, it says, and when James and Cephas, that's another name for Peter and John who seemed to be pillars. These are the leaders perceived the grace that was given to me. They gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me that we should go to the gentiles and they go to the circumcised. Only they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do. And so not all this is a big deal because before the main leaders of the Christian movement, they stand before and they say, yep, Paul's with us. His gospel is the same gospel that we're preaching different calling. He's preaching to a different segment. So we are different. Uh And so what they're saying there, it's not about uniformity, it's about unity. It's not about rules, it's about relationship and that together, we're gonna preach the same gospel and that gospel is grace. This is powerful folks. We, we don't have the church today. If this meeting goes south, we do not have Mission Grove Church. We do not have Christianity as a whole. If this meeting went the wrong way, instead, they came together and they said, you know what unites us the gospel. You know what gives us freedom and truth, the gospel that none of us earn this. That it's all about Jesus and through the Holy Spirit, we can serve everybody. You're gonna preach to a different audience. I'm gonna preach to a different audience, but we can do this together in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. And so this first battle, the Scrum in Jerusalem ends well. But then we continue on. And now there's another battle. This is the food fight in Antioch. So this is good. Peter and Paul are good, right? They agree upon this. They're like we have different ministry. We're gonna focus on Grace. We're gonna focus on Jesus. This is the gospel. But where the first battle was on legalism. The second battle that we're gonna read through is about hypocrisy because you can say one thing. But when push comes to shove, when the pressure of rules comes in, sometimes we don't respond the best. Here's what happens. Uh verse 11. But when Cephas or also known as Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, man, Paul doesn't mess around. He goes right to his face because I posed him into his face because he stood condemned for before certain men. He came um came from James. He was eating with the gentiles. But when they came in, he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party and the rest of the Jews uh acted hypocritically along with them so that even Barnabas was led astray by the hypocrisy. But this is the key verse. If you're gonna mark a verse in um one of the verses in chapter two, I really like this one and then I like verse 2021 2. But um verse 14, there's a key phrase in here. He says, but when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel. Boom. He doesn't come in and say, Peter, you broke this rule and this rule and this rule, he doesn't speak to rules. He speaks to value. He doesn't speak to idols. He speaks to identity. He doesn't speak to this concept of a checklist. He speaks specifically to his calling. He says when I realized that their actions was not in line with the gospel, that's when I stepped forward. Hang on to that phrase. OK. I said to Cephas before all of them. If you though a Jew like a gentile and not like a Jew um uh live like that. How can you force gentiles then to live like Jews? He's like, whoa whoa whoa Peter. You're preaching different gospels. You're cool with the gentiles when the religious guys are not there. But as soon as the religious guys show up, you act like you don't know them, right? It's the movie scene where the obscure awkward kid is friends with the cool kid, one on one and then in school, the cool kid doesn't acknowledge their existence, right? That's in like every movie, you know what I'm talking about, right? Like we, we're best friends and then we show in school like who is this kid? Who's that girl? Like, I don't know and why because of the pressure to fit in this popularity contest and rule following contest even exist in the early church. So if you can be friends with someone in one context but not in another, you need to check your heart, right? If you're acting differently in church than you are on the weekend, you need to check your heart. Peter calls this out because that's being a hypocrite. That is not the gospel that we believe in. Why. Because he knows what it's like to live against the gospel to an extreme. And then he, he speaks into this in verse 15 and 16, he says, look, we ourselves are Jews by birth and not gentile sinners. He's probably saying this in front of gentiles. And I'm like, oh, thanks Paul, he called this Gentile Center. He's like, no, we're all sinners calm down like, like, look, I get it. I'm in the same camp as you. I understand. In fact, I went further and persecuted the gentiles before. But I have come so far on the other way that guys, it is not about rules, it is about value and our value is Jesus and our identity is grace. Then verse 16 says, yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ. So we have believed in Christ, Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, but because of the works of the law, no one will be justified. He's like, look that law stuff, those rules, we're meant to show you that you can't do it. It's like when you go to the doctor and they identify what you have. The Old Testament, the 10 commandments, all these rules, they identify what you have, which is a sin nature, but they don't provide the solution. What they do is say, hey, here's what you have, here's the result. But Jesus comes and says, here's the solution. I am the way the truth in the life. That's what it means to be justified. Verse 2021 says, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me in the life, I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I love that verse the life I live, I no longer live. But it's Christ who lives in me. We're gonna give you a picture here to end this to where this can all kind of land the plane and land home in your life. But verse 21 it says, I do not nullify the grace of God for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. Like he's saying like, look, if we're still following all these rules and regulations, then why did Jesus die? Like he died to set you free? You've been set free from the prison of rules and now you're still sleeping inside the cell cause it's more comfortable because you would rather follow the rules and the checklist to, to tell yourself that you're a good person. That's a good test to have, finish this statement. I am a good person because naturally we express I am a good person because I do this, this and this and you fill in the blank, but that's not the answer. That is a rules based answer. And I know so much a church tradition. Right. I grew up in a conservative tradition and I get it well, meaning, right? Don't drink, don't dance, don't do this, don't do that. And there's a part of, of wisdom and in some of these things, but we make the things and the rules, the God would say no, that's, that's not the point. And so Paul comes and says like this is not God. Jesus is. And so the gospel actually frees us, frees us from the pressure of rules and frees us from the power of sin that we can begin making value based decisions. And here's the thing, it's actually more difficult, right? If I told you right now to make friends and be nice with five people, you could go out and do that once you got five people, you're good to go. You don't have to do anything else. I met the requirements, substitute that with anything else, right? Don't do this, don't do that or read my bible, read it and you come up with this checklist, whatever your checklist is. God's gonna go way bigger than that. Right? Because if I, what's the difference between, if I say, hey, have five friends don't cuss don't do this, do these things, right? Oh, I can do that. But what happens when you say love your neighbor? That's not a rule. That's a value and that incorporates all of who you are. Jesus comes in and teaches us. He says, hey, don't, don't murder like cool Check mark did it. I haven't killed anyone today. I'm good. Also don't hate anyone in your heart. What say I don't like that one because I do that one, right? Why? Because it's your identity that he's after, it's your heart that he's after he's not giving you a checklist to follow. He's giving you a calling to step into and to live out of and it makes the difference and it changes everything. That's why when Paul challenges Peter, he doesn't say you broke this law. He says you are not living in line with the gospel that Jesus died for. And so it is a much simpler and honestly a much tougher, but a more freeing question to ask is, does your life reflect the gospel you claim to believe in? Does your marriage reflect that? Does your relationships and your attitude and your finances reflect the gospel? Does your mindset? Does your humility or pride reflect that or are you just trying to check a box somewhere? And here's the image I want to leave you with, you know, this whole crazy love project, right? We have a building we're going in and we're gonna remodel. Why? Because we are repurposing a building for what we believe is to be something greater. And in this series, we've been, we're talking about deconstruction, but I wanna let you know that in your life, in your faith, what you can tell yourself is that it's not deconstruction, it's a remodel and here's the beauty God already bought the building to be justified is a legal term that means to be declared, not guilty or to be declared righteous. And if you believe in Jesus, we've received the grace. You have already been declared not guilty, you have already been declared righteous. Jesus already bought the building. And so now you understand that your identity is secure, your life, your freedom, your joy is secure. And so that now you can live in a way that reflects that. And so that as you go through, and you understand, you can be that business that saying, hey, open during remodel, open during construction, pardon my dust. And you can have a conversation with someone. Look, I'm not where I wanna be, but I'm also not what I used to be. And that's only by the grace of God. Come on in. It's not deconstruction. It's a remodel. God has already bought the building. God has given you the grace and that if you live in that grace, if you live in that freedom God will then make you into righteousness, make you into becoming, not behaving, becoming the man or woman. God has called you to be. And it's not about you changing everything, it's about the gospel, changing everything. And when you do that, that frees you to love people the way that Jesus loved you. And let me tell you church that is so much a better way. Will you pray with me, dear heavenly Father? We thank you for your son. We thank you that Paul understood that we have a faith worth fighting for, but he wasn't fighting for fighting's sake. He was fighting for freedom in you and truth of the gospel. He was fighting legalism and hypocrisy and asking deeper value based questions that does our life reflect or align with the gospel and the grace that Jesus died for. Will we not define our lives by a checklist of rules? But a calling into a relationship with you. May we be freed from that? May we stand in your grace and in your truth and may we live from our identity free to worship you and all our mistakes and all our successes and all of our failures. We understand that this is not deconstruction, this is a remodel, but God, you've already bought the building. And so we, we ask that you would continue to do your work in us. We lift our lives up to you and your sins and we pray amen. Will you stand and sing with me.