Sermon Blogs Archive

Galatians 3:6-9 (Matthew Everson)

It is so amazing and encouraging to think of myself as blessed alongside Abraham! There are such amazing promises from God to Abraham; to know that I am blessed in the same manner is astonishing. To emphasis and extend this blessing, Paul writes in Ephesians 1 that we are blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus. Yet sometimes it is so hard to grasp that, so hard to understand that I have that blessing, so hard to live or abide in that blessing. When I look at myself, I can see all my failures and disappointments, hurts and mistakes. Sometimes I ask myself, am I worthy of such a blessing?
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Galatians 3:15-18 (Steve Grenon)

Brad concluded his devotional today with the statement “we will never be able to achieve a right relationship with God by observing every regulation that the law lays down”. This is so true and key to entering into a right, happy, content relationship with our Father, a relationship similar to that which Abraham enjoyed.
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Galatians 3:1-2 (Katie Fancher)

Yet again, these verses are a reminder of how prone we are to wander from the cross and rely on our selves. It is encouraging to me that Paul has to remind the Galatians over and over again that it is only in the finished work of Jesus on the cross that they receive abundant life and life in the Spirit. I know that I lose sight of this reality on a daily basis and have to be reminded that Jesus is enough. Self-dependence runs so deeply in me; it is in fact, the essence of sin. When I act self-dependently I am saying to the Lord that I don’t need him.
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Galatians 2:21 (Lindsay Butler)

Comparison is a tough one for me. I have spent a good portion of my life trying to the best everything. As you may have guessed, I am a champ at comparison. How else do you know you are the best? Terrible.
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Galatians 2:20 (Andrew Kennedy)

As I was reading the devotional for today, Galatians 2:20 the Holy Spirit quickly reminded me of what God has been doing in my life over the past 4 years in my life. From my dad who was a pastor for 25 years who then suddenly abandoned my mother, divorced her and then stole all the money they spent saving for over 29 years of their life; To then wrestling with theological concepts such as the elect and then to the deductive conclusion of the non elect in systematic theology while also wrestling with similar concepts mentioned in Romans 9. Wondering if my dad may possibly be in what Romans 9:22 mentions as an idea of people purposely being created to be objects of Gods wrath and then to solely be destroyed for Gods glory. At the same time being faced with a liberal pastor who seems to love God and who in my opinion is honestly searching for the truth in scripture yet isn’t concerned with historical or literal elements but sees the Bible as poetry yet still divinely inspired truth. I then, struggled to have faith in the veracity of scripture through only a conservative approach, but then in faith wanting and believing that scripture is all truth but facing the reality that the way I have been interpreting it may not be. While I was going through my honest struggles to find faith, and contentment in the way that I read and interpreted scripture the Holy Spirit asked one day “Are you broken before me?” And at that point I broke down and the Holy Spirit revealed to me that while my pursuit for truth was honest and right, it slowly became an intellectual approach and in that it became a divergent to Christ and his death on the Cross for my sins. After that realization the Holy Spirit moved to then break and humble me, and as he did he showed me what it meant to honestly pick up my cross and to follow him.
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Galatians 2:19 (Dwight Knoll)

The Law always leads to death. For the believer this death is at baptism when the human spirit is drowned and replaced by the Holy Spirit. For the non-believer this death is Hell. For God this death is on the Cross.
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Galatians 2:16 – Kathryn Carder

Galations 2:16 – 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.

. . . to be justified by faith in Christ . . . This brings to the forefront of my mind an aspect that I find struggle with from time to time. Am I the only one — or is it a “human trait”?! I can choose a focus and rest in full confidence that God is in charge and all is well, or I can cling to my own works and worry and be anxious.
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Galatians 2:14 (Darnell Tayleor)

As Christians, it is so hard to for us to come to the basic understanding that Christ was who He said He was and did for us what He said He did. Born in a manger, but died on a tree to save a wretch like you and me. To comprehend this message has to take the greatest faith and understanding of this kind of sacrifice to grasp the full scope of this kind of Love.
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Galatians 2:9-10 (Pat Conner)

With delight, I plucked the melon-sized bloom from the adolescent Magnolia tree in our front yard. It would be beautiful on my kitchen table! When the bloom opened to reveal its pure white splendor, the fragrance would surely anoint the entire room with its heady fragrance of summer, spicy lemon, and heaven. The very next morning, the huge bloom was brown, wilted, and not at all fragrant. Hmmm….
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Galatians 2:6-8 (Ed Suffern)

The text today talks about going out and being Christ’s ambassador. Paul went to the Gentiles. Peter went to the Jews.

Oswald Chambers said in his book entitled “My Utmost for His Highest” that the greatest accomplishment anyone can make on this earth is to help bring someone to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Do you believe that? God has placed all of us exactly where we are to go to whoever is near to be His ambassador. God orchestrates our contacts with non-Christians so that His name is made known to others. Our neighbors, our co-workers, friends, family members, the list goes on. As Will McFarland says, “I am the ‘Jesus’ that they get.”
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Galatians 2:2-5 (Quauhtli Olivieri)

It is truly a great blessing to know and be aware that our salvation and our standing on God’s Grace is not determined by how much we do, how far we have or will walk in our faith, or physical acts such as those promoted by the Judaizers to the Galatians. It is also fascinating reading how God used Paul, not Paul through his own will and strength, to remain true to the one and only Gospel for the sake of the Church—but above all God’s Glory.
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Galatians 2:1-2 (Kathy Riley)

“I went in response to a revelation,” Paul formerly Saul writes in this devotional focus, an ongoing directional tool from the early days of his new life in Christ. The story told in Acts 9 about Saul’s vision of a man named Ananias laying hands on him and the Lord’s words to Ananias to be that man marked a beginning of Paul’s dependency on the Spirit. In my own life, my early responses to God’s direction were more like Ananias’s initial hesitation out of fear than the blinded Saul’s receptivity. When God said to me in the mid-eighties, “I want you to tell your husband you speak in tongues,” I was appalled.
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