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Jan 28, 2018

Dine In

Dine In

Passage: Galatians 2:11

Speaker: Patrick Lafferty

Series: Free, a study in the book of Galatians

Never underestimate the power of wanting to feel included. It can dominate our thoughts and compel our choices--all sorts of choices. And while there’s great strength and joy to be found in the company we find and seek to keep, there comes with the desire to be known and welcomed by others an accompanying danger and delusion. The practices and categories we’ve already heard Paul speak of in his letter to the churches of Galatia sound both foreign and maybe a bit funny. But fundamentally they refer to that very same impulse to which we all find ourselves allured. How do we avoid the perils of seeking to be known and welcomed without abandoning that most proper desire?

Order of Worship

Call To Worship: Psalm 63:1-5
Reading(s):
Old Testament: Isaiah 55:1-3
New Testament: Luke 14:16-23
Central Text:  Galatians 2:11-21
Sermon Title: Dine In
Response: “Completely Known” by Don Chaffer
Benediction: Luke 14:15

01.28.18 Lyrics

01.28.18 Slides

Readings / Scripture:

Call To Worship: Psalm 63:1-5

LEADER: O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
PEOPLE: So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
beholding your power and glory.
Because your steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise you.
LEADER: So I will bless you as long as I live;
in your name I will lift up my hands.
ALL: My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food,
and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips,

Reading(s):
Old Testament: Isaiah 55:1-3
Come, everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
3 Incline your ear, and come to me;
hear, that your soul may live;
and I will make with you an everlasting covenant,
my steadfast, sure love for David.

New Testament: Luke 14:16-23
A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. 17 And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ 18 But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’ 19 And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’ 20 And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ 21 So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ 22 And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ 23 And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled.

Central Text: Galatians 2:11-21

But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12 For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. 13 And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. 14 But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

15 We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 16 yet 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.

17 But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! 18 For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. 19 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And 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. 21 I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.

Response: “Completely Known” by Don Chaffer

I used to bathe in tears at night cause I felt like I was on my own.
I used to think I would never be completely known.
I used to hold on tightly to the sorrows that I owned.

But they were all I knew; they had run me through,
and they had left me -- they had left me all alone.

I used to pray every day that God would mend what's torn.
Now I see the only way is to die... to die... and be reborn.

I have finally found a way to live in the presence of the Lord

Benediction: Luke 14:15

LEADER: Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!

PEOPLE: Amen!

Related Scriptures:

  • Acts 13:36-39
  • Romans 6:5-11
  • Philippians 3:8-10

Discussion Questions & Applications:

  1. When’s the first time you remember ever feeling like you were left out of something important--whether an experience or a club or just a group of people you thought were either “popular,” “successful,” or “influential”? What was that feeling? What if any thoughts were part of what you felt? Why would it have mattered to you then (or now) whether you were considered part of that group?
  2. Read the essay mentioned in the sermon by C.S. Lewis, “The Inner Ring” (http://www.mit.edu/~hooman/ideas/the_inner_ring.htm). Why would he argue that we are almost constantly animated by an impulse to gain admittance to some group of importance?
  3. To our ears it sounds odd for Peter (and Barnabas) to refuse to eat with Gentiles who believed in Jesus if they hadn’t subscribed to all the Law of Moses stipulated--including the laws about circumcision and diet. But can you point to experiences or other stories where who you spent close time with might have an effect on your future or your acceptance by a group you perceived to be more important?
  4. What do you think were the Galatians finding it hard to believe about Paul’s explanation of the gospel? What do you find hard to believe about it--and when does it feel the hardest to believe?
  5. How would it change your concerns about feeling included, about being welcomed if you believed that in Christ you really have a seat at God’s table--a place in His inner ring?

Quotes:

 

  • Fame is sort of a mess. You get treated differently, but it doesn’t have anything to do with who you actually are. Val Kilmer

 

  • I believe that in all men's lives at certain periods, and in many men's lives at all periods between infancy and extreme old age, one of the most dominant elements is the desire to be inside the local Ring and the terror of being left outside... Unless you take measures to prevent it, this desire is going to be one of the chief motives of your life, from the first day on which you enter your profession until the day when you are too old to care.  C.S. Lewis, “The Inner Ring”

 

  • They talk very sensibly…but it is all about themselves. They are, in fact, most intelligently obsessed with self. It’s self—morning, noon, and night. We can’t get away from self here.  We lug it along with us, even through our dreams. O yes, young sir, we talk sensibly, but we’re mad right enough. From Ibsen’s, Peer Gynt, quoted in Eugene Peterson’s Traveling Light
  • We’ll never be free until we are dead to the whole business of justifying ourselves.  Robert Farrar Capon
  • The Law of God, the most salutary doctrine of life, cannot advance humans on their way to righteousness, but rather hinders them. Martin Luther

 

Sermons/resources:

Related Media

Inview Media Album, 01.28.18
(A selection of video clips from mainstream culture that illustrates the gospel application of each week's topic.)