Welcome to the Daily Blade. The word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

Welcome back to the Daily Blade. As I said last time I was on, I'm just going to march through the book of Galatians. So we are on Galatians chapter 2. We're going to do verses 1 through 3. The Bible says, Then after 14 years, I, in the eye, there's Paul, went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. I went up because of a revelation and set before them, though privately before those who seemed influential, the gospel that I proclaimed among the Gentiles in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain. But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. So just again, in case you missed, two weeks ago, Paul planted the church in Galatia, planted on the gospel. He raised up pastors and elders to run the church, and then this group of evildoers that he calls that are called the Judaizers come in, and they begin to preach a false gospel that you first had to be circumcised in order to be saved. This is what Paul is writing the letter about. Now the thing I want to point out here is the patience of Paul. So after 14 years of ministry, Paul goes before, we're going to see, it's like Peter, James, and John and the guys that were running the show down in Jerusalem. He goes and submits himself to their authority. He lays before them this gospel that he preaches to make sure that he hasn't been running in vain. I want you to see the patience of Paul. You see, I think when we read the Apostle Paul in his letters in the Bible, we don't necessarily get, like the first impact is not, oh, he was a patient man. You see, Paul gets saved on the road to Damascus. We discussed that last week. He goes into Arabia for three years to be trained. It kind of sounds like some sort of supernatural Bible study with Jesus. And then he just serves faithfully as a church planner for over a decade, almost a decade and a half. What I want to point out here is he's not seeking fame, but he is just seeking faithfulness to what God has called him to do. So if you think God has called you to big things, my question would be, well, what are you doing to make disciples right now? My encouragement to you would be be faithful with what God has given you, and maybe he'll trust you with more. Or let me ask it this way: if you were God, would you trust you with more? More money, more influence, more authority, more ministry responsibility. Because if you have not been faithful with the little that God has given you, why in the world would God trust you with more? Now, this meeting that the Apostle Paul is talking about, you can actually read all about it in Acts chapter 15. This is the meeting that he's talking about. In Acts chapter 15, it's called the Jerusalem Council. The leaders of the church, which would be Peter, James, and John, some of the apostles, James, a brother of Jesus, is a believer at this point because he has experienced the resurrection of his brother Jesus. That's what it took for him to put his faith in Jesus. And they get together, and the the question that they're dealing with is Is circumcision required for salvation? The same thing is being taught in Galatia by the Judaizers. This is what Paul is railing against. Do you have to be like one of us to believe like us? Now, today the same thing happens in many churches, but you just uh trade out circumcision for baptism or tongues or good works. And so Paul is going to stand on the gospel, and the Bible says that he has no small debate with the Pharisees that are now part of the church. Peter's going to step up, and Peter is going to not only to point to his experience, like leading Cornelius, a Gentile to Christ, and Cornelius is filled with the gospel, filled with the Spirit. But he also says that they, meaning the Gentiles, are saved by grace, just like we are. And then Paul is going to speak next, and he gives testimony to the Gentiles being saved through his gospel preaching, and it was accompanied with signs and wonders. And then what shuts down the whole meeting is James. And he asks this very simple question. He says, Why would we make it difficult for those who are coming to the Lord? And then they make this decision. We'll see this later in Galatians 2, that Peter takes Jerusalem. He's like, All right, I will, my apostleship will be primarily aimed at those who are circumcised, the Jews. And then Paul is going to take the rest of the world. Now here's what I want you to see. Paul has godly ambition, not selfish ambition. Philippians 2 says that we should do nothing out of vain conceit or selfish ambition. But godly ambition is a good thing. But this is rooted in patience and faithfulness. Patience is a fruit of the Spirit. You see, as Americans, oftentimes we want more and we want it now. But what we see here in Galatians chapter 2 is that Paul set his sights on being faithful to God, and he trusted the fruitfulness up to God. You see in Matthew chapter 25, the parable of the talents, the two-talent guy and the five-talent guy, they get the same reward. And it is this well done, good and faithful servant. Not fruitful. Well done, good and faithful servant. So, man, let me ask you this question. Are you being faithful today with what God has given you? And if you are, are you being patient to trust Him to give you more if He decides to? See you tomorrow.

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