Grace in Galatians (Part 191) – Watch People Whose Lips Do Not Match Their Life

https://youtu.be/HDmTTZ9dpEM?si=nK_2Zea88mzisn8Q

Today, we continue our focus on THE YEAR OF DISCOVERY, as we learn to maintain our posture of faith after God has revealed His plans for our future.

As part of this series, I am teaching a verse-by-verse exposition of the book of Galatians.

Key scriptures for this year:

2 Peter 3:18 GNT“But continue to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Savior, Jesus Christ. To Him be glory now and forever.”

Luke 10:20 Mirror“It’s time for you to rediscover who you are from Heaven’s perspective.”

1 John 3:10 Mirror“There is a very visible and vast difference between living one’s life from your God identity or from a fallen man’s mindset.”

Proverbs 25:2 NKJV“It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter.”

Jeremiah 29:13 NIV“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

Scripture we will study today:

Galatians 6:13 NIV“Not even those who are circumcised obey the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your circumcision in your flesh.”

Galatians 6:13 TPT“Even those who promote circumcision don’t really obey the whole law themselves. But they want you to be circumcised so that they can boast that you are their disciples.”

Supporting scriptures:

Matthew 23:3 TPT“So listen to and obey what they teach you, but don’t do as they do—for they tell you one thing and do another.”

1 Timothy 4:16 TPT“Pay close attention to your own life and your teaching. Persevere in these things, because if you do, you will save both yourself and those who hear you.”

1 Peter 5:2-3 AMPC“Tend (nurture, guard, guide, and fold) the flock of God that is [your responsibility], not by coercion or constraint, but willingly… Not domineering [as arrogant, dictatorial, and overbearing persons] over those in your charge, but being examples (patterns and models of Christian living) to the flock (the congregation).”

Matthew 18:14 TPT“This is the way your Father in heaven thinks: He doesn’t want one of these little ones to be lost or perish.”

Jeremiah 9:23-24 ERV“This is what the Lord says: ‘A wise man should not brag about how wise he is. A strong man should not brag about how strong he is. A rich man should not brag about how rich he is. If someone wants to brag, then let him brag about this: Let him brag that he learned to know me.'”

1 John 2:27 TPT“But you don’t need any one to teach you, for the wonderful anointing you carry continues to teach you all you need to know about every subject—and what he teaches you is true and not a lie.”

Setting the Stage:

For the past two days, we’ve been looking at Galatians 6:12. We learned how to stand firm when religious pressure comes at you. Today, we move to verse 13. And Paul keeps pulling back the curtain on the Judaizers. He has already exposed their MOTIVE in verse 12. They wanted to: 1) impress people and 2) avoid persecution. Now in verse 13, he exposes their HYPOCRISY and their AGENDA.

Galatians 6:13 “Even those who promote circumcision don’t really obey the whole law themselves. But they want you to be circumcised so that they can boast that you are their disciples.” Read that line again. They want you to be circumcised SO THAT THEY CAN BOAST that you are THEIR disciples.

Let me unpack this. There are two pieces in this verse:

First, Paul says the Judaizers themselves are not actually keeping the Law. They are pushing circumcision on the Galatians while quietly not living by the rest of the standards they are demanding. This is a clear case of religious hypocrisy. They are gatekeeping a club that they themselves are not really a member of.

Second, Paul says the reason they want the Galatians circumcised is so they can BOAST about them. They want a trophy. They want a notch in the belt. They want to add the Galatians to their religious resume. They want to walk into the next gathering of religious leaders and say, “Look at all the converts we got circumcised this year.” 

So, what does this mean for you today? A few things.

1. Beware Of Teachers Who Cannot Live What They Teach.

Paul says, “Not even those who are circumcised obey the law.” Read that. They demanded circumcision FROM others while THEY were not actually keeping the rest of the Law themselves. There is a kind of religious teacher who specializes in pointing out the sins of others while quietly hiding their own. Jesus strongly opposed the hypocrisy, and we should do the same today.

How this applies to you:

— Hypocrisy is the loudest form of disqualification. James 3:1 TPT warned us, “don’t be so eager to become a teacher in the church since you know that we who teach are held to a higher standard of judgment.” Did you catch that? Teachers are held to a higher standard. So when somebody steps into the role of teaching others the things of God, they had better make sure their life backs up their lips, because Heaven grades teachers on a different curve.

— 1 Timothy 4:16 TPT says, “Pay close attention to your own life and your teaching. Persevere in these things, because if you do, you will save both yourself and those who hear you.” Notice the order. Your life FIRST. Then your teaching. Real teachers are people who have first done the work on themselves. The ones who skip the work on themselves and jump straight to teaching others are the ones who eventually fall, and, unfortunately, they lead others astray in the process.

— Watch the life, not just the lips. You’ve probably heard me say this a lot of times, but your audio must match your video. 

— Fifteen years ago, I heard Pastor Creflo Dollar teach about this principle for preachers that we should preach out of our overflow. I will explain the point he was making. He was talking to pastors and leaders, and he said that if you study and prepare a sermon throughout the week and then preach on Sunday, and it’s something you just studied and it’s something you just prepared, there’s no power in it because you haven’t proven it yet. You are literally preaching something you just studied, and when you leave the church, you have to try to live it, just like everybody else. On the other hand, if your preaching comes out of your overflow and you literally just preach what you live, several things will happen:

1. There will be power behind it because it’s proven.

2. It will be authentic, and the anointing flows through the authentic.

3. You won’t be just preaching from your head. You’ll be preaching from your heart.

When I heard that (and I believe it was January 2011), I stopped preparing sermons from that perspective. Ever since then, I literally just preach out of my overflow. Doing so helps me to align with what the Apostle Paul is teaching us today. 

— Listen to WHO somebody is before I listen to WHAT they say. Words can be borrowed. Words can be memorized. Words can be repeated. But character cannot be faked over time. Sooner or later, who you really are will show up in how you live.

— Some of you have been listening to people whose lives do not match their preaching. Their audio does not match their video. They sound spiritual. They quote Scripture. They use the right words. But behind the curtain, the life does not line up with the message. The Bible teaches us to stop listening to them.

— Jesus said in Matthew 23:3 about the Pharisees, “So listen to and obey what they teach you, but don’t do as they do—for they tell you one thing and do another.” Jesus went on to pronounce judgment over these people. He said, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to” (verse 13).

— A teacher who does not live what they teach is not a teacher; they are a performer. They are not being used by God to provide divine knowledge. They’re just putting on a show. 

— Here is the good news for the believer. The Holy Spirit Himself is your Greatest Teacher. 1 John 2:27 TPT says, “the wonderful anointing you carry continues to teach you all you need to know about every subject—and what he teaches you is true and not a lie.” When human teachers fail, the Spirit of God will not fail you. Lean on Him. Trust the Anointing inside of you. He will lead you into all truth!

2. Religious Hypocrites Want Disciples They Can Brag About.

Paul says they want the Galatians circumcised “so that they can boast that you are their disciples.” Read that. They wanted to brag. They wanted to add the Galatians to a tally. They wanted to use somebody else’s transformation as their own trophy. This is the spirit of religious manipulation. The motive is not your soul; it is THEIR reputation. They are not pouring into you because they love you. They are pouring into you because they love what your conversion will say about them. 

How does this show up today? One easy way to spot it out today is when a Pastor is more concerned about the size of his/her following than in the depth of his/her discipleship. Believe me, I’m around preachers all the time, so I know how some of the conversations go, but real ministry is about people, not about numbers. 

How this applies to you:

— The Judaizers were not pouring into the Galatians; they were collecting them. Big difference. A shepherd pours INTO a sheep. A trophy hunter just wants to COUNT them. 

— Your Pastor should care more about your growth than the count.

— 1 Peter 5:2-3 AMPC tells leaders to “Tend (nurture, guard, guide, and fold) the flock of God” and “Not domineering [as arrogant, dictatorial, and overbearing persons] over those in your charge, but being examples (patterns and models of Christian living) to the flock.” Read the language. Not rulers. Not dictators. Not boasters. Shepherds and examples.

— When the leader’s motive is reputation, the people become resources.

— Some leaders today have built whole platforms on the testimonies of others without ever pouring back into the people whose stories they keep telling. That is not ministry. That is exploitation. Watch out for it.

— You are not someone else’s resume.

— Here is the joy of the Kingdom. Jesus does not need a trophy room. He already has every name written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Your name is etched there in the only ledger that matters in eternity. You are not a resume entry; you are a beloved son or daughter of the Most High. No one on this planet is supposed to build their life based on simply including yours in their count.

— Your Pastor is charged to watch over your soul. If he/she is doing anything but that, they will be held accountable. 

3. You Are A Soul To Be Shepherded, Not A Trophy To Be Collected.

This is the heart of today’s message. The Judaizers saw the Galatians as objects to be acquired. As notches on the belt. But the Bible never describes you that way. Not once. From Genesis to Revelation, you are described as a SOUL of immeasurable value. You are described as a SHEEP that the Good Shepherd leaves the ninety-nine to find. You are described as a CHILD whom the Father runs out to embrace before you even finish your apology. You are described as a TREASURE for which Jesus sold everything to buy. You are not a trophy. You are not a number. You are a beloved child of God, and anyone who sees you any differently does not get to lead you.

How this applies to you:

— Luke 15 has three parables in a row. The lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost son. In every single one, the lost thing is treasured, sought, and celebrated when found. Not boasted about. But celebrated. There is a difference. 

— Matthew 18:14 TPT says, “This is the way your Father in heaven thinks: He doesn’t want one of these little ones to be lost or perish.” Notice the language. It is not the will of the Father. You matter to Him. Not as a count. As a child.

— God does not see you as a statistic; He sees you as a son or daughter.

— Some of you have been treated like a number for so long that you have started to see yourself the same way. You wonder why nobody seems to notice when you slip away. You wonder why the leaders who once spoke into your life have stopped calling. You wonder if you ever really mattered to them. I want to tell you something. Even if you did not matter to them, you mattered to God before any of them ever showed up in your life, and you will matter to Him long after they are gone.

— Anyone who measures you by what you can do for them is not your shepherd.

— Churches are led by humans, and even the leaders over different departments in the churches are human as well. You may not always experience God’s best in the church environment. Sure, there are people who have experienced church hurt, but make no mistake, God thinks the world of you. You are God’s beloved. You are God’s favorite. You are God’s child. God treasures you. God sent His own son to die in your place. 

— You are an heir of the Most High God. You are a son or daughter of the King. Your worth was settled at the cross, where Jesus paid the highest possible price to call you His own. You are royalty in God’s Kingdom. Carry yourself like it!

4. Real Discipleship Points People To Jesus, Not To The Discipler.

Look at Paul’s words again. The Judaizers wanted the Galatians to get circumcised so they could boast that the Galatians were THEIR disciples. Read that. THEIR disciples. Not Christ’s disciples. THEIRS. That one word exposes the whole problem. True discipleship always points the disciple to Jesus, not to the one doing the discipling. Paul modeled this in 1 Corinthians 11:1, when he said, “Pattern yourselves after me, follow my example, as I imitate the Anointed One.” Paul never wanted people following him for the sake of following him. He wanted them following him only as far as he was following Jesus. The moment he stopped following Jesus, they were supposed to stop following him. Anything else is a cult.

How this applies to you:

— A real spiritual leader makes you less dependent on them and more dependent on Jesus.

— John the Baptist had it right. When his disciples worried that Jesus was getting more followers than John, he said in John 3:30 NIV, “He must become greater; I must become less.” That is the heart of every legitimate spiritual leader. The leader whose ego cannot handle you growing past them was never really discipling you anyway.

— Real maturity is not measured by how loyal you are to a man; it is measured by how surrendered you are to Christ. 

— It’s sad to say, but in the body of Christ today, there is a lot of man worship. There are churches with cultures that put way too much emphasis on the Pastors and not enough emphasis on discipleship. 

— Jesus said in Matthew 23:8 NIV, “But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers.” Jesus was not against teaching. He WAS a Teacher. What He was against was the elevation of any human teacher to a place that belongs only to Him.

— You don’t belong to your Pastor. You belong to Jesus.

— The Judaizers wanted disciples they could boast about. Paul wanted disciples who could stand on their own two feet in Christ. One produces dependent followers who need a human leader to feel close to God. The other produces mature believers who walk in their own God-given identity.

— A real spiritual leader is happy when you outgrow them; a religious manipulator is threatened when you outgrow them.

— I have heard it said that the only man who will ever man another man to outgrow them is a father. I will expand that to say that this applies to any leader who operates with the heart of a father as well! We should want those we are pouring into to grow into the fullness of their assignment, even if it is greater than ours. As a matter of fact, we should celebrate it.

Declaration of Faith:

Father, I thank You that You see me as a son and not a statistic, and that the cross has already settled my worth!

I refuse to be discipled by hypocrites whose lives do not match their preaching, and I watch the life, not just the lips!

I refuse to be anyone’s trophy, and I will not let anyone boast in my flesh when the only legitimate boast is the cross of Jesus Christ!

I trust the Anointing that lives inside of me to teach me all things, and I lean on the Holy Spirit when human teachers fail!

I am a soul to be shepherded, a treasure to be held close, not a number to be tallied!

I am royalty, an heir of the Most High God, and I refuse to be used as somebody’s religious resume!

I boast only in the finished work of Jesus, and I refuse to add my effort or my reputation to what He already accomplished!

I am not earning my standing; I am STANDING in the standing Jesus gave me!

I am already saved, sealed, and seated in heavenly places, and the religious spirit cannot give me anything I do not already have!

I am living THE GRACE LIFE, and GREATER IS COMING FOR ME!

I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen!

This is Today’s Word. Apply it and prosper!