Everybody has traditions. Tamales on Christmas Eve. The same seat every Sunday. Most are good, harmless, even precious. The problem starts when a tradition picks up authority and sits next to the Bible as its equal. Paul was zealous for the traditions of his fathers. His world had two camps. One added to the Word. The other cut pieces out of it. And Jesus answered both of them the same way. He opened the Scriptures. When tradition and God's Word disagree, which one wins? 1. The Source. Paul's...

Paul had just called down the curse of God on false teachers. Twice. And the very next thing out of his mouth is a question about himself: do I seek to please men? Somebody had called him a people pleaser. In one verse Paul answers the charge, and in answering it he exposes a trap every one of us walks past. The bait is not money. It is not power. The bait is approval. Is the crowd's approval worth it? The Pull. Why the crowd is so hard to resist. It took down a king and silenced men who beli...

If there is only one gospel, then somebody has to be in charge of it. So who signs off on it? Who has the authority to bring it current, or soften it a little, or make it fit the times we are living in? That is the question these two verses answer, and Paul answers it three times without blinking. Twice he says the same word over anyone who would preach another gospel: let him be accursed. Anathema. And every time you ask who is allowed to change the message, the answer comes back the same. No...

Paul opens every other letter with thanks. Not this one. He goes straight to I marvel, and in his world that was the opening line of a formal complaint. They knew from the first word that something was wrong. What was at stake was the gospel itself. They had the real thing in their hands, and they were already walking away from it. The world says all roads lead to God. Many ways up the mountain. Just be sincere or jump through this hoop. But what does God say? Is there really only one gospel? ...

When the Bible tells you something you don't want to hear, who says you have to listen? Imagine two pieces of mail. The first is a flyer you glance at and toss in the trash. The second is a certified letter. It's official, it's signed, and it came from someone with the authority to make you deal with it. So when you open your Bible... which one are you holding? Paul answers that question before he argues anything else. In two verses he tells us this word was sent, not from men. It was signed, ...

Where We're Going — Galatians Introduction, Part 2 Before we walk Galatians verse by verse, we take it from thirty thousand feet. Six chapters, three parts, one destination. Paul opens by telling his own story, because someone had walked into these churches and told them his gospel was second hand. It wasn't. It came by the revelation of Jesus Christ... the same revelation we hold in our hands today. Then he explains what it says: justified by faith, adopted as sons, made full heirs. And then t...

Every one of us reaches a point where we can't take it anymore. So what do you do when you get there? In this message from James 5, Pastor Brian walks through the three things James tells us to do when life gets to be too much: take it to the Lord, call for the elders, and care for one another. Whether you're suffering, celebrating, or so worn down you can't even pray for yourself, there's one direction for all of it. The end of yourself is not where God gives up on you. It's where the perfect w...

The waiting is hard. But what you do while you wait reveals everything about what you actually believe. In part two of "The Judge Is at the Door," Pastor Brian Overturf continues in James 5:7-12 with the final two things God asks of His people while they wait for justice. Walk with the witnesses — the prophets who spoke the truth and paid for it, and Job who held on to a God he couldn't explain. And weigh what you say — because a person whose word can't be trusted without an oath has already los...