History & popular culture gives us many examples of double agents. People who live two different lives at the same time.
This illustration demonstrates a key point from Galatians 2:19-21: Christians are not supposed to live two lives, but a new life.
What does this mean and how can we do it?
Let's find out...

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There are many different roads to London. The M4, M3, M11, M1, A1, A1M, A4, A40, A24, A214, A503, A30… ok, you get the picture.
Whittier in Alaska, on the other hand, has one road. A single road going to the town. It’s called The Portage Glacier Road and it is the only way people can get there.
Getting to Heaven is not like travelling to London. Getting to Heaven is like travelling to Whittier. There is only one way.
In our bibles though, and in our lives today, we see two ways people try to get there;  only one will ever be successful.
Today we will see Paul preach one of those ways and pull apart the other...

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No one likes a hypocrite. We don't. The Apostle Paul doesn't. Jesus doesn't. And our Heavenly Father doesn't.
What practical lessons can we learn from Peter's error in Antioch?
Let's take a look...

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-Antidisestablishmentarianism.
-Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia*.
-Supercalifradgealisticexpealoidocious.
These are long words that don’t really matter.
A short, simple yes though - that matters.
In chapter 2 verses 7-10, we get to see what the apostles said yes to when it came to Paul's ministry... and we get to think about what we should say yes to when it comes to ours...

(*The fear of long words)

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Are you any good at saying no? Not everybody is. It can be hard to say no sometimes...
But what we say no to will shape the course of our lives. It is vital that we have someone in our lives who can tell us no; it is also vital that we learn when to say no ourselves.
What has this got to do with today's passage?
We will see 3 vital ‘noes’ in the first 6 verses of Galatians 2.
We will see that what the early church said no to demonstrated their support of Paul’s mission.
In a similar way, we will learn that what we say no to demonstrates our support of Paul’s mission.
Let's take a look...

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In a lot of the action movies I’ve seen - and I've definitely seen too many - there is often some kind of kidnapping. And the dialogue between the bad guys and the good guys usually goes something like this:
“Hey, we have your precious loved one. Give us a huge amount of money or else.”
“Ok, man. But first, I want proof they’re alive.”
So then the bad guys have to wheel out the poor victim - “Look, still alive. Now where’s the dough?’”
What they are doing is using the person’s life to prove that what they are saying is true. "We haven’t taken them out yet, and if you give us the money we’ll return them unharmed." 
The life is the proof.
Paul does the same in today’s passage (not the kidnapping bit). Paul uses his life as proof that what he is saying is true.
I wonder if we could do that with our lives… if we would be able to put forward our lives as the evidence that demonstrates the gospel of Jesus Christ is true…

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From here until the end of chapter 2, Galatians focuses on Paul's life.
If we understand Paul's life correctly, we have a fantastic example of what a life dedicated to Christ should look like.
If we understand him incorrectly, however, we'll make a huge mess of things.
See, we're similar to Paul but we're not the same.
Let's start by looking at how he received the gospel...

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We find Paul marvelling today - and not in a good way.
He is marvelling (concerned with) what he is hearing from Galatia. Concerned about the gospel, concerned about a  false one being taught, concerned about the false teachers preaching it, and, worst of all, concerned by the foolish believers who are falling for it...

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Paul is a man on a mission. 
A man sent by Jesus, with a message about Jesus, with a motive to bring God glory.
Does that sound anything like us Christians today? It should do...

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Our Bible is full of twos: two paths, two women, two champions, two kinsman, two types of fruit...
We like twos because it makes things very clear to us - one is clearly different to the other, so it is easy for us to tell right from wrong.
But life isn't always so black and white. Sometimes a lot of the questions we face seem, well, grey. They don't have a clear right or wrong answer, and we're left  to just make the best judgment call we can.
How do we consistently make the right decisions in these grey areas to help us live the liberated life God calls us to? Galatians has the answer...

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