The French Revolutionary Jacques Hébert called for a system of zealous perfection. Eventually that standard consumed everyone, including himself. For us, we follow Christ's teaching on forgiveness until it is personal. We affirm his ethic on generosity until it costs us something real. Whether it's the legalism of the Galatians or our own selective faith, both confess the same thing: that Christ is not sufficient. This sermon works through Galatians 5:2-15 to show what falling away from grace actually looks like — and how the Spirit frees us to run to him with empty hands.

Paul the apostle tells two stories in parallel: the children with no future and the children of the promise. Contrasting tales of children of a servant with no future security and children of a covenant promise whose future is secure unfold in the history of Israel. Paul maps these on to the lives of the Galatians to remind them of their inheritance in Christ, something they have quickly forgotten. And something we are quick to forget as well.

Discussion Questions for Small Groups:

1. Where do you see yourself returning to futile and temporary things because it is easier than remembering the promise in Christ?

2. What does Paul's appeal to history reveal about God's character?

3. How does this passage show that we are saved by grace alone?

Why did God give the law if his plan was always to save by grace through faith? In this sermon on Galatians 3:15-29, Austin Pfeiffer follows Paul as he steps back and re-explains the covenant from the ground up. From Abraham to Moses to now, God has had one unbroken plan: to redeem his people. The law was never a rival to that promise. It was always a servant of it. And in Christ, the inheritance that promise always pointed to has been purchased and given freely to everyone who belongs to him — no exceptions, no prerequisites.

In this sermon on Galatians 3:1–14, Austin Pfeiffer brings application Paul's ongoing, urgent plea to the Galatians and to us. That plea is to stop trying to earn our own way, when in Christ we have already received what we really need. Looking at Abraham's story in Genesis 15 and the image of a lighthouse guiding ships to harbor, the sermon diagnoses two forms of pride: striving to prove we are enough, and quietly trying to make God conform to what we want him to be. The wage we have actually earned, every one of us, is the same sentence handed to Adam: return to dust. The Gospel answer is not striving, but surrender.

Austin Pfeiffer continues in Galatians 1, posing the question: have you ever tried to describe a place so beautiful that words feel inadequate? That's Paul's challenge in Galatians 1. He's not interested in debating the Gospel. For Paul, it is a reality he is documenting. And more than that, it is a reality that seized him and turned his entire life upside down. Galatians 1 explores what it looks like when the Gospel stops being an idea you hold and becomes a power that holds you.

In this opening sermon of an eleven-week series through Galatians, Austin Pfeiffer unpacks how Paul is fired up! Writing without his usual warm greetings, Paul blurts out his astonishment. The Galatians are making a trade they do not realize is terminal: exchanging the grace of Christ for a "different gospel." This list of obligations cannot do what grace does. Even hardworking, well-meaning people are vulnerable to it. And it misses that the answer to our sin and guilt is not trying harder. It never was.

This homily is a Maundy Thursday meditation on John 13:1-20 by Rev. Austin Pfeiffer. From the outdoor pavilion downtown, we explore whether Jesus knew about empires, about betrayal, about us? The answer—he does. And this makes his act of footwashing so startling. Like Paul writing to the Galatians, Jesus refuses to be distracted by the world's tumult, offering instead something smaller, but more radical: a towel, a basin, but ultimately a table, a meal, and his very own body and blood.