Beyond Sunday | Dwell New Life City

What does it mean to be free in Christ on an ordinary Tuesday? Paul’s letter to the Galatians brings that question into our habits, our relationships, and the ways we measure our worth. Over seven weeks, we’ll follow Paul from his urgent defense of the gospel to his practical picture of a church that walks by the Spirit.

Grace changes how we belong

The Galatians had received the gospel and experienced the Holy Spirit. Then teachers began pressing Gentile believers to take on circumcision and observance of the law. Paul saw that the question reached all the way to the cross. If our standing with God depends on what we can add to Christ’s work, then grace becomes something we have to maintain by our own effort.

Paul brings us back to what Jesus has done and what the Father gives. Through faith in Christ we are received into God’s family. The Spirit teaches us to live as people who already belong. That freedom takes visible shape when we make room for one another, restore someone gently, carry a burden together, or keep doing good when the results are slow.

Read through the series

There Is No Other Gospel (Galatians 1:1–10). Why Jesus is enough when faith turns into scorekeeping. Watch the sermon: https://dwellnlc.org/media/ph3p7bj/sunday-service-10-04-2026-free-a-letter-to-the-galatians-week-1-there-is-no-other-gospel 

Nobody Taught Me This (Galatians 1:11–2:10). How an encounter with Jesus changed the course of Paul’s life. Watch the sermon: https://dwellnlc.org/media/bxsw7yk/sunday-service-10-11-2026-free-week-2-nobody-taught-me-this 

When Grace Gets Compromised (Galatians 2:11–21). What Peter’s choice at a dinner table reveals about belonging. Watch the sermon: https://dwellnlc.org/media/ksxm5qt/sunday-service-10-18-2026-free-week-3-when-grace-gets-compromised 

The Finished Work of Jesus (Galatians 3). Why the Spirit who begins our new life is the one who grows it. Watch the sermon: https://dwellnlc.org/media/2pk6r6d/sunday-sermon-10-25-2026-free-week-4-the-finished-work-of-jesus 

Abba (Galatians 4:1–11). What changes when we know God as Father. Watch the sermon: https://dwellnlc.org/media/jkp8vq6/sunday-service-11-01-2026-free-week-5-abba-free-week-5-abba 

For Freedom (Galatians 4:21–5:15). How to stand in Christ’s freedom and use it to serve in love. Watch the sermon: https://dwellnlc.org/media/gc462mq/sunday-service-11-08-2026-free-week-6-for-freedom 

Keep In Step (Galatians 5:16–6:10). What walking by the Spirit looks like in ordinary life.

Browse the FREE sermon series: https://dwellnlc.org/media/series/bsjhwnf/free-the-letter-to-the-galatians

FREE | Week 7 — Galatians 5:16–6:10
Adapted from the sermon by Pastor Daniel Kolson | Dwell New Life City

What does a free life look like on a Tuesday? In the closing stretch of Galatians, Paul gives us the Holy Spirit and an ordinary verb. Walk. You take one step, and then you take another. This is how Christ’s freedom reaches your kitchen, your work, and the conversation you have been avoiding.

Walk through the conflict

In Galatians 5:16–18, Paul speaks of the conflict between the flesh and the Spirit. The flesh is our capacity to live out of our own resources, independent of God. Paul writes to people who have received the Spirit and already belong to Christ. So when you notice that conflict in yourself, you are seeing something Paul expected believers to face. In verses 24–25, belonging to Christ and keeping in step with the Spirit go together. The flesh has lost its claim, even when its voice is familiar and loud. The Spirit leads and gives you a way to take the next step.

Notice how Paul begins the command in Galatians 5:16. He directs our attention toward walking by the Spirit and describes what follows. In a difficult moment, we often give all our attention to what we are trying to suppress. Paul gives us someone to attend to. The next step might be as small as pausing before you answer or asking the Spirit to help you tell the truth without punishing the person who needs to hear it.

It is also worth remembering where this chapter begins. Christ has set us free. The struggle Paul describes takes place inside that freedom. A moment of anger, envy, or fear is an occasion to turn toward the Spirit in the middle of an ordinary day. Each time we turn toward Him, we are practicing a way of walking that can continue long after the immediate struggle has passed.

Fruit grows on a living branch

Paul’s list of the works of the flesh includes jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, divisions, and envy. Much of the damage takes place between people. Think back to the believers biting and devouring one another in the previous passage. The signs of the flesh can show up in the way a church argues about holiness.

Then Paul turns to the fruit of the Spirit. Love, patience, gentleness, and self-control all grow from the same life. As we saw in REMAIN, a branch bears fruit by staying connected to what gives it life. That dependence becomes practical when you pause before answering sharply, ask the Spirit for patience, and choose to listen. Over time, the Spirit grows a character that can hold steady in those moments.

Fruit grows on a different timetable from the results we can manufacture. You may be able to hold your tongue for one conversation by sheer effort. Over time, the Spirit can teach you to see the person in front of you differently. You begin to understand what is happening in them and why the choice to listen matters. That change can deepen patience, kindness, and self-control together. Each quality belongs to the same life the Spirit is growing in us.

John 15 gives us the image of a branch remaining in the vine. In everyday terms, remaining may mean making time for prayer before the pressure comes, remembering a passage of Scripture in the middle of it, or returning to Jesus afterward to ask what He was showing you. The practice is relational. We learn to stay close to the One who gives life as we walk into situations we cannot handle well on our own.

What gentleness does when someone falls

In Galatians 6:1–5, Paul puts the fruit to work. When a person is caught in sin, those who are spiritual should restore them with gentleness and pay attention to their own vulnerability. Restoration is the work of repair. It calls for truth, humility, and care for the person who needs help getting back on their feet.

Paul asks us to carry one another’s burdens and, a few verses later, to carry our own load. There is a responsibility each of us can take, and there are crushing weights we were meant to share. A healthy church knows how to do both. It also knows that comparison gets in the way. It is hard to help somebody while using their struggle to feel better about yourself.

Think about what it might mean to restore someone gently. You can speak plainly about what happened, listen long enough to understand the harm, and help the person take a responsible next step. Gentleness can hold those things together. If someone has been hurt, care for that person belongs in the work of repair as well. The aim is a community where people can face the truth and find help doing what needs to be done.

The distinction between a burden and a load gives us a practical question. Which part belongs to me, and which part is too heavy to carry alone? You can keep your responsibility to make a difficult call and still ask a friend to pray with you before it. You can help a neighbor through a hard week while honoring what they can do for themselves. The body of Christ has room for both kinds of faithfulness.

Keep sowing when the field looks empty

A seed spends time underground. That delay can tempt us to ignore the effects of our habits or to give up on doing good too soon. Galatians 6:7–10 puts the harvest in God’s time. Faithfulness may mean continuing to show up for a person, telling the truth again, or praying when the answer is slow. It can also mean asking which good work the Lord has actually given you to do.

The gap between sowing and harvest can make a faithful act feel insignificant. You keep showing up, pray for someone, or make a quiet repair, and the situation still looks much the same tomorrow. Galatians 6:9 calls us to keep doing good in that gap. Verse 10 gives us a place to begin, with the people and opportunities we actually have. The next good thing may be smaller than the result we are hoping to see. It is still a seed worth planting.

Reflect and Respond

Read Galatians 5:25 and ask the Holy Spirit for one step you can take today. It might be an apology, a gentler response, an offer to share a burden, or one quiet act of good that you were tempted to give up on.

Browse the FREE sermon series
https://dwellnlc.org/media/series/bsjhwnf/free-the-letter-to-the-galatians

FREE | Week 6 — Galatians 4:21–5:15 | Preached November 8, 2026
Adapted from the sermon by Pastor Daniel Kolson | Dwell New Life City

Freedom can feel strangely unfamiliar when you’ve spent years measuring yourself by how well you perform. Given the choice, many of us reach back for a familiar burden. We know how to keep score. Paul’s charge in Galatians 5:1 is to stand firm in the freedom Christ has already given.

The wording matters because Paul starts with something Christ has done. The Galatians’ task is to stand in it. Picture someone being offered a place to stand on solid ground after a long time trying to keep their balance. The temptation is to keep reaching for the old supports because they are familiar. Paul knows that believers can return to old habits while sincerely wanting to please God. He asks them to let Christ’s work carry the weight those habits once carried.

What a promise asks of us

At the end of Galatians 4, Paul turns to Abraham’s family. Abraham and Sarah had received a promise, yet waiting was difficult. Their arrangement involving Hagar produced a real child, Ishmael, and brought real pain into the household. Isaac would come through God’s promise. Paul uses the two stories to distinguish two ways of seeking an inheritance. In one, people try to secure it by human effort. In the other, they depend on God to do what He promised.

Hagar and Ishmael are people in the Genesis story whom God sees and cares for. Paul is making a particular argument about covenant and inheritance. His question for the Galatians is whether they will trust Christ or submit to a system that makes their standing depend on keeping the law.

The pressure to produce a result often grows when we are waiting. Abraham and Sarah had received a promise, but they still had to live through the time between hearing it and seeing it fulfilled. Waiting can bring our assumptions into the open. We begin to ask what will happen if we leave room for God to work and we cannot manage the outcome ourselves. The story lets us see the real cost of trying to secure a promise by our own means, including the cost borne by other people.

Trust still gives us decisions to make. We can keep the commitments God has given us, tell the truth, and care for the people in front of us. We can do those things while leaving the result in His hands. Over time, we learn to distinguish the faithful action available to us today from the outcome we are trying to force.

The yoke we pick back up

The pressure in Galatia centered on circumcision. Paul warns that anyone receiving it as a requirement for righteousness would be taking on an obligation to keep the whole law. Today the pressure can take the shape of a spiritual scoreboard. We can start counting the hours we serve, the things we sacrifice, or how impressive our faith looks to other people. The score can become a substitute for receiving what Jesus has already given.

Jesus’ invitation in Matthew 11:28–30 is a good passage to read alongside Galatians. He calls the weary to come to Him, learn from Him, and find rest. Ask which obligations He is actually inviting you to carry. A difficult act of obedience can be full of freedom. A seemingly admirable commitment can be driven by the fear that you will lose your place if you put it down.

One way to recognize that fear is to listen to what you say to yourself after a mistake. Do you imagine that God is waiting for you to earn your way back into His good graces? Do you immediately promise to take on more? Take that reaction into prayer. Bring the actual mistake to Jesus, receive His help, and make whatever repair the situation needs. A life of freedom has room to repent and begin again.

Jesus’ image of a yoke also keeps us from reducing freedom to the absence of obligations. He invites us to learn from Him. There will be something to carry, and we carry it in relationship with Him. Ask which burdens He has given you for this season and which ones you have assumed because you fear what people will think. The answer may help you say yes with more honesty and say no without treating the decision as a verdict on your worth.

Freedom is for love

In Galatians 5:13–15, Paul gives freedom a direction. Through love, serve one another. In the same breath he warns the Galatians about biting and devouring one another. The church can spend its energy deciding who measures up, or it can spend that energy caring for its neighbors. The person who has received grace is free to make the second choice.

Galatians 5:6 puts faith and love together, and verse 13 gives that connection a place in everyday life. Free people can choose to serve. That could look like taking the less visible job, listening through a disagreement, or giving someone help that will never appear on a list of accomplishments. The point is that someone is loved because you were free to attend to them.

The warning about biting and devouring one another belongs in that same conversation. A community consumed by comparison has little energy left for its neighbors. When people are secure in Christ, they can spend more of that energy on repair, hospitality, and patient service. This is where the freedom Paul defends becomes something a church can practice together.

Reflect and Respond

This week, name one yoke you have picked back up. Then name one act of love you can give freely, even if nobody sees it. The freedom Jesus gives becomes tangible when we have nothing to prove and someone to serve.

Watch the sermon
https://dwellnlc.org/media/gc462mq/sunday-service-11-08-2026-free-week-6-for-freedom

Browse the FREE sermon series
https://dwellnlc.org/media/series/bsjhwnf/free-the-letter-to-the-galatians

FREE | Week 5 — Galatians 4:1–11 | Preached November 1, 2026
Adapted from the sermon by Pastor Daniel Kolson | Dwell New Life City

You can live in a house for years and still feel like you have to earn your place at the table. A hard week can make prayer feel like an appointment with a disappointed supervisor. Galatians 4 speaks to that experience by telling the story of how God brings us into His family.

God sent His Son

Paul asks us to picture an heir who is still a child. The inheritance is his, but for a time his life is ordered by guardians and managers. Then Paul points to the moment when God acted. At the appointed time, He sent His Son, born of a woman and born under the law, to redeem those under the law so that we might receive adoption.

Redemption brings people out of bondage. Adoption brings them home. Paul makes the outcome explicit. In Christ, the believer is a child and an heir through God. The words apply to women and men alike. The standing Paul has in mind is a full share in the family inheritance.

It helps to slow down over the order of Paul’s sentences. God sends His Son while people are still in need of redemption. Adoption is something they receive because He acted. The family status comes from the Father’s initiative. A child learning to trust Him has room to be young, to ask questions, and to grow. Those things take place inside the relationship God has given.

The picture of the heir also gives us a way to notice what we expect from God. A hired worker may wonder whether a mistake has put their position in danger. A child can bring a mistake to a good father and learn what to do next. Even an honest conversation about disobedience happens differently when there is a place for truth, correction, and continued belonging. Paul wants the Galatians to see themselves inside that kind of relationship.

God sent the Spirit of His Son

The Father gives us more than a new standing on paper. He sends the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” The same address appears on Jesus’ lips in Gethsemane in Mark 14:36. There, Jesus brings His anguish to the Father and entrusts Himself to Him. The prayer gives us a picture of what belonging makes possible when life is painful.

Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane makes space for anguish and trust in the same conversation. He names what He desires and yields Himself to the Father. That is a helpful picture when we assume a faithful prayer has to sound composed. We can tell God we are afraid of what comes next. We can ask Him for what we hope will happen. We can also entrust ourselves to Him one decision at a time. The Spirit helps us address the Father even when we have little more to say.

Romans 8:15–16 connects the cry of Abba to the Spirit’s witness that we are God’s children. This gives us a language for the days when our feelings lag behind what we know. We can come with a very small prayer and let Scripture shape the words. Over time, the practice of returning to the Father can make that relationship more familiar than the old habit of keeping our distance.

For some people, the word father carries memories of absence, anger, or rejection. It can take time for the heart to trust what the mind has learned. Jesus gives us somewhere to look. In Him we see the Father who draws near and receives us. A short, honest prayer can be a beginning. Father, help me know what it means to be Your child today.

It may help to begin with a scene from Jesus’ life. Watch how He responds to people who approach Him with need. He can speak truth plainly and still draw near. Let what you see in Jesus give content to the word Father. Over time, the picture of God supplied by old disappointments can begin to give way to the Father Jesus actually reveals.

The temptation to go back

In Galatians 4:8–11, Paul is troubled that people who have come to know God are returning to patterns of slavery. His wording slows us down. They know God, or rather, they are known by God. His knowledge of them is more foundational than their success in understanding Him. Yet familiar systems offer the comfort of something measurable. We know how to count what we’ve done. Trusting a Father calls for a different kind of dependence.

The urge to return to familiar patterns can show up as independence. You can be very active in church and still feel responsible for carrying your life alone. Dependence may look surprisingly practical. It might mean asking someone to pray with you, telling the Father the part of the story you usually skip, or making one decision with room to listen before you act. Each of those choices gives the relationship somewhere to take shape.

Pay attention to the difference between service offered freely and service driven by a fear of losing your place. You may do the same outward task in either case. One posture leaves room for joy, rest, and honesty about what you can carry. The other leaves you wondering how much more is required. When Paul calls us heirs, he gives us a place to stand while we learn to serve from love.

Reflect and Respond

Consider where you act as if there is still an audition for your place in God’s family. It may be the pressure to say yes to every request, the fear of coming to God after you fail, or the insistence on carrying everything alone. Read Galatians 4:4–7 and bring that one pressure to the Father. Ask the Spirit to help you take your next step as someone who already belongs.

Watch the sermon
https://dwellnlc.org/media/jkp8vq6/sunday-service-11-01-2026-free-week-5-abba-free-week-5-abba

Browse the FREE sermon series
https://dwellnlc.org/media/series/bsjhwnf/free-the-letter-to-the-galatians

FREE | Week 4 — Galatians 3 | Preached October 25, 2026
Adapted from the sermon by Brett Smith | Dwell New Life City

A house can look sound until a storm tests what is underneath it. In Week 4 of FREE, Brett Smith brings that picture to Galatians 3. Many of us trust Christ for forgiveness and then build our day-to-day lives on our ability to hold everything together. Paul asks the Galatians to look again at their foundation.

The image of the two houses in Matthew 7:24–27 makes the question concrete. The storm reaches both houses. The difference only becomes visible when the ground and the walls are tested. Jesus describes the wise builder as someone who hears His words and does them. Obedience is how that builder acts on trust. In the same way, relying on the finished work of Jesus can make us more willing to do the difficult thing He asks. Our confidence rests on the One we are listening to.

How did you receive the Spirit?

Paul begins with a question the Galatians can answer from experience. Did they receive the Spirit by doing works of the law or by hearing with faith? They had seen God work among them before they could present a record of religious accomplishment. The Spirit had come as God’s gift. Paul asks why they would now expect human effort to accomplish the growth the Spirit began.

Galatians 3:1–5 moves from Christ crucified to the experience of receiving the Spirit. Paul puts those realities next to each other so the churches can see where their life came from. The message of the cross reached them, they believed it, and God worked among them. Their dependence on Him was already part of the story. Now a system built on religious achievement promised them a more measurable way to grow. Paul asks them to trust the God who has already shown them how He works.

We can recognize the same shift when a habit becomes a calculation. Perhaps you have promised yourself that this week you will pray longer, lose your temper less often, and finally feel secure. Those desires may be good. The question is what you expect them to secure for you. If prayer is a way of meeting with Jesus, you can bring the anger and the fear right into it. If prayer is how you keep your standing, you may feel the need to get yourself in order before you come. That difference will shape how you respond on the very day you need grace most.

We recognize that impulse when we treat a difficult week as proof that God has withdrawn or use a good week to reassure ourselves that He still approves. Over time, spiritual practices can become a way of keeping score. Galatians invites us to bring our actual lives, including our failures, to the same Jesus who met us at the beginning.

The promise and the cross

Paul looks back to Abraham, who believed God and was counted righteous. The promise came before the law and rested on God’s faithfulness. Paul also takes sin seriously enough to speak of a curse. Christ redeems us by bearing that curse Himself, so that the blessing promised to Abraham comes to the Gentiles and we receive the promised Spirit through faith.

Later in the chapter, Paul describes the law as a guardian with a role until Christ came. In Christ, believers have been clothed with Him and receive the standing of heirs. God’s family includes people who, by every familiar social measure, might have expected very different places in the room. Their common standing rests on Christ.

Paul also makes a distinction between the promise and the guardian. A guardian has a real role for a season. A guardian does not give the child the inheritance. By describing the law this way, Paul shows its place in the story without making it the source of life. The promise reaches its fulfillment in Christ. What God gives His children through Him goes deeper than external management of their behavior.

The language of being clothed with Christ brings that truth close. In Galatians 3:26–29, people with very different social standings share the same inheritance through faith. You can picture what that means for a congregation. The people who feel most at home in church and the people who arrive uncertain where to sit enter through the same door. The same Jesus supplies their standing, and the same Spirit is at work in their growth.

Where transformation happens

Brett connects this passage to 2 Corinthians 3:16–18. As we turn to the Lord and behold His glory, the Spirit changes us. Hebrews 1:3 also directs our attention to Jesus, who makes the Father’s character known. If you suspect the Father is perpetually disappointed with you, spend some time watching how Jesus welcomes people, speaks truth, and gives Himself for them.

There is room for effort in this life. We can pray, practice obedience, and get up again after failure. The foundation determines what that effort is for. Prayer can become the place where we receive what we need. Obedience can become the way we act on trust. Failure can send us back to Jesus for help instead of sending us into hiding.

Consider a moment when you realize you have spoken impatiently to someone you love. You can resolve to work harder and hope they forget. Or you can tell Jesus the truth about what happened, ask for help, and return to the person with an apology. You still have something to do. Depending on Christ changes how you do it and gives you a way to face what went wrong. Over time, these are the places where His life takes visible shape in ours.

Brett’s emphasis on the goodness of God matters here. People learn to hide when they expect only condemnation. Seeing the Father through Jesus makes it possible to come into the light, receive correction, and keep growing. What Christ finished at the cross is the foundation for the work He continues in us by His Spirit.

Reflect and Respond

Name one place where you feel responsible for producing spiritual growth by yourself. Read Galatians 3:1–5 and bring that place to Jesus in prayer. What would the next faithful action look like if you took it while depending on Him?

Watch the sermon
https://dwellnlc.org/media/2pk6r6d/sunday-sermon-10-25-2026-free-week-4-the-finished-work-of-jesus

Browse the FREE sermon series
https://dwellnlc.org/media/series/bsjhwnf/free-the-letter-to-the-galatians

FREE | Week 3 — Galatians 2:11–21 | Preached October 18, 2026
Adapted from the sermon by Pastor Daniel Kolson | Dwell New Life City

A person can believe the gospel and still make a choice that sends the opposite message. In Antioch, the choice was where to sit.

What happened at the table

In Galatians 2:11–21, Peter had been eating with Gentile believers. A shared meal meant fellowship. The people around the table could see, in an ordinary act, that Jesus had brought them into one family. Then certain people came from James, and Peter withdrew out of fear of the circumcision group. Others followed his example, including Barnabas. The distance one leader put between himself and his brothers and sisters soon became the distance between groups in the church.

Picture what it would have been like to sit there as a Gentile believer. The person who had shared a meal with you yesterday suddenly leaves the table when someone else walks into the room. Even without a word, you are left to wonder what changed and what you will have to do to be welcome again. That is why the scene matters. Paul can see that a decision made out of fear is now shaping the way a whole church understands belonging.

The pressure often works quietly. We learn who can set the tone in a room. We notice which choices will win approval and which will make people uncomfortable. Peter’s example makes room for a more honest question than whether we have ever felt afraid. Where do our fears make someone else pay for our comfort?

Peter had already seen the Holy Spirit come upon Gentiles in Acts 10. He had reason to know that God had welcomed them. Yet when the room changed, fear shaped his conduct. Paul confronted him because the harm was public. By leaving the table, Peter was pressuring Gentile believers to live like Jews to enjoy the fellowship they had already been given in Christ.

Grace has consequences for who belongs

Paul connects the incident directly to justification. God sets us right through faith in Jesus Christ. If works of the law could make us righteous, Paul says, the cross would have been unnecessary. Peter’s decision mattered because it made a practical claim about the cross. It suggested that faith in Christ still left the Gentile believers with something to prove.

Paul is arguing for a common standing before God. The Jewish believer and the Gentile believer both come to the same table on the basis of Christ. Their histories remain real. Their standing in the household is shared. Justification is often described as a verdict, and that is part of its force here. God’s decision about who belongs has practical authority over the ways we arrange our lives together.

This is where grace can ask something concrete of us. A congregation can celebrate the people who already know its language and routines, or it can deliberately make room for someone who is still learning. An invitation to share a meal may matter more than a polished explanation of inclusion. It gives someone an actual place to sit and a chance to be heard. The welcome becomes something they experience.

The same question reaches our tables. Think about the person you enjoy talking to until someone whose approval you want walks into the room. Think about a newcomer who understands little of church culture but is hungry for Jesus. What would they learn about belonging from watching our conversations, invitations, and friendships?

Christ lives in me

Galatians 2:20 brings Paul’s argument close to home. The life Paul now lives is a life of faith in the Son of God, who loved him and gave Himself for him. The courage to return to the table grows from that love. Once your life is held by Christ, the approval of the room loses some of its power. You can stay, listen, and make room for someone you might otherwise leave on their own.

The words “Christ lives in me” also give us a way to handle the embarrassment of realizing we have acted like Peter. When the impulse is to explain ourselves, we can slow down and listen to the person who felt pushed away. An apology can be as plain as naming what happened, owning our part in it, and asking how to repair the harm. Then we can do the harder work of acting differently the next time the room changes.

Public behavior can need a visible repair. If a whole group saw us dismiss someone, a private apology may be a first step, and the group may also need to see us welcome that person again. The aim is to restore trust in a way that honors the person involved. Peter’s choice affected more than Peter. A repaired relationship can help a whole community learn what the gospel looks like in practice.

If you have been the person left at the table, remember that Jesus’ welcome rests on His work. And if you recognize yourself in Peter, grace gives you the freedom to return and repair what fear divided.

Start with a setting you know well. It may be a table at work, a church gathering, or a conversation that changes when a certain person arrives. Think of someone whose place in the room feels less secure than yours. One steady act of welcome can make a difference. It may be taking a seat beside them, inviting them into a conversation, or standing with them when a joke puts them on the outside. These ordinary choices give people a way to see the grace we say we believe.

Reflect and Respond

This week, ask where your actions might communicate a stricter entrance requirement than the one Jesus gave. Consider one specific invitation or conversation that would bring your conduct back into step with the gospel.

Watch the sermon
https://dwellnlc.org/media/ksxm5qt/sunday-service-10-18-2026-free-week-3-when-grace-gets-compromised

Browse the FREE sermon series
https://dwellnlc.org/media/series/bsjhwnf/free-the-letter-to-the-galatians

FREE | Week 2 — Galatians 1:11–2:10 | Preached October 11, 2026
Adapted from the sermon by Pastor Daniel Kolson | Dwell New Life City

Where did your faith begin? You may remember the person who first read Scripture with you or the church where you learned to pray. Those gifts matter. In Galatians, Paul asks us to go one question deeper. Where did you meet Jesus?

Paul tells his story in the middle of a dispute about the origin of the gospel. His opponents had reason to question him. He had come to faith after Jesus’ earthly ministry and had a history of doing harm to Christians. Paul’s answer begins with what the risen Jesus did. The gospel came to him with an authority that neither his old reputation nor his new role could supply. His story matters because it gives us a place to see the message at work.

A church can teach us the vocabulary of faith and give us people to learn from. Those gifts can bring us right to the point where we have to respond to Jesus ourselves. Think of someone teaching you how to read a map. They can show you every turn. At some point you step out and discover what it means to trust the directions with your own feet. In the Christian life, that step is a response to the Person the Scriptures reveal.

The grace that interrupted Paul

In Galatians 1:11–12, Paul says he received the gospel through a revelation of Jesus Christ. His own history explains why that matters. Paul had been zealous for the traditions of his ancestors. He took his convictions seriously enough to persecute the church. All that sincerity gave him tremendous energy in precisely the wrong direction.

Then Jesus interrupted him. In Galatians 1:15–16, Paul puts God at the center of the story. God set him apart, called him by grace, and revealed His Son. Before Paul had a chance to repair his reputation or show what he could become, grace reached him. The person who had harmed the church would now proclaim the faith he once tried to destroy. When the churches in Judea heard the news, they glorified God. Paul’s changed life gave them a reason to praise the One who had changed it.

Paul has room to tell the truth about the harm he did because the center of his testimony is God’s mercy. His former zeal still matters in the story. It shows how easily conviction can run ahead of love and how thoroughly Jesus can redirect a life. After meeting Christ, Paul would spend his life building up the very people he had tried to tear down.

That helps us tell our own stories with a little more care. A testimony can hold both the consequences of our choices and the reality of grace. Someone who hurt others can take responsibility for that harm and still speak honestly about the mercy that reached them. Someone whose story has fewer dramatic turns can speak of quieter changes. Maybe you became able to ask for forgiveness, tell the truth when it cost you, or trust God through a season you could barely name. The shape of the story can vary. What matters is where it directs the listener’s attention.

Formation takes time

Paul went to Arabia and returned to Damascus. Three years passed before he went to Jerusalem to meet Cephas. Scripture gives few details about those early years. It does show a gap between the encounter that changed Paul’s life and the relationships and responsibilities that would come later. If you feel behind because your life with God is growing more slowly than you imagined, sit with that gap for a moment. Jesus can turn a life around in an instant and still take years to form the person who will carry the message.

It can be tempting to read those years as empty space because Paul gives so little detail. His account invites patience. God had called him, and he still needed time to grow into the life that calling would require. A long period of learning to pray, listen, receive correction, or serve faithfully in a small place can belong to the work God is doing in you. Paul’s itinerary leaves room for seasons of formation whose significance becomes clear only later.

Grace made room for Titus

When Paul later went to Jerusalem, he brought Titus, a Gentile believer. Titus made the theological question concrete. Would a brother who had put his faith in Christ have to be circumcised to be fully received? The leaders recognized the grace given to Paul, extended fellowship, and required no such qualification of Titus. They also asked Paul to remember the poor. Here was a unity that made room for people and gave them shared work to do.

Titus also helps us see the difference between receiving guidance from other believers and asking them to supply our standing with God. Paul went to Jerusalem, talked with the leaders, and received their fellowship. He took their relationship seriously. At the same time, Titus’s place in Christ could not depend on whether he adopted the culture of the people in the room. Healthy discipleship can teach us a great deal while honoring the grace God has already given us.

Consider where you see that balance in your own church. A person may learn new habits, discover parts of Scripture they have never read, and receive correction that helps them grow. All of that happens best when they know there is already a place for them in the family. The right hand of fellowship and the call to remember the poor belong together. Grace gives us a shared life, and that life turns outward in care for other people.

Faith you can live in

In this sermon, Pastor Daniel describes coming to faith after growing up outside church and living as an atheist. His story and Paul’s are different, but both invite a personal question. Where have you actually come to trust Jesus? Maybe your story involves years of quiet prayer. Maybe it began in a moment you can still date. In either case, the risen Christ is the center of it.

Reflect and Respond

Read Galatians 1:13–24 this week. Name one place where God’s grace reached you before you had any idea what to do next. If you tell that story to someone, give them enough room to see what Jesus did.

Watch the sermon
https://dwellnlc.org/media/bxsw7yk/sunday-service-10-11-2026-free-week-2-nobody-taught-me-this

Browse the FREE sermon series
https://dwellnlc.org/media/series/bsjhwnf/free-the-letter-to-the-galatians

FREE | Week 1 — Galatians 1:1–10 | Preached October 4, 2026
By Pastor Daniel Kolson | Dwell New Life City

There is a version of Christianity that looks remarkably faithful from the outside but has quietly lost sight of the gospel. People attend church, read their Bibles, pray, serve, and give because they genuinely want to please God. These practices belong in the Christian life. The trouble begins when the things we do because we love God become things we believe we must do to earn His love. Before long, we can live as if Jesus is necessary and our performance has to make up the difference. That is the problem Paul confronts in Galatians.

The opening of the letter gives us a way to recognize the difference. Paul speaks grace and peace over the churches before he asks anything of them. He also tells them where that grace and peace come from. The Father raised Jesus from the dead, and Jesus gave Himself for our sins. Those are actions God has already taken. Paul’s first move is to remind the Galatians of what has happened on their behalf. They can only make sense of his warning if they begin there.

A Letter That Begins Differently

Paul usually begins his letters with a greeting and a word of thanks. He even thanks God for the Corinthians before taking up the serious problems in their church. Galatians opens with a greeting and moves almost immediately to a confrontation. The churches had responded to the gospel in faith and experienced the work of the Holy Spirit. Now other teachers were telling Gentile believers that to belong fully to God’s covenant people, they needed circumcision and observance of the Mosaic Law.

Their argument had an appeal. In Genesis 17, God had given circumcision to Abraham as a covenant sign, and for generations it had marked Jewish identity. These teachers could point to Scripture and centuries of practice. What they were asking for could sound like deeper commitment to God. Paul saw that making circumcision a requirement for Gentile believers would change the basis on which people were received into God’s family.

When Grace Becomes a Transaction

In Galatians 1:6–7, Paul is astonished that the Galatians are turning away from the One who called them by grace. He takes their new teaching personally because the gospel is the announcement of what God has done through Jesus. Grace is His undeserved favor. When we place a new condition on receiving that favor, we change the terms of the relationship.

Imagine someone giving you a gift and later telling you to start making payments to keep it. The arrangement has become a transaction. In Galatians 2:21, Paul takes the argument all the way to the cross. If keeping the law could make us righteous, Christ’s death would have been unnecessary. Adding a qualification to the gospel makes our standing depend on what we can contribute, even though Jesus has already given Himself for us.

When Spiritual Passion Becomes Performance

When I first encountered the Lord, I was hungry for Him. I wanted to spend time in His presence, read the Bible every chance I had, and pray and worship. There were times I climbed mountains just to get alone with God. I did those things because I loved Him. Over time, the same practices could begin to feel like obligations I had to fulfill. Instead of spending time with God because I wanted to be with Him, I found myself measuring how well I was doing spiritually. The practices were familiar. My motivation had shifted.

Prayer, fasting, Scripture, and obedience deepen a relationship we have received through Jesus. The order matters. If I obey to earn acceptance, every failure threatens my place. If I obey because God has accepted me in Christ, I can bring a failure into the light, receive His help, and take the next faithful step. The Spirit’s work in us makes obedience a response to grace.

Consider what happens when you miss a morning of prayer. You might be disappointed because time with God matters to you. That disappointment can become an honest invitation to turn toward Him in the middle of the day. But if you believe the missed prayer has made you less welcome, you will probably put off returning until you feel more deserving. The practice is the same in both cases. What changes is whether you think you are coming home or applying for a place.

Ephesians 2:8–10 helps us keep that order. Paul speaks first of being saved by grace through faith, then of being created in Christ for good works. A good work matters because God intends it to become part of our new life. It can never do the work of making us new. That distinction gives us room to practice spiritual disciplines consistently and to return to them with honesty when we stumble.

Whose Approval Are We Seeking?

Most churches today are unlikely to make circumcision a requirement for salvation. We may still use appearance, political affiliation, familiarity with church culture, or spiritual experiences to decide who seems to belong. We can be just as exacting with ourselves, comparing our prayer life, Bible knowledge, or ministry to someone else’s. Growth turns into competition, and we miss the freedom to celebrate what God is doing in another person.

In Galatians 1:10, Paul asks whose approval is governing his ministry. That question reaches into the ordinary decisions we make about what to show people and what to hide. When our standing rests on Jesus, we can acknowledge where we need to grow and approach God with confidence, even after a difficult week. We have the same freedom to welcome people whose background or experience differs from ours. We all come through Christ.

A church can practice this together by paying attention to the expectations it rarely puts into words. A newcomer might need time to learn how we pray or why we gather the way we do. We can teach those practices patiently and make room at the same time. Think of the difference between saying, “Here is how we do this, and you are welcome to learn with us,” and making someone feel they must learn the rules before they can come close. The welcome we have received from Jesus sets the tone for the welcome we extend.

The Gospel Was Already Complete

Before Paul confronts the Galatians, he reminds them that Christ gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the Father’s will (Galatians 1:4). His death and resurrection open the way to forgiveness, reconciliation, and new life. The grace that saves us also teaches us to pray, pursue holiness, serve others, and follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. We do these things in response to the God who has already made a way for us through His Son.

Take a moment to consider what you have quietly come to believe you must do or become to be fully accepted by God. It might be a routine you feel guilty about missing, a failure you still carry, or a standard you learned years ago and have never questioned. Bring that specific thing to Jesus in prayer. The cross has already answered the question of what it costs for you to come to Him. You are free to follow Him out of love.

Reflect and Respond

1. What helps you recognize when a spiritual discipline has become a way to measure your worth?
2. What expectations have you placed on yourself or others as conditions for belonging?
3. How would you approach prayer this week if you began with the assurance that God has already welcomed you in Christ?

Scripture References

Galatians 1:1–10, Galatians 2:16–21, Genesis 17:9–14, Ephesians 2:8–10, and Titus 2:11–14.

This article is adapted from Week 1 of the FREE sermon series at Dwell New Life City in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Dwell New Life City
Jesus Following • Bible Believing • People Loving • Spirit Powered • Kingdom Cultured

Website: https://dwellnlc.org

Watch the sermon
https://dwellnlc.org/media/ph3p7bj/sunday-service-10-04-2026-free-a-letter-to-the-galatians-week-1-there-is-no-other-gospel 

Browse the FREE sermon series
https://dwellnlc.org/media/series/bsjhwnf/free-the-letter-to-the-galatians