Galatians 1:11-12
“For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.”
One of the old standards in youth ministry is the game ‘telephone.’ The idea is to line students up and whisper a sentence into the ear of the person at one end of the line and have them whisper it to the person next to them and so on. As the message makes its way to the other end, it gets misheard and misspoken at various points until it’s usually unrecognizable when finally revealed out loud.
Paul was assuring the Galatians that among the competing ‘gospels’ they were hearing, his message was unadulterated. It hadn’t been passed down the line to him in a whisper. In fact, it had been loud and clear enough to knock him off his feet. There were no additives or missing ingredients. He had the authentic and original version – straight from Christ himself.
While using the HEAR method (see below) consider the following questions:
When you share the gospel, what elements are crucial to presenting a clear and concise message
Why is it important to go straight to the source instead of relying on what you’ve heard?
Highlight – what words or phrases jump out at you?
Explain – what does the passage mean?
Apply – how does the passage intersect with your life today?
Respond – how is God leading you to respond?
Today’s post is by Jon Price, Associate Pastor
