Week 3-Freedom

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Giving

New People

VBS

Young Adults Hike

Galatians 3:23–4:7 NIV

Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. What I am saying is that as long as an heir is underage, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. The heir is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. So also, when we were underage, we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces of the world. But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.

Under Law, and Works, We Were Like Slaves

This word slavery, it evokes a lot of feelings. And it’s important to give it some context.

For sure, it wasn’t a great thing back then. And there was a lot of times that it looked exactly like the slavery we understand. There were slaves who were prisoners of war, who were in the positions unwillingly. There were others who were in debt, and sold themselves as a way to pay off that debt - and when it was paid, they would go free.

I’m not defending slavery in any fashion here. I just think it’s important to understand exactly what Paul means.

In THIS context, paul is probably talking about household slaves. These were people that COULD be afforded some things like protection as being part of a household. Maybe they participated or or even held some influence in the household.

But paul says, make no mistakes. They’re beneath the household, in a bunch of ways.

As a slave, your worth is in your work

Get rewarded for doing lots of good work - get removed for being a poor performer

And when I say this, maybe this isn’t a discouragement.

The trouble with this approach is, we overvalue what we bring to the table

Because we’re not serving ourselves. We’re here to serve God. And if we want the standard to be the quality of our works - how good do we think our works have to be before God goes ‘ok ya, that’s definitely something worthy of me’.

Nothing we do is ever going to measure up. God is too good, too infinite, too holy.

Paul says, because of sin:

Romans 3:10–12 NIV

As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”

When we hold up a standard of works - we don’t measure up. And if our worth is found in our works - we’re nothing.

As a slave, your place is on the outside

As a slave, you’re on the outside looking in. You’re not really a part of all that.

This household - it exists for the family. The wealth, the heritage, the riches - it’s going to somebody else.

You have some part - you help manage, you do some work, etc.

Paul gives another example of this concept of Slavery:

Ishmael and Isaac

Galatians 4:22–23 NIV

For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a divine promise.

(STORY - ISHMAEL AND ISAAC) with Ishmael, Abraham and Sarah said, OK, I know God has this great plan for us. So we need to try really hard to make it happen.

SIDEBAR - Abraham and Sarah, they had a big problem.

They didn’t think God’s plan was actually possible

God promises abraham and sarah a son. But sarah goes - ya, but obviously that promise won’t work for me.

And if we examine ourselves, sometimes that same motivation creeps into our faith.

I believe God forgives me. But, I don’t think it’s actually possible that i’m fully forgiven, so i’m gonna work extra hard.

I believe that Go will answer me whenever I call. But I don’t actually think it’s possible that I can approach God at any point whatsoever, so I’m going to save my effort for when I think i’m doing the right way to approach God.

Often times, our efforts don’t actually come out of our faith - they come out of our doubts.

and we need to examine ourselves and REALLY ask ourselves,

What stands ON a promise from God - and what stands APART from a promise of God?

what am I doing because I believe something? And what am I doing that’s contrary to a promise the bible offers?

EXAMPLE - GENEROSITY WITH MONEY. Bible says - God is ridiculously generous. If you sow with generosity, you’ll reap generously. Do we make our financial decisions based on that, or based on ‘but I can’t afford to...’. Don’t get me wrong, be responsible about your finances. But sometimes responsibility means having a handle on what you’re giving up - not refusing to give up in the first place.

So, back to Abraham, Sarah and Ishmael. What came of that? There was discord, hatred, division. Hagar hated sarah, sarah hated hagar, abraham was caught in the middle.

Our efforts alone bring death and destruction

Isaac was the son of the promise. He was the son that was born even though that process had no physical right to happen at all. Everything about isaac’s existence had NOTHING to do with the strength or activity of anyone involved.

It was so impossible that when Sarah heard an angel tell her, she straight up laughed. And actually, that’s what Isaac’s name means.

But that’s a telling thing for us. We aren’t the spiritual heirs of the person who tried really rearlly hard to make God’s promise work. We’re the spiritual heirs of the person who had absolutely no power to do anything - and God did it for him. The person who existed, not because two people tried, but because God promised

But God has an even greater goal for us.

God destined us to be adopted children

I didn’t really appreciate this phrase, ‘adopted child’ in this part of the bible until someone really walked me through it.

In Roman culture, an adopted heir was a way of the parents saying, ‘our natural kids aren’t going to cut it (or they just don’t exist). We want to personally and individually select the person who’s going to receive our household and continue our name’. Care and thought and time was put in to make sure you picked someone who was worth it.

Paul spends 2/3 of this entire letter to the galatians telling them that nothing they did earned their place in God

and now he says, ‘oh, and by the way - God specifically and individually chose each one of you to be his heir’.

This meant something to the people at the time. Whether you were a jew or a gentile - the first born, the heir, that was a place of status and position. You were the one who was going to receive the most. And Paul’s message was - not by ANYTHING you’ve done, but simply because He’s good, God individually picked you each out to be his heir.

As an adopted child, our worth is in what we’re given

Galatians 4:6 NIV

Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.”

God gave us the Spirit. Not because we worked, or we earned it, or we willed. Not because we cleaned ourselves up enough that the Spirit can now stand to be around us. We have the Spirit because we believed and God adopted us as his children as a result.

Have you ever noticed that you have two kinds of relationships.

One - you invite them over and you spend the day cleaning your house. You prepare a nice meal for them. Put on your best face. You’d be mortified if they saw your space untidy.

Two - you invite them over TO spend the day cleaning your house. You’re past the point of prepping nice meals for them. They have fridge permission - they want to eat, kitchen’s over there.

One is a guest you host - the other is a part of your family.

The Spirit doesn’t want to be a guest. He wants to be family. He doesn’t wait until you’ve cleaned the place up - he shows up with a mop and a bucket.

When we place our value in our work, we say, I won’t allow myself to have worth until I’ve done enough.

With God adopting us as sons, He sends His Spirit to live in us as family - in fact, scriptures say, he makes HIS HOME in us. And then He says, ok, let’s get to work.

Galatians goes onto say, because God adopted us, he’s also made us heirs in Him.

The bible says, one day, God will wipe every tear from every eye. Evil will be erased, pain and sickness will be removed. Death itself will be defeated.

We stand to inherit that. God is creating this wonderful kingdom - and we can be a part of it!

God starts by working in us to make that perfection - and one day, He’ll be finished the job - with everyone, everywhere, forever.

That leads into my second point.

As an adopted child, our place is with God for eternity

We’re not meant to be on the outside.

Adam and eve sinned, and God had a plan right there and then in the garden. Not a plan to condemn humanity - a plan to rescue it.

And revelation says, one day, God will build a new city for us, and we’ll be right back to where we were always meant to be.