12.31.2023 - Christmas 1 - No Longer Slaves

Scripture: Galatians 4:4-7

Galatians 4:4–7 NIV

4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. 6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.

12/31/2023

Order of Service:

Announcements

Opening Worship

Prayer Requests

Prayer Song

Pastoral Prayer

Kid’s Time

Offering (Doxology and Offering Prayer)

Scripture Reading

Sermon

Closing Song

Benediction

Special Notes:

Opening Prayer:

Christmas Week: Gracious Lord, We give you praise that out of compassion you take our part, and open to us a new way of life. We pray that this day we shall be able to see its true glory. Help us to choose You as our Heavenly Father today as You have chosen us to be Your adopted children. Amen.

No Longer Slaves

A New Chapter

We have reached the end of the year, and what a year it has been! It may be challenging to remember what life was like a year ago.

Several years ago, a pastor friend in Kentucky shared that he went mountain climbing on New Year’s Eve. He and his brother climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa, in Tanzania. That is the same country as IOP, which is our mission this month. John said many people don’t make it to the top, and most of the time, it has nothing to do with their physical condition. It has to do with pacing. If you push yourself too hard at the beginning, you won’t make it to the top. It is more about persistence than power. But he made it and saw the sun come up on the new year from atop the highest mountain in Africa.

Journeys like the ones we have been through can sometimes feel like climbing a mountain. We may remember our first step, perhaps the second, but it gets fuzzy when we reach steps twenty to twenty thousand. We remember the beginning and the end and that we survived what happened in between. This journey that we are on is more than just getting from point A to point B. We know we cannot walk or climb to heaven. We get there by allowing God to shape and change us as He calls us into a deep relationship with Him through Jesus.

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Slaves to Sin

Paul wrote to the Christians in Galatia to let them know their relationship with Christ is more important than any other goal they could set. The Jewish people of the community insisted that Christians follow all the Jewish laws. These Jews understood that 1300 years before, when Moses stood on Mt. Sinai with the Ten Commandments and the Hebrew people swore to obey God if He took care of them, they made themselves slaves to God. They traded out slavery to Pharaoh and Egypt for a God who was bigger than Pharaoh and promised to care for them better. Out with the old boss, in with the new boss. They were once slaves to Pharaoh’s law, and now they were slaves to God’s law.

But Paul wrote to explain that it was not God’s law that held them in bondage. It was sin. They were slaves to their sinful desires, and God, in His mercy, gave them the law as a kind of caretaker or nanny. God gave them the law, like Mary Poppins, to help redirect that unhealthy behavior as they matured in their faith so that at the right time, they would be ready to grow up into the heirs of the kingdom with Christ, no longer immature children, but full-fledged sons and daughters of God.

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The Hebrew people spent centuries following the law, taking a spoonful of sugar with their medicine, not always remembering why, but doing it religiously. But just like Mary Poppins, the law was meant to be a temporary transition. God had more incredible things in store for His people than slavery to sin or a set of laws. And at the perfect time, God sent Jesus.

Jesus was not like Mary Poppins. He was not a temporary nanny who came to clean things up for a moment. Paul wrote that he was born under the law, just like us. He came as a child. Rather than only telling us what to do, Jesus showed us how to live. He was a perfect example that came at the perfect time so that the world would return their attention to God instead of their own deceitful hearts. When all they could see was sin and the law, Jesus came as the image of God and pointed them back to Who God was and Who God was calling them to be.

By His sacrifice, He freed us from the stain of sin and welcomed us into His family as God’s adopted children because He is the true heir of heaven. He is the true heir by birth and by His obedient life and death.

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Children of God

The term “Children of God” has been used extensively in the past few years, usually with a sense of privilege or status. I’m not sure it means either. We are not invited to be children of God either because we are somehow good enough or lucky enough. We are invited because God created us, and He does not desire His good work to go to waste because of sin. When we think about the inheritance of God that we receive as His children, we too often think about worldly things. We clash like the Prodigal Son and his brother over who receives and deserves what in God’s Kingdom. And there is the Heavenly Father in the background, scratching His head, wondering what we are worried about.

It is not stuff that we receive. We don’t inherit land or houses in heaven. No, Paul tells us clearly that what we receive from God as His adopted children is His Holy Spirit in us that holds us fast in our relationship with Him. Jesus shares that with us when we become adopted into His family. What does it mean that we inherit the Holy Spirit when we become adopted children of God?

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Let’s go back to the mountain climbing expedition for a moment. Part of the pacing that helps you successfully climb mountains involves using your food and water rations well. It helps to be extra prepared, but some things get left behind on the journey. These mountain climbing moments are moments where decisions are made. We decide what we want to leave behind and what we want to take with us from the journey. We may have started hauling a full-service kitchen with us, stocked with enough food to feed a small army. Somewhere along the way, though, we may have decided to leave it behind and instead set aside time each day to seek out the daily bread God provides us.

I wonder if my friend John picked up anything from the top of the mountain to take home with him. Sometimes, we pick up physical things along our journeys. Other times, we take along memories or lessons that often stay with us longer. There is a sense in which our whole journey through life could be described as moving from place to place and trading off what we have for what we want along the way. That is a pretty clear understanding of what life looks like for someone who does not believe in God... just going along, following your heart's desire, and making the best of what you have.

But Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit, which changes everything. We don’t have to guess about what to do any more than He had to guess. The Holy Spirit is our direct connection with God, like a cell phone with His number on it. It guides our minds, thoughts, and memories so that we can know and sometimes gain an understanding of God’s will for us. It gives us access to God, just like having Him right there with us. But the Holy Spirit does not act for us. As the loving parent He is to us, God always gives us the choice to choose His way or our way.

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What God Wants for Us

Our primary task this coming year, and every year, is not to knock out a to-do list or climb the next mountain. It is to grow closer in relationship with God through Jesus. You can make plans and decisions today that will affect tomorrow and the weeks and months ahead. You can leave things behind in 2023 that have been distracting you and holding you back from God. You can pick things up that help you grow closer to Him.

What will you leave behind?

What will you pick up for the journey God has ahead of you?

There are choices to be made, and we stand at this year's peak. There will be other mountains to climb next year. There will be valleys to travel through, fields to plant, chores to do, and a new harvest as well. And God will be with us each step of the way because we, as His adopted children, have His Holy Spirit with us. And not only with us, inside us.

We become like the people we spend the most time with. Children pick up the mannerisms of their parents at a young age. When they get older, they begin to look like them. It happens outside of blood relationships, also. Married couples look and act alike over time, functioning as two parts of one whole in moments rather than separate entities. Our lives are like clay, malleable and ready to be molded by those around us. Think then about how much potential we have when the Spirit of God lives inside us.

While we may not be able to imagine ourselves as the perfect child God deserves, we have seen the model in Jesus Christ lived out in the power of the Holy Spirit. We know it has been done, and Jesus invites us to follow Him. We can become the people we cannot see and have never known because God is leading us, and He knows the way. We will get to where we need to be and become the people God created us to be if we follow where He leads.

Where is God leading you today?