Joint Heirs
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
Good morning church fam! We are in week 4 of our study through the book of Galatians that Paul wrote to the new converts in Galatia.
Anytime truth is proclaimed, there is always a chance for the enemy to come in and distort that truth or twist it or add to it. What we have been learning over the past few weeks is simply:
Jesus + Nothing = Freedom
There is nothing we need to add to our salvation in order to be set free from guilt, shame, and condemnation. Jesus has fulfilled what we could not.
In the Old Testament the Law was a means to guarding mankind or preparing mankind for the coming of Christ. God made a covenant with mankind.
I don’t think we truly understand covenant in our culture because it is not a custom. We operate in contracts.
We really need to understand that God did not make a contract with mankind.
In terms of initiation, contracts are made by the exchange of promises, whereas covenants are sworn by solemn oaths. In application, contracts are limited by the terms of the exchange of property (“this is yours, that is mine”), while covenants involve an exchange of life (“I am yours, you are mine”),
We see an example of this in Scripture when God said,
2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
Notice that He states this right before the ten commandments. Because God’s people belong to God and He to them. As a rescued people God called them to live a certain way as it related to God and one another.
Covenants were taken very seriously and not to be taken lightly. As we know, mankind failed at honoring the covenant. In biblical times when you failed to uphold the covenant or you broke the covenant, the one whom you broke covenant with had the right to take your life.
The only way out of the covenant was death or if a better covenant came along to replace it.
Fast forward to the New Testament. Jesus steps on the scene. God still had a covenant with man and because man could not fulfill his side of the covenant, Jesus came in as the perfect man to fulfill mans part. A better covenant came.
17 “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.
Because of this New Covenant, God is ours and we are God’s. We were bought with the price of the blood that was spilled on Calvary. Just like the Old Covenant, we too are a rescued people, and because we are rescued we are to live out our lives in such a way that honors God.
Living our life isn’t about rules and regulations. It isn’t about obeying the Law and the traditions of man. It is having faith in God in who He says He is while also having faith in who God says we are.
Our identity is no longer found in what I used to be before entering into a relationship with Christ. My identity is found in who He says I am. When I understand my identity, my life and life choices will reflect that.
As you know this past week Jenn and Tony McKenzie just adopted Jojo. I have never been to an adoption before. It was a great experience and my family was blessed to witness this alongside the McKenzie family.
The Lord showed me something in that adoption. I was having a conversation with Mike Smith in my office this week about this series and we started talking about Jojo and his new family.
God told me in that conversation that Jojo didn’t have to do anything to be adopted. All the legalities that were involved had to be done by Tony and Jenn. They had to do all the leg work and provide the proper documents and submit them to the judge in order for the judge to say “Jojo, you belong to the McKenzies.” All Jojo had to do is accept it. Which we know he does he already calls the momma and dadda.
What a perfect picture of what Christ did for us! Jesus did all the leg work…he did all that was legally required for us to be adopted, and He presented it all before the great Judge, God in Heaven! We don’t have to do anything. All we have to do is confess, and believe!
8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching,
9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;
10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
If you have done that, congratulations, you are now a child of God!
Identity
Identity
The issue we face though, is we haven’t accepted our new identities yet. We have been set free, but we are still living in bondage. We are still living with guilt, shame, and condemnation.
Whether it is our own belief that we need to add to the Gospel or a belief that someone else has added. This is what Paul was speaking about here in Galatians.
I am seeing it more and more I study Galatians that people are still trying to add to the Gospel message and placing people back into bondage.
This past week I shared a meme that someone made with these exact words on it:
“The military has a dress code. The police department has a dress code. Jobs have a dress code. So why does everyone get so upset when the church has a dress code. My friend we should dress our best for church, for we are coming to worship the King!”
This is a prime example of how people today are still adding to the Gospel. What this is saying is that we should dress a certain way when we come to church.
Not too long ago I had a gentleman that frequents our food pantry ministry come up to me and said, “Pastor, I would love to come to church, but I don’t have nice shoes.”
Why would he believe that? At some point in his life he was told you need to look a certain way in order to worship God. You got Jesus, great, but you need some nicer shoes if you are going to walk with the Lord.
Here is what God told me, “As long as you know my Son Jesus, you are dressed the best you can be! Nothing else required!”
10 I will rejoice greatly in the Lord, My soul will exult in my God; For He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
When the church cares more about peoples outward appearance more than their heart posture, we are missing it!
Your identity is not found in the clothes you wear, it is found in who you know.
Let’s dive into chapter 4 of Galatians and see what God says.
Joint Heirs
Joint Heirs
At the end of chapter 3, Paul makes a statement that sets up the foundation for chapter 4.
27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.
Paul is reminding these new believers in Galatia of the covenant that was made between God and Abraham. Their identity wasn’t found in being Jew, Greek, slave, free, male, female…their identity was found in who Christ said they are.
If you are in Christ, Paul is saying that they are heirs to the Kingdom according to the Abrahamic Covenant that was made.
An heir is one who receives his allotted possession by his sonship. Paul is saying that when you come to Christ, you are now a part of the family. You have been adopted God’s family. With that adoption, you now have access to protection, provision, and identity.
4 But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law,
5 so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.
This is foundational that we understand what Paul is saying. If we build our faith understanding that Jesus paid the price for our freedom not only from sin, but also the Law, we can walk in the freedom He speaks about.
We are not a slave to the Law, we are now free in Christ Jesus. My freedom is not in what I do, but in who He is. I am a child of God.
Trust in God
Trust in God
Accepting the adoption of God is going to require something from us.
Trust.
6 Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
Abba is an intimate word that Paul uses. Abba, a casual form of address used by little Jewish children toward their fathers. Some say it is best translated “Papa” or “Daddy,”.
Regardless, this opened the possibility of undreamed-of, unheard-of intimacy with God. In any other great world religion it is unthinkable to address almighty God as “Abba.”
Yet this is what God is to us. As someone who grew up in a home without a father, I know it can be difficult to view God in this way. Especially if your earthly father was not loving, full of grace, forgiveness, ect.
So it is going to require trust. It is a child like trust.
2 Jesus called a little child to him and put the child among them.
3 Then he said, “I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven.
4 So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.
5 “And anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf is welcoming me.
You only get that trust when you have an intimate relationship with God. The only way you can have an intimate relationship with God is understanding that you are His child.
Awhile back I was at a Chamber of Commerce event at the Memorial Hall and the theme was Royalty. I bought a crown made out of a material that was too hot to wear in this heat. Needless to say I didn’t wear it.
A gentleman who was Mormon approached me and asked me where my costume was. He was all decked out. I told him I was a child of the King and I didn’t need a costume. He then told me, “Everyone is a child of God.”
I said in a polite way, “No. Not everyone is a child of God.” I could see right away that he didn’t agree with me. So I said, “You’re a child of God if you have a relationship with Jesus.”
You see, everyone is the creation of God, we are all made in His image, but the Word is very specific that it is only through Christ that we become adopted into the family of God.
12 “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”
9 “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
It is ONLY through Jesus can one become a child of God! It’s not what you do, it’s who you know.
Understanding this concept of adoption will change how you live.
I point back to Josiah and his family. Josiah through adoption has protection, provision, and a new identity.
His family will protect him from all harm. I see this on a daily basis. When he is in the office Jenn is always watching out for him. Not only is she as his mother, but also the other staff. We watch out for him because he is a part of our church family.
Jojo trusts his family and trusts those who has his best interest at heart.
God, our Abba, has your best interest at heart. But you have to put your trust in him.
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding.
There is so much freedom that comes in trusting God as Abba Father. I do not need to understand everything going on around me. I trust in God.
4 Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires.
5 Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you.
6 He will make your innocence radiate like the dawn, and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun.
The phrase “delight in the Lord” means to be amorous. We are to be amorous with the Lord. Not in a sexual way, but in a romantic way. Romantic love combines intimacy, passion, and commitment.
You become one with the Lord. Jesus actually prayed for this.
21 that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.
Some use this verse as a way to get what they set their hearts on and when they don’t receive it they blame God. The reason they don’t receive is their hearts are not aligned with the Fathers.
When we become so infatuated with God, we will desire what He desires. Just as in a marriage you are one with each other, we become one in God.
Jesus was so in tune with God, He only did what He seen the Father doing.
19 Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.
What if the church had this type of relationship with the Father?
I believe the Western church world wouldn’t get caught up in in doing ministries for the sake of being busy.
I believe we would be too occupied with what God is doing that we would have no time to get into debates about what dress is appropriate for church, should we worship on Sunday or Saturday, whether or not church lasted an hour, two hours, or forty five minutes.
I believe we would be so focused on God that we would walk around in such freedom that those around us would take notice and would want to know how they can be free as well.
I pray that this is helping someone get free from the bondage of trying to be the best Christian. Stop trying and start living in Christ. Start living in freedom.
Can’t go Back
Can’t go Back
Once you see this stuff it is hard to unsee it. My heart breaks like Paul’s. Listen to his words.
9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again?
10 You observe days and months and seasons and years.
11 I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.
Paul is asking a rhetorical question. Why would you want to go back just to be enslaved again to the rules and regulations that can’t save anyone? The Old Covenant can’t save anyone.
Paul is emphasizing over and over that in Christ, believers are free from the requirements of the Jewish law. The observance of specific days and seasons is no longer necessary for justification or spiritual maturity.
These Galatians were buying into the lie they had to practice certain behaviors. They were buying the lie of trying to earn their salvation through works of a less than covenant.
We are told by the writer of Hebrews that Jesus is the better covenant.
6 But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises.
10 “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel After those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their minds, And I will write them on their hearts. And I will be their God, And they shall be My people.
We belong to God and God belongs to us under the New Covenant.
I refuse to allow someone to pull me back in the bondage of the Law and I refuse to put others into the bondage of trying to add something to the Gospel message that is not even there or that Christ took care of on the cross.
Closing
Closing
As we close, let's remember the powerful truth Paul shared with the Galatians:
We are no longer slaves under the law, but children of God through faith in Christ.
This means we can live in the freedom and grace that Jesus has given us, without the burden of legalistic rituals.
Are there areas where you might be clinging to traditions or practices, thinking they will earn God's favor?
Are you adding to the Gospel and putting it onto others intentionally or unintentionally?
Let go of those, and embrace the freedom that comes from knowing you are a beloved child of God. Just like Josiah didn’t have to do anything but accept the adoption from his new dad and mom, you too just have to accept that you are loved by God, and through Christ you are His child.
If you have not accepted Christ and want to live in the freedom and become adopted into the family of God, you can do that today.
The good thing about being adopted into the family of God is that it is instantaneous. No waiting for all the paperwork and legal documents. As Jesus said on the cross, “It is finish.”
This applies to those watching online. You don’t need to get to a church to accept Jesus. But you should get to a church after you do and meet your new brothers and sisters in Christ.
If that is you today, I invite you to repeat this simple prayer.
“Jesus,
I know that I am a sinner and I ask for Your forgiveness. I believe You died for my sins and rose from the dead. I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and life. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior.
Thank You for saving me and giving me the gift of eternal life.
In Jesus' name, Amen.”
This week, let's live out this truth. Let us encourage one another to walk in the grace and freedom that Christ provides, and be a testament to the world of the transforming power of the gospel.