A Pastor’s Heart

Introduction

For the last two months I’ve told myself the same thing every Sunday night or Monday morning. Don’t grab the dessert & count your calories you bum!!

A year ago on sabbatical I was incredibly disciplined with food. One of the best seasons of my life that I was able to actually refrain from over eating and rejecting dessert. As a result, I felt great, lost weight, and was really content about how I looked which might have been a first. I felt like I was finally free of the self image issues & bondage that sweets have on me.

But there's something deeply strange about freedom.

You'd think once someone is free, they'd stay free. But that's not how it works, not for any of us. We have this almost gravitational pull back toward the things that used to hold us. Not because they were good. Not because they made us happy. But because they were familiar. Because at some level, we knew how to live inside them.

Think about it this way. When you've been performing for approval your whole life, you measuring your worth by what you accomplish, how you're perceived, whether people are pleased with you, and then the gospel comes in and tells you: you are already accepted, fully and finally, not because of anything you've done. That should be the most liberating news you've ever heard.

And it is. For a moment.

But then Monday comes. And the old habits creep back in. You start keeping score again. You start measuring. You add just a little bit of spiritual effort to the equation, not instead of grace, just alongside it. Just to be safe. Just to make sure.

What you've just done is reach for a chain that no longer belongs on you.

Main Point:

Galatians 4 this morning has something for each of us that we need to receive and believe. True Spiritual Care tells you the truth. The truth is that Christ has already set you free.

We’ll see this fleshed out in 3 stages of the passage. First we’ll see how God is greater than your enslavement, second Paul’s call to allow one another to tell the truth, and finally the heart of the passage that real love suffers for your freedom. Read with me again verses 8-11 to see how God is greater than your enslavement.

Galatians 4:8–11 “But in the past, since you didn’t know God, you were enslaved to things that by nature are not gods. But now, since you know God, or rather have become known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elements? Do you want to be enslaved to them all over again? You are observing special days, months, seasons, and years. I am fearful for you, that perhaps my labor for you has been wasted.”

Point 1: God is Greater than your Enslavement (v. 8-11)

Paul has been giving these rich theological statements and illustrations to help the Galatians see that the false teachers are actually leading them to a false gospel. He’s been reminding them of truth, but in our section this morning, it’s not just doctrine that compels him to write this letter. What we see is Paul takes a break from the doctrinal dissertation and has that propels him forward to demonstrate his heart and love for the people. It becomes something that he argues to them but now a passionate plea with a desire for them.

Argument

He brings up who they were before they came to faith in Christ. The Galatians were gentiles who were held to worshipping their false gods and idols. They had their own religious rituals that they participated in. They were licentious and lived immoral lifestyles. They were enslaved to those things.

Known by God

But in verse 9 Paul shows them how what their problem is now, isn’t different at all from what it was before. Before it was pagan false gods. Now what they deal with is idol worship of legalism. In verse 10 he says that they’re stuck observing these special holidays depending on them for merit in their relationship with God. Their works based legalistic beliefs are just as bad if not worse that the past enslavement. Before they could at least admit and see that they followed other gods. Their legalistic religious copy of the Christian faith blinds them because it’s less obvious to them.

But verse 9 compels them with the truth. You now know God. And even more so, you don’t just know God, God knows you! This language of knowing one another “gnosis” in the Greek is more than intellectual understanding of facts. But this knowledge is an intimate relational knowledge of one another.

How can you turn back to the things that pull you away from him? Do you not see how much better God’s grace and kindness is? Do you not remember how earth shattering the gospel of grace is? Remember how powerful and profound it was when you first understood that God completed the work for you and your salvation was not resting on your achievement, work, or pleasing of God, but upon Jesus work for you?

How much better is God intimate relationship with you? God is present with you even when you couldn’t earn to be in the room with him. God’s intimate relationship with you is greater because even in your sin, his forgiveness grips you with his presence. His grace is better because you receive favor that you never deserved in his eyes. His mercy is more because it continues to hold you close to him even when you deserved punishment in your sin. His redeemed power and freedom in his arms is greater because you didn’t talk your way into the gates of heaven.

It’s not just that Paul says to put down the chains of enslavement to them because it’s good to be known by God, but also because the things they were holding on to are weak and worthless.

Weak & Worthless

How much greater is God than what you used to be enslaved to?

That performance based faith, it has not finish line. There is no moment where you have performed enough to be secure. Every achievement raises the bar because the bar isn't external, it's internal, and your conscience always finds a reason to move it. It is worthless because even your best days don't actually solve the problem of guilt or shame.

Justification is a verdict already rendered. It doesn't fluctuate with your performance. On your worst day before God, your standing before him is identical to your best day because it is Christ's performance credited to you, not yours. That is unbreakable because it doesn't rest on something that can break. You cannot out-fail the righteousness of Christ imputed to you.

Approval from other people is unstable. People change their minds. The person whose approval you're chasing today may withdraw it tomorrow for reasons entirely outside your control. It is worthless because even when you get it, it doesn't satisfy, it only creates a greater hunger for more.

God knows you in v. 9, Paul's exact language. Not knows about you. Knows you. The same relational, covenantal knowing that runs through Scripture from Genesis forward. To be known by the One whose opinion is the only one that ultimately matters, and to be loved in that knowing, is security that no human approval can replicate or remove. You are not performing for an audience that might leave. You are known by the One who cannot be wrong about you and will not change his mind.

Spiritual metrics like quiet time streaks, service hours, theological knowledge are weak because they reduce an infinite relationship to a scoreboard. They are worthless because they measure activity as a proxy for transformation. You can hit every metric and remain unchanged at the level of your desires, your fears, and your loves. The metric ends up becoming the point instead of Christ.

The Spirit produces fruit, Not metrics. Fruit is organic, it comes from being connected to the vine, and it cannot be manufactured by willpower or tracked by a spreadsheet. It is priceless because it means your spiritual life is not a performance you maintain, it is a relationship you inhabit.

God is greater than your enslavement.

Application

Whatever it is that you might feel enslaved to, you don’t need it.

Whether it’s gluttony and the feeling of satisfaction,

pornography that you hope it will please you,

approval of others dreaming that you’ll be known,

gossip that you hope makes you feel like you’re better about yourself,

drunkeness that is a false sense of escape,

coveting and consuming because it will help you feel like you have status.

Every single one of those old things that you are enslaved to is nothing in comparison to be known by the living God.

You have intimacy with him that satisfies your soul, pleasure in the perfect relationship that brings us peace, approval at every turn in the adoption as sons, status as heirs to the kingdom of heaven and all the riches we need in Christ Jesus that will never fade or turn to dust. We are known by the living God. He is far greater than anything we could be enslaved to.

God is greater than your enslavement. Put the chains down and walk in your freedom.

The truth that God is greater than your enslavement isn’t just Paul reminding them of how weak and worthless their old chains are, but he also reminds them of their relationship.

Galatians 4:12–16 “I beg you, brothers and sisters: Become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You have not wronged me; you know that previously I preached the gospel to you because of a weakness of the flesh. You did not despise or reject me though my physical condition was a trial for you. On the contrary, you received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus himself. Where, then, is your blessing? For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me. So then, have I become your enemy because I told you the truth?”

Point 2: Allow One Another to Tell the Truth (v. 12-16)

Argument

It sounds arrogant at first when Paul tells them to become like him, but he’s not saying he’s so amazing so they need to be like him. What he is communicating is something he has said to others as well. To follow him and become like him in living in the freedom of walking with Christ. That they would walk freely in their growth as they are all transformed into the image of Christ as they follow Jesus.

He also says that he became like them when he first visited them. It’s similar language to what Paul says that to a jew he became and jew and to the greeks he became a greek. He began to understand the culture and adopt some of their culture in order to reach them for Christ. He became like them so that he could contextualize the gospel to make sense to them.

As a staff several years ago, we went through a training on God’s heart for the globe and one of the people groups that we learned about was the Hmong people group. Part of their spiritual beliefs is that there are many spirits and through honor, worship, offerings, these spirits would do different things. So as we learned about their belief system, we had to work through how to talk to them about Jesus as not just another spirit to add to their alter of protection, but as the one and only true God. We had to learn how to contextualize the gospel so that it would make sense to them.

They’re Love for Paul

In verse 14 Paul brings up how they welcomed him when he first arrived. Paul was a man whom they did not know and from a different background. Paul was a man who was not planning to make a long stop in Galatia, but due to being ill and God’s work to redirect him, Paul strolled on in. Now Paul was in a horrible condition at this point. We don’t really know what it was, what he looked like, or how beat up his body was, but the picture that we receive here and through other passages Paul doesn’t paint himself to look like some cleaned up guy that seems like he’d be fine to welcome into your home. It’s the exact opposite.

But the Galatians welcomed him with open arms. Paul goes so far to mention how they received him as an angel of God, they treat him as Jesus himself. They shell out for how they love and care for Paul. They don’t just give him water and a bed for a night, but they express an overwhelming welcome and begin a beautiful relationship together that allows him to preach the gospel and teach them about Christ. They love Paul so well that he uses this phrase in v. 15, they would have torn out their eyes for him. We only go as far as sometimes giving people the shirt on our backs.

Treated like an Enemy

But now, because these false teachers have come in and corrupted their minds with false teachings about the gospel and about Paul, they’re cold toward him.

But now, as Paul tells them the truth, they treat him as an enemy. RC Sproul once said “there is now quicker way to make enemies than to tell people the truth.”

I love my wife. One of my favorite things about my wife is that when I’m arrogant or proud, she tells me like it is. She’ll point it out and call me up. She shoots me with the truth. But you know what I also get the most frustrated with my wife about? When she points out when I’m wrong or when she tells me that my ego is too big. Why? Because she’s telling me the truth and I don’t want to believe it.

You know it. When someone corrects you or when you’ve corrected someone, it can easily become hostile.

But the point Paul is making in sharing about their relationship is that his love for them is what drives him to speak the truth to them. It would not be loving for him to just allow them to continue on in this works based faith that they have been led to believe. It would not be compassionate for him to just let them go and leave them alone.

Application

Our love for one another allows us to speak the truth to each other. And sometimes, it’s met with hostility. We also need to be wise in how we go about correcting others. Because if we’re just sharp and pointed without actually trying to interact, we’re just trying to prove a point or win an argument. Or honestly just put someone down so we feel good about ourselves.

How do you treat people who tell you the truth, even if its hard? Do you turn them into enemies? Or do you respond in humility and walk with them to honor the Lord in your life?

Allowing one another to speak the truth is actually a labor for our freedom.

Galatians 4:17–20 “They court you eagerly, but not for good. They want to exclude you from me, so that you would pursue them. But it is always good to be pursued in a good manner—and not just when I am with you. My children, I am again suffering labor pains for you until Christ is formed in you. I would like to be with you right now and change my tone of voice, because I don’t know what to do about you.”

Point 3: Real Love Suffers for Your Freedom (v. 17-20)

Argument

Here’s the thing about false teachers that Paul wants to show the Galatians. False teacher sound appealing to their ears. They tell you what won’t ruffle feathers. They make everything appealing and they even make you feel good about yourself.

False teachers may be saying things to them like “great offering and sacrifice, you are seen by God. I noticed you’ve been consistent to the feasts and holiday ceremonies, you keep that up and God’s always going to be please with you. Keep cleansing yourself, God will help you feel his forgiveness if you keep at it!”

These people communicate and tell them that all these rituals will continue to help them grow & please God. But really all their doing is fill people with empty flattery that does nothing but puff themselves up and make people dependent on them. Their care isn’t actually for a love of the people, but it’s for their own legalism. They claim to want disciples, but they just want dependents to follow them.

Paul Labor

But Paul’s labor is one that isn’t always going to come with flattery. Pauls labor and love for them to grow in Christ comes with correction sometimes. He wants Christ to be formed in them so much that he’s willing to suffer their rejection, he’s willing to be beaten and mocked, he’s willing to go the extra mile for them to have Christ formed in them. He shoots them with the truth because he wants them to know truth. He is laboring for their formation, not their loyalty.

He uses the image of labor in verse 19 as he demonstrates his labor for them is like a mother who suffers labor pains for the arrival of her child. The Galatians are the child who is not yet fully born. He wants them to be spiritually mature and full conformity to Jesus as he labors to teach them and come along side them.

This is the heart of a pastor who wants so much for his people to be conformed into the image of Christ.

Illustration of me as the pastor caring for them??

Gospel: Christ labored and suffered for you to be free of enslavement.

Paul though is nothing in comparison to the one whom he points them to. Jesus is the greater Paul. Paul labored for Christ to be formed in them, but Jesus himself went through death, the ultimate labor and work so that you could be born again into freedom.

In the Old Testament and in Jewish apocalyptic thinking, birth-pangs are a standard image for the suffering that precedes new creation. Isaiah uses it. Jeremiah uses it. The suffering before the new age arrives is described as the labor pains of a woman giving birth. The image carries the idea: something has to go through anguish for new life to come out the other side.

Paul's labor in v. 19 is a pastoral echo of the cross. He suffers so that Christ is formed in them. Christ suffered so that they could be born at all. Paul is in agony until the image of Christ takes shape in the Galatians, but Christ himself went through the agony of death so that they could have life to form in the first place.

Conclusion

Church, you have been known by God. It’s not just that you know God, but the living God knows you. That is the foundation of our freedom. You don’t pick your chains back up because you’re not a slave anymore, you’re known and free in Christ.

The chains have no claim on you anymore. Not because you're strong enough to refuse them but because the One who knows you already broke them.