Freed From Our White Knuckling

Have y’all ever heard the phrase “white knuckling” before?...

There’s a pastor named Matt Chandler and he talks about how a lot of people try to white knuckle their way into God’s approval...

If you’ve paid any attention in Simple Worship this year then you should know that this is not the Gospel. It’s not how you get saved, we’ve been talking about that. It’s also not how you live the Christian life, and that’s what we’re going to talk about tonight.

Don’t get tricked into going back to slavery, even when it gets difficult.

READ Scripture and pray

Don’t return to slavery

We’ve got to see and resist the tendency to go back to our old ways, even if they don’t look exactly like our old ways.

Show a few of the “guy looking back” memes

The Galatians were pagans before they were Christians, which means...

These different gods had festivals that people came up with to celebrate to get stuff from them.

Paul says they left that way behind when they began their relationships with God.

He also makes an important little point that our salvation and relationship with God is initiated by God, not by us!

Remember the issue that Paul is addressing with the Galatians, the Judaizers...

It seems different, but the Galatians are essentially doing the same thing they were doing before by trying to be obedient to these Jewish laws and festivals and rituals to gain God’s approval.

The most ridiculous thing about it is that they already have God’s approval!

If you’re exempt from an exam, are you going to try and go take the exam anyway? No! So why would you do this!?

Paul is saying that following these rituals and laws to earn your approval before God is no better than worshipping false gods!

But we tend to do this same things! Before I was a Christian everything I did was to get the approval of other people. After I became a Christian, I knew I was saved by grace, but I still was doing all the Christian stuff for the approval of God and of church people.

Working for the approval of others was what I did to fill that missing piece of my heart before Jesus, and I went back to it. It just looked a little different.

I think so many Christians tend to do this. We’ve got to see it and keep ourselves away from it. Look what Paul says in verse 11...

No one is losing their salvation. Paul is saying that it may be that some of the people who seemed to be saved actually weren’t. It’s a scary idea, but it’s real!

Matthew 7:22 HCSB

On that day many will say to Me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in Your name, drive out demons in Your name, and do many miracles in Your name?’

Matthew 7:22

It’s not that you lose your salvation, you show you didn’t have it to begin with when you ultimately choose something besides Jesus’ Gospel!

So how do you know if you’re truly saved then? You continue to follow Jesus and hold to the truth of Jesus!

Some of you will drift away, and I pray that there will be people like Paul in your life who will beg you not to.

Be on guard for people who lead you astray

Paul begs them to wake up and see what these Judaizers are doing. We’ve got to be paying attention so that we see when people are leading us astray. That’s the first vantage point of this section.

There’s this fun thing I like to do with Kristen when we’re walking in public places. If I see a column or a trashcan or something that we’re headed towards, I’ll start subtly moving us towards it and I’ll do my best to get Kristen focused on something else. Usually she catches me now, but I used to be pretty good about leading her into it. She even ran over a trash can or two since they aren’t eye level!

Whether they knew it or not, these Judaizers were leading the Galatian Christians straight into trouble. Paul is telling them to wake up and see it because it isn’t what he preached to them.

But it’s not always easy to know if someone is telling us truth or not. So what do we do? We have to go to the source of truth to test everything!

1 Thessalonians 5:21 HCSB

but test all things. Hold on to what is good.

1 Thessalonians 5:20–21 HCSB

Don’t despise prophecies, but test all things. Hold on to what is good.

2 Timothy 3:16–17 HCSB

All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

We’ve got to know God’s Word to be ready to spot bad teaching.

Another important thing to look at is in verse 17. He says the Judaizers were trying to isolate them, keep them away from Paul. They knew Paul would win the debate!

I know God’s Word is true, so I may tell you to be on guard against false teachers, but I’m not afraid to let this Bible stand against any teaching that comes against it.

If I were afraid, then I might tell you not to talk with or listen to anyone who preached something different than what we preach here.

Be ready to suffer some for the Gospel

We will have relationships that will suffer because we believe in this truth and people who don’t believe it will sometime get upset about it, especially if we share it with them. This is Paul’s perspective of this section.

I had a sweatshirt in high school that said in big block letters “abortion is mean”. It’s right, but I don’t know that I chose the best way to send that message! But I remember one day at school I walked by a girl in the hall and she gave me this look. She asked, “What if someone has had an abortion and sees that?” I don’t remember my response exactly, but it was something to the effect of “then she shouldn’t have had an abortion if it upsets her”. This girl was clearly angry with what my shirt said and what I said. I don’t think I was saying it in the best way, but it was true.

Paul loved the Galatians, you can hear it in what he says to them. And he is hurt because they are turning on him. You should expect that people will get upset with you sometimes because you proclaim the truth of God’s Word.

John 15:20 HCSB

Remember the word I spoke to you: ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will also keep yours.

This is Jesus speaking. Paul says in

2 Timothy 3:12 HCSB

In fact, all those who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

So really, if you’ve never experienced persecution because of your faith then there’s a good chance you’re not living it out the way that you should.

But even in the midst of that, Paul still keeps his focus and doesn’t let it throw him off. Look at verse 19...

We have to have Paul’s heart here. Paul’s love for God’s glory and love for other people. That’s who we’re supposed to be as a ministry right?

Simple; love God, love people

But it’s so easy to love what others think of us more than we love God and love people. But we have to put others first. The stakes are too high to not speak God’s truth because we don’t want people to be mad at us!

Do we want to be popular or faithful? That’s the questions we’ve got to answer!

Paul wants to be faithful, so he makes another attempt to explain to them what they are doing.

The Gospel is freedom

Paul does something a little different here. He says, “if you want to submit to the Jewish law, then lets look at it and I’ll show you something!”

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He then uses this illustration from the story of Abraham and Sarah...

Explain the story, then read the passage.

The difficulty that resulted for all of them as a result of what Abraham did with Hagar is an illustration for what happens when we try to white knuckle our approval from God. It goes bad.

And notice that Abraham did what God said He would do. Abraham got himself a son. But God told Abraham he would give him a son.

When we do things we are supposed to do, but we do them to try and gain God’s favor, we’re doing it wrong. God said He would give us his favor based on what Jesus did, we don’t have to do anything.

David Platt asks this question

What if Satan’s strategy to condemn your soul involves not tempting you do do all the wrong things, but instead leading you to do all the right things with the wrong spirit? What if Satan actually wants you to come to church, lead a small group, teach, and lead your home in an upright way? What if he’s in favor of you doing all those things, just so long as you think that by doing those things you’re working your way to God?

The things we do for God must be done in faith. Faith that when God tells us his way is better, he’s right. That’s different than doing it so God will be happy with you.

If you’re a Christian, you can’t live your life trying to earn God’s favor. You already have it! Live by faith in Him, not by your white knuckling to make Him happy with you!

If you aren’t a Christian then you’re probably living under the pressure and stress and fear of trying to be good enough. The Gospel offers forgiveness, love, and approval from the One you’re seeking it from, whether you know it or not.