Being Childlike Without Being Childish

Being Childlike Without Being Childish

(When the Heir is a Child)

11/23/02 and 11/24/02

Galatians 3

26 You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

4 What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. 2 He is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. 3 So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world. 4 But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, 5 to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. 6 Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, a Father.” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.

-This passage of Scripture has been really coming alive to me recently.

-I found myself focusing on “as long as the heir is a child”.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

-There is a specific context here. Paul is talking to the Galatians who had just been saved and were growing in their relationship with God.

-Suddenly they were leaving grace and going back to the law. They were trying to please God by keeping rules and regulations. They were saved but trying to go back to Judaism.

-The law was given to lead us to Jesus. The law came through Moses but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

-There are different words for child and son in the greek.

-In the culture a child was given to a tutor to educate and care for. This was the child’s guardian. At about 14 or so he graduated to the next level where he was not yet the manager of the estate until he was about 25 or so.

-The law was this tutor for all of mankind. We were all held over by the guardian until Jesus came and released us into freedom as sons.

-Why would a son want to go back to kindergarten and play with blocks? That would be boring.  

-Paul says as children you are in slavery to the basic principles or abc’s of this world.

-You are still into Ophrahisms and self-help and all of the world’s best efforts.

-Paul says it is time to graduate and be who God made us to be.

SPECIFIC APLICATION

-We could call this next part, SPANKING YOUR INNER CHILD.

-We are told to be childlike in our approach to God. We should have faith and be trusting like a child is.

-That isn’t the same as being childish.

1 Corinthians 13

11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.       

-What are the ways of a child?

SELFISHNESS

JEALOUS

INSECURE

IMPATIENT

NO RESPECT FOR AUTHORITY

-There are some great characteristics as well:

TRUST

SIMPLICITY

JOY

WORRY FREE

-The thought that kept coming to me was that many Christians are EMOTIONALLY IMMATURE.

-Ann Hagen said her counselor said she was EMOTIONALLY RETARDED.

-It is possible to grow spiritually and physically and still be an emotional basket case.

-We have often seen our emotions as the enemy.

-I once asked a well known minister how to stay emotionally healthy in the ministry and he laughed.

-I’ve faced down demons and physical problems and financial problems……but the emotional area is left to the black hole.

-The greatest problems in the ministry are emotional problems like rejection.

-The greatest problems in marriage are emotional problems like insecurity, fear and jealousy.

-Did God give us emotions and then make them bad somehow?

-Can we face reality?

-I am going to challenge us to confront our emotions with the truth and drop the anchor of hope for our soul.

-Some people are drifting with the current. Sometimes they hit whitewater and sometimes they hit peaceful waters. Their circumstances are controlling them.

-Drop the anchor of hope and be stable.

-Stop being a victim and be a victor.

-As long as the heir is a child-he is no different from a slave although he owns the whole estate.

-What things are you in bondage and slavery to.

-What areas of your innermost being have been off-limits even to God?

-What rooms in your house are locked with the lights out?

-What part of you have you just been dragging along with no hope that it can ever be different?

-Is it insecurity? Jealousy? Fear? Anger that has turned to bitterness?

WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO DO TO GROW EMOTIONALLY

1.    BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF

-Stop blaming the way you are on someone else.

-You are who God made you. Develop that. Your circumstances should not be allowed to define you.

-Joseph stayed emotionally healthy even when he was rejected. He was able to forgive.

-His past didn’t make him a victim. He had a good attitude.

-He was mistreated and he didn’t look for someone to blame. (His mother, his third grade teacher, his dad, God or whatever.)

Genesis 50

15 When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him?” 16 So they sent word to Joseph, saying, “Your father left these instructions before he died: 17 ‘This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.’ Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father.” When their message came to him, Joseph wept.

18 His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. “We are your slaves,” they said.

19 But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? 20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. 21 So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.

-That is a picture of an emotionally healthy person. His past didn’t warrant that. He came from a messed up home.

-Jesus asked for the Father to forgive His murderers.

-Stephen asked for forgiveness for his killers as well.

-It is like Victor Frankel, a prisoner who basically said he was always free because he was free on the inside.

-If circumstances can’t have your heart, they don’t have you.

-Are there some things in your heart and soul that are chains to you?

-Are there still some emotionally childish things in there?

-I have to answer yes.

-I’m not above being very hurt by circumstances and people.

-Lester Sumrall said to be like an alligator-tender hearted but thick skinned.

2.    BE HONEST WITH  GOD

-If you read the Psalms of David you see a man who is very emotional.

-He had great feelings, great passion, and great anger.

-Usually he expressed it properly.

-Telling God the way you feel has its place.

-There is a place to pray the word and speak the answer, not the problem.

-There is also a place to be honest with God

-Some people never express grief, or anger or emotions.

-They become emotionally constipated and bitter.

-It is right to express your emotions to God.

John 17

“Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4 I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

6 “I have revealed you a to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8 For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11 I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name—the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.

13 “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify b them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

Jesus Prays for All Believers

20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23 I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

25 “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26 I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”





Matthew 26

36 Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” 37 He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”

39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

40 Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. 41 “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”

42 He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”

43 When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. 44 So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.

45 Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour is near, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46 Rise, let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”

I am spellbound by the intensity of Jesus' emotions: Not a twinge of pity, but heartbroken compassion; not a passing irritation, but terrifying anger; not a silent tear, but groans of anguish; not a weak smile, but ecstatic celebration. Jesus' emotions are like a mountain river cascading with clear water. My emotions are more like a muddy foam or a feeble trickle.  

G. Walter Hansenin, Christianity Today.

-Be honest with God.

-Don’t isolate and vegetate.

-Tell God the truth so He can heal you.

-Are you jealous? Are you insecure? Are you afraid?

3.    BE HONEST WITH A FRIEND

James 3

13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. 14 But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. 15 Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil. 16 For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.

17 But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. 18 Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.

4     What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God.

James 5 NLB

13 Are any among you suffering? They should keep on praying about it. And those who have reason to be thankful should continually sing praises to the Lord.

14 Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And their prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make them well. And anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven.

16 Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and wonderful results. 17 Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for the next three and a half years! 18 Then he prayed for rain, and down it poured. The grass turned green, and the crops began to grow again.

-You can not be emotionally healthy without trustworthy friends.

-John speaks again and again about the joy that comes from fellowship and walking in the truth.

-You are emotionally mature when you can mature your emotions.

A group of motion-picture engineers classified the following as the ten most dramatic sounds in the movies: a baby's first cry; the blast of a siren; the thunder of breakers on rocks; the roar of a forest fire; a foghorn; the slow drip of water; the galloping of horses; the sound of a distant train whistle; the howl of a dog; the wedding march. And one of these sounds causes more emotional response and upheaval than any other, has the power to bring forth almost every human emotion: sadness, envy, regret, sorrow, tears, as well as supreme joy. It is the wedding march.  

James S. Flora in Pulpit Digest.

Persons who have uneven temperaments appear to have a much greater chance of developing serious illness and of dying young than do those with other temperaments. 

Drs. Barbara J. Betz and Caroline B. Thomas report in the Johns Hopkins Medical Journal.

Examples-CRUISE-FOOD IS INCLUDED

PICTURE FRAME OF POOR WOMAN-BOND WORTH A FORTUNE

-How are you doing?

-Is this area off limits from God?

-It is wonderful to experience the acceptance and joy of walking before God and man in integrity and truth.

-This is the theology of Popeye-I YAM WHAT I YAM AND THAT’S ALL THAT I YAM.

-What is keeping you from being an heir?

-What is keeping you from being released into Sonship?

-The estate is yours.

-It is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.

-Stop being a slave and be a Son.

-Be made new in the spirit/attitude of your mind.