Sermon Tone Analysis

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.

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*/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.

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-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.

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*/18 His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him.

“We are your slaves,” they said.

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*/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.”