Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Paul continues his exhortations, his warnings to the people of Galatia and if you remember what we talked about last time you will remember that Paul changes his tone.
He might come off a little rough and gruff but now he is speaking to these folks like little children that have gone astray.
He really loves them and he really cares for them.
Paul is still going to reinforce the idea that you can’t purchase your salvation, you can’t make it any better than God’s Grace can, Paul will use a new tool here in how he reinforces these ideas.
He is talking about what it means that Christians, those who have put their trust in Jesus for their salvation alone are part of a long history of children of promise.
Children of the promise.
Instead of trusting solely in God the Galatians were trying to add to their salvation, they were trying to make it better if you will.
They are not trusting completely in God and they are going to suffer for it if they put any of their own effort into it.
Paul uses the history of an ancient family to talk about this.
Paul tells them the tragic story of Sarah and Hagar, her slave.
You may remember the story about Abram and Sarai.
These two has a special job to do for God.
They would be the beginning of the Jewish nation.
God was going to give Abram descendants like the stars of the sky, like the sand on the sea shore.
They were all too happy to receive this news but the problem was that they didn’t have any children to begin with and things did not look like they ever would have had children.
Abram was 75 when God first told him that he would have a great family.
Sarai, his wife was 65 at the time.
They didn’t have kids.
Didn’t look like kids were coming.
The well had gone dry...
Now this is a really big deal.
I need to have you understand how much of a big deal this is culturally.
Barrenness for a woman in these ancient times was the worst form of embarrassment.
Women had their identity wrapped up in giving their husband a family, a lineage and to not be able to have children would have been horrible.
It’s not that having a family was the only thing a woman was good for, that is not what I am saying.
But to not be able to have children was a big affliction in the life of a woman in this day.
It’s tragic in any day when a woman who wants to have a child can’t.
I can’t imagine the pain and disappointment associated with not being able to conceive, but I know people who have struggled with this.
In ancient Jewish times the stigma was so great that men could legally divorce their wives if within 10 years they weren’t able to conceive.
And so Sarai
You see, Sarai knew that God had spoken with Abram.
She knew what God said and God said that they would be a great nation.
That they would have children.
At this point in her life she was probably over it.
She was probably past it.
Thinking that there was no hope.
And then God spoke to her husband.
Think from Sarah’s point of view.
How could this be?
How can this happen?
I am 65.
As we keep reading through Genesis we see that time passes, and we see that Sarai gets impatient.
Years go by, probably about 10.
She didn’t see how it would work.
So she did the only thing they knew how to do, fix it on her own.
It may seem like it makes sense… God helps those who help themselves right?
Wrong!
Nowhere in the Word of God will you find the phrase, God helps those who help themselves”.
Nowhere.
But tragically this is what Sarah does.
It was not uncommon to obtain children this way.
It doesn’t necessarily make it right.
When God instituted marriage between the man and the woman in
One flesh, one wife to become one.
Nowhere in Scripture does God condone someone having multiple wives.
Even though you see some of the hero’s of the faith participate in it, it doesn’t make it right.
David had multiple wives, solomon did too.
But that doesn’t mean that it was right in God’s eyes.
So Sarah gives her servant to Abraham to have a child with.
Interesting that Abraham listened to the voice of Sarai, succumbed to her pressures.
He isn’t leading her in the way of the Lord.
He is going along with her.
Not that adoption is wrong, it isn’t.
It is actually a blessing.
Not only are parents given the children they couldn’t have themselves, they are rescuing a child that so desperately needs a family.
Remember again how we have been adopted into God’s family.
We are blessed because of the unselfish act of God’s adoption of us.
But the story Paul is telling here with Abram and Sarai is different.
And this is why Paul mentions it.
Sarai is impatient and instead of waiting on God, instead of relying on God, instead of trusting in God and His timing, she moves ahead of God and tries to take matters into her own hands.
Abram and Sarai had a promise from God but they were impatient.
They moved ahead of God.
They moved ahead of God’s plan.
Sometimes, God seems to be slow in the way he handles his plans, but, ultimately His plans and His timing are the best.
Now this verse particularly has to do with repentance.
But it also shines light on the nature of God.
God is never late.
God is never behind.
God is right on time and knows exactly what He is doing even when we so desperately need an answer.
When we move ahead of God’s plan, we miss out on a blessing, or, even worse, we reap the consequences of disobeying God.
Interesting that Abraham listened to the voice of Sarai, succumbed to her pressures.
He isn’t leading her in the way of the Lord.
He is going along with her.
Not that adoption is wrong, it isn’t.
It is actually a blessing.
Not only are parents given the children they couldn’t have themselves, they are rescuing a child that so desperately needs a family.
Remember again how we have been adopted into God’s family.
We are blessed because of the unselfish act of God’s adoption of us.
But the story Paul is telling here with Abram and Sarai is different.
Sarai is impatient and instead of waiting on God, she moves ahead of God and tries to take matters into her own hands.
For all this, he had slipped from faith, to be guided by reason and the voice of Sarai (2), not of the Lord (cf.
Matt.
16:22f.).
The New Testament likens Hagar’s son, ‘born after the flesh’, to the products of self-effort in religion (Gal.
4:22ff.),
ever incompatible with those of the spirit (Gal.
4:29
Really they are supposed to just be available.
Available for what God has for them.
Abraham and Sarahs position in God’s plan is that they are receivers.
They are supposed to just receive, believe, and wait.
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