KEEP THE JOY IN YOUR CHRISTIAN LIFE-Part 2
KEEP THE JOY IN YOUR CHRISTIAN LIFE
The Liberated Christian - Part 2 of 4
Galatians
Rick Warren
Galatians 3. Last Sunday we talked about the responsibility of the Christian life. This Sunday I want to talk with you about the flip side of that which is the freedom of the Christian life.
Do you remember how you felt when you first became a Christian? The joy you felt, the real sense of freedom? I'm totally forgiven, I can start over, I've got a new purpose in life, I've got a new power in life, I don't feel guilty any more. Tremendous freedom.
But after a while you begin to lose that enthusiasm. Why is it that you lose your joy?
Typically because you fall into a certain trap that takes away the freedom of the Christian life. That's what Paul talks about in the book of Galatians. The entire book, it's theme is freedom. Paul says, don't let anybody steal your freedom. 5:1 is the theme of the whole book, "Don't let anybody take away your freedom. Stand fast in it." He tells us about some traps so we don't lose the joy of the Christian life.
The background of the book of Galatians is that Paul started the church in the city of Galatia in Greece. After awhile he left. Then a group of people came along called the Judaizers. The Judaizers said, "Yes, you must believe in Christ to be a Christian but you also in order to maintain your salvation, must keep every single Jewish law ever written." As a result, people got under a burden, a load. They lost their freedom. Paul writes this letter and he's very angry. This is a very emotional letter. He doesn't try to hide his feeling.
1:6 he says "I'm astonished that you have so quickly deserted the one who called you." He said, "I came and told you, just trust Christ. That's the Christian life. Now there's these people coming in adding all these regulations. He's writing them saying don't fall into one of these three traps. These are the things that will rob you of happiness and joy in your Christian life.
1. 3:1-3. PERFECTIONISM. The definition of perfectionism is trying to maintain a perfect performance in order to stay saved. In other words, I'm trying to be perfect so God will accept me, won't cast me off. I'm trying to keep a perfect record. Paul ridicules this idea. "You foolish Galatians..." He wasn't mincing any words. "You guys are a bunch of idiots!" "Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes, Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I'd like to learn one thing. Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort." In v. 1 he's saying, "You have been conned, duped. Somebody's sold you some swamp land in Florida!" You've been misled. You've been deceived. Somebody's pulled the wool over your eyes and told you it's faith plus a bunch of other rules and regulations. That's silly.
v. 2 he says I've just got one question, How did you become a Christian in the first place? Did you become a Christian by keeping a bunch of rules and regulations and by being perfect? Or did you become a Christian by just believing, by having faith? He said, the same way you became a Christian is the way you continue as a Christian.
v. 3 is a key word "Are you trying to attain your goal by human efforts." That's the mark of perfectionism -- trying to accomplish perfection by your own effort. He says human effort didn't save you and it can't keep you saved. Human effort doesn't make you a believer, it can't keep you a believer. He says don't fall into this trap of perfectionism. Perfectionism is trying to maintain a perfect performance so God will accept me. Never make a mistake or God will zap you. Never sin or you'll be cast away. You must always keep every little jot and tittle and iota and always be perfect.
When you get into that trap, you're going to lose your joy and lose your freedom. Paul says that's foolish. When you fall into the trap of perfectionism, your relationship to God becomes a burden instead of a blessing. It becomes a duty instead of a delight. It becomes an obligation instead of an opportunity. It becomes frustrating rather than fulfilling. There's a lot of frustrated Christians. When you have this sense of perfectionism, you make God an unpleasable parent. The kind of parent that when you come home with all A's and one B they say, "You could have done better." You never quite measure up no matter how hard you try. A lot of people see God that way. No matter what they do, it's never good enough. They get into this perfectionism and they start relating to God out of fear, rather than out of love. God becomes this big eye in the sky who looks down on you seeing every little mistake you make and saying, "Caught you again!" He's always against you. The Bible says God is for you.
God doesn't want you to relate to Him out of fear or guilt but out of love. 3;11 Paul quotes the Old Testament, "Clearly no one is justified before God by the law because the righteous will live by faith." There's only one way to live the Christian life -- faith. Faith alone. It's not faith plus a bunch of rules, faith plus a bunch of regulations, a bunch of restrictions. It is faith. That's all it is. He says don't give in to this trap of perfectionism.
He says there's another trap that will rob you of your freedom and joy.
2. 4:8 Paul says the second trap is LEGALISM. First is perfectionism, the second is legalism. Legalism is when you measure your maturity by how many rules you keep. You measure your spiritual growth. If I go to church on Sunday morning, I'm a good Christian. If I go on Sunday morning and Sunday night, I'm a great Christian. If I go to Bible study in the middle of the week, I'm a spiritual giant. If I give 5% of my money, I'm a good Christian, if I give 10 percent in tithe, I'm a great Christian. If I give twenty percent, I'm a saint! We start judging our lives on the number of rules we keep. I don't do this, or that and I do this.
Paul says in v. 8 "Formerly, when you didn't know God you were slaves to those who were by nature not gods. But now that you know God, how is it you're turning back to those weak and miserable principles?" These rules are worthless, powerless. They can't change you. "Do you wish to be enslaved by them again? You're observing special days and months and seasons of the year." You've got all these rules that you've got to keep. Living Bible says "You're trying to find favor with God by what you do or don't do on certain days or months or seasons of the year." You've got all these little rules and regulations. You're legalistic. Paul says you've given up your relationship to God and returned to ritual and regulation and rules. That is called legalism and it will ruin your Christian life. It will take away your joy, your freedom.
Legalism is the focus on rules instead of relationship. In Jesus' day, the Jewish society was the most regulated society in the world. There was a group of people who were extreme legalists who were called Pharisees. They were the spiritual policemen of the day. They went around with little check lists on clip boards checking on everybody's spirituality. They saw themselves as protectors of God's laws plus a few thousand other laws which they had added in. They were very judgmental, very critical, very intolerant of other people, always checking you out. There were rules like how far you could walk on a Sabbath. There were rules about what you could and couldn't do in every area of your life. They were very legalistic.
One day a man named Jesus Christ, God's Son, came and said, "Folks, forget it all! It doesn't matter. The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." He says things like this, "You guys are setting up rules that you yourself can't keep. You strain at a gnat and you swallow a camel. You guys are a bunch of hypocrites. You're just phony. You've lost the relationship and given it over for rules."
How do you think the Pharisees felt about that? They didn't like it so much that they crucified Him. They couldn't stand for Jesus to be around so they hung Him from a tree. Legalism and grace are the opposite extremes. They will never be brought together.
Paul says that's what you guys are trying to do in this city of Galatia. You're trying to say, "Just accept God's free gift of freedom and love and grace plus add in all these rules, restrictions and regulations. Paul says it won't work. It's one or the other. You've got a choice. Do you want to be a slave or do you want to be free? v. 9 "Do you wish to be enslaved again?" Don't give in to the trap of perfectionism and don't give in to the trap of legalism.
Do we still have legalism today? Yes. It is still a threat today. A tract a friend was handed by a street preacher in Long Beach: "Jesus says Don't! God's list of Do's and Don'ts." This lists 40 things that you have to don't do in order to be a good Christian. Don't have long hair. Women, don't wear pearls. Don't believe those who teach anything not taught in the King James Version of the Bible. Don't save or collect goods or money for greed or old age. Don't say no when somebody asks for your money. Don't tell jokes. Don't use puppets to explain the word of God. Don't use unions or self to ask for a wage increase. Don't join the armed forces to defend the country you live in. Don't forget to speak in unknown tongues. Don't forget that you're saved by works after conversion (Legalism). This was put out by the Last Chance Mission.
There is an example that legalism is alive and well. The only problem with legalism is that my list never matches yours. You get your list depending upon what part of the country you live in -- don't play cards, don't wear make up, don't dance, don't drink, smoke, cuss, chew, run around with girls that do. You get your list and think, "If I can just keep this standard, I've got it made!" Paul says that will enslave you. That will cause you to lose your freedom.
5:1 "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then and do not allow yourselves to be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." Don't give in to perfectionism, trying to be perfect to be pleasing to God. You never will. You'll get tired. Don't try to make up a bunch of extra rules that say this is a good Christian. Focus on the relationship you have to the Lord and not the rules.
Are you a legalist? Why do you come to church? Do you come out of duty? Or do you come because it's a delight? Why do you read the Bible? So you'll get brownie points with God? Or do you read the Bible and start the day with a quiet time so God will bless the day if you don't it's going to be a lousy day. When you pray, is at an obligation or an opportunity? Do you tithe your money because it's commanded by God and that's the only reason? Or do you give out of gratitude realizing that everything you've got is from God? He gave you your life. He gave you the ability to make money.
Anything that is good can be done in a legalistic attitude. Giving, witnessing, praying, reading your Bible, going to church, anything can be done with a legalistic attitude. Do you just stop giving, prying? No. Just change your motive. Change it from "I have to" to "I want to".
What is the result of legalism? When a Christian allows himself to be bound in by a bunch of rules, what's the result? 4:15 "What has happened to all your joy?" It was like a dagger into their hearts. He said, “You guys have gotten so concerned with rules, that you've lost your joy.” The quickest way to kill the happiness in your Christian life is to become a legalist. Legalism produces dead churches.
Reminds me of the lady who went into a church. After the pastor finished speaking, she said, "Praise the Lord." An usher went up to her and said, "Lady, you've got to be quiet." She said, "Oh, I'm just so filled with the joy of the Lord." He said, "Well, you didn't get it here!" I know a lot of churches where you're not going to get any joy. They are so legalistic. They even put it on the wall. Don't come in here unless you've got a certain kind of haircut... Don't come in here unless you've got shoes on... Don't come in here unless you agree with every little jot and tittle of our statement.
Paul says there are things that will bind you down -- perfectionism and legalism. There's another. The whole book of Galatians is on freedom. Jesus said "You will know the truth and the truth will set you free. If the Son, therefore, shall set you free you shall be free indeed." The summary of the Christian life is the word freedom. The very first sermon that Jesus preached in Luke 4, He said, "Here's what I've come to do. I've come to set at liberty those who are captive, those who are in bondage. Emotional bondage, physical bondage, spiritual bondage. I've come to set them free." It's interesting that the very first sermon in this church that I preached, was John 8:32 "You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. If the Son shall set you free you shall be free indeed." That's the message of our church. Every Sunday, I get up here and talk about a different way that Jesus will set you free -- family life, home life, personal life, business. That's the message.
The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 3:17 "Where the spirit of the Lord is there is freedom." Why don't we have it? Because we fall into the traps of perfectionism, legalism and the third trap that is the most subtle trap of all...
3. The trap of CONFORMITY. Conformity is being controlled by the expectations of other people. Conformity is being influenced by the opinions of other Christians. Conformity is taking your eyes off the Lord and looking at what everybody else is doing. Paul says that is a tragedy. 5:7 "You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth?"
The Mary Decker race. Mary Decker, the world champion, out in front, leading the race, two seconds ahead of the world's record. Zola Budd came over, they got their legs tangled up, Mary Decker fell off into the side, out of the race, Zola Budd was disqualified -- reinstated but she didn't win an award.
Paul says this is like the Christian life. He said, "You were running such a good race, who cut in on you? Everything was going well, but you got tripped up. Somebody came in and caused you to stumble. You were making such progress in your Christian life and something happened. This kind of persuasion doesn't come from the one who calls you. A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough." One person with the wrong attitude can infect an entire group of people.
Living Bible: "You were getting along so well. Who interfered with you to hold you back from following the truth? It certainly isn't God who's done it for He's the one who's called you to freedom in Christ. It only takes one person among you to infect all the others." Paul says, you started in the Christian life and you were growing and making tremendous progress and you were enjoying the Christian life, filled with joy and enthusiasm and freedom. But all of a sudden, somebody tripped you up. You took your eyes off the Lord and got them on to other people and started wondering, "What are other people thinking? How do I look to other people? What do I look like?" They got concerned.
Do you remember what new Christians are like? When they first become believers, they don't care what anybody else thinks. They just love the Lord and they pray and talk to God without any fancy words. It's such a sincere prayer. Then later you'll see them start looking around at other Christians and thinking, "Oh, that's the way you're supposed to do it. That's the way you're supposed to act. That's the way you're supposed to talk." They start praying the same way as everybody else. They get the same tone. They lose the freshness of their relationship to the Lord. They start using the same cliches that Christians use. Someday I'm going to write a dictionary that defines what Christian cliches really mean. I was grieved in my spirit -- It ticked me off! We went to a ball game; it was a real blessing -- It wasn't fun; it was a blessing. They start using the same old worn out, tired expressions of everybody else. They lose their freedom. Paul says, “Don't! Don't let anybody steal that from you. Don't get caught in a rut.”
Paul is saying that when you start worrying about impressing other Christians you lose your freedom. You lose your joy.
When I first entered the ministry, I imitated all my role models. Everybody was a role model for me. I had to preach like Billy Graham. I tried to witness like Arthur Blessett. He was my hero. Steve Williams and I when we were teenagers traveled all over California. Arthur Blessett had little red stickers, so we had to have little red stickers. We printed them up and went out on the street, passed out stickers. We talked like Arthur Blessett talked. We got this coffin and put it on the top of our van and it said, "America died of ungodliness." We took turns climbing up in the coffin. One person would be driving, the other in the coffin. We'd drive to where a bunch of kids were and one of us would pop up and say, "Hi, kids!" If Blessett did it, we had to do it. We had the Santa Claus outfits, dress up, go into bars at Christmas time, give out tracts. I read about David Brainerd who would pray eight hours a day on his face in the snow. I'd go out and lay down on my lawn, turn the sprinklers on. I read about George Mueller who read through the Bible 200 times. I said if Mueller read it 200 times, Warren's going to read it 400 times. I got a schedule: 13 weeks through the Bible. I'd read it as fast as I could. I wasn't getting anything out of it, nothing! But I was checking it off!
One day the Lord zapped me and said, "Warren, don't you realize it's not how many times you've been through the Bible. It's how much it's gotten into you."
The trap of conformity. That's a good way to burn out. Try to be like everybody else.
When you get to heaven, God's not going to say to you, "How come you weren't more like Arthur Blessett? How come you weren't more like Billy Graham? How come you weren't more like Moses? Chuck Smith? Charles Swindoll? Robert Schuller?" He's going to say, "Why weren't you more like you?" You're unique. The freedom comes when you live the Christian life with your personality and not when you try to be somebody else.
This is a subtle trap that Christians fall into. One of the things it's called is Gifts Projection. The Bible says that every Christian is given a spiritual gift. One of the ways you know you've got a spiritual gift is you think everybody else ought to have it. You see everything from that point of view. If you have the gift of mercy, then everybody ought to show mercy all the time. There's never a time for rebuke. The person who's a prophet thinks if you're not out scolding and scorning people, you're being soft on sin. The person who has the gift of administration wonders why everybody's not more organized. The person who has the gift of faith thinks, "Why don't you just believe God for more?"
God gives everybody gifts and they're all necessary in the body of Christ. Every one of them. Don't ever let anybody put you under a false guilt trip by saying you have to act just like they do to be a good Christian, that you have to have their gift, that you have to respond to life the way they do. That is the trap of conformity. You're influenced by other people. Don't let anybody do that to you. Don't let anybody rob you of your freedom.
At Saddleback Valley Community Church, we are building a fellowship based on grace, not on guilt. We're not a perfect church but we're growing in grace. We try to give people freedom -- the freedom to join, not to join, to serve, not to serve, give, not to give. Why? Because you can't force spiritual maturity. You can't manipulate it by guilt.
That's what Paul is preaching against. Paul says if you don't do it with a voluntary heart, forget it. If you can't tithe out of joy, don't bother. If you can witness out of the overflow of your heart rather than from a requirement, forget it. God loves a cheerful giver. God wants us to serve Him out of love, not out of fear.
Somebody said, "It seems like we could get more people involved in our church, if you preached a little harder sermon. “I said, I refuse to manipulate people with guilt because that's what legalism is.” God says that you can't legislate spiritual maturity. If a person's going to grow and accept responsibility, they do it. But if you force them to do it, they don't get credit for it anyway. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom." Freedom.
That's risky. That means people can abuse it and Christians do abuse that freedom, but that's the price. Freedom is always risky.
There's only two ways to live the Christian life -- by guilt or by grace. Those are the options. Out of duty or out of delight. Out of obligation or out of opportunity. Because you have to or because you want to because of what Christ has done for you.
Jesus says "If the Son, therefore, has set you free, you shall be free indeed." That's what the Christian life is -- freedom.
So how come I'm in a rut? Because you've probably fallen into one of these three common traps. Maybe you've been relying on human effort to make it in the Christian life as Paul said in chapter 3. You started out in the Spirit, trusting God, living by faith, but now you're trying to do it all on your own effort. He says that won't work.
Maybe you've been trying to maintain a perfect performance so God will approve of you. The fact is, God is going to approve of you whether you've read the Bible or not or whether you ever witness again or not or whether you ever serve or not or whether you ever do anything or not, give or not. Because God's love is unconditional. Can it be abused? Of course it can. But that's the freedom of the Christian life. We're talking about flip sides of the same coin. Last week I talked about the responsibility of Christian living. This week I talked about the freedom of Christian living. You can't have one without the other. Freedom and responsibility.
Maybe you have been relating to God out of fear and not out of love. Maybe you've lapsed into legalism, you're measuring your maturity by the number of rules you keep. Anything good can be done in a legalistic manner. What do you do? Stop it? No, you just change your motive.
The problem with trying to be perfect is it's tiring. You get tired of trying to measure up and you get frustrated. And when you can't make it you start wearing a mask and pretending you are perfect. You get a bunch of people coming to church wearing a mask and nobody's really saying, "Hey, I'm hurting!" There's no transparency. No genuineness. Everybody has to wear a mask. You get tired and you get frustrated. There's a lot of tired and frustrated Christians.
How do you spell relief? GRACE. One of the most important verses in the Bible is Colossians 2:6, "As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him." Just like you became a Christian, you continue in the Christian life. It's not saved by grace, live by works or saved by faith, live by perfection. How do you become a Christian? By promising to be perfect? You just say, "Jesus, I can't do it. Help me. I want to trust You." How do you live the Christian life? The same way. "Jesus, I cannot do it on my own. Help. Please help me. That's how you do it.
How do you experience grace?
1. Ask God to forgive you. Say, "God, I admit it. I've been trying to do the Christian life on human effort." You say it's hard to live the Christian life. No, it's not. It's impossible. There's only one person who can live it -- Jesus Christ. That's why you've got to depend on His help to make it.
2. You need to thank God for His unconditional love. God loves you just as much on your bad days as on your good days. It's unconditional. Say, "God, I thank You that You love me even when I've been trying to earn Your love." Unconditional love.
3. Refocus on your relationship to the Lord, instead of all the rules and regulations. Say, "God, I want to get to know You."
4. Determine to live by faith.
For a long time I used to badger and berate myself saying, "The reason why I'm not more consistent in my Christian life is I just don't know if I love Jesus enough. If I loved Jesus Christ more, I'd be more consistent. One day this thought hit me. Kay shared it with me: "It's not that I don't love Jesus enough. It's that I don't understand how much He loves me."
Love is always a response. The Bible says "We love because He first loved us." What you don't realize is how deeply God loves you. If you did understand that, it would motivate you to want to please Him and want to live for Him. You can't help but love somebody who loves you deeply.
Some of you may not be believers. You may never have taken that first step. You've never developed that relationship. Maybe you've been a religious person, maybe you've been a good person, a moral person, a churchgoer. Maybe you've gone to church all your life and you've kept all kinds of rules. But do you have the relationship? It's only the relationship that sets you free. Jesus said, "I came to set you free." Free from worry, free from the fear of death, free from guilt, free from bad habits that enslave you, free from memories of the past, regrets, free from boredom and purposeless in life. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." Paul says “Don't let anybody take it away from you.”
Prayer:
Have you lost the joy in your Christian life? Have you got into a rut or a routine? Maybe you don't have that enthusiasm that you first had when you were just a baby Christian. There was so much excitement and everything was new and fresh and your relationship to the Lord was wonderful. But slowly, it might have fallen subtlety into one of these traps. The trap of trying to maintain a perfect standard so that God will approve of you. That won't work. Paul says to the Galatians that it's foolish. Maybe you've fallen into the trap of legalism. If I could just do certain things I'll be ok and mature. Am I saying you don't need discipline in your Christian life? No. But discipline is no substitute for the Holy Spirit. You need them both. You need freedom and responsibility. Sometimes we can get so busy working for the Lord, we forget the Lord and that relationship. Some of you may have fallen into the trap of conformity. You look around and think, "If that's the way a Christian is supposed to act, that's how I'll act." You're getting your cues from other Christians rather than the word of God. Don't let anybody take away your freedom.
How do you get it back? Sit back in the grace of God. Pray this prayer in your heart, "God, make me realize how much You really love me. Help me to realize that You're not against me but that You're for me. I ask You to forgive me for trying to earn Your approval. Help me to focus on my relationship to You. Thank You for loving me." If you've never made that initial commitment to Christ, in your heart you can say, "Jesus Christ, I don't understand it all but I want to have a relationship to You. Would You please set me free this morning? Give me the freedom that You've promised.
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