Galatians 4:8-31

Opening Statement: The Big Idea that catches the attention.

Hey Y’all, everybody good? Who is ready for the break in a week? Finals coming up? re finals still a thing? High School has changed so much since I’ve been in there. It seems like you guys can just kinda come and go at will. That wouldn’t have flied when I was in High School.

Introduction Story: A story that invites the listener into that topic, creating credibility and connection immediately.

So, Monopoly. How many of you have played that game? The Board game Monopoly. How many of you have played Monopoly with friends that you still talk to? I actually like the game, but I rarely play it because it take like 11 years to actually play the game with the board and and all that. The Console version is pretty fun, if you get it for xbox or playstation, you can play monopoly in like 45 mins.

Anyways, the game is classic and notorious because in one sense you get to see what it’s like for you to have a lot of power. As a game that was invented during the great depression, it really caught on as a form of escapism.

What makes the game notorious is probably the staggering amount of friendships it has tested. Because the game forces you to just be mean to everyone, it is unfettered capitalism at its worst. It’s capitalism with no morals, you have to be mean to win that game.

And how do you win? How do you win Monopoly?

You win by controlling all the property on the board, and taking everyone else’s money.

But how do you do that? Whats the winning strategy? Buy every property you land on pretty much.

And this always happens, when you play with someone who hasn’t really played or if someone is just not good at it. They start to count their money at the table, they try to keep their cash. In their mind they will have enough cash to win the game. They are trying to be frugal.

But the Dave Ramsey system doesn’t work in Monopoly, yeah at first the cash game looks like it’ll work, but once everyone starts to buy property you start to spend that cash instead of investing in property you could have bought. So you start to run out of cash and then you run out of property because you go in to debt and you have to make deals that really don’t help you in the long run.

And what happened is you did the right things, you bought some property, but you hoarded your cash and lost sight of what the game is all about. You forgot about the winning aspect of playing Monopoly.

Segue: How this message will tie into the introduction story.

So why did I start off by telling you about Monopoly? What we are going to look at tonight here in Galatians is we cannot lose sight of what Christianity is all about. That was the main thing happening in Galatia when Paul was writing his letter to them. If you strip away and get to the core of the problem, they had lost sight of what Christianity was. They had lost sight of who Christ is, and why He is different. They had lost sight of the real reason Christ was good news.

Background: Explain the background of what is happening in the text we are about to read.

So we are going to be in Galatians again, we are still moving through this book, we only have one more week here on Wednesday nights this year, so we will finish up the book next year and then we will move to something else next year. But tonight we are in Galatians 4 verse 8-31. We are going to break this up in to chunks and go through it like that.

Aslo, does anyone need a bible? If you need one go ahead and throw and hand up and we can get one to you. Let me know if you need one to take one as well.

Cool, so before we read the first chunk let me give you a little bit of context to what is going on.

Last week we had looked at this idea of Slaves to Sons. That God has come and adopted us as sons and daughters.

So Paul is continuing that theme, he is basically recapping what he talked about in chapter 3 and the first part of chapter 4.

A thing that we need to remember that we haven’t talked about at ton since the first week in Galatians is who these Galatians were. They did not have the Jewish background. These people were a Celtic people, which sounds weird because when we here Celtic we think Irish or something, but there People had roots in a place called Gaul. which is modern day France. During Paul’s day this was a pagan area, they worship nature and nature spirits and things like that. So the People in Galatia, these Gaulic people are Pagan when Paul meets them, and converts them to Followers of Christ.

That is important to know because Paul says something that doesn’t really make sense in the first chunk we are going to look at if you don’t know who these people are. So the Galatians are Gaul. They are the ancestors to the people in Modern day France. For you history buffs WWII french General Charles De Gaulle was probably a descendent of one of the Gauls, one of the Galatians.

So there is your trivia question you will get right one day. So remember the Galatians do not have a Jewish background. Their context was Pagan, nature worship. And what had been happening was some people who were ethnically Jewish had come and tried to get them to also follow the Law in addition to Christ, which not how the christian faith works at all.

So Galatians - Pagan - Legalism, bad thing. that is where we at going in to this text.

So before we get in to it, let’s pray for our time in the word tonight.

pray

Text: Preaching Text for the day’s message. Just one major text.

Okay cool so lets read this first chunk together Galatians 4:8-11

Galatians 4:8–11 ESV

8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. 9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? 10 You observe days and months and seasons and years! 11 I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.

Okay cool, so what is going on here?

Paul is telling the people at the church of Galatia, “What are you doing? Y’all are just going back to what you once were, lost.” You used to worship the nature spirits but now you want to worship the law, neither of them can save you. What are you doing? It doesn’t make sense!

So imagine with me for a second, you are Harriett Tubman, if you aren’t familiar with Harriett Tubman, she was one of the big names of the Underground Railroad. The Underground Railroad was a network of safe houses and trails that lead from the south where slavery was legal to the North where slavery was illegal. basically if you were a slave and you got to the north you were free, pretty much that simple. Once you crossed the mason dixon line, you were free.

So imagine, you are Harriett Tubman, you have just lead a bunch of people who were enslaved on a cotton plantation in Mississippi up to the free state of Ohio, and you get there every body is like, yeah, we are free! And then some of them are like, you know what, i think I saw a really nice tobacco farm in Kentucky, i think I’m head back. I feel like that slave master knows what he’s doing. I’m gonna go see if he needs any help.

You would look at them like they were crazy, like dude, you can’t go back! you will die there!

That is what Paul is telling the Galatians, you guys were Pagan, y’all worshipped god who were not real, you worshipped the Sun, the Moon, the Rain, fire. You observed certain festivals and dates. Oh good the Sun stayed out longer, praise be to the sun. That is what they used to do. Then they encountered Christ, they came to know the real God, and be really to be known first by the real God.

They encountered Christ. Paul says you can’t go back to what what weak and worthless once you know what is real and life changing.

We just had thanksgiving, and for me for the longest time, we always had an oven roasted turkey. Which is pretty good, not trying to knock people who still do the oven roasted turkey but once you’ve had either a smoked or fried turkey, the game will be changed, you won’t want to go back to having oven roasted turkey.

The people in Galatia are trying to go back to oven roasted. They’ve had smoked, they’ve had fried, but they want to go back to oven roasted turkey.

They were swapping out their Pagan rituals with Jewish Rituals. They went from observing a Pagan law to following a jewish Law. Paul is saying, what are you doing? You have lost sight of who Christ is. And Paul is confused, he says in verse 11, Have I labored over you in vain? Did I do something wrong here? What did I miss? It has baffled Paul.

So stay with me, I want to do something we normally don’t do, I want to jump ahead a few verse, we will come back and hit the middle chunk at the end. This last bit goes with this first bit here.

So let’s move to the last chunk here Galatians 4:21-31 read this with me.

Galatians 4:21–31 ESV

21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. 23 But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. 24 Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written, “Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband.” 28 Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. 30 But what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.” 31 So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.

Okay so here we see Paul give his own illustration. He goes all the way back to Genesis with the birth of Issac and Ishmael. One was born of the promise, one was born of the flesh. Issac was promised to Abraham and Sara when they were 90 and 100, they didn’t believe God’s promise so Abraham went and had a child with one of his servants. a lot to unpack there. But what Paul was getting at was once you are know by God you are a new creation, a new person, you are no longer a child of the slave, but a child of the king. You are free and live under grace following after Christ, live like it. Follow Christ. Don’t swap slavery for a different kind of slavery.

Okay so now, let’s jump back and look at this middle chunk. So let’s read this together, Galatians 4:12-20 read it with me

Galatians 4:12–20 ESV

12 Brothers, I entreat you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong. 13 You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first, 14 and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus. 15 What then has become of your blessedness? For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me. 16 Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth? 17 They make much of you, but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them. 18 It is always good to be made much of for a good purpose, and not only when I am present with you, 19 my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you! 20 I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.

Okay, this is kind of a weird passage. Paul is talking bout how they would have gouged their eyes out to give to it to Paul cause he was blind at the time, maybe, not really sure what was going on, but he had some sort of ailment. They helped him in some capacity but now they are mad at him.

Paul is trying to get them to see that they are being taken advantage of by the people who want them to follow the Law, because it puffs them up. Paul says it’s one thing to be used for a good purpose, to follow people who are doing good, but these people are leading you away from the faith you knew. They are not leading you to Christ, but away from Christ.

Build: How does this story answer the question, solve the problem or relieve the tension that the Introduction Story began with? JUST ONE POINT, PEOPLE.

Paul is trying to get them to see that there is no hope in the Law, there is no hope outside of Christ. So the main point of this text here, if you remember only one thing from tonight it is don’t lose sight of Christ.

You can see some of the emotion built in to the text, that Paul desperately wants them to return to follow Christ. Paul sees these people as his kids.

None of you have kids, Adults most of you have kids. Our kid is on the way. but most of you have brothers and sisters. I have a younger brother. and there is a bond between siblings. I know my brother and I share this bond. That yes we may mess with each other, and sometime fight with each other, and sometime get on each others nerves. That is just a thing that siblings do, BUT if some else tries to mess with them or fight with them, or tries to hurt them, it is game on. No one gets to hurt my brother and they don’t hear from me. I might annoy my brother, but you don’t get, I’ll come after you. I’m sure when this little one comes in may it will be 10 times that intense, we will be protective. mom’s get called mama bear when they get protective, but I’m gonna be Papa Bear. I will do all that I can and then some for them.

That is what Paul is trying to do here, he is trying to bring them back, to save them from the people trying to put the law on them, and to save them from themselves.

Statement: Same as opening statement. Some may refer to The Big Idea or Bottom Line. I don’t use those terms because I think they’re tacky.

Don’t lose sight of Christ? Once you know Christ, the goal is to keep knowing him deeper, don’t try to save yourself, Christ already did that.

Crescendo: How does The Gospel ultimately solve this problem? Preaching is about pointing to Christ & the Gospel, not good works, trying harder or moralism.

So what does the Gospel say about this text. What is the point of what we are talking about tonight?

Too often we are the Galatians in the story. We are trying to earn our way. Our thinking is based on merit, because our society is based on merit. if you are good, you will be rewarded.

That is not the Gospel. Remember, these Galatians were Pagan, and started to follow Christ, but they lost their way and are trying to add rules and regulations to following Christ, they wanted the law, because they thought the law saves. They started checking off boxes.

We aren’t that much different. We can fall in to the same trap.

Think about it, if you are coming to church, and reading your bible just to check off a box and say, yup i’ve done my good thing today, then go live how ever you want. Trying to make yourself feel better before God, you have missed it. If your version of Christianity is a set of rules to check off daily to just say that you have done them, then your form of Christianity is hollow and not much different from every other religion in the world.

You might think, well I pray - awesome every muslim person prays. Or you might say, well I worship - great, hindus worship. Or I read the bible - I know plenty of Atheists who read the bible. That is the thing that Paul is trying to get the Galatians to see and trying to get us to see here in this passage is that following Christ is not the same as following a set of Law.

Imagine for a second that the greatest scheme Satan has ever come up with is not to try and get you to sin a ton, but it is to get you to check off all these boxes without ever fully knowing Christ. How cunning is that.

That’s like a pitcher striking out 20 batters and losing 1-0,

all is for nothing if you miss the only thing that matters. Christ is what matters in Christianity. Christianity doesn’t say check off all these boxes to get to heaven, and listen the boxes are a bad thing, it’s not a bad thing to read your bible and to pray, but if you aren’t actually trying to learn how to know Christ, you are doing all of that in vain.

So how do you know, cause I’m sure there is some in here who are like, but I read my bible everyday. Is that bad. no it’s not bad, it’s a great thing. Please keep doing that. What you want to check is your desire. What are you desiring. Are you desiring to be a good person or are you desiring Christ?

If you are a follower of Christ you should have two desires in your walk with Christ.

The first one you should have the desire to be transformed daily more and more in to the likeness of Christ. To be made more like Christ everyday. That is why you study the word, that is where prayer becomes more than a silent meditation, that is where worship becomes a lifestyle instead of a thing on Sundays and Wednesdays.

The second desire is to see others transformed into the likeness of Christ. You want to see others come to know Christ for who he is. This is where missions becomes a daily experience and not just a trip once a summer, this is where discipleship become community and not something to do when you are bored on a Sunday night. This is how you stop coming to church and start being the church.

So if you are a follower of Christ, this text is calling you to know Him deeper, if your desire isn’t to see others transformed in to his likeness, ask the lord to give you that desire. Ask the Lord to know Christ deeper. This text is calling us to evaluate how we follow Christ.

If you are not a follower of Christ. This text is telling that what ever you think you are doing to find salvation, it is in vain. You are wasting your time. Any sort of good you are doing is worthless if you don’t know Christ. If you don’t know Christ, and you want to know what it means to be a follower of Christ, come talk to me, talk to one of the Adults, talk to a friend who you know is a follower of Christ. Come and know Him today. Come See him as Lord.

Y’all pray with me.