Sermon (09-Jan): "Known by God" Galatians 4:8-9

Scripture:

Galatians 4:8-9

8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods.

9 But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?

Prayer:

“Lord, give me courage to follow where you lead and courage to turn from every senseless idol and false god that I may be enslaved to. Thank you for loving me, even when you knew I was at my worst.”

Big Idea:

God is the only one who fully knows you and loves you. He knows what’s best and He works the best into and out of our lives.

Introduction:

- As I mentioned last message, it has been said that two of the deepest needs that each of us faces is…to know and be known

- Inevitably, we are faced with conflicting messages day in and day out that says otherwise

- I mentioned last week, that

300 hours are uploaded to YouTube every minute; over 500 Years of YouTube videos are watched on Facebook every day; 40 million pictures are uploaded to Instagram every day; 500 million tweets are logged by Twitter every day; the average user has 155 friends

- It’s not about the followers, likes, reshared tweets

- We can have all of those and more while still feeling alone

- Thankfully, we have a God that has all power, knows everything and everyone, willing and wanting to love us

- Psalm 139 details the all-everything God

- David explains that there is no limit to God’s comprehension and understanding

- For most of us, it can seem a bit troubling that God sees and knows us inside and out

- For better or worse, He knows our makeup and motives

- Even so, He hasn’t changed His mind about us

- I’m reminded that the New Testament (Rom 5:8) says, “While we were still sinners, He loved us”

- Which tells me that He loves us more deeply than anyone

- While I was preparing this message, Christian rapper and pastor Trip Lee mentioned this same verse and this was his comment,

“Sometimes we treat all of life like one long job interview, trying to perform and convince others to love us. But there’s a much better way.”

- I’ll go a little deeper into this later

- God reminds us of what He has done for us

- Whereas we may not think it about ourselves,

- God thinks of us as wonderful, marvelous and beautiful

- At our very core, knowing that God knows and loves us…

- It helps to settle into our identity

- Nothing makes me feel better than knowing that He knows and loves me

- From that point, that’s where we are truly able to operate in our divinely, God-given purpose

- So today, where going to continue to flow from that same vein…

- Seeking to understand what it means to live known by God

- All across our nation, notwithstanding the pandemic,

- Loneliness seems to be on an exponential rise

- Some reports say that nearly half the population experiences significant loneliness

- Which means just about any of us can be experiencing that level of loneliness right now

- Thankfully, we know that this isn’t how it’s supposed to be

- God made us for relationships…no matter how hard they seem to be to maintain and improve

- We’re wired by God for fellowship

- Isolation and loneliness are horrible to deal with according to how God made us

- Today, we’re going to dig a little deeper

- We’re going to talk about:

1 – God Knows; Idols Don’t

2 – Even at Your Worst

3 – Seeing the Best

Message:

1 – God Knows; Idols Don’t

8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. 9 But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?

- You have to love the Apostle Paul’s heart

- He has the heart of a pastor

- Not only is he telling the Galatian church that they’re wrong

- He’s telling them that they were formerly slaves

- Whether a slave then or a slave now,

- No one wants to be under bondage to an idol

- When the Bible refers to slaves of righteousness,

- God is not in to any type of forced labor

- We come to Him willingly…in surrender…on our own accord

- What most people don’t take into account is that “Idolatry is a one way relationship…a dead end road”

- And, most of us have gone down that road in some fashion

- It’s still up to us realize how far down that road we’ve gone

- Then we make the decision to turn back to God

- We talked a little about that last week in restoring our connection with God

- God longs for a relationship with each one of us

- He cares about us and what we do with our lives—just like a loving parent

- Relationship matters to Him

- He is the one that has seen all of our days before they have come into being

- Alberto who subbed in for Mike last week sang so beautifully, “He Knows My Name”

- He knows your name and everything about your life

- Just like Adam…sometimes we think we can hide from God

- But everything is laid open before Him

- I didn’t mention this last week but David rhetorically asks in Psalm 139 (v.7),

“Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?

- What that means is that even when I’m sleeping, He is watching

- For some that could be unsettling

- To me, I know that I always have Someone looking out for me

- He’s watching over me

- Some may refer to the Big Man upstairs but I need Someone better than that to help me past the stress

- So it doesn’t mean that I don’t experience stress

- I just try to never settle into it and reside there

- Best-selling Author and Doctor M. Scott Peck writes this,

“Life is difficult”

- It would seem like this is common sense to all or at least most of us

- Yet, it’s when we acknowledge it and say it out loud that the difficulty in life becomes less difficult

- He’s always right there because He never forsakes us

- He’ll be there through the pain and the triumph

- Even when we feel unworthy and should be counted out

- God doesn’t think that

- Have you ever thought this…God wants you to win in life

- Wherever you are currently, you are not yet at God’s best for your life

- Your life situation and circumstances may look bleak

Transition: Yet, God has determined to love us even at our worst

2 – Even at Your Worst

8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

- The Message Bible translates this verse,

“But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.”

- Before I initially accepted Christ, what He offered seemed too good to be true

- There had to be an ulterior motive, some type of “quid pro quo”

- God had to want something from me that was going to cost me more than I could afford

- The truth is that it would cost me my life…the vapor that is my life for the priceless treasure that was His life

- He didn’t accept me because of some greatness that existed in me

- Still, He died for me when I was of no value to Him

- I couldn’t pay for it or earn it

- No amount of hard work would add up

- That’s what you see when you look at the Old Testament

- The children of Israel were constantly trying to fulfill God’s law

- The priests went into the Holy of Holies in the temple to atone for the sins of the people

- And, we see the cycle over and over and over

- God’s plan all along was that we could never measure up

- He wanted us to know that for ourselves

- In fact, God got disgusted by the foul offerings and pretense from the people

- He knew that He had to do something so He sent His Son

- So that He can love us at our worst and honor His Word

- God chose to provide a path to reconciliation and redemption

- In spite of our faults, in spite of our idolatrous ways, in spite of ourselves

- He chose to save us by His grace…nothing that we could earn

- It’s nothing that we could or couldn’t do

- It’s based upon the Father’s unconditional love for you

- I don’t know if anyone could fully explain it either

- Someone once said, “It doesn’t make sense but it does make for faith”

- Or, put another way, “Faith doesn’t make sense…it makes miracles”

- And, it’s a miracle that He chooses and uses any of us

- It’s amazing that He chose to once and for all establish an incorruptible connection with creation through His Son Jesus

- He has every reason to question and doubt us

- When you look at it from a business angle,

- There’s no guarantee that He will get a return on His investment

- His knowledge of everything and everyone is not greater than His love of you and me

- He’s not mistaken on any level or in any way

- He knows what you need and how you need it

- When it comes to God and all that He is,

- We might want to take into consideration that as our Creator;

TRANSITION: He sees the best in us, and He knows how to draw it out

3 – Seeing the Best

- The fact that God sees and knows everything about us could make us uncomfortable

- But if we allow it…it can be comforting to us

- It’s not like we can hide anything if we even wanted to so we can feel free to be who He created us to be

- The Bible puts it this way (Heb 4:13), “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”

- Who can we turn to when we need someone to check our blind spots? Because we all have them.

- This is where the character of the all-knowing God steps in

- He not only sees but knows what’s best

- His wisdom far surpasses man’s wisdom

- Just when we think we have it all figured out;

- God steps in and turns conventional wisdom and thought on its head

- Athletes know that time is undefeated when it comes time for them to retire

- But, God is undefeated when it comes to wisdom

- Our planning says one thing but God’s planning can say something entirely different

- Proverbs 19:21 reminds us,

“Many are the plans in the mind of man; but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.”

- I don’t know about you but I’ll take God’s purpose every day

- I may not understand His method but I trust His motive

- Who knows you better than God?

- Your strengths, weaknesses and future…no one knows them better than God

- Think back to the Apostle Paul and his conversion in Acts 9

- Jesus Himself intervened on the Road to Damascus

- Paul, who was then Saul at the time, believed that he was justly doing what was right

- Having already received rabbinical training and a Jewish upbringing,

- He thought he was on the right path

- Needless to say, God knew better and had better in mind for Paul

- Paul’s life was just beginning

- God called and saw Paul as

“a chosen instrument to carry [God’s] name before the Gentiles” (Acts 9:15)

- God would use Paul to deliver the message of faith and salvation to the Gentile world of which includes us

- Who knows where we would be without God seeing beforehand Paul’s impact on Christianity

- Perhaps we’d lose close to half the New Testament or the letter to the Galatian and Corinthian churches

- This message was crafted by the very idea that we are known by God as it reads in our early Scripture,

“But now that you know God—or rather are known by God…” (Gal. 4:9)

- Paul understood God’s heart for His people, His church, His kingdom and eternity

- God knew that Paul was going to be the one to help establish His kingdom on the earth

- God knew Paul when he was at his worst…persecuting believers and destroying the early church

- Yet, God still saw the best in Paul

- He knew there was more in store

- Only God’s eternal understanding and comprehension would have seen Paul’s conversion and destiny

- Arguably, your story is not as intense as Paul’s

- If God did it for Paul, what’s stopping his work in you

-His purpose, though different in Paul, is not less in us

- Your value to God, believe it or not, is equal to Paul

Closing:

- As I close, look at how Paul’s wraps up verse 9,

“…how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?”

- There may be seasons in our lives where we feel more or less connected in our relationship with God

- We can reason that it’s lack of effort and engagement on our part

- Or, it could be an extremely difficult, trying time in our life

- Paul tells us know to fall back on our old ways to fill whatever void with other things or idolatry

- We see that idolatry leads us to a dead end, bondage and, overall, loneliness

- Thankfully, God has greater in mind for all of us

- While other things look to enslave us, Christ seeks to set us free

- Today is as good as any day for us to turn and relinquish the space meant solely for God

As the prophet Joel says;

“Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love…” Joel 2:12-13

Closing Prayer:

Heavenly Father, I ask you to forgive me for all of my sins known and unknown, I renounce them all. Lord Jesus, come into my heart. I receive you now as Lord and Savior of my life. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He died for me and arose and sits at the right hand of God praying for me, interceding for me. Lord Jesus, I give you everything. I thank you for saving me, delivering me and setting me free, in Jesus’ name!