Galatians Part 9

Welcome:

Celebrate AIM

Celebrate NS

Celebrate NOW

Recap:

So we’ve spent the last few weeks talking about the doctrine of adoption

We saw first how God comes and fulfills all proper requirements to pave the way for Him to adopt us as His children

His timing is perfect

His qualifications more than sufficient

His passion pure

He makes way as the only one possible to pull us out of our mess and into salvation

Last week we spent time talking about now the privileges we have because all of that is true

We are given a new identity

We are clothed with Christ

We belong

And we are now heirs

So we inherit a good eternal Father

A good eternal family

and a good eternal home

Galatians 4:8–31 NIV

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? 10 You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! 11 I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you. 12 I plead with you, brothers and sisters, become like me, for I became like you. You did me no wrong. 13 As you know, it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you, 14 and even though my illness was a trial to you, you did not treat me with contempt or scorn. Instead, you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as if I were Christ Jesus himself. 15 Where, then, is your blessing of me now? I can testify that, if you could have done so, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me. 16 Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth? 17 Those people are zealous to win you over, but for no good. What they want is to alienate you from us, so that you may have zeal for them. 18 It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good, and to be so always, not just when I am with you. 19 My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, 20 how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, because I am perplexed about you! 21 Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. 23 His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a divine promise. 24 These things are being taken figuratively: The women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written: “Be glad, barren woman, you who never bore a child; shout for joy and cry aloud, you who were never in labor; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.” 28 Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 At that time the son born according to the flesh persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. 30 But what does Scripture say? “Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.” 31 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.

Pray

Here at the beginning of this passage what Paul is going to do is remind the Galatians where they’ve been

This is good practice

Often times, the best way to reach gratification is looking back and seeing all that God has done

So often we have a hard time seeing God in the present but have a much clearer picture of Him when looking in the past

Because we are not God, because we can’t see the big picture, we struggle with this and so Paul is essentially going to say, hey remember where you came from.

Remember who you used to be

Remember the things that used to hold you in bondage

Remember what life was like before Christ

He uses an OT illustration with Sarah and Hagar

If you’re unfamiliar with the story:

We remember Abraham. The father of the Israelites.

God comes to him one night and says go look at the stars and try to count them, go walk the beach and try to count the sand.

As many as the number os stars in the sky and sand on the shore so too will your offspring be.

The problem was though, Abraham didn’t have any kids and he was getting up there in age

The other problem was, God wasn’t in a hurry

You ever wish God would just hurry up sometimes?

Like you know He’s gonna come through but He sure is taking a long time.

Well this is how Abraham felt and his wife Sara

So they decided to take matters into their owns hands, which never works out with God, and they came up with a brilliant plan

Abraham would conceive a son with one of their slaves, Hagar

And so he did

But this was not God’s plan

And in this moment, if I was God, I feel like I’d probably be like, “ok you messed up so I’m going to find someone else who’s actually going to listen.”

But God doesn’t, He keeps his word and at the age of 100 years old he gives Abraham a son in Isaac.

And so, Paul uses this illustration to illustrate the difference between the new covenant and the old.

To show us where we’ve been

To dissuade the Galatians from where they are going

And to do this Paul echoes what he’s been saying throughout his letter already

We have not been obedient to the law

We have all disobeyed the law and therefore cannot be saved by the law

But we have been saved! in this New Covenant salvation is readily available.

How? Because of Jesus!

And because of Jesus we have been awakened by the Spirit

The key phrase here is in verse 29. Paul says Isaac was born by the power of the Spirit but Ishmael was born according to the flesh

Let me interject here: If there are things in your life that you are masking as good and maybe even spiritual but at it’s core is fleshly, it will always try to destroy the actual spiritual growth and expansion God is trying to do in your life

Let me say it this way: your flesh will always try to destroy your Spirit

And if you want to defeat it then quit feeding it

Look, if your flesh struggles with lust, quit feeding it!

Quit watching shows and movies that are feeding it

Quit scrolling down SM, delete it, it’s not worth it

Quit putting yourself in positions of failure

Quit taking your phone to the bathroom

Instead!

Get counseling. Talk to someone about it! Take your Bible to the bathroom.

Feed your Spirit, not your flesh

If you have a pride problem

Quit trying to elevate yourself to positions of power and authority

You can’t handle it

It would be better to be a humble nobody than a prideful somebody

Start feeding your Spirit, serve someone. Not because you need recognition or a boost to your ego but just do it to love someone

Take the job no one wants to do

You have an anger problem

Talk to someone

Find a way to cope

Feed your Spirit: focus on things you are thankful for

Paul is showing us by this illustration that when we surrender our lives to Christ we cannot look the same because we are not the same

We used to be slaves to our flesh but now we have been given the very Spirit of God

Feed your Spirit not your flesh!

So Paul shows us who we’ve been

And he also shows us who we are

And we’ve talked about this a lot the last couple of weeks but,

We are no longer slaves

Not slaves to sin

Not slaves to fear

Not even slaves to religion

But we are children of freedom

We have been freed from all of it

If we are using religion to get to God we are no different than any other religion out there

We do not work our way to Jesus

We rest in the working power of Jesus and lean into the relationship we now have with our “abba Father” like Paul stated before

This is who we are! Free!

Free from the things of this world

Free from the sin that would try to trap us

Free from the religious rat race

Free to be Son and Daughters of God!

This is who we’ve been, who we are, and then Paul reminds us of who we are becoming

Isaac and Israel symbolize freedom in Christ

And because we’ve been made free, we are not living for earthly pleasures

We are not in slavery to the weak, miniscule, momentary things of this world

They cannot satisfy

Cannot substitute

and will not supply what we need

So instead, we are living for a heavenly home

We are not in bondage of this world any longer

We do not live for it

In it, but not for it and not of it

Our home is not here

We are living for our heavenly Father who is preparing a place for us in a heavenly home

So how do we do this?

How do we live here?

In a place that is not our home, for a place that God is calling us to?

How do we live?

First:

In grace:

Knowing that in those moments where we fall on our face, God is still near

Even when we have been called to birth Isaac’s and we take matters into our own hands and create Ishmael’s, God still comes through

Because He’s a God of great grace

And so our freedom is not a freedom that we get to do whatever we want because God’s grace is always enough

It’s a freedom to be who God is calling us to be knowing that grace is always there when we are not

So we live in this world knowing that there is a good Father with great grace

Second:

With grace

We also live with grace

If we are not exemplifying grace to those around us than we don’t understand the grace given to us

If we are people, who would call ourselves Christians, worship the God of great grace, and then turn around and be miserable, selfish, no grace kinds of people than let me free you of something… you do not know the Jesus that I know.

You cannot know, worship, and love Jesus and not love people

It’s part of the gig. If you’re not a people person, if you love Jesus you better learn to be.

Jesus is in the people business

He is in the redeeming, saving, grace giving, truth telling, life changing, people loving business and so if you want to be more like Jesus, you will be too!

To love Jesus is to love people. So how do we live in this world?

With grace! Loving people all the way to Jesus.

As I’ve looked and studied this passage something that seemed so apparent to me was Paul’s pastoral affection for the churches of Galatia.

Luther says that in this chapter these words breathe Paul’s own tears.

And as I read and studied I began to feel for you what Paul felt for the Galatians

It’s almost as if Paul is pleading or praying for specific things here

And as I began to see this all week I’ve been praying these prayers over you

#1 That God would help you live it out even when it’s not easy

In verses 13-14 Paul talks about how he first met the Galatians

He was sick, and apparently really sick.

Some scholars believe it may have been malaria but regardless of what it was it was apparently bad and perhaps even contagious

Yet the Galatians gladly accepted him then

But now they are turning their back on his teachings

Paul went through great trials to reach the Galatians and he was asking them to do the same to reach the world

It wasn’t going to be easy all the time

In verse 29 Paul refers to Ishmael persecuting Isaac as an example of this

Let me just say: following Jesus isn’t always easy

I wish I could say that it was

It may put more people in the seats if I said God just wants to bless you and if you just believe in your blessing than He will give you all that want

The problem is, that’s just not true

He wants to give you all that He wants and often times to get those things He has to get us to let go of other things

Often in order for God to build us up to be who He desires us to be, He has to tear us down first

And so my prayer for you #1 is that God would help you live this out even when it’s not easy

#2 That God would help YOU hear it when it’s not popular

Galatians 4:16 NIV

16 Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?

My prayer for you is that you don’t just listen to, read, or study the things of God that you want to hear

It would be easy to do, convenient, and maybe even more enjoyable

But, do we want to be selective of God’s word or faithful to God’s Word?

I pray that I may never preach what is just popular but that I preach what is faithful to God’s Word

And I pray that God would help you hear it when it’s not popular

#3 I Pray that God would give you a passion to be more like Jesus

in vere 18 Paul says it’s good to be zealous or passionate

in verse 19 he tells us what he is passionate about

Galatians 4:19 NIV

19 My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you,

Paul’s desire is for the Galatians to be formed in the image of God

My prayer is that you would be formed to the image of God

That God would help you have a desire and passion deep inside that would drive you to become more and more like Jesus

#4 I pray that God would give you a passion to reach the nations

For some of us in this room, this may literally mean going to the ends of the earth to share the gospel

For others of us, it means sharing the gospel to your community around you

Your work environment

Your spouse

Your kids

Your extended family

The woman at the grocery store

The guy at the restaurant

But I pray God gives you a passion to share the gospel!

For when we are being formed into the image of God we should desire for others to do the same

We are intentionally equipping each other to be more like Christ

That is, we are giving of ourselves to help others learn, know, and experience the gospel of Jesus.

And so how I want to end this morning is by praying these prayers over you as I have been

#1 That God would help you live it out even when it’s not easy

#2 That God would help us hear it when it’s not popular

#3 I Pray that God would give you a passion to be more like Jesus

#4 I pray that God would give you a passion to see others transformed for the glory and kingdom of God