Abba's Child
Notes
Transcript
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1 I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, 2 but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. 3 In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. 4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
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.
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.
I have some questions for you this morning
How many of you know that God loves you?
How many of you believe that God loves you?
Now I have another question
How many of you know and believe that God likes you?
When I say “Like”, I am talking about the tender, affectionate love of a Father. The kind of love that a father has when you crawl up on his lap and he wraps his arms around you
The kind of love that a Father has when you’ve had a rough game and he puts his arm around you and says, “Son, I’m proud of you. I saw you playing hard and giving it all you got. Way to go.”
My question is, “Do you know what it’s like to be Abba’s child?”
I’ve been pretty open and vulnerable about my own relationship with my father
I asked you two questions just a moment ago about God
“do you know and believe that God loves you”
“Do you know and believe that God likes you”
I would ask you the same questions about your Father
How many know (or knew) that your father loves you?
I won’t ask you to raise your hands, but I would suspect that many of us would raise our hands
And then I would ask you, “How many of us know (or knew) that your dad likes you?”
Sadly, unless I totally miss my guess, that there may be a few less of us that would raise our hands on that one.
Maybe a lot less
That was my story. I had very little doubt that my father loved me.
I had no reason to doubt that he would provide for me
I never had to wonder if I would have enough to eat, or clothes to wear
I never really doubted that if he was away on a trip, that he would come home again.
I had no reason to doubt that he would leave my mom.
If someone would have asked me “does your dad love you?”, I would have said “yes” without much hesitation.
But if someone would have asked me, “Does your dad like you?”
As a child, I don’t know what I would have said
But I know what I would have said much later as an adult when I started dealing with some of my heart wounds.
The truth is, I didn’t believe that my Father really, truly liked me.
Please hear me. I am not speaking ill of my father when I tell you this.
I am just telling you how I felt. What I believed.
I didn’t know what the kind, affectionate, tender love of a father was like
I don’t remember ever climbing up on his lap and having him wrap his arms around me
I don’t remember running to him when I was scared or when I felt like I had failed.
The truth is, I was scared of him most of the time.
And because I doubted that my Father really liked me, I set about trying to get my father to like me.
I became a performer, I became an actor
I wasn’t athletically talented
I wasn’t that musically talented (I didn’t think)
I wasn’t very smart (I didn’t think)
These were all things that my dad cared about
But I could be the good kid
And so that’s what I became in order to hopefully earn my dad’s affection
Make him like me and be proud of me.
I tried to make good and careful choices in life
I tried never to rock the boat too much.
I tried to be obedient and compliant.
If I was doing something that I shouldn’t be doing, I was terrified that it would get out and ruin my image as “the good kid”
And I lived my life in fear.
Fear that I would really mess up somehow
Fear of my Father’s rejection
Fear that he wouldn’t be proud of me
It was a life of failure and low self-esteem—feeling like I would never measure up
But this continued well into my adulthood.
And when it came to my relationship with my Father God, I was the same way.
I didn’t trust that my earthly father like me
And I didn’t trust that my Heavenly Father liked me
And so I became a performer for Him
and I tried to do the same “good kid” act for Him
Except it was a lot harder.
Because I knew that He knew every time that I messed up
He knew my secret sins and my public sins
He knew all that there was to know
It was a life of fear. It was a life of low self-esteem, feeling like a failure
And I knew that my Father God loved me. Because the Bible tells me so, and I don’t want to doubt the Bible
but I didn’t know, I didn’t believe that my Father liked me.
I didn’t know that my Heavenly Father smiled and me and wanted to put His arms around me simply because I am His son.
I didn’t know, didn’t believe that my Father didn’t want me to perform for Him.
He simply wanted me to call Him “Dad”. To enjoy being with Him. To trust that His favor doesn’t depend at all on what I do for Him.
I didn’t feel like Abba’s Child for most of my life
This is changing for me.
I wish I could say that it was a dramatic, overnight change in my life.
But it’s not.
It started with my heart experiencing healing from the pain and anger that I was holding on to.
And it set me on a journey of learning to know my Heavenly Father as a Father who likes me. Who has a Father’s heart of love for me.
Who loves me simply because I am His. He made me. He’s proud of me. Just became I’m His son
You know, as we look at the Book of Galatians, we are studying the Gospel of Freedom. We are thinking about “Getting the Gospel right”.
And last week we saw in chapter 3 how we by faith are declared righteous before a Holy God
How by faith, we inherit the promises made to Abraham.
And I pray that this incredible truth is rooted or is taking root in your hearts.
What an amazing truth this is!
But let’s go even deeper, if that is possible.
Because the question that I want to ask today is
“Why did God make it possible for us to be declared righteous simply by having faith in Jesus?”
Why would He do this?
Didn’t He have the right to require us to obey the Law in order for us to be made acceptable to Him?
Didn’t He have that right? (ask for answer)
So, why, then, did He send His Son, to take on all our sin and rebellion, and then tell us, “Simply believe. Simply have faith in my Son’s sacrifice, and I will declare you to be righteous. Simply believe, and you have the right to come into my presence.”
The answer for that is found in the opening verses Galatians 4.
Answer: Because our God has a Father’s heart. And He kind of likes you. Ok, he really likes you! And He, more than anything else, wanted to be in fellowship with you.
Think back to what it says in Genesis about the relationship between God and this man and woman that He had created.
After Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, it says that they heard the sound of God walking in the Garden in the cool of the day and calling to them
I know I can’t prove it, but I would like to think that this was something normal.
I think possibly it was normal for God to come in the cool of the day and walk and talk with Adam and Eve.
Like a Father coming home after work as the day is cooling down, and saying, “Hey son, let’s go for a walk. Let’s go for a drive. Come out and help me with this. I want to catch up with you. Spend some time with you. I want to hear about your day.”
Because God begins calling for them, “Hey, Adam, where are you? Let’s walk together!”
Where was the man? He was hiding.
Why? Because he didn’t have any clothes on? Not really, although that’s what the man said
He was hiding because their relationship had been broken.
And he was scared of what God was going to do or say. He was trying to figure out how he was going to perform to make it all better again.
And from that day until this, we have been actors, performers for God,
Striving to make God like us again. Showing Him how good we can be.
what happened back in the garden, that wasn’t me!
(kind of like you read about someone doing something terrible in the news. And his supporters say, but that’s not really who he is. he’s really a kind, sensitive person!)
Here’s who I really am. Look how good I can be! Father, I hope you like me. Can you be proud of me for my good performance?
And that’s why people like the Galatians, and people like us today find ourselves going time and time again back to the law
Slipping back into our “performance” roles
Paul says, “Stop it!”
Stop your performance and your work
It’s time to get the Gospel right. And what is the truth of the Gospel?
Galatians 4:4-7 “4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.”
The truth is, that all along, since before time started, God had a plan in mind to restore a relationship that had been damaged and broken by sin
He had a plan in mind in which hurting men and women could stop performing, and striving for their Father’s affection
And instead be welcomed back into their Father’s embrace with hearts that cry, “Dad!”
It’s the like the prodigal son who makes his way back home fearing the worst,
But his father, who is sitting, waiting for him, runs out to meet him and embraces him and welcomes him back home fully restored,
Not as a servant, not as a slave
Not as needing to prove that he was worthy or that he was going to be trustworthy,
But as a son. Fully loved. Fully accepted. His father’s affection
This passage tells us that our Father God has given us the Spirit of His own Son
Which comes into our hearts and changes our relationship with our Father God.
The miraculous thing is that this Spirit allows us to have the same intimate relationship that Jesus had with his Father.
We change from saying, “Yes, God loves me, because God is love”
To crying out, “DAD! I’ve come home again!”
Why did Father God make it possible to be right with Him simply by believing?
Because He was sitting and waiting, longing for His child to come home
So that we could experience His affection. His kindness.
Ephesians 2:4 But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, 5 that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) 6 For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. 7 So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.
You were saved, you were reunited with your Father, not so that you could work and perform to make him like you
But so that HE could show you His kindness. His affection. His favor.
And the amazing thing is that He does this all while knowing everything there is to know about you.
Galatians 4:8-9 “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?”
I love how Paul is even struggling to put into words the wonder of what has happened here.
He says, “Now that you have come to know God…scratch that. Now that you have come to be known by God.
Now that you have entered this relationship where He knows everything about you, but He still smiles at you.
He still welcomes you into His embrace
If this is true, why would you ever want to go back to performing for Him
Why would you want to go back to being slaves to fear and to failure?
Paul is so perplexed that He says, “If this is what you insist on doing, I’m afraid that I have wasted my time with you!”
It makes no sense at all!
This past summer at SonScape ministries, I read, and then bought a book called “Abba’s Child”, by Brennan Manning
It is his story of years of striving to be good, of trying to portray the good guy, yet finding his life on the rocks as he descended deep into alcoholism
Before he discovered the heart of Father God who loved him and was waiting for him to stop trying to perform. But just come home and enjoy the affection of His Father
and He talks about how his life was changed as he was transformed from the performer (or the imposter as he calls it), to a son. Abba’s child.
Where do you find yourself today.
I don’t feel like I’m very far along on this journey. But I feel like I am being transformed slowly from a performer to Abba’s Child.
As Abba’s Child
I am learning to know a Father who doesn’t just love me, but He really likes me
I am learning to drop the false fronts and be real in front of people. Why? Because I don’t have to perform anymore
I am learning to admit when I’ve messed up
I’m learning to admit where I’m weak and need help
I can be honest about where I am strong and what I need to work on without worrying a lot about what people think
Why? Because the Gospel of Freedom is getting ahold of me.
Slowly but surely I am being freed from slavery and into the freedom of being a son.
Abba’s Child.