Good morning.
Allergies are still bothering me, so let me get my Beyoncé on.
Donna thinks I shouldn't be talking about Beyoncé so much.
But I do it, you know, because I'm a weirdo, and I think it's funny.
That's why.
I wanted to thank you here, Kaley Singh.
Yeah.
See, Justin has to put up the same thing I do.
I know y'all keep me around because of Donna.
And we just keep Justin around because of Kaley.
That's not true.
Well, the first part is, but we really do love the Kennedys and appreciate all they
bring to our church.
Let me brag on our technical team just for a minute, because they brought attention to
themselves this morning, like they don't normally do.
We are so blessed with a passionate technical team that wants our sound, lights, and video
to be right.
And you can come to this church for 10 years and never hear a feedback squeal.
And since you heard one today, we're going to highlight it.
And it was even something weird.
It wasn't even normal, normal feedback.
I used to have a list back there for them.
The keys to good sound used to be posted back there.
There were seven things.
And number one and number seven were no feedback.
So anyway, but we love you guys.
Thank you.
Thank you for all that you do.
And the concert was awesome Thursday.
And if you missed it, you missed a good one.
And Jackie and Nick and the road manager and, in fact, everybody in the band made a point
to run me down just to brag on our volunteers and what a great job that they did.
And so we're known as the best stop on the tour.
So we're famous in Nashville.
And I'm so proud of all of you.
And Robert Cunin told me something.
He was listening to the promise radio like all good Christians do.
And on Friday, somebody called in to talk about the concert on air, live on air.
And he heard it.
And he said they talked about the concert just for a second and then started bragging
about the church for a long time about how they're not a member here, but they just might
be and how they were impressed with our guy.
So again, you guys are amazing.
Don't get the big head.
Stay humble.
But you are amazing.
I'm so proud of you.
This is part seven in our series, Free, a study in the book of Galatians.
Our text today is Galatians chapter four, verses one through 18.
Some of our life groups are also doing this study with us during the week.
If you're not in a life group, you need to get in one, see somebody in the welcome center
to help you with that.
But we've made some discussion questions for you to use in life group.
And they're posted on our website at iargal.com, or you can pick up a copy in the welcome
center for only $10 a piece.
No?
How much?
Oh, they're free.
All right.
I'll try it.
Our mission at the church at Argyle is to lead people into a growing relationship with
Jesus Christ.
And of course we want to lead people into a relationship, but just a relationship is
not enough.
It needs to be a growing relationship.
There was a little boy who kept falling out of bed at night.
And his parents asked him why.
And he said, well, I think it's because I sleep too close to the getting in place.
And I think sometimes we as Christians, maybe we stay too close to the getting in place.
We become a Christian by grace through faith, and that's wonderful.
But then we just stay there.
We'll come to church, but we don't allow God to grow us and make a difference in our
life.
And we all need to grow in our relationship with God.
Don and I are blessed with three wonderful grandchildren.
Liam, he lives here in Jacksonville, so we get to see him all the time.
We see him every week.
In fact, he was at the house yesterday.
A bundle of energy, and man can he eat.
He eats more than I do, and I don't, the guy, I don't know where it goes.
Anyway, we're able to watch him grow right before our very eyes, and that's natural.
That's what's supposed to happen, right?
And then Magnolia and Georgia, they live up in North Carolina.
And I don't, well, I don't get to see them very often, because I come to church.
I'm in trouble.
But we do get to see them this week, and we're excited about that.
And again, we'll get to see how they have grown, and that's what's supposed to happen.
In Georgia, she's still a baby, so she doesn't talk or walk yet, and we're not concerned
about that.
Why?
She's a baby.
But in a couple of years, if she's not walking and talking, we're going to be a little concerned.
And the same is true with our spiritual growth.
If we're not growing in our relationship with Jesus, there should be cause for concern.
And the main issue that Paul is confronting the churches in Galatia about is the thing
that I call spiritual shortcuts.
We all look for shortcuts in all areas of our life.
We all do this.
So you need to lose a few pounds.
Well, just take a pill.
You don't need to eat right.
You don't need to exercise.
There's a shortcut for just about everything, but many times they don't work, and many times
they're not the best thing for you.
Spiritual growth has some cheap shortcuts, too.
One of them is what we call legalism, keeping the law in your list of do's and don'ts so
that you appear to be spiritual.
And for many people, appearing is all they care about anyway.
So there are Christians who try to keep the law, hoping to become better Christians.
And their motives might even be right, but their methods are wrong.
And that's what Paul is talking about to the Christians in Galatia.
The false teachers in Galatia were seducing the church people there to believe that keeping
the law would make them a Christian, or at least make them a better Christian.
We talked last week about how there's something in all of us that makes us want to do something
to earn our salvation, and that something is pride.
But sometimes it has to do with the way that we were brought up.
Most of us were taught that there's no such thing as a free lunch, that you should work
for what you get, and many times in life that is true.
But in our relationship with God, that is not true.
We are saved by grace through faith.
It is a gift of God.
And so for us to come to God, we need to learn to put away our pride, humble ourselves, and
put our complete trust in God.
So Paul continues to teach the Galatians that we don't become a Christian or stay a Christian
by trying to be good, that it's only through God's grace.
So Galatians chapter 4 and verse 1.
What I'm saying is that as long as an heir is underage, he is no different from a slave,
although he owns the whole estate.
In other words, a position of an heir who is underage, which would be a minor or a child.
A child has the same position as a slave or a servant, even though the child may have
rights to everything.
This is a picture of a Christian who is living under the law.
They have the right to be free, but yet they are still in bondage.
Verse 2, the heir is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by the father.
The reason that the heir who is a child is like a slave or servant is because he has
guardians over him that's telling them what he can and what he cannot do.
In this ancient culture, there was a line that was clearly stated, clearly defined about
the difference between a child and an adult, but the parent was also able to move and define
that line.
Now, usually it's by age.
In our culture, you are considered an adult at age 18, and there are some things that
are withheld until age 21.
The people that Paul wrote this to clearly understood that as long as their heir was
a child, there were conditions put on him that were similar to a slave, and even though
he would be the rightful owner of everything that their father possessed.
But at the time set by the father, the heir would no longer be a child, and they would
have the full rights of an owner.
Verse 3, so also when we were under age, we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual
forces of the world.
Before we became a Christian by grace through faith in Jesus, we were in slavery, slavery
to sin.
The elemental spiritual forces of the world are the religious things, the religious stuff
that we do, the rituals of human religion.
Paul gives us this warning in Colossians chapter 2 and verse 8.
See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends
on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.
The idea of elemental spiritual forces is about the stuff that we try to do for God
to be accepted by God instead of simply accepting what he has already done for us.
And this is where it gets confusing for us.
Are we supposed to serve God?
The correct answer is yes.
Are we supposed to give to God?
Yes.
Are we supposed to obey God?
Yes.
But not out of guilt, not out of obligation, not because we're trying to get something
in return.
But we serve and we give and we obey from a heart that's overflowing with thankfulness
and love for God.
We serve, we give, we love, we forgive, we live our life for God.
Not to become a Christian, but because we are a Christian.
You say, well, what's the difference?
The difference is huge.
It's because God knows your heart.
You can fake me out on Sunday morning, depending on your acting skills.
You can fake each other out, but you're not going to fake out God.
That's for.
But when the set time had fully come, God sent his son, born of a woman, born under the law.
Just like a human father could determine the time for the coming out, the coming of age
of his child, God chose the exact right time to send his son.
And also in this verse, we see the dual nature of Jesus, that he was God.
And at the same time, he was man.
He wasn't a half God and half man.
He was completely God and completely man.
Now I can't explain that.
I can't understand that.
Now some of you, you're probably smart enough that you can, but I can't.
But I completely believe it because my God is supernatural.
And his ways are bigger than my ways.
Verse four, but when the set time had fully come, God sent his son, born of a woman, born
under the law, just like every other Jew, Jesus was born under the law.
Just like every other Jew, he was required to obey the law and his life would be judged
by the law, but unlike any other Jew, unlike any other person who's ever lived, Jesus lived
in perfect obedience to the law.
And so because of his holiness, he is worthy to redeem every one of us who accepts his
grace through faith.
Paul told us who came.
It was Jesus Christ, the son of God.
Paul told us when he came, he came at the exact right time that God chose.
Paul told us how he came.
He was born of a virgin as a God man.
And now Paul tells us why he came in verse five, to redeem those under the law.
To redeem means to set free by paying a price.
In that Roman culture, they practiced slavery.
Slavery is wrong.
Slavery is a sin.
I've heard people try to justify slavery because, you know, they would say the owners took
such good care of their slaves, whatever, whoever tries to justify slavery is a fool.
Maybe they ought to try being one for a while.
God created us to be free.
In that Roman culture, those who opposed slavery could buy a slave and then set them free.
And that's exactly what Jesus did for us.
Jesus came to set us free.
He redeemed us.
He set us free by paying a price.
And when we go back under the law and try to earn our salvation, it's like we're trying
to undo everything that Jesus did for us on the cross.
Jesus did not redeem us to make us slaves.
Jesus redeemed us to make us sons and daughters of God.
Only under the law, we were just children without rights, but under grace, we are adults
in the family of God with all the rights and privileges of a daughter and a son of God.
Verse five, to redeem those under the law that we might receive adoption to sonship
and daughtership.
You know, adoption may be one of the most beautiful words in the English language.
There's a little song we used to do in Kid Stuff called I'm Adopted.
Adoption is when a parent gives complete status of a son or daughter to someone who is not
their natural child.
Because none of us are naturally children of God, and sometimes you'll hear somebody
talk about the human race as children of God, and that is incorrect.
We can become a son or daughter of God only by divine adoption.
In the Roman culture, it was highly honored and highly celebrated custom to give family
membership to someone who was not born into the family.
Many times, the adopted person would be a slave who would trade their slavery to become
a son or daughter with all the rights and privileges that that family membership includes.
Is there anything more beautiful than that?
Verse six, because you are His sons, because you are His daughters, God sent the spirit
of His Son into our hearts, the spirit who calls out Abba, Father.
We see that the complete trinity is involved in our divine adoption.
God the Father sent His Son to die for us, and then the Son sent His Holy Spirit to live
in us.
A human parent cannot give their own nature to an adopted child, but God can, as He sends
His Holy Spirit to live inside of every believer.
One of the things that the Holy Spirit does is give us the confidence to come to God as
Abba, Father, which means that we can come to God and call Him Daddy, and that's what
it means to grow in intimacy with God, that we are close enough with God to be comfortable
to call Him Papa, to call Him Daddy.
Verse seven, so you are no longer a slave, but God's child.
And since you are His child, God has made you also an heir.
When you become a Christian through faith by grace in Jesus, we are no longer slaves
to sin, but we are a child of God, which means we are an heir of God.
To be a son or daughter means that we are heirs to God's estate, and God's estate
is huge.
In other words, even though in the world's eyes we may be seen as poor in God's economy,
we are loaded.
Because you're a child of God, you don't have to walk in fear of anyone or anything.
Because you're a child of God, you can walk in confidence and boldness every day.
Because you're a child of God, you can have your head held high because your Father owns
the place, and when we put our faith in Jesus Christ and give ourselves to Him, then God
gives us everything that He has given to His Son, and that is amazing.
We become sons and daughters.
Verse eight, formerly when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature
are not God's.
Paul is reminding us that before we were believers, we were slaves, slaves to sin, under bondage,
even to idols.
Verse nine, 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?
Here it sounds like Paul is completely perplexed.
Once you've enjoyed being free, why would anyone want to go back to being in bondage?
Verse 10, you are observing special days and months and seasons and years.
They were going back to doing all the festivals and ceremonies and religious rituals of the
Old Testament.
And the thing about doing religious stuff is we can be deceived into thinking that we're
doing it for God when the truth is we're just doing it for ourselves.
Verse 11, I fear for you that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.
I'll never forget, I had a coach in high school, a football coach who told me those
same words.
And I had a foot injury, and so every day before practice and before games, he had to
tape my ankle.
And for some reason, the head coach did that, and that was unusual because most times you'd
have an assistant coach or a trainer, but the head coach would do that.
And I remember while he was taping me, saying, I hope I'm not wasting my time doing this.
And I don't know if he meant to motivate me or discourage me, but it motivated me.
And I purposed right then that I was going to dig deep and be the best player I could
be.
And I eventually won a starting position on a team and eventually became a state champion
because somebody told me that they were wasting their efforts on me.
And I think maybe that's what Paul was doing.
When we reflect on the efforts that Paul made to lead the Galatians into a growing relationship
with Jesus, it makes this verse come alive.
All the struggles that we read about in Scripture that Paul went through in his travels, many
times close to death, all the sickness he was stoned one time and left for dead.
And the thought of that being for nothing broke his heart.
Verse 12, I plead with you, brothers and sisters, become like me.
For I became like you.
You did me no wrong.
Here Paul's tone begins to change from one of rebuke to one of love.
He reminds them that once he was in bondage to like they were, but now he's free in grace
and he's inviting them to join him.
Verse 13, as you know, it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel
to you and even though my illness was a trial to you, you did not treat me with contempt
or scorn.
Instead you welcomed me as I were an angel of God as if I were Christ Jesus himself.
Where then is your blessing of me now?
I can testify that if you had done so, you would have torn out your eyes and given them
to me.
Paul suffered from some type of terrible physical problem.
We don't know exactly what it was.
Many Bible scholars believe it was some type of an eye problem and you can see that here
in these verses and probably some type of grotesque eye problem.
You know when you talk to someone, it's hard not to look into their eyes and if they have
some really serious something going on in their eyes, it's just terrible.
And Scripture tells us that Paul prayed at least three times to be healed of his physical
problem and God chose not to heal him, but instead gave him the grace he needed to carry
on.
And regardless of what the TV preachers say, it's not your lack of faith that keeps you
from being healed.
Do you think it was Paul's lack of faith that kept him from being healed?
When you pray, always ask for God's will to be done and then trust in him to know what's
best.
Verse 16, have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?
Have you ever been afraid to tell a friend the truth about something for fear you might
lose that friendship?
That real friendships are built on truth.
Verse 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.
It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good and to be so always.
Not just when I am with you.
Many times the very people who want to deceive you are very, very passionate, but don't confuse
their passion for the truth.
Paul is encouraging all of us to keep our eyes open and to be wise.
So here's our bottom line for today.
When you trust in Jesus by grace through faith, you become adopted into the family of God.
You become a son or daughter of God with all of the rights and privileges.
There was a little baby boy who somebody apparently thought that they couldn't care for.
So they left him in a ditch.
A little girl on her way to school heard a baby crying in the bushes and found him and
saved his life.
He ended up in an orphanage.
And then one day he was adopted into his own family as a son with all rights and privileges.
Yesterday he was running around my house, making a bunch of noise, tearing up stuff,
eating all my food, and it's the most beautiful thing in all the world.
When you trust in Jesus by grace through faith, you become adopted into God's family.
So can I encourage you to trust Jesus today and become a son or daughter of God with all
the rights and privileges?
And Jesus said, then you'll know the truth and the truth will set you free.
And that freedom is available to all of us because of what Jesus did for us on the cross.
And today, as we share in the Lord's Supper together, this is always to remind us of his
sacrifice for us.
