Freedom: A Personal Appeal
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What length?
What length?
Paul is willing to go to any length to win people to Christ, but also to protect the truth of the gospel. And he also is willing to appeal to keep the gospel going forth too.
(How far are you willing to go picture)
What length are you willing to go for your grandchildren? How about your children or your spouse? Maybe parents, best friend, etc. how far? Many will say “any distance, any length” but do we mean it?
Paul was willing to go to any length (1Cor9:19-23)
In 1Cor9:19-23 you can read Paul was willing to be a slave though he is free, to be a Jew through freed from Judism and the law. To become weak for the weak.
23 I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it.
Paul was willing to suffer all things; as were all the apostles (2Cor6:3-10)
In affliction, hardships, distresses, as well as beatings, imprisonments, tumults and labors as well as sleeplessness and hunger.
Still in purity, knowledge, patience, filled with the Spirit and in genuine lov
By the word of Truth, power of God, weapons of righteousness
By glory and dishonor; by evil report and good report; regarded as deceivers and yet true
As dying but yet live, punished but not put to death, sorrowful yet rejoicing
Are we willing to go, willing to suffer, willing to sacrifice for the name of Jesus?
Tonight we are looking at the following:
A heartfelt lament (Gal4:8-11)
A heartfelt appeal (Gal4:12-15)
A heartfelt observation (Gal4:16-20)
A Heartfelt Lament
A Heartfelt Lament
Can a plea be a lament? I think in this case it is a plea in the form of a lament. So, what is a lament it is: A passionate expression of grief or sorrow. Paul turns from the Christians who were previously Jews to the Christians who were formally Gentiles and lays out his heart to them too.
8 However at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods. 9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again?
10 You observe days and months and seasons and years. 11 I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.
What do you see, what do you notice, what sticks out to you?
How can you know that he was writing to Gentile Christians (v.8-9)
What is the lament about (v.10)?
What is the worry (v.11)?
These are people who were previously worshipping gods that were not God. And do we see that today? Is this lament applicable today?
People who run to horoscopes; Psychic’s or even run to idol of self-worth, accomplishment. Idol of possession or position, idol of ability or talent, Idol of family or finances.
when we surrender and obey the Lord you gained liberth in God through Christ. You were delivered from things that are not of God and are not god’s in the first place. Now the Galatians were abandoning, or being bewitched (Gal3:1) from their liberty, their freedom to go back to a form of bondage that could not save them in the first place.
I want to give another version, just to see the wording of it
9 but now that ye have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how turn ye back again to the weak and beggarly rudiments, whereunto ye desire to be in bondage over again?
You are known by God when you come to know God through the Word of God who shows you the Son of God so that by obedience you may become children of God. So why turn back to weak and beggarly rudiments. They are giving up the power of the gospel for the weakness of the Law. The wealth of the gospel for the poverty of the Law.
May we remember the reason for the law was to lead us to Jesus. So in his heartfelt lament Paul is telling them don’t give up and be entrapped again, don’t abandon your liberty.
(The Lords Day picture)
How were they doing that beyond being swayed about circumcision? look at (v.10) they were keeping days, months, seasons and years.
In Jewish culture the you use days is Sabbath days, months means new moons that identify months; seasons are the annual feasts such as Pentecost, Day of Atonement, Feast of booths. And the years are the sabbatical years, 7th year is a year of rest, 50th year is a year of jubilee.
We know that today we can elevate one day more than another and judge one another by days they celebrate or don’t celebrate. Doing either is a form of legalism and that brings you back into bondage that Christ set you free from when you were saved by grace through faith.
Jesus did not say “I came to give them religion” He says in Jn10:10 “I come that they may have life and life full.”
For the Christian everyday is God’s day, a day of opportunity a day that is a gift from God, so what we do with it is our gift back to Him, so don’t get caught up in legalism, it has to do. Don’t trade the grace of God for a religion that cannot sae you that is weak and beggerly.
Weak: this is powerless to save the soul or to justify the sinner (Col2:20-23)
You died to the elementary principles of this world, so don’t live like the world.
Don’t let things that have appearance of wisdom keep you when there is no value in those things.
Beggarly: Things that are unable to impart true spiritual riches (Eph1:3)
All spiritual riches are in Him and we are in Him and with Him so anything less than Him is beggarly
Elements: This is the rudimentary elements that Christ came to replace (Col2:16-17; Heb9:9-10) (also used Jn4:20-24)
16 Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day— 17 things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.
Religious days were replaced by the spiritual form of worship that Jesus said would come in (Jn4:20-24) where we are called to worship in spirit and in truth.
Now in (v.11) Paul fears for them; Paul balances rebuke with love. His love for them and their love for him. I’m sure you can feel Paul’s heart here. He fears they are falling short, they are failing, they are giving up on the freedom that have in Christ. His love, his care, his concern for the gospel and for them is apparent. It is personal, it is transcending, it is tough but it is tender.
That leads to the appeal now.
A Heartfelt Appeal
A Heartfelt Appeal
What is the best way to try to communicate with someone something that is of vital importance? It is from your heart to theirs right? Paul now offers up his heartfelt appeal.
12 I beg of you, brethren, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You have done me no wrong; 13 but you know that it was because of a bodily illness that I preached the gospel to you the first time;
14 and that which was a trial to you in my bodily condition you did not despise or loathe, but you received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus Himself. 15 Where then is that sense of blessing you had? For I bear you witness that, if possible, you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me.
What do you see, what do you notice, what sticks out to you?
(Heartfelt picture)
Heartfelt plea (Gal4:12)
be like him, become like him
For he was like them too
Heartfelt remembrance (Gal4:13-14)
He came in illness and preached the gospel
They accepted him, as if an angel of God and did not despise him.
Heartfelt question (Gal4:15a)
What happened to the blessing we had? I in you and you in me, are you abandoning that?
Heartfelt affirmation (Gal4:15b)
You would have plucked out your eyes for me
Paul urges, begs, implores them to be like him, but reminds them he is like them too. His plea is not with arrogance but with humility. In his humanity they accepted him as he was. We too can learn from this plea and affirmation.
This heartfelt appeal is a sentimental argument that goes hand in hand with his previous arguments, personal, scriptural, practical and still yet to come another allegorical argument defending the gospel of justification by faith in Christ Jesus vs. the Law of Moses.
(The gospel-4 picture)
The gospel is personal, Paul had a personal experience with the Gospel and with God and God’s Word. It was personal to Paul and should be personal to us. The Gospel is personal one seeker sharing with another seeker. It impacts all areas of our lives
in what we think, in what we feel
In what we hate and what we love
If standing firm or in compromise
in weeping and in rejoicing
In life and in death
Finally, in heaven or in hell.
It cannot get anymore personal than that. Personal does not mean private or self-indulging, that is what the Judiazers wanted was to turn people from Jesus to follow them and their way. Jesus addressed that in Mt23:23, listen to this.
(below not on screen)
23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.
In stead of reaching out and helping people with their helplessness and helping them into the kingdom they were by their legalism keeping people out of the kingdom. Jesus came to give us life and life full, to bring Christianity which
Brings peace beyond all comprehension
Brings strength to endure the hard times
Brings meaning to helping someone (our own road to Jericho) story
It brings holiness between man and God and man to man in actions.
The personal gospel has power (Rom1:16-17)
Look at how the Message words it.
16 It’s news I’m most proud to proclaim, this extraordinary Message of God’s powerful plan to rescue everyone who trusts him, starting with Jews and then right on to everyone else! 17 God’s way of putting people right shows up in the acts of faith, confirming what Scripture has said all along: “The person in right standing before God by trusting him really lives.”
The personal gospel given personally to you, in which you personally responded, obeyed is without limits.
Love without limits received Paul in his sickness
Love without limits loves others even from prison or chains
Love without limits is limitless like it shows (1Cor13:4-7)
Love is patient, kind, not jealous, it does not brag, is not arrogant, it does not act unbecomingly and is not selfish and seek its own. It is not provoked and does not keep record of wrongs suffered. It rejoices in the truth and bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things.
Paul was willing to bear all things and endure all things, even being considered an enemy because of the truth, because he spoke the truth from his heart with love.
Look at this illustration
(Illustration)
There is a story about a woman named Lizzie Johnson, no not the cattle baroness but a young girl, at 13 years old was in an accident that took her ability to move basically away from her.
She was without limits in her faith and her willingness to serve God. She heard that an African slave could be redeemed for $40.00 and set free so she made a quilt but no one would buy it. Not to be discouraged for she was without limits.
Without limits she then took to making bookmarks and she raised about $1000.00 a year for the next 27 years of her life to free slaves. She never was discouraged she gave every penny to do this, it was her life’s work.
If you are wondering about the quilt she made that no one would buy. She served a God who is without limits, There was a missionary from India who was travelling and doing speaking engagements who came to the town in Illinois where Lizzie lived and she gave the quilt to him. He accepted the gracious gift and the story of her work for Christ in freeing slaves. He used the quilt to challenge people to have the kind of limitless faith that Lizzie had and it helped to raise $100,000 to carry on the mission.
Without limits Lizzie continued to give, she gave to help people who were coming to Christ in Japan. After Lizzie’s death a prominent Japanese Christian who survived the bombing at Hiroshima by the name of Takuo Matsumoto was coming through the town where Lizzie had lived, Champaign Ill, her sister Alice remembered the name from her sister in giving and wondered if it was the same man. Alice planned to go to see him and inquire of him but she was struck sick on the day he was to be there and was very ill and could not go.
God used someone else to carry a message to Mr. Matsumoto and told the brief story of Alice and Lizzie, his face beamed and said she is Lizzie’s sister, and said he owed his very life and all that he is because of Lizzie and her dedication to God and her giving to help people. That very night he left after the event and went to the home and with tear filled eyes met with Alice and then went to take flowers to the grave of a girl without limits who could not get out of bed who touched his life with her love.
Love without limits does not like the limitless God for doing what He wants in and through you!
This all leads to our last point tonight
A Heartfelt Observation
A Heartfelt Observation
We all see things, we all observe things, and we make mental notes of things, well Paul speaks very boldly about some observations he has in looking at the situation of the Galatian church.
16 So have I become your enemy by telling you the truth? 17 They eagerly seek you, not commendably, but they wish to shut you out so that you will seek them.
18 But it is good always to be eagerly sought in a commendable manner, and not only when I am present with you. 19 My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you—
20 but I could wish to be present with you now and to change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.
What do you see, what do you notice, what sticks out to you?
(Pauls desire picture)
Paul sees and questions how they look at him (Gal4:16)
why does he think they look at him as an enemy? Has this happen to you?
He see’s the people coming after them, eagerly, to bring them back under a bondage that will shut them out of the kingdom of God. (Gal4:17)
What is the desire of the people?
Paul’s encouragement for them (Gal4:18)
Paul’s promise to them (Gal4:19)
Paul’s desire and heart for them (Gal4:20)
Paul was willing to risk everything in his relationship with the church at Galatia so to protect them and the gospel. He loved them as they loved him too. Paul was protective of truth as we should to be, protective of the truth.
We need to be willing to proclaim and to protect the truth so not to fall into one of the pitfalls like
Pollyanna Christianity that is not really Christianity for there is no mention of repentance or obedience
Legalistic Christianity which is taking the grace of God and discounting Christ’s work on the cross so it too is not Christianity either is it?
May we be a people who are without limits who carry the personal gospel with us and are willing to stand up, speak up, stand out for it so souls can be saved and the fallen can be restored.
(Life without limits)
For in Christ we are a new creation (2Cor5:17) in Christ our hope is found (Col1:27). For in Christ we die to self and live in Him (Php1:21) for there is no condemnation for those in Christ (Rom8:1) and it is no longer us who lives but Christ who lives in us (Gal2:20)
Come, enjoy being in Christ or return to the joy of your salvation tonight and live without limits!
(Encouragement slide) song/prayer (exit slides)