Sermon Tone Analysis

Freed to Be Free #11

Galatians 4:1-20

The Promise Calls for us to Grow Up

 

/Which Kind Are You?”/

/A lot of Christians are like wheelbarrows—not good unless pushed.

/

/Some are like canoes—they need to be paddled.

/

/Some are like kites—if you don’t keep a string on them, they fly away.

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/Some are like kittens—they are more contented when petted.

/

/Some are like a football—you can’t tell what way they will bounce next.

/

/Some are like balloons—full of wind and ready to blow up.

/

/Some are like trailers—they have to be pulled.

/

/Some are like lights—they keep going on and off.

/

/And there are those who always seek to let the Holy Spirit lead them.

/

Which Kind are You?

/—Christian Inde/[1]

 

Warren Wiersbe says “/legalism leads the believer back into a 2nd childhood of Christian experience”/  … and he doesn’t mean that in a good way.

He means that it makes us feel and act like children again.

We become selfish and self-centered.

We need to be led by the hand, especially when crossing the street.

Paul is shifting the focus now from COMING to Christ by Grace to LIVING FOR Christ FROM a position of Grace.

There are three basic levels of behavior and decision making when it comes to doing right things or avoiding undesirable behavior

 

Level One – you do something that is desired or avoid something undesirable because of Fear of Punishment or Promise of Reward

Level Two – you do something because someone you respect has told you that it’s the right thing to do or not to do

Level Three – you do what is desired or avoid what is undesirable just simply because you know inside that it is right or wrong

 

At some point we have to grow up and do the right thing because it is right, because we love our Father, and because we want to look like him, and not just because we are going to get a lollipop, or to be popped on the hand, or not get into the church, or get the position we want …

 

Paul makes a pivotal shift here in chapter four from denying Salvation by Works to teach Salvation by Grace to now call us to living a life of Grateful Actions in the submission by the power of the Holy Spirit

 

The Wonderful News Folks is that there is Grace available for the Christian Living, just as there is Grace available for Eternal Life

But it is also exercised by faith.

We have to believe and live in the Power of the Holy Spirit within us

 

In Romans 7 Paul says /“who’s going to deliver me from this body of death”/ and then in the next breath says /“thanks be to God – through Christ Jesus”/ … God told Paul in 2 Cor 12:9 “/my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in your weakness”/

 

“Oh I just can’t live the Life of Christ.”

REALLY?

/ /

/“There is no temptation that has taken you but that is common to man, and God is faithful and won’t allow you to be tempted above which you are able, but with the temptation will provide a way of escape that you can stand up under it.”

/1 Cor 10:13

 

Romans 1 teaches us that it is Faith from First to Last

 

/“His Divine Power has given us everything we need from for life and godliness” /

2 Peter 1:3

 

Well let’s begin this transition in our study

 

READ 4:1-7

 

1.

The Spirit Within Helps Us to Grow Up

 

Maybe I should say that the Spirit EXPECTS us to Grow up … and THEN he helps us

 

The problem is that legalism, which is defined as /strict, or excessive conformity to the law or to a religious or moral code/, hinders your move into maturity

 

  A.

The Law Hinders Maturity

    1.

remember Paul called

The law a tutor or supervisor and when you have to have it to know what is right and wrong you are a child again

    2.

There is a place for learning what is right and wrong.

We are all spiritual babes and spiritual children … but there comes a time to grow up, and it’s not in real time.

You don’t have to be a Christian 20 years to grow up either.

It’s a matter of believing and obeying, from within through the power and leading of the Holy Spirit.

B.

The Promised Spirit Makes us Adult Sons

    1.

remember our message last week.

In Christ Jesus we aren’t slave or free, man or woman, Jew or Gentile, we are all Adult Sons of God.

That means we have full rights and authority of being a child of the King.

We have the inheritance of Abraham which is Christ in you, the Holy Spirit received by Grace through Faith. 

    2.

the law says “DO THIS” … the Spirit of Promise says “BE”

    3.

you are an heir?

To the Promise of Abraham.

/“The Just will live by Faith.”/

You have been justified so LIVE By Faith

 

    4.

When we come to Christ but remain bound by legalism, we are sons in right but not sons in fact or experience.

We are headed for heaven, we are bought with a price we are born into the Kingdom but unless we grow up, we aren’t experiencing the

 

When a Father places a supervisor over the children and puts their inheritance into trust, he was not bound to any predetermined age, it was strictly up to the Father’s determination.

So in the Old Testament God had made the Promise through Abraham of the coming Christ.

He had appointed The Law as guardian to the children of Promise then, as Paul says here, /“at just the right time”/ … “/when the time had fully come, God sent his Son … to redeem those under the law, that we might receive full rights of sons …” /

 

And then Paul affirms it/ “because you are son, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father’ … /

 

See verse five says we have received “/full rights of son/” … it means literally to be placed as adopted adult sons.

Coming into Christ we don’t have to wait for a trust to mature, we don’t have to wait for another gift, we are given the Holy Spirit to mark that we are fully Adult Sons with full rights of Sonship … so we need to Grow up …

 

The Spirit within us gives us that desire to no longer call out to our base nature but to call out to God in an intimate way as Abba Father or Daddy

 

But not only the desire but the ability …

In the Old structure, we could be no greater than servants of God … But Jesus, in John 15:15 he tells his disciples, /I have not called you servants … I have called you Friends/

 

The Spirit helps us Grow Up because …

 

2.

The Spirit Transforms Us

 

We are not simply servants any longer we are friends of God and Adult Sons

 

READ 4:8-11

 

If you have trusted Christ and so been given the Holy Spirit, aren’t you glad that the Holy Spirit has changed you?

 

  A.

You WERE Conformed v8

    1.

conformed to the world’s agenda – Romans 12:2 calls it the /“pattern of this world”/ – we forget which mold to use … can I tell you something … you and I need to get up each morning and decide we are going to use God’s mold and not that old worldly mold we have been using all these years …

    2.

conformed to the law of sin and death – but now I have been set free from the law of sin and death

    3.

conformed to someone who thinks he is a god (satan) – they had worshipped idols.

That is what they did … They had stared into the faces of gods made with human hands … gods with no emotion, gods with no brain, eyes with no light, ears with no ability to hear.

They had offered up sacrifices, prayers and petitions, looking to a blank face of a worthless god.

But NOW! … they knew Jesus.

They may have not seen him or touched him with human eyes and hands, but they had looked spiritually into his face and heard him say “FORGIVEN” … They had looked into his eyes and seen the light of Love … They had offered up their love, prayers, petitions, and found a soft ear that heard their cries … and so WHY would the return now? 

 

    4.

They HAD been this way.

Why, because they didn’t know better and you couldn’t do any different.

So  you lived by the set of rules you knew … /“when you did not know” /

 

But the Good News is that in Christ Jesus the Spirit Transforms us

 

  B.

You have been Transformed v9

    1.

/“but now/” … now you KNOW …

    2.

don’t surrender again to conformity to someone who thinks they are god.

Paul was not afraid that they would really go back to idols, or that they would reject the authenticity of Jehovah God and his Son Jesus Christ.

But their actions made it practically the same thing.

Churches are full of people who confess Christ but are what I call “Practical Atheists” … that is you would never say there isn’t a God, and you don’t trust in his Son or are indwelt by the Spirit, but we live as if it were not true.

We don’t live FOR him, we don’t obey his authority, we don’t take advantage of his power for us who believe

Ephesians 1 says that the same power that resurrected from the dead is FOR US who believe … Do you Live what you Believe?

    3.

… v9 /“BUT NOW … that you KNOW God … or rather are KNOWN By God”/  our transformation WILL end in conformity, but conformity to Christ …