NC Chapels
Nat Crawford | Galatians 3:1-14
We have a trajectory of hearts that are wanting to not forget your statutes or your precepts. Help our hearts to propel in a way that delights in your word, that doesn't forget your word. Yet we've, each week, have talked about the privilege of being able to hear your word. May we take it and eat it, as your word says, and may it be satisfying and fulfilling for our hearts and our lives. We pray this in your name, Amen. As Pastor Nat's coming up here, if you turn your Bibles to Galatians chapter 4, I'm going to throw a little curve ball for you, little miscommunication on my end, Galatians chapter 4, instead of Galatians 3, but it'll work out because God works out things altogether. That's right. Praise God. I wish I could blame you for the miscommunication, but it was all me. So I apologize to students, but I do think today will be meaningful in the word today. So I want you to imagine with me as you turn to Galatians 4 that you go out one night and you rob a home. You go through the house and you take what you want. The owner of the house tries to stop you. So what do you do? You beat him up. You lay him down flat, knocked out cold, and to cover up any evidence that you were there, you set the house on fire. You run away as fast as you can, but by chance there happens to be a police officer who catches you. You're taken to trial, you're found guilty, and they throw you in prison. What's unique about the situation is you spend your time and upon your release, you're actually then sold into slavery. Your debt has not yet been paid. You need to work to make sure that what you have done is made right as best as you can. So years go by as a slave, but then finally the day comes when you are put on the auction block. It's time to move on to your next job. Here in the crowd is the person you beat up. The bids are going higher and higher, and much to your displeasure, the person who you beat up and robbed and set their house on fire is the one who continues to win the bid. And finally the price skyrockets and the victim is the one who wins the bid. You are now his slave, but what's amazing is as he comes up to you, he says, "I've purchased you, but now I'm going to set you free." You're shocked. You're confused. Maybe you don't look the same. It's been a long time. Do you realize who I am? You paid a lot of money for me. Do you realize I'm the one who robbed you, who beat you up and set your house on fire? And now you purchased me, and yet you want to set me free, are you sure? And the benefactor says, "Oh yes, but I want to adopt you as my child. You will become an heir to all I have." Now imagine that person was you. If you had the choice between living as an heir of the benefactor or going back to being a slave, which would you choose? That question may sound obvious when we think of the answer, but yet many of us today repeatedly choose to go back to slavery. So let's listen to Paul's words in Galatians chapter 4 beginning in verse 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, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. So one of the things about Paul is Paul can be a little bit wordy, and we have to kind of distill down what he is saying. Paul says, "Look, a child. Even if they're an heir to a fortune, a child is still a child. A child is under the rules of the headship, the limitations of being a youth. But there is a day coming when every child will become an adult. The young boy will become a man, a girl will become a woman. What's the point? What Paul is doing, he is making a comparison, an analogy. The Israelites were living as children under the law, and they were slaves to the law. Paul will actually say so back in chapter 3, verse 23. You probably know that the law was a strict set of guidelines passed down throughout the generations, but here is the problem. Living out the law did not and could not save anybody. The law was there to reveal how sinful people were and how sinful people are. So what Paul does here is he uses some familiar language and says, "So we too. We too are under the law. We were like slaves, or we were like children who have limitations. We can't reach the top shelf. We can't spend the money as heirs." But then Paul says that slavery came to the elementary principles of the world. What does that mean? It's kind of the ABCs of life, and if we could distill it down even more, it's what I call the game of religion. Religion is all about what you can do to earn your way to God. Religion is all about what you can do to earn favor with God or to achieve some cosmic goal. Religion is all about what you can do to keep your reward or keep your salvation. Paul will make the same statement in Colossians chapter 2 verse 8. And so these elementary principles are the value system of the world. It's the pay-to-play mentality. It's what we call the performance trap. Though it's been many years, I remember what it's like being a high school student or a junior high student. All you do is try to perform so that you look cool enough for your peers. So you perform in a way that gets you the grading class so that you look good in front of your principal. You want to be cool and outperform each other as athletes, as people. You're doing whatever you can to increase your status in front of each other. That's what he's talking about here. It's the performance trap of life. And the reality is, if you play that game, friends, you will always lose. You can never be good enough. You can never perform enough. You always have to try to do more. So Paul here is challenging them and he's challenging us. Move beyond the elementary principles. This is one of the challenges you will have as Christians in a Christian school. I was raised in a Christian school, K through 12. You become inoculated to the relationship that you have available to you. If you're not careful, you will begin to think that how you look good before God is based on what you can do. Are you saying your prayers? Are you reading your Bible? Are you attending the chapels? Are you saying enough good things? Do you know the books of the Bible in order? Can you quote John 3 16? Now, are those things bad? No, they're good. Those are spiritual habits and spiritual gifts and knowledge that you have, but those things don't save you and they don't keep you saved. Ephesians 2 tells us that we are saved by grace through faith, not about works so that no man made boast. It's not about what you can do, but what about what Christ has done. The book of Galatians as a whole has this message, legalism, religion will not save you and it will not keep you saved. It's all about Christ. The question is, do you believe it? You see, God does not care one bit if you have 10 friends or one friend or no friends. God does not care if you have a million Instagram followers or none. God doesn't care how many re-shares you have on TikTok. God doesn't care. God cares about is your heart and he cares if your son reigns in it. None of these things that we put all of our stock and efforts and energy into frankly matter because they don't add to your salvation. They don't keep you saved. If this is you today and you're struggling, you are a slave to the elementary principles. You're a slave to the performance trap. God says don't do it. You're free. You're free from that. That's amazing grace. We need to stop thinking that we have to try harder to earn God's love. We do not perform from or for God's love. We perform from God's love. That is the difference and that's what I want you to know today. God loves you no matter what. So today, remember who you are in Christ and allow him to direct your steps. This is four through seven. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoptions as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts, crying, "Abba, father." So you are no longer a slave, but a son and if a son, then an heir through God. If you've ever seen the movie "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," you know at the end that Charlie is awarded an opportunity to inherit Wonka's business and all the perks that come with it. But again, imagine your Charlie bucket and what you've come from is cabbage water for dinner and a life of hardship and challenge. And yet you have the opportunity to be the king of chocolate. And you say to Wonka, "No, thank you, Mr. Wonka. I'll keep the cabbage water. That's all I want." Anyone who would witness you making such a decision would think you're nuts to go back to a life like that. Now, God is no willy Wonka, that is for sure, but we can all be Charlie bucket in that sense. God tells the Galatian churches that when the time was just right, God sent his son, Jesus. Why? So that we might become God's adopted children. God had appointed or dained the moment that God would take on flesh. Jesus would become into this world. Why? So that he might seek and save the lost. So that those who were orphaned. So those who were the enemies of God, those who spat in the face of God might become his children and his heirs. But this was only possible if God would take on human flesh to do what no man could do, live a perfect life, and offer up his life as a sacrifice for us. Paul says, "Born of a woman under the law. Jesus Christ was fully God and fully man, only one capable of fulfilling the law to live a perfect life." And what was the result? Redemption for the unredeemable, salvation for the unsavable, hope for the hopeless. When we become adopted children of the king, it's not only by name, it is a reality. If you put your saving faith in Jesus Christ today, friends, you are heirs of the kingdom. According to Ephesians 1, we have every spiritual blessing at our disposal. If you struggle with anxiety, anxiety today, fear, loneliness, depression, alienation, rejection, abandonment, you have everything you need to be complete in Christ today. Every spiritual blessing is yours. Will you lean into that relationship? You are heirs of God's fortune. Paul says something that today would be politically incorrect. He uses the term "sons." This is a term about status and not about gender. In the first century world, only men could receive an inheritance. Only the men would be eligible to receive what was passed down. But regardless of gender, in Christ you are considered a son, one who is worthy, eligible and will receive the inheritance in God's family. You see, God didn't just save you. He adopted you as His heirs. That's why Paul reminds the glace in churches in us today. You are no longer a slave. You are no longer a child underneath the restrictions of being a child, of childhood, but instead you are free people living in the kingdom of the benevolent king. Paul says live like it. This is who you are. It's your identity, don't wander. This isn't our tendency though. This is why we continue to go back into slavery of some kind. Whether it's an addiction to pornography. Whether it's to gossiping after you said, "I won't do it again." Whether it's lying to your teachers or lying to a parent or abusing a friend with your words or bullying somebody. You say, "I'll never do that again," and yet we wander back into the slavery of doing it. Paul is saying you are free as an heir of the king. You no longer have to do these things. He has set you free, chains are broken, don't try and put them back on. The truth is we all have an area. It's not just US students, administrators walk back into slavery, pastors walk back into slavery and Christ says, "Don't do it." Remember as Christians, we don't lean into license, the freedom to sin and by God's grace when he sees you and you do sin, he doesn't see your sin, he sees his son, you are free. Verse 8, "Formally when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods, 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, who slaves you want to be once more. You observe days and months and seasons and years. I am afraid I have labored over you in vain." I hope you heard what Paul just said in verse 10. He said, "I am afraid that I may have labored over you in vain." Do you know what that is friends? That's regret. That's regret. He's saying, "I did the right thing. I came to you. I gave you the gospel. I gave you the truth and now look at you. You just don't get it." This is the whole theme of Galatians in the nutshell. The theme of Galatians is that we are free. We are free in Christ. It's not freedom to sin. It's not freedom to play God for ourselves. We are free to run on the track he has placed us on with freedom from guilt and shame. We are free to live in a way that brings God glory and helps the community around us flourish. I think you're awake now and I can see you're engaged, so entertain me for a minute. What do you think? Is a train freed or restricted by its train tracks? Is a train freed or restricted by its train tracks? I hear the whispers and the majority of people here, like everyone else, have said a train is restricted. It doesn't matter if I'm in church, at a conference, at a youth group, everyone says the same thing. Let me ask you this. What happens when a train goes off of its train tracks? It's derailed. It's stuck. It can't go anywhere. That is the perfect picture of our freedom in Christ. When we stick to the train tracks that God has laid before us, we are free to go wherever they lead. But the moment we leave the tracks, we're derailed. We're stuck. We're hurting ourselves and the people around us. All is saying, why on earth are you doing what you're doing and going back into slavery? I've wasted my time. You knew the truth. You embraced the truth. You began moving forward on the train tracks and for some reason you decided to derail. Why did I waste my time? Nobody likes regret. Nobody likes guilt. Threat and guilt are joy stealing feelings. And they happen when we've made the wrong decisions. Regret is experienced after the fact, once you've seen the results, but isn't it fascinating for Paul, even though he has done the right thing, he is wrestling with regret. And again, I think here's the problem. And this was the problem in Paul's time. People loved religion. People loved performance. They loved having to try to prove themselves because, again, it's all about what you can do. Look how many points I scored. Look how many blocks I had. Look how many touchdowns I threw. Look at my grades. Look at what I've done. The problem is it doesn't impress God. It'll never earn your salvation. It'll never help you keep your salvation. It broke Paul's heart to see these people who once embraced this idea. That salvation comes by grace alone through faith alone. Paul would say that any gospel, but the true gospel is no gospel because it's impotent. The moment you add anything to the gospel or take anything away, it ceases being the gospel. This broke Paul's heart. So a question for us today is what are we doing with the truth of God? What are we doing with the gospel that we have heard and I pray received? Are we living it out? Are we living on the train tracks or are we derailing ourselves? Are we living out what we claim to believe? But are we rejecting the benefits of being the heirs of the king? Human commentators said this. Genuine conversion cannot be restricted to a one-time event in the past. Those who are saved demonstrate their new life by continuing in faith until the last day. I've sat where you're sitting today and I've kept up with the people who were in my class and Lincoln Christian. There are good many people who started off saying, "Yeah, I believe. Yeah I went to Christian school, yeah I went to chapel, yes I went to church, yes my parents were Christians, yes I believe." But over time we'll see. The gospel message is to be embraced, believed and lived. Don't be like these foolish Galatians who heard it and then forgot it and moved on. The grace of God can never become an excuse for us to fall back into the game of religion or performance or even license to sin because when we are free in Christ we will live freely. Verses 12 through 20. "Brothers I entreat you become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong. You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first 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. What then has become of your blessedness? For I testify to you that if possible you would have gouged out your eyes and give them to me. Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth? They make much of you but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them. It is always good to be made much of for a good purpose and not only when I am present with you, my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone for I am perplexed about you." That's a lot of real estate to cover but I want you to see that Paul did not mince words. He said what he meant and he meant what he said. Paul has saddened, he has shocked, he has heard, hurt by his friends and his spiritual family's decisions. Look at what he says. He says, "Have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?" What's the back story? Well in verse 12 he says, "Become as I am." You may remember Paul was a strict Jew. He was a Jew among Jews, a Pharisee, a religious zealot. He was committed to the Mosaic War. He loved the list of to-dos and don't. He thrived on it. He loved the game of religion. He lived by that game and he was good at it but then he gave it up. Why? Because he met Arisen Christ and he changed everything. He realized all that was for nothing and he could not perform for God's love. That's why he said, "Become as I am." Become as I am. I realized that was nothing. That was meaningless. Your performance doesn't impress anybody at the end of the day and it sure doesn't impress God. He quit trying to tip the cosmic scales. He realized that he couldn't. His friends had heard that story. They had heard the message. He didn't want to burden the Galatians with legalism. He knew it was a dead-end trap. It doesn't work. Instead, he said, "Embrace God's grace." So he is becoming one with them and that's the beauty of grace. That's the beauty of God's forgiveness. It's for everyone. It doesn't matter how tall or short you are. Doesn't matter what skin color you have. Doesn't matter what your last name is. It doesn't matter what kind of car you drive or what your parents do for a living. It doesn't matter what you've done, what you're doing or what you will do. God's grace unites all people. We all can become part of God's family. It's a beautiful relationship. The Galatians believe this. They believe the gospel, but then they turn their back on it and they've turned their back on Paul. One of the hardest realities you will have to deal with as you grow up is the rejection of the love and the respect of your family and your friends and your coworkers. Again, I've sat where you're sitting. You're going to be made fun of by your friends sitting right next to you because you stand firm on God's Word. You're going to be made fun of and put down and shun because you say don't gossip. Don't lie. Don't look at that. Don't compromise with your boyfriend. Don't compromise with your girlfriend. Don't compromise every area of life. And the people who are sitting next to you can and they may say you fool. What will you do? They will reject the grace of God and they're going to tell you so. How will you respond? We see people rejecting the gospel all the time. We see people rejecting Christians because of their beliefs. Now Paul could have said, whoa, whoa, whoa, guys, just kidding about the gospel. Whoa, whoa, just kidding about the train tracks. Don't be friends. I want to know that you like me and I want you to know I like you, but that's not what he says at all. He's being hurt. He's being betrayed. When have you been betrayed? When have you experienced rejection at school, at home, at work, in your neighborhood, at church? If it hasn't happened, it will happen, but remember what Christ said, people rejected me first, they will reject you. So we know it's going to happen. The key for us is to be rejected for the right reasons. We need to be living a life that is more like Christ and less like ourselves. So how we live matters. If we say we believe something, we will live it and people are always watching. The time is coming when you will have to make some hard decisions. Will you live as a slave or will you live as a free person in Christ? Will you live as a beggar or an heir of the king? Will you reject Christ for the, for the values of the world? Will you reject Jesus for the opinions of others? Will you say no to God and say yes to your peers when it matters most? Again, do you know your identity? You are a new creation in Christ. If you have repented of your sins and turned to Jesus, you are a new creation. You are free. You are an heir of the king. So as we live here today, I want you to ask yourself, where in my life am I living like a slave? What areas of my life have I not fully surrendered to the freedom of Christ? Again, it may be in the performance trap of each other. How many likes do I get on my reels? Did I win homecoming? Did I not win homecoming? How many points I scored? Look at my GPA. Look at my friend group. You're a slave, but you've been made free. Even we can become slaves to our parents and our performance to them. Pay your parents. The Bible tells us to, but ultimately, you don't perform for their love, just like you don't perform for God's love. You perform from it. So today I want us to make the choice to live as free people, fully embracing the grace of God. So I challenge you. I challenge me to lay down our chains at the foot of the cross and live as children of the King. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you for this morning for a chance to gather together as your people. God so easily I can fall back into the chains of slavery, whether it's that slavery of performance of playing the game of religion and legalism, or whether it's just trying to look good in front of others, those are dead end traps. God if we truly believe Ephesians 2, then we will believe Galatians 4. Ephesians 2, your word tells us, Father, that we are your masterpiece created in Christ Jesus for good work so that we might walk in them. How did this happen by grace through faith? It's not about what we can do, but about what your son has done. I know there are people in this room today who are feeling guilt and shame because of things that they've done, and they've fallen back into the trap of slavery to something. Father, may they hear your words, you are my masterpiece. You are my heir. I love you, and may that grace free us to not pursue license to sin or legalism. So God may we walk out of here fully focused on you, your love, your grace because that grace changes everything. Thank you Father for making us free. It's in your son's name we pray, amen. All right, you guys have Neltel, let's go about 9/10, okay, nothing later than that for e-groups, okay. So break up, head out to your e-groups, you got a good couple questions there that we're thrown in, and don't forget to pray together. [BLANK_AUDIO]