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Good morning.
If you will, take your Bibles, turn to Galatians chapter 4.
We're going to be looking at verses 8 through 20 together this morning.
We're continuing our series in Galatians, as Pastor Bo's been walking us through the book
of Galatians.
Pastor Bo's not here today, as you can tell.
He is in Haiti.
He is celebrating the 10th anniversary of Alex's House Orphanage.
Alex's House has been a mission partner of ours for many, many years, 10 years to be exact.
And so he is there today as they continue to celebrate this through the weekend, the 10th
anniversary.
I also want to remind you, too, as we're talking about missions, come March the 15th, it's a
Sunday, we're going to have our church-wide picnic.
This will be the third time we've done this.
We're actually going to have it that evening at 5 o'clock instead of right after the service
like we've done in the past.
But you can get your tickets today.
The tickets are $10.
But if you have a family of five or more, we'll cap it right at $40 and you get as many
tickets you need for your family.
We've got marinated pork, green beans, slaw, all that good stuff.
And we do this together for two reasons.
One, we do it to come together as a church family.
Actually, the Hispanic congregation or Hispanic congregation is going to join us in that as
well.
We also do that so that our student ministry and our Hispanic ministry can raise funds for
the upcoming mission trips that they've got coming this coming year.
So be a part of that.
Get your tickets today.
We'll have them again next Sunday as we gear up together just to continue our one family,
kind of why we initiated this one service once a month.
We've got kids in here this morning.
We've got our students in here and we've got all our families as well.
Well, if you remember our study of Galatians, Paul begins in Galatians, not really so he starts
with a greeting, but then he really jumps right into why he's writing them.
And as you and I see in that first chapter, it doesn't sound in this opening of a letter
a very nice thing when you look at it.
Instead, Paul is approaching them with this idea and this thought of, listen, you're not
doing what I know you should be doing.
You're not following God the way I showed you the example and the way I taught you to
follow God.
Matter of fact, he uses these words in chapter one, verse seven, he used the word because you're
seeing that the gospel is being distorted.
The gospel of Christ is being distorted.
And then in chapter three, verse one, he also uses the phrase that these false teachers have
bewitched you.
So he begins by really just honing in and pointing into them.
Listen, you have allowed false teachers to enter into your world, enter into your church,
and you're beginning to listen to them.
And that's not how I left you when I first visited with you.
Kids and students, you might recognize this.
Have you ever had your parents come to you and they've got to point something out in your life?
Maybe they've seen something that you've done or they need for you to do something.
And so they begin to tell you a story.
And in that story, they begin to point out the things to you that you need to learn or that you
need to be aware of.
And maybe they seem that you're not getting it on that first go around.
So they go a second time around, right within that same moment, and they begin to bring the same
point to you, but they share it with a different story and with some different details.
Have you ever had that experience with your parents?
I know I've done that with my sons.
I've said something to them, and I followed up with another example in hopes that the point
would stick.
Paul kind of uses that same approach here with the Galatians.
What we're going to see in Galatians 4, 8 through 10, that Paul gets down to really honing
in on what has taken place in their life and making them aware of what's taking place in
their lives in hopes that they'll get back to where he left them on his first time, his
first visit with them.
So if you will, take your Bible.
Let's read together.
I'm just basically going to walk through this together.
Paul says there in verse 8,
Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.
So in his first visit with them, they didn't know who God was.
They didn't have a relationship with God.
And what he points out to them is what they were doing was worshiping all kinds of gods.
And he was pointing out to the fact that these gods have no divineness in them whatsoever,
that they're false gods, and that these gods will not lead them in any way whatsoever.
And he goes on to say,
But now that you have come to know God, there was a time and a place that transformation took
place.
You heard the gospel of Christ, you received the gospel of Christ, and your life has changed.
Now that you have come to know God, or rather, to be known by God.
You might want to underline that part right there, to be known by God, because that's more
important than what the fact of them knowing God.
Because God knows who they are.
God knows all about them.
And he wants them to realize the importance of the fact that God knows them.
And he continues on by saying, How can you turn your back again to the weak and worthless elementary
principles of the world?
How can you turn back again?
So it's already happened in their life once.
And now Paul's saying, Listen, it's happening again.
And how can you let this happen?
Why are you letting this happen?
And he points out what they're turning their backs to.
It's so important that we pick up on the specifics in God's word.
It's so important that we look at all the words that God shares with us in his word.
Because it's so important right here what Paul says.
He says, The weak and worthless.
It doesn't read the same if we just simply say, The elementary principles of the world.
But by Paul sharing there that they're weak and worthless, it sends home a deeper understanding
of what they've given their life into.
Principles basically don't matter.
They're worthless.
So why live by them?
He goes on to continue to say, Whose slaves you want to be once more.
You say you're turning back to these things.
And now the things that enslaved you before you knew God, these gods that you worshipped,
now you're becoming a slave to them all over again.
And you molded and you shaped your life around things that you believed about these gods.
And look what's happening to you.
You've become slaves.
He follows that up in verse 10.
He says, You observe days and months and seasons and years.
He says, You've gone back just to following all the festivals and all the ceremonies.
He said, That's what you're focused on.
You're not focused on that relationship.
You're not focused on the grace that God has given.
And then verse 11.
He says, I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.
I kind of see that as just a sad moment for Paul.
A moment where he's just, you know, he's scratching his head as he's writing this letter.
He says, I spent time with you.
You saw who I was.
You got to do life with me.
And now you're turning your back just because you're listening to others.
He continues on.
He says, Brothers, I entreat you.
Brothers, I beg you.
I plead with you.
Become as I am.
I don't think Paul's being boastful here.
I don't think he's saying, Look at me.
I've got it all together.
Follow me.
I don't think that's what he's doing.
I think he's recalling back to them that time that he was with them.
And he showed them his relationship with God.
He says, Now you've gotten to a point in your life where it's clouded.
You don't know how to follow God anymore.
You want to listen to the false teachers.
And that's the direction you want to go.
He says, Look at me so that you can help get back on the right track.
He even says to him, he says, For I also have become as you are.
Not that he did everything that they did.
He didn't worship the false gods.
But yet he did some of the things culturally that they did.
He took up maybe some of the customs that they did.
But he didn't have a change in his life, in his relationship with the Lord.
And he was trying to make an identity with them that they would say,
Okay, we understand what you're saying, Paul.
He goes on to say, You did me no wrong.
When I was with you, you didn't treat me badly.
You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first.
You see, it wasn't in Paul's plan to be there.
It wasn't a part of his original missionary journey to be in Galatia.
But yet, because of a sickness that he had, he found himself in the midst of these people.
And in the midst of these people, they took care of him.
They went out of their way to make sure that they provided for him in one of the hardest times of his life.
You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first.
Paul took advantage of the moment that he had with those people to share the gospel of Christ with them.
And though my condition was a trial to you, it wasn't easy.
You know, when I get sick, I don't know about you, but when I get sick, just put me in a room and leave me there.
I don't need any pampering.
If I got the flu, and thank goodness I haven't had it in a few years, I just want to lay there.
That's all I want to do.
And Paul's saying here, in the deepest and the hardest time of my life, you ministered to me.
He's saying, do you remember who you were?
Do you remember the fact that your personality, your character was a character of giving and ministering to me?
And though my condition was a trial to you, he knew it was hard on them.
You did not scorn or despise me.
And they did it with a cheerful heart, apparently.
You did not scorn or despise me, but receive me.
Listen to this.
But receive me as an angel of God.
You looked at me as if I was somebody special.
You looked at me with honor.
He even goes beyond that, and he says, as Christ Jesus.
As if Christ was in your midst, is how you treated me.
And then he says, what then has become of your blessedness?
Where did it go?
Where's that kindness that I received?
Where is that people that had care?
Where did it go?
What happened?
For I testify to you that if possible, you would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me.
I mean, that's the extent that he recognized the care and the love that they showed him.
Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth?
He has noticed the fact that their relationship and how they receive him and perceive him has changed.
And it's no longer the Paul that they once knew.
Now they're feeling defensive.
Because Paul is doing exactly what God would intend for him to do.
And that is point out to them the blind spots of where and how they're not relating to the Lord.
It goes on to say, they, they meaning the false teachers that have filtered in to the church.
It says, they make much of you, but for no good purpose.
They build them up.
They build them up, but there's no reason behind it.
They want to shut you out that, that you may make much of them.
The whole purpose behind why they build them up is to bring glory and honor to themselves as those of leadership in their presence.
He said, that's the whole reason.
It is always good to be made much of for a good purpose.
And not only when I present with you, or I am present with you, my little children, for who am I again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ.
Now that phrase struck me.
The reason it struck me, when our son, our first son was born, I remember standing beside my wife's bed.
She had been given her epidural hours ago.
It took him forever to come into this world.
And I stood there and I watched her anguish.
I watched her pain.
And I was so close that at one point she grabbed a hold of my jeans and she pulled me with force.
And I thought I was going to flip over to the other side of the bed.
I knew at that moment she had hit her peak of pain.
And so when I see Paul say, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.
It is paining Paul to know that the Christians in Galatia have started to turn their backs on their faith.
It is paining him to the point where he recognizes that they need to get their life back in relationship with the Lord.
They need to turn back to God.
And he says there, this stands out to me.
He says, until Christ is formed in you.
If you've got a pen, if you've got a mark or whatever, I would highlight that.
Because to me, that's one of the most important elements of this particular part of Paul's letter.
Is he saying, the desire that I have for your life is that Christ and all about him is formed in who you are.
That who you are fades away.
That who you are is no more recognizable because what I want to be seen in you is who Christ is in you.
He goes on to say, I wish I could be present with you now.
And change my tone.
Even he recognized his tone was a little bit different.
For I am perplexed about you.
I am perplexed.
Paul finds himself back at that spot going, I just don't get it.
I don't get how I could spend my life or my time with you and pointing you to Christ.
And you allow some other teaching to come in and take your focus off of me.
There are some very important things that I pick up on when I look at this passage of scripture.
The first is this.
You are known by God.
You are a follower of Christ.
Don't ever forget that.
You are known by God.
He knows everything about you.
There are several of you in this room that I know.
Some of the kids, some of the students, a lot of the adults.
I know you.
You know me.
But my wife knows me best.
My wife knows when I get upset.
She knows when things are bothering me.
She knows when I'm happy.
And she knows what brings me happiness.
She knows all those things.
Back in January, we celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary.
And we normally don't give each other gifts.
We stopped doing that a few years ago.
But on this particular time, she wrote out 25 notes that basically said, I love you and this is the reason why.
And as I, I didn't, I wanted to read them all at once.
But I was like, yeah, I'm going to let this stuff pace out a little bit.
You know, I'm going to go to the 25 days at least.
I read about three that first time.
And then maybe the next day I read three.
And then I slowed down.
But as I read each one of those, I knew she knew me.
There was no doubt.
Because I would read it and I'd go, oh, okay.
She knows how I treat our sons.
She knows how I treat her.
Those are the things she knows about me.
But above all that, God knows me better than anyone that has ever come into my life.
God knows me better than my parents and the 21 years that I lived with them before going out on my own.
God knows me better than my wife.
God knows me better than my sons.
God knows me better than the staff that I serve with here at Willow Ridge Church.
God knew who my wife was going to be.
God knew that our first child was going to be a miscarriage.
God knew that our second one was going to be a son.
God knew that our third one was going to be a miscarriage.
God knew that our fourth one was going to be a son.
God knew we were going to stop after that.
Not because there was anything wrong with them.
But God just knew.
Ten years ago, God knew that I would be placed in the hospital for five days because I had a DVT in my left leg.
And I had multiple, multiple blood clots in my lungs.
It gives me chills right at this moment saying that.
And I've thought about it quite often.
And I laid that in the emergency room.
And the doctor wouldn't even give a number on how many.
He said, you just got a lot.
God knew that God knew that was going to happen.
It did not surprise God.
And I knew that God knew too that what caused that was a blood disorder that I never knew I had.
Until being in the hospital that I had a blood disorder known as factor V Leiden.
Named after this little country in Europe somewhere of this people.
But then my blood has a tendency to clot.
God knew that.
God knew that I needed to get to hospital.
I was a little stubborn on that one.
Because my nephew was graduating on a Friday.
I had shortness of breath on a Wednesday, I think.
And I thought to myself, I'm not going to tell my wife.
That was bad.
And on Thursday, I'm like, this ain't right.
I went to my doctor.
My doctor, all he checked was my oxygen in my blood.
He said, you're going to the hospital.
It still didn't hit me that I might have a blood clot, even though he said the words.
It still wasn't a big deal to me at that point.
And he says, you're going to go.
I'll get my wife on the phone.
Hey, sweetheart.
Dr. Smith wants me to go down to the hospital, have some scans done.
So I'm going to head down there.
He thinks I might have a blood clot.
What?
You're not driving yourself down there.
I said, what's the big deal?
So anyways, goes the story.
God knows me better than anyone.
One of my favorite passages of Scripture is found in Psalms 139.
I'm actually going to read that entire psalm or majority of that psalm to you because it paints
the picture of God knowing you, God knowing me.
Oh, Lord, you have searched me and known me.
You know, when I sit down, when I rise up, you discern my thoughts from afar.
You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, oh, Lord, you know it all together.
You hem me in behind and before and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me.
It is high.
I cannot attain it.
Where shall I go from your spirit or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there.
If I make my bed and she-hole, you are there.
If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the utmost parts of the sea,
even there your hands shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me.
If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me and the light about me be night.
Even the darkness is not dark to you.
The night is bright as the day, but darkness is as light with you.
Very important words, 13 and 14.
Side note, if you're struggling with value in your life,
if you're struggling with purpose in your life,
say this verse.
Commit this verse to memory.
Come back to this verse.
It says here,
For you, meaning God, you, formed my inward parts.
You knitted me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
If you doubt for a second that God does not know you,
if you doubt for a second that you don't have value in this world,
regardless of what a parent may have said to you,
a coach, a teacher, a co-worker, a boss,
regardless of all that,
God who created you,
God who has given us his word for us to know him and to know ourselves,
God says to you and I,
you are fearfully and wonderfully made.
Period.
David goes on to write,
Wonderful are your works.
My soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you.
When I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth,
your eyes saw my unformed substance.
In your book were written every one of them,
the days that were formed for me when as yet there was none of them.
How precious to me are your thoughts,
O God.
How vast is the sum of them.
If I would count them,
they are more than the sand.
I awake and am still with you.
Search me,
O God,
and know my heart.
Try me and know my thoughts,
and see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
There is no doubt that you are known by God.
Another thing that I see in this passage is this.
Guard yourself against the principles of the world.
The world in which we know it,
the world in which we see it,
the world in which we hear it,
is opposite of who God is in this word.
It is not truth.
No matter what you see on TV,
you're reading a book,
you hear people talking about,
you've always got to measure it against God's word,
God's truth.
Coach Bush is sitting in the room.
I told him I was going to say this.
I'm alumni of Columbia High School.
Jason is the head coach of the football team.
I played three years at Columbia High.
I was an offensive guard my senior year in high school.
An offensive guard's responsibility during a pass play,
is to basically clog up the middle.
Do not let a defensive player get through and get to your quarterback.
That is your role.
Protection.
I wasn't very good at that.
Halfway through the season said,
David,
we're going to try you out of defense.
Got my clavicle cracked,
snapped.
So much for that football season.
But the point is,
the role there is to protect.
Our role as followers of Christ is to guard our hearts against the things that the world wants to throw at us.
It's our responsibility to be in God's word so that we know what God desires for us to do in this life.
So we know how to conduct ourselves in this world.
Protect your heart and mind.
Part of that protection is watching what comes into your life.
Be careful of what you see.
Be careful of what you place in front of your eyes.
Be careful of what you listen to.
Because all those things will have an effect on who you are.
The more you pour God and allow God to pour himself into you,
the more you are formed by God and into the image of God.
We have to be careful to protect and to guard.
Proverbs 4.23 says this,
Above all else, guard your heart for everything you do flows from it.
Philippians 4.7 says this,
And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,
will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
The other thing that I see here in this passage is this,
be an example for God.
Just as Paul said, Paul says,
Become as I am.
Not a prideful thing,
but if you've got to look at somebody, look at me.
Watch how I relate to the Lord.
Watch what the Lord is doing in my life.
My wife and I have said to our sons multiple times,
When you leave this house,
remember who you are,
and remember whose you are.
Remember who you are,
and remember whose you are.
You are an Allen,
and that should mean something.
That should mean something when you're out and about.
But more importantly,
you are a child of God,
and that means you should conduct yourself accordingly.
It's so important that we set an example
for who we are in Christ.
It's one thing for us to speak about our relationship with Christ
and to share with others,
but it's another thing how we live our life in Christ.
Sometimes our actions speak a lot louder than our words.
And God desires our words and our actions to be the same,
to not be different.
In Ephesians 5, verses 1 through 2,
we see these words,
Therefore, be imitators of God.
Kids, y'all know how to be imitators, don't you?
You ever kind of see your mom say something,
or your dad say something,
or a brother or sister say something,
and you kind of, you mock them,
you go,
la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la.
You know, you do something like that?
You done that?
I've done that.
I've done that as a 53-year-old adult sometimes.
You know, that's not very good, though, is it?
But that's about being an imitator.
But the scripture's talking about you and I are imitators of God.
As beloved children, and walk in love,
just as Christ also loved you and gave himself up for us,
an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.
Be imitators of God.
And then lastly, God will be formed in you.
God will be formed in you.
Before God led me into the ministry,
I was planning on being a graphic designer.
That was the direction that I had in my mind that God was going to do.
My junior year of college, God changed all that.
So I got a little bit of artsy in me.
And one of the things that I had to do in getting my degree
was I had to take some sculpture courses.
And one of that was messing with clay and messing with acrylic,
you know, where you cut it and shape it and sand it down
and make it all shiny.
But I am fascinated with a person who is able to take a lump of clay,
throw it on a potter's wheel,
and begin to take their hands and water and apply pressure
and to begin to shape that lump of clay into a vessel to be used.
If you've never seen it, YouTube it.
I did it yesterday just to make sure I was going to say the right thing.
It is so incredible to watch that.
And we even see that picture spoken of in the Old Testament
where the potter is at the wheel and he is shaping and molding.
Think of your life as a believer in Christ,
as clay in the hands of God,
where God is wanting to shape you
and will shape you into the very person that he desires for you to be.
Every lump of clay that the potter puts on the wheel and shapes
will not be the same as the next one.
It's different.
You're different.
I'm different.
Everyone in this room, we are different.
God has made us that way.
We're not the same.
But God will take each of us and form himself in us.
He will form his attitude.
He will form his heart.
He will form his characteristics in you and in me.
That is God's desire to do in our life.
So when we see this whole idea of Christ being formed in us,
literally the Greek says this,
until a mind and life in complete harmony
with the mind and life of Christ
shall have been formed in you.
Your mind, your life,
completely formed to become and to look like
Christ's life, Christ's mind.
That's the whole idea behind that verse there.
So important.
In Colossians chapter 1, verses 27 and 28.
To them, God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles
are the riches of the glory of this mystery,
which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone
with all wisdom that we may be present,
that we may present everyone mature in Christ.
As we're formed by God, in God, we mature.
Then in Romans 12, 2,
and do not be conformed to this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind
so that you may prove that the will of God is,
what the will of God is,
that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
And then in Galatians 2, 20.
I have been crucified with Christ.
It is no longer I who live,
but Christ who lives in me.
I have changed.
In the life I now live in the flesh,
I live by faith in the Son of God
who loved me and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2, 20.
And then finally, Philippians 1, 6.
And I am sure of this,
that he who began a good work in you
will bring it to completion
as a day of Jesus Christ.
When God begins to form himself in you,
he will complete it.
He's not going to leave you hanging.
He's not going to leave you half done.
He's going to complete his transformation in your life.
Allow God to finish the good work that he has begun in you.
Resist turning back to old ways and old habits.
Allow God to be formed in you.
In a moment, we're going to share together communion.
It's a time where we come together as believers in Christ.
So if you're a Christian,
but you're not a part of the family of Willow Ridge Church,
you're invited to take communion along with us.
Because we recognize what Christ has done for us,
that he sacrificed his life and died on the cross,
forgive us of our sins
so that we could have a relationship with him.
And so when we take communion together,
it is us as believers recognizing that his body was broken
and that his blood was shed
in order for us to have forgiveness of sin.
So we're going to pray together
and we're going to serve the elements together
and we're going to betake of the Lord's Supper.
Will you pray with me?
Father, thank you always
that your word is clear,
that your word is truthful,
that your word opens up for us
our relationship with you.
It shows us, Lord, how much you love us,
how much you desire to mold and to shape us,
and more importantly,
to mold and to shape us
and to form us into who you are in us.
Father, we are grateful to you
that through your love,
you provide us that grace,
that grace that oversees our faults,
that grace that oversees our failures,
that grace that oversees our shortcomings.
Lord, it's only you that can love us in that way.
It's only you that can forgive us.
And it's only you that can draw us into a relationship
that we can have with you.
And to know that constantly as we relate to you
and as we love you,
that Lord, you continue to love us no matter what.
So, Lord, we give you thanks.
We thank you for who you are
and your love for us.
We ask this prayer in your name.
Amen.
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