Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / Galatians: A Grace-full Life

Grace Who's in Control

Sermon Series: Galatians: A Grace-full Life

Title: : Grace Who's in Control Text: Galatians 4:21-31

Introduction: There are times, if we were honest, when we use the phrase ‘Hey, let me help you with that’ and we’re not just offering our help. Sometimes, what we’re really saying is ‘I can’t take it any longer. Here, give that to me!’

Or perhaps you have used this phrase: ‘I could show you how to do it but it would take longer than if I just did it myself.’ Same thing. They are often cleverly disguised attempts for control.

·       Have you ever thought about how hard it is to let go of something and let someone else take over?

·       Have you ever thought about your need to be in control?

We might laugh as we remember times we took control of a situation just to maintain our sanity. But wanting to be in control can become a serious problem in our relationships with others, especially when we are talking about our relationship with God.

Background: In our text this morning we’ll see a classic example of a married couple who were tired of waiting for God to work, so they took matters into their own hands by taking back control and it had devastating consequences in their lives.

Transition: Open your Bibles to Galatians 4:21 (pg. 888 in the Bibles under the chair in front of you.)  For it’s there we will look at Grace...who’s in control?

I. Galatians 4:21         The Problem Stated

Read: Galatians 4:21

Paul says ‘Hey, you want to follow the Law...OK, but do you understand what the Law says?’ ‘Do you see the theme running through the entirety of the Law?’

These questions are important to our lives as Christians today because we face the very same problem the Galatian Christians faced in the 1^st century.

·       How/when do we ‘cooperate’ with God when He reveals His will to us?

·       And how do we keep our hands off, when we fail to see God work/move in a reasonable amount of time?

Truth is, we like being in control. We want to ‘do something’ instead of waiting for God to do something. Paul is asking ‘Law or Grace...who’s in control?’

·       Under the Law it’s what you do for God that matters. Under grace, it’s what God has done and will do for you that matters.

·       Under the law we find fig leaves to cover our nakedness. Under grace, God covers our nakedness. (see Genesis 3)

The Judaizers of Paul’s day and the legalists of ours, are not just promoting following a bunch of rules in order to get closer to God, they’re promoting a ‘take charge’ attitude, a life of living under our own control and not the control of the Holy Spirit, as Paul will discuss later in chapter 5.

Transition: Self control or God’s control? Paul addresses these two primary ways to live our lives in verses 22-23 when he refers the Galatian Christians to the choice made by Abraham and Sarah when God told them it was His will for them to have a child.

II. Galatians 4:22-23           The Text Used

Read: Galatians 4:22-23

Self control or God’s control? This is the struggle we all face as we  journey the Christian life...

especially when God is silent and taking a long

time to meet our need. Paul uses the story of Abraham and Sara to illustrate his point.

You know the story from Genesis.

·       God told Abram that he and his wife would have a son. Even though they were childless.

·       Abram and his wife become impatient with God’s timing and they come up with a way to help God out.

·       Sarah allowed Abram to have sex with her slave, Hagar.

·       He did and they had a child, Ishmael.

So when Paul said in Galatians 4:23 that Abrams son born of the slave woman was born ‘in the ordinary way’ he meant by their own control, Ishmael was the product of their self-reliance. Abram and Sarah rather than have the future of their family controlled by God took matters into their own hands.

14 years later, the story continues.

·       God comes to Abram and tells him that Sarah will have a son.

·       Both Abram and Sarah didn’t believe it was possible since they were now past child bearing age.

·       Abraham probably thought, ‘Hey God, I already took care of that myself. I have a son, Ishmael.’

·       God rejected what Abraham and Sarah were able to produce on their own and promises them a child by His power, in His way, under His control.

·       Sarah gave birth to Isaac.

·       Abraham and Sarah learned to let God be in control.

So Paul’s point here is to show the two kinds of people there are in the world:

·       those who want control of their lives

·       and those who live under God’s control.

Sidebar: Allow me a few moments to make this relevant. One of the saddest moments in a Christians’ life, is right after they have sex before they are married. And this is not an isolated event, it happens everyday in Christian homes all around the world.

For most of us, God’s plan is for marriage, the pleasure of romantic love and sexual fulfillment. But it gets easy to be impatient for God to work and we take a short cut to the pleasure of romantic love and sexual fulfillment by taking control of who we choose to have sex with and when we want to have sex with them.

We take control of our desires for happiness, pleasure and sexual fulfillment, by having sex outside of marriage.

But when we take control from God, we end up with something that’s worthless and shameful. And when we realize that, it is one of the saddest moments in our Christian life.

Paul’s point here is to show the two kinds of people there are in the world:

·       those who want control of their lives

·       and those who live under God’s control.

Which one are you?

Transition: In the next few verses, Paul will explain why his Biblical history lesson is important.

III. Galatians 4:24-29  The Explanation Given

Read: Galatians 4:24-29

·       Paul relates the Jews of his day and the Judaizers with the Old Covenant of the Law, with Harar and her son Ishmael. He says they are slaves because of the Law. They are like Ishmael.

·       Paul relates Christians (heavenly Jerusalem) with the New Covenant of Grace, with Sarah and her son Isaac. He says Christians are free from the Law because of Grace. They are the true children of Abraham. They are like Isaac.

To make it relevant:

·       Old Covenant Law = Hagar and Ishmael = works, trying to help God by taking control rather of our life, leading to a  life of bondage.

·       New Covenant Grace = Sarah and Isaac = grace, allowing God to take control of your life, leading to a life of freedom.

Finally, Paul adds that the two women/two covenants are at odds with each other...there will be conflict when the two try to co-exist.

·       It was true with Ishmael and Isaac.

·       It’s true with the Covenant of the Law and the covenant of Grace.

The two cannot be mixed together, you can’t take the best of both to make something else.

I feel for Hagar/Ishmael. Sarah was mean, she lacked compassion for Abraham’s first child and his mother, even though it was her idea to put

them together.

But Sarah was right and Abraham was wrong. Abraham wanted to try to work out the differences between his sons and their mothers, but Sarah would not have it. And God agreed with Sarah.

·       Slavery can not exist side by side with freedom.

·       Self-control can not exist side by side with God’s control in our lives.

Transition: In the last 2 verses Paul tells us what we need to do when we experience the conflict.

IV. Galatians 4:30-31   The Answer Offered

Read: Galatians 4:30-31

Paul boldly says .... ‘Get rid of the Judaizers. Throw them out of your midst, have nothing to do with them and what they teach.’

And to us he says, give up trying to maintain control of your life...live under God’s control.

We are saved and we live by grace alone! So make the choice...a life of grace or works?...A life of self-control or God’s control?

Conclusion

ILL: When Paul Harvey was on the radio, he talked about a sign that he once saw at a service station many years ago. It read,

·       Labor: $10 per hour.

·       If you watch, $12 per hour.

·       If you help, $15 per hour.

·          If you worked on it first & then brought it in, $27.50 per hour. (C. Philip Green)

 

When an amateur tries to help a profession, it often ends in disaster.

When Abraham took control of God’s plan, he did so relying on his own ability/wisdom and it ended in disaster. He knew he had no control over Sarah conceiving, so he settled for what he did have control over, he got the slave girl pregnant, and it worked, Abraham became a dad.

Funny though, it wasn’t very satisfying, why? Because it didn’t fulfill the longing God had put in his heart. He knew it wasn’t God’s plan, it was his attempt to manufacture something that looked like God’s plan, It wasn’t done in God’s power but in his weakness. Abraham had usurped God’s control.

·       Perhaps there are things going on in your life that seem to be taking God much too long to take care of.

·       Perhaps you are in a marriage that you know is not glorifying God but He doesn’t seem to be changing it or answering your prayers about it.

·       Perhaps you have been trying to have a child and nothing is happening.

·       Perhaps you are looking for the love of your life but only finding the sex partner of the moment.

It can become very easy to say ‘God you’re taking too long dealing with these issues. I can’t wait any longer, I can handle this on my own. Let me help you with this God. I’m taking back control of my life.’ It’s easy....but it’s dangerous.

The book of Galatians teaches us that

·       Freedom in Christ is not being set free from God’s control.

·          It is being set free for God’s control. 

 

So... Grace...who’s in control?