Galatians: You are Known By God

Been studying through the book of Galatians, and so this is this letter from St.

Paul to this community, this church in Galatia.

And over and over again in these first four chapters of Galatians, Paul is just hammering away over and over again a truth.

And this is a truth that affects all of us.

It impacts everything we do, it impacts who you are, it impacts your relationships, it impacts how healthy those relationships are, how healthy your marriage is, how healthy maybe your parenting is, it impacts everything about us.

It actually creates a free and transformed heart.

And it's also possible that this very truth that Paul is hammering away at over four chapters, it's also possible that we'll choose to walk a different path.

Romance is always a great place to see this truth at play.

And so if you've ever seen the movie Jerry Maguire, now the TNT TBS version, of course, right?

I mean, we went and watched the other one, but the TBS version, after Tom Cruise's character just blows his life up, destroys his life.

He comes in front of his girlfriend at the time there at the beginning of the movie, and he is broken, he has nothing left.

And her name's Avery.

And she says this in response to him when he's broken, he has kind of nothing left.

She says, uh, there's a sensitivity thing that some people have.

I don't have it.

I don't cry at movies, I don't gush over babies, I don't buy Christmas presents five months early, and I don't tell the guy who just ruined both of our lives, oh poor baby, but I do love you.

Now that's Avery.

And so if you've seen the movie, you're like, that horrible Avery.

We hate Avery.

Everybody hates Avery.

She's so smug and she's judgmental.

And then the movie goes on, we meet this other lady, and her name's Dorothy.

And now Dorothy's the antithesis of Avery.

Dorothy welcomes Jerry into her life, into her home.

And we love Dorothy.

Now, why do we love Dorothy so much?

And why do we hate Avery so much?

Well, we love Dorothy because she's she's grace in this world of demand and judgment that has been created on film for us.

While Avery's barking out condemnation, Dorothy comes into this film and she gives out compassion.

So when Dorothy's standing behind the couch toward the end of the movie, and that light is coming down perfectly over Tom Cruise's face, right?

And he so dramatically says, You complete me, right?

You remember it?

Even if you've never seen the movie, you know the scene.

And some of us cried.

Do you just want to go ahead and admit if you cried or not?

No, you don't, you don't, because you're like, I can't believe I cried at that.

But of course you cried, right?

Like, of course you got a little emotional there.

And why would he even say that?

What an absurd thing to say to another human being, right?

Because that's not possible.

That's not a possibility for some other human being that's so flawed to actually complete him.

But of course he says it, right?

And of course we felt that.

That's what romance shows us.

Is that see, while he was broken, this woman loved him.

See, finally, finally, for him, belonging came by grace and not by how good he was, how much he had, how much he had acquired.

And that's the truth.

That's the truth Paul's hammering away at over and over and over again.

Here it is.

The difference between slavery and freedom is the difference between performing for belonging and by grace receiving belonging.

That's the difference.

The difference between slavery and freedom is the difference between performing for belonging or by grace receiving belonging.

So we see that in romance, we know that in romance, but it's in all areas of life.

What about faith?

All right, well, that's what Paul's primarily hitting at.

Galatians 4.

Al read an entire passage.

Thank you.

I'll pick out a few chunks of it.

We'll make a few points.

Galatians 4, verses 8 through 11.

Galatians 4:8–11

Formerly, 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?

Whose slaves you want to be once more?

You observe days and months and seasons and years.

I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.

Point number one is this we all, we all give our hearts to something.

All of us.

David Foster Wallace was a great writer, nonfiction and fiction, and one of his books went up for some great awards and a renowned book.

I mean, he's a renowned writer, and he's passed away at this point.

He gave this speech to Kenyon College, and it became a renowned speech.

And there's this little section of the speech I wanted to read.

Here's what he says.

In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there's actually no such thing as atheism.

There's no such thing as not worshiping.

Everybody worships.

The only choice we get is what to worship.

If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough.

Never feel you have enough.

It's the truth.

Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure, and you will always feel ugly.

And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you.

And we could go through power, we could go through people pleasing, we could go through all sorts of things, right?

But what Wallace is saying, he's saying our hearts are always somewhere, looking for somewhere to belong, to find meaning and joy.

And whatever you use, right, whatever you use, for that meaning and joy, that's actually what you worship.

That's actually your worship.

The crazy ride of these Galatians is they had this worship, some of them had this worship of fertility gods, apparently, is what this passage is telling us.

And then they go from that to the grace of Christ.

So they are right with God, righteous with God.

Their sin is taken away from them.

They have full belonging by Christ's work for them on the cross.

Their sin put upon him, his righteousness given to them.

They are free, and by that grace they can grow and be transformed in the grace of God.

They come into that, and then they go, I'll go back into a performance-based merit spirituality.

And what this shows us is it's very easy to go from irreligion, and I didn't come up with this.

Tim Keller in New York came up with this.

It's very easy to go from irreligion to religion, but never really convert and walk by the grace of Christ.

And that's the difference between irreligion, merit-based performance life, religion, merit-based performance life, or the gospel, which is quite different.

And the principle of the world, Paul's talking to this principle of the world, the principle of the world is that you need to save yourself.

You need to do that.

So go off and work hard and be better and do better and perform and impress people and think you're impressing God.

And the gospel's quite different because it says, no, you can't do that.

You'll never be able to do that.

But by the grace of God through Jesus, you're fully secure and saved and righteous.

Point number two is this: what we give our hearts to either enslaves us or frees us.

What we give our hearts to either enslaves us or frees us.

So Paul moves in from verse 21 through 31.

He he's trying to he's trying to prove this to these people.

He's just kind of hammering away at this point.

And so he said, let me tell you something about what you know from the Old Testament, from the law.

And he says, Let me let me remind you of a story.

God promised Abraham a great family to Abraham and his wife Sarah.

Abraham believed this.

He thought this could happen.

Sarah wasn't quite sure.

She didn't really believe this.

And so Sarah comes to Abraham and says, Hey, I don't think this is gonna happen, so I think you should with Hagar.

And so out of that came a little boy named Ishmael.

Now, what's fascinating and amazing about this is in Genesis 21, it says, the Lord was gracious to Sarah.

And she got pregnant and she has a little boy, and we get Isaac.

So still, after all this stuff with Sarah and what she does, still after all that manipulation and control, after all of that, the Lord's still gracious to her, and they get Isaac.

And then when Ishmael's a teenager, Isaac's a boy, Ishmael mocks Isaac.

And Mama Bear kicks in with Sarah.

And Sarah starts to think to herself, you know, man, I think Hagar and Ishmael could pose a threat to the family, could pose a threat to the inheritance coming to my son, Isaac.

And so she goes back around to Abraham again and says, Hey, uh, you gotta get rid of them.

Get rid of Hagar and Ishmael.

And so Paul comes in here and Paul says, Hey, there's a point here for us.

There's a lesson here.

And the first is don't mess with Mama Bear.

That's just the first lesson.

That's just always good to know.

And then the second is more textual to the text here in Galatians, is Paul says, Hagar corresponds with Mount Sinai, where we get the law, also with what's going on in Jerusalem, which a whole bunch of people living by merit to try to impress or please or appease and be righteous before God.

And Paul says, all right, that's Hagar, Mount Sinai, Jerusalem, and that's slavery.

This is Paul's jab to these people to say, you are not those people.

You're not a people of law.

You're not a people of performance unto belonging anymore.

But you are a child of the promise.

You get to live that way.

You're one of Sarah's kids.

And see, the gospel just runs straight in the face of slavery, straight into the face of a competitive world.

That's telling you, it's telling me every day that the only way and the worth and value and righteousness would be our own work.

A few weeks ago I went to reserve a car online that Hertz.

I didn't realize it, but I could be a Hertz gold elite member.

And I I didn't know it until I got on the site.

I couldn't believe it, I really couldn't believe it.

I don't travel that much.

I I couldn't believe it.

I and Marietta, I could be a gold, gold member, elite status.

Anybody else in here?

Belong together?

John?

Great.

Okay, Mark.

Hey, we were in.

We are in.

Can you believe this?

It's unbelievable.

I started to read about the perks.

I get discounts on cars.

And then what was really great about that, it wasn't really like it made the cheap cars cheaper.

It just made the really nice cars the same price, which is great because then I didn't have any like moral, like, oh, stewardship issue here.

It's just like, no, I'll get a really nice car.

And so a month from now, you know, we're gonna go somewhere and and I get to, we will walk by everybody else in line and get in this really nice car.

And I'm gonna feel so superior to everyone.

I will, because this is what how I feel in these moments.

And this is why.

Because I belong to the Hertz Gold Elite Status Membership Club.

With John and with Mark.

I'll see you there.

But here's the thing.

I'm only a member because I'm also a member of the American Express Sky Miles Platinum Club.

Here's the thing about that.

I'm only a member of the American Express Sky Miles Platinum Club because I pay a yearly membership.

And if I don't keep paying, I don't belong anymore.

Do you ever feel like that?

That the only true belonging you could possibly have is if you just keep paying.

See, it's easy for our faith to come become about our earning rather than our effort and grace, but just kind of revert back into that performance merit-based system.

Our doings.

Our knowings, our methods of knowing.

But faith is ultimately about God knowing us.

Like, did you catch the verse in verse 9?

It is a doozy of a verse.

What a wonderful verse, verse 9.

But now that you have come to know God, or rather, to be known by God.

Right?

It's almost like Paul catches himself.

Can you see how this is working out in his mind?

He's writing, now that you have come to know God, and then he writes, and this could be this could be worded more importantly.

So now that you have come to know God, or more importantly, more importantly, to be known by God.

And point number three is this.

This is a reiteration of the last few sermons.

A life of freedom and transformation is in being known by God in Christ.

A life of freedom and transformation is in being known by God in Christ.

It's easy just to move through faith and life with this sort of background belief, a hum of a belief, right?

Just kind of in there underneath.

If I'm nice to God, God will be nice to me.

And it all works good as long as life is nice.

But then when life is not nice, then it means, oh, well, God must not be being nice to me.

And now what does that mean?

Well, then that means that you are not good enough.

And it curses you.

So, you know, more devotional time, right?

More volunteer time, like more church, more giving, right?

And then then I'll be right with God.

Then I'll belong.

Make the payment.

Make the payment.

By my passion or my commitment.

I feel like it has taken me about 25 years as a Christian to simply realize almost all of my problems have to do with the fact that I resist death.

Death to that elementary principle of the world that I want to save myself.

Right?

It's a death I need, a death to trying to form and prove my righteousness or value in front of God or other people.

And it's not a death to effort, right?

It's a death to earning.

Effort is in the grace of God, but it is a death to control.

And so we don't pray or read scripture or church or give or take a contemplative walk.

We don't do that to be right with God for the day.

It's not our payment to American Express, Sky Miles, Platinum, in order to then be able to get into the Hertz Gold Status member colour.

That's not what it is.

It's not a payment.

It's because you're already the very thing that you seek.

You're already deemed by God his child in Jesus.

It's only then in this death and in this resurrection that we know life in the spirit and not in the flesh.

When I was about 10 years old, I was crazy about basketball.

I loved basketball.

And one night my mom was watching the news and she heard 11 Alive John Pruitt announced that Isaiah Thomas, the point guard of Detroit Pistons, was going to be at the Lovett School in Atlanta doing a clinic on Saturday for kids to come.

I couldn't believe it.

My dad took me down there.

I knew everything about Isaiah Thomas.

He was my favorite player.

I knew he went to Indiana.

I knew he was drafted by the Pistons.

I knew that he one time, he one time scored 25 points in one quarter of the NBA finals on a broken ankle.

I knew that I had watched that quarter over and over and over again.

I knew everything about him.

And he taught this clinic to about 75 little kids.

We were all circled around.

I can remember we were all circled around the three-point line.

And he and the Ford of the Pistons of the time, John Sally, they taught this clinic, and I am I am glued on Isaiah Thomas.

I knew his points per game, his assists per game.

I knew everything.

He was best friends with Magic Johnson.

I knew everything.

I knew I should be friends with them.

I mean, I I was 10 and I knew it.

And I had taken my little league basketball jersey.

This is my pistons.

I was his number.

It's peeled off since then.

I was number 11.

I was Isaiah.

My little girls wear this to bed now.

It's been passed down from child to child.

And after the clinic was over, I got in line with my little jersey.

I'm holding it.

And he was signing autographs at a table, and I get up there and I give him my jersey and ask him to sign my pistons jersey.

And he asked my name.

Right, it was just a moment there.

Right?

But then afterward, I folded this thing up.

I never wore it again.

I folded it so carefully.

I put it in my closet with all my holy possessions.

Every kid has their little area with their holy possessions.

And I put it with my holy possessions.

And it was different than every shirt, every other shirt.

I don't have any other shirt.

In that history, I don't have any other shirt from my childhood.

This is the only one.

This shirt's different.

And it's different because it wasn't, it's actually not just the autograph, right?

Like that's sort of faded at this point.

See, I knew a lot about Isaiah, but I had I had a moment where he knew me.

That changed everything.

That he knew me.

He knew my name.

Seminary professor and author J.I.

Packer, he writes this.

What matters supremely, therefore, is not in the last analysis the fact that I know God, but the larger fact which which underlies it.

The fact that he knows me.

There's tremendous relief in knowing that his love to me is utterly realistic, based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me, so that no discovery now can disillusion him about me in the way that I am so often disillusioned about myself.

There is certainly great cause for humility in the thought that he sees all the twisted things about me that my fellow men do not see, and that he sees more corruption in me than that which I see in myself.

There is, however, equally great incentive to worship and love God in the thought that for some unfathomable reason he wants me as his friend and desires to be my friend and has given his son to die for me in order to realize this purpose.

My brothers and sisters in Christ, you are known by God.

Let's pray together.

God, thank you that our relationship with you is secured not by our performance or work or the law, but by your work.

That you have fulfilled the law, that we can die, that we can have death to our flesh.

That wants to perform and be good enough, whether out in the world or even in the church.

And that we have the great gift of Jesus, that you are all the righteousness we ever need.

That we are children, the children of Sarah.

We're free kids.

Help us to learn what it means to be free and to grow in the grace of God.

That none of this is primarily about us knowing you, but that you, that you know us.

And would that free our hearts?

And would that birth in us a great desire to actually turn around and know you?

We thank you for the powerful and supreme and sufficient work of Jesus.

In his name we pray.

Amen.