Galatians 4:12–31 — Trusting God

This message is from Galatians chapter 4 verses 12 through 31 and is entitled "Trusting God."

Galatians 4:12–31

It was delivered to Ecclesia churches on Sunday, March 30th, 2025.

So this entire passage that we're looking at today has overtones of parental concern or love,

which is the lens that kind of draws these points together. Paul starts by talking about

his trials and his sacrifice for the church and how his love for them was proven, unlike the false

love of the false teachers who are trying to woo them. Then he reminds them to trust God's timing

and his promise, and he does this by reminding them of Abraham and Sarah and the situation with

Hagar, Sarah's servant, how even though Hagar at the time seemed like she was blessed because

she immediately conceived and had a child, it was Sarah who was blessed with the child of promise.

This section of the chapter that we're looking at is really one part apparent telling his child,

"I love you, and that's why I'm so frustrated with you," and it's one part encouraging them,

"You have so much potential, so make good choices." So it's equal parts, righteous warning, and loving

invitation. And of course, Paul does this flawlessly while also preaching clearly the promise of God

fulfilled in Christ and calling us to place our trust in Jesus, the fulfillment of that promise.

So my hope in this message is to share Paul's message with you clearly because it is the living,

breathing, and inspired word of God. So let's begin by taking this one section at a time,

starting with verse 12. "Brothers, I entreat you because 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." So Paul was undergoing some physical difficulties,

clearly, during the period of time that he spent with the church in Galatia. And it sounds like it

was those difficulties or that illness that actually caused him to stop in Galatia in the

first place. And we don't know specifically what it was. It's possible that it was something related

to his persecution experiences. Remember, Paul has been severely beaten to the point of death

multiple times, likely not without side effects and lingering issues. Whatever the specific condition,

though, what's really clear is that it was visible to other people, that it was a potentially

off-putting or testing to observers and the people who were caring for him. And it was something

ongoing that affected his ministry. So whatever it was, God used it as a part of Paul's testimony

and his ministry effectiveness. It was something that forced Paul to trust in God. And building

trust is a really big deal when it comes to discipleship. So as fellow disciples are called

to make disciples, you need to know that trust is crucial. You have to trust in God to work,

not just in spite of your weaknesses, but even using them. And in order to lead people to trust

in Christ, you have to trust in Christ. You also have to build trust with other people. So Paul

has worked so hard at this point to build up relationship with these people by spending

time with them, by caring for them, sharing his life with them. They are also deeply invested in

his life and ministry, and they loved him. And Paul is able to say some of the things that he says

with the tone that he does, because he has built so much relationship with these people.

I like to use a term for this called relational purchase. And it's a really important concept

when discipling people. In order for someone to hear you speaking to them in love, they need to

know first that you love them. And Proverbs says, "Faithful are the wounds of a friend." Because

sometimes the truth is hard to hear. Sometimes it stings. But we are often willing to receive it

from someone who we know has our very best interests at heart. And that requires trust,

and trust is earned. So part of trusting God is stepping out in faith to invest in those

relationships in order that God might work through you. Paul has put in the time to prove to these

people that he loved them. He's earned their trust and affection, and he leans on that pretty hard

in this passage to say hard things to them. So let's continue with verse 15.

So Paul, through a little bit confusing wording, at least in English here,

is contrasting his own genuine care for the Galatians with these false teachers who are

trying to win them over. The language Paul uses is revealing. They make much of you. He's saying

they are flattering you or courting you, but with the wrong motives. What they really want to accomplish

is they want to isolate these false teachers. They want to isolate the Galatians from Paul's

influence so they would become dependent on the false teachers instead. Paul continues,

"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 and change my tone for I am perplexed about you."

So this manipulative behavior stands in stark contrast to Paul's anguish of childbirth metaphor.

His concern is deep and parental for them, and he's frustrated that they're allowing these false

teachers to make Paul out to be the bad guy. They're offering the people the safety of tradition

and calling them back into their old systems, but it's not because they love them. It's because

they want to take advantage of them and benefit from their patronage. The giant religious institutions

of their day, primarily the Jewish temple, and often the giant religious institutions of our day

do not care about the well-being of the members they want to attract. They care about their patronage,

their offerings, their membership, their influence. If you've been disheartened by behavior like this,

that is all too common in the modern church as an institution. Know that you're not alone,

but also don't give up on the vision for the church that we see in scripture.

Paul sets a really beautiful example for how the church is called to be one of

disciple makers. We are all disciple makers who follow Jesus, meaning this part of the passage

is not just addressing the bad example of leaders in the culture then or the church now.

This is an example for all of us. If we want to call people to Christ and we are all called to do

this, then they need to see our heart for Christ and our heart for them. You cannot be a Christian

and remain passive relationally in your relationship with God, and you can't remain

relationally passive in your relationship with others. Paul is actively relying on God for

every step, and he is actively building relationship with the people that he leads.

So maybe today needs to be a day of reorganizing yourself to rely on God. I find that this often

looks like just adjusting my schedule to spend time with God in his word first thing during my day.

Ten minutes of time in the word and in prayer every day is a small investment with a huge return

because it resets your perspective from the very start. If your day starts exceptionally early,

this might look a little different. It might look like spending 10 minutes of your mid-morning

lunch break feasting on scripture before your Chinese leftovers. It's about setting your

perspective right from the start by setting time with the Lord as a priority. Maybe today

needs to be a day of reorganizing your schedule to make time for relationships. What relationships

have you been passive in with your family, with your friends, that need attention and investment

if you want to have a space to speak life into the people you love the most? What I called relational

purchase isn't about manipulating influence in someone's life. It's not about tricking them

into listening to you. It's about loving them well so that you have a place of love and trust

to speak from about the things that matter the most. That's where discipleship begins. It's

actually not with getting them to come to a church event. It's making sure they know that you love them.

So mark down those two questions actually as homework because you'll be talking about

what actions you're taking this week in house church. It's always encouraging to hear how God

is moving in your fellow brothers and sisters to draw them near to himself and to move them toward

others. And so we're not alone in any of this, which is part of why we want to take the time to

talk about that. So with that encouragement, let's move into the second half of this passage

and talk about how Paul encourages them to trust in God's timing and in God's promise.

This is verse 21. "Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law?

For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman,

but the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman

was born through promise." Paul is bringing up an awkward story from their history to remind them

how it played out. I talked to Taylor earlier this week about how I almost didn't go into this part,

but it's part of the context of the story. So let's pause and talk about Abraham and Sarah

and Hagar for a moment. If you think back to the story of Abraham and Hagar, which I referenced

actually last week, I want you to think about that experience from Sarah's point of view.

To Sarah, it seemed that everything was going the way of Hagar. Abraham had produced a child with

her while Sarah was still barren. A promise had been made to her, but thus far it had not come

to fruition. I would not at all be surprised if this deal that Sarah brokered with Abraham did

not at all play out the way she had planned. Is it possible that when she offered her servant to

Abraham for the purpose of having a child, she expected or at the very least hoped that Abraham

would say, "Never, we will wait on the Lord." But that's not what Abraham said.

Paul brings this up and very effectively reminds them of what happens when they try to take things

into their own hands, which is exactly what these Judaizers, these people trying to pull them back

to the Jewish law, were trying to do. They're trying to take their salvation into their own hands by

saying our rules and our rights and our religious regulations are going to save us. But that didn't

work so well for Abraham when he did it or for Israel. When he started making up his own rules,

things started to fall apart. When he did things according to his timeline and his preferences

or even the preferences of others, things did not go well. A quick sidebar here for the men

and the fathers. Let's take note and learn from Abraham. His role as head of his home

was to first trust God. And in this case, that meant saying no to this easy fix but horrible

solution. That's actually what Sarah needed from him. When she was asking him to do this thing

with Hagar, what Sarah really needed was for him to stand firm in faith for the both of them.

To acknowledge that this situation was frustrating and that there were other options that might look

easier, but to trust God and stand firm. Trusting God means standing firm and holding out for God's

best for your family. Parents, sometimes this most loving thing that God does for us is to say no

to our requests. And sometimes as the leader of your home, you will be required to do the same.

And sometimes that will cost you some comfort. This isn't about authority. It's about insisting

on the very best for your family and trusting that the very best requires trusting God.

If you think that you can fast-track what you want most instead of waiting on God's timing,

trust that God knows better. The fast-track did not work out for Abraham or his family.

Now, did it derail God's promise to be faithful? No, because nothing can do that. But what it did

do was to lead to the experience of slavery and brokenness. It changed the course of events to

lead through a major difficulty because they wanted the fast-track instead of waiting on God's timing.

So here's another question that you'll be considering in a house church.

Where are you tempted to take the fast-track? Maybe where have you taken the fast-track in the

past? And what was the consequence of that? And how did God lead you through that?

Now, ultimately, the promise of God is absolute and he is absolutely faithful to bring it to

completion. Just because we made a mistake doesn't mean we can't turn back to God and trust him.

Remember the promise in 1 John 1-9, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to

forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." The Galatians were being

tempted to return to slavery under the law. But Paul reminds them that in Christ,

they are the children of the free woman, the children of promise. And this promise includes

not just freedom from the law as condemnation, but also the assurance of God's forgiveness

when we stumble. Watch how Paul explains how God has worked this out with Sarah and Hagar.

He says he's using it allegorically, which basically means he's using it as a picture

of how one way leads to slavery in trying to save ourselves and the other way leads to trusting God

to save us. This is verse 24. Now, this may be interpreted allegorically. These women are two

covenants. One is from Mount Sinai bearing the children of slavery. She is Hagar. Now, Hagar is

Mount Sinai in Arabia. She corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her

children. But Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. For it is written, "Rejoice,

O barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor; for the

children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband."

This is a quote from Isaiah 54-1 in which Isaiah is speaking to Jerusalem after its

desolation, its destruction, promising that God would restore and multiply his people beyond

what they had known before. And more importantly, Paul is reminding them the promise is for all people.

Paul references the Jerusalem above. He's talking about the kingdom of God.

So the promise of God, which is salvation in Jesus, is not derailed by Abraham or Sarah or any

man, woman or child since. That's good news for us, right? God brought the promise to completion in

Christ, and we have to place our trust in that promise. This is where Paul closes this section,

and where we'll close this morning. This is verse 28.

"Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. But just as at that time he who was

born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit. So also it is now."

But what does the scripture say? "Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave

woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman." So, brothers, we are not children of the

slave, but of the free woman. Paul is using the harsh words of scripture, but it is the

best news should we choose to receive it. "Just like Hagar's son would not inherit the kingdom of Israel,

so anyone who denies Christ, including the Jewish leaders of their day, would not inherit the kingdom

of God. But in Christ we are all children of promise and free in Christ. We are all recipients of

forgiveness that we did not deserve. We are adopted into a family we are not born into,

and we are given a freedom in Christ that nobody else can offer. Every other alternative only

offers us slavery of some kind, even the ones that seem free come at the greatest hidden cost.

So we are called into deep relationship with God and others. In that process we trust God's timing

and God's promise as we follow Jesus and call others to follow him."

Ecclesia is a church of house churches gathering weekly in Councilbluffs, Iowa and in homes throughout

the week. We are a Bible-centered church focused on preaching from scripture and making disciples

of Jesus. You can learn more about our statement of faith and contact a pastor by visiting ecclesiachurches.org.

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