Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] We have committed ourselves to be a partner with God in doing good in the world.
[00:00:10] And if you have been watching the news, you know that the flooding in the Smoky mountains has been disastrous.
[00:00:29] There are families that have lost everything, and we're partnering with a church in the region, and we're going to help those families out.
[00:00:48] So if you have a sense that God has been good to you, give some extra money today so we can give a good offering.
[00:00:59] And the people who are at the online, the people who are there helping, can get the stuff that they need.
[00:01:10] We don't want to collect a bunch of junk and send it down there that they don't need. We want the people who are there helping and know what people need. We want to give them the resources to get what they need on the spot.
[00:01:27] So if you are aware that God has been good to you, put some extra in today, and everything that comes in above our average, we're going to send to help this disaster.
[00:01:44] Our dear heavenly fathers, thank you. That you have in your great, loving heart called us your children and not your slaves.
[00:01:58] Help us to learn to live like children of God.
[00:02:02] In Christ's name, amen.
[00:02:06] We're studying the book of Galatians together, and sometimes we don't understand the Bible well because we're not aware of how people were thinking when Paul wrote this letter.
[00:02:24] We kind of assume that they think the way we think and that their ideas are very similar to our ideas. But in a lot of ways, their ideals were very different than ours.
[00:02:38] For example, to the non jewish culture that Paul is writing, they did not think about God the way we've come to think about God through Christ.
[00:02:53] In fact, let me tell you one story.
[00:02:59] The Greeks and the Trojans fought a terrible war, and finally, Ulysses came up with this idea of the trojan horse. It worked, and the Greeks got to go home.
[00:03:14] But when Ulysses and his men were going home, they ran into some of the children of the God Poseidon, and they ended up blinding one of his children, and it made Poseidon mad.
[00:03:32] And he said, I'm going to do everything I can to keep you from getting home.
[00:03:39] And Ulysses had to go through this incredible struggle to appease Poseidon so he could get home.
[00:03:49] So the idea is, in the world that Paul is writing, people believe that the gods are unpredictable and they have to be appeased.
[00:04:02] You don't really love God. You appease God.
[00:04:07] You don't really have a relationship with God. You kind of.
[00:04:14] You try to stay off his radar.
[00:04:18] And Paul is writing to a culture that thinks that way.
[00:04:24] Sadly, Christianity let this kind of thinking leak into our ideas.
[00:04:34] And many christians today believe that God has to be appeased by our good behavior.
[00:04:42] We have this idea that God is pretty strict and he's got a straight ruler and he's measuring all of us. And if we can appease him by our good behavior, we'll be okay.
[00:04:56] But if we can't appease him by our good behavior, we're in real trouble.
[00:05:01] Have you ever thought that way? You kind of bygod off by being good.
[00:05:07] Anyone know?
[00:05:10] Thank you. Thank you.
[00:05:13] We can have a simple code here. This means yes, this means no.
[00:05:17] All right, so Paul is writing to the church in Galatia and saying, if you have the mentality that you appease God with your good behavior, you're living like a slave. You're not living like a child.
[00:05:41] Children never believe, I pray to God. They never believe that if they appease their mom and dad, they get to go on being a child.
[00:05:52] But if you don't appease your mom and dad, you could be in the orphanage next week. That's not how children live.
[00:06:00] Children don't live in that kind of relationship with their parents.
[00:06:05] And Paul says, we're children of God and we shouldn't allow ourselves to fall into a slave mentality.
[00:06:18] Remember, we studied chapter one together, and in chapter one we learned the uangelian, the good message.
[00:06:27] Paul said, if you want to understand God, here's what you need to understand who Jesus Christ is and what he did.
[00:06:36] It's called the gospel. We don't like the word. We like the word evangelion. Right? All right.
[00:06:42] In the second chapter, we learned, if I come to know who God is through Jesus Christ and what he has done, God equates that as righteousness.
[00:06:58] God accepts our faith as righteousness. We are justified by faith, not by good works. Remember?
[00:07:08] And then in the third chapter, we learned that faith is being fully convinced that Jesus is who he says he is and did what he said he did.
[00:07:20] So we hear the gospel, the good news, and it's the life, it's the person, the life of Christ. We are justified by faith, and faith is being fully convinced that Jesus Christ is trustworthy and he will do for us what he said he would do.
[00:07:41] And now this week, we get to chapter four. And in chapter four, we have to learn that if I'm really going to live the christian life, I have to start living like a child of God and not like a slave.
[00:08:01] He starts in verse six by saying, because you are sons, God has sent the spirit of his son into your hearts, crying, abba, father, so you are no longer a slave, but a son.
[00:08:20] And if a son, then an heir of God.
[00:08:28] The apostle John said, what kind of love has God given to us that we get to be called the children of God?
[00:08:41] What kind of love did God give to us that he says, I want you to know I feel about you the way a perfect father feels about their children.
[00:09:00] We are the children of God. And because we're the children of God, God sends the Holy Spirit into our existence.
[00:09:11] What connects you to the family of God? Tomorrow when you're having a hard day and things aren't working the way you wish they would, what connects you to the family of goddess? It is the spirit of God himself that abides in you and keeps saying, you're one of ours. I'm going to take care of you. I'm going to strengthen you. I'm going to help you. I'm going to get you through this.
[00:09:39] Our relationship to the family of God is a day to day experience of the Holy Spirit within us.
[00:09:51] The Holy Spirit creates not just a theoretical relationship to God, but an intimate relationship to God.
[00:10:03] Do you see, you treat your family, hopefully differently than you treat everybody else in the world.
[00:10:15] If you see me kissing a gorgeous blonde woman, it's one of my daughters, because I don't go around kissing other women or brunettes, too. They're just, there goes my father's day present.
[00:10:46] We relate to our family in a more personal way than we relate to other people, hopefully. Now, I know some of you don't have good relationships with your family, but when the family works right, we have a closer relationship right? Now that's exactly what Paul is trying to say. If you understand what it means to live life in a healthy family, then you can start understanding what it means to live in the healthy family of God.
[00:11:23] It's not just you are a Christian among millions and millions of christians, it means you are an individual child of God, and God shares his spirit with you in an individual and beautiful and helpful way.
[00:11:42] And in fact, Paul says, if this is working right, we can hear ourselves say intimately to God. Abba, Father.
[00:11:55] Now, some of you have heard what the meaning of Abba means, but others haven't. It is the equivalent to a modern English of saying, Papa, his spirit is in our heart. And when things are working right, we have an impulse to say to the Lord God almighty, majestic, holy and awesome.
[00:12:26] Papa, do you hear this church?
[00:12:31] Are you living like a child?
[00:12:35] Do you feel something in your heart personal enough that you could say, our papa, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name?
[00:12:47] Or do you feel the distance that makes things something like that uncomfortable?
[00:12:56] Do you have this sense that there's something about God that I haven't fully understood and that is how personal he really wants to be to me?
[00:13:19] Parents, I want to give you a very important idea. You already know it, but I just want to remind you of it. All your children are different.
[00:13:32] This business. If I treat all my kids the same, then you're a dummy because all your kids aren't the same and they can't be treated the same.
[00:13:42] They have to be treated as a person and the person that they are.
[00:13:48] God does not treat all his kids the same because we're not all the same.
[00:13:55] And he is a perfect father. And because he's a perfect father, he knows exactly what you need. He knows exactly where you are. He knows exactly the kind of help and the kind of love and the kind of encouragement you need.
[00:14:12] So the point I'm trying to make is if I'm going to live like a child of God, I have to start permitting God to be my father.
[00:14:26] I got to start permitting him to have influence with me. I have to stop acting like one of his servants who just have to do the stuff he wants me to do. And I got to begin to act like I have an awesome heavenly father.
[00:14:44] He wants to be so personal with me that I feel comfortable calling him papa.
[00:14:52] Church.
[00:14:54] Now, I want to be brutally honest with you.
[00:14:58] There was a long stretch in my life when I would read this and I would think to myself, that is ridiculous. I'm never going to call God Papa. I'm just going to be honest with you.
[00:15:10] I had a long stretch in my life where I thought, maybe that's Paul, but that's not me. All right.
[00:15:19] But the better I understand the nature, the fatherly nature of God, the more comfortable it is and the easier I find to be personal with God.
[00:15:35] I'm not keeping my checklist anymore. Hey, God, I was a good boy this week. How about a little extra blessing? Now I simply say I'm one of your children.
[00:15:48] You are my heavenly father.
[00:15:51] My heart is going out to you and I'm asking you to do for me what only a heavenly papa can do. Church, do you see the difference?
[00:16:04] Because we are children of God.
[00:16:07] We are heirs of the divine life and treasures.
[00:16:12] So you are no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son, then an heir through God, in fact, as a good parent, does leave an inheritance to their children. Our heavenly Father has an inheritance for us.
[00:16:31] I'm not a slave who's going to get paid off at the end of the day.
[00:16:36] I am a child who is going to inherit the divine life and the divine treasures.
[00:16:44] Have we not heard Paul say, eye has not seen, ear has not heard. It has never entered into the heart of Mandev. What God has prepared for those who love you.
[00:16:57] You have no idea what kind of place your heavenly father is preparing for you. That where he is, there you can be also.
[00:17:09] But it is a place for the family. It's not a place for slaves.
[00:17:15] In the second half of this chapter, Galatians 422 31, Paul goes back to the Old Testament and he tells the story of Hagar and Ishmael and Sarah and Isaac.
[00:17:33] Abraham and Sarah couldn't have children, so they came up with this harebrained idea that Sarah would give her servant girl Hagar to Abraham to be his second wife.
[00:17:55] Well, sure enough, Hagar becomes pregnant and she has a son and names his name Ishmael.
[00:18:05] Well, now Sarah starts feeling like she has the son he's the heir to. I'm no longer the important wife here. And that did not go well.
[00:18:20] It was not a happy camper situation.
[00:18:25] Well, then God said, I'm going to do a miracle for Sarah. And Sarah had a son too, and his name was Isaac.
[00:18:36] A beautiful name. It means laughter.
[00:18:39] You'd rather be named Isaac than Jacob? Isaac means laughter. Jacob means cheater.
[00:18:48] Gotta wonder what they were thinking when they named their son that, huh?
[00:18:52] Alright, listen at this.
[00:18:57] Well, Ishmael was 14 years older than Isaac and Sarah didn't like the way Ishmael acted around her son.
[00:19:16] And one day she stormed into Abraham's tent and she said, look, buster, I'm done.
[00:19:23] I will not have the son of a slave woman be a co inheritor with my son.
[00:19:38] And Abraham sent Hagar and Ishmael away.
[00:19:44] Now, Paul picks up that story in Galatians and he applies it to being a son or a slave. And listen what he says.
[00:19:54] He says this story is an allegory.
[00:20:01] It's an allegory about the world we're living in.
[00:20:06] And he said, Hagar and Ishmael represent the slave mentality that the church in Jerusalem is creating.
[00:20:19] And Sarah and Isaac represent the free mentality that the church is supposed to be teaching.
[00:20:30] And then Paul says, listen very, very clearly. The slave does not abide in the house forever. The child abides in the house forever.
[00:20:44] Are you hearing this when I'm living like a child, I'm living with an eternal destiny. When I'm living like a slave, there will always be a time when there is a separation from the family.
[00:21:03] When you're living like a child, your future with Christ is eternal. When you're living like a slave, there'll be a time when you will be cast out.
[00:21:15] This is what Paul is trying to say. Paul is trying to say, you don't want to be in the category of I serve God, I do my duty, I do this, I do that. I don't do this, I do that. He goes, because that's all temporary.
[00:21:34] If you're living like a child and you're saying God is incredibly better than I ever imagined, then there is an inheritance for you that is beyond what I can describe.
[00:21:49] That's what Paul's trying to say.
[00:21:51] Where is this all going? This is going. The slaves will be separated and the children will enter into the house forever.
[00:22:03] And then Paul says, try to remember what it was like before you became a Christian.
[00:22:10] Verse eight.
[00:22:12] Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those by nature that are not gods.
[00:22:23] But now you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God.
[00:22:30] How can you turn back again to the weak and worthless? Elementary principles of the world whose slaves you want to do? You want to be a slave once more?
[00:22:45] You observe days and months and seasons and years. I'm afraid I may have labored over you in vain.
[00:22:56] Listen to what he's saying.
[00:22:58] What was your life like before you came to know the real God?
[00:23:05] And then he says, you worship these greco Roman deities that were monsters, not gods.
[00:23:16] In the mythological religion of the Greco Romans, they were monsters.
[00:23:25] Zeus.
[00:23:27] To call Zeus a deity, he behaved like a spoiled brat.
[00:23:33] He cheated, he lied, he connived.
[00:23:36] And this is what people worshiped before they heard the gospel.
[00:23:42] And you say, yeah, but we're enlightened, doc. We don't do that anymore. We are just as foolish as they are.
[00:23:49] Church.
[00:23:53] I know people who will spend hundreds of dollars for a jersey for their favorite team, and they would never dream of giving that same amount of money to help somebody in North Carolina.
[00:24:12] They don't think a thing.
[00:24:15] Every year, billions of dollars are bet on the Super bowl. Billions.
[00:24:22] But you ask those same people to invest a billion dollars in doing something that really makes the world a better place, and they'd say, oh, no, I can't do that. Do you hear me, church?
[00:24:36] We worship false deities, too.
[00:24:42] It's part of what annoys me about the election years.
[00:24:50] People in America put their political loyalties higher than their christian loyalties.
[00:25:00] Christ comes second to your political opinion, and that should not be church. And that is no different than the Romans worshipping the stupid stuff they worshiped. We are no more spiritually sophisticated than they are because it's all enslaving.
[00:25:21] It's all enslaving.
[00:25:24] I see how grouchy some of you get when the browns lose. Nobody wants to be around you, huh?
[00:25:35] I see some of the nasty stuff you put online about politics and things.
[00:25:41] Let me guarantee you this. I've been voting since 1972.
[00:25:47] Every single year, the candidates say this is the most important election that has ever happened in the history of America.
[00:26:00] Well, for them, it is.
[00:26:05] Anybody remember Barry Goldwater commercials where they had the nuclear bomb going off?
[00:26:11] Church. Church. Here's what I'm trying to say.
[00:26:15] No, we don't worship Zeus and Athena, okay? But we have substituted cultural things for Christ.
[00:26:28] And we really give them greater loyalty than we give to Christ.
[00:26:34] And listen to what Paul is saying.
[00:26:41] There was a time before you knew Christ that was acceptable.
[00:26:48] But if you're going to live like a child, that can't be acceptable anymore.
[00:26:53] I'm going to watch the game today.
[00:26:56] I'm going to think the refs are unfair, but I'm never going to put a sports team ahead of Christ.
[00:27:06] I'm gonna vote in November, do the best I can, but I'm never gonna put a political opinion above Jesus Christ. Do you hear? I wanna live like a son, not a slave.
[00:27:22] Christianity was never intended to be enslaving. It was designed to be freeing. Next week we're gonna study Galatians, chapter five and listen to how it starts. It is for freedom that Christ has set you free. So don't be entangled again in a yoke of bondage.
[00:27:44] Christianity is about helping you live the freest life you can possibly live.
[00:27:52] And then we have this beautiful saying of Paul. It's easy to read over, but now you have come to know God, or rather, to be known by God.
[00:28:13] I know people who take a great deal of pride in important people knowing them.
[00:28:25] They're proud of it. They're name droppers.
[00:28:28] Oh, I was having lunch with the president the other day, and Paul said, we've done a whole lot of focusing on you knowing God.
[00:28:46] He said, but I want to stop for just a minute, and I want you to think more than you knowing God is important.
[00:28:59] God knowing you is important.
[00:29:04] Do you hear this?
[00:29:06] I talked to my friend this morning about our relationship to God, and I reminded him I might lose my hold on God. God never loses his hold on me.
[00:29:22] Do you hear that?
[00:29:26] I might, my life might go downhill.
[00:29:32] I might not think about God for a week, a month, a year.
[00:29:40] But that doesn't mean that God has not thought about me.
[00:29:45] Do you hear this? Paul is saying, when you're living like a child, God knows you. And whether you're thinking about him or not, he's thinking about you.
[00:29:59] Now, we all have family and friends who, it seems like there was a time that they were very close to God, and now it seems like they're so far from goddess, it makes us worry and almost despair. Let me tell you this. Let me remind you of this.
[00:30:19] God still knows them.
[00:30:23] Church.
[00:30:24] Ah, Jesus said, let me illustrate this to you.
[00:30:30] I know my sheep.
[00:30:33] The shepherd knows the sheep. Listen, the sheep might lose sight of the shepherd. They may not know where he is. They may go astray and get lost. But the shepherd never loses his consciousness of them.
[00:30:52] And Jesus said, the good shepherd, he leaves the 99 in the wilderness, and he does what? He goes and finds the one, because they're on his heart, they're on his mind. He cares about them. Church when we're living like the children of God, God knows us. He knows where we are. He knows what we need. He knows how to redirect us. He knows how to change our thinking about stuff. He knows how to put the right people in our lives.
[00:31:31] The awesomeness about living like a child of God is not so much what do I know about God, but what does God know about me?
[00:31:43] The great gift of living like a child is when your knowledge of God is incomplete. His knowledge of you is perfect.
[00:31:58] This is eternal life that you may know the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom he has sent.
[00:32:07] Church.
[00:32:09] Knowing God and being known by God is the essence of living like a child.
[00:32:20] Through Christ, we become personally known to the true God.
[00:32:26] God knows us as children and not as slaves.
[00:32:30] God knows us personally and not just as part of the human race.
[00:32:38] God knows you perfectly.
[00:32:43] Could I remind you, God doesn't just know my history with him, he knows my future with him.
[00:32:58] Have you ever been a royal jerk? And then you think to yourself, why would I be such a jerk?
[00:33:09] Okay, I have for you. Who? Haven't you guys hitchhike on my experience?
[00:33:15] You know what gives me comfort?
[00:33:18] Before I ever was such an idiot, my heavenly father knew I would do that someday and loved me anyway.
[00:33:31] Church.
[00:33:33] Before I ever disappointed him, he knew I would and loved me anyway.
[00:33:40] I don't know what fool things I have ahead of me. But I'm going to make mistakes.
[00:33:46] Christ already knows I'm going to make those mistakes and he loves me anyway. Do you hear this? He has a perfect eternal knowledge of us, many of us. If we knew things about other people, we would have cut them out of our lives a long time ago.
[00:34:04] We cancel each other instantly. God never cancels you.
[00:34:12] He knows forever what is ahead of you.
[00:34:16] He has a perfect personal knowledge of you.
[00:34:20] But I also take comfort in this. Remember the promise that we quote from time to time. It is Christ's commitment as one of the sons of God to stand me up on the great day without spot and without blemish.
[00:34:36] Christ just doesn't know me at my worst. He knows me at my best.
[00:34:42] He doesn't just know you at your worst. He knows you what you're going to be and the kind of glory and the wonder you're going to be and what it's going to be like to live with you forever. Eternity after eternity, after eternity, made perfect in beauty and wonderland. As a child of God, he doesn't just know me at my worst. He knows me at my best.
[00:35:06] I want to be the child of that kind of God. Amen.
[00:35:17] And then Paul says to the Galatians, do you really want to trade this?
[00:35:22] Do you really want to trade being a child of God for having a relationship to God that's just based on what you do or don't do?
[00:35:36] Do you really want to trade that, I wonder? Church, what are you trading God away for?
[00:35:44] What are you trading away this beautiful, loving family relationship with God for?
[00:35:52] Whatever you're trading it away for? It's not worth it, church.
[00:35:58] It's not worth it.
[00:36:01] Then Paul reminded of the galatian church of their history together.
[00:36:06] Listen what he says.
[00:36:09] Brothers, I entreat you because I. Because as I am.
[00:36:19] Alright, I'm reading this poorly. Brothers, I entreat you, become as I am, for I also has become as you are. This is just an odd way of saying, put yourself in my shoes, the way I'm putting myself in your shoes.
[00:36:35] Ah, you did me no wrong, you know. It was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first.
[00:36:46] 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 Jesus Christ.
[00:36:57] What then has become of your blessedness? For I testify that if possible, you would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me.
[00:37:10] 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.
[00:37:25] It is always good to be made much of for a good purpose, but not only when I am present with you. All right, let me explain this.
[00:37:39] Paul said, we have a history together.
[00:37:43] Do you remember in acts, Paul did his first missionary trip, and he went to Antioch, posidium, iconium, Lystra, and Derbe, and those are the churches of Galatia. And he said, when I first came to preach the gospel to you, I was in bad shape.
[00:38:04] So I did a whole bunch of reading this week and tried to find out what was he talking about?
[00:38:14] Bodily weakness.
[00:38:18] Some scholars believe that Paul suffered from malaria. It was very common at the time.
[00:38:25] And when you have these malarial fevers, you are very, very, very sick and very weak. And Paul said, I had malaria when I was with you, and I was so weak I couldn't hardly walk.
[00:38:42] Other people believe that Paul may have had epilepsy.
[00:38:46] Now, epilepsy in Paul's world was very different than our world, because they believe when you had epilepsy, you were actually taken over by a deity.
[00:39:00] When you were having a seizure, you were actually seized by a deity.
[00:39:07] Another commentator said that the road to Damascus ruined Paul's eyes and that it caused him lifelong trouble. And that's why he said if you could, you would guide your eyes out for me. All right.
[00:39:26] I don't know what bodily trouble he's talking about. He's just saying, when I first came to preach the gospel to you, I was not healthy, I was weak, and you weren't offended by that.
[00:39:46] And now he goes, so what has happened that when I first came to you and told you about who Christ was and what he did, you were so appreciative. And now I've stopped being your friend because I've warned you about slipping out of being a child and becoming a slave.
[00:40:08] You know, I can identify with this if you let me.
[00:40:13] People have gotten ragingly mad at me in this church because I've shared ideas from the Bible.
[00:40:21] Now, if I say something stupid and you get mad at me, I don't blame you. But if I'm telling you what the Bible says, church, ah, why would you be angry about that?
[00:40:37] What is it that I'm supposed to do up here?
[00:40:41] My responsibility is to try to explain to you what the Bible says.
[00:40:47] And if the Bible says things that make us uncomfortable, that shouldn't be an issue between us, then 19 and 20, and I'll quit 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.
[00:41:19] And now Paul says, I'm gonna share my heart with you as a pastor. Paul says, I am your pastor and I'm gonna share my heart with you. The first thing he says is a good pastor loves his church like spiritual children. He says, my children, my children church.
[00:41:42] If I'm doing my job, I should be like Paul, and I should love this church the way Christ loved it and gave himself for it church.
[00:41:55] I should have a sense that every single one of you are valuable and you're God's children, and there's something that God wants to do beautiful and blessed through you.
[00:42:08] The second thing Paul says is a good pastor feels anguish for the spiritual health of his church. I am in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.
[00:42:25] One thing I love about pastoring this church is we are an awesome community. I hear again and again and again how we bless each other in this church.
[00:42:40] We have a reputation in the community for being a church that treats people well, a church.
[00:42:49] But I'm telling you, there have been times that I have been in anguish for this church.
[00:42:55] It is a necessary part of serving the body of Christ.
[00:43:04] I'm at a phase in my life where I have to do more funerals of people. I've been their friends for many, many years.
[00:43:16] It's heartbreaking.
[00:43:18] That's not just somebody off the street. This has been my friend for 20 years.
[00:43:24] But listen, listen.
[00:43:26] Paul is saying a good pastor should feel anguish for his church. If you don't feel any anguish, you're not doing something right. Church.
[00:43:40] Then he says a good pastor's goal for his ministry is for people to become more like Christ.
[00:43:49] I tell you this, I don't want anything for this church more than I want every single one of you to be a little more like Christ every day, to be a little more like Christ this year than you were last year, to be a little more like Christ next year than you are this year.
[00:44:06] And then Paul says a good pastor desires to be encouraging in the presence of his church. He said, I wish I was with you and I could say something encouraging to you.
[00:44:23] I want to do everything I can to encourage you.
[00:44:27] I want you to come to church on Sunday morning and say, I'm glad I went to church today. I'm glad I'm a Christian. I'm glad I'm a follower of Jesus Christ.
[00:44:38] And then Paul says, the church can be as perplexing to a good pastor as the pastor is to the church.
[00:44:47] I know I perplex you. Sometimes I see that look on your face.
[00:44:53] We can perplex each other. But listen, it's still healthy.
[00:45:01] We don't have to fully understand each other. We can be a loving congregation and not fully understand.
[00:45:10] We can be a loving congregation and not know why different people have such odd opinions. Church Paul is saying, I am perplexed, but it's not a deal breaker. You can be perplexed and it doesn't have to be a deal breaker. What Paul is saying is if I do my job right as a pastor, we're going to end up living together like the children of God.
[00:45:41] We're going to be a healthier christian family than if I don't do my job right.
[00:45:47] But guess what? My job is to teach you how to treat each other like your christian brothers and sisters. How does your heavenly father want you to treat the person you're sitting next to right now?
[00:46:01] How does your heavenly father want you to treat the person that you don't know when you meet them in the hallway? How does your heavenly father want you to treat people at the cafe? How does your heavenly father want you to treat the children upstairs?
[00:46:16] When we do this right, there is an encouraging spirit and the love of Christ gets shared between the family of goddess.
[00:46:29] So then Paul says, we get the choice, we get to live as children of God or we can choose to live on a service based relationship. And Paul says, I'm pleading with you, never give up living like a child of goddess and fall into the folly of thinking, ah, this all rises and falls on.
[00:47:02] Do I keep God appeased? Our dear heavenly Father, thank you for this teaching of Paul.
[00:47:10] Thank you that you invite us to be your children.
[00:47:15] Thank you that you have a future prepared for us as your children.
[00:47:20] And I pray for myself. I pray for everyone here. I pray for whoever, everyone who's online.
[00:47:26] I pray that we would have a new move of your spirit in our heart and we could feel the intimacy with God that would allow us to be comfortable and say to you, papa, father, hallowed be thy name.
[00:47:44] And then I pray that as we live as your children, people would see our good works and glorify you in heaven. Amen. I.
