1/1/23 Galatians 4:1-7 “The Scarred Hands”

31 Dec 1/1/23 Galatians 4:1-7 “The Scarred Hands”

1/1/23  Galatians 4:1-7                “The Scarred Hands”

I think one of the great things about being 72 years old is that at this age I know who I am.  But this assurance isn’t something that I have always had.  I was like just about every other person as I went through stages of trying this and trying that.  For some of these things I praise the Lord that I survived.  But that is a whole other topic.  I see this type of thing all the time with our youth and young people in their twenties and thirties.  People are always trying on different roles in life to see which one fits.  There is nothing wrong with this.  As a matter of fact, I think that we should encourage it as much as possible.  After all, if you hadn’t tried out different things in your life, you probably wouldn’t be where you are today.  And this works in our spiritual life also.  You never know if you can teach Sunday school unless you try.  You never know if you can visit those who are sick unless you visit.  You need to remember that God will be with you whenever you start something new for Him.  This may not be what you are called to do but you will never know until you try.  As we look at our lesson from Galatians today, we see that we are all adopted into God’s family.  After this happens, we can have the assurance that God is with us all the time.  This is one of the great benefits that we have that people without God don’t have.  This is one of the great pleasures of knowing God.

Steve Shepherd tells of a very famous Japanese painter named how·koo·sai Hokusai who lived and painted until he died at 88 years of age in 1849.  As he approached the end of his life, the artist dismissed as nothing all the work he had done before the age of 50.  He felt that it was only after the age of 70 that he finally was able to paint something that was truly worthy.  Finally on his deathbed he said, “If heaven had only granted me five more years, I could have become a real painter.”  So, the question that begs to be asked is, “Why is it that we wait so long to become the kind of person God wants?”  Why in the world did it take me 40 years before I finally even got to know God?

I think that the answer to this is maturity.  For some of us, like myself, we have to mature as people before we can even recognize how much we need God.  We are not self-sufficient.  We never have been and never will be.  We need God!  For others who have gradually come to faith, spiritual maturity generally comes earlier.  When I was 40, I was a baby Christian at the same place some of you were at when you were youngsters or teens.

Then as a baby Christian I started to grow like other Christians.  I had a lot to learn but it was no longer important that I was a postal worker or not.  It mattered that I did the best job I could but being with Christ was the most important part of my life.  So, I grew and grew and grew and I’m still growing today.  One of the great things about growing in our faith is that the growth never ends.  Every new person I meet is a growth experience.

One of the things that really help me in my walk of faith and my growth is the assurance that I belong to God.  One of the problems that they had in Galatia was false teachers and teachings.  They were very skeptical of anyone coming to teach.  So, they say to Paul that we cannot believe what you tell us basically because we have been duped before.

Well, this is the wrong thing to be telling Paul.  He agrees with what they are saying.  He tells them that whatever he has to say isn’t worth a hill of beans.  But they should listen because what he is telling them is not from him but from God.  And the first thing that he tells them is that they are all sons of God through Jesus Christ.  This is not Paul talking but it is God giving them the assurance that they are a part of God.

This is one of the basic problems we have today and it shows in many places.  Who am I to come and tell you that you can’t do this or you should think that?  One of the problems we have today is that we have many preachers who only preach the social gospel and this is wrong.  We have many social problems in our world and we need to address them.  However, it is very easy to get caught up in these issues to the point that we don’t use the Scriptures any more.  We start to rely on data and statistics.  We start to quote famous people who are very well versed in a particular topic.  And worst of all, we begin to read between the lines of the Bible in order that it says what we want it to say.  Many of our main line denominations are like this and they are quickly dying.

I think that people would be far happier and there would be many more Christians if we would just start in the Bible with all that we do.  All authority comes from God and not me or any other pastor.  When we start in the Scriptures, then we know exactly what the Bible tells us about a topic.  Then we don’t have to read between the lines.  And when we do try to read between the lines, there will be good folks like you who can say, “Wait a minute that is not what the Scripture says.”  Anyway, we have the assurance that what Paul is trying to tell us comes from God so it is reliable.

Paul is telling us that we can be assured that we are all children of God.  This is a message for Jews and Gentiles.  He goes even further to say that if we are children of Christ, then we are also from the seed of Abraham.  This is important for the Jewish Christians to hear.  It should also help us to realize the rich heritage we have with the Jewish people through Jesus Christ.

So, we have this wonderful assurance that we are part of God.  This assurance helps us to understand how much God really loves us.  We come to Jesus as children.  It doesn’t matter if you are four or forty.  When you first come to Christ you are a child.  As a child you have to have parents or guardians or someone to take care of you.  This is just common sense.  I don’t know of any baby that has ever been born that was able to survive on their own.  They always need someone to help them.  This is just a part of the human way.

Well, it is the same way with the family of God.  In Galatia, Christianity was new.  No one really knew what was happening or how it was supposed to happen.  What they needed was teachers and responsible leaders like Paul to help them.  The trouble came from slick TV pitch men who told them that they had a far better way than with Jesus.  Paul is telling them that Jesus loved them so much that they have been given leaders who will help them.  Then Paul tells them how they can differentiate the good leaders from the false ones.  None of the false teachers could do this because their so-called gods were false and without love or knowledge.  Jesus will not let His people be lost as He provides good leadership.

And the same thing is true today.  There are lots of good Christian leaders in our country and world today.  We are so fortunate to have people like Paul to help us.  These are the people that you turn to in times of trouble.  These are the people who you want to share your joys.  These are the people who want to help guide you in the ways of Jesus Christ.

Unfortunately, there are also a lot of false teachers today.  We have talked about all the various false religions and all other religions are false.  They are everywhere and they are easy to spot.  What I mean by that is they tell you that it is easy to be able to work your way to a so-called heaven.  After all, you just follow the proper steps and there you go.  These are all false and they will get you nowhere fast or, worse yet, they will get you to the place you never want to be.

We even have leaders and teachers amongst us in Christianity today who are false.  We also have ways to know that they are false.  For example, is what they say consistent with the Bible?  I know of a new pastor in the area who doesn’t even believe in the Old Testament.  He is leading people to hell and not heaven.  Another way is to find out if they are false is do they start their statements or arguments for their positions in our society or in the Bible.  Everything we do hinges on the Bible and when your own people start to tell you otherwise, then it is time to not listen to them.  God loves us so much that He has given us ways in which we can detect false prophets.

For me the easiest way to figure out if someone is false is to pray about it.  Often times we think of prayer as just a time to ask things for others.  It is also a time when God will help us to discern what is truth and what is false.  The amazing part of the love of God is that He will not leave you alone without helping you to know right from wrong.  He wants everyone to be in the right so He is always there to help you in this area.  Our society is telling us that there is no right or wrong anymore.  They say it’s all ok.  This is so terribly wrong.

The key to all of this is that God wants to help you no matter what because you are all His heirs.  You are all sons and daughters of God.  God is just like most parents in that He loves His family so much that He will do anything to help them.  This is the Good News.  Jesus left us to go back to heaven.  In His place He sent the Holy Spirit.  This is the Spirit that is in every member of His family.

The concept of the Holy Spirit is hard to understand.  It really can’t be understood until you have experienced it.  This was a problem for the early Christians.  They were being so bombarded by false teachings that they were falling away from Christ.  They were forgetting that all other Christians around them were a part of their family.  And as a part of their family, they were very willing to help out those who were weaker.  Sometimes they were weaker because they were not yet mature in their faith.  They were still infants in their faith.  God is our parent and He has sent people to be among us today to help you in your faith when it gets weak.

Paul is also telling his audience that they are no longer slaves.  This is significant to them because slavery was very common and a way of life for many.  They knew what it was like to be a slave.  Jesus came to them so that they would no longer have to be a slave to the devil.  It is pretty simple.  They might be slaves to their owners but they are no longer slaves to their every desire.  Jesus was putting the devil on notice!

This needs to be significant to us also.  We don’t have much slavery anymore.  We don’t have masters who whip us so we do things for them first before anyone else, or do we?  We might have much more slavery today than ever before in our history.  We are slaves to our jobs.  If we don’t have our jobs and do what we are told to do, then we don’t have a house or a car or a livelihood.  There are many people who are slaves in this way.

We also have many people who are slaves in other ways.  We are just like the ancients in that we are slaves to our desires.  We can become slaves to bad things like drugs and alcohol.  We can become slaves to our emotions as we seek more and more thrills.  We have become slaves to greed as we try to collect more and more things.

But Jesus came to free us of all these types of slavery if you would just listen to Him.  Jesus will help guide us away from all of these things.  All you have to do is ask.  All you have to do is accept Him as your Lord and Savior.  I don’t mean that you just give Him a little lip service every Sunday.  I mean that you really accept Him as you Lord with all your heart.  Jesus is like a parent to us and the only thing He wants for us is that we can have what He has.  He has it all and you can have it all also.

There is a story told by Leslie Flynn about an orphaned boy who was living with his grandmother when their house caught fire.  The grandmother tried desperately to get upstairs to save the boy but she was overcome and died in the fire.  The boy’s cries for help were finally answered by a man who climbed an iron drain pipe and came back down with the boy hanging tightly around his neck.

Several weeks later there was a hearing to see who would get custody of this boy.  A farmer, a teacher and the town’s wealthiest citizen all gave good reasons why they felt they should be chosen to give the boy a new home.  But as they talked about this, the boy’s eyes remained fixed on the floor.  Then a stranger walked to the front of the hearing and slowly took his hands from his pockets, revealing severe scars on them.

As the crowd gasped, the boy cried out in recognition.  This was the man who had saved his life and his hands had been burned when he climbed that hot pipe.  With a leap the boy threw his hands around the neck of the man and hung on for dear life.  The other men silently walked away leaving the boy with his rescuer.  The marred hands had settled the issue.

It is the same thing with us.  Do you recognize the love that Jesus is trying to give you?  Do you recognize His nail-pierced hands as He is holding them out to you?  Jesus wants to save you from this burning world and give you an eternity in the greatest place ever.  No matter who you are or what you do, come to Jesus and live.  And thank you, Jesus, for first loving us.  Happy New Year and Amen.  Let’s pray.