GRACE UNCOVERED 13

"Inside Out"

June 1, 2008  EPC- Kevin Hale

The awe wears off.  Park rangers out west keep transferring.

Familiarity can take away the awe of great things.

Begin by telling about Galatia and the people there.

Paul is in the middle of a story that is happing right in front of his face.

Paul was ill and stopped in Galatia and he was sick.  He told them that Christ had come to rescue them as well.  These pagans heard about the grace of God and turned and embraced Jesus as Lord and give them new life and living with God.

Then in turned extended grace to Paul and nursed him to health.

The grace they had received they extended to Paul and gave him care and he went on his way.

They then after awhile were told they needed to have Jesus but also keep the ceremonial laws (dietary, days etc.) and become Jews.

Now let me make very clear what Paul said the gospel was all about.  Jesus taught his as well.

Faith in Christ produces obedience (not behavior modification or morality) but salvation then brings a change of heart that leads us to obedience.

Paul then comes back to them and reintroduces them to the Christ he shared with them the first time. 

Now why is this important to distinguish?  Because we live in a society that has had the gospel for many years and when they hear Christianity then they automatically think: Oh, yeah do right and be good and don't sin.

To them it is slavery not GOOD NEWS.

These early believers in Galatia had been freed and experienced the grace of God but then they began to turn back to rule keeping system And Paul said it was as bad as the idolatry they had come out of in the first place.  Religious morality is as bad a pagan immorality in Paul's mind.  Because you think you fine and holy when you miss God altogether.

So I have been challenged to REINTRODUCE people to Jesus.  Many of the friends you contact weekly think it is do right and be good and then we walk off saying they just are not interested or they already believe and they need someone to correct their misunderstanding of the gospel.

Live out the gospel to others.  Galatians 4:8-20 (The Message)

⁸Earlier, before you knew God personally, you were enslaved to so-called gods that had nothing of the divine about them. ⁹But now that you know the real God-or rather since God knows you-how can you possibly subject yourselves again to those paper tigers? ¹⁰For that is exactly what you do when you are intimidated into scrupulously observing all the traditions, taboos, and superstitions associated with special days and seasons and years. ¹¹I am afraid that all my hard work among you has gone up in a puff of smoke!

¹²My dear friends, what I would really like you to do is try to put yourselves in my shoes to the same extent that I, when I was with you, put myself in yours. You were very sensitive and kind then. You did not come down on me personally. ¹³You were well aware that the reason I ended up preaching to you was that I was physically broken, and so, prevented from continuing my journey, I was forced to stop with you. That is how I came to preach to you.

¹⁴And don't you remember that even though taking in a sick guest was most troublesome for you, you chose to treat me as well as you would have treated an angel of God-as well as you would have treated Jesus himself if he had visited you? ¹⁵What has happened to the satisfaction you felt at that time? There were some of you then who, if possible, would have given your very eyes to me-that is how deeply you cared! ¹⁶And now have I suddenly become your enemy simply by telling you the truth? I can't believe it.

¹⁷Those heretical teachers go to great lengths to flatter you, but their motives are rotten. They want to shut you out of the free world of God's grace so that you will always depend on them for approval and direction, making them feel important.

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¹⁸It is a good thing to be ardent in doing good, but not just when I am in your presence. Can't you continue the same concern for both my person and my message when I am away from you that you had when I was with you? ¹⁹Do you know how I feel right now, and will feel until Christ's life becomes visible in your lives? Like a mother in the pain of childbirth. ²⁰Oh, I keep wishing that I was with you. Then I wouldn't be reduced to this blunt, letter-writing language out of sheer frustration.

When they received grace they extended grace.  Now the World at that time was a very harsh and unfriendly world in general and particularly to the sick and weak.

The medical ignorance lead people to avoid diseases "like the plague" no pun intended right? 

The Greco-Roman culture left no room for compassion one historian wrote.  Romans believed that helping the weak was sign of weakness and some suggested drowning the sick/weak.

Now one reason Christianity took off like fire some think is because they helped the sick and weak no matter who they were.  The best of the doctors ran from the sick while the Christians reached out to help and that brought many to Christianity.  They cared for those outside the church at their own danger.

When the Galatians received Grace they lived in Grace and gave Grace.

P. Yancey - There is nothing that you can do to make God more and nothing you can do make God love you less.

If we are a community of grace then that is true of us.  There is nothing that you or can do to make us love each other more or less.

• Grace received is grace given. Give grace away. One attractive quality of this church is the grace I see given to many many people.

Now we can understand more what Paul is saying here.  You received like Jesus and I was sickening to you.  You would have plucked your eyes out for me. That is one reason I think it was an eye disease.

For whatever reason over time we are pulled to go back to our own good works rather than depend on God's grace.

 ¹³You know that because of physical infirmity I preached the gospel to you at the first. ¹⁴And my trial which was in my flesh you did not despise or reject, but you received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. ^15£What then was the blessing you enjoyed? For I bear you witness that, if possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me. ¹⁶Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?

¹⁷They zealously court you, but for no good; yes, they want to exclude you, that you may be zealous for them. ¹⁸But it is good to be zealous in a good thing always, and not only when I am present with you. ¹⁹My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you, ²⁰I would like to be present with you now and to change my tone; for I have doubts about you.

WE all seek approval and "be made much" of just like addicts.  And even when we seek the approval of those that have a form of godliness we miss the joy of the grace that God has already given to us.

Paul did not try and receive the approval of men but of the grace of God. Gal.1:10.

WE must on purpose and intentionally live in grace and not the approval of one another.  We are a community of grace.

We are transformed from the inside out. (19)  Morphed.

His character be in us and visible through us.  Not just be right do right stuff.  Not inform us but transform us.  Romans 8:29; 2Cor.3:18.

Spiritual formation is the new term.  It is a process of changing the expression that comes from the inside.

• Everyone receives formation. The heart is shaped by the response we have in the world we live in but we are to be transformed. The world does not shape us but the choices we make to the circumstances that we face. Sure we get hurt but we then shape our heat with the response to it. That is why hate Jesus said is equal to murder and so on.

Hard hearts cause these things.  You are what you have been becoming.  You are never static or just neutral.

Subtlety we start with God and then in time we gradually move into seeking approval from your friends of from those that you admire rather than God alone.

Controlling behavior is not the answer.  Sin management or behavior modification is not goal here.  It produces a graceless culture of I am good.

We have the righteousness of Christ gifted to us and His grace fills us.  Titus 2;11

Life change will never happen by rule keeping or moral discipline

• Everything that comes to you comes to form Christ in you.

God allowed Paul to have an illness that would bring him to them and share the gospel with them.  Sickness. He was frustrated and had prayed many times to be healed but God used it.  WE view sickness as a reason not to serve God many times.

They had great blessing then came great testing.

Transformation comes when the right choices based on right information in tough circumstances.  When you are forgiven then you will be given the opportunity to forgive which means you will be hurt.

You experience grace then you will give grace.  Wrestling with what you believe is GOOD.  Life changing truth don't come easy.

WE learn by being tested by the Spirit.

Now let's get down to it.  Think about the stuff you carry.  The financial pressures, the marriage tension and conflicts, the health battles, the disappointments, temptation, job dissatisfaction, battle with sexual purity, tired, obstacles, mid life, discontentment, bored with life.

God has designed these tests to shape your heart into the image of His dear Son.  George and Pat and others.

Grace is more than Jesus coming inside but Christ being formed in you.

       Don't lose the AWE of God and His Grace.