Galatians 4:12-20, Tell Me The Truth! Series

Galatians 4:12-20

Tell Me The Truth!

Intro –

* Friends are like good health; you don’t realize what a gift they are until you lose them.

* Friends are only friends if they are willing to tell you the truth. Otherwise, they are just mere acquaintances.

* Sadly though, some people don’t want the truth.

- They don’t want "truth friends".

* Some people pride themselves in being "truth tellers"

-Illus – "Hey, Ashley, does this make me look fat?"

Response – "Fat is not a good look for you. I’ve got a maternity shirt you can borrow."

* Who needs friends like that?

Joke - Two friends were walking in the forest one day when suddenly they stumbled upon a large grizzly bear who decided that they looked like a good snack. The two started running away when all of the sudden one of them stopped. The other said, "What are you stopping for? Don’t you know the grizzly bear is right behind us?" His friend replied, "I am tying my shoe so I can run faster." At this he couldn’t help but laugh, "What you think you’ll outrun the grizzly?" The friend replied, "I don’t have to outrun the grizzly, I only have to outrun you." In our selfish society, how often do we act like this "friend." As we try to exist in community, it is essential that we eliminate the self-centered nature that is all too prevalent in our churches today.

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As his UCLA football team suffered through a poor season in the early 1970s, head coach Pepper Rodgers came under intense criticism and pressure from alumni and fans. Things got so bad, he remembers with a smile, that friends became hard to find. “My dog was my only true friend,” Rodgers says of that year. “I told my wife that every man needs at least two good friends—and she bought me another dog.”

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List -

A simple friend, when visiting, acts like a guest. A real friend opens your refrigerator and helps himself (and doesn’t feel even the least bit weird shutting your ’vegetable drawer’ with her foot!)

A simple friend has never seen you cry. A real friend has shoulders soggy from your tears.

A simple friend doesn’t know your parents’ first names. A real friend has their phone numbers in his address book.

A simple friend hates it when you call after they’ve gone to bed. A real friend asks you why you took so long to call.

A simple friend expects you to always be there for them. A real friend expects to always be there for you!

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* "Friends" should only be allowed to tell us the truth if they truly love us.

- Telling me the truth is one thing,…loving me and telling me the truth can be something totally different.

* How many of us really want to know the truth about ourselves?

? Do we want our doctor to be less than honest about our condition?

I. Plea to be free v. 12

* "be" is "ginomai" - literally "to become"

* Become as I am, because I also became as you are"

* "Become as I am, free from the bondage of the law. I became as you are, Gentile."

* Paul pleads with the Galatians to free themselves from bondage to the law as he had done.

* Paul knew by experience what it was to be in bondage to the law.

-- He also knew what it was to be liberated from the law by the Saviour.

* Swindoll Bible Study Guide p. 84– "Be free like me,…Feel the weight of the law lifted from your life. Get out of that musty prison called legalism. I want you to know what it’s like to run unhindered through the sunlit fields of grace – without fear of God’s judgment…or anyone else’s. And I want you to know the freedom of standing for the gospel of Jesus Christ and standing against those who would silence it. Be as I am."

* v. 12 – "ye have not injured me…" -

- It is not a personal matter.

- You have done me no personal wrong.

- There is no unkind feeling; no injury done as individuals.

* When Paul was with them in the beginning it would have been easy for them to:

- spurned his fellowship -- he was a Jew & a stranger

II. Plea to remember v. 13-15

A. Paul’s sickness v. 13

* Paul became physically sick

* These verses tell us several things about Paul’s illness.

1) They knew Paul had not intended to work among them. V.13

- He was detained because of this physical illness.

- He was headed for the Greek cities of Asia Minor

2) The Galatians watched his disease worsen