The 1860’s were hard years in MO. Being a “border state,” the civilians of MO were often the victims of abuses by both Union and Confederate troops, not to mention the number of looters who just roamed the countryside and took advantage of the general disarray of the country. This went on for some months even after the war was officially over.
It was right around the end of the war, about spring of 1865, that a boy named George was born not 20 miles from here. Though he was a slave, his life would help shape the course of US history. His father apparently was killed in an accident shortly after George’s birth. While he was just a baby, he and his mother Mary were kidnapped and taken to Arkansas. Though George was found and returned, Mary wasn’t. The orphaned slave-child returned home to what was then called Diamond Grove, to the farm of his owners, Moses and Susan Carver.
Though they were slave owners, the Carvers had supported the Union all throughout the war. Sources say they were unconventional in their opposition to slavery, and they treated Mary and her family as their own. Baby George was given the family name, and they raised him as their own son, George Washington Carver.
Given the choice later, do you think George Washington Carver would have preferred to remain a slave? If he had remained a slave, do you think that we would remember his name today as a great agriculturalist and inventor? Do you think he would have risen to the position of professor and teacher? Carver’s a good example of what can happen when an orphaned slave is given a family name and a future.
*v7 key verse. It’s a chapter about contrasts and choices – choices that the Galatians needed to consider – and choices that you and I get to make and need to consider today. We have the opportunity to make wonderful choices…
We have the choice of
I. Privilege instead of Oppression
-receiving an inheritance is a privilege. You don’t earn it; you’re just part of a family and it’s given to you. Even so, if someone is under age, even though he may be part of the family, he can’t touch the inheritance. It’s put into a trust fund or somewhere where he has no access until he reaches a responsible age. You just don’t hand an estate over to a 6 year old! So, really, even though he’s a son and legal owner of everything, he doesn’t live like the owner. With his parents gone, and the laws governing him, he’s more like… a slave.
*vv1-3
In the spiritual sense, even though they were “children,” even though they “belonged to the family of God” they were (v1) no different than slaves (v3) in slavery under the basic principles of the world.
-Different translations put this, “elemental things,” “standards” “rudimentary teachings.” Paul’s talking again about the features of the OT law that some were relying on to create their relationship with God.
-The word appears again: vv9b-10
-all the feasts, all the special days of the OT, had been replaced with something better in Jesus.
(Col 2:16-17) Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. {17} These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.
Before God’s plan of privilege came through Jesus, all those things were a mandate; keeping the Law was the only way to come close to being holy.
But we have a choice to not be oppressed by that kind of a schedule anymore. Those things were like the rules given to a child who isn’t old enough to receive his inheritance yet. But now that has changed. We no longer have to live under the oppression. We can choose to embrace the privilege of being in relationship with God.
• If Sunday worship is to you “something I have to do to go to heaven,” rather than a privilege, you’re oppressed!
• If the Lord’s Supper is a “religious feast you have to keep” or else God won’t forgive you, rather than a privilege, you’re oppressed!
• If the privilege of spending time in God’s word is “a requirement you have to meet or God will strike you down,” you’re oppressed!
So we have the choice – the choice to live under the oppression of law, or to embrace the privileges of being in Christ. We have another choice…
II. Sonship instead of Slavery
Joke - Nancy Gibbs, Cordele, Georgia – “When my mother celebrated her birthdays, my kids always asked her age. Year after year, her reply was the same: "29." My 8 yr old daughter, Becky, accepted this answer until my 30th birthday. After I opened my presents, Becky sadly informed me, "Mamma, you're 30, and Grandma is 29. I hate to tell you this, but you must've been adopted."
-Actually, adoption is a wonderful thing. We have people in the Villa Heights family who are adopted, and families who have adopted or who are seeking to adopt. I have a niece whose parents in Korea rejected her because of birth defects and now she’s growing up in a loving Christian home. Her whole life and future is radically different from what it would have been if she hadn’t been given a home. That wasn’t her choice. It was my brother’s choice.
But you and I have a choice in this – a choice to be adopted, or to be slaves.
Ill - August 1996 - Dear Ann Landers: It happened again today. My 2 sons and I were in a shopping mall, and a total stranger felt the need to comment on the fact that my boys don't look anything alike. Apparently, my 6-year-old decided it was time he explained the difference. "I'm adopted," he said. "That's when you have the same family but not the same face." I'm thankful that this child doesn't let these rude remarks get to him. -- A Mom in Highland Lakes, N.J.
When you have the same family, but not the same face - pretty good description of what it means to be adopted as a child in God’s family, isn’t it? We belong together. We all look different, come from different backgrounds, have different ideas, but because of Jesus we’re all just as much a part of God’s family.
In families where Mom or Dad isn’t the original model, it can be tough for children to get to the point where they actually call that person Mom or Dad – cause those aren’t names that we just casually toss around. For years, I wondered at college students who’d refer to their dorm parents as Mom or Dad – and then I met Mom K, at Williamson dorm. It still took me a while to adjust to that. Then, when I married, I had other people who were supposed to wear the title. But I never have completely adjusted to that. They just aren’t names that you toss around casually.
In the OT, God’s name was considered so sacred that everyone was careful to not even use it. It was so sacred, that rather than take the risk of using it in vain, no one would speak it at all. So, the correct way to pronounce it was actually lost. When Jesus came, no one was uttering God’s name, let alone referring to Him as “Father.”
Then along comes Jesus, and He says, “I am returning to my Father and Your Father…”
He tells us in praying to call God “Our Father…” and He starts referring to God as “Your Father…”
After that, when the HS is given as a gift from God, the Bible tells us that not only do we call God “Father” but we call Him “Abba, Father!” – the Aramaic word that a little child would use for his Dad – “Daddy!” We have the choice to be adopted, with the full rights of children of God.
Ill – I understand that the family to some degree should be a model of our relationship to God. I understand that fathers are supposed to be, in their children’s eyes, a model of what God is to we who are His children. And I understand that things aren’t always the way they’re supposed to be, and that for some this morning the idea of God as a Father isn’t a positive image.
What do you do if your father didn’t fulfill this role and you have a hard time appreciating God as your “father”?
Let me suggest there are a couple of things you can do: one is to be a parent yourself and learn from it. There are a lot of lessons to be learned in the school of parenthood, and some of them are lessons about the way God chooses to relate to us. Another suggestion is to see someone else’s relationship with their kids and learn from it. Parents need to be doing this with each other anyway. If you can’t get these to work, at least understand this: the contrast here is slavery! Even if your father wasn’t a good glimpse of the way it should be, please realize today that God has prepared for us a relationship that stands in contrast to slavery!
You have a choice! Do you want to know God as slave owner, or as your dear Father?
(1 Jn 3:1) How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.
If you’re a son, then you’re an heir – You have an inheritance coming! You not only have been given a family name now, but the family fortune is rightfully yours too!
Finally, we have the choice of
III. Loyalty to God Instead of Exploitation *vv7-11
Everyone wants significance. We want to be part of something big. We want our life to count for something. We want to know that it hasn’t been a waste; that the place where we’ve deposited our time and energy was the right place!
v11 – Paul worried that the time and effort he spent on the Galatians had been wasted because they were turning to something less than what God has offered to us.
v8 – they could look back and see that they had previously been wasting their own time and lives. In fact, (v17) the “Judaizers” had exploited them and taken advantage of them.
We tend to seek out people and causes that will cut and dry the gospel for us. Unfortunately, there are plenty of hucksters who are seeking loyalists. They gather dependents who will boost their own egos or wallets, rather than pointing people to Jesus.
They leave a trail of disillusioned and disenchanted people in their wake. Who can assess the damage that was done to Christianity a few years back when a few well-known evangelists fell hard in public scandal? And who can assess the damage that’s done to the church today when men lead people to themselves instead of Christ, and then fall hard?
And usually in the middle of it all is some approach to God that relies on law. If someone puts together what he says are the essentials and convinces the legalists around him that he’s right, loyalty to the man replaces loyalty to God’s way to life. Whoever wields law holds many a person’s supposed “key to heaven.” Whoever seems to be an expert in it has the power of life and death for the person who’s using it as the way into heaven. And people get hurt.
Paul pointed out in vv12-16 that he had somewhat of a following there. The Galatians had been kind to him – but all along he was helping them be loyal to God, not Paul. When he says “become like me,” that’s what he’s calling them to do. Sure it was nice to have Christian brothers and sisters who loved him, but Paul wanted their loyalties in the right place.
As I said earlier, this is a chapter of contrasts and choices. Privilege, or oppression? Sonship, or slavery? Loyalty to God, or exploitation?
Story – To illustrate the contrasts, Paul uses a story from OT Jewish history. You have to remember the story of Genesis 16 and 21 to appreciate it.
Abraham has been promised a son. Even though he’s now about 85, God promises that he and Sarah are going to bear a son. But Sarah has been barren her whole life, and she’s 75 now. Finally, she can’t take the waiting any more and she makes a desperate move. She gives her husband her hand maid. “This isn’t working. God made a promise, but it hasn’t happened. Here – here’s Hagar. Maybe we can have a son through her.” So he takes Hagar, and sure enough, she’s soon expecting a son. Later, Ishmael is born to her – he’s Abraham’s son, but not Sarah’s. 13 years later, according to God’s promise, Isaac is born to Abraham and Sarah. How did it turn out? There’s jealousy, anger, abuse, dissension.
One way was God’s way – accept His promise and wait. The other way was the human way.
The whole point of this metaphor is that they first didn’t do it God’s way. It was fleshly. It was human. God’s way to sonship is the way of freedom. It doesn’t come by human means, but by God’s promise. It doesn’t result in jealousy and dissension, but peace and freedom. It doesn’t produce a slave, but a free son.
And now, today, we have a choice all over again. We can try this life thing God’s way, or man’s way. We can trust God and expect Him to fulfill His promise, or we can say, like Sarah did, “I can’t see it. It isn’t rational. This isn’t going to work. Let’s do it ourselves. Let’s send Abraham into Hagar’s tent again instead of trusting God.” So, we write up a code of conduct, or we chase after a person, or we pour ourselves into just appearances, and we learn to regard God as the Divine slave driver instead of Father.
Conclusion:
If you had the choice of family privilege instead of oppression, would you choose it? If you had the choice of adoption or slavery, wouldn’t you choose adoption? And if you could chose to devote your life to the things of life that really deserve it, you would choose that over just being used by people, wouldn’t you?
We have today a wonderful choice to be God’s children, through faith – or to be slaves by law. Sonship instead of law doesn’t mean we disobey. It means we obey because we love and want to please our Father.
