This week we continue in our sermon series entitled, “In Need of a GPS”. We have been walking through the letter Paul wrote to the Galatians in 54 AD. As you know, Paul was writing to the church plants he started over the course of three years of missions work. He was upset because the original message of God’s grace and love through Jesus Christ had been high jacked and was beginning to be reformulated by Judaizers. Jewish Christians who felt the saving grace of Jesus Christ was not enough for salvation, you still had to participate in the “right” activities: rituals and ceremonies. The Galatians were lost and Paul was trying to act as their GPS to get them back on track. In many ways, he was saying, “please make a legal U-turn as soon as you are able.”
However, they were lost because they chose to follow human authorities over God’s authority. Paul has been stating this every time he mentions the intervention of the Spirit. They knew the experience of being in the love of Christ, but they chose to revert back to what they knew. It’s hard to condemn them because we all do it, don’t we?
We have hundreds of choices everyday – some monumental but most not. In fact, I would put forth that having choices is huge part of the American mindset. We are a land of choices. We love the freedom of choice. It stands right next to the pursuit of happiness. We exercise it all the time: from what we have for lunch to how we invest our retirement money. However, I really do not think we consciously weigh the risks of our choices. It’s the reason mutual funds exist. We don’t want to bother. We don’t want to think about the effects of hamburgers with 2000 calories and 25 grams of fat. We don’t want to think about the future because it forces us to change how we act today which in and of itself, requires even more decisions. So we just follow the herd and be like everyone else. After all there is safety in numbers right?
I think this is the same spiritual maturity Paul is fighting as he watches and hears about the new Christians in Galatia practicing Jewish Law and ceremonies. He knows the Galatians choices, led by the Judaizers, are taking them down a path of hopelessness. He is frustrated. How could he not be? He left them as Christians and they were reverting back to the comfortable. It is always more comfortable to let someone else give you the answers. I only need to point to the famous words from our parents when we wanted to know how to spell a word, “Go look it up.” The reality is the Galatians wanted someone to lead them or spoon feed them because it’s easier. By letting the Judaizers tell them what to do, they didn’t have to grapple with the tough spiritual questions. They could just ask momma for the answers. But this won’t get you into heaven. It’s why Paul said, “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling,” because we have a choice today and we are held accountable for our walk.
Paul attempts to make this point to his Galatian audience by asking them, who do they identify with, Sarah or Hagar? In other words, “Who’s your Momma?” Are you the people of God’s promise to the 90 year old Sarah that her 1st born will be the next step in God’s fulfillment of His promise or will they be Hagar’s offspring, Ishmael, who originated out of the human desire to act for God when God didn’t seem to act on his own? He’s demonstrating that there are always two roads for us to travel – the one with God and his promises or in which we believe certain actions, ceremonies and even rituals get us into heaven.
As modern day Christians, we stand at the fork of the road many different times in our lives? Sometimes it’s a monumental decision other times it’s a small decision that indicates where our heart lays? Do we choose Christ or the world? For some, it’s the staying in the covenant of marriage when our partner isn’t who we dreamed they be; For others, it’s the choice between the drug, the alcohol, the porn, the food, the bet and money for the family; For still others, it will be the choice to pray before running off to work or play; the choice between reading the Bible and watching TV or the choice between staying in bed and braving the cold to gather to praise Jesus. The reality is we too, our sons of the promise and we have a choice; A choice given to us by God. We can choose the world or the promise? What will it be for you today?
