This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to our look at Galatians chapter 4, our last look at this
incredible chapter. Actually, we're going to look at Galatians 3 and 4 today. I
want to look back at the last two weeks, at these seven arguments that Paul
gives for growth coming from grace and not from works, and also these seven
principles that you and I have seen about growth, growth that comes from grace
and not our works.

And I'd just like to walk through slowly with you this day these principles,
these arguments, and then read for you the verses that come out of these
chapters and just let God speak to our hearts. I'm praying for me and for you as
well that God will speak to our hearts about our growth, the foundation of it,
and out of that, he'll work incredible changes in our lives. So as we look back
at these last two weeks, the first argument that we looked at was Paul's
argument from experience.

And in that argument, he had the principle that growth continues as growth
begins. He's saying, look at your own experience, how growth began and how
growth continues. And the principle is growth continues as growth begins.

Listen to the verses, Galatians 3, 2, and 3. I would like to learn just one
thing from you. Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law or by believing
what you heard?

Are you so foolish after beginning with the Spirit? Are you now trying to attain
your goal by human effort? And so the question for you and me both is, are you
trying to attain your goal by human effort?

Are you trying to get closer to God by human effort? Growth continues as growth
begins. It began by faith.

It's going to continue by faith. If you see yourself in these verses, say, God,
I'm sorry. And God, I repent.

Repent means I'm going to turn around and live a different way. Not just I was
wrong, but I'm going to get right. I'm going to live out the life you've given
me to live.

Growth continues by faith as it began by faith. Argument number two and
principle number two. The argument was from scripture.

He talks about Abraham and the principle was that growth is living out what God
has made me to be in Christ, who God has made me to be in Christ. In Galatians
chapter three, verses six and seven, consider Abraham. He believed God and it
was credited to him as righteousness.

Understand then that those who believe are children of Abraham. These verses say
growth is living out who Jesus has made you to be. You're not trying to become a
child of God.

You are a child of God. You're not trying to become an heir of God. You are an
heir of God.

You're not trying to become a person of faith. You are a person of faith. It's
just living out who God has made you to be.

This is your identity in Christ given to you because of Christ and in essence,
it's how God sees you in Christ and you and I get the privilege of living it out
a little bit more every day of our lives. It's the difference for me. The
picture I always give is of a butterfly.

Once a butterfly becomes a butterfly, it's not a caterpillar anymore. It's
become something different and you've become a new creation in Christ. You may
feel like a caterpillar still some days, but you're not.

You are a new creation in Christ. So live that out today and joyous, joyous
excitement that God has done something in your life through Christ. The third
argument that Paul gives is the argument from Spirit and the third principle is
that we grow by God's Spirit.

He talks about this in Galatians 3, 14. He redeemed us in order that the
blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus so
that by faith, we might receive the promise of the Spirit. And as we did as we
walked through this, you might even want to do some spiritual breathing right
now.

Just breathe out and recognize your sins are forgiven. That's what the cross is
all about. That's what you're depending on Jesus's forgiveness means and breathe
in and recognize that God has filled you by his Spirit.

He's placed his Spirit in you through your faith in him and he fills you with
his Spirit. Fills your mind, fills your activities, fills your emotions even
with his Spirit day by day as you trust in him. We grow by God's Spirit and he's
given you his Spirit.

What a gift. The fourth argument, the argument from history along with that is
the principle that growth depends not on our actions but on God's promises.
Galatians 3, 17 to 18.

What I mean is this. The law introduced 430 years later does not set aside the
covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. For if
the inheritance depends on the law then it is no longer depending on a promise.

But God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise. Growth depends not on
your actions but on God's promise. Now God has a lot of actions for you to do
when it comes to your growth, a lot of them.

People for you to serve, scripture for you to read, memorize and meditate on,
places for you to worship, missions for you to go on, ways for you to fellowship
with other believers. He has a lot, a lot of actions for you to do connected to
your growth. But your growth doesn't depend on those actions.

It's easy to begin to think that it does because there's a lot of them for us to
do. But your growth depends from beginning to end on God's promise. And I do all
those actions within the fear of the atmosphere of the climate of the promises
of God and what he's done.

Growth depends on God's promise. That's refreshing to me. It doesn't depend on
me.

It depends on him. He's got plenty for me to do, but in the end it depends on
him. The fifth argument is the logical argument.

And behind this argument is the principle that growth is a relational choice. It
is the logical argument of being slave or being free. Which would you choose?

You choose to be free. And he says growth is a relational choice. This is
Galatians chapter 4 now, verses 4 to 7.

And when the right time came, God sent his son, born of a woman, subject to the
law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he
could adopt us as his very own children. And because you Gentiles have become
his children, God has sent the spirit of his son into your hearts.

And now you can call God your dear father. Now you are no longer a slave, but
God's own child. And since you are his child, everything he has belongs to you.

Today for you, growth is a relational choice. It doesn't happen automatically.
It is a choice.

You are his child. You get to make that choice. It doesn't happen just by
activity.

It is a relational choice. It's not just the things that I do. It's the things
that I do in love, in response to his love for me.

That's how growth happens in my life. There's a sixth argument that Paul gives.
We've looked at it this week in Galatians 4.

It's the personal argument. As Paul talked to them very personally about their
growth in Christ and his passion for it. And the principle there is that growth
is nurtured by personal commitment, personal concern, personal compassion,
Galatians 4.

19. But all my dear children, I feel as if I'm going through labor pains for you
again. And they will continue until Christ is fully developed in your lives.

I pray that God has put somebody into your life who is deeply concerned for your
growth, personally concerned for your growth. I don't know every one of you
personally that I'm talking to you right now. Some of you I do.

I talk to you as you go through these studies or you write me. But I can say
this to you. I am deeply committed to your growth.

I'm doing these studies because I want to see you grow in Christ as I want to
see myself grow in Christ. But you need more than that. Someone who just talks
to you, who you've never met.

Who do you know that's your pastor that's deeply committed to your growth? If
you're in a larger church, you can't even get to know your pastor maybe like
that. Who do you know in your small group that's deeply committed to your
growth?

We all need people like that in our lives. And then there's the seventh argument
and the seventh principle for growth. The seventh argument is the allegorical,
the Isaac and Ishmael argument.

And the seventh principle is that growth occurs in the right climate, the
climate of freedom. That's what we're going to talk about all next week, verse
31, chapter 4. So dear brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave
woman obligated to the law.

We are children of the free woman acceptable to God because of our faith. Are
you living today the life of obligation? Are you living the life today of being
acceptable to God?

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because
you are acceptable to God, not because of what you've done, but because of what
Jesus has done. That's an incredible way to live. That's a life freeing way to
live.

As we pray today, I'd just like in a spirit of prayer to go back over these
principles for growth in our lives. And as I go over these, you might just think
through, this is what I'm going to do today about that. What has God said to us
about growth?

He has said that growth continues as growth begins, that growth is living out
who God has made me to be in Jesus Christ, that we grow by God's spirit, that
growth depends not on my actions, but on God's promises, that growth is a
relational choice, that growth is nurtured by someone else's personal concern
and commitment, and that growth occurs in the climate of freedom, not
obligation, but the freedom of being acceptable to God. Jesus, thank you. Thank
you that you are committed to our growth, our growth in you.

Thank you that you are committed to us becoming more and more like you every
day. And thank you that one day when we see you, we will be like you. But until
that day, we want to live out the life you've given us to live and become more
and more like you.

Jesus, thank you for your commitment to us. In your name, Jesus, we pray this.
Amen.

Well, join us next week, Galatians chapter 5. This book just keeps getting
better and better. It's a chapter about our freedom in Christ, it's a chapter
about the fruit of the Spirit, it's a chapter about the law of love.

Do not miss Galatians chapter 5 this next week.