Trust God For the Change

Galatians 3:2-4. "Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain, if indeed it was in vain? Does He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law or by hearing with faith, just as Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness?"

Galatians has it all. I love this book. One reason I wanted to talk about this book is because, the banner over this to me, is the most freeing message you can possibly receive as a believer. I believe it is one that many of us have never truly believed because we think it is still in our effort. So many of us would say that we were saved by faith, but that we continue on and accomplish our lives by effort. And the writer of Galatians:

Paul, is saying- "Are you crazy? Are you foolish? Have you lost your mind? Do you really think that it is going to be, now you're saved by faith and now it's all about your effort? Is that the story you think this is?"

He's making fun of them candidly. Which is pretty convicting because I definitely can divert back to this wrong theology a lot. I believe the church and a lot of the world will send this message to us from the time that we are young that we were saved by faith but we have to measure up, work hard, and make it happen in our flesh as we are going. And if we don't, if we mess up, then the banner over us is failure and disappointment. And that God is so surprised, so angry, and so disappointed.

Now, let me be clear because he's going to be clear later in the book. He's going to say in Galatians 5, "Do not use your freedom to indulge your sinful nature. Rather, serve one another in love." So he's not advocating that we just do whatever we want, he's saying that our method and our way of pleasing God is radically and utterly changed, that it's no longer about meeting all these requirements.

Now it is going to be dependent on something that maybe you're comfortable with or maybe you're not-

which is the Holy Spirit.

I hope you're comfortable with it, but I think many Christians are not. They've never been taught about the Holy Spirit. They don't understand what it means when it says, "Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?" They think, "Well, what do you mean, is the Spirit going to change me, is the Spirit going to move through me, is the Spirit going to help me obey God?" The answer is yes. That is basic 101 Christianity. If you don't know that, let me say it really clearly-

You are not going to make you better, God is going to make you more like Him as you walk with Him, as you have a relationship with Him, as you depend on Him.

It is a radical, wholly different way than the people of that day have been living in. I would say it is a radical and wholly different way than those of us that have grown up in the church are living as well. These verses should scare us a little, that we are walking around teaching effort and not teaching the power of the Holy Spirit to change people, to sanctify people.

Sanctification is something that happens once you become a believer. It begins a process of God in you changing you, making you new, making you holy. Justification happens all at once. You are justified with Christ. You are made right and holy. He gives you His righteousness. Sanctification- the process of following God and moving away from living for our selfish desires and living for God's desires. That takes a little while, right? We are all going to be working on that all the way home. But what is the means? What is the process? What is the way?

It is dependence and reliance on God. That is the way.

It is such a fun and different way because no longer do we have to muscle our way through life trying to do what's right. We ask God for the power. We are given free will, pre-becoming a Christian and post-becoming a Christian. This is still your choice. Whether you allow God to work in your life, whether you depend on Him for holiness, for righteousness, day by day to run and get away from the sin that so easily entangles us. That is a choice you make every single day. But the way you make that choice is to beg God and ask God for help. And He helps, and I'm not saying it will be easy because many times we are putting to death our flesh. That is a process, that is actually feels like a lot of effort. And it can feel that way. But the difference is that we are no longer trying to achieve approval.

We are actually putting to death something out of love for God. So it's our motivation, it's a complete shift in our motivation. We identify with Christ.

We know Him, we want to walk with him, we want to serve Him. So we depend on Him for help to do it. And as we follow Him, as we do the things that He says, it gets easier and easier.

Some of you are struggling with massive addiction and you're thinking, "Are you saying there's not some effort required here?" Absolutely there is. But why are you doing that effort and are you trying to do that all by yourself? Because I know myself, I cannot muscle myself to do the right things. I need a lot of help. Inside of me are a lot of selfish desires and messed up motivations, and those don't go down easily without a fight.

What has happened over the years is the more I know God, the more securely my eyes are fixed on Him, the easier that sin, and that weight, and that burden falls off.

I've talked to you again and again about Hebrews 12. "There's a race that is set before us." I really believe that part of the plan of God for your life is for you to give your life away. We talked about being crucified with Christ. One of the ways we actually live that out day to day is we care about other people more than we care about ourselves. The way to do that is to be on mission, to be discipling people, to be in people's lives, to serve your local church, to serve local para-church ministries that need help and volunteers. Do something that gets your mind off of yourself.

As you're running your race, your sin and your weight fall off because you're fixing your eyes on Jesus and you're living for other people. There's a process of sanctification that happens.

We don't do that so that God is more pleased with us, we do that because we're in relationship with Him and we want other people to know Him. It comes from a very different place inside of us. There's an engine that we're given in the Holy Spirit. There's a motivation and intrinsic power that is given to us because of the Holy Spirit once we receive Jesus. That is the beginning of a life that looks more like Him. But He's accomplishing it. We're not striving trying to measure up.

And the Galatians were confused about this. They kept going back to their old ways. They kept going back to the ways of religion, the ways that they had learned from the time they were able to walk and talk. They had learned, "You've got to hit all these marks." When we don’t hit the marks, that can cause rebellion where you just give up or that can cause relationship. It says in the new covenant, "No longer is the law written on stone tablets, the law is written in our hearts." Meaning that there's now a relationship with God inside of us that is a different motivation.

We don't need an external law written on stone tablets. Now, we have the Holy Spirit convicting, counseling, and moving us to obedience.

I remember when my oldest two kids were little and my son was shaming Kate because she was making some mistakes and she was talking about not measuring up in some way. Connor was judging her about it and being the snide little toddler to her older brother, she looked at him and said- "Connor, I'm just getting to know Jesus." And I thought that was the most profound thing for a little kid to say because that's true for all of us. As we get to know Him, we'll change.

Somehow, innately, she knew that- "I'm just getting to know Him. And as I get to know Him, I'm going to change. And I'm going to grow up, and I'm going to love Him more, and I'm going to be more obedient, I'm going to pray more, I'm going to do all these things more. But give me grace as I grow up in front of you kid." Such a wise statement.

That is the grace God has for us.

And it's the grace that I hope we will have for each other and especially the grace that we will have for ourselves. We're just getting to know Him. We're doing the best we can. He's accomplishing something in us as we get to know Him, as we walk with Him, as we talk with Him, as we learn about Him, as we read about Him, our hearts begin to change. And all of a sudden, things that didn't use to bother us all of a sudden begin to bother us. We don't feel as at home in our sin. We feel convicted.

And so, maybe this is for you or maybe this is for someone you love or know that maybe is new to the faith and you are wondering, "When exactly are they going to get their act together? When are they going to stop drinking? When are they going to stop cussing?" And I think you could picture what my daughter says of- "I'm just getting to know Him." And we can't fix everything all at once, right?

God is patient with that. God is kind with that. There's a process.

Addictions don't die fast. But because of the power of God, they can die. And so, we trust Him, we walk with Him, we ask Him for help, we ask other people for help. We recognize that we can't do this on our own. I believe that is the beginning of life change.

He will accomplish it and we get to say- This is where we are. And I'm in process, not there yet, but I know God and I know He's changing me.

And that is a powerful story, that's messy and might not be wrapped up with a little bow but I believe it actually is a more powerful story because it's a more real story. So we are more than conquerors. Do not be confused. We are given all that power. Why? Because we believe in God. The passage says that Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. As we trust and believe God is for us, with us, fighting beside us, we begin to change because our posture and our position against the darkness changes. So I'm not saying lay over and accept all of the sin in your life. I am saying fight it with the right weapon, which is faith, which is believing that God has power over these things and can help you fight them.