We Are God’s Kids

Galatians 3:26, "So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. And now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, but in Christ Jesus. You are all sons of God through faith. For as many of you as were baptized from Christ, have put on Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise."

As we've been talking about Galatians, we see this. It's like Paul is just pleading with them to understand, "There's a whole other way to live." I feel like this was a relevant book, right now, because I do see a confusion around this topic of grace and the law. Specifically, let's just talk about Gen Z for a minute. Y'all all know I have a strong affinity and affection for them, and I'm ministering to them a lot right now. I'm in their lives a lot. It's also the age of my kids. Their friends are over, all the time.

I'm watching them live. What I see is this zeal and this hunger for holiness. They are coming from a really dark world, and they don't want to look like the world. Praise God. Those that are following Jesus, they're all in. They are 100% in. There's a zeal and a passion, a fervor, a holiness to their life that is beautiful.

So, I'm watching that. I'm waiting and I'm seeing- "Is this coming from a place of faith? Or, is this coming from, 'I need to be different from the world so that I achieve something, so that I can arrive at something?'"

In my past and in my history, that's often been the case, that morality has become the goal, rather than faith, in relationship with God.

As morality becomes a goal, then we begin to compare. We begin to see who's the most holy and who does the most Christian service, and who does this and who serves here, and who does this.

I've seen this go through different versions throughout my life, whether that is just the social justice version, or the go on the mission field version. In college, for me, it was, "I'm not going to wear makeup, and I'm going to not ever be vain." All of those things could look like holiness, but the motivation was to look like I was being holy. So, I don't think that was what God meant when he said to put on holiness.

What he means by that is that you walk with God in such a way that that reflects into the world, that people want your God, that they see you producing the fruits of the spirit: love, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control.

All of those things are coming out of you. And yes, that may lead you onto the mission field, out of your compassion, out of your joy, out of your wanting to run into dark places with the Gospel.

But, that is not out of, "I need to be more holy because God is going to be more pleased with me, because people are going to be more pleased with me, because then I'm going to appear holy." Right?

I know this is 101. Sometimes we need a little 101 because what the devil will do is, over time, you'll pick up some little thing that you didn't even realize was a thing. It largely, probably, is coming from unmet needs in your childhood. Right?

There was some time where you wanted somebody to be proud of you. You wanted somebody to notice you, and you did the right thing. You did something good. You got a star. You noticed, "You know what? That goes well for me, when I do that thing." All of a sudden, what looks like godliness is really just performance for a crowd that is cheering.

What I want to say is, if that's you, that's an exhausting way to live.

The crowd cheers for different things at different times, and you can never keep up. Ultimately, you know deep down that something's off. It's not driven by a love for God or Jesus, or abiding with God or Jesus. It is driven by desire for approval.

I think that analyzing this just enough so that you can see, "Okay? Why am I wanting to be so set apart? Why do I want to be holy? Why do I want to be different?" Now, some of you are reading this and you're going, "I don't even want those things, I just don't want people to look down on me because I make so many bad choices. I'm partying, or I'm making bad decisions."

It's the same problem, y'all. It comes from the same place of, "Where does our holiness and righteousness come from?"

If it comes from ourselves, whether we have bad behavior or great behavior, both are filthy rags compared to what God is offering us. What he said in this verse, at the end of chapter 3, is to put on Christ and it's going to change your whole identity.

So, we're actually after a complete identity shift. He's not after your morality. He's after an identity shift, that you would now become Christ, that you would go from being a slave to the law, to religion, or a slave to sin. Some of you relate more to that. Whatever you're a slave to, that you would go from that to actually being consumed, a bondservant of Christ.

Slave technically means that your owned, that it wasn't your choice, that you were taken into captivity. What, ultimately, Christ is calling us to is to be a bond servant, by our willing choice. We are laying down our lives and picking up the life of Christ and putting on kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control, all of these things that he will produce in and through us as we walk with him. That's what he's promised.

So, when he says, "To put on Christ," you don't need the guardian anymore. You don't need the law beating you over the head with a stick. These gentile Christians didn't need these Judaizers, which is what they're called, to come in and hit them over the head with the stick and say, "You need to do this. You need to do that." They didn't need that anymore because, now, they had the Holy Spirit. Now, they were walking with Jesus. Now, they had put on Christ.

What he's saying is, "Guys, you all are seeing all these categories of people, and you are saying there's neither Jew nor Greek." This whole new way of doing life now takes away the separations that we once had of Jew and Gentile, Jew and Greek, the separation of male and female, the separation of slave or free.

It takes all that away and it gives us a whole new identity, which is freedom, which is joy, which is peace, which is running radically and hard toward Jesus.

As we do that, our lives look radically different. It just happens because that's what happens when you are with God, and you experience a life, free, with him.

No longer is everything divided up in your head of religious or not religious. It's just, "Do you love Jesus, or not?" "Are you a follower of Jesus, or not? If you are, then let's go." Like, "We are brother, we are sister, let's go, but let's not have all these divisions."

I've seen these divisions, even today. I mean, obviously many of us have seen it in the church with male and female.

I want to speak specifically with Jew, or Greek, right now. I see this today, when what is happening in Israel and Palestine is so horrific.

I very much condemn the attacks on Israel. However, I have met Palestinian Christians on the ground in Palestine. I have met wonderful people who are also losing in this, from Palestine. We sometimes forget that they're our brothers and sisters, Palestinian brothers and sisters, and ours.

Christians on the ground, currently, that have died and will die in this war. They were not the extremists that caused this suffering to Israel. They were raising their kids, and they were trying their best to follow Jesus. I say that because I think we forget, in the news sometimes, about our higher calling, more than being pro-American or pro-Israel, that we are Jesus's people. We are Jesus's family, and we love people.

We love people, regardless of Jew or Gentile.

Now, that does not mean that there is not evil and that evil needs to be paid for. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying as we pray, as we think about this situation, for instance in Israel right now, that we also remember and pray for the Palestinians, specifically Palestinian Christians, that are suffering right now, as well.

So, we still struggle to not cause these differences to affect us more than our reality, that we are Christ. Because we are Christ, we are called to love and to live like Christ lived and loved, which was crossing all kinds of barriers.

So ultimately, what is this saying? That our whole identity has shifted. We are God's, that we are no longer American or Israeli or Palestinian, that we are God's. We are the children of God on Earth, set apart for purposes, to be ambassadors of Jesus. Healing for the poor, healing for the sick, to bring the hope and restoration that the Gospel offers to all people, so that no longer slave or free, or Jew or Gentile, or male or female, is a limiting factor on Earth, but all people can come to God. All people can get to God because of Jesus and what he did.

That power that God issues us as believers is through his Holy Spirit. It is meant to be a helper. That is what the Spirit is, a counselor, a friend, a helper, and the Spirit is with us.

If you believe in Jesus Christ, then the Spirit is with you. I like how Henry Nouwen describes that power. He says-

"This is not the power that controls, or dictates and commands. It is the power that heals, reconciles, and unifies. It is the power of the Spirit of God."

When Jesus appeared, people wanted to be close to him because power came out of him. Luke 6:19 says, "It is the power of the divine spirit that Jesus wants to give us. The Spirit indeed empowers us and allows us to be healing presences among people. When we are filled with that spirit, we cannot be anything other than healers." That is who we are when we are with people. I've seen this happen with my own kids. I have seen my daughter, Kate, go into the world and have conversations that you cannot believe. Books could be written about that girl in a coffee shop, in a retail space. She just has an hour-long conversation. This happened last week. It happens every week. She had an hour long conversation with someone, where she works, about Jesus.

This person had been so wounded by the church. By my daughter listening, by being filled with the Spirit and being present with her in the midst of a retail space, where my daughter's working, this person was so tender to God that it made her curious. She had hated God, coming into that store. Yet, something in her began to heal. Why? Because of the Holy Spirit, with my daughter, being present with this person and loving this person. She was a healing presence for this person, who she now wants to have over for dinner. My daughter is just... This is her superpower.

But, it is all of our superpower because of God in us. We have the Holy Spirit, and therefore, we get to be a healing presence to people. We get to be a safe place to people. We get to not divide people into categories and decide who gets God and who doesn't. We get to pray for all people. We get to love all people.

For us, we could replace and add to it. We could add Republican, Democrat. We could add Black, White. We could add any amount of dividing factors that we see in our world today and say, "No longer are those things the dividing factors. We are brothers and sisters under the family of God because of Jesus Christ."

It's a whole different way to live. It's so freeing. So, yes. We pray for Israel. Yes. We also pray for the Palestinians.

We pray for both. Why? Because they're humans made in the image of God.

And, yes. There are times, though, we deal with evil. I'm glad I'm not at the tables having to decide how to do that. I'm in the place with my Bible and with my family, where we pray. We pray for the suffering of those that we care about and those that we don't know.