If you’ve come to faith in Jesus Christ, you’re a child of the King. But are you living up to your status? Or are you hanging on to shame, feeling miserable, and trying to make up for what Jesus already paid for? In today’s message, Nat Crawford encourages you to live in God’s grace-given freedom.
If you’ve come to faith in Jesus Christ, you’re a child of the King. But are you living up to your status? Or are you hanging on to shame, feeling miserable, and trying to make up for what Jesus already paid for? In today’s message, Nat Crawford encourages you to live in God’s grace-given freedom.
Download the Transcript of Today's Podcast
Get helpful background information and spiritual themes for each book of the Bible in Pastor Nat Crawford's new Books of the Bible Series. This month we're featuring The Old Testament pt. 1 (Genesis-Proverbs.) Use it as part of your spiritual workout plan, or share it with others.
Get this offer for a gift of any amount today, and be ready to start the New Year off right.
SERIES: WE ARE FREE (A Study of Galatians) December 2022 – January 2023
SPEAKER: NAT CRAWFORD
Thursday, January 5, 2023
Scripture: Galatians 4:4-7
TITLE:Live in Your Freedom
Cabbage water. That’s what Charlie Bucket ate most nights in his small shack. Who’s Charlie Bucket? You probably know him from the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. If you’ve seen the movie or read the book, you know at the end he is awarded the opportunity inherit the Wonka business and all the perks with it. But, what would you have thought if Charlie would have said, “No thanks Mr. Wonka. My family and I are doing just fine. Cabbage water is the way to live.”
You rightly would have thought, “That kid is nuts to go back to a life like that.”
Paul had a similar message for us today in Galatians 3:4-7
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
God is no Willy Wonka, that is for sure, but we sure can be like Charlie Bucket.
Paul tells the Galatian churches, when the time was just right, God sent his Son Jesus so that we might become God’s children. God had ordained the moment Christ would come so the people and culture would be ready for a life changing and soul saving movement to happen. But this was only possible because it involved both God and man. That’s why Paul says, “born of a woman and under the law.” Jesus was fully God and fully man. God was capable of successfully living under the law. What’s the result? Redemption for the unredeemed. Salvation for the unsaved. Hope for the hopeless.
When we become adopted sons and daughters of the king, it’s not by name. It’s reality! We become recipients of God’s grace. We become God’s heir of the fortune.
That’s why Paul reminds the Galatian churches and us today that you are no longer a slave. No longer a child under the restrictions of childhood, but instead free people living in the Kingdom of the benevolent king. So, live like it.
This isn’t our tendency, however. This is why the drug addict returns to drugs after completing rehab. This is why the alcoholic returns to the bar after hitting 90 days sober. This is why the porn addict hides in the closet after quitting 100 times before. Though we are free, we still must choose to live like it.
Today, where are you returning to slavery? Today, where are you living like a homeless person instead of a prince or a princess? Where are you running from God and running to your sinfulness?
We’ve all got an area. But God says, “No more! You are free! Live as free!”
Today, surrender your guilt and your struggle to God. God’s grace is sufficient for you. Cry out for His help. Cry out for His solutions. And begin to move away from your struggle. By God’s grace you can, and you will.