Love That Builds and Blesses

We have a lot of deer out where we live, and I have learned something in the last 31 years of living there. that you don't ever want to get between those mama deer and their babies. You could be in a lot of trouble. I've watched my dog find out that you can get hurt doing that, right? She's gotten kicked a few times because mothers care about their babies. You know, there's a very touching story in the Old Testament about a mother named Rispa. And sometimes we just overlook stories like this, but this story is so, very powerful. She was the mother of two of King Saul's sons. These 2 sons were killed to avenge the blood that was shed unjustly by a group of people. They were hung on a hillside. And scripture says that from the beginning of harvest to the end, and that would be five to six months, that this mother put a sackcloth on a rock, she put a blanket on a rock, and she fought off the birds by day and the beasts by night. Wow. She wouldn't let them touch the bodies of her son. She fought for their dignity and honor. Finally, King David heard about it, and he gave them a proper burial. That story just always ***** me because it shows the length that a mother will go to fight for her kids. Amen. Some of you are fighting for a new legacy for your children. You didn't have what you want. You didn't have growing up what you want them to have, and you're following Jesus now and fighting for God's best in their life. Thank you for doing that. Amen. Some of you are raising kids alone, never expected to be here in life. And we know that's not easy, but you show up and you let God do a work in you and in them. And how many know that's going to make all the difference in the world? Amen. So let me encourage you, mothers today, just in this little exhortation, let me, whatever season of motherhood you're in, because we have seasons, don't we? I want to just encourage you to give it your best, because God is with you. God is with you every step of the way and enjoy it because seasons don't last forever, do they? Seasons don't, sometimes I walk by the four empty bedrooms upstairs and I think I wish I could do it all over again. But then I think that was a lot of work. I don't know if I could do that again. But every bit of it was so, so worth it. I love my kids. I'm so proud of them. I know you feel the same about yours. But I always feel such a responsibility to communicate the weight of what you do and who you are in your world. So don't ever underestimate your value, your influence, your prayers. God hears you. Moms, today and every day, we pray you understand the treasure that you are to your homes and to your families. Happy Mother's Day. Can we give our moms another good hand? We're in a series from the book of Galatians called This Changes Everything, and we've heard some really great messages so far about how God lifts the labels off our lives. How he's not a formula, two plus two equal four, but it's a relationship with God that takes us places we could never go on our own. We heard last week, Pastor Jim preached a great word on performance verse partnership, how we can work together with God, amen. How many of you are glad to have God on your side today? Amen. So we're gonna talk today, I'm gonna talk today just on chapter four about how receiving God's love causes our life to be built and to be matured and blessed. And that's really, when you think about it, that's what we do for our children, isn't it? From the day they're born, we love our kids. We help mature and pull out the potential in them so that they prosper in life. Paul is writing to the church in Galatia. This is a church that he established. He put a lot of time and energy into this church, and he's concerned about them because they're getting off track. How many know sheep sometimes can go astray, right? I read a story, a true story, about a shepherd in Turkey. He lived in Turkey. There's a lot of sheep in Turkey, but he was in Turkey, and he went for breakfast. He was having breakfast, taquitos, with some of his shepherd friends, right? And one of his sheep walked off a 50-foot cliff, and 1,500 followed him. Now, how many know sheep need shepherds, right? Only 500 of them died because the rest of them were cushioned by the other sheep. So thank God for that. But man, sheep, sheep need shepherds, right? And so this group had come into this church that Paul had established. They were teaching that you had to do something more to earn your salvation. It starts with Jesus, yes, but then you have to do all these works. You have to live by the law. You have to observe special days. You have to be circumcised. And Paul was saying, that is not the gospel. The gospel is a gift that we cannot earn. It's a gift of our salvation. How many of you are thankful that we can't earn it? Because if we have to earn it, we have to keep it by earning it, right? But it's a gift. Scripture says, by grace you have been saved through faith, And this is not from yourself, it's the gift of God, and it's not by works, so that no one can boast. See, Paul had been a legalist. He was a letter of the law kind of guy. And he followed it, he fought for it, until one day on the road to Damascus, he met Jesus. And that changed everything. And he didn't want this church to believe it was about rules. Everybody say rules. But it was about the gift of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ. So I'm going to share 3 truths that Paul reminds us of in this chapter, because he's not just writing to the Galatian church. He's writing to us today. All the scripture, all the scripture, all the stories in the Bible, I tell you, we can take them and we can learn from them. We can live them. Amen. Scripture says this in verse 4, But when the set time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, Abba, Father. So you are no longer a slave, but God's child, and since you are His child, God also made you an heir. So this morning, this is good news. If we have received God's son Jesus, which I know most of us have, we've been adopted into a new family and we have a new father. That's good news, right? We can call him Abba, Abba Father. We're not slaves, but we're sons and daughters of God. Everybody say Abba. Abba. You know Abba is an Aramaic word that they say the closest word to this is our English word for Papa. How many papas do we have out there? We got quite a few papas. It shows a closeness between a father and a son or daughter. Papa. You know, Jim is a papa to his six grandkids and one on the way, by the way. We're excited about that. A few years ago, he was going golfing with Mike, our son, and he called me and said, I can't find my wallet. Now, how many of you have husbands that lose things? I do. But this wasn't his fault, actually. And so he called me, he said, I've looked through my bag, I've looked through the truck, and I can't find it. Would you check and see if it's at the house? And I checked the house, I checked his dresser and different places that he leaves in. And then I remembered the kids were playing, the grandkids were playing in Papa's room the night before. So I called my daughter Andrea, and I said, Andrea, did Ava happen to pick up Dad's wallet when she was playing? So Ava had a little clear backpack, you know, and you could see in it. And so when Andrea went to look for it, there it was, Papa's wallet. It had been swiped, right? She had seen him use that wallet before and do good things, so she picked it up. But a little later, we got a video. It was the cutest thing. She was about three years old. She had these big brown eyes, and she was real serious. She said, Papa, I'm sorry I stole your wallet. You think Papa was mad? No, his heart melted. He'd do anything for those kids, those girls. He's a papa, right? Listen, we can call God our papa. I don't know what kind of father you've had or have right now, and I hope and pray it's a good one. But you know what, if not, you got a good one now. He's one we can trust and count on. One who knows us best and loves us most. Nobody will be better to us than He will. He will always want our best, He'll always have our back, and He will always work for good in our life, amen? He's our Abba. He's our papa. Just say papa. Sounds good, doesn't it? He's our papa. John said this, See what great love the Father hath lavished on us, that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are. Not what we'll be one day when we get to heaven in the sweet by and by. It's what we are today. It's not a little dabble, do you kind of love. How many of you know lavish love is a lot of good love? Amen? Yeah. Amen. We don't see a father's love really in scripture any more clear than we do in the story of the prodigal son. Jesus said this, he continued, there was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, father, give me my share of the estate. So he divided his property between them. The younger son here was asking for his inheritance before the death of the father, which was kind of a pretty bold thing to do in those days. It showed disrespect, kind of like a you are dead to me attitude. So he got his inheritance, went to a distant land. Most of you know this story. Scripture says he squandered his wealth on wild living. He partied until he was poor and ended up feeding pigs in the pig pen. But scripture says when he came to himself, he said, I'm going to go back to my father's house. He said, I'll just be a servant because at least they get to eat and I'm hungry. How many know hunger can drive us, right? And the scripture says, So he got up. And he went to his father's house, but while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him. He ran to his son, threw his arms around him, and he kissed him. And we know it's the only time we ever see God run in scripture. He's running to greet a son or daughter that's coming home, amen, one that's coming back into right relationship with him as a father. What a joy to know we have a father. that we can come home to, that won't condemn us. Amen. He'll love us and he'll restore what's been lost in our lives. Scripture says that nothing will ever separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. The son not only received love, but he got his life back. He got his ring back, the authority. He got his robe back, which shows right relationship. He got his shoes back, which shows he was a son and not just a slave in the house of his father. God knows how to restore our life. Amen. Most of us have heard of the song Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound. How many of you heard that song before, right? It was written by John Newton. John was a prodigal raised by a mother who was sick most of her life, but she taught him the scripture and she prayed for him daily. As a young man, he turned his back on faith and on God. Later in a storm on a slave trade ship, he thought he was going to die. And so he cried out to God. He not only wrote that incredible song, but God used him to help stop slave trade in his country. God hears a mother's prayer. St. Augustine wasn't always a saint, right? He followed in the footsteps of his father. He was a carouser. He was a ladies' man. He was wild. Everybody say wild. But he had a mother that was a devout believer in Jesus. She fasted for him. She prayed passionately for him. At 31 years old, he came under the conviction of the Holy Spirit. He embraced Christianity, and we know he went on to shape the teaching of the early church in a very powerful way. How many of you know God loves prodigals and he hears our prayers for them? Don't ever, ever stop praying for your children. Never stop calling their name in prayer. I don't care how old my kids get, their name is going to be called every day in prayer. Amen? Amen. That's what we do. God, you know the story here. I've missed this several times, but the story here, Jesus said, I'm going to tell you a story about two sons, right? Not just one son. Two sons. Sometimes we forget about this older brother that's still in the house. One's outside of the house. He's the prodigal. One is inside the house. He lives there. The older brother heard the party going on and he wasn't too happy about it. His little brother had acted this way and now he was getting celebrated. Did I mention that? They threw a party for the younger son when he came home. Everybody say party. Party. They threw a party, they celebrated him. And now he's kind of mad about that. And this is what he says to his father. He says, Look, all these years I've been slaving for you. I've never disobeyed your orders, yet you never gave me a young goat so that I could celebrate with my friends. He was salty. He was sour. This son was living in the father's house, but he still saw himself as a slave and not a son. He felt like he had to earn his father's love by doing everything right. I've never disobeyed you, never disappointed you, like this brother who's been a brat. He didn't say that, but I'm sure he thought that, right? But the father said, listen, these are such, such good words. He said, you are always with me. You're always with me, and everything I have is yours. In other words, don't live like a slave, live like a son. Enjoy the life in this house that I've made possible for you. You know, some of us are in the Father's house today, and maybe we don't realize how loved we are by our Father, how much God wants to bless us. We don't have to be perfect to earn God's love. Thank God. Amen. We are not slaves to Him. We are sons and daughters. You know, we've all seen parents and maybe been one of those parents that when their babies are born, they're not always pretty, right? Okay. Sometimes their head are misshaped. We had one of those. They kind of look like a little old man, some of them. But you know, as a parent, we look at them and we say, They're beautiful. They're perfect. Why do we do that? Because they're ours, right? They belong to us. God is not looking for perfection from us. He loves us because we're His. We've been adopted and we can call Him Abba Father. We can call Him Papa, amen. John says we know and believe the love that he has for us. Sometimes we have to let that truth go from just our head to our heart. We can't just know about it, we gotta believe it and we gotta rely on that love, amen? Amen. Paul goes on to say this, not only do we have a new father, but we have a new formation in our life. Paul wants his church to understand that they've been born into a new family, and then he talks about them growing in Christ, he says, My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you. I don't think Paul, being a man, really knew about the pains of childbirth, do you? They say if a man had to have a baby, there'd only be one born in the world. No, he just knew. He knew they could be intense, you know, and he was intensely praying, interceding for this church. to grow in their faith and not be led astray, but become strong, stable believers in God. we all start as baby Christians. How many of you remember when you were a baby Christian, right? Maybe some of you are baby Christians today. That's where we start. And as parents, you know, we love, we know that babies, you know, they cry a lot. They fall down a lot. They make messes sometimes. And it's because they're growing, right? All of us as parents, we loved our kids when they were babies. You know, they were cute and they were cuddly and they were a lot of work, right? But as much as we love that stage, we wouldn't want them to stay there because they're not supposed to. They're supposed to grow up and get a job and become productive and pay the bills, right? The same is true in our spiritual life. God loves us when we're babies. He's patient with us. He picks us up when we fall. But his goal is that we grow up and mature in him. And that's why he gives us churches like you're sitting in today. That's why he gives us pastors and leaders. God gives us all we need to mature in Him. Paul talks about how infant Christians, baby Christians, are tossed like waves and blown by winds of teaching. But when truth is spoken in love in a body of believers, he said we can mature. We can grow up. How many of you are glad that God has given us everything that we need to grow up in Him? Amen? We don't have to stay stuck in baby land. We can become mature sons and daughters and make a difference in our world. it's sad but true. Sorry. It's sad but true. Some people stay baby Christians their whole lives. Their whole lives. They never stay planted long enough for their faith to develop, to get rooted and to mature. God, like Paul, wants us to grow up and bear lots of eternal fruit. Amen. It's the trees that are mature that can bear the most fruit. It's a powerful scripture in Mark, I believe it is. I think I put that down. Mark 4, 30 and 32. Jesus says, God's work in our lives is like a tiny mustard seed. That's the smallest of seeds. He said, but that seed, when it's planted, becomes greater than all. others with big branches, with branches so big that the birds find shade there. I love birds. I love all kinds of birds. I feed the birds. And I thought, God, that's really sweet. You're talking about birds and you're talking about the shade. And I didn't really know what he was talking about. But you know, when you study that, he's not talking about birds. He's talking about people, right? He's talking about our life, providing a place of refuge and shelter and shade for those around us. Our maturity is not just for us. It's for those in our world. Turn to somebody and say, keep growing. Mature trees. Strong trees, grown-up trees produce the best fruit. Whoever fears the Lord has a secure fortress, and for his children, it will be a refuge. It will be a place of shade. Amen, a place of peace. And that's why we need to keep growing. There are people in our world, and we never quit growing, right? We continue to grow, but there is a place we get to when we're mature in God, when we're not blowing here and there. Amen? We're not tossed like the Bible talks about. There's people in our world that need our shade. There's a lady that came into our church many years ago. She had been through some difficult times, been through several marriages. But what I admire about her is she just planted herself in God's house. And she began to let God's word wash over her and heal her. She listened to his truth, she began to live it out. She learned to pray and she's become a powerful prayer warrior. Now, just like that scripture says, her life has provided a refuge for those around her. She's mothering and mentoring other women in the faith. She takes them under her wings. She loves them. She teaches them how to walk with God. I have seen her. I've seen people come up under her. And she has natural children, but she has spiritual children that treasure her. They treasure what she has meant to them. You know, I'm so grateful for all the spiritual moms and dads that are here that are mature. Everybody say strong. mature and you're helping a new generation of women and men become strong and live blessed. They need the shade, the refuge of your life. It's not just about you. It's not just about me. It's about the people God has in our world. You know, the prodigal son left the house saying, Give me. Do you have any kids like that? Give me. But he came back saying, Make me. Give me my inheritance. And he came back, Make me a servant. Our prayer if we've been adopted by God should be, Lord, make me. Form me, shape me, make me into the person you created me to be. God doesn't focus on our past. Thank God he focuses on our potential. And for that reason, he wants to work in our lives. He wants to form new thought patterns, new attitudes, new relationships. We know the scripture, Show me your friends and I'll show you. That's not a scripture. Just want to see if you're awake. Pastor Jim says all the time, show me your friends and I'll show you your future. Whoever we're connected to is the direction we're gonna go, right? God wants to form us so he can fulfill his mission through our life. Purposes that will make heaven happy for all eternity. Some of us have been through hard things and we need God to continue to heal and restore our lives. We all need him to redeem parts, we all have broken parts of our lives that we need him to redeem, but he does it through his word. He sent his word, scripture says, to heal us and to deliver us from our destruction. For every problem we face, there's a promise that he's given, a truth that can save, heal, and bring freedom where we have *******. He does it through his body, the church, who supports and spurs us on in love and truth. How many know you're surrounded by some of the greatest people in the world this morning, right? And when we get connected, we find the most loving, encouraging, and supportive relationships we could ever find. Is the church perfect? No. Because we're not perfect, right? I'm not perfect. You're not perfect. Pastor Jim's not perfect. Just to let you know that no, he's pretty close. He's pretty close. No, I'm just kidding. But none of us are perfect. But there's no better place to put down roots and to grow a great life in God than his church. Amen. Any one of us, regardless of where we are today, can become strong. We can become a mature believer. The more we mature, the greater blessing we are to our world. Then lastly, Not only do we have a father who forms our life, but we have a father who blesses our future. Amen. We read earlier, so you are no longer a slave, but God's child. And since you are his child, God made you also an heir. We know what an heir is, right? It's somebody who inherits something. Maybe you've had somebody pass, my mom passed in July this year. All of us kids, all five of us got together. We went through her stuff. She left us some stuff. I'm so glad for that, right? I have memories of her. I have memories in this ring and this watch that I'm wearing, but I was an heir. We were heirs of what she had. And maybe you're an heir. Maybe you've been an heir, but we know what an heir is. Jesus died so that we could inherit the life God planned for us. We were all heirs. of Jesus. How many of you know he died and he left us a will that's got some really good stuff in it, right? But beyond that, he has a life for us to inherit. In this passage, Paul talks about two sons, Ishmael and Isaac, two mothers, Hagar and Sarah, and two covenants, the law and life in Christ. Let's read this verse. For it's written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman, the other by the free woman. His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh. Everybody say flesh. But his son by the free woman was born as a result of a divine promise. Do you know this story about Abraham? He's called the father of our faith, and he was promised a son by God. God says, Sarah, your wife will have a son, will be the mother of this child. And it took a long time for that child to arrive, and Sarah got impatient. She tries to help God out. How many of you have ever gotten impatient? You felt like something was taking too long, and you tried to fix it, right? I know I have. So Sarah says this, take my servant Hagar, Abraham, and have a child with her. Let's just fix this problem. So Abraham said, okay, right? And they had a child named Ishmael. But this was not how God wanted to fulfill this promise. It represents birthing things in the flesh or out of our own human strength. And it caused some issues, right? It always does. But Sarah went on to birth Isaac according to the promise. It was something that couldn't be done in the flesh, couldn't be done in the own strength. Sarah was too old. Abraham was way too old. He was 99, a hundred years old. How many know that's old? But it shows us that God knows how to supersede the natural and give birth to supernatural things in our life. Amen. Listen to this scripture. He says, now you brothers and sisters like Isaac are children of promise. God's got promises for you. Supernatural future that he wants you to inherit. Supernatural promises that he wants to birth in our life. Futures that can't be brought forth through our flesh, through our own human strength. Things that we're gonna look back and say, only God could have done that. Only God could take me from here to where I am today. Amen. Scripture says to him who's able to do immeasurably more, everybody say more. more than we ask, imagine, or imagine according to the power that is at work within us. You know, I just want to encourage you today, right where you are, think about your life right where you are. I want to encourage you to trust God with the future that's right in front of you. Sometimes we end up in places that we didn't expect to be in life, but God has a way of redeeming situations and getting glory out of our story, amen? And the only way He can do that is if we keep trusting Him. I know sometimes we can get discouraged when we look at the natural, we look at what's happening just around us, but we have to keep our eyes, keep our focus on faith and what God can do. Amen. Romans 15 says that the scriptures and stories in the Bible, they were given to us to teach us and to inspire us, to give us hope about what God can do for us. You know, it helps us know that what he did in the lives of people way back, way back, I almost said yonder, way Southern. Way back then, 2,000 years ago, he can do today. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. Amen. One of my favorite stories is in the book of Ruth. It's a little story about a young woman who lost her husband. Ruth was from a place called Moab. She was raised outside the Jewish faith in a place where they worshiped all kinds of false gods. Kind of like what happens in Moab stays in Moab, right? But she had a mother-in-law who knew God. And Ruth determined that she was gonna get to know her God. She followed her back to Israel where God was worshiped. She said, wherever you go, I'm gonna go. Where you live, I'm gonna live. Your people are gonna be my people and your God's gonna be my God. She said, I'll live long enough without God. I wanna know and I wanna experience the God that you know. It wasn't long until Ruth, still a young woman, met a relative of Naomi, if you know the story. And he was a godly man. I'm sure he was good looking. I don't know that, but I think he was. And he was wealthy. That didn't hurt, right? He was wealthy. His name was Boaz. Everybody say Boaz. And you know, they got married. They had a baby boy, and God totally restored this woman's life. Took her from grief to gratefulness, and brought joy to Naomi as well. Naomi had lost a husband and two sons. And this son became like a grandchild, brought her great joy, revived her life. And this little boy that was born to Ruth became the great-grandfather of King David. And if you read Matthew's gospel in the lineage, you see that Ruth from Moab was in the lineage of Jesus Christ. Well, only God could write a story like that, not birthed out of human strength or out of our flesh, but out of our faith in Him. I want to encourage you to take the limits off of God. You've got a Father that loves you. Take the limits off and trust Him to do what only He can do.