back to indexBerean Community Church Wednesday Bible Study Galatians 4:8-14
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♪ My faith was always on the way to the moon ♪ 00:02:11.200 |
♪ And all that you taught me, baby, was awakened ♪ 00:02:20.440 |
♪ In my darkened heart the light of Christ has shone ♪ 00:02:25.440 |
♪ Called into a kingdom that cannot be shaken ♪ 00:02:48.060 |
♪ I will run the race by grace, grace alone ♪ 00:02:53.060 |
♪ I will claim my sin by grace, grace alone ♪ 00:02:59.960 |
♪ And I will reach the end by grace, grace alone ♪ 00:03:33.980 |
All right, for those of you guys who are there in the back, 00:04:39.680 |
the honking, there's two coyotes walking around. 00:04:43.280 |
So I was like, I told you, Tyson, go, go, go. 00:04:52.880 |
at the time, I'm just gonna play the two songs, 00:04:55.000 |
and then, are you just gonna come up right after? 00:05:16.920 |
- Go ahead and, you know, go ahead and pray after the song. 00:05:26.120 |
- And then I will just use my headset instead of, 00:05:31.120 |
well, if it's okay, I'm just gonna walk to your mic. 00:09:21.580 |
♪ And in love before you laid the world's foundation ♪ 00:09:33.580 |
♪ You have raised me up so high above my station ♪ 00:09:40.580 |
♪ I'm a child of God by grace and grace alone ♪ 00:10:18.580 |
♪ And by your blood I have redemption and salvation ♪ 00:10:23.580 |
♪ Would you die that I might reap what you have sown ♪ 00:10:30.580 |
♪ And you rose that I might be your new creation ♪ 00:11:06.580 |
♪ Head full of rocks, a heart made of stone ♪ 00:11:16.580 |
♪ And at your touch my sleeping spirit was awakened ♪ 00:11:21.580 |
♪ On my darkened heart the light of Christ has shone ♪ 00:11:28.580 |
♪ I called into a kingdom that cannot be shaken ♪ 00:11:36.580 |
♪ Heaven's citizen by grace and grace alone ♪ 00:11:45.580 |
♪ And so I'll stand in faith by grace and grace alone ♪ 00:11:50.580 |
♪ And I will run the race by grace and grace alone ♪ 00:11:57.580 |
♪ And I will slay my sin by grace and grace alone ♪ 00:12:05.580 |
♪ And I will reach the end by grace and grace alone ♪ 00:17:05.580 |
You are worthy of praise and all glory and honor. 00:17:12.580 |
and the gift of faith that you have given through your son. 00:17:25.580 |
I pray, Lord, that as we intake your word and study, 00:17:34.580 |
It will cause us to be greater lights out into the world. 00:17:38.580 |
And in all things, may we give you glory, honor, and praise. 00:17:46.580 |
Well, we're gonna go right into our discussion time. 00:17:49.580 |
Just as a reminder to ask really good questions 00:17:53.580 |
about the text and then just share your observations 00:18:05.580 |
or if your team or table group gets stuck on a topic, 00:18:10.580 |
If you have any questions or if your team or table group 00:18:17.580 |
associated with the text, you can send that over 00:18:20.580 |
and we'll have a time at the review to cover it, okay? 01:04:33.580 |
- For those of you guys who are in the rooms, 01:04:36.580 |
now that it's 59, please make your way on over, 01:04:39.580 |
and one minute, we'll get started with the review. 01:06:26.580 |
Let me take a moment to pray so that we can go before the Lord 01:06:39.580 |
We recognize, God, that before You reveal Your truth to us, 01:06:53.580 |
And we recognize, God, that Your Word is washing us, 01:06:57.580 |
and so we pray that every Bible study that we have 01:07:05.580 |
and, God, that it would be nourishing our soul. 01:07:08.580 |
We pray that our hearts would be so receptive to Your correction, 01:07:14.580 |
and no matter how severe or even over the top it may feel to us, 01:07:29.580 |
It's always good to do a little bit of a review, okay? 01:07:35.580 |
And so if you recall, chapter 4, verses 1 through 7, our last week, 01:07:44.580 |
"Listen, this is the gospel that you believed. 01:07:47.580 |
This is your before and after, the great conversion." 01:07:54.580 |
before Christ, He was trying to reiterate and impress this thought, 01:08:04.580 |
You have no rights, you have no claims, you have no resources, 01:08:10.580 |
You're in bondage, and you're under the elemental things of the world." 01:08:15.580 |
And even if religious leaders, political leaders, 01:08:21.580 |
last week I gave the analogy, all it is is child's play. 01:08:25.580 |
It's like a bunch of kids making rules, playing make-believe. 01:08:31.580 |
And then the emphatic, just great privilege we have in the gospel is, 01:08:37.580 |
but instead, at that fullness of time, we have adoptions of sons. 01:08:44.580 |
We have this great, great grace of God by which we are heirs, 01:08:51.580 |
And so last week was showing us this contrast, 01:08:54.580 |
and it leads up to this week's massively just like heavy question of-- 01:09:05.580 |
You have an adoption by the king of the universe, 01:09:09.580 |
and one of the things I was reflecting on this week 01:09:14.580 |
And one thought that crossed my mind after the teaching was, 01:09:20.580 |
In our generation, adoption typically happens when-- 01:09:25.580 |
or fortunate situation where there is a child who, 01:09:28.580 |
whatever the situation, the parents are not capable of taking care of, 01:09:36.580 |
Imagine like a 35-year-old coming to you and asking you, 01:09:44.580 |
Number one, it's incredibly inappropriate to ask that question. 01:09:54.580 |
But then to think that it is in God's kind intention 01:10:02.580 |
And so in thinking about it, what you have in the gospel, 01:10:09.580 |
And then so this week, he's going to be asking that question 01:10:13.580 |
with a review of another layer of what it is that we have in the gospel. 01:10:35.580 |
And then part two, starting from verse 11 and forward, 01:10:43.580 |
he gets personal all the way down to verse 20, 01:10:46.580 |
but it's a very heartfelt, personal plea saying, 01:10:50.580 |
"I'm begging you, don't go down this route, right? 01:10:59.580 |
let's jump right in to the first half of our paragraph for tonight. 01:11:05.580 |
And you can see immediately just the contrast of the gospel 01:11:11.580 |
encapsulated into this idea of, just like last time, 01:11:16.580 |
before conversion, before Christ, this was you, right? 01:11:23.580 |
but now that this is showing you this contrast 01:11:35.580 |
And we're going to take some time meditating on it. 01:11:37.580 |
Taking it a little bit more precise or specific to verse 8, 01:11:54.580 |
that he wants us to think about that's different from last time? 01:11:59.580 |
so that he gives you a one-two punch in the face? 01:12:02.580 |
Or is there something more specific he wants us to think about? 01:12:07.580 |
One is this idea, okay, that you did not know God. 01:12:12.580 |
And then two is a reiteration of the idea that you were slaves, okay? 01:12:22.580 |
And I do think that one of the questions that came in-- 01:12:30.580 |
when it gives you this contrast about knowing God, 01:12:33.580 |
are they using the same words or is it different? 01:12:37.580 |
Meaning, the very first thing he tells us here is that 01:13:06.580 |
The word "oida" has the idea of knowing a fact. 01:13:09.580 |
The word "oida" has the idea of being able to perceive something. 01:13:17.580 |
either by way of experience, knowing something completely, 01:13:20.580 |
or you're in the full process of knowing something. 01:13:51.580 |
"Well, all I was doing was, in the life of the Church, 01:13:56.580 |
"about rituals and days and circumcision and whatnot." 01:14:01.580 |
But the way that Apostle Paul is talking is saying, 01:14:05.580 |
"By going to that, you're acting like you don't even know him." 01:14:18.580 |
In the ways that we talk, in the ways that we act, 01:14:25.580 |
that signify that we're talking like somebody 01:14:33.580 |
with a bunch of people who are converts within the Church. 01:14:36.580 |
They're now, all of a sudden, following somebody else's teaching. 01:14:42.580 |
It's like, "Dude, you're going back to that time 01:14:48.580 |
Is there anything in our lives that's kind of like that? 01:14:52.580 |
Well, I would like to bring up one case scenario 01:14:56.580 |
that I was kind of meditating on and thinking about 01:15:06.580 |
and we are, like, duped and deceived by our enemy. 01:15:15.580 |
When I look at the way that mainstream Christianity 01:15:32.580 |
and things commonly said amongst those who suffer, 01:15:35.580 |
those who feel like they're being put down or oppressed, 01:15:46.580 |
"I'm not gonna allow any of these negative forces 01:15:57.580 |
"I've been through this, and I've been through that. 01:16:04.580 |
"Why are we talking like we don't have Jesus? 01:16:08.580 |
"Why are we talking like we don't have the Holy Spirit 01:16:17.580 |
Or, on the flip side, in the midst of suffering, 01:16:21.580 |
if we're not trying to fight so that we can survive, 01:16:32.580 |
"Why do we act like we have nothing else to live for? 01:16:40.580 |
It's like if we turn back and talk like the world, 01:16:55.580 |
He was talking about how we were like slave-like children. 01:16:58.580 |
You had no rights, no privileges, no inheritance, 01:17:02.580 |
In this, in the second run of the gospel, essentially, 01:17:31.580 |
what is the difference here between you knowing God 01:17:40.580 |
Is this just him kind of giving a sequence where he says, 01:17:49.580 |
"and then he came and met you and said, 'Ta-da, here I am. 01:17:56.580 |
And I hope you got an opportunity to discuss it 01:18:02.580 |
Here, I want to highlight to you a couple passages. 01:18:12.580 |
There is a sense in which we can look at things 01:18:18.580 |
And from our angle, I have to pursue the Lord. 01:18:29.580 |
But scripture says there is this theme, no, no, no. 01:18:31.580 |
You exercise faith, you love because he loved first. 01:18:39.580 |
So does the scripture talk about our decision? 01:18:44.580 |
A passage that I don't have on here is John 1, verse 12. 01:18:47.580 |
"To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, 01:18:50.580 |
"he gave the right to become children of God." 01:18:53.580 |
Which means, yes, for you, when you hear the word, 01:19:01.580 |
But scripture is telling you nobody can come, 01:19:10.580 |
No human in their fleshly mind would even be inclined 01:19:13.580 |
to make that choice unless the Father drew him 01:19:25.580 |
Because true faith has with it this question, 01:19:31.580 |
And basically what Apostle Paul is saying is, 01:19:36.580 |
You know the way that he has accomplished redemption. 01:19:40.580 |
If you've ever just walked through the Old Testament, 01:19:54.580 |
Nobody takes credit for what he did in deliverance 01:19:56.580 |
from the Philistines, from any nation, any tribe. 01:20:06.580 |
but when we receive grace, it's to him his glory. 01:20:23.580 |
Now, because the emphatic question is asked right here, 01:20:37.580 |
what they call a hypothetical rhetorical question 01:20:53.580 |
I'm gonna make this a discussion question for you guys 01:20:59.580 |
why is it that Christians who can actually experience 01:21:06.580 |
later we're gonna notice the Christians in this area, 01:21:13.580 |
At the tail end of this paragraph that we're looking at, 01:21:22.580 |
"You took care of me," all that stuff, right? 01:21:30.580 |
it talks about how they were just imploring the disciples, 01:21:35.580 |
imploring Apostle Paul, "Stay and speak to us. 01:21:40.580 |
I mean, they were the best congregation to preach to. 01:21:50.580 |
constantly go back to their former way of life? 01:21:58.580 |
Well, I want to give you some of my thoughts, 01:22:01.580 |
and I don't want to, like, take all the different options, 01:22:04.580 |
but I do want you guys to think about the fact that, like, 01:22:11.580 |
meaning there are a lot of us who just kind of want to be told, 01:22:15.580 |
and then if somebody asks you, like, "Wait a minute. 01:22:18.580 |
Your only response is, like, "He told me to do it," right? 01:22:29.580 |
"I want to be the one to accomplish something." 01:22:34.580 |
It's like, "Oh, my gosh, but my brother was in that group, 01:22:38.580 |
"they were making me feel so guilty about this, 01:22:40.580 |
"and I don't want to be a jerk to tell them no," 01:22:53.580 |
I know we have seasons of great fruit-bearing as a Christian, 01:22:58.580 |
when we start reverting back to our old ways. 01:23:07.580 |
Now, this, I think, is a little bit more sarcastic, right? 01:23:09.580 |
Like, you don't understand that when you do this, 01:23:16.580 |
But then, he says, as an example, this is what you do. 01:23:22.580 |
Sorry, my handwriting there is so good, okay? 01:23:27.580 |
You observe days, months, seasons, and years, okay? 01:23:33.580 |
You observe days, months, seasons, and years. 01:23:38.580 |
Now, obviously, my guess is a lot of you thought, like, 01:23:41.580 |
"Oh, okay, he's so talking probably to the Jewish people 01:23:44.580 |
"because they have so many different days, months," right? 01:23:52.580 |
then you have the quarterly, you know, the new moon, 01:23:56.580 |
you have harvest, you have, like, the day of booths, 01:24:06.580 |
in terms of the days they have to remember and celebrate, right? 01:24:13.580 |
"You know, Apostle Paul in the book of Colossians, 01:24:18.580 |
And he said, "You guys, you guys keep turning to the elemental things, 01:24:23.580 |
"and you guys keep succumbing to people's judgment over you 01:24:29.580 |
he mentions Sabbath, new moon, et cetera, et cetera. 01:24:32.580 |
But then he also talks about those individuals who look to stars, 01:24:40.580 |
they're looking at astrology, they're looking at horoscope, 01:24:43.580 |
they're looking at stuff like, "Oh, my gosh, it's the Year of the Dragon!" 01:24:49.580 |
Whether Jewish or pagan, there's all these days that people look at. 01:24:57.580 |
I do think that there is a kind of, I guess, simplicity. 01:25:08.580 |
when you think about the easiest form of legalism, 01:25:11.580 |
it's just to follow along, it's just to show up. 01:25:15.580 |
It's like, you know, I pray when it's scheduled time to pray. 01:25:20.580 |
And the rest of the week, rest of the month, you're like, 01:25:27.580 |
If Sunday you put your, "Okay, I'm going to start the Bible cap on," 01:25:32.580 |
and then the rest of the week, when it's not time, 01:25:34.580 |
when it's not scheduled, when we're not gathered, 01:25:45.580 |
but then you put your caps on on those appointed times, 01:25:50.580 |
You're just observing days, months, and years, right? 01:26:02.580 |
Because for you to think, "Look, God, I washed my hands. 01:26:07.580 |
Or, "Look, God, I showed up on Sunday. Do you love me?" 01:26:21.580 |
"But I washed my hands. You expected me to do more?" 01:26:28.580 |
The reason why legalism is so offensive to God 01:26:33.580 |
He was a holy God who was offended by our sin. 01:26:35.580 |
We come, and it's like, "But I washed my hands on Saturday." 01:26:45.580 |
where he's supposed to accept our bare minimum. 01:26:49.580 |
That's why legalism is offensive to the Lord. 01:27:03.580 |
In what ways is observing days, months, and seasons 01:27:07.580 |
such an easy thing for you and I to fall into? 01:27:12.580 |
Maybe it's a way in which you've sinned or fallen short 01:27:43.580 |
And obviously, the tone is, like, really serious, right? 01:28:06.580 |
that when he is describing the weak and the worthless, 01:28:12.580 |
If you got a chance to look at this one in particular, 01:28:17.580 |
it was translated into multiple different ways. 01:28:22.580 |
because the term has a broad sense and meaning. 01:28:27.580 |
It is this word here, and it's very descriptive, 01:28:50.580 |
And then if you look at the variations of this word, 01:28:53.580 |
it continues to basically reiterate this thought 01:28:58.580 |
And then so, in terms of the tone of this paragraph, 01:29:02.580 |
it made me think, how heart-wrenching, right? 01:29:07.580 |
How heart-wrenching to think if you were the one 01:29:10.580 |
who was in the God figure, the parental figure, 01:29:13.580 |
and you prepared, again, not just days and months, 01:29:20.580 |
You prepared your home, you prepared the documents, 01:29:22.580 |
you prepared your family, you prepared your friends. 01:29:25.580 |
Not even like a homecoming party, all of that, 01:29:31.580 |
and then to catch him digging through your trash. 01:29:36.580 |
Half of you would be like, "Oh, what are you doing?" 01:29:47.580 |
I think the tone of it has the same kind of thought. 01:29:51.580 |
Because in this admonition and in this charge 01:29:57.580 |
here he starts to get really personal and says, 01:30:00.580 |
"I fear for you, that perhaps I labor for you in vain. 01:30:07.580 |
I want to switch now to the second half of the paragraph 01:30:10.580 |
and to highlight that the paragraph actually goes 01:30:18.580 |
And essentially, he starts to share his worried concern 01:30:21.580 |
and then he starts to bring up their relationships. 01:30:24.580 |
He says, "Oh my goodness, before you were so good to me, 01:30:28.580 |
"By me telling you not to go down this horrible path, 01:30:33.580 |
And he's so perplexed and he starts to call on them 01:30:36.580 |
like his children and he says, "I wish I was with you." 01:30:46.580 |
As we think about this, I'm pretty sure you guys wondered like, 01:30:52.580 |
He asked this question, "Perhaps I labored over you in vain." 01:30:57.580 |
"Does Paul think that they are not Christian?" 01:31:01.580 |
"Does Paul think that they are not Christian?" 01:31:03.580 |
Well, I think this is why sometimes the Scripture is so profound 01:31:11.580 |
If you guys have ever tried to disciple, minister to, 01:31:18.580 |
now your mind is going all over the place like, 01:31:34.580 |
But then praise the Lord, he later on in Galatians 5.10 says, 01:31:45.580 |
And he calls them brothers and he's praying for them 01:32:04.580 |
And I want to make the point and highlight the fact 01:32:59.580 |
Honestly, that's where in my own Bible study, 01:33:36.580 |
Well, I'm going to read you a parallel passage 01:34:02.580 |
to the way that Apostle Paul speaks in Galatians. 01:34:04.580 |
It's like, "Those individuals who would disturb you, 01:34:43.580 |
"I have believed upon the sufficiency of Christ. 01:35:02.580 |
"for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, 01:35:59.580 |
you must be circumcised to be saved and righteous. 01:36:30.580 |
why are the teachers, the elders, the pastors 01:36:42.580 |
"It's like you're acting like you don't know God. 01:36:49.580 |
I can imagine somebody in the church saying like, 01:36:52.580 |
"Oh my gosh, why are you taking it so hard, you know? 01:36:55.580 |
"In the beginning we were just doing Bible study 01:37:17.580 |
You know, why are you taking this so seriously? 01:37:25.580 |
of even just that kind of perversion of the gospel. 01:37:33.580 |
And so he's awaking us to those kinds of thoughts. 01:37:38.580 |
I'm gonna actually save majority of it for the next time, 01:37:46.580 |
it's kind of like a weird place to put the verses, 01:38:13.580 |
"And you and I have this relationship, right? 01:38:25.580 |
I think Apostle Paul describes like he was so near death 01:38:41.580 |
"Because of my sickness, God allowed me to come here 01:38:44.580 |
"and at that time, you didn't think of me as a burden. 01:38:59.580 |
And then what can we observe then about their relationship is 01:39:06.580 |
that we're humble enough to receive exhortation, 01:39:11.580 |
you can tell the church had moments when they were not. 01:39:21.580 |
"You're trying to mess up this good thing we have." 01:39:35.580 |
And so with that said, stay tuned for next time 01:39:38.580 |
when you guys study the passage going from verse 15 through 20, 01:39:46.580 |
Think about how Apostle Paul is treating those 01:39:56.580 |
and perhaps now being defensive about it in this time. 01:39:59.580 |
All right, let's take a moment to pray to wrap up. 01:40:02.580 |
Lord God, there was so much to glean from this passage, 01:40:12.580 |
but Lord, the theme of the Scripture is to stay on Christ, 01:40:26.580 |
Everything else is a tool for us to get to you. 01:40:29.580 |
Even your law, even what you've taught in the Old Testament, 01:40:33.580 |
all the examples were for us to fully see you. 01:40:38.580 |
And so I pray, Father God, that we would be so clinging to Christ 01:40:42.580 |
that we're not susceptible to movements of our day, 01:40:50.580 |
and definitely we're not susceptible to our own laziness and vices. 01:40:57.580 |
that we were coasting along and we were just showing up, 01:41:03.580 |
would you cause us now to be rebuked, corrected, 01:41:08.580 |
and then to realize, Lord God, that we need to be seeking you with all our hearts. 01:41:12.580 |
Father, we pray that by the nourishment and the conviction of your Spirit, 01:41:16.580 |
you would help us, Lord God, to walk with you daily. 01:41:23.580 |
All right, with that said, we have just a few announcements for you guys, 01:41:28.580 |
and then we'll put up the discussion questions. 01:41:51.580 |
We are going to try to close the men's ministry workshop. 01:41:57.580 |
Please do sign up by tonight so that I can put the small groups together tomorrow. 01:42:02.580 |
The $10 is going to include breakfast, refreshments, as well as a catered lunch. 01:42:08.580 |
So Pastor Sung Kang is coming from Foundation Mission Church, 01:42:13.580 |
and he's going to be sharing about just the personal holiness of the men. 01:42:17.580 |
So ladies, if you can pray that the men of our church really will grow in holiness 01:42:28.580 |
So if you haven't signed up by now, please do so, okay, 01:42:33.580 |
so that we can kind of put the groups together. 01:42:36.580 |
Also, March 9th, which is just a few Saturdays away, 01:42:41.580 |
we are having an all-church cleaning and maintenance day. 01:42:44.580 |
If you guys can come, the more the merrier, please do come. 01:42:51.580 |
It is a good opportunity really to just kind of clear out and clean up the facility. 01:42:58.580 |
And a couple of upcoming things that are important to remember. 01:43:02.580 |
Next Friday, the BAM is going to just the winter retreat. 01:43:18.580 |
And we're going to be looking at 1 Peter 4 for the whole of the retreat. 01:43:26.580 |
And then the following week we don't because that week we have all-church praise and prayer. 01:43:31.580 |
And Pastor Peter Kim is going to be leading us through that time. 01:43:37.580 |
And then our six-week Old Testament survey class, 01:43:43.580 |
That's going to go from 2 to 3.30-ish every Sunday afternoon in the sanctuary. 01:43:48.580 |
So please sign up for that if you are preparing to come. 01:43:54.580 |
Over the last five or six years, we've had evening Passion Week devotions and stuff. 01:44:01.580 |
And so this year it's not going to be any different Monday through Wednesday at 7.30. 01:44:06.580 |
We're going to be gathering together for just a time of reflection, devotion. 01:44:12.580 |
The BAM is going to have a prayer meeting on that Tuesday before the evening. 01:44:19.580 |
And then Thursday, it's actually going to be pulled up the time, and we're going to have a Passover dinner. 01:44:26.580 |
And so Pastor Mark is going to be walking us through how a first-century Jewish family would actually have the Passover feast. 01:44:35.580 |
So it definitely is worthwhile to participate in, especially if you haven't done it before. 01:44:40.580 |
So if you are a member and you've never done it, you're going to be given priority. 01:44:46.580 |
So seating is limited. You are going to be asked. We're going to treat it like a formal event. 01:44:51.580 |
So that'll be Thursday. Friday, we're going to have a Good Friday service with communion. 01:44:56.580 |
So please also keep that in mind in addition to our Sunday sunrise service followed by three services. 01:45:03.580 |
So these are things that are upcoming. More than just to put on the calendar, just blanket these events in prayer 01:45:12.580 |
for all the leaders that are involved and try to make it to everything and really be present. 01:45:19.580 |
Thank you. These are the discussion questions we're going to leave you with, and then we'll wrap up our Bible study formally this way.