“Fears of the Church”
Paul's Labor of “Love”
Grace Baptist
By: Sam Caloroso
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Galatians 4:8
However at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods.
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The God of False idols!
The God of Money !
The God of Pride !
The God of Lust !
The God of Power !
The God of Knowledge !
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Galatians 4:9
But now that you have come to know
God, or rather to be known by God,
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Galatians 4:9
How is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again?
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So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world.
(Galatians 4:3)
Paul speaks of Jewish and Gentile
Religions of being “elemental” they were filled with laws and rituals never reaching to the level of “Divine.”
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1 Corinthians 8:3 but if anyone loves God, he is known by
Him.
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3 points how we know God !
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1.
You did not choose Me but I chose you (John 15:16)
Spiritual Pride! Jesus reminds his disciples their privileges were not from their own merit!
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2.
No one can come to Me unless the
Father who sent Me draws him;
(John 6:44)
God draws us by Grace!
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3.
And we love him only because he first loved us (1John 4:19)
We “ ” have the ability to love each other because God manifested His love to us in Christ, and then placed His love in us through the Holy Spirit.
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3 points how we know God !
1. God chose us!
2. God draws us by Grace!
3. God First Loved us!
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Galatians 4:10
You observe days and months and seasons and years.
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Colossians 2:16-17
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17: things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.
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The Apostle Paul knew what the false apostles were teaching the Galatians: The observance of days, and months, and times, and years.
Martin Luther
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The Jews had been obliged to keep holy the Sabbath Day , The New Moons , the
Feast of the Passover , the Feast of
Tabernacles , and other feasts.
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The false apostles constrained the
Galatians to observe these Jewish feasts under threat of damnation.
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Paul hastens to tell the Galatians that they were exchanging their Christian liberty for the weak and beggarly elements of the world.
Martin Luther
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Galatians 4:11
I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.
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Definition of Suffer?
To submit to or be forced to “labor under”
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Acts 9:16 for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name's sake."
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1 Thessalonians 3:5
For this reason when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain
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Philippians 2:16 as you hold out the word of life in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing.
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1 Corinthians 15:10
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me
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2 Corinthians 11:23
Are they servants of Christ?--I speak as if insane--I more so; in far more labors , in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death
.
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Colossians 1:29
For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.
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1Thessalonians 2:9
For you recall, brethren, our labor and hardship, how working night and day so as not to be a burden to any of you, we proclaimed to you the gospel of God
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2 Thessalonians 3:8 nor did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it, but with labor and hardship we kept working night and day so that we would not be a burden to any of you;
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1 Timothy 4:10
For it is for this we labor and strive, because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers.
Paul willingly Labored (suffered) his whole
Life for Christ!
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Galatians 4:12
I plead with you, brothers, become like me, for I became like you. You have done me no wrong.
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1 Corinthians 9:21
To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law.
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It was a terrible irony to Paul that he, a Jew, had to become a Gentile, as it were, to win the Galatian Gentiles
(1 Corinthians 9:21).
John Piper
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But they were now trying to become Jews in order to win God's favor. Paul reminds the Galatians in verse 12 that the very fact that he did not depend on his Jewish distinctives
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should make them forsake the Judaizers and become as he is free in Christ. That's the main point: become free like me.
John Piper
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Galatians 4:13-14 but you know that it was because of a bodily illness that I preached the gospel to you the first time;
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14: and that which was a trial to you in my bodily condition you did not despise or loathe, but you received me as an angel of
God, as Christ Jesus Himself
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When Paul came to preach the gospel the first time in Galatia, he came with physical illness. (likely Malaria) Paul did not come to
Galatia with personal power or strength, he came with “bodily illness” depending on the grace of God.
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Yes Entitled!
Heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, (Hebrews 6:4)
Rewarded of those who seek Him.
(Hebrews 11:6)
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Yes Entitled!
You will receive the reward of the inheritance It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. (Colossians 3:24)
Fellow citizens with the saints, and are of
God's household, (Ephesians 2:19)
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Galatians 4:15
Where then is that sense of blessing you had? For I bear you witness that, if possible, you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me.
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Acts 13:48
When the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the
Lord; and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.
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The Galatians counted themselves blessed when they first heard the gospel of grace by the Apostle Paul.
What has happened to that conviction?
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Galatians 4:16-17
So have I become your enemy by telling you the truth? 17: They eagerly seek you, not commendably, but they wish to shut you out so that you will seek them.
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Proverbs 9:8
Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you, Reprove a wise man and he will love you.
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They moved from the one extreme of wanting to give their eyes for Paul to the other extreme of regarding him as an
“enemy.” They went from greatly loving
Paul to greatly hating him.
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Galatians 4:18
But it is good always to be eagerly sought in a commendable manner, and not only when I am present with you.
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Paul was zealous for the Galatians, but truth controlled his zeal. Paul did not preach to gain popularity , but he preached truth even when it cost him personally
.
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Philippians 1:15-18
15: Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife, but some also from good will;
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16: the latter do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel;
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17: the former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment.
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18: What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in this I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice,
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Galatians 4:19
My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you.
My Children?
“Young or new in Birth”
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Paul labored to give spiritual birth to the
Galatians by preaching to them the gospel of the grace of God.
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Paul's labor centered upon clarifying the issues of the new birth that man's repentance focused upon his attitude of self-dependence
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rather of being just with God, and that his faith was focused upon the totally sufficient work of Jesus Christ.
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Galatians 4:20 but I could wish to be present with you now and to change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.
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Paul fears for the Galatians because of their relapse into legalism. How easily we surrender the grace principle!
The issue here is clearly a danger for
Christians!
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So expect a financial harvest, but you have to sow a seed to see it happen... you may want to call your seed in today.
Our 800 number is on the screen." Benny Hinn
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Now this is a shocker! But God has to be given permission to work in this earth realm on behalf of man....Yes! You are in control! So if man has control, who no longer has it? God.....When God gave Adam dominion, that meant God no longer had dominion. So God cannot do anything in this earth unless we let Him. And the way we let Him or give Him permission is through prayer
Frederick Price Quoted from - “Christianity in
Crisis” by H. Hanegraaff, 1993)
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Now I gotta hit this thing real hard in the very beginning because I ain't got time to go through all this, but I am going to say to you right now you are gods, little
"g", you are gods because you came from God and you are gods. You are not just human. The only human part about you is this physical body that you live in.
Creflo Dollar
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Adam was the copy, looked just like
[God]. If you stood Adam upside God, they look exactly alike. If you stood
Jesus and Adam side by side, they would look and sound exactly alike."
Kenneth Copeland
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Classical theology DEFINES SIN AS
'REBELLION AGAINST GOD.' The answer is not incorrect as much as IT IS
SHALLOW AND INSULTING TO THE
HUMAN BEING. Every person deserves to be treated with dignity even if he or she is a 'rebellious sinner'“
(Robert Schuller, Self-Esteem , p. 65).
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John Avanzini Kim Clement
Kenneth Copeland Creflo Dollar
Jesse Duplantis John Hagee
Kenneth "Dad" Hagin
Marilyn Hickey Benny Hinn
TD. Jakes Joyce Meyer
Rod Parsley Frederick K.C. Price
Oral Roberts Richard Roberts
R.W. Schambach Robert Schuler
Paul Crouch, TBN
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Galatians 4:16
Largest Congregation Why?
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Joel Osteen pastors a church that has about
42,000 people attending every week. His own admission, his message focuses on the
“positive,” and not on sin, redemption, and the cross of Jesus Christ. In other words, his message doesn’t focus on the Gospel. I would have to say that there is hardly anything distinctively Christian about anything that he says. And if fact, the prosperity “gospel” is decidedly anti-Christian (1 Timothy 6:10).
Denny Burk
Dean of Boyce College and Associate Professor of New Testament at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY.
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Christianity is not gloom and doom. It is also not about prosperity and happiness in ourselves! It is about Truth and Living in
Christ which brings all the Glory to God!
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