La Gracia Cambia Todo, Diciembre 28, 2025

Well, good morning, fellowship. It's so good to be with you guys this morning. So thankful for our church family. I wanna say good morning, normally I'd say to the chapel, but you're in here with us in the worship center, so glad that you're here with us today. And I also wanna say good morning to all of our campuses. This is one of those mornings where we are together in broadcast with our other campuses and so thankful for being one church in multiple locations and how God is working in us and through us as a church family all across Central Arkansas and beyond. I also wanna welcome those who might be listening online to our brothers and sisters in the prison who are listening on the Pando app. We're so thankful that you're joining us as well. And so I'm thankful for all that God's doing in this place called fellowship. If you have your Bibles, I want you to go to Galatians chapter four. Galatians chapter four is where we're gonna find ourselves as we continue in this series on grace changes everything. It's a great way to kind of end this year, start the new year talking about the beautiful grace of God. Before I dive into that, before we dive into God's word, I do wanna encourage you, one of the things that we value here at fellowship is connection with God and others. We really value that. We wanna be connected to God

and we wanna be connected to others. We wanna be able to practice the one and others in scripture where it talks about loving one another and serving one another and praying for one another, bearing burdens with one another. We wanna be able to do that. And so we want you to be able to kind of know what's going on in our church family and how you can be involved in our church family. One of the ways that we do that is through something that we send out once a month called This Month at Fellowship. And we just wanna remind you, because sometimes, excuse me, sometimes we will hear things from people who say, I didn't know what was going on in the church. Like, I don't know what's happening. I don't know what events are taking place, what activities are taking place, or maybe something that's going on. And so we wanna encourage you, if you haven't signed up for this, you're not gonna be bombarded with a bunch of emails. This is gonna be once a month that you're gonna have This Month at Fellowship and it kind of gives you a wonderful glance of the month ahead of what's going on. And so as parents, you can know kind of sometimes activities are happening for kids or young adults or things that are going on in the life of our church

and maybe even ways that you can pray for our church. And so I wanna encourage you to sign up for that just so you can kind of receive and be in the know of all that's going on. And so we're thankful for how God's working and moving in this place called Fellowship. I do love our church family. I love our church family. And I wanna pray for us this morning. As we get started, this week I was spending some time in the book of Psalms and there's a beautiful Psalm. It says, be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge. In the shadow of your wings I will take refuge till the storm of destructions pass by. I cry out to God most high, to God who fulfills his purpose for me. I just feel like that was a timely word for us this morning. Maybe you feel like you need God's mercy. Maybe you feel like you need to take refuge in the shadow of his wings until the storms in your life pass by. And you cry out to God, and I love this because it says he will fulfill his purpose in you and me. Like he's going to do that. And I pray that God will encourage us with that this morning. Let me pray for us as we dive into God's word. Father God, thank you so much for the amazing, merciful God that you are. You are a God who extends mercy and grace

to thousands upon thousands. And how we love you and we thank you for the grace that you do give us. You're worthy of praise and glory and honor. God, thank you that we can take refuge in the shadow of your wings. Lord, you know the heart of every person who's listening today. The person who's driving in their car right now, who's sitting by the hospital bed right now, that's sitting maybe in their living room right now, that's on one of our campuses, that's here in this room right now. Lord, you know the heart of every person here. And Lord, maybe they have storms in their life right now. Maybe they need a refuge. They need to take refuge in you. Lord, I pray that you would remind us that you're gonna accomplish your purposes in us. Some of us are feeling maybe discouraged or defeated right now. And yet we can cling to this truth that you're going to accomplish your purposes in us. You are faithful to complete the work that you've started. So Lord, I pray that you would encourage our hearts by your grace today, that you would encourage our hearts by your spirit. that you would encourage our hearts through the power of your word today. And we pray blessings on those

that are watching our kids right now. Just give them strength as they love on them, as they teach them about you. Would you give them creativity and patience and joy as they serve in that way? And Lord, use this church. Lord, use this church to be a minister of the gospel, someone who shares the good news with those around us, within our communities. Lord, we pray that you would do that great work and that you would bring your kingdom to come here on earth as it is in heaven. We love you. It's in Christ's name we pray, amen, amen. So Galatians chapter four, beginning of verse 21, and we're gonna be talking about how grace sets us free. Thank you very much. All right, grace sets us free. And when I was thinking about this title of freedom, this passage, really, because when you get to the end of Galatians chapter four and bleed on into Galatians chapter five, beginning of verse one, it mentions that Christ has come to set us free. And that's such a beautiful topic as you think about freedom. You know, sometimes when I hear the word freedom, it makes me think of the movie Braveheart. I think of Mel Gibson, William Wallace, screaming at the top of his lungs, freedom, right, when they were fighting for that for Scotland.

One of the things I think of mostly when I think of freedom, too, is I went to a museum years ago called Checkpoint Charlie. It's in Berlin, Germany. And when you go to Berlin, Germany, and you go to this museum, Checkpoint Charlie, it was a checkpoint station, and it was where people crossed from East Berlin into West Berlin. And if you know much about that time in history, the people who were in East Berlin, communism was pretty tough, and people were wanting to cross into West Berlin because it was free. And when you go into this museum, you begin to see all these exhibits, and it shows how desperate people were to be free. I mean, it has tunnels, it shows you tunnels that were dug where people literally lost their life trying to dig a tunnel from East Berlin to West Berlin just so they could be free. In that museum, there's a hot air balloon that was actually made from fabric so that a couple, so that a family could escape East Berlin, they could get high up in the air, travel about two miles, and land in West Berlin, and go from not being free to being free. There literally are two suitcases that are staggered together, and it's designed for one person to stand on that side

and one person to stand on this side, and it looks like two people walking separately in a train station, and what you don't know is that inside those two suitcases is a person. That actually happened. People so desperate to be free. People longing for freedom. Freedom is premium. That's why this text today is so powerful. This is a tough text, but it's really, really powerful because it talks about being free in Christ. The truth that grace can set you free is so vital to today's culture. This is where I love the Scriptures. People who think it's irrelevant or outdated, I mean, they're just not paying attention because it's so relevant to where we live today. I mean, this is what our culture values most. Our culture values freedom so much. I mean, people wanna be free to be me. That's why there's so much tension around rules, policies, all kinds of things. Even in politics sometimes, like people want to be free to be me. I wanna be free to be myself, where I don't feel like I have to put on anything around anybody else. Like, why can't I just be me? I want the freedom to be me, or the freedom to choose. I wanna be able to choose what I want,

what I want to do, what I want to be done to me. Like, I want the freedom to be able to choose to do that. It's interesting, freedom is premium. It's all about freedom, and that's why I love this passage because it speaks to freedom. That grace comes to set us free. Now, I wanna say this up front today. I believe the Bible describes two types of people who may think they are free, but in fact, they're not free at all. They're both sinners in need of grace, in need of a savior. Now, one of these groups rejects God's love by breaking his laws, right? There are sinners that are breaking, they're rejecting God's love. They're turning away from God's love, and the way they do that is they're by breaking his laws, his commandments. They don't care about his commandments. They don't care what he says. They don't care what he says to do. They're gonna do what they wanna do. Life on their agenda, life as they want it. The other group actually seeks to earn God's love by keeping his laws. Now, if you've been with us in this series for a while, you know that we've been hammering it because that's what Paul hammers in the book of Galatians. This was the issue. The Jews and Gentiles that were there,

the Jews were saying, listen, it's not just believing in Jesus Christ, it's believing in Jesus Christ and keeping the whole law. Like, you gotta be able to keep the whole law. So if you really wanna be a Christian, it's not just about faith in Christ, it's about faith in Christ and this, and keeping the law, and something. something else. That's why we've been saying over and over again, Jesus plus nothing equals everything. Like it's not Jesus plus church membership. It's not Jesus plus your good works. It's not Jesus plus some kind of family heritage. It's not Jesus plus baptism. We can keep going on. It's not about Jesus plus how much you give. It's Jesus Christ alone that saves us. But there are some people who are seeking to earn God's love by keeping his law. It's a works mentality that seeks freedom through earning. Now in the New Testament, Jesus shares a story of two sons. Matter of fact, some of you have heard of this parable. It's called the parable of the lost son. There's actually two sons that are involved in this story. But if you read carefully, you see that one son is described as lost, but now found. But the end of the story leaves the condition of the older brother unresolved.

Again, one brother rejecting the father's love and doing his own thing. And the other son trying to control or earn the father's love by keeping all the laws. See, the older brother in the story, he thought that if he kept all the laws, if he kept doing things over and over again, in some ways he was putting his father into his debt. That the father would kind of owe him something by keeping all the laws. You owe me this. That's why they have the conversation out on the porch where the son says, why are you throwing a party for him? I've been here the whole time and you've never thrown a party for me. He's angry. Why is he angry? He's not happy for his younger brother who was lost and is now found. He's not happy for his younger brother that's walked away from his sins and come back home. He's not happy for him. He's angry. Why is he angry? Well, because he's seeking to earn his father's love by keeping the rules. Both need saving. And I just mentioned this because today's text speaks more directly to the second type of person. There's no doubt that we have people

who are listening online or maybe who are here with us today. You're an unbeliever and you've been doing what you wanna do. You've been following life your way and that's kind of what you're doing. And you're an unbeliever and you're a sinner that needs the grace and saving of Jesus Christ. But you're doing what you wanna do and you don't care about God's laws. But there are some of you here today that are more like the older brother. See, that's the challenge. Some of you have a younger brother type story because you were rebellious and you were living against God's love, but then you came into the fold and God saved you by his grace. But now in the church sometimes there's an ability to drift towards falling back into doing works. And that's what Paul is addressing here. You drift into, I need to do these certain things in order to be truly free. And this is really dangerous because you can actually be sitting in the chair this morning, you can be singing the songs, giving money to the church, you can be involved in activities in the church, but you know what? You can be doing it for the wrong motive because you're trying to earn God's love in certain ways,

because you're adding to it instead of doing it from God's love. That's why Paul is pleading in his passage for us to stay free from that kind of bondage and slavery. Let's look at the text. Galatians 4, 21 through 5.1. Here's what he says. Tell me you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? For it's written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. Now this may be interpreted allegorically, right? It's an illustration. These women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery. She is Hagar. Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia. She corresponds to the present Jerusalem for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free and she is our mother, for it is written, rejoice, O barren one who does not bear. Break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor. For the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband. Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. But this is at the time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the spirit.

So also it is now. But what does the scripture say? Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman. So brothers, we are not children of the slave, but of the free woman. Verse one of chapter five, for freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm therefore and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. The perfect message for the end of the year, right? It actually really is. It really is because it's talking about how grace set us free. I'm not gonna lie to you, this is one of the toughest passages in scripture to talk about. But we're gonna look at it like Paul says. He says, look at it allegorically. I want you to be able to see the big picture. There are things that when you read this story and hear about this story, you're kind of like, man, that doesn't make sense. Or what about Hagar? What about what happened to her? I mean, this was kind of done to her. She wasn't really at fault. And what does that look like? And you can kind of go down and dig in the weeds a little bit,

but Paul's saying, listen, let's see the bigger picture. Let's see the bigger picture. Because really what's happening is this is a story. These are two stories. One's about works and one's about. about grace, because what was happening was the false teachers, they were coming into the church, these Jews that were coming in and saying, listen, it's something, it's Jesus, plus you have to follow the whole law. I love the way Tim Keller describes this in his book, Galatians for You. He says, it's good that you believe in Christ, but you will have to obey the whole law before you can be considered to be children of Abraham. That's what Paul's saying, the false teachers are arguing. The false teachers are saying, listen, if you're gonna be really children of Abraham, then you have to follow the whole law. But Paul's basic point is this, the moment you believe Christ, you are the children of Abraham, the heirs of all the promises of God. And to these Jews, he was saying, in the moment you start thinking you have to obey the whole law, you're not the children of Abraham at all. So Paul, in this moment, he really is striking a chord with the Jews that he's writing to. Now, there's Jews and Gentiles in this audience,

but he's writing to the Jews, and he's saying, listen, you're making it about obeying the whole law, saying you're children of Abraham, but that's really not the case. So I wanna take a few things from the bullets, and you can kind of see this. Paul uses the story of Hagar and Sarah to reveal their identity crisis, slave or free. Are you slave or free? Are you of Hagar and Ishmael, or are you Sarah and Isaac? Which one? And it can be an identity crisis of saying, man, am I really a slave or a free? And Hagar and Ishmael represent works, Sarah and Isaac represent grace. It's such a powerful example of the difference of grace and law for Jewish believers, because the Jewish believers, they were prideful about being the people of promise, of Isaac. Like the children of Abraham, they were prideful of that, and being the promise of Isaac and not Ishmael, and yet now they're priding themselves in being law-driven and not promise-driven. So they're claiming to be children of the promise, and yet they're finding themselves being driven by the law. Now, I know that many of you may know the story of Sarah and Hagar and Abraham and that whole story, but some of you may not. And I just wanna kinda hit some of the high points so that you can understand why Paul's giving this example.

Because he talks about slave woman, the free woman. He talks about the two covenants. He talks about the two sons, the two cities. He's talking about all these things, and you have to understand the story of Sarah and Hagar and Abraham and Isaac and Ishmael to understand all that's going on. So I wanna give you just a brief view of that. Many of you may remember, but in Genesis chapter 12, God promises Abraham that he's gonna bless him and make him a father of many nations, okay? Father Abraham had many sons, right? This idea that's truth, this promise that God was gonna bless Abraham, and he said to him, Abraham, look at the stars. I'm gonna give you more descendants that are more numerous than the stars. Now, I think you understand this. For him to have descendants, that means his wife is gonna get pregnant. They're gonna have to have a baby so that children can produce children and more children and more children and more children, and his descendants will be many. God gives him this promise. And by the way, when he receives this promise, he's 75 years old. 75 years old, his wife is 65 at the time. And we catch up in Genesis chapter 16. Here's what we hear.

Now, Sarai, Abraham's wife, this is before their names were changed, had born him no children. She was barren. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said to Abraham, behold, now the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. That's an interesting phrasing, right? I mean, she understands the sovereignty of God. And up to this point, she's saying, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go into my servant. It may be that I shall obtain children by her. And Abraham listened to the voice of Sarai. So after Abraham lived 10 years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abraham's wife, took Hagar, the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abraham, her husband, as a wife. And he went into Hagar and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. So when Hagar gets pregnant, she's looking at Sarai going, hmm, see? See? And Sarai said to Abraham, may the wrong done to me be on you. I gave my servant to your embrace. And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the Lord judge between you and me.

But Abraham said to Sarai, behold, your servant is in your power. Do to her as you please. Then Sarai dealt harshly with her and she fled from her. And what you see in this moment is two people who are taking the matters into their own hands, not trusting God in this moment. We'll talk about that in just a second. Genesis 16, 11 through 16. The angel of the Lord said to her, behold, you're pregnant and shall bear a son. So this is the Lord speaking to Hagar. You shall call his name Ishmael because the Lord has listened to your affliction. He shall be a wild donkey of a man. He's gonna be a wild donkey of a man. His hand against everyone and everyone's hand against him. And he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen. So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her. You are a God of seeing, for she said, truly here I've seen him who looks after me. Therefore, the well was called Berlahurah. It lies between Kadesh and Bered. And Hagar bore Abram a son and Abram called Hagar. called the name of the son whom Hagar bore Ishmael. Abram was 86 years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram. This is 11 years after he was promised, 11 years. Genesis 17, one through eight. When Abram was 99 years old, this is 24 years after the promise, 24 years.

Some of us are frustrated waiting on God to deliver his promise after a day or a week or a month. This is 24 years later. The Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, I am God Almighty, walk before me and be blameless that I may make my covenant between you and me, me and you and may multiply you greatly. Then Abram fell on his face and God said to him, behold, my covenant's with you and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I've made you the father of a multitude of nations. And I will make you exceedingly fruitful and I will make you into nations and kings shall come from you. And I'll establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring and you throughout the generations for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan for everlasting possession and I will be their God. Please don't miss this. He is heaping blessing upon blessing, upon promise upon promise upon Abraham. And who among us wouldn't wanna hear God say, I'm gonna bless your family and I'm gonna bless your kids. And there's gonna be descendants

that are gonna come after you. And he's pouring out his blessings upon Abraham. And yet he knows that Sarah's not pregnant. Genesis 17, and God said to Abraham, as for Sarah, your wife, you shall call her, her name shall not be Sarah, but Sarah shall be your name. I will bless her. Moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her and she shall become nations. Kings of people shall come from her. Then Abraham fell on his face and he laughed. And he said to him, shall a child be born to a man who's a hundred years old? That's a good one, God. Like, is this gonna happen? I'm a hundred years old. Shall Sarah, who is 90 years old, bear a child? And Abraham said to God, oh, that Ishmael might live before you. Can't we just use this plan? And God said, no, but Sarah, your wife, shall bear you a son and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him. As for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I've blessed him and I will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. Listen, he says, Ishmael, he's gonna have a lot of descendants. I mean, the Arab nation, right?

We think about, like, he's gonna have a lot of descendants. He shall father 12 princes and I will make him into a great nation. Like, it's gonna be a lot of people, but I will establish my covenant with Isaac. The promise is, you're Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year. When he finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham. Genesis 18, they said to him, where's Sarah, your wife? And he said, she's in the tent. The Lord said, I will surely return to you about this time next year. And Sarah, your wife, shall have a son. And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. She was eavesdropping. And she said, now, Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years. That's a nice way of saying they were really old. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. She was barren. She couldn't have children. So Sarah laughed to herself saying, after I'm worn out and my Lord is old, shall I have pleasure? She said, are you kidding me? Like, this promise now? The Lord said to Abraham,

why did Sarah laugh and say, shall I indeed bear a child now that I'm old? Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time, I'll return to you about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son. But Sarah denied it, saying, I did not laugh, for she was afraid. And he said, no, but you did laugh. You did laugh. You did laugh. God sees, he knows. Genesis 21, the Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised. And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time which God had spoken to him. Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Abraham was 100 years old when his son Isaac was born to him. And Sarah said, God has made laughter for me. Everyone who hears will laugh over me. And she said, who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children, yet I have born him a son in his old age? Can you imagine the jubilation for Sarah, this barren woman for all of her life? At the age of 90, God gives her a son.

So you have the story of Hagar and Ishmael, and you have the story of Sarah and Isaac, works and grace. So I wanna just give you a few points here to kind of hopefully summarize it all up. One story represented freedom through helping God out. Now, this is gonna land on some hearts today that's gonna convict you because some of you are living this way. You're trying to help God out. You think you've got it figured out. You think that you have the agenda. You think that you have the plan. God, if you would just do it this way, I want you to think right now in your life, where have you said that? Where have you seen that happen? Where has that unfolded in your life right now? Where are the moments? Where are the relationships? Where are the places where you said, you know what, God, if you would just do it this way, I think everything would be great. Hey, God, I think if you and I got together here, I think we could do, I think we could figure this out. And while some of you would say, I would never say that, and yet that's exactly how you live, as if God needs to do it your way, that you need to take matters into your own hands, because that's exactly what Abraham and Sarah did.

They were seeking freedom by helping God out. It revealed the idol of control deep in their hearts, that they wanted to be in control. They were tired of waiting on God, just like some of you are tired of waiting on God. Maybe you feel like God's promised something through his word, it's not happening, and so you're tired of waiting on God, and you're like, you know what, I'm just gonna, I'm gonna help God out. Okay, just note to self, he doesn't need your help. He doesn't. And we think taking matters into our own hands we're gonna give us more freedom. That's what's interesting. People long for freedom, and like, man, if I can just do it, it's gonna give me more freedom. Guess what, it gives you just the opposite. That's why he was talking about children of being slaves, right, you become enslaved to sin, you become enslaved to your ways, and instead of getting more freedom by doing it your way, you actually create more havoc and more chaos, which is exactly what happened with Sarah and Hagar and Ishmael and the whole situation. You just need to go and take Hagar, okay, I'll do that. I'll listen to your voice, Sarah, instead of listening to the voice of God, and we'll just do this, and we'll think this is how God's gonna make this happen.

And it does just the opposite. They knew what God had promised, they just didn't trust him to fulfill it. In that moment, they knew what God had promised. You're gonna be the father of many nations. God's gonna bless you in this way. They knew what he had promised, they just didn't trust him to fulfill it. And maybe it wasn't really a lack of trust and belief because they were having trust and belief, they were just having trust and belief in the wrong person. They were trusting in themselves. They were believing in themselves, that they had it figured out. Maybe that's how you're living life right now, that you look at your marriage or you look at your life or your parenting or your journey or your desires, and you think, you know what, I'm just gonna trust in myself because I can't trust anybody else. I'm gonna believe in myself, I'm gonna believe in myself instead of believing in God. They didn't trust him to fulfill it. And they didn't wanna take him at his word. John 8, 31 through 34 is an interesting story because it's Jesus talking to Jews, and it really kind of addresses a little bit of what we're talking about here. Look what it says in verse 31 of John 8. So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him,

if you abide in my word, you're truly my disciples, and you'll know the truth, and the truth will set you free. And they answered him, we are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say you will become free? Jesus is speaking to these Jews who believe that they've never been enslaved to anyone. So when he says, you will know the truth, the truth will set you free, these Jews immediately, they're welling up with pride, kind of going, how dare you, how dare you? You don't know who we are? We're children of Abraham. Like Abraham's our father. We've not been enslaved to anyone. How can you say that we're gonna be free? And Jesus answered them, truly I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever, the son remains forever. So if the son sets you free, you'll be free indeed. I know that you're offspring of Abraham. He's like, listen, I don't need a lesson, I know who you are. I know physically how this works. I know you're offspring of Abraham, yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. Do you hear what he's saying? I know you say you're offspring of Abraham, I know that, and yet you don't wanna follow my word

because my word finds no place in you. I speak of what I've seen with my father, and you do what you've heard from your father. Oh, here we go. And they answered him, Abraham's our father. And Jesus said to them, well, if you were Abraham's children you'd be doing the works Abraham did. But now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This isn't what Abraham did. You're doing the works your father did. And they said to him, we were not born of sexual immorality. We have one father, even God. And Jesus said to them, if God were your father, you would love me, for I came from God and I'm here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It's because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father, the devil. Here we go. Can you imagine that? These Jews who said, we're children of Abraham. No, he says, you're of your father, the devil, and your will is to do your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there's no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character. He is a liar and the father of lies. And in that moment, Jesus is addressing the fact

that they think that they don't need to be set free because they've kept the law, doing it their own way. Next point is this. One story represented freedom received through trusting God's promises. So one story sought freedom through helping God out. The other story represents freedom received through trusting God's promises. It's the beautiful thing about Abraham and Sarah. God doesn't give up on them. God doesn't give up on you. God doesn't give up on them. They're walking this journey, and early in their journey, they're trying to take matters into their own hands, gonna help God out. But later on, they're older, 24 years down the line, and they realize that God's made this promise, and God has said, look, this time next year, you're gonna have your own child, the promised one, Isaac. You're gonna have this child where the descendants are gonna come. And in that moment, they realize that God is speaking to them and he's gonna bring freedom through this, and they're trusting God's promises. They knew what God had promised, and they trusted him to fulfill it. So how the tables have turned,

now that you look fast forward in this, now Sarah's at a place and Abraham's at a place who's saying, God, we trust you to keep your word. We trust you. I didn't laugh. Yes, you did laugh. But you can even see in the book of Hebrews that you understand that Abraham and Sarah, they believed God, they trusted him, that he was gonna fulfill his promise ultimately. It reminds me of the verse, Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Trust in him. Don't lean on your own understanding. Don't lean on your own works. Acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Let's keep moving. One story results in living in bondage because that's what self-reliance produces. One story results in living in bondage because that's what self-reliance produces. So when he says two covenants, well, they represent the old covenant of law. That's what Hagar and Ishmael represent. He says two Jerusalems, and you represent the present Jerusalem. He was talking about the fact that they were wrapped up

in following the laws, not trusting Christ alone. When he says that Sarah and Isaac, they represent the new covenant. They represent the new Jerusalem, the heavenly city, the one who is wrapped up in the grace of God in Jesus Christ, saved by grace. So one story results in living in bondage because it's what self-reliance produces, and one story results in living in freedom because that's what grace produces. If you think that doing it your own way is ultimately gonna bring you freedom, you couldn't be further from the truth. But if you are completely dependent upon the grace of God in Jesus Christ, that's what produces true freedom. Romans 3, 20 through 24, New Living Translation says, for no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. Even if you fill the law, you're not gonna be able to do it because you can't do it perfectly. The law simply shows us how sinful we are. But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writing of Moses and the prophets long ago. We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. For everyone is sin,

we all fall short of God's glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. John Stott kind of referred to it this way. He was speaking of the religion of Ishmael and the religion of Isaac. And he said it this way. The religion of Ishmael is a religion of nature, of what man can do by himself without any special intervention of God. But the religion of Isaac is a religion of grace, of what God has done and does, a religion of divine initiative and divine intervention. For Isaac was born supernaturally through a divine promise. And that's what Christianity is, not natural, but supernatural. The Ishmaels of this world trust in themselves that they are righteous. The Isaacs trust only in God through Jesus Christ. The Ishmaels are in bondage because this is what self-reliance always leads to. The Isaacs enjoy freedom because it's through faith in Christ that men are set free. When Paul was writing to the church at Galatia, he was saying, listen, you're being tempted to fall back into this, that it's about works. It's about following the law only. And he's saying, don't do that.

So I ask you today, what is your story? What is your story? Because everybody has a story in here. Someone who's here today who's an unbeliever, it's possible that you're an unbeliever in one of two ways. Some of you may be an unbeliever that says, you know what, I'm doing what I want. Life's about me. It's for me. Even though you are really miserable down deep because God's created you more, he's put eternity in your heart. But maybe you're saying, I'm not gonna follow God's commands. I think his commands are outdated. I'm not doing this. I'm gonna do my own thing. And so you're a believer, unbeliever, and you're in need of Jesus Christ today. And if that's you, we're glad you're here. And we pray that you'll see your need for Christ, that ultimately your good works, ultimately you doing it your own way is not gonna save you. It's not gonna allow you to have eternity, all of eternity with Christ, the joy and peace that he promises. But there may be someone here today who's also an unbeliever,

who thinks they're a believer. Now, I don't wanna scare anybody, but maybe you grew up in church and maybe you've been doing the right things. Maybe you've been saying the right things. Maybe you've been even trying to serve in the right ways. But for you, it's all wrapped around doing good things. And you keep coming back to this, man, if I can do this and I'd go about it this way, and you keep certain rules and you sing certain songs, you give in certain ways and you serve in certain ways, that somehow that saves you. Again, I don't wanna scare anybody, but God forbid that we have people in here who think they're believers, but they're actually unbelievers because they've been trying to earn God's love by seeking it through keeping his law. And so today, it's important for you to examine your heart. What is your story? We also have some believers here today. And part of your story has been this. In your journey with Christ, you have drifted from being the lost son who was saved by God's grace. You haven't lost your salvation, but what you've done is this. You've drifted into becoming more like the older brother, and you've kind of drifted back into works, and you demand that of other people.

And it's not that you've lost your salvation because you're a believer in Christ, but you've drifted back. That's what Paul was warring against. He's saying, man, don't go back to that yoke of slavery. Don't go back to that way of living because it affects you and it affects the people around you. And you start living this way, thinking this way, and you start kind of impacting others in that way. That you're requiring some kind of works to make it all fit together. And Paul's begging the church at Galatia. He's saying, listen, don't do that. We're not children of the slave. We're children of the free woman. We're not children of works, of the law. We're children of the promise. We're children of grace through Jesus Christ. And that's why his last charge is this. Paul's charge to Galatians is the same as it is to us today. What he said to these people so long ago, he says to you and me as believers today. He says this, stand firm and stay free. Stand firm and stay free. I mean, it's what it says in verse one. For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and don't submit again to a yoke of slavery. Stand firm and stay free.

So what does that look like in your life? When you're finding yourself drifting and you're trying to find your acceptance in things that you're doing for God instead of finding it in the cross of Christ and the grace of Jesus Christ. When you are so anxious and you're wringing your hands about what's going on, you're like, what can I do to fix this? What can I do to make this happen? And God's saying, it's not about what you can do, it's what Christ has already done. Rest in that. He says, stand firm. Boast in the cross of Christ. Receive the love and grace given. Keep believing the gospel. Keep believing the good news of Jesus Christ. Keep believing the love and grace he's given to us. Respond to his love with obedience. Don't obey to get his love. Understand his love and obey out of that. That you can keep God's commands. You can love God's commands. You can delight in God's commands. You can enjoy God's commands. Why? Because he loves you and his grace has come to you. That's a different way to live. Stand firm.

Paul said in Ephesians, put on the armor of God. Stand firm. Put on the helmet of salvation that you know that Christ is in your heart, that you are secure in your relationship with God. Put on the breastplate of righteousness and the right living and following his commandments and statues. Put on the belt of truth that you are anchored in his truth, that it's holding all things together. Put on the shoes of peace that help you stand firm. What's gonna help you stand firm is having peace in Christ. That's where the anxiety, that's where the pain, the sorrow, all the things that happen, you stand in the peace of Christ knowing that you're grounding in his truth. You take the sword of the spirit, the word of God, and the shield of faith, and you stand firm. God increases your faith and your love for the word. Over and over again, he tells us to stand firm in the grace of God. What is your story today? At the end of 2025, God's giving us another year, 2026. Only God knows our days and he will fulfill his purposes in us. But are you living a slave or free? Are you living according to works or grace? Because it's for freedom that Christ has set us free.

So let's live free in him. Let's pray together. Father God, thank you so much for this morning. Lord, it's a tough passage. and we see these two stories and it feels so far away. And yet when we see a couple trying to take matters into their own hands, that feels very, very real to us. When you see people that are trying to earn God's love by doing what he says, that becomes really, really applicable to us. So Lord, there are men and women here today that you wanna set free. Setting them free from their sins and saving them by your grace. Setting them free from the legalism that they found themselves trapped in for so long. The legalism that they have imputed to other people, that they've laid on other people like a burden to bear. Lord, I'm asking you, I'm begging you, would you release us from that burden? Would you show us your amazing grace? That we are children of promise, not because what we have done, but because what you've done. Lord, that we might obey you and delight in you and follow you because of your love and grace to us. Lord, crush the idol of control in our hearts. We want you to sit on the throne of our hearts and reign supremely. So would you let your kingdom come and your will be done in our hearts, in our lives,

just like it is in heaven. Help us to live in the freedom that you came to save us with through your grace. We need you. It's in Christ's name we pray, amen. Thanks again for listening to the word of God. We are blessed to reach you throughout the week through whatever platform you're listening on. If you're needing prayer, or you want to talk to someone about your walk with Jesus, reach out to us at fellowshipar.com slash contact. Have a great week.