“Fears of the Church”
Paul's Labor of “Love”
Grace Baptist
By: Sam Caloroso 1
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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.
Everyone serves a God?
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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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You did not choose Me but I chose
1. 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
Therefore no one is to act as your
judge in regard to food or drink or
in respect to a festival or a new
moon or a Sabbath day
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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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Entitled?
rusting 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 What?
Today's Judaizer's!
Soldiers for Satan!
Fake Healers for Money! Wolves!
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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
So have I become your enemy by
telling you the truth?
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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