Remember where He found you.

Steve Brown:
Hey, remember where He found you. Let’s talk about it on Key Life,

Matthew Porter:
This is Key Life, with our host author and seminary professor Steve Brown, he’s nobody’s guru, he’s just one beggar telling other beggars where he found bread. If you’re hungry for God, the real God behind all the lies, you’ve come to the right place.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew, we’re studying Galatians and we’re looking at a passage that was designed, I’m fully convinced, to bring Christians to a place of praise and worship. You know, when you think about that, the things that Paul talks about in this passage, the natural proclivity, cause this is why we were created is to praise God. And when you praise God, you’re doing what you were created to do. And there’s a good feeling about it. Praise leads to power. Praise leads to an attitudinal change and things get better. What we do and what I do, I’m not preaching at you. What we do when things are bad, is that we get on our knees and we cry out and say, God, help me right now. That’s what Anne Lamott said. She said she has three prayers that she prays. Help me. Secondly, right now. Thirdly, thank you. Well, we’re all that way, but you know, that’s not what we were, yeah we were, he told us to tell him, but what we were really created to do was to praise God. And we’re seeing some of the areas where Paul brings up, that which causes praise in the believer, and does it naturally. For instance, we have noted that before time, God made up his mind about you, he identified you. We’ve seen that the Father created history for the terrible meek, for you and for me. I mean, when you read a history book, you’re reading what God was doing for you, throughout history. That’s clearly taught in Galatians 4:2b, Galatians 4:4-5 and if you want to flip over and can find it, it’s I Corinthians 3:21-23. We saw that God put legs on that. He didn’t just talk about it, he came. Did I tell you this story about the young man who’s wife had left him and the children high and dry. She just got tired of it and she left and he couldn’t find her and she would call to check on him and he would say, where are you? And she’d hang up. Finally, he got a detective and found her in a hotel, a seedy hotel, and he got on an airplane and went to where she was, went up the stairs and knocked on the door. He had this speech made up and when she opened the door and saw him, she fell into his arms and he said, let’s go home. And she did. And they did. And they were sitting around a couple of weeks later and he wanted to ask a question. He, so he did. So what was all of that about. I told you, I loved you. I said it over and over again. And, and what was it about? And then she said, and this is profound. Those were words. And then you came. Those were words and then you came. Oh my, that’s what God has done. You know, the words were there, he did create history for you. He did identify you before you were ever born and made up his mind about you, but he put legs on it. He sent his son.

But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his son to redeem those who were under the law.

How about that? And, then we saw yesterday how the prison is unlocked. It’s not just what he did for me yesterday. It’s not just that I’m justified before the throne of God. It’s not just that it’s, I’m forgiven. It has to do with what happens right now, the freedom in which we now live. Galatians 4:3,

So with us, when we were children, we were slaves to the elemental spirits of the universe.

And then he repeats it in Galatians 4:9. I told you yesterday about my mother and the lady she got out of a hospital by using a lawyer and going through a lot of trouble. And how her friend worshiped or until the day she died. And I’m going to worship God until the day I die, because he did exactly the same thing. Hey, Christian, it’s hard sometimes, especially if you’ve been doing it, as long as I’ve been doing it. I mean, I’ve been walking this for more years than most of you have been alive. And then sometimes you forget and you gotta just stop and say. And say, Lord, remind me where I was, remind me of the darkness, remind me of the prison, remind me when I felt so guilty and nobody would forgive me, remind me when I was so unlovely and nobody would love me, remind me where you found me. That was a prison, you’re free. You’re forgiven. Yeah. Forgiven for that. You’re loved, deal with it. You can’t do anything about it. I mean, God has made up his mind about you. He sent his son. You have been redeemed. If that doesn’t cause you on occasion to fall on your knees and praise God like a Pentecostal, there’s something wrong with you. And that’s why it was designed, Paul is telling us these are reasons that you brag on the Father, and then we’re going to turn to another subject soon, but let me share with you one more thing. I want you to note, not only how the Father made up his mind about us, how history was bent for us, how he sent his son putting legs on his love, how he deals with the slavery from which we ever come, the prison where we have resided for so long. I want you to note also, how the Father has confirmed that to us, that is that we are his own, this is a great verse. It’s the sixth or so of that fourth chapter.

And because you are sons. You can add daughters. God has sent the Spirit of his son into our hearts, crying “Abba! Father!”

I don’t want you to miss what Paul is saying here. When you become a Christian, there’s something inside you that reaches out to God and confirms that you belong to him. The term Abba, and we all know this, we’ve heard it all our lives, is a term of endearment. I can remember when I was first serving as a pastor. Now, I’m pretty sure I was saved. In fact, that happened 2000 years before that, but I didn’t know much about God and I sometimes sit down and read, I have the sermons, I’ve reached over a long, long period, and I’ve talked a lot about a sovereign God, about the Lord, about God’s control of everything. How, if you haven’t stood before a God like that and been afraid you, you’re probably worshiping, I did a lot of that, probably worshiping an idol. And then I noticed over the years that something was changing in my sermons and the terms of endearment, of friend, of brother, of the one who walks with me in the dark, all of a sudden that began to change. And that was because you were so wise. No, it wasn’t. Because you studied theology a little bit more. No, no, no. That’s not it. Because as you taught the Bible, you began to get it. No, no, no. What was going on? It’s what the apostle Paul is describing in this passage. What’s he saying? He’s saying inside of you, God is doing something that is drawing you to himself. And causing you to cry out as a child would cry out to his father, Abba! Abba! Father! Friend, I’m the heir, Abba! Father! Listen, I, I’m good, I’m good with words. That’s what I do. You know, I can win arguments, if we wanted to argue about it. And I know the theology and I’ve read all the books, but between you and me, I want you to know I didn’t have a thing to do with that. That was God, the Spirit of Christ working in me and reminding me, who I am. My dad. You think about that. Amen.

Matthew Porter:
Thanks Steve. Steve Brown there, guiding us through Galatians 4 and what a great word today, such an important reminder that we need to remember where Jesus found us. More encouragement and challenges from the book of Galatians tomorrow. Make sure you join us then. So, way back when Steve gave a sermon called How to Know that You Know Him, it was based on Hebrews 6. It was a sermon speaking to people, struggling with doubt and questions, people who need assurance that they really are saved. And even though that was a while back, nothing has changed. We still need that reminder of who we are and whose we are. Please get that classic sermon on CD for free right now by calling 1-800-KEY-LIFE. That’s 1-800-539-5433. You can also email your request to [email protected]. By mail, write us at

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