Going on five years ago now, I decided that I wanted to try to get better at tennis. I'd hit the ball around before that and always kind of enjoyed it, but I've kind of played tennis for the last four and a half years. I got a membership up at the tennis center. I go up there all the time. I got friends up there. I try to play people who are better than me. Those are not, it's not hard to find those kinds of matches. And I'm improving. It's fun because I'm past my physical prime for all the sports that I grew up playing. And I played everything: baseball, basketball, football, hockey, volleyball, wrestling, track, everything except tennis. I didn't play tennis. So I'm getting worse at all of those sports that paid for my college education and that were so much fun and so physical. But there's one sport I'm getting better at, and that's tennis. Now, it's not a function of me getting younger, it's a function of I was horrible to start, and the only thing I could do is get better. But it's still really encouraging. I like that. But over the course of learning tennis, I've discovered that it hasn't been this straight line or arc of growth. There's been a lot of regression as well. It's very easy for habits from all of those other sports to sneak in and manifest in ugly ways. So for example, when you get up close to the net in tennis, every now and then there'd be a situation where you'd swing away like crazy. But generally speaking, the closer you get to the net, the more likely you are to take a ball out of the air and hit what's called a volley. And like everything in sports, there's a certain technique that works pretty well for that. And then there's all the other stuff that don't work so well. And I remember doing a couple lessons a while back to really work on that. I internalized a bunch of things, my net game improved, my volleys got way better, and I'm, you know, I'm okay at that part of the game. But I was out playing with somebody really talented who I've been hit with for a while, and you know, kind of a coach type player, and they were looking at my volleys and they're like, hey, what happened, man? Well, what do you mean? Well, what's this stuff you're doing up around the net? Why are you doing this and why are you doing this other thing and why are you doing this? I was like, I I don't know, it still seemed right to me. And the guy was like, Matt, you're a baseball player. Remember, we used baseball terms to explain what you're doing with your hands and how to hit that ball right. You're not doing that now. And I was like, oh dang, you're right, I'm not. And the reminder was, this is setting up so beautifully, this is the best likewise ever. The reminder was, Matt, at heart you are a baseball player. Do your baseball thing here, and you will hit volleys properly. Keep doing whatever this thing is, which is a departure from who you are, and it's gonna be bad for you. Likewise, haha! Paul is like the tennis coach. We're like the tennis player. And what he's saying to the people he's writing to here in the church in Galatia, in Galatians chapter four, is this is exactly who you are. Why are you doing this other thing that's a departure from that then? That's not gonna serve you well. Remember who you are and be clear on that, and then do the things that flow out of that, and it's gonna go better. Here's how that goes in the text, Galatians 4. Because you are sons, who you are, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, who you are, the Spirit who calls out Abba Father. Even that is a statement of who you are, as we talked about yesterday. Someone who's in close, intimate relationship with the Father, not some distant relative or somebody who has to act like a dignitary. I mean it's dad. So you are no longer a slave, that's a who you are statement, but a son, that's a who you are statement. And since you are a son, that's an identity statement, God has made you also an heir. That's another identity statement. What was that, like eight in that stretch? Dang. Matt, here's who you are. You're a baseball player who's playing tennis, and that serves you really well in this way. You need to remember who you are, a baseball player playing tennis, and do the things that flow out of that up here. Come on, man, we've talked about this. Paul makes the same pivot here in Galatians 4 8. Formerly, when you did not know God, that's a who you were statement, you were slaves, who you were statement, to those who by nature are not gods, more refinement on a who you were statement. But now, oh, now we're gonna get who we are statements. But now that you know God, identity statement, or rather are known by God, further identity statement, how is it that you're turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? Oh my goodness, I'm not even there. I don't even know that I'm actually making the mistake right now. And maybe at other times in my life, I'm not sure I'm getting this wrong right now, or that Paul is actually yelling at me. Maybe he is, I don't gotta think about it more. But oh my goodness, it feels like this is directed straight at me because of how many times I've been on the receiving end of this kind of a talk from a parent or a mentor. This is who you are. What you're doing here is not in keeping with that. You need to remember who you are in order to get back to doing things the right way. Let's break down the passage a little further. Formerly, when you didn't know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. So now we're running with that slavery illustration even further. We're not talking anymore about being like a slave or like a someone who's under a steward or a guardian under the law. We are talking about straight up slavery. And slaves are not heirs. Guys, what are you doing? You remember when you were that? Do you remember how it felt? Do you remember what that was like? There was a darkness over your eyes. Paul could say I felt that too. I had darkness over my eyes for a while, quite literally. Guys, do you remember what it felt to be a slave to your passions, your desires, your selfishness, to not live for anything bigger than that? Do you remember when you were enslaved by those lowercase G gods? It wasn't good. But Matt, look at me, kiddo. Things have changed. You're not there anymore. You gotta get that out of your head. You're not a slave anymore. Matt, look at me. You're not a slave anymore. Matt I'm not kidding, kid. Eyes up here, look at me. You're not a slave anymore. But instead now that you know God, or rather are known by God, and I think he offers that little nuance there, that little hyphened aside, just to make sure he's not casting confusion on the whole salvation through the law of salvation by faith thing that he talked about just a few paragraphs earlier. He says, But now that you know God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you're turning back to these weak and miserable principles? Matt, you're not a slave anymore. Why are you still acting like a slave, dude? Come on. Matt, you're a baseball player at heart, and that actually serves you here. Why are you running away from that? Why are you breaking out these weird techniques that don't make sense for anybody that you wouldn't ever do as a baseball player? You've been told those things that you are serve you well here. Do them, lean into them, be a baseball player who plays tennis. Look, my friends, this is not the same tenor of hot blooded feistiness, barely restrained anger that we get in the first couple chapters of Galatians, where Paul, I imagine him talking a mile a minute, running through all the things. I cannot believe this is this. I cannot believe you're so quickly disserting the gospel that was presented to you. If you look at this, this, this, this, and this in the timeline, you will see that this is from God. You knew that this was from Jesus in the first place. What are you doing? Remember Peter and what happened over there? I said to Peter, everybody heard it, it's well documented. We couldn't even sustain the law. How do you think these Gentiles are gonna sustain the law? Come on, man. Every single one of you knows the Old Testament. Every single one of you know how I mean, I sense it is a very hot-blooded tone that the original audience is intuiting from the first few chapters of this, but that isn't the tone here. Yes, this is also corrective. Yes, this is negative and this is pushback in nature, but this is after the tender part of the conversation. This is who you are. What you're doing isn't in keeping with it. You know God. You're in the air era. Why are you going back to the kid era? You are free. Why are you going back to the slave era? You've been invited to call God father, dad, to know him, to approach his throne with confidence. Why would you go back to these old ground rules? Why would you turn your nose up at that invitation that he made possible? What Paul's saying is, guys, you're not just making some kind of intellectual error that is just entirely born out of bad academics and you listened to bad rival academics. Yeah, that's in there. But what he's saying is you're making an identity error, and he's appealing to something much deeper than just the arguments and the raw, cold theology. He's appealing to who they are, and they have tasted it. They know who they are. What they're doing is a departure from it. And so, yeah, this is corrective, but it's a warm invite back to who they are and the stuff that flows out of it. And honestly, think about how much simpler these four verses have been, even in our tone, as you and I are talking, how much easier has this been than the last 50 episodes, than the last hundred and fifty episodes? This is the easiest stuff we've encountered so far in the book because it's intuitive, it's natural, it's right there. Your nature's been changed by God. Your children, your sons, daughters, heirs, agents of the kingdom, of the best king ever. You can trust him. You can call him father, you can call him dad. You have that kind of access. God has called you son and daughter, and if he's called you that, it counts because when he says stuff, it's real. This is who you really are. Live in keeping with it. I love the beauty and simplicity of it. And we can get to all of these conclusions exclusively through very difficult, thick theology, and we should. It's in the Bible, it's important. But once it's earned, we can also get here through a simple appeal to who we are and what we know to be true by God's work in our lives, and that's what's happening here. And I just think it's great. And I also think it's a wonderful reminder of that reorienting talk that all of us have hopefully been on the receiving end of at some point or another. And then maybe you need to be on the receiving end of right now. It is entirely possible that what you are doing in this phase in your life is cosplay, that you are straining at the end of some imagined leash of who you are in God, and stuff feels weird and it is not working very well, in which case this passage is for you. And apparently, as I've thought about it more, hey, yeah, I catch it. Yep, right there. That's where it is for me. He is talking to me as well. That's incredibly useful, incredibly tender, incredibly clear. Pressing ahead next time around. I'm Matt. 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