You're listening to the 10-minute Bible number podcast. It's best on the free daily deep minute Bible. And right now we're talking about Galatians.
SPEAKER_00I have no idea who said this originally, but it smacks of truth. And the first time I heard it was like my eyes opened and my universe expanded. I was like, dang, that is one of the truest things I've ever heard. Ready? Here it is. Whatever you incentivize, people will do. Just think about that from a perspective of relationships, family, how you operate in an institution, a workplace, policies, HR policies in the workplace, public policy, government, whatever you incentivize, people will do. And so when we became parents, Camilla and I had to think real hard. We're like, well, how do we want our kids to turn out? What kind of stuff do we want them to have as habits, as virtues? How do we want them to problem solve things? What kind of vibe, what kind of attitude toward challenges do we want them to have? And so we made a decision early on, which is something we've mostly stuck to. Surely we've screwed it up at some point. But the decision was nobody in our family is going to get what they want from complaining or griping or moping. Because if we if that works, then we've incentivized it and then people will complain and gripe and mope, including me. Whatever you incentivize, people will do. And so there have been times over the years. My kids are, you know, they're pretty cool. They don't get this wrong a lot, but everybody gets it wrong from time to time. There have been times over the years where I've had to pull the kids aside and be like, hey, kiddo, what are you doing? Have you ever got what you want from complaining and moping and griping like you're doing right now? Ever. Has that ever worked? No. Okay, then why are you doing it? I don't know. Okay, well, here I'm gonna offer you something. I can't guarantee you're gonna get what you want here, but let's change the attitude and let's workshop solutions. And I'm just gonna forget that that's where your head was at a second ago. I'm not gonna hold you to that and be like, no, you had a bad attitude a minute ago. You're faking it now. No, no, no, we're just gonna let it go. We're gonna just downstream as far as the east is from the west, we're just gonna forget where we were a minute ago. We're gonna regroup with fresh attitudes, both of us, and we're gonna see if we can crack the case here and figure out what we need to do. Is that cool? And to their credit, they are really good at being like, yes, that is cool. And they can, they've had this superpower since they were little kids. Regroup and attack it with a fresh attitude. But hopefully for my kids, there's this very simple equation which says, hey, the good things in your life, how did you get those? Was it by being difficult and mopey and complainy and manipulative? Or was it by being a part of the family and being trusting? Okay, well, if it was always the latter, then why would you suddenly think that being mopey and whiny and manipulative and complainy is suddenly going to work? That's not how you got here. It's not how you got any other wonderful thing that you have in life. So don't do it now. Likewise, that's basically the question that Paul is posing to the Galatians as he goes into the big body of the letter to the Galatian church, being read aloud to them here in Galatians chapter three. And here's how he phrases it You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you before your very eyes, Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I'd like to learn just one thing from you. Here's the likewise, here's the corollary. Did you receive the Holy Spirit by observing the law or by believing what you heard? It is so easy for me to picture him like my dad here, or maybe like me sometimes as dad to my kids, pulling aside the youngling and having that conversation that I was just telling you about. Hey, the good things that you have, that you've seen with your own eyes, you've experienced with your own life. Did you get that stuff with this crappy attitude and this stuff that you're pulling? No. Okay, then why do you think it would work now? Come on, that's not what we do. Come on, common sense. And it's really funny as I'm saying this. I realize that the tone that my dad took with me is so very, very much the tone that I often take with my kids. That was a pretty close representation. Maybe some of you are just cringing. You're like, you talk to your kids like that? What is the matter with you, you madman? I don't know. They're really nice people. It seems to be turning out pretty well. I don't know how to parent. I've just had the one set of kids just done at the one time. I'm hard. Parenting is hard. But I think Paul is hitting the nail on the head here. This is exactly what you do in this kind of situation. A very simple A B test where you let the person you're trying to correct run it for themselves and answer the question for themselves. If this thing has never ever worked, why would you suddenly imagine it will work now? If this thing never brought about things that you love, why do you think it would bring about things that you love now? Or back to what Paul is saying here. If obeying tons of rules from the Old Testament and bonus rules that were made up after the fact never delivered you the Holy Spirit, but trusting in Christ did, why would you then go back to try and just obey a bunch of Old Testament rules and bonus laws that have been added after the fact? It's not logical, it's not rational. It never brought about the results in your life that you wanted. When you went and got adult circumcised, the Holy Spirit did not descend upon you the moment the blade touched your grown-up cringing foreskin. The Holy Spirit did not descend on you when you properly washed your hands ritually before a meal for the 50th straight time. That was the magic number. It's enough proper ritual hand washing. Now you get the Holy Spirit. Congratulations. Come on, man. That didn't happen, did it? The Holy Spirit didn't descend on you when you walked less than the allowed number of steps on the Sabbath day for 10 years worth of Sabbath days in a row. And then it was like, that's the magic number. Now you get the Holy Spirit. No, none of that happened. The Holy Spirit showed up because you believed God, like Abraham. You believed God. Now, and let's go back to the example of being a parent and a kid here, talking about what works in the family and what doesn't work in the family to get the good things that you have. I mean, you might have to go to some examples, right? As the parent, maybe the kid is a little overwhelmed, a little bit emotional. Maybe you have to be like, hey, think about it. Do you remember when you were 10 and we went to this thing? Why did that happen? Right. Because of this good way that works. And do you remember this other thing when you and your sister through that giant fit, did you get the thing you wanted? No, you didn't. But your brother did because he handled it the right way. Do you remember that? You might have to give examples, is the point, right? That would be intuitive and natural. And maybe right now it's somebody reading this book of the Bible or you and me having this conversation here might think about this and be like, okay, well, that's all sounds good, but are there actually any examples? Do we know for sure that this is how it worked for the Galatians? They believed God and that is how the Holy Spirit showed up. They trusted Christ, and that's how the Holy Spirit showed up as opposed to the law? And the answer is yes. I think it's fair to want examples, and we have examples, but we're a little tight on time. So tomorrow we're going to go look at three, yeah, probably three examples that would be fresh in the Galatians' mind that Paul could point to to say, hey, kiddo, you know the answer to this question. Remember when these people became Christians not so long ago? Did they do so by carefully abiding by the law? Or did they do it by believing what they'd heard? And remember this other time people became Christians not so long ago? Did they receive the Spirit by carefully obeying every tenant of the law, or did they receive the Spirit by believing what they heard? And what about this other instant? I'm gonna go pick three of those from a little earlier on in the Bible, and we're gonna go look at that as we round out this fatherly interrogation reminder passage, mana. All right, that's good for now. I'm Matt. This is the Ten Minute Bible Hour Podcast. Let's do this again soon.
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