At just the right time, God brought his Son into this world. At just the right time, God adopted you to become his child. Being God’s child brings gifts of freedom, but that freedom is always in danger of being lost. Together, we find encouragement to celebrate and enjoy our freedom as God’s children. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS Warm Up 1. What was it like for you to move from being a child to being an adult? Is there a moment or a series of events that marked that line from childhood to adulthood? In our passage, Paul mixes his metaphors between growing to adulthood and being adopted to help us understand our freedom as children of God. Explore the Text 2. Read Galatians 4:1-20, paying special attention to verses 1-7. What words, themes, and ideas are emphasized or repeated? Ask God to give you insight into the message of this passage how it relates to your life. 3. From verse 5, what did Jesus do for us? From verses 6-7, what is now true about us? How would you summarize this passage into one sentence? Apply Truth to Life 4. Imagine you are living during the Roman age in the first century like the Galatians who first received this letter, how many differences can you think of between children, heirs and slaves in a household? What is it like to live as a slave who is afraid of God and to live like a child who is secure in the Father’s love? 5. How or when are you drawn to the danger of living more like a slave than a child of God? 6. Read verse 9 again. How does knowing God (and being known by him) make you truly free? Think of this freedom in two categories: “What are you free from?” and “What are you free for?”