Latest / The Daily Word / March 14 - Freedom for a Purpose
Transcript
- Cory Barnes: Well, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, good wee hours of the night. Whenever you are tuning in, welcome to the Daily Word podcast from Lakeshore Christian Fellowship. My name is Corey and it is my privilege to lead our Catawba campus. Excited to be sitting down with you for another Daily Word episode. And this one has actually gotten me excited. You may hear it in my voice. I'm excited. Today's reading for March the 14th came from Galatians 5 in our New Testament portion of the Life Journal Bible reading plan and what stood out to me came from verse 13 You my brothers and sisters were called to be free, but do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh Rather serve one another humbly in love see this whole this whole verse is coming from chapter 5 of Galatians and this is after Paul has been building this big argument for the fact that there were people coming into the church of Galatia and they were trying to make Christians live according to the Jewish law. They were trying to make them live according to the Old Testament mandates for how life was supposed to be lived, including all of the ceremonial aspects, all of... the purification aspects. Specifically, this was boiling down what the crux of this argument is over, is over the topic of circumcision. These people were coming in to find Greeks and Gentiles who had accepted Jesus, and they're saying, well, now that you've accepted Jesus, that's great and all, but you know, in order to follow God and be his people, we have to be circumcised. And Paul is coming in and he is completely refuting that, completely refuting what he calls bondage to slavery is what he compares that teaching to. And he starts talking to us now about the freedom that Jesus provided for us. And I'll tell you what, that freedom is something that we celebrate. We have celebrated. I remember celebrating the freedom Jesus bought for us all throughout my life, going to church. I remember, I remember being a tween, probably 11, 12, maybe younger. going to church and there was this song that we used to sing at church and it was kind of hype and it was high tempo and it was just fun and I'm going to sing it to you I'm sorry but when I sing it I always hear it in that Hillsong Australia accent that they sing it in. I am free to run, I am free to run, I am free to dance, I am free to live for you. ⁓ hey, I'm free. Okay, okay. That might not be, maybe I ramped up the accent a little bit. Maybe, maybe that's just my, my memory and the way I hear it. I no one from Australia is hearing that and finds themselves offended. If you do, I can sincerely apologize. That's just the memory and fun. But no, we celebrate that freedom that Jesus purchased for us. much so that in ⁓ Western church, we've kind of swung away from during previous generations, ⁓ taught so heavily ⁓ righteous ⁓ ⁓ people kind of thought that Christianity was just a list of do's and don'ts. ⁓ our church culture has swung kind of in the ⁓ way in the past several decades. where instead of focusing on do's and don'ts, we're kind of focusing on that freedom. We're so focused on that freedom that we've kind of fallen into another ditch where people are doing what Paul describes here in Galatians 5 as indulging the flesh. See, they're walking away from this teaching of freedom and they're kind of coming to this conclusion that I'm so free, Jesus paid the price for me to be so free that I can basically just live my life however I want to. And then as long as I come back and slap a forgive me Jesus on it at the end of the day, like I'm good. That's the freedom Jesus paid for. Glory to Jesus. Like he's so good that he paid for that. Like it just brings him more glory. It just makes him that much better that he will forgive me after I go and just live however I want to. And a lot of, folks in America and in the West are kind of living that way, ⁓ but that not what Paul. was teaching. In fact, he specifically addressed that in Romans chapter three, that people were even then 2000 years ago, accusing that that is what Paul was teaching because the message of freedom was so good. Paul was being accused that he was saying, let people do evil so that good can come out of it. The goodness of Jesus forgiveness and Paul completely demolished that argument, because that was not what Paul was teaching. And we see here verse 13 ⁓ ⁓ we're called to be free to do is actually to serve ⁓ another ⁓ in love. See, this freedom ⁓ we have, ⁓ God does something in my life, ⁓ get so wrapped up in it I look at it so much and it means so much to me. but sometimes I forget that what he does in my life is not just for me. See, when Jesus sets me free, it's not just for me. It's actually so that when I encounter other people out of my freedom, I can point them on how they may be free. The freedom that we have is supposed to set us free from all the bondage. all the yoke of slavery, all the things that people are carrying that just make them guilt-ridden and shame-ridden and full of condemnation and feeling like they aren't good enough for God. It's supposed to free us from all those feelings so that we can then go and show other people that path to freedom through humble service and love. So are there any areas in our lives thinking about this today, looking at this today? Are there any areas where I'm taking my freedom for granted? Are there any areas where I could be pressing in more to serving others out of that freedom instead of just indulging myself, indulging my flesh? Let's take a look at that and have a conversation with the Lord. Let's ask him, he ultimately knows and he's not shy about telling us about things like that if we are willing to listen. So let's just finish out today with a prayer asking the Lord to search our hearts and show that to us. Father, we thank you for who you are. We thank you for your goodness. We thank you for your mercy. We thank you Jesus for the freedom you provided for us. It is so good. It is worthy. of being celebrated what you did for us. But I thank you Lord that we would recognize the cost of that freedom and recognize the fullness of the purpose you have in giving us that freedom that we may serve our brothers and our sisters and the lost humbly and lovingly out of our freedom. That we wouldn't misappropriate that freedom in our own life and waste it. on sinful living and indulging ourselves, but rather that we would fulfill the purpose for which you gave it to us. We love you, Jesus. We thank you that every time we come and we sit down with you and your word, you reveal ⁓ aspects of who you are. talk to us, you tell us things, and we praise you and we thank you because you're so faithful. We love you, Jesus. ⁓ Amen.