Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / November 17, 2024 | Galatians - Freedom in Christ

Transcript

November 17, 2024 | Galatians - Freedom in Christ · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Jeremy McGrath.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm the youth pastor here.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: And uh it is well past November 1st, so it's my duty to wish you a Merry Christmas.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, we do have more Christmas decorations up.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: And yes, I don't care that you judge us.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I've had some people say, okay, to all of like the Christmas people who are celebrating Christmas in November, you gotta give Thanksgiving a chance, right?
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta focus on one holiday to move back.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: I am focusing on Thanksgiving.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm thankful for the birth of Jesus, okay?
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I hope you guys will join me in being thankful.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, yes, for the applause.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um so, hey, we uh we're gonna be in Galatians today, continuing our series in Galatians.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: If you've been with us the last couple weeks, we've been covering this letter that Paul wrote to the church in Galatia.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: And he's really just been stewing on this idea of the relationship between freedom and enslavement.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: The relationship between having faith in Christ and being set free from sin, and the relationship between working for our salvation and how that leads to being in bondage.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna be moving into chapter five here, where he really starts to hone in on this freedom, this idea of freedom.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I've been prepping the last couple weeks on this sermon, thinking a lot about freedom, thinking a lot about enslavement.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: And my wife uh about a week ago showed me this video.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's a video that's been going around on like TikTok and Instagram.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: And this woman, she's recording some of her neighbors.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: And her neighbors are out in the front yard, some like they're kids, about middle school age, and they're in the front yard.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and she was just kind of commenting on how miraculous it was that they were outside at all, and you know, not onside on their phones or their video games.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: But as she was recording these kids, these three kids, she noticed something very strange.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't seem to know what to do outside.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: One of the kids was just straight up standing, he's like he's looked like he was having a crisis.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: He was like, What is outside?
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's like he, you know, he was just standing there the entire video.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: Another kid, he probably just got done playing Fortnite because he's just there going, it's like doing the Fortnite dance.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: I nailed that, right, students?
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I got that.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, and then and then there was one kid who you who you kind of had hope for.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: He was moving, he was like exploring his environment.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, he's gonna find something to do outside.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: And he gets it up to this bush and he starts doing this.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: Just hidden the leaves.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's it.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: He's just hitting the leaves over and over.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: That was his idea of the fun thing to do outside.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so the woman was was just laughing.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and you know, I was I was thinking about this idea that a lot of young people are, they seem to be enslaved to their phone and to their video game.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: And when they when they're given freedom, when when they're removed from the thing that enslaves them, they don't really know what to do with that freedom, right?
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: And this is really applicable to Paul's message in Galatians chapter 5.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Because Paul again asserts that as Christians, we've been given freedom.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: But he's concerned that once we acknowledge this freedom, we're going to misapply and misuse it.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: And he covers in chapter 5 all of the different ways that he's concerned the church in Galatia will either go back to what enslaved them or misuse the freedom that they were called to.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: So today we are going to be asking this question: what is freedom in, or what is freedom in Christ?
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: What does it mean to be free in Christ?
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: And this is kind of set up from verse 1 in chapter 5, which is really, most scholars think, the thesis of all of Galatians.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's the turning point, the pivot from the old to the new, this verse where Paul says, for freedom, Christ has set us free.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: He set us free for freedom itself.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: So stand firm therefore and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so as we go through chapter 5, verses 1 through 15, we're gonna break it up into two parts, verses 2 through 12, and then verses 13 through 15, and we're gonna explore two different wrong ways of approaching our freedom.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: The first wrong way that Paul corrects is that freedom cannot be found in self-justification.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: Freedom cannot be found in self-justification.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: And then second, freedom cannot be found in total license.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: Freedom cannot be found in total license.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: If you have no idea what that means, that's okay.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna be exploring it together.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um that is the plan.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: And if you guys know, uh, you've heard me speak before, you know that when I'm downstairs with the students, at this point, after I told you where we're going, I like to say, Are y'all with me?
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: And you guys respond with a hearty, oh yeah, can we do that this morning?
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: Here we go.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Are y'all with me?
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: All right, let's do it.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: Starting here in Galatians chapter 5, verses 2 through 12, let's read this and then explore the point freedom cannot be found in self-justification.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: Look, I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: You have fallen away from grace.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly await for the hope of righteousness.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: You were running well.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: Who hindered you from obeying the truth?
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: This persuasion is not from him who calls you.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: A little leaven leavens the whole lump.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view, and that the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted?
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: In that case, the offense of the cross has been removed.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: Verses 2 through 12, we got we got some really strong language here.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Paul's uh getting more and more uh, we'll just call it poignant uh and aggressive with his points, but for a very good reason.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: Little recap, and then we'll dive into the verses and what they're saying.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: So if you remember, Paul uh met with this church in Galatia, uh started this church, and he told them about faith and how faith alone in Christ, for the sacrifice that he paid on the cross for our sins, gains the salvation and justification before God.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus paid the price, and we access that through faith alone.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: But then he left.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: And another group came in.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: And this other group was like, hey, that grace stuff, that stuff about believing in Jesus and like being saved because of his death, that's all good.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: But you gotta do one more thing.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta add in works.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: And specifically, how they represented that was circumcision.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: This was the sign of the old covenant that you were becoming part of God's holy people by obeying the Mosaic law.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so they were requiring them to get circumcised, but then also probably to add some additional Mosaic laws, obey some additional Mosaic laws as well.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: So you need to do some works, you need to believe in Jesus, and then we're saved.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: So that's catch-up.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: You guys have heard this many times if you've been with us through this series.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: But Paul here in verse 3 addresses the result of such thinking.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: He addresses the result.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 3 again.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I testify again to every man who accepts, accepts circumcision or accepts adding work to faith, that he is obligated to keep the whole law.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: Now you might say, Well, why?
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: Why does that follow?
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: This party wasn't saying that they had to keep the whole of the Mosaic law or the law in the Old Testament.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: They're just saying that there's a couple parts, like circumcision and some other things.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: So why does it follow that now, since they're doing a little bit, they have to do all of it?
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: Let me give you an example.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um let's uh let's imagine here there's uh there's an awkward um pimple-faced middle school boy who wants a Nesquick from Walmart, you know, one of those chocolate milks, and decides to steal it.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um I know that's weirdly specific, but this is not me.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: I've never been awkward in my life.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um now let's just let's just say this kid he steals the Nesquick and he he runs outside with it and he gets stopped by a cop.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: The cop says, Son, did you steal that?
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: The kid says, Yeah.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: And the cop says what the kid had feared all along, you're going to prison for life.
• 8:34
  unknown: Right?
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's not actually what happens.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: But let's let's just imagine, you know, the cop, the cop takes his kid, he said, you did something wrong, you need to pay the penalty, or whatever that penalty is, okay?
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what would you think if I, or the kid, the kid in the story, told the cop, sir, I'll have you know.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: I go to church every Sunday.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: Not only that, I'm a really good son.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: I always listen to my mom on weekends.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and and I also I've never I've never broken, like, I've never trespassed, I've never murdered anybody, I've I haven't broken these other laws.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: So, so because I've been really good, can you let me off the hook?
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: What's the cop gonna say?
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: The cop might even be gracious.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: The cop might even say, I'm so glad you do these other good things and you haven't broken these laws, but we need to deal with the one that you did break.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I can't tell him, well, I want to just obey some of these laws and not the other ones.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: That wouldn't make any sense.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: If I decide I'm going to submit to the laws of the land, I don't get to pick and choose which ones I'm gonna submit to.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: But that's what Paul's saying the Galatians are trying to do.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: They're saying, okay, I'm gonna earn my salvation, I'm gonna work really hard so that God knows I'm a good person and I can go to heaven, but I'm just gonna work really hard and obey some of these laws.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: But just like that cop would tell me, God tells them, no man, if you want to work for your salvation, if you really want to obey my law and to earn your right to be in heaven with me, you gotta do all of it.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: You don't get to pick and choose.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: And the ones that you do break, you have to pay for.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: And if you know the gospel at all, the message of the gospel at the beginning is that we cannot pay for it.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: Even the best of us have transgressed and broken parts of God's law, and we are not holy as he is holy, we are not perfect as he is perfect, we do not love as he loves, and because we fall short of this, no matter how hard we work, we are under his wrath.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: And this here in verse 2 and 4 is where Paul gets into the result of these guys and their new gospel, he calls it no gospel at all, of adding works to faith.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, you know what the result is of doing this?
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: And he says something surprising in verse 2 and 4, because what we might expect him to say is, there's no point in doing it.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: Like you're just wasting your time adding works to faith.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: You're already saved, you did it.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like it would be like lighting a lighter in a very well-lit room.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't do anything, it doesn't add anything extra to the light that's being provided.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so you might expect him to say that, but he doesn't say that.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, listen to the words he uses.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: He says, if you believe this, if you pursue this, grace and works, Christ will be of no advantage to you.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: You are severed from Christ, you have fallen away from grace.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Man, if you approach God with this attitude, faith and works, Christ's death means nothing to you.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: It cannot be applied to you.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: What?
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: That sounds crazy.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: It sounds harsh.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: And we might rightfully ask, how is that the case?
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: Why is that the case?
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: Why can't we just have both, like, okay, maybe I'm adding something, but like I still have Jesus, right?
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: Let me get an example.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: In college, uh, we had some really cool professors who, if you had a good enough grade at the end of the semester, would allow you to skip the final exam.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: And it just wouldn't count.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: The final exam wouldn't count to your grade, and if you had an A, uh, you would end with an A, right?
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: But what do you think my professor would say if I came up came up to her and I said, hey, you know, I I do I want to skip the exam.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: I have I have the required grade level, I want to skip the exam, but I also want to take the exam.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: She'd be like, What?
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: But you no, no, you it's one or the other.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: Either you're gonna be able to skip the exam and that and I won't apply it to your final grade, or you take the exam and I apply it to you.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: You can't do both.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's one or the other.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: And what Paul's saying is, you guys have revealed through your gospel of works and faith that you are trying to do works.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: Even if you just have one thing, one work, one action that you say, this is what's gonna get me into heaven, then you've put yourself back under the law.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: You cannot combine.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's one or the other.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: And right now you've chosen works and you've rejected Christ's sacrifice for you on the cross.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: So this is this is not good.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: This is not good.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: It has a bad result, it has bad consequences.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I and I kind of want to explain what being in this place of trying to work for your justification, how it's similar to enslavement, because this will be important for later on.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if and you guys maybe have experienced this, if you're in the position where you're trying to earn your right to be with God, you're trying to earn your way to heaven, and you're trying to be the perfect Christian and do all of the right things, there's two things that often result.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: We carry a huge burden.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: Number one.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you guys have read through the beginning of the Old Testament where we read about the Mosaic Law, but there's a lot of rules in there.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the more you read, if you ever do this, the more you read, the more your anxiety starts to grow.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because the burden is growing heavier and heavier and heavier, and you're and you're starting to panic.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, can I actually do it?
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: And then this panic produces the second thing, which is fear.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: Fear that perhaps we won't be able to live up to God's call.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: We won't be able to justify ourselves.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: And these two things, the heavy burden and the fear, lead to the destruction of hope.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: And if we were gonna pick a definition of slavery, I'd say this is a pretty good one.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: Carrying a heavy burden, motivated by fear, that robs us of all hope.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: This is the condition that we are in if we attempt to work for our salvation.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so, what is it that can free us from this enslavement and give us hope once again?
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Paul tells us in verse 5.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says, For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of a righteousness.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: Christ alone, and faith alone, restores the hope.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: Now, we're gonna breeze through verses 7 through 12 because Paul's a bit because a lot of this, again, is we've covered a lot of this.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: This idea that we're enslaved if we have to work for our salvation.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: This enslavement creates this burden and this fear destroys hope, and only through Christ and belief in him can we restore this hope and be free.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: But Paul gives one final warning.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: Because this idea that was going around the Galatian church wasn't a fluke, wasn't an accident, wasn't something that just happens once in a blue moon.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: Paul was concerned that this very idea would be prevalent then and would continue to be prevalent for the rest of human history, and you know what?
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: He was right.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: If we go to verse 9, he gives this analogy.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: A little bit of leaven leavens the whole lump.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: And just for the sake of clarity and time and simplicity, just imagine yeast.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: What he's saying is this this idea of trying to work for your salvation.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, and these couple people that are preaching, it's like a little bit of yeast.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: You put it in some dough, and just a little bit makes the whole batch rise.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: And then he goes on and explains why this is the case.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: Why is it that just a little bit of works-based theology and trying to strive for our salvation, why is it, why can it permeate and pervade our churches so easily?
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: And he says here in verse 11, I don't preach circumcision.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: I preach the gospel and I'm being persecuted, but if I preach circumcision, I would be persecuted.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: Well, he's saying, look, look, look, look.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: When I started preaching the gospel, the true gospel, faith alone, nothing we can do, it's just Jesus, he says in Romans it was a stumbling block to the Jews, it was foolishness to the Gentiles.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: We don't like to hear this.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: That there's nothing we can do to earn our salvation.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: It didn't make sense to the Jews or to the Greeks.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: It was, it was rejected.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: But something that was happening in the church in Galatians, as they were accepting that they were drawn in the works, they were drawing in the Old Testament law and adding it to faith, they started to become more acceptable to the Jewish people around them.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: They weren't being rejected, they weren't being admonished, they weren't being persecuted.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: Because this is something we like to hear.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: That we can somehow do enough to get to God.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: And this is something that pervades the modern day too.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: If you think of all of uh uh religious heresies or incorrect views on how to get to God, a lot of them have this very idea in them.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: You think of Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Islam.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: And guys, I know some of you have come from a Catholic background, even elements of Catholicism say that we must join works with our faith.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's tempting.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's something that our human hearts desire because we want to be in control and we want to do it.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so Paul warns them to be aware of this and to fight against it when it rises up.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so let's recap and then we'll jump into the new stuff, because the new stuff is fun.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: This is all about freedom and how we use our freedom, okay, in verses 13 through 15.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: But the recap here.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: So we're freed from the bondage of our old way.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: How are we freed?
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: We're freed from the fear.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: We're free from the burden that destroys hope by trying to earn salvation ourselves.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: We're free.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: We have no fear in the Lord, right?
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: In John, it says perfect love casts out fear.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: We have no fear of total destruction and punishment any longer.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, we've been freed from that.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so Paul tells us not to slip back in to that burden and that way of thinking.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: But now we're gonna move on here to Galatians chapter 5, verses 13 through 15, because we still have to answer the question what do we do with our freedom?
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul's gonna spend some time discussing uh ideas the Galatian church might have that are incorrect about where to take their freedom.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: So he says in verse 13, for you were called to freedom, brothers, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: But through love, serve one another, for the whole law is fulfilled in one word.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: So verses, we're gonna look at verse 13, which has uh Paul kind of tackling a wrong idea, a wrong way to use freedom, and then verse 14, which tackles a wrong idea way to use freedom.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um the first one in verse 13.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: Some may say, based on our freedom in Christ, that freedom allows me to determine what is right for me.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: Paul's gonna correct that.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: Second, in verse 14, he corrects the idea that I have no obligation to live a certain way because I've been set free by Christ.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: So let's tackle these.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: We'll start with verse 13.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: Freedom allows me to determine what is right for me.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: How many of you guys have seen the TV show Parks and Wreck?
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's one of my all-time favorites, probably maybe some of the younger generation.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the reasons that I love this show is because it has maybe my all-time favorite character, Ron Swanson.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: And Ron is the man's man, okay?
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: He does everything himself.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, he can scrap-build cars and he builds his own houses.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: He's a pull yourself up by your bootstraps kind of guy.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but he also is kind of has this mentality, I'm gonna do what I want, and no one can tell me what to do.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and this kind of comes forth uh during a barbecue he's in charge of.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: So him and his staff meet to do this barbecue.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and one of the one of the staff members asks, hey Ron, where's where's the meat?
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we got brisket, we got pulled pork, and uh, and Ron brings behind him a pig.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, Meet your meat.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: A live pig, mind you.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and everyone's shocked, right?
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: And then the a cop comes up and he's like, Ron, you you're not gonna slaughter that pig in a public park, right?
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: And Ron says, Hey, don't don't worry, don't worry, I have a permit.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: And this is what Ron gives him.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you can see that, but it's a piece of paper that says, I can do what I want.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: Sign to Ron.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I think some of us, in certain ways, can have Ron's view when it comes to our freedom in Christ.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: The restrictions and responsibilities put upon us by the old covenant that we've been set free from, right?
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: But we think that perhaps what's left in its place is our intuition and our desires to pick and choose what we want to do and what we think is right and what we think is wrong.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Wrong.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Just like Ron.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: No one can tell me what to do anymore.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm free.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: I can do what I want.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: But that's not true, right?
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul warns against this.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: He says, guys, don't use your freedom to pick and choose what to do and what you think is right and wrong.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: Rather, use your freedom to love one another.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, in 1 Peter 2, verse 9, Peter, the apostle Peter, says this.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: He says, You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: Peter's saying, look, you were freed from being enslaved.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: You were freed from darkness.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: But you were called them to step into the light.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: You were called to sing out God's praises, to spread it everywhere, and to proclaim the gospel of love.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: You stepped out of one thing and you stepped into another.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: But some of you guys might be asking, and rightly so, but Jeremy, isn't this just, you know, out of the frying pan and in the fryer kind of thing?
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: So we were enslaved to the Old Testament law, but now we step over here and we're just called to a new master and a new way of doing things and new rules and new laws?
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's a fair, that's a fair question.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I answer it in three ways.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: The first way is unlike the old covenant, unlike the place that we were enslaved before, just as a reminder, the new place that we're called to, the new thing we're called to step into, it has no fear of eternal punishment, right?
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: Even if we screw up, even if we don't use our freedom properly, even if we don't obey the Lord and take hold of love, God will never disown us.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: So there's no fear and heavy burden any longer.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: We've been set free from that.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: So there is still freedom.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's not the same enslavement.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: But I would also say, second, it is still kind of serving the Lord.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, Paul and Peter and Jesus are not afraid to use the word slave to discuss our relationship with Jesus.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, we are children.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, we are co-heirs.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, we are friends of Jesus.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: But Paul says, I'm also a slave of Jesus.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm here for God's will and for Jesus' will, and I want to serve him.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so we have this tension here.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: But the third thing, this is what I really want to draw out, the third answer to that question, is this just new slavery?
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: Are we actually free?
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: Is that in Christ, when he calls us to be free in love, it is the greatest expression of freedom that we could possibly possess.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to give you an example of this with an illustration, but I need someone who really, really, really wants a cookie.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like just so bad.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: You just really you cannot go without a cookie any longer.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's, Landon, why don't you come up here?
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: Let's give Landon a round of applause as he comes on up.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, Landon.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: How are we doing?
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: Good?
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, Landon, uh, I promised you a cookie, right?
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: And and I do have a cookie.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: A cookie's in here.
• 25:09
  unknown: Okay.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um why don't you find out?
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: Why don't you try to open it, okay, you with your own power?
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: Try to open it with your own power, okay?
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: Go ahead.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, he's thinking the fingernails might be long enough to do the trick.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: No, I don't think that's working.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: Why don't you just try opening the lid?
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: You didn't try that yet.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: I forgot to relock it.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pretend that didn't work.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: The key.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: Now we got the key, which you really need because it's locked.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: Well, now it is.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so we're gonna pretend I inserted the key and I unlocked it.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: Now I'm gonna give you the cookies.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the cookies.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: Now now actually, before I give it to you, do you wanna take a cookie?
• 25:58
  unknown: Yeah.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, okay, go ahead and take a cookie.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: Now, as you're taking that out, go ahead and take one out of the of the box.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: And and by the way, all the specialty brand.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, maple cookies.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: Hmm, delicious.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, okay, you got a cookie.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Landon, are you gonna just take a bite of that cookie?
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: Or what are you gonna do with that?
• 26:13
  unknown: Throw it at you.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna throw throw it at me.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: Oh no, okay.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you're gonna eat the whole thing.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, one bite.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: There we go.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: Beautiful.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: Let's give Landon a round of applause.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: Landon, go ahead and take a seat.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, sir.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: All right, what was that about?
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: What was that about?
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: Two things from this analogy.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, well, how it was supposed to go.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, when Landon came up and he started trying to open the case with his own power, he was unsuccessful.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: Or he was supposed to be unsuccessful, right?
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: And and the reason, and the reason is, like how this illustration was supposed to work, is that was representative of him trying to earn his salvation, of him trying to work, to earn what was in the box and not just salvation, but also step into and embrace the good life.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: Step into and embrace the perfect, fulfilled, beautiful way that God has intended all of us to live and that our hearts truly desire.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: That's in the box.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: And he tried to open it with his works, but it wasn't working.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: But then I gave him the key.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: And the key represents faith in Christ and the Holy Spirit that God gives us.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: And when he used that, now he has access not just to salvation, but also to a life of love and connection with the Lord and love and connection with each other that he did not have before.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: But the second thing is perhaps the most important thing I want to draw out right now.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: The second thing is I asked him, so what are you gonna do now?
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: He had freedom.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: Before he didn't have freedom, he couldn't have reached in and grabbed the cookie, but now he does.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: He has the freedom to.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Are you gonna leave it there?
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: He said, No.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, what about what about just take a bite?
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: No, he ate the whole darn thing in one bite, right?
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: He wanted all of it.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: He wanted all.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: And guys, this is how we need to approach the life of love.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: This is true freedom.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: Before we did not have the ability, because we didn't have the spirit, to walk in perfect love and unity with God, and then to grow in it and to share it and to commune in it.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: But so many of us were like, yeah, that's really cool, that's really cool.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: You know, this life of love and the law of love and obeying it and walking in it and pursuing it, but I'm just I just want a bite of it.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: I just want a little bit of it.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: And then I'm gonna put it back in the box, I'm gonna close it, and I'm gonna go back to doing my thing.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: Pursuing what I desire and pursue what I think brings fulfillment and is the good life.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: But guys, if we understand how beautiful this life of love is, the life that God calls us to, the life that God calls us to use our freedom in, we would use our freedom time and time and time again to chase it as fast as possible.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: And to embrace it as much as we can in our thoughts and in our actions.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I just, like, as I was meditating on this, this idea of how much better it is to use our freedom to choose the life of love, just a couple things came to mind.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm thinking, man, you know, if if we didn't have the gospel, what incentive would I have to be generous as Christ was generous with the early church?
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: Not much.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: If this is all we had, and this is the good life, then yeah, I'd want to amass all of the wealth that I could get and I want to hoard it for myself because that's what's gonna give me fulfillment, that's what's going to get me where I want to go.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: But now Christ has set me free from the fear that I have to gain all of this wealth to find happiness and fulfillment.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: He set me free from the fear because he's building up eternal treasures for me in heaven that I can never lose and that will never fade.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: And so now I have the freedom in the law of love to give with generosity.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: What about like the hamster wheel of just trying to find happiness and to pursue pleasure in this pursuit?
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like we're just always, man, and it's so anxiety-filled and stress-filled, we're just looking to be happy.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: And it's so frantic sometimes or desire to find this.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: Because some of us think this life is it, or some of us think this life is the best.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: Even Christians, some of us can kind of just get you know, laser focused, get this tunnel vision on this life.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: But when we realize that Christ has freed us with a vision of eternity and what that we're gonna get to enjoy all things with Him in perfect splendor, and perfect wonder and perfect enjoyment.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: Man, I don't I don't need to chase so hard, I don't need to stress if I'm happy or not right now.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: I can give, I can serve others, I can consider others as more important than myself when before all I could focus on was me.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: Man, I can go on and on and on about the ways our lives change when we fully embrace love in light of the gospel.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: And they change for the better.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: And when we think about it, we would really have to ask ourselves why would we use our freedom to do anything else but pursue this life of love in the gospel?
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: So the point that I want to draw from this, or Paul's correction to this idea that freedom allows me to determine what is right for me, is that no, no, no, we have not been freed from the law or from what is right and wrong, but we have been freed to love.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: We have been freed for a purpose, and there is a right and a wrong way to love, and we are to pursue it because in it we will find truth freedom.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_00: Second wrong point that Paul corrects here.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's the wrong idea that I have no obligation to live a certain way.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_00: And it's really important to springboard off of that last point I drew from the last slide.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'll pull it up here again, that we have not been freed from the law, because some of you guys might say, Well, Jeremy, I thought that's what we've been talking about.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: We've been freed from the law, right?
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: And we have.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: We've been freed from the Mosaic Law.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: But if we look at verse 14 again up on the screen, he says, For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul seems to be insinuating that the law still has some power over us, that the law still has some obligation to be followed.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: And you're like, Paul, you just spent the last couple chapters saying it there, the law is not over us, and it doesn't have any power over us.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: But now you're saying that no, we should seek to fulfill the law, and it's fulfilled in this command.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: Well, this is what Paul's saying here.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: We need to look at the difference between fulfilling the law and doing the law, or keeping it, as we see in verse 3.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: Doing the law and fulfilling the law.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, any lawyers or cops in the uh in the audience here, or in the congregation rather?
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, a couple.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna need your help because my knowledge on this is sketchy at best.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um I believe when it comes to certain laws, there's a conversation that happens where there's the letter of the law, but then there's the spirit behind the law.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_00: And the distinction between these would be the letter of the law, if you're driving down the street and you see a speed sign, right, or speed limit sign, that's the letter of the law.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_00: You can only drive 30 miles per hour here.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_00: But the spirit behind that specific law is we want you to not drive recklessly.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: We want you to drive safely.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's the spirit behind that specific letter of the law, okay?
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the distinction that Paul's making.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: We have been freed from obeying the letter of the law in the Mosaic law, right?
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: But whether you were living in the old covenant or you're living under the new covenant, what unites them all is the spirit of the law.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: And the spirit of the law, whether in the Mosaic or a new covenant in Christ, is we are to live lives of love.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes it was displayed through the laws in the Mosaic covenant, and now it's displayed a little bit differently in the new covenant.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: And it's important, it doesn't mean we get rid of specific laws, right?
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like we still can't murder, okay?
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_00: That's a specific thing we have to do to love people well, is to not murder, right?
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_00: And that's in the new covenant.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_00: That's a law we have to keep.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: But in the new covenant, there's also a lot more principles, right?
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna get to the point here, but this is important.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot more principles like love your neighbor as yourself, consider others more important than yourself, be generous, be at peace with people, be kind.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: These are principles.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's not telling you to be kind, you need to do X, Y, and Z.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's a principle, be kind.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: And my fear is that some of us, and I've done this before, when we when we approach the principle, be kind or love your neighbor as yourself.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_00: What we say is, well, since there's no specific commands, specific letters of law that will tell me if I'm loving my neighbor well or not, I'm gonna try to find the line, the bar, and I'm just gonna kind of live there.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_00: I was talking with a family member a while back, this was a couple years ago, and um we were at a winery, and I don't I don't drink, I'm allergic to alcohol.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um every now and then I'll have like a girly drink, like fruity margarita.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_00: But anyways, I can't drink much, and I wasn't drinking then, and but but this family member was.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_00: He'd already you know knocked back a couple glasses of wine at this point, and and it was kind of getting a little, in my view, irresponsible, the amount he was drinking.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Hey, you you know, you're a Christian, you believe doesn't the Bible tell us not to get drunk?
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_00: And then we started this argument, and he said, Well, well, who are you to tell me what it is to be drunk?
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_00: Where's the line?
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: Can you tell me when I go from sober to drunk, where's the line?
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: Can you tell me the line?
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Well, you're on the floor right now and you're slurring your words, but uh, you know, I guess I can't.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um and but but it's a valid point, and I think this is some of the ways that we think is because there's no specific letter of the law, we are free to just get as close to the line as possible.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: And we can rest there.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: But that's not what Paul is calling us to.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, and that's what Christ is calling us to.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: I've been going through 1 Thessalonians and 2 Thessalonians with the students in the basement, and we just covered chapter 4 of 1 Thessalonians.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: And something you need to know about this church in Thessalonica is they were rock stars in terms of pursuing this life of love.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul commended them for it throughout the whole book.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, You guys are awesome, you're awesome, you're killing it, you're doing so great.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody looks to you for what it means to live like a Christian.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_00: But then you get to chapter four and you think, okay, well, he's got nothing else to say, like they're doing it, right?
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_00: But he says, do this more and more.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_00: His final admonition of them in chapter four, he's like, You guys are loving so well, you're pursuing love.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_00: Just do it more and more.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_00: Too many of us, we get here with the principles of God's law, and then we're going down, and we're trying to find where the bar is so that we can rest there, where we can still kind of flirt with our desires and our sinfulness, but we can still kind of say, Yeah, you know, I didn't break it.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't break the law.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_00: But Paul says, when you're at this bar, don't go down, go up.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: And some of you might ask, well, how high?
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_00: How high do we go up?
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_00: How much can we fulfill and seek after these principles?
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_00: Unendingly high.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_00: You know the Bible says that Jesus said, Be holy as God is holy?
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_00: You know he said to love as he loved?
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_00: Can we do that?
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_00: This side of eternity?
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_00: The answer is no.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_00: We can't.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_00: But the beauty is, guys, the beauty is we can pursue this in freedom.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_00: This this call to be holy as God is holy, and to love as he's loved, and to do, and to do this more and more.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_00: This is not a deadline to be hit in your 30s or your forties.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_00: This is a process to be pursued, and we have been set free from the deadline of the old covenant.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_00: And we've been given freedom to take Christ's hand however long it takes with all of the hills and valleys and to move upwards as we pursue the life of love.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_00: Now, before we get into the application, and we'll we'll kind of wrap up, I want to give a just a pastoral thought on this.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_00: Because there are a lot of principles to follow in the New Testament, and it's not always clear how we ought to live then specifically.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_00: I think I don't know, I I found myself doing this.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_00: When a believer comes to us and says, Hey, I see you doing this, but I think it would be more loving if you did this.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes our first response is to say, Legalism.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_00: You can't tell me to do that.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_00: Pastor Jeremy said there's no letter of the law I have to follow anymore, which I didn't say that, but so please don't say I said that.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um But yeah, we cry legalism.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_00: You don't get to tell me what to do.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_00: You're being a legalist, requiring or asking that I do something specific.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_00: But guys, if we are called and we know that it's gonna take a lifetime to grow more and more in love and more and more in holiness, then even if it's not required of you, even if your salvation isn't contingent on it, it is loving to accept that admonition, if it's true, that you can grow in love in this way, and to walk in it.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_00: There's no fear in doing that, there's no judgment in doing that.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_00: If they come at you with judgment, then you know you need to address that.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_00: But man, we should be lovingly encouraging and exhorting each other to do so more and more.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_00: So the point here, from verses 13 through 15, he says, I have no obligation to live a certain way.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_00: This is what he's correcting, and instead he says, Do not use your freedom to find the line, use it to love more and more.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_00: So, what is freedom in Christ?
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_00: We asked this at the beginning.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_00: The definition I think Paul is giving us, this isn't the full aspect of what our freedom looks like, but the part that he's honing in on is freedom is loving obedience without fear or burden.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I know some of you are getting a little squeamish.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, man, using the word obedience and the definition for freedom seems contradictory, but remember, we have been set free from the fear and burden of sin.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_00: But we're to use our freedom, this freedom that we have, that God will never reject us, never push us away, never say, because you didn't do good enough, you cannot join me.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_00: We use that freedom and then we lovingly obey with it.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's what we're called to do.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_00: Up on the screen I have a picture of D-Day in World War II.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: And many historians agree that on D-Day, the war in Europe was won.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_00: That because the act or the Allies took the beach, uh, there was no turning back.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_00: Germany could not overcome any longer.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_00: They had lost and it was inevitable.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_00: But it wasn't until months later that EV Day happened, which was when Europe was officially declared one.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_00: But I want you to imagine what would be happening in the in-between, between D-Day and EV Day.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_00: There could be some very wrong responses that some officers or leaders would have.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_00: One of the wrong responses would be to tell their soldiers after D-Day, guys, you need to be up 24 hours every single day.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_00: This whole war is riding on your shoulders.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_00: If you even fall asleep for two minutes, we've lost.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's gone.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_00: Putting this undue burden on the soldiers after victory was in sight would be wrong.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_00: But it would also be wrong if the leaders told their soldiers, hey, kick your feet back.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_00: We've done it.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_00: Put your weapons down, grab the beer, we're good.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_00: We're just gonna ride this out.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_00: It was this weird tension between now and not yet.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the tension we live in as Christians.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_00: Famous theologian uh Wayne Grudeman, um, he says this about this tension.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_00: He says, We are not totally free and we won't be until heaven.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_00: The Christian stands in the tension of double reality, basically freed from sin, redeemed and reconciled, and nothing can change that.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_00: But he is still at war with sin, threatened, attacked, and placed in jeopardy by it.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so we live in this tension.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_00: We are free, but we are called to use our freedom to pursue Christ and the law of love.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_00: So here are a couple application points, and then we will wrap up, and I'll dismiss you guys.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_00: First, reflect on and remove the burdens you place on yourself that Christ already carries.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_00: And to figure out if you carry some of these burdens, ask yourself, man, am I constantly evaluating if I'm good enough to be a real Christian?
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_00: If I was a real Christian, I wouldn't have yelled at my kids this morning.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_00: If I was a real Christian, I wouldn't have this tension in my heart when I give money to those in need.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_00: If that's something you struggle with, give it to God.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_00: Because He already has taken that from you.
• 43:35
  SPEAKER_00: Do you put the weight of spiritual results upon yourself and not God?
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_00: This is a big one for me.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um sometimes we can we can take back what Christ has done in the sense that when we are working for the Lord, when we are trying to live for Him, when we're trying to make the world a better place, we can put all of that weight on ourselves.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_00: If I got up here this morning and I said, all of Words that I say have to be perfect.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, this church will just fall apart.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that would be prideful, but that'd also just be wrong because it is the Spirit who upholds us.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_00: It is the Spirit who uses our work.
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_00: It is God who accomplishes things through Christ.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so we need to give that to God.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, do you live your Christian walk by your own rules or God's rules?
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe some of you are like, I got my salvation, I believe in Jesus, so I'm out.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go back to the bars, I'm gonna go back to gambling, I'm gonna go back, whatever.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go back to my lifestyle.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna do me, I'm gonna live how I want to live because I'm free.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_00: And yes, you are still saved because of the mercies of the Lord.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_00: But man, is this how we were called to live and to use our freedom?
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_00: One of the ways I think we can tell if we're using our freedom in this way is ask yourself, do I differentiate God's time and my time?
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_00: Do I say, okay, I'm free now, so I'm gonna give God a little bit.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna give God church on Sunday.
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna give God maybe a little bit of quiet time in the morning, but then the rest of it, that's my time.
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_00: That's me time.
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's for me to decide what to do at that time, right and wrong.
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_00: But God calls us to invite him into every part of our life and to let the law of love, every action and every thought that we have, this is what we're called to.
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so if you find yourself kind of bifurcating your time for God and your time for yourself, perhaps we need to repent.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_00: And then number three, have you gotten too comfortable with your status quo?
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_00: This is a big one.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_00: This is a big one.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, we were called to love more and more.
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_00: Well, some of us, including myself, I've been at this point before, we get to this point where we're doing, we're trying to love people like Jesus does, but but we've been doing it the same for years and years and years and years and years and years, and we've gotten comfortable.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_00: But if we're to be holy as God is holy and to love as God loves, is there not still room for growth in your status quo?
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_00: And if there is room for growth, why are we staying there?
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_00: And this is something that's so easy to do.
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so I just ask you guys, like, how do you prepare your heart to worship the Lord in the morning?
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_00: Are we helping the disenfranchised and underprivileged around us regularly?
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_00: Are we encouraging the believers around us enough or in a way that uplifts and spurs them on?
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_00: Is there an area of your life you have not thought, how am I loving God or others through this?
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_00: These are all good questions to ask to figure out have I fallen into this pattern or this status quo that unconsciously I've just accepted this is good enough.
• 46:44
  SPEAKER_00: This is where, this is where I need to be.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_00: And when you find that, I want to be careful, when you find that place, don't just destroy yourself and say I'm the worst person in the world, and how what's wrong with me, and just fall into despair.
• 46:57
  SPEAKER_00: There's no despair.
• 46:59
  SPEAKER_00: There's no despair in this.
• 47:01
  SPEAKER_00: God has given you all of the time in the world to work towards love, and even if you don't get to the holiness of Him who is above, you do not stand condemned.
• 47:11
  SPEAKER_00: He has given you the freedom to walk at the pace that His Spirit moves you.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's a beautiful thing.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so I want to end with this.
• 47:21
  SPEAKER_00: My fear is that if I was preaching this sermon to myself about 10 years ago, you know what I would walk out with the impression of?
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_00: I would walk out thinking, this because this is just how my brain worked and how my faith kind of operated.
• 47:37
  SPEAKER_00: If I don't pursue God perfectly in everything I do, I know I'm still saved, but I have failed God.
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_00: I am horrible.
• 47:48
  SPEAKER_00: I am what is wrong, that idea, what is wrong with me?
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I carried this weight for years where I was just constantly I constantly had this stress and this anxiety, this self-hatred, because I I knew that I was saved, but I had placed this a new burden upon myself that I needed to be perfect.
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_00: And the beautiful thing about the gospel, as we were saying earlier, is that Christ, though he still puts a burden, a light burden upon us, he says, man, this pursuit of the burden of love, it's just that.
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's a journey.
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a deadline that you have to meet tomorrow.
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's not an expectation that you will be like the person next to you.
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's a journey where if you take my hand, we will walk together and I will embrace you no matter what point on that journey you've gotten to when I see you at the end.
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, Lord, we love you.
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_00: But Lord, it's so easy to take the simplicity of the gospel and to misuse it and abuse it.
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_00: Either to fall back into slavery or to use our freedom for vice and destruction of our soul.
• 49:17
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, I pray that you would, Lord, we covered a lot of topics.
• 49:21
  SPEAKER_00: I just pray that you would help every one of us in this room to hone in on the thing that we most need to hear.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_00: The aspect of you, the freedom in Christ that we most need to believe and to accept and to walk in, so that we can pursue the law of love that truly sets us free.
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_00: We pray this in your name.
• 49:39
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 49:41
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 49:41
  SPEAKER_00: You guys can go in peace.