WEBVTT 00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:04.070 If you brought a Bible, I want to encourage you to turn to Galatians chapter five. 00:00:04.920 --> 00:00:12.120 And if you didn't bring a Bible, feel free to grab one out of the seats pockets in front of you and go ahead and turn there with us. 00:00:12.140 --> 00:00:17.560 As we go through this chapter together, we're on a series called One Another oh 1011 year olds. 00:00:17.560 --> 00:00:18.220 You guys are dismissed. 00:00:18.660 --> 00:00:19.080 Here we go. 00:00:19.540 --> 00:00:22.060 We're on a series together called One Another. 00:00:23.360 --> 00:00:30.720 And the importance of one another is that God has never created us or has not created us to be an island unto ourselves. 00:00:31.080 --> 00:00:38.080 When God designed you, his intentions were all about community and what we discover in this series we look through God's usage of the word one another 00:00:38.080 --> 00:00:45.120 in the Bible is that our vertical relationship with the Lord is affected by our horizontal relationship with each other. 00:00:45.200 --> 00:00:47.080 God in creating us for community. 00:00:47.100 --> 00:00:51.200 The number one place that we display his glory is through our interaction with each other. 00:00:51.320 --> 00:00:55.700 God has called us to love the Lord your God with all your heart and to love others. 00:00:56.460 --> 00:01:03.680 Unless we're loving others, it's difficult to say that we love the Lord, because both of those commandments that Jesus has given us 00:01:03.680 --> 00:01:05.860 are wrapped into each other. 00:01:06.620 --> 00:01:13.660 As we love the Lord, we demonstrate that in our lives God has gifted you in the point of gifts aren't that they rest upon you, but 00:01:13.660 --> 00:01:16.070 the point of a gift is to give itself away. 00:01:16.320 --> 00:01:20.930 All of us have been gifted in different ways, and God desires for you to exercise those to give them away. 00:01:21.020 --> 00:01:28.660 And as well, someone else has given been given gifts that they may exercise them to encourage you and exhort you and your life, and following after the 00:01:28.660 --> 00:01:29.140 Lord. 00:01:30.240 --> 00:01:37.260 And so Galatians chapter five follows the thought of serving one another, which is the theme of what we're going to talk 00:01:37.260 --> 00:01:38.180 about this morning. 00:01:38.660 --> 00:01:44.580 I look at this chapter in my mind always begins to think about William Wallace from Braveheart at the end of the movie. 00:01:44.940 --> 00:01:50.570 He's fought for freedom the entire time, and at the end of the movie, he loses his life just screaming about freedom. 00:01:50.780 --> 00:01:54.860 And when you watch that movie as a guy, you just as a girl, maybe two, I don't know. 00:01:54.880 --> 00:01:55.960 I'm not a female but can't tell you. 00:01:56.260 --> 00:01:57.980 But as a guy, you just want to stand up and just. 00:01:58.480 --> 00:01:59.200 Yeah, he did it. 00:01:59.280 --> 00:01:59.780 He did it. 00:01:59.780 --> 00:02:00.180 He did it. 00:02:00.180 --> 00:02:07.180 You know, you're into that moment because you understand what it means to be free to some degree, because 00:02:07.180 --> 00:02:11.560 in some point of your life you've felt like you've been in bondage. 00:02:11.560 --> 00:02:12.920 And so freedom is important. 00:02:13.780 --> 00:02:20.020 So when we talk about freedom, it's important for us to see that we are free to serve. 00:02:20.060 --> 00:02:25.070 In Galatians chapter five and verse one, it says it was for freedom that Christ set us free. 00:02:25.340 --> 00:02:29.460 Therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. 00:02:30.560 --> 00:02:34.800 If you skip ahead from verse 13, I'll explain why in just a moment while we're while we're doing this. 00:02:34.840 --> 00:02:42.240 But in verse 13 it says, for you were called to freedom, brethren, only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but 00:02:42.240 --> 00:02:44.380 through love serve one another, for the whole. 00:02:44.580 --> 00:02:46.140 Law is fulfilled in one word. 00:02:46.860 --> 00:02:51.230 In this statement you shall love the Lord your God, or excuse me, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. 00:02:52.760 --> 00:02:57.780 Notice in verse 13, just an important thought to think about and service towards one another before. 00:02:58.120 --> 00:03:04.080 Before Paul says to serve one another, he says it's but through love that you are able to serve one another. 00:03:04.100 --> 00:03:11.780 When we started this series together, we started with the idea of love and in love for your relationship with God. 00:03:11.780 --> 00:03:13.800 Because of his love demonstrated to you. 00:03:13.820 --> 00:03:20.340 It even gives you it begins to give you the opportunity to live as God has called you, to live in relationship to one another. 00:03:20.360 --> 00:03:24.340 And so, as Paul calls us to serve one another, it is on the backbone of love. 00:03:24.620 --> 00:03:30.340 Everything that God calls us to do as believers is on the backbone of love. 00:03:31.400 --> 00:03:33.460 God has called us to serve. 00:03:34.920 --> 00:03:36.720 It's given us the freedom to serve him. 00:03:37.000 --> 00:03:40.570 Serving can be a challenge for those in a society that may teach. 00:03:40.920 --> 00:03:42.520 Life is about you. 00:03:43.700 --> 00:03:50.980 When it comes to service and freedom, it's difficult for us sometimes to fathom because we live in a dog eat dog world where you climb the 00:03:50.980 --> 00:03:58.160 top of the rung to get to the highest position, and if you're not in the highest position, you either want to rip those down 00:03:58.160 --> 00:04:04.100 who are in the highest position so you can be there, or you idolize those that are in the position that you desire to be in. 00:04:05.160 --> 00:04:07.460 It's about your glory and your kingdom. 00:04:09.160 --> 00:04:11.910 Jesus comes along and he shifts the paradigm. 00:04:11.920 --> 00:04:13.760 In fact, he turns it upside down upon itself. 00:04:14.240 --> 00:04:19.380 And he says in Mark 935, those who want to be great in his kingdom. 00:04:20.480 --> 00:04:21.040 Must be the least. 00:04:22.600 --> 00:04:23.680 And the least will become first. 00:04:25.760 --> 00:04:27.500 Jesus is about serving. 00:04:29.020 --> 00:04:29.780 Interesting. 00:04:29.800 --> 00:04:33.060 When you read a passage like this, you might consider the question how? 00:04:33.340 --> 00:04:36.520 How can you be free if you are serving? 00:04:38.020 --> 00:04:40.600 When you serve, does that mean that you are free? 00:04:42.060 --> 00:04:46.100 When you think about service, it seems those that are in service are under obligation. 00:04:46.320 --> 00:04:49.880 How is Paul relating this idea of serving to that of freedom? 00:04:51.420 --> 00:04:52.310 When it comes to Jesus. 00:04:54.240 --> 00:04:58.380 Without Christ, we as people would have never been free to serve. 00:04:59.840 --> 00:05:03.360 But because of Christ, we have found freedom that we may serve the Lord. 00:05:03.360 --> 00:05:10.760 In Romans 613 and 14 it says this and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but 00:05:10.760 --> 00:05:16.860 present yourself to God as those alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 00:05:16.920 --> 00:05:24.560 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace. 00:05:27.420 --> 00:05:30.220 We're given the freedom to serve because of his grace. 00:05:32.080 --> 00:05:36.160 And so when we talk about service as a body of believers apart from Jesus, we would have never had that. 00:05:36.280 --> 00:05:43.540 And so when we enter a discussion of serving, it's not about serving, because I'll explain more in a minute, but it's not about serving because we 00:05:43.540 --> 00:05:44.620 have to. 00:05:46.160 --> 00:05:47.590 Rather because we get to. 00:05:49.560 --> 00:05:53.800 Jesus has come to set you free, that you may honor him with your life. 00:05:53.840 --> 00:05:54.860 And so what is serving? 00:05:54.960 --> 00:06:00.000 Serving is the willingness to humble yourself and act for the benefit of another. 00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:06.260 Serving as the willingness to humble yourself and act for the benefit of another. 00:06:06.300 --> 00:06:12.680 If you think about the definition of what serving is, then it adds purpose behind the meaning of your reason for serving. 00:06:12.720 --> 00:06:14.480 You don't just serve to serve. 00:06:14.480 --> 00:06:18.210 There's always an obligation or purpose behind the serving that you desire to accomplish. 00:06:20.580 --> 00:06:25.860 When it comes to serving on the best illustrations I think of is that of marriage. 00:06:26.960 --> 00:06:34.260 When a wedding ceremony takes place, I can tell you as a pastor performing those ceremonies, I'll tell the couple my entire goal on that ceremony 00:06:34.350 --> 00:06:37.600 as it's being conducted is for no one to remember me. 00:06:38.320 --> 00:06:45.720 I do not want that spotlight ever, because I don't want to look the bride in the eyes and see what she's going to do to me later when I 00:06:45.780 --> 00:06:46.740 perform a marriage. 00:06:46.840 --> 00:06:51.300 The point of the marriage is all about the glory of the ceremony and highlighting the beauty of the bride. 00:06:52.540 --> 00:06:59.640 Which is also why the bride chooses bridesmaids when bridesmaids participate in the wedding, but their obligation towards that 00:06:59.640 --> 00:06:59.740 opportunity. 00:07:02.440 --> 00:07:05.260 Is to serve her in such a way that her beauty is made known. 00:07:05.380 --> 00:07:08.960 As she comes down the aisle and conducts, the ceremony is conducted. 00:07:08.960 --> 00:07:10.500 It's all about her glory. 00:07:12.380 --> 00:07:14.310 Serving is about the benefit of another. 00:07:16.160 --> 00:07:16.650 For a wedding. 00:07:16.820 --> 00:07:17.990 It's about the glory of a bride. 00:07:18.040 --> 00:07:22.340 For us as a believer, it's about the goodness of Christ and His glory being made known. 00:07:24.100 --> 00:07:29.660 First Corinthians 1031 says, whatever you do all to the glory of God. 00:07:31.560 --> 00:07:33.640 The reason we serve is for his glory. 00:07:35.320 --> 00:07:38.520 And through serving in glory for him. 00:07:38.520 --> 00:07:40.340 We as people benefit from that. 00:07:41.880 --> 00:07:48.500 Everything we do is for his glory, which defines the very reason why we gather together on Sunday morning. 00:07:50.040 --> 00:07:56.340 It's not about indulging yourself in God's Word, letting it sit within yourself and walk out, fattened up on God's Word, never, never exercising. 00:07:56.340 --> 00:08:03.640 But to understand as God's Word is communicated to us, it gifts us with the opportunity of better knowing Christ, that we may return it in glory 00:08:03.640 --> 00:08:04.760 to him in this world. 00:08:07.900 --> 00:08:09.940 We don't walk in just to indulge ourselves. 00:08:12.100 --> 00:08:19.140 We create a church for the contexts of a family in servanthood, that we may encourage one another in service to God, and in so 00:08:19.140 --> 00:08:21.300 encouraging one another may go out into this world. 00:08:21.400 --> 00:08:24.020 Encourage others in the Lord. 00:08:26.140 --> 00:08:27.660 I say all that and then give this plug. 00:08:28.240 --> 00:08:31.010 And ABC needs workers. 00:08:32.960 --> 00:08:34.110 We need people to volunteer. 00:08:35.820 --> 00:08:37.150 Every ministry on Sunday morning. 00:08:37.340 --> 00:08:43.159 Is this lacking just a few volunteers to really fill them as what we would what we would desire in having two services? 00:08:44.500 --> 00:08:46.960 That's something you're interested in and just being a part of that. 00:08:46.960 --> 00:08:50.770 On Sunday morning we have a card outside called. 00:08:52.100 --> 00:08:52.520 Was it called? 00:08:53.280 --> 00:08:53.920 Join a team. 00:08:54.000 --> 00:08:54.280 There we go. 00:08:54.300 --> 00:08:54.680 Thank you. 00:08:55.080 --> 00:08:55.740 Well, I wouldn't blink. 00:08:55.780 --> 00:08:57.920 Join a team and you were able to join a team. 00:08:57.920 --> 00:08:58.500 Just fill it out. 00:08:58.500 --> 00:09:02.640 Dropping it in the box out on the information table or in the offering baskets. 00:09:03.040 --> 00:09:07.810 If you desire to help serve, God has given you freedom in service. 00:09:07.880 --> 00:09:09.540 God desires for us to serve. 00:09:09.540 --> 00:09:12.740 Let me let me just paint a picture of a couple scenarios. 00:09:12.740 --> 00:09:18.630 One, that failed to see the opportunity given to them, and one where a person rose to the occasion to serve. 00:09:18.960 --> 00:09:26.100 I was recently reading a book on a church that was existing during the time the Germans were conquering and right before 00:09:26.100 --> 00:09:31.040 World War Two, and I went back to find where this reference was and I couldn't find it. 00:09:31.080 --> 00:09:32.160 So just pretend like I made it up. 00:09:32.240 --> 00:09:39.260 I don't I don't know where I can't give you the reference, but this church existing during World War Two was located next to the 00:09:39.260 --> 00:09:40.000 train tracks. 00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:42.740 And on these train tracks would pass these train cars. 00:09:42.740 --> 00:09:46.850 And in the train carts were people being driven to the concentration camps. 00:09:47.060 --> 00:09:51.620 At this particular church was the train tracks that were located next to it were they were transports. 00:09:52.500 --> 00:09:59.660 The passengers on this train on their way to Auschwitz, which historically, Auschwitz was one of the worst, if not the 00:09:59.660 --> 00:10:02.500 worst concentration camp in all of World War two. 00:10:03.720 --> 00:10:04.700 And I'm reading the story. 00:10:04.700 --> 00:10:06.120 I'm thinking, man, this is incredible. 00:10:06.160 --> 00:10:07.670 There's a church right next to the train tracks. 00:10:07.680 --> 00:10:09.680 They got opportunity to really shout for the Lord here. 00:10:09.740 --> 00:10:10.370 What are they going to do? 00:10:10.460 --> 00:10:12.600 And an anticipation just looking at this. 00:10:12.600 --> 00:10:14.750 I can't wait to get to the end of the story, to read all this victory. 00:10:15.140 --> 00:10:16.490 And you know what the church's solution was. 00:10:18.560 --> 00:10:25.160 When the trains would drive past on Sunday morning, they determined that they would just sing louder so they didn't have to hear. 00:10:27.940 --> 00:10:29.260 You hear a story like that? 00:10:31.160 --> 00:10:32.840 And you realize what a tragedy that is. 00:10:35.160 --> 00:10:42.300 We as people know innately within ourselves that just to pacify some opportunity like this, to do something 00:10:42.340 --> 00:10:46.500 that could preserve hundreds if not thousands of lives, what? 00:10:46.960 --> 00:10:48.420 What a shame not to seize it. 00:10:51.040 --> 00:10:53.190 We are created for so much more. 00:10:55.440 --> 00:11:01.020 The passivity of the church shared one thing about their beliefs that they worshiped on Sunday morning. 00:11:01.020 --> 00:11:02.150 It was that it was dead Orthodoxy. 00:11:04.380 --> 00:11:05.840 It was useless to their lives. 00:11:06.860 --> 00:11:09.450 It puffed up the mind but never affected the heart. 00:11:10.760 --> 00:11:15.300 But God's intention through His Word is that it would breathe into us life and living for him. 00:11:15.300 --> 00:11:18.900 Not dead orthodoxy, but life transforming power by his message. 00:11:22.260 --> 00:11:23.360 Often wondered. 00:11:23.360 --> 00:11:27.400 And reading that story, what I would have done had I been given the circumstance. 00:11:29.900 --> 00:11:31.720 It's easy to justify those moments. 00:11:33.600 --> 00:11:33.700 All right? 00:11:33.760 --> 00:11:35.500 I'm a I'm a father of children. 00:11:35.620 --> 00:11:37.500 I'm responsibility to them. 00:11:37.500 --> 00:11:40.890 And so I know those people need me, but my family needs me more. 00:11:40.980 --> 00:11:42.320 And, I know what I'll do. 00:11:42.320 --> 00:11:43.200 I'll just pray for them. 00:11:43.200 --> 00:11:44.200 God can intervene with prayer. 00:11:44.360 --> 00:11:47.720 I'll just pray for them and just hope that nothing happens on the other end. 00:11:50.220 --> 00:11:50.960 We kind of tell you. 00:11:51.700 --> 00:11:52.940 Passivity. 00:11:54.340 --> 00:11:57.520 Brought just destruction. 00:11:58.160 --> 00:11:59.960 Doing nothing is something. 00:12:02.680 --> 00:12:10.080 I was reading about dictators that have led in history and in studying dictators that 00:12:10.080 --> 00:12:10.780 have led in history. 00:12:10.780 --> 00:12:11.840 You know what researchers have found out. 00:12:13.320 --> 00:12:18.330 The majority of people that belonged to those leaders, to those nations, to those empires. 00:12:20.280 --> 00:12:23.960 75% of them or more didn't agree. 00:12:25.320 --> 00:12:26.700 With what the dictator was doing. 00:12:28.260 --> 00:12:30.360 Germany, Stalin and Russia. 00:12:30.420 --> 00:12:34.070 The majority of people didn't agree with the tactics that they were conducting. 00:12:34.240 --> 00:12:35.310 But do you know what they did? 00:12:37.400 --> 00:12:39.700 Nothing. 00:12:40.580 --> 00:12:40.720 That. 00:12:40.780 --> 00:12:41.060 Let it go. 00:12:43.740 --> 00:12:45.690 Passivity is a distraction. 00:12:47.820 --> 00:12:50.800 Ignore it long enough and that destruction comes your way. 00:12:52.620 --> 00:12:53.980 The people that ignored those train tracks. 00:12:55.380 --> 00:12:58.320 Ultimately, their towns were devastated by war anyway. 00:13:00.320 --> 00:13:01.940 Standing or not standing, there was no peace. 00:13:03.000 --> 00:13:04.300 Better to follow Christ than not. 00:13:06.140 --> 00:13:07.490 Passivity is a decision. 00:13:08.400 --> 00:13:08.860 It's a choice. 00:13:10.360 --> 00:13:13.060 God has created us to serve. 00:13:14.860 --> 00:13:21.880 Another illustration of someone who got what God made him for and service to him came, came from an individual 00:13:21.880 --> 00:13:26.690 so confident in his freedom for Christ that he stood for the Lord and fought for freedom. 00:13:27.080 --> 00:13:30.500 And his name was Martin Luther King Junior. 00:13:32.960 --> 00:13:40.020 Martin Luther and his historic speech in April 3rd, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee, gave a speech called I Have Been to the 00:13:40.020 --> 00:13:40.620 mountaintop. 00:13:41.780 --> 00:13:48.940 The interesting thing about this speech in April 3rd, 1968 was it was the last speech that he gave before his 00:13:48.940 --> 00:13:50.900 life was taken from him the next day. 00:13:52.440 --> 00:13:53.060 And listen what he says. 00:13:54.960 --> 00:13:57.560 I don't know what will happen to me now. 00:13:58.880 --> 00:14:05.040 We have difficult days ahead, but it really doesn't matter with me because I have been to the mountaintop and I don't mind. 00:14:06.080 --> 00:14:08.480 Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. 00:14:08.480 --> 00:14:11.840 Longevity has its place, but I am not concerned about that now. 00:14:12.800 --> 00:14:14.040 I just want to do God's will. 00:14:15.140 --> 00:14:19.600 I may not get to the Promised Land with you, but we are going to make it to the Promised Land. 00:14:20.420 --> 00:14:21.380 So I'm happy tonight. 00:14:22.400 --> 00:14:23.680 I am not worried about anything. 00:14:24.520 --> 00:14:29.820 I am not fearing any man, for my eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. 00:14:32.300 --> 00:14:32.760 One person. 00:14:34.500 --> 00:14:37.180 Stands up. 00:14:37.480 --> 00:14:41.460 Understanding a generation of people affected by such service for the Lord. 00:14:44.640 --> 00:14:45.660 If we're called to serve. 00:14:47.920 --> 00:14:48.750 And why don't we not serve? 00:14:51.440 --> 00:14:53.380 What keeps you at moments in your life? 00:14:54.540 --> 00:14:56.540 From sharing with someone else in need. 00:14:58.180 --> 00:15:01.450 From open your mouth and just declaring the beauty of what Christ has done. 00:15:02.560 --> 00:15:07.240 What keeps us from serving as Jesus has called us to serve. 00:15:09.300 --> 00:15:10.680 That's what Galatians chapter five is. 00:15:12.320 --> 00:15:19.460 Paul's explanation to the believers in this chapter of the temptation that we face not to serve 00:15:19.460 --> 00:15:23.300 the Lord, and why we face that temptation, and then how to overcome. 00:15:25.580 --> 00:15:30.800 Chapter five, in verse one starts this explanation of freedom in Christ. 00:15:30.820 --> 00:15:36.240 And then Paul gives an explanation for the next 12 verses of what keeps us from serving in that freedom. 00:15:36.440 --> 00:15:43.740 And then in verse 13, he picks up another thread of thought of our freedom in Christ, and something else that limits us 00:15:43.740 --> 00:15:48.060 in serving the Lord as God would desire, for which we are created. 00:15:48.200 --> 00:15:50.300 What keeps us from serving? 00:15:51.820 --> 00:15:54.070 That's why this morning we opened up with this text of Scripture. 00:15:54.120 --> 00:16:01.200 I started with verse one, and I went ahead and just skipped to verse 13, because after verse one is the sum summation of everything that 00:16:01.200 --> 00:16:08.440 Paul wants to elaborate on from chapter verse one of this chapter and verse 13 and 14, 00:16:08.440 --> 00:16:15.860 it's the same thing that follows afterwards Paul is giving a expounding upon and that summation in this verse of what it means to 00:16:15.860 --> 00:16:22.710 desire not to serve the Lord in the battle that we fight for not serving him. 00:16:23.280 --> 00:16:24.560 Why do we not serve the Lord? 00:16:26.080 --> 00:16:26.480 Number one. 00:16:27.760 --> 00:16:28.350 And Paul's answer. 00:16:29.540 --> 00:16:32.100 We exchange our freedom for a yoke. 00:16:32.120 --> 00:16:33.540 Let me just read it one more time in verse one. 00:16:33.880 --> 00:16:36.360 It was for freedom that Christ set us free. 00:16:36.360 --> 00:16:41.580 Therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. 00:16:41.680 --> 00:16:44.740 What is the yoke that Paul is referencing in this passage? 00:16:46.200 --> 00:16:46.760 It's religion. 00:16:48.260 --> 00:16:53.600 In order to be a fired up servant for Christ, you have to be connected to the freedom that Jesus brings to you. 00:16:53.600 --> 00:16:59.320 But religion will pull us in the opposite direction, having earning our favor before the Lord. 00:17:00.880 --> 00:17:07.980 It's hard for us to care for someone else's needs when we're preoccupied with the needs of our own lives, being yoked in a 00:17:07.980 --> 00:17:08.079 prison. 00:17:09.900 --> 00:17:16.920 In fact, in verses 2 to 4, Paul describes this yoke in a little more detail the bondage that keeps him from the freedom they 00:17:16.920 --> 00:17:17.839 find in Jesus. 00:17:18.020 --> 00:17:23.579 It says in verse two, behold, I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision. 00:17:25.160 --> 00:17:26.920 Christ will be of no benefit to you. 00:17:27.800 --> 00:17:33.020 And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision that he is under obligation to keep the whole law. 00:17:34.060 --> 00:17:36.540 You have been severed from Christ. 00:17:36.540 --> 00:17:39.000 You who are seeking to be justified by law. 00:17:39.340 --> 00:17:40.880 You have fallen from grace. 00:17:45.000 --> 00:17:52.320 Paul saying in this passage, we've alienated ourselves from what Christ has accomplished for us on the cross. 00:17:55.500 --> 00:17:56.540 And the Christian life. 00:17:57.820 --> 00:18:02.380 It's not about what you're doing, but about what Jesus has already done. 00:18:04.920 --> 00:18:11.940 The freedom that you have has nothing to do with you earning it, but everything to do with Christ, paying for it on your 00:18:11.940 --> 00:18:12.340 behalf. 00:18:14.720 --> 00:18:18.840 Religion is all about working for ourself again to try to release our own chains. 00:18:19.720 --> 00:18:26.610 You may ultimately do something for someone else, but the basic need that drives your motivation for what you're doing is out of obligation for serving yourself. 00:18:28.100 --> 00:18:31.980 It's done out of obligation, not out of joy for what Jesus has done. 00:18:33.300 --> 00:18:39.970 And so the Galatians in this passage are specifically neglecting their freedom in Jesus by reverting back to the bonds of religion. 00:18:41.980 --> 00:18:43.510 Religion puts you in bondage. 00:18:45.280 --> 00:18:48.280 And so the Galatians were serving their own needs, if any at all. 00:18:50.780 --> 00:18:51.960 Galatians were serving. 00:18:53.180 --> 00:18:56.280 They weren't doing it for the benefit of others, but only thinking of their well-being. 00:18:58.920 --> 00:19:00.570 And the truth is when you serve in religion. 00:19:02.060 --> 00:19:02.760 You're never truly free. 00:19:04.520 --> 00:19:10.800 Because you never know how much would be enough that God might love you and embrace you and accept you for what you're doing and have done. 00:19:13.320 --> 00:19:14.030 And so under obligation. 00:19:14.580 --> 00:19:21.760 That yoke, as this passage says, rests upon you in this continuous weight of performance after performance, never knowing 00:19:21.760 --> 00:19:26.800 if you've ever satisfied a God in His holiness or the God in His holiness. 00:19:29.520 --> 00:19:36.540 As believers, when we come to a passage like this, we recognize that it should bring us pure joy. 00:19:36.540 --> 00:19:44.180 And seeing the freedom that Christ has brung us, brought us outside of religion, now knowing that we are completely free 00:19:44.180 --> 00:19:44.820 in him. 00:19:45.760 --> 00:19:52.780 In fact, he gives us the cure to a religious thinking in verse four when he says, you have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by the 00:19:52.780 --> 00:19:56.080 law, you have fallen from grace. 00:19:58.600 --> 00:20:05.760 The freedom to serve that God has given to us has been completely expressed in his grace. 00:20:07.780 --> 00:20:09.880 Romans 11 six, Romans four four. 00:20:09.880 --> 00:20:11.020 Ephesians 289. 00:20:11.020 --> 00:20:15.200 The referenced in your notes gives a beautiful definition of what grace is about. 00:20:15.200 --> 00:20:16.340 Romans 11 six. 00:20:16.440 --> 00:20:18.310 Let me give you the summation of that. 00:20:18.360 --> 00:20:22.350 It says, if you do anything to earn God's favor, that's not grace. 00:20:26.060 --> 00:20:27.080 It says otherwise. 00:20:27.080 --> 00:20:27.800 Grace is not grace. 00:20:28.600 --> 00:20:29.540 If you're working for it. 00:20:31.120 --> 00:20:35.260 The cure is to recognize the grace of God. 00:20:35.260 --> 00:20:41.080 Let me let me just say it more beautifully, more specifically, more more imaginative in our minds. 00:20:41.120 --> 00:20:45.200 Let the grace of God wreck your life. 00:20:47.500 --> 00:20:48.060 It's free. 00:20:49.780 --> 00:20:53.020 That someone would love you in such a way to give his life to you. 00:20:53.020 --> 00:20:53.580 It is free. 00:20:55.160 --> 00:20:59.080 And I don't know about you being a pastor, I love free. 00:21:00.580 --> 00:21:03.460 Sometimes McDonald's runs early morning free coffee. 00:21:04.120 --> 00:21:05.290 I'm like the first in line. 00:21:05.600 --> 00:21:06.000 That's not true. 00:21:06.760 --> 00:21:12.160 I don't like their coffee, but I would be if it were better free, right? 00:21:15.080 --> 00:21:15.740 I want free. 00:21:17.540 --> 00:21:22.060 Matter of fact, if someone says to you, this is for you, like, can I got my wife and kids, can I have some more? 00:21:22.080 --> 00:21:24.400 Come on, I take 15, please give it to me. 00:21:24.440 --> 00:21:25.420 It's free, I love free. 00:21:27.020 --> 00:21:29.540 And then you leave from that place and you begin to share it with other people. 00:21:29.640 --> 00:21:30.360 You can't help it. 00:21:30.360 --> 00:21:30.860 You're on Facebook. 00:21:31.180 --> 00:21:33.080 Just hey, you need to know this before they run out. 00:21:33.080 --> 00:21:33.740 It's free. 00:21:33.740 --> 00:21:34.990 It's down there and it's free. 00:21:35.100 --> 00:21:35.640 Go get it. 00:21:37.700 --> 00:21:39.000 It's free. 00:21:40.800 --> 00:21:45.100 The word freedom means this the state of being free. 00:21:46.020 --> 00:21:46.540 How about that? 00:21:49.760 --> 00:21:50.720 Jesus has given you. 00:21:51.960 --> 00:21:54.870 The state of being free. 00:21:57.940 --> 00:22:00.880 Not that you've had to serve him. 00:22:01.720 --> 00:22:03.560 But rather you get to serve him. 00:22:05.500 --> 00:22:09.320 Bible describes us as in chains apart from Christ. 00:22:10.620 --> 00:22:17.900 And now Christ has freed us, giving us the opportunity in that grace so freely extended that is wrecked 00:22:18.120 --> 00:22:25.200 our lives just to respond with joy, never out of obligation, because there is nothing that you could ever pay to God to 00:22:25.200 --> 00:22:27.240 pay the debt that you owe him. 00:22:27.280 --> 00:22:31.480 But Jesus has reconciled that debt, giving it to you for free. 00:22:33.500 --> 00:22:37.050 And asking you to trust in him by faith. 00:22:39.680 --> 00:22:43.460 You serve the way God has called you to serve by living the grace that has brought you freedom. 00:22:45.840 --> 00:22:47.660 Freedom is the result of his grace received. 00:22:47.840 --> 00:22:50.360 Freedom comes at a cost to the giver of freedom. 00:22:52.620 --> 00:22:58.790 And freedom gives me no cause for concern for myself, but it frees me to care for the opportunities of others. 00:23:01.200 --> 00:23:02.230 Rather than obligation. 00:23:03.320 --> 00:23:04.880 Christ has set us free. 00:23:07.620 --> 00:23:13.700 If you're interested in learning more about the difference between the gospel of grace and religion, I want to encourage you to look this up. 00:23:13.740 --> 00:23:21.200 There's an article written by Tim Keller in his book called Center Church, and it's just about the gospel versus religion. 00:23:21.200 --> 00:23:28.440 If you just Google Tim Keller gospel versus Religion and Center Church, you will find that chart pop up on internet in multiple locations, 00:23:29.200 --> 00:23:34.030 showing the variation between the freedom that we have in Christ and the obligation that we serve under religion. 00:23:34.320 --> 00:23:39.450 But what Jesus has called us to is to live free because Christ has set us free. 00:23:41.140 --> 00:23:41.700 Problem two then. 00:23:42.940 --> 00:23:50.120 Paul shares in verse 13, if we don't find ourselves prisoner under religion, feeling as if we owe 00:23:50.120 --> 00:23:55.780 God and we're obligated to owing God as if we could ever hope to pay a debt that we owe to God. 00:23:56.200 --> 00:24:02.420 He says, if that's not your struggle in verse 13, then this is another temptation we face and not serving the Lord. 00:24:02.420 --> 00:24:09.600 And so he says, for you were called to freedom, brethren, only do not turn your freedom into opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one 00:24:09.600 --> 00:24:09.980 another. 00:24:10.780 --> 00:24:15.180 For the whole law is fulfilled in the statement, you shall love the Lord your God, or love your neighbor as yourself. 00:24:15.180 --> 00:24:22.180 I keep saying that problem number two is the flesh our opportunity for 00:24:22.180 --> 00:24:22.880 the flesh? 00:24:22.880 --> 00:24:26.380 Once, once Jesus sets us free, then we just say, you know what? 00:24:26.860 --> 00:24:28.070 Jesus paid for it all. 00:24:28.120 --> 00:24:30.500 Let's live like hell because Christ has paid for the debt. 00:24:30.540 --> 00:24:32.560 And so let's not honor him with our life. 00:24:32.560 --> 00:24:35.300 Let's let's just continue to live for ourselves. 00:24:36.720 --> 00:24:41.200 And it's funny, during that entire process, we were always the hero of our own story. 00:24:42.460 --> 00:24:49.020 You think in the life of religion, it's all about you, the performance of you to free the chains that you find yourself captured in. 00:24:50.080 --> 00:24:57.120 And when you think about living in the flesh, it's still all about you letting go of Christ and living life as if you were the King and Lord 00:24:57.120 --> 00:24:57.620 of everything. 00:24:59.540 --> 00:25:05.340 And so in Galatians chapter two and verse 20, Paul lists for us just the problem of our lives. 00:25:05.340 --> 00:25:05.880 He says, I have. 00:25:06.040 --> 00:25:10.560 I have been crucified with Christ, and it's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. 00:25:10.560 --> 00:25:12.860 And the life which I now live in the flesh. 00:25:12.860 --> 00:25:17.480 I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me. 00:25:18.560 --> 00:25:22.860 I do not nullify the grace of God, for righteousness comes through the law. 00:25:23.260 --> 00:25:29.790 Then Christ died needlessly, reiterating in verse 21, religion will not give you the grace that God does. 00:25:31.060 --> 00:25:34.340 So Paul says in this passage, you know what opportunity the flesh is like. 00:25:34.780 --> 00:25:36.160 Let me give you the opposite of what he says. 00:25:36.540 --> 00:25:37.720 You're not crucified with Christ. 00:25:39.700 --> 00:25:46.540 Verse, chapter 22 and verse 20 says that for us to live in freedom of Jesus, we have to be crucified in Christ. 00:25:46.660 --> 00:25:53.300 And the reason we don't live in that freedom of Jesus is because we've not crucified ourselves in Christ. 00:25:56.900 --> 00:25:57.610 Let me give you the truth. 00:25:59.760 --> 00:26:02.360 This hurts me to think about this. 00:26:04.240 --> 00:26:04.660 The reason. 00:26:06.280 --> 00:26:08.700 I do not share. 00:26:09.760 --> 00:26:11.280 As Christ has created me to share. 00:26:12.660 --> 00:26:20.280 This is because I've allowed me, in those moments, to numb myself to the spiritual devastation 00:26:20.280 --> 00:26:21.660 that rests on the human soul. 00:26:24.860 --> 00:26:25.800 Truth is. 00:26:27.320 --> 00:26:31.080 I don't care about them as much as I care about what they think about me. 00:26:35.580 --> 00:26:42.720 If I let the grace of God wreck my life the way that God desires to, and the grace that's been demonstrated, there would be nothing that would withhold me from 00:26:42.720 --> 00:26:43.280 ever sharing. 00:26:44.940 --> 00:26:46.880 I wouldn't fear what other people have to say. 00:26:48.000 --> 00:26:49.320 It's ultimately it doesn't matter. 00:26:50.440 --> 00:26:51.430 I'm free in Christ. 00:26:52.900 --> 00:26:56.570 Don't give a rip what you think in that regards. 00:26:58.720 --> 00:27:00.100 Because Jesus has set me free. 00:27:00.320 --> 00:27:01.200 And I know where I'm bound. 00:27:04.060 --> 00:27:09.220 The reason I don't serve as Christ has called me to serve in the freedom of serving him. 00:27:10.820 --> 00:27:12.440 This is because I'm not crucified with him. 00:27:14.460 --> 00:27:19.080 In my mind, I allow to become numb to the spiritual devastation of life apart from him. 00:27:20.220 --> 00:27:23.800 Not allowing my heart to be wrecked by the grace has been given to me in Jesus. 00:27:27.380 --> 00:27:32.920 I'm never going to serve the trains of prisoners passing by me without dying to myself. 00:27:35.100 --> 00:27:41.900 To think about the goodness of someone else's well-being through the glory of God. 00:27:42.260 --> 00:27:42.970 What an opportunity. 00:27:44.860 --> 00:27:47.340 To just pause and share the gift that God's given me. 00:27:48.840 --> 00:27:55.880 Because when I'm wrecked by that grace and understand what Jesus has done, I understand that gift that was 00:27:55.880 --> 00:27:57.980 never worthy to even receive myself. 00:27:58.020 --> 00:27:58.460 So why? 00:27:58.640 --> 00:28:05.800 Why in the world would I hold on to something so precious in Christ, rather than just share it with each 00:28:05.800 --> 00:28:12.620 person who has need, knowing they have need through the same way that Christ has given it to me freely, just as I had need. 00:28:12.620 --> 00:28:18.730 Jesus came to my life and just as someone else has need, Jesus has called me into this world to share that grace with others. 00:28:21.030 --> 00:28:24.300 It's because I'm not crucified with Christ. 00:28:27.610 --> 00:28:33.380 The cure that Paul gives them is to be crucified with Christ. 00:28:34.820 --> 00:28:36.010 Notice what he says in this passage. 00:28:36.760 --> 00:28:43.920 He says, I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. 00:28:44.760 --> 00:28:46.240 And the life which I now live in the flesh. 00:28:46.300 --> 00:28:51.160 I live by the faith in the Son of God who loved me. 00:28:52.300 --> 00:28:54.240 And gave himself up for me. 00:28:56.020 --> 00:29:03.180 When we are crucified with Christ, we submit to Jesus and allow His Spirit and power to move within us. 00:29:03.540 --> 00:29:10.760 Let me just say this when it comes to the Christian life and saying I am a Christian or I'm a follower of Jesus, what you're saying through 00:29:10.760 --> 00:29:14.300 those terms is that I died to self. 00:29:15.720 --> 00:29:16.220 I have no rights. 00:29:18.360 --> 00:29:21.040 Because Jesus is Lord. 00:29:22.940 --> 00:29:23.880 I've given it all to him. 00:29:26.020 --> 00:29:26.660 Not out of guilt. 00:29:28.500 --> 00:29:29.160 But out of joy. 00:29:30.920 --> 00:29:33.300 Because I understood where I was apart from him. 00:29:34.800 --> 00:29:37.660 And I'm looking with joy to where I'm going in him. 00:29:38.780 --> 00:29:39.670 And so it's with joy. 00:29:40.240 --> 00:29:45.120 I continue to serve the God who offers me such goodness and glory to come through him. 00:29:48.220 --> 00:29:48.480 Now. 00:29:48.480 --> 00:29:53.360 I love what Paul recognizes in this passage, because he's going to do it again in verse, in chapter five and verse 16. 00:29:54.100 --> 00:29:59.440 He says, it's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. 00:30:00.400 --> 00:30:02.280 Look what he says in verse 16 of chapter five. 00:30:03.040 --> 00:30:07.740 But I say, walk by the spirit, and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. 00:30:09.380 --> 00:30:11.940 And then he gives us an outline for what that looks like. 00:30:12.000 --> 00:30:19.360 If the Spirit of God is making itself known in your life, but the fruit of the spirit is love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and gentleness and goodness, self-control 00:30:19.360 --> 00:30:23.660 against such things there is no law. 00:30:26.540 --> 00:30:27.380 Christ lives within us. 00:30:30.100 --> 00:30:33.260 It's important to pause and say to ourselves. 00:30:35.040 --> 00:30:42.000 That it's not my power that serves for God's glory, but when I surrender, it's Christ's power moving in me. 00:30:43.160 --> 00:30:44.920 So here comes the temptation for us. 00:30:45.940 --> 00:30:46.260 When. 00:30:46.520 --> 00:30:48.320 When you say to yourself, you know I'm not. 00:30:48.440 --> 00:30:49.700 I'm not the religious person. 00:30:49.780 --> 00:30:50.780 That's not my struggle. 00:30:51.300 --> 00:30:52.120 But I am. 00:30:52.220 --> 00:30:54.360 I am the person that's tempted by the flesh. 00:30:54.360 --> 00:30:55.540 That is my struggle. 00:30:56.000 --> 00:30:57.240 All know I better. 00:30:57.400 --> 00:30:59.040 I better do what the spirit says. 00:30:59.180 --> 00:31:03.700 I better live with love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness. 00:31:03.740 --> 00:31:06.480 Can I just warn you that that's not what this passage is saying? 00:31:07.440 --> 00:31:14.790 Because if you struggle in the flesh, and then that becomes your temptation to manifest the fruit of the spirit, like this passage says, is the fruit of the spirit. 00:31:15.060 --> 00:31:16.900 You are doing exactly what legalism says. 00:31:18.320 --> 00:31:23.260 You're still making it all about you and your flesh serving you. 00:31:23.260 --> 00:31:24.850 It's about you and legalism. 00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:29.200 You jump back to living life by your power and your strength all about you. 00:31:30.360 --> 00:31:34.620 But what this passage says is, it has nothing to do with you. 00:31:36.300 --> 00:31:37.200 Do you realize the gospel? 00:31:37.680 --> 00:31:44.700 As individuals, we tend to make the gospel so focused on a person, but the gospel is bigger than 00:31:44.700 --> 00:31:45.520 any of us. 00:31:45.520 --> 00:31:47.220 It's greater than just a person. 00:31:47.460 --> 00:31:47.900 Let me tell you why. 00:31:48.220 --> 00:31:52.080 When Jesus came to redeem, he didn't just come to redeem you. 00:31:52.360 --> 00:31:55.160 Jesus came to redeem all of creation. 00:31:56.940 --> 00:32:04.160 Which is why it says in Romans eight, all of creation groans under a curse, awaiting for the arrival of the coming of the Messiah, 00:32:04.160 --> 00:32:10.380 so that when Jesus comes, the curse will be lifted and the Bible tells us he'll create a new heavens and a new earth. 00:32:12.140 --> 00:32:14.640 The story of the gospel is far bigger than you. 00:32:16.120 --> 00:32:21.420 It's the power of God and the redemption of all of history, past, present, and future. 00:32:21.420 --> 00:32:23.280 And you just happen to be a part of it. 00:32:23.280 --> 00:32:30.440 And through his freedom that he has brought you get the opportunity to serve such a king, having before never had the 00:32:30.440 --> 00:32:36.200 opportunity to love and to experience joy and peace and patience in His Spirit. 00:32:36.200 --> 00:32:38.560 He has set you free to do so. 00:32:40.360 --> 00:32:40.980 So how do you do it? 00:32:43.840 --> 00:32:45.260 If I if I don't do it religiously. 00:32:47.340 --> 00:32:48.470 And I'm not living in the flesh. 00:32:48.920 --> 00:32:49.060 How. 00:32:49.500 --> 00:32:51.040 How do I see the spirit move? 00:32:54.080 --> 00:32:55.400 Answers in verse 22. 00:32:57.200 --> 00:32:59.500 But the fruit of the spirit. 00:33:02.020 --> 00:33:03.190 It's not the fruit of Nathaniel. 00:33:04.760 --> 00:33:05.640 It's the fruit of the spirit. 00:33:07.900 --> 00:33:10.660 Remember what he said in verse 16, walk in the spirit. 00:33:10.760 --> 00:33:15.320 That's a way of saying in the Greek text, be controlled by the spirit. 00:33:15.440 --> 00:33:22.560 Lay your life down, be crucified with Christ, and surrendering your 00:33:22.560 --> 00:33:28.140 life to the Lord God, then by his power works within you. 00:33:31.040 --> 00:33:32.140 This is how it works in our lives. 00:33:34.260 --> 00:33:34.940 We come before Jesus. 00:33:37.620 --> 00:33:40.060 We allow ourselves just to be wrecked by grace. 00:33:41.720 --> 00:33:45.170 We wake up in the morning to a God who didn't owe you today. 00:33:46.540 --> 00:33:50.530 Under no obligation does he have to give you today, but he gave it to you freely anyway. 00:33:52.160 --> 00:33:54.660 Under no obligation does he owe you your life. 00:33:54.800 --> 00:33:55.960 But he gave it to you anyway. 00:33:56.080 --> 00:33:59.820 Under no obligation does he have to offer you any hope in him. 00:34:00.080 --> 00:34:02.590 But he's given it to you anyway, freely out of his love. 00:34:02.840 --> 00:34:06.200 You allow your life to be wrecked by his grace. 00:34:08.380 --> 00:34:09.380 And the joy of experience. 00:34:09.620 --> 00:34:13.560 A God who has created you for relationship and offering you such hope. 00:34:13.560 --> 00:34:18.280 You take the opportunity to then surrender yourself to him and say, God, you didn't have to. 00:34:18.500 --> 00:34:20.810 You didn't have to, but you did. 00:34:20.840 --> 00:34:27.980 And so this morning, knowing this is your day for your goodness and glory, why I am created God, I surrender myself to 00:34:27.980 --> 00:34:29.739 you whatever you desire to do. 00:34:29.760 --> 00:34:33.320 And when you go into this world, you surrender and submit to God's will. 00:34:35.270 --> 00:34:36.340 And here's the beauty of it. 00:34:38.560 --> 00:34:39.150 When you surrender. 00:34:41.420 --> 00:34:44.460 The things of your life that you're looking to satisfy yourself by your own strength. 00:34:46.080 --> 00:34:47.340 You find it in the spirit. 00:34:49.659 --> 00:34:50.760 The love that you want. 00:34:52.360 --> 00:34:53.699 The joy that your heart desires. 00:34:55.840 --> 00:34:57.720 The peace, the patience, the self control. 00:34:59.480 --> 00:35:00.620 The emptiness that you want. 00:35:01.100 --> 00:35:01.240 Gone. 00:35:02.740 --> 00:35:04.720 Given to you by the one who created you. 00:35:05.020 --> 00:35:07.760 Who knows better for you what you need than you do yourself. 00:35:07.920 --> 00:35:09.560 If you would just surrender. 00:35:13.140 --> 00:35:18.220 You come to a passage like this and you realize I've been struggling with the flesh and I haven't lived for the purpose that God's created me. 00:35:18.220 --> 00:35:20.060 I haven't allowed myself to be wrecked by his grace. 00:35:20.200 --> 00:35:26.260 And you refuse to those moments not to revert back to the idea of religion in which you were obligated to prove your worth to God, which is impossible. 00:35:26.780 --> 00:35:29.880 But you simply say before him, God, I just want to surrender. 00:35:30.200 --> 00:35:37.340 And wherever this takes me, whatever the right is, no matter if a train's passing by that needs me, or you call me to the mountaintop for 00:35:37.340 --> 00:35:37.800 freedom. 00:35:37.800 --> 00:35:42.140 God, I just want to express with joy what you've created me to do. 00:35:43.720 --> 00:35:44.800 To walk by your spirit. 00:35:46.700 --> 00:35:48.020 That your fruit may be made known. 00:35:51.060 --> 00:35:52.340 Saying to us this morning. 00:35:54.040 --> 00:35:56.340 The best thing you can do for your life. 00:35:57.780 --> 00:35:58.900 This to die to yourself. 00:36:00.440 --> 00:36:02.460 That Jesus can write a new path in your heart. 00:36:05.260 --> 00:36:12.380 To not allow yourself to become numb in the flesh of your own life to the spiritual needs of those around you, but just and 00:36:12.380 --> 00:36:14.840 not fear of man just living for Jesus. 00:36:17.800 --> 00:36:20.660 That's Martin Luther King would say, let freedom ring. 00:36:22.720 --> 00:36:29.820 Not necessarily always in the physical liberty sense, but in the spiritual liberty that Christ offers us, bringing 00:36:29.820 --> 00:36:35.400 us even more liberty through him beyond the newness that we experience in Christ. 00:36:38.120 --> 00:36:41.000 So let me say this as a prayerful hope for our church this morning. 00:36:43.320 --> 00:36:49.020 May we serve that the church may reflect with joy the beauty of the one who has set us free. 00:36:50.740 --> 00:36:57.940 When we gather, may we gather in praise as those who have been wrecked by his grace to celebrate what he's done. 00:36:57.940 --> 00:37:05.100 Treating Sunday morning as a celebration service of our freedom in Christ, may we seek to minister to the train of people passing by us. 00:37:05.140 --> 00:37:11.800 May we not live in dead orthodoxy, numb to the needs of others, but live in the reality of the desperation of the human soul. 00:37:11.940 --> 00:37:18.900 Looking forward to the opportunity to share of the hope of Christ being active and freedom found in Jesus. 00:37:19.600 --> 00:37:26.620 May we take the time to help point others to freedom in Christ, because we are already free in Jesus, so we may keep dying 00:37:26.620 --> 00:37:29.080 to ourselves that we may live for Christ. 00:37:30.680 --> 00:37:33.840 Knowing that as people. 00:37:33.900 --> 00:37:35.400 When we die to ourselves. 00:37:36.780 --> 00:37:44.140 We draw near to Jesus that the power of His Spirit may freely move within us. 00:37:46.720 --> 00:37:47.320 This morning. 00:37:49.820 --> 00:37:52.520 You're not under obligation to serve because you're not under law. 00:37:54.540 --> 00:37:58.280 But you've been given that gift because of the freedom that you get in Christ. 00:38:00.300 --> 00:38:07.340 And the joy of knowing everything that he's called you to in this world, and all that's to come should be the motivation behind 00:38:07.340 --> 00:38:13.620 us to just do it with joy in our hearts for his goodness and glory. 00:38:15.060 --> 00:38:16.660 Recognizing it's not about religion. 00:38:17.720 --> 00:38:18.820 It's not about flesh. 00:38:19.020 --> 00:38:19.900 It's not about me. 00:38:20.980 --> 00:38:21.720 It's bigger than me. 00:38:23.180 --> 00:38:24.620 But I had the opportunity to be a part. 00:38:25.920 --> 00:38:27.320 If I buy, freedom would just serve. 00:38:28.680 --> 00:38:30.040 In giving my life to Christ. 00:38:31.140 --> 00:38:32.224 That his spirit may move freely freely within me.