Out of Shape
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
One of the worst things you could ever make me do is run.
I hate running. Running was never seen as anything other than a punishment to me.
However, I seem to run well and be ok with it when life is on the line!
About around 8 years ago, I ran for my life. Luckily, it was during this time that I was in some of the best shape of my life! I was playing basketball regularly, about 4-5 times a week, competing against some of the best athletes in Alabama.
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*Run song
I wasn’t free from that scenario until I was out of the house and had the ability to run with nothing hindering me…
The Christian faith is a marathon, with the starting line being our new found freedom in God the Son, our finish line being in the eternal presence of God the Father, and our commitment to discipline supported by the presence of God the Spirit in between.
Tonight, I want to talk about freedom.
Some of us are’t running this marathon because we are being hindered by something or we are just flat out, out of shape… Tonight is the night chains fall, hydration is given, and we run in confidence.
Let’s look at Galatians 5 together.
Galatians 5:1 (ESV)
1 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
Our freedom defines our identity.
Our freedom defines our identity.
What has Christ set us free from?
Romans 6:16 (ESV)
Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
Before Jesus either had either entered or before He does, we must recognize that we are born slaves to sin!
We see this struggle daily!
You may say, “I am not a slave to anything, I do what I want to do and that’s all!”
Well, my point exactly!
You were created to do what God created you to do: to glorify the Lord and serve Him well.
The sad part is, we don’t understand that this is what is truly best for us!
So how might you be enslaved to something?
You are a slave to this sin because without Christ, you can’t even much as will to glorify the Lord and serve Him well!
I am not talking about abstaining from language, drugs, sex, and alcohol here.
For that matter, church attendance doesn’t count either!
This is a matter of the heart!
Spiritual freedom is concerning the heart of man.
So you are enslaved to sin. What’s the worry? Life doesn’t seem to unpleasant. It’s bearable..
But listen to me, it’s not what is best!
What’s the problem? Your eternal destination!
Romans 6:23 (ESV)
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
You might be unwilling to look death in the eye, but your creator is warning you of it right now!
But the good news is that Christ does enter the scene!
Galatians 5:1 (ESV)
For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
It is Christ that has set us free!
How? Because the death that is our consequence due to our enslavement of sin was taken on the shoulders of Christ, Himself.
all we have to do is…
Romans 10:9 (ESV)
because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Once you do that-
Romans 6:22 (ESV)
But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.
And this freedom defines our identity… How?
We become a child of God, one being restored and redeemed in such a way to experience the life that is best for us, one that is glorifying to our Creator, one with a new heart.
Ezekiel 11:19 (ESV)
And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh,
Galatians 3:26 (ESV)
for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.
Just like every family you’ve encountered, they all function differently…
Caroline and I have similar families that hold identical values..
HOWEVER, we function very differently.
Saturday’s in the Colee house was for fun, in the King house it was for rest… or laziness.
When we become a part of God’s family, no longer in Adam but in Christ, the way we live looks very different…
Our identity is not found in this world.
Our identity is not found in this world.
John 17:14–19 (ESV)
I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.
He has set your free… You are no longer “of this world.”
We throw around the popularized Biblical phrase of being in the world but not of the world…
We focus on the difference, the abstaining from the things of the world… this phrase, according the Jesus in this passage, is less about what we are to not do, and more about what we are now called to do as sons and daughters of the most high!
Notice- we are sent into the world!
Why are we sent into the world?
John 13:35 (ESV)
By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
How are we to love one another?
John 13:31–35 (ESV)
When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once. Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’ A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
We are to love one another just as Jesus has loved us!
How did Christ love us?
John 3:16 (ESV)
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
By living out the gospel!
(It is in the gospel that we find freedom, purpose, and hope!)
Because of the gospel, we find freedom, we find purpose, and we carry hope!
The commissioning of ourselves as believers is the beginning of our marathon- where freedom was found!
But let us identify a problem that Galatians is really getting at…
We sometimes stop running.
We don’t train. We don’t hydrate. We don’t rest.
And next thing you know, we are out of shape.
We have to remember this one thing…
God is the supplier of the living water, the endurance for the race!
Freedom is given, not gained; received, not achieved.
Freedom is given, not gained; received, not achieved.
Galatians 5:13 (ESV)
13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
Freedom is a gift/privilege.
Have you received a gift before or been given a privilege?
One of the worst things is when someone abuses a privilege…
Everybody hold your phones up…
This was purchased on your behalf by your parents.
It is a privilege to have that in your hand.
You have the freedom to use it however you want…
Yet some of you abuse it daily.
You slander the names of people you hang out with.
Your addiction to pornography, social media, and the need for acceptance rules your attention.
We can do whatever we want with the things we earn.
What is given is to be stewarded.
We think that..
Freedom: Our right to sin, our privilege to do what we want to do.
What it really is…
Freedom: The Spirit-given desire to do what we should do, because without it, we will never be able to.
Look at the word “opportunity” in that verse.
Galatians 5:13 (ESV)
For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
This is a Greek military term. It means, “base of operations.”
Do you know what Paul is saying here?
Some of you are abusing your freedom in Christ and using it as a base of operations for your own selfish, sinful desires…
And when the going gets tough, you start realizing your being weighed down in sin, the run becomes harder, huffin and puffin…
You begin to depend upon your own strength, not that of the Spirit…
And there begins our tendency to earn and work our way to freedom...
And like every other time, it doesn’t work, and you find yourself confused, hurt, empty, and lost.
Now listen closely.
If you are confused, hurt, empty, or lost- let me give you the antidote to abusing your freedom son that you mgift be set free…
What is the antidote to abusing freedom?
Galatians 5:1 (ESV)
For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
STAND FIRM.
It does require action on your part.
You are fighting that sin daily. Therefore, we must seek to stand firm.
There is grace for the mistake, but not for the miss-used and abused.
What does it look like to stand firm?
Galatians 5:13 (ESV)
13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
Through LOVE, SERVE one another…
This is the Great Commission.
Antidote is serving and loving others
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This is only when you are standing firm that you have a chance to consider this...
Has Christ done something enough to cause you to go and do something about it? Is He worth both your life and death?
My question for you…
7 You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?
Get up, and run.