Freedom FROM the Flesh

Welcome guests to the family gathering, introduce yourself. Thank the band. Invite guests to parlor after service. Sorry, but I have several announcements this morning.

This weekend was our student ministry’s annual Disciple Now weekend. Unfortunately, Trevor has a couple of sick ladies at home, so he couldn’t stay this morning to tell you all about it. The theme for the weekend was “Enslaved,” and 21 students participated in three awesome Bible studies on being a slave to Christ. Yesterday, they walked around and raked the leaves in 12 yards in our neighborhood, and they got to serve some people who had some big needs, or who were really surprised at what they were doing. Trevor said that it was eye-opening to see the impact we might continue to have in our neighborhood. They worked hard, and they played hard… hundreds of virtual casualties in laser tag last night. Trevor said that the students were about as tired as he has ever seen them, except for mission trip. He wanted me to give a shout out to the host families and Bible study leaders: Sam & Brenda Swann, Eric & Monica Seiler, Dan Hill, Bryce Seiler, Matt Ricks, Brenna Seiler, and Amanda Clark. And the shirt is super comfy. =o)

This morning has been designated NM Disaster Relief Sunday, to raise awareness in the churches of our NM Baptist Disaster Relief ministry. Mary Jane Smith and Freda Challender are sitting down front in their disaster relief gear. Please find them following the service and ask them how you can be involved in this important ministry.

Tonight at 6:30 following our evening worship service, we will have Adults on Mission in Miller Hall. Curtis Smith will be speaking about his ministry in and upcoming trip to Hungary.

Next Sunday night is our bi-monthly business meeting of the church at 5:30 pm here in the Sanctuary. Before that, at 5 pm, the Financial Management ministry will hold a discussion time to review and answer any questions regarding our proposed 2020 budget. You can get a copy of the budget from the Get Connected table in the foyer. The budget will be voted on at a special called business meeting on the morning of December 8, but there won’t be any discussion at that time.

The Get Connected table is getting a lot of use today… there is also out there a petition from New Mexico Right to Life… get more info for this.

Our church-wide Thanksgiving meal will be held on Sunday, November 24, following our morning services. We need help with setup, serving, and clean up. There is a clipboard for you to sign up to help on the Get Connected table in the foyer.

Silver Seekers, our monthly meeting for the senior adult ministry, will not meet this month until the SECOND Tuesday, November 12, due to the Scholastic Book Fair for the school this week. Silver Seekers will meet at 10 am on November 12 in Miller Hall.

The church will be providing Thanksgiving meal boxes for families in need. We can do up to 12 boxes, and each box will contain a turkey or a ham (their preference) and all the fix’ns. If you need a box for Thanksgiving, or if you know a family that does, please contact either Pastor Wayne, or the office and let us know as soon as possible.

Finally, the church will be providing Thanksgiving meal boxes for families in need. We can do up to 12 boxes, and each box will contain a turkey or a ham (their preference) and all the fix’ns. If you need a box for Thanksgiving, or if you know a family that does, please contact either Pastor Wayne, or the office and let us know as soon as possible.

Opening

As we have been studying this little letter to the churches of Galatia during our series “Dear Church,” we have seen that Paul mostly focuses on legalism, the idea that we can earn or keep our right standing before God, called justification, through merit of our own, rather than only by God’s amazing grace and mercy in Christ. Today however, and for most of the rest of the book, Paul shifts gears a little bit in order to head a problem off at the pass, so to speak.

Let’s look at our focal passage together, as we stand in honor of the Word of the Lord:

Galatians 5:13–18 CSB

13 For you were called to be free, brothers and sisters; only don’t use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement: Love your neighbor as yourself. 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out, or you will be consumed by one another. 16 I say then, walk by the Spirit and you will certainly not carry out the desire of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Pray

We’ve spent a lot of time talking about freedom and slavery during this series. These are major themes in the book of Galatians. Paul has spent nearly the whole letter to this point arguing against legalism because legalism enslaves us.

The idea behind legalism is that if we keep the rules well enough, then somehow God is obligated to save us. So we manufacture rules so that we can make sure we keep them. It’s the “To-Do/Not-To-Do” list of life. The problem is that Paul has already said here in Galatians that this is not how it works. In fact, trying to earn our salvation through the Jewish laws, as the Judaizers (legalists) were trying to get the Galatians to do, really brought a curse, according to :

Galatians 3:10 CSB

10 For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, because it is written, Everyone who does not do everything written in the book of the law is cursed.

Following the law for our salvation imprisons us, and shows us that freedom must be given to us by God, it cannot be earned.

Galatians 3:22 CSB

22 But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin’s power, so that the promise might be given on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ to those who believe.

gal 3:

One of the beautiful aspects of being saved only by God’s grace through faith is that when we are saved by God, we have a complete change of status before Him.

Galatians 4:7 CSB

7 So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then God has made you an heir.

So Paul has made this argument clearly about the fact that trying to earn our salvation is pointless. We can’t be good enough. And now, God has set us free in Christ:

Galatians 5:1 CSB

1 For freedom, Christ set us free. Stand firm then and don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery.

So Paul has addressed this idea of legalism. But there’s another side to this coin, and Paul can see the problem coming:

Since it is for freedom that Christ set us free, then we have the authority to just live however we want to live, right? We’re free, and that’s what freedom is: doing whatever we want, isn’t it?

Nope.

1) Doing whatever you want to do isn’t freedom.

Doing whatever you want to do isn’t freedom.

We like to think of freedom as doing whatever we want to do. We think that we understand freedom, being people who live in the United States of America. We even say things like, “It’s a free country,” when someone wants to do something. But is that really what it means to be “free?” Certainly not in the eyes of

But does Paul really mean that we have the authority to do whatever we want when he says that we are free in Christ? Certainly not. Doing whatever we want to do is called license.

License and legalism are kind of two sides of the same coin. Legalism is about following all the rules on our own and in our own strength so that we can obligation God’s love for us. License is literally defined as using freedom irresponsibly (m-w.com). It’s saying that there aren’t any rules that we have to follow at all. We have the authority to live however we want to live because of the freedom that God has given us in Christ.

Paul addresses this question of license in verse 13:

That’s its own kind of slavery. It’s called license. Kind of the opposite of legalism.

Galatians 5:13 CSB

13 For you were called to be free, brothers and sisters; only don’t use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love.

Here at the beginning of verse 13, Paul says that we who are in Christ were “called to be free.” This looks back at verse 1, which we saw a moment ago. So our calling is a calling of freedom. But then Paul addresses the question of license (also called licentiousness):

expound 13a-b

He says not to use our freedom as an “opportunity” for the flesh. What does he mean here?

This word for “opportunity” was a military term that meant a pretext, or an excuse: It’s kind of like me going a little out of my way so that I’ll “happen” to drive by a Starbucks. I may not actually need a cup of coffee, but hey… there’s a Starbucks right there, and I would like a coffee, so I should go to Starbucks. I mean really… does anyone need a grande nitro cold brew with sweet cream? Maybe go a step further here?

Paul is telling us not to use our freedom as an excuse to run headlong into serving the flesh. The flesh is our fallen human nature, the center of human pride and self-willing.

Living in license happens when we misapply the doctrine of God’s grace. To use our freedom as an opportunity for the flesh is like saying that since God loves us so much and wants to display His grace so fully, that we should go ahead and do Him a favor and intentionally live in such a way that He keeps having to pour out His grace on us abundantly.

Paul addressed it this way in :

Paul wrote about this in romans 6:1-2:

Romans 6:1–2 CSB

1 What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply? 2 Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

Paul declares that NO! We can’t just heap sin upon sin, forcing God to pour out grace upon grace to cover it. The perspective is wrong, and it’s an affront to the message of the Gospel. We aren’t to live for sin if we’re in Christ, because not only have we died to the law, but we have also died to sin.

Romans 6:1–11 CSB

1 What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply? 2 Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of his resurrection. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, 7 since a person who has died is freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him, 9 because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again. Death no longer rules over him. 10 For the death he died, he died to sin once for all time; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Wiersbe quote on freedom.

Romans 6:11 CSB

11 So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Paul declares that NO! We can’t just heap sin upon sin, forcing God to pour out grace upon grace to cover it. The perspective is wrong, and it’s an affront to the message of the Gospel.

Because of God’s incredible mercy, Christ was crucified and died in our place, taking the punishment for our sins on Himself. But Jesus didn’t stay dead: He defeated death by rising again, never to die again. And we, if we belong to God through faith in Christ, have died to sin with Him: sin no longer has mastery over us. We walk in newness of life (verse 4). And since we have been joined with Christ in death, we will also be united with Him in His resurrection. Since this is the case, if we are in Christ, we are to consider, or see ourselves, as dead to sin, but alive to God.

When we take the perspective of license, that we can live however we want to live and it’s acceptable to God, then we miss the beauty of God’s grace in Christ. We don’t live for God in order to make ourselves acceptable to Him or to merit is favor, as in legalism. We live for God in order to please Him… to make Him happy.

For just as Jesus died on the cross

I have two daughters. Both of them will always be my daughters. They both make choices that make me sad, but they could never make a choice that would cause me to not love them, not care for them, not see them as my beloved children. However, they can both certainly make choices and decisions that gladden my heart and cause me to rejoice. Just because one decision frustrates me and the other pleases me doesn’t change the status of my love for them or their standing as my children. So it is with God.

The churches in Galatia and Rome weren’t the only churches to deal with this issue. It appears that the church in Corinth actually practiced this idea, and used the idea of Christian freedom to justify their sinful choices. Paul addresses their perspective twice in Corinthians:

1 Corinthians 6:12 CSB

12 “Everything is permissible for me,” but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me,” but I will not be mastered by anything.

1 Corinthians 6:12–13 CSB

12 “Everything is permissible for me,” but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me,” but I will not be mastered by anything. 13 “Food is for the stomach and the stomach for food,” and God will do away with both of them. However, the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

1 cor

1 Corinthians 10:23 CSB

23 “Everything is permissible,” but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible,” but not everything builds up.

1 cor 10:

1 Corinthians 6:12 CSB

12 “Everything is permissible for me,” but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me,” but I will not be mastered by anything.

Notice that Paul quotes their idea, but then explains that while we are free in Christ, not everything is beneficial, or edifying (builds up). He also in verse 6 said, “but I will not be mastered by anything.” We have a master: the Lord.

Notice that Paul quotes their idea, but then explains that while we are free in Christ, not everything is beneficial, or edifying (builds up). In short, not everything is good for us. He also in verse 6 said, “but I will not be mastered by anything.” We have a master: the Lord. If we use our freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, we enslave ourselves to sin all over again in a way, because:

Romans 6:1–2 CSB

1 What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply? 2 Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

Jude 4 CSB

4 For some people, who were designated for this judgment long ago, have come in by stealth; they are ungodly, turning the grace of our God into sensuality and denying Jesus Christ, our only Master and Lord.

2) Living in license is its own form of bondage.

2) Living in license enslaves

The world might think that doing whatever you want to do whenever you want to do it is freedom, but it truly isn’t. It’s just a different type of bondage.

If Christ has set us free from the power of sin and the flesh through His death on the cross.

Warren Wiersbe said:

Opportunity: an excuse or pretext: don’t use your freedom as an excuse to run headlong into the flesh. This is license.

“Freedom does not mean I am able to do whatever I want to do. That’s the worst kind of bondage. Freedom means I have been set free to become all that God wants me to be, to achieve all that God wants me to achieve, to enjoy all that God wants me to enjoy.”

Both legalism and license cause us to look completely at ourselves. Think about it: Legalism says, “How do I make God love me?” License says, “How do I make myself happy?” It’s a subtle trap, because we think that happiness is the goal of life. But it’s not. We have been created with a purpose: one that we see in verses 13 and 14: to live not for ourselves, but for God and for others.

Galatians 5:13–14 CSB

“Serve one another through love.” “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Yes, we are called to be free, but that freedom is to be used in an others-focused manner, both in serving “one another” in the church, and in serving our “neighbor” as ourselves, which includes both those inside the church and those outside the church. Martin Luther said:

Galatians 5:6 CSB

6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision accomplishes anything; what matters is faith working through love.

Romans 15:1–6 CSB

1 Now we who are strong have an obligation to bear the weaknesses of those without strength, and not to please ourselves. 2 Each one of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. 3 For even Christ did not please himself. On the contrary, as it is written, The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me. 4 For whatever was written in the past was written for our instruction, so that we may have hope through endurance and through the encouragement from the Scriptures. 5 Now may the God who gives endurance and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, according to Christ Jesus, 6 so that you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with one mind and one voice.

Romans 15:1–3 CSB

The difference between the bondage of legalism and the bondage of license is one of timing: legalism puts us in bondage before we do anything. License puts us in bondage afterwards.

“A Christian is free and independent in every respect, a bondservant to none. A Christian is a dutiful servant in every respect, owing a duty to everyone.”

Church, in the Gospel Christ set us an example to follow: the fact that He didn’t serve Himself, but those who needed His service. In , Paul wrote:

Leviticus 19:18 CSB

18 Do not take revenge or bear a grudge against members of your community, but love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.

Church, in the Gospel Christ set us an example to follow: the fact that He didn’t serve Himself, but those who needed His service.

Romans 15:2–3 CSB

2 Each one of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. 3 For even Christ did not please himself. On the contrary, as it is written, The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.

Notice that Paul contrasts license with serving one another through love (13), and in verse 14 says that the whole law is fulfilled in loving our neighbor as ourselves.

The difference between the bondage of legalism and the bondage of license is one of timing: legalism puts us in bondage before we do anything. License puts us in bondage afterwards.

Yes, it is for freedom that Christ set us free, but that freedom isn’t something that is to be used so that we can just do whatever we want, because when we do that, we are no longer able to fulfill the true reason that we have been set free: serving other people.

The difference between the bondage of legalism and the bondage of license is one of timing: legalism puts us in bondage before we do anything. License puts us in bondage afterwards.

The difference between the bondage of legalism and the bondage of license is one of timing: legalism puts us in bondage before we do anything. License puts us in bondage afterwards. It does this by making us focus solely on ourselves, our needs, and our desires. The flesh is selfish. It wants what it wants when it wants it.

1 petwer 2:11

1 Peter 2:11 CSB

11 Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and exiles to abstain from sinful desires that wage war against the soul.

And when we live from that mindset, then anything that doesn’t fit in with the desires of the flesh are in the way. There are about 300 people in this room. What if each of us came in this morning with the all-powerful desire to have our needs met, to have our wants catered to, and to have things our way? It would be terrible.

This is displayed in verse 15:

Galatians 5:6 CSB

6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision accomplishes anything; what matters is faith working through love.

gal 5:

Galatians 5:15 CSB

15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out, or you will be consumed by one another.

Verse 15 expresses that if we live in license, we don’t fulfill 14, and in fact, we destroy one another like animals, fighting for ourselves alone.

Verse 15 expresses that if we live in license, we don’t serve one another in love, we don’t fulfill the picture of the law by loving our neighbor as ourselves, and in fact, we destroy one another like animals, biting and devouring one another, fighting for ourselves alone. Paul actually says that we can see where we’re going by what we’re doing. We need to ask: “What is my attitude like toward others right now? Am I biting and devouring?” If I am, then I’m on the wrong path, going the wrong direction. It’s a question of heart.

Verse 15 expresses that if we live in license, we don’t fulfill 14, and in fact, we destroy one another like animals, fighting for ourselves alone.

James 4:1–3 CSB

1 What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don’t they come from your passions that wage war within you? 2 You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and wage war. You do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

james

In this way, we enslave ourselves and others to our selfish choices.

We enslave others to our choices, but we more than likely also enslave ourselves.

How does this happen? Think about it like this:

3) Instead of walking in the flesh, walk in the Spirit.

James 4:1–3 CSB

Galatians 5:1 CSB

1 For freedom, Christ set us free. Stand firm then and don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery.

When I’m focused on myself, I’m not focused on God, and I’m certainly not focused on others (except for maybe what they can do for me). So I’m not living out what I’m supposed to be. I’m enslaved to my own appetites and desires. As a result, when you have a need, I won’t be either willing or available to meet it. I’m too self-absorbed. Not only that, but I will likely demand that my needs be met, rather than putting others before me. So now my flesh is attempting to enslave you because of my desires.

1 Peter 2:11 CSB

11 Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and exiles to abstain from sinful desires that wage war against the soul.

The call to freedom, then, is the call to oneness in Christ and to loving service inside and outside of the believing community. The Galatians were not saved to be a group of isolated individuals, and neither are we. We are brought out of bondage to live in community with one another. And how does that work? It works because of our unity in the Spirit:

3) Instead of walking in the flesh, walk in the Spirit.

How we “walk” is our mode of life. It’s how we live. So Paul commands that we don’t walk in the flesh, but in the Spirit.

Galatians 5:16 CSB

16 I say then, walk by the Spirit and you will certainly not carry out the desire of the flesh.

Galatians 5:16–18 CSB

16 I say then, walk by the Spirit and you will certainly not carry out the desire of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Paul says that if we walk in the Spirit, then we will not carry out the desires of the flesh.

But there is a conflict: the flesh opposes the Spirit, and the Spirit opposes the flesh. Paul probably is saying that because of the flesh, we don’t do the good we want to do.

Paul says that if we walk in the Spirit, then we will not carry out the desires of the flesh.

Jesus told His disciples that it was good that He was going away (being crucified and ascending to heaven), because then He would send the Holy Spirit (). The Spirit comes to convict the world about sin, righteousness, and judgment (), and He teaches us and reminds us of what Jesus said (). He always testifies about Jesus (). The Holy Spirit does so much!

But I want to zoom in on one particular passage about the Holy Spirit for a moment:

John 16:13–15 CSB

13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. For he will not speak on his own, but he will speak whatever he hears. He will also declare to you what is to come. 14 He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. 15 Everything the Father has is mine. This is why I told you that he takes from what is mine and will declare it to you.

john 16:13-14

So the Spirit is the truth as Jesus is the truth, declares to us the truth, and He always glorifies Jesus. Back in our passage in , Paul’s vocabulary of walking in the Spirit is to go where the Spirit is going, to listen to His voice, to discern His will, and to follow His guidance. But there’s a problem:

But that’s why there is a conflict: the flesh opposes the Spirit, and the Spirit opposes the flesh. Paul probably is saying that because of the flesh, we don’t do the good we want to do. But because we have been set free from sin through the death of Jesus Christ and our faith in that work, we don’t have to give in. We don’t have to obey our sinful nature.

Galatians 5:17 CSB

17 For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want.

There’s a conflict: the flesh opposes the Spirit, and the Spirit opposes the flesh. Paul probably is saying that because of the flesh, we don’t do the good we want to do. We can’t have it both ways: we don’t get to live for ourselves AND for God.

gal 2

But because we have been set free from sin through the death of Jesus Christ and our faith in that work, we don’t have to give in. We don’t have to obey our sinful nature.

Romans 8:1–4 CSB

1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, 2 because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3 What the law could not do since it was weakened by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as a sin offering, 4 in order that the law’s requirement would be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

So there is a conflict: the flesh opposes the Spirit, and the Spirit opposes the flesh. Paul probably is saying that because of the flesh, we don’t do the good we want to do.

Remember Warren Wiersbe’s quote earlier: our freedom in Christ means that we have been set free to become all that God wants us to be, to achieve all that God wants us to achieve, to enjoy all that God wants us to enjoy. We are free from both the law of the legalism and the law of fleshly license in Christ, because both legalism and license are under the law. Both are fleshly systems that bring us nothing positive from an eternal perspective.

This is why Paul ends with verse 18:

Both legalism and license are under the law. Both are fleshly systems that bring us nothing positive from an eternal perspective.

Judges 21:25 CSB

25 In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did whatever seemed right to him.

Galatians 5:18 CSB

18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

judges

Galatians 2:19–20 CSB

19 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live for God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

gal 2:19-20

Galatians 4:6 CSB

6 And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!”

Romans 7:4–6 CSB

4 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you also were put to death in relation to the law through the body of Christ so that you may belong to another. You belong to him who was raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions aroused through the law were working in us to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we have been released from the law, since we have died to what held us, so that we may serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the old letter of the law.

If we follow the Spirit, we are free from both. And in the passage the follows, which we will look at next week, Paul gets even more practical and specific.

romans 7:

Romans 8:1–4 CSB

Closing

1 Thessalonians 4:7–8 CSB

7 For God has not called us to impurity but to live in holiness. 8 Consequently, anyone who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.

1 Peter 4:1–3 CSB

1 Therefore, since Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same understanding—because the one who suffers in the flesh is finished with sin—2 in order to live the remaining time in the flesh no longer for human desires, but for God’s will. 3 For there has already been enough time spent in doing what the Gentiles choose to do: carrying on in unrestrained behavior, evil desires, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and lawless idolatry.

John 8:36 CSB

36 So if the Son sets you free, you really will be free.

Closing

There is an old story (whether it’s true or just an example, I’m not sure) from the mid-19th century before the Emancipation Proclamation. A northern gentleman went to a slave auction and purchased a young slave girl. As they walked away from the auction, the man turned to the girl and told her, “You’re free.”

Amazed, she responded, “You mean, I’m free to do whatever I want?”

“Yes,” he said.

“And to say whatever I want to say?”

“Yes, anything.”

Opportunity: an excuse or pretext: don’t use your freedom as an excuse to run headlong into the flesh. This is license.

“And to be whatever I want to be?”

“Yes.”

“And even go wherever I want to go?”

“Yes,” he answered with a smile. “You’re free to go wherever you’d like.”

She looked at him intently and said, “Then I will go with you.”

John 8:36 CSB

36 So if the Son sets you free, you really will be free.

The beauty of our freedom in Christ is that we get to choose to serve Jesus.

The beauty of our freedom in Christ is that we can choose.

But we only have this freedom if we belong to God through faith in Jesus. That’s what it means to be “in Christ.” I’ve told about what the Gospel is this morning. If you have never trusted in Jesus for your salvation, then you are lost this morning. You don’t have the Spirit, and you are enslaved to the flesh according to Scripture. God loves you, and He wants to be in a relationship with you, to save you from the punishment your sins deserve and to make you new from the inside out. Surrender your life to Him this morning, and be saved. And come and tell us about your surrender to Christ, so we can all celebrate with you!

I’ll be here, Camille will be here, and Joe and Kerry will be in the back to pray with you and celebrate with you.

Is the Lord calling you to join this church family and serve Him here? Come and share that with us as well.

If there is some other business you need to do with God this morning, you can feel free to come and pray at the steps, or come and pray with one of us.

Call the band down.

Pray.

Mention the parlor.

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