Abe Matos - 4 de Julio

So good morning, Church by the Glades. How are you all this morning? For those who don't know me, my name is A.B. I used to be a pastor here at Church by the Glades. And today, again, it is, I don't know, I really want to say it's good for me to be at home. I don't know who I am, but years and years ago, I went straight to the point, 14 years ago, in the summer of 2012, I walked through these doors and I was broken, I was senseless, and I was 45 days after I had gone to Iraq and returned to the United States Army. I didn't know where my life was at that moment. And in this place, Church by the Glades, is where God discovered the purpose in my life. The call of God in my life happened here. And I say all this to say a couple of things. Number one, the scripture says that you give honor to him who deserves honor. And I want to give all the glory, first of all, to Christ Jesus, my Lord and Savior. But I would be wrong if I didn't put myself on this platform and I would give a great ovation to Pastor David Hughes. Many of you know this, it's just a reminder, but Pastor David is a man of God and I am one. And I know that there are many of you here today that can be classified in the same way that I would be classified. Thousands and thousands and thousands of people in South Florida whose lives have been impacted

by the ministry of Pastor David. And there's so much to say about this place. I don't want to do it all about me. But yesterday, I turned 37 years old. Thank you. And I was thinking this morning while I was praying and I was getting ready. Man, I just, this is the last thing I'm going to say about Church by the Glade today. I can't think of a more formal place in which I have become a man, husband, and father than this place. And I say that to encourage you, that maybe someone is here visiting for the first time today and I want to motivate them that there is nothing like the local church. You have to understand that the local church, whatever church you choose, if it's Church by the Glade, incredible. But your local church is God's plan A for the world. It's God's plan A for the world. That Jesus Christ, before he went up to heaven again, after he was resurrected, he gave his disciples the great commission to go out into the world and become disciples. And that will be the basis of the movement that we are part of now, millions of years later. And I can also tell you that this is the occasion to celebrate July 4th.

What a privilege it is to be in a country where we can praise freely. It's a privilege. That's a privilege. Listen, I am a little ashamed to say that I am a romantic without need for the United States of America. I was born on July 4th. My mom was giving birth on July 3rd and the doctor asked her if she wanted to hold on to have the baby born on July 4th. And she said, yes, this woman held on. So I was born for this. I remember being five or six years old and being in the elementary school in Sunrise, Florida and hearing the national anthem for the first time in my life and I felt something that was inflating in my chest and I didn't know what it was at that moment. Now I know it was pride. I know what it was like. I remember being in biology class at the seventh grade at 9.30 in the morning and my biology teacher brought that little screen that they had in a cart and I remember being a witness in real time of the second plane crashing with the towers in 9.11 and I remember seeing the images on CNN of the American troops going there to do something about it. I said, I want to do that.

I'm so proud to be American that my golden retriever dog is called America. I'm not kidding. All that being said, I want to say that our country has a long way to go. We still have so much to do. We still have so much to do. We still have so much to do. We still have so much to do. We still have so much to do. But the tension is that we know that we have so much to go through, but at the same time we have to be grateful for the United States of America, and I'm telling you this from my American experience. My mom, she immigrated here now almost nearly 40 years ago. And my mom made a living, she kept cleaning houses in the south of Florida, and she would take us in the summer. And I cleaned houses all over San Florida, Boca, Weston, Parla, maybe I cleaned some of her houses, and I'm telling you, they were super clean. I can guarantee you that. And that's how I discovered what the kitchens and the warehouses of the rich white guys looked like. So many gummy bears, so many gummy bears, Snickers, chocolates, it was insane. And here's what I remember. I remember my mom on her knees cleaning other people's bathrooms. And she did that so that my sister and I could have only been in places where we could have only dreamed of being before. And that's the American experience. And that's why God has done here in America and what he has done. God may not be American, but there's something special. There's something special. And I choose to be grateful for all of that. But here's the truth. We can't make the mistake of believing that freedom was an American idea. The birthplace of freedom was not in Philadelphia in 1776. The founding fathers were not the ones who invented freedom. It was our heavenly fathers who had that idea.

Freedom is intellectual property of heaven. And this is how I know that God had the idea of freedom. Because you can live in a free country and still be enslaved. Or you can live in an empire and still be free. You can live in a free country and still be enslaved. Or you can be under an empire and still be free. How I know that personally, with the anecdote of the last 10 years, I've been in Cuba for a long time. And going there to help Cuban pastors as a missionary. And I've discovered that there are Cubans at home. What I've discovered in my many trips to Cuba, interacting with Cuban pastors, I, being a pastor in the United States of America, and having conversations with them, I've met pastors who are literally carrying churches underneath and in secret because they are afraid of being persecuted by the Cuban government. And what I've learned, what has given me conviction, and what God has used to really break my heart, is to sit down and think, who is free? I have an iPhone and a passport, but this man who is secretly leading a church seems to be freer. And he is the one who inspires me. Do you know why that is? It's because of God's freedom. God's freedom is not dictated by politics, or governments, or laws, or the law of civil rights. God's freedom is something that is deeply spiritual. We know that those writings of freedom were based and written under dictators. He says that all of these papers were written in the scriptures, and they were written to inform us about a relationship that we have with Christ. And most of these scriptures were written under the hard hand of the Roman Empire.

How do we know that Christ Jesus came to give us freedom? And this all happened under the oppression of a tyrannical government. If we go to Galatians chapter 5, verse 1, we read this. It's one of the most definitive verses that we have in the scriptures about freedom. And it says in this way, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Let me tell you about Paul, the man who wrote this. Contextually, while he was writing this, what was happening? He wrote to a group of Christians in Galatia, a small church that was just being built. And he says, it is for freedom that God has set us free. This is fascinating because Paul did not have the letter of freedom. In those days, they did not have the freedom to praise, they did not have the freedom to gather. They had no freedom of the press, no freedom of the press, no constitution that said to Paul and to the Christians that they could do this without any fear. No, they lived under the Roman Cesar. And what we know about Paul, many scholars say that he wrote this in his third mission trip. And if it's true that Paul wrote this in his third journey, we know that Paul was under a few years from being imprisoned and killed. And do you think Paul was under any impression that his life could have ended any other way? But at the hands of the Roman Empire, do you think he was under any illusion that he was going to make it out of life and die of natural causes? No, Paul knew the risk he was taking to lead, to be a leader of a church like this. And he still says this, that it's because of freedom that Christ has set us free. And that's how we know that God's freedom and the freedom that sometimes we are mistaken for thinking that we have is different. We have to establish that there is a difference between our version of freedom, what we have been led to believe is freedom, and the freedom that Christ has given us. Let me give you some examples. Number one, when we think of freedom, we typically associate it with this term called autonomy. Autonomy, that word comes from the Latin word autonomous, which means to govern yourself. In our version, I am the boss. Like who says, I choose what I want to do in my own life.

I make the choices. And you know what? For me, that's really idea that I choose what I want to do. And then oftentimes, I'm awoken by the brutal reality that actually the person that I have to free from this is myself. That idea goes out the window when I recognize that the slave master, the most oppressive slave master that I have in my life is the man that is looking at me in the mirror. But God's freedom, God's freedom gives me the freedom to not do whatever I want to do. Not be led by the desires of the flesh, by the desires of my eyes and my thoughts. And anything that comes to my mouth, say no. That is true freedom. Sometimes we mistake freedom for the freedom to cure our own self-discipline. I don't know about you, but I don't know about you, but I love, I love, I love affirmation. I love, I love affirmation. I love that people think good of me. That people love me a lot. You know what? I'm also, at the same time, exhausted of trying to manipulate this image, this platform. Knowing that when I go to the back of here, I'm going to have to deal with the real reality of who I am when no one is looking at me. And that tires me out. The freedom that God has given me. That freedom to know myself completely and to be loved completely. Not to put up with my pain, my guilt, my mistakes, but to be loved and embraced by my Savior. We've been, you guys have been led to believe that freedom in relationships is to keep your options open. Oh, like, opening your wild oats. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, don't put up with obligations too fast. Get it all out of your system first. You're free to break with this or that for no reason other than

because it doesn't seem like your requirements are being met by that person. You're free to do this or that and pick another. Or for some that have been in that type of life, there's no shade for you. That's what we've been led to believe these days. And I'm not saying this to embarrass you, but if we were one in front of the other with a cup of coffee and you would keep it real, you would say that all your open options has led you to feel lonely at the end of the day. And that the freedom that God has given you is the freedom to be free. God wants you to truly have the freedom to love someone unconditionally. The freedom to be with someone, no matter what their flaws are, and tell them, I choose you, and let them choose you. That is the agreement with God that you have to make. I'm going to be some boyfriend who feels bad today. I'm going to say, homie, you are free. You have the freedom. God has given you the freedom to take that commitment. That is the true freedom. What about the freedom to, quote unquote, protect your peace? What about the freedom to, quote unquote, protect your peace? In other words, simply to cut off people from left to right, because they were honest. Because they don't do it for you anymore. Because they weren't honest. Because that relationship or that friendship is inconvenient. Cut off with parents, with family members, because you don't feel complete with them. And somehow, they are going to continue to be the main character

and the protagonist of the conversations that you are having in your mind. That is not true freedom. You are renting. You are coming and going in your soul, and you are letting these problems live without paying rent in it. You bought the lie that you cut off all these people from your life. No, the true freedom of Christ is the freedom to forgive. And if it is appropriate, because it is not always appropriate, but also God has given you the freedom to reconcile and to regroup again. And to be an expression of what it means for God to repair broken things. That is the true freedom. The true difference between the freedom that we think we have and the freedom that God has come to give us, is that the freedom that the world has sold us is a freedom that is always based on circumstances. And that is the really bad thing, that it is not only based on circumstances, but circumstances that are out of our control. And that is not true freedom. If your freedom depends on circumstances that are out of your control, how many of you know that that is not true freedom? But God's freedom cannot be stolen from you. That freedom cannot be stolen from you. That is why Paul speaks and writes about freedom, even though he is not very far from being imprisoned by himself. God's freedom is never stolen from you. The freedom of God cannot be stolen from you. But my second point, even though it cannot be stolen from you, you have to understand that you can give it up.

I want you to understand the second part of Galatians 5, verse 1. It says, Stand firm and do not let yourself be burdened again by slavery. Slavery. It says, stand firm and do not let yourself be burdened again. And what Paul is inferring here is that God has given you freedom that cannot be taken from you unless you allow it. There are two groups of people. There are people who abuse God's grace. There are people who abuse God's grace. They take that grace. Let me see how far this can go. They have a thought. Let me see how far I can take this. What is so great is God. And what God forgives. What is the difference? Let me tell you. There are people who abuse God's grace. And there are people who are simply obsessed with gaining God's grace. And I am honest enough to tell you that at one hour, I like to fall flat. I like to abuse God's grace and I like to think it wins. How can I go and be taken again by the good grace of God? This group of people Paul wrote. This group of people that are obsessed with gaining God's grace. They have been freed from the law. They have been freed from all religiosity and rituals. That is required in order to have a connection with God.

with God. And Jesus came to fill the law so that we would not have to do it ourselves. But these Galatians wanted so much to earn the love and grace of God that they began to submit themselves and to submit others to these regimes, to these religiosities, to which they had no need. And Paul is telling them to be careful, because you are going to go back to that slavery that God has set you free from, that Christ has set you free from. And why is that? And why are you going to set yourself again under that yoke of slavery? Why is it that after we have been set free from having to earn God's love, why is it that after we have been set free from having to earn God's love, we decide to embrace it again? Because you know what? The chains feel more comfortable the second time. The chains of slavery, the truth is that spiritual slavery, if we are being honest, is more familiar. It feels more predictable. We know what to expect. So we end up going back to it. And this is what we have to remember. Ultimately, if we want to avoid finding ourselves surrendering our freedom that Christ gave us on the cross, either because we enjoy our sin more than we should, or because we are simply obsessed with gaining God's approval. But ultimately, the key to enjoying the freedom that God has given us is to believe. It is to believe completely in Him. And when we don't feel worthy, when we feel that we have to do something to reach and earn the grace of God, we have to say, no sir, I trust that your work on the cross is enough to give me the power and authority over my flesh so that I may not be reigned by that sin anymore. The third and last point is that freedom from freedom is only half of the gospel. It obsesses from the sin that used to help us to break free. Now we have been freed from the sin that held us back. We have been freed from this. We have been brought back to that sin. And you say, no, no, no, because we have to be freed from something so that we can be freed for something. You see, being freed from something to be freed for something. Okay, being freed for something takes us forward. And what have we been freed from? Let's see what it says in Galatians. It says, you my brothers and sisters were called to be free, but do not use your freedom to be wrapped in flesh instead of serving one another humbly with love. What Paul is saying, Paul, is that you have been freed so that you can be free for, not for, so that you can be free for whom? For someone else. To serve one another. You have been freed from that sin so that you can serve one another.

And this is where we can go back to our country in mind. What it is our country trusts, it's prescribed in the Holy Scriptures. It's for us to recognize that the true celebration of freedom that started 250 years ago with this experiment called the United States of America, it's for us to bend now in what it means to serve one another. Fireworks here in Coral Springs were amazing. But it's not just that they were amazing. The fireworks were incredible. But you can say that in New York they were better. And the Statue of Liberty, before I met my wife, the Statue of Liberty was my favorite statue. It's beautiful. And yesterday she stood proudly in that bay with that torch. And yesterday was bathed in glorious fireworks, and we can see how he stands for freedom. But for thousands of years, our Christ Jesus has taught us truly what it means to be free. Because freedom is like a tower, not a torch. And when I say Christ Jesus, it's the night that he was washed, his disciples. He sat on his knees with a towel around his body, and he washed the feet of his disciples. I want to tell you a secret about the last supper. You had the tax collector, Matthew, and you had Peter Simon. And I want you to know that Matthew, the tax collector, and Peter Simon would have every reason to hate each other. Every reason. If anyone hated Matthew the most, it was the other Simon. Because Simon had dedicated his whole life to go against the Roman Empire. And do you know who worked for the Roman Empire? Matthew, the tax collector. And who else was there? Judas. The one who would deny it and the one who would surrender it. And I say that to remind you that Christ Jesus washed the feet of people who voted differently, who thought differently, who acted differently. The prerequisite for us to serve each other and to put ourselves on one knee and to proverbially wash each other's feet is to think. It's not to think the same things. And it's not to do the same things. It's to help each other in all things.

That's what truly is freedom. Let's save together, Lord. Father, we desperately need you, Lord. We desperately need you to remind us. What truly is is to be free of all things that hold us back. And desperately we need you to free us from ego and pride and arrogance and selfishness and those things that hold us back from recognizing the image of God in other people, Lord. And I pray that Church by the Glaze is a city on a mountain and that we are a model and an example of what is seen. Teach the world and our country what it is to serve one another and to be free. God, you can bless the United States of America. And you can continue to let us reach a nation full of people who don't know you yet. And we say it all in the precious name of Christ Jesus.