FREED | The Call to Freedom

The text tonight is Galatians 5, 1, 13 through 15. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh, but rather serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command. Love your neighbor as yourself. If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. When I first moved to the United States, there was a tradition I was unaware of. I went to a baseball game. And before they did the game, they sung the national anthem. I didn't know the national anthem. So everybody's there with their hands over their hearts, hats off in reverence. And they get to that line, oh, the land of the free. And everybody starts clapping and cheering. I was like, it hasn't even ended and you guys are already vocalizing your love for this nation. And they said, the home of the brave. Now, I grew up, Australia is a penal colony. Australia exists, it was founded by convicts because of the Revolutionary War in the United States,

when the English had nowhere else to put their prisoners. And so they shoved them on the bottom of the earth called Australia. All that to say, we don't live with a freedom narrative that people cheer for partway through the song. America, land of the free. And then I moved to New York and what's the most iconic image of New York? What is it? Statue of what? Liberty, land of the free, Statue of Liberty. I can't think of anything more freeing than someone holding a torch of freedom up. Do you remember what's written on the base of it? Emma Lazarus's, a couple lines from her poem, give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. When I became a US citizen, which happened here in New York City, I drove down to the Statue of Liberty and I got a hot dog, which was the most American thing I could think of. And I held it up to clink my hot dog with that little torch of freedom. I said, I'm free too. Land of freedom. People come to America because they perceive it as a place of freedom. Americans don't necessarily perceive that about themselves anymore,

but everybody trying to get here believes that about America. But I think it's safe to say that we have pushed this value of freedom too far. Freedom has not become the only value we seem to care about, it's become the ultimate value. In fact, most of our cultural discussions are about how do we expand the horizon of possibility to maximize even more freedom for groups that demand it. We are doing freedom writ large over our cultural story. Charles Taylor calls this what we're in right now, the age of authenticity. And here's how he describes this. I mean the understanding of life which emerges with the romantic expressivism of the late 18th century, listen, that each one of us has his or her own way of realizing our humanity, and that it's important to find and live out one's own as opposed to surrendering to conformity with a model imposed on us from outside, or by society, or the previous generation, or religious or political authority. Do you see the dynamic claim about freedom there? It's like nothing outside of me tells me how to be me. No religion can tell me how to be me. Politics can't tell me how to be me. A previous generation can't tell me how to be me. Nobody but me can tell me how to be me.

And this manifests itself in our world in a thousand different ways. Autonomy, I define freedom for myself. Hedonism, I'm free when I can satisfy my desires. Expressive individualism, I am free when I can define myself without external claims. Power, I'm free when nobody can stop me. Materialism, I'm free when I can have what I want. There's a million versions of this playing out in our culture. And it's summarized with this little phrase, and it's like, you do you. You do you. And I just wanna ask, with this almost cult-like obsession with freedom, I just wanna ask, are we more free? We've been going hard at freedom for 60 years. As a cultural narrative, the oppressor and those who need to be liberated, we've gone hard for 60 years, are we more free as people? It's not a trick question, the answer is no, we are not. Not as far as I can tell. We are exhausted by the existential toll of our freedom. Emil Durkheim, a sociologist, coined the term anime, not to be mistaken with anime, which I believe is a kind of form of cartoons that Japanese, out of Japan, is that correct? If you're into that, bless you. That's not what I'm talking about. I am talking about a state of exhaustion

because there are no norms that anybody can reference to make sense of reality. He calls it a state of normallessness. And he says that when nobody can figure out what is normal, people break down into despair and self-destruction, and the ones who are most prone to do it are the ones, not that have too many restrictions, but people who are exhausted by unlimited options. And so as a result, people can't make sense of what we're talking about. It's not a cultural condition that's always there. It happens in certain moments when there is an acceleration of either certain kinds of sociology or technology. We're feeling this around AI right now. People are kind of like, I do not know what to do about this. Imagine talking to an 80-year-old, a 60-year-old, a 40-year-old, a 20-year-old, and a 10-year-old, and asking them a question. What's a man? What sort of answer would you get on a basic question about a person? The 80-year-old would have one view, the 60-year-old would have a different view, the 40-year-old would have a different view, the 20-year-old would have a different view, and the 10-year-old would probably say, I can't wait to be one. Totally different perspectives. There is no shared understanding of what is normal

or what is reasonable. You do you has led people into bondage. I feel like we're more addicted, the most anxious generation in recorded history, full of resentment, isolation, unprecedented choice, but no community, commitment, or meaning. We're in bondage to anxiety, the fear of people, addictions, food, porn, work holism. Pick your poison, but people are not fundamentally more free just because we've said that people get to be free. You remember this from Viktor Frankl. A lot of people, a lot of psychologists in particular have noted that meaning does not come from unlimited freedom, but by the acceptance of responsibility. And I can just promise you, the older you get, the more you will see that that tends to be true. And so Viktor Frankl, who came up, obviously, Auschwitz survivor, came up with logotherapy as a framework, says this. Freedom, however, is not the last word. Freedom is only part of the story and half of the truth. Freedom is but the negative aspect of the whole phenomenon whose positive aspect is responsibleness. In fact, freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness. That's why I recommend the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast.

I was like, Viktor, I just wanna tell you, those Californians will never. California, you think Portland is gonna put up a Statue of Responsibility? Maybe in Alabama, maybe somewhere in the South that still retains some kind of archetypal framework of, I don't know, but I don't see the Californians doing that. Stop throwing shade. Watch me, okay. Now, I think we've overdone freedom. Freedom is fundamentally a good thing. I think we've overdone it and I think we've ended up being enslaved. And I think a lot of people are surprised to find that not a peripheral but a central message of the Christian faith is you were meant to be free. I think people look at the church like the last place I perceive as to be a force of liberation and freedom in the world is the church. And so a lot of times people think, why would I take my unlimited options that the culture gives me and then submit those to an institution or to a religious framework that greatly restricts those? How is there freedom? Now, I wanna acknowledge there has been times where the church has denied the heart of its own message. It has created a version of sex that is primarily shame rather than gift-based

that has caused a lot of damage. It's had a view of women that at times has restricted freedom in a tremendous way. You could go group by brute to realize that the church has not always lived up to its values, but I want you to note something very important. Nobody accused Jesus of being a fundamentalist who restricted people's freedom. The heart of Christ was about setting people in bondage free. And so instead of asking the question that our culture's asking, which is how do I continue to maximize the horizon of possibility for myself? How do I maximize my freedom? I wanna ask a different question, because I think it's genuinely more helpful. The real question is not, am I free to do what I want? The question is, am I free to become who I was made to be? If that's the question that matters the most, where meaning is found, where true satisfaction is found, we've gotta figure out how to answer it. I think this is a beautiful passage of Scripture tonight where Paul unpacks this. This is Galatians 5. Look at what he says. Point one for you note-takers. We are called to freedom. That's fascinating. When God calls you, do you remember becoming a Christian?

I remember very distinctly, I remember the heart of God and the voice of God coming to my life. John, I want you. I wanna know you. I want you to serve me. And that was a sense of call. But I think we forget that when God calls us, he calls us to be free. Look it again, Galatians 5, verse one and then verse 13. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then and don't let yourself be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. This call of freedom is at the heart of the story of the Old Testament. Do you remember, what is the central event in the Old Testament Scriptures that defined the narrative of the Jewish people? What was it? The exodus. What is it a story of? Is it a story of oppression or liberation? The whole thing is a story of people being freed from oppression. Do you remember the year of Jubilee? You know what the point of the year of Jubilee was? That at least once in your life, everything that was holding you back in bondage would be liberated and you would get to go free. Do you remember every politician

has sort of things they run on. This past week, Mundani got his 100-day report card and he ran on cheap housing and free buses. What did Jesus run on? Do you know what Jesus ran on? The Spirit of the Lord's upon me because he's anointed me to preach freedom to the captives. Jesus' defining message was about freedom. Now, with that clear view of freedom, here you've got the Galatians and the Galatians are doing something that Paul is struggling to come to terms with and here's what it is. Falling back into legalism and slavery. And Paul is confused about this. See, he asked the Galatians when you study the book a whole series of questions like, was it by obeying the law or trusting in Christ and receiving the Spirit that miracles will work among you? Were miracles a result of the kingdom of Christ or obedience to the law? And the answer is like, the kingdom of Christ. And I want you to note this. This is very, very important. If a church that was led by the apostle Paul could fall back into legalism, I promise you that our church can fall back into legalism. Paul's primary fight in the Bible wasn't about lawlessness and the pagans.

It was about legalism with the Christians. So what are we called to? Well, the first thing I wanna say is that our call is that we are freed from certain things. First thing Paul wants them to know is that we are freed from condemnation. Verse 12, he says, stand firm, do not let yourselves be, and look at that word there, what's that word? Burdened, burdened. Burdened, again, by a yoke of slavery. Paul says that what sins do, and what sin does is it burdens us. These can be sins done against us or sins that we have committed. But we walk around with a sense that something is weighed on us. Sometimes it manifests in the body, the body keeps us. It's the score of sin. Sometimes it's manifest in our conscience. We just can't find peace of mind. Sometimes it's in our hearts and in our spirits, just a heaviness that there's something wrong with us that we cannot deliver ourselves from. And Paul's point was trying to be made right with God by religion's performance will not set you free. It will beat you down. There is a burden that comes with legalism. And he wants them to know, this is Romans 8, there is therefore now no condemnation

to those who are in Christ Jesus. No condemnation, our standing before God, not guilty. So when our conscience wants to speak to us of our guilt, the gospel replies out, not guilty. No accusation, does not stick to me, charge not appropriate to me anymore. We are set free from condemnation. We're not only set free from the verdict of sin, but we're set free from the religious framework where we have to earn our way to God. Verse 12, stand firm, don't let yourself be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. A yoke of slavery, this is the idea. And here was the basic problem, that what they were called in the New Testament was the Judaizers, okay? And here's what they basically said. Jesus is great, but in order to be saved, you have to keep the law of Moses too. So it was Jesus plus obedience to the commands of the law. And the disciples had to sort of figure out what to do here. And they have a thing called the Apostolic Council in Acts 15, where they all get together and they ask the question, how much of the law do you have to keep in order to be right with God? And what Peter says about this is fascinating. Because Peter says, why put a yoke on the Gentiles that even we couldn't keep? Why are we taking the thing we couldn't live up to and making a commandment for people

who have no obligation to? This will be spiritual death. So he warns them about getting caught in religious performance. But then he also hits this, not just the religious side, he hits the sinful side. This is interesting. Verse 13, we are freed from lawlessness. Do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh. That's a fascinating phrase. It's like, hey, what are you doing next weekend? Mate, indulging the flesh. Like, gosh, that sounds debaucherous. Indulgent at least. Yeah, indulging the flesh. A lot of times the instinct when you're set free from something is to go wild, is to do whatever you want. But we're set free from lawlessness. The word that's used here in the Greek, the idea is that of launching a military campaign to conquer. And so don't use your freedom in Jesus now to go do all the stuff that you used to be in bondage in. New York is a dangerous place that enables people to indulge the flesh because they have a lack of accountability, they have access to things that they didn't have before they came here. I see this all the time. Kierkegaard called this the dizziness of freedom.

See, what happens when you get dizzy? Like, you can't orient yourself. Like, oh my gosh, man, I need to sit down, I'm dizzy. And what happens a lot of times, people will perhaps grow up in a Christian home or some religious or moral framework. They come to New York and everyone's doing them and they're like, I think I'm gonna do me. And then they go off and they do a bunch of things that they never would have dreamed they would have done in their teenage years. And as a result, like their various degrees of wrestling with their conscience on it, but at some point, they're kind of dizzy from all the freedom, can't orient their lives. I met with a young guy not too long ago who was a friend of a friend. A friend, a middle-aged man's younger friend who had come to New York, deconstructed his faith, came here to work in finance, made a lot of money, was doing really well for himself and had just, without the restraints of his Christian faith, just said, stuff it, I'm gonna do New York. And he wanted to meet with me and I was like, well, why do you wanna meet with me? I am a conservative pastor seeking to restrain the flesh in my own life. And in essence, he wasn't quite sure, except he couldn't make sense because what he thought would set him free

had disoriented his heart. And he was just like, I wonder if there isn't after all some kind of North Star with which we should navigate. Sin, giving in to indulging in the flesh as he calls it, not only causes a kind of existential. mental dizziness, but it actually distorts us as people. The truth is, because you're made in the image of God, there's only two things you're doing to yourself. You're either consecrating yourself to God or you're being desecrated by the world. It may be happening very slowly, but there's no neutral middle ground here. Consecration and desecration is what happens to the Imago Dei when you live on earth. Do you remember that book I was like thumping you with by Carl Truman called Strange New World? How many of you remember the like undue pastoral pressure I was putting on you to read it? Just by a show of hands, did anybody buy that book and read that book? I feel so seen and loved. Did any of you buy it and not read it? That doesn't bother me at all, man. At least it's an option. I'll see you for that summer book club of Strange New World. Side note, one of the leaders in our church sent me this photo this week. I just, next slide. I love this.

No, no, next slide. No, there's a picture of a small child holding a book. Is there not a picture of a small child holding this book? Is there a book cover called The Desecration of Man? Okay, let's go to the quote by Carl Truman. I had a logical line of thought there that included a childhood joke and led to Carl Truman's latest book called The Desecration of Man. And in this book, The Desecration of Man, he says this. Let's go to that quote, because I saw that quote. Transgression of that once considered sacred has become their primary task. And transgression of the sacred is exhilarating precisely because it makes us feel like gods, the creators of our own meanings and our own selves. All we need to do is cross lines previously enforced by the idea of God, and we thereby assume the role of being gods. And that's, it feels godlike to throw off any sort of moral restriction in your life at first. Socrates in The Republic by Plato said this. The excess of liberty, whether in states or individuals, seems only to pass into the excess of slavery. I think that's what's happened. 2 Peter 2.19 says, They promised them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. Just ask yourself, are you overcome by anything tonight?

Is there a controlling issue in your life to which you are enslaved? Jesus says in John 8.34, Truly, truly, anyone who commits a sin is the slave of sin. So Paul says, because you've been set free by the power of the gospel, don't go into slavery to religion, but then don't go back into the flesh just because you're not guilty from your past sins. It produces a cycle of exhaustion. You guys know I'm a big proponent of the old visio divina. Every morning, I heal the brokenness of the world by taking in beauty and meditating on it. And I came across this as a part of my visio divina. This is one of Van Gogh's most haunting works, and it's called Prisoner's Round. And he painted this when he was a patient in a mental asylum in France. And it's not an original work, it's a translation of a wood engraving by another artist because he didn't have access to very much creativity. But at the time he painted this, he's suffering from depression, felt trapped by mental illness, and did not know what to do. This is a haunting image. This is a group of men doom-scrolling late at night with their lives. There's hope, there's a little bit of light coming in,

but they can't access this or get out. Next slide, one thing I want you to notice. You know, Van Gogh's yellow was one of the primary colors of his work. And I just want you to note, there's one man without a hat on looking out, asking is there anyone that could set them free? That's a self-portrait of Van Gogh there. That's almost his own appeal, like is there anybody who can get me out of this state? I like how Keller puts this, talking about freedom. The younger brother said, I want my freedom, but he got slavery. Talking about the prodigal son. The older brother kept all the rules, but was enslaved to his own self-righteousness. The father represents the only path to true freedom, a love you didn't earn and a love you can't lose. Freedom from the burden and condemnation. having to indulge in the flesh. Well, what are we free to do then, if we're freed from these things? Well, here's the most important thing, to become who you're called to be. Galatians 4, just a chapter back, has a beautiful passage of scripture about, it's like one paragraph, that is like the whole Bible, okay? Look at what it says. But when the set time had fully come,

God sent his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the spirit of his son into our hearts, the spirit who calls out, Abba, Father. So you're no longer a slave, but God's child, and since you're his child, God has made you an heir. Most people operate in life through what the book of Romans calls, in chapter eight, the spirit of slavery, again, to fear, the orphan spirit. And the orphan spirit is controlled by fear, fear of being left out, fear of being rejected, fear of not having enough, fear of being let down by authority figures or others in life, and so it is a radically independent, self-protective, anxious spirit. And here's what the gospel does, it says, you have not received the orphan spirit, that spirit of slavery, again, to fear, but the spirit of adoption. And by him, by the spirit, we cry, Abba, Father. Here's the four things you get when the spirit of God comes and lives inside of you because of the work of Jesus. You get a genuine transformation of identity. You go from I am unwanted and rejected to I am holy and chosen and dearly loved. You go from having a very small horizon of possibilities or anybody who's gonna care for me or want me

to being chosen by the king of the universe and having an eternal future in his kingdom. You go from a spirit of striving and self-preservation to the spirit of God himself coming and living within you. As we mentioned last week, if the spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, you will also get that resurrection that Christ had of your mortal body because that spirit's within you and you get invited into the family that you long for. You are the future aristocracy of the universe. It says that we're gonna rule and reign in the new creation as kings and priests before God. This is good news. My sister and my sister-in-law, between them have adopted seven kids. And I was there in the courtroom for the adoption for five of them. I mean, you wanna talk about a biblical metaphor. It's as good as anything you can hope for. It's actually quite quick. It's a long process, but the family court system, that when they actually have the adoption meeting, it's very fast. You go in, you're sitting at a table. The judge looks at the kids. Do you want this to be your new family? Yes. Do you wanna change their name? Yes.

Do you wanna come live with them forever? Yes, great. Done. 15 seconds, done. But if you've ever worked, maybe you've been adopted. Maybe you've ever worked with people being adopted. It's not the verdict of I want you that is the hard thing. It's getting the spirit of adoption in you and learning to live from the sense that I'm wanted rather than I'm rejected that becomes the dominant issue of life. And I think in some ways that's the same for all of us is that God wants us to be able to be free from that spirit of fear, from slavery, from rejection, and to become the people we were called to be, which Colossians tells us that we are God's holy people, holy, chosen, and dearly loved. So we're free to live out of that new identity and new vision, new power and new community. And I wanna say this. The key, the key to the Christian life is getting that as deeply into your spirit as you can. That sounds so easy. I got it, get the gospel in my heart. Great. Do you know how hard it is at your points of insecurity and trauma and fear and heartache and loneliness to believe that the truest thing about you is that you were the one that Jesus loves? If you don't have that love, you can't give that love.

If you have a love deficit, will operate out of a love deficit. And we won't be able to love properly, which is what we're free to do. Look at verse 13, rather, serve one another humbly in love. If you only have a shallow sense of freedom, it'll mess up the church community. Because you will view people inside the church as a threat to your significance or belonging, rather than as people to love and to give yourself to. Has that ever happened to you? Envy and comparison can get inside the church. The sociology of the world can get in the church and sabotage it, if people are not free to love. Look at what it says in James 3. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your heart, I just want to note along the New York coast, they have these little towns and the towns have harbors in them, quaint. The point of a harbor is where you bring the boats in out of the sea so they can stay safe. And all of you, in your heart, harbor things. There's things that you keep and bring in. And it says here, do not harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts. Don't boast about or deny the truth. It says, such wisdom does not come down from heaven, but is earthly, unspiritual, and demonic.

For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder in every practice. I can tell you, that's why, please listen to me so carefully here, listen. That's why if you become a Christian, you can't just make a decision. You really have to become a new kind of person. Because if not, all that brokenness from your past, which for the most part is about selfish ambition and envying others, will just come into the church with the language of Jesus sprinkled over the top. And I can almost tell you that most dysfunctional leadership in the church is people that had unmet needs in their spirit, that was envy of others and ungodly ambition, and they get in the church, and they use the church to get their unmet needs done through leadership, and it creates dysfunctional church cultures. So you've got, if you don't get the gospel in you, you won't have the gospel come out of you. And here's what it'll do. Paul's so adamant about this. It will create destruction and disillusion with the Christian community. This is not a verse you expect to find in a passage on freedom. Look at it. It's verse 15. It's the end of these couple of verses. It says,

Don't use your freedom to indulge the flesh. Rather, serve one another humbly in love, for the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command. Love your neighbor as yourself. And you're like, thanks, Paul. Got it, man. That's sweet. And then look at the next verse. If you bite and devour each other, watch out, or you'll be destroyed by each other. Why would you put biting, devouring, and destroying each other in a verse next to freedom? Because if you really don't get free under pressure, this will be your instinct. And what a bad small group. How's your small group going? Honestly, man, we are biting, devouring, and destroying each other right now. We're thinking about going to a new church and bringing that culture with us. Like, what a terrible phrase. I've got two chihuahuas, okay? Not by choice. Genuinely not by choice. I had to deal with my wife. We're gonna get a German shepherd. I see myself as a German shepherd kind of guy. And then my wife sends me a photo when I'm on the flight to Australia. I got our new dog.

Her name's Ella Fitzgerald. And it's a brown chihuahua. And then I've got a long-haired chihuahua named Frank Sinatra. And you know, chihuahuas love one person a lot. And then nobody else. They hate the rest of humanity. Have you ever seen me go to like, oh my gosh, can I pet your dog? I'm like, at your own risk, mate. Franky's pretty friendly, because he's young, but my simple point is, simple point, what's the analogy? Okay, here's the analogy. When they feel threatened, they'll come right at you. And so many people in church have the spirit of the chihuahua. Like, literally, like you get near them, they're like, oh, there's some unprocessed stuff there. Love your neighbor, love your neighbor as yourself. If not, you'll bite and devour each other. Do you see other people doing well in life and faith as a threat to your own significance? Do you see somebody getting into leadership and you're like, that should be me? Do you feel overlooked? Do you feel insecure? You gotta let the Spirit of God work deeper levels of freedom within you. Listen, that's why doing more things for God

will not necessarily get the love of God deeper in your heart. You gotta learn to receive His love. So much of the art of the Christian life is learning to believe that what God says about you and how He treats you and how He will treat you is true. And if the way you proved your worth in the world was doing things for God, importing that into the Christian life will only sabotage your life with God. You gotta learn to receive. Oh, what manner of love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God and that is what we are. The key to thriving in New York is to fill your well, the well of your heart with the love of Christ, to draw from it during the day and to replenish it at night. Freedom to give. Ultimately, this is what we want. You were born to give your life away in love. But if it's not an overflow of love, you'll burn out or it will become legalism. Look at what it says, rather, serve one another humbly in love. Serve one another, that's a strong word in the Greek. It's where we get the word slave from. This is so contrarian. Don't use your freedom to be a slave to religion or a slave to the flesh.

But now that you are free, become a slave to others in love. Like what, well what? I didn't see the storyline going. What, who? It's like, this is Jesus though. Jesus, this is Philippians 2. What does it say in Philippians 2? He did not consider equality with God something to be grasped. He became nothing, taking on the very nature of servant. He humbled himself to the point of death, even death on the cross. And so it is Christ, the freest man who's ever lived, who voluntarily out of love humbled himself and gave himself for others because he was so secure in his Father's love, he didn't need anything from anybody so he could give everything to everyone. And if you wanna become a person that can do that, it's gotta come from an encounter with the Father's love. The whole point of Jesus' life was to show you how to get connected to the love of Abba that he was drawing from in his life too. So it's not, I gotta do more for God. I do a lot for God. I'm a doer by nature. I'm a worker by nature. But I don't do that to get God to like me. It's an overflow of the fact that you may not like me,

but God does for some reason. He's like, you guys seen John Tyson? Freaking love him. I love Tyson. That's how God feels about me. And I believe that, the deepest part of my being. We're free to give because we're dearly loved. That's the great journey of freedom. So how do we find freedom? Moving along quickly. Do we have these on one slide? And I'm pushing our people. Can we give a round of applause for the people running our slides? I don't even know who's on it tonight. Imagine having to run my slides. I'm doing slide jazz up here. I'm not following anything. That's what I wanted. Now, you guys know, you guys know that I come from the Pentecostal tradition, okay? And it's hard to get off of you, get out of you, that Pentecostalism. I grew up with youth leaders mumbling in tongues in your ear, do you know what I mean? Like real Pentecostal, falling over, shaking the whole shebang. I love it. Don't mock. Listen, can I give you a Pentecostal pro tip?

Do not mock Pentecostal manifestations because God will give them to humble you for mocking those people. So if you mock someone, you may wake up in a hotel with the shakes or speaking in tongues or whatever. Humble yourself or the manifestations will find you, okay? Now, you've heard me say before, I grew up in a tradition that would lay hands on people and they would all say this, never the same again, never the same again. And then they'd mix it up with fire, never the same again. So you were burning or ultimately changed forever. But after church, you'd be like, he's the same, he's the same. Same again. Bring in a better preacher because you're never the same again, he's weak. I need someone who can, never the same again. I'm not saying that God can't meet you in a breakthrough. Of course, I believe that. We had a baptism this morning, and the test, I just was weeping listening to it. The power of Jesus to liberate the human heart. It was so beautiful, but, but, you still have to walk that breakthrough out. And it takes time. Can I just give you an example? Peter, okay? Peter was controlled by the fear of man. Great heart. Lord, if everybody denies you, I won't deny you.

Jesus is like, yeah, love your heart, mate. Your heart is gonna last about 16 minutes more, and then you're gonna deny me three times. He's like, there's not even a plausibility structure of my denial. Then a teenage girl comes up to him, he's like, are you with Jesus? He's like, I don't even know who Jesus is. I mean, it's wild. But then Peter gets filled with the Holy Ghost on Pentecost. And he goes from being a coward to preaching to the city, and you're like, boom, second blessing. He's got it. But then you know what happens when the Judaizers come to Antioch? Peter's enjoying the freedom of the gospel. He's eating with people that aren't following the cultural practices of the Jewish people. And then the Judaizers show up, they're like, hey, you can't do that. Pete's like, oh, sorry. Pentecostal Pete, filled with the Holy Spirit, still gives in to legalistic pressure from a religious group exerting authority on it. And I just wanna say, if Peter post-Pentecost can give into legalism out of the fear of man, you can give in, no matter what sort of breakthrough that you've had. So even if God fills us with His Spirit,

which we believe for, you still gotta work this stuff out. It's breakthrough and process. So here's just a little pathway. Now, many of you already are like, yeah, but what about, what about, what about? I'm like, did I mention tonight is the introductory sermon for a two-month series that we're doing on freedom? So whatever you're thinking about, we'll get to. But I just wanna lay out a vision for you of how this could go the next few months. So just quickly, number one, you gotta name your slavery honesty. You gotta name the thing that's holding you back. Could be a relationship you're in. Could be an addiction of some kind. Could be approval, could be success. But there's a thing that you are controlling or is exerting a controlling influence over your life. Could be your boss's opinion of you. Could be desire to, could be anything. Become a partner, make it on Broadway, get the internship. Could be anything, but your entire life is oriented around a goal that you are serving. Name that honestly. Next, renounce the lie that it brings life. He's gonna say, you know what, this may be pleasurable, but this is killing me. Then you gotta receive the grace of the gospel. You gotta let that in. It's an existential experience

of like getting that orphan spirit out and getting the spirit of adoption in. And then you gotta learn to walk in the spirit. And I want you to notice this. It says be filled with the spirit, but it says walk in the spirit. It says keep in step with the spirit. This is incredibly relational language. I'm a fast walker, okay? Like by nature, I'm like, I'm walking. And my wife is a lingerer. She's a lingerer. And I'm like, babe, we're not getting a calorie burn through lingering. Lingering is like non-activity, okay? The number one thing she always says, slow down and walk with me. That is relate to relational invitation. To walk in the spirit that is not just about doing stuff for God, it's having an awareness, it's being relationally attuned to the spirit of God. And then keeping in step where God is leading and directing you, and that takes time to learn. The promptings and movements of the spirit. And then be formed through new practices that restore you. The Bible says make no provision for the flesh, which means don't create pockets in your life where the old stuff can get in and sabotage you. Rebuild godly ways of living where the kingdom of God can get in and come out of you.

And then walk in a community that tells you the truth, not just affirms you for whatever you wanna do. Like if you're not getting challenged, you're not doing the Christian life right. If you're not offended once a week by what someone in our church said, you're just in a friendship circle. That is not the body of Christ. And then lastly, you gotta get new loves through union with Christ, serving community, worship, learning to give your life away in a healthy manner. But none of this, so that's a pathway of where we're headed, but I wanna say, none of this happens if you don't hear the call to get free. Do you hear that invitation tonight? Jesus said, if the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. Second Corinthians 3.17. following along with this vision says now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom and it'll also say we with unveiled faces beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the image of the Lord through ever-increasing glory so your destiny this is like super Pentecostal but I love it it's biblical your destiny is one degree of glory to another in freedom and life with Jesus but then lastly here I love this this is a quote from Leighton Ford's book in a tent of life listen this is it how do we become like Jesus free from sin free from religion connected to the Father and giving ourselves out of love what a vision he says each of us is called to a life patterned by Christ imagine this a life not shaped by inner compulsions or captive to outer expectations but drawn by the inner voice of love that's what it means to be free so we started by asking the question the real question is

not am I free to do what I want the real question is am I free to become who I was made to be and the freedom you long for and the freedom you were called to and the freedom you need will come to you by responding to Jesus invitation to receive the gospel walk in his love and learn to walk in the spirit so if you want freedom tonight just respond yes Jesus is what's on the table here freedom I want to be free so let's turn our house of the Lord and ask the Holy Spirit to come and to bring us into a place of freedom tonight father we thank you that we are called to be free Lord thank you that the story of our lives is one of increasing glory freedom from legalism from guilt from shame freedom from sin which wants to master us and control us thank you that you give us back our dignity and our agency and Lord what has been desecrated by sin we just offer back to you to be consecrated to holiness and righteousness by your grace and by your love thank you for this invitation of freedom when we receive it tonight Jesus name Amen