Freedom | As a Son

Well, like Julie, man, Refuge Clinic has a place near and dear to my heart for two reasons. Number one, it was actually my training ground professionally as a young clinician, and they gave me opportunities to just serve alongside of them with their patients. But then number two, and some of you all may or may not be aware of this, it was also instrumental for me as a young leader because they gave me opportunities to also open God's word and lead their staff through devotionals from time to time. And so I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge just what Refuge Clinic means to me as a person, as a husband, as a dad, as a leader, and as a follower of Jesus, and I'm just so grateful for what they do over there. Now, with all that being said, as some of you are familiar with the distractions announcement that we do from time to time, well, I've received permission from our communications team to go a little bit rogue with that. So here's what I want you to do. Go ahead and grab your phones. And I sincerely mean that. This is not a trick. It's not a gimmick. It's not a game. Go ahead and grab your phones at this time. I'm going to give you a second to do that. All right, then once you get your phone in your hand, I want you to open your messages app, not your social media apps, not ESPN, not anything else that's going to distract you, but open your messages app, and I want you to text the word REFUGE to 40411. Here's what that's going to do. That's going to keep REFUGE Clinic on your radar for one of three things, to pray, to give, or to serve. No matter who we are, we can all play our part or our role in acknowledging and leaning into one of those three things, myself included. Now, once you've sent that text to that number, you can go ahead and put your phones away. I'm going to pray for us, and then we'll get ready to jump into God's word.

Father, we thank you. Thanks for the partnership we have with REFUGE Clinic, and God, there are so many stories like Julie's of people just being met where they're at and just having their dignity and their value and their worth and their hope and ultimately their faith and trust in you restored. So God, I'm grateful for the men and women and students who serve faithfully week in and week out over there. Would you just help them to not grow weary in doing good? And Father, would you give us wisdom, discernment, clarity on how you're inviting us to partner alongside of them in this season, whether it's praying, giving, or serving, as they continue to gain more and more ground for your kingdom. Now, Father, as we transition into our time of teaching, I pray that you would open our eyes, open our ears, and open our hearts to how you might want to speak to us today. And Father, as always, would you allow the words on my lips and the meditations of my heart to be acceptable in your sight? We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, y'all, go ahead and grab your Bibles and your journals. If you've got those with you today, to no surprise, our key word is still going to be freedom. And our key scripture today is going to be coming out of Galatians chapter 4. So let me set the stage for where we're headed today. When the spirit of yesterday's Kentucky Derby, one thing that I've learned about my wife over the course of the last 10 years is that she is not a betting person. If you knew my sweet wife, man, she is very, very low stakes, low risk kind of gal. But if you were to sit her down and ask her, hey, what's maybe a few of the movies or one of the movies that Matt would watch on any given day, she knows exactly which ones to bet the house on. And the one that she would know, but I highly doubt you would expect, is The Lion King. Now, time out.

This is going to bring up a lot of questions. First of all, let me address this. If you've been with us the past few weeks in this series, Scott Nichol has referenced Braveheart, Armageddon, he kind of thumbed down Interstellar, which I actually enjoy. So that may seem like a little bit of a left turn with me mentioning Lion King specifically. But for a number of reasons, and I won't get into all of them for the sake of time, this original movie still resonates with me as a 37-year-old grown man, which sounds embarrassing to admit out loud, but hang with me for just a moment. See, throughout the plot, you can pick up on some of these biblical themes, and probably the one that stands out and resonates with me the most is this theme of identity. And probably the scene where this is most evident is during this exchange that Simba has with Rafiki. Now, if you remember the plot, Simba exiles himself from the paradise of Pride Rock after he believes this lie from his evil uncle, Scar, about his father's tragic death. Now, there's some poetic irony even with that, too, because if you think about the name Scar, that tragic stampede scene probably scarred most of us for life, which is why we have some childhood trauma now. But all that being said, if you have not seen the movie yet, please do not email me about spoiler alerts, y'all. It's been out for 30 years now. That is on you. So, during this time of separation, we watch Simba hit rock bottom, and he undergoes this identity crisis where he becomes captivated with the hakuna matata lifestyle promoted by Timon and Pumbaa. And eventually, like for most of us, reality sets in, and Simba gets confronted by Nala who we know is his childhood friend and soon-to-be wife, and Rafiki about what he needs to do as the heir to Pride Rock. In Asimba's wrestling with whether or not to potentially return home, Rafiki asked him a question

that I personally believe is the turning point in the entire movie, and it's this. Who are you? Who are you? This is such an important question because whether we're willing to admit it or not, we have all struggled with our identity. Doesn't matter if you're a man or a woman, doesn't matter if you're a middle school student or a senior adult, doesn't matter if you were raised out in the country or right here in the city. It's one of those fundamental questions we all ask, but the problem is we try to get the answer from all the wrong people in all the wrong places. And here's how this creates a problem. What we believe informs how we behave. What we believe informs how we behave. So in other words, our identity and who we are drives our activity and what we do. So when something's off in the behavior department, there's usually more often than not an underlying belief or identity issue. That's why in the very next scene, when Simba's reunited with the spirit version of his father, and you all probably remember that scene, him being in the clouds, Mufasa makes this simple but insightful observation of his son. And he says this, you have forgotten who you are. Which brings us to our text for today. As a spiritual father, the apostle Paul

shares a similar concern for his children, which is the churches in Galatia. They've caught a case of what we're gonna call gospel amnesia, and they've forgotten who they are. As a result, Paul's noticed they're behaving in a way that's both incompatible and inconsistent with their God-given, gospel-driven identity. So as Paul often does when there's an issue in the church, he pens a letter. Now as we've been studying this book, you might be sitting there thinking, hey Matt, I still don't get it. Like, what's the big deal? Why is Paul so up in arms? What all comes back to our key word, freedom. That's what's at stake here. Instead of living in the freedom the gospel offers, the Galatians have forgotten who they are, and they've returned to the very things that enslaved them. Paul's frustration stems from the fact that their behavior is antithetical to the message of the gospel. So with all of this context in mind, his objective is clear. The gospel must be correctly defined and courageously defended. Now on the other side of that coin, anything and everything that threatens the beauty and the clarity and the purity of the gospel must be completely destroyed.

Not accommodated, not tolerated, and not permitted, especially performance-based religion. Now as tempting as it is for us to just shake our heads or point a finger at those foolish Galatians, Paul's words, not mine, the same can be said true of us because we can be tempted to fall into this same trap if we're not anchored in God's word and living out a biblical reality. So what is the treatment for gospel amnesia? Let's pick things up in verse one. I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave. Though he is the owner of everything, he is under guardians and managers, we're gonna talk about that, until the date set by his father. In the same way, we also, when we were children, past tense, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. So what in the world is Paul talking about here? If you were here last week, Scott mentioned in Galatians chapter three, we are no longer under a guardian or the law because of Jesus. When we put our faith and trust in him, we are received as sons and heirs in God's family. So now as we transition into these opening verses of chapter four, Paul sees an illustration that he's gonna leverage, that's familiar to their cultural context,

to bridge it to our spiritual context. So culturally speaking, children were near the bottom of the social hierarchy. They were basically treated as slaves or servants until they came of age. And just to be clear, the Bible is not being chauvinist by only spotlighting boys. See in this cultural context, an inheritance was only reserved for sons. So when boys transitioned from boyhood into manhood, there were these coming of age ceremonies and things that they could do to show that on full display. And their status would also change from servant to son. Put a pin in that. Now, spiritually speaking, we needed a guardian or the law to keep us from spiraling into utter chaos. See, our natural disposition, even from a young age, is to take full advantage of any ounce of freedom that's offered to us. Let me give you a real-time example of what this looks like. Earlier this weekend, my family and I got to go and support my daughter at a dance recital. Now, if you are a dance family, you know kind of all the ins and outs of the things. I'm still learning. The ropes here, we're still new to this,

but after doing this for about a handful of times now, I kinda know what to expect anytime there's a dance recital weekend. It's cuteness and it's chaos. And so, usually how this manifests is, man, you've got kids, they've got their costumes on and their tights and their cool shoes and all the things, but you know as well as I do, tights get ripped, costumes get stained, somebody's fussy because they missed their nap, somebody else is fussy because they're still hungry. You've got all this chaos kind of unfolding. Now, I want you to imagine, what if these dance instructors said, hey parents, you all go ahead and leave, we got it from here, and then they decided, hey, you know what, we're just gonna leave these toddlers and preschoolers and kindergartners left to their own devices, unsupervised, for a few hours. What do you think is gonna happen? It's chaos, it's chaos. I see it week in and week out in my daughter's playroom. It is just utter chaos. So, they might be small, but they're mighty in their strength in numbers. You all know that as well as I do, but this also translates to other arenas of life. Sports fans, you know if there are no rules in a sport, there's chaos. Educators, you know if there's no order in a classroom,

there's chaos. Musicians, you know if there's no structure to a music score, there's chaos. Law enforcement officers, you all know if there is no law in a city or country, there's chaos. But if you've studied the Bible, you know the law also has its limitations. Not because of anything on God's end, it's because we're the ones that are sinful. Case in point, just look at Paul's former squad, the Pharisees. See, these guys majored in the minors, they took a good thing and made it an ultimate thing, and it eventually became a destructive thing. They split hairs on nearly every aspect of the Old Testament law by adding literally thousands of what they called fence laws for people to obey. Question, does that sound like freedom? Sounds like slavery to me. So what exactly is the purpose of the law? Two things, number one, the law reveals our desire to sin. The law reveals our desire to sin. Have you ever noticed like when you introduce a rule or something with a group of people or to an individual, like we automatically just wanna break the rule? Let me give you an example. For those of you who drive, be honest, quick show of hands, how many of you actually drive the speed limit? Yeah, few in the faithful here. I knew the Lexington campus had a bunch of rebels in here.

You all just proved my point. So our rebellious nature did not start just because we were handed a driver's license. Our rebellious nature actually is rooted all the way back to the book of Genesis when the fall happened in chapter 3. But God in his grace gave us the law to show us just how sick and how sinful the human heart really is. But you know as well as I do, a mirror can't fix the problem. Like if you've been to the doctor and they've checked your blood pressure with a blood pressure cuff and they say, hey, you've got high blood pressure, that blood pressure cuff is not gonna fix the problem. Maybe you're an athlete or you've worked before and you've torn a ligament in your knee, you know as well as I do that MRI is not gonna fix the problem. Maybe you've broken your collarbone or broken your kneecap or a bone in your elbow, you know as well as I do that x-ray can show that you've broken a bone but it can't fix the problem. In the same way, the law can assess the condition of our hearts but it cannot address our need for a new heart. The law reveals our desire to sin but the law, it can't rescue us from sin. Which brings us to point number two. The law reveals our need for a savior. The law reveals our need for a savior and let me say this as plainly as I possibly can.

We cannot save ourselves. Now, I know that intellectually and I hope most of you all know that as well but deep down, do we really believe it? I mean, let's just be honest. If what we believe informs how we behave, what story would our behaviors tell about our beliefs? See, I can't speak for you but the majority of my life, I've tried to earn my salvation and it kind of manifests in two different ways. Like on this side, it's more of the image management of like, man, if I just check off all the right boxes, then I'm good. And then on this side of the equation is the sin management. So if I can just keep my sin in this box instead of confessing it and surrendering it to God, then maybe, just maybe, I will finally receive his approval. But here's what I found to be true. Y'all, it's exhausting. It is exhausting and you know why? Because it's just another form of slavery. Like the Pharisees, I miss the fact that the law was intended to point us to something else. Or better yet, maybe the law was intended to point us to someone else. Verse four. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son. born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that's us,

so that, here's the why, we might receive, can't earn it, adoption as sons. So, let's talk about what we've got here. At just the right time, God's ultimate redemption plan gets into motion when he sends Jesus. And let's talk about this word specifically, redemption that we circle. To redeem means to buy back or to rescue from loss. To redeem means to buy back or rescue from loss. Another word that's often associated with this definition is ransom. So, it's this idea that a final transaction has taken place to set someone free. Or maybe if you've read or heard it said this way before, it is finished. Sound familiar? This feels like a great opportunity to commend our worship team. See, one of the things I really love and appreciate about them is how intentional they are in choosing the songs we sing on Sundays as well as on Wednesdays at First Wednesday Worship, which, by the way, is happening this week. Please make sure you're there. But if you've noticed and you pay attention to the lyrics, one of the themes that's often consistent is this theme of redemption. And maybe you've already made this connection, but let me give you an example. We just sang one, King of Kings.

Did you catch the second verse? Let's look at it again. To reveal the kingdom coming and to reconcile the lost, that's us. To redeem, there's that word, the whole creation. You, Jesus, did not despise the cross. For even in your suffering, you saw to the other side, knowing this was our salvation. Jesus, for our sake, you died. So, what's my point? To remind us of this, the gospel gives us liberty. The gospel gives us liberty. We get a foreshadow of what this was intended to look like all the way back in the book of Exodus, when God sends Moses to rescue the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. But God wrote his greater redemption story when he sent his one and only son, Jesus, to rescue us from slavery to sin. Jesus willingly entered the slave market and purchased our freedom with his blood on the cross. The story doesn't end there because liberty isn't the only benefit the gospel offers us. Believe it or not, it gets even better. Check out our text again. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of woman, born under the law to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons.

Let's talk about this word adoption for a minute. To adopt means to place as a son. To adopt means to place as a son. And when we think about some of the requirements for adoption relationally, we start to see some of the parallels spiritually. And here's what I mean. This is not an all-inclusive list, but there are three specific attributes that I found in a commentary I was reading whilst preparing for this message. Adoption requires someone who has the right timing, the right qualifications, and the right determination. Now, when I think about those three conditions, the right timing, the right qualifications, and the right determination, there are names and faces within our church family across all of our campus who come to mind. Think about my friend Jason and his wife Maria down at our Richmond campus, who adopted an awesome young man and what they had to go through to place him in their home. Think about my friend Matt and his wife Caroline from this campus and what they had to go through to place their two beautiful girls in their home. There's also Nate and Stephanie at our Nicholasville campus. There's Luke and Jen at our Danville campus. There's Ian and Hannah at our Georgetown campus, and so many more.

All of their stories give me and my wife ample opportunities to explain the gospel to our daughter. How? Because this is a beautiful demonstration of God's redemptive plan for us that points us to Jesus. Here's what I mean. For while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person, one would dare even to die. But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. You think Jesus had the right timing? For our sake, he made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that, here's the why, we, you and I, might become the righteousness of God. You think Jesus had the right qualifications? Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy, love that word, set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Didn't Jesus have the right determination? Sounds like he does to me. So what's my point and why are we camped out here for so long? Not only does Jesus pay for our redemption, he also secures our adoption,

which should remind us the gospel gives us security. It's the gospel that gives us security. God's redemptive plan wasn't to just buy us back from the slave market, it was to put us in his family through an adoption agent named Jesus. If you've ever wondered why we have such a heart for fostering and adopting as a church, you all, this is why. Adoption is at the heart of the gospel, which is why I love this quote from J.I. Packer. He says this, "'Adoption is the," love this, "'highest privilege the gospel offers, "'higher even than justification. "'To be right with God the judge is a great thing, "'but to be loved and cared for by God the Father,' y'all, that's greater, so much greater. Not only do we receive atonement for our sins, we also receive adoption as sons and daughters. Now, you might be sitting there thinking, hey, Matt, I don't know, man, like what's the deal? What's the catch? What's the fine print? What's the bottom line? Guess what? Get ready. There's not one. There's not one. Listen, God's not gonna return us

and ask for some type of refund. He already knew what he was signing up for. That's why we just need to rest in the security of his redemptive plan. So if you're taking notes, here's your recap. The gospel gives us liberty, the gospel gives us security, but there's one more benefit the gospel offers us, and we save the best for last. And because you are sons, God has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father, so you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. Man, I love that. It's such a full circle moment because here's the pin we dropped earlier back in verses one through three. Not only does God send Jesus to redeem us and adopt us, God sends the Holy Spirit to confirm that we are no longer slaves. Instead, we have both the position and the privilege of being identified as his children. You see the depth of intimacy in this? The creator of the universe wants to have a relationship with you. As God's children, this does not mean we're a bunch of orphans that he begrudgingly tolerates. He doesn't put us in his home and then throw us up in an attic like we're Cinderella.

He doesn't stick us in a cupboard under the stairs like we're Harry Potter. No, we're redeemed and adopted children who God affectionately celebrates. He pays our debt, he places us in his home, and then he proclaims that we are his. This is how Paul describes it in Romans. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons. By whom we cry, Abba, Father. The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. So why are we drilling down this idea of what it means to be children of God? Remember what we said earlier. What we believe informs how we behave. Who we are drives what we do. And all of these verses reminds us the gospel gives us identity. The gospel gives us identity. When we put our faith and trust in Jesus, we receive the Holy Spirit who affirms and confirms that we are children of God. And this is the culmination of our redemption story. We go from bondage to bought.

We go from abandoned to adopted. We go from slaves to sons and daughters. Can I add one more thread to this? I know it's a lot of scripture today. Just hang with me. It's so hard for me to not see this text from Galatians through the lens of the prodigal son in Luke chapter 15. You remember the story? The younger son approaches his father, demands his inheritance, and then he skips town. Translation, dad, I wish you were dead yesterday. He goes off, lives lavishly, lives wild. And during this time of separation, he comes captivated by what the world is offering only to just hit rock bottom and have an identity crisis. Does that sound familiar? Or maybe it's just my story. When the son finally comes to his senses, he's sitting in the filth of his guilt, his shame, and his sin. With a pod of pigs, how low is that moment for him? So he starts wrestling with the potential return home, and he's practicing the speech thinking, man, maybe, just maybe, if I can get back home to my father, I can present myself as one of his servants and earn my keep. But how does the father respond? While his son is still a long way off. The father sees him, runs to him, and showers him with affection, not accusation.

And as the son starts performing his speech, the father immediately interjects and says, quick, servants, bring the best robe and put it on him. Bring a ring for his hand and shoes for his feet. Let's have a feast and celebrate. This son of mine was dead, but he's alive again. He was lost and now he's found. You all, our gospel bell should be ringing because that's exactly what God the Father has done for us. Like the prodigal son, we have nothing to offer other than our guilt, our shame, and our sin, but God in his grace gives us his best even when we're at our worst. He doesn't give us more laws and statutes to cover our sin. He gives us our Lord and Savior to cover us in his grace. The prophet Isaiah hit the bullseye when he said this. I will love this phrase, greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall exult in my God for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness. As a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with jewels. What's the take home message? You all, it is not about our religious performance. It's not, but it's all about God's redemptive promise and God's redemptive plan for our salvation. In case you've not been tracking, it's the father who activates the plan for our salvation. It's the son who accomplishes the plan for our salvation,

and it's the spirit who assures us of the plan for our salvation. We could not earn it, we don't deserve it. That's why we call it the gospel of grace, and that's why we call it the good news. It's because of the gospel, we can know that we're free. It's because of the gospel, we can know that we're secure. And it's because of the gospel, we can know that we're loved. And if what we believe informs how we behave, you all, this biblical reality should not just inform the way we live, it should transform the way we live. Now, it's a whole lot of ground to cover in just seven verses. I know some of you are thinking, man, how in the world are we gonna get out of here on time? We gotta go eat, we need to get to practice, we got all these things to do. Don't worry, that's your homework for this week. Read the rest of the chapter, study it up, go check out the podcast, all those things. So, here's where I wanna give you a preview of where things are headed next, though, for Paul with this section. See, his concern for the churches in Galatia actually parallels one of my concerns for the churches in America today. And we touched on this earlier. We've forgotten who we are. And here's what I mean, when we get gospel amnesia

and we forget about who God is and what God has done for us and we just sing about that, we experience an identity crisis where the world starts to inform our identity more than God's word. So, on that note, we're gonna do an exercise together just to recalibrate our minds and to reorient our hearts on what God says is good and true and right and best. Now, let me preface what I'm about to say next by just warning you ahead of time, for some of us in the room, it's gonna be hard for us to hear. And I need you to hear me say this from the bottom of my heart. I sincerely want what's best for you. And more importantly, God wants what's best for you. So, I'm gonna ask you to do just one thing for me. Respond, don't react. Here's what I mean. Receive what I'm about to say, reflect on it for at least 24 hours, and then after that 24 hour period, if you still have questions, concerns, or you feel some type of way, I'll give you full permission to email me directly at scott.nickel, that's two T's, two L's, that's Southland.church. Scott's never gonna ask me to preach again, that's fine. All right, here we go, ready? Our identity is not in our academic success,

athletic performance, or addiction. Our identity is not in our bank account, body image, or business relationships. Our identity is not in our career, college, alma mater, or country. Our identity is not in our denominational background, diagnosis, or divorce. Our identity is not in our emotions, ethnicity, or extracurricular activities. Our identity is not in our failures, family of origin, or fraternity. Our identity is not in our income, insecurities, or intellect. Our identity is not in our kids, including grandkids, or the Kentucky Wildcats. God bless you if that's where you wanna put your identity. Our identity is not in our performance review, personality test, or political party. I'm gonna let that one sit for a minute. Our identity is not in our sexuality, singleness, social media following, sorority, or being a stay-at-home mom. We can keep on going, but I think you get the point. So here's the biblical reality we need to ground ourselves in. Those things that I just listed might describe us, but y'all, they don't define us. You see the difference? If any of those things start to define us, we then give them the power to enslave us.

If our significance, value, and worth is placed in anyone or anything other than Jesus, can we just be honest and call it for what it is? It's slavery. It's not freedom and we're just still living in bondage to the things of this world. It's why I'm so grateful for people like Neil Anderson. He's done a lot of study and work around this concept of understanding our identity in Christ. You maybe read two of his well-known books, Victory Over the Darkness and Bondage Breakers. But here's an adaptation to some of his work that I found myself coming back to over and over and over again. As a reminder of who we are in Christ. You are created in God's image, Genesis 1. You are fearfully and wonderfully made, Psalm 139. You are redeemed and forgiven, Colossians 1. You are bought with the price and belong to God, 1 Corinthians 6. You are chosen and adopted, Ephesians 1. You are secure, Romans 8. You are God's child, John 1. You are a citizen of heaven, Philippians 3. You are an ambassador for Christ, 2 Corinthians 5. You are free, Romans 6. Church family, look right at me. This is who you are. Do not run back to the things of this world that just enslave you.

Remind yourself of the gospel. Remind yourself of who God is. Remind yourself of what he's done for you. Or if I can quote Mufasa's final words to his son Simba, remember who you are. I'm just gonna own something today. Some of y'all are like, man, he seems a little amped up today. I am, I am, I'll tell you why. We're good, we're family now, we've done this before. It's because it's my story. Gotta be completely transparent. The narrative I grew up believing was that I'm loved because of what I do, not because of who I am. See, I was convinced that my significance, value, and worth was determined by my performance. And as a result, I found myself enslaved to people pleasing and perfectionism. But God writes the best redemptive stories. In May of 2021, my wife and I found out we were having a little girl. And so we're exchanging names back and forth and nothing really seemed to stick until one day she sent me a text. And it just said this, what do you think about the name Mia? And for reasons I wasn't really sure of at the time, I was like, I think this is the one, but then later I knew exactly why.

The name Mia means beloved. So I decided to do a deep dive into where this word shows up in the Bible. And the very first text I came across was Matthew 3. If you know the story, it's the scene of Jesus' baptism. So he goes down to the Jordan River to be baptized by his cousin, John. And the text says that the heavens opened up and the spirit came down on him like a dove. And then God the Father spoke these words of affirmation over his son. This is my beloved son with whom I'm well pleased. Here's what's interesting. If we zoom out and look at the context of when this affirmation happens, it's before Jesus' public ministry even began. So as far as we know, he's not performed any miracles. He's not done any ministry works at all. He's just God's beloved son. Now here's why this resonates to the depths of my soul. Every time I look at my beloved daughter, I'm constantly being reminded that the most important thing about us is not what we do. The most important thing about us is whose we are. I desperately want Mia to understand the most important thing about her isn't how she performs at a dance recital. The most important thing about her isn't her grade point average when she starts school this fall.

The most important thing about her is not her batting average if she ever decides to play softball. No, she is my dearly beloved daughter. Nothing she does will make me love her any more or any less. And I hope and I pray that as she grows in her faith, she will be secure and she will be free knowing that her heavenly father feels this way infinitely more about her than I ever will. But the question is, you all, do you believe that's true for you? Do you believe that's true for you? Because what we believe transforms how we behave. And we've been walking through this freedom thing for several weeks now. So at some point, you've got to make a decision. How are you going to respond? How are you going to live out to these timeless truths in God's word? But in case it's not been clear the last few weeks, let me remind you again. For freedom, Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. So Southland, let's stand firm on God's word. And I want to invite you to stand right now as we prepare to worship God and give him praise for who he is and for what he's done.