The Concept of Freedom | Tyrone P Jones | No Other Gospel | Full Service

This is Jolene and I help oversee the job. Good morning, good morning church and welcome to Church for the City. Why don't you guys go ahead and stand on your feet. My name is Karina. I'm part of the team here. If you're joining us for the very first time, we just want to say welcome. And if you have yet to hear it, we just want to say we're so glad that you're here. If you're joining us for the first time, there's a tap disc on the seat in front of you. We'd love to get to know you and your family. You can just fill out a Connect card before the end of service today. Or you can always stop by the Connect table on your way out as well. And if you're watching online, we want to get to know you too. You can go ahead and tap on that digital Connect card. I want to read a scripture for you guys before we start our worship here. It's out of Psalm 150 and it says, Praise the Lord. Praise God in His sanctuary. Praise Him in His mighty heavens. I love that scripture because it reminds us that praise is not confined to a space. Praise is not based on our circumstance, but praise is a posture. We can posture ourselves this morning to praise Him. We praise God not based on our circumstance, but we praise Him because of who He is. And when we praise, heaven rejoices. The atmosphere changes. I am looking at people who have the ability to change the atmosphere. If you're ready to praise this morning, can you just lift your hands? Come on. I'm going to pray and we're going to prepare our hearts. Lord, we came here for an encounter with You. God, we ask that You meet us here and that we not leave until we have that. Lord, we ask that You just change the atmosphere, Lord. We know that when our praise and our worship has that ability, God, we came here to meet with You and we lift Your name in Jesus' mighty, mighty name. And the church said, Amen. Christ in me

For I've been born again My heart is free The hope of heaven before me The grave behind Hallelujah You brought me back to life And I won't forget the moment I heard You call my name Out of the grip of darkness Into the light of grace Just like Lazarus Oh, You brought me back to life Oh, there is devilish Now there is living faith And all of my hope and fears Are found in Jesus' name Just like Lazarus Oh, You brought me back to life No longer I who live The Christ in me For I've been born again My heart is free The hope of heaven before me The grave behind Hallelujah You brought me back to life In sentences I am guilty To the price You pay In sentences I'm not worthy To that empty grave

Just like Lazarus Oh, You brought me back to life No longer I who live The Christ in me For I've been born again My heart is free The hope of heaven before me The grave behind Hallelujah You brought me back to life How can I begin to pray Thank you for all that you've done for me And Jesus to fully praise you. It'll take all eternity Just like You brought me back to life Oh, you brought me back to life No longer I'm losing the Christ in me For I've been born again, my heart is free From open heaven before, the grave behind Hallelujah, you brought me back to life No longer I'm losing the Christ in me For I've been born again, my heart is free From open heaven before, the grave behind Hallelujah, you brought me back to life Oh, you brought me back to life Oh, you brought me back to life But Jesus said, you are mine Oh, the enemy thought he had me But Jesus said, you are mine The enemy thought he had me

But Jesus said, you are mine The enemy thought he had me But Jesus said, you are mine Oh, the enemy thought he had me But Jesus said, you are mine Oh, the enemy thought he had me But Jesus said, you are mine The enemy thought he had me But Jesus said, you are mine Oh, the enemy thought he had me But Jesus said, you are mine No longer I believe The Christ in me For I've been born again My heart is free Forever living before me The grave behind Hallelujah You brought me back to life Yes, Jesus Alright, church. Let's turn our attention to the screen as someone goes public with their faith. Before Christ, I had no identity outside of the Marine Corps. After I left, I still felt lost and unable to find who I was. I tried to find my identity in money and thought I needed to make as much money as possible. I was depressed, angry, fighting, and absent from my kids. I was miserable, working out of state and chasing the dream. My wife and kids were miserable with me because of my misguided thinking. Over the following couple of weeks, while I was working away from my wife and kids across the country, it felt like Jesus called me home. I woke up one day and remember saying, I have to leave.

I knew I had to be in Yuma and come back to them and be the man God intended me to be. In that moment, I gave my life to Jesus and I dropped everything. And without much of anything to start with, I found a way to get the money and fly back here to them. When I decided to come home, I understood it was Him who had done it all for me. Since surrendering my life to Jesus, He gave me my voice. I spent so much of my life caring about what people think and what others wanted from me. But because He is the truth, I have found my identity in Him and my purpose, to live for Him. He gave me unrelenting joy in my heart. how back in a place where I'm struggling to find employment, but through all that, his love continues to fill me with joy, even in the struggle. Now I truly see and feel his love and have faith in his plan for me and my family. Today I am going public with my faith. Amen. All right, Anthony, Jesus said every disciple should be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And because of your confession of faith, today I baptize you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins. And according to scripture, you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Amen, amen. I'm just gonna ask every person here to just go ahead and open your hearts, open your minds, open your eyes to the Spirit. Let his holy presence just fill you up in this place this morning. Come on, make room for his glory.

Come on, come make room for your glory. Jesus. ♪ Here is where I lay it down ♪ ♪ Every burden, every crown ♪ ♪ This is my surrender ♪ ♪ This is my surrender ♪ ♪ Here is where I lay it down ♪ ♪ Every lie and every doubt ♪ ♪ This is my surrender ♪ ♪ And I will make room for you ♪ ♪ To do whatever you want to ♪ ♪ To do whatever you want to ♪ ♪ And I will make room for you ♪ ♪ To do whatever you want to ♪ ♪ To do whatever you want to ♪ ♪ Have your way, Jesus ♪ ♪ Here is where I lay it down ♪ ♪ Every burden, every doubt ♪ ♪ This is my surrender, this is my surrender ♪ ♪ Here is where I lay it down ♪ ♪ Every lie and every doubt ♪ ♪ This is my surrender to you ♪ ♪ And I will make room for you ♪ ♪ To do whatever you want to ♪ ♪ To do whatever you want to ♪ ♪ And I will make room for you ♪ ♪ To do whatever you want to ♪ ♪ To do whatever you want, sing it again ♪ ♪ And I will make room for you, Jesus ♪ ♪ To do whatever you want to ♪

♪ To do whatever you want to, yeah ♪ ♪ For you, yes I will ♪ ♪ To do whatever you want to ♪ ♪ To do whatever you want to, yeah ♪ ♪ And I will make room for you, Jesus ♪ ♪ Loredo ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ And I will make room for you, Lord, Lord, yeah ♪ Sing it, shake it ♪ Shake up the groves, perform our traditions ♪ ♪ Break down the walls, perform our religion ♪ ♪ Your way is better, your way is better ♪ ♪ Shake up the groves, perform our traditions ♪ ♪ Of all my traditions, break down the walls ♪ ♪ Of all my religions, your way is better ♪ ♪ Your way is better ♪ ♪ Shake up the ground, of all my traditions ♪ ♪ Break down the walls, of all my religions ♪ ♪ Your way is better, your way is better ♪ ♪ Your way is better, your way is better ♪ ♪ Shake up the ground, of all my traditions ♪ ♪ Break down the walls, of all my religions ♪ ♪ Your way is better, your way is better ♪ ♪ You do whatever you want to do, whatever you want to do ♪ ♪ And I will make room for you, to do whatever you want to do ♪ ♪ To do whatever you want to do, to do whatever you want to do ♪ Thank you Jesus. Come on, give Him a shout, give Him a praise. Thank you God. Jesus, thank you Jesus.

♪ I am not alone ♪ ♪ Oh He, greater yet, lives in me ♪ ♪ Thou shalt I, Prince of Peace, Emmanuel ♪ ♪ Here with me ♪ ♪ Your name is great and greatly to be praised ♪ ♪ Your name is great and greatly to be praised ♪ ♪ God of night, Elohim ♪ ♪ Sing of who He is, greater yet ♪ ♪ Oh yes, He lives in me ♪ ♪ Thou shalt I, You are Prince of Peace ♪ ♪ Emmanuel, here with me ♪ ♪ Your name is great and greatly to be praised ♪ ♪ Your name is great and greatly to be praised ♪ ♪ Your name is great and greatly to be praised ♪ ♪ Your name is great and greatly to be praised ♪ ♪ And greatly to be praised ♪ ♪ Yes worthy is the Lamb who was slain ♪ ♪ The one who rose again ♪ ♪ Worthy you were, worthy you are ♪ ♪ Worthy you will be forever Yahweh ♪ ♪ Worthy you were, worthy you are ♪ ♪ Worthy you will be forever Yahweh ♪ ♪ Worthy you were ♪ Worthy you are. Worthy you will be forever Yahweh. Worthy you were and worthy you are. Worthy you will be forever Yahweh. Worthy you are and worthy you are. Worthy you will be forever Yahweh. Worthy you were and worthy you are. Worthy you will be forever Yahweh. Your name is great and greatly to be praised. Your name is great and greatly to be praised. Your name is great and greatly to be praised. Your name is great and greatly to be praised. Worthy you are. Worthy you are. Worthy you will be forever Yahweh. Worthy you were and worthy you are. Worthy you will be forever Yahweh. Forever and ever and ever God. You're worthy. You're worthy. You're worthy. You're worthy Yahweh.

There is no one that has done for us what our God has done. It's so awesome. It's good to be in the house of the Lord. It's good to be in His presence. There's no better way to start the first day of the week. Many times people look at Sunday as the weekend, but not for us. It's not even on the calendar. It's the first day of the week. We get to come to the house of God, start our week out worshiping and praising and glorifying Him who's so worthy of it. It's good to be here. Glad that you're with us here at Church for the City where we'll teach the Word of God, we'll encounter the presence of the Lord, and we'll spread the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. So thank you for being with us. Let's give a shout out to those online, those in prison, those in jail that are watching us live. We're so grateful for them. All right. You got a minute to mingle. You might be near somebody that you've never met. So if you don't mind introducing yourself, that would be awesome and amazing. And we'll get ready for the Word. All right. All right. It's good, good, good, good to be here. Good to be in the house. We're going to just dive right on into the Word. I do want to acknowledge that this Tuesday is Veterans Day, and it's a great day. Yes. Let me just do this. Those of you that are here in the house that have served our country, some of you still are, can you just stand? Do you mind standing? Wow. Look at this. Wow, wow, wow. Quite amazing. Thank you. Thank you all so, so much. We appreciate it. I know as we go into Veterans Day, of course, there's going to be those that are honored and commemorated that has passed on. And certainly that's worthy to do that. But I also want to just acknowledge those of you that have served, that are still with us. Thank God that you are. And some of you that are still serving. I thank you so much. I really do. I know it's more than just a vocation, it's a calling to put yourself out on the line

day after day. And first responders, those in law enforcement, those that served our country, you're there to save lives, you're there to preserve the life of people. And I just don't know if there's any higher calling than you can have. So thank you for being that person, that man, that woman that has committed to do so. And we're thankful that you're still with us. And so we thank God, thank God for that. I want to thank you for your generosity. Every time you come into the building, there's an opportunity for you to give, and many of you have done that. You've established your giving. I'm thankful for that, for tithing and giving of offerings. Thank you. Thank you for doing that. We know that there's still some folks that's affected yet by the shutdown. There is a form online that you can fill out if you need any assistance due to the shutdown and how that may be affecting your family. You can do that. I do want to thank those, last week I mentioned this or announced this, and there were people who gave to help with this. Thank you so much for being kind and thinking about others outside of ourselves. I think that's one of the greatest things of Christianity, is that we get to love outside of ourselves and feel so free to do so for God's faithfulness. And so those of you that may need assistance, again, you can fill out that form online, and the elders will follow up with you on that. All right. I think that's it. So I think we'll just jump right on into it. Why don't you stand? We're going to look at Galatians 5.

If you have on a cap, I'm going to ask you if you would remove your cap or your cowboy hat as we read the scripture. In the last service, I read all of verse 1 through 15, and I don't think I'm going to do that this time. I think I'm going to read verse 1, and then I'm going to drop down to verse 5 through 7. And I don't need to tell you what I'm going to do, just follow. Galatians 5, 1, for freedom, Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Verse 5, for through the spirit by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. Verse 7, you were running well, who hindered you from obeying the truth? And verse 13, for you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love, serve one another. Let's pray. Father, I want to thank you for this time to be in your house among your people and your presence. It's a glorious day, it really is, and good to be here. I pray, Lord God, as I bring forth the word that it will minister to everyone who's listening, everyone who's watching, Lord, that you'll speak, that your spirit and your word, your voice will even go beyond mine and minister to people particularly, the things that they need to hear from this passage of Scripture. I pray, Lord, that all of us will take something from it that we can apply and become more and more conformed or transformed to the image of your son, Jesus Christ. I also, Lord God, ask that you will be with every church in our county,

our desires for every church in Yuma County, to have someone that's going to preach the gospel. Lord, for the church to grow, for the leadership team to get healthy, and for people to walk into that building and experience Christ, that we may fill this county with people who declare that Jesus Christ indeed is Lord. Fathers, we go into Veterans Day again, we're thankful for all of the men and women that stood up even in this house in both services. It's quite amazing, and I'm so thankful for each of them. Thank you for what they have done, what they've accomplished. Some Lord God among us has been a greater benefit to us than people will ever know, and I'm thankful for every one of them sacrificing themselves and those that are still serving. We pray for continued protection, continued protection. Father, we pray for those that are recovering from the storms in the Caribbean. We pray, Lord God, for our churches in South Africa. Africa and India, those that we oversee here in the United States. I pray, Lord God, that you will be with them and help them to continue to grow. And Lord, I do pray for Lady V. Lord, as you touch her body physically, Lord, I pray that even today, she will know your presence for healing. Lord, we love you and we thank you. In Christ's name, we pray. Amen. All right, you may be seated. Now, here in Galatians 5, and I should note this on Wednesday night, Pastor Norman Chandler was here for our first Wednesday. And what a time of ministry and worship and prayer. It was amazing. I'm so grateful for him and the message that he brought. But he carried right on with us in Galatians 5, and he ministered out of verse number 1, because Paul is just reminding us that we're designed for freedom, not an autonomy of freedom, like where we're free to do whatever we want to do. As a matter of fact, the freedom is not left to our own interpretation,

but we're free from self-lordship and we're free from self-deception. We don't get this freedom by retreating within ourselves or finding something deep down within us. To be honest, all of us are inwardly defective. And so, when you dig deep down in yourself to find the something that you need, the best you're going to come out with is a defective existence. That's the best. Freedom only comes from Christ. The essence of salvation is freedom. For freedom, Christ has set us free. John 8, verse 31 and verse 36 says this, Jesus said to the people who believed in him, you are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. And then in verse number 36, he says, so if the Son sets you free, you're truly free. Now, here's what I think that all of us can be a bit honest about. I'm going to believe that most of you here have given your life to Christ. You made a decision to follow him. You believe in him. You worship him. You read the scriptures. You pray. You gather. And we believe the word of the Lord is going to transform us. But then there's those times in your life where you just don't feel free. You just feel shackled by something, or bondage, or maybe got some ongoing sin, or thought life, or patterns in your life. And you wonder, okay, is all of this that we read about and teach about, does it fill the bill of the promo of what Christ can do? When you find yourself making some of the same mistakes over and over again, or sometimes even you find yourself adding to the failure list. I don't know about you, but it can happen to me. As soon as I get over my anger and feel like, okay, I'm free for that, then I get envious about somebody. And, you know, get over envy, then all of a sudden I got some idolatry going on. Is that just the pastor confessing? You just seem like you just bounce around, you get free. Oh, thank you, Jesus. That lasts about 24 hours on a good day, right? And then something else gets you. And, you know, you just... And, you know, the Christian journey, again, you get free from stuff, and then, you know, then you grab a chain and you put that chain back

around your neck, or some negative habit, or some hang-up. And we see it so often that born-again believers with the ongoing struggle of maybe lying, or pride, or unforgiveness, or lust, or addiction, or anger, or bitterness, or idolatry, or materialism. And we absolutely do not want to invalidate the work of the cross. And Paul is making a statement here that if you go back into that old stuff, if you go back into it, then the gracious calling of God and the freedom that Christ gives us, we just made invalid. So in verse number two, he says, mark my words, if you go back to bondage of any kind, Christ will have no value to you at all. He's not saying that your experience is null and void, but basically what he's saying is the purpose of your encounter has just become dead. That you can actually fall from the grace of God into a bondage that's not meant for the children of God. And you start living below... of the privileges that we have as a born-again believer, as a son of God, as a daughter of the Lord. We live below the privileges, and we all know what that looks like. You may know it from a family member. You may know it from a friend. You may know it from even your children when they get into situations, and you know that is not the life for them. That's not the life for them, and you see the situation they're living in, and it may come out of your mouth or through your head. They're living below their privileges. We can do that even as born-again believers where we relinquish the grace of God. So Paul reminds them that in verse number five, that Christ Jesus works in us

and works out of us in love, meaning we're saved by faith, but it's not just an intellectual conviction where we know what we believe and live the way that we desire. Just because we believe properly, we think that we can do what we want. He's saying here in Christ that we have a genuine self-denying love for God and a self-denying love for others. It's God that we submit to and to others, actually, and include ourselves. We don't let our own self-will be the thing that rules us. We come to know that anything outside of the loving limits of God's freedom, we've surrendered ourselves back into a bondage. So he says in verse number seven, you was running well, you were doing good. You have this down. You were running well. You believed right and you lived right. You thought right, you practiced right. It wasn't just a mere orthodoxy where you believe right. You didn't divorce that from your Christian life and character. It was in your heart and it was in your head, but he's saying, but something happened. Something went wrong. In verse number seven, when he uses the word prevented here, it's a military term.

Basically, he was saying, you were like an army that was going down the road on the charge, going to where you were going next, and you got to a spot and either the road was blocked or the bridge was out and you couldn't, you didn't go across, you just, you couldn't get across. Something hindered you. So he says here in verse number 13, for you've been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters, but don't use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love. Serve one another in love. You can let your freedom become just a beachhead of indulgence and allow footholds to get into your life and then we start living like human beings who've never had God's intervention at all. I was reading an old preacher and he was illustrating this passage when he says, so Christ has truly set us free, now make sure that you stay free and don't get tied up again in slavery. He was using an illustration. This was in the 1800s of a guy who got out of prison. Where the prison was located was, it was out, it was away. I think it was in France where he was illustrating this, not sure, maybe somewhere in the UK, but the person, it ain't like when you get out of prison now they give you clothes, money, rides, all of that kind of stuff.

Then they just put you out, right, you're out. And so the guy's walking on this dark road, it's dark, it's cold. Freed after all these years, he gets on the road though where there are houses and whatever, but he sees a place that it was lit, it looked warm, he was cold and he looked in and he knew that it probably wasn't the best place for him, but at the moment it seemed better than what he was experiencing right now. And sure enough he goes into the place, it's a tavern or a bar, and he goes from one, being released from one prison, and just fell right on back into another bondage. Christian freedom for us is not just rising and going out, it's following Jesus unencumbered. No shackles, no bondages, it's following him. Charles Wesley Cagle, you might remember this song from Wesley, he says, long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin and nature's night, thine eye diffused a quickening ray. I woke the dungeon flamed with light, my chains fell off, my heart was free. I rose, went forth, and followed Thee. That's the life of the believer. To be uncumbered, to rise up from the prison, from the dungeon, and to follow Christ. I think what gets us off, and I'm gonna approach this maybe a little bit different angle, is that we fail to recognize what God's design is for us.

That when God created us, when God made us, when God conceived us in his mind, in his heart, and I think every one of you know that I absolutely believe that God always knows all things at all times. So it's not a doubt that you just came into being when you broke the breach of your mother's womb. God always knew you before you knew yourself. He's an all-knowing God, and because he knows us, God has a design for our life, and we need to understand that design so we don't live below the privilege. Here's Ephesians 2.10. Listen, for we are God's masterpiece. Pause on that for just a moment, because some of you might have told that you were dumb, that you were stupid, you'll never get it right. You know the things that can label you. That's not what God says. That's what people say. God says you are his masterpiece. I'd rather be God's masterpiece than anybody else's whatever they want to call me. I'd rather belong to him. You're God's masterpiece. Now, the person next to you may not think that way about you, so you encourage them. You turn to them and say, you God's masterpiece. He says we're God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus so we can do the good things he's planned for us long ago,

before we even heard the call of God. He already had plans for us. He had designs for us. He had purpose, and when you know God's original design, it does a couple of things for you. First of all, it gives you clarity, so when you know that God has a good design for you, even when challenges comes and you gotta fight through things and this journey causes you to go through some hills and some valleys and some mountains, you got hope because you know God has a design for you, a purpose for you, so faith rises up, determination rises up, strength for the fight ahead. That rises up in you because you know God has a design for you, and then the second thing, it gives you clarity in spiritual warfare because you know you're fighting against an enemy who's trying to change your identity. God has given you an identity in him, and the enemy wants you to have a false identity. He wants you to think opposite and counter of who God has made you to be. Here's what the enemy knows. When I say enemy, I ain't talking about the person who threw the trash in your yard yesterday. I'm talking about the devil. The enemy, who the true adversary of us is, he knows that the most dangerous thing on planet Earth is Christians living according

to who God has designed them to be. That is the most dangerous thing to the devil, is us on planet Earth, who God has called and empowered, to live according to who God designed us to be. So this is what the devil does. This is just a little chart I just wanna walk you through. Here's the enemy's design, to make you selfish and self-preoccupied. But God's design for you is to be a servant and promoter of others. The enemy's design is for you to be victimized and filled with self-pity. God's design is to give you hope and encouragement. The enemy's design is for you to be hardened and numb in your heart. God's design is for you to be soft-hearted and connected with people emotionally. The enemy's design is for you to be unforgiving and bitter. But God's design is that you would be forgiving and filled with love. The enemy's design is that you would be filled with self-hatred. But God's design is for you to know that you're approved by him. The enemy's design is for you to be depressed and sorrowful. God's design is that you would be a person of contagious joy. The enemy's design is that you would be introverted and shy about who you are. God's design is that you would be outgoing and bold

in your faith in Christ. The enemy's design is that you would be visionless and confused. God's design is that you would be clear-minded and filled with vision. and direction. The enemy's design is that you would be fearful and unable to trust, but God's design is that you would be courageous and not suspicious of others. Total opposites. The enemy's got a design for your life, and God's got a design for your life. And the believer that is free is walking in a design that God has for you. Les Miserables is probably one of my favorite movies. It's definitely in the top five. And it's wonderful to look at Victor Hugo's version of Les Miserables. Great, great drama. But it's about Jean Valjean who, 20 years prior to when we pick up the movie, he had stole some bread when he was hungry, petty crime, got put in prison camp for 20 years. When he got released from prison camp, he's now out of prison, but he's still in bondage of the things that's affected him over life. So he tries to make it on his own. You just see him on a little bit of a journey, trying to get a job, can't get food, etc. A bishop takes him in to his home, has him there for dinner. Actually, he goes to the church, I think, to the...yes, and then they open the door and they let him in and they feed him. And during the night, though, he gets up and he goes down and he starts stealing the silver that he saw. The bishop walks in while he's stealing, he knocks the bishop upside the head, knocks him down, knocks him out, and he takes off with the stuff. The police find him and they bring him back to the bishop's house the next day. And they said to him, we found the man who robbed you, who took the silver, here he is, and we're bringing him back so you know that we are going to sentence him for the crime. Well, Bishop Mario, he says, he didn't steal it. He didn't steal it. I gave it to him. They're stunned. The police are stunned. Valjean is stunned. He's just staring at the bishop. He can't believe what he's hearing.

As a matter of fact, he says, Valjean, I'm disappointed in you. You took all of the silver, but you forgot the silver candlesticks. So he sends the maid to go get the silver candlesticks, or the wife, and she's freaking out. Like, what are we going to use to eat? We got pewter, just go get the silver. So she goes and gets the silver and they put it in the bag and they give it to him. The police are stunned. But then he says this to Valjean. He says, Jean Valjean, my brother, you no longer belong to evil but to good. It is your soul that I bought, that I buy from you. Now, silver represents redemption. And I withdraw your soul from the black fault and the spirit of perdition, and I give you to my God. He went on, if you know the story, to live a tremendous life of redemption. And that's the same thing that God does for us. He absolutely has a design for our life. And even when we fall into nonsense, the God that we serve wants us to still walk in that freedom and remind us that you are living according to my design, not the design of the enemy. Am I talking to the right church? Second Timothy 1.9 says this, for God saved us and called us to live a holy life. He did this not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan from before the beginning of time. That was his plan for us, his design for us, to show us his grace through Christ Jesus, to live according to the design that God has given us. Now, here's the problem, is that we have filters. We got filters in our life. You'll see this chart here. Again, this chart is not original to me, but you'll see this chart where we have God and he's pouring out upon us. His desire is for us to have intimacy with him, to experience his power, to have revelation of our life in God. That's his total desire. He's showering that down upon us as children of God. But then there's filters that we've allowed in our life to keep us from receiving all of that. Some of it is strongholds. And I wanted to spend more time on strongholds, but that's just belief systems, lies, stuff that you let in your life that absolutely almost controls you.

And you wonder why you can't be the Christian you want to be because you let some lies, some stronghold take place in your life and believe in something that's not true. Your flesh and your will, all of those things, you got the power of God, you got the intimacy of God, you got the revelation of God. God being poured upon you, but then it's got to filter through all of this stuff that we're allowing in ourselves, our mind, and our heart. And instead of us getting the full rain from God, we just getting dribble, dribble, dribble. Dribble, dribble, dribble. And so, we got to resist this. We got to remove this. And one of it is the flesh. The flesh, who we are as people outside of Christ. The old nature still can live in you. You know that? You've been born again, but the old nature can still rise up. You're a new creature in Christ Jesus, but the old you can still take control of you and live out of you in spite of the Spirit of God trying to work sanctification in your life. And listen to this in Romans 8, 7. He's talking to Christians. He's not talking to some crowd out there. He's talking to believers, Romans 8, 7. For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God's laws and it never will. In your flesh, in yourself, you can never do the right thing unto God. You can't. Your flesh will not allow it. You're dead in your sin, sinfulness. You can never please God simply living in your flesh. That's why you got to be born again. That's why you got to be a new creature in Christ Jesus. That's why you got to let the Spirit of the Lord come in your life and change you and transform you and make you new. You can never obey the laws of God in your flesh alone without an intervention from Christ. And so, to overcome the flesh, I got three words here, consideration, transformation, mortification. Consideration. You got to record yourselves unto God. Hear me on this, church. There is a psychology to redemption. I have to think of myself as a new believer, no longer allow myself to think of the old person. Tyrone is a new creature.

I reckon myself. That's an accounting term. I reckon myself unto God. I no longer consider myself the old person that I was. I have to consider myself as a person that belongs to Jesus Christ. Listen to what Romans 6.11 says. So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus. When choices come, you can consider yourself still in the power of sin. Or the psychology of redemption says, no, no, no, I'm dead to that. I'm alive to Christ. That's consideration. I told the first service this, this is a silly, silly illustration, but it just happened last night, so it works. Lady V is out of town. She got sick, so please pray for her. I hope she can get on the plane and get home. So it was, I don't know, 9.30 or so, and I decided, or I hadn't shut everything down up front, going to bed, went up front to shut everything down, and it's 9.30. And Lady V, we have a jar that she keeps full of Oreos, full of Oreos. I tell her, don't do it. Please. Stop bringing them in and out. She don't just fill the jar up. She puts them in one by one and lines them up all around, right? So when you go in there and see them, they just look like, oh, there they are, twirling. It's 9.30. At night, I know I don't need nothing at that time. Get ready to turn the light off, I thought, I'm just going to get one. So I walk over to the jar, I pick the lid up, and I'm not kidding you, as soon as I pick that lid up to reach in it, I heard her say, you're dead to that Oreo, and I put that lid down. You're dead to it. That's what we got to do when sin comes up on us. You got to remember, no, no, no, I'm dead to that. I'm dead to that consideration. I'm dead to it. Then there's transformation into a new person. Romans 12.2, don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think, then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. There's that consideration, that redemption, the psychology of it,

and then there's a transformation. Christ has indeed made us new, so everything about us now can prove what God's will is. Then there's mortification. It's a strong word, a strong word. But it really means to just go at anything within you, part of this flesh that is not good. Put to death, he says in Colossians, the sin, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don't be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater worshiping things of the world. Let me go back to verse number five. Because listen to what it says. Earthly things lurking within you. I want you to hear this. Every one of us have this, are susceptible and the ability in our flesh to do things we know is not good. Every one of us. This stuff is lurking within our nature. When you give your life to Christ, you get victory, you overcome. But this stuff doesn't go away. The old nature stays there. No longer, when I hear about certain things people do, I refrain myself from saying, I just couldn't believe they would do that. I know that every one of us are capable of doing anything within our flesh that the devil would lead you and tempt you to do.

Stuff that we know, sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, of course it sounds gross. It is gross. But every one of us is capable of doing this. That's why we gotta mortify the flesh. For a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world. Because of these sins, the anger of God is coming. Here it is. You used to do these things when your life was still part of this world. But we belong to him. We're designed to live in the freedom that Christ gives us. That's the flesh. You gotta consider and you gotta mortify it or mortification. Consideration, transformation, and mortification. And then there's the devil. The devil is always lurking. The devil is always running around, the scripture says, like a lion, looking for someone to devour. And the way to get that filter clean so that you receive the things of God is to armor up against the enemy. He's always gonna be on the attack, always lurking. But look what Ephesians 6, 10, and 11 says. Be strong in the Lord and his mighty power. Put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all the strategies of the devil.

Be strong in the Lord and the power of his might. There it is. It's his power that we stand strong in, not our own. And we put on armor. You could read Ephesians 6, 10 on down. It tells you what the armor is, but you can guard your mind, guard your heart. You can guard your torso. You got the sword, the shield of faith, the sword of the spirit. We gotta arm ourselves up. We cannot fight this fight without him. So we armor up. We stand strong. We stand in the power of his might. We put on God's armor that we may stand against the strategies of the enemy. And then we close the door. We close the door. We don't give the devil an opportunity We don't give him an opportunity to sabotage us. And you do this. You'll give him an opportunity. Listen, you know what sin looks like. You know what it smells like. You know the places you shouldn't be. You know the people you shouldn't be around. You know that. You give the enemy opportunity when you're around those folks.

You know the smell that you can hardly overcome. So get out of the place where the smell is. You know the sip that you shouldn't have took. You know the woman you shouldn't be around. Is this too hard for y'all? Y'all doing all right? You came to church voluntarily. You came on your own. You know the group you shouldn't be with. You know the stuff. You know what it looks like, smells like, acts like, behaves like. You know it. If you give into that and you know all that, then you've given the devil an opportunity. You've given him an opportunity. You got to shut that door. Close it. And then here's the last thing. Team, you can come. This sermon is almost up. It took me longer to preach this message to myself than it does to y'all. I guess I got a whole lot of stuff. I had to stop and say, oh Jesus, oh Lord. Can I really say that out loud? What about me? All right, number three. The last thing is this. Develop a culture of freedom.

Develop a culture of freedom. Deuteronomy 11, 18 through 21 said, listen and so commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these words of mine. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. about the word, tell them the people of Israel, grab a hold of these words, wear them on your forehead, teach them to your children, talk about them when you're at home and when you're on the road, when you're going to bed and when you're getting up. Write them on the doorpost of your house and on your gates, so that as long as the sky remains above the earth, you and your children may flourish in the land. Listen to what the Scripture is telling us. Now, this is more in the family, but he's saying you can develop a culture of freedom in your family by the Word of God, surrendering to the Spirit of God, practicing the encouragement of encouraging each person to live according to the design that God has for them. This is, again, for the family, but it can be in a dorm room, it can be on an employment team, on a staff, that you create a culture of freedom where you agree with those that you're surrounded with that we're going to be wholehearted to Christ. We're going to encourage one another. We're going to practice the principles of freedom, that freedom is the lifestyle that we're going to live as sanctified people, children of God by the Holy Spirit, developing a culture of freedom. And he assures that we can do it. 1 John 4 says this, but you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory. Listen to that. You've already won a victory because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the Spirit that lives in the world. We are victorious people in Christ Jesus because the Spirit of God lives in us, and developing that culture of freedom is exactly what God wants. I lived right outside of Philly for just a few years, and there's certain things, just like when I go to DC, there's certain things I go to more than once.

And this, you're going to see on the screen, there's a sculpture on 16th Street in Vines. I don't think the guy who did the sculpture, I've looked him up, it doesn't indicate at all that he's a Christian. But he wrote, he'd done this sculpture about what people go through in their everyday life. And you can see it's just one piece of, I don't know what that is, that he cut it out of. But you see in that first scene, there's someone who's just trapped in. This is their life. They're just trapped in. The second scene, you can see where they're trying to get out. If you were up close to it, you could see that the arms were still in, and they're trying to get out. The third one, you can see they're making a motion to get out. And the fourth one, they're absolutely free. That's the picture of the spiritual life with Christ. Every one of us are encased in that stone. But when the Spirit of God comes, everything about us wants to get out of there. And it's a journey, it's a process, but we just keep reaching and reaching and reaching. And eventually, we get totally free in Christ Jesus, totally free in him. And Isaiah 54, 17 tells us that there's no weapon formed against us that can prosper. Freedom is yours in Christ Jesus. Freedom is yours. Everyone stand if you would. And prayer team, if you'll come. I'm going to just say a couple of prayers here, and we're going to close this out with a song of worship. If you're here, I'm going to say this. If you're here and you voluntarily came to church, I'm going to believe that you came because you want to be better. I'm going to believe that. But I want to tell you something, you're getting better. You're being a better man, a better woman, a better young man, a better young lady. Just coming to church is not going to do it. You absolutely have to surrender your life to Christ. He's the liberator. He's the deliverer. He's the one that sets us free. So if you're in this house and you want that freedom, you saw that sculpture and you say, that's me. I just feel trapped and everything about me is trying to get out of this. I keep making bad decisions. I keep falling in and stuff. I can't break free of things.

I can't leave this nonsense alone. I just keep allowing myself to get in this ridiculous cycle. I'm telling you today, you can be free by trusting Jesus Christ to liberate you and make you new. Today is a day of freedom for you in Christ Jesus if you trust him, if you surrender your life to him. And if you're here and you know Christ Jesus, just make that choice. Reckon yourselves. Know who you are in Christ. I am a child of God. The flesh and the devil have no authority on me. I belong. To him. I'm reckoning myself as a new creature in Christ Jesus, and I'm gonna live in that manner father I want to thank you for this opportunity in time to share your word. I thank you for your goodness and grace And Lord God, I pray that those that are here that are Lord that the Spirit is drawing to surrender to you I ask you Holy Spirit to finish the work finish the work that they may come out with their hands up and Surrender today to Jesus Christ and allow him to be the Lord and Savior of their life. The bond is breaker the freedom maker It's Jesus and Lord for those of us that know you Lord Let us reckon ourselves alive in you and dead to sin that we may live in the freedom You've given us in Christ's name. We pray. Amen. God bless you. Have a great day church We just heard pastor talk about the freedom that you can experience It's found in Jesus Christ if you've never made a decision to follow Jesus let today be the day We have a team up here who is ready and more than willing to pray with you and partner with you Maybe you've already given your life to Jesus, but you just find yourself in a season of discouragement Again, these people are up here ready and willing to pray with you And if you're ready to take your next step Maybe you want to get baptized join a serve team or you haven't had a chance to get pastors book You can find all that information at our connect table on your way out of service And if you're watching online, you can tap that digital connect card and all those options are available to you as well before you head Out. Let's continue to worship Worthy you were. Worthy you are. Worthy you will be forever, Yahweh. Worthy you were. Worthy you are. Worthy you will be forever, Yahweh. Worthy you were. Worthy you are. Worthy you will be forever, Yahweh.

Worthy you were. Worthy you are. Worthy you will be forever, Yahweh. Worthy you were. Worthy you are. Worthy you will be forever, Yahweh. Worthy you were. Worthy you are. Worthy you will be forever, Yahweh. Worthy you were. Worthy you are. Worthy you will be forever, Yahweh. Your name is great and greatly to be praised. Your name is great and greatly to be praised. Your name is great and greatly to be praised. Your name is great and greatly to be praised. We love you church. We'll see you next Sunday. God bless you.