From Self to Service

SERMON BUMPER

SHOW “WELCOME” GRAPHIC HERE. Don’t show Title graphic until requested below.

Me

I want to begin this morning with a confession: I am not good at freedom. And I don’t meant that in some kind of deep — theological way… I mean it in a very practical — embarrassing — Tuesday-afternoon kind of way. Give me a completely open schedule — zero obligations — nobody needing anything from me, and I will — without hesitation — totally squander it. And I’ll make a series of decisions that help absolutely nobody — including myself.

The clearest evidence of this in my life is what happens if Blaire is out of town. I’m talking full, unsupervised freedom. Nobody to report to — nobody questioning my choices. Not gonna lie — the first night is genuinely great. By the second night — I’m eating junk food at 10pm when I should be in bed and watching something stupid on TV that doesn’t even make any sense.

And I tell myself this is fine — this is rest — and it’s what I needed.

By night three — I’ve lost track of what day it is — and the kitchen looks like a crime scene — and I am — somehow — more tired than when the week started.

Total freedom — zero friction — and somehow… worse. And I’ve done a version of this in almost every area of life where I’ve been handed genuine freedom and no direction:

The first summer break when I was a kid.

The first apartment I ever had.

Every “open” Saturday that didn’t have a plan by 9 a.m.

Give me a blank check and I’ll find a way to spend it on things that don’t actually make me feel any better.

Here’s what I’ve figured out about myself: I don’t actually want total — directionless freedom. I want to know what the freedom is for. And I think most of us do. We just don’t always have the language for it.

Maybe you’ve felt it — the low-grade restlessness of a completely unscheduled day that somehow ends up feeling like a waste of time. Or the version of freedom where you finally got exactly what you wanted — and the first thing you did was make it worse.

Total autonomy — nobody to answer to — and somehow around day three — alone in the kitchen with junk food at ten o’clock at night — you’re not entire sure this is what you were hoping for.

“WHAT IF FREEDOM” GRAPHIC

What if freedom was never meant to be a blank check? What if it was always meant to be an invitation?

We

Here’s what I’ve figured out about that feeling: I’m not really unique in this. We’ve built an entire culture around it. How many times have you heard, “Well, you do you.”?

It’s not just a phrase anymore — it’s basically a philosophy. And honestly — it’s appealing. Nobody wants to be told what to do, right?

One of my favorite things to tell my wife is “Don’t tell me what to do.” Even when she means well. Even when I’m leaving for work for the day and she says “Have a good day.” I’ll tell her, “Thanks, but don’t tell me what to do.”

Nobody wants to feel monitored — or managed — or even guilted into something — right? The desire for freedom is completely legitimate — and it’s completely human. The problem isn’t wanting freedom. The problem is that we instinctively do with once we have it.

Think about the last time you genuinely had an open day. No obligations… nobody needed anything. You could do whatever you wanted. What did you do? And honestly? How’d you feel by four p.m.?

For a lot of people — the answer is some version of, “Fine.” Maybe a little restless. Maybe a little boring. Like something was missing but you just couldn’t name it. Because it turns out that freedom with no direction and nobody to spend it on is less satisfying than it looked on the brochure.

Here’s the deal — we are the most personally free generation in human history. We’ve got more options — more autonomy — more ability to design our own lives than any people who have ever lived. And we are also among the loneliest. And those two things aren’t a coincidence.

“A LIFE ORGANIZED ENTIRELY” GRAPHIC

A life organized entirely around personal preference turns out to be a very small life.

It’s like we’ve been navigating around life without a GPS.

Some of us here are old enough to remember what getting directions used to look like. Believe it or not — we used to pull up to random strangers and ask them for directions. It’s a miracle we’re still alive!

Somebody would tell you to turn at the Wendy’s — which, by the way — there were three Wendy’s — and then they’d draw you a little map on a napkin that you’d be trying to read while doing 70 down the interstate.

You had the destination — and you had the route… sort of. What you didn’t have was any way of knowing where you actually were. And when you missed the turn — which you did… because it was on a napkin — you were just on your own. Pull over — and figure it out — and hope for the best.

That’s how a lot of us are navigating life, too. We have a general idea of where we want to end up. We’ve got some directions — maybe from somebody else we know and trust — maybe just from our own best guesses… But when we miss a turn — there’s nobody recalculating. There’s just us — on the side of the road — squinting at a napkin.

SHOW “AMAZING GRACE” TITLE GRAPHIC HERE

Now if you’ve been with us for this series — you know we’ve been spending the last few weeks in the Book of Galatians — and the big thread running through all of it has been this: grace is not the starting line. It’s the whole track.

We’ve talked about how easy it is to follow a counterfeit gospel,

We’ve talked about what it looks like to stop performing for an audience and to start living from the inside out,

And last week — we talked about what happens when you stop hitting “remind me later” on the grace that’s already been installed.

And this week is where it all lands. Because here’s the question this whole series has been building toward: “So you’re free… now what? Free to do what?”

God

That’s exactly what Paul answers in Galatians Chapter 5. And what he says is maybe the one of the most hopeful things in the whole letter. Because it turns out the answer to “What is freedom for?” isn’t more of the same — it’s not a bigger, blank check. It’s something that once you see — you can’t unsee it.

Exposition

This morning we’re looking at Galatians Chapter 5 — verses 13 through 15. Starting in Verse 13:

v. 13

Galatians 5:13 NRSVue

13 For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become enslaved to one another.

Become enslaved to one another…

If that sounds strange to you — it should. Paul is doing something deliberately jarring here. He’s spent four chapters arguing that the Galatians are free:

Free from the law,

free from the performance treadmill,

free from the exhausting — never-quite-enough religion of trying to earn something that was already given.

That’s been the whole letter. And now he turns around and uses the word slaves. But he’s not contradicting himself here… he’s reframing the whole things.

There are two things we can do with freedom:

We can use it an as opportunity for self — Paul calls that “self-indulgence”,

Or — through love — we can use it to serve one-another.

“DOULEUETE” GRAPHIC

The Greek work for slaves here is douleuete (dool-YOU-eh-tuh). It’s a servant word. A lowest-on-the-social-ladder word. Paul’s essentially saying, “The whole point of being freed from slavery to all the rules is so that you can voluntarily — and freely — choose to become a servant of love.”

That’s not a restriction on our freedom — it’s the fullest possible expression of it.

Think about what it means to have GPS navigation versus a paper napkin with directions. The napkin gives you a route and leaves you alone, right. But it doesn’t know where you are. It can’t respond to traffic — or a missed turn — or the fact that the Wendy’s it referenced has been a smoothie place for the last six years. You’re on your own with a set of instructions — doing your best.

But the GPS travels with you. It knows exactly where you are at every moment. It responds to what’s actually happening around you. It doesn’t abandon you when you go the wrong way — it recalculates — from wherever you are right now — and gives you the next turn.

That’s the difference between service that is driven by obligation — and service that’s driven by grace. One is a set of directions you’re trying to follow well enough and not feel guilty. The other is a guide who’s present with you in every situation — recalibrating in real-time — moving with you instead of just pointing at you.

This is describing what freedom looks like when it’s connected to its source.

v. 14

Look at Verse 14:

Galatians 5:14 NRSVue

14 For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Take a second and feel the weight of that. The whole law. Paul is talking about the entire Jewish legal tradition — 613 commandments in the Old Testament. Centuries of religious instruction. All of it — he says — is fulfilled - -completely in one single sentence:

Love your neighbor as yourself. Paul here is quoting Jesus — who was quoting Moses in the Book of Leviticus. He’s not saying the law doesn’t matter — he’s just saying the law was always pointing somewhere. Every command about how to treat other people — every instruction about honesty — and fairness — and care for the vulnerable. All of it — at its root — is about love. The law described what love is supposed to look like from the outside. Now — Paul is saying in Christ — we have access to love from the inside.

And so if we find ourselves trying to figure out what grace-fueled living is supposed to look like in our every-day lives… we don’t need a flow chart. We just need one question:

“WHAT DOES LOVE REQUIRE HERE?” GRAPHIC

What does love require here? Not “what am I technically allowed to do?” Not, “what will make me look good?” Just simply, what does love require in this moment — with this person — in this situation?

That question will help take us farther than any rulebook ever could. Because it’s not asking us to consult a map — it’s asking us to stay connected to the guide. The GPS doesn’t give us every possible route at once. It gives us the next turn. Love your neighbor as yourself is the next turn. Every time.

WIERSBE QUOTE

I came across this quote from Warren Wiersbe recently and it’s stayed with me:

“We do not live by rules but by relationships, a loving relationship to God that enables us to have a loving relationship with others.”

Warren Wiersbe

v. 15

But Paul doesn’t just stop at the vision. He flips it in Verse 15:

Galatians 5:15 NRSVue

15 If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.

This language here is vivid — and harsh — on purpose. Biting — devouring — consuming. Paul’s describing what self-directed freedom produces in community when everybody’s using liberty as a launching pad for themselves. It doesn’t produce independence — it produces destruction. People using their freedom against each other — and everybody ending up with less than they started with.

You’ve seen this. Maybe not in a dramatic way — but certainly in a slow — low-grade kind of way.

The relationship that’s been cooling down for two years because both people are waiting for the other person to make the first move.

The friendship that just kind of evaporated because neither person could remember who was supposed to reach out last.

The family dynamic where everybody is technically free to do whatever they want — and so nobody is doing anything for anybody.

That’s what biting and devouring looks like in ordinary life. Just little withdrawals. And Scorekeeping. The slow accumulation of “I’ll just wait and see if they come through before I give anything.”

And here’s where the Gospel doesn’t just offer a better philosophy — it offers the only real solution to that pattern. Because the reason Paul can call people to voluntary — love-driven service to others isn’t that he thinks they’re capable of generating it on their own. It’s that he knows where it comes from. The model for this is Jesus Himself.

He had every conceivable right to use His freedom for Himself. He was the one person in human history who actually deserved a blank check. Instead — He used His freedom all the way to the Cross. Philippians Chapter 2 Verses 7 and 8 say:

Philippians 2:7–8 NRSVue

7 (He) emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, assuming human likeness. And being found in appearance as a human, 8 he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross.

Christ took the full weight of every wrong turn — every self-indulgent choice — every moment of biting and devouring — and absorbed it completely — for us — so that we’d never have to pay a debt that’s already been settled.

The Cross isn’t just the reason we’re free. It’s the shape of what freedom looks like when it’s used the way it’s always meant to be used.

And God’s Holy Spirit — the one already living and working in the heart of every believer under the sound of my voice — is what makes it possible to live that way. Not by trying harder — not by generating more willpower — but by staying connected to the source and letting it navigate.

THE GPS doesn’t charge your battery. It just knows exactly where you are and what turn comes next. And it never stops recalculating.

You

Guys — being “freed for love” isn’t an abstract concept — it’s real life. It shows up in specific moments. And if we’re not specific about what it looks like — we might just end up nodding along — but then be back on the napkin map by lunchtime.

So let’s be specific:

It shows up at work when a colleague is clearly underwater: behind on something — stressed about something — or carrying something — and you have a small window to make their day just a little bit easier. Not a grand gesture — maybe just an email you didn’t have to send. Or picking up a piece of something that isn’t really your responsibility. One turn toward them — for no reason other than you’re free enough to do it.

Or maybe it’s at home — somebody needs something from you that you don’t particularly feel like giving right now. Not because you’re a bad person — just because you’re tired — and it’s Tuesday — and your own tank isn’t exactly full. The old operating system says wait till you feel like it. But the GPS says — this is the next turn. Take it.

Or it could be just that small invisible act — the one that earns you nothing. The thing you do that nobody sees — or posts about on social media — or thanks you for. Obligation-driven service needs an audience — or at least a receipt. But grace-driven service doesn’t need either. You do it because you’ve been freed for exactly this — and that turns out to be enough.

Before today is over — before you go to bed tonight — name one person and one act. Not a category… not, “I’ll be more intentional about loving people.” That’s the napkin. But a specific person — or an act. Write it down if it helps. Put it in your phone. Tell the person sitting beside you right now so there’s at least one witness. But land on something concrete that you can do this week.

Not because it earns you anything. Not because God is keeping score and this is how you get back in the good graces column. But because you’ve been handed a freedom that was paid for at an enormous cost — and the best possible thing you can do with it — the thing it was always designed for — is spend it on somebody else.

And listen — maybe you’re here this morning and you’re just not sure you believe any of this — that’s okay. The invitation is still the same. You don’t have to have your theology sorted out before you try this. Just try it. Use your freedom for one person this week — with no agenda and no expectation of return. See what that feels like. Because that experience is its own kind of evidence. And that kind of love — is why Christ went to the Cross — for you.

We

GO BACK TO “AMAZING GRACE” TITLE SLIDE

Church — the whole point of this series has been to help us imagine what life would look like if we lived in God’s Amazing Grace.

Imagine waking up tomorrow and instead of calculating what you need from the day — your first move is toward somebody else. Not in an obligation-kind of way — but in a genuinely free way.

Imagine a hard relationship — one that’s been stalled or broken — and you’re the one who takes the first step. Not because you were necessarily wrong — but because you’re free.

Imagine serving someone in a way that goes completely unnoticed. No recognition. No return. And it genuinely doesn’t bother you.

And then imagine what a whole community of people walking toward each other would look like as a result. Not perfectly — not without wrong turns — but consistently recalculating. Consistently moving in the right direction.

That’s not a fantasy version of faith — that’s possible through God’s Amazing Grace. It’s the life that’s been available the whole time — for anybody willing to stop treating freedom like a blank check — and start accepting it for what it actually is: an invitation.

The same Jesus who made you free — made you free for this. So let’s stop waiting for somebody else to take the first turn.

Prayer

Communion