Freedom Galatians 5:7-12

ESVYou were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!

Again, one person can wreck the whole church. This is so serious that if there is one person who is meddling. If there is one person who is behind the scenes working against what God wants, there can be disastrous results. Did Christ endure the cross for nothing? Can you imagine being able to see the son of God hanging, tortured on that cross and that we would be able to take care of ourselves? Why would He do that? Paul isn’t afraid to tell them how he really feels. I wish they would emasculate themselves.Freedom from what? Having to become our own God’s. WE have this sense that we have to have everything all figured out and we feel that pressure. People put it on us. We feel pressure that we have to know it all, have answers to everything which basically means we are God because only God has all the answers.Its easy to get stuck in a mode where we try to have a quick 1 minute answer to very complex questions and guess what? In Christ you are free from that. You don’t have to know all the answers. Some may tell you that is a cop out and that’s okay. You don’t save people, God does.We are free to be creatures who worship God. We don’t have to answer for Him. Free from somethnig and free us to something.. to be free.From slavery, into joyslavery is not a nice thing. WE can all agree. Freedom to do what? Being free to be free. a life that is give to christ will all of a sudden make you through the holy spirit really happy to serve God. Happy to worship, happy to do things for God.Joyous obedience The holy spirit does that in us. Free to be free. Free to be what God created in us.But when we have only our own interests in mind we find that we don’t want to trust in God. We want to trust what we feel, what we desire.When I was younger I was in a band. We were a Christian rock band and I loved it. I sang, I was the front man. I didn’t really play guitar at that point in my life. I was in my mid to late 20s before I really did that.We were a Christian band that had the idea that we would play in bars (covers) and Christian songs and originals. Now I remember struggling with this. I was a Christian in a Christian band, who called themselves a Christian band but I found myself really enjoying playing, gaining some popularity, finding my identity in the band.I knew that it wasn’t right. I struggled with this and told a friend that I thought I should quit the band. They were emphatic that no, you can’t do that, you are doing a lot for Christians and non Christians but in my heart I knew that even though we were a Christian band I wasn’t glorifying God.That band ended and I didn’t play guitar or sing for years. Someone in my church wanted to start a contemporary service that included guitars and drums and stuff. I said okay. I wanted to be used for God in this way.I truly was using the gift God gave me and love for music, particularly worship music.When I was in that band I was not living in freedom. I was doing what I wanted to do as a Christian and I was miserable. When I was freed from that, I was able to be free to enjoy the same activity but with a different purpose. I was free. What I once thought was what I wanted to do “entertain people in bars”, Christ gave me the freedom to enjoy the purpose he has for me. I will never need to play in a bar again. Freedom.

​1500 Illustrations for Biblical Preaching DiscipleshipDiscipleship “The demand for absolute liberty brings men to the depths of slavery.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Cost of Discipleship [Magnolia, Mass.: Peter Smith, 1983]).343