Sermon Tone Analysis

Bookmarks & Needs:

B:

Housekeeping Stuff & Announcements:

Welcome guests to the family gathering, introduce yourself.

Thank the band.

Invite guests to parlor after service.

Sorry, but I have several announcements this morning.

This weekend was our student ministry’s annual Disciple Now weekend.

Unfortunately, Trevor has a couple of sick ladies at home, so he couldn’t stay this morning to tell you all about it.

The theme for the weekend was “Enslaved,” and 21 students participated in three awesome Bible studies on being a slave to Christ.

Yesterday, they walked around and raked the leaves in 12 yards in our neighborhood, and they got to serve some people who had some big needs, or who were really surprised at what they were doing.

Trevor said that it was eye-opening to see the impact we might continue to have in our neighborhood.

They worked hard, and they played hard… hundreds of virtual casualties in laser tag last night.

Trevor said that the students were about as tired as he has ever seen them, except for mission trip.

He wanted me to give a shout out to the host families and Bible study leaders: Sam & Brenda Swann, Eric & Monica Seiler, Dan Hill, Bryce Seiler, Matt Ricks, Brenna Seiler, and Amanda Clark.

And the shirt is super comfy.

=o)

This morning has been designated NM Disaster Relief Sunday, to raise awareness in the churches of our NM Baptist Disaster Relief ministry.

Mary Jane Smith and Freda Challender are sitting down front in their disaster relief gear.

Please find them following the service and ask them how you can be involved in this important ministry.

Tonight at 6:30 following our evening worship service, we will have Adults on Mission in Miller Hall.

Curtis Smith will be speaking about his ministry in and upcoming trip to Hungary.

Next Sunday night is our bi-monthly business meeting of the church at 5:30 pm here in the Sanctuary.

Before that, at 5 pm, the Financial Management ministry will hold a discussion time to review and answer any questions regarding our proposed 2020 budget.

You can get a copy of the budget from the Get Connected table in the foyer.

The budget will be voted on at a special called business meeting on the morning of December 8, but there won’t be any discussion at that time.

The Get Connected table is getting a lot of use today… there is also out there a petition from New Mexico Right to Life… get more info for this.

Our church-wide Thanksgiving meal will be held on Sunday, November 24, following our morning services.

We need help with setup, serving, and clean up.

There is a clipboard for you to sign up to help on the Get Connected table in the foyer.

Silver Seekers, our monthly meeting for the senior adult ministry, will not meet this month until the SECOND Tuesday, November 12, due to the Scholastic Book Fair for the school this week.

Silver Seekers will meet at 10 am on November 12 in Miller Hall.

Silver Seekers, our monthly meeting for the senior adult ministry, will not meet this month until the SECOND Tuesday, November 12, due to the Scholastic Book Fair for the school this week.

Silver Seekers will meet at 10 am on November 12 in Miller Hall.

The church will be providing Thanksgiving meal boxes for families in need.

We can do up to 12 boxes, and each box will contain a turkey or a ham (their preference) and all the fix’ns.

If you need a box for Thanksgiving, or if you know a family that does, please contact either Pastor Wayne, or the office and let us know as soon as possible.

Finally, the church will be providing Thanksgiving meal boxes for families in need.

We can do up to 12 boxes, and each box will contain a turkey or a ham (their preference) and all the fix’ns.

If you need a box for Thanksgiving, or if you know a family that does, please contact either Pastor Wayne, or the office and let us know as soon as possible.

Opening

As we have been studying this little letter to the churches of Galatia during our series “Dear Church,” we have seen that Paul mostly focuses on legalism, the idea that we can earn or keep our right standing before God, called justification, through merit of our own, rather than only by God’s amazing grace and mercy in Christ.

Today however, and for most of the rest of the book, Paul shifts gears a little bit in order to head a problem off at the pass, so to speak.

Let’s look at our focal passage together, as we stand in honor of the Word of the Lord:

Pray

We’ve spent a lot of time talking about freedom and slavery during this series.

These are major themes in the book of Galatians.

Paul has spent nearly the whole letter to this point arguing against legalism because legalism enslaves us.

The idea behind legalism is that if we keep the rules well enough, then somehow God is obligated to save us.

So we manufacture rules so that we can make sure we keep them.

It’s the “To-Do/Not-To-Do” list of life.

The problem is that Paul has already said here in Galatians that this is not how it works.

In fact, trying to earn our salvation through the Jewish laws, as the Judaizers (legalists) were trying to get the Galatians to do, really brought a curse, according to :

Following the law for our salvation imprisons us, and shows us that freedom must be given to us by God, it cannot be earned.

gal 3:

One of the beautiful aspects of being saved only by God’s grace through faith is that when we are saved by God, we have a complete change of status before Him.

So Paul has made this argument clearly about the fact that trying to earn our salvation is pointless.

We can’t be good enough.

And now, God has set us free in Christ:

So Paul has addressed this idea of legalism.

But there’s another side to this coin, and Paul can see the problem coming:

Since it is for freedom that Christ set us free, then we have the authority to just live however we want to live, right?

We’re free, and that’s what freedom is: doing whatever we want, isn’t it?

Nope.

1) Doing whatever you want to do isn’t freedom.

1) Doing whatever you want to do isn’t freedom.

Doing whatever you want to do isn’t freedom.

We like to think of freedom as doing whatever we want to do.

We think that we understand freedom, being people who live in the United States of America.

We even say things like, “It’s a free country,” when someone wants to do something.

But is that really what it means to be “free?”

Certainly not in the eyes of

But does Paul really mean that we have the authority to do whatever we want when he says that we are free in Christ?

Certainly not.

Doing whatever we want to do is called license.

License and legalism are kind of two sides of the same coin.

Legalism is about following all the rules on our own and in our own strength so that we can obligation God’s love for us.

License is literally defined as using freedom irresponsibly (m-w.com).

It’s saying that there aren’t any rules that we have to follow at all.

We have the authority to live however we want to live because of the freedom that God has given us in Christ.

Paul addresses this question of license in verse 13:

That’s its own kind of slavery.

It’s called license.

Kind of the opposite of legalism.

Here at the beginning of verse 13, Paul says that we who are in Christ were “called to be free.”

This looks back at verse 1, which we saw a moment ago.

So our calling is a calling of freedom.

But then Paul addresses the question of license (also called licentiousness):

expound 13a-b

He says not to use our freedom as an “opportunity” for the flesh.

What does he mean here?

This word for “opportunity” was a military term that meant a pretext, or an excuse: It’s kind of like me going a little out of my way so that I’ll “happen” to drive by a Starbucks.

I may not actually need a cup of coffee, but hey… there’s a Starbucks right there, and I would like a coffee, so I should go to Starbucks.

I mean really… does anyone need a grande nitro cold brew with sweet cream?

Maybe go a step further here?

Paul is telling us not to use our freedom as an excuse to run headlong into serving the flesh.

The flesh is our fallen human nature, the center of human pride and self-willing.

Living in license happens when we misapply the doctrine of God’s grace.

To use our freedom as an opportunity for the flesh is like saying that since God loves us so much and wants to display His grace so fully, that we should go ahead and do Him a favor and intentionally live in such a way that He keeps having to pour out His grace on us abundantly.

Paul addressed it this way in :