Freedom

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Amen.

Amen.

Let's pray together.

God, those words that we just sang, for some of us, we've sinned long enough to know what that means exactly.

That you freed us from the bondage of sin, from the chains that held us back, from the fact that we didn't even know what life looked like until you came along, until you pursued us in such a way you invited us in to know you as savior and as friend.

Both of those, both of those realities have an impact on us, God, that we can't look back from.

We cannot recover from because you have left a stain on us.

And here's the great thing about it: you've left a stain of relationship, and you've removed the stains of sin.

So, God, what we pray today is that you would illuminate your word, open our minds and our hearts, open our eyes and ears so that we can fully understand, fully grasp the freedom we have, the sacrifice you made, and the relationship you call us to.

We ask all of this in your saving name, King Jesus.

Amen.

You can be seated.

Well, good morning.

My name is Wade Burgess, and I'm the executive pastor here at Grand Parkway.

And uh, if you've been with us for any previous July, you know that typically our tradition is July, we take a break from our sermon series.

This July is no different.

We're taking a break from preaching through the book of Acts.

This gives us a chance for you to hear from some others.

It gives uh Neil a chance to take a break from preaching.

And so over these next uh three weeks, after I get finished, you'll hear from various ones as they bring the word to you.

And let me just make you aware.

It'll be myself and three others.

It'll be four different people, but here's the commonality in that.

We will always preach the Bible to you, and we will always tell you the good news of Jesus.

So that will be uh always consistent in what you will get from this pulpit.

So thank you for being here today, and thank you proactively for your attention.

I hope with it being this close to 4th of July, you all will allow me to still talk about freedom this morning.

Now, some of you are already thinking, those that don't like me, you're thinking, you know what, Wade, that's a pretty easy cliche.

I mean, I can't believe you reached back that far.

Well, we were just there a few days ago, okay?

And I thought, at apropos, for us to discuss the freedom that we have.

Now, we're not going to talk about the freedom to vote or the free speech or the freedom even to gather or the right to bear arms.

I recognize all of those.

I'm for all of those.

The freedom I want to talk about this morning is the freedom that we have in Christ.

What do we experience by knowing Jesus as our personal Savior?

The freedom that we're given in and through what He has done for us, by our belief in Him as a resurrected Savior.

That's the freedom I want to talk about today.

And I want to do it really in kind of three categories.

I want to talk about the freedom from, the freedom to, and the freedom for.

Now, from, obviously, you know that the definition of that word is it's taking from one place to another.

The way I want you to think about it today is a place of origin.

Where do we start out?

So where does our freedom begin?

And then we're going to talk about the two, this idea of destination.

When you put those together where we know where we're coming from and where we're going to, it really lays out for us our origin, but also the destination of action.

I'll explain more about that in just a minute.

So that's what we're going to look at.

You know, I think everybody focuses on the two, right?

What do I have a freedom to do?

Ooh, I've got freedoms and all this and allowances.

This is awesome.

I think sometimes we miss this first section of our sermon today, the idea of freedom from.

What is the origin of that freedom?

Why do we have it?

And I think if we'll better understand that, we'll better understand our destination.

So let's begin our exploration of freedoms in Christ.

We're going to do it in Romans chapter six.

So if you have your Bibles, open up to Romans 6.

If not, the words will come on the screen behind me.

I'm going to read the entirety of chapter 6.

Now, by the way, I mentioned this to my wife last night, and she said, How are you feeling about this?

And I said, Oh, we're reading chapter six.

And she says, That's a lot of reading.

And I said, Yes, but more of the Bible and less of me is a good thing.

So bear with me as we go through.

Bear with me as we go through chapter six.

This is what Paul writes in Romans.

What shall we say then?

Should we go on sinning so that grace may increase?

By no means.

We died to sin.

How can we live in it any longer?

Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.

For we know that our old self was crucified with him, so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin, because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

Now, if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again.

Death no longer has mastery over him.

The death he died, he died to sin once for all.

But the life he lives, he lives to God.

In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.

Do not offer the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.

For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

What then?

Shall we sin because we're not under law, but under grace?

By no means.

Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey, whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness.

But thanks be to God that though you used to be slaves to sin, you're wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted.

You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

I'll put this in human terms because you're weak in your natural selves, just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness, leading to holiness.

When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness.

What benefit did you reap at that time from those things that are ashamed of?

Those things resulted in death.

But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

That's a lot of reading, and thank you for your allowance in that.

But Paul does a great job, obviously, of spelling out this idea of what is death, what is life, what are the sources of those.

And I think he gives us some insights as to what freedom we have from.

Obviously, the first one is the freedom from sin.

It's verse two, and again in seven, verse two, by no means we died to sin, how can we live in it any longer?

We've already given that up.

And then he goes on in verse seven to say, because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

Let me ask you this, and I get this might be a little bit morbid, but let's just pretend for just a moment you died.

Okay?

Maybe a heart attack, a car accident, I don't know, uh, anything.

And you were brought back.

You were brought back to life, and you come back and you think, Whew, what just happened?

Hey, you were dead for a little while, and now you're brought back.

Wouldn't you avoid the thing that killed you with everything you've got?

I mean, probably not many of us would go back to whatever it was that we did a bad crowd, too much red meat and red wine, or uh driving too fast.

Well, whatever the cause.

We would say, you know what?

I'm done with that.

That's my view of what Paul is telling us.

We've got to be done from sin.

Why?

Because you're freed from it.

You're no longer a slave to that, you're no longer bound to that.

Sin is a death sentence, and Jesus saved us from it.

Why would we ever want to go back?

And why would we certainly not want to stay in that dead-end life?

Now, some of you are probably thinking, Wade, uh I've been a believer a long time, but I still sin.

I mean, sin is a part of our lives, isn't it?

Until Jesus comes back, until we're fully made holy.

Isn't sin always going to be there?

And I would say, yes, I believe that it is.

But here's the difference.

You should be noticing, number one, you don't sin like you used to.

And number two, you don't sin as often as you used to.

It should be looking different to you.

If you said yes to Jesus, the way Terry has, that sin's gonna look different.

You're gonna be freed from that old way, and you're gonna be living in a new way where it doesn't speak a language you understand anymore.

We also have a freedom from the past.

Look at verses 4 and 13 with me.

Verse 4, Paul writes, We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead, through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

And then move down to verse 13.

He says, Do not offer the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.

I read that and I think we're freed from the past, from death to life.

And if sin is a death sentence, here's the thing: you're not only freed from that, but your past should not be something holding you back either.

Now, obviously, we're going to have the scars and the injuries related to certain things that may have happened to us in the past, certain things we did in the past.

Absolutely, there's consequences to our past, but we should not be held down by it.

I would argue at times that uh we have great memory for our mistakes.

And I would also argue it is a pretty big tool of the devil to remind us of the mistakes we've made.

And I want us to be careful that we don't get bogged down in that.

Here's the thing that the devil does with our mistakes.

He reminds you of it, but have you ever noticed he doesn't go any further than that?

Here's what I mean.

In my own life, I sometimes am reminded by the enemy, oh, wait, are you kidding me?

All the stuff you did?

The people you brought down with you, all the things.

Are you kidding me?

And then he just stops right there.

You know what God does?

He picks up from right there.

And he says, Oh, I know what you've done.

And we're gonna move from that.

You're not gonna lay where you fell.

See, Satan stops for a moment and says, Oh, remember these mistakes?

And God says, I don't.

Why?

Because you are dead to the past, you're dead to that sin, and I've called you to life.

I'm not worried about what you're dead to already.

I'm worried about what you've yet to live.

And so we've got to be sure that we're freed from the past.

The uh the analogy I think about is uh something to do with horse racing.

Now, uh, my dad in the 60s and 70s, he owned uh thirdbred racehorses.

Now, you're immediately thinking, man, y'all must have been rich.

Or we were in debt.

But anyway, um, so he he he loved racehorsing uh horse racing, and uh, in fact, he was in the early 80s the Louisiana State Racing Commissioner.

And so we got to go all over the country actually, getting to see different horse tracks and all this stuff, and kind of his love and passion for that got passed along to me.

Now, I don't bet on horse racing, I don't own any horses, uh, but I do enjoy watching it on TV.

And there's a couple of things you'll notice if you're watching horse racing.

Sometimes the horses will come out and they'll have what's called blinders on or blinkers.

They've got these kind of a headgear.

And what it does is it keeps the horse kind of paying attention.

Now, horses can look forward and backward.

So what happens is these horses are they kind of high strung sometimes.

And so the crowd is, you know, distracting them, other horses are distracting them.

By the way, what they're bred for is to run.

So if another horse comes up on them and they see it, they'll run faster and sooner than the jockey might want them to.

So they put these blinders on, and all the horse gets to do is focus straight ahead.

It also does this.

For some horses, they'll get distracted in the starting gate and it won't let them get early speed out of the gate.

Why don't I bring up that analogy?

Because this is what I think God has done.

I think God has said, I'm putting blinders on you.

I'm putting these things on you where you're not looking back to the past.

You're not distracted by the world, you're not distracted by what people think or say about you or what you've experienced before I gave you new life.

Instead, I put the focus on you so you can look straight ahead.

You can get out of that starting gate with early speed and you could run with endurance.

And my five favorite words, down the stretch they come.

And that's what I think God is saying to us.

Oh, I can't wait till you just fully focus on me.

Based on the life I've given you.

We're free from the past.

Now, if those are a starting point, a place of origin, as I mentioned, this idea of from.

Where are we coming from?

And we also have some freedoms to the destination that God has planned for us.

Let's take a look at a couple of those, and I want to focus on not the freedom we have to pray, not the freedom we have to go to God directly, not the freedom we have to read his word.

All of that we should be doing, you know that.

If you've been here any length of time, we're a big proponent of us doing that on the regular basis.

I want to talk about this freedom to live in such a way that it matches how we're designed.

So let's take a look at what Paul said there.

Look at verses five and six, and let's understand that we're free to be a new creature.

Starting in verse five, if we have been united with him, meaning Jesus, like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.

For we know that our old self was crucified with him, so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.

It's a new creature.

This means that old way of living, that self-first and satisfying flesh, well, that should be dead or on its way to dying.

Once your heart has been regenerated by God, those old things should not have enticement to you in the same ways they did.

I uh I have a friend and uh I would talk to him a little bit and I would say, Hey, tell me your testimony.

One day we were talking, I said, tell me your testimony.

He said, Oh man, let me tell you.

I either whipped everybody in the county or I drank all the beer in the county every time I went out.

And sometimes I do both at the same time.

I'm like, wow, okay.

What changed?

I mean, here's a guy who he built a church on his property to make sure people could come and worship.

Here's a guy who has raised his kids in the church and in a in a home that firmly believes in Jesus.

And I said, Man, what changed about you?

And he said, Well, actually, Wade, it was your granddad.

And it was two things.

One, the way he talked to me about Jesus, the way he demonstrated his love for Jesus.

Those were the two things that made me understand and realize what God was already doing in my heart, already doing in my life.

And I said, Well, what did it look like to go from, I mean, I've known you a number of years now, I would have never guessed you were that kind of Hellion back then.

And he said, Oh, actually, it happened to me overnight.

Now, let me warn you, it sometimes will happen that way, and it sometimes won't.

Some of us will still struggle with the same sin in ways.

It's just got a, it's got a thorn in our flesh.

But for this particular person, he said, Wade, overnight, the next day, I was done with those things.

I didn't want them, they didn't entice me.

My beer didn't taste good, is what I'm saying.

He said, about a week after my conversion, uh the word had gotten around this small town.

And he said, I'm out cutting my grass and it is hot.

And uh he said, I'm out there and I'm sweating, and one of the old friends drives up.

He's got a cooler full of beer, and he comes out and he offers me one, and man, it it was cold.

And he said, Would you like one?

And my friend said, No, that's not part of who I am anymore.

And the friend, knowing his uh proclivity toward that, said, Man, I guess you did find Jesus.

Because the guy I knew would have never turned this down, said he puts the cooler back in his trunk and drives off, never heard from him again.

My point is we have a freedom to be a new creature, and God expects us to be that.

Freedom to be new a new creature is a game changer.

I mean, think about this.

What kind of savior, what kind of Lord of life would he be if he came to you and said, Hey, you know what?

You just keep living the way you're living, everything will be fine.

Here's our certificate for fire insurance.

Right?

He'd be no more than an insurance agent instead of a savior of the world.

He expects us to be a new creature.

He has created in us a new heart to be a new creature, and that's what we have freedom to do.

We also have freedom to take our directions from only one source.

Take a look at verse 20.

When free from the control of righteousness, now Paul is saying, hey, you were a slave to this, now you're a slave to that.

And he says, When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness.

What benefit did it reap you that time from the things you are now ashamed of?

Those things resulted in death.

And then verse 22, but now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.

And you might be thinking, freedom to take our direction, where in the world do you get that?

Here's where I get that.

When Paul is telling us that you were bound up, you didn't even know righteousness, and that wasn't necessarily your fault.

But when God regenerated your heart, when he revealed himself to you and you went from a slave to sin to a slave to righteousness, then what that did in you was that you started taking your direction, not from flesh or sin or the world or self.

Instead, you started taking your direction from only one source, the one that saved you.

Imagine the prison that you would be in if you took your direction on how to live from every so-called authority that's out there.

Can you imagine that?

I mean, at some point you might be saying something like this Well, it's my body, and the government lets me do with it what I want to.

Oh, oh, wait, they changed their mind.

No, no, I can't, I can't do what I want to with it because now it's illegal.

No, wait a minute.

They changed their, wait, what state am I in to allow?

Or kind of the classic, if you will, you know, how did we get here?

Oh, well, it was from one creator, an intelligent designer that made us.

No, no, no.

Here's what I think happened.

If you get your authority from multiple sources, then you might be thinking, oh, you know what?

It was a big bang theory.

That's how we got here.

By the way, footnote, have you ever noticed that when people talk about the Big Bang, they never talk about who made the bang and who made the stuff to make the bang.

They always leave that anyway.

So these multiple authorities are saying, oh yeah, we got here from a big bang, this is what happened, this is how we were created, or, oh, oh, you know what?

And this is my favorite.

We got here on the backs of crystals from primordial ooze.

That's how we made it.

Are you telling me that everything you just described is accidental to make the most complicated machine we've ever known?

Yeah, we we could take our sources from multiple places.

Absolutely, that wouldn't be dangerous.

And then, you know, we get this love one another, unless you change your mind about it.

But then really, you know what?

You are your own truth.

And so you get to decide what's true or not.

Yeah, I think that's gonna work pretty well, also, because when you take your authority from multiple sources, well, you're all over the place.

A pinball in the machine.

Instead, Paul reminds us that we're free to take our direction from only one source, and God, it is God, the maker of life and the giver of life.

You get the point.

Because we are from God and of God, and because he is God, what better place to get our authority?

Now, those are just a couple of freedoms, too.

This idea that if we know where we're from, we understand the origin, and we better understand the destination.

What has he freed us to do to be this new creature, to live as he would have us live?

What do you think it's all for?

What are the freedoms for?

Why in the world would he even give us those things?

Well, I think Paul gives us two that I wanted to point out from chapter six.

Number one, it's righteousness.

Now, he mentions righteousness kind of throughout here, but I thought verse 19 captures that well.

He says, I'll put this in human terms because you're weak in your natural selves.

Now, he's not calling them stupid, by the way.

He's saying, hey, you're you are weak because you have fed the flesh instead of something else.

And so he says, I'll put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves.

Just as you used to offer parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness, leading to holiness.

We're free for righteousness because of what has been done by Jesus' life, death, and resurrection.

We were bought.

And it's not our lives any longer.

Jesus paid the price to buy us.

And as much as you might think there's negative connotation to that, have I not laid out for you why he did it for a from and a to enough for you to say, yes, I'm so glad he did.

Our freedom is for him and him alone.

And the righteousness is what we get from that.

There's also a freedom for, it's a freedom for holiness.

Verse 22 but now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.

Now, to define that just a bit, um, think of it as you are being um uh restricted, maybe, maybe set aside this idea of holiness.

Now, there is kind of this um, I would guess, journey, if you will, the sanctification, a big word that the Bible uses that says, from the time you're saved until the time of heaven, I am making you more and more like Christ.

But in this particular uh usage, I would argue that it is an exclusivity that Paul is talking about, this idea of holiness.

You have been set aside, restricted, if you will, by God, set aside exclusively for him.

And because we belong exclusively to him, we must reflect God's character in the way we live.

If you've been set aside for something, you're going to reflect what you've been set aside for.

At least that's Paul's understanding, and that's certainly God's expectation of us.

And so if you're a believer, if you're living in a way that demonstrates Christ to others, you're there, I think, for two.

One, you're there for the non-believer, the one that says, Yeah, I don't know anything about this.

I never even had a question about it until I saw maybe the way you live, until I saw the way you treated your spouse, till I saw how you raised your kids, until I saw how you worked, all those things, the way we live life.

That is exclusively for God and to his glory.

And the unbeliever, I think, recognizes that more than we give credit to.

It also means that you are helping the believer, your fellow believer in Christ, understand better how are we to live?

A living example of how to conduct ourselves, forgiveness and kindness and all the fruits of the Spirit.

In short, just to love one another.

That's what God calls us to.

When he says, I am creating you to be holy, he's saying, I want you to follow me, right?

I'm the first and only, the only God you should have.

And I've called you to love others as yourself.

The origin of freedom brings us from what we were enslaved to.

And the freedom to is this gift that it gives us, the direction of where God wants us to go.

And finally, the freedom for is the purpose that we have to live as Christ.

Now, here's what I'm gonna do.

I'm gonna pray for us.

And some of you are thinking, man, Wade, you got finished, but boy, there's nothing better than a short sermon.

Yeah, yeah, I'll I'll have something for you in just a minute.

But here's what I'm gonna do.

I'm gonna pray for us.

And then what's gonna come up on the screen is our custom, is some questions for you to think about, what we call mental worship.

It's a chance for you just to say, God, what are you telling me?

What are you talking to me about today?

What should I be considering?

Let me pray, and then I'm gonna give you a few moments to take those into consideration.

God, thank you for the freedom that we have through your son Jesus.

God, there's um there's so many today that are in bondage, maybe some even in this room, that say, Boy, I tell you what, I'd I'd pay almost anything for me to be freed from that.

I keep hearing about these breaking chains and the freedom that we have, but I don't know that I've experienced that.

God, I pray that you would reveal yourself to them in such a way that they would understand what Paul was writing about.

And who better to write it?

A person who was imprisoned on the shipwrecks, a person who was imprisoned in prison, a person who was imprisoned with their wrong way of thinking about religion, who was persecuting the church, killing Christians because they believed in you, Jesus.

And you freed him from that.

You gave him direction and a purpose.

We get to reap the rewards of what you've done because you've done that for us as well.

Individually, you've sought us, you bought us, and you made us for you.

And so, God, I pray that we would live exclusively for you in the freedoms that you've given us.

That we don't understand what you've called us to, how to live, how to help each other understand what does holiness mean and what should it look like?

What does it mean when I've been made righteous?

And God, thank you for the fact that um well sin doesn't speak a native tongue anymore.

Instead, our native language is you, and it's the Holy Spirit living inside of us that connects us to you, that gives us direct access to you.

So that we are no longer slaves to sin or to whims or to self or flesh, but instead we are a free people free to call you God, free to call you Savior, free to call you king.

All of this we pray in your name.

Amen.

Take just a couple of moments, consider these questions, and I'll be right back.

Wild and free.

That's how God has designed us.

You shouldn't be locked up in your freedom.

It's freedom for Pete's sake.

So live like that.

Well, let me say this.

Thank you for your attendance and attention this morning.

I want to make you aware of a few things.

So if you're visiting with us, uh, we're going to give you a chance to text welcome to that number.

Now, at a minimum, this gives us a record of your attendance today.

But what we'd really like to do is get to know you, answer any questions you have about Grway, or uh go as deep as you want to relate to your experiences with Christ here or any things you have going on in your life.

If you are a longtime member or a tender of Grand Parkway, thank you for your faithfulness to this place and to its people.

So, what we've done today is we've ended early because I want to be your favorite from July.

And so at the end of the month, we will have a various vote going on, and that person will get a 5% raise.

No, I uh I wanted to make you aware of something uh before we get to our video announcements because I want you to have this on your mind.

If you were here with us last week, Neil introduced this book.

This book, uh, like many, have pictures and words.

But what makes this unique is that it is written by someone who went through the long valley of grief and doubt, mental health, but they've come on the other side of that with spiritual healing.

And so if you'd like to pick up a copy of this book, it is yours for free.

All you have to do is when we're done, just come and grab one of these, okay?

And uh we we started giving those out last week.

And so avail yourself to one of those if you'd like to have that.

We've got a variety of things going on in the life of our church.

We like you to be aware of those.

We like you to do that through our church app, through our website, through emails that we send, and also through our Sunday announcements.

Give your attention to the video here.

Here's a look at what's happening at Grand Parkway Baptist Church.

Our next men's breakfast is on Tuesday, July 9th from 6 a.m.

to 7 a.m.

in the student building.

We have a shaping word from the Bible and discuss it over tacos and coffee.

For all adults 60 and over, join us for lunch and to connect on July 18th.

At Grand Parkway, we believe you are the most experienced people and that you are still in the game.

Come and invite friends.

On July 21st at 6 30 p.m., we are hosting a worship entitled Learning to Pray for Others, led by Sam Storms.

This training will give us a biblical framework for prayer, some practical tools, and a deep confidence in God and ourselves when praying for others.

This free workshop is from 6.30 to 8 p.m.

in the gathering room.

Childcare is available with registration.

Finally, on August 2nd from 6 to 8 p.m.

in the parking lot of the kids' building, the children's ministry are throwing an epic summer bash.

This free event is going to be a blast.

Not only are we bringing back our foam frenzy, water inflatables, and food trucks, but your family will also get to experience a high-energy and interactive game show put on by Epic Ministries.

You will be wowed by the encouraging gospel messages and hilarious mascot skits featuring Kazoo, the world's funniest dragon, along with wacky games that will capture the attention of all ages.

This is a great event to share with friends and neighbors in your community.

For more information or to register for these events, please visit our website at grandparkway.org.

If you have any questions or want someone to pray for you, find one of our pastors at the front of the stage at the conclusion of our service.

The voiceover you heard is done by Julian Solis.

Last week you met him from the stage.

That is our new spiritual formation pastor.

He started uh work this last week and he is here today.

So if you've not met him or had a chance to say hello, please do that.

He will be uh down front or out in the lobby.

Really, I'm not sure where he's gonna be.

But uh you'll see the new guy wandering around looking nervous because Neil and I have him on the clock.

So watch for that.

Hey, also on purpose, wanted to give you just a couple of minutes this morning to do this.

I don't know about you, but it's kind of been a busy summer already.

And it's already July, and then school starts in like a month or something.

Um, we had uh last week about four or five of our members in the hospital.

Just everything seems to be coming.

We got this storm in the gulf, and all kinds of things are going on.

Here's what I'd ask you to do after I offer our blessing.

Would you hang around for just a minute?

Talk to someone that either you don't know or that might be just next to you out of convenience.

And I want you to genuinely ask them, how can I pray for you this week?

What does that look like?

And if you find that hard to do or a little bit awkward, or maybe this week you might be thinking, you know, uh, that didn't go the way I, oh yeah, I got to pray for what was that guy's name?

July 21st, that free workshop might be for you.

Uh that is going to be well worth it.

Sam will be here preaching that morning and then that night we'll roll into that.

And uh all of the staff is planning to be there.

That is gonna be well worth it.

So make sure you attend that.

All right, well, stand to your feet.

Let me offer a blessing.

For those of you maybe not yet in the race, or for those in the starting gate, or maybe even for those that are in the back stretch.

May God remind you of the freedoms you have in and through Christ.

And may you live in such a way that it demonstrates your belief in those freedoms.

Go out today and live free in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Amen.